Looking for New Choral Director

Unfortunately, we will be losing our wonderful choral director at the end of this year to the imminent threat to any Vassar student: graduation.

Interested in becoming the new choral director?  Email caokelly@vassar.edu or mahagonny.vsa@vassar.edu to get information or express interest.  We'd like to have someone by the end of this semester so that they can start training next semester.  And you must be a current Vassar student in Fall 2011.

On a side note, the treasurer and web-person (me) will also be graduating.  Our Creativity Chair/Pianist Extraordinaire will be graduating.  If you're interested in taking over the money issues, working on this blog or being a part of the Mahagonny board in anyway, contact mahagonny.vsa@vassar.edu.  Again, you must be a current Vassar student in Fall 2011 to take over the positions of the current seniors.

Mahagonny Fall 2010- Don't Be Afraid

It's been a while since our last post, but I'm finally back into the swing of things of keeping the world informed about the Mahagonny Ensemble.  With lots of new, excited members from the freshman class and even some new upperclassmen, both the orchestra and chorus have been working hard on their new pieces.

The choir's repertoire includes:

-Missa Cantate- By Bob Chilcott

-Anoj Pusej Dunojelio- By Vaclovas Augustinas

-En la Biblioteca- By Jason Currin

And the orchestra is working on:

-Ragtime for 11 Instruments- By Igor Stravinsky

-Impresiones de la Puna- by Alberto Ginastera

We've also got our annual composition project with some fresh new faces and ideas.  Features on our student composers will be coming out soon!

Composition by Will Healy '12

 Hashima is named after a ghost city, located on an island 15 miles off the coast of Nagasaki, Japan. It served as a coal mining facility from 1887 to 1974, and it was once one of the most densely populated places in the world. Abandoned abruptly after its closure, its high-rise concrete buildings lie empty as dramatic remnants of Japan's industrial age. My piece's two movements represent two days in two different eras on Hashima Island. The first, 1959, takes place at its most vibrant, when the population of the island was at its peak. Miners and their families are awoken from their dreams by the morning bell, and the music is frantic and full of energy as they go about their days. The second movement, 1974, represents the abandoned island. Listen for the ocean waves, bird songs, and crumbling buildings as nature reclaims what is left of the city. This piece was written for and performed by the Mahagonny Ensemble at Vassar College by William Healy, Class of 2012. It premiered in April 2010.-- Will Healy '12

Composer Profile: Cooper Troxell

Cooper Troxell '11, a piano player of thirteen years (currently studying with Anna Polonsky at Vassar), is an independent major. His focus is in music composition and linguistics with the intent to:

"create a musical idiom that uses the forms and structures of natural language to communicate with an audience based on their native linguistic tendencies."

On his musical influences, Cooper recalls: "Like almost everyone else, I have to say that Stravinsky has had a huge influence on me. Although I had heard classical music before coming to college, I never really had a strong interest in listening to it until I listened to The Rite of Spring. After that, I became very interested in modern classical music, and although I still have a hard time fully appreciating music of the classical and baroque eras, I'm working on it. Besides the aforementioned, I would say my influences (or at least my current interests) are Ligeti, Boulez, and Berio, but since I still have a lot to learn, and have huge gaps in my knowledge of music, that will probably change."

On his piece Désordre 56k (for two violins, viola, cell, clarinet, French horn, bassoon and vibraphone), Troxell uses "quotations throughout as memes to convey a certain idea to the audience member.  They may or may not experience a narrative, which is entirely dependent on their own experiences with the source material.  Expect to hear things you've heard before."  I find this last thought incredibly interesting.  It seems to be a common goal in modern music to give the audience new experiences and new musical environments.  But here, Troxell hopes the audience will hear something familiar, which in itself, is unfamiliar in a contemporary piece.

Starting Work on Workers Union

Tonight was the first rehearsal of our group who are risking our fingers, our chops, and our minds to work on Workers Union by Louis Andriessen (see previous post).  Why do I seem to assume that this piece will kill us?  Well, for one, it's 20 minutes long.  And second of all, the first page of the score looks like this:

 

That's not even all of what we saw tonight on the cleaned-up professional version of the score.  But this piece is going to be SO FUN.  The ensemble is free to choose the instrumentation and we can turn the timbre of the piece into anything we want.  One interpretation can be found here in Bang On a Can's Version:

 

And we listened to another version from a modern music ensemble in LA.  The LA version had more percussion and a cluster of woodwinds and cello.  As a friend of mine said, it was very "metal and black".  I pictured it as a Dr. Seuss-esque keyboard instrument playing all the complex rhythms with a drum set.  Or maybe a one-man band..either way, after a while, I stopped hearing all the individual instruments as all the voices came together into one weird sound.  This strange hybrid instrument pervaded my imagination until near the end where different instruments came out of the texture to end the piece as individuals.

One last note on this piece, we definitely need more players! Right now, it's a flute, oboe, clarinet, piano, trombone, and either bassoon or electric guitar (Mark has to decide which to play).  But we could definitely use some percussionists!  And a saxophone? Trumpet?  If you're interested, email magauthier@vassar.edu and I'll get you in touch with our director.  Rehearsals are Tuesday nights from 9:30 PM- 11:30 PM in the Skinner Recital Hall.  And as always, you need to be Vassar student to participate.

February 6th Concert and Future Projects

Our next concert will feature original works by students in the department: Will Healy, Toru Momii, and Cooper Troxell.  The concert will be an open rehearsal with a final performance of the works later in the semester.  Be there on February 6th at 11 AM in Skinner! In the next week, we'll feature a profile on each composer and what we should expect from their piece.

In the mean time, other members of the ensemble are working on a new work: Workers Union by Louis Andriessen.

 

Andriessen is a Dutch composer and pianist.  He studied under Luciano Berio and is highly influenced by Igor Stravinsky, jazz, and American minimalism.  His works are often found to experiment with post war serialism and pastiche (imitation).  He rarely writes for full orchestras and prefers to write for interesting combinations of instruments (many of these being traditional orchestral instruments).  His music is classified as being anti-Germanic and anti-Romantic.  He emphasizes the use of forceful articulation, amplified rhythm, and non-vibrato singing. (see http://www.boosey.com/cr/composer/Louis+Andriessen for more info)

Workers Union (1975) is no exception to Andriessen's style.  It's written for "any loud sounding group of instruments".  With harsh rhythms and no pitch definition, it's a largely indeterminate piece.  The pitch goes up and down at some points but there is no indication on what notes each player should start on.  It's also up to the ensemble whether they want certain combinations of instruments in different spots or where everyone should play together.  The ensemble can also shape the entire feel of the piece as they see fit as long as they are all playing the same rhythm at the same time.  I think it's going to sound a lot like a loud mob of people: everyone has the same message, but they're all screaming it in different ways.  We're not sure what instruments we're going to use yet.  There will definitely be at least one trombone and lots of percussion.  But maybe some tenor saxes? Trumpets?  Maybe an oboe?  It would be fantastic to have some singers just yelling into a mic.  We might also consider adding a visual aspect to the piece.  Perhaps some commissioned artwork being projected over the stage?  This is going to be a really cool piece and we're excited to get started on it!

Looking for New Singers!

Can you sing? Want to try out genres of music that you've never heard of? Want to try music that's so new and so modern that it hasn't even been written yet?!

Then come join us! We're always looking for new members. And with some singers going abroad and others having busy schedules, we're in a need for singers right now. Especially male ones...

Contact the Mahagonny Choir at caokelly@vassar.edu and let us know if you're interested. (You must be a Vassar student).