Thomas EcholsI am so very excited to be continuing narratives with process [middle].  In an earlier post, I mentioned how this series emerged out of an exploration of the many ways that music conveys meaning.  This concert is about the game, the creative interplay of elements.

Of all three concerts, this is the one that really delves into the mode of musical discourse that is the least linguistic by nature: process. Here is what Steve Reich says about “Process Music”:

          “[It is not] the process of composition but rather pieces of music that

          are, literally, processes. The distinctive thing about musical processes

          is that they determine all the note-to-note (sound-to-sound) details and the overall form.”

If you’ve ever sung “Row, row, row your boat” in a round, where one person begins singing the first line just as another is beginning the second line, then you yourself have performed process music. Certain pieces by minimalist composers are quintessential Process pieces: beautiful, consonant sonorities are heard while a clearly discernible pattern unfolds creating a kind of narrative structure that really only exists in musical works. Also, certain pieces from the Baroque period, namely fugues (a kind of piece that can be thought of as a much more elaborate and artful round or canon as mentioned above), are also exemplary process pieces: an evocative tune with a clear identity is heard alone at first, and then is repeated along with various transformations of itself creating dense musical fabrics out of a very small amount of material. Process pieces are entrancing things. They speak volumes beyond the limits of the spoken word.

The texts chosen for this concert are from the Argentinian writers Jorge Luis Borges and Julio Cortázar, two authors whose writing often seems to be a commentary upon writing (and reading) itself. Literary labyrinths, games, circular, reductive logic seem fitting to the idea of process. The poems will be read in Spanish and English. Borges, who wrote fictions about fictions –creating authors so that he could write about their non-existent works, said once that he wrote in a Baroque style.  .  .  at two points in the concert, we will hear two fugues by Borges’ compatriot (and master of the tango) Astor Piazzolla that reveal how a piece can be fugal without being Baroque in any other sense. . .

The entire concert forms a kind of palindrome, with events mirroring each other across a central point in time. The cornerstone of the concert is Arvo Pärt’s “Fratres”, which has been arranged specially for this concert for violin and guitar. “Fratres” itself has a beautiful harmonic pattern that is palindromic in a way, making it the perfect centerpiece for this program.

Virtuosic unaccompanied violin, guitar duo, quartets for two guitars, violin and flute, violin with guitar accompaniment, experimental electronics and synthesizers all come together for this incredible night of music and text. Come enjoy refreshments in the atrium, where there will be “flash poets” at typewriters writing upon any given theme in the opening exhibit while Christopher Royal King gives a moving and hypnotic electronic performance based on Steve Reich’s “piano phase”. I hope to see you there!