Jeff Weisner Neomonology innova 833 Armando Bayolo - Mix Tape 16:36 1. Kid’s Got the Beat 2:43 2. Been Hurt and Abused (Chaconne) 2:58 3. ...bird can swing... 2:34 4. Turn Around 4:14 5. (A [Very] Brief Meditation on the Nature of) Parentheses 2:02 6. Room to Lay the Law 2:05 7. David Smooke - Introspection #11,072 8:13 8. Michael Hersch - Caelum Dedecoratum 20:16 Total album time 45:36 Statement The world of double bass performance has been completely transformed over my lifetime, and that transformation is continuing on many levels. New technologies in string construction and accompanying changes in bass setup and design have opened up new possibilities. Bassists have reacted to these changes by developing radical new ways to approach the instrument, both in the bow and in the left hand. Music once playable only by elite virtuosi is now expected of any serious sixteen-year-old bass student, and technical standards have risen dramatically across all musical genres. As our technical standards rise, bassists are increasingly free to engage in musical explorations and conversations that were once denied to us. This is why I am so excited about being a part of creating and performing new music for bass. With each decision we make, together and separately, the composer and I are contributing to the repertoire of a new instrument--the bass of the 21st century, capable of a dramatically expanded range of musical expression. The three pieces on this recording constitute three new contributions to this creative journey. The athleticism and pop-fueled energy of Armando Bayolo’s Mix Tape; the elegiac, flowing microtonality of David Smooke’s Introspection #11,072; and the architectural power and uncompromising intensity of Michael Hersch’s Caelum Dedecoratum each points the way towards one of many paths that solo bass music can take. All it will take to travel further down these paths are bassists eager to explore new music and composers who want to explore with them. I made this recording, first of all, because these are great pieces that deserve to be heard and played. But I also hope that this project helps encourage others--both composers and performers--to be a part of creating the new repertoire that the double bass deserves. — Jeffrey Weisner Mix Tape Program Notes To me, making a tape is like writing a letter — there's a lot of erasing and rethinking and starting again. A good compilation tape, like breaking up, is hard to do. You've got to kick off with a corker, to hold the attention (I started with "Got to Get You Off My Mind", but then realized that she might not get any further than track one, side one if I delivered what she wanted straightaway, so I buried it in the middle of side two), and then you've got to up it a notch, or cool it a notch, and you can't have white music and black music together, unless the white music sounds like black music, and you can't have two tracks by the same artist side by side, unless you've done the whole thing in pairs and...oh, there are loads of rules. — Nick Hornby, High Fidelity The rules of Mix Tape are not nearly as complicated as those delineated by Nick Hornby above. The idea, in fact, was quite simple: take popular songs and spin new pieces around them. The original source material which Jeffrey Weisner (for whom the work was written) provided consisted entirely of songs from the 1980’s, the period where we both would’ve been in our late childhood and adolescence. As I worked, the concept evolved somewhat to include popular songs from different decades, beginning with the 1960’s and culminating in the 1990’s and reflecting the variety of my own musical tastes, as well as Jeff’s. The resulting pieces are arranged within the framework of the Baroque instrumental suite, with the pace and tempo of each movement reflecting the pace and tempo of the individual dances of a large-scale collection of stylized dances like the keyboard partitas or suites for violoncello or violin of J.S. Bach. — Armando Bayolo Armando Bayolo (b. 1973) Born in 1973 in Santurce, Puerto Rico to Cuban parents, composer Armando Bayolo began musical studies at the age of twelve. At sixteen he went on to study at the prestigious Interlochen Arts Academy in Interlochen, Michigan, where he first began the serious study of composition. He holds degrees from the Eastman School of Music, Yale University, and the University of Michigan. His music has been commissioned and performed internationally at the Aspen Music Festival, the Kennedy Center, the Badcuyp (Amsterdam), the Alsion (Denmark) and Carnegie Hall. He is the founder, Artistic Director and conductor of Washington, D.C.'s Great Noise Ensemble, which has become one of D.C.'s most important forces in contemporary music, as well as Curator of the New Music Series at the Atlas Performing Arts Center in Washington. He lives outside of Washington, D.C. with his wife and two daughters. Introspection #11,072 Program Notes Introspection #11,072 is the second in my ongoing series of Introspections: contemplative solo pieces that explore microtonality. One of the great advantages of the double bass is its ability to play a great variety of naturally-tuned harmonics. In this piece, the opening harmonics passage gives the gamut of notes for the piece while retuning our tonal expectations. I then explore this tone world in the beautiful low register of the bass. The resulting quiet, dark, and lyrical sound landscape should feel foreign yet also oddly