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Home , Bang on a Can, Ben Neill, Cantaloupe Music, David Lang (composer), Downtown music, Ensemble Musikfabrik

-ism

Postminimalism, and the by Michael Gordon, and

Master Thesis Musicology Laura Jonker Supervisor: Prof. M. Beirens Second reader: prof. dr. J.J.E. Kursell Studentno: 5884497 University of Amsterdam

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Index

Introduction ...... 4 Chapter 1 – A brief history of ...... 7 Young, Riley, Reich, Glass ...... 8 The new ensemble ...... 10 Minimal musical elements ...... 11 ...... 13 After ...... 13 Chatham, Branca, Zorn ...... 14 Downtown musical elements ...... 16 Downtown developments ...... 17 Chapter 2 – Gordon, Lang, Wolfe ...... 18 Michael Gordon ...... 18 David Lang ...... 20 Julia Wolfe ...... 22 Combining the three ...... 25 Chapter 3 – Downtown and Bang on a Can ...... 26 The success of being downtown ...... 26 Bang on a Can ...... 28 Influences ...... 30 New generation...... 31 The ...... 33 Chapter 4 – Robert Fink & ...... 36 Fink and ...... 36 Gann and totalism ...... 41 Chapter 5 – Trance, cheating, lying, stealing and Lick ...... 48 Michael Gordon - Trance ...... 49 David Lang – cheating, lying, stealing ...... 54 Julia Wolfe - Lick ...... 62 Chapter 6 - Postminimalism or totalism? ...... 71 The four points ...... 71 Comparing the analyses ...... 74 Conclusion ...... 76 Bibliography ...... 78 Books and articles ...... 78

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Websites ...... 80 Scores, audio and video ...... 83

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Introduction

Defining contemporary classical music results in a vast amount of opinions, definitions and terms. Scholars, journalists and authors often try to find a common trait in the music they hear, and compare it to other compositions that they know of. It is of importance for them to place this new music in different perspectives, for example historically, or in society. This can be difficult, because classical music in the 21st century is very diverse. Strict boundaries of genres become obscured or even disappear and musicians from different genres, styles, countries and paths of life are collaborating with each other. Even compositions of one often sound different from one another. When writing articles or reviews about contemporary classical music, all kinds of terms are attached to new compositions. Authors usually agree with each other that minimalism was the starting point for new developments, but after that opinions vary. Very broad, non-specific terms as ‘new classical’ or ‘post-classical’ are used sometimes, but more common is the classification of postminimalism or totalism.1 Often this indexation is done with some hesitation though, it seems as if it is hard to give this new kind of classical music a name. Two authors who are not reluctant to do so, are Robert Fink and Kyle Gann. Both have written multiple articles on the American music scene in the late 20th and early 21st century. Broadly speaking, Fink has done so from the perspective of musicology and the struggles within this field to research this music, while Gann has done so as a composer and journalist proving the importance of this new movement. Gann has made compelling arguments on the difference between postminimalism and totalism. Fink is also convincing in his texts, where he sees the problem of the diversity and argues for the general use of the term postminimalism. Gann in particular, but Fink also to a lesser extent, are quoted and referenced to, for their definitions of the terms. Their views on contemporary classical music are very influential in the discussions of what is going on in the genre, not only in the USA but in other parts of the world. The difference between the two terms are, however, not very clear by many. There is not (yet) a strict definition of postminimalism and totalism, and the use of the two terms varies with every writer who apply them to a new composition. It is therefore interesting to analyse Fink and Gann’s definition of totalism and postminimalism, to see what the difference

1 Flory 2008, Cleckler 1993

4 is (if there is any) and if the terms are indeed applicable for contemporary classical music. This thesis compares the result of the analyses with a test case; one of the bigger influencers in the contemporary classical music scene, the collective Bang on a Can. Founded by the American Michael Gordon, David Lang and Julia Wolfe, the Bang on a Can collective is renowned for their innovative compositions and concerts. After their studies with at Yale, they agreed on one thing: there needs to be a change in the (contemporary) classical music scene. In 1987 they organised the marathon concert Bang on a Can festival. Now, they are among the most well-known composers of the 21st century. Lang and Wolfe both have received a Pulitzer Prize, the three have released multiple successful CD’s and have frequently composed commissioned pieces. They have started their own CD label Cantaloupe Records, and founded the ensemble Bang on a Can All-Stars which perform their music around the globe. They have a firm ground in the downtown music scene. Because of their success, other composers and musicians have been following their example. Similar ensembles like the Bang on a Can All-Stars have been founded and other composers are making compositions in the spirit of Gordon, Lang and Wolfe. They are creating music that is influenced by styles outside of classical music. Bang on a Can has become a successful ‘brand’, other contemporary classical music has even been categorized as ‘Bang on a Can-ism’.2 What lacks though is a clear definition of their music. Many authors and journalist have written reviews of their music, or have interviewed the composers about their techniques and influences. There are, however, not many theoretical papers on the compositions by Gordon, Lang and Wolfe. Some authors briefly mention them when discussing the ‘heritage’ of minimalism (like Jonathan Bernard in an article about the ‘resurgence of tonality in American music 3), but only Fink and Gann repeatedly and extensively discuss BoaC in their articles. What is interesting though, is that they do not agree with each other what their music is. Fink calls it postminimalism, Gann totalism. A description of the music by Gordon, Lang and Wolfe is needed. The definition will probably give more grasp on the great diversity that is contemporary classical music. Especially with their apparent large influence, it is good and helpful to research the composers and their music more thoroughly. This thesis is a first attempt at this. First there will be a short history of American classical music in the 21st century,

2 Krasnow 2001 3 Bernard 2003

5 starting at minimalism. It will discuss the impact of minimalism on contemporary classical music, and what happened shortly after it. This chapter will also focus on the difference between uptown and downtown New York, a division that was very influential on the cultural scene. The following chapter will discuss the lives, education and compositions of Michael Gordon, David Lang and Julia Wolfe at length. After that, the scene of New York at the time of the founding of BoaC is analysed. What follows is an explanation of the Bang on a Can collective and everything belonging to that name, and their influence on other musicians and composers. After the establishment of this historical context, multiple articles by Robert Fink and Kyle Gann are analysed. Their explanations of the terms postminimalism and totalism is looked at, as well as their opinions on the music by Gordon, Lang and Wolfe. Next, three compositions by the composers are analysed and compared with the results of the historiographical research on the texts by Gann and Fink. Finally, there will be a conclusion in which the question what the terms postminimalism and totalism are about and how they should be applied, will be answered.

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Chapter 1 – A brief history of minimal music

To understand where Gordon, Lang and Wolfe are coming from, it is important to describe a part of the history of American music. This chapter begins with the rise of minimal music, as this meant a break in the way music was composed and thought of. It will focus on the music scene in New York, the place where the three Bang on a Can composers lived most of their lives. There they met colleagues and like-minded people, they participated in the cultural scene and the city inspired them to compose. New York and its environment were therefore a vital element in forming their own musical language. In his book ‘American Music in the Twentieth Century’4 composer and journalist Kyle Gann gives a good description of what happened in New York in the 1960. He writes about the gap that has grown between composer and audience for many years, because of the difference between what a composer wanted to say and what the audience wanted to hear. Minimal music was the “first musical movement in a hundred years that has threatened to close The Gap [between composer and audience].”5 There was a great difference of opinion between composers in uptown and downtown New York about this so called gap and what music should be. The uptown New York scene was more focused on European styles of composing, especially 12-tone music. It was considered more of a high-brow scene, keeping up with the Western concert traditions. It was a scene of the academy. Composers still used the standard musical forms, like a symphony or sonata. Their instrumentations and orchestrations didn’t deviate much from their European predecessors. Downtown New York was radical, and almost the complete opposite of uptown. They let go of Europe and its conventions. Concerts took place in alternative locations, like lofts, art galleries and abandoned factories. Composers felt more free, they didn’t had the idea that music was supposed to be complex and abstract. Instead of the unnatural 12-tone technique, they generally used more natural harmonics. For them, it was important that the process behind the music could be heard during a performance. Musicians turned towards non- classical and non-western music for inspiration. Music in the downtown scene was bound to be new, refreshing and exciting. In this scene, minimal music blossomed.6 The term minimal was first used in the visual arts in the 1960 and was quickly applied

4 Gann 1997 5 Gann 1997, p. 184 6 Gann 2006, p. xiii-xix

7 to the new classical music in that period. Because it developed after a period of conceptualism (with as the biggest name) and , the music composed by , , and was deemed (too) simple and limited. Critics and audiences started calling it minimalism, a term which bothered most of the composers it was applied to. It could be said that audiences were waiting for minimal music, or at least for something less complicated and confusing then the music preceding. The scene grew between 1958 – 1968 and became big with the release of multiple recordings of compositions by Steve Reich (1974) and the premiere of Glass’s Einstein on the Beach in New York (1976). 7

Young, Riley, Reich, Glass One of the first minimalists was La Monte Young. As a composition and ethnomusicology major at UCLA in 1957, his compositions were serialist at first. He started his graduate composition studies at Berkeley in 1958. After a seminar in Darmstadt in 1959, where he learned about Cage and Stockhausen, he shifted to a more tonal style of composing, with long sustained notes and drones. He moved to New York in 1960 were he was quickly asked by to organise a series of performances and concerts in her loft.8 In this city, he became member of the movement and started to compose more conceptual pieces. In 1967, he was recognized and funded by an art foundation, which gave Young a lot of artistic freedom. The foundation granted him a big house, where Young organized several performances and concerts. As performances of his pieces were rare, these concerts were a unique event. The composer’s name grew in the downtown scene, his influence was considerable and many composers started following his lead.9 One of these composers was Terry Riley. He was friends with La Monte Young, and also studied at Berkeley one semester later than him. Riley’s first influence was bebop, but after meeting Young he started to compose more radical pieces.10 In 1963 he wrote a piece using tape-delay, after a period of living in Europe and composing less. Back in San Francisco in 1964, he wrote his most famous piece . The composition became one of the most important pieces in minimal music, as it meant the breakthrough to mainstream audience.11 Playing in the ensemble of Terry Riley during the premiere of In C, was Steve Reich. He later became one of the most well-known minimal music composers. He first

7 Gann 1997, p. 187 8 Grimshaw 2014 9 Grimshaw 2014 10 Gann 1997 p. 194 11 Strickland 2014

8 studied philosophy, but after he graduated he started studying composition, first in New York and later in San Francisco. He stayed there and developed an interest in tape-loops and their melodic properties. In 1965 he composed It’s Gonna Rain, using a new phasing technique using tapes.12 In 1966 Reich returned to New York, where he composed Come Out, in which he looped five words from an interview and played them on a tape recorder slightly out of synch. Reich wanted to use the technique in live performance too, and in 1967 he composed Piano Phase and Phase. He became interested in hearing the actual process of gradual change behind the music.13 After he attended drumming lessons for five weeks in Africa, he found similarities in African drum rhythms and his own phasing process. He tried to combine the two in his work Drumming (1970-71). He gained bigger recognition with the audience, went on a European tour and in 1974 Deutsche Grammophon famously recorded the ensemble Steve Reich and Musicians. Reich started composing for larger ensembles and in 1976 Music for 18 musicians premiered, becoming one of his most popular composition. Shortly after that, another piece for lager ensemble named Tehillim premiered in 1981. After the success of these two pieces, Reich got more commissions for bigger ensembles and orchestras, and his music was programmed in big concert halls. He gained a great audience and with it came fame.14 Philip Glass, the fourth composer associated with the birth of minimal music, was a classmate of Steve Reich at Juilliard. His pieces from that time were composed in a tonal, old school American (after for example Copland) way and bear no resemblance to his more mature pieces.15 He studied for two years with Nadia Boulanger in . He disagreed strongly with the European popularity of Pierre Boulez and serialism and turned towards non- Western music (as did Young, Riley and Reich).16 He began composing music with techniques used in non-Western music, and his minimalistic style emerged. Performances of his music were often in the unconventional places of downtown New York, like lofts and art galleries. He also collaborated with a lot of other people in this scene, in particular artists. Then, in 1976, his big breakthrough came with the premiere of his opera Einstein on the Beach. This still popular opera was a collaboration with theatre director Robert Wilson and later with dancer and choreographer . Glass’s career blossomed after this, and he quickly wrote two more

12 Gann 1997, p.198 13 Griffiths 2014 14 Griffiths 2014 15 Strickland 2014 16 Gann 1997, p. 203

9 successful opera’s, Satyagraha and Akhnaten, which formed a kind of trilogy with Einstein. His music became more subtle, still with a very strong beat and often polytonal.17 Because his music was more tonally oriented and seemingly less complex than other minimal composers, his music gained popularity with a large and varied audience. He got commissions for theatre-music, opera and film and collaborated with a wide range of artists, from visual artists to pop musicians.18

The new ensemble One of the changes that came with minimal music, was the perspective on ensembles and rehearsal practices. More composers in downtown New York formed their own ensembles, as with these personal ensembles it was far easier to try out new compositions and rehearse pieces until satisfaction.19 Composers themselves selected the ensemble members, which often resulted in a group of players who were highly motivated to rehearse until the piece was perfect. All four mentioned composers had their own ensemble. La Monte Young founded the Theater of Eternal Music in 1962, which was one of the few groups that could perform his difficult and intricate pieces.20 The group had members with diverse backgrounds and included among others Young himself and his wife Marian Zazeela on vocals, and Terry Riley on violin. Riley also had a group of musicians with which he rehearsed and performed, which for example played the premiere of his composition In C.21 Steve Reich formed his own ensemble in 1967, aptly named Steve Reich and Musicians. The ensemble quickly grew to eighteen musicians, with Reich himself playing the piano and various percussion instruments. The group gained a lot of recognition for the numerous compositions by Reich they recorded.22 Philip Glass too formed his own ensemble, the Philip Glass Ensemble, for which he wrote numerous pieces like Music in Fifths (1969) and Music in Twelve Parts (1970). In the beginning he composed almost exclusively for the Philip Glass Ensemble. Later he went even so far as to not release the performance rights of his compositions, so the members of his ensemble were ensured of a job. Because of this, the highly skilled and rehearsed ensemble became one with great precision and often the only

17 Gann 1997, p. 205 18 Strickland 2014 19 Gann 1997, p. 199 20 Grimshaw 2014 21 Griffiths 2014 22 Gann 1997, p. 198-199

10 ensemble that could successfully perform the music of Glass.23 These composer-led ensembles did not only influence and change ensemble playing, but also the music composed for it. Because the ensembles usually weren’t that big, composers had to think outside the box. Compositions were often for amplified ensembles to ensure a larger sound: “Reich and Glass, writing music centered [sic] on simple processes and working with musicians who were not necessarily virtuosos, introduced ensemble playing in which players doubled each other’s lines exactly, or at least in rhythmic unison. The result, amplified by the use of synthesizers and microphones (in Glass’s music especially), wasn’t in the conventional sense but a new kind of symphonic genre designed to focus the new materials to an audience in clear-cut lines. Just as Romantic orchestral music used entire brass or strings choirs playing the same melody, minimalist orchestration achieved similar effects with only five to eight players. This, as much as the tonal simplicity and rhythmic interest, was a key to minimalism’s appeal.”24 One of the biggest changes, however, was in rehearsal and performance practices. Because almost every composer in downtown New York had their own group, there became a greater flexibility in written music. Composers exchanged ideas with their ensembles, tried out new pieces and made last minute changes. There was a bigger social dynamic in the groups of musicians, as they rehearsed and played in the same combination all the time and often had a close relation to the main leading composer.

