Aural hors d’oeuvres

They call them Sound Bites and Sound Bites 2 was performed over the weekend. Sound Bites is a diverse collection of musical snippets performed by colleagues and old friends out of the ANU School of Music brought together by clarinettist Nicole Canham. Like hors d’oeuvres at the best cocktail party, this music was fascinating, short and varied: clarinet and bassoon and tarogato mixing with flugelhorn and saxes and electric guitar and electronics to play classical and jazz dots with some folk influences and jazz and rock improv. It’s unusual in terms of styles and tonal combinations and original in terms of composition and improvisation. It’s also somewhat of a party given the informal venue with background coffee-making and family and friends around to enjoy the company of ex-Canberrans visiting their home town.

They certainly were an eclectic mix of sounds. Nicole started with Not alone performed on clarinet with Carlos López Charles, the composer, on live electronics. This was clarinet dots played at dotted quaver intervals against an echo at quaver intervals. You can imagine the harmonic and rhythmic possibilities. Nicole joked about her mistakes coming back to haunt her (but presumably only for a few repeats). Next were two tunes on bassoon from Zoe Pepper. The first, Nostaligia, was again written by Carlos and was sparse melody and fluttering pads against an electronic drone. Then a more conventional tune in Piazzola’s Etude no.4. Niels Rosendahl followed with a medley played on solo sax comprising a Jimmy Rowles ballad called Peacocks, with harmony that challenged jazz theory, and an intervallic improvisation on the blues in Michael Brecker style called Movere (latin for Motivation). I found this greatly satisfying and truly impressive playing although the blues structure only appeared as hints to my ears. Carlos followed on electric guitar and effects for a piece called Iridescence which pictured in sounds the patina of colours seen from oil on water. This was all overdriven guitar and right hard harmonics and left hand tapping and using the wah pedal to highlight frequencies: rock guitar influenced by a composer’s awareness. (Bassoon to rock guitar: I told you this was a catholic mix; folk next). Then Nicole on tarogato and Niels on soprano sax performed a folk-influenced composition in two movements by Ian Blake called Tuk (= Little hill). Imagine Welsh folk dancing around musicians on a little hill through many pages of charts, repetition and interaction and danceable rhythms. Then Miro sat in on flugelhorn and Carlos on choppy e-guitar sounds and Niels switched to tenor for a beautiful but short piece called Foggy Friday in Flynn, and a final tune from Miro (sans Carlos, and with Niels on baritone sax), a lively riff-based number with bari sax solo called Pressure makes diamonds.

Now to describe that in a few words? Varied, certainly. Intriguing and exploratory, demonstrably. What a pleasant and intelligent way to spend an afternoon. Now what’s for dinner? Beethoven? Thanks to Nicole and looking forward to Sound Bites 3 next year. Nicole Canham (clarinet, tarogato) played with Zoey Pepper (bassoon Carlos López Charles (electric guitar, electronics and several compositions), Niels Rosendahl (soprano, tenor, baritone saxes), Miroslav Bukovsky (flugelhorn and several compositions).

I’ll also mention the Canberra Photographic Society’s Out there 2011 exhibition which I caught before SB. There were some good compositions, some humourous or intriguing views, some travel, some nature, and more. It’s only a small group and I was surprised to see how many names I knew. I don’t have a catalogue after the event, but I remember some names. Family friend Brian Jones had some excellent and sharp work including a stunningly lush natural panorama of a tropical gorge. Sunday’s host Steven Shaw displayed some fascinating smoke trails. Astronomy mate Ross Gould had a lovely image of a woman in yellow dress with a cello. Helen McFadden and others had some detailed and sensual macro shots of flowers. I also remember a nice series of very wide panoramas of Lake George with threatening weather and walking shoes and Parliamentary spoons and expressionist sandbanks and a variety of people and places and more. Nice one.

Bassoons & tarogato, everyday for CJ

It was a very different sound experience for me. I don’t often hear bassoon at close quarters, and I’d never even heard of a tarogato. But Niels had mentioned this to me, I’d got a Facebook invitation and it piqued my interest. It was nothing like what I’d expected, but then I really didn’t have expectations.

The session started with a Piazzola arrangement for bassoon, tarogato and soprano sax. I felt at home with this, especially with the bassoon playing what was essentially a bass line. Apparently, it was pretty much the baritone sax line from another arrangement. Then two Bach inventions for bassoon and tarogato. They were short but comfy enough. Then we started getting adventurous. Firstly, a difficult work in several movements by Ross Edwards called Ecstatic dances. The first movement was tarogato and soprano sax bouncing fast rising lines back and forth. Thereafter, some neat counterpoint. The Ross Edwards I’ve heard before sounds of the Bush, and, at least the first movement was nothing if not like flittering birds. Then another Ross Edwards called Water spirit song, this time on solo bassoon. Bassoons don’t lend themselves to bird flight, but this was bouncy to some degree, although more of an inquisitive animal than birdsong. Then two compositions by Ian Blake. The first was bassoon and female vocals (both by Zoey Pepper). Zoey had previously multitracked layers of voices and bassoons, against which she performed live bassoon and vocal parts. I had trouble with the balance and the recording didn’t match the purity of the live sounds. Also, I know no German, so the Rilke poetry just flew by me, as did the underlying story of Orpheus and Euridice. But some of the vocal work was particularly beautiful and I found it an eye-opener to the modern possibilities of echo and tracking and effects. I know of all this, of course, but to hear a classical acoustic instrument next to richly effected recorded instruments and voices obviates the new sonic possibilities we now have to play with. Then another Ian Blake composition for bassoon and tarogato. The concert ended with more modern effects: Col on effected percussion and Miro on trumpet improvising with tarogato.

Sound Bites were performed by Zoey Pepper (bassoon), Ian Blake (feature composer; soprano saxophone), Nicole Canham (tarogato; clarinet), Niels Rosendahl (soprano saxophone), Miroslav Bukovsky (trumpet) and Col Hoorweg (e-percussion). And in case you’re still wondering, a tarogato is a Hungarian wooden wind instrument with conical bore using a single reed, and sounding somewhere between a soprano sax and an English horn.

This is CJBlog post no. 500.