Philippe

Hey Ed,
I know I said i'de never get onto these trumpet sites but it's just too cool for me to pass up.
What do you know about Metallics? The contemporary music ensemble is performing it next term and i was thinking of learning it. Would you say this piece is a viable addition to reperatoire?
Philippe

ecarroll

Hi Philippe,

Nice to see you here.

Your "is this piece a viable addition to the repertoire?" comment opens a door to me for a broader comment...

David Atherton (wonderful conductor and founder of the London Sinfonietta) once suggested to me that 90% of new compositions over the years haven't deserved a second hearing. . . and of the remaining 10%, we're lucky if one is the Rite of Spring.

One of the most daunting challenges to those of us who appreciate art is sorting the wheat from the chaff. Any art historian will confirm that most of the paintings lining the galleries at the Metropolitan, Uffizzi, Louvre, etc., serve little purpose other than to place their acclaimed masterpieces into some sort of context. These masterpieces, however, have changed the way our cultures perceive things. Powerful stuff.

That said, it's clear that we must continue to commission, beg for, and search for, new pieces to play if music is to remain a viable art form. I don't know Yan Maresz (the composer) or Mettalics (the piece), but it seems to have performances at IRCAM (anything presented in Boulez' house must be interesting) and a recording. I happen to LOVE the pairing of trumpet (soulful, filled with symbolism) and electronics (colorful, can be louder than a freight train) and suggest that you check it out!

Lemmieno what you find, okay?

Anyone else?

Best,
EC (constantly in search mode)

ecarroll

Philippe,

Okay.........I've studied the piece a bit and really like it. The repeated notes remind me a bit of Sequenza X and the tape part serves much the same role as Berio's piano resonance.

Speculation that perhaps you (or somebody else on the forum) can confirm: Maresz appears to be closely associated with Boulez through IRCAM, and I wonder if he became aware of the Sequenza at Darmstadt (co-directed, at one point, by Boulez, Berio, and Stockhausen)?

Who wants to play Mr. Watson to my Holmes?

Best,
EC

CGUM

Ed Come Stai?!

Sorry for ressurecting this old thread, but I know your students have worked on this piece. I was wondering how you did the electronic accompaniment(?). It seems to be processed sound through pro tools or the like, but the included schematic is hard to decipher...that and it's in french.


CG

ecarroll

Charlie,

No problem and nice to "see" you.

Maresz prefers that people perform with an electronic version of one of his performances rather than create their own unless the performance is made under his supervision. I have it if you need it.

Also, there's a NEW version of this piece -- expanded -- for solo trumpet and orchestra. Cassone just did it with the RAI orchestra in Torino and I'll get it from him when I'm in Novara in May.

We'll discuss/perform the tpt/electronics version of Metallics at Chosen Vale this summer.

Best,
EC

CGUM

Ed,

You'll have to let me know how the "expanded" version is sometime. I do find it interesting that he wants a cd version performed but it's original concept was for "live" electronics. I guess less fuss, no muss.We'll definitely have to talk about this in the future. Once again, you make it very, very tempting to go to chosen vale, but I need to save for japan.

CG

ecarroll

TMers,

For those of you interested in this piece, there's a fabulous recording on the website of one of my students at McGill (our very own mazzrick)

http://www.matthew-brown.com/Recordings.html

Enjoy and tell me what you think?
EC

Hags888

At first glance I thought the title to this thread said, "Metallica"...and I was thinking..sweet! ha ha. Ed, your comment about museums got me thinking...

Aren't art museums nothing more than a place to preserve the proverbial canon in art? How does music fit into that museum concept? There aren't many "Music" museums around where someone could spend a day physically wandering from room to room, station to station, and simply listen to the "canon" of classical music. If there are, I don't know about them! I suppose a case could be made that we each have the ability to "build" our own personal music museums on our iPods...and then we could spend all day listening to the great musical works.

This makes it increasingly difficult for new music to compete though, as it is constantly put up against the old...prior to the advent of recording technology, new music was good and necessary, because it was difficult to preserve the old and relatively easy to put together the new. It sometimes seems to be the opposite today in some kind of way...

ecarroll

Scott,

I consider our iPods to be our personal museums. . . a collection of favorite musical moments. Recordings, on the other hand, are little more than snapshots of past performances of a particular composition. They are useful as documents but live performances are FAR better.

Perhaps this is a topic worthy of another thread.

Do check out Matt's performance of Metallics however. . . it's pretty great (as are his 4tro Pezzi and Emotion). I'm interested in what people think of the piece.

Charlie,

The sushi in Tokyo is far better than what you'll find in Enfield. I'm glad your priorities continue to be sound!

Best,
EC

mazzrick

A little addition as to why Maresz prefers the tape version as opposed to the live electronics version. Atop the Durand edition, which I believe is the only published version available, the words, "Version Bande" are written which means tape version and I'm not even sure if Maresz allows distribution of the live electronics version. Maresz realized that with the live electronics, the performer could be much too free with the rhythms, which he wants exact. Thus, the tape version comes with a click track that forces rhythmic precision. I believe the electronic sounds are made with a max/msp program, not pro tools. The trumpeter recorded is Maresz and, sadly, the sounds are a little archaic what with advancing technology. But that being said, it's still aurally stimulating.

Matt