Neil
Rolnick
Digits
Innova
656 (www.innova.mu)
with
Kathleen SupovŽ, Peter Eldridge
and the Paul Dresher EnsembleÕs Electro-Acoustic Band
1.
Digits [11:08]
performed by Kathleen
SupovŽ, piano
Making
Light Of It
settings of poems by Philip Levine
performed by Peter Eldridge, voice
2.
Wednesday [2:30]
3.
Making Light Of It [2:16]
4.
Words [1:53]
5.
The Return [1:12]
6.
Llanto [2:55]
7.
The Last Step [2:57]
Paul Dresher, guitar; Karen Bentley Pollick, violin; Peter
Hanson, bass clarinet; Marja
Mutru,keyboard; Gene Reffkin,
electric drums; Joel Davel,
Marimba Lumina; Gregory Kuhn,
electronics
sampled voices: Tom Ritter and Michele Ragusa
All selections © & p Neilnick Music (BMI)
Jody Elff, recording, mixing and mastering.
Neil Rolnick, recording engineer for Plays Well
With Others.
The
four pieces on this CD are very diverse in terms of their instrumentation, mood
and style. We begin with DigitsÕ high energy, muscular
romp to the limits of piano virtuosity, then to the quiet lyricism of Making
Light Of It,
then to the digital deconstruction of classic blues guitar playing in A
Robert Johnson Sampler, and we end with the politically pointed Plays Well With
Others,
which combines notated and improvised ensemble playing of sampled voices and
digitally processed acoustic instruments.
To
my ears, there are strong similarities which run through the pieces, besides
the obvious facts that I wrote them all and that all the pieces make extensive
use of computers. All the pieces
contain driving, syncopated rhythmic materials and simple, catchy
melodies. All the pieces build
clearly audible musical structures out of these simple materials, sometimes
luxuriating in simplicity and beautiful sound, sometimes combining and layering
the materials to create chaos.
The
biggest similarity in these pieces, though, is reflected in one common reaction
IÕve gotten from people working on the pieces. When IÕve been rehearsing with the Dresher Ensemble, or with
Peter Eldridge, or working in the studio with engineer Jody Elff, after weÕve
finished up and everyone is packing up to leave, I hear someone singing or
whistling the tunes which are embedded in these pieces. I hear it after concert performances as
well. Someone is always humming
one of the tunes as they leave the hall.
In fact, at one of the performances of the Dresher Ensemble in San
Francisco, another composer in the audience came up to me and said he
remembered a piece of mine heÕd heard 20 years before, and he proceeded to sing
the opening tune of the piece.
Because
Ònew musicÓ and Òcomputer musicÓ is characteristically difficult, or abstract,
and avoids things as simple as memorable melodies, I spent many years a little
embarrassed by my melodies. But of
course, thereÕs really no need.
This is new music, computer music, which invites you to hum along. I hope you enjoy it.
Digits (2005)
Digits
are what we use both to play the piano and to operate computers. This piece makes some fairly extreme
demands on both types of digits.
The piano part, written for Kathleen SupovŽ, exploits her incredible
technique to play a bit more than is humanly [NR1][NR2]possible. The computer, which plays only sounds
which originate from the piano, integrates with the live playing in a way which
is seamless and, hopefully, a bit magical. In performance, the piece can also have a digital video
track, created by R. Luke DuBois, which consists of processed images of the
pianistsÕ digits.
Making Light Of
It (2005)
settings
of poems by Philip Levine
Since
I first encountered Philip LevineÕs poetry, IÕve felt drawn to its plain-spoken
way of addressing the emotional content of the activities and relationships
which make up our lives. These six
songs speak of friends and family, of loss, and of the effort to define
ourselves in relation to our work and our families. I think of this as adult poetry, about the transitions,
responsibilities, illusions, disillusionment and love which give our lives
substance.
Making
Light of It
was commissioned by Thomas Buckner..
