PRESENT MUSIC
Kevin Stalheim, Artistic
Director
World Premieres by Jerome
Kitzke, Michael Torke and Kimmo Hakola
Music Commissioned and
Premiered by Present Music
PRESENT MUSIC
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Kevin Stalheim, Artistic
Director & Conductor
Haunted America (2002) by
Jerome Kitzke
Commissioned
by Richard and Suzanne Pieper in honor of Present Music and Archbishop Rembert
G. Weakland O.S.B.
Commissioned
by Robert and Dense Jacquart (Jacquart Fabric Products--Ironwood, MI) &
Ronald and Bett Jacquart
* Additional funding for these commissions and the world premiere recordings has been provided by: The American Composer Forum, The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, Greater Milwaukee Foundation, John Shannon & Jan Serr, Rockwell Automation; the American-Scandinavian Foundation, The Embassy of Finland, Stora Enso North America, the Present Music Board of Directors and over 150 individual donors to the Present Music Commission Fund.
Present Music Ensemble
Kevin Stalheim, conductor
(Kitzke)
Michael Torke conductor
(Torke)
Kimmo Hakola (Hakola)
Marie Sander, flute (Hakola)
William Helmers, clarinet,
bass clarinet; voice (Kitzke, Torke, Hakola)
Sean McNeely, clarinet
(Torke)
Linda Donahue, oboe; english
horn (Hakola)
Donald Sipe, trumpet
(Hakola)
Eric Segnitz, violin; voice
(Kitzke, Torke, Hakola)
Sharan Leventhal, violin
(Torke, Torke)
Brek Renzelman, viola
(Torke, Hakola)
Karl Lavine, cello;
voice (Kitzke, Torke, Hakola)
Collins Trier, bass (Torke,
Hakola)
Jerome Kitzke, voice (Kitzke)
Cheryl Bensman Rowe, voice
(Torke)
Terry Smirl, percussion;
voice (Kitzke, Torke, Hakola)
Linda Siegel, percussion
(Torke)
Phillip Bush, piano;
keyboard; voice (Kitzke, Torke, Hakola)
Part 1 For
you shall go out with joy,
And be led out with peace;
The mountains and the hills
Shall break forth into singing
before you,
And all the trees of the field
shall clap their hands.
|
Refrain 1:
Forever. All flesh is grass. And
all its loveliness is like the flower of the field. The
grass withers, the flower fades, |
But the word of our God stands
forever.
Part 2 In
the haunts where jackals once lay,
grass and reeds and papyrus will
grow.
Refrain
2: Because
the breath of the Lord blows upon it.
|
Part 3 They
will soar on wings like eagles; they
will run and not grow weary, |
they will walk and not be faint.
Refrain 1
Part 4 Then
will the lame leap like a deer,
and the mute tongue shout for
joy.
Refrain 2
|
Part 5 For
as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, And
do not return there, But
water the earth, |
And make it bring forth and bud
Forever.
|
Part 6 Then
will the eyes of the blind be opened and
the ears of the deaf unstopped. Refrain
2 Part 7
Instead of the thornbush will grow the pine tree, and
instead of briers the myrtle will grow. This
will be for the Lord’s renown, for
an everlasting sign, |
which will not be destroyed.
Refrain 1
Part 8 The
burning sand will become a pool,
the thirsty ground bubbling
springs.
Refrain 2
Part 9
(1)
For you shall go out with joy,
And be led out with peace;
The mountains and the hills
Shall break forth into singing
before you,
And all the trees of the field
shall clap their hands.
Refrain 1
(Book of
Isaiah, 35: 5-7, 40: 6-8, 40: 31, 55: 10, 55: 12-13)
As in many of Jerome
Kitzke’s works, the instrumentalists are asked to vocalize non-verbally
or even nonsensically. Amidst all
of this, however, they do intermittently say:
Hey
America!
What
haunts you?
Do You
Know?
When
will we end the human war? (Ginsberg)
You know
we can’t!
What can
we do?
We must
just live!
(Jerome
Kitzke)
Notes for Present Music Haunted America Compact Disc Recording
by Tom Strini
Many critics regard the present as a
time of woe, decay and impending apocalypse for Western art music. They point
with alarm to an aging, shrinking audience, slumping recording sales, and a
free-ranging pluralism that makes uniform standards impossible.
