Chamber Music of John Liberatore

LINE DRAWINGS

LINE DRAWINGS Chamber Music of John Liberatore

Six Line Drawings [10:36] A Line Broken, Traced [15:44] 1 I. giocoso [2:04] 13 I. [2:47] TROY1736 2 II. non troppo lento [2:39] 14 II. [2:49]

3 III. pesante, feroce [2:05] 15 III. [6:16] 4 IV. hushed, gentle [0:27] 16 IV. [3:52] The Bent Frequency Duo Project

5 V. con brio [1:22] (Jan Berry Baker, soprano saxophone 6 VI. sempre molto legato, ripieno [1:58] CHAMBER MUSIC OF JOHN LIBERATORE Ryan MacEvoy McCullough, piano Stuart Gerber, percussion)

7 a tree-sprout, a nameless weed [10:29] Had They Remained [18:51] The Mivos Quartet 17 Part I. [8:21] (Olivia De Prato & Lauren Cauley, violins 18 Part II. [7:07] Victor Lowrie, viola | Mariel Roberts, cello) 19 Epilogue [3:23] Jamie Jordan, soprano The Soughing Wind [16:02] Daniel Druckman, percussion 8 I. lontano [6:21] John Liberatore, glass harmonica 9 II. interlude [1:03] 10 III. con brio [2:43] Total Time = 71:44

CHAMBER MUSIC OF JOHN LIBERATORE 11 IV. interlude [1:14]

12 V. lontano [4:41]

Duo Damiana (Molly Barth, flute | Dieter Hennings, guitar)

TROY1736

WWW.ALBANYRECORDS.COM TROY1736 ALBANY RECORDS U.S. 915 BROADWAY, ALBANY, NY 12207 TEL: 518.436.8814 FAX: 518.436.0643 ALBANY RECORDS U.K. BOX 137, KENDAL, CUMBRIA LA8 0XD TEL: 01539 824008 © 2018 ALBANY RECORDS MADE IN THE USA DDD WARNING: COPYRIGHT SUBSISTS IN ALL RECORDINGS ISSUED UNDER THIS LABEL. LINE DRAWINGS

Liberatore_1736_inlay.indd 1 6/18/18 10:43 AM Acknowledgments Tracks 1-7, 13-19 recorded and Composition of Had they Remained engineered by Bill Maylone at was supported by The MacDowell the University of Notre Dame, Colony via the National Endowment April 2017–February 2018. for the Arts, and The Millay Colony.

Tracks 8-12 recorded, engineered, Dedicated to Jennica, with love. and pre-mastered by Paul Eachus at Oberlin Conservatory, May 2017.

Final Mastering for all tracks by Bill Maylone.

Cover image: Directions #0, by Zelene Schlosberg

This album is made possible in part by support from the Institute for LINE DRAWINGS Scholarship in the Liberal Arts, Chamber Music of John Liberatore including support from the Henkels Conference Fund, College of Arts and Letters, University of Notre Dame.

Liberatore_1736_book.indd 1-2 6/18/18 10:51 AM new piece is practically nothing—just a bead of sound that can be turned in any direction. As I put the sound in motion, it makes its potential known. Composition then, is about listening for that potential, turning the axes of a canvas, guiding where it travels, never fully in control. In writing these pieces, I strove for a transparency of texture and multiplicity through restraint. I like musical textures that lay bare the content of a piece yet still allow, or even facilitate nuance and ambiguity. THE MUSIC The album begins with the titular piece, Line Drawings. While many of the pieces on this “…although the path album demonstrate my interest in small forms, this collection of six short piano pieces is travels me, the only work not consciously organized into a larger form. Still, though each movement it takes its own path, but is self-contained, the pieces in this collection share some aesthetic link. I think of these leaves my footprints in its tracks.” pieces as drawings. They are meant to be immediate—a two-dimensional space that enters Amir-Hossein Afrasiabi, translated by Niloufar Talebi the eye at once, but that the mind may comprehend more gradually. At the same time, each piece is a continuous line of some kind. The first piece, for instance, is a pseudo-hocket in which the persistent eighth-note pulse obfuscates the composite texture; it is deliber- To create Directions #0, the painting featured on the cover of this album, ately ambiguous as to how many lines have been disbursed across the registers of the piano. artist Zelene Schlosberg set beads of acrylic paint and water on a blank A listener may perceive an upper “descant” between the highest notes, a bass line between canvas, which she then tilted, letting the paint trace its course across the the lowest notes, and any number of internal voices. Thus, many lines and shapes may surface. Each point of color was full of potential when she set it in motion, only partly emerge from what is really just a succession of eighth notes. in control of the path it would take. It is a painting created through limited means—the repetition of a single gesture, articulated by different hues of the same color. But through a tree-sprout, a nameless weed is a string quartet in four small parts. The first movement this restraint comes multiplicity. Each paint trail is unique, but similar. The relative rarity is an adaptation of a duet I wrote in 2011 for violin and viola based on a heavily disguised of texture draws attention to the particularities of each line while their similarities draw us motive of J. S. Bach. Following this comes a manically capricious hocket that dissipates to contemplate their entanglements and parallelisms, movements and interruptions. Each into a motionless but tender third movement. The piece then lurches into an explosive line contributes meaningfully to the composition without oversaturating the canvas. finale—a brief and desperate outburst of tangled lines and incomplete thoughts. The title comes from Margaret Atwood’s seven-poem cycle, Progressive Insanities of a Pioneer. Taken together, the works on this portrait album are an eclectic mélange of instrumenta- The poems chronicle an unnamed protagonist’s efforts to assert order into disorder, and tions and affects, sometimes whimsical or wistful, dark or light. But each of them was to draw meaning and affirmation out of an indifferent landscape. In the second poem, composed in the same way, and in close proximity to each other. The first impulse for a Atwood describes his futile attempt to coax seedlings out of the tilled soil:

