Paul Elwood
Stanley Kubricks
Mountain Home
Innova 786
1. Old Joe Clark 6:51
Hank Roberts, cello,
vocals
Paul Elwood, banjo
2. In the Zone 11:24
The Callithumpian
Consort
Conductor: Stephen Drury
Five-string banjo
soloist: Paul Elwood
3. Cluck Old Hen 2:13
John Hartford, banjo
Matthew Combs, fiddle
4. Stanley
Kubricks Mountain Home 26:18
Ilana Davidson, soprano
Matthew Combs, fiddle
and mandolin
Paul Elwood, banjo and
vocals
and the Callithumpian Consort,
Stephen Drury, artistic
director
5. The Cuckoos
Nest 2:19
John Hartford, fiddle
Paul Elwood, five-string
banjo
6. The Golden
Road 15:05
Min Xiao-Fen, pipa
Paul Elwood, five-string
banjo
Stephen Drury, piano
Hank Roberts is a cellist that I
admired from the time that I heard him in the Bill Frisell
Band. I was lucky to play a number
of gigs with Hank. We got together
late one night in Ithaca, New York, to record the old American folk tune Old
Joe Clark. I had wanted to do a
wild free-improvisational interplay around the tune and we did a several takes
in this manner. Each version fell
apart at some point. I had taught
Hank the melody and words that evening and, when all else failed, I began to
play two chords without picks on the banjo in a quiet, slow manner. Hank began playing over that and did an
amazing vocal rendition of the tune.
I couldnt have been happier.
In the Zone,
is based on Old Joe Clark and was commissioned for the Brevard (North Carolina)
Chamber Orchestra by director/conductor Virginia Tillotson,
who premiered it on November 10, 1996.
There is a programmatic depiction of a scene from Thomas Pynchons
Gravitys Rainbow, from the section in the book titled In the Zone,
referring to the American Zone of Occupation after World War II. The scene occurs in a bombed out,
roofless house in which a main character of the book, Tyrone Slothrop, dances to the sound of a music box with a young
girl in the light of a camp fire.
A number of years ago I dreamed that
I was hiking in the mountains above Brevard, North Carolina. I crested the
ridge of a valley on a warm summer morning, and saw a dilapidated cabin with a
collapsed roof. Hmm, I thought,
thats Stanley Kubricks Mountain Home — Kubrick, of course, being the
iconic American film director. I
was instantly inspired to write a chamber composition structured on a Kubrick
film that would utilize folk music of the Appalachians. After watching all of his films, I
selected 2001: a Space Odyssey for the
structure of the piece, timing scenes and dividing them proportionally to fit
within the context of a 25-minute composition.
Source material came from
everywhere. A strong influence in
my life is legendary fiddler/banjoist/songwriter John Hartford with whom I
became acquainted in 1999. I asked
him to record a number of fiddle tunes with me, fiddler Matt Combs, and Mike Guggino, presently with the Steep Canyon Rangers, and I
transcribed these tunes for use in Stanley Kubricks Mountain Home.
Cluck Old Hen, with Hartford on
banjo and Combs on fiddle, is used as primary melodic material in
Kubrick. My mother described
telescopic observations of the moon in astronomy class notes on my birthday in 1982;
I found these texts after she died and they are read by the soprano soloist in
a proportional location in the composition similar to that of the moon scenes
in the film. Hartford gave me a
tune titled The Rooms They Are Not Even Ready that I placed in the middle of
the piece and it fittingly foreshadows the room that the wandering astronaut of
the film finds himself in during the last scenes. The chamber music sections
juxtaposed with the fiddle tunes represent the two overriding musical worlds in
which I live. Stanley
Kubricks Mountain Home is dedicated to John Hartford who
passed in 2001.
The Golden Road
was composed for pipa player Min Xiao-Fen, whom I
heard performing in Rome on a Tan Dun opera a number of years ago, and for
pianist Stephen Drury, a close friend since 1990. Not knowing much about the pipa, a sort of Chinese lute, I fitted my banjo with heavy
guitar strings and tuned the instrument like a pipa. As the piece evolved, I ended up writing
for the banjo in the pipa tuning. Therefore, the banjo carries with it a
tuning of ADEA for the lower strings and I left the fifth string tuned in
G. The source material for the
composition is the Cuckoos Nest, my favorite Irish/American folk tune. Throughout, the banjo is bowed, picked,
and played clawhammer style.
