SPLICE Institute 2022 Concert 1 Program
featuring
Sam Wells: The Cottonwood Florilegium
Monday June 27, 2022
7:30pm EDT
Dalton Recital Hall, Western Michigan University
Livestream simulcast on SPLICE YouTube (unique link)
download program pdf (does not include notes/bios)
Sam Wells : The Cottonwood Florilegium (2022)
Part A Winter Circle
i accreting
Part B Tramontana
ii unsettling
iii protending
Part C Vela
iv leaving
v becoming
vi returning
Part D Horologium
vii retending
viii mapping
ix telling
Part E Noctua
x waning
xi eroding
xii unearthing
Sam Wells, trumpet
Dana Jessen, bassoon
Adam Vidiksis, percussion
Keith Kirchoff and Vicki Ray, pianos
Notes
Sam Wells : The Cottonwood Florilegium “The entirety of existence was a text waiting to be read. Which means there could be no line between the reader and the written. You, who are reading this, you too are written, you too can be read. And I, a writer, am already written through and through. Everything between us, everything that separates us, mountains, stars, years, shimmering thoughts and dreams that die with waking, all of it is a single chain of signs that do not point to another reality, only to this one, all at once.”-Ben Ehrenreich, “Desert Notebooks: A Road Map for the End of Time”
The Cottonwood Florilegium is a musical text that is read as it is written and written as it is read. It is a collection of a perspectives and ideas, musically interpreted, on the entirety of existence from the internal and local to the cosmic and infinite.
Humanity has developed a myriad of approaches to gaining perspective on this reality. We strive to step aside and look at reality not from the active locus of experience, but at a remove, with a spiritual or scientific objectivity. We imagine being able to read the text of existence from a different angle, seeing previously invisible connections. Through this imagination, we inscribe the lacunae of our perceptions to create meaning and expand the context of our experience.
A florilegium is a medieval collection of excerpts, proverbs, ideas, and formulas that grew of the commonplacing tradition of communal writings to collect and index knowledge. Florilegia have traditionally presented in several ways: as patristic anthologies of Christian literature, as literary anthologies of secular texts, and as the literal translation of “a gathering of flowers” indicates, a collection of botanically accurate plant illustrations. Here, the florilegium is a comingled set of thoughts, perspectives, and questions on the collective experience of humanity gathered from a range of sources and experiences.
The Cottonwood Florilegium is organized into twelve movements that compose five parts. The part names are associated with constellations, asterisms, and weather phenomena that have been ascribed spiritual meaning. Humanity often looks outward to forces beyond our control, be it the environment or the cosmos at large, to gain insight to our experience. The movement names focus on the local, perceptual, and active states of presence and personal experience. All these modes of understanding are inscribed into the text that is “The Cottonwood Florilegium,” this terrestrial bound collection of attempts at making sense of humanity. We can see our pasts and futures in the terrestrial world around us, unveiled through geologic processes and expressed through active environmental changes. The cottonwood tree, widely present in the North American landscape, appears in numerous myths of indigenous peoples to the continent. Having grown up around these trees, the cottonwood presents a personally important signifier of place and location to me. The cottonwood tree can be a marker for home, a reminder that despite our attempts step outside of our experience to understand our place in the cosmos, we are of and a part of this planet.
The Cottonwood Florilegium is presented as a massive and collective life cycle infused with layers of nested narrative arcs.
Part A
The Winter Circle is an asterism that is visible in the Northern Hemisphere winter sky. Comprised of the major stars in the Orion, Taurus, Auriga, Gemini, Canis Minor, and Canis Major constellations, the Winter Circle physically links these major myths while also holding mythological significance in its own right for several cultures. In Lakota mythology the winter circle mirrors the Čhaŋgléska Wakȟaŋ, or Sacred Hoop, a religious symbol representing life stages, deities, and the location of the creation myth of the Great Race. Movement I, “accretion,” relates not only to the geologic and astrophysical accumulation of matter into massive objects, but also the gathering of experiences and relationships that define our history. Part A and Movement I represent a world building process, a communal accrual of musical matter and potential energy that sets the trajectory for the rest of work.
Part B
The Tramontana is the classical name of a northern wind in the Mediterranean. In Catalan culture, the tramontana is so strong that it takes on a supernatural quality that causes people to act strangely or lose their grip with reality. Movements II and III, present a dissolution of the joint accrual of the previous section and a disruption of the collective, with individual musicians exerting more agency and improvisatory freedom. Protention is the Husserlian phenomenological anticipation of the next moment. The disruption causes us to question what is next.