Minimal musical elements There are some musical elements that are associated with minimal music. Although all the compositions by the four composers are called minimal, they each have their own specific style. For further analysis, it is important to define these different musical elements. The first minimalist, La Monte Young, focused on composing perfect chords and intervals, with precisely calculated ratios. They were often held for an extremely long time with minimal movement.25 In 1964, Young’s biggest and most influential piece The Well- Tuned Piano premiered, a piano solo piece composed using very strict mathematically calculated intervals. Young continued to work on and expand the piece, resulting in a composition with a duration of over six hours. His compositions also featured long drones played in high volume during concerts. Later, Young started composing in just intonation and

23 Strickland 2014 24 Gann 1997, p. 199 25 Gann 1997, p.188

11 invented his own harmonic rules.26 Other than his friend’s interest in long notes, Riley was more interested in the repetition of notes and ideas. His famous piece In C consists of 53 short ideas or motifs, which are repeated for an undefined number of times by various instruments. Because of the constant repetition and recurrence of short melodies, the piece resembles tape-loops and tape- delay in a non-electronic way. He later started adding improvisation to his compositions, which in the end became his only way of composing. Following Young, he also started using just intonation in his pieces. Steve Reich made recordings of speech and played them in loops on two different tape players with different speeds. He named this new technique ‘phasing’, as the two recordings slowly went out of synchrony and became an abstract sound. Eventually, Reich gradually moved away from and strict phasing, towards a more intricate and warm sound. His music became about the development of a musical idea with a focus on harmony and harmonic progression.27 This is clearly audible in his pieces Music for 18 musicians and Tehillim. Especially this last piece has an interesting history. Through his studies in other non-Western music and his wife Beryl Korot, Reich became interested in his own Jewish roots. He learned Hebrew, studied the Torah, Talmud and other Jewish traditions like cantillation (psalm-singing). This influence is audible in Tehillim, which translates to ‘Psalms’. The piece is for ensemble and four women’s voices and uses old-Hebrew psalm texts (after years of not using any words in his composition). The music follows the metre and rhythm of the text and has longer melodies.28 The technique of developing and adding melodic lines used in both pieces became Reich’s main tool. His compositions both had a strong harmonic feel and were full of pulse and interlocking rhythms. Glass’ music was dominated by harmony and strong, often tonal chords, more so than his minimal music colleagues.29 He composed the most for his ensemble and developed a style closely related to this group. These style featured most of the instruments playing amplified and largely in unison. His compositions were diatonic, with static harmonies, simple melody lines which were often in unison and with strict (almost rock-like) rhythms. The additive element also became a big part of Glass’s idiom. Small melodic or rhythmic

26 Grimshaw, 2014 27 Bernard 2003, p. 115 28 Törnqvist, 2014 29 Bernard 2003, p. 115-116

12 motifs grew a little bit bigger with every repetition. This seemingly simple process would lead to complex rhythms and ever changing accents in melodies.30

Louis Andriessen Minimal music became popular in Europe too and one particular Dutch composer was greatly influenced by it. Louis Andriessen’s first compositions were more in the style of European serialism. However, he started reacting against this music and incorporated American genres like , pop but mostly minimal music in his compositions.31 Andriessen didn’t agree with the cultural-political tendencies of the Netherlands and wasn’t shy to speak out against it. In 1969, after an protest in the Concertgebouw called the ‘Notenkrakeractie’, he stopped composing for symphonic orchestras altogether.32 He formed his own ensemble and wrote the piece De Volharding for them in 1972. The ensemble Orkest De Volharding had members that were classical as well as jazz musicians. Two years later he started teaching instrumentation at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague.33 In 1976 De Staat premiered, which meant the international breakthrough of Andriessen. De Staat could be considered as his answer on American minimalism, with its static, mostly dissonant chords and minimal movement of the harmonics and melody. Furthermore, the text of the singers are in unison with the orchestra, making them equal to the other parts (just like Tehillim by Reich and multiple pieces of Glass). De Staat won multiple prizes national as well as international, and in 1978 Andriessen was appointed as composition teacher at the Royal Conservatory. Composers and musicians in America started to get interested in him too. He was asked to give guest lectures at American universities, in New York in particular. He gained popularity in the USA and started getting commissions from large institutions, and his influence on American composers grew.34

After minimalism With the premiere of Einstein on the Beach and its successful run, and the release of the works by Terry Riley and Steve Reich on record, minimal music became popular among a big audience. Terry Riley, Steve Reich and Philip Glass became household names, influential even outside of the downtown New York scene. In the beginning of the 1980, minimal music

30 Strickland 2014 31 De Leeuw 2005, p. 198-199 32 Wouters 2014 33 Author unknown, muziekencyclopedie.nl – ‘Louis Andriessen’ 34 Wouters 2014

13 had become accepted as part of contemporary classical music. With the genre becoming ‘mainstream’ grew the need to experiment further and discover the boundaries of classical music once more.35 Other composers and musicians started to experiment with different musical styles. Classical music, jazz and rock had their own niche in the American music scene, and collaborations between the different genres were almost unthinkable. Especially rock had grown explosively in America, with Elvis Presley, The Beatles and later Jimi Hendrix and The Rolling Stones as its main characters.36 Minimal music, especially the aspect of rhythm in the works or Reich and Glass, always had a rock- feel. An actual use of rock idioms within the compositions was not done though. It paved the way, however, for other composers to go a step further. Minimalists composers reintroduced a steady rhythm and (seemingly) easier harmonics and chord progression to contemporary classical music. Rock also tried to approach classical music. , but especially claimed to be influenced by multiple minimal compositions and they started using their composing techniques in their music. Eno released Music for Airport in 1978, which became one of the biggest compositions in the new ambient style. Popular music musicians tried to earn more respect and make the genre more mature and intellectual, instead of being a raw, unpolished sound only for young rebellious America.

Chatham, Branca, Zorn In 1977, , then the programmer of the Kitchen, started to invite bands to play there. The Kitchen was the stronghold of conceptual and downtown art in New York. Chatham, a guitarist himself, was one of the first who dared to take rock bands ‘serious’. He studied with and developed an interest in the minimal music style La Monte Young was known for. He took lessons with him, and Chatham’s early compositions bear a resemblance to his compositions. He became the first music programmer at The Kitchen of 1971. In the mid 70’s, Chatham discovered hard rock and became interested in the many possibilities of the electric . In 1977, his piece Guitar Trio premiered. The composition, which features three electric and a relentless 4/4 drumbeat, sounded a lot like a hard rock song. The success of this experiment pulled Chatham towards the rock-scene even

35 Heisinger 1989, p. 431 36 Gann 1997, p. 291/293

14 more.37 After losing most of his hearing, he switched to composing for brass instruments. In 1987 he moved to Paris, where he composed his enormous piece for 100 guitars, An Angel Moves Too Fast To See (1989).38 moved to New York in 1976 where he formed two rock bands. He met Rhys Chatham and the two played together for some time. This stopped when they had a fall out about who had the first idea to use guitar overtones in a composition.39 Branca was a self- taught composer who was interested in theatre music. With his band he explored the boundaries of rock and avant garde music. He started composing multiple pieces for guitar and one of his better known pieces is The Spectacular Commodity (1979). After the release of his first CD Lesson no. 1 he started composing longer pieces, and eventually called them symphonies.40 Glenn Branca and Rhys Chatham were both of heavy influence on the new genre prog- and/or that developed in New York and America in the late ‘80’s. They inspired other bands (like ) to experiment with this new sound. However, they also gave inspiration to classical composers and composition students. As Chatham programmed more rock bands in The Kitchen, the classical downtown scene got to know the diversity of guitar and rock music. With that, improvisation and complex ‘noise’ also became more popular with some artists. Almost as a reaction to minimalism, a new kind of complexity resurfaced, with performers and composers strongly referring to atonal and twelve-tone music. The main figure in this improvisation scene was .41 Zorn was inspired by the new Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, a group of black musicians and composers stimulating black music, who were associated with free-jazz.42 In 1975, returned to New York after his studies, John Zorn started hosting concerts in his downtown apartment. With an ensemble of like-minded musicians, he started performing his game pieces, which were basically a set of loose rules on which the performers could improvise.43 His work The Big Gundown (1986), which was an arrangement of compositions by film music-composer , made Zorn known with the big audience. It also reinforced the idea in the downtown scene that low and high art music could be combined

37 Sandow 2014 38 Gann 1997, p. 299-300 39 Gann 1997, p. 299 40 Gann 1997, p. 302 41 Brackett 2014 42 Gann 1997, p. 321 43 Brackett 2014

15 successfully.44 He and his rock band Naked City became legendary in the New York downtown scene.

Downtown musical elements Although there was a lot of experimentation and diversity in the music after minimalism, there are still some common elements to be distinguished. Rhys Chatham compositions have a very strong and direct sound. Guitar Trio sounds very minimal, as three electric guitars continuously strum in one rhythm. In that rhythm, the three guitarist play with overtones on the notes. The piece is divided in three sections, or three different ‘chords’. In the first section, only the low E string is strummed. In the second section, a low E, a B and a high E are played, and in the third section a Em7 chord sounds. Underneath that, the drummer plays a steady 4/4 beat, which gives it instantly the impression of a hard rock song.45 After Guitar Trio Chatham composed more pieces with the combination of drums and guitars, often with the same feel of the Trio. With his brass compositions he continued to develop his own minimal musical style which featured strong beats (often in a straight unrelenting rhythm) and overtones. These are also audible in his big piece An Angel Moves Too Fast To See, which next to 100 guitars also features an electric bass and drums. The guitarists are divided into six groups, each with their own special tunings. The composition has a steady 4/4 rock beat, which was necessary to keep the whole group together.46 Chatham himself calls the piece ‘the pinnacle of my long love affair with the electric guitar’ and incorporated elements from the art scene of downtown New York and (post-) minimal music, as well as hard rock in this piece.47 Where Chatham’s composition were loud but still quite transparent in structure, Glenn Branca’s pieces are often more a wall of sound than a clearly distinguishable piece. He used chords cluster, polyrhythmic lines and complicated harmonies with conflicting overtones.48 He mainly composed for ensembles or bands consisting of multiple electric guitars and drums, who performed his innovative pieces in high volume. His later symphonies were also for guitars and drums (sometimes with more instruments), but some were for orchestra. The orchestra pieces are less loud, but still keep the typical sound of complicated harmonies and density heard in his guitar compositions.49 Branca’s music is neither classical, avant-garde or

44 Gann 1997, p. 321 45 Chatham 1977/1982 46 Gann 1997, p. 299-300 47 Chatham 2014 48 Gagne 2014 49 Gagne 2014

16 rock. He continued to develop as composer, never sticking to one idea but almost always using the electric guitar as a basis.50 John Zorn composed pieces which were influenced by a large variety of music genres and styles, including early classical music, avant-garde, , rock, Indian music and pop music. His game pieces consisted basically of improvisations within a composed structure. The musicians would interpret the given structure according to their own musical abilities. The composed part could be a timeline, or a set of musical genres in which to improvise, or duration of improvisation. In his game piece Cobra (1984), musicians could actively change the course of the piece, by giving hand cues to the leader of the ensemble. This leader would then communicate with the rest of the ensemble, and thus leading them to a new set of improvisations.51 After the success of his Morricone arrangement, and his experiments with the game pieces, Zorn got the idea of file-card compositions. These file-cards contained a short musical idea, mood or chord progression, which combined could become a piece. The separate file- cards could be prearranged for a concert or other performance, forming a more consistent piece of music, as opposed to the often improvised game pieces. Because the work is composed out of separate card files with different ideas, one file-card piece could contain a lot of opposite styles and genres.52

Downtown developments And so, in the mid 80’s, the downtown New York scene was thriving. The contrast between the downtown and uptown scene grew bigger. Young composers and musicians grew up with this search of diversity and own identity. The borders between genres and musical styles blurred or were completely erased with every new concert and event. Students at the conservatories were eager to learn a great diversity of musical styles and experimented a lot. In the midst of all this, Michael Gordon, Julia Wolfe and David Lang grew up and started to find their own musical voice.

50 Gagne 2014 51 Bracket 2014 52 Bracket 2014

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Chapter 2 – Gordon, Lang, Wolfe

The three composers Michael Gordon, David Lang and Julia Wolfe met each other at Yale, where they were all students of Martin Bresnick. They became friends and shared a mutual dissatisfaction of the classical music scene in New York.53 This chapter will discuss the three individual composers, their composition style, opinions and collective work.

Michael Gordon Michael Gordon (1956) was born in Nicaragua and moved to Miami Beach when he was eight. He learned the piano and started composing pieces at a young age. In 1980 he graduated from with a Bachelor of Arts and in 1982 from with a Master in Music. There he studied among others with Martin Bresnick, who also taught the other two composers and became a big influence on the three. In 1983 he formed his own ensemble, The Michael Gordon Philharmonic, which he later renamed The Michael Gordon Band. He toured extensively with the ensemble through the USA and Europe.54 Gordon’s music is characterized by complex rhythms and polyrhythmic structures. His early pieces often feature rhythmic conflicts, with for example one dominant pulse being interrupted by another. This is especially prominent in his pieces Thou Shalt!/Thou Shalt Not! (1982) and Four Kings Fight Five (1988). Gordon started composing the first piece at the end of his studies at Yale. Its premiere was the first performance of the Michael Gordon Philharmonic. The piece has two very strong melodies or layers, which divides the ensemble in two groups that continue to ‘argue’ throughout the whole piece. The first group consists of a violin, , , electric guitar and electric organ, the second is a marimba and other percussion instruments played by one performer. The two groups never reconcile with each other. Gordon: “The struggle between the ensemble and percussionist continues throughout the piece without resolution –– a jagged, brutal and stark equilibrium of intense battle –– with the percussion playing quarter-note triplets in groups of four or five that consistently interrupt the ensemble’s attempted groove. Perhaps the conflict in this piece is between classical music and rock music, two worlds that seemingly could not coexist in 1983, which I am trying to force into a single statement. Or perhaps it is the struggle between the sacred and the secular,

53 Oteri 1999 54 Gann 2015

18 or anything for which there really is no resolution.”55 Four Kings Fight Five is composed for nine musicians (, clarinet/bass clarinet, electric keyboard, strings, electric guitar and percussion) and is dedicated to Glenn Branca. It has a very strict pulse with mathematically calculated syncopes on top of that. The piece has a mechanical and harsh sound and often sudden transitions to another sections. However, Four Kings Fight Five does resolve in the end, with a calm violin melody and the rest of the ensemble underneath. In both pieces the focus is not so much on the melody (which is sometimes almost a-tonal) as well as on the complex rhythmic figures and their ‘fight’. Gordon’s use of strong pulses remind of the beat used in rock and pop music, but the static melodies and chords in his music are a remnant of minimalism. After his move to New York, Gordon focused on writing music for small, amplified ensembles. With the use of electric guitars, basses and guitar effects, he tried to find a new, distorted ‘classical’ sound. This sound can be heard in the compositions Industry (1992), a solo piece where the instrument is amplified and the sound slowly gets more and more distorted, and Potassium (2000), composed for the , and featuring a guitar effect pedal.56 This last piece starts with the quartet playing glissandi towards major or minor chords. Because of the glissandi and the guitar effect (a fuzz box) the chords are not clear. There is an acceleration in the middle of the piece, and after a simple solo violin melody the whole piece quiets down. It ends with a sudden outburst of energy and seemingly continues glissandi. Potassium is rhythmically less complex and the piece seems to resolve around the disturbance of sound and the resulting confusion of the listener. After his compositions for small ensembles, Gordon began composing for large scale symphonic orchestras and ensembles again. An example of a piece for bigger ensemble is Trance, composed in 1995. This composition for strings, wind, brass, percussion, electric guitar, electric bass and synthesizers will be discussed further in chapter 4. In 2009 Gordon started composing Timber. Wanting to do something different than orchestra or ensemble work, he had a musical plan but no instruments to match these ideas.57 Together with Slagwerk Den Haag he discovered the Greek simantras, large wooden beams to be played with percussion mallets. He used these instruments in the large scale piece where the six percussionists play in a circle with their backs to the audience. The beams, cut in different lengths, are slightly amplified. The piece is rhythmically complex, with many