Acknowledgements
Thanks to the Aaron Copland Fund for
Music Recording Grant, Stephen Drury, Matthew Combs, Hank Roberts, Ilana Davidson, Min Xiao-Fen, my mother, Mary Elwood
(1914-1989), John Hartford (1937-2001), Tony Trischka,
the Callithumpian Consort, Innova
Recordings, Larry Helmeczy, Virginia Tillotson, and Karen and J.C. Combs.
Mixed by Larry Helmeczy,
Ithaca, New York, 2003, except for Track 4.
Mastered by Silas Brown at Legacy
Sound.
1. OLD JOE CLARK
(traditional)
Hank Roberts, cello, vocals
Paul Elwood, banjo
Recorded in Ithaca, New York, July
10, 2003
Recording engineer: Larry Helmeczy
2. IN THE ZONE
(1996)
The Callithumpian
Consort
Conductor: Stephen Drury
Five-string banjo soloist: Paul Elwood
Violins:
Paola Caballero
Mona Rashad
Gabriela Diaz
Hilary Zipper
Betsy Hinckle
Hyo-Jeon
Jang
Monica Pegis
Gabriel Schlaffer
Elizabeth Robinson
Violas:
Illana
Schroeder
Amanda Wilson
Ethan Pernela
April Rumsey
Frederic Viger
Cellos:
Stacy Frierson
Laura Jensen
Dale Henderson
Courtenay Vandiver
Basses:
Matthew Heller
Jeffrey Kipperman
Piano: Timothy Bozarth
Percussion:
Thomas Gulborg
Barbara Lieurance
Akemi Fujita
Recorded February 15, 2000, Jordan
Hall, New England Conservatory, Boston, Mass.
Recording Engineers: Cameron Wiley and
Todd Goetz
3.
CLUCK OLD HEN (traditional)
John Hartford, banjo
Matthew Combs, fiddle
Produced by Paul Elwood
Recorded in Nashville, Tennessee,
June 5, 2000
4. STANLEY KUBRICKS MOUNTAIN HOME
(2001)
Ilana
Davidson, soprano
Matthew Combs, fiddle and mandolin
Paul Elwood, banjo and vocals
and the Callithumpian
Consort, Stephen Drury, artistic director:
Jessi
Rosinski, flute
Christopher Bush, clarinet
Gabriela Diaz, violin
Benjamin Schwartz, cello
Stephen Drury, piano
Recording Engineer: Cameron Wiley
Edited and mixed by Stephen Drury
Recorded in Jordan Hall, New England
Conservatory, Boston, Massachusetts, November 23, 2005
Stanley Kubricks Mountain Home
Exchanging light, a room above,
a blue-gray fog upon the river.
Horseshoe rim beneath the sun,
a cabin roof collapsed with snow.
Above the blue, below the black,
eternal peace upon the valley floor.
The wild curve, the grid of space,
a lunar void translucent evening.
Matter of the labyrinth sky,
eternal peace beneath the morning
valley clouds.
Above the blue, below the black,
concave gravity.
Ocean sky of vessel Earth,
the center defined by mass and
weight.
Horseshoe rim Vesuvius,
remnant of the Vulcan pool.
Sinkhole valley down below,
a cabin roof collapsed with snow.
refrain
Heavens despair the screaming rage,
wind in counterclockwise gales.
Wraps the moon in formless veils
High above Etruscan plains.
1Lab
for September 21, 1982 - Lunar Observation: The moon was observed between nine and
ten p.m. on September 21st. The weather was cool and the sky was clear with
good seeing conditions. The moon was in the first quarter—four or five
days after the date of the new moon. It was in the southwest and western
portion of the sky. It seemed to me that the view with the lowest magnification
was the best and most beautiful and everything seemed to stand out better than
with the higher magnification. The
crater floors must be below the surface of the moon for they appeared darker.
The surface of the seas seemed smooth and bright.
3Horseshoe
rim Vesuvius,
remnant of the Vulcan pool.
Sinkhole valley down below
a cabin roof collapsed with snow.
refrain
2The
rooms they are not even ready.
They dont give me a chance to fill
em right out
and they move em
right in.
3Not
ready now, the rooms above,
the mist has settled in the nascent
bowl.
