MUSIC AS A GRADUAL PROCESS
WORKS by REICH, LUCIER, and EASTMAN
in the CONTEXT of 'LIVING PAINTINGS' by REFIK ANADOL
FRIDAY, APRIL 21, 2023 | 7pm (DOORS) / 7:30pm (CONCERT)
JEFFREY DEITCH | 925 N ORANGE DR, LOS ANGELES, CA 90038
PROGRAM TO INCLUDE:
Julius EASTMAN - BUDDHA
Steve REICH - DRUMMING part III
Ryuchi SAKAMOTO - TRI
Alvin LUCIER - SILVER STREETCAR FOR THE ORCHESTRA
Maryanne AMACHER - LIVING SOUND, PATENT PENDING
Steve REICH - FOUR ORGANS
PERFORMED by ECHOI:
Vicki RAY, organ
Richard AN, organ
Todd MOELLENBERG, organ
Dustin DONAHUE, organ and glockenspiel
Yuri INOO, glockenspiel
Kevin GOOD, glockenspiel
Jonathan HEPFER, maracas, glockenspiel, triangle
Jonathan HEPFER, artistic director
Julius EASTMAN - BUDDHA
Steve REICH - DRUMMING part III
Ryuchi SAKAMOTO - TRI
Alvin LUCIER - SILVER STREETCAR FOR THE ORCHESTRA
Maryanne AMACHER - LIVING SOUND, PATENT PENDING
Steve REICH - FOUR ORGANS
PERFORMED by ECHOI:
Vicki RAY, organ
Richard AN, organ
Todd MOELLENBERG, organ
Dustin DONAHUE, organ and glockenspiel
Yuri INOO, glockenspiel
Kevin GOOD, glockenspiel
Jonathan HEPFER, maracas, glockenspiel, triangle
Jonathan HEPFER, artistic director
ABOUT THE PROGRAM :
Monday Evening Concerts joins forces with Jeffrey Deitch to present a program of classic works from the 1970s and '80s in (abstract) conversation with the internationally renowned artist Refik Anadol's exhibition of 'Living Paintings.' Anadol's works focus on human-computer collaboration, utilizing AI as an active - and destabilizing - element in the artistic process. Anadol's work conjures memories of Steve Reich's landmark essay Music as a Grandual Process (1968), in which the composer describes the dance between compositional - and performative - rigor, and the unpredictable psychoacoustic phenomena which arise therefrom. Reich was an early advocate of seeing new technology (in his case, tape) as an interesting device for generating new ways of making music, seeing it not as a replacement for human performance, but rather as a collaborative partner enabling new possibilities for the shape of music to come.
EXCERPTS FROM STEVE REICH'S 'MUSIC AS A GRADUAL PROCESS' (1968)
I do not mean the process of composition, but rather pieces of music that are, literally, processes.
The distinctive thing about musical processes is that they determine all the note-to-note (sound-to-sound)
details and the over all form simultaneously. (Think of a round or infinite canon.)
I am interested in perceptible processes.
I want to be able to hear the process happening throughout the sounding music.
[...]
Performing and listening to a gradual musical process resembles:
pulling back a swing, releasing it, and observing it gradually come to rest;
turning over an hour glass and watching the sand slowly run through the bottom;
placing your feet in the sand by the ocean's edge and watching, feeling, and listening to the waves gradually bury them.
[...]
As to whether a musical process is realized through live human performance or
through some electro-mechanical means is not finally the main issue.
One of the most beautiful concerts I ever heard consisted of four composers playing their tapes in a dark hall.
(A tape is interesting when it's an interesting tape.)
It is quite natural to think about musical processes if one is
frequently working with electro-mechanical sound equipment.
[...]
The use of hidden structural devices in music never appealed to me.
Even when all the cards are on the table and
everyone hears what is gradually happening in a musical process,
there are still enough mysteries to satisfy all.
These mysteries are the impersonal, unattended,
psycho-acoustic by-products of the intended process.
These might include sub-melodies heard within repeated melodic patterns,
stereophonic effects due to listener location,
slight irregularities in performance, harmonics, difference tones, etc.
Listening to an extremely gradual musical process opens my ears to it,
but it always extends farther than I can hear,
and that makes it interesting to listen to the musical process again.
That area of every gradual (completely controlled) musical process,
where one hears the details of the sound moving out away from intentions,
occuring for their own acoustic reasons, is it.
[...]
While performing and listening to gradual musical processes one can
participate in a particular liberating and impersonal kind of ritual.
Focusing in on the musical process makes possible that shift of attention
away from he and she and you and me outwards towards it.
* [MEC's italics] *
I do not mean the process of composition, but rather pieces of music that are, literally, processes.
The distinctive thing about musical processes is that they determine all the note-to-note (sound-to-sound)
details and the over all form simultaneously. (Think of a round or infinite canon.)
I am interested in perceptible processes.
I want to be able to hear the process happening throughout the sounding music.
[...]
Performing and listening to a gradual musical process resembles:
pulling back a swing, releasing it, and observing it gradually come to rest;
turning over an hour glass and watching the sand slowly run through the bottom;
placing your feet in the sand by the ocean's edge and watching, feeling, and listening to the waves gradually bury them.
[...]
As to whether a musical process is realized through live human performance or
through some electro-mechanical means is not finally the main issue.
One of the most beautiful concerts I ever heard consisted of four composers playing their tapes in a dark hall.
(A tape is interesting when it's an interesting tape.)
It is quite natural to think about musical processes if one is
frequently working with electro-mechanical sound equipment.
[...]
The use of hidden structural devices in music never appealed to me.
Even when all the cards are on the table and
everyone hears what is gradually happening in a musical process,
there are still enough mysteries to satisfy all.
These mysteries are the impersonal, unattended,
psycho-acoustic by-products of the intended process.
These might include sub-melodies heard within repeated melodic patterns,
stereophonic effects due to listener location,
slight irregularities in performance, harmonics, difference tones, etc.
Listening to an extremely gradual musical process opens my ears to it,
but it always extends farther than I can hear,
and that makes it interesting to listen to the musical process again.
That area of every gradual (completely controlled) musical process,
where one hears the details of the sound moving out away from intentions,
occuring for their own acoustic reasons, is it.
[...]
While performing and listening to gradual musical processes one can
participate in a particular liberating and impersonal kind of ritual.
Focusing in on the musical process makes possible that shift of attention
away from he and she and you and me outwards towards it.
* [MEC's italics] *