Halloween Tune from the other Georgia

Excepting the pumpkins I don't enjoy Halloween decorating. I do enjoy the candy and the children at our door. Why adults got nuts I don't understand.

But Halloween writing led me to reviews of Warner Herzog's 1979 Nosferatu and this Georgian folks song. No words necessary for me.



One by Hamlet Gonashvili isn't enough for me today:

Préparez vos mouchoirs - stuck song

"Get Out Your Handkerchiefs"
Last week Blue had a song stuck in his head. Not always a bad thing, I think. "Theme from Harry's Game" was written in human souls long before Clannad wrote it in 1982. I don't need the words.

Moving photos, people, and Arabesques at Besharat Gallery

I was moved unexpectedly by pictures, people and music in one serendipitous evening. Katherine's and Laura's smiles confirm the good times.


We started last Thursday evening at the White Provision art and loft tour. At 8 we half-hardheadedly headed to Besharat Gallery at Castleberry Hill. It was a reception for Steve McCurry and Parish Kohanim. I knew nothing.

Moving Photos
So, we entered Besharat. On one side were National Geographic style photos by Steve McCurry. We've seen these. Up close, they are uncannily real.


On the other were stunning fine art photographs by Atlanta Photographer Parish Kohanim.


And lots of happy people in the middle:


MOVING Pictures
Can a picture make you weep? Make me weep? Maybe I was in the mood: We three Architecture Tourists have found something special, unexpected. I don't know. This one made my eyes tear up. It's by Parish Kohanim, huge, layered, shiny: floating dancers twirling into a blur:


Your results may vary of course. I can't explain it. I kept returning. It kept it's magic. It didn't affect Katherine or Laura the same way but they appreciated what it did for me. What will happen when I see if again?

I kept returning to this portrait with a flower by Parish Kohanim. Against an impressionistic background, this woman seemed more real than the people in the gallery. The flower in her hand seemed supernaturally natural. Her slight smirk let us in.


Steve McCurry's subjects also seem to be in the room with us:




MOVING Arabesque #1, Claude Debussy
Dania McDonald Lane played harp for the reception. Perfect yet most folks pay little attention: A beautiful sound, a beautiful instrument that is fascinating to watch. And watch I did while looking at my hyper-real girl on the left.


After a bit more wandering around Ms. Lane started playing Debussy's Arabesque #1. I rushed to the harp, listened and watched from 3 feet away with misty eyes. Never this close.

You've heard it many times. It may even be your ring tone. You might enjoy listening while you finish this post:



MOVING People
Laura, a well traveled photographer herself, knew who Mr. McCurry was. Katherine and I took it on ourselves to get pictures with Mr. McCurry and Mr. Kohanim and to make sure Laura got to speak with them. Mission accomplished. Both were delightful.

Laura, Katherine, Steve McCurry, Darrell Lane, Parish Kohanim at Besharat Gallery - Reception Thursday, October 15, 2009


Mr. Kohanim enjoyed our crew:


Turns out that Mr. McCurry asked Laura questions:


This is a hard act to follow. But I toured more of the gallery, frequently returning to my red, ballet triptych. Does it still "get" me. Yes:


Outside, there is a deck with this amazing whatever it is:


For chair mavens:


Upstairs: Art and furniture:




It was a moving night. Thanks to White Provision. Besharat Gallery, Steve McCurry, Parish Kohanim, Dania McDonald Lane (and Claude Debussy), and Architecture Tourists: Laura at Exploring the World in Atlanta and Katherine.

What a great evening and a hard act to follow. We'll certainly try.
Terry

Oh, what about Debussy's 2nd Arabesque?

Asteria soundchecks Château de Germolles

They sang, partly in whispers, and everyone in the Château could hear them.


Asteria Musica is Sylvia Rhyne, soprano, and Eric Redlinger, tenor and lute. They research and perform love songs from medieval France, 500 year old love songs. On Saturday night they lectured and sang at Agnes Scott for the SouthEastern Medieval Association.

The Architecture Tourist early music/chateau committee was there.


This is Château de Germolles: "It is the best preserved residence of the Dukes of Burgundy. Built during the second part of the 14th century... a rare example of such a well preserved residence in France in the 14th and the beginning of the 15th centuries, when most of the princely palaces of that period have almost entirely disappeared...(it) evokes court life in France on the eve of the Renaissance."

So what does a 500 old love song sound like anyway? Eric and Sylvia's research includes singing at Château de Germolles.

Maybe a the songs sound a bit like this, the first song they performed at Agnes Scott. They taped this video in the Château.



