An Education for All: My Story
22 years ago from last fall i was going into my senior year at wichita state university as a full scholarship student. this should have been a good thing, but there was a ’small’ hitch because at that time WSU only gave three year scholarships. overall it shouldn’t have been much of a problem because i thought i had worked it out with my parents.
you see they weren’t too excited about me going to music school (my father’s reaction was “you can major in music?”) so they refused to pay for school. of course this pretty severely limited my choices for college, but I practiced quite hard and probably surprised them when I got a full ride (room/tuiton/books) scholarship to WSU. all in all they weren’t so happy with my continued insistence to attend music school but we did come to a deal in which as long as i made my grades and they will pay for my senior year.
of course things didn’t go quite as planned. the summer before my senior year I’m on the road all summer performing with the Madison Scouts Drum and Bugle Corps and didn’t have much contact with my parents. when i got back to school i found out not only did father run off with his bosses secretary, but he also locked my mom out of all the bank accounts. not only there was no money for school, there was no money at all.
so to make a long story short, there was no way for me to continue school at WSU ($9,000 a year in 1989 dollars), so i pretty quickly made some connections and in fall 1989 i moved out california to start over. by 1995 i had established residency, worked as a fulltime musician at disneyland, finally finished my degree at CSUF and began teaching at Marshall High in LAUSD. since then i added a masters in composition (at CSUF) and now teach in the same system that made it possible for me to pull myself up with very little support.
unfortunately the very educational system that has given me a 2nd chance is quickly disappearing and we are losing what has made california one of the few states that had a higher education master plan that stressed AN EDUCATION FOR ALL.
of course this is only one story, but over the last 15 years i could always point out out that no matter how bad things got, a college education was one of the best and realistic solutions. right now is the time to start doing something about this and hopefully the marches today are only the beginning.
a little balance
over the last few weeks it’s been interesting getting into photography as a hobby/creative outlet b/c i have discovered a new way of scratching my urge to make things (and even perform). part of the the major changes i have been going are trying to find a balance between my different personas (creative/teaching/personal) and it looks like photography is going to be just what i need.
i think it’s interesting that for quite a long time i have been an active photography enthusiast, always taking my camera with me to document and capture life as it rumbles along, but what has got me interested now how you can you photographic technique (perspective, color and light) to capture (i.e compose) a shot. calling it a composition (in the musical sense) is really a misnomer, b/c it’s really much more like counterpoint in music except you are using a camera as digital tool to adjust the light, shadow, and color to create the heightened reality through the illusion of balance.
i guess at this point of my life a little balance could go a long way
an open letter to thesixtyone.com
I applaud you for trying to innovate but I think you should really step back from this a bit. Your changes have removed many of the best features of thesixtyone.com and now make music discovery a very tedious task.
The features I miss most are:
- social networking- t61 made it easy and possible for me to find and interact with enthusiastic and adventurous listeners who were interested in my music (independent, DIY, art music)
- genres- your intention of swapping genres with an “adventure meter” with is very subjective. I have no interest in browsing mainstream pop music so wouldn’t that be adventurous for me?
- the UI- the old lists (recently submitted, most active, genre) made it easy to find music that was interesting in a short period of time. When I suggested the site to friends who were initially put-off by all the pop music, I always explained that they needed to search for at least 5 minutes to get the hang of it. Right now your setup is more like Pandora which is like searching through the dirt for a few small gems.
The best thing about T61 is that you had found a very engaging way (maybe inadvertently) to connect artists/bands directly to their listeners which created small communities based on genres/micro-genres. Your kudos system of hearts and quests is a great way to encourage a wide variety of “adventurous” listening experiences and I encourage you to focus new development on that area. What is so amazing about how you had T61 setup is that it could help any artist find their audience. This in effect gave listeners (myself included) a very strong incentive to find value in music again and put my money behind what I was listening to.
