Dominy Clements Interview
with the Basso Moderno Duo - 2007
The Basso Moderno Duo
is based in Washington, DC, and its
members are Dr. Allan Von Schenkel –
double bass, and Kristen Williams –
piano. The Basso Moderno Duo is justly
proud of commissioning over 100 lyrical
works for solo bass and piano by some
of the worlds most prominent and exciting
living composers.
Composers from 37 countries
and all 7 continents have written specifically
for Dr. Allan Von Schenkel's virtuosic
and highly individualized manner of
double-bass playing. Von Schenkel studied
composition with Dr. Richard Fiske,
a gifted student of Nadia Boulanger.
His mentors on the bass have been the
world renowned Gary Karr, as well as
Stefano Sciascia in Italy. He has performed
throughout the world and has worked
diligently to expand the repertoire
with music that audiences will embrace.
Kristen Williams, a talented pianist
and soprano soloist, is a versatile
artist who is comfortable performing
in a variety of genres. She is the executive
director of the Great Noise Ensemble,
Washington, DC's premiere contemporary
classical chamber music group. Recent
piano performances include solo and
collaborative work at THE ARC Theater
in Washington, DC, The Jane Franklin
Dance Company, and master classes in
Castres, France. In order to continue
growing as an artist, she currently
studies piano with Robert Durso and
voice with Cate Frazier-Neely.
The stated aims of
the Basso Moderno Duo are to create
a new repertoire for bass and piano
from celebrated composers all over the
world, and to bring these works to diverse
audiences, communicating beautiful,
lyrical music from composers from entirely
different backgrounds and experiences
than that of our own. Through these
works the duo hopes to bring peace to
their audiences and start a constructive
dialogue of understanding between the
citizens of our country and those of
our composers. As well as creating new
repertoire for bass and piano, the duo
introduces non-traditional classical
music audiences to new music by performing
new works, educating at the same time
by speaking about the composers and
their approach to music.
In the initial e-mail
contact with Basso Moderno, the musicians
were keen to emphasise their passionate
advocacy of new music. They concluded:
"We often ask ourselves questions
like ‘what would happen if the world’s
greatest Australian Aborigine composer
was to write for us’?"
DC: I am greatly
intrigued by the thought of someone
like an 'Australian Aboriginal'
composing for your duo - have you made
steps in this direction? This raises
questions about music being an 'international
language': have you encountered cultural
differences which have produced either
fascinating results or impossibly difficult
problems?
BMD: There are great
music talents to be found in all musical
cultures. The Basso
Moderno Duo is excited by the idea
of creating a new repertoire from composers
whose musical voices reflect cultures
not often heard in concert halls. We
feel that there are highly talented
composers throughout the world and that
their music is valuable to audiences
everywhere. Composers often borrow from
cultures outside of their own, but what
happens when they compose music
for non-traditional performers. We ask
the question: What happens when a talented
Australian Aboriginal writes for bass?
Ron
Nagorcka, a self-proclaimed naturalist, composed
'Down Under Dance for Bass and Didgeridoo'.
His music is influenced by the nature
sounds of the Australian bush. The new
work is both melodic and highly rhythmic.
Some of the challenges
of performing contemporary music is
going from simply learning the technical
demands found in the score, to realizing
the unique musical language of each
composer, and then to finally perform
the work in a manner we believe the
composer intended. Take for example,
'Serenade in Bells' Garden' by Jan
Freidlin of Israel. This demanding
work is one of the most beautiful and
rewarding pieces written for us. It
took a great deal of time to put the
piece together, technically, and then
begin performing it consistently
with a musical voice that is unique to
Freidlin. This bass masterpiece is fascinating
because the music is as effective as
the images that the composer writes
in his program notes. "Imagine a garden
with a large variety of plants and flowers
of all sizes, but instead of having
leaves each plant has different sized
bells."
DC: Always intrigued
by unusual instrumentations, I recently
reviewed a fascinating Alphorn CD by
Ary Shilkloper in which he performs
a number of parts, overdubbing each
piece. Have you been involved in electronic
recording techniques, or worked with
composers who manipulate the sounds
of the instruments?