I didn't understand a word of it. "It's like they (the French) have a different word for everything" -Steve Martin. But of course we did understand.

Did Philip the Bold and Margaret of Flanders hear these songs in this very room?


Who knows, but now I have the strongest urge to paint T's and J's on our bedroom walls. "J," JoAnn, is - of course - my loved one. Thanks to Maureen Nolan for the suggestion.

Sylvia and Eric start with a manuscript, perhaps the only one in existence. They use every means of scholarship to puzzle it out.


Has this song been heard in 500 years? Maybe not.

They visited the very places where the song might have been performed, where the Dukes of Burgundy could employ the finest composers and performers of the day.


Sylvia and Eric sang in these places themselves.

The hard surfaces and high ceilings bounced sound throughout the chateau. The whole court could would have heard a performance. Imagine the shushing.

They learned that they didn't need to sing in full voice. They could sing with dynamics, even in a whisper. Sound engineers and producers compress the dynamics out of music today so we can hear it on a car radio or on an iPod while we are jogging.

Nothing commands attention or evokes emotion like a whisper. They wouldn't have known if they hadn't sung in the Château.

An extraordinary evening, it's another case of wonderful blog serendipity.


See all the smiles? We'd seen and heard something special.


Thanks to Asteria Musica: Sylvia Rhyne, and Eric Redlinger, and to Donna Sadler, (right) Professor of Art at Agnes Scott College for putting the event together and allowing me to be there. Thanks to Marueen who made the connection 15 months ago in my post, "Quant la doulce jouvencelle - medieval letters and love songs."

One more song? "Le corps s'en va et le cuer vous demeure" ("The body departs and the heart remains with you") .

Mary Travers R.I.P.

Back when, I don't remember, Robert Hedrick and I went to see Peter Paul and Mary at the Greensboro Coliseum. Was I 12, 13, 14?



I haven't seen Robert in like forever. I'm sure today his friends call him Bob. But I'm a way older friend and I'll always remember PP&M's performance that night and who invited me.

1:45 slip though my fingers again and again

I'm always on the hunt for videos that combine art/design/architecture with music.

I hope Blue Remembered Hills and Dino Marcantonio, Architect don't mind me twisting their visual ideas into aural ones. Blue discusses Billy Baldwin: "The more one attempts to analyze it the further it seems to recede, as does a dream that fades more quickly the harder one tries to remember it." Mr. Marcontonio critiques modern architecture: "...that Beauty is an infinite mystery and that its presence in an object provides a bottomless fund of delight..."

Here is a 1:45 excerpt from New York Polophony a quartet of opera singers performing a 350 year old tune in The Church of the Ascension in the City of New York. I watch it in HD.



Here is a longer version at lower quality but you can see the carved and mosaic angels above the altar. The angels seem as ancient as the music.



I can't listen to these in the background.

Quant la doulce jouvencelle - medieval letters and love songs.

This video features a love song from the 15th century: "Quant la doulce jouvencelle" performed by Asteria. It pleases me on many levels. I'm without my "duet partner" for the night and I'm feeling rather sentimental about her. These ancient walls are as mysterious and familiar as the tune.


Any French speakers out there who know the lyrics?

Anyone know this room?

a masterpiece of the highest order...

Treat your ears today...from your rock 'n' roll Architecture Tourists. Even grown men might need hankies for this one.

"As for the Messiah, it's like Michelangelo's 'Creation of Adam,' one of those rare works that appeal immediately to everyone and yet is indisputably a masterpiece of the highest order." Kenneth Clark, Civilization.



20. Air (or Duet) Anne Sofie von Otter - mezzo-soprano
He shall feed His flock like a shepherd; and He shall gather the lambs with His arm, and carry them in His bosom, and gently lead those that are with young.
(Isaiah 40: 11)

Sylvia McNair - soprano (at 2:12) get out your handkerchiefs
Come unto Him, all ye that labour, come unto Him that are heavy laden, and He will give you rest.
Take his yoke upon you, and learn of Him, for He is meek and lowly of heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
(Matthew 11: 28-29)

21. Chorus (at 5:18)
His yoke is easy, and His burden is light.
(Matthew 11: 30)

22. Chorus (at 7:38)
Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world.
(John 1: 29)

Academy and Chorus of St Martin in the Fields
Sir Neville Marriner ( conductor )
Dublin 1992

Here are all the words to Handel's Messiah.

Thanks,
Terry

Unamplified, uncompressed, intimate - Sonic Generator in Shutze's Academy of Medicine

I found myself leaning in, leaning forward, trying to get closer. They played loud and in a whisper.

