Retrace Our Steps (2008)
ABOUT THIS ALBUM
Retrace Our Steps is a secular oratorio in 4 acts (2004) based on texts by Gertrude Stein, Guy Debord and Jenny Bitner. the work explores the relationships between idealism, alienation, and consumerism.
TRACK LISTING
(download Graphic Libretto and Mp3′s)
CREDITS
recorded, edited and mixed by marlon luna and paul bailey (released jan, 2008)
mastered by johnathan marcus (opharion recordings)
musicians:
nicole baker, mezzo-soprano soloist and speaking parts, karen hogel, soprano, nike st. clair, alto,
sean mcdermott, tenor and paul cummings bass
sam formicola and sam fischer violins, victor lawrence, cello, sean ferguson, electric guitar, matt menaged, electric bass, kyoko kamei and carl stronach vibraphone, eric hendrickson, keyboard, scott mcintosh, bass clarinet.
(commissioned by the cerritos center for the performing arts)
NEWS AND REVIEWS
John Schaefer, WNYC/EMusic Review
WNYC CD Pick of the Week (May 08 2008)
WNYC CD Picks of the Year (2008)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
This music free to share under a Creative Commons Music Sharing License.
Retrace Our Steps (2005), Background and Influences
i started assembling the librettro for retrace our steps at the end of my grad school experience sometime in spring of 03. i had never written any vocal music and was encouraged by vocalist nicole baker (who is on the faculty at csuf) to write her a piece.
background
i not really a “word” guy and have never been able to remember lyrics from any song, but writing for how the voice sounds was of course really appealing… duh.
influences
at the time i was writing retrace i was coming out of my grad school experience and had been studying major large scale works that represented composers at the top of their game. after studying monteverdi’s coronation of poppea, bach’s goldberg variations, and glass’s einstein on the beach i had been blown away by the amazing artistic and contemplative music that each had written. these pieces really make it for me as a listening experience, but to dissect them and understand how they are organized and the logic used to create them was very humbling. did i feel that my first vocal piece attain those goals? not really, but after writing large amounts of consumable music i really wanted to play in a different sandbox.
during this time i was also very taken with my friend and mental collaborator sean ferguson’s great piece society of the spectacle (2000?). watching its first performance was an electrifying experience and really motivated me to get off my ass and write. there are many similarities to both pieces (that should be discussed further) and we have had some great nights discussing my “plagiarism” of his work (the penultimate line in both of our pieces is plagiarism is necessary). the best thing of sean’s spectacle that i stole was the way he used levels of obliqueness to create meaning in his text . although i think philip glass’s non-narrative work einstein on the beach is the most important work written in the last 50 years, i do have one conceptual gripe with him and a few others. the non-narrative obliqueness of the text for three+ hours is a little much for my friends to endure. (i know… mtv generation) sean solved this problem beautifully by creating a non-narrative composition whose subject is vague and oblique (consumerism/alienation) and used levels of obliqueness to delay the first direct statement to the audience 3/4 of the way through his piece. he then retreats back into a more oblique setting of his libretto, leaving through the same rabbit hole he entered.
this was going to be my solution also… i could present a subject drama (oratorio) that contained a politically aggressive message by setting the text using various levels of obliqueness to obscure my “message”. as the piece unfolded it would i would come out of the rabbit hole and “get to my point” and then immediately retreat into the symbols and layers of the assembled text.
in short, i had a strong message to convey, but didn’t want to the performance to become “preachy” by dealing with the libretto in a direct fashion.
Ensemble's Mix Is A Classic Alternative: Josef Woodard/LAtimes (2005)
Los Angeles Times, January 21st, 2005
(Copyright (c) 2005 Los Angeles Times)
“After his concert at the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts on Wednesday, Paul Bailey spoke to the audience about his ongoing adventure, the Paul Bailey Ensemble — an “alternative classical garage band.”
Fair enough: The cheeky description points to the group’s self- reliant, can-do spirit and its intention to mix high and low culture, art and pop. Fittingly, the setting was the casual Sierra Room, where the audience sat at tables as if in a new-music cabaret.
A balanced grouping of strings, woodwinds, guitar, bass, keyboard, vibraphone and sometimes vocalists, the ensemble consists of classically trained and impressively focused players who create an appealing, collective sound. Bailey, a trombonist, educator and composer, formed the group in 2002 as a do-it-yourself forum outside the usual and limited channels of classical music presentation.
Stylistically, the ensemble is very much locked into the Minimalist groove. The Cerritos concert was well-stocked with repetitive lines, easygoing tonalities, and undulating cascades of eighth notes, reminding us of the comforting, even old-fashioned, charm of the Minimalist style.
In the concert’s first half, instrumental pieces from Bailey’s suite “Summerland” and guitarist Sean R. Ferguson’s “Chopping Tool” offered their rhythmically chugging energies, more about ensemble machinery than melodic or thematic development. These fed directly from the inspirational trough of such classic Minimalist recordings as Steve Reich’s “Music for 18 Musicians” and Philip Glass’ “Glassworks.” The inclusion of electric guitar ( Ferguson ) and bass (Matt Menaged) nudge the sound more toward a rock aesthetic, thanks to our associative connection with those tools.
This program’s main attraction came after intermission, with the world premiere of Bailey’s ambitious “Retrace Our Steps,” ostensibly written for mezzo-soprano Nicole Baker. She sang key parts in the four-movement work, with text that included cryptic poetics by Gertrude Stein and socio-philosophical tracts by Guy Debord and Jenny Bitner. But Baker ultimately became a team player and folded into the democratic mesh of the ensemble’s conjuring of nine instrumentalists and four additional vocalists.
One unsettling aspect of an otherwise engaging concert was the canned texture of sound processed through microphones, allowing acoustic instruments to compete with electronic ones. Then again, that is a hallmark of Minimalism, which borrows from pop’s sound palette and equipment list on the path to a new classical paradigm. In short, the Paul Bailey Ensemble is out of the garage and on the way up.”
nicole baker, mezzo soprano
nicole is mostly responsible for the creation of the new vocal extravaganza, retrace our steps. she is great singer, collaborator and supporter (and she brought me other great singers also), i would a poor shlub without her. so step right up…. singing nightly in the la, but commuting daily to the oc and maintaining a [...]
upcoming concerts-jouyssance early music ensemble and jacaranda music series
must see concerts saturday, october 16th, fullerton 8pm sunday, october 24th, santa monica 3pm jouyssance early music ensemble, music of dunstable, power, josquin, palestrina, and monteverdi the music director/vocalist Nicole Baker is my great friend and is the featured soloist in my new vocal spectacle retrace our steps saturday, october 24th, santa monica 8pm jacaranda [...]