familiar to the listener. The meditative quality of this piece conveys a sense of melancholy and finds comfort in its sadness. This piece was commissioned by Jeffrey Weisner and is dedicated to him with great admiration. — David Smooke David Smooke (b. 1969) Composer David Smooke (b. 1969) currently resides in Baltimore, Maryland, where he teaches music theory, rock music history, and music composition, and is Chair of the Music Theory Department at the Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University. The Washington Post claims that “Smooke has some of the most uninhibited brain cells around” and describes his music as “superb […] a kaleidoscopic sonic universe where anything could happen”; the Baltimore Sun adds that it is “a highly creative, absorbing experience”. His honors include those from the Maryland State Arts Council, BMI, the National Association of Composers USA, SCI/ASCAP, the MacDowell Colony, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and the Ragdale Foundation. He has composed commissions for groups and individuals including the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), CUBE, Rhymes with Opera, the Great Noise Ensemble, Dark in the Song, the Atlantic Guitar Quartet (funded by the Presser Foundation), bassist Jeffrey Weisner (of the National Symphony Orchestra), toy pianist Phyllis Chen (of ICE), violist/singer Wendy Richman (of ICE), and pianist Amy Briggs, and has worked with ensembles and performers including the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Pacifica String Quartet, eighth blackbird, Ensemble Dal Niente, the Verge Ensemble, and the California EAR Unit. He earned an M.M. from the Peabody Conservatory, a B.A. magna cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania, and a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago, where he received the Century Fellowship, the highest fellowship offered by the Humanities Division. His composition teachers have included Shulamit Ran, David Rakowski, Robert Hall Lewis, and Richard Wernick. In addition to his composition activities, David performs on toy piano with the support of Schoenhut toy pianos, co-curates League of the Unsound Sound (LotUS), and writes a weekly column for NewMusicBox, the online magazine of the New Music USA. Previously he served on the faculties of Ohio University, the Chicago College of Performing Arts of Roosevelt University, the Merit School of Music, and the University of Chicago. Caelum Dedecoratum for unaccompanied double bass (2006) Program Notes I’ve always found the double bass a remarkable instrument. In the right hands, it is one unlike any other in terms of what might be explored in a solo context. I was drawn initially to the idea of writing for the instrument in unaccompanied form after hearing Jeff perform when we were both conservatory students. By the time I finally did undertake the piece, almost fifteen years later, I had written a fair amount of solo string music. The bass, however, is utterly distinct, and the challenges it poses both for composer and performer are formidable. These challenges were both exhilarating and nerve-wracking from the outset. But because I had such faith in Jeff’s technical and interpretive skills, I knew I could write what my mind’s ear dictated; for example, there were very specific sonorities, gestures, and harmonies that I wanted to articulate through the instrument. To have witnessed Jeff over these past few years dedicate the time he has to this music, and for him to have mastered it so thoroughly, has moved and awed me. Throughout the writing of this work, I often thought of two poems by British poet Christopher Middleton: a fragment of his poem, A Landscape by Delacroix, and in its entirety his poem, Of the Beloved Someone. — Michael Hersch Michael Hersch (b. 1971) Widely considered among the most gifted composers of his generation, Michael Hersch’s work has been conducted in the U.S. and abroad by conductors including Mariss Jansons, Alan Gilbert, Robert Spano, Marin Alsop, Carlos Kalmar, Yuri Temirkanov, and James DePriest, among others. Recent commissions include major works for the Cleveland Orchestra, a song cycle for baritone Thomas Hampson, and new works for pianist Shai Wosner, the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, and the Blair String Quartet. His work has been performed by the major orchestras of Saint Louis, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Atlanta, Baltimore, Dallas, Cincinnati, Seattle, Oregon, Singapore, and ensembles including the String Soloists of the Berlin Philharmonic, and the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia. He has written for such soloists as Garrick Ohlsson, Midori, Boris Pergamenschikow, Walter Boeykens, and Daniel Gaisford. His solo and chamber works have appeared on programs throughout the world - from the Chamber Society of Lincoln Center to the Philharmonie in Berlin; from the British Museum and the Dartington New Music Festival in the U.K., to the Romaeuropa Festival in Italy; from Tanglewood in Boston to the Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo, Japan. Mr. Hersch first came to international attention at age twenty-five, when he was awarded First Prize in the American Composers Awards. The award resulted in a performance of his Elegy at Alice Tully Hall conducted by Marin Alsop. Later that year he became one of the youngest ever recipients of a Guggenheim Fellowship. Mr. Hersch has also been