Current Events

Well you are in for a treat. I have a long list of interesting musical and extra-musical happenings recently.

I'm proud to say I've been expanding my musical palette recently. A lot. A few days ago I attended one of my favorite concerts this year and yesterday another! The first was the recital of Mike Giles of Iowa State University. Featuring music composed entirely by himself for a chamber ensemble of guitar, bass guitar, drum set, and alto saxophone, the concert was fantastic. The concert would be labeled jazz by most, but the resemblance ends with the similarity of improvisation, as Mr. Giles would certainly agree. Staying entirely away from traditional forms was the focus of Mr. Giles and he pulled off the illusion deftly; combining what I thought was an amazing display of musicianship and camaraderie from the entire ensemble with fantastic compositional ideas from Mr. Giles to create a very interesting musical experience; the highlight of which, for me, was the evoking of moods and imagery greater than the sum of its musical parts. I cannot speak highly enough of the performance or compositions and I can only hope they will be available online soon to share with others. The music is accessible enough to inspire others to listen to something outside their normal box, but creatively intelligent enough to steer clear of being like everything else. Mr. Giles musical mind and goals are very inspiring to me and much of what he does is very close to what I want to do. He will also be performing with the Iowa State University Wind Ensemble (of which I am a member) on our upcoming concert, as featured alto saxophone soloist for Libby Larsen’s very interesting “Holy Roller.” I’m very much looking forward to it.

Secondly, last night I attended a fantastic and out-of-the-ordinary concert at the breathtaking Temple of the Performing Arts in wonderful downtown Des Moines. This concert featured non-other than Mrs. Sonja Giles on flute, as well as several members of the Des Moines Symphony, including Sandra Wacha (flute), and Barry Larkin (percussion). Yes, this Sonja Giles does happen to be the wife of the aforementioned Mike Giles (a talented couple). She performed George Crumb's An Idyll for the Misbegotten on amplified flute with the assistance of Mr. Larkin and two additional percussionists. She did an absolutely fantastic job on this very difficult to perform well piece, and established a mood that I can only assume Crumb would be very happy with. In addition to this great performance I got to see a very interesting and elaborate entertainment with William Waltons “Façade.” This piece featured a fantastic speaker, Jane Cox, reciting lines of poetry overtop William Walton’s musical score. With titles like “Long Steel Grass,” “Tarantella (Where the satyrs are chattering),” and “Flourish-Came the Great Popinjay” the whole affair created a very fanciful setting, augmented by the wonderful hall of the Temple, whose molded ceiling with stained-glass was perfect for the occasion. This very interesting piece was a very nice change of pace for entertainment and I thought it was a great experience.

Following the mentioning of these two wonderful musical experiences I would like to throw out an idea of mine. I have developed my word and definition of sorts for what I regard as a common and reoccurring theme (though perhaps unintentional) in modern art (both musical and visual and otherwise). You should never use this word the way I do because that is not the accepted definition of the word (though if you try to find a definition, you'll find that its usually a very hazy interpretation indeed). Speaking extremely broadly, I think that the term "neoromanticism" could describe a trend that can be defined by the ability (and goal) of a work of art to evoke an idea, feeling, or place, greater than the sum of the musical (or otherwise) parts. In the visual arts, this could mean hinting at a much greater space or situation than bound between the borders of, for instance, a painting. In Mike Giles recital, for example, this would mean creating (for me) a very declamatory and then also naive feeling in “The Adventures of Caramel Rick.” In Alice in Wonderland its the creation of a (surprise) land of wonder. Obviously, this idea is far too broad to be of any practical use; but I do think it is interesting to think of this idea of modern art fabricating an entirely imaginary (and amazing) feeling.

Now for a few short and more random comments:
1. my favorite idea in the movie Jarhead was the ethereal world created by the burning oil-wells.
2. saw V for Vendetta today, it was a very interesting political commentary. Quite the dystopia, which leads me to…
3. interesting website about dystopias: Exploring Dystopia
4. all composers mentioned in today’s blog are quite controversial or avant garde or contemporary or whatever you want to say. I’d like to state that when I was first exposed to these certain types of music, I was turned off by their lack of accessibility, but now I have found a happy medium of accessibility vs. creativity.
5. interesting website about very crazy music (check out these scores): “from beautiful to strange"".

Still early in the night, back to the grinding-stone,

RTA