55 Gordon, michaelgordonmusic.com – program notes Thou Shalt!/Thou Shalt Not! 56 Author unknown, michaelgordonmusic.com – ‘Biography’ 57 Gordon, michaelgordonmusic.com – program notes Timber

19 repetitions (some measures up to 31 times). With the use of different dynamics and because the simantras do not have an exact pitch, the sonic texture of the piece changes often but subtly. The composition, with its duration of over an hour, is almost meditative-like. Gordon often combines his music with other art forms, like film, theatre or dance. He has collaborated multiple times with , a famous cinematographer. For their collective piece Decasia (2001), the audience sat or stood in the middle of the hall, with the orchestra surrounding them on levelled platforms behind multiple projection screens. During the performance, the audience were to be completely submerged in the audio and visual elements of Decasia. Trying to mimic the image of a damaged film in sound, Gordon retuned the orchestra slightly so that everybody just played out of tune. The audience still could hear the intended melody, but “It’s like something very beautiful that’s been layered with mud and junk, but you can still see how beautiful it is –– you can still see that it is shining.”58

David Lang David Lang (1957) was born in and grew up there. According to Lang, he composed his first pieces for his high school orchestra. As a child he studied many instruments, and played in rock and jazz bands. He early developed an interest in theatre music and his compositions often feature small theatrics.59 He attended , the , and finally Yale University where he too studied with Martin Bresnick. He graduated in 1989 with a doctorate in Musical Arts. At Yale he participated in the new music ensemble Sheep’s Clothing, which also performed at the same named all-night concerts, both founded and organised by Bresnick. Both the band and the marathon concerts served as an example for Bang on a Can, the collective Gordon, Lang and Wolfe later formed. In an interview with musician and journalist Ann McCutchan about Lang’s creative process, Lang says that he does not want to create only one kind of music. As a composer, he is more interested in combining styles and things that on first glance do not belong to each other. He composes mostly on commission and always tries to base the piece on an predetermined title which has an idea attached to it. He says his composing method is very mathematical and he often structures his music on intricate structures or algorithms, which he then fills in with chords.60 Galen Brown describes what process in music means to Lang: “For Lang the musical process is a means to the ends of distancing himself from the potential emotional content of

58 Gordon, michaelgordonmusic.com – program notes Decasia 59 McCutchan 1999 p. 219-226 60 idem

20 the music.”61 Brown interviewed Lang about his view on musical process and compares it with compositions methods of Steve Reich. According to him, Lang does not want his audience to hear the process, as it lies hidden inside the music (as opposed to Reich, were it is very audible and a vital part of the composition). This however does not mean that the musical processes are not aesthetically pleasing or complex. On the contrast, Brown notes, these processes usually are very intricate and interesting. But, as said, the structure is underneath the piece, which allows the listener to focus on other things in the composition, like the melody or the overall sound. This is not limited to the music of Lang of course, but it is a great example of this idea, which was shared among many composers who came after minimalism.62 Lang’s early pieces are mostly for smaller ensembles. In his piece Slow Movement (1993), all the instruments are amplified and slightly out of tune. For 30 minutes they play one slowly changing chord. The instrumentation is a combination of standard classical instruments and pop instruments: two , three different kind of saxophones, strings, an accordion, percussion but also two electric guitars, a bass guitar and two synthesizers. It was commissioned by ensemble Icebreaker, for whom Gordon also wrote his piece Trance. Another exploration of the boundaries of classical music is cheating, lying, stealing. More on this composition is discussed in chapter 4. Lang’s piece little match girl passion, premiered in 2007, was awarded a Pulitzer prize in 2008. In the piece, Lang combines the fairy tale of with the St. Matthew Passion of Johann Sebastian Bach. He has rewritten both text to tell the story about the little girl from different perspectives.63 The piece is for four a cappella voices (soprano, alto, tenor, bass) who accompany themselves with small percussion instruments. Both voices and instruments are amplified. Lang hasn’t specifically given any staging directions, but in his introduction he writes “It is also imagined by the composer that distortion, reverb, sound processing, lighting and staging may be useful in the performance in this work.”64 He has given very explicit instructions for the singers in the score, like ‘gentle but a bit heavy, like a girl trudging through the snow’ or ‘with barely suppressed emotion growing in strength throughout’.65 The composition death speaks (2012) was born out of the wish to write a modern-day

61 Brown 2010 p. 182 62 Brown 2010, p. 188-189 63 Lang, davidlangmusic.com – program notes little match girl passion 64 Lang, davidlandmusic.com – Score little match girl passion 65 idem

21 song cycle. Using only the lines where the character ‘Death’ speaks in songs by Schubert, Lang created a libretto compelled out of extracts from every Shubert song. He translated the quotes to English and shortened them. According to Lang, this modern song cycle didn’t belong in contemporary classical music, but more in popular music. He found out that telling a story in songs is more common in the indie rock scene, and so he composed it for musicians and friends from that scene. It became a small ensemble (soprano, violin, electric guitar and piano, all amplified). The result is a hybrid composition of very classical styles and the sound of indie rock.66 David Lang has always had an interest in theatre. His music often feature small theatrical features, even if the composition isn’t staged. He has composed multiple operas and musical and is usually very close to the creative process, sometimes directing it himself. This is evident in his more recent composition love fail (2012). Again for four voices (two sopranos and two altos) and small percussion, Lang has designed together with Jennifer Tipton a complete decor, including costumes, lighting and a video. However, the singers, reading from special created music stands, sit motionless on stage. Lang has also composed music for ballet, like amelia in 2002 for La La La Human Steps, which was later made into film directed by Eduard Loch. Additionally, Lang arranged music for the film , which features compositions played by the Kronos Quartet. His own music was part of the soundtrack of La Grande Bellezza (2013).

Julia Wolfe Julia Wolfe was born in 1958 in . She obtained a bachelor in Music at the and went for her masters to Yale University, where she also studied with Martin Bresnick.67 She graduated there in 1986. In 1989 she started an Ph.D. in composition at , but in 1992 she was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship. This scholarship allowed her to move to the Netherlands and compose for and work with Orkest De Volharding. Through that she met Louis Andriessen, who became of great influence on the three composers. She finished her dissertation at Princeton in 2009.68 Wolfe’s music is always full of other genres and styles. In an interview with composer David Krasnow, she says she is influenced by music she likes the most and performed herself when she was young.69 Her compositions are focused around the sound or timbre of an

66 Lang, davidlangmusic.com – program notes death speaks 67 Gann 2015 68 Gilmore 2014 69 Krasnow 2011

22 instrument, and often feature experiments or alternative playing methods. In addition to that, she uses sound or noise samples, often recorded in her own neighbourhood in New York. In the same interview, she tells about this: “It’s a cool way of expanding your harmonic language. With conventional instruments, you can expand the harmonic language by getting into microtones, the pitches between the tones, but basically, when you bring in what’s thought of as noise, everything changes. People usually think, A car skid, what kind of harmony is that? But it has tone, and pitch, and an attack, just the way a bow on a cello does.”70 Most of her pieces are for (string) ensemble, although she also has composed multiple string quartets and pieces for small vocal groups.71 The Vermeer Room (1989), and Windows of Vulnerability (1991) are both short pieces for orchestra and show the different sonic textures Wolfe applies to her compositions. The Vermeer Room, for small ensemble, consists of blocks of different textures created by the separate instrument groups. Wolfe says that she got the idea from the news that an X-ray picture revealed a new painting under a scene by Vermeer. The piece tries to mimic this, with chords that quickly become overruled by other (often loud) sounds. In the end the piece calms down, with longer chords and steady rhythms by the strings and percussion on top. It finishes with an abrupt climax of all the instruments together. Windows of Vulnerability is a very dense piece, composed for large symphonic orchestra.72 It starts loud, almost frantic and disorienting. It features very complex rhythms and dissonant chords and does not really have one melody. The only thing that is constantly occurring are sudden interruptions of silence (or windows) where only the strings can be heard. In the end, the window becomes bigger and it is almost like the strings and the rest of the orchestra are fighting to be heard. The long chords of the first group are interrupted by outburst and harsh dissonant chords of the other. Her piece Lick, which is in many ways influenced by pop and rock, will be discussed in depth in chapter 4. Another composition which bears resemblance to popular music, is Dark Full Ride (2002). This piece for four drum kits is quick but even paced and has all kinds of different rhythms. Because it features the drum kit in every aspects, if sometimes feels like a drum solo from a rock or pop song. The piece My Lips From Speaking (1993) is actually based on an riff from the song Think by .73 In the composition, which is for six , the riff is heard tugged and hidden between harsh dissonant chords and complex

70 Krasnow 2011 71 idem 72 Wolfe, juliawolfemusic.com – program notes Windows of Vulnerability 73 Wolfe, juliawolfemusic.com – program notes My Lips From Speaking

23 rhythms. Suddenly, a rugged version of the beginning of Think is played, and repeated over and over again. The riff is pulled apart, stretched to its limits with the lower chords as its basis. After a loud climax, the higher chords become the material. The music is build up again, until there are only two chords left, played together in a frantic rhythm. The piece suddenly stops. Her two pieces Cruel Sister (2004) and Fuel (2007) are both compositions for string orchestra, with high energy, interlocking rhythms and static harmonies. The first composition is based on an old English ballad that tells the story of two sisters, one warm and light, the other dark and cool. The dark girl pushes the other from a cliff because she is jealous of the man her sister loves. A harp is made out of the breastbone and hair of the dead girl and is played at the wedding of the dark sister.74 The piece does not tell the story in particular, but sketches out the contrast between the two sisters and the mood of the ballad. There are roughly three movements, one with jagged rhythms and dissonant chords, one quieter with a big contrast between the basses and , and one pizzicato movement which almost sounds harp-like. The composition is with 30 minutes almost double the length than Wolfe’s earlier pieces. Fuel is accompanied by a movie by Bill Morrison, showing the busy ports of Hamburg and New York. The images closely follow the fast pace of the music. In 2015 Wolfe was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for her composition The (2014), a grand scale music theatre work about the mining community in rural . Consisting of five movements and composed for choir and mixed chamber ensemble (specifically the Bang on a Can All-Stars), it tells the story about the men, women and children in this culture and the influence mining for anthracite had on their lives. She interviewed people that have worked in the mines or children of former mineworkers, and weaved quotes and sentences but also children songs in the composition. The music is heavily influenced by folk music from the area, but stills bears the rock and rough sound that is characteristic for Wolfe.75 Although her music is very diverse, it often features fast tempos with nervous bursts of energy. Instead of a slowly build up to a climax, her music often consists of separate blocks (of harmony, rhythm or groups of instruments) that gradually stack up to a full and dense sound.76

74 Wolfe, juliawolfemusic.com – program notes Cruel Sister 75 Mendelssohn Club 2015 76 Gann 2015

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Combining the three Gordon, Lang and Wolfe have composed pieces together multiple times in the past years. The first composition was The Carbon Copy Building (1999). This music theatre was in collaboration with the comic strip-artist . He provided the text and the projections shown during the performance. The instrumentation is very small; four singers, clarinet (including bass clarinet and saxophone), percussion, synthesizer and electric guitar (all amplified). The story is about two identical apartments built in two different areas of the same city, that have developed in two completely different buildings, one wealthy, one rundown.77 It is clear who of the three composers composed which part in the piece, as each have their own recognizable individual style. Their second collaboration was Lost Objects in 2001. The composition was a commission by the German baroque orchestra Concert Köln and became a staged oratorio with a libretto by Deborah Artman. With a tractate from the Talmud describing the obligations of a person when encountering a missing object as the starting point, Artman added other texts about losing, like losing memories and dying languages to the libretto. A rock ensemble (electric guitar, electric bass, keyboard and drums) and a live DJ performed together with the baroque orchestra, three solo voices and a choir. After the premiere in 2001, it was restaged in 2004 at the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s New Wave Festival and directed by Francois Girard.78 In 2005 Shelter followed, which was again a collaboration with Deborah Artman and a commission by the German and the BAM’s New Wave Festival. Whereas the other compositions consisted of several small parts, this piece has seven longer movements. Their latest collaboration is Water, in 2008. It discovers in eight parts how human kind depends on water. It features a choir, an orchestra with piano, and electric guitar. As usual, the piece is staged and features several projections.79

77 Lang, davidlangmusic.com – program notes The Carbon Copy Building 78 Gordon 22 March 2007 79 Lang, davidlangmusic.com – program notes Water

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Chapter 3 – Downtown and Bang on a Can

The success of being downtown Downtown New York in the 1980s was the place where new and exciting music was born. With minimal music and as predecessors, musicians and composers were looking for their own style. According to Kyle Gann, in the mid 80’s the stature of the uptown scene started to shrink. The focus of the public was more on the downtown scene, where new, fresh styles and kinds of music were expected to be born.80 Most was composed with a certain kind of concert venue or an exact audience in mind. This audience was big in the 80’s, because of the commercial success of Glass, Reich and later Zorn. This kind of fame had become important in the USA, and their music was heard in many households.81 From the 1950s until the 1980s, the way classical music was valued in society gradually changed. With the economic rise, business culture reduced the arts and thus music from an act with great social status to ‘just’ entertainment. Composers and musicians were ought to think more commercially. Musicians and composers from the uptown scene reacted to this with aversion, and started to withdraw themselves from the market. Uptown became a scene of the academy, where the audience were trained listeners and actively seeking for new music. According to Gann, musicians from the downtown scene didn’t want such a radical break with the market, because that would result in the loss of the common listener, the non- musician. This meant a constant struggle between two worlds, because success and profit were deemed more important in society than the cultural or social value of an art piece. The idea of ‘selling out’ was always close, and many composers within the downtown scene had different opinions on how to stay away from this.82 Experiments in downtown music were abundant. All kinds of musical borders were crossed and new genres were born. The general idea always was not to draw on the European traditions (as discussed in chapter 1). Inspiration for compositions came from sounds and noises that surrounded the composers in their everyday life. After minimalism, composers didn’t stick to one style or a certain way of composing.83 The compositions, however, were still labelled according to one genre of music, like ‘jazz’, ‘rock’ or ‘contemporary classical’. The musical genres were rarely combined in one concert, and all had their own concert

80 Gann 2006, p. 3 81 Gann 2006, p. 10 82 Gann 2006, p. 6-8 83 Fink 2004, p: 540-541

26 location. This was thought to be more commercially reliable, and record labels and advertising companies enforced the gap between the styles even more with every CD they released and concert they promoted. The success of the downtown scene was also noticed by music programmers and artistic directors. A small evolution of concert locations happened in the 80’s and 90’s. First, downtown music was played in ‘underground’ clubs, like The Kitchen or The . Both located in downtown New York, The Kitchen was founded in 1971 and quickly became the place for experimental and avant-garde art. When Rhys Chatham became its first music director and programmer in 1972-73 and later in 1977, it went on to become one of the most important places for downtown music in New York. 84 The Knitting Factory, founded in 1987 did the same for jazz, free improvisation and rock. Artists who felt they didn’t fit in anywhere else, like Philip Glass, Steve Reich and John Zorn were welcome in these two clubs. Many early drafts of pieces were played there as an experiment. Soon, the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), noticed that music made by downtown musicians and composers attracted an audience and started programming it. It organised the Next Wave series for the first time in 1981, with the opera Satyagraha by Philip Glass on the program. In 1983, this series was transformed into a festival, and during the second edition of the Next Wave Festival a year later, Einstein on the Beach was revived. The BAM, existing since 1861, had a larger audience, more capacity and a more ‘official’ reputation than The Kitchen or The Knitting Factory.85 According to their own site, the Next Wave festival “was ground-breaking for taking works that had previously been shown in downtown lofts and small "black box" theaters and presenting them [in BAM’s locations].”86 Along with the BAM, the of Performing Arts started programming new ‘avant-garde’ music. The Lincoln Center, established in the 1960s, is one of the largest performing centres in New York and has multiple buildings for lectures, theatre performances and concerts. The Center organised together with the in 1983 and ’84 the Horizon festival with ‘New Romanticism’ as a theme. The programming was diverse, with for example compositions by Peter Maxwell Davies, John Harbison, Morton Subotnick, , Milton Babbitt and George Crumb.87 The festival didn’t see further editions, but in 1996 the Lincoln Center Festival was organized. This event saw a broader program, as it was

84 Kolodin 2015 §3/§9 85 Kolodin 2015 §3 86 Author unknown, bam.org – ‘About our programs: Next Wave Festival’ 87 Kuhn 1982/3, Martin 1983/1984

27 supposed to be the complete opposite of the regular Center’s programming.88 It still featured music from downtown composers, but combined with other styles and genres too.

