ONE-TWO-THREE-GO!
Concert #2
Sunday, October 21, 2002 at 4:30 PM===================================================================================
MARGARET LANCASTER
interdisciplinary solo flute
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program
György Kurtág
Doloroso for solo flutePaul Reller
In Praise of Buddy Hackett for flute & tapeRobert D. Polansky
Beatitudes for flute, narration & dance (Premiere)Jon Appleton
Stop Time for tap-dancing flutist (NY Premiere)Eve Beglarian
Preciosilla for flute & tapeSteve Reich
Vermont Counterpoint for flute & tapeLarry Polansky
Daughter of Piker for solo piccolo===================================================================================
Noted for her interdisciplinary collaborations with writers and composers, flutist Margaret Lancaster has built a large repertoire of new works that employ extended techniques, movement, drama, multi-media, and electronics. Her first solo CD is a collection of new electro-acoustic works, all of which have been written specifically for her, entitled Future Flute.
Recognized for her fearlessness and versatility, Lancaster is widely in demand by composers of different styles and genres and has been cited as the "go-to girl" for contemporary flute music (Splendid e-zine). Composers she has worked with include Milton Babbitt, Larry Polansky, Jon Appleton, Steve Mackey, Gerhard Stabler, Christian Wolff, and Anne Lebaron. Upon the premiere of Robert Cantrick's music theater piece Three Mimes, Bernard Holland of The New York Times remarked "Ms. Lancaster's flute spit and barked beyond its usual repertory ... a virtuoso versatility was both demanded and achieved." Current collaborations include The Bilitis Project with Eve Beglarian, Phil Kline, and Eleanor Sandresky.
Lancaster is a member of Essential Music and the Downtown Ensemble and is a core performer at the BONK Festival of New Music and the Three Two Festival. Recent performances include Musical Observations, ASCAP Thru The Walls, Spoleto Festival USA, and Bargemusic. She has appeared as a lecturer/soloist at Dartmouth College Festival of New Musics, Princeton University, North Carolina School of the Arts, University of South Florida, Buffalo State University, University of Louisville and the National Flute Association. Her screen credits include lead roles in the independent features Rockabilly Vampire and Combustible Edison's Opening Act.
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DOLOROSO (György Kurtág) "On the ridge of silence, soft tones driven to the extremes." --- P. Grahame Woolf
IN PRAISE OF BUDDY HACKETT (Paul Reller) is written for and dedicated to Margaret "The Lung" Lancaster, the only human yet able to play it, for both physical and aesthetic reasons. Even MIDI flutes tire. Buddy Hackett is an American actor and spiritual leader.
BEATITUDES (Robert D. Polansky) Allen Ginsberg... the beat generation... beatify... sanctification.... Kaddish.... loss and healing... This is the stream of consciousness that drifted through the composer's mind on a road trip from Montpelier to Boston in late August of this year. These reflections eventually evolved into a piece for flute, with narration and dance, called Beatitudes, based on Allen Ginsberg's Kaddish, a lengthy poem about loss and healing. The poem takes its title from the ancient Hebrew prayer of the same name, a prayer both of mourning and Affirmation of faith. The words "beatitude" and "kaddish" both mean sanctification. Beatitudes is used for the title of the piece, however, because of its veiled reference to the "beat generation." Ginsberg himself used the word "beatify" in reference to this literary movement of the 1950s and '60s, of which he was the main proponent, to some, even a prophet.
Beatitudes was composed especially for flutist Margaret Lancaster. Most of the music for Beatitudes was sketched over the Labor Day weekend, after which the composer collaborated with Ms. Lancaster on selecting the narrative excerpts. The score was completed on September 9th and delivered to Ms. Lancaster in New York City on the ominous morning of September 11th. It is a tragic irony that a composition about loss and healing was the only piece of mail to be delivered to Ms. Lancaster's Manhattan apartment building that day.
STOP TIME (Jon Appleton) As you will see/hear, this is Margaret's piece more than mine. I wrote these simple tunes but Margaret brings them to life - both as a dancer and as a flautist. Never did a composer do so little for such spectacular results from a performer. STOP TIME is supposed to make you laugh, be wistful and above all, marvel at the artistry of one of New York's most authentic Sirenes.
PRECIOSILLA (Eve Beglarian) is a song setting of Gertrude Stein's poem that places the text in the realm of the rhythm section instead of in the realm of the melody where lyrics are conventionally found. The composer's reading of the text was sampled by an Akai S1000. The flutist's melody has quotes from pop love songs and other familiar music embedded in musical stream-of-consciousness writing that attempts to emulate Gertrude's handling of text. The piece is dedicated to Mary Rodriguez.VERMONT COUNTERPOINT (Steve Reich) was commissioned by flutist Ransom Wilson and is dedicated to Betty Freeman. It is scored for three alto flutes, three flutes, three piccolos and one solo part all pre-recorded on tape, plus a live solo part. The live soloist plays alto flute, flute and piccolo and participates in the ongoing counterpoint as well as more extended melodies. The piece can be performed by eleven flutists but is intended primarily as a solo with tape. The duration is approximately nine minutes. In that comparatively short time four sections in four different keys, with the third in a slower tempo, are presented. The compositional techniques used are primarily building up canons between short repeating melodic patterns by substituting notes for rests and then become the basis for the following section as the other surrounding parts in the contrapuntal web fade out. Though the techniques used include several that I discovered as early as 1967 the relatively fast rate of change (there are rarely more than three repeats of any bar), metric modulation into and out of a slower tempo, and relatively rapid changes of key may well create a more concentrated and concise impression.
DAUGHTER OF PIKER from the 5-movement work Piker (Larry Polansky) is the same Shaker tune, Love, More Love played four times, each time in a different tuning. The last tuning is the same as the first. The three tunings are derived from the harmonic series on G, B, and F#, where those pitches themselves are related as 4:5:6. For example, a C in the original tune is treated as an 11th harmonic of G, a 17th harmonic of B, and an 11th harmonic of F# but all three of those are tuned differently.
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All program notes by the composers except where noted
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Microphones provided by Applied Microphone Technology
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sTRANGEqUOTE:
"Constant as the movement of a clock, she ran her course; and the sTRANGEmUSIC, at each repetition of the tune, gave a new impulse to the dance, recommencing and again rushing off as at first."
"Wilhelm was quite led away by this singular spectacle; he forgot his cares; he followed every movement of the dear little creature, and felt surprised to see how finely her character unfolded itself as she proceeded in the dance."
J.W. von Goethe (1749-1832)
Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship
Book II
Chapter VIII