I wholeheartedly (and many others on your facebook page) encourage you to rethink the redesign,
Sincerely Yours,
RIP NetNewMusic 2008-2010
it started off with such promise, a real online ‘clubhouse’ for an fiercely independent, eccentric, and highly opinionated art music community on the interwebs. throughout it’s short existence it’s become a cautionary tale for how new music social networks might be organized with some sense of shared vision.
as a founding member (and a very short-lived site admin) it became clear that the “my way or the high way” management style didn’t really mix well with the many unique and idiosyncratic personalities that an art music site attracts. over time NetNewMusic became a ghost town as less people were willing to be a party to the backstage drama and personal attacks by it’s founder jeff harrington.
the bottom line here is that we are all dealing with the limitations of one person running a social network based on their personal eccentricities and narcissistic traits.
these might be useful traits in an artist, but they don’t lend themselves to running a social network.
i think we all owe jeff a lot for the hard work he has put in promoting the new music community online, but his day to day management of NNM has made it impossible for many of us to participate.
Paul Bailey: Music for Controllers VI (2009)
Paul Bailey: Music for Controllers VI (2009)
Music for Controllers VI by paul bailey
this track was based on a field recording i made of my last day of work before my “fall break” at CSUF (a one-week non paid work furlough). a few days later i improvised over the recording of my commute (from highland park to union station) with some materials of an earlier piece i made last spring (not getting fired is the new promotion). when it was finished i felt it was a little too minimal and forgot about it until about a week ago and when i listened to it again i realized it pretty accurately captured my dread of what this financial disaster has become in my life.
interestingly enough on that was the same day on my commute home the conductor on my amtrak route told me that she had lost about 75 daily commuters between san diego and los angeles from a year ago and it was pretty sad how so few of us were left. i know for me there aren’t many part time faculty left in the music department at CSUF and at this point it’s can get pretty depressing whenever i think about all of my friends who are out of work.
probably a little TMI, but yeah… i guess it is a bit dark.
spoken word piece based on twitter RSS feeds on the keywords “fired” and “job”. parts of this piece were originally contained in the piece “not getting fired is the new promotion” (2009)
made using ableton live, novation launchpad, korg kaossilator, iphone (buddha machine, srutibox), text-2-speech, and a field recording (zoom H2) of my morning commute (metro goldline from heritage square to union station; los angeles, ca 10/15/2009 (10 min)
Music for Solo Controller 1
finally getting around to making music with my launchpad and max/msp. getting the software and hardware to play nice with each other is still a challenge (the midi gets bogged down when 4 or more patterns are triggered), but overall i finally ‘get’ what all the hubub about the monome. i think my best description is that it’s bringing modular improvisation (that i’m very much into) very successfully into the a very programmable music machine that is easy for anybody to intuitively music with. (kinda like an very sophisticated orff instrument for adults)
this track was created using my novation launchpad, max/msp, nonome (monome emulator) and the polygome64 (P4/M2) inside of ableton live.
[soundcloud url="http://soundcloud.com/pbailey/music-for-solo-controller-1"]
Update: January 3, 2010
i just added a 2nd version that plays a little bit better with MIDI
obsolete in aughts…
in the aughts i stopped:
- wearing a watch and now use my cellphone to keep track of the time
- using a landline and now use my voip/cellphone/text message/facebook/twitter) as my primary form of digital communication
- reading the newspaper and magazines now i skim news aggregators like slate, huffpost, drudge report (it’s useful to know what the right is thinking)
- reading and buying paper books and now i read them on my kindle
- using a thomas guide as a map and now use my nav system or google maps on the iphone
- listening to the radio for traffic reports (again hello google maps)
- listening to music on a stereo and now i listen on my iphone or laptop
- using a thomas guide
- listening to physical CD’s and mostly stopped paying for downloading music (hello lala, thesixtyone, and mog)
- using a desktop computer as my main computer and now i use a netbook/macbookpro/iphone as my main computer
- using windows products and became a mac and linux fanboy
- renting DVD’s at brick and mortar stores (hello netflix streaming)
- paying for cableTV and now we download/stream on the interwebs
- using our analog TV and started watching TV on the wall (using an overhead projector i bought for shows and work)
- stopped blogging on a regular basis and now i mainly tweet (except for long form posts like this)
end of the year housecleaning
i was enjoying a little extra time over the break and was able to upload some recordings from our late summer concerts that we played with the LANME.
here are our performances of Terry Riley’s “In C” and my “Principle of Sufficient Irritation”at our performances at collumbia (recording) college and in san pedro.
enjoy!
