Flux Flummoxed

www.albanyrecords.com TROY1422 albany records u.s. New American Music for Violin and Piano 915 broadway, albany, ny 12207 tel: 518.436.8814 fax: 518.436.0643 albany records u.k. Benjamin Sung violin Derek Johnson fragments box 137, kendal, cumbria la8 0xd tel: 01539 824008 Curtis K. Hughes insult to injury © 2013 Albany Records made in the usa Jihye Chang piano DDD warning: copyright subsists in all recordings issued under this label. Christian A. Gentry Flux Flummoxed Sean Shepherd Dust The Music In re-imagining these pieces for violin and piano, I had the unique opportunity to edit, Derek Johnson: fragments re-arrange and re-compose them knowing from the start what my “raw-footage” was. As a Derek Johnson is a composer, electric guitarist and educator active in the world of contemporary result, I approached the project from a rather “cinematic” point of view. I’m continually fascinated concert music and beyond. Born and raised at the majestic base of the Rocky Mountains in by the visceral and cognitive power of film, and am eager to incorporate the techniques used in Boulder, Colorado, Derek began his college training as an electric guitarist at Columbia College that medium (foreshadowing, use of perspective, various methods of editing) to tie together (and Chicago and completed graduate degrees in composition at the Indiana University Jacobs School sometimes to un-tie) the unified and disparate elements in my own composition. Thus, my of Music. He is a founding member of the virtuoso chamber ensemble BASILICA and a frequent truncated little character pieces have become the protagonists in a “short film” (of sorts) with- collaborator with singer/songwriter Christian Taylor. Johnson has performed internationally with out picture, played-out by two instrumentalists on the stage and cut together using a recurring the powerhouse new music ensemble the All-Stars in collaboration with guest and evolving motto in the form of the opening piano gesture and sonority. artists Iva Bittova, Don Byron, Bryce Dessner (The National), , Phillip Glass, Glenn Below is a “shot-list” with thoughts and descriptions of the pieces to help the audience Kotche (Wilco), Lee Ranaldo (Sonic Youth), , Ryuichi Sakamoto and Nick Zammuto both gain and lose their bearings in both the cognitive and viscerally charged act of listening. (The Books). Deeply engaged in the emerging position of the electric guitar in concert music, Derek is an active as a both a soloist and chamber musician presenting the rich and steadily Motto I growing canon of works written specifically for the electric guitar. His compositions been per- 1. Star Music – How it thinks to look at the stars, interrupted by how it feels. formed throughout the United States and Canada by leading soloists and ensembles including Motto II the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s MusicNOW and Montreal’s Nouvel Ensemble Moderne. He 2. A song of sorts (w/o words) – the hidden text revealed: has served as a faculty member in the music department of Columbia College Chicago, as an Let snake wait, under his weed, and the writing be of words. Associate Instructor of Composition at Indiana University’s Jacob School of Music, and as Slow, and quick, sharp to strike, quiet to wait, sleepless. (William Carlos Williams) chamber music faculty at the Bang On A Can Summer Institute. He is an Assistant Professor of Motto III Music Theory and Composition at the Ball State University School of Music, and is the director 3. Blues for Anton – A nocturnal ostinato underneath wide “Webern-ian” intervals. A blues for of the BSU Electric Guitar Quartet. Derek is an avid transcriber and is working in collaboration with one of my favorite stargazers. the innovative Swedish band Meshuggah on a series of transcription books and an inter-active Motto IV software application encompassing the band’s complete discography. 4. Fantasy – A slow opening unfolds a harmonic background that is later repeated with fast music superimposed above it. Though the tempo changes and the content is elaborated, the fragments brings together a series of short character pieces originally intended for other projects. slow harmonic background, or frame, retains its original speed and proportion. The 1st and 3rd pieces (Star Music and Blues for Anton) were first envisioned as solo piano Motto V: liquidation pieces, while the 2nd and 4th pieces (A song of sorts and Fantasy) were written respectively fragments was written (and re-written) for, and is dedicated to, Benjamin Sung and for soprano and violin (to a poem by William Carlos Williams) and mixed quartet (, violin, Jihye Chang. cello and piano). —Derek Johnson Christian A. Gentry: Flux Flummoxed Curtis K. Hughes: insult to injury Christian A. Gentry composes music for a variety of instrumentation and genres including, The music of Curtis K. Hughes (b. 1974) has been described as “fiery” in theNew York Times, orchestra, choir, art song, chamber music, film, theater and electroacoustic music. Some of his “well crafted” in the Boston Phoenix, and “colorfully scored” in the Boston Globe. A member of works have been played and/or recorded by Canyonlands New Music Ensemble, Arsenal Trio, the composition faculty at the Boston Conservatory, his work is characterized by its rhythmic Emily Hindrichs (soprano), East Coast Contemporary Ensemble, Juventas, White Rabbit, the restlessness, its harmonic adventurousness and its often political subject matter. Curtis’s mu- Lydian String Quartet, New York Virtuoso Singers, VERGE Ensemble, ICE and Talujon . He is a sic has been heard across the US and internationally, from Tanglewood to Bulgaria, in venues two-time recipient of the Barlow Endowment Commission for Flux Flummoxed for Jihye Chang ranging from the New Gallery Concert Series in Boston to the MKA-Theater in Berlin. He has (piano) and Benjamin Sung (violin), and Die Lärmtrompeten des Nichts for The Guidonian Hand served as composer-in-residence for Collage New Music and the Radius Ensemble, and has (trombone quartet). Along with composing, he is a passionate lecturer and educator on a variety collaborated with many other chamber groups, including Primary Duo, the Callithumpian Con- of musical topics. sort and the Yesaroun’ Duo, while his