Marathon Can
Evan Ziporyn was wailing on his bass clarinet alongside the high-octane TACTUS as I wandered into the large and light, yet cathedral-like, Winter Garden in Battery Park's World Financial Center on Saturday evening. TACTUS (the Manhattan School of Music Contemporary Ensemble) and Ziporyn were playing his aptly titled Drill, a work that peaked from intensity to intensity. It was the second piece in this year's Bang on a Can Marathon, an epic and hotly anticipated event that this year stretched out over twenty-six hours in honor of its twentieth anniversary (making last year's nine-hour version seem almost stingy in comparison). The marathon, which features dozens of composers and scores of performers, was held in conjunction with the River to River Festival, a free 500-event summer series held at different locations around the city.
Bang on a Can was formed in 1987 by Michael Gordon, David Lang, and Julia Wolfe as an outlet for composers whose works were unsuited for traditional institutions due to style, length, instrumentation, or attitude. And while the work BOAC champions and funds (through their innovative People's Commissioning Fund) is certainly "serious," it is also seriously entertaining most of the time, with an emphasis on rhythm and influences often rooted in rock, jazz, and international music. They appeal to audiences of all ages, and if a single organization can renew interest in contemporary music, this is it.
I heard maybe a dozen works during my four hours at the marathon, and (with only a couple of exceptions) they'd all be worth hearing again. De facto house band the Bang on a Can All-Stars performed four pieces by as many Myanmar composers with Kyaw Kyaw Naing, who plays the pat waing, a traditional Burmese instrument consisting of tuned drums arranged in a circle behind a kitschedelic gold-leaf screen. The music was fast and intricate and performed with nimble good humor. The San Diego percussion ensemble red fish blue fish played Signal Intelligence, an even more complex work derived from algorhythms. Composer Christopher Adler described it beforehand as his interpretation of "the secret information we get from all the spying networks." The dramatic string quartet Ethel played "Arrival" and "Memory," two movements from a larger work by Brazilian film composer Marcelo Zarvos; "Memory" involved flamboyant flamenco-like shoe stomping.
Pairs of trumpets, trombones, and bass trombones in two balconies at the rear of the space made a mountainous racket during Lois V Vierk's Jagged Mesa, a series of constantly changing fanfares that eventually evoked a vintage Western soundtrack. The Books were greeted with almost pop-star adulation and split the difference between art music and band in pieces like "Be Good to Them Always" and "The Future, Wouldn't That Be Nice?" that owe a great deal to Laurie Anderson. Synchronized film footage from their thrift store home-movie scavenging expeditions flickered behind the Massachusetts duo as they played their acoustic guitar, electric cello, and various electronics.
The final work I heard—and saw—was composer Michael Gordon and filmmaker Bill Morrison's Gotham (the pair collaborated on a remarkable 2002 tribute to cinematic compost titled Decasia: The State of Decay) performed by TACTUS. Gotham's anxiously crescendoing music and vintage film footage relates a history of New York—from sheep grazing in Central Park to the September 2001 tragedy that occurred across the street from where I sat. The power, immediacy, and emotion of Gordon and Morrison's work seemed the perfect conclusion to the day, so I headed home. Thousands remained, however, to enjoy the twenty-one hours of sound sculpting that would follow.
Bang on a Can's next marathon takes place July 28 at their summer home at MASS MoCA in North Adams, Massachusetts.
Comments
Joe Skunca says:
I would have loved to have seen Steve Reich's Music for 18 musicians at 4 am as advertised- saw Drumming at BOAC many years ago and it melted my face off- This was probably the best music event in the area-Evan Ziporyn's Gamelan Galak Tika album is one of my faves-...but... I had tickets to see Mr. Lesh up at Hunter Mt- Scofield and Warren Haynes on guitars- Did not disappoint- but I must say I was thinking...Hmm-our classically trained hero would probably have had quite a time there and maybe even jammed with Yo La Tengo(?!) who were one of the last to perform- Wonder what they did?
06/05/07 07:23 PM