Liberatore_1736_book.indd 3-4 6/18/18 10:51 AM “He asserted slightly by dead-strokes and temple blocks. In sharp contrast, the second movement is a into the furrows, I brusque ricercare for saxophone and marimba. This movement is essentially canonic, except am not random. that the leader and follower constantly swap positions (a sleight of hand aided by repeated notes), occasionally spinning off to dance on their own. The third movement traces over the The ground first, expanding on the thought left incomplete at the outset of the piece. The core of this replied with aphorisms: movement is a contemplative berceuse, transplanted into the center of the composition. As this section dissolves, the opening triadic motive returns, finally traced over, revealing the a tree-sprout, a nameless lyricism suppressed in the first movement. The final movement revisits the ricercare (now in weed, words unison), playfully working in the triadic motive that opens the piece. The title is drawn from he couldn’t understand.” Niloufar Talebi’s translation of Nader Naderpour’s poem (originally in Persian) Point and Line. Perhaps the most introspective piece on the album, The Soughing Wind takes its title from The album ends with Had They Remained, a song cycle in three parts for soprano, William Carlos Williams’s poem of the same name. The poem in its entirety reads: percussion and glass harmonica. The glass harmonica in this recording was built for me Some leaves hang late, some fall by glass blowers G. Finkenbeiner, Inc. I commissioned this instrument to explore the before the first frost—so goes largely unexamined potential of its extraordinary timbre in contemporary chamber music. the tale of winter branches and old bones. Had They Remained is the first such exploration. In this piece, the glass harmonica mostly extends and magnifies the resonance of large, reverberant percussion instruments: As is often the case, the association between this poem and my piece came about late in the vibraphone, tam-tam, tubular bells, and crotales (with the xylophone for relief). compositional process. The piece was not knowingly inspired by the poem, but the poem In doing so, it forms a timbral bridge between the voice and percussion. “fit” the piece, whatever that means. The piece is a five-movement arc. Two nearly identical interludes surround a tumultuous inner movement. The fifth movement is a hollowed-out The work sets seven poems by contemporary Iranian poets Amir-Hossein Afrasiabi, Mina shell of the first. The pure, delicate harmonics that begin the piece have been replaced by a Assadi, Esma’il Kho’i, and Abbas Saffari, all translated from the Persian by Niloufar Talebi faint whine (produced with a guitar slide). The wistful, arioso melody of the first movement in her anthology (Be)longing. The poets in this anthology all live outside of Iran, exiled in one returns as a ruin of melodic fragments. And yet I don’t hear the last movement as desolate or way or another from their collective homeland. I am grateful for Talebi’s translations, which mournful. It simply is. “So goes” The Soughing Wind. have brought me into contact with this profound literature. The poems in this anthology explore themes of longing, distance, loss, and yet hopefulness. Talebi once said to me, A Line Broken, Traced is divided into four movements, while the third and fourth move- “words change like chameleons” as they mirror the context in which we find them. As such, ments retrace the first and second respectively. The first movement grows out a simple poetry is uniquely capable of bridging cultures across political divides, pointing toward a triadic motive in a halting but strangely lyrical duet for saxophone and vibraphone, agitated shared humanity, the realization of which is more important now than I can ever remember. — John Liberatore