Bang on a Can Michael Gordon, David Lang and Julia Wolfe were friends for several years. They met at Yale through their teacher Martin Bresnick and the events Bresnick organised for his composing-class, which the three were involved in. They had talked about the things they wanted to change in the music scene in New York. They were composing pieces themselves that were not performed, and saw that new music was not really part of the avant-garde art scene. According to them, their friends were not exploring the music scene as much as they did with the poetry or dance scene.89 New classical music did not have an large enough audience, they thought. Gordon, Lang and Wolfe wanted to give innovative music and composers who couldn’t identify with the current scenes a platform. The three felt they were too young to understand and join the debate on uptown and downtown music, and liked music from both sides. In 1987, they decided to try to break through the borders of genres of music and composition methods. Inspired by the ensembles of Steve Reich and Philip Glass and the famous Kronos Quartet, they organised a 12-hour marathon concert. It featured 23 pieces and they asked the composers to talk about their own piece beforehand.90 They programmed well-known contemporary classical pieces next to unknown compositions. It featured among others Four Organs by Steve Reich, but also recent compositions of their own and their peers. They had even made a list of ‘rules’: “no program notes, no composer biographies, no intermission, no advertisements to classical music audiences, an alternative non-concert hall space and an open bar(!).”91 It was held in a downtown art gallery and was a small success, with nearly 400 people attending. This first marathon concert lead the three composers to form a collective, which they named Bang on a Can. They continued to host the marathon concert every year and moved from the small art gallery to many different places in New York, like The Kitchen, the Brooklyn Academy of Music and the Lincoln Center. They added a festival to it, of which the Marathon was the main and closing event. They organised this Bang on a Can Festival and Marathon in different cities all over America and the rest of the world. The three composers

88 Clark 2003 89 Oteri 1999 90 idem 91 Gordon 5 March 2007

28 have very strict ideas about what to program at these Marathon concerts. Lang: “We like the people who live in between rooms, the music that we want to be with are the people who are lodged in the wall between pop and classical music, or in the stairway between DJ’s and jazz.”92 Gordon, Lang and Wolfe formed their own ensemble, the Bang on a Can All-Stars in 1992. The ensemble consisted of six members: cello, bass, piano, percussion, clarinet and electric guitar. The All-Star line-up has featured famous musicians, like percussionist Steven Schick, clarinettist (who also composed many pieces for the All-Stars), cellist , pianist Lisa Moore and on electric guitar (who is still part of the ensemble). The Bang on a Can All-Stars are seen as the flag-bearers of the compositions by Gordon, Lang and Wolfe. They have recorded many of their music and have performed all over the world.93 In addition to their publishing company Red Poppy Music, established in 1993, the three composers founded their own record company, in 2001. After a record deal with Sony which didn’t work out well, they decided to start something themselves.94 According to their website, they created Cantaloupe especially for contemporary classical music, or ‘post-classical’ music. The record company have attracted a diverse group of musicians and artists. They have released CD’s with music from Steve Reich, Philip Glass, Louis Andriessen and the Kronos Quartet, but also by Maya Beiser, the ensembles and Ensemble Resonanz, Brian Eno and .95 Besides the Festival and Marathon, the All-Stars and Cantaloupe Music, BoaC kept expanding itself and its message: creating a platform for young and innovative musicians and composers. They started a second ensemble, called the Asphalt Orchestra. This orchestra is more of a marching band, consisting of twelve people playing brass or percussion. Their repertoire includes of jazz, rock and classical music and can perform anywhere because of their mobility. The musicians in the band are young and willing to explore boundaries.96 In the summer BoaC organizes the Bang on a Can Summer Music Festival, a three- week festival where young composers and musicians come together to be taught by well- established experimental performers and composers. It takes place at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, where concerts and other events are held during the Festival

92 Gordon 5 March 2007 93 Author unknown, BangonaCan.org – ‘Bang on a Can All-Stars’ 94 Gann 2006, p. 10 95 Author unknown, cantaloupemusic.com – ‘About’ 96 Asphalt Orchestra 2009

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(including a six-hour marathon concert at the end). Bang on a Can also has a commissioning program, The People’s Commissioning Fund, that stimulates upcoming composers. The Fund annually selects three composers or more who are asked to compose a piece for the Bang on a Can All-Stars. The best pieces end up in the permanent repertoire of the ensemble.97 In 2009, Bang on a Can has founded the Found Sound Nation, a ‘musical outreach program’ that uses new technologies to build bridges and help for example youth in developing countries. Together with this program they created OneBeat, a collaboration with the State Department of the of America. OneBeat is an international music program, where 25 young musicians from different countries come together to create and perform new music. The musicians have different backgrounds, perform music in different genres and play all kinds of instruments. After a residency of two weeks and several recording sessions, the group tours around the USA for another two weeks. Together they perform their new music, but also give workshops in communities and schools that normally do not feature music lessons.98

Influences With all this activity, Gordon, Lang and Wolfe have set a name and example. Bang on a Can is almost a ‘brand’ of music and activity. There are a couple of musicians and ensembles who have had a clear influence on this process. One of these musicians is clarinettist Evan Ziporyn (1959), a close figure to BoaC. He was, like the three composers, a student of Martin Bresnick at Yale, but also studied gamelan music in Bali. He played at the first Marathon concert, and co-founded and played in the Bang on a Can All-Stars. His compositions combine Western music techniques with Balinese music. He has for example written a piece for the All-Stars with a gamelan ensemble.99 He has worked with Bang on a Can for over 25 years and his music and composition style has left a mark on the ensemble and the three composers. As mention before, the ensembles of Steve Reich and Philip Glass were of importance for the Marathon concert as well as the All-Stars, but a more contemporary match is the aforementioned Kronos Quartet. Founded in 1973 in Seattle (and moved to San Francisco in 1978), they made their New York debut in 1984. The quartet is one of the leading string ensembles in America and have performed over 400 world premières, including pieces by Riley, Glass and Reich. In their concerts, they combine Western classical music with other

97 Author unknown, BangonaCan.org – ‘People’s Commissioning Fund’ 98 Found Sound Nation 2014 99 Author unknown, cantaloupemusic.com – ‘Evan Ziporyn’

30 styles, for example jazz, rock and Indian raga.100 They have founded the Kronos Performing Arts Association, which next to managing the Kronos Quartet also develops educational programs and maintains a commissioning fund for young composers. Gordon, Lang and Wolfe often quote the quartet and their performances as one of the biggest influences on their own vision of music and the organisation of concerts. Another important group is Icebreaker. This English ensemble was founded in 1989 and has an unusual 12-person line-up of guitars, strings, keyboards, flutes and pan-pipes, and saxes, accordion, drums and percussion. They always play amplified, and many critics have commented that they play too loud. Their name is taken from a former cultural place in Amsterdam, called De IJsbreker, which was among others a centre for contemporary music in the city (and The Netherlands). David Lang and Michael Gordon have composed multiple pieces with and for them, notably Gordon’s Trance. Icebreaker has played often at the Bang on a Can Marathon concerts and have released CD’s on Cantaloupe Music. It could be said that both groups have influenced each other and have played crucial roles in each other’s development. Another major ensemble that has influenced Bang on a Can and vice versa, is the all percussion group Sō Percussion. The founding members also studied at Yale and established the group in 1999. One of the first compositions they played as a group was the so-called laws of nature, a piece by David Lang especially composed for them. With this successful start, the ensemble commissioned more compositions by for example Steve Reich and Martin Bresnick. In 2004 they released their debut CD at Cantaloupe Records, with the so-called laws of nature as the most important piece on it. The ensemble collaborated not only with classical musicians, but also played with jazz bands and the indie-rock band The National. They have stayed close to Bang on a Can ever since the first composition, and often feature in their Marathon concerts or other concerts.101

New generation What is more common though is composers and musicians following their own ideas, with the story of BoaC in the back of their mind. In chapter 1 it is described how after minimalism, young composers started to take another path but with minimalism as baggage. The same happened after Gordon, Lang and Wolfe started getting well known. A good example are the musicians for whom David Lang composed death speaks: , Shara Worden,

100 Potter 2015 101 Author unknown, sopercussion.com, ‘About Sō’

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Nico Muhly and . Pallett (1979) is a classically trained violinist whose music is more popular oriented. He enhances the sound of his violin with electric guitar effects and uses a loop pedal, with which he records himself and plays on top off. Shara Worden (1974) performs under the name My Brightest Diamond and has released four CD’s, which are labelled indie rock. She has studied opera singing and composition and has among other composed the baroque-esque opera You Us We All. Her music is filled with influences of other genres and she collaborates with musicians from every kind of styles. Bryce Dessner (1976) is one of the guitarists in the band The National and composer. Dessner, however, does not see himself as a rock musician who has switched to being a classical composer.102 He has a master’s degree in music from Yale and has performed in the Bang on a Can All-Stars. He has composed the string quartet Aheym for the Kronos Quartet in 2013, Oh Shut Your Eyes Against The Wind for the All-Stars (as part of the People’s Commissioning Fund) and in 2014 Deutsche Grammophon released the CD St. Carolyn by the Sea. This CD features three big compositions by him and a suite by Johnny Greenwood, musician in the band Radiohead. Dessner’s compositions feature all kinds of influences, from rock, to religious, early classical, minimal and folk music. He uses the guitar in St. Carolyn by the Sea and Raphael more as an actual symphonic instrument than a solo voice. In his string quartets, as well as in his orchestral pieces, he is searching for different sonorities in the instruments. The keyboard player on the CD of death speaks is the composer and friend of Gordon, Lang and Wolfe, (1981). He studied at Columbia University (Bachelor in English) and Juilliard, where he graduated in 2004 with a Masters in Music, and lives in downtown New York. He has worked with and for Philip Glass as a MIDI programmer and editor for over six years, an experience which has left a clear mark on his music. Furthermore, he also collaborated with big established pop artists like Björk and Antony and the Johnsons. Muhly himself states that he is ‘from classical music’, and uses that background to compose his music which is sometimes described as neo-classical.103 This diversity is heard in his own music, but also shows in the way he presents it. In an interview he describes the recording process of his first CD Speaks Volumes. In 2006 he released it on his own label, Bedroom Community. Muhly says that ordinarily, there is a single microphone hanging above the stage which records the concert. His first composer concert was recorded that way too. Muhly: “I had been working with Valgeir [Sigurðsson] for a couple months on this Björk project, and it

102 Deutsche Grammophon 2013 103 Sheridan 2007

32 was super audio-intense. At a certain point he asked to hear what my stuff sounded like, so I sent him these recordings, and I think he was just appalled at the quality, that there could exist music that was recorded in this fashion. (…) And he wrote me an e-mail that was like, ‘Why don’t you just re-record this with me?’ (…) And then Valgeir and I got to talking, and the sort of music that I was making, for whatever reason, in his head seemed to at least present the opportunity to record it in a different fashion. (…) So I thought that’s what we should do—we should make the recording sound like you’re playing rather than hearing it—because A) that’s what I like, and B) what fun to be able to listen to something as if you were inside the instrument or playing it yourself. So we opted for very, very close mic on the instruments, and everything is recorded in almost total isolation (…).”104 So for Muhly, the quality of the recording and the feeling the audience gets is important, and he uses a way of recording more common in popular music. According to him, not only his music has to be new or crossing boundaries but also the way it is presented. An ensemble who has went ‘beyond’ Bang on a Can is the ensemble eighth blackbird, a small contemporary ensemble based in with six musicians. The line-up is more ‘regular’, with clarinets, flutes, violin and viola, percussion, piano and cello. They usually play unamplified and with a lot of energy, and their performances often are staged or with an choreography. Their repertoire consist almost exclusively of newly composed pieces, including a piece by the aforementioned Bryce Dessner.105

The Netherlands The influence of Bang on a Can also reached Europe. Through the Dutch composer Louis Andriessen, the three composers have always had a strong connection with the Netherlands. There, composers, musicians and ensembles also looked at BoaC with great interest. (1969) is such a composer. He was born in Greece and moved to at the age of five. He studied musicology at the University of York and later on studied composition with Louis Andriessen at the conservatory in The Hague. There he also met Dick Raaijmakers, one of the earliest composers to work with , and worked with him for three performances. This encouraged Kyriakides’ interest in electronic music and the use of multi- and digital media in compositions. In 2003 he was commissioned by the BBC to compose a piece for Icebreaker and Orkest De Volharding, which resulted in Lab Fly Dreams, a piece for ensemble, soundtrack and video. Kyriakides furthermore has his

104 Sheridan 2007 105 Author unknown, eighthblackbird.org – ‘eighth blackbird - About’

33 own record label (Unsounds) and in 2005 he became the artistic director of the contemporary Ensemble MAE.106 A composer who has even studied with Gordon, Lang and Wolfe is Kate Moore (1979). She was supported by the People’s Commissioning Fund in 2009.107 After finishing her composition studies in Australia, she moved to the Netherlands to study with Louis Andriessen. She composes diverse music, albeit instrumental or electronic or complete sound installations. Her compositions often ask an ‘outside of the box’ mentality of the performers and audience. She still lives in the Netherlands and composes frequently for Ensemble , an ensemble that resembles the All-Stars in many ways.108 Ensemble Klang was formed in 2003 in The Hague. They are six musicians: two saxophones, , percussion, piano and (electric) guitar. As all the other ensembles, they play without conductor. Almost all of their compositions are commissioned by them for their formation, but they often perform music by the Bang on a Can composers as well (in collaboration with other ensembles). They have their own record label, called Ensemble Klang Records, where they have released a CD of pieces by Kate Moore among others.109 You could say that the Dutch group Slagwerk Den Haag (for whom Michael Gordon composed Timbre) bears a close resemblance to Sō Percussion, in both organisation as well as artistic visions. They are a group of six percussionists, founded in 1977 and perform almost exclusively contemporary classical music. Their CD’s are released by Cantaloupe Music also.110

There are many more other artists and ensembles that have the same kind of look on classical music like Bang on a Can does. It is of course impossible to say if that is the direct influence of Gordon, Lang and Wolfe, but it is an important phenomenon. Musicians in classical music are looking for ways to do something new, to attract a different audience. They almost all have in common that they combine different genres and styles in their music or in their performances. They collaborate with all kinds of artists and are not afraid to experiment. One of the most striking things that pops up multiple times, is their emphasis on the importance of popular music, mostly rock. Eighth blackbird even says it in the first sentence of their description: “eighth blackbird combines the finesse of a string quartet, the energy of a rock

106 Author unknown, Muziekencyclopedie.nl – ‘Yannis Kyriakides’ 107 Moore 2014 108 Author unknown, cantaloupemusic.com – ‘Kate Moore’ 109 Author unknown, ensembleklang.com – ‘Ensemble Klang: About us’ 110 Author unknown, slagwerkdenhaag.nl – ‘SDH’

34 band and the audacity of a storefront theater company.”111 These many similarities make for the need of a definition of this specific kind of contemporary classical music.

