The World according to Bob - Two days of Music and Talks around Bob Gilmore
Description
THE WORLD ACCORDING TO BOB
Bob Gilmore’s presence on the new music scene radiated a unique combination of energy, openness, excitement, critical insight, sympathy and humour. His outstanding biographies of Harry Partch and Claude Vivier, and his musicological and other writings were complemented by passionate and informed advocacy of an extraordinary range of composers and music of recent times. Much of the music he embraced and wrote about was radically new and highly individual. Latterly, performing and commissioning with Trio Scordatura, he became directly involved in creating the work he loved. It was clear, following his death in January 2015, that many musicians feel his work and its implications deserve serious and more widespread recognition. In ‘The World according to Bob’, we hope to encourage that recognition by engaging with his achievements and what they mean for music, musical biography, history and musicology, and also to ask how Bob’s legacy might be passed on for the future.
Funded through the generous donations of all our Kickstarter donors -- our 'Bob Fest' packs nine concerts into two days, with music by Harry Partch, Claude Vivier, Horaţiu Rădulescu, Frank Denyer, Christopher Fox, Kevin Volans, Donnacha Dennehy and others - many of whom Bob championed through his writings, through friendship, or both. In addition, there will be eleven short talks given by distinguished speakers - Frank Denyer, Christopher Fox, Paul Griffiths and Kevin Volans, amongst others. Details of the programme are listed below.
To find out more about Bob - please see: www.bobgilmore.co.uk
DATES & TIMES
Tuesday 1st March 2016, 10.45am to 9pm, at City University
Wednesday 2nd March 2016, 10.30am to 5pm, at City University
Wednesday 2nd March 2016, 8pm until late, at Café Oto
WHERE
City University, St John Street, London EC1V 4PB http://www.city.ac.uk/visit/campuses/northampton-square/college-building/performance-space
Cafe OTO The final event in The World according to Bob - 'A Night of Irish Music' - takes place at Café Oto, 18-22 Ashwin St, London E8 3DL https://www.cafeoto.co.uk/events/world-according-bob-night-irish-music/
(Tickets for the Cafe OTO concert can be purchased here, and also via the above URL - the one which for some reason won't highlight!).
PROGRAMME
Tuesday 1st March - City University, Performance Space
Arrival and Registration at 10.45 / 11.00am -- Welcome at 11.30am
Bob Gilmore: Harry Partch - A Biography, Yale University Press, 1998
11.40 Concert 1 – Preface: Harry Partch
Harry Partch Archytas' Enharmonic
from Two studies on ancient Greek scales, arranged by Bob Gilmore and Scordatura
Harry Partch The Rose
From December 1942 (text: Ella Young, 1938)
Marc Sabat Gioseffo Zarlino (2015) for variable instrumentation
Harry Partch By the Rivers of Babylon (137th Psalm)
SCORDATURA: Alfrun Schmid voice, Reinier van Houdt Chromelodeon/keyboard, Elisabeth Smalt Adapted Viola, Lucas van Helsdingen bass clarinet, Samuel Vriezen Kithara, with special guest John Schneider voice and Adapted Guitar I
Frank Denyer
14.00 Concert 2 - Frank Denyer: The Hidden Voice
Woman, Viola and Crow
A Fragile Thread 1 and 2
Whispers (extracts)
Woman with Jinashi Shakuhachi
Frank Denyer (voice), Kiku Day (jinashi shakuhachi), Benjamin Marquise Gilmore (violin), Elisabeth Smalt (viola)
16.00 Concert 3 – Intermezzo
Christopher Fox The Dark Road
Anton Lukoszevieze Score Lexicon
Anton Lukoszevieze (cello)
Vicentino's design for the lower manual of the Archicembalo (1555)
19.00 Concert 4 - Nicola Vicentino: a second life
The visionary 16th century composer and music theorist Nicola Vicentino is famous for his advocacy of an ancient Greek enharmonic mode and the microtonal Archicembalo that he designed for it. Only four of his madrigals survived, of which three are unfinished. Bob Gilmore, with Scordatura, asked composers to complete/respond freely to them. The original madrigals will be performed in a Scordatura arrangement together with new compositions.
The visionary 16th century composer and music theorist Nicola Vicentino is famous for his advocacy of an ancient Greek enharmonic mode and for the microtonal cembalo that he designed for it. Only four of his madrigals survived, of which three are unfinished. Bob Gilmore, with Scordatura, asked composers to complete/respond freely to them. The original madrigals will be performed in a Scordatura arrangement, together with the new compositions.
