Jenece Gerber, student participant of the Summer in Sombor workshop, will have a new work premiered by the New York Virtuoso Singers under the direction of Harold Rosenbaum. The concert is October 28, 2007 in New York City. More information can be found here.

I was lucky enough to have a preview of the work during the workshop and this definitely qualifies as a “must see performance”. Enjoy.

Voluntary amputation.

Just ponder this phrase for a minute and the associations and feelings that come with it.

I can’t say that I had ever come across the phrase, let alone the idea, until recently when a friend and colleague began creating a music theater work based on this concept. And last night at HERE Arts Center in New York City, the work Removable Parts by Corey Dargel premiered.

I won’t go into detail here about how Corey treats this intense and deep subject matter, but instead encourage my dear readers to experience it for themselves. For those not in New York, go to removableparts.com and explore. Darcy James Argue’s program notes are most definitely worth a read.

In preparation for the Summer in Sombor course, I decided that it would be good to write a new work–my second string quartet. And in the spirit of the blogosphere, I thought Eddy’s second entry about Sombor should be small glimpse into the compositional process.

As I’m primarily a theatrical composer, I find that concrete images or stories are great staring points even for concert works like a string quartet. I started with an image, a line of text that came to me from some hidden corner of my mind(s): “belief emerges from the cynic”. I must have been in a particularly Zen state of mind—which was good since I had a daunting task before me. So the story of the piece is this: first step “cynical”; second step “immersed” (in what, not exactly sure, so you’ll have to decide for yourself); third step transformation to “belief” which is to me the opposite of cynicism. These states of mind are presented in three short movements.

For harmonic material I decided to stay in a mostly pentatonic world. I chose several 5-note scales and harmonies based on them to serve as the “background” to the “foreground” of three different, but related, motivic ideas. For the first movement I highlighted the “angular” feel which emphasizes the cynical nature of our protagonist’s first state of mind. Not too angular, of course, because these also serve, in softer guise, for the second and third movements and allow for the final transformation of the cynicism into belief in the third movement. Pentatonic scales have an openness and malleability that makes all these transformations possible while maintaining an economy of musical material.

As a side note, I’d like to mention a useful source of harmonic ideas: Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns by Nicolas Slonimsky. The genesis of my pentatonic scales came from one in this book. I’ve found it useful for other pieces as well, and, when really stuck, I find it helpful to open it up and pick a scale or pattern at random at start improvising–a great idea generator.

Care for a listen? You’ll find the recording of the premiere here:
http://edwardficklin.com/?q=audio
as played by the ably gifted and dedicated Season Quartet of Novi Sad.

Hiya again – Dan here.
Yesterday three SO6 boys in New York City gathered to exchange photos, videos, and memories. Eddy and I met up at Mike R’s place in Prospect Heights, and had a good time of it, each of us battling jet lag to varying degrees (Eddy most of all, since he just flew in Friday night).

We are working on a slideshow and a video, trying to make the best use of the literally thousands of images we brought home from Serbia. Meanwhile, Aleksandra remains on in her homeland, and Kala has forged ahead to Stockholm. So we are spread across the globe, carrrying with us the burning embers of our dreamy days together in leafy Sombor.

Here’s a group photo taken inside City Hall where our student concert took place a week ago today. Apparently the painting in front of which we all stand is the largest one in Serbia. It made for a dramatic backdrop to some dramatic music.

Ciao, Eddy here. While you might think my first blog entry about Summer in Sombor and our other Serbian performances would be about music, composition, or other artistic matters, I’m rather going to touch on matters more humanitarian. Throughout my two weeks here I have, almost daily, been given minute anecdotes about the wars of the 90’s and the NATO bombings that were in a way the culmination of a decade of horror. The echoes of times past are faint, but when I stop to contemplate and put myself in their place for just a moment or two the horror becomes all too real.

Here are some examples and I encourage you to contemplate each for moment as I did and imagine yourself in their shoes.

• Phobia of thunderstorms because they remind you too much of the bombings
• 8 years and counting and your municipal airport, destroyed by NATO bombs, is still waiting to be rebuilt.
• Driving on the highway and a building is pointed out to you. It’s in ruins and in a spirit of irony and dark humor, you’re told: “That used to be our local TV station. You did this to us.”
• Imagine commuting across the Danube in Novi Sad on a daily basis using improvised “ferries” that were little better than rafts because all the bridges that the city depended on were destroyed. Only recently have they all been reconstructed.
• Not knowing from day to day how much your money is worth because you’re stuck in the worst hyperinflation on record. In 24 hours you can go, literally, from riches to rags.
• Being in a night club that’s being raided by the army to “draft” more soldiers. Men were shipped off into the army with no notice and little more than a single phone call to their families to tell them where they are.
• Imagine being a liberal American in a country where Clinton is vilified as much as Bush—and for good reason. Are there any good guys left?

