A Far Cry Roomful of Teeth

Wednesday Evening, April 12, 2017 at 7:30 Rackham Auditorium Ann Arbor

58th Performance of the 138th Annual Season 54th Annual Chamber Arts Series Tonight’s supporting sponsors are Joel Howell and Linda Samuelson. Media partnership provided by WGTE 91.3 FM. Special thanks to Ted Hearne, , Jenna Spinei, Cara Graninger, Allison Radell, and Michael Malis for their participation in events surrounding this evening’s performance. A Far Cry with Roomful of Teeth appear by arrangement with Middleton Arts Management. In consideration of the artists and the audience, please refrain from the use of electronic devices during the performance. The photography, sound recording, or videotaping of this performance is prohibited. PROGRAM

Sergei Prokofiev, Arr. Rudolf Barshai/A Far Cry Visions Fugitives, Op. 22 (excerpts)

Lentamente Ridicolosamente Andante Con vivacità Allegretto Assai moderato Animato Allegretto Molto giocoso Feroce Con eleganza Inquieto Commodo Dolente Allegretto tranquillo

Ted Hearne Coloring Book (excerpts)

The game of keeping You are not the guy Letter to my father

Intermission

Hearne Law of Mosaics (excerpts)

Beats Palindrome for Andrew Norman Excerpts from the middle of something

Josquin des Prez, Arr. Caroline Shaw Nymphes des bois/La déploration sur la mort de Johannes Ockeghem

Caroline Shaw Music in Common Time

3 VISIONS FUGITIVES, OP. 22 (EXCERPTS) (1915–17)­

Sergei Prokofiev Born April 23, 1891 in Krasne, Ukraine Died March 5, 1953 in Moscow, Russia

Arranged for orchestra by Rudolf Barshai Born September 28, 1924 in Stanitsa Died November 2, 2010 in Basel, Switzerland

UMS premiere: Moscow Chamber Orchestra conducted by Rudolf Barshai; November 1963 in Rackham Auditorium.

Snapshots of History…In 1917: · The celebrates its centennial · Jeannette Rankin of Montana becomes the first woman member of the United States House of Representatives · US President Woodrow Wilson declares war on Germany

When reflecting on the works of find room to stand in the midst of the Prokofiev, the pieces that generally moving parts. come to mind are works of power and angularity, mixed with stylish Program note by Kathryn Bacasmot. Classical era sophistication and flourish. Less known are the often more impressionistic miniature pieces for piano, the Visions Fugitives, so named after a poet friend heard them and penned the line, “In every fleeting vision I see worlds...” These works seem to be indebted somewhat to the sound worlds of Debussy, Scriabin, and in their brevity and charm, Schumann’s miniatures. Written in two years from 1915–17, these 20 “movements” can be played in small groups, and Prokofiev would sometimes use them as encores. He recorded them in 1935, and, to date, you can listen to those recordings on YouTube. Here, the piano pieces are arranged for strings, providing a way to “deconstruct” the lines enough to

4 COLORING BOOK (EXCERPTS) (2015)

Ted Hearne Born May 2, 1982 in Chicago, Illinois

UMS premiere: This piece has never been performed on a UMS concert.

Snapshots of History…In 2015: · Ireland votes to legalize same-sex marriage as the first country to legalize it by popular vote · NASA announces liquid water has been found on Mars · A magnitude 7.8 earthquake strikes in Nepal, killing over 9,000 people

“They will never, so long as their whiteness puts so sinister a distance between themselves and their own experience and the experience of others, feel themselves sufficiently human, sufficiently worthwhile, to become responsible for themselves, their leaders, their country, their children, or their fate.” — James Baldwin, “An Open Letter to My Sister, Angela Y. Davis” (1970)

Coloring Book sets the words of three Black American writers of different generations — Zora Neale Hurston, James Baldwin, and Claudia Rankine (Baldwin settings are not included on this evening's program). I set these texts, each addressing the idea of identity in surprising and personal ways, using stylistic juxtaposition to explore the boundaries separating the authors’ conception of cultural identity from my own, and to better understand the differences between them. Coloring Book was commissioned with generous support form The Barlow Endowment for Music Composition.