orchestral and large ensemble music has been played by the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, the Cleveland Chamber Symphony and many others. As I began this project I was preoccupied with the idea of the music moving in and out of stylistic Curtis is a graduate of Oberlin College and Conservatory, and of the New England boundaries, as if transported or transformed from its original form. However, it seemed that Conservatory, which honored him in 2010 with its Outstanding Alumni Award. He has received this movement (Entropic March) inevitably became frustrated and/or undercut by interjecting critical acclaim for his 2003 cd AVOIDANCE TACTICS, praised in The Wire as “spiky” and gestures, sudden stillness, quick fades, or any combination thereof. As this ‘frustration’ of “absorbing,” and in New Music Box as “feisty” and “audacious,” while more recent compositions thematic and stylistic cohesion became a governing factor of the work I tried to piece together have been described as “energetic, compelling stuff” handled with “seasoned sureness” (New some short phrase that encapsulates this idea. The words flux flummoxed kept coming to mind. Music Connoisseur) and with “major chops and energy.” (Boston Herald) Put together as a phrase it seems almost like some nonsensical postmodern bricolage, but Curtis has taught at MIT, Brandeis and the New England Conservatory. nevertheless kept popping up in my mind. Then, as chance would have it (googling the term “Flux Flummoxed”), I came across a 2006 article by scientist Phil Stauffer from Ground Water insult to injury, originally composed for violinist Biliana Voutchkova and pianist Sarah Bob, (a hydrogeology journal) with the title “Flux Flummoxed: A Proposal for Consistent Usage.” includes a volatile mix of aggression and introspection. It is perhaps my most emotionally naked From this article and my amateurish look into physics and electromagnetism, a title was born piece of chamber music, as it was written in 2003 under the influence of vehement, visceral (for which I thank Phil Stauffer for his like-minded cleverness). Each of the movements represents reactions to politics and international events taking place during the same year. It is, therefore, some aspect of flux not as literal signifiers for extra-musical scientific phenomena (an impossible program music of a sort, but its implied narrative can be interpreted by different listeners in task); but rather, as sonic explorations that were aptly titled after the movements were composed, different ways. The first movement, by far the longer of the two, is mostly quite furiously con- except for the last movement. As a homage to the idyllic days of VelcroTM, pegged pants, and frontational until it reaches a pinnacle of intensity, and then gradually withdraws into stillness time-traveling DeLoreans, “Flux Capacitor,” pays nostalgic homage to the exciting faux-science and resignation. The second movement is much more humorous, if caustic, and features a of Back to the Future that not only bookends my faux-scientific exploration of flux through cartoon-like cyclical interplay between the instruments. my musical imagination, but also appropriately closes off the whole work through referencing —Curtis K. Hughes previous thematic material. —Christian A. Gentry Sean Shepherd: Dust nothing new in the genre, from works of Beethoven and Brahms, through the Fauré and Ravel Called “a composer worth keeping an ear on” (Chicago Tribune), Sean Shepherd has quickly Sonatas and beyond. This pair of instruments is a team of rivals if there ever was one; any struggle gained admiration and return engagements with major ensembles and performers across the for predominance is at once laudable and futile. Perhaps aside from keyboard and voice, no duo US and Europe. His work has been performed by the National, BBC and New World sym- has seen a more fruitful exploration in the repertoire – a testament to composer’s continued phony orchestras, at festivals in Aldeburgh, Heidelberg, La Jolla, Lucerne, Tanglewood and fascination in the possibilities of a virtuoso partnership. Santa Fe, and by leading European ensembles including the Scharoun Ensemble Berlin, the Dust is dedicated to Benjamin Sung and Jihye Chang, who gave the first performance in Asko|Schönberg Ensemble and the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group. Shepherd served February 2009, at Barnes Hall, Cornell University in Ithaca New York. from 2010 to 2012 as the first-ever Composer-in-Residence of his hometown orchestra, the —Sean Shepherd Reno Philharmonic, where he composed two new works Silvery Rills and Desert Garden, and he engaged in a variety of community outreach and educational initiatives. Shepherd is the Daniel R. Lewis Composer Fellow of the Cleveland Orchestra. He is a The Performers graduate with degrees in composition and bassoon performance of Indiana University, has Assistant Professor of Violin at The Florida State University, violinist Benjamin Sung is also received a master’s degree from The Juilliard School, and has done doctoral work at Cornell on the faculty of the Brevard Music Center. Recent concert highlights include appearances at University with and Steven Stucky. Brevard; the XIII Festival y Academia del Nuevo Mundo in Maracaibo, Venezuela; the Cuban premiere of the Schnittke Concerto Grosso No. 1 and the Estaciones Portenas by Piazzolla; and A piece for violin and piano is one I had long wanted to write, and Dust was a welcome break a collaboration with the James Sewell Ballet for the opening of the Cowles Center for Dance from working with larger forces just before and after. Originally intended as the first half of an and the Performing Arts in Minneapolis. equally balanced two-part Sonata, this movement quickly grew long and unwieldy for what I Sung has given concerto performances with numerous orchestras, including the Camerata had planned, owing to the dictates of the musical materials themselves. The immediate solution Romeu of Havana, Cuba, the Virtuosi of Festival Internacionale de Musica in Recife, Brazil, and was to complete Dust, and return at a later date to contribute a second part worthy of the cause. the National Repertory Orchestra. He is an avid chamber musician, collaborating with