Liberatore_1736_book.indd 5-6 6/18/18 10:51 AM Selected texts for Had They Remained, translated from the Persian by Niloufar Talebi, Mina Assadi: Waking Dreams 3 reprinted with permission: Had they lasted, they would have blossomburst— PART I the almond trees that escaped the axe. Esma’il Kho’i : Song Had they remained, Behold! the children’s mouths would have brimmed Behold how with ripe nectar of almond In the radiance of your gaze—dear beauty! and even with My antiquated heart-ice melts bitter almonds And I am made pure —had they remained. By you. PART II Mina Assadi: Waking Dreams 7 Had I not kept spring’s Mina Assadi: Sketch 25 Treasure-chest in my mind, They knell the bell, How could I now in a river unknown Endure the enduring winter? a flowerbunch When icing over is the earth’s dispetals. Only call and the sky holds No tenet but to downpour.

Liberatore_1736_book.indd 7-8 6/18/18 10:51 AM Amir-Hossein Afrasiabi: Two Poems Mina Assadi: Waking Dreams 6 although the path After rain tracks my footsteps, there will be rain i don’t travel it After loneliness for the path travels me loneliness After you and although the path a silence travels me, that shall give new meaning to loneliness it takes its own path, but leaves my footprints in its tracks. After night there will be night *** After nightmares nightmares how would you After you a silence once in a while want that shall give new meaning to nightmares. want want Epilogue to go your way with me who is going Abbas Saffari: Tanka for Loneliness any other blue going even the sky is a color wasted always going if it isn’t your eyes.

someone else’s way? on the canvas of withered days what colors were wasted, not becoming you.

Liberatore_1736_book.indd 9-10 6/18/18 10:51 AM THE COMPOSER THE PERFORMERS

John Liberatore is a composer, pianist, and one of the world’s American pianist Ryan MacEvoy The Mivos Quartet, “one of America’s few glass harmonica players. Described by critics as “enchant- McCullough has developed a reputa- most daring and ferocious new-music en- ing” and “truly magical” (Boston and New York Classical Review, tion as a multifaceted artist, performing sembles” (The Chicago Reader), is devoted respectively), his music seeks poignancy through levity, ambiguity everything from standard repertoire on to performing works of contemporary com- through transparency, and complexity within simple textures. historical instruments to brand new works posers and presenting new music to diverse He is the recipient of an NEA Fellowship from The MacDowell Colony, and other fel- with electronic media. He has appeared audiences. Founded in 2008, the quartet lowships from Tanglewood, Yaddo, the Brush Creek Arts Foundation, the I-Park Artist’s frequently as soloist with orchestra, includ- has performed and closely collaborated with Enclave, and The Millay Colony. Other notable distinctions include commissions from the ing the Toronto Symphony and Los Angeles an ever-expanding group of international Fromm Music Foundation and the American Opera Initiative, two ASCAP Morton Gould Philharmonic, and is an active chamber composers representing multiple aesthetics Awards, the Brian Israel Prize, and a Presser Music Award. Funding from the Presser Foun- musician, especially passionate about the of contemporary classical composition. Mi- dation supported a ten-week residency in Tokyo in 2012 where he studied with Jo Kondo—a art song repertoire, both new and old. vos has appeared on prestigious series such mentorship that made an indelible impression on his music. He frequently collaborates with his wife, as Aldeburgh Music (UK), Asphalt Festival Over the past several years, his music has received hundreds of performances in venues soprano Lucy Fitz Gibbon. (Germany), Darmstadt Summer Course around the world: The Kennedy Center, the Four Seasons Center of Toronto, Carnegie’s Mr. McCullough has worked closely for New Music (Germany), HellHOT! New Weill Hall, the Seoul Arts Center, Sint-Germanuskirk in Belgium, the American Cultural with composers George Benjamin, Dante Music Festival (Hong Kong), Lo Spririto Institute of Peru, the Hindemith Center, and many other venues across the United States, De Silva, John Harbison, Carter Pann, della Musica di Venezia (Italy), Música Europe, Asia, and South America. His current projects include works for Ensemble James Primosch, and Hans Thomalla, and de Agora na Bahia (Brazil). New York HereNowHear (Fromm Commission), Grammy-winning flautist Molly Barth, the South has been the dedicatee of numerous new Phil Biennial, Shanghai New Music Week Bend Symphony, and the acclaimed vocal ensemble Roomful of Teeth. Recordings of his works. In January of 2013 was featured on (China), and Wien Modern (Austria). The works are available on Ravello, Innova, Centaur, and Albany record labels. He holds degrees an Innova Records release of composer quartet is invested in commissioning and from the Eastman School of Music (PhD, MM) and Syracuse University (BM, summa cum Andrew McPherson’s Secrets of Antikythera premiering new music for string quartet, laude). In 2015, he was appointed as an assistant professor of composition and theory at for magnetic resonator piano, where he striving to work closely with composers over the University of Notre Dame. was described as “ruminating solo in all his extended periods of time; recently, Mivos virtuosic glory.” [Textura] For more infor- has collaborated on new works with Mark mation, visit www.RyanMMcCullough.com. Barden (Wien Modern Festival Commis-