Terry Riley: In C (PBE and LANME Live at Columbia College)
Terry Riley: In C (PBE and LANME Live In San Pedro)
Paul Bailey: Principle of Sufficient Irritation (PBE and LANME Live In San Pedro)
LANME:
christina giacona, clarinet
patrick colon, violin
kelly haley-sibler, flute
james miller, voice
audrey snyder, cello
daniel formidoni, sound design
PBE performers included:
paul bailey, trombone
scott mcintosh, clarinet
matt menaged, bass guitar
ryan nunes, vibes
nicholas white, piano
an experiment in narrowcasting and curation
an experiment in narrowcasting and curation of the independent DIY music community
as some of you may know i have been kicking around the idea of creating a new website to feature music from our community (independent DIY art music). my original idea centered around the observations of how various website in the community functioned.
originally there was Sequenza 21 which like a new music magazine functioned as good watercooler to discuss whatever articles and music being promoted. then there was Net New Music; which has been very interesting community fourm/clubhouse (on most days) for the new music community. both of these sites have specific purposes, but neither functions well as a music publishing and aggregation platform. after thinking about this quite a bit and surveying many of the platforms available and as an experiment i decided to try and create a website that focuses on curating and aggregating this music ourselves
“the secret community of marching band”
i was very happy to hear from one of my very first JMHS students who just got into grad school based on “the secret community of marching band”
“The interview was 45 minutes and it went great. Toward the very end though, the interviewer asks, “So, you were in the marching band? What instrument did you play?” I thought to myself, “That was a random question,” and told him. He told me he was a trumpet player in the marching band and was the Drum Major. Whoa. Then the interviewer went on to say that marching band people have a secret community…I agreed and said everyone has their groups in high school and I was in the marching band…and we simultaneously nodded our heads. =’D I thought to myself, “This conversation is bananas.” Holy shit you helped me get an in buddy. Yaaaaaahhh. I am so thankful for your help in all of this.”
Woot!
Principle of Sufficient Irritation
some pieces you ‘compose’ and other come out fully formed. “Principle of Sufficient Irritation” (POSI) is one of those pieces that sprang out of me almost fully realized almost exactly 4 years ago. even though i’m just a part-time adjunct teaching monkey, fall has always been very busy for me and not really a good time to compose and by the time november rolls around i’m itching to get some new pieces written. thinking back in 2005 it’s pretty telling that i remember most of the details around this piece.
Background
i know i had some rehearsals coming up with the PBE and really wanted to get some pieces written, especially something modular and improvisatory. besides having played terry riley’s “In C” the lloyd rodgers group had been performing many of his very simple and effective ‘black book‘ improvisations. i had already written one decent modular improvisation (tong aesthetics from the music from summerland CD), and i really wanted to explore another approach than the large through-composed pieces that were common in the late 60’s and 70’s. the funny thing is that when POSI was created (we originally referred to it by the day it was created. 11/25/05 was the original title) the particulars really didn’t matter anymore, i just needed a piece for a rehearsal and using improvisation as process sounded like a great way to create something new in a short time.
Writing Process
the process creating POSI was pretty simple; play a lick on my trombone, plug it into the sequencer and loop it while i improvised another one. i pretty quickly realized that the first gesture worked so well in canon that it was almost a piece by itself and after the initial inspiration my only goal was to “make it change”. my luck/the god(s)/karma must have been smiling on me that day b/c although i have never been good at writing canons, that day i figured out that i’m pretty good at improvising them (at least in this modular style). the rest of the piece pretty much wrote itself and needless to say i was pretty excited for my upcoming rehearsal.