Yes, the world has changed, but not
necessarily for the worse. It depends on perspective. It's easier to be
optimistic in Milwaukee. Here, a daring new-music ensemble is part of the
landscape. It has a large, age-diverse audience and a repertoire that makes a
case for the early third millennium as a golden age of composition.
Present Music brings to Milwaukee
(and through discs and touring, to the wider world) an abundance of smart and
passionate new work filtered through the open mind and discerning taste of
music director Kevin Stalheim. Stalheim's group plays a broad spectrum of
contemporary styles, but his focus has been on the generation that came of age
since 1980.
This cohort of composers definitely
cares if you listen. Many of them grew up with rock 'n' roll. Electronic
instruments are givens, just another family of instruments to call upon. They
can write for symphony orchestras and opera companies, but their natural
habitat is the flexible chamber music ensemble. Present Music can grow from a
soloist to 20 players, every one of them highly skilled and committed to new
music. Several members have commissioned works themselves, on behalf of the
group.
Present Music attracts composers who
came up thinking of Minimalism, not Serialism, as modern music. They are
comfortable with pulsation and consonance, but they don't stop there. They are
a voracious lot that borrows freely from techniques and processes from the
whole history of Western music -- jazz and pop as well as art. Many of them are
keenly aware of music of other cultures and assimilate elements of it in savvy
ways. They tend to be superb musicians, and most of them are formidable
performers.
The composers Stalheim favors often
have common influences and philosophies, but no two of them sound alike. The
selections on this disc, all commissioned for the group's 20th season in
2001-'02, attest to the high quality and dizzying variety of Present Music's
repertoire.
Jerome Kitzke, a native Milwaukeean
long ago transplanted to New York, has a relationship going back to Present
Music's first concert. Native American music and culture have had a major impact
on his outlook and his music, which often incorporates drumming, chants and
shouts associated with Indian musical idiom.
Kitzke's Haunted America is a response to the atrocities of
September 11 in New York. It is
neither elegiac nor jingoistic, but a boisterous and fantastical rush of dark
humor, bounding dances, ecstatic beauty, spellbound meditation, rhythmic
glossolalia, maniacal laughter, hushed hymn and ardent lamentation. This
visceral yet painstakingly notated music benefits greatly from Kitzke's rich,
rugged voice. He is the lead singer, chanter and reciter on this recording (the
clarinetist, violinist, percussionist and pianist in the piece also vocalize).
"No matter what happens in
life," Kitzke said, "there's still a place for exuberance and joy and
love. That's why the piece has those things in it. It has some gritty things,
too, that reflect the way I was feeling about events and politics at that time.
Of course my feelings were all over the place. My piece is basically about
going on and living, but also asking questions about how we live and how we
think of ourselves."
Michael Torke is another Milwaukee
export to New York. He, too, has a long history with Present Music. But unlike
the intuitive Kitzke, Torke is systematic.
A persistent rhythmic figure, arch
form, a circle-of-fifths key plan and phasing rhythmic relations unify Song
of Isaiah. Parts 1,
3, 7 and 9 relate to one another, as do the even-numbered parts. At the most
obvious level, the rhythmic tapping that runs through the whole piece sounds on
claves in even sections and on tambourine in odd ones – except for the
pivotal section 5. There, and only there, the triangle takes over. The harmony
is diatonic, but frequently dissonant and far from common-practice tonality. Chord
coloration is one intuitive field within the tightly controlled structure.
The sections match nine joyful
verses, sung by a soprano, from the Biblical Book of Isaiah. The clarinets,
percussion, piano and string quintet do not really accompany the voice, which
is just part of the mix. Soprano and instruments alike sometimes sing long,
sustained lines, but more often percolate through popping, staccato, syncopated
bits. Each section works toward rhythmic unisons.
"They're not really
climaxes," Torke said, of these moments when the layered rhythms align.
"They're more like confirmations. I didn't want to disturb the meditation
of the music; I wanted it like a prayer from beginning to end. I'm trying to
find the peace inside, not express those tensions. The rhythm is uplifting and
makes you want to dance, and yet it's meditative. The music is animated, yet
peaceful. I think that's an interesting result."
Scores and recordings from
publishers all over the world land on Stalheim's doorstep by the dozen, and he
spends a great deal of time sifting them. Present Music's repertoire has come
to include music from China to England to the Americas.
He was intrigued with Finnish
composer Kimmo Hakola who, like Torke and Kitzke, is in his 40s. Unlike the two
Americans, Hakola had no prior connection to Present Music or Milwaukee.
