9 PM Friday, January 7
Heaven Gallery1550 N. Milwaukee Avenue, 2nd floor
Chicago IL 60622
www.heavengallery.com
The Chicago Scratch Orchestra (CSO) follows up its debut at the Green Mill with a new set of scores . The idea for the “Scratch Orchestra” was conceived in 1968 by British avant-garde composer Cornelius Cardew (1936–81), with fellow composers Howard Skempton and Michael Parsons. Its significance is provided in Cardew’s “Draft Constitution”:
“A Scratch Orchestra is a large number of enthusiasts pooling their resources (not primarily material resources) and assembling for action (music-making, performance, edification).
The word music and its derivatives are here not understood to refer exclusively to sound and related phenomena (hearing, etc). What they do refer to is flexible and depends entirely on the members of the Scratch Orchestra.”
CSO members include Julia Miller, Joe Fosco, Clifton Ingram, Andrew Royal, Samuel Bradshaw, Christopher Preissing, Dan Godston, Paul Hartsaw, Carol Genetti, Sid Yiddish, Dan Mohr, and Jeff Kowalkowski. As a sort of “leaderless” social unit each member of the group is expected to contribute their own score for the scratch orchestra to perform. These are often visually graphic and verbally task-oriented, but do not eschew traditional musical notation either.
Bay Area pianists Keith Kirchoff and Eric Glick Rieman will perform the first set this evening.
Keith Kirchoff – New works for piano, video, sampler, and electronics.
Eric Glick Rieman – Original pieces exploring the intersection of music composition and biology.
In the second set the CSO will play their scores. Eric Glick Rieman will also conduct the CSO in its performance of his score, entitled “Nursery and Machine Houses.”
Relevant links:
http://newmusicgm.blogspot.com/
http://www.stefan-szczelkun.org.uk/phd102.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornelius_Cardew
http://www.pianofortefoundation.org/
http://www.experimentalsoundstudio.org/pages/event_detail/52.php?id=72