1 SPEKTRAL QUARTET SERIOUS BUSINESS HACK 2015 Chris Fisher-Lochhead Set 1 11 Lenny Bruce 3:34 12 Sarah Silverman 0:50 1 2014 8:36 MANY MANY CADENCES 13 Dave Chappelle 1:03 Sky Macklay Set 2 14 George Carlin 2:17 THE ANCESTRAL MOUSETRAP 2014 15 Robin Williams 1 0:41 David Reminick 16 Dick Gregory 1:35 Text by Russell Edson 17 Professor Irwin Corey 1:12 Set 3 2 Killing the Ape 4:32 18 Rodney Dangerfield 1/2 0:16 3 The Old Woman’s Breakfast 1:34 19 Sam Kinison 1:13 4 Oh My God I’ll Never Get Home 1:51 20 Rodney Dangerfield 3 0:10 5 Bringing a Dead Man Back Into Life 4:17 21 Redd Foxx 0:53 6 The Ancestral Mousetrap 4:08 22 Rodney Dangerfield 4/5 0:14 23 Kumail Nanjiani 0:44 24 Rodney Dangerfield 6/7 0:22 STRING QUARTET OP. 33 25 Mort Sahl 1:14 NO. 2 IN E-FLAT “THE JOKE” 1781 26 Rodney Dangerfield 8 0:09 Josef Haydn 27 Susie Essman 0:43 28 Rodney Dangerfield 9 0:16 7 Allegro moderato 5:05 8 Scherzo: Allegro 3:15 Set 4 9 Largo e sostenuto 4:47 29 Richard Pryor 2:19 10 Presto 3:12 30 Robin Williams 2 1:02 31 Ms. Pat 1:29 32 Tig Notaro 2:11 TOTAL TIME 65:26

2 As a quartet, we are drawn digest an otherwise off- We met Sky Macklay during THIS ALBUM IS to virtuosic string writing limits topic, and question our week-long residency NOT FUNNY like flies to…stuff that our assumptions, or simply More accurately, playing smells good to flies, which be clever. this album will not induce by extension means we are Serious Business comprises the brand of gut-busting, drawn to the dark cave of four different perspectives teary-eyed revelry that the rehearsal room. Parsing on humor through the an episode of Chappelle’s nested tuplets and tuning lens of classical music – a Show or a YouTube clip of microtonal harmonies is flavor of music that could Anna Karkowska’s vibrato an intense bit of business, use a little more funny, in will. It is funny like the and more often than not, it general. You, dear listener, idea of a Rothko turning is a salty one-liner or vocal won’t be popping in this at The Walden School in the stomachs of well- impersonation of Aaron CD in the way you would New Hampshire – a bucolic heeled gluttons at the Neville that comes to the a Louis C.K. special. This retreat we occasionally Four Seasons is funny, rescue when the pressure is an album about what threaten to move to and or how anything Andy reaches DEFCON 2. Humor makes something funny, illegally homestead – eager Kaufman ever suited up for is also so much more than and more importantly, a to workshop and perform is funny. It might be a little a setup and tag, though. It collection of music we her Many Many Cadences, uncomfortable, rings clear can compel us to inquire think is brilliant, and clever, and also sporting emotional in its truth, and sometimes why we are laughing, and and unequivocally worth subdural hematoma from reveals itself gradually. expose hypocrisy, and entering the cave for. the preparation of it. Here

3 you have each instrument Videos highlight reel of as fragmented solos against listeners or those with base-jumping from the dads getting head-butted by their own instrumental young children in the room upper reaches of their waist-high toddlers…which is lines. As the lead singer may want to turn the dial for range, pinging rapid-fire, to say, all payoff. of the punk outfit Paper the next few minutes. tonal cadences all the way The absurdist, existential Mice, Dave is one of the Josef Haydn dedicated his down in rhythmic unison, horrors found in the verse fastest thinkers and most String Quartet Op. 33 No. only to scramble back up of American poet Russell imaginative writers we 2, “The Joke” to the Grand Edson provide the libretto know, and here we get a Duke and Duchess of Russia for David Reminick’s stunner, flavor of the asymmetrical (this Grove Dictionary of The Ancestral Mousetrap. beats and deranged pitch Music is smudged, but Yeppers, you read that right: collections he summons their names appear to be libretto. Amidst the staves when assaulting a Gibson Rod and Trish), and one of this often hyper-kinetic SG and a microphone. This can only speculate how the writing lie vocal passages five-movement timbral schmaltzy glissandi of the – the usual stuff, to do with kaleidoscope opens with second movement Scherzo taking a decaying corpse out a preposterous slide and would have played in this for another adrenaline for a night on the town or ends with a scurry up the rarefied environment. Was fix. Heaping nothing but becoming the porridge one fingerboard, but for what he lampooning some over- cadences on top of one is slurping for breakfast – happens in between, you are zealous violinist at court, another is a little like an which compel the players to on your own. In the immortal perhaps? The real zinger America’s Funniest Home sing in four part harmony or words of Ira Glass, sensitive here, though, arrives with

