ALBUM OF THE WEEK: The Brooklyn Rider Almanac

Posted on October 6, 2014 by maestrobeats

Since the birth of Second Inversion, Brooklyn Rider‘s versatile recordings of new music for string quartet have been a significant presence on our airwaves. Eric, Nick, Johnny, and Colin also captured our hearts with a great Vine video musically depicting and celebrating “Second Inversion,” back in February 2014.

To celebrate ten years together as a quartet, they created The Brooklyn Rider Almanac. This is a collection of thirteen new compositions for string quartet mostly by composers rooted in jazz, rock, or folk music. It’s an incredible celebration of Brooklyn Rider’s musical connections in the last decade (the composers are self-proclaimed “musical crushes” and old friends) and for posterity, an expansion of the string quartet repertoire. Furthermore, the project is “about inspiration, about music being the tip of a bigger iceberg,” according to Colin Jacobsen.

Each composer indicates from which literary, musical, dance, or other artistic source the inspiration is drawn. You’ll hear music by Vijay Iyer inspired by James Brown (it grooves, hard, and requires the musicians to extend their rhythmic techniques with polyrhythmic stomping while playing); Christina Courtin inspired by Stravinsky (full of neo-classical Pulcinella-esque charm); Aoife O’Donovan inspired by William Faulkner (what I’d give to be in Mississippi, drinking a mint julep while listening to this…)

My personal favorite track on the record is Colin Jacobsen’s “Exit,” featuring the versatile vocalist Shara Worden. With a light texture of percussive hand claps, plucking pizzicati, and pointed vocal sounds, there’s an undertone of minimalism in this piece in a beautifully “less is more,” simplistic way. Colin Jacobsen cites three sources of inspiration of this piece. First is Shara Worden and her dichotomy of not giving any excess in what she sings, yet still diving head first and inhabiting the role of whatever she’s singing. Second is Kandinsky, who happens to be the lyricist of the song – “Exit” comes from a book poems and woodcut etchings called Sounds, written at a time when he was going toward abstract painting and trying to get away from the literal meaning of words. Thirdly, Jacobsen draws from David Byrnes’ How Music Works by finding just the groove that is necessary for the piece to happen and not putting anything else there.

In regard to each individual piece and the collection as a whole, it’s best for me to keep it simple and just say this music is GOOD. The type of “hand it to my friends who have little or no interest in classical music and say, ‘stop what you’re doing and LISTEN TO THIS NOW!'” good. It rethinks classical music AND the string quartet with a timeless quality, putting a stamp on the fact that music doesn’t need labels or categories or genres. Put these four (or five, in “Exit”) musicians together who can not only play music well, but express emotion and breathe life into the notes on a page, and the magic is there.

Get your own copy on Amazon or iTunes (it comes with 2 bonus tracks if you purchase on iTunes!) of the Brooklyn Rider Almanac and keep an eye on their tour schedule for a performance near you!

ALBUM OF THE WEEK: Time for Three (Self-Titled)

Posted on August 11, 2014 by maestrobeats

by Maggie Stapleton

Time for Three (a.k.a. TF3) totally nails the concept of “Rethink Classical.” The members of this genre-defying trio (Zachary (Zach) De Pue, violin; Nicolas (Nick) Kendall, violin; and Ranaan Meyer, double bass) were trained at the Curtis Institute of Music and undoubtedly have incredible classical chops. Their fluency and natural ability to play arrangements of The Beatles, Kanye West, and Katy Perry equally as well as Bach and Brahms is what sets these guys apart and makes their self-proclaimed “classically-trained garage band” title totally accurate.

“How do we reach a younger audience?” is a hot topic among symphony orchestras around the globe right now. The Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra has teamed up with TF3 for their “Happy Hour Series,” where they perform on about four programs per year. I had a chance to talk to TF3 a few weeks ago about this experience and they absolutely love it. They’ve developed a fan base of young professionals (90% are ages 20-45) who keep coming back, concert after concert. TF3 caters to the needs of that demographic by crafting performances in the concert hall that are similar in format to rock shows – lights, trajectory of a playlist that takes you on a journey, and music that is groove-oriented and familiar. They’ll pair Beethoven alongside Coldplay… Brahms… Radiohead. The audience may come for the Radiohead, but find unexpected connections with Brahms.