Program note by Ted Hearne.

5 TEXTS: COLORING BOOK

The game of keeping

[The position of my white neighbor is much more difficult.] No brown specter pulls up a chair beside me when I sit down to eat. No dark ghost thrusts its leg against mine in bed. [The game of keeping what one has is never so exciting as the game of getting.]

— Zora Neale Hurston, “How it feels to be colored me” (1928)

You are not the guy

And you are not the guy and still you fit the description because there is only one guy who is always the guy fitting the description.

Each time it begins in the same way, it doesn’t begin the same way, each time it begins it’s the same. Flashes, a sired, the stretched-out roar —

And you are not the guy and still you fit the description —roar— still you fit the description because there is only one guy who is always the guy fitting the description.

This is what it looks like. You know this is wrong. This is not what it looks like. You need to be quiet. This is wrong. You need to close your mouth now. This is what it looks like. You can’t drive yourself sane. You are not the guy.

And you are not the guy and still you fit the description because there is only one guy who is always the guy fitting the description. Get on the ground now. Then I just knew. Yes officer rolled around on my tongue, which grew out of a bell that could never ring because its emergency was a tolling I was meant to swallow.

— Claudia Rankine, Citizen (2014)

6 Letter to my father

Him. He He has only heard what I I felt. He He is far away but I I see him. Him but dimly across the ocean and the continent that have fallen between us. Us. He He is so pale with his whiteness then and I I am so colored. Music. The great blobs of purple and red emotion have not touched him. He is so pale with his whiteness then and I I am so colored.

— Zora Neale Huston, “How it feels to be colored me” (1928)

7 LAW OF MOSAICS (EXCERPTS) (2012)

Hearne

UMS premiere: This piece has never been performed on a UMS concert.

Snapshots of History…In 2012: · Encyclopedia Brittanica discontinues its print edition after 244 years of publication · Hurricane Sandy kills at least 209 people in the Caribbean, US, Bahamas, and Canada · Lonesome George, the last known individual of the Pinta Island tortoise subspecies, dies in Galápagos National Park, thus making the subspecies extinct

“Thomas Jefferson went through the construction of a symmetrical (and New Testament and removed all the rather arbitrary) formal structure: the miracles, leaving only the teachings.” palindrome. Each sample is altered from its original composition in some “Meaning is a matter of adjacent data.” way: it may appear backwards, or re- voiced, or as a canon with itself, but an “The law of mosaics: how to deal with element of its essential character is parts in the absence of wholes.” always preserved. Andrew Norman is a contemporary composer from New York These passages, along with many whose 2010 string trio The Companion others, are appropriated from a variety Guide to Rome is heard among the of sources and arranged by David many snippets of source material in Shields into his 2010 book, Reality this movement. Hunger: A Manifesto. It is a patchwork The musical material from “Excerpts treatise on art and digital culture, and from the middle of something” is lush is an inspiration for Law of Mosaics, a and climactic but it is also a fish out piece composed for A Far Cry. of water, removed from surrounding “Beats” is driven by noise, punk, and music that might help it be better electronic music more than classical contextualized. It could follow a music influences. A simple and clear tense build-up, or precede a climax form is filled with music that plays with and resolution, but instead we hear it the space between pitch and non- repeated and revised. As the material pitched sound. circles in on itself, it begins to make “Palindrome for Andrew Norman” is sense on its own, but never really constructed entirely of samples lifted “goes” anywhere. from other pieces of music. Each plays an important or climactic role in the Program note by Ted Hearne. piece from which it is lifted, but is used here as a single building block in the

8 NYMPHES DES BOIS/LA DÉPLORATION SUR LA MORT DE JOHANNES OCKEGHEM (NYMPHS OF THE WOODS/LAMENT ON THE DEATH OF JOHANNES OCKEGHEM) (1497)

Josquin des Prez Born c. 1450 or 1455 in Hainaut, Belgium Died August 27, 1521 in Condé-sur-l’Escaut, France

Arranged by Caroline Shaw Born 1982 in Greenville, North Carolina

UMS premiere: Gregg Smith Singers; January 1969 in Hill Auditorium.

