Ron George

The Floating Bubble

Innova 215

1 Gupta Sloka Chand by John Bergamo (14:49)

2-4 Sleep and Waking (3 mvts) by Ben Johnston (3:27 / 4:15 / 4:06)

5 The Floating Bubble by Ron George (20:23)

Performers: Ron George (soloist/leader on all tracks); Erik Forrester (all trks; conductor on trks 2-4); David Johnson (trks 1 & 5); Amy Knowles (trk 1); Robert Slack (trk 1); John Bergamo (conductor on trk 1); Steven Schmidt, Keith Higgins, Brian Etheridge, Jeremy Reinbolt, and Gabe Kader (trks 2-4).

Ron George (1937-2006), a highly regarded percussionist, composer, instrument builder, and educator, was born in Escondido, CA, and died in Los Angeles. He studied composition with Robert Erickson and Pauline Oliveros, theory with Kenneth Gaburo, and percussion with George Gaber and earned degrees from Indiana University and the University of California, San Diego. He was also an ordained Zen Buddhist priest.

Untiringly creative, George designed and built many unique percussion instruments, including the Loops Console, the Super Vibe, and the modular Tambellan (pictured in the booklet), developed a variable microtonal tuning system, and created a notation system for both traditional and his self-designed percussion instruments. As a composer-performer, George toured nationally and internationally. His professional performing affiliations were extensive: He was a member of symphony orchestras, including the San Diego and Milwaukee symphonies. He was co-founder and co-director of the Milwaukee Contemporary Chamber Music Ensemble. A featured performer at numerous new music festivals and percussion conferences, many works were written specifically for George and his instruments by such composers as Robert Erickson, Dary John Mizelle, Netty Simons, Ben Johnston, and John Bergamo.

A deeply committed educator, George conducted workshops throughout the United States and taught at the California Institute of the Arts, the Idyllwild School of Music and the Arts, and the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts. He also taught his interactive "Creative Music Program" to both youths and other educators through the Inner-City Arts organization in Los Angelesand worked in an interdisciplinary arts program at the Poseidon School for at-risk students. His joy in imagining, creating, and performing music was a great gift that he brought to his teaching, making a difference in the lives of countless children. A central figure in the American Composers Forum/LA., George founded the ACF/LA Education Committee and consulted on all of the ACF/LA's community programs involving children.

John Bergamo’s Gupta Sloka Chanda was written for Ron George in 1978. The piece is dedicated to Bergamo’s first teacher of North Indian tabla drumming, Mahaparush Misra. There are three movements, “Peshkar,” or introduction, “Khyal,” a lyrical style, and “Jhala,” a fast-paced piece. Scored for five mallet instruments and one soloist, the vibraphone, xylophone, and marimba parts are written out, but the soloist is free to chose as many instruments as desired, and the solo part is entirely improvised. In the Khyal movement, the vibraphonists use bows, as specified by the composer.

Though not indicated in the score, Gupta Sloka Chanda was intended to permit Ron to use the Console, a multiple percussion device that he invented. —JB

John Bergamo discovered the classical music of North India before graduating from the Manhattan School of Music. Much of his work for the last 40 years shows the influence of the styles and techniques of that music, both during his years as founder of the Percussion Department at the California Institute of the Arts’ School of Music, and his participation in such groups as the Repercussion Unit, Bracha, and the HandsOnsemble.

While many of Bergamo’s compositions were intended for performance during his 35 years at CalArts, or for one of the ensembles he co-founded with friends, colleagues and students at that institute, some, like Gupta Sloka Chanda, have grown from other friendships, such as his long association with Ron George.

Ben Johnston’s Sleep and Waking: “Ron and I agreed that this would be an improvisation in which each controlled only certain elements. I would control the pitch content. He would control every other element. I asked what idiom he preferred and he suggested the gamelan since I was interested in pitched percussion. He made the instruments as we went along. We divided them—pitched and unpitched. He allowed me to play them, saying, ‘It will sound like this, only controlled in pitch.’ The title comes from a statement by the Greek mystic G. I. Gurdjieff: ‘If you begin to think about it, you will see that, whatever you do, you will do it better when you are awake than when you are asleep.’” —BJ

Ben Johnston, described by Los Angeles Times critic Mark Swed as “our gentlest persuader ... a composer able to make both radical thinking and avant-garde techniques sound invariably gracious,” was born in 1926 in Macon, Georgia. He attended the College of William and Mary and Cincinnati Conservatory, later studying with Harry Partch, Darius Milhaud, and John Cage. Johnston taught composition and theory at the University of Illinois from 1951 to 1983. His works include Quintet for Groups, Sonnets of Desolation, Carmilla, Sonata for Microtonal Piano, and Suite for Microtonal Piano, and ten string quartets to date. All ten quartets will soon be released in a series of three recordings by the Kepler Quartet (New World Recordings). His awards include a Guggenheim Fellowship, a grant from the National Council on the Arts and the Humanities, and two commissions from the Smithsonian Institute. In 2006, Johnston moved to Wisconsin in order to better care for his wife, Betty Hall Johnston, who was seriously ill, and to continue his work with the Kepler Quartet. He is a member of ASCAP.

Ron George’s The Floating Bubble (1995) is the first work composed for the Tambellan, his unique American gamelan. Scored for a Tambellan ensemble of seven percussionists, and a soloist (George), the work is based on a very slowly evolving rhythmic/timbral structure that culminates in a loud climax. Following this climax is a short solo, which allows improvisation, and a section played on bamboo keyboards. Then the slowly evolving rhythmic/timbral structure returns and continues to the end of the work.

The Floating Bubble is a process piece where only a very basic rhythmic structure is given. The composer simply demonstrates for the performers what is to be played in each section. It is not possible to play a wrong note as the microtonal scale used is a homogenous one. Every note is part of the timbral/harmonic structure of the work. For the performers, the most difficult aspect of the piece is learning where to go within the Tambellan ensemble and what to play when you get there. —RG

CD produced by Ron George, Judy Liggett, Scott Fraser, and Jim Fox

Recorded by Scott Fraser, Architecture, Los Angeles, CA; California Institute of the Arts, Santa Clarita, CA; and Ron George’s studio, Los Angeles, CA .

Funding for this CD was provided by the National Endowment for the Arts, The Aaron Copland Fund for Music, Scott Fraser, and Jim Fox.

CD p 2008 innova Recordings. innova is supported by the McKnight Foundation.

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