Nicola Vicentino (1511-1576) Madonna il poco dolce (1555)
Yannis Kyriakides (1969) Poco dolce, molto amaro (2014*)
Harald Muenz (1965) allo studio con Nicola (2014*)
John Croft (1971) Soav’e dolc’ardore (2015*)
Nicola Vicentino (1511-1576) Soav’e dolc’ardore (1555)
hans w. koch (1962) II poco dolce (2015*)
Anne La Berge (1955) Languid sighs (2014*)
Lucia D’Errico (1982) Madonna il poco dolce (2014*)
Scott McLaughlin (1975) Untitled (for Bob) (2015*)
Christopher Fox (1955) Dolce…pianto (2014*)
Linda Buckley (1979) Musica prisca caput (2015*)
Nicola Vicentino (1511-1576) Musica prisca caput (1555)
SCORDATURA & guests: Alfrun Schmid (voice), Elisabeth Smalt (viola), Reinier van Houdt (keyboard), Benjamin Marquise Gilmore (violin), Lucas van Helsdingen (bass clarinet, coffee grinder)
19.45 Interval
Ben Johnston: Maximum Clarity and Other Writings on Music, ed. Bob Gilmore,Univ of Illinois Press, 2006
20.00 Concert 4 (cont.) – Maximum Clarity
Gilmore String Quartet with Alfrun Schmid (voice)
Claude Vivier Quatuor pour cordes
Kevin Volans Notes d'un Peintre
Walter Zimmermann Novalis Fragment ‘for Bob’
Ben Johnston Amazing Grace, String Quartet No 4
Wednesday 2nd March - City University Performance Space
Bob Gilmore: Claude Vivier - A Composer's Life, University of Rochester Press, 2014
11.00 Concert 5 – Preface
François-Bernard Mâche Kubatum
Marc Sabat Bob Gilmore, Elisabeth Smalt
Claude Vivier Tao Tao Tao (arr. Bob Gilmore)
Alfrun Schmid (voice), Benjamin Marquise Gilmore (violin), Elisabeth Smalt (viola), Reinier van Houdt (keyboard)
Trio Scordatura: Alfrun Schmid, Elisabeth Smalt, Bob Gilmore
12.10 Concert 6 - Harry Partch: the Truth about Tune
December 1942 for voice and Adapted Guitar I
1. Come Away, Death (Shakespeare, Twelfth Night II:iv)
2. The Heron (Tsurayuki, 13th century Japanese, trans. Waley)
3. The Rose (Ella Young, 1938)
Two Psalms for voice, Chromelodeon, Adapted Viola and Kithara
1. The Lord is my Shepherd (23rd Psalm)
2. By the Rivers of Babylon (137th Psalm)
Barstow: Eight Hitchhikers’ Inscriptions - from a Highway Railing at Barstow, California (1941) for voice and Adapted Guitar I
1. Today I Am a Man
2. Gentlemen
3. Considered Pretty
4. A very good Idea
5. Possible Rides
6. Jesus was God in the Flesh
7. You Lucky Women
8. Why in Hell did you come?
Seventeen Lyrics by Li Po (excerpts) (1930-1933) for voice and Adapted Viola
1. A Midnight Farewell
2. The Long-Departed Lover
3. On the City Street
4. The Intruder
5. An Encounter in the Field
6. On Hearing the Flute at Lo-cheng One Spring Night
7. The Night of Sorrow
8. I am a Peach Tree
Dark Brother - Final Two Paragraphs from Thomas Wolfe’s “God’s Lonely Man” (1943) for voice, Chromelodeon, Adapted Viola, Kithara, indian drum
Letter from Hobo Pablo for voice and Kithara
John Schneider: voice, Adapted Guitar I, Adapted Viola, Alfrun Schmid: voice, Elisabeth Smalt: Adapted Viola, Reinier van Houdt: Chromelodeon (keyboard version), Samuel Vriezen: Kithara, Lucas van Helsdingen: indian drum
Performed by Scordatura & guests: Alfrun Schmid (voice), Elisabeth Smalt (Adapted Viola, voice), Reinier van Houdt (Chromelodeon/keyboard), John Schneider (Adapted Guitars, voice), tbc (Diamond Marimba)
14.40 Concert 7 – Intermezzo
Claude Vivier Pièce pour Violon et Piano
Patrick Ozzard-Low Piano Pieces
Benjamin Marquise-Gilmore (violin), Andrew Zolinsky (piano), Patrick Ozzard-Low (piano)
Horaţiu Rădulescu
16.00 Concert 8 - Horaţiu Rădulescu
Lux Animae
Piano Sonata No 2
Cello Sonata
Catherine Tunnell (cello), Ian Pace (piano)
Bob Gilmore
A NIGHT OF IRISH MUSIC
Wednesday 2nd March Café Oto, 8pm until late
‘The World according to Bob’ concludes at Café Oto – presenting a concert of new music from Ireland, curated and produced by Ergodos. Between each work there will be short extracts from Bob Gilmore’s writings read by award winning Irish broadcaster and documentary maker Bernard Clarke and Irish publisher and musician Toner Quinn.
Donnacha Dennehy Bulb
Benedict Schlepper-Connolly New work
Ailís Ní Riain Into The Sea of Waking Dreams
Scott McLaughlin Blues for Horatiu
Kevin Volans New Work
Jennifer Walshe Aisteach
Interval
Karen Power & John Godfrey Improvisation
Linda Buckley fridur
Deirdre McKay New Work
Garrett Sholdice New Work
Donnacha Dennehy New Work
Performed by: Mira Benjamin (violin), John Godfrey (electric guitar), Reinier van Houdt (piano), Michelle O’Rourke (voice), Karen Power (electronics), Ailís Ní Riain (piano, voice), Benedict Schlepper-Connolly (synthesizer), Garrett Sholdice (piano), Elisabeth Smalt (viola), Kevin Volans (piano), Jennifer Walshe (voice) and Andrew Zolinsky (solo piano)
CONFERENCE PAPERS - Tues 1st & Weds 2nd March 2016 (at City Uni)
At City University, eleven papers will be presented across the two days, in sessions interwoven with the concerts
Linda Buckley Bob Gilmore as Guiding Light for New Music in Ireland
Frank Denyer Some Questions that Remain
Christopher Fox The Climate since Bob Gilmore
Paul Griffiths A Little of What We Lost
Kevin Volans Art Begins where Craftsmanship Ends
John Croft Spectral Music and the Taming of Sonority
Scott McClaughlin All Young Composers need a Bob in their lives
Sam Richards Harry Partch and Countercultural Utopias
Marc Sabat Tuneable Intervals and Chords: a possible basis for extended JI on acoustic instruments
John Schneider Partch: ReGenesis of a Music
Jennifer Walshe Hacking History and Re-Imagining Ireland: The Aisteach Foundation