Lief Ellis and his guitar
The Hartford Sound Alliance performed at Capital Community College on Thursday, October 30. It’s an amazing building, converted from the old Fox Department Store. The concert was held in an 11th floor room where I imagine muffs and other things like that used to be sold.
In the interest of disclosure, I know the people in this group and am married to one of them, but despite being familiar with the musicians and their music, I think that most people would like it. While the person who posed the rock or jazz question may not have heard of this type of music before, a Hartford Sound Alliance concert makes for a unique set of music in a variety of styles that all audiences with an open mind can enjoy.
Matt Sargent’s meditative piece that started the concert, “Living in the Pulsing Light,” was written in the programming language Max/MSP, which is one of the most popular tools used by electronic composers. (Johnnie Greenwood from Radiohead uses it a lot.) Matt’s piece was a blend of sliding and steady pitches. It had a shimmery wailing sound, with certain steady notes grounding the sound. Ascending sounds seemed to trigger bell-like bursts. Sometimes it sounded like sirens, sometimes bells, while the sound source was in fact guitar and some accordion. At times the piece like the calling of whales or mysterious aquatic lifeforms.
Pieces of wood and kick drum from the piece for pieces of wood and kick drum
As a person that already probably has too many visions of things when listening to music, my experience of the next piece by Jessica Rudman was definitely influenced when the composer described her piece for solo marimba as being about “the ambivalence of human relationships.” At first, the lower register of the marimba kept up a persistent pulse, while the higher part picked out a delicate melody. The two parts would come together in a sort of dissonant duet from time to time. Eventually the melody switched to the higher part, then drifting away like a continuing conversation you overhear passing you on the street.
Lief Ellis’ piece, Study for Electric Guitar and Video No. 1, was “inspired by recent study of John Lennon as an artist and as a protester.” A work for solo guitar with electronics and visuals, it was made possible through using both Max/MSP/Jitter (Jitter is a video component of the Max program), and from the look of Leif’s tricked-out guitar, a good deal of soldering. It had at least seven cords and some sort of box dangling from it.
The piece began with a thin digital line of different colors flashing horizontally across otherwise black screen. The guitar volume triggered the video so that the line on the screen widened. The piece began quietly but built up in volume and distortion so that the horizontal line jaggedly opened to reveal grainy explosion footage, trigger sights, tanks rolling over things, and green colored shots of nighttime gunfire. The result was overwhelming, and things became more and more out of control. As piece ended it becomes quiet again, diminishing the view of the footage back to a thin ribbon flashing grayish blue and green, which on second sight seems rather mournful and shameful. As a political commentary I was struck by how it draws attention to remoteness of the wars we are currently engaged in. The ending left me uneasy.
Kate Swanson-Ellis’ piece, Fantasia in Green for flute, marimba, and cello, was the perfect follow-up. She said she wrote it in a “green mood,” and I can see how it was inspired by the vibrancy and mystery of the natural world. A lyrical flute melody carried throughout the piece and was accompanied by a cello sometimes plucking, echoed by the marimba, and sometimes bowing in a light feathery manner. Sometimes one instrument would sound strangely like another, and the flute used all kinds of neat methods to bring about an atmosphere that was both lively and contemplative.
Dave Cutright’s solo piano piece was a compositional study based on a set of disturbances with an underlying regular pattern. He was inspired by a Rachmaninoff etude with the same idea. The beginning portion of the piece was set within the upper middle portion of the piano, and then the piece became lower in a knot from which a bass melody emerged.
Bill Solomon and his pieces of wood
The last piece on the program, “Music for 24 Pieces of Wood and 4 Kick Drums” by Bill Solomon, was performed by the composer along with four other percussionists from the Hartt School of Music. The pieces of wood cut like a marimba (see photo) made an interesting hammering sound when hit. The effect of five percussionists playing different rhythms on wood blocks and stomping on kick drums was exciting, like crazy carpenters, especially when they became synchronized at a racing tempo. Bill, who didn’t have a kick drum, made up for it with his hands flying over the twelve wooden planks in front of him.
Many of the Capitol Community College students seemed into the music, and I, for one, left the concert feeling inspired by all the possibilities of sound. So there you have it. It’s not rock or jazz, but it’s very cool and it’s here in Hartford, right on Main Street.
The Hartford Sound Alliance’s next concert will be an electronic improvisational concert at the Hartford Art School on November 12. Visit www.hartfordsoundalliance.com for more info about the group.
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