Part C
Vela is a constellation in the southern sky that depicts the sails of the ship Argo from Greek Mythology. Representing a journey and evoking the open-endedness and transformational potential of ocean voyages. Movements IV, V, and VI offer the most open sections of the work. The musicians are freely improvising with each other and the electronic components to represent a journey of leaving, becoming, and returning.
Part D
Horologium is a constellation in the southern sky depicting a pendulum clock. This constellation was cataloged relatively recently by French astronomer Nicolas Louis de Lacaille in 1756. Here, Horologium represent an application of logic and parsing of understanding onto the memories of experience, an attempt to make sense of what has just transpired. Movement VII, “retending,” presents purely electronic sound creating an introspective moment that grabbles with personal memory and experience. Retention is the conceptual pair to protention. Retention is the Husserlian concept of retaining perceptual acts consciousness. Movement VIII, “mapping,” represents attempts at organizing and understanding those experiences. Movement IX, “telling,” shares these understandings.
Part E
Noctua is a former constellation that depicts an owl perched on that tail of Hydra, the water snake. The owl, a pervasive symbol throughout many mythologies, is often depicted as omens of night, death, or wisdom. Part E is divided into three movements: waning, eroding, and unearthing. Each presents an erasure, creating negative space, that aims not to represent destruction but rather a revealing.
The Cottonwood Florilegium was composed for Dana Jessen (bassoon), Vicki Ray (piano), and SPLICE Ensemble: Keith Kirchoff (piano), Adam Vidiksis (drum set), and Sam Wells (trumpet). This project would not have been possible without the collaboration of these musicians nor without the efforts, visions, and dedication of Alejandro Melendez (lighting consultant), Stephanie Lutz (lighting consultant), and Josh Sobel (conceptual consultant). I am deeply inspired by and creatively indebted to my collaborators. I hope that this work feels as much theirs as it does mine.
The entire work is performed without pause.
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Bios
Sam Wells
Sam Wells is a musician and video artist based in Los Angeles. Sam has performed throughout North America and Europe, as well as in China. He is a recipient of a 2016 Jerome Fund for New Music award, and his work, stringstrung, is the winner of the 2016 Miami International Guitar Festival Composition Competition. He has performed electroacoustic works for trumpet and presented his own music at the Bang on a Can Summer Festival, Chosen Vale International Trumpet Seminar, Electronic Music Midwest, Electroacoustic Barn Dance, NYCEMF, N_SEME, and SEAMUS festivals. Sam and his music have also been featured by the Kansas City Electronic Music and Arts Alliance (KcEMA) and Fulcrum Point Discoveries. He has also been a guest artist/composer at universities throughout North America.Sam is a member of SPLICE Ensemble. Sam has performed with Contemporaneous, Metropolis Ensemble, TILT Brass, the Lucerne Festival Academy Orchestra, and the Colorado MahlerFest Orchestra. Sam has recorded on the Scarp Records, New Amsterdam/Nonesuch, New Focus Records, SEAMUS, and Ravello Recordings labels.
Sam is a Cycling ’74 Max Certified Trainer and holds degrees in both performance and composition at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, graduate degrees in Trumpet Performance and Computer Music Composition at Indiana University, and a doctoral degree at the California Institute of the Arts. This fall, Sam will join the faculty at Temple University as an Assistant Professor of Music Technology.
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Hailed as a “bassoon virtuoso” (Chicago Reader), Dana Jessen tirelessly seeks to expand the boundaries of her instrument through original compositions, improvisations, and collaborative work with innovative artists. Over the past decade, she has presented dozens of world premiere performances throughout North America and Europe while maintaining equal footing in the creative music community as an improviser. Her solo performances are almost entirely grounded in electroacoustic composition that highlight her distinct musical language. As a chamber musician, Dana is the co-founder of the contemporary reed quintet Splinter Reeds, and has performed with Alarm Will Sound, Amsterdam’s DOEK Collective, the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, and the Tri-Centric Ensemble, among many others. A dedicated educator, Dana teaches at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and has presented masterclasses and workshops to a range of students from across the globe. More at: www.danajessen.com.
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Pianist and composer Keith Kirchoff has performed throughout North America, Europe, and the Pacific Southwest. A strong advocate for modern music, Kirchoff is committed to fostering new audiences for contemporary music and giving a