And speaking of performances and venues, the guys are currently on tour and stopping right here in Seattle on Wednesday, August 13 at the Columbia City Theater, where you can sit or stand, drink a beer, dance, and make merry in this fun, historic space. The show starts at 8pm and tickets are still available!

Their recently released self-titled album is an emblem for the modern era of genre-crossover, containing an impressive collection of arrangements, originals, and guest performers (Joshua Radin! Alisa Weilerstein! Jake Shimabukuro! Branford Marsalis! Lily & Madeleine!). We had the pleasure of having Nick, Ranaan, and Zach in our studios for a special in-studio performance:

(this session is no longer available)

Our hats are off to you, TF3, for this amazing collection of originals, covers, and collaborations! If you like what you hear, pop over to iTunes or Amazon and make it yours.

ALBUM OF THE WEEK: ZOFORBIT

Posted on June 30, 2014 by maestrobeats

by Maggie Stapleton

ZOFO (shorthand for 20-finger orchestra… ZO=20 and FO=finger orchestra), is a fresh chamber ensemble with a vision to embrace exciting classics like Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring for piano four-hands and expand the repertoire by commissioning works by new composers including Pulitzer Prize winner William Bolcom, Gabriela Lena Frank, and Terry Riley. Pianists Eva-Maria Zimmermann and Keisuke Nakagoshi take the freshness a step further, aiming to commission works by composers who have never written for piano four hands, stretching composers to step into a new compositional realm.

ZOFORBIT is the duo’s most recent release on Sono Luminus (available also on iTunes or Amazon), with all pieces themed around outer space. The difficult part for ZOFO wasn’t finding piano four-hands music that fit into this category, it was choosing from a multitude of options! ZOFO’s own arrangement of Gustav Holst’s The Planets is the anchor of the album, as 2014 marks the centenary of this iconic composition. Urmas Sisask’s The Milky Way, George Crumb’s Celestial Mechanics, and David Lang’s Gravity round out the collection.

Gravity is full of descending, falling lines with a very distinct sense of gravity, almost as if there’s no escape. Composer David Lang says, “With ‘gravity’ I had the image in my head of how to make a kind of music that would always be falling. The material is in a state of slow perpetual motion, moving inexorably downwards and yet never really resting or landing.” Keisuke further describes Gravity as one of the saddest, yet most beautiful pieces he’s ever played.

Estonian composer Urmas Sisask makes great use of the inside of the piano in The Milky Way, calling for plucked and dampened strings and glissandi. The first movement is ethereal, atmospheric, and engaging. The opening motive of the piece gradually expands in dynamic and intensity, layering in more texture throughout. The plucked strings (both dampened and not) inside the piano add a great celestial, other-worldly effect. The second movement beings gently, with continuous ascending lines (a nice contrast to Gravity’s descending lines) giving way to a repeated single pitch with strummed strings, cresting to a simple, solo melody. ZOFO’s recording of George Crumb’s Alpha Centauri and Beta Cygni (from Celestial Mechanics) is a great aural experience, but the video below really showcases the effects in this piece. Both pianists must stand throughout most of the piece to achieve all of the inside piano effects. Eva-Maria explained that they have to actually HIT the strings, standing side-by-side, so much so that they must be careful not to hit each other. Alpha Centauri is very exciting and fiery, contrasted well by Beta Cygni which is much more introverted with hints of gamelan music. Many times in Beta Cygni, the strings are dampened right in the middle, producing a pitch which is an octave higher producing a gong-like effect.

This entire album is a great showcase of what two pianists can do not just at the keyboard, but also inside the keyboard. Huge applause for ZOFO’s effort to successfully pull off yet another cleverly themed album. To hear more conversation about the album, as well as the duo’s background and beginnings, listen below!

AARON GRAD RETHINKS THEORBO

Posted on June 13, 2014 by maestrobeats

by Maggie Stapleton

Here at Second Inversion, our catchphrase is “Rethink Classical.” The multi-talented Aaron Grad (Composer, Guitarist, Artistic Consultant, Program Note Author, Lecturer, the list goes on) has done some serious rethinking of his own. Let’s go a step or two back in time and call it “Rethink Renaissance.”