This list isn’t meant to be an historical record, but rather an attempt to capture the lightning quick and informal conversational moments–moments that are only faint echoes of a terrible time, but worth remembering so that maybe, just maybe, history might not repeat itself.

I promise I’ll write more about music (and lighter things) soon. Zdravo!

Hi all – Dan again here. I’m slowly working on getting this blog up to speed, and soon hopefully you’ll be hearing from not only me, but other members of the SO6 and maybe even some of our students from the Summer in Serbia Workshop.

Our week in Sombor reached a fever pitch of rehearsals, intensity and excitement, and culminated in a great concert of student works on Sunday night at the Sombor City Hall. The Mayor introduced us in perfect English (but I still had my chance, later on, to say to him: “Zaxtevem da vidim Gospodine grado nacil nika” (I demand to see the mayor!)) And the Season Quartet, who probably worked harder than any other performing ensemble in the world over the last ten days, gave eight world premieres (we had three students who did not submit a composition for this year.)

It was a smashing success, and we finished off the night dancing our booties off at the sublime Cafe del Sol, which was kept open in our honor until 3am.

Afterwards, the SO6 hit the road for a whirlwind tour of Serbia in full rock star style. First stop was Zrenjanin, where our five new pieces were performed at the Cultural Center, along with compositions by our American student, James Call, and our Serbian student and (absolutely wonderful) host, Milan Aleksic. Milan then took us all out for a wondeful fish dinner, where his friends – a tamborashi group (Serbian folk music) – were waiting to serenade us all night long. It was really quite magical.

On Tuesday it was off, by van, to the lovely city of Novi Sad – Serbia’s second largest after Belgrade. We made it just in time for a press conference (!), and a short tour of the city and the Vojvodina Museum where our concert would be later that night. Aleksandra took special joy in sharing with us her home city, and it was indeed one well worth sharing.

Our concert in the courtyard of the museum (with absolutely stunning acoustices) was standing room only, with a heavy contingent of press. We were on Natioinal television, and apparently a documentary is being made about the South Oxford Six’s Serbian adventures.

More updates to follow – or perhaps more recollections from these amazing days. Already we are planning for next year, and the year after that, and the year after that…

I guess it seems a little late to be starting this blog, at 4:30 a.m. on Sunday, the last day of our weeklong workshop here in Sombor, Serbia. But hey, better late than never? Five of the SO6 – Kala, Eddy, Michael, our fearless leader over here, Aleksandra, and myself (Dan) have organized a week of discussions, presentations, string quartet rehearsals and performances, and lessons. We’ve had five American students, one Irish student, and five Serbian students, and by this point in the week we’re all sort of blissed out, walking around in love with everything and every one. There is a great cultural and musical chasm to bridge between home and here in some ways, and yet students seem to have bonded without issue, and faculty (the SO6) are just stumbling around wondering how they ever got it quite so right. Of course the meaning of this all is that come early September, we’ll begin thinking about Summer in Sombor ‘08, but for now we have one more beautiful day to enjoy.

Our mornings have been filled with faculty and student presentations, and then discussions on topics such as “Secret music,” grants for composers, career paths, world music and more. Of course interspersed here and there have been frequent well-timed visit to the lovely cafe next to the English Language Academy where we hold our classes. Afternoons have consisted of lessons and rehearsals with the lovely and talented Season Quartet, in residence and working like gangbusters. They put on a concert of our new music on Wednesday, and will play student (in some cases student should be in quotes, as some of our participants are in fact quite advanced) pieces tomorrow night in city hall. We have had wonderful local press coverage on TV and in the newspaper, and have been treated pretty much like royalty by the Sombor locals.

When it all ends tomorrow night we’ll go on a little Serbian tour, with two concerts – the latter in Novi Sad – before making our way back to Belgrade and the long trip home. Maybe some others will post in this space, but for now thought I’d just bring you up to date. Check our website, http://www.southoxfordsix.org for many, many pictures of this magical week.

Sdravo!

Dan

Tune in to hear insightful (or otherwise) words from the members of South Oxford Six, a New York-based composers collective.