Chinese Whispers and other contemporary dance music

Gabriella Smart | piano Chinese Whispers

Gabriella Smart

Ludovico Einaudi (b. 1955) Erik Griswold (b. 1969) 1 Canzone popolare (Francia, 1500 ca) (from Le 3 Latin Rhythms (for prepared piano) USA/Australia Onde) Italy 1’16” 8 Maracatu 2’19” 9 Batucada 3’00” Zhu Jian’er (b. 1922) 2 An Offering of Intimacy (1955) China 3’21” Jia Daqun (b. 1955) q0 Scherzo (1983) China 2’23” Erik Griswold (b. 1969) 3 Latin Rhythms (for prepared piano) USA/Australia Michael Nyman (b. 1944) 3 Guaguanco 3’38” qa Tango for Tim (1994) England 5’44”

Qin Yi (b. 1981) Carl Vine (b. 1954) 4 Suo (2000) China 2’18” Five Bagatelles (1994) Australia qs Darkly 2’33” Tan Dun (b. 1957) qd Leggiero e legato 1’28” 5 Traces (1992) China/USA 8’54” qf (untitled) 1’50” qg (untitled) 1’17” Alvin Curran (b. 1938) qh Threnody (for all of the innocent victims) Gently 6 ‘for Cornelius’ (1982) USA 13’26” 2’53”

