About halfway through the second of the Either/Or Festival’s two nights, a friend next to me whispered, “They seem to have found an aesthetic space that no one else inhabits.”  The founders, Richard Carrick and David Shively, exercised consummate curatorial skill in locating works that might be lost in other contexts, but seemed strengthened in these.  And if much of the work seemed to explore the fringes of dynamics and what it means to produce sounds, silence played a crucial role.

Keeril Makan describes 2, for violin and percussion, as “Two performers locked together as if one, playing music that is too extreme, in which one section goes to the next without logic, form, gesture, narrative, or tension and release.”  With Shively attacking brass rods resounding like anvils, and Jennifer Choi matching him in fervent violin crunches, Makan’s concept reminded me somewhat of the rhythmic virtuosity of Louis Andriessen’s Workers Union.  Later Shively bowed a large square of rusting steel, in ephemeral union with Choi diving down to the violin’s lower strings, the two of them ultimately grinding to a halt as if having moved a huge piece of furniture into place.

Trills are the focus of the first of Massimo Lauricella’s Due Studi for piano, although as the trills get slower and slower, space appears in between the rocking notes for small gestures to appear.  The second part is distinguished by cluster chords heavily pedaled, with each finger releasing its pressure one by one until only a single note remains.  It is a study in repetitive ostinatos, and also in resonance, and Carrick took great pains to ensure that each effect was meticulously realized.

The word “qualia” refers to the qualitative features of people’s perceptions, i.e., the feelings of experience rather than the quantitative or factual material.  Mr. Carrick has penned a sheaf of short sections totaling roughly fifteen minutes, each using different materials that are somehow related by his treatment of them, rather than the raw elements themselves.  A rough-hewn ostinato fades into delicacy.  An innocuous beginning lurches into an intense climax.  Tiny wisps, seemingly fluttering directionless, suddenly reach a furious conclusion.  Delicate tapping sounds again seem to hover on the edge of some chasm overlooking a world of quietude.  Open-stringed intervals have the resonance of an ancient chant.  Carrick, Choi and Shively were joined by Alex Waterman on cello for what I heard as one of Carrick’s most intriguing, enigmatic and eloquent constructions.

But then Carrick and Shively may have trumped themselves with an astonishingly fluent reading of Helmut Lachenmann’s Salut für Caudwell, for two guitarists – specifically, two speaking guitarists, and in this instance, at least one of the musicians only marginally plays guitar.  Lachenmann’s intent was to “systematically dismantle the techniques and mechanics of Spanish guitar performance practice,” and how he achieves this makes for mesmerizing listening, but it was equally riveting watching exactly how the sounds were being formed.

Within a strictly defined rhythmic spine, the two musicians tap the strings and strum them near the bridge in short bursts, using pieces of metal or glass to harden the timbres.  In the final few minutes, as a sort of whispering coda, each player used the palm of his hand to pat, rub and scrape wood in delicate detail around the guitar’s sound hole, all precisely notated.  Afterward I went up to examine the score, marveling at Lachenmann’s detailed instructions, bar by bar.  One friend was taken aback that the results weren’t aleatoric in the least; every last second had its tiny place.

Somehow the composer takes elements that could be mundane, and receives the sublime in return, especially with astute players able to command exquisite control over almost a half-hour.  Acknowledging the staggering amount of rehearsal time under their belts, I could only shake my head, and hope that we have another chance to observe this small bit of magic.

 

Bruce Hodges

For more information: http://www.eitherormusic.org/