John Zorn. the Gift; Songs from the Hermetic Theatre (2001). Chimeras; Masada Guitars (2003)
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Brigham Young University BYU ScholarsArchive Faculty Publications 2008-01-01 John Zorn. The Gift; Songs from the Hermetic Theatre (2001). Chimeras; Masada Guitars (2003). Masada Recital; Magick (2004). Rituals (2005). Astronome; Masada Rock; Moonchild Christian T. Asplund [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/facpub Part of the Music Commons BYU ScholarsArchive Citation Asplund, Christian T., "John Zorn. The Gift; Songs from the Hermetic Theatre (2001). Chimeras; Masada Guitars (2003). Masada Recital; Magick (2004). Rituals (2005). Astronome; Masada Rock; Moonchild" (2008). Faculty Publications. 914. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/facpub/914 This Peer-Reviewed Article is brought to you for free and open access by BYU ScholarsArchive. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of BYU ScholarsArchive. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. RecordingReviews 129 JohnZorn. TheGift; Songs from the Hermetic Theatre (2001). Chimeras;Mas- ada Guitars(2003). Masada Recital;Magick (2004). Rituals (2005). Astronome; MasadaRock; Moonchild (2006). Each of these recordings appears on John Zorn'sown label,Tzadik. Once the unrulyupstart, John Zorn is now a MacArthurfellow, whose formi- dable catalogdivides easily intoearly, middle, and late periods.The earlyperiod dates fromthe mid-1970s to themid-1980s, when Zorn pioneeredthe practice of "comprovisation,"a termused to describe"the making of new compositionsfrom recordingsof improvised material/'1 Ultimately, Zorn's comprovisationblurs the lines between active listenerand composer,since both createnew works when theyimpose structureon foundsonic material.His earlystructuralist-modernist approach to comprovisationproduced esoteric,often severely pointillist music, and evolved into thegame pieces of the late 1970s and early 1980s,culminating in themasterpiece of strategy,Cobra (1984), the last early-periodwork. The middle period begins with The Big Gundown(1985) and representsan explicitshift to a populist major-label(Nonesuch) postmodernismwith a punk edge. During thistime, Zorn went frommodernist free improvisation monastic to foul-mouthedpostmodern enfant terrible of genrejuxtaposition. His albums from1985 into the early 1990s are eitherhomages to insidervernacular-literate figuresor jump cut/collages of diverse musical styles. The late period begins with Zorn's decision to release his own records(and those of many other artists)by foundinghis own label, Tzadik, in 1995. His recordingsin thismost recentperiod are eclecticto theextreme. Instead ofjux- taposingmany stylesin a single song (as in his earlyperiod), or a single album (as he did in the middle period), Zorn now creates entirealbums in a single style,replacing the aestheticof postmodernjuxtaposition with a steady-state lyricism.Most cuts are monotextural,and Zorn's role is mysterioussince he plays on few of them. The sheer quantity(and availability)of Zorn recordingsbegs the same fas- cinatingand disturbingquestions evoked by the output of fellow MacArthur Fellow AnthonyBraxton (who puts out so many recordsthat he dispenses with titles,simply giving the cityand year as a "marker" in lieu of a title),or, for thatmatter, prolific American music pioneer HenryCowell. One senses, in this approach,a differentscaling of mass-producedwork. The traditionalmodel is to produce many copies of a few recordings,but the Zorn/Braxton model is to produce a fewcopies of manyrecordings, thus mitigatingsome ofthe effects of mass production. In Zorn's early and middle periods,Zorn valued "structure"above all other aestheticvalues; thatis, the order,duration, and combinationof events was of farmore importance than the events themselves. This is apparentin Zorn's early game piece Hockey(first recorded in 1980),2especially in the "AcousticVersion" takes,in whichthe sonic paletteis extremelylimited, consisting of isolated duck call, clarinetmouthpiece, scraped violin, and miniaturepercussion sounds.3 The "ElectricVersion" takes are reminiscentof 1960s' improvisationcollectives AMM (Cornelius Cardew, et al.) and MEV (Musica ElettronicaViva), but with added doses ofexuberance, irony, and speed, and less introspectionand gradual unfolding.In thisand thelater strategy classic, Cobra,4 Zorn codifiescertain pro- 130 AmericanMusic, Spring 2008 ceduresof collective improvisation (characteristic both of experimental /"Euro/' "improvisedmusic/' and freejazz) intogames that are reminiscentof sports, cardgames, and wargames, except that there are no winnersor losers. Probablyone of the most performed compositions ofthe twentieth century, Cobra hasbeen played in several locations