Stalheim commissioned the Chamber
Concerto on this
disc before he'd met Hakola face-to-face. The composer responded with a
substantial, five-movement work for flute, oboe (doubling English horn), clarinet,
trumpet, piano and string quintet. This concerto-for-mini-orchestra assumes
virtuoso skill on the part of every player. At the premiere and on this
recording, the ensemble gives it just the combination of ferocity, abandon and
precision that this dense and highly charged music requires.
The mode is Expressionist. Parts of
the concerto bring to mind the Bartok of the late string quartets. Hakola's
remarks about the opening "Furioso" might well be applied to a Bartok
quartet: "(It) is the hectic babble of voices in which each has something
important to say but is given no room in which to say it. At the end, agreement
is reached on the procedure to be observed. There is something very Kafkan
about this."
Hakola reveals a wholly unexpected
gift for soaring melody in the third movement, "Amoroso." The English
horn spins out an impossibly long theme and the trumpet responds in kind, as
strings, piano and vibraphone release a perfumed sonic atmosphere. The melodies
remain coherent despite their length and through-composition. They curl
irregularly as they spin out, like tendrils of a twining vine - ever the same,
but continually new.
The music bears out Stalheim's
characteristically pithy summation of the composer's style: "He's not
afraid to write a tune. But he's not afraid to be gritty, either."
That statement could apply to
Present Music's repertoire as a whole.
-- Tom Strini is music and dance critic for the
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Photo
credit: ??
Jerome
Kitzke lives in New
York City, but grew up along the southwestern shore of Lake Michigan in
Milwaukee, where he was born in 1955.
Since his first work in 1970, he has thought himself to be as much a
storyteller as a composer. Some of the stories are about life's personal roads,
like The Redness of Blood, which expresses the composer's love for his blood
family. Many, however, like Box Death Hollow and The Paha Sapa Give-Back are about the roads that go looking
for what it means to be an American early in the 21st Century, especially as it
relates to the connection between how we live on this land and the way we came
to live on it. Kitzke's music celebrates American Vitality in its purest forms.
It thrives on the spirit of driving jazz, Plains Indian song, and Beat
Generation poetry, where freedom and ritual converge. It is direct, dramatic,
and visceral, always with an ear to the sacred ground.
Mr. Kitzke
composes for and performs with his group The Mad Coyote. His music has been
performed in North and South America, Europe and Australia. Commissions have come from such diverse
sources as Present Music, Kronos Quartet, Zeitgeist, Trio AKKOBASSO, Essential
Music, Guy Klucevsek, Anthony de Mare and Tom Kolor. Recordings include “The Character of American Sunlight”
on Koch International and “Regina Takes the Holy Road, 3 December
1994” recorded by Michael Lowenstern on his New World Records release,
“Spasm.” Mr.
Kitzke’s music is published by Peer Music in New York City.
The music
of Michael Torke has been called “some of the most optimistic, joyful and
thoroughly uplifting music to appear in recent years” (Gramophone). Hailed as a “vitally inventive composer” (Financial
Times) and “a
master orchestrator whose shimmering timbral palette makes him the Ravel of his
generation” (New York Times), Michael Torke has created a substantial body of works in
virtually every genre, each with a characteristic personal stamp that combines
restless rhythmic energy with ravishingly beautiful melodies.
Recent
projects include a millennium symphony commission from Michael Eisner and the
Walt Disney Company, performed by Kurt Masur and the New York Philharmonic, Strawberry
Fields, written
with A.R. Gurney for Great Performances and New York City Opera, and The
Contract, an
evening length story ballet for James Kudelka and the National Ballet of
Canada. Current projects include a
New York City Opera commission, House of Mirth (again with a libretto by A. R.
Gurney), a new story ballet for the National Ballet of Canada based on The
Italian Straw Hat,
and a music theater meditation on Marcel Carne’s Children of Paradise, for John Kelly & Co.
This
November, Naxos released a newly recorded orchestral CD of works, including An
American Abroad,
commissioned and performed by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra during
Torke’s residency with that orchestra. The fall of 2002 has also seen the launch of Ecstatic
Records, a label established to re-release the complete music formally recorded
by Argo/Decca Records, available at www.michaeltorke.com. The sole agent for Torke’s music
is Boosey and Hawkes.
