TRANSCRIPT: July 22, 2020
MID-WEEK MUSICAL INTERLUDES #12

Hi, my name is Melissa Givens, Assistant Professor of Music at Pomona College in Claremont, California, and I'd like to welcome you to “Mid-Week Musical Interludes,” our podcast series featuring an array of glorious new and not-so-new works as recently performed by faculty, guests and students of Pomona College. For more information on the music from our podcasts please visit us at pomona.edu/musicpodcast, and music podcast is all one word.

This week’s episode celebrates the Ussachevsky Memorial Festivals of Electro Acoustic Music. First up, from the 2020 Festival, is Jorge Villavicencio Grossmann’s “Two Aphorisms with Interlude” featuring pianist Genevieve Feiwen Lee and recorded electronic sounds. From 2018 we close with Missy Mazzoli’s “Harp and Altar.” The Eclipse Quartet — Sarah Thornblade and Sara Parkins, violins; Zach Dellinger, viola; and Maggie Parkins, cello – performs with excerpts from Hart Crane's "The Bridge," pre-recorded by singer/songwriter Gabriel Kahane. We thank these performers and composers for letting us share their music this week.

[Fragments of lines from the poem, The Bridge by Hart Crane]
Through the bound cable strands, the arching path 
Upward, veering with light, the flight of strings,
Taut miles of shuttling moonlight syncopate
The whispered rush, telepathy of wires.
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ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THE PODCAST

The Music Department extends its thanks to the composer and performers for letting us include their work in our podcast series.

The opening selection featured in this podcast was recorded on February 1, 2020 and the second was recorded February 3, 2018 in Lyman Hall, Thatcher Music Building located on the campus of Pomona College, 340 N. College Ave., Claremont, CA as part of the Annual Ussachevsky Memorial Festival of Electro Acoustic Music orchestrated by Pomona College faculty composer Tom Flaherty.

Read about the performers and composers:

Jorge Villavicencio Grossmann (composer): https://www.shadowofthevoices.com/file/Bio
Genevieve Feiwen Lee (piano): pomona.edu/directory/people/Genevieve-F-Lee

Missy Mazzoli (composer): http://www.missymazzoli.com/
The Eclipse Quartet: https://www.eclipsequartet.com
Zach Dellinger (guest violist): https://www.zachdellinger.com 

Program Notes from the concert programs:

Dois Aforismos com Interlúdio (Two Aphorisms with Interlude)
This, my first venture into the realm of electro-acoustic composition after a ten-year hiatus, is a piece that develops over few motivic elements. My intent is to blend live and pre-recorded sounds into one cohesive instrument and also explore a dynamic interaction between the live performer and the electronic sounds. The electronic part of this piece was composed using live piano samples and, in the Interlúdio, a combination of sampled and synthesized sounds. Dois Aforismos com Interlúdio was written for Luciane Cardassi.
– Jorge Villavicencio Grossmann


CONTINUED…
Harp and Altar 
At its core, this piece is a love song to the Brooklyn Bridge. The title comes from a poem by Hart Crane, in which he describes the Brooklyn Bridge as “that harp and altar of the Fury fused.” The Borough of Brooklyn is impossible to describe, but the Brooklyn Bridge seems to be an apt symbol for its vastness, its strength and its history. Halfway through the work the vocalist Gabriel Kahane’s pre-recorded voice enters, singing fragments of lines from Crane’s poem, The Bridge. Harp and Altar was commissioned by the Kronos Quartet. 
– Missy Mazzoli