the recipient of the Rome Prize, the Berlin Prize, and both the Charles Ives Scholarship and Goddard Lieberson Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts & Letters. Poems by Middleton for Michael Hersch’s piece They said shadows unrolled ... That trees unrolled their shadows. ... no sky, No sun at all, but those trees have toppled Across the slope not even shadows, but savage, And so intent they have discredited the sky ... a cascade ... In a collapse of earth ... **** Confused about that which Touches nothing, without which There would have been nothing, Attend to it a moment, Attend: as it retrieves, On this day like no other, A joy, once to have felt in it Nothing to be acknowledged, From an impact uplift, at the utmost A breath, when close, a touch Of the beloved someone -- Immediately wide-awake to it Now, perceiving it diffused Among new leaves, old spines Of books perhaps, the moment There is here again, the time All felt afresh, not to be redeemed, For so, only so, in this hive Where entombed it wanders, this body, Not a word for it can ego there pin down, No paint, no marble, no Syntax or instrument agile Enough to contain its flutter, still Opening Memory first It begins Forever, even, briefly, When, with a light, distant laughter, The Door has closed. - Christopher Middleton (b. 1926) From the poems A Landscape by Delacroix and Of the Beloved Someone Used with permission of the author JEFFREY WEISNER BIO Jeffrey Weisner has been a member of the National Symphony Orchestra (NSO) in Washington, D.C. since 1995, and also performed with the San Francisco Symphony for their entire 2003-2004 season. From 1995-2007 he was the bassist of the Eclipse Chamber Orchestra. He is a member of the Phillips Camerata. In 2005, he joined the faculty of the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, Maryland, where he teaches orchestral performance and maintains a private teaching studio. Mr. Weisner has presented master classes at the Colburn School, the University of Southern California, the Interlochen Arts Academy, and other music schools around the country. He has appeared in recital at the Peabody Conservatory, the Levine School of Music, and at Merkin Hall in New York City, where he presented the New York premiere of Caelum Dedecoratum. In 2002 he premiered a new double bass concerto by Tom Schnauber, Alba and Ostinato, with the Annapolis Chamber Orchestra. He presented the world premiere of both the Hersch and the version of the Schnauber for bass and piano at the 2007 International Society of Bassists Convention, held that year in Oklahoma City. As a chamber musician, Weisner has performed in a variety of venues, including many performances at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. with his orchestral colleagues. He has also performed chamber concerts in communities across the United States through the NSO’s American Residencies program. In 2010, he performed three concerts at the Chesapeake Chamber Music Festival in Easton, Maryland. He presented a chamber recital on the Sylvia Adalman Concert Series at Peabody in 2008, featuring, among other works, the Piano Quintet of Kevin Puts with the composer at the piano. He has also appeared with the Peabody Trio in a performance of Brett Dean’s “Voices of Angels” for piano quintet. A native of Los Angeles, Weisner attended Boston University, where he studied with Lawrence Wolfe and Ed Barker. He later studied under Harold Robinson at the Peabody Conservatory, where he received his Masters’ degree. He has been a member of the New World Symphony and the Delaware Symphony. THANK YOU NOTES Thanks are offered in no particular order to: my colleagues in the NSO bass section for all the inspiration and guidance; Armando, David, and Michael for the music, help, and support; Ed Tetrault for lots of patience as I figured this whole thing out; Paul Johnson for his ear, mind, and heart; my family and especially my parents; the inspiration and energy I receive from my students; and for everyone who has taught and inspired me over the years - there are so many (and they don’t all play bass!), but special mention must be made of a few that do: Larry Wolfe, Hal Robinson, and David Young. I would like to thank the Peabody Conservatory for its support of this recording through a Faculty Development Grant. The biggest thanks go to my two top supporters and inspirations - my husband Silvio and my daughter Madeleine. I love you both very much! CREDITS / EXTRAS Recording Engineer: Ed Tetrault Artwork and Images: Old broken audio tape cassette by Carlos Neto, Griffonage Figure II, graphite on paper by Nicholas Cairns, and Cortona: Triangle Curtain by Regina DeLuise. The artwork accompanying the notes for each piece was selected by the composer. Back Cover: Jeffrey Weisner © 2009 Laura Scheidt. Graphic Design and Layout: ycArt Design Studio Innova Director: Philip Blackburn Operations Manager: Chris Campbell Innova is supported by an endowment from the McKnight Foundation. All works recorded at the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD. Tracks 1-7 recorded January 10, 2011; Track 8 recorded October 11, 2011. Tracks 1-7 are performed on a double bass of unknown origin, possibly 18th century Iberian, the “ex-Thompson.” Track 8 is performed on a double bass made by Xavier Jacquet in the late 19th century. The bow for all tracks is a German bow made by Vincenzo De Luccia in Philadelphia ca. 1930. All tracks are in orchestral tuning.