Tag Archives: Neo-Classicism

17th Unniversary Suite

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This Valentine’s Day we’re celebrating
Susan & John’s 17th Unniversary!

Recently, I was commissioned to write some original music for Susan & John’s 17th “Unniversary”. Susan (aka “Aunt Mickey”) is a dear friend of my partner Anne’s family (Anne is featured on viola!). Susan is a flutist with a great sense of humor who loves everything from Jazz to Experimental Improvisation to New Music and anything deemed whacky by ordinary standards!

Movement I the “Scorpio Serenade” (title suggested by Aunt Mickey) starts on a bit of a reflective note and somber tone. This waltz (again per the suggestion of Aunt Mickey) leaves some space to think back on how difficult a year 2020 was for most of us. Susan and John who had some especially terrifying, exciting & life threatening events transpire. On top of the fact that we are a bit stuck in the home and stuck in the moment, as represented by the flute’s continuing ostinato line… It is a bit somber because were are unable to be in each other’s physical presence to enjoy or celebrate life’s moments together. But as you will experience during the solo section, we are passionate none the less!

As we keep moving forward with hopeful energies, we find ourselves in Movement II, the “Joyous Dance”! Here the foreground cello and viola parts represent the two souls of our lovers, intertwined in a celebratory dance. The flute soloing in the background represents the pure energy of their joy radiating off of the dancing souls. Special thanks to Iva Ugrčić for her spirited flute contributions to this track!

In Movement III, a “Tapestry of Moments”, we find the friends and family who make up the small irreplaceable, separate moments of our lives sewn together into the single, unbroken, continuous, forward moving melody that is our existence here on this earth. Our life as a “tapestry of moments”. Aunt Mickey requested that I involve a number of good friends and so I reached to everyone to help me form the “17th Unniversary Unsemble”! If you listen closely, you can hear individual melody notes played by many separate players which have been carefully pieced together to form this single, minimalist melody line. There is also a surprise element to this musical, life collage.

Susan and John, we hope you enjoy it & can’t wait to debut it for you during the Zoom celebration this Valentine’s Day!

Happy 17th Unniversary to Susan and John,
And a big special thanks to everyone who contributed their musical talents to this project,
~ BCG 

performance credits listed on bandcamp: https://grimmusik.bandcamp.com/album/17th-unniversary-suite

3/17 | Sound Out Loud performs “Pierrot lunaire” @ Mills Hall

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sound-out-loudpierrot-lunaire

Pierrot écoutant, 1854, by Nadar

Fri, 3/17 | Free, 8:00pm Mills Hall

455 N Park ST, Madison, WI, 53706

Le Domaine Musicale

Schoenberg’s “Pierrot lunaire”

Ravel’s “Chansons madécasses“

Sound Out Loud will perform Schoenberg’s expressionistic masterpiece about the ravings of a lunatic clown, featuring UW vocal faculty member Mimmi Fulmer.  Also on the program will be Ravel’s “Chansons madécasses“, featuring vocalist Sarah Richardson.

“Pierrot lunaire” was composed by Arnold Schoenberg (1874 – 1951) in 1912 and is his 21st Opus.  It’s 21 short movements (3 cycles of 7) explore the poetry of Albert Giraud (1860-1929), originally published 1884 in French.

‘Pierrot’ is one of Schoenberg’s last works of “free a-tonality”, before Opus 23 which introduced his 12-tone Serialism approach to composition – forever changing the course of 20th Century music.  In this new dodecaphonic democracy, all notes were equal, and weightless of tonicisms.  It helped form a great schism in the 20thC between two great approaches to composition: Serialism (eg. Schoenberg) vs Neo-Classicism (eg. Stravinsky).  Part of the pre-serialism brilliance of “Pierrot lunaire” is Scheonberg’s invention of sprechstimme.  This new vocal technique was a form of speak-singing, which allows for a beautiful ambiguity in pitch – removing Schoenberg yet one more step from tonality.  In sprechstimme, the singer glides up and down from one note to another – only ever sustaining three “traditional” pitches in the entire 40 minute piece.  All of this results in a dazzling display of colors and orchestrational puissance to tell the tales of this tragic clown.

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UW Madison Voice Faculty Member, Soprano Soloist Mimmi Fulmer.

American soprano Mimmi Fulmer first performed “Pierrot lunaire” in 1978 at the famed Tanglewood Music Festival. Sound Out Loud is thrilled to be performing this work for the first time under the guidance of such an experienced & knowledgeable performer of the work. Mimmi and Ric Merritt have crafted a performers’ singing-translation of this work from German to English.  Friday, March 17th we will perform it in it’s original German text.

Mimmi Fulmer performs repertoire ranging from early music to premieres of works written for her.  Her distinguished career in new music includes premieres of nine roles in eight operas.   An expert on Nordic repertoire, she is the editor of a three-volume anthology of songs from Finland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark.   Her discography includes six CDs of American music and a CD of songs from Finland, Sweden and Norway, and she has been included in the Fulbright Specialist Roster in American music.