November 2011

Wednesday November 2nd 2011

The Odessa Club, 13 Dame Court, Dublin 2

Doors 8:30pm

Music 9pm

Tickets €10 (including €2 booking fee) from The Odessa Club- 01 670 3080

Full bar available

After two magical late night events of theatre, text, song and chamber music as part of the Ulster Bank Dublin Theatre Festival, Kaleidoscope are delighted to welcome RTE Lyric FM Nova presenter Bernard Clarke as guest curator and presenter on November 2nd at The Odessa Club, Dublin. He has put together a programme which represents all that Kaleidoscope is; diversity, passion, innovation, intimacy and community.

In his own words...

"Transformation, musical alchemy-this is my theme, as Kaleidoscope dips in and out of time commemorating and celebrating all the living and the dead, the new and the old, old-new and new-old-invoked, empowered, charged: a kind of sonorous hexing. Yes, hex -to bewitch. German and Swiss immigrants who settled in Pennsylvania in the late 17th century spoke a dialect of German known as Pennsylvania Dutch. In this dialect hexe was the equivalent of the German verb hexen, “to practice sorcery.” The English verb hex, first recorded in the sense “to practice witchcraft” is borrowed from Pennsylvania Dutch, as is the noun. Hex, hexad-a group or series of six, from Greek hexas, from hex, six; so we go a hexing this evening with 5 music’s in 6 sets…

Opening proceedings is rising Irish composer Enda Bates and his hexaphonic guitar, which, in the composers own words “...provides six discrete audio outputs, one for each string. This multi-channel output can then be processed and spatialized to a loudspeaker array, transforming a standard electric guitar into a new instrument for the performance of spatial music.” A musical sorcery.

We mentioned old-new: try Stravinsky’s landmark work Three Pieces for Solo Clarinet, performed by Paul Roe. Composed in 1919 in Switzerland, and very much written against the world of the Rite of Spring, these three short monologues are hold worlds of music within them. The first, close to the Russian Songs of 1915, explores the clarinet’s low register, all melancholy and haunting song. The second is Stravinsky’s “version” of improvisation, where the player’s breaths punctuate the music! The third is even more virtuosic, vivacious and witty. Paul Roe-for me Ireland’s greatest living clarinet players-steps up to the mark.

“Dead breaths I living breathe,” muses Stephen Dedalus, in Ulysses. There is a school of thought that proposes that a voice, once lifted in praise, never stops sounding through all eternity. The singing, this voice and its resonance hovers just out of hearing and only needs to be invoked by the voices of the living to shine out again.

Historically, the Western tradition identifies the general custom of praying for the dead dating as far back as The Book of Maccabees (12:42-46). And the custom of setting apart a special day for intercession for certain of the faithful on November 2 was first established in France in the 11th century. -Which leads us to the new-old and the Ergodos Musicians, whose first selection from Léonin, opens a window on to what was the most important centre of liturgical music in 12th century Europe: the Cathedral of Notre-Dame in Paris. Ergodos will then move to Guillaume de Machaut, and a special selection, from the Messe de Notre Dame, which takes us to Rheims Cathedral for the most famous composition of the 14th century.

Electricity is fiction, sings Blixa Bargeld: after our interval, poet Dave Lordan (the most recent Ireland Chair of Poetry bursary recipient and multi-award winning writer) brings an electrifying poetry all of his own to the stage. Dave’s selections will come principally from his two books The Boy in the Ring and Invitation to a Sacrifice, but he also promises us a “surprise or two”.

Staying with surprises-members of the wonderful Quiet Music Ensemble will then take to the stage for one of their specialities-an improvisation; plus an intriguing piece by Susan Geaney, called Vacuum. Geaney writes: In Vacuum, I wanted to create a dense atmosphere using simple/minimal material. One sound can be limitless in its expansion and interaction. -which is very much in keeping with our metamorphosis and hexing of a winter’s evening. The final piece will see all the musicians back up on stage for an all-star-jam on…well, come along, we defy you not to be up dancing to this one…" Bernard Clarke - 11th October 2011

PROGRAMME:

Enda Bates (Hexaphonic Guitar)

Original Material

Paul Roe (Clarinet)

Igor Stravinsky - Three Pieces for Clarinet

ERGODOS MUSICIANS: Michelle O'Rourke, Nora Ryan (Voices), Jonathan Sage (Clarinet), Kate Ellis (Cello)

Leonin - Viderunt Omnes Part 1. (trans. Garrett Sholdice)

Guillaume de Machaut - Kyrie from the Messe de Nostre Dame (arr. Garrett Sholdice)

Dave Lordan (Poetry Recital)

Selections from 'The Boy in the Ring' and 'Invitation to a Sacrifice'

QUIET MUSIC ENSEMBLE: John Godfrey (Guitar), Seán Mac Erlaine (Saxophones), Ilse De Ziah (Cello)

Improvisation