One hundred years prior to the birth cantus firmus to the requiem mass of Johannes Ockeghem, the Ars grounds the work. Nova era dawned. Music notation became more complex, and styles Program note by by Kathryn Bacasmot. became more expressive. Known as a technician, and a “man of canonic ingenuity,” Ockeghem produced some of the most sophisticated and beautiful music of his time, including contrapuntal masterpieces utilizing 36 voices, and works such as the Missa prolationum, in which the counterpoint was carved out of the sheer simplicity of changing note lengths. In Nymphes des bois/La deploration sur la mort de Johannes Ockeghem, Josquin Des Prez, who likely studied with Ockeghem in his youth, pays homage to the master with this serene and effective motet. (Curiously, Ockeghem had also written a memorial work to his teacher Gilles Binchois.) The text is by Jean Molinet, who melds references to antiquity (Atropos, the Greek deity whose shears cut the thread of every human life) to contemporary names who function as witnesses and mourners; Josquin is among them. As Ockeghem did before him, Josquin imitates some of the stylistic hallmarks of his teacher’s style in this tribute. The

9 TEXT/TRANSLATION: NYMPHES DES BOIS

Nymphes des bois, déesses Nymphs of the woods, goddesses of the des fontaines, fountains, Chantres experts de toutes nations, Expert singers from all nations, Changez voz voix tant clères et haultaines Turn your voices, so clear and high, En cris trenchans et lamentations. To rending cries and lamentation. Car Atropos, très terrible satrape, For Atropos, the terrible ruler, A vostre Ockeghem attrapé en sa trappe. Has seized your Ockeghem in her trap. Vrai trésorier de musique et The true treasurer of music and its chief d’œuvre, masterpiece Doct, élégant de corps et non point Learned, elegant in body, and in no way trappe. old-fashioned. Grant dommage est que la terre le couvre. It is a terrible loss that the earth covers him. Acoustrez vous d’habits de deuil Put on your mourning clothes Josquin, Pierson, Brumel, Compère, Josquin, Pierson, Brumel, Compere, Et plourez grosses larmes d’œul: And weep great tears from your eyes Perdu avez vostre bon père. Gone is your great father. Requiescat in pace. May he rest in peace. Amen. Amen.

Cantus fìrmus: Cantus firmus: Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine, Eternal rest give them, Lord, Et lux perpetua luceat eis. And light perpetual shine on them. Requiescat in pace. Amen. May he rest in peace. Amen.

(Jean Molinet, 1435–1507)

10 MUSIC IN COMMON TIME (2014)

Caroline Shaw Born 1982 in Greenville, North Carolina

UMS premiere: This piece has never been performed on a UMS concert.

Snapshots of History…In 2014: · The Ebola virus epidemic in West Africa begins · Russia formally annexes Crimea · President Barack Obama announces the resumption of normal relations between the US and Cuba

From the beginning, Music in Common Time was a dream project. Not just for the prospect of bringing together some of my favorite musical colleagues from different worlds, but also for the sonic possibilities of combining A Far Cry’s rich string sound with Roomful of Teeth’s varied vocal timbres. The music begins with a D-Major chord unraveling into arpeggiating strings and humming voices, eventually settling into a darker harmonic world. The heart of the piece, about halfway through, is a continuously rising harmonic sequence that pivots toward and away from expectation. What follows is a quiet reflection on the inevitable passing of time and perhaps the ephemerality of music.

Program note by Caroline Shaw.