BMD: When working with
dance, we often perform along with
recordings. We recently composed a piece titled
'Inspired by Nature' and have given
several performances with dance companies.
In this piece we create a sound sculpture
using the sound of water, leaves, and
rocks alongside both live and pre-recorded
bass and piano parts. In Yoko
Ono-Lennon's 'Secret Piece II' (composed
for us and premiered at the Smithsonian
Hirshhorn Contemporary Art Museum in
Washington DC) we perform along with
a recording of birdsong. Playing along
with recorded sounds allows us to play
with a large palette of musical environments
and indirectly changes the
overall balance and sound of our instruments.
DC: Can you describe
something of the idiom(s) in which you
perform?
BMD: We have the belief
that music does not have boundaries.
We aim to give concerts where each
piece is unique. We carefully
programme pieces so that each piece
naturally leads into the other. Generally
speaking, we have pieces that are very
lyrical such as the vocal-inspired commissions 'Nocturne'
by Ned
Rorem and 'Winter Hubris' by Lee
Hoiby. We have intensely rhythmic
pieces such as Puerto Rican composer
William
Ortiz whose 'Soiree at La Playa
Hotel' reflects the energy and society
of a cafe/bar in that country. Pauline
Oliveros composed 'Blue Heron' for
us. It is a piece that requires an intense
improvisation following her musical
approach known as Deep Listening. One
could surmise that the diversity represented
in our program aims to blur the boundaries
of music while demonstrating that music
voices throughout the world use
similar musical devices. We also
have several pieces which involve audience
participation. One of our most
successful pieces is 'PA-ALULUNG' by
Jonas
Baes of the Philippines. The
audience is given a number of small
nails, bells and other found objects
in which they create a beautiful and
lively texture for the solo bass and
bowed cymbal. A dialogue is developed
with the audience which typically results
in an exciting moment for everyone in
the room. One step further are
Performance Art works like 'Seshin:
the elephanturtlefrog' by Guillermo
Silveira of Argentina, where we
wear costumes and recite Japanese Haiku.
We are currently in production of our
own Performance Art composition '69
Ways to Fall in LOVE' which includes
live music with pre-recorded sound sculptures,
film, dance, 2 actors and prose.
For us, it is just
as enjoyable to perform a piece from
say Antarctica as it is to perform Icelandic
composer, Atli
Heimir Sveinsson's 'Song of Fury
and Sorrow'. What is important to us
that we are able introduce the musical
voices of talented composers from all
over the world with audiences that otherwise
would not have been exposed. It
is a great thrill when we are able to
take them from the stage of being passive
audience members to active listeners.
Rather than thinking
in term of idioms, the Basso Moderno
Duo carefully programs recitals around
themes. We also commission composers
based on the needs of a programme. During
a recent recital, at the Smithsonian
American Art Museum in Washington DC
entitled "Ten Fiery American Premieres",
we sought out new works that were 'Fiery'
or 'Dramatic' in nature. Another such
program is 'Black Enterprise: Music
of African American Composers'. This
fantastic program includes pieces such
as 'Aria' by H.
Leslie Adams, 'Sinister & Sacred
Variations' and 'Whimsy' by Harold
Colin Cowherd, and the newly composed
'Heptandral Fantasy' by Gary Nash.
Each composer has a dynamic and original
voice. Often composers write for specific
concerts, knowing their piece will make
it into other programmes. Programming
works based on themes allows us to perform
in as many idioms as there are composers,
and we are able to give concerts that
have a great deal of variety. In addition,
all of the works we commission are 3-5
minutes in length, which allows us to
perform 15-20 pieces in any given recital.
DC: It seems you
have a wide variety of sources, but
are you interested in avant-garde techniques?