4 the final movement. Some involved to get the piece of 16 comedians ranging each case, whether it’s 235 years later, these trap- on the page. Lay these from Lenny Bruce to Kumail Sarah Silverman riffing on door endings of the lively scores, with their elusive Nanjiani. Hack is so much birth control, Dick Gregory Presto continue to con meter changes, pinpointed more than just a detailed deriding Chicago politics, audiences into premature metronome markings, and transcription, though. or Sam Kinison trumpeting applause and stifled fluid pitch collections on The near-monotone of Tig in his pterodactyl vocal laughter. Notaro is transformed into register, this 22-movement Chris Fisher-Lochhead’s gauzy glissandi, resting on collection removes words Hack was the launch dead-sexy jazz chords, and from the formula of the joke, point for this project, a the manic vocal gallop of leaving us all to wrestle with compositional venture Robin Williams digging on – and marvel at – the sounds that is astonishing in the Chardonnay-swilling and cadences of The Funny. scope...and nerve. If the Swiss Army becomes a —Doyle Armbrust piece were limited to series of berserker, unison Chris’s transcriptions of outbursts. Richard Pryor, comedians’ bits, down to top of the comics’ original overflowing with love for the tiniest rhythmic level audio, and in the majority his fellow man emerges and variation in pitch, we’d of cases (some are fully as a tender chorus and still be shuddering at the abstracted), you have a then takes a hard left turn incomprehensible amount nuanced, impeccable graph as a renaissance dance, of time and myopic listening of the cadence and delivery as viewed from a UFO. In

5 6 its listeners in further with to finding vehicles for Spektral Quartet prioritizes SPEKTRAL charismatic deliveries, bringing classical music immersion and inclusivity QUARTET interactive concert formats, into everyday life, the and delivers the majority an up-close atmosphere, Clara Lyon, violin and bold, inquisitive programming. Austin Wulliman, violin The ensemble is regarded Doyle Armbrust, viola for its forward-thinking Russell Rolen, cello endeavors including the Mobile Miniatures project, Since its inception, the which rallied more than Spektral Quartet has sought forty composers from out the discourse between across the US including the great works of the David Lang, Augusta Read traditional canon and those Thomas, Nico Muhly and written this decade, this Shulamit Ran to write year, or this week. Creating ringtone-length pieces connections across for download to mobile centuries, the group invites devices. In addition

7 of its Chicago concerts in Labro and saxophone Kurt Elling, Teitur Lassen, vibrant, unconventional luminary Miguel Zenón. Julien Labro, and Billy venues. Spektral Quartet appears Childs, and has appeared on As ardent advocates for on Swiss violin soloist pathfinding series including composers within its home Rachel Kolly d’Alba’s Ecstatic Music Festival, St. city, the group recorded its 2015 record, Fin de siècle Paul Chamber Orchestra’s debut album, Chambers (Aparté), performing Ernest Liquid Music, University (Parlour Tapes+), in 2013 Chausson’s Concerto for of Michigan’s University featuring works by Hans Violin, Piano, and String Musical Society (UMS), University of Chicago’s Thomalla, Marcos Balter, Quartet and will be featured University of Maryland’s Department of Music. on upcoming albums Common Tone, Jazz at the LJ White, Chris Fisher- spektralquartet.com Lochhead, and Ben from composers Augusta Logan, University of Chicago Hjertmann. That same Read Thomas and Ryan Presents, Bent Frequency, season saw the release of Ingebritsen. and UNC Chapel Hill’s the South American jazz Keen on frequently Conversations in Modern and tango-themed From treading outside the lines Music Series. This Point Forward (Azica of classical music, Spektral The Spektral Quartet Records), with bandoneon/ Quartet counts among its proudly serves as ensemble- accordion virtuoso Julien collaborators Julia Holter, in-residence at the

8 SPEKTRAL QUARTET THANKS The Elizabeth F. Cheney Foundation, Blair Milton, Phil Setzer, Tim Munro, Jeremiah Cawley, Kayleigh Butcher, Amanda DeBoer, Flaco the Turtle, Rowland W. Chang, Andreas Waldburg-Wolfegg, Elliot Mandel, and the exceptional team at Sono Luminus. MANY MANY CADENCES Commissioned by The Walden School for Spektral Quartet THE ANCESTRAL MOUSETRAP Commissioned by Spektral Quartet Text from: Poems from The Tunnel: Selected Poems of Russell Edson. Copyright © 1994 by Russell Edson. Used by permission of Oberlin College Press. All rights reserved worldwide. STRING QUARTET OP. 33, NO. 2 IN E-FLAT “THE JOKE” Commissioned by Grand Duke Paul of Russia, not for Spektral Quartet in particular. HACK Commissioned by the Barlow Endowment for Music Composition at Brigham Young University for Spektral Quartet.

In loving memory of Sky Mall.

9 Serious Business Spektral Quartet DSL-92198

Recorded at Sono Luminus Studios, Boyce, Virginia — August 3-7, 2015 sonoluminusstudios.com

Producer: Dan Merceruio Recording Engineer, Mixing & Mastering Engineer: Daniel Shores Recording Technician: David Angell Editing Engineer: Dan Merceruio Photography: Elliot Mandel (p. 1, 11), Drew Reynolds (p. 6), Strider Jordan (pp. 3-5, 7-8). Graphic Design: Caleb Nei Executive Producer: Collin J. Rae Mixed and mastered on Legacy Audio speakers. legacyaudio.com

Recorded with Merging Technologies Horus. Mastered with Merging Technologies Hapi. Recorded in DXD at 24 bit, 352.8kHz in 9.1 Surround Sound.

p& m2016 Sono Luminus, LLC. All Rights Reserved. PO Box 227, Boyce, VA 22620, USA sonoluminus.com • [email protected] WARNING: Unauthorized reproduction is prohibited by law and will result in criminal prosecution.

10 Clara Lyon, violin Austin Wulliman, violin Doyle Armbrust, viola Russell Rolen, cello

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