performers In years since, at least three valiant missions toward completing the task have gone down in including cellists Antonio Meneses and Marcio Carneiro, pianists Monique Duphil and Peter flames. For the time being, this music intends to stand alone, and so I’m content to oblige. Laul, and French hornist William Purvis. Mr. Sung is much in demand as a teacher as well, The opening material, which returns to close, flanks a contrasting middle meant to stand having given masterclasses at Lawrence Conservatory, the University of Minnesota, a kind of polar opposite in tempo, behavior and character. Marked haltingly, with widely-spaced Universidade Federale do Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil, and Seoul National University. events in the piano, the violin enters pathetique, high on the deep fourth string of the instrument. Mr. Sung is a past winner of the Starling Award of the Eastman School of Music and the I made the decision to have the long, widely-spaced line on the string purely as a timbral one, Violin Fellowship of the Montgomery Symphony, and received the Gladys Gingold Scholarship but watching a player’s efforts in executing the awkward difficulty of it in performance haunts at Indiana University. An enthusiastic advocate of contemporary music, Sung has performed me, as it seems to mirror my feeling about that music precisely. The music of the middle section and taught for Studio 2021 at Seoul National University, has recorded the music of composers seems at once preoccupied and darting, as well as fixated, obsessive and insistent. The two Steve Rouse and Marc Satterwhite for Centaur Records, and was a juror for the 2011 Martirano instruments are often sharing material, jockeying for position. Such a race seems to me like Award of the University of Illinois. Sung holds a Bachelor’s degree from the Eastman School of Music, where he studied research into the etudes of György Ligeti and Unsuk Chin has evolved into an ongoing series of with Oleh Krysa, and Master’s and Doctorate degrees from the Indiana University Jacobs lectures and recitals exploring the piano etudes and miniatures of the 20th and 21st centuries, School of Music, from the studio of Nelli Shkolnikova. Sung also studied at the Professional which she has presented at Indiana University, University of Louisville, Seoul National University, Training Program at Carnegie Hall, the Lucerne Festival Academy, the New York String and Auburn University Montgomery. Seminar, and the Chamber Music Residency at The Banff Centre. Ms. Chang was the first winner of the Mikhashoff International Competition for Pianist- Composer Collaboration in 2008, and gave her winner’s recital at the Hallwalls Contemporary Pianist Jihye Chang has enjoyed a versatile career as a soloist, collaborative artist, chamber Art Center in Buffalo, New York. Other awards and honors include the Henry Kohn Award for musician and a recording artist. She has performed in venues throughout the United States, outstanding achievement at the Tanglewood Music Center, an Honorary Fellowship from the Canada, Korea, Brazil, Costa Rica, Honduras and France. Her performances have been broad- Montgomery Symphony Orchestra, the President’s Award from Seoul National University, and cast on KBS TV and Radio Korea, PBC TV Korea, Yedang TV Korea, and Costa Rica Classical the Grand Prize from the Samick Piano Competition, Korea. Radio, and she has appeared as a soloist with the Fargo-Moorhead Symphony Orchestra, In recent years, Ms. Chang has developed a close relationship with the James Sewell Wonjoo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Indiana University New Music Ensemble, Montgomery Ballet in Minneapolis, with whom she collaborated for a series of concerts presented by the Symphony Orchestra, Minnesota State University-Moorhead University Orchestra, the Sun-Hwa Schubert Club of Minneapolis, the Cheryl Lossett Nelson Performing Arts Series at Minnesota Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Hot Springs Festival Ensemble. She has been a regular guest Sate University-Moorhead, and A Center for the Arts of Fergus Falls. She also gave a tour at the Virtuosi festival in Recife and Festival Inverno de Garanhuns, Brazil. The summer of 2013 around Minnesota with the Arsenal Trio, supported by the Minnesota State Arts Board. marks her debut on the faculty at the Brevard Music Center, featuring a performance of the Ms. Chang holds the degrees of Doctor of Music and Master of Music in Piano complete Brandenburg Concertos by J.S. Bach. Performance from the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University under the tutelage As a recording artist, she has released several commercially successful CDs including of György Sebök, Reiko Neriki, and Edward Auer. She received her Bachelor’s degree Piano for Easy Listening on Sony/BMG Korea and Classics for Children on Seoul Record, summa cum laude from Seoul National University, where she studied with Jungkyu Kim. Korea. Her most recent recordings are a solo piano collection for children (I am Piano) from Universal Korea. She was also the curator for a collection of 12 CDs entitled 12 Months of Classical Music by Sony Korea, and currently is writing a book companion for that box set. An avid performer of new music, she has been a frequent guest artist of the Studio 2021 Series at Seoul National University, as well as new music festivals at Ball State University and the University of Louisville. She has premiered more than 30 works, many of them written for her, and has closely worked with David Dzubay, John Harbison, George Perle, Steve Rouse, and Marc Satterwhite, among others. Her recordings of chamber music by Rouse and Satterwhite can be found on the Centaur label, with plans to record the solo piano works of Rouse in 2014. She has appeared at the John Cage Centennial Festival at The Florida State University, and was invited to perform at the Ligeti Festival at the same institute. Her doctoral Acknowledgments This album is made possible by a Recording Grant from the Aaron Copland Fund for Music, and a Small Project Grant from The Florida State University. Mr. Sung plays a 1799 Nicolas Lupot violin and a bow by Nicolas Maire, generously loaned by the Chi-Mei Foundation of Tainan, Taiwan.