BMD: As highly trained
musicians we feel confident that we
can perform whatever is brought before
us. We are willing to execute any
demands by the composer. The Basso
Moderno Duo is interested in all types
of music and we view our role as being
to educate and share our enthusiasm
for new music with audiences. We
bring to composers passionate performances
and openness as well as unconditional
acceptance of their music.
DC: With your commissions,
have you collaborated greatly with composers
in order to get the best out of them
and your instruments?
BMD: When working with
composers, we begin the relationship
by providing a great deal of information
to them. We ask composers to write
the score at sounding pitch (like the
cello and not transposing down one octave). We
also provide a detailed description
of the range
of the solo bass on our website. There
are many advantages of the high solo
tuning (A d g c), which sounds one fourth
higher than standard tuning. This
tuning allows the bass to have a much
larger range - four and a half octaves
- from three ledger lines below bass
clef to two ledger lines above treble
clef. In addition, this extreme
range allows for many possibilities
and colours. We conceive the bass
as having six separate voices/registers
- ways of highlighting to composers
the variety of colours available to
them. Finally, we ask composers not
to think bass when they are composing
because there are many stereotypes that
are just not true. They are asked to
write anything that they would like,
with no limits, and from there we work
with composers to solve any problem
areas. In this way each piece has its
own challenges and the Basso Moderno
Duo grow as artists not only technically
but also conceptually. It is gratifying
to create a repertoire because the literature
is not defined by what has been done
but rather by what is possible to do.
DC: Working with
other art forms such as dance seems
to be an important element in your work.
Is this a creative choice, or do you
see it as essential to surviving in
a market which demands more than just
the old formula of 'musicians on
stage'.
BMD: Dance is beautiful.
Often dance allows the audience to take
on a more proactive role when listening
to new music. Since they are more
often than not listening to a piece
for the first time by a composer they
probably have not heard of, dance seems
to open doors to understanding. We
believe that by seeing a dancer move
to the music that it helps the first-time
listener relate to what they are hearing. Often
the music we are performing is based
on a dance such as our most popular
encore piece Tango No.2 by Spanish composer
Sonia
Megias Lopez. This piece is
a success either with or without dance
but when it is choreographed then goes
from being an exciting encore to being
an event!
DC: Are you likely
to be touring in Europe anytime soon?
BMD: The Basso Moderno
will be giving concerts in Spain and
Italy in October 2007. All of our
concerts are listed here.
DC: What are your
most recent commissions?
BMD: We have just given the
premiere of 'Canzona Bassa' by celebrated
American composer Leo
Kraft. With this piece, Kraft has contributed
a great gem to the bass repertoire.
It is certainly the work of master as
he uses a variety of textures, melodic
phrases and intensities to write
a piece that builds and grows from beginning
to end. We are currently learning
the recently completed 'African
Dreams' by Italian Composer Antonio
Giacometti. This four movement
work is the result of the composer’s
research of Saharan and Sub-Saharan
music with particular emphasis on the
use of pitch collections and polyrhythms.
DC: What are your
future plans?
BMD: Having recently
incorporated we are now organizing several
annual programmes. We have created
the Basso
Moderno Commissioning Fund, in which tax
deductible donations raise money
to commission new works. Part of
these funds go towards the Basso
Moderno Composition Competition
(BMC2),
a new music competition in which composers
can submit new works for solo bass and
piano.
We also host events
such as the Basically Modern Contemporary
Music Festival. In addition, we
are actively starting contemporary music
concert series in a number of cities.
These concerts give us the opportunity
to present a different programme in
each concert as well as work with other
performers.
Our long term goal
is to commission a piece from composers
in every country and we have currently
commissioned composers in 37 countries
and all seven continents. We are
currently working with the Embassy of
Uruguay in Washington DC to commission
an entire programme of new works by
leading Uruguayan composers. This
opportunity is the result of many successful
performances of 'De Introitum Vigiliae' by
Juan Jose Iturriberry.
All of these projects
reflect our mission to promote the new
works of living composers and to serve
the contemporary art community. The
Basso Moderno Duo hopes to be viewed
as true advocates and a vehicle for
composers all over the world.
Dominy Clements