1st rehearsal
well… here’s where i tell you that i took it to rehearsal and the group ‘got it’ and we played it down the first time. but actually the group was pretty stumped and it took us 3-4 rehearsals to get the hang of it. and it took a few tries of figuring out how to move from section to section and what the “rules” of the piece are. the main thing i remember is that when we finally played it like it was in my head i had that feeling of completion and pure joy that i experienced when i first wrote it and immediately became the piece that we ended all rehearsals with promising a frolicking good time at the end of every rehearsal (and performance)
Improvisation, Performance and Recording
even though the licks are written out, one of the best feeling of performing a modular improvisation (like POSI) is the ability to not worry what to play, but how to play it. each performance is like you get to visit something musically familiar, but each time you can experience it differently. i think performing a modular improvisation is very similar to giving actors an outline for a scene and telling them what needs to occur.
this recording of POSI was our last take of a two day session and in which we were all pretty mentally tired and loopy. if you were listening to the piece while looking at the score i’m sure it would be pretty hard to follow along, but if you listened a few times you should be able to hear that we are basically playing variations of variations of what was originally written down. i think its a great example of the pure improvisatory and musical joy that the PBE creates during many of our live show and i know that getting it on tape in a semi-artificial studio setting (in which the vibes and clarinet were recorded in separate rooms without being to see anybody else) is a testament of the great musicianship of scott, ryan, carl, bruce and eric. overall the way we were playing that afternoon i think we could have recorded the album over the phone and still have captured a great performance.
enjoy,
paul
Principle of Sufficient Irritation (originally 11/25/05)
* Paul Bailey, Trombone
* Bruce Gallego, Electric Guitar
* Eric Hendrickson, Keyboards
* Scott McIntosh, Clarinet
* Ryan Nunes, Vibraphone
* Carl Stronach, Bass Guitar
Recorded and Mixed by Paul Bailey and Marlon Luna
Recorded at California State University Fullerton and Swing House Studios Hollywood
fireworks “you can trust” sold here
i was very surprised to get a mention in the new yorker online, so if you haven’t visited her before let me please introduce myself:
although i’m a “blogging composer” it’s probably easier to keep up with our bigger conversation with other wide range of very interesting and uniquely individual composers that i follow on twitter:
shane [...]
Soundcloud.com
Soundcloud.com is a new social network for music creators that is conceptually very interesting and worth checking out.
What Soundcloud is and isn’t:
Soundcloud isn’t a site to build a new audience. yeah there might be some bleeding edge enthusiasts who come looking for great undiscovered tracks, but in essence its a place to build a communities [...]
Does CrashPlan have a CrashPlan?
Update: (10/21/09)
after 6 days my service was restored and i recieved the following email from Renee in CrashPlan customer support
1. Is this an isolated incident that is affecting a small number of CrashPlan customers or is this a bigger issue?
The issue is isolated to a small percentage of users on a single server.
2. What [...]
anne midgette promises the moon
A.M. updates her original post and expands her confusing alt-classical umbrella to include most everybody
anne can call it whatever she wants, but the commissioned, academic music they have to play is always going to be toothless and banal.
the big problem about article’s like this is that it promises the moon (yet again), and pulls out the rug on the those more adventurous early adopters who pay decent money to catch “the new music scene” which in turn makes it harder for me to get people to come out to my shows.
just to be clear i’m not saying the groups mentioned in these articles are poor performers or all the music the play is shite, but i’m very clearly pointing out at any one of their concerts you do have to suffer through at least 1-2 commissioned pieces they must play to “pay the bills” and keep the grants coming in. the audience has no idea that this pay to play is going on (it’s just like selling prime shelf space at the supermarket to the highest bidder) and yet comes away from the whole experience wondering if they must be stupid b/c they “didn’t quite understand the music”
on the other hand…
thank goodness most kids today don’t read the paper
p
the winners are already decided
after reading anne midgette’s washington post article Roll Over Beethoven about her new “alt-classical” genre i have a few bones to pick with with her description and logic.*
besides mixing up the alt.classical genre with the alt.classical transcription bandwagon. (Alarm Will Sound’s Aphex Twin transcriptions and Christopher O’Riley’s Radiohead piano music) she tries then label [...]