Constantine Koukias (b. 1965) * Commissioned by Gabriella Smart with assistance from the 7 Within a ‘Prayer at Lamplighting’ (piano, digital Australia Council for the Arts delay & glass rods) (2000)* Australia 11’58” Dance tells an eloquent story: it is the physical, visceral celebration of life, from the frenzy of physical abandonment to the caress of a gentle embrace. Music is the pulse that keeps it alive. Composers over the centuries have taken dance forms and metamorphosed them into absolute music, as the supreme abstract expression of art. Tracks 2, 4, 5, 7 and 10 comprise the program from Chinese Whispers, a performance of contemporary piano solos from Australia and China, and dance duets which will tour Australia and China in 2005. Remaining works are taken from a solo concert Smart gave for the 2003 Melbourne International Festival, the theme of which was the celebration of music and movement. The works of Ludovico Einaudi, Zhu Jian’er, Tan Dun and Michael Nyman are extensions of their ground breaking music for film. Ludovico Einaudi was awarded and numerous symphonic poems and piano are personal interpretations of a Diploma of Composition at the concertos. In 1999, Zhu Jian’er helped three great percussion styles – the Conservatorio Giuseppi Verdi in Milan to found the Shanghai New Ensemble Cuban Guaguanco, and Brazilian Batucada with Azio Corghi and continued studies and remains artistic consultant to the and Maracatu. with Luciano Berio. His chamber and ensemble, for whom he has written orchestral compositions have been numerous works. Zhu has received Qin Yi was born in 1981, Shanghai. performed by such international many international prizes and national She is pursuing a masters degree at the institutions as the Teatro alla Scala, awards for his many compositions and Shanghai Conservatory in composition Tanglewood festival, the Lincoln Centre is today regarded as one of China’s most under Prof. Qu Xiaosong and Prof. Chen and the Queen Elisabeth Hall. During important composers. An Offering of Qiangbin. She majored in composition the mid-eighties he developed a more Intimacy was composed in Moscow in and pipa as an undergraduate. As both personal musical language, exploring 1955 and was dedicated by Zhu to his soloist and composer Qin Yi has taken this in a successful series of dance wife, who remained in Beijing while he part in many events, including the Hong and multi-media works and then with was studying overseas. Kong Arts Festival 2002, ISCM World his own ensemble. Einaudi’s Canzone Music Days 2002 Hong Kong, 2003 popolare (Francia, ca.1500) captures Erik Griswold embraces experimental, International Gaudeamus Music Week, the spirit of the Italian lyric poem from jazz and pop traditions, multi-media 2003 Chinese Composers’ Festival, which it derives. It is one of a set of and cross-cultural collaborations. Often Aspekte Salzburg 2004, Munchener pieces entitled Le onde (the world), a set employing prepared and toy pianos, he biennale 2004 and Les Musicades of ballades. performs as a soloist with his ensembles invitent la Chine 2004. Her works Clocked Out Duo and bluepoles quartet, include Suo for Piano solo, Zhenru II Zhu Jian’er was born in Tianjin in 1922 and with En Rusk quintet and the for pipa solo, Stream for Zhonghu and and grew up in Shanghai. In 1945, he Intergalactic Contemporary Ensemble. Sanxian, Gossamer for strings clarinet joined a theatre troupe as a composer He has composed a substantial and piano, Story Drum for pipa and two and conductor, later turning his hand to body of chamber music for a variety percussionists and Anapana for Bass writing film scores. In 1955, he went of instruments, but especially for clarinet and Pipa. Qin Yi explores the to the Soviet Union to undertake further percussion and piano. Erik’s percussion concepts of rest, space and simplicity in studies at the Moscow Conservatory of compositions have been performed Suo. She encaptures the spirit of Chinese Music, graduating in 1960. Zhu has been widely in Europe, the USA and Australia. music, giving life and inner vibration to permanent composer at the Shanghai He holds a Ph.D. in Music from the every note. Suo is the first work in a Symphony Orchestra and an adjunct University of California, San Diego, where series for pipa and piano, and her first professor at the Shanghai Conservatory he studied composition with Roger piece for piano. of Music since 1975. For the SSO, he has Reynolds and improvisation with George composed 10 symphonies, 12 overtures Lewis. The 3 Latin Rhythms for prepared Tan Dun’s repertoire spans the From rarefied string quartets to blaring Constantine Koukias, cofounder and boundaries of classical, multimedia, ship horn concerts to Holocaust memorial artistic director of IHOS, has composed Eastern and Western music traditions. installations; from Midi-Grands to and directed the following operas and He has been awarded many of the most computerized ram’s horns - these are his music theatre works: Days and Nights prestigious international honors, and natural laboratories. Born in Providence, with Christ, To Traverse Water, Mikrovion, his music has been played throughout Rhode Island, in 1938, he studied Rapture, The Divine Kiss, Spirits of the the world by leading orchestras, opera the piano, trombone and all forms of Hoist, Prayer Bells, Schwa and Tesla. His houses, international festivals, and on popular music. He began composing at design credits include the internationally radio and television. His latest work, Brown University under Ron Nelson and acclaimed Odyssey and Medea. His Secret Land for Orchestra and Twelve completed his studies (M.Music) at Yale Incantation II for Soprano won the Violoncelli for the Berlin Philharmonic with Elliott Carter in 1963. Following International Valentino Bucchi Vocal Prize and Sir Simon Rattle was premiered a year with Carter in Berlin he moved in Rome. He recently adapted, designed on 17June 2004 in Berlin. Tan Dun’s to Rome – his adopted home. With and directed The Master Builder in current commissions include a new opera Frederic Rzewski and Richard Teitelbaum Sydney. Within a Prayer at Lamplighting for the Metropolitan Opera and James in 1966 Curran co-founded the radical features one of the most celebrated Levine to premiere in December 2006. collective Musica Elettronica Viva – a Easter Mass Chants from the Byzantine As a conductor he has led many of the group renowned for inciting free music period, ‘Christ has risen from the Dead, world’s leading orchestras. Based in as well as musical uprisings. Curran trampling down death by death, and New York, Tan Dun was born in Simao, has received numerous international upon those in the tombs, bestowing life’. China. Having served as a rice-planter commissions andd awards. He taught This chant is sung during the ceremony and performer of Peking opera during briefly at the Academia Nazionale d’Arte of the lighting of the Paschal Candle, the Cultural Revolution, he later studied Drammatica in Rome and is presently the which is conducted either on Easter Eve at Beijing’s Central Conservatory. He Milhaud Professor of Music Composition or