internationally ona regular(weekly or monthly) basisfor years in some cases. The work contains all of the elements of Zorn's artistic visionin a crazyyet efficient set of rules and procedures. It is scoredfor any nine ormore performers and a "prompter"(conductor) who uses color-coded cards to cue differenttypes of collective improvisation (or "cues"). Cues can followeach otherquickly, in rapid succession, or, if the prompter is pleasedwith what is being played,a cuecan linger. Performers may use hand symbols to request specific cues (whichthe prompter may use orignore). One cue, for example, mandates that at a downbeatthose who are playing must stop playing and thosewho are not play- ingmay begin playing. Other cues indicate different kinds of rapid "trading" of soundevents from player to player. The "Sound Memory" cues, numbered 1-3, areparticularly interesting and revealing. When the prompter hears a texturehe or shelikes, the promoter shows the Sound Memory 1 card,which "saves" the music forlater use. Thereafter, ifthe prompter holds up theSound Memory 1 cardagain, themusicians must play the saved music. The "group change" cue mandates that thesame "music" be playedby a differentgroup, that is, the musicians currently playingmust be replaced,person for person, by musiciansnot yet playing, but theymust replicate the same musical texture. Cobra'scues illustrateone ofZorn's approaches to a material-neutralframe ofreference, one that embraces found or grafted materials with their own struc- turallogics. In theearlier Hockey we finda continuouslydiscontinuous texture, dominatedby short,discrete events, with no referenceto musicalgenres. In contrast,Cobra has a moreor less juxtaposedseries of steadystate textures ("music")of various lengths, some of which are reminiscent of various genres. A later,very similar, game piece, Bezique (1989), has severalcues under the cat- egoryof "modifiers." These cards indicate "Pop," "Classical," "Jazz," "Rock," "Ethnic,"and so on,and theplayers must instantly render an entiregenre into a miniaturecollective improvisation that may be cutoff at anymoment by the prompter.Thus the structure of individual textures is bracketedand leftup to theimprovisational impulses of the performers (within each cue's constraints), whilethe prompter selects the order and durationof these textures. This pro- cedureis reminiscentof and influencedby film editing, in which the structural principleis thesplicing together of various lengths of preexisting material, each ofwhich is viewedby the editor to be, in some sense, a quantum,no matterhow shortor long.The geniusof Cobra is thatnot only is thematerial not selected by thecomposer, but the structure itself is notmandated, only the process for generatingstructure. Duringthe course of the late 1980s, in theNonesuch releases, the "material" inZorn's music begins to assertitself more and more,revealing the eclecticism thatlurked behind the structuralist-modernist orientation of the1970s. Zorn seemedto be drawingmore explicitly from his vast record collection. The highly successfulNaked City debut album (1989) consists of deliberate jump cuts be- tweenclearly articulated styles, such as freebop,smooth jazz, hardcore, country, RecordingReviews 131 Webernianpointillism, and barblues. In the1990s and 2000sthese styles break outof their placement in linearcollages and becomeentire pieces, albums, or seriesof albums. Zorn'sTzadik releases since 2000 are unapologeticallyin specificniches or genres.There are eighteen volumes of "Film Works/' music composed for inde- pendentfilms; Astronome and Moonchild,which are noise-rock "operas"; several compilationsofinterpretations oftunes from the avant-klezmer Masada songbook forvarious ensembles; Songs from the Hermetic Theatre (2001), an all-electronicmusic disc;The Gift (2001), a collectionof lounge tunes; atonal chamber music releases, suchas theCrumbesque Magick (2004) for string quartet, and theSchoenbergian monodramas,Chimeras (2003) and Rituals(2005) for "Pierrot esque" ensembles.5 Zorn'slate-period releases are impeccablyrecorded. Technically, they bring to mindthe simple, elegant fixed camera cinematography of WoodyAllen's middle-periodfilms. They are beautifullymiked, mixed, and masteredwith a minimumof obtrusive reverb, compression, or otherprocessing. The bass is sometimesheavy in Tzadik releases, unlike Zorn's Nonesuch records, which can be a bitharsh in theupper frequencies. As steadystates, each cutin thisvast collectionhas charms.The breadth of styles touched on suggeststhe danger of glossingover the musical and sociohistoricalcomplexity of each genre. Thelistening experience of Zorn's late-period releases is verydifferent from thefrenetic rollercoaster ride of his middle-periodreleases. Where middle-pe- riodmusic takes its structural