11

ARTISTS

A Far Cry stands at the forefront of an of 2014.” The 18 Criers are proud to call exciting new generation in classical home, and maintain strong roots music. According to the New York Times, in the city, rehearsing at their storefront the self-conducted orchestra “brims music center in Jamaica Plain and with personality or, better, personalities, fulfilling the role of chamber orchestra-in- many and varied.” A Far Cry was founded residence at the Isabella Stewart Gardner in 2007 by a tightly-knit collective of Museum. Collaborating with local students 17 young professional musicians, and through an educational partnership with since the beginning has fostered those the New England Conservatory, A Far Cry personalities. A Far Cry has developed aims to pass on the spirit of collaboratively an innovative process where decisions empowered music to the next generation. are made collectively and leadership rotates among the “Criers.” For each Roomful of Teeth is a Grammy Award- piece, a group of principals is elected by winning vocal project dedicated to the members, and these five musicians reimagining the expressive potential of the guide the rehearsal process and shape human voice. Through study with masters the interpretation. Since each program from vocal traditions the world over, the includes multiple works, this multiplicity of eight-voice ensemble continually expands leaders adds tremendous musical variety its vocabulary of singing techniques and, to the concerts. through an ongoing commissioning process, A Far Cry’s omnivorous approach has forging a new repertoire without borders. led the group to collaborations with artists Founded in 2009 by Brad Wells, such as Yo-Yo Ma, Jake Shimabukuro, Roomful of Teeth gathers annually at the Urbanity Dance, and Roomful of Teeth. By Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary expanding the boundaries of orchestral Art (MASS MoCA) in North Adams, repertoire and experimenting with the Massachusetts, where they’ve studied with ways music is prepared, performed, and some of the world’s top performers and experienced, A Far Cry has been embraced teachers in Tuvan throat singing, yodeling, throughout the world with hundreds of Broadway belting, Inuit throat singing, performances coast to coast and across Korean P’ansori, Georgian singing, the globe, and a powerful presence on Sardinian cantu a tenore, Hindustani music, the Internet. In October 2014, A Far Cry Persian classical singing, and death metal launched its in-house label, Crier Records, singing. Commissioned composers include with the album Dreams and Prayers, which Rinde Eckert, Fred Hersch, Merrill Garbus received critical acclaim and a Grammy (of tUnE-yArDs), William Brittelle, Toby Award nomination. The second release, Twining, Missy Mazzoli, Julia Wolfe, Ted Law of Mosaics, followed in November Hearne, and Ambrose Akinmusire. 2014 and has also garnered much critical Projects in 2016–17 include The attention, including many 2014 “Top 10” Colorado, a music-driven documentary film lists, notably from the New Yorker music that explores water, land, and survival in critic Alex Ross and WQXR’s Q2 Music, the Colorado River Basin (featuring former which named A Far Cry as one of the Kronos Quartet cellist Jeffrey Zeigler and “Imagination-Grabbing, Trailblazing Artists Wilco’s Glenn Kotche); collaborations with

13 A Far Cry and Nick Zammuto of The Books; appearances at new music festivals in the US, Canada, and Sweden; and partnerships with nearly two dozen higher education institutions across the country.

UMS welcomes A Far Cry and Roomful of Teeth as they make their UMS debuts this evening.

14 A FAR CRY ROOMFUL OF TEETH Violin Brad Wells / Artistic Director Alex Fortes Angelia Cho Estelí Gomez / Soprano Ari Isaacman-Beck Martha Cluver / Soprano Jae Cosmos Lee Caroline Shaw / Alto Jesse Irons Virginia Warnken / Alto Miki-Sophia Cloud Rachel Shapiro Ted Hearne / Tenor Robyn Bollinger Thann Scoggin / Baritone Zenas Hsu Jason Awbrey / Bass-Baritone Cameron Beauchamp / Bass Viola Greg Luce Jinsun Hong Rimbo Wong Sarah Darling

Cello Loewi Lin Michael Unterman Rafael Popper-Keizer

Bass Erik Higgins Karl Doty

15 TONIGHT’S VICTORS FOR UMS:

Joel Howell and Linda Samuelson

Supporters of this evening’s performance by A Far Cry with Roomful of Teeth.

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Tickets available at www.ums.org.

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