colon nancarrow on crack
MUSIC DADA (bara no kodoku) by ALONE TOGETHER
i found this track by the sound collage artist alone + together (yuki ota) on the soundcloud mp3 service/website. it made me think of colon nancarrow and what a time kyle gann would have trying to transcribe this.
i also want to point out that you can now “like” posts on this site. especially if you “like” what you hear please click away and i’m interested to see how it works as a feedback measurement tool (besides looking at page views)
i’m also going to be experimenting posting music on this site and others using the soundcloud service/website. right now most of their site is dance music, but there are some interesting groups like live improvisation, sound collage, and drone music.
if you are making music, for now i have created a few groups to post tracks;
an alt-classical group for DIY art music
and post-whatever group for all the music that doesn’t easily fit into either the art music or pop music continuum.
overall the site has a few hiccups (it can be pretty slow) and the search system is pretty rudimentary, but it seems like it could be a useful way to share music along a variety of similar interests and aesthetics.
if you check it out please let me know what you think at http://soundcloud.com/pbailey
and on a final note last week’s (oct 9-10) ImprovFriday+1 files are now up and shane cadman’s piece for the mighty noah bailey dowell was a very special standout this week. steve layton also made remix that afternoon of shane’s piece and the glitchy ostinato opening of my music for controllers III called chorale (the mighty)
check them all out at http://improvfriday.ning.com/
Music for Controllers III and IV
still trying to get my head around live improvisation using digital sound sources and controllers. these next two tracks were improvised live using ableton live/ korg/nanokey, buddha machine (iphone), and the korg kaossilator
Steve Layton also made a nice mashup of my Music for Controllers III and Shane Cadman’s very beautiful piece: “For the Mighty Noah Bailey Dowell”. Shane’s description of the piece follows:
“I know Noah Bailey Dowell and his family from a church we all used to go to. He is known as “The Mighty” and he died on 10.3.09 after a battle with a rare form of cancer – he was not quite 8 years old. He and his family are an inspiration. They are all mighty indeed!. This piece is for Noah. I don’t know what else to say.”
Shane Cadman
100909 – For the Mighty Noah Bailey Dowell
Steve Layton
listen and come join the fun at improvfriday.ning.com
Cheap Admiration
‘m really happy to finally release the first track from my upcoming PBE EP “Alt-Classical”
Cheap Admiration (2005), is a simple pop song (loosely based on a harmonic deconstruction) of Johann Pezel’s (1639-1694) Sonata Ciacona.
Around 1670 Pezel was the town stadtpfeifer (band director) in Leipzig and later in his career he applied and was turned down for the job of Cantor of St. Thomaskirche, a job that J.S. Bach would hold 50 years later.
Alt-Classical is:
DIY, open instrumentation, alternative venues, mix of amateur and professional performers, music lies somewhere between art music (music meant to be contemplated) and pop music (music meant for mass consumption).
Alt-Classical is the third CD/EP release from the Paul Bailey Ensemble
Paul Bailey Ensemble (PBE)
The Paul Bailey Ensemble (PBE) is an alt-classical garage band that plays the music of a variety of living and dead composers. The southern california group was created in 2002 as a DIY forum outside the usual and limited channels of art music presentation.
- Paul Bailey, Trombone
- Bruce Gallego, Electric Guitar
- Eric Hendrickson, Keyboards
- Scott McIntosh, Clarinet
- Ryan Nunes, Vibraphone
- Carl Stronach, Bass Guitar
Pardon the Mess
i’ll be updating the site in preparation for releasing the first two alt-classical tracks. please pardon the mess….
UPDATE
2:04am Sept 18th 09
finally getting this site ship shape. i think i can finally make a wordpress template do 80% of what i envision, on the other hand its really late and i might be hallucinating and think the last 6 hours of website design were for shit. tomorrow (uh… actually later today i’ll be adding the visuals and then be posting the first two tracks to the Alt-Classical EP.
finally!
Terry Riley’s “In C” midnight performance
this Thursday night (august 6th 2009) at Midnight with members of the Paul Bailey
Ensemble and the Los Angeles New Music Ensemble.
