Zeitgeist
Here
and Now: Celebrating Thirty Years of Zeitgeist
Innova 799
1.
Ann Millikan: Kuiper Belt Wamfle 2:43
2.
Douglas Geers: Tight Tie Size Try 2:11
3.
Phil Fried: Itty Bitty Symphony 2:31
4.
Chris Gable: Beat That Clock 2:46
5.
Kathy Jackanich: But do the cranes know 4:14
6.
Justin Henry Rubin: Il momento lussureggiante
per tre musicisti 3:04
7.
Gao Hong: Celebration of
150/30 Year 3:12
8.
Dick Hensold: Zeitgeist Anniversary Tune 2:21
9.
Steve Heitzeg: American Indian Movement
(No Reservations) 3:46
10.
Chris Granias: Z-Bekiko 3:37
11.
Carei Thomas: Three Sides of the Issue:
Cartoon XVIa 1:55
12.
David Means: Thirty for Four 1:51
13.
Douglas Ewart: Spells 2:41
14.
Erik Fratzke: Ruggles
on Main 2:07
1.
Scott Miller: And Thirty More II 2:39
2.
Mark Eden: Some Kind of Virus 2:26
3.
Brian Heller: Playing Back/Listening Forward 2:44
4.
Matthew Smith: TheyÕre In There Somewhere 2:26
5.
Philip Blackburn: Stück 2:34
6.
David Evan Thomas: Quiptych 1:34
7.
Carol Barnett: Z=30; SchumannÕs Excellent Extension 2:36
8.
Brent Michael Davids: Something Pearl 3:07
9.
Randall Davidson: Came to believe that
a power
greater than ourselves could restore
us to
sanity 1:50
10.
Libby Larsen: Ricochet 1:59
11.
Janika Vandervelde: Getting
Your ZÕs (Or Not) 2:54
12.
Marc Jensen: Snowfall 4:21
13.
Mary Ellen Childs: Faint Object Camera 3:14
14.
Jeffrey Brooks: Still Life with Compressed Air 2:25
15.
David Wolff: Mutagenesis 3:05
16.
Mike Olson: Ineffable 2:29
Lauded
for providing Òa once-in-a-lifetime experience for adventurous
concertgoers,Ó Zeitgeist
is a new music chamber ensemble comprised
of two percussion, piano and
woodwinds. Always eager to explore new
artistic frontiers,
Zeitgeist collaborates with composers of all types to create
imaginative new work that
challenges the boundaries of traditional chamber
music. The members
of Zeitgeist are: Heather Barringer, percussion; Patti
Cudd,
percussion; Pat OÕKeefe, woodwinds; Shannon Wettstein,
piano.
Arriving,
improbably, at a thirtieth anniversary, a
Ònew musicÓ ensemble might reasonably indulge
in a bit of
preening. But not Zeitgeist. Rather
than produce,
say, a retrospective, Ògreatest
hitsÓ CD, the
Saint Paul-based quartet looked
forward,
inviting short pieces from thirty of its
closest
composer-friends, all then (2008) living in
Minnesota.
To honor the concurrent sesquicentennial
of the
state that had nourished them, a
duration was
prescribed: 150 seconds. No invitee
declined, though
some were more punctual than
others.
The
results—a snapshot of MinnesotaÕs longlively
compositional scene in
the first decade of
the new
millennium, or simply as thirty love letters
to
Zeitgeist—transcend the occasion. These
are
miniatures that refuse to be confined by the
label. Ranging
from neoclassic to unclassifiable,
they make one
thing plain: Zeitgeist has no
house style.
Intrepid midwives of the new, these
omnicompetent
musicians have embraced the
untrammeled polystylism of our day. This ardent
openness has much
to do, perhaps everything to
do, with
the groupÕs longevity, keeping Zeitgeist
in tune
with the zeitgeist.
Begin
with assorted modernisms. First is restless,
jazz-rooted
Ann Millikan, whose Kuiper
Belt Wamfle—to
wamfle is to walk with clothes
flapping—was
prompted by a woman seen walking
(wamfling?) a
pig in Berkeley, Calif. Douglas
GeersÕs Tight
Size Tie Try, an anagram for ÒZeitgeist
thirty,Ó
incorporates serial elements. The
ghost of
Webern lurks in Phil FriedÕs Itty Bitty
Symphony, which showcases the bass clarinetÕs
lyric side.
And Chris GableÕs Beat That Clock is
a race
against time by a man unafraid of major
scales and
determined to compress as many
notes as he
can into two-and-a-half minutes.
Continue
with an even more heterogeneous
group.