immediately preceding the Easter holds a doctoral degree in musical arts at Mills College in Oakland, California. Eucharist. The piece is centred on this from Columbia University of New York. In his threnody for Cornelius, Curran intensely symbolic period where the Traces was commissioned by the Concert moulds his despair into a Satie-esque spreading of the light from the Paschal Artists’ Guild in 1989. It evokes the waltz. Unsettling in its repetition, the candle throughout the congregation symbiotic relationship between silence waltz evolves into a cascading lament of represents the resurrection of Christ and and sound, stillness and movement. The repeated vibrating chords. for Cornelius the Easter message of death conquered. genius of the work lies in the clarity of is dedicated to his good friend and its architectural landscape. colleague Cornelius Cardew, who died as Jia Daqun is Professor of Composition a result of a hit and run car accident in & Theory at the Shanghai Conservatory Alvin Curran makes music, with all the early eighties. of Music and Executive Director of means, anywhere and for any occasion. the Shanghai New Ensemble. He also lectures on contemporary Chinese the laboratory in which Nyman has Amongst his most acclaimed scores are music in the USA. A prolific composer, formulated his compositional style Poppy (1978) for the Sydney Dance his music is widely performed in China around strong melodies, flexible yet Company, Elegy (1985) for Flederman, and internationally. Jia has won many assertive rhythms, and precisely Café Concertino (1984) for the Australia composition awards in China. In 1991 articulated ensemble playing. His music Ensemble, and Legend (1988) for the he won the twelfth IRINO Indoor Music has reached its largest audience by West Australian Ballet Company. His first International Composer Competition held way of his film scores, most famously three symphonies have been released on in Tokyo, among the most prestigious for Peter Greenaway, with whom he compact disc by the Sydney Symphony of composing awards. Jia Daqun moves collaborated on eleven movies between Orchestra conduced by Stuart Challender freely between the western and Chinese 1976 and 1991. In its colours and in and a CD of his chamber music featuring traditional styles in his works. The its movement, Michael Nyman’s Tango the Piano Sonata performed by Michael Shanghai New Ensemble, Shanghai becomes an obsessive lament for a lost Harvey was released in 1992. Recently Percussion Ensemble and the Shanghai friend. Originally written for harpsichord, his Piano Concerto, Symphony 4 and Chinese Ensemble regularly perform this is the premiere recording of the Choral Symphony (Symphony no. 6) his works. Scherzo was Jia Daqun’s piano version. have been released with ABC Classics first work for piano, using western performed by the Sydney Symphony as free composition techniques within the Carl Vine occupies a unique place in well as a second volume of his chamber Chinese traditional ‘Five Sound Style’ Australia’s musical life. The catalogue music, including his second Piano Sonata main theme. of his music includes some twenty on the Tall Poppies label. In his Five works for dance, music for film and Bagatelles, Carl distills the intensity Michael Nyman has written for a theatre, electronic music and numerous of colour and emotional palette with wide variety of ensembles, including solo instrumental and orchestral works supreme mastery. He originally wrote symphony orchestra, a cappella chorus including six symphonies. Born in 1954 the fifth Bagatelle, entitled Threnody and string quartet. He has written in Perth, Carl moved to Sydney in 1975, (for all of the innocent victims), for the several stage works, notably The Man where he worked as a freelance pianist Australian National AIDS Trust. It became who Mistook his Wife for a Hat (1986), and composer with a wide variety of the last in this series. derived from a case study by Oliver ensembles, theatre and dance companies. Sacks; and has provided music for He has been resident composer with many distinguished choreographers. In the Sydney Dance Company (1978), the 1976 Nyman assembled what he would London Contemporary Dance Theatre describe as ‘the loudest unamplified (1979), the New South Wales State street band’ he could imagine: rebecs, Conservatorium (1985), the Australian sackbuts, shawms alongside banjo, Chamber Orchestra (1987) and the bass drum and saxophone. This is Western Australian University (1989). Gabriella Smart is a passionate exponent of contemporary music, and has given award-winning premieres of Australian compositions. In 2003 she performed solo recitals in the Melbourne International Festival and La Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris. She was invited to perform in the 2004 Ten Days on the Island Festival in Tasmania, after her critically acclaimed performances during the 2002 festival. Gabriella studied with Eleonora Sivan at the Elder Conservatorium in Adelaide, and is grateful for Eleonora’s continued inspiration and guidance. Gabriella is the recipient of various awards and fellowships. Her 1998 solo debut at the International Barossa Music Dun. Gabriella continues to collaborate Contemporary Music Ensemble in 1996. Festival won a Sounds Australia award with many Australian composers, Soundstream has toured nationally, for best performance of an Australian commissioning and premiering their premiering works by international and work, and she has since enjoyed repeat works. She has given numerous live and Australian composers. Gabriella teaches appearances at the festival. In 2002 recorded broadcasts for ABC Classic fm. at the Elder Conservatorium, University she was awarded a Fellowship from the Her specialisation in contemporary of Adelaide. South Australian Government. music has seen her perform with the Gabriella has performed widely Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, the throughout Australia, and in France, Australian Dance Theatre, Leigh Warren promoting the works of Australian and Dancers, State Theatre of South composers. She has given international Australia and Ihos Experimental Theatre premieres of works by eminent Troupe. composers Michael Nyman and Tan Gabriella founded Soundstream Acknowledgements:

ArtSA

Special thanks to Mark Patterson and Eleonora Sivan

All tracks recorded and edited at Move Records studio by sound engineer Vaughan McAlley

Except: Tracks 3, 8 and 9 recorded at PATU Studio, University of Adelaide, sound engineer Michael Yuen.

Track 7 recorded at PATU studio, University of Adelaide, sound engineer Silvermoon.

Mastered at Move Records Booklet layout: Move Records

The Chinese Whispers dance recital was produced by Reckless Moments and premiered at the Golden Grove Arts Centre in Adelaide on 11 March 2005 with dancers Hou Honglan and Anastasia Humeniuk and pianist Gabriella Smart. Choreographed by Amanda Phillips, the production also included Amanda’s dance film, When There’s Only. Dramaturgy by Barry Creative Futures and Chinese Whispers Plews. produced by P 2005 Move Records, Australia Visit our website: www.move.com.au