A Robert
Johnson Sampler (1987, rev.2005)
When
I first began to play with tape music in the early-1970s, I was fascinated with
my ability to use recordings of whole musical phrases as the basis of my
electronic works. As I began to
use computers a few years later, it seemed like this simple process was beyond
the capabilities of the new medium:
too expensive, too much memory and disk space would be required. Then, in the mid-1980s, along came
inexpensive digital samplers. A
Robert Johnson Sampler was my first excursion into working with this kind of
sampling medium as a performance instrument. As a teenager in the 1960s I'd spent many hours listening to
Robert Johnson's unique blues playing and trying to imitate and learn from his
playing. Twenty years later, after
enduring a PhD in music composition and then living in Paris for a while, in
the heart of Europe's classical modernism, Robert Johnson's music seemed like
something uniquely American, something which differentiated the American
musical experience from that of Europe.
Now, again twenty years later, after hip-hop and turntablism and rampant
sampling, both the material and the way I play with it seem ripe for
revisiting.
Plays Well With
Others (2004)
Some
kids only seem to get along with other kids when they get their own way. YouÕve got to play by their rules. YouÕve got to let them win. Otherwise, theyÕll see that you get
taken out of the game. Georgie
told us he was the kind of kid who played well with others, but it turns out
that he and Dickie had other plans.
Plays
Well With Others
was written for the Paul Dresher EnsembleÕs Electro-Acoustic Band.
-o0o-
MAKING
LIGHT OF IT
poems
by Philip Levine
©
Philip Levine, from New Selected Poems, Alfred A. Knopf, 1991.
1. Wednesday
I
could say the day began
behind
the Sierras,
in
the orange grove the ladder
that
reaches partway
to
the stars grew
a
shadow, and the fruit
wet
with mist put on
its
color and glowed
like
a globe of fire,
and
when I wakened
I
was alone and the room
still,
the white walls,
the
white ceiling, the stained
wood
floor held me until
I
sat up and reached out
first
for a glass
of
stale water to free
my
tongue, and then
the
wristwatch purchased
before
you were born,
and
while the leaves ticked
against
the window and
the
dust rose golden
in
the chalice of the air
I
gave you this name.
2. Making Light Of It
I
call out a secret name, the name
of
the angel who guards my sleep,
and
light grows in the east, a new light
like
no other, as soft as the petals
of
the blown rose of late summer.
Yes,
it is late summer in the West.
Even
the grasses climbing the Sierras
reach
for the next outcropping of rock
with
tough, burned fingers. The thistle
sheds
its royal robes and quivers
awake
in the hot winds off the sun.
A
cloudless sky fills my room, the room
I
was born in and where my father sleeps
his
long dark sleep guarding the name
he
shared with me. I can follow the
day
to
the black rags and corners it will
scatter
to because someone always
goes
ahead burning the little candle
of
his breath, making light of it all.
3. from Words
I
want to rise above
nothing,
not even you.
I
want to love women
until
the love burns
me
alive. I want
to
rock God's daughter
until
together we
become
one wave
of
the sea that brought
us
into being. I
want
your blessing,
whoever
you are who
has
the power to give
me
a name for
whatever
I am. I want
you
to lead me to
the
place within me
where
I am every
man
and woman, the trees
floating
in the cold haze
of
January, the small
beasts
whose names
I
have forgotten, the ache
I
feel to be no
longer
only myself.
4. The Return: Orihuela, 1965
-
for Miguel Hernandez
You
come over a slight rise
in
the narrow, winding road
and
the white village broods
in
the valley below. A breeze
silvers
the cold leaves
of
the olives, just as you knew
it
would or as you saw
it
in dreams. How many days
have
you waited for this day?
Soon
you must face a son grown
to
manhood, a wife to old age,
the
tiny sealed house of memory.
A
lone crow drops into the sun,
the
fields whisper their courage.