Liberatore_1736_book.indd 11-12 6/18/18 10:51 AM sion), Dan Blake (Jerome Commission), music initiative established in 2017, brings The musical endeavors of Dieter Hennings Institute for American Music and the Fondo Richard Carrick (Fromm Commission), together a core ensemble of musicians with span from new music on guitar to early Estatal para la Cultura y las Artes to com- Ted Hearne, Patrick Higgins (ZS), George deep musical and personal ties for recording music for lute, baroque guitar, and theorbo. mission and premiere contemporary works Lewis (ECLAT Festival Commission), Sam and performance projects throughout the Mr. Hennings has been a soloist with for guitar. Pluta (Lucerne Festival Commission), Kate world. Canada’s New Music Concerts Ensemble, Soper, Saul Williams, Scott Wollschleger, As a founding member of the new Tito Sccipa Orchestra of Lecce, Italy, East- Percussionist Stuart Gerber and saxophon- and Eric Wubbels (CMA Commission). music sextet Eighth Blackbird from 1996- man BroadBand Ensemble, Eastman School ist Jan Berry Baker are The Bent Frequency Beyond expanding the string quartet rep- 2006, Molly won the 2007 “Best Chamber Symphony Orchestra, the University of Duo Project and Artistic Directors of Bent ertoire, Mivos is also committed to working Music Performance” Grammy Award, re- Arizona Philharmonia, the Orquesta Filar- Frequency. Stuart and Jan have commis- with guest artists, exploring multi-media corded four CDs with Cedille Records, and monica de Monterrey among many others. sioned over 20 new works for their duo projects involving live video and electron- was granted the 2000 Naumburg Chamber Mr. Hennings has won several prestigious since the 2013 and have given countless ics, and performing improvised music. Music Award and first prize at the 1998 competitions including the 2008 Aaron performances across the United States, The members of Mivos are: violinists Concert Artists Guild International Com- Brock International Guitar Competition, Mexico, and Europe. They have recently Olivia De Prato and Lauren Cauley Kalal, petition. As co-founder of the Beta Collide 2005 Eastman Guitar Concerto Competi- released their debut CD, Diamorpha, on the violist Victor Lowrie Tafoya, and cellist New Music Project, Molly collaborated with tion, the 2002 Villa de Petrer, Alicante Centaur Label featuring a number of these Mariel Roberts. individuals from a broad spectrum of dis- (Spain) International Competition, the new works. ciplines such as dance, art, sound sculpture 2001 Portland Guitar Competition, among Saxophonist Jan Berry Baker has Described as “ferociously talented” (The and theoretical physics and recorded two others. performed throughout the United States, Oregonian) and “an exemplary performer” CDs and one DVD with Innova Records. Dieter is an active proponent of new Canada, Japan, Mexico, France, Germany, (Steve Smith, the Log Journal), Gram- Molly is Professor of Flute at the Blair music, particularly that of Latin America, Scotland, England, Ukraine, Switzerland, my-Award winning flutistMolly Alicia School of Music, Vanderbilt University having recently worked with composers Ma- Austria and the Czech Republic. As an Barth specializes in the music of today. and previously taught at the University rio Davidovsky, Carlos Sanchez-Gutierrez, orchestral saxophonist, she regularly Contemporary chamber music is Molly’s of Oregon, Willamette University, the Juan Trigos and Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon. performs with the Lyric Opera of particular area of interest. Formed with University of Chicago and the University Mr. Hennings has recently premiered works Chicago, Grant Park Orchestra, Chicago guitarist Dieter Hennings, Duo Damiana of Richmond. She is a graduate of the by composers Jake Bancks, Wes Matthews, Philharmonic, Atlanta Opera, and Atlanta is focused on broadening the cutting-edge Oberlin Conservatory, Cincinnati John Aylward, Beth Wiemann, Hebert Ballet. Jan is Associate Professor body of repertoire for flute and guitar, and Conservatory, and Northwestern Vazquez, Luca Cori, Juan Trigos and Scott of Saxophone at Georgia State University has released “Castillos de Viento” on the University. Molly is a Burkart Artist. Worthington and many more. Hennings has and is a Selmer Paris and Vandoren Innova label. The Zohn Collective, a new received grants from the Howard Hanson performing artist.