A hazy sky, cathedral space,
tall trees uphold the vault of
heaven.
Above the blue, eternal light
a cup inverse - horizons end.
Morning sun of ten oclock,
the mists have lifted from the
ground.
Midsummer warmth, rainforest green,
a little boy ran out the door.
refrain
The wild curve, the grid of space,
a lunar void of vacuum veils.
Cresting the ridge in the warm humid
air.
Walking down the valley rim.
Roof caving in on the cabin floor,
languid clouds cross to afternoon.
refrain
High upon the crater rim,
the rooms arent even ready.
Thunder from beneath the ground,
Blueridge
Mountain cabin home
Morning sun of ten oclock,
humid air rainforest green.
Above the sky, eternal blue,
A labyrinth cycle turns.
Concave heaven, inverse bowl,
the roof collapsed on Stanleys
mountain home.
1. Text by my mother, Mary Elwood
2. Lines and melody courtesy of John
Hartford
3. All text for Stanley
Kubricks Mountain Home, Copyright 2011 by Paul Elwood.
5. THE CUCKOOS NEST
(traditional)
John Hartford, fiddle
Paul Elwood, five-string banjo
Recorded in Nashville, Tennessee,
June 5, 2000
6. THE GOLDEN ROAD
(2000)
Min Xiao-Fen, pipa
Paul Elwood, five-string banjo
Stephen Drury, piano
Recorded February 15, 2000, Jordan
Hall,
New England Conservatory, Boston,
Mass.
Recording Engineers: Cameron Wiley and
Todd Goetz
All compositions by Paul Elwood are
published by Western Wear Music Publishing, Inc., ASCAP, copyright 2011. All
rights reserved.
The music of Paul
Elwood often incorporates his background as a folk musician and
experimentalist on the five-string banjo with that of his voice as a composer
who loves the processes and syntax of contemporary writing. He is the recipient
of a Composers Assistance Grant from the American Music Center (2010) and an
Aaron Copland Fund for Music Recording Grant. In 2000 he was awarded the Sigma
Alpha Iota Philanthropies Inter-American Music Award for Vigils for solo piano,
and he has been featured as a composer and performer at festivals in Moscow,
Sofia (Bulgaria), Mexico City, Marseille (France), Wollongong (Australia), Edinburgh
(Scotland), Darmstadt (Germany), and all over the U.S. His music has been performed by the
symphonies of North Carolina, Charleston, and Wichita, Zeitgeist, Dinosaur
Annex, and Tambuco (the Mexican Percussion Quartet),
among others.
As a performer he won the Kansas
State Banjo Championship, worked with guitarist Eugene Chadbourne,
cellist Hank Roberts, percussionist Lukas Ligeti,
French saxophonist Raphael Imbert, bassist Bertram Turetzky, Andrew Bishops Hank Williams Project, drummer
Matt Wilson, Electric Cowboy Cacophony (Edinburgh and Marseille), played live
on MTV Europe, and played percussion in a number of orchestras including the
Buffalo Philharmonic and Wichita Symphony.
Elwood studied percussion with J.C. Combs and composition with Donald Erb, David Felder, Walter Mays, Arthur S. Wolff, Charles Wuorinen, Peter Maxwell Davies, and Gunther Schuller.
His music is published by C.F. Peters, Smith Publications, and Western
Wear Music Publishing.
Residencies he has received include
the American Academy in Rome as Southern Regional Visiting Composer, the
Harwood Museum of Art in Taos, New Mexico, the Wurlitzer Foundation of New
Mexico, the Frank Waters Foundation, MacDowell Colony, Djerassi
Artists Residence Program, Ucross Foundation, Camargo
Foundation (France), and Fundaion Valparaiso
(Spain).
The Callithumpian
Consort is dedicated to the proposition that music is an
experience. The Consort consists of
a senior band of soloists, but is flexible in size and makeup, enabling the
group to tackle unusual repertoire and experimental projects. Their repertoire
ranges from classics of the past 50 years to the newest works of the
avant-garde. Active commissioning and recording of new works is crucial to
their mission. The Callithumpian Consort has worked
with composers John Cage, Lee Hyla, John Zorn,
Michael Finnissy, Steve Reich, Helmut Lachenmann, John Luther Adams, Christian Wolff and many
others in regular concerts at New England Conservatory. Recordings are
available on Tzadik, New World and Mode records.