5. Llanto - for Ernesto Trejo
Plum,
almond, cherry have come and gone
the
wisteria has vanished in
the
dawn, the blackened roses rusting
along
the barbed-wire fence explain
how
April passed so quickly into
this
hard wind that waited in the west.
Ahead
is summer and the full sun
riding
at ease above the stunned town
no
longer yours. Brother, you are
gone,
that
which was earth gone back to earth,
that
which was human scattered like rain
into
the darkened wild eyes of herbs
that
see it all, into the valley oak
that
will not sing, that will not even talk.
6. The Last Step
Once
I was a small grain
of
fire burning on the rim
of
day, and I waited in silence
until
the dawn released me
and
I climbed into the light.
Here,
in the brilliant orchard,
the
think-skinned oranges
doze
in winter light,
late
roses shred the wind,
and
blood rains into
the
meadows of winter grass.
I
thought I would find my father
and
hand in hand we would pace off
a
child's life, I thought the air,
crystal
around us, would hold
his
words until they became
me,
never to be forgotten.
I
thought the rain was far off
under
another sky. I thought
that
to become a man I
had
only to wait, and the years,
gathering
slowly, would take me there.
They
took me somewhere else.
The
twisted fig tree, the almond,
not
yet white crowned, the slow
tendrils
of grape reaching
into
the sky are companions
for
a time, but nothing goes
the
whole way. Not even the snail
smeared
to death on a flat rock
or
the tiny sparrow fallen from
the
nest and flaring the yellow grass.
The
last step, like an entrance,
is
alone, in darkness, and without song
-o0o-
PLAYS
WELL WITH OTHERS
texts
by Neil Rolnick
Georgie says come out and
play,
but he makes all the
rules.
The rules are that he
always wins.
If youÕre not rich, you
lose.
If you wonÕt play with
Georgie,
well, hereÕs another
twist:
heÕll lock you up as a
terrorist
and then you wonÕt be
missed!
Georgie says he loves the
kids
heÕll leave no child
behind.
HeÕll test, test, test
til youÕre the best, best
best.
And if youÕre not the
best,
heÕll close your school.
Dickie sees evil
everywhere.
Terrorists are in our
hair.
TheyÕre in Iraq, theyÕre
in Iran,
theyÕre in our pots
and in our pans.
Dickie hides behind the curtain,
says heÕs really really
certain
thereÕs just one way we
wonÕt be hurtinÕ:
weÕve got to hire
Haliburton!
Georgie hates gay
marriage.
He thinks itÕs really
sick.
If a boy love a boy
or a girl loves a girl,
Georgie just says Òick!Ó
Georgie want amendments
to make them all
defendants.
Dickie says the bad guys
Are terrorists and thugs.
They hate us cause weÕre
free.
We should squash Ôem just
like bugs!
Georgie says to bring Ôem
on,
they want to test our
will,
so send your kids to fight
and hope they wonÕt get
killed.
He knows the good guys
always win
but Georgie is no fool;
while he send your kids
off to war
his own kids stay in
school.
Georgie says come out and
play.
-o0o-
MORE ABOUT THE
MUSICIANS:
Paul Dresher
Ensemble: http://www.dresherensemble.org
Peter
Eldridge: http://www.petereldridge.com
Neil
Rolnick: http://www.neilrolnick.com
Kathleen
SupovŽ: http://www.kathleensupove.com
RECORDING
INFORMATION:
All tracks except Plays Well With
Others recorded by Jody Elff. Making Light Of It and A
Robert Johnson Sampler recorded at Elff Productions, Brooklyn, NY. Digits recorded at
Patrych Studio, Bronx, NY. Plays
Well With Others recorded in concert at the Yerba Buena Center in San Francisco by
Neil Rolnick. All tracks mixed and
mastered by Jody Elff at Elff Productions. http://elff.net
Cover image by R. Luke DuBois. Booklet Design by Sozo Media.
PRODUCED BY NEIL ROLNICK