{"id":18232,"date":"2014-04-12T19:33:57","date_gmt":"2014-04-12T23:33:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/?p=18232"},"modified":"2014-04-13T08:19:59","modified_gmt":"2014-04-13T12:19:59","slug":"preview-soundstreams-to-present-unique-blend-of-pareidolia-and-passion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2014\/04\/12\/preview-soundstreams-to-present-unique-blend-of-pareidolia-and-passion\/","title":{"rendered":"Preview: Soundstreams to present unique blend of Pareidolia and Passion"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Australian<\/a>
Australian Art Orchestra<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Soundstreams<\/a> Artistic Director Lawrence Cherney is always on the hunt for fresh new sounds to discover. Like a modern-day\u00a0Alan Lomax<\/i>, he set out to Australia looking for music written, as he says, \u201con a big canvas.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cherney had heard of a group of improvising musicians headed by pianist-composer Paul Grabowsky out of Melbourne. \u00a0Hopeful that they had what it takes, Cherney invited the Australian Art Orchestra<\/a> (AAO) to Toronto to present a new Jazz based interpretation of Bach\u2019s St. Matthew Passion.<\/i><\/p>\n

Fast-forward two years, and the AAO has finally arrived with a genre-bending program that\u00a0will feature a musical setting of Bach\u2019s Passion,<\/i> and an electrifying new work by Montreal’s bon vivant upstart,\u00a0Nicole Liz\u00e9e<\/a>. \u00a0According to the AAO, the results are enthralling.<\/p>\n

The project was originally created as a collaboration between Paul Grabowsky and four improvisers from the ensemble. Grabowsky, along with guitarist Doug de Vries, keyboardist Alister Spence, drummer Niko Sch\u00e4uble and violinist John Rogers, selected parts of Bach\u2019s work as source material to compose the work.<\/p>\n

Most of the sections were based on melodic material from Bach\u2019s score, and included the central soprano aria \u201cAus Liebe will mein Heiland sterben\u201d (For love my Savior would die). Sh\u00e4uble composed \u201cCrucified\u201d by drawing on different arias from the original, and Rogers provided the \u201cFinale\u201d. Grabowsky also arranged four chorales from the original using his own text as a means to tie it all together.<\/p>\n

According to the ensemble, the results transcend Bach St Matthew’s Passion by drawing on the emotional nuances of the original source while employing the language of contemporary music.<\/p>\n

Considering Toronto\u2019s thriving community of improvising musicians in Toronto, Lawrence Cherney\u2019s desire to bring Passion<\/i> and the AAO to Toronto makes a lot of sense. The group will be joined by contingent some of Canada\u2019s best improvisers, forming a kind of international super group. Together they will unite into a rally\u00a018th century context and 21st century method.<\/p>\n

\"composer,<\/a>
composer, Nicole Liz\u00e9e<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Besides the AAO, I also had a chance to catch-up with composer Nicole Liz\u00e9e to chat about her upcoming premiere.<\/p>\n

After a successful collaboration with So Percussion<\/a> in March 2012, this will mark Soundstreams second commission for Liz\u00e9e in just two years.<\/p>\n

Liz\u00e9e jumped at the prospect of merging elements of big band jazz, classical, and electronica under the premise of a Bach-inspired piece.<\/p>\n

She recalled many hours in her youth pouring over Bach scores \u201cand being fascinated by the shapes and the geometry in them.\u201d It seemed like the perfect project to explore those early formative memories, she adds.<\/p>\n

Hymns to Pareidolia <\/i>is a work motivated by the psychological phenomenon of recognizing meaningful patterns in music and other art objects.<\/p>\n

It was no secret Bach had a curious proclivity for imbedding secret cryptographic messages in his scores; the most famous of which was his B flat, A, C, B natural motif. In German musical nomenclature, the note B natural is written as H and the B flat as B, which results in the cleaver spelling of his family name.<\/p>\n

Besides Bach\u2019s fondness for pareidolia, Liz\u00e9e said she was fascinated by “people who spend hours and hours sitting and magnifying portions of painting looking for secret messages in existing works of art.\u201d She applied this to the piece by writing a \u201cbach-esque musical figure\u201d from Bach St. Matthews Passion and magnified it to its cellular level, which she used as the starting point.<\/p>\n

She describes, \u201cParts of the score are erased, canons are broken, hockets are damaged, and hisses, hums and a warping of material is created. I \u2018zoom in\u2019 on very short excerpts (sometimes just a rhythmic or gestural idea) \u2013 they form \u2018cells\u2019 for a section \u2013 and become stretched, melted and otherwise manipulated.\u201d<\/p>\n

Liz\u00e9e will also be performing with the AAO using a number of vintage instruments including a turntable, a stylophone from the 60\u2019s and an omnichord that from the 80\u2019s. \u201cI\u2019m interested in incorporating different sororities associated with a different time and a different context and bringing them into an unexpected scenario,\u201d Liz\u00e9e said.<\/p>\n

She added that Tuesday\u2019s show will be a coming together of different musicians, genres, and music periods, and it is something that she has been looking forward to for a long time.<\/p>\n

The homage to J.S. Bach\u2019s classical oratorio, will take place at Trinity St. Paul\u2019s on Tuesday April 15th<\/sup> at 8 p.m.<\/p>\n

At 7 p.m. there will be a pre-concert discussion about the art of weaving improvisation together with composition with Lawrence Cherney, Paul Grabowsky, Peter Knight, and Nicole Liz\u00e9e.<\/p>\n

For tickets and info see here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

+++<\/p>\n

Australian Art Orchestra and Archie Roach, Passion 2009:<\/p>\n