These days music is engineered to sound good in the car and on MP3 players. Dynamics get squeezed out else we'd constantly adjust the volume while we jogged.

Not this night. It was the perfect storm of architecture tourism: a great event in a great space.

I sat 10 feet from the string quartet in the extraordinary auditorium at the Academy of Medicine.


Violinists Helen Hwaya Kim and Adelaide Federici, cellist Brad Ritchie, composer Jonathan Berger, violist William Johnston. Sonic Generator is the contemporary music ensemble-in-residence at Georgia Tech.

Until the music began I enjoyed the building and the people.


The Academy of Medicine glowed in the low sun. The brick pavers are part of the composition, the base layer of rustication.


A string quartet in a building like this? Free? Bring it on.


I've been here before. It works every time. Philip Shutze designed this just for me. However grand, this room is comfortable.

The rotunda is the narthex for the auditorium.


There are 230 seats. It feels like an oval but it's not. The entrance wall is flat. The stage is in Turn 1.

I wondered how would it sound? Did Shutze do acoustics?


We were about to find out.


The stage featured two marimbas and columns in antis.


Jason Freeman, associate professor in Georgia Tech School of Music introduced the show.


William Johnston performed first, playing "Viola Elegy" with a recording. I stood in the very back corner. It was as if he was right beside me.

I moved to the front row.


It was Marimba time, left - Charles Settle, right Stuart Gerber. They performed "Piano Phase" by Steve Reich and messed with our brains (see video).


Composer Jonathan Berger introduced the final piece, his own work: "Doubles" (2004).


The quartet took the stage.

I just don't get to do this.. I felt like I was holding each instrument, feeling the vibrations.


Bravo. Mark Gresham reviewed the performances at ArtsATL.com.

Did Shutze do acoustics? Somebody sure did. Did Shutze ever hear a performance in Academy of Medicine?


The end of concerts are so sad. The performance is just gone. You have to leave, go back to eating, working, and sleeping.


For most of us this was the first and last time. And modern works rarely leave me whistling a melody.


Yet I do have vivid memories of the performances.


I remember how real and intimate it sounded, as if they performed just for me.


Time to go.

I don't know when the Academy of Medicine will host music again.

Sonic Generator will perform at the opening event for gloATL's Liquid Culture: a utopia station series July 6, 7-8 pm – Midtown – 15th Street and Peachtree Street, Colony Square Plaza. More here.

If you follow me on Facebook or Twitter I'll give you a heads up.

GTLork at the Goat Farm thanks to JT and the Varsity

A great event in a great space and I almost didn't go. As we approached, ambient music wafted from Goodson Yard. From the door we could see the long line of laptopers beneath giant screens.

It was free, it was odd, it was at the Goat Farm, a performance of student works by the Georgia Tech Laptop Orchestra (GTLork) & New Music Ensemble.

On Thursday I was eating at the Varsity next to a man and his teenage sons. Turns out it's music photographer Jim 'JT' Gilbert from upper New York state visiting Georgia Tech where his 18 year old has been accepted. They'd been told to eat the at the "V" while they were in Atlanta - good choice.


Y'all know me: We chatted it up and bonded over french fries. They'd spent a long day at Tech and were heading back to the hotel before driving home to New York on Friday.


So I asked if they wanted to go to the Goat Farm to hear the Georgia Tech Laptop Orchestra. They said yeah and we headed out.


My wife said, "They actually went with YOU? Didn't they know how strange you are?"

They didn't exactly go with me, they followed in their car. What were they thinking as we turned into the dark Goat Farm drive and parked in the grass?


It was odd and wonderful, thirty+ musicians and a few hundred fans in Goodson Yard.


It was dark, there were three giant screens, there were a few traditional instruments. I had no idea what would happen next.


A score.


Title: “Fusiform” Members: Chris Howe, Raja Raman, Ziwen Fan, Xinquan Zhou Description: A performance controlled by facial expressions, wherein laptop performers affect the acoustic musicians signal with various effects via web cam control.


This trio played over ambient music and it was wonderful.
Title: “Impossible Mission” Members: JUAN MARTINEZ-NIETO, Shuo Liu, IMANKALYAN MUKHERJEE, Cian O’Brien Description: A piece written for Trumpet, Tenor Saxophone, Euphonium, 3 laptop musicians and 3 puzzle solvers. The music tells a story of solving a jig-saw puzzle that eventually unfolds the score for the musicians to play.


Weird and wonderful and I almost didn't go. Thanks to JT and sons.

I don't know if the Georgia Tech Center for Music Technology has a mailing list, so we'll need to check their event calendar.