(Photo credit: Johanna Mannila)
Kimmo
Hakola, born July 27, 1958 is considered one of the most interesting composer
names of Finnish musical life. Hakola studied at the Sibelius Academy under
Einojuhani Rautavaara and Eero Hämeenniemi and won the Unesco Composers'
Rostrum in 1987 with his String Quartet – a work that was acknowledged as a
masterpiece and consequently played over radio networks in more than 30
countries. In 1991 Hakola won the Unesco Rostrum again with his work Capriole for cello and clarinet. Hakola's music has been performed at
several major music events including the ISCM World Music Days as well as at
the new music festivals of Edinburgh, Huddersfield, Witten and Ars Musica in
Bruxelles, among others. He was one of the featured composers at the 1998
Musica Nova festival in Helsinki.
The music of Kimmo Hakola is a combination of uncompromising dramatic
power and exceptional musical quality.
Kimmo Hakola is the composer-in-residence of the Joensuu City Orchestra.
He has acted as Artistic Director of the Musica nova festival in Helsinki since
1999.
(Present Music Ensemble
Photo: credit Tom Bamberger)
PRESENT
MUSIC
Kevin
Stalheim, Artistic Director
Present Music is one of the leading ensembles specializing in new music in the United States. Founded and based in Milwaukee since 1982, Present Music has worked closely with many of the nation’s most exciting and important composers, and has firmly established a large audience for new music. Since 1982 Present Music commissioned and premiered over 30 new works in Milwaukee by many of today’s most exciting composers. Present Music programs include a 6-concert series in Milwaukee, a 5-concert series in Madison, tours, recordings, broadcasts, and education programs for K-12 children and regular touring and broadcast opportunities.
Present Music has toured extensively throughout the United
States and has participated in several major international music festivals
including the ‘1992 Interlink Festival of New American Music in
Japan,” the “Bang on a Can Festival” in New York City, and,
most recently, with the Istanbul Symphony at the “1999 Istanbul International
Music Festival.” Future
tours for Present Music include performances in Shanghai and Beijing in May of
2003.
Present Music has received numerous important national
grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Reader’s Digest /
Meet the Composer Commissioning Program, the Aaron Copland Fund for American
Music, BMI, as well as winning the ASCAP/CMA Adventuresome Programming award an
unprecedented three times in the past seven years.
Present Music can be heard on
eight compact disc recordings that include the composers Kamran Ince, Michael
Torke, Jerome Kitzke, Kimmo Hakola, Daniel Lentz and Joseph Koykkar on the
Innova, Argo, Albany, and Northeastern labels.
Recording Information:
Haunted America by Jerome Kitzke
Recorded: June 2, 2002
– New Horizon Studio, Milwaukee, WI
Recording Engineers: Ric Probst and Steve Kutgen or Remote
Planet, Milwaukee, WI
Producer: Jerome Kitzke, Kevin Stalheim
Mixing and Editing: Jerome Kitzke, Ric Probst, Kevin
Stalheim
Publisher: Peer Music, New York
Song of Isaiah by Michael Torke
Recorded: April 21, 2002 – Plymouth Church,
Milwaukee, WI
Recording Engineers: Ric Probst and Steve Kutgen or Remote
Planet, Milwaukee, WI
Producer: Michael Torke, Kevin Stalheim
Mixing & Editing: Michael Torke, Ric Probst, Kevin
Stalheim,
Publisher: Boosey & Hawkes, New York; London
Chamber Concerto by Kimmo Hakola
Recorded: March 17, 2002 – Plymouth Church,
Milwaukee, WI
Recording Engineers: Ric Probst and Steve Kutgen or Remote
Planet, Milwaukee, WI
Producer: Kimmo Hakola,
Kevin Stalheim
Mixing & Editing: Kimmo Hakola, Ric Probst, Kevin
Stalheim
Publisher: Warner/Chappell Music - Finland
For more information on Present
Music:
Web Site: www.presentmusic.org
E-mail: [email protected]
TEL: 414.271.0711
FAX: 414.271.7998
Present Music
1840 N. Farwell Avenue, Suite #301
Milwaukee, WI 53202
Present Music is supported
in part by funds provided by The National Endowment for the Arts, Aaron Copland
Fund for American Music, the Wisconsin Arts Board, Milwaukee County, the City
of Milwaukee Arts Board, United Performing Arts Fund in Milwaukee and
contributions from corporations, foundations and individuals.
Midwest Express is the official
airline of Present Music (logo).
(Lib. of Congress photo
of woman placing sticker on box ?)