The Extradition Series 2017 spring concert will take place Saturday, April 22, at Leaven Community Center in NE Portland, featuring six remarkable works of 20th- and 21st-century experimental music, performed by an extraordinary group of regional musicians:
– Toshi Ichiyanagi, “The Field” (1966): A large ensemble will tackle the extreme subtlety of Ichiyanagi’s graphic score, which asks interpreters to assign musical meaning to 17 shapes and patterns spread across a blank field, taking into account considerations of distance, area, and density. The piece will be presented by Matt Carlson (piano), Loren Chasse (percussion), Christi Denton (electronics), John Gross (tenor sax), Matt Hannafin (percussion), Branic Howard (electronics and percussion), Jesse Mejía (electronics), Andre St. James (double bass), Evan Spacht (trombone), and Reed Wallsmith (alto sax).
– John Cage, “Song No. 85” (1970) and “Branches” (1976): Masterful vocalist Michael Stirling will perform the microtonal “Song No. 85” from Cage’s “Songbooks” in simultaneous performance with “Branches,” realized by Loren Chasse, Matt Hannafin, and Branic Howard on seeds, grasses, pine cones, bamboo, amplified cacti, and other natural materials.
– Takehisa Kosugi, “Plus/Minus” (1987): Kosugi’s score consists of 120 plus signs, minus signs, and vertical lines, all arranged in a grid and presented without instructions of any kind. The work will be realized by electronics players Matt Carlson, Christi Denton, Branic Howard, and Jesse Mejía.
– Alvin Lucier, “Wind Shadows” (1994): In this work, two pure wave oscillators play a continuous drone, their close tuning producing a slow pattern of acoustical beats that spin across the performance space. Against this drone, the trombonist sweeps unison and near-unison tones slowly across the spinning waves, alternately calming and agitating the oscillators’ beating patterns. The work will be performed by trombonist Evan Spacht.
– G. Douglas Barrett, “Two Voices” (2008): This graphic score consists of 27 pairs of horizontal lines, some of equal length and some of different lengths. Two performers are instructed to perform “a sustained tone, sound, action, or noise” that corresponds to the length of their individual lines. The music is to be “soft, concentrated, for its own sake.” The work will be performed by John Gross (tenor sax) and Reed Wallsmith (alto sax).
The Extradition Series is a quarterly concert series presenting composed and improvised New Music and works from the 20th-century experimental tradition. The series is directed by Matt Hannafin and presented by the Creative Music Guild.
Doors open at 7pm, music starts at 7:30pm
Check out more on the Facebook event page:
https://www.facebook.com/events/402250876834466/