Ex-Californian Kathy Jackanich draws
inspiration from
migratory sandhill cranes; bent
notes and
sudden timbral shifts are prominent
constituents of her
soundscape. Ex-New Yorker
Justin
Henry RubinÕs Berg-haunted Il momento
lussureggiante (The
Luxuriant Moment) is a neoromantic
aria for
accompanied clarinet. Chinese
pipa virtuosa Gao Hong cleaves to C
major
and C minor
in her Celebration of 150/30 Year.
Northumbrian
smallpiper Dick Hensold
transcribes
a lush
piper tune for the ensemble. And
the socially
engaged Steve Heitzeg summons
the spirit of
Native American resistance in his
American Indian Movement (No
Reservations).
Next:
the improvisors. Z-Bekiko
is Chris
GraniasÕs creative
respelling of zeibekiko,
a
nine-in-the-bar Greek folk dance for men.
Carei ThomasÕs
Three Sides of the Issue was
developed from a
series of cartoons dedicated to
Thelonious Monk. In
Thirty by Four, David Means
pays homage
to ZeitgeistÕs minimalist roots;
in Spells,
the ensemble expands on a four-line
skeleton by
Douglas Ewart. And Erik Fratzke
ventures into the
mind of American modernist Carl
Ruggles, who
lived for a time in Winona, Minn.,
FratzkeÕs
hometown.
Now for the plugged-in. And
Thirty More II, Scott
MillerÕs
birthday wish to the ensemble, consists
of Òthirty
gestures meant to be perceived as a
singular
electro-acoustic event.Ó Marc EdenÕs
Some Kind of Virus is built from spoken texts
and
sound effects,
as well as snippets of Zeitgeist.
Brian
Heller mixes electronics with the live
Pat
OÕKeefe on bass clarinet; Matthew Smith
evolves an
idiosyncratic, proprietary sound world
from his
samples of the ensemble. And in Stück
(with umlaut or without), Philip Blackburn finds
a good use
for the Òauto-onomatopoeiaÓ of public
radioÕs ÒCar
Talk.Ó
With
David Evan Thomas the parade takes a
neoclassic turn.
His Quiptych—Òa little map for
a
light-hearted road tripÓ—seems to know just
where itÕs
going. Carol Barnett plays with both
Schumann
(the A-minor Piano Concerto) and
Terry
Riley (SalomeÕs Excellent Extension, one of
ZeitgeistÕs pivotal commissions
and recordings).
Brent
Michael Davids recalls that thirtieth anniversaries
are
traditionally celebrated with pearls:
Something Pearl is suitably lustrous.
Randall
Davidson
finds inspiration for his gentle piece
in the ÒBig
BookÓ of Alcoholics Anonymous. And
in Ricochet,
a wily marimba duo, Libby Larsen
thoughtfully avoids
collisions between malletwielding
players.
The
cheeky theatricality of Janika VanderveldeÕs
Getting Your ZÕs (Or Not) inaugurates
a
final
grouping. Marc JensenÕs spare Snowfall,
with its
glassy sonorities, pays tribute to MinnesotaÕs
signature
commodity. The Faint Object
Camera
was an appendage of the Hubble Space
Telescope;
Mary Ellen Childs, her palette
singular, evokes
the far-off worlds the camera
was intended
to detect. Impertinently stretching
the instrumentarium prescribed by ZeitgeistÕs
percussionists, Jeffrey
Brooks invents a genre:
aerosol music.
In the penultimate Mutagenesis,
spiced with a
pinch of Henry Mancini, David
Wolff
changes one woodblock into three. Lastly,
and
ineffably, Mike Olson deftly assembles
Zeitgeist
samples with fragments of interviews
with its
members, who were asked what makes
good music
good—a question that listeners to
these thirty
pieces will find themselves equipped
to debate.
–
Larry Fuchsberg (ZeitgeistÕs executive
co-director, 1994-95)
Zeitgeist
is: Heather Barringer and Patti Cudd,
percussion; Pat
OÕKeefe, woodwinds; Shannon
Wettstein,
piano.
And Thirty More, Playing Back/Listening
Forward and
Stück
feature
Zeitgeist plus electronic media. Some
Kind of Virus, TheyÕre In There Somewhere and
Ineffable
are purely
electronic compositions created from
samples of
Zeitgeist performing and speaking.
This
recording was made possible with funds from the
National Endowment for the Arts.
The
creation of all works on this recording was made
possible through
generous donations from the members
of the
Zeitgeist Commissioning Collective.
Recorded
by Matthew Zimmerman at Wild Sound
Studio
in Minneapolis
Mixed
and Edited by Scott Miller and Pat OÕKeefe
Produced
by Scott Miller
Mastered
by Greg Reierson at Rare Form Mastering
Innova
Director: Philip Blackburn
Operations
Manager: Chris Campbell
Graphic
Design: Jessi Risch Design
Innova is
supported by an endowment from the McKnight Foundation.