 |
Carny (1989)
| composer |
John Zorn (b. 1953) |
| performers |
Stephen Drury, piano |
| publisher |
Theatre of Musical Optics (BMI)
|
| label |
Tzadik 7028http://www.tzadik.com
|
| duration |
12:43 |
Stephen Drury:
"John Zorn's Carny, written for me, Yvar Mikhashoff, and Anthony DeMare under a grant from Meet the Composer, is in some respects the most complex piece of music I have performed -- a complexity not just of notes, but of meanings and inferences as well. More than simply a succession of fragments and styles (some of astonishing difficulty), Carny is an implosion of references in which the meaning of each gesture collides with both the image of its source in the listener's memory and its juxtapositions in the piece as a whole.
"In Carny there are at least three different kinds of music. Brief chunks of music by composers from Mozart to Boulez appear note for note or under various degrees of transformation. (Chopin and Schoenberg, for example, are quoted in reverse; Stockhausen is overlaid with Bartók; and a left hand passage from [Elliott Carter's] Night Fantasies is paired with an entirely new right hand part.) Secondly, phrases referring more generally to genres appear (a little New Orleans funk, some boogie-woogie, a bit of cocktail piano). And there are entirely original passages which have no outside source. [...]
"Each fragment -- quote, genre reference, or abstract -- affects the way we hear what follows and what came before. Previously unimaginable connections appear between Mozart and bebop. Stockhausen negates Fats Waller. Carny, in its juxtapositions, says difficult things in as simple a manner as possible. [...]
"Carny cannibalizes mouthfuls of previously existing piano music. In turn, the introduction to Carny cannibalizes the rest of the piece. Like a CD player on fast forward, the music zips past unrelated chords ripped from the body of the work. (This mini-overture summarizes both the material and the process of Carny.) The piece is informed by modern technology. The violent lurching from style to style is reminiscent of nothing so much as zapping from channel to channel on cable TV, and Zorn's use of quotation is closer in spirit to rap music than to Ives."
The music of John Zorn (b. 1953) draws upon his long experience in classical, jazz, rock, punk, and klezmer music. A leader of the "downtown" music scene centered around the Lower East Side of New York City, Zorn has said he "feels most connected to the tradition of the avant garde -- maverick [artists] who explore new paths through the pushing out of boundaries, creating a universe all their own." Zorn's influences include composers Anthony Braxton, John Cage, Charles Ives, Mauricio Kagel, and Harry Partch, jazz musicians Ornette Coleman, Jacques Coursil, Jimmy Giuffre, and Roscoe Mitchell, and cartoon soundtrack composer Carl Stalling.
Born and raised in New York City, Zorn began his musical studies at the United Nations International School; his composition teachers there were Leonardo Balada and Charles Turner. He pursued composition and saxophone at Webster College in St. Louis, Missouri, where he met members of the Black Artist Group (BAG) and Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM). He then travelled extensively on the West Coast of the US before returning to New York in 1974 to become a central figure in the downtown music scene as a composer, performer, and bandleader.
Zorn's works are performed worldwide, and he has received commissions from ensembles including the American Composers Orchestra, Bayerischer Staatsoper, Brooklyn Philharmonic, Kronos Quartet, New York Philharmonic, and WDR Orchesta Köln. Much of his music is recorded on his own label, Tzadik; other recordings can be found on the CRI, Nonesuch, and Starkland labels.
Pianist, conductor, and teacher Stephen Drury has performed throughout the world with a repertoire that stretches from J. S. Bach to the music of today. In 1985 Drury was chosen by Affiliate Artists for its Xerox Pianists Program, performing in residencies with symphony orchestras across the US. He was also selected by the United States Information Agency for its Artistic Ambassador Program through which he toured Europe, Pakistan, Hong Kong, and Japan. A champion of contemporary music, Drury has worked closely with Luciano Berio, John Cage, Lee Hyla, Helmut Lachenmann, György Ligeti, Olivier Messiaen, Steve Reich, Frederic Rzewski, and John Zorn, and commissioned many new works with funding from Meet the Composer. He has appeared at new music festivals across the US and Europe; between 1988-1989 he organized a yearlong festival of the music of John Cage which led to a request from the composer to perform the solo piano part in Cage's 101 (1988), premiered with the Boston Symphony Orchestra that year. In 1999 he was invited by choreographer Merce Cunningham to perform onstage with Cunningham and dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov at the Lincoln Center Festival in New York City. Drury is on faculty at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, where he directs the Callithumpian Consort and Summer Institute for Contemporary Performance Practice (SICPP). He was educated at Harvard University and New England Conservatory, with principal teachers including Claudio Arrau, Patricia Zander, William Masselos, Margaret Ott, and Theodore Lettvin. Drury's work can be found on the Avant, BMG/Catalyst, Cold Blue, mode, MusicMasters, Neuma, New Albion, New World, and Tzadik labels.
related websites
http://www.stephendrury.com
| |
