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      Music + Art II April 11, 2008 7:00 p.m. Janey Choi, violin Robert Aitchison, painter Christopher Cullen, clarinet Blair McMillen, piano Contrasts by Bela Bartok Five Melodies by Segei Prokofiev About the Concert The Process This project was to unfold in a series of stages, the first of which was choosing the repertoire and setting the culmination date (4.11.08). Below is an ongoing online journal of the process from the first rehearsal through various conversations, recordings and individual thoughts and responses: March 15 March 17 March 28 April 8 March 15, 2008 JANEY - We just came out of a jazz show by Mark "Mountain Man" Mollica in the East Village and I saw you reach for your notebook - were you sketching something? It made me wonder if all music translates to shapes, lines, or colors to you.  ROBERT - What I was sketching was a little moment that captivated me- it was the combination of colors and forms at the upper corner of the stage area near the deep green blue curtain where it met the red and ochre wooden wall and paneling- That space resonated to me and made me pay more attention to the open space between the wall and your friend Mark who was sitting close by playing guitar- I feel that if I objectively pursue it... then any music can translate out to a visual language. That is one of the reasons I enjoy this collaborative effort between my visual art and your aural art. For me music can take the visual form of lines and colors interacting with one another in a designated compositional space, but also the visual space itself can be shaped by the essence or mood or sense of form established by the music.  J - I asked you this last year, but I'll ask you again: are you interested
in program notes on the music? Do you want that kind of contextual information
or do you prefer to let the music be more abstract?
R - I am interested in program notes on the music; I feel it helps with the engagement of the works. People should be offered the choice as to whether they'd prefer to read more about the pieces or to simply surrender to them and allow them to shape their ideas. Some people like to be informed, some prefer to jump in the deep end! J - I was looking back on last year's project - which, I'd like to say, was one of the highlights of my year (partly because I got such a kick out of looking at our audience of fellow soccer players all cleaned up!) - and I was thinking about what a different place we're in now. You mentioned something to me about how you are more spontaneous with your work? R - I already know that the works I'll create this year for the BSM exhibition will be more immediate and spontaneous - in line with the direction my work has taken over the past several months. The layering will continue to be a prevalent method of creating my paintings. However, the dependence upon sketches and color studies has atrophied and I enjoy the sudden, visceral immediacy of the engagement. I will likely listen to the music in my studio several times prior to starting anything, and will absolutely have the music playing, and probably full blast, as I'm creating the paintings. Wanna come over and play in my studio?? That would be interesting - but I don't think I could get a piano up the stairs!  J - We gotta figure out how to airlift the piano in there! Oh man, that would be so cool! Another change from last year is obviously the musical repertoire and the instrumentation. Out with the guitar, in with the clarinet. How does instrumental timbre inform your painting? Or is it more melody and harmonies? R - The clarinet is an interesting instrument to me. I don't know much about it and my initial feelings regarding it's 'timbre' - well, I don't know... it's dark and hard edged and yet it also has a lot of curvilinear qualities to it. It will be an interesting challenge to translate the sound and movement of a clarinet and to see what the interaction looks like between it and the violin. J - On to the more practical... Last year, we opened the doors before 7pm, right? We let people settle in, take a look at the work, and then we came out, spoke a little and played. R - This year let's promote the time that the music will start to be performed so that we don't get people showing up tardy. I like that we had an intro with some speaking, and the brief pause in between pieces, and the 'reception' at the end. Let's announce beforehand to encourage people to stay after to look at the work and talk with the artists. How late can we linger?? J - The school closes at 9pm. That should give us plenty of time to meet & greet! Let's look into the future of our little venture here. I picked the music for the past 2 years. For some reason, I think of French music as being tied to visual art, and that's how I chose the Debussy (last year) and Prokofiev (which is very Paris-influenced). The other pieces, Piazzolla, for example, just seemed colorful to me, and I thought you'd like the Tangos. Bartok Contrasts is also really colorful with (as the title sugggests) really contrasting movements. How would you feel about picking the music next time? R - I like that you select the music- I have not studied much music and my appreciation for different composers grows with collaborations such as this one. However I would be inclined to select music for future projects - provided you and other musicians selected the medium that I would work in! Maybe future projects would not be paintings or drawings but sculptures, photographs, video, or another visual discipline. That sort of crossover would be very interesting for all parties involved! March 17, 2008 phone message from Robert Janey, what's up? It's robert calling... it's kind of late... it's Monday night. I've been working on sketches for this music for 10 days now... uh, and I have lots of sketches and I'm going to start the paintings tomorrow. They're all going to be on paper, they're all going to be intimate... very intimate - like 8 x 8 inches - to invite you to really get up and - hold on, let me turn this music off [Bartok, 1st mvt heard in the background] - get close to them. My issue is that I have images of Bartok of Tom & Jerry - 'cause all of his music reminds me of Tom & Jerry cartoons! I have great imagery but I keep seeing cat & mouse running around a dark, empty, dreary 1950s era house, so don't be surprised if tom & jerry make their way into the exhibition! ... kidding...  All right, call me this weekend we need to make arrangements, I need to hear you guys play. March 28, 2008 Robert scopes out his hanging space  Chris looks over Robert's sketches  A peek into Robert's sketchbook  April 8, 2008 Roberts emails images to Janey J - OH WOW!!! They're so diverse! I'm going to print them up and think about them while I practice. Adding this dimension is really going to infuse a fresh approach to my playing! Entire collection of "Music + Art II" art work  Prokofiev - I  Prokofiev - II  Prokofiev - III  Prokofiev - IV  Prokofiev - V  Bartok - I  Bartok - II  Bartok - III  |
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