111 Author unknown, eighthblackbird.org – ‘eighth blackbird - About’

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Chapter 4 – Robert Fink & Kyle Gann

In many texts, musicology-scholars and -authors name two genres that have developed after minimalism. The first is postminimalism, the second is totalism. The term postminimal is generally used more often by writers and music critics, and is more common when indicating the music composed by Gordon, Lang and Wolfe.112 Both terms are described clearly and are recurring in texts by Robert Fink and Kyle Gann. This chapter will describe the two authors and their visions on the genres, will take a closer look at the terms postminimal and totalism and the exact difference between them. Robert Fink is a musicologist and professor. He is specialized in music after 1965, with an interest in minimalism, pop music and post-. His own personal music background is in classical music, but he started studying popular music in Berkeley. He has written the book Repeating Ourselves: American Minimal Music as Cultural Practice on minimalism, which was published in 2005.113 Kyle Gann is a composer, professor and journalist. He has written many books on modern classical music and was a journalist on that same subject for nineteen years at The Village Voice, a magazine with local New York news. In his columns for the magazine he is an advocate for the downtown scene and the acceptance of the music from that scene.114 He has composed an extensive body of works, with microtonal pieces but also compositions featuring complex rhythms. He categorizes his own music as minimalism115 and has written pieces for the Bang on a Can All-Stars as well as for Orkest De Volharding.116

Fink and postminimalism Robert Fink has written two main texts in which he talks about postminimalism and Bang on a Can. The first article was published in 1998 in the American Music and is called ‘Elvis Everywhere: Musicology and Popular Music Studies at the Twilight of the Canon’.117 The article is derived from a paper delivered at a conference, in which Fink discusses the term ‘New Musicology’ and the struggle of musicologists to study popular music. He argues that musicology needs to realize that classical music is not the only genre worthwhile to be studied, and that classical music ‘rules’ do not always apply when studying popular music.

112 Brown 2010, Bernard 2003 113 Author unknown, website UCLA 114 Gann 2006 115 Gann 1997 116 Author unknown, biography website Kyle Gann 117 Fink 1998

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In the article, Fink describes a couple of important ideas (albeit some are a bit bold). He discusses the problem that classical music is ‘dying’, as in that audiences for western classical music are shrinking rapidly. According to him, classical music does not has any market value in the American music industry anymore, compared to for example popular music. This also affects the symbolic value of classical music. The music is not a status symbol any more, the “cultural authority of the classical music canon is gone.”118 Fink describes two pillars that this classical music canon was built upon according to him: the ‘performing canon of masterworks’ and the ‘avant-garde canon’. The first canon is centred around Romantic music, classical music for the masses as Fink calls it. The second canon is modern or contemporary music, music for the niche, the interested and educated listener. Both pillars started to collapse in the end of the 20th and beginning of the 21st century, hence the death of classical music.119 Broadly speaking, Fink argues that the performing canon has fallen into disarray and became prey to commercialism. The path of the avant-garde canon is a bit more complicated. Because a part of it has become more of a canon of the academy, it is harder to see its direct influence on society. Another part has embraced popular music in an attempt to keep the audience interested: “The single biggest trend in ‘serious’ music composition is the wholesale borrowing of the attitude of rock music to get a rise out of audiences and critics.”120 This tendency started with minimalism, when Young, Riley, Reich an Glass didn’t shy away from popular music traits, and has continued within the new generation: “The rise of postminimalism in the late 1980s and early 1990s has almost worn the accolade ‘the power and punch of a rock band with the precision of a chamber ensemble’ right out. Inspired by Dutch iconoclast Louis Andriessen and expatriate radical Frederic Rzewski, an entire generation of composers (Steve Martland, Elliot Sharp, David Lang, Julia Wolfe, Michael Gordon, Evan Ziporyn) has been attempting to repackage – and thus redeem- musical modernism by insisting on its solidarity with a particular reading of popular music as anarchic critique of society.”121 Fink states that postminimalism is not a ‘product’ or derivative of minimalism, but a combination of modernism (which is generally named as the genre before minimalism) and popular music. He says the reason why the composers use rock elements, is to give their

118 Fink 1998, p. 141 119 idem 120 Fink 1998, p. 145 121 Fink 1998, p. 145

37 compositions more ‘authenticity’.122 Popular music has a higher status in society than classical music, so using these elements in their music automatically gives it that higher appeal. According to Fink, these avant-garde composers know that classical music is dying and they are trying their best to keep it alive, using these elements. However, indexation of these new compositions is becoming harder as the music is as diverse as there are genres and styles. Furthermore, there is not one genre that is the most important or has the most prestige. Fink calls this ‘decentering’, and it is not only in classical music but with other music styles too.123 The composers of the avant-garde are aware of this and are trying to fit into it. Postminimalism according to Fink is a general term, for all these contemporary classical composers who are trying to get on board of the changing music culture in America. In 2004, Fink wrote another article with the title “(Post-)minimalisms 1970-2000: the search for a new mainstream”, which was published in the Cambridge Guide to 20th-Century Music.124 Fink’s opinions and arguments were slightly subdued after six years, but are still interesting. In his opening paragraph he quotes Kyle Gann, who talks about the term postminimalism as an indication of the progress from the earlier style minimalism to a new one. Fink says that there is an counterargument for this, which is that minimalism was the last identifiable music genre, after which a large amount of styles and genres erupted with no common trait. In the article, the author tries to find out if this is true or not. “Post-minimalism as a style begins in the shadow of ‘minimalism’ as a brand”125 Fink states, with which he captures the reputation of minimalism in the 1970s. Because of its commercial success (see chapter 1), it could be said that minimalism was bigger than just a style. But for Fink, however, the minimal music that broke through to mainstream was the first occurrence of post-minimalism, because it was significantly different from the earlier minimal compositions: “The emphasis on an impersonal music structured by clearly audible process began to recede: both Reich and Glass began to use more processes that changed faster, and to intervene unpredictably in their unfolding.”126 Fink says that this music still was branded as minimalism, although according to him it could be seen as postminimalism. For composers of the same generation, the acceptance of minimalism as a style meant they could use it as a technique in their own compositions. The author states that composers like György Ligeti and Simeon ten Holt used techniques that wouldn’t exist without the

122 Fink 1998, p. 146 123 Fink 1998, p. 148 124 Fink 2004 125 Fink 2004, p. 541 126 Fink 2004, p. 542

38 success of Glass and Reich. Then there are composers like William Duckworth, John Adams and Paul Dresher who were not so much concerned with audible process or experimenting, as more with the sound and progress of a piece in general. The compositions are almost ‘easy listening’. Fink calls these composers the next generation, although they are just five or seven years younger than Reich and Glass, and indexes all their music under the title ‘1970s post- minimalism’. He expresses the thought that the composers who actually grew up ‘after minimalism’, would look back “to the 1960s radicalism at the heart of the original minimalist aesthetic.”127 Fink also discusses Louis Andriessen and his influence on the next generation. He states that a new or alternative post-minimalism started with Andriessen, who attempted to combine the aspects he liked of early minimalism with European modernism. The music became rhythmically irregular and the chords were no longer consonant and ‘pretty’. Fink describes the sound as straightforward rock or “punk-meets-Stravinsky”.128 Because Andriessen also was overtly politically active with and in his music, Fink calls this the ‘post- minimalism of resistance’. “Radical left-wing politics would validate fusing the rigour of early minimalism with the ‘progressive’ dissonance of European modernism; the resulting mixture would itself be validated by reference to the rhythmic complexity and raw countercultural power of African-.”129 This ‘post-minimalism of resistance’ would both rhythmically and melodically be more complex than ‘mainstream’ minimalism and fused with what might be jazz (Fink does not further define ‘African- American popular music’). Fink names the Bang on a Can composers as the generation where the ‘post- minimalism of resistance’ further developed. “Aggressive, guitar driven, amplified chamber- music (…) are logical products to come from the first generation of composers to grow up post-minimalist in the post-Beatles era. Add global media and the ubiquity of world music to the mix and out come fusions like Gordon’s Trance (1995).”130 In these two sentences Fink sums up what defines for him the music of Gordon, Lang and Wolfe; high volume chamber- music with influences of minimalism, popular music and world music. Fink attributes the term totalism to this new music by the Bang on a Can composers. He ascribes the success of this style to the musical but also to the marketing skills of BoaC, but quickly adds that their music resonated with the older generation of early minimalism too

127 Fink 2004, p. 545 128 Fink 2004, p. 546 129 idem 130 idem

39

(he mentions La Monte Young as one of them). Fink then goes back in time and indexes other composers who too combined minimalism with different kinds of styles as totalism. He names composers like Rhys Chatham and Glenn Branca as important figures in the genre, but it is confusing why he also classifies their music as totalism. Their music is significantly different from the music by BoaC and it is not likely that Chatham and Branca were influenced by Andriessen in the way BoaC was. Fink also poses the question if post-minimalism is the new mainstream.131 He argues that it is not, because of the big variety and the lack of a leading figure. He continues with the thought that maybe the mainstream is not in classical music, but in popular music (ambient and electronic dance music in particular). These styles have one foot in (post-)minimalism and will determine the musical landscape in the future. He concludes with the thought that all styles will eventually combine: “(…) I am willing to wager that new art music will come from interbreeding the post-minimalist descendants of the dance floor, the concert hall, the recording studio and the artist’s loft.”132 In conclusion, Fink is more clear in his indication of musical style in his earlier article. However, the context of this earlier article makes his statements problematic, as he might be oversimplifying it. He tries to prove a point (roughly speaking classical music is dying) and is actively looking for terms and composers who can fit into his arguments. He says the music by BoaC is postminimal (without a dash), but does not give a clear indication why. In his article from 2004 however, it seems that he struggles to defines the music by these composers. He uses the term post-minimalism (with dash) often, but more as a general term for everything that happened after the minimal music by ‘purists’ Young and Riley. He adds adjectives to describe the different forms of post-minimalism, like ‘post-minimalism of the 70s’ or ‘post-minimalism of resistance’. When talking about the music of the generation of BoaC, he begins with a clear enumeration of elements in their music in the context of post- minimalism. However, he later adds the term ‘totalism’. He uses this term so broad, that his argument for calling the compositions of BoaC totalist becomes confusing. Problematic is also that he uses the same term for the music of Branca and Chatham, who are more commonly named as the predecessors of BoaC.133 His ending argument in this later article is consistent with this view in his earlier article (that classical music is no longer the mainstream in music culture) but he does not

131 Fink 2004, p. 555 132 Fink 2005, p. 556 133 Gann 1997

40 repeat his statement that the generation of BoaC is trying to fix this by incorporating elements of popular music in their compositions. Instead, he talks of a more general fusing of genres and styles that he thinks will happen. His ‘decentering’ argument, which featured in the earlier article, is also not repeated. But it could be said that all the different terms of post- minimalism are an indirect example of that. So, the difference between postminimalism and totalism is not coming out clear in either text.

Gann and totalism Kyle Gann has written more extensively on styles and genres that were born out of minimalism.134 An example are his essays and articles from when he was a journalist and music critic at The Village Voice in New York, his book American Music in the Twentieth Century, in which he devotes multiple chapters on postminimalism and totalism, and his article ‘A Forest from the Seeds of Minimalism: An Essay on Postminimal and Totalist Music’.135 In the book, published in 1997, he makes a clear distinction between postminimalism and totalism. He tries to define the genres in a more musicological way, explaining the different features and providing with musical examples. He writes one chapter entirely on postminimalism, and one on totalism and music from the 1990s. According to Gann, the term postminimalism is more an indication as what came before it, than that it says something about the music itself. He states that it originated because the younger generation looked at minimalism as an composing example. He sums up some common traits: “Postminimalism can be characterized as an idiom of mostly diatonic tonality, usually with a steady and sometimes motoric beat. Often the music is written according to strict contrapuntal or rhythmic procedures, with an underlying numerical structure. (…) The music is not necessarily static, but neither is it volatile, and a movement of postminimal music tends to lie in qualities of the entire piece, not in moment-to-moment swings of mood.”136 But, as became clear in the text by Fink, Gann also admits that these traits are different depending on the person describing the genre. For him, the difference is especially that in postminimal music, the structure of the piece isn’t as audible or in focus as is with a minimal composition. “Suddenly, music one would once have called minimalist was no longer so predictable or easy to follow; though still melodically lucid, it had acquired a kind of mystically impenetrable

134 Gann 2001, Gann 2008 135 Gann 2006, Gann 1997, Gann 1998 136 Gann 1997, p.325

41 surface, and a tendency to take surprising turns.”137 Interestingly, where Fink seemingly claims that postminimalism is a combination between minimalism and modernism, Gann’s opinion is that postminimalism has nothing to do with looking back to the past. It is completely based on minimalism, almost like there was not any other classical music before that. Its composers were influenced by a lot of different musical styles from all over the world, but that is not always audible in the music itself. Gann does not mention any influence of popular music on the style. Postminimalism as a genre blossomed late, as it was only recognized in the late 1980s as a distinctive style according to Gann. In opposition with minimalism, postminimalism was not a community of composers getting together to perform or exchange ideas. Composers all over America used the ‘new compositional freedom’ given by them through minimalism. Gann ends his description of postminimalism with an interesting remark: “(…) the one place the style hasn’t flourished is New York, which nurtures more aggressive sonic archetypes.”138 This means that the music by Gordon, Lang and Wolfe by definition isn’t postminimal, because they live and work in New York. In his chapter on totalism, Gann gives a description of the contemporary classical music scene in the 1990s and names some musical traits of the genre. He begins with the idea that it seems there are more active composers in the 1990s and after than ever before. Because of the ‘baby boom’, financial stability of their parents and the adversity of their upbringing, many people born around the 1950s became artists of some sort.139 This makes it harder to characterize the music that is composed in this era, as it is very diverse. There are however a few things that are likely to have influenced many composers, says Gann. First, partly because of globalization, almost every conservatory-student came in contact with a far greater variety of music, different from the ‘conventional’ teachings in Western classical music. This also altered the status of European classical music as ‘the one and only music’ for this generation. “In fact, with greatly decreased classical concert attendance, the prestige of European music assumed by earlier generations has been fading rapidly.”140 Next, the music notation process also changed. Most composers switched to composing on the computer. This can be more organized, and you can instantly replay anything you just have composed. Linked to that, the use of samples became a more common composing tool. Because it got harder to get published by a big commercial publishing

