Ars Subtilior #5: Meditating on Sound

For the past couple of weeks, I’ve been working with our teenage group, Phase II, on the “Sonic Meditations” by composer Pauline Oliveros. (For a great article on Pauline’s work, see http://soundamerican.org/on-deep-listening). Through these text based scores, we’ve been trying to focus on attentive listening and non-judgmental perception. These are not easily attainable concepts for most, but the students are progressing surprisingly well. At first, our meditation attempts were riddled with uncontrollable giggling, but a week later, we were so wrapped up in our successful group meditation that we unknowingly went past the time parents were supposed to pick everyone up. Through the Oliveros exercises, I’m preparing the kids for a performance of André Cormier’s “Cratères d’Impact”. André’s piece calls for a series of complex sustained tones to be played over 22 minutes with lots of silence in between. My hope is that our meditations will allow them to perform this piece as a shared experience with the audience, shedding all (or at least some) self-consciousness they might have possessed before this endeavor.

Phase II in sonic meditation

Also on this program will be a piece that I have composed. I wrote a small idea down for this concert and feel very lucky to have such open and willing musicians to play it. The work is basically a meditation on the note E-flat and some of its overtones. Every note, or fundamental, has a series of notes that make up the defining character of that specific tone. These overtones are sometimes difficult to single out, even for highly trained musicians, but if you listen very intently, you can pick out these notes, which can in turn bring you much deeper into the sound produced. In “finding/obscuring,” I’ve directed the cellos to play their E flats emphasizing different overtones through the use of a special bow technique. While the cellos struggle to get their instruments to make these tones speak, the violinists play those exact notes, but just slightly off. This finding and obscuring of tones (hence the title) should result in moments of crystal clear harmony, mixed with sparks of shimmering dissonance.

The stunning centerpiece of the program is one of my absolute favorite compositions for string quartet, Jürg Frey’s “String Quartet No. 2”. It combines unconventional string playing along with ghostly humming by the performers. It is rarely performed and should not be missed. Hope to see you there.

–Laura Cetilia
Media Lab Co-Director/Resident Musician and Curator, Ars Subtilior

Sunday, February 7, 2016 at 3pm
Providence Public Library
150 Empire Street – Ship Room