Recorded November 25-28, 2010, in Christiansen Recital Hall, Concordia College, Moorhead, Minnesota

Recording engineer: Mike Coates

Editing, mixing, and mastering: Won Park, Papaya Studios, Seoul

Derek Johnson’s Fragments is published by American Composers Alliance. Curtis K. Hughes’ insult to injury and Christian A. Gentry’s Flux Flummoxed are available direct from the composer. Sean Shepherd’s Dust is published by Boosey & Hawkes.

Cover art by Marjorie Schlossman Flux Flummoxed Benjamin Sung violin Jihye Chang piano troy1422

7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Jihye Chang Benjamin Sung Piano and Violin for Music American New Flummoxed Flux wa r ning: c TROY1422 travesty —cadenzaepilogue[8:05] tirage —plateauretreat[13:28] insult toinjury(2002-3) Curtis K.Hughes Motto V. Motto IV. Motto III. Motto II. Motto I. fragments (2002-03/05) Derek Johnson o p yr igh Liquidation [2:29] Fantasy [3:43] Blues forAnton[2:16] A songofsorts(w/owords)[2:42] Star Music[1:55] t subsis © tel: 01539824008 box 137,kendal,cumbria la8 0xd albany recordsu.k. tel: 518.436.8814 fax:518.436.0643 915 broadway,albany,ny12207 albany recordsu.s. www.albanyrecords.com piano

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empo [10:09] Very Haltingly—AbsolutelyUnrelenting T Dust (2008-09) Sean Shepherd Flux Capacitor[6:12] Electrostatic [5:56] Momentum Perpetuum[6:30] Entropic March[9:11] Flux Flummoxed(2009) Christian A.Gentry

Flux Flummoxed Flux Jihye Chang Chang Jihye Sung Benjamin

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