137 Gann 1997, p.326 138 Gann 1997, p. 327 139 Gann 1997, p. 352 140 Gann 1997, p. 354

42 company, new music was shared in different ways. CDs became cheap to produce and to record on, so new pieces were recorded on these mediums and spread. The emphasis from reading music shifted towards hearing music. Gann continues with the universal influence of rock music. “It is increasingly rare, then, for composers to write without taking the rhythms, instrumentation, or performance conventions of rock into account.”141 Out of all the different music, Gann says that most composers use rock as an example for their own pieces. This is also to attract an large audience, which has become more difficult because of the many artists and composers that are out there. There is a niche or a subculture for almost everything, and the more diversity there is, the more difficult it becomes to interchange between these niches. Audiences are very loyal to their own scene and as a new composer it is hard to get a foot outside their own subculture. Rock music can be a bridge between two completely different milieus.142 Because of all these influences (musically and sociologically), Gann states that there developed one distinctive style, which he calls totalism. The genre totalism implies that composers write music that the general audiences like and can ‘easily’ listen to, while maintaining the complexity that gets the appreciation of a more schooled listener. It uses and fuses all kinds of musical styles, genres and expressions, without favouring one for the other. Totalist music is uncomplicated on first listen, because of an often steady (almost rock like) beat or grid underneath it and melodic lines that are easy to remember. The ‘deeper’ you go into the composition however, the more complicated it turns out to be. Melodies are harmonically complex and there is not a clear distinction between dissonant and consonant. There is an emphasis on and changing meter. Gann ends this introductory paragraph with the notion that it is almost impossible to generalise and ascribe one term to so many composers who compose diverse music. Some follow the traits he summed up at the beginning very strict, whereas by some only one or two of these features can be found in their compositions. The composers all have in common however that they are seeking a solution to overcome the difficulties of being a composer in such a ‘crowed’ artistic field. In his article “A Forest from the Seeds of Minimalism”143, Gann explains the difference between postminimalism and totalism on the basis of composers and their works. Here he also says that postminimalism developed in the 1980s, with a new generation born in

141 Gann 1997, p. 355 142 Gann 1997, p. 355 143 Gann 1998

43 the 40s who had listened to minimalism and wanted to explore and enlarge the genre with their own ideas. Postminimal music did not show the process as clear as minimal, it had a steady pulse, was tonal and often consonant with some dissonant passages. Compositions were written for the smaller chamber ensembles that also featured in the music by Glass and Reich, but were usually far shorter than minimal compositions. Postminimalism was geographically spread all across America but still shared these features. Ten years after postminimalism, composers and musicians born in the 1950s responded in a different way to minimalism. According to Gann, these composers did not grew up with minimalism, but with rock and world music as the mainstream. Gann calls their music totalism, as according to him their music is different from postminimalism in subtle ways, for example: “Totalist music is rhythmically complex, but always complex against a beat, never with the arrhythmia of serialism. Totalism is also more eclectic in its sources and more abrupt in its transitions than postminimalism with little direct concern for stylistic consistency.”144 Furthermore, whereas other genres have blossomed and developed in all over America, totalism became the dominant style in New York. The combined articles and essays in the book Music downtown: writings from The Village Voice are only about music and the scene in this city. In there, the terms postminimalism and totalism are mentioned in context of the musicians and composers who composed and performed in . The writings in the book date from around 1986 until 2000 and discuss all kinds of aspects related to contemporary music, that was performed and listened to at that time. The book gives an insight in the musical culture of New York at the end of the 20th century. It was published in 2006 and it starts with a separate preface (in which Gann explains the how, why and what of the book) and an introduction, probably written at the time of publishing. In this introduction Gann tries to explain the music culture of New York, with the divide between uptown and downtown music (as explained in chapter 1 and 3). After the description of the history of minimalism (Young, Riley, Reich, Glass) and free improvisation (Zorn), Gann states that a new genre took form, ‘signalled’ by the Bang on a Can Marathon concert: “Now the scene was flooded with composers of notated music that was far more complex than minimalism but heavily indebted to it. The conceptualists and minimalists had exhausted the possibilities of solo and composer performance, and the younger artists wanted to write for large ensembles again. In the ensuing outpouring two streams became audible,

144 Gann 1998, p. 6

44 which I’ve defined (though I didn’t invent either term) as postminimalism and totalism,”145 Here, Gann states that usually the term postminimalism is used for music that sounds like minimalism, but isn’t quite that. He defines more precisely what it means to him, which is roughly the same as the aspects he had mentioned in the abovementioned book. However, he does not specifically say that postminimalism was not in New York, just that it was all around America in the 1940s. The word ‘totalism’ was apparently thought up by a composer’s girlfriend, and “was a mostly New York movement of younger composers born in the 1950s.”146 The style leans heavy on minimalism, but has more complexity in rhythm and tempo. They try to convey the energy of rock in their music, often with hard beats, tempos that change often and polyrhythmic figures. There are other articles in the book that roughly state the same things as in the introduction, they only give more examples for composers or pieces. The Bang on a Can composers are almost always mentioned within the context of totalism, and for Gann the music by Michael Gordon is one of the biggest examples of this ‘-ism’. It becomes clear, that for Gann totalism ís the new genre in contemporary classical music, in any case for the music in New York in the 90s. One of the problems with these three resources is, however, that musically the difference between postminimalism and totalism as Gann describes them is very small. Compositions in both genres are tonal, have a steady beat or pulse as an underlying structure and feature complex rhythms or on top of that. The genres are both influenced by world and popular music and owe a lot to minimalism, like instrumentation or ensemble playing. Totalism sounds more aggressive than postminimalism and features more samples and electronic elements, postminimal music is more consonant oriented whereas totalism does not make a clear distinction. If we only judge the music, it could be said that compositions from both genres feature roughly the same aspects. Because the group of composers is so diverse (and Gann explained why that is in his book), the music they make can be so varied that both traits from postminimalism and totalism could be heard in their music. There is, however, one earlier article, where Gann describes one feature that is specific to the contemporary classical music of downtown New York. He wrote extensively on the rhythmical aspect in the music by Rhys Chatham, , Michael Gordon, Larry

145 Gann 2006, p. 13 146 Gann 2006, p. 13

45

Polansky and in 1994.147 In the article, he calls their music ‘postminimalism of downtown ’. This ‘new rhythm’ they use is influenced by John Cage and his idea that rhythm should be the basis of music (and not the harmonies or melodies), and by the pulse or beat of rock music. This leads to a new interpretation of rhythmical structure: “complexity in Downtown postminimalism often comes from ‘polytonal’ rhythm, the simultaneous layering or succession of diverse pules.”148 These contrasts of pulses form the basis of the piece, the melodic material plays a far smaller role. Gann states that these rhythms are based on strict divided ratios, like the ratios overtones are based on. Although the five composers he mentioned are doing all different rhythmical things, there are common aspects in their music. “At present, New York postminimalism finds itself involved in a thorough investigation of tempo contrasts and rhythmic numberratios.”149 So, although in this article he calls their music postminimalism where he later indexes it as totalism, this is an aspect very distinctive for totalism: the particular complex rhythmic structure of a piece. Other than that, the distinction between the genres as explained by Gann is on a more geographical and sociological level. This is especially clear in the book American Music in the Twentieth Century. For him, postminimal composers were born in the 40s and were a very diverse group spread across America, but not in New York. They were actively part of the birth and acceptance of minimalism, and were influenced by its success. Totalists were born ten years later and came of age when minimalism was already rooted in society and people started to look for something new. They were influenced by other styles of music they heard growing up. Technical developments helped them compose in a different way and distribution of new music was also unlike the generation before them. Gann also claims that totalism was the main genre and style in New York at that time. But could it not be said that music always sounds different in other places and cities, because of the particular scene and sentiment that place has? The music by Louis Andriessen is also considered by many to be minimalism, but it sounds vastly different than that of Young, Riley, Reich and Glass. So Gann’s argument, that postminimalism could not exist in New York because the city is to ‘aggressive’ for the genre, could maybe be countered by the argument that the city’s ‘vibe’ is just more aggressive, so the music there is automatically too. This does not mean it is a completely different style. And could it also not be said that composers from the 40s had to adapt to the new ways of music making and the changed taste

147 Gann 1994 148 Gann 1994, p. 33 149 Gann 1994, p. 34

46 of audiences (and the overall decline of audience numbers)? So the influences of rock, or the idea that music should be easy to listen without losing its complexity, can perhaps not only be found in the music by composers from the 50s. Both Fink and Gann also state that there is a great diversity in modern day music, which makes indexation even more complex. This makes looking ‘at the big picture’ difficult, because contemporary compositions almost never sound the same, even not if they are composed by one person. This does not make it necessary to index it in a totally different genre-name. On the contrary, having to many names or different genre-indications could make it even more difficult to explore and research the field. In conclusion, the difference between postminimalism and totalism, as explained by Fink and Gann might be too small. There is however a certain influence of downtown New York, which is the dominance of rock music and the more aggressive feel of the music composed in that specific area. This is why it is a good starting point to research Gordon, Lang and Wolfe and their compositions. They were very much a part of the New York downtown scene in the 90s and 00s and it could be said they enhanced or expanded the scene and showed it to audiences outside of New York and America. Because they have proven they are influenced by the minimal composers as well as popular music, their pieces are a good starting point for the bigger question if there is a real difference between postminimalism and totalism. This will make further research on music from the 21st century easier, as BoaC is of big influence on the contemporary (classical) music scene.

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Chapter 5 – Trance, cheating, lying, stealing and Lick

Michael Gordon, David Lang and Julia Wolfe have become an important influence on contemporary classical music in New York and elsewhere. They were all born in the 50s and started their careers as a composer in the late 80s, which is commonly indicated as the time of the development of postminimalism and/or totalism. Their upbringing as a child is different, but they all studied at the same university with Martin Bresnick, which stimulated the development of their musical ideas. They started a collective, and although they each have an unique composition style, they share ideas on for example performing practice and how to communicate with an audience. In several interviews, they have emphazised the influence of Louis Andriessen on their music and indirectly also that of the four minimal composers.150 Because of their success, many authors name them as an example of contemporary classical music (see chapter 4). They usually call their music postminimal, but have trouble naming the specifics of this genre.151 As seen in the previous chapter, Fink and Gann disagree with each other where the music of the BoaC composer belongs. Fink says postminimalism, or ‘post-minimalism of resistance’, Gann strongly argues for totalism. This ambiguity makes Gordon, Lang and Wolfe and their music a good starting point, to research if there is indeed a valuable difference between postminimalism and totalism. There are a couple of general points both authors mention when describing the two terms:

- Direct influence of other composers, focused on which musical styles the composers came in contact with

- Rhythmic structure

- Harmonic structure and melodic material

- Ensemble playing and instrumentation

This chapter will look at these points in three compositions by Gordon, Lang and Wolfe, composed around the same period the articles by Fink and Gann were published. The points are broad on purpose, as to not search for specific traits that belong to one genre or the other. In the end, the result will be compared with the aspects the two authors ascribe to postminimalism and totalism as discussed in chapter 4.

150 Oteri 1999 151 Brown 2010, Bernard 2003

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Michael Gordon - Trance The composition Trance was premiered in 1996 by the Icebreaker ensemble. On his website, Gordon writes: “In the dream I brought my music to an older composer for his comments. The composer was a combination of György Ligeti, Louis Andriessen and my own teacher Martin Bresnick. The older composer looked through my scores, one by one, and I could hear in my head the music that he heard in his head as he looked at my compositions. It all sounded like Mozart. After each score the composer shook his head in a discouraging way. Finally he turned to me and said, ‘You need to work with large forces.’ I woke up startled.”152 To accomplish the ‘large forces’ he added eight brass players to the original line-up of Icebreaker. The instrumentation became as follows: two flutes (doubling on piccolo and panpipes), two soprano saxophones and one alto saxophone, four , four , three synthesizers, one accordion, one electrical guitar, one five-string bass guitar, one violin, one cello and percussion. All the instruments are amplified (which was common for Icebreaker), and for certain parts Gordon added audio samples. The piece consists of six parts, with the fifth part called Trance Drone as a turning point. Icebreaker and Gordon worked closely together during the rehearsal period, which led to more room for experimentation, especially in the rhythmic structure: “The openness and flexibility of Icebreaker allowed me to imagine music with a strong rhythmic pulse, written down, with no one playing on the beat. I imagined several interlocking units going on simultaneously –– like the different thoughts in one's head that go on at once, or, in this case, like being able to hear different kinds of music in one's head at the same time.”153 This rhythmic complexity comes from a desire to maintain the energy of rock in his own classical compositions. When he moved to New York in 1978, he started playing in a rock band (Peter and the Girlfriends), with whom he performed for a couple of years. In an interview Gordon states that this experience has influenced his view on rhythm and energy of a pulse in piece.154 In his first commission for Icebreaker, Yo Shakespeare (1992), he tried to convey this energy through complex polyrhythms. One of the things he said that have helped him, was the ability to compose on the computer. He could write down his rhythmic ideas, without barlines dictating a certain meter, and replay them on the computer. Because he could listen back to the result instantly, he understood his own ideas better: “I started listening to this and I started to think, ‘This sounds so great, but there's no way this can be played and

152 Gordon, program note on own website 153 Gordon, program note on own website 154 Baker 2002

49 there's no way this can get into a measure.’ (…) So I started writing this music that had no bar lines. It was just one big thing, like non-stop, and I was working on it for a while and then I kept looking and I kept looking and I said, ‘You know you can actually draw a bar line here.’ (…) And I figured, ‘Well, you can actually draw a bar line here and you can put all of this in 4/4.’”155 The rhythmical complexity in Trance is achieved by layering multiple rhythmical figures. There are a couple of these figures that are recurring in every part in Trance (except Trance Drone), but varied each time. There are numerous repetitions of small numbers of bars (often sets of eight that are repeated one or four times) and subtle changes in melody and rhythm. The basis of the piece is the continuous contrast between triplets and four quarter notes (three against four). One frequent rhythmic figure, which Gordon claimed to have ‘discovered’ when composing Yo Shakespeare is the splitting of triplets.156 Instead of for example grouping together three quarter notes in one triplet, Gordon separates the three and adds 8th notes between them.

Figure 1 Michael Gordon, Trance, Trance 1 mm. 11-14

Figure 2 Michael Gordon, Trance, Trance 2 mm. 273-276

Gordon combines this triplet-figure with different forms of hemiolas. These hemiolas can be extremely intricate and come in different forms.

Figure 3 Michael Gordon, Trance, Trance 1, mm. 11- 14

155 Baker 2002, p.5 156 Baker 2002, p.5

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These two techniques combined with regular rhythm results in polyrhythms and a feeling of a constantly shifting downbeat.

Figure 4 Michael Gordon, Trance, Trance 3 mm. 441-444

Gordon also often creates the illusion of acceleration by following a piece of triplet quarters with a group of four eighth notes, again followed by triplet eighths. This is especially clear in the last part of Trance 5, where the climax is built up in this way.