We also are still playing with the LANME this Friday night in Santa Monica. i have really enjoyed playing the last two shows with them and putting together this show is all about getting all these great musicians I know together in one place. After playing our first show together it occurred to how much fun it would be to do it with all my friends.
We will do a short rehearsal/soundcheck to go over the piece at 11:30pm
Thursday, August 6th
10:30pm load-in (ish)
11:30pm reh (10:30 setup/load-in
midnight performance
Juanita’s
5930 York Blvd.
Highland Park (Los Angeles, Ca 90042)
SMAS (Santa Monica Art Studios)
3026 Airport Avenue Santa Monica, CA 90405
performing: “in C” terry riley
“principle of sufficient irritation” paul bailey
and music by patrick conlon, dan formidoni, evan ziporyn and marvin lamb.christina giacona, clarinet/musical director
kelly wakelin, soprano
james miller, baritone
patrick conlon, violin
audrey snyder, cello
kelly haley, flute
sarah edgmon, clarinet
scott mcintosh, clarinet
daniel formidoni, keyboard
nicolas smith, keyboard
paul bailey trombone
matt menaged, bass guitar
TWO SHOWS ADDED
PBE and LANME
performing: “in C” terry riley
“principle of sufficient irritation” paul bailey
and music by patrick conlon, dan formidoni, evan ziporyn and marvin lamb.
Sunday, August 2nd 2009 (2pm)
Angels Gate Cultural Center
3601 South Gaffey Street
San Pedro, CA 90731
Friday, August 7, 2009 (8pm)
SMAS (Santa Monica Art Studios)
3026 Airport Avenue Santa Monica, CA 90405
christina giacona, clarinet/musical director
kelly wakelin, soprano
james miller, baritone
patrick conlon, violin
audrey snyder, cello
kelly haley, flute
sarah edgmon, clarinet
scott mcintosh, clarinet
ryan nunes, vibes
daniel formidoni, keyboard
nicolas smith, keyboard
paul bailey trombone
matt menaged, bass guitar
Top 10 Reasons
op 10 reasons to see the PBE and LANME this friday night :
1. last minute gig
2. great to collaborate with other groups
3. in tarzana (hooray for our valley friends?!)
4. get to hear terry riley’s “in c”
5. new music concerts usually suck
6. at least you can preview principle of sufficient irritation in advance
7. it’s in tarzana
8. ryan nunes’s last show before going to law school
9. flute, clarinet, violin, cello, vibraphone, piano, trombone and bass guitar
10. it’s free (except for the gas and having to drive out to tarzana)
members of the PBE (scott, matt, ryan and myself) will be performing with the los angeles new music ensemble (LANME) terry riley’s “in C” and my “principle of sufficient irritation” at columbia college in tarzana this friday night (8pm)
friday, july 31st, 8pm
los angeles new music ensemble (with members of the PBE)
free
performing: “in C” terry riley
“principle of sufficient irritation” paul bailey
and music by patrick conlon, dan formidoni, evan ziporyn and marvin lamb.
columbia college (columbia college theatre)
18618 oxnard street
tarzana, CA 91356-1411
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Koyaanisqatsi 1, Hollywood Bowl 0
since i’m not a real critic i’ll just post my observations about philip glass’s concert at the hollywood bowl from last night. but there are a few qualifications i have to get out of the way first.
the bowl is one of my favorite venues to see a show, but i have always avoided going to the ‘classical’ nights b/c i’m not so excited about seeing a pickup orchestra (or what amounts to the 3rd string of the LA Phil), but when i heard that they were going to perform Koyannsqatsi i was pretty intrigued how they program other music around it. i don’t go to enough symphony concerts to know if this is common but they played a pretty short first half (25 min? maybe) ofthe ‘lighter fair’ (selections of PG’s movie and opera music) on the first half and a pretty complete (i think the consensus is there might have been a few small cuts) 90 minute version of Koyaanisqatsi on the 2nd half.
1st half (PG Ensemble)
Opening (PG piano solo), Facades, Spaceship from Einstein on the Beach
- PG isn’t a great piano player, but his musicianship comes through. i think its what yoda would sound like if he played piano (in a good way!)
