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Performance by Adrienne Pope, Mark Broschinsky, Victor Caccese, Gleb Kanasevich, Thibault Bertin-Maghit, Edward Neeman, Julian Pellicano from the CD Selected works by AMC represented artists |
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Selected works by AMC represented artists : vol. 15
Library shelf no. CD 2271 [Available for loan]
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Work Overview
This piece was composed for the Norfolk New Music Workshop in
June 2011. A few months before the residency, a very close friend
of mine, Blair Milan, passed away very suddenly from undiagnosed
leukemia. I knew that I had to write a piece to celebrate Blair's
life, especially since the date of the concert was June 25th,
which, serendipitously enough, would have been Blair's thirtieth
birthday. My task was complicated however by a condition of the
residency that I was to compose a piece in the spirit of the
unique genius, American composer Charles Ives.
Amongst other things, Ives' work is characterised by sudden and
unexplained changes in mood, key and tempo, superimposition of
apparently unrelated material, and an unapologetic love of
quotation and pastiche. It were these elements I chose to focus
on in my piece.
It just so happened that Blair and I worked together on a number
of theatre productions over the years (Blair was an actor). The
biggest show we worked on together was a black comedy piece set
in a circus freakshow called Death's Waiting Room
(directed by Danielle Harvey, script by Sam Bowring). In this
show, Blair played a confused transvestite by the name of Marie
Antoinette. Marie Antoinette was confused because she was
convinced she was biologically female, and she longed to be male.
Nothing the other characters could do would convince her that she
was, in fact, a male like she wanted to be. As dry as program
notes like this can seem, let me assure you this situation was
pretty hilarious.
I tell you all this because Marie Antoinette performed a (very
dirty) song in Death's Waiting Room called "Weed" in
which she touted the imagined joys of being male. I wrote the
music for this show before I had ever considered composition as a
career, and despite the naivety of my work at that time "Weed"
had a great harmonic progression in the chorus, which essentially
consisted of a descending chromatic scale in the bass: A minor,
C, B, B flat. Despite weeks of my refusal to acknowledge this as
a valid basis for the piece, the muse (and probably Blair) won.
Good Times! is based upon this harmonic progression in a
wide number of guises and transpositions.
Work Details
Year: 2011
Instrumentation: Clarinet/bass clarinet, trombone, piano, drum kit, violin, double bass.
Duration: 10 min.
Difficulty: Advanced — Rhythmically challenging
Dedication note: Dedicated to Blair Milan
Commission note: Commissioned for the Norfolk New Music Festival, 2011
First performance: by Adrienne Pope, Mark Broschinsky, Victor Caccese, Gleb Kanasevich, Thibault Bertin-Maghit, Edward Neeman, Julian Pellicano — 25 Jun 11. The Music Shed, Ellen Battell Stoeckel Estate, Norfolk, CT, USA
The piece has also been orchestrated for: Clarinet/bass clarinet, trumpet, piano, keyboard, percussion, cello, double bass.
Subjects
- Influenced by: Theatre
Performances of this work
18 Oct 2011: at ExhAust - new music out of Australia (Galapagos Art Space (Brooklyn, NY)). Featuring ExhAust.
25 Jun 11: The Music Shed, Ellen Battell Stoeckel Estate, Norfolk, CT, USA. Featuring Adrienne Pope, Mark Broschinsky, Victor Caccese, Gleb Kanasevich, Thibault Bertin-Maghit, Edward Neeman, Julian Pellicano.
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