Figure 5 Michael Gordon, Trance, Trance 5 mm. 941-946

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Figure 6 Michael Gordon, Trance, Trance 5 mm. 959-960

The layers of materials are almost always supported by a firm bass line, the rhythmic pulse which usually does not change (much) during a specific part. These bass lines resemble ostinatos, and give steadiness to the complex polyrhythmic figures played by the other instruments. Although every part features identical rhythmic figures, they each have a specific set up. Trance 1 is very frantic, and shows the rock energy Gordon strived for. It displays Gordon’s idea of polyrhythm and the different rhythmic layers he will use in the composition. He showcases the different rhythms, and layers them up different every time, so the rhythmic structure changes rapidly. The part also features big contrasts. The bass guitar and bass synthesizer form a counterpart with their low steady rhythm (as shown in figure 1) with the woodwinds and brass, who play rapid, high pitched polyrhythmic lines. This bass features as a grid, but it also indicates changes in the music. When it stops or transposes up or down, the layers and instruments on top of it will do something different. Trance 2 follows attaca after Trance 1. There is again a strict grid, with the electric guitar and marimba playing constant broken triplets, and the bass guitar the hemiola figure (figure 3). Two instrument groups play in alternation with each other and forming one continuous rhythmic layer. The part features a lot of repetitions, small sections up to eight bars are repeated four or more times. After every repetition, a small rhythmical aspect is changed. Slowly, more instruments are added and with them more rhythmic layers. This part feels more static, because of the repetitions and the small changes that are almost inaudible. Furthermore, the bassline never changes a single note, and the other instruments keep playing

52 the broken triplets and the hemiolas over and over again. Trance 3 is more about the different dynamics and timbres of the instruments. Here the rhythmic structure is slowly built up, with a steady bass (electric guitar and bass guitar) which sounds ‘ignorant’ about everything happening around it. They play continuous hemiolas, while the rest plays triplets or the broken triplet figure (see figure 4). It is as if there are two different tempos, one for the upper layer and one for the bass. This part features more melodic changes. All the instruments often modulate up or down half a note. The modulation is always on the downbeat, which makes it sound irregular because almost all parts do not follow the 4/4 meter rhytmically. At the climax, the four trombones play glissandi, which breaks through all the rhythmical figures as one sound block. After that, the whole structure is broken down again, to the quiet starting point of Trance 4. Trance 4 consists of two parts. It starts off with a single rhythmical and melodic layer, played in hocketing. It becomes more dense as more instruments become part of the melody, and the rhythmical units become longer (from one eighth note, to two sixteens, to one eighth- triplets etc.). Because of this technique, it sounds like the melody is phase shifting very slowly. In the middle of the part, the bass synthesizers and bass guitar play one long note that cuts through the layers. The electric guitar plays the melody that was heard throughout, by the different instruments. The section becomes darker when percussion, bass guitar and electrical guitar join each other for a heavy continuous rhythm, until the electrical guitar starts to play quick glissandi. The wind instruments keep playing the melody in hocketing style until everything stops and one long dissonant chords sounds, announcing Trance Drone. During the drone, samples of multiple vocal, religious chants are heard on a loop. Underneath, the ensemble plays one long dissonant chord (C C# D) continuously. Trance 5 begins when the electric guitar starts playing triplets and the big vocal sample stops. In the beginning, only the electric guitar and other samples played continuously by the synthesizers are heard, but soon the strings start playing straight harsh-sounding quarters on top of the triplets. The piece develops further and slowly modulates upwards. The frequency of the samples increases and they form complex chords. The mood shifts when all the low instruments start to play unison triplets, while the rest of the wood instruments play an accented chord on one of the triplets. Percussion joins first with a large tomtom and starts playing three against four when he adds a large bass drum. This rhythm becomes the pulse for the end, where all the different rhythmic layers heard in the other Trances are summarized in two ideas, one high and one low, which become more dense towards the end of the composition. Here, the suggestion of acceleration as seen in figures 5 and 6 forms the climax.

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David Lang – cheating, lying, stealing Cheating, lying, stealing was composed in 1993 for the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble and was revised in 1995 for the Bang on a Can All-Stars. The instrumentation is bass clarinet, cello, piano, percussion (marimba, rock bass drum, anvil, tomtoms, snare drum, triangle), and two antiphonal brake drums. The piece consists of five sections, each with an different style and musical texture. The general instruction to play the piece is an ‘ominous funk’, which describes the feeling Lang tries to convey in the piece. He writes in the piece’s program note: "(…) I thought, What would it be like if composers based pieces on what they thought was wrong with them? Like, here's a piece that shows you how miserable I am. Or, here's a piece that shows you what a liar I am, what a cheater I am. I wanted to make a piece that was about something disreputable. It's a hard line to cross. You have to work against all your training. You are not taught to find the dirty seams in music. You are not taught to be low-down, clumsy, sly and underhanded. In ‘cheating, lying, stealing,’ although phrased in a comic way, I am trying to look at something dark. There is a swagger, but it is not trustworthy. In fact, the instruction in the score for how to play it says: Ominous funk.”157 This instruction also reflects in the instrumentation, which consists of instruments with a low or rough timbre. There is no lead voice or high instruments that could take the melody. The addition of an anvil (or “other nasty metal”158) and the two metal brake drums also add to a ‘darker’ sound. There is no key indication, and the piece features many minor chords and dissonant passages. Lang says in an interview: “I write down everything I can think of that relates to my idea and make little charts and graphs, trying to figure out structures. I also try to figure out the different things instruments can do (…) Once I know the roles of the instruments, once I’ve made some big decisions about how the orchestration works in each section – how the laws that I’ve made actually work – then the last thing I do is fill in the notes. For me the notes are the least important part, or the least interesting part. (…) Music happens at the will, the level at which a listener can detect the composer’s intention. It’s possible to convey that intention on a level that is not very interesting. (…) I try to do things in my pieces that keep my intuition off-balance. I don’t want to be reminded of anybody else’s music when I write, and I don’t want to be reminded of music I’ve already written. (…) I take scraps of music I come up with intuitively and subject them to really strange rhythmic processes that pull them

157 Lang program note cheating, lying, stealing (own website) 158 Score cheating, lying, stealing

54 apart.”159 This way of composing is visible in cheating, lying, stealing. After a ‘preamble’, it opens with two strong rhythms clashing. While the whole group plays an unisono rhythm of eighths, the cello plays triplet quarters against the grain.

Figure 7 David Lang, cheating, lying, stealing mm. 1-5

The figure of the eighth notes as played by the rest of the group is repeated and varied in all different options, by changing the position of the rest. Every new repetition is announced by a downbeat of the bass drum. While the notes stay the same, splitting up the paired eighth notes

159 McCutchan 1999, p. 224-225

55 changes the rhythm.

Figure 8 David Lang, cheating, lying, stealing mm. 13-16

After all the variations are done, Lang adds two eighth notes to this pattern and changes the triplets by the cello into a more melodic line.

Figure 9 David Lang, cheating, lying, stealing mm. 29-32

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He again repeats and varies with the eight pairs of eighth notes, and after half the variations are done he goes back to the first rhythmic pairing of six eighth notes on top of triplets. So arises an ABACA form. The meter is 4/4, with an added 3/8 after every complete A variation, to ‘straighten’ things so that the new variation can start on the downbeat. In the third repetition of the original rhythmic pattern, the anvil is added. After another full circle, the right hand of the piano starts to play irregular dissonant sixteenths, while the marimba starts to play cut up quintuplets (often playing only four out of the five notes of the quintuplet).

Figure 10 David Lang, cheating, lying, stealing mm. 101-104

After another couple of cycles, the rhythm with the eighth note pairs stop, and only the cello, right hand of the piano, marimba and bass drum remain. After the music has quiet down, the second section starts and the mood changes. While the first section was harsh and full of energy, the second is more eerie and dark. The section sounds slower and every instrument has a completely different rhythm.

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Figure 11 David Lang, cheating, lying, stealing mm. 114-116

Due to the polyrhythm, it sounds as if all instruments are improvising and not paying attention to each other. Because the cello and bass clarinet play in a high register, the unusual timbre of these instruments also add to the ‘uneasy feel’. Their long notes are often a half note against each other. The cluster chord of the piano makes it sound like a percussion instrument, and because of its seemingly random rhythm, it undermines the regular 4/4 meter. This goes on for the complete section, without ever reaching a point where the instruments agree with each other. The energy returns after a general pause in the next section. The third section is in 5/8. The cello and left hand of the piano, and bass clarinet and marimba are playing alternating within the meter of 5/8. For example, when the one group plays a quarter (2), the other plays a dotted quarter (3), or when the first group plays an eighth (1), the other plays two connected quarters (4). The two brake drums accent the attack of the two groups with an eighth note. The continuous pounding rhythm by the tomtoms on the downbeat, and in the next measure on the downbeat and the fifth give a sense of pulse, but the

58 dissonant chord on the two by the right hand of the piano slightly undermines this feeling. The result is an intricate polyrhythmic structure.

Figure 12 David Lang, cheating, lying, stealing mm. 189-192

Because the cello and bass clarinet have to play fortissimo with a crescendo, their timbres are harsh and rough. The double-stops for the cello emphasise this even more. On top of that, the high dissonant chords by the right hand of the piano form a big contrast and are often in conflict with the rest of the ensemble.

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After a general pause, the next section starts with an unison rhythm:

Figure 13 David Lang, cheating, lying, stealing mm. 212-209-210-211

Figure 13 is repeated four times. Because the meter is still 5/8, it sounds irregular. After one measure in 3/8, the snare drum and bass drum start to play a different rhythm, completely against the other rhythmical figure. This is also repeated four times.

Figure 14 David Lang, cheating, lying, stealing mm. 228-225-226-227

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After another 3/8 measure, the cello lets go of the rhythm, and starts playing long notes. The bass clarinet starts adding low notes to the rhythm, creating the illusion that there are two instruments playing. The piano joins in this rhythm. Seemingly random, one 3/8 measure is sometimes added in between the figure, which gives a sudden feel of unstability because the pattern is breached for a brief moment. The long sustained notes of the cello are held for 20 quarters and changes on the fifth beat, which is not coherent with the rest. It reminds of the earlier melodic line in the first section.

Figure 15 David Lang, cheating, lying, stealing mm. 265-268

The pattern is frequently interrupted by the 3/8 measure, until it turns around and the 5/8 measure interrupts the meter of 3/8. The rhythmic pattern is compressed together to fit in the 3/8 meter, which gives the illusion of acceleration. After the highest sustained note of the

61 complete section by the cello, the fifth section begins.

Figure 16 David Lang, cheating, lying, stealing mm. 361-364

This section has the same rhythmic pattern as the first section (called A). First, it is played without long rests between the three paired eighths (so each variation follows the next attaca), and after one repetition A is played again as heard in the beginning, until the end of the composition.

Julia Wolfe - Lick Lick was written for the Bang on a Can All-Stars, so the instrumentation is soprano saxophone, electric guitar, various percussion instruments, piano, cello and . It premiered in 1994. The title of the piece refers to the term ‘lick’ used in popular music: “a short recognizable melodic motif, formula or phrase.”160 Wolfe also wrote a program note for the piece: “I begin with an image — a fragment of a tune, a visual or sonic image — a joyous, active, rhythmic thing that unravels like a little knot. (…) Lately I have been veering more

160 Witmer 2015

62 towards the power of sound. There's an insistence, a feeling of pushing things to the edge, and there is a certain kind of groove, a dance quality. The body energy of pop music has come into my music and it is definitely in Lick. Motown, funk, rock. This is the music I grew up on — listening, dancing to it. It has a certain kind of freedom to it. (…) I took a fragment, a lick, and magnified it. And the beat is split up by all the players, so it becomes fragmented, a fragmented energy. The piece is about attacks, but it has a more sensual side. I really thought about the Bang on a Can All-Stars when I wrote it because I wanted to see them lock in with this intense energy. It's definitely over the top.”161 Again, the structure of the piece is of importance. Wolfe has said in an interview that the combination between these different layers is what interests her: “So the surface, the harmony, the aesthetic has a funk reference, but musically, it's a totally different zone. That's what interests me. It isn't that complicated is better than simple. That's just what I like. (…) I like density. But in that density, the elements are simple and clear, which relates to the Minimalist aesthetic - a clarity. The elements are earthy and layered.”162 In the same interview, she shares a story about a lecture she gave at Juilliard: “I played Lick and one young guy said, ‘I don't understand why you're rewriting James Brown.’ I'd love to be James Brown, but I can't be. Well, I don't know if I really want to be James Brown, because his life is a little intense ... But I talked about James Brown's rhythm and his timing. When he grunts, you know, it's off the beat, or almost on the beat. It's always pulling and tugging at the beat. And that's what Lick is about, pulling and tugging at a beat. But if you listen to James Brown, it's funk, it's a regular meter, more or less in song form with a refrain. This young guy could only hear the surface level where it resembles a funk sound.”163 Lick could be divided into close-knit sections, but they are not as clearly distinguishable as with cheating, lying, stealing. The general sound is harsh and gritty, but not dark per se. There is a contrast between loose structured divisions, and more dense parts. The frequent changes of meter and the very rhythmic patterns often follow a ratio of three against two (for example a dotted quarter followed by a regular quarter, or a triplet by four eighths). The piece starts off with sharp, short attacks by all the instruments that are followed by silence. There is not one dominant melodic line, it is all about the polyrhythms and calculated structure. Almost every note is accentuated. It also shows that Wolfe has clear ideas about the

161 Wolfe, juliawolfemusic.com, program note Lick (own website) 162 Krasnow 2011 163 Idem

63 timbre and sound of the instruments. She often gives detailed instructions how to play a certain note or rhythm, and uses the many possibilities of an instrument.

Figure 18 Julia Wolfe, Lick, mm. 13-18

After this very rhythmic introduction, the piano introduces a rhythm of rapid sixteenths on one note, on top of which the vibraphone plays long A’s. The monotone sixteenths are intermitted by an accented eighth, which gives the rhythm a pulse, albeit an irregular one. The electric guitar starts to play a similar rhythmic pattern, against the piano’s rhythm. The long notes of the vibraphone shorten and start to become more regular, until it plays quarters on the beat. These quarters shorten to quarter triplets, eighth triplets and finally continuous sixteenths. At this point, the cello also starts to play the same sixteenths rhythm as the piano and electric guitar, with again different accented eighths. One bar before the saxophone begins with the same rhythm (with the instruction ‘becoming ecstatic’), the cello starts to follow the pattern of the vibraphone.

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Figure 19 Julia Wolfe, Lick, mm. 65-66

The saxophone then takes the lead with a frantic melody, while the rest of the instruments plays unison off-beat dissonant chords completely separate from that. There is an almost rock- like pulse played by the percussion, alternating between snare and two tomtoms. After all the silence and loose textures, this is a section that has a lot of energy.

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Figure 20 Julia Wolfe, Lick, mm. 77-78

Then suddenly everything stops and the piano and vibraphone start playing long high cluster chords, while the other instruments very softly fall into the same harmony. It sounds completely opposite from the previous section, far lighter and with less energy. The cello plays flageolets, which adds to this light sound. The section changes, when the chord lowers one note and the sound gets harsher. The electric guitar adds distortion and the saxophone and cello are instructed to ‘gradually get gritty’. The electric guitar starts playing sixteenths and sixteenths sextuplets, which sounds like tremolos because of the rapid tempo and distortion. When the high-hat starts playing sixteenths as well, the whole sound turns ‘chaotic’. The next section has the instruction ‘Funk’, and features the screams reminiscent of James Brown, mentioned by Wolfe. This part again has an opposite character of the previous one. Although still highly irregular, it is less dense. With its sharp attacks, it reminds of the first section, although there is far less coherence. Again, Wolfe uses a lot of different textures

66 within the instruments, like snap-pizzicato’s, clusters on the piano and bowing deep into the string.

Figure 21 Julia Wolfe, Lick, mm. 120-121

Where the previous section had the instruction ‘Funk’, the next section is to be played aggressively. The chords are very dissonant and almost sound like a punch. The snare drum cuts through this with an contrasting rhythm. Where the chords first start in unison, the pattern slightly shifts within each instrument to break the unison. The piano then breaks completely free and starts playing a very wild rhythmic pattern, with big chords played like a tremolo. It almost sounds like the piece derails when the saxophone sets in with a very loud, high and long note. Meanwhile, the snare drum plays sextuplets, accented by the bass drum.

