by Mike Telin
“We live in an era where composers are constantly re-imagining and re-contextualizing how sound can be used in their work,” No Exit artistic director Timothy Beyer said during a recent telephone conversation. “And the music featured on our upcoming series of concerts will explore the different ways that composers can use sound to really paint a picture.”
On Thursday, September 29 at Cleveland State University’s Drinko Auditorium, Saturday, October 1 at SPACES, and Saturday, October 8 at Heights Arts, No Exit will present “Sonic Landscapes.” The program will include music by Per Nørgård, Stephen Paulus, Jefferson Friedman, Hong-Da Chin, Greg D’Alessio, and Yuan-Keng Ling. All performances are at 8:00 pm.
“In addition to having a strong connection to nature, most of the pieces featured on these concerts focus on timbre, texture, and rhythm,” Beyer said. “While these elements are present in all music, the idea of using them as the primary means of expression is very cool. It almost challenges the listener to hear these pieces more as one may experience an abstract painting. So I suppose this is where the notion of ʻsonic landscapesʼ or ʻsonic painting,ʼ if you will, came from.”
Beyer described Per Nørgård’s Spell for clarinet, cello, and piano as fugacious and captivating. “Nørgård’s music doesn’t get the attention it deserves, and I’m surprised by that. I know you hear this kind of fluffy language applied to a lot of pieces, but Spell is a great showpiece that really is a journey from beginning to end.”
When asked about Stephen Paulusʼs Seven Miniatures, Beyer said that in his mind, they are the perfect embodiment of what miniatures should be. “Paulus knows how to approach the form. He knows how to minimize the materials and ideas, and he knows how to bring out that special something that is so wonderfully evocative and moving.”
Beyer is happy to able to include Jefferson Friedmanʼs 78 on the program, a work he compared to a freight train. “A lot of composers bring rock music or other popular forms of music into the classical arena, and I think that Jefferson does it in the best way I have ever heard. It doesn’t sound like pop or rock, but you can clearly hear those styles in it.”
Continuing a long No Exit tradition, world premieres will play a key role in the program. Greg D’Alessio’s The Secret Lives of Birds for flute and electronics is built around field recordings of bird songs. “Greg has inventively manipulated those songs. Besides the flute that will be played live, he also recorded some flute sounds and has manipulated those as well. It’s the kind of writing that Greg does best.”
Hong-Da Chin’s Perpetuity was commissioned by No Exit clarinetist Gunnar Owen Hirthe. “Gunnar has worked with Hong-Da in the past and liked his music very much. The way he uses sounds fits the program’s title perfectly. It’s a colorful piece with a lot of rhythmic texture.
“Yuan-Keng Ling is a student at Brandeis University. I would not go so far as to call his Out of…// ‘spectral music,’ but it is in that camp. It’s very nuanced and impeccably put together. Both Chin and Ling are very talented young composers who have a lot to say and are definitely speaking in their own voices.”
Published on ClevelandClassical.com September 27, 2016.
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