ImprovFriday July 10, 2009

Benjamin Smith - Improv July 10, 2009

Steve Moyes, Portia Winters – Voice and Cello Improvisation

Paul Muller – Hooked on Tonality

David Toub -  Improvisational Study No. 1

JC Combs – The Comedian

Charles Turner - The Little Black One is Cold

Dennis Bathory-Kitsz – IlianaSoo

To say that yesterday’s improvisations and works were outstanding is an understatement.  I was left quite impressed to say the least.

A quick note:   Its perfectly fine to premiere new works and old improvisations to ImprovFriday.  I’m sure improvisational techniques go into your compositions and if its an old improvisation, who cares?   Of course Jeffrey Harrington’s ImprovFriday mp3 radio is for improvisational works made for ImprovFriday. The reason I bring this up is because if you don’t put the ImprovFriday notice up in your post (#improvfriday for Twitter), I’m not sure if you were meaning for the work to be part of the event which is important to know when I get around to blogging.  I don’t want to leave anyone out.

The wonderful list of music from July 3, 2009:

Jukka-Pekka Kervinen – Sequence

David Toub – Two Rhythmic Spaces

Lee Noyes, Dennis Bathory-Kitsz, JC Combs The Man Who Lives Inside the Piano Finds a Hornet’s Nest - Accompanying Libretto

Charles Turner – Siegfried Scales an Alp

JC Combs – Patriotic Dissent (4th of July Medley)

Paul Hertz – The Soul of an Empty Room

Benjamin Smith - Improvisation, July 3, 2009

Premiering July 3, 2009, at 4 PM PST (an ImprovFriday Event)

The Man Who Lives Inside a Piano Finds a Hornet’s Nest
A Miniature Opera for Text and Audio – Dedicated to David Toub
by Lee Noyes, Dennis Bathory-Kitsz, JC Combs

The Players

Lee Noyes as Bartolomeo Cristofori
Piano -  Improvisation

Dennis Bathory-Kitsz as Franc the Piano Tuner
Extended Voice – Improvisation

JC Combs
Sound Synthesis – Libretto

Libretto – by JC Combs

The Background: It had been no more than two years since Franc took up residence inside a piano.  An unfortunate dwelling, but not by choice.  You see Franc, a piano tuner by trade, was tricked and pushed into a Steinway Grand D by a concert pianist with a surprisingly sinister side. His name was Bartolomeo Cristofori. He had phoned Franc earlier in the day complaining that a penny had somehow dropped into the soundboard, apparently making somewhat of a persistent rattling noise.  ”No, look further in, down there. You must retrieve the penny so I can sufficiently practice for the concert at the estate of Prince Ferdinando de Medici this coming Friday.” Those were the last words Franc remembered hearing before falling headlong into the gigantic grand.  He passed out for some time and woke up only to find the piano nailed shut, with him in it!  Inside, he realized that the piano had been converted into a sort of prison cell.

Franc tried for days on end to kick the lid open but to no avail.  However, a peculiar thing happened one day when his captor first played the piano while he was locked inside.  As Bartolomeo played, Franc lost the ability to speak and all he could do was make vocal gestures, as if he had forgotten the English language altogether.  Another strange thing happened when the pianist struck a note:  Franc became extremely happy, and so it wasn’t long before Franc decided that should one day his captor free him, he would stay in the piano of his own will.  Every day henceforth was wonderful for Franc, as he would wake up early and clean and tune the inside of the piano in preparation to play along with the pianist.  Franc had become quite proud of his ability to pluck the strings and beat strong rhythms on the aged wooden walls which enveloped him.  Together the sinister pianist and Franc the piano tuner created brilliant masterpieces.  That is, until one day while carefully tending to the inner workings of the grand he came upon a hornet’s nest.

Where We Catch Up With the Players:  Play Now (TheManWhoLivesInsidethePianoFindsaHornetsNest.mp3):  As Franc cannot call out for help, he attempts to befriend the hornets by singing softly without words. However, the pianist (not aware that a hornet’s nest is inside the piano) is busy playing and Franc, ever so frightened of the hornets, starts frantically plucking and hammering away at the strings.  The hornets become curious and fly around and about Franc.  Many sit on his shoulder.  Sadly, the plan backfires when a hammer hits the nest. The hornets become angry and swarm and sting and sting and sting!  Alas, the hornets stings are too much for Franc and as he sings one last note, he dies.  His master finally hears the swarm of the hornets and rushes over to pry open the lid in the hope of saving his prisoner, but it is too late and as the lid opens the hornets sting Bartolomeo Cristofori without mercy.

The scene closes tragically with captor and captive together, dead inside the piano.

ImprovFriday Program  June 26, 2009

Dennis Bathory-Kitsz - InVoiceImprov

Lee Noyes, Greg Hooper, Steve Layton – Argo Navis

Lee Noyes, Greg Hooper, Steve Layton, Dennis Bathory-Kitsz – Argroin-Navoice

Greg Hooper – Looking Down

Paul Bailey – Priniciple of Sufficient Irritation (rehearsal 061909)

James Ross and Joseph Benzola – CoffeeCanZhongruanImprovLO

Lee Noyes – Woodenkind (seed for collaboration)

Lee Noyes, JC Combs – Woodenkind (collaboration)

James Ross and Joseph Benzola – TalkingDrumGuitarImprovLO

JC Combs – Impro6.23

JC Combs, Lee Noyes – Impro6.23

ImprovFriday June 19, 2009

Alun Vaughan – Rubber Sand

Randy Gibson – (excerpt from a rehearsal) Doleo Æternus

Jeffrey Harrington – Riding the Monophone

JC Combs – Impro6.19.09

James Ross – SawBirdsLO

Paul Hertz – Midnight Meantone Meditation

Jukka-Pekka Kervinen – Impro#14

Final Collaborative Improvisations on the Seed for 6-19-09:  “In the Bucket”

In the Bucket by Greg Hooper, Steve Layton

In the Bucket by Greg Hooper, Steve Moyes, JC Combs

Congratulations to all participants yesterday. Great improvisations. I’d like to welcome two artists who joined us this week for the first time: Alun Vaughan and Steve Moyes. Well, Steve forgot about the time difference and it was too late for him to post anything, but he let me repost his excellent Ustream live performance which is linked below. This week for the recap of the event, I decided to give a rundown of the events exactly as they occurred.

Okay, so logging into Twitter, scrolling down to the “search” option and typing in #improvfriday. Voila! Lets go over what happened in a chronological fashion May 29th – Pacific Standard Time.

Jukka-Pekka Kervinen posts – Impro #11 12:06 am

Charles Turner posts - Clocks Gone Wrong 12:50 pm

David Toub posts – Objects for Marimba, Piano and Electronic Organ 1:10 pm

David Toub posts -  For Philip Glass 1:12 pm

Alun Vaughan posts – Sliday 2:03 pm

JC Combs posts a composer quote - I have my own definition of minimalism, which is that which is created with a minimum of means. – La Monte Young 2:53 pm

JC Combs posts ImprovFriday Announcement- ImprovFriday on FB, across the globe artists gather to post their improvisations. Keep an eye on your data stream for music. We are also proud to present improvisations LIVE on Ustream. 3:00 pm

JC Combs posts ImprovFriday anthem – Vientro del Monstruo by Jeffrey Harrington 3:00 pm

Jeff Harrington posts – LooseOrganImprovisation 3:49 pm

Paul Hertz posts – Improv 7:00 for Organ 4:33 pm

Paul Hertz posts – Improv 3:41 for Organ 4:34 pm