In 2012, Aaron built a one-of-a-kind electric theorbo. You read that correctly. Here’s a sample of the instrument’s sound in an excerpt from Aaron’s composition, Old-Fashioned Love Songs.

I had the pleasure of chatting with Aaron about the concept and design of the instrument as well as his upcoming performance featuring Aaron on electric theorbo and Gus Mercante, countertenor on Saturday, June 21, 8pm at the Chapel Performance Space at the Good Shepherd Center. Aaron recently returned to Seattle after an East Coast tour with performances in NYC, Delaware, and Maryland (which got a great review in the Washington Post).

Listen if you’d like, or keep reading if that’s your preference!

Q. Could you tell us a little bit about this instrument you’ve created, the electric theorbo?

A. It’s based on an old instrument, the theorbo, which is a 16^th century Italian lute with long bass strings plus a fretted fret board like a lute would have. I fell in love with this instrument – it’s audacious, bold, has a deep bass sound, is beautiful for accompanying vocal music. I had the idea to create a version that would work for me, because I’m not a period practiced lute player, like there are so many wonderful people who do that, especially here in Seattle, so I had to find my version. I had this idea to hybridize the theorbo, with its many strings and deep bass notes and combine that with an electric guitar, with is my instrument. So I came up with a design that brought those two worlds together and it uses some old ideas and old stringing and tuning but also very modern techniques of carbon fibers and other new materials.

Q. Did you actually build the instrument yourself?

I did. It took me many months to design it and probably 8 months in a wood shop putting it together. I had to try a bunch of things, engineer new techniques and bits and pieces that just don’t exist. There aren’t a lot of precedents for this so I had to come up with a way to make a new bridge and find the right kind of tuners and even the pickups – every single component I had to rethink, source from somewhere, and ultimately assemble and put it all together.

Q. What did you have in mind as far as the music to be performed on this instrument ? Old? New?

A. The overall message I had in mind was “the timelessness of love songs,” so it ended up being a new-old hybrid, but in a way my goal was not to show not how different those worlds are, but how similar they are. Any time I’m involved in that new-old territory (which I find I’m doing a lot of), it’s usually to find common threads and connections back to something that I think is immortal in a musical statement or even a human, personal statement. I ended up using love songs as far back as the 16^th century and up to the 21^st century and then I wrote a bunch of my own new songs. The idea was just to show a common thread, that music has always been used to express love. The simplest version is one person singing and the sound of something being strummed or plucked (and that goes back even farther than the theorbo) and as long as people have been singing or plucking strings, they’ve been expressing love.

Q. Is that the impetus for the concert you have coming up on June 21^st?

A. The two sides of it came together – one was building the instrument and just having the idea for that as a sound that I was drawn to. The other was this idea about love and its timelessness and universality. And so those came together in Old-Fashioned Love Songs – an evening length song cycle and the whole thing is one big love letter to my wife. It’s my way of putting out in a very public, exposed, and somewhat vulnerable way- very true and personal feelings. That’s what I’m interested in doing as a composer – I’m trying to push myself to be as “out there” as I can be with what I feel deeply. I used to allow musical activities to just be on the surface… write a piece that sounded nice. I’m sure I’ll do that again, but right now I’m interested in going really deep into what is most true and personal for me at that point in my life and figuring a way to put it to music.

Q. Can you give us a sense of the range of songs we can expect to hear?

A. The first thing on the program is a Toccata by an Italian theorbo composer written in a 1604. The earliest song on the program is by John Dowland, great master of English love songs – beautiful, heartsick love songs (the agony of love!). I also touch some Henry Purcell, which is also from that era when the theorbo was an active instrument. Then I move somewhat chronologically… some Stephen Foster, George Gershwin, Kurt Weill. Then we get into some later 20^th century pop music by Cyndi Lauper and Norah Jones. Interspersed between all of those are some of my own songs which were written in the last year or two.