Liberatore_1736_book.indd 13-14 6/18/18 10:51 AM Lauded as having “consummate Music Group; Big Ears Festival, Disney Percussionist Daniel Druckman is ac- others. Recent appearances include virtuosity” by The New York Times, Hall, June in Buffalo, Lincoln Center tive as a soloist, chamber and orchestral collaborations with Gil Kalish and Wu Han Stuart Gerber has performed extensively Festival, Miller Theater and the Stone musician and recording artist, concertizing at the Chamber Music Society, with Leif throughout the US, Europe, Australia, and with Ensemble Signal; MATA festival throughout the United States, Europe and Ove Andsnes at Zankel Hall, with Dawn Mexico. Recent engagements include: The and Wesleyan University with Mantra Japan. He has appeared as soloist with the Upshaw at Carnegie Hall, and solo concerts Cervantino Festival in Mexico, the Now Percussion; Merkin Hall and Tenri Los Angeles Philharmonic, the American at Columbia University’s Miller Theatre Festival in Tallinn, Estonia, the Chihuahua Cultural Institute with New York New Composer’s Orchestra, the New York and Merkin Concert Hall in New York. International Music Festival in Mexico, the Music Ensemble; MATA Festival with Talea Philharmonic’s Horizons concerts, the San Solo recordings include Elliott Carter’s Gulbenkian Center in Lisbon, Portugal, Ensemble; National Sawdust on the New Francisco Symphony’s New and Unusual Eight Pieces for Four Timpani on Bridge records, the South Bank Centre in London, the York Philharmonic’s CONTACT! series; Music series, and in recital in New York, David Felder’s In Between on EMF, Jacob Melbourne Recital Centre, Australia, and PASIC with the Bob Becker Ensemble; Los Angeles, San Francisco and Tokyo. Druckman’s Reflections on the Nature of Water on the Spoleto Festival (US). He has performed Symphony Space with American Composers He has been a member of the New York Naxos, and Steven Mackey’s Micro-Concerto and taught at the Stockhausen-Kurse in Orchestra, and Symphony Space with Philharmonic since 1991, where he serves on New World. Mr. Druckman is a faculty Germany, the Summer Institute of Con- Nadia Sirota. as associate principal percussion, and has member of The Juilliard School, where he temporary Performance Practice (SICPP) Jamie Jordan has appeared as a guest made numerous guest appearances with serves as chairman of the percussion and is Professor of Percussion at Georgia artist at the American Academy in Rome, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln department and director of the percussion State University. Cornell University, Eastman School of Center, the Da Capo Chamber Players, the ensemble. Music, Ithaca College, University of Notre American Brass Quintet, the Group for Daniel Druckman was born and raised Jamie Jordan sings modern and contempo- Dame, Rochester Institute of Technol- Contemporary Music, Orpheus and Steve in New York City. The son of composer Ja- rary classical music. Performance highlights ogy, SUNY Fredonia, Syracuse University, Reich and Musicians. cob Druckman, he had invaluable exposure include Baltimore Lieder Weekend with University of Maryland, University of An integral part of New York’s new to music and musicians at an early age. He Daniel Schlosberg, Brooklyn Museum Pennsylvania, University of South Carolina, music community, both as soloist and as attended the Juilliard School, receiving for the Bang on a Can Marathon and the University of South Florida, Music on the a member of the New York New Music both the bachelor’s and master’s degrees Brooklyn Philharmonic Chamber Music Edge (UPittsburgh), NYCEMF, Resonant Ensemble and Speculum Musicae, Mr. in music in 1980. Additional studies were Series; Carnegie Hall with Daniel Bodies Festival, Unruly Music Festival Druckman has premiered works by Milton undertaken at the Berkshire Music Center Druckman, Colin Currie and the Juilliard (UMilwaukee). She has been a soloist with Babbitt, Elliott Carter, Jacob Druckman, at Tanglewood, where he was awarded Percussion Ensemble; Detroit Institute of Alia Musica Pittsburgh, NOCCO (Seattle), Aaron Jay Kernis, Oliver Knussen, Poul the Henry Cabot Award for outstanding Arts with Amphion Percussion; Disney Hall and Southern Tier Symphony. Ruders, Joseph Schwantner, Ralph Shapey instrumentalist. with the Los Angeles Philharmonic New and Charles Wuorinen, among many

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