- the sound wasn’t that great (keyboards vs. woodwinds). it took much too long for the sound engineer to ‘dial it in’. and reinforced my assumption that he/she didn’t give a shit and had an agenda. i also assume a monitor or two was out on the stage because the saxes were having intonation problems and from my experience the worst thing in the world is to be playing a big venue through a PA and you can’t hear yourself in the monitors.
- using a cut down group has lots of orchestration limitations. off the top of my head listening to them play ’spaceship’ is with the keyboard heavy, the eight person ensemble doesn’t really do the music justice. there are many financial limitations to touring, but i’m not really a fan of their solution. listening to the performance i had to smile thinking of my keyboard player eric hendrickson, like the PGE and SRE i have attempted to solve orchestration problems in a similar manner (which puts eric in quite a pickle attempting to play some very non-idiomatic parts). we have had many discussions on how hard and uncomfortable it makes him feel and i wish he could have heard the show because they PGE players were having similar problems. (i know its schadenfreude, but schadenfreude with much admiration) i think eric would walk away from last nights show with a new perspective and feeling pretty good about what i put him through. (eric you are the man!)
2nd half
- the PGE performed much better, most of the balance problems were fixed
- full orchestra was a waste of money. at its core Koyaanisqatsi is a piece for brass and the PGE, expanding it to full orchestra seemed like a marketing gimmick. the most engaging sections (especially during ‘the grid’ they were silent. overall they probably played 25% of the piece and when they played i don’t see that it added much the film.
- when the strings did play i think they sandbagged their parts. from my box seats the bowings didn’t look together (we was bumped our previous seats b/c of the film projection and were offered a box, yeah!)
- the brass players didn’t fare that much better. maybe they didn’t like michael reisman’s conducting (it looked pretty clear from where i was sitting) and were pitching a fit. they were consistently behind on the upbeats and many of the hemiola’s were pretty sluggish also. on the other had it could have been a monitor situation on the stage, but i was pretty disappointed how sloppy the orchestra played. on the other hand the master chorale sounded great (other than being a bit muddy on their diction the vocal counterpoint was clear and consistent)
- i think the film that was shown was mostly complete. it felt like there were some small cuts, but i couldn’t exactly place them.
- there were some new musical sections (brass fanfare opening to “the grid”)
- the simplest musical and video elements worked the best (keyboard and spinning rocket at the end)
- it was nice to see godfrey reggio come up for the curtain call, i was half expecting to see ron fricke (but after all it is hollywood and the cinematographer never gets to do that do they?)
overall
- i wonder if the orchestra was added mainly for marketing purposes?
- thought it was very intersting that the show was mostly pot free and didn’t smell it till the way out(everybody i know claims they first watched it high in their parent’s basement)
- there are still many hassles coordinating electronic and acoustic instruments in performance. you would think that in a venue like the hollywood bowl the mix wouldn’t sound like a college new music concert
- listening to the show solidified my confidence in playing with a group of musicians over time. having your music playedbby the equivalent of a touring broadway show, its hard not to miss the inherent limitations which are compounded by the pickup orchestra playing music not in their repertoire. i’m sure they sound 100x better playing the old warhorses, but concerts like this are never going to be a full and satisfying experience.
- it also makes me question why i paid $65 for a ticket to have a pickup orchestra play film music badly. and the sound engineer not dial in a performance till the 2nd half
despite all my complaints and gripes i have to say the performance of Koyaanisqatsi was amazing. the piece transcended the performance and mesmerized the crowd. unlike many concerts at the bowl the rolling of wine bottles down the aisle actually diminished as the concert progressed. initially the audience was a little goofy and distracted became engaged and drawn in as the evening went on. it was interesting that the simplest music and film was the final section ‘prophesies’ was the most effective (which was lightly scored solo keyboard and video of the Atlas-Centaur launch explosion in 1972).
for me the music/film combination that is koyaanisqatsi has stood as a high water mark of what art music and film should be and it was great to see that it could transcend and transform a venue like the hollywood bowl.
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