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       Music + Art III May 10, 2009 3:00 p.m. Janey Choi, violinist + curator Robert Aitchison, artisit Iliyan Ivanov, artist Naho Tsutsui, violinist Jessie Reagen, cellist Program: Sonata for 2 Violins by Sergei Prokofiev Musical Offering (selections) by J.S. Bach About the Concert The Process This is the third year of M+A and in the spirit of experimentation and growth, Janey + Robert have changed things in a few ways; the most significant change being the addition of another artist (Iliyan), who will work in collaboration with Robert to create joint works of art. The steps are otherwise the same, i.e. 1. Janey chooses repertoire + musicians 2. Robert & Iliyan sit in on rehearsals, and then create (with or without recordings of the music) 3. The musicians visit the studio to observe the works in progress 4. Culminating M+A show (5.10.09) Below is an ongoing online journal of the process from the first rehearsal through various conversations, recordings and individual thoughts and responses: March 27 April April 25 April 29 May 1 May 2 May 5 March 27, 2009 Rehearsal  "Robert & Iliyan start getting creative with their canvas..."   while Joel & Janey rehearse the Prokofiev Robert & Iliyan start sketching     April, 2009 Robert reflects I'm starting to look for notes I've written while making the art for Prokofiev pieces—I write all over the place so I'm still searching... I don't date a lot of things—but most of this is from april. April 2 landscape allusions. fragments of a place I have never been to. atmospheric transformations and a thread throughout each movement makes me think of clouds rolling across a sky colors are dusk. aerial sense of composition. April ? there are moments in the music that are competitive and visceral and then some that are collaborative and more serene April ? impact of collaborating between artists: it's not about covering one another's efforts but integrating and complimenting the established 'flow' of each painting or drawing the particular tonality and voice of the hand and the eye of each artist must be maintained- collaborating this way requires a surrender of ego and a willingness to detach from moments deemed precious or valuable in a particular moment of a composition. April 25, 2009 A message from Janey One of the perils of being a freelancer is the constant juggling of schedules; dates/locations/personnel... at several points of the year, in the moments before opening my eyes in the morning, I honestly don't know what I will see/ where I am. I've become accustomed to this odd feeling, but it takes its toll, to be sure. My most recent gaffe in scheduling had me in a bind to replace my original violinist - Joel Lambdin - with Naho, after I gave him the wrong date for the show. He's pictured as the violinist above, and were it not for my error, you would have gotten to see his cool tattoos on concert day. So apologies to Joel, and a grateful 'welcome aboard' to Naho! April 29, 2009 Janey on Bach rehearsal First Bach rehearsal today (in the concert hall). Issues that came up: 1. We had to drop a few numbers. There is no specific instrumentation for some of the works, so I had just scanned over the clefs to decide on my instrumentation. Oops! the violin doesn't go lower than the G below middle C. Not a problem. We still have 6 separate movements! 2. Here's a big No-No: I hate to question Bach (or even the Barenreiter edition), but there were a couple of really pungent dissonances. I'm not sure I want to give away, but let's see if you hear how we ended up dealing with them. 3. Staging: We want to keep the slightly unconventional seating style from the past 2 years, where the performers are in the middle of the room (quasi-stadium seating), but we wanted to avoid having anyone's back to the audience. I like the intimate, friendly, break-down-the-fourth-wall feel. The use of wall space will also affect how we set up. Do we want to have an obvious focal point for the art? Are some works more important than others? Some of the decisions will only be made that morning when we hang the art. I will say this: the artists are bringing in an easel and I'm going to assign someone an unusual task during the music performance component! Final note: I asked el capitan (aka Robert) what he thought of the music. He really liked it, but one of his comments was that it all started to sound alike after a while. Good call! The movements of the Musical Offering are all based on one theme, so that was the unifying motive constantly present throughout. Here's a link for info on the Canons of the Musical Offering: For you non-musicians, a canon is a multi-voiced (or instrument) piece of music in which a melody is played in one voice followed by one or more imitations of that same melody in the other voice(s). OK, you can invoke the name of Pachelbel if it helps. Or we can say it's like a slightly more complex "Row, Row, Row your boat" without it necessarily being repeatable in infinite layers (though a couple of our canons can be). May 1, 2009 Janey The mobius crab canon a little video demonstration of Bach's "crab canon" (i.e. the opening mvt of the bach) for those of you who are more visual learners (and technology geeks): May 2, 2009 the artists hard at work, collaborating on the bach paintings    May 5, 2009 robert surveys the space  "our new hanging technique" or "101 uses for fishing wire" (robert is actually an enthusiastic outdoorsman and enjoys fishing!)  robert hangs some "bach"  janey & robert take in the pictures of their exhibition  |
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