Q. Tell us a little bit about the collaboration with the vocalist.

A. The singer is a countertenor, a wonderful singer from Delaware named Gus Mercante who I worked with for the first time over a decade ago. It’s been so nice to work with that voice type which also has these old resonances. It’s a voice associated with centuries past. There’s something so pure and angelic about a countertenor voice that helps to deliver that message that floats just beyond one moment. He’s just been a wonderful musician and partner to work with. We’ve been working very closely together and touring together and it really helps that I think our friendship shows up on stage and from the last performances we just did on the east coast, I saw how important that was as a part of what we’re doing because it is such personal music and especially because I’m not the one singing it, he’s really a mouthpiece for my ideas and I just felt like we were really close and connected and able to move together and phrase together in ways that spoke to our friendship and connection just as two people.

Old-Fashioned Love Songs will be a great way to cozy up with a loved one and take a journey through time, all the while experiencing the electric theorbo in the intimate setting of the Chapel Performance Space at the Good Shepherd Center.

Visit our Streaming Albums On-Demand page to hear more of Aaron Grad’s compositions and recordings!

A TALK WITH ANONYMOUS 4

Posted on May 28, 2014 by maestrobeats

by Jill Kimball

The whole early music world sighed in sadness earlier this month when Anonymous 4 announced 2015-16 would be the group’s last season together. (No, really–they’re serious this time.)

Luckily, the group cushioned the blow with an astounding record just released this week on the Cantaloupe label: love fail.

The piece for two sopranos, two altos and percussion was composed exclusively for Anonymous 4 by David Lang, who is perhaps best known for his Pulitzer Prize-winning the little match girl passion. Lang’s vocal music is haunting and sparse, much like the medieval music Anonymous 4 is known for.

We asked Anonymous 4 member Jacqueline Horner-Kwiatek a few questions about love fail, working with David Lang, and what the future holds for these famed singers:

Anonymous 4 usually concentrates on centuries-old music. Why did you feel compelled to record love fail, an entirely new piece?

Well, actually, Anonymous [4] has commissioned several composers in the past, including Steve Reich, Richard Einhorn and Sir John Tavener. We love the idea of collaboration with composers who have an interest in early music and the sonorities of our voices–and it’s fun to create something new.

What is love fail all about?

It’s about the challenges and rewards of developing a relationship with another human being. David picked and arranged texts ranging from medieval sources, such as Marie de France, to the poems of Lydia Davis. The pieces are in turn heart-wrenching and funny–just like love and life.

What was your favorite part about performing this piece?

Some of the individual movements, such as “head heart,” are so moving and beautiful that they are almost hard to sing…in a good way! We enjoyed the contrasts between the profound and the comical, but ultimately the sheer beauty of David’s music makes it a very special piece to perform. And we get to play percussion instruments, which is great fun!

Love fail is a piece whose composer is alive and able to provide you with feedback—an unusual thing in the Anonymous 4 universe. What was it like working with David Lang?

David is a wonderful collaborator who really wrote this piece with our voices and individual strengths in mind. Always willing to listen and change things if necessary, this piece grew and developed out of our mutual contributions.

Millions of people will mourn the loss of Anonymous 4 come 2016, but as musicians ourselves, we know how exciting it can be to move on to a new project. Tell us about your future musical plans.

The members of the group have actually been doing individual projects for several years now and we are all looking forward to developing those further…here, in our own words:

Jacqui will continue her work both as a mezzo-soprano soloist specializing in early and new music and as a voice teacher with a studio in NYC. She also gives masterclasses and ensemble technique workshops at Colleges throughout the US.This Fall she will be starting a Doctoral Program- a D.M.A in Voice- at The Juilliard School.

Marsha will be doing more research and performance of American music; she also plans to seek a new role in the Bay Area, supporting and funding performing artists and ensembles.

Susan will be developing a new podcast radio program — called “ChantVillage” — about chant from all spiritual traditions, both historically and in the world today. She will also continue leading Chant Camps, and teaching college courses on medieval and American popular music.

Ruth will continue singing early music in both concert and liturgical settings as well as expanding her work in improvisatory performance with a variety of other instrumentalists and singers. She also teaches workshops and offers individual sessions in sound healing and improvisation.