Primarily known for his fiddling, Matthew
Combs has worked with some of the best names in country,
bluegrass, and old-time music—including John Hartford, Jerry Douglas,
Patty Loveless, Suzy Bogguss, Maura OConnell, John
Oates, Mike Snider, Ray Price, Kevin Costner, Charlie Daniels, Jimmy Martin,
Marty Stuart, Uncle Josh Graves, Kenny Baker, Norman and Nancy Blake, and Doc
Watson. He has also performed with The Nashville Mandolin Ensemble, The
Tennessee Mafia Jug Band, The Nashville Bluegrass Band, The Nashville Chamber
Orchestra, and the Nashville Opera. In addition, he has played on the Grand
Ole Opry over 200 times, has appeared on Throwdown with Bobby Flay on the Food
Network, on documentaries on PBS, on CMT and GAC, and on The
Marty Stuart Show on RFD-TV. Matt received his Bachelor of Music
degree from the University of Michigan in violin performance, where he studied
with Paul Kantor. Currently he is Head of the Fiddle Department at Vanderbilts
Blair School of Music and has also been an instructor at Mark OConnors Fiddle
Camp.
Ilana
Davidson is internationally acclaimed for her crystalline
soprano, assured musicality and interpretive insight, with a repertoire
spanning the 12th to the 21st centuries. Her recording of William Bolcoms Songs of Innocence and of Experience
conducted by Leonard Slatkin won four Grammy Awards
in 2006 including Best Classical Album.
In the summer of 2010, Ms. Davidson
made her debut at The Bard Music Festival singing Krenek,
Eisler and Berg and returned to Staunton Music
Festival in a series of baroque concerts, as well as the Berkshire Choral
Festival as soloist in Haydns Paukenmesse.
Conductors with whom she was worked include Alan Gilbert, Jaap
van Zweden, Keith Lockhart, Reinbert
de Leeuw, Oliver Knussen,
Stuart Malina, Harry Bicket,
Carl St. Clair, Michael Riesman, Lothar Zagrosek, Lawrence Renes and
Claus Peter Flor.
Career highlights include Songs
of Innocence and of Experience at Carnegie Hall with Mto. Slatkin and the Saint Louis
Symphony, and Mahlers Second Symphony with Benjamin Zander and the Boston
Philharmonic in Boston Symphony Hall and Carnegie Hall, her Avery Fisher Hall
debut in Carl Orffs Trionfo
di Afrodite with Leon Botstein and the American
Symphony Orchestra and her Alice Tully Hall debut as the Wife in Philip Glass
and Robert Morans The Juniper Tree.
Recent performances include Carmina Burana
with the Houston Symphony, Edmonton Symphony, Alabama Symphony, Faur Requiem with the Charlotte Symphony and Mahlers
Second Symphony at Symphony Hall with the Boston Philharmonic. Glucks Orphe et Euridice
with the Orchestre Symphonique
de Quebec, Haydns Creation
with the Harrisburg Symphony, J.S. Bachs Weihnachtsoratorium
and Jauchzet
Gott in allen Landen with the Orchestra of St.
Lukes. Upcoming performances
include appearances of Mahler Second Symphony with Orchestre
Symphonique de Quebec and the Dayton Philharmonic, 3
Songs for soprano and orchestra by Osvaldo Golijov
and Mahlers Fourth Symphony.
Ms. Davidsons discography includes Chimeras
by John Zorn, Kurt Weills Down in the Valley,
Lieder of Ernst Krenek,
What Price Confidence by Ernst Krenek.
Ms. Davidson is a graduate of The
Curtis Institute of Music. She was a vocal fellow at the
Tanglewood
Music Center and a participant in the Aston Magna Early Music Academy.
www.ilanadavidson.com
Pianist and conductor Stephen
Drury has performed at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, the Baribican Centre and Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, the Cit de la Musique in Paris, and
the Leipzig Gewandhaus, among others. Drury was a
prize-winner in the Carnegie Hall/Rockefeller Foundation Competitions in
American Music, and was selected by the United States Information Agency for
its Artistic Ambassador Program for a European tour. In 1989 the National
Endowment for the Arts awarded Drury a Solo Recitalist Fellowship and the same
year he was named Musician of the Year by the Boston Globe. He has worked closely with a virtual
whos who list of contemporary composers including John Cage, Gyrgy Ligeti, Frederick Rzewski,
Steve Reich, Olivier Messiaen, John Zorn, Luciano Berio, Helmut Lachenmann,
Christian Wolff, Jonathan Harvey, Michael Finnissy,
Lee Hyla and John Luther Adams. Drury is artistic
director and conductor of the Callithumpian Consort,
and he is founder of the Summer Institute for Contemporary Performance Practice
at New England Conservatory where he teaches.