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Figure 22 Julia Wolfe, Lick, mm. 166-167

These hard chords, followed by the cluster piano part (figure 22) is repeated with some small variations, the main one that the electric guitar has a short melodic line (which is barely audible because of all the other things that are happening around it). After this dense section, it settles down again, with the instruction ‘Groove’. This section reminds of the ‘Funk’ section, again with almost swinging chords and quintuplets that are to be played like a scream. After a general pause, the electric guitar is instructed to ‘cut loose’ a quintuplet cluster, after which again a variation of the pattern of figure 22 is played. There is now more variation with the percussion. It sounds like the complete group is improvising, or jamming like a rock band. The piano stops with the cluster, and starts playing large triplets chords. It quiets down a little, until the next section with the instruction ‘Rock’. The music gets more translucent, with better distinguishable parts played by the electrical guitar and accompanied by the bass section and the percussion instruments.

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Figure 23 Julia Wolfe, Lick, mm. 106-107

The section that follows is very focused on rhythm, melodically it is very limited. There are two alternating chords. Every instrument is then instructed to fade out, except the bass layer. This fade out reminds of songs on records, that have a continuous accompaniment in the background that fades out at the end of the song.

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Figure 24 Julia Wolfe, Lick, mm. 260-262

In conclusion, the four general points mentioned in the beginning of the chapter, can all be found in the three analysed compositions by Gordon, Lang and Wolfe. Although the compositions are very diverse, there are common traits. These traits can be compared with the traits Fink and Gann mention in their articles.

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Chapter 6 - Postminimalism or totalism? As mentioned in the beginning of chapter 5, there are a couple of characteristics that were looked for in the analysis, to see if the music by Gordon, Lang and Wolfe is postminimal or totalist:

- Direct influence of other composers, focused on which musical styles the composers came in contact with

- Rhythmic structure

- Harmonic structure and melodic material

- Ensemble playing and instrumentation

This chapter will first summarize the results of the analysis in chapter 5, and then compare it with the traits of postminimalism and totalism named by Fink and Gann, as researched in chapter 4.

The four points First, direct influence of other composers was researched, combined with upbringing and education of the three composers (as these two aspects are often intertwined). Although the upbringing of Gordon, Lang and Wolfe is different, they all got in contact with a big diversity of music when growing up (see chapter 2). Gordon and Long played in rock and jazz bands and Wolfe was surrounded by folk music. They all moved to New York to study with the same teacher, Martin Bresnick. Furthermore, Wolfe has studied and worked with Louis Andriessen, who through her was introduced to the other two composers. His influence is visible in their music. Gordon, Lang and Wolfe became part of the New York downtown scene and listened to and met other composers and musicians who were important in that scene. It is very likely that Gordon, Lang and Wolfe visited places like The Kitchen and The Knitting Factory and heard styles like minimalism, or the music by Glenn Branca, Rhys Chatham and John Zorn. Trance reminds of minimalist pieces with a duration of almost 52 minutes, as well as the many repetitions and the small (almost inaudible) rhythmic and melodic changes. The influence of rock is also audible, especially the roughness of the timbres and the overall energy of the piece. In Trance Drone, the knowledge of non-western music is heard, with the samples of vocal chanting from many different cultures. There the piece resembles Indian

71 ragas and other meditative music. Cheating, lying, stealing and Lick are much shorter (respectively eleven and ten minutes). With its repetitions and small variations, the first piece again reminds of minimalism. They both have a strong rock-like energy, but Lick has a more obvious connection with popular music. The two pieces also sound more aggressive than Trance, which could be an influence of the powerful New York scene or ‘vibe’. It is also reminiscent of the minimalist style of Louis Andriessen, which is more energetic or aggressive than his American peers. Next, the way the three pieces are structured rhythmically. There are a couple of features that are striking in the analysis. The first piece, Trance, has a steady beat (although not always written out) which acts as a rhythmic grid. The different rhythmical layers follow strict rhythmic procedures. There is frequent use of quarter note triplets and dotted eighth notes, put together in one distinctive rhythmic pattern. The complete piece is built out of polyrhythmic layers and different rhythmic techniques like hocketing or phase shifting are used. The meter is changed often, but probably more to make the music easier to read than that it actually influences the audible rhythmic pulse. Cheating, lying, stealing has an illusion of a steady beat and the music is highly structured. Again, the piece features multiple polyrhythmic layers, but they are more grouped together than Trance. There are distinctive repeating patterns in larger sections, which give the composition structure. In Lick, the rhythmic layers are so incredibly irregular that it is hard to distinguish a pattern. There are, however, larger motifs to be discovered, deeply within the structure of the piece. What also becomes clear then, is the contrast between the more dense sections and the strict rhythmical which feature more silence to intensify the attacks. It is very polyrhythmic, on the edge of being chaotic. There are also melodic and harmonic structures that stand out. Trance is tonal and mostly diatonic. The movement of a melody within a rhythmic structure is often limited or chromatic, with some exceptions (see also figures 1-6). There are no easily identifiable keys, and minor and major chords are often combined. Rhythmic complexity has a more important role than harmonic complexity, but sometimes there is a general sense of melody. There is use of samples, of which some are set to a pitch. In cheating, lying, stealing the melodic lines also do not seem important, but compared to Trance they are a lot more audible. There is a general sound of the piece, but each section also has its own sound. Together this determines the rough mood Lang aimed for. There is no general key for the piece, but most chords are minor in accordance to the theme of the piece. Often, the music is in (sharp) dissonance. Lick is far more abstract than the other two pieces. Melodically again, this piece hasn’t much diversity.

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There is no key indication, and the chords are often clusters and very dissonant. There is one general mood, although certain sections have different instructions on how it should sound. The piece is not about melody or harmonic lines, it is about power and structure. Therefore, it could be harder to listen to, compared to the other two compositions. Closely related to melodic properties of the piece is the way a composition is instrumented and the way Gordon, Lang and Wolfe have structured the ensemble. The instrumentation of Trance is large and unique, compared to other pieces from that time period. That everything is amplified is not, as the piece is written for an ensemble that always plays in that way. The use of synthesizers, electric guitar and bass guitar also adds a distinctive timbre to the piece. Because all instruments are amplified, every one of them has an equal solo part. Sometimes the instrumentation changes the timbre of an instrument, like pairing of the panpipes with a synthesizer, or the bass guitar with the strings. The percussionist plays pitched and non-pitched instruments, the latter often adds to the rock energy and feel of the piece because of the combination of tomtom and bass drum. The electric guitar is not on distortion, but because it plays very intricate and fast melodies it sometimes sounds like it does. The ensemble of cheating, lying, stealing is small and often play in unison or pairs. Without the use of an amplified instrument, Lang still created the harsh and direct sound an electric guitar for example has. With the piano playing clusters, the combination of the anvil with the attack of the bass clarinet, or using an uncomfortable register for the cello and bass clarinet, he tries to achieve the rough timbre often found in rock music. None of the instruments are very unconventional, except for the brake drums (but Lang uses these more often in his compositions). Of course, the instruction ‘omnious funk’ dictates the feel of the piece, and in a way also the way the instruments should play the music. From the three compositions, Lick has the most instructions for the musicians. Wolfe has an exact idea of how she wants the music to sound. The instructions, and the use of timbre and register of the instruments remind of popular music a lot. The instrumentation is fairly regular for a chamber ensemble, however, the addition of an electric guitar and the large amount of non-pitched percussion instruments give the ensemble-sound more of an edge. The piano is more often used as a percussion instrument, with large cluster chords and repeated sixteenths. In some sections, the saxophone features as a solo instrument, while the rest of the instruments form a foundation. More often the music consists of more individual layers, where each instrument has a unique role in the ensemble.

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Comparing the analyses These four points can be compared with the traits of postminimalism and totalism, as defined by Gann and Fink. Starting with upbringing and influence, a couple of things stand out. Minimalism is a big influencer for both postminimalism and totalism. With postminimalism this connection is stronger, as this actually sprouted from minimalism. The influence of other styles is less prominent with postminimalism as with totalism. Totalism uses minimalism more as a starting point, or an early idea. As described, Gordon, Lang and Wolfe have been heavily influenced by minimalism (of the USA and the Netherlands), and incorporate many kinds of other styles and genres in their music. Traits of minimalism are visible and audible in their music, but more as an echo. Except for Trance, their pieces are far shorter than compositions by for example Glass and Reich. This is a trait of postminimalism.164 What is more totalist, is the influence and use of a big diversity of music styles, like rock, folk music or Asian music. Especially the energy of rock is prominent in their music. The scene of New York was of great importance to Gordon, Lang and Wolfe too, not only as an influence on their music but also on how they formed their opinion on culture and audiences. The city plays a large role in their compositions. With all this in mind, the first (upbringing, education, and influence of other composers) maybe tend to fall in the category totalism, but there are also indications of postminimalism. The trait Gann and Fink write the most about, is the rhythmic properties of postminimal and totalist music.165 As seen in the analyses, in the pieces the rhythmic patterns are more emphasised than the melody for example. The findings that the three pieces have an underlying numerical structure and that strict rhythmic procedures are frequently used, can be categorized as postminimal. However, rhythmic complexity, polyrhythm and frequent meter change is also described as totalism. The differences between these traits are small. Strict rhythmic procedures can lead to polyrhythm and complexity, frequent meter change can be a result of an numerical structure dictating the pattern. The use of a grid underneath the music is classified as totalist, but steady pulse or beat as postminimal. Both are not totally alike, but are based on the same idea of structuring a piece. One rhythmic figure however, is defined by Gann as typically totalist; the triplet quarter notes interspersed with dotted eighth notes (as seen in Trance for example). The three analysed compositions all possess the abovementioned traits, some more than others. This makes the distinction whether it is postminimal or totalist complicated. There is an argument for both terms.

164 As seen in chapter 4 165 idem

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Although the three pieces are different, there are some common elements in harmonic progression. The unidentifiable keys and easy combination of dissonant and consonant chords are an indication of totalism. The use of the diatonic scale is more postminimal, as is the fact that the pieces all have one general mood that does not change. The large variety in textures and patterns, however small, could also be categorized as postminimal. Postminimal has a more ‘smooth’ exterior though, according to the authors, and a piece like Lick is not elegant. The sometimes extreme dissonances heard in the three compositions could be categorized as totalist. In conclusion, it depends on which aspect you focus and find more important, but there is not a very clear distinction between postminimalism and totalism when looking at the harmonic progressions. Compared to their arguments on harmonic and rhythmic progression, Gann and Fink do not elaborate much on instrumentation or ensemble playing. In both postminimalism and totalism, the influence of the composer-led ensembles as seen in minimalism is considerable. The Bang on a Can-All Stars are an example of that influence. With Trance and Lick in particular, the ensemble for which the composition is written and the rehearsal process also left its mark on the music. The use of an electric guitar and other unconventional instruments or sounds (like the synthesisers, brake-drums or samples) is a more totalist trait, but composing for a mixed chamber ensemble could be categorized as postminimal. The frequent playing in unison is a trait of both. Because the sound and timbre of the music is so important, there is an argument to classify this fourth point as totalist, but it is not a strong one. In conclusion, it is clear that the distinction between totalism and postminimalism in the music by Gordon, Lang and Wolfe is a minor one. The pieces share traits from both terms as stated by Fink and Gann. Their upbringing and education, and the composers they are influenced by, seem to be totalist but there are also arguments for it to be postminimal. Both the harmonic as the rhythmic progression cannot be clearly distinguished as either postminimal or totalist. The way the three pieces are instrumented and the ensembles are instructed to play the pieces is more totalist. So, they meet the criteria for totalism on a sociologically and geographically level more or less, but musicologically it is hard to point out the difference between the terms. Further research on their music is necessary, but with this analysis it becomes clear that the way postminimalism and totalism is defined might be problematic. How it is described now, is furthermore not completely workable when categorizing the music by Gordon, Lang and Wolfe.

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Conclusion

Defining the music by Michael Gordon, David Lang and Julia Wolfe is necessary because of their role in the contemporary classical scene. They and their collective Bang on a Can are of significant influence on composers, musicians and listeners in and outside that scene. Robert Fink and Kyle Gann have tried to name and identify the music by BoaC, but they are not in agreement with each other. Robert Fink says their music is postminimal, Gann says it is totalist. This disagreement is logical, because music from the late 20th and early 21st century is extremely diverse and definitions are often guided by individual opinions. However, it is important to have one definition to help discussing and researching this diverse field. BoaC is a good starting point, because of their role and position in contemporary classical music. That the music by Gordon, Lang and Wolfe became so successful is in part to thank for the upcoming of minimalism. This genre made downtown New York one of the most important places of new music to emerge. Letting go of the European traditions and making music with the listener in mind became the new standard. Commercialisation helped this, as it got the music out to that audience in a time where concert attendance was shrinking. Minimalism ‘freed’ composers from the idea that music had to be difficult, and gave way to new composing techniques like the use of electric instruments and samples. It also changed the form of ensembles, the relation of it with the composer and the way they rehearsed a new composition. Popular music, especially rock music, became a big influence on new music too. Composers started to use things like the rock energy and a strong and regular beat in their compositions, as well as fusing rock instruments with the regular classical chamber ensemble. Because of downtown places like The Kitchen or The Knitting Factory, young composers got in touch with rock bands and vice versa, and strict genre borders started to fade. Slowly, downtown music became the new ‘mainstream’, and more official concert halls started to program compositions from the scene. Complete festivals were dedicated to music from downtown. In the midst of this development, Gordon, Lang and Wolfe wanted do establish their own voice. With the Marathon concerts, they catered to a big range of tastes, which led to a merge of audiences. Through the success of these concerts, they expanded into the Bang on a Can collective. With this collective and everything it stands for, the three composers have been able to reach out to the audience even more and became an influence for other composers themselves. It could be said that they started a new music genre.

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This genre and their music is called either postminimalism or totalism. As seen in the literature analysis, there are only small differences between the two terms. The main distinction between the two terms are geographical and sociological traits. Furthermore, Gann has identified some rhythmical structures and figures he says are unique for totalism. When researching the compositions by Gordon, Lang and Wolfe that are composed in the same decade as the written articles, traits from both postminimalism and totalism are found. Sociologically and geographically they fit in the totalism description perfect, but when looking at the way they harmonically or rhythmically structure the piece, the difference between the two terms are proven to be small. It is neither and both. There is no conclusive answer if the music by Gordon, Lang and Wolfe is postminimal or totalist, although there are more arguments to identify it as the first. It opens, however, the discussion if the term totalism is strictly necessary. It is problematic if, for example, the only reason for music to be of a different genre is because it was composed in another city. When looking historically, after the birth of minimalism New York City was one of the biggest ‘incubators’ for successful new music. The city grew in importance in the development of the contemporary classical music scene, and thus music that came from the city was very influential. This could also explain the importance of Bang on a Can in the musical field. For convenience and further research, it might be good to discard the term totalism for music by Gordon, Lang and Wolfe. However, the definition of postminimalism needs to be sharpened too. More research on other composers in both terms is necessary. The hesitation by authors and journalists to name the music is not helping to clear up the big diversity, on the contrary, it makes things more difficult to research and promote. Adding an –ism to the name of the ensemble (Bang on a Can-ism) is also not the solution. There is also an argument that totalism is not a different term from postminimalism, but a specific style within it. Because they share traits, or the differences are so small, this could be a more workable way to use the two terms. This needs more research, but maybe it could be a good starting point when analysing all the different styles and strands of music that developed after minimalism. Both authors have stated that the diversity of contemporary music is a problem when analysing. This could be a way to get a grasp on it.

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