Pipa
player Min Xiao-Fen early on made her mark in China
winning first prize at the Jiangsu National Pipa
Competition. She has been soloist
with the Brooklyn Philharmonic, the San Diego Symphony, the New Haven Symphony
Orchestra, the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra, the Amiens Chamber Orchestra in
France and the Nieuw Ensemble in Holland, among
others. She has appeared at the Lincoln Center Festival, the San Francisco Jazz
Festival, the Vienna Music Festival, the Amsterdam - China Festival, the
Utrecht International Lute Festival, the Geneva Music Festival, and the Berlin
Chinese Music Festival. She worked
with legendary jazz pianist Randy Weston on his album Khepera (Verve) and recorded movie
soundtracks by John Zorn on Tzadik. She premiered Tan
Duns Peony Pavilion (Sony), an opera with director
Peter Sellars and has worked with composers including
Chen Yi, Zhou Long, Bun-Ching Lam, Philip Glass, Wadada Leo Smith, Jane Ira Bloom, and Mark Dresser. Mins
solo recording, The Moon Rising (Cala), was hailed by BBC Music Magazine as one of the best
CDs of 1996. Her recording Viper
(Avant), improvisations with Derek Bailey, was one of The Wire Magazines 1998
Albums of the Year.
Recently, she was honored with support from
the Asian Cultural Council to study and research Tang Dynasty music in China
and Japan.
Bluegrass and songwriting legend John
Hartford received several Grammy awards and recorded a catalog of
more than 30 albums. He gained
international popularity with his hit Gentle On My Mind,
recorded by many artists including Glen Campbell, Aretha Franklin, and Elvis
Presley. In the 1960s he was often
featured on the Glen Campbell Good Time Hour
and the Smothers Brothers Show. In 1968 Hartford played on the Byrds classic country-leaning album Sweethearts of the
Rodeo. Hartfords 1971 album, Aereo-plain
(1971), known popularly as the Sgt. Pepper of bluegrass, featured other
legends including Vassar Clements, Norman Blake, and Tut Taylor. In 1976, he
won a Grammy award for his album, Mark Twang,
on which Hartford recorded himself singing, playing fiddle or banjo, and
dancing simultaneously. Toward the end of his life in 2001 he performed on the
O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack and on the famed Down From The Mountain
concert at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee, which he also hosted.
Aside from his accomplishments in
music, he was also a steamboat pilot, author, artist, disc jockey, and
calligrapher. Hartford is a huge
influence on the music of Paul Elwood and remains so for several generations of
bluegrass pickers.
For the past 44 years
improvisational cellist Hank Roberts
has been creating new sounds on the cello. His rhythmic, harmonic, emotional
and timbral approach to the cello distinguishes him
as a unique voice on the instrument and in the world of new music. One of the
most respected improvising cellists on the international scene. – Jazz
Express
Hes collaborated extensively with
Bill Frisell (in among other ensemble, The Bill Frisell Quartet), Hal Willner,
Tim Berne, Andy Summers, Dave King and Ethan Iverson from The Bad Plus, Donna
the Buffalo, Sim Redmond Band, Kevin Kinsella, Wingnut, and Ti Ti Chickapea, among others. Hes also performed with John Zorn, Joey
Baron, Mark Feldman, Marilyn Crispell, Mark Dresser,
Mark Ribot, and Marty Erlich,
among others.
Among other self-released
recordings, Hank Roberts and Wiggy Dog Boy –
The Truth and Reconciliation Show came out on Ithacas ITown
Records label. He has nine CD releases on the Winter and Winter label,
including several with The Arcado String Trio and
Miniature. The latest, Green, was recorded with touring partners Marc Ducret and Jim Black in June 2007.
Innova
is supported by an endowment from the McKnight Foundation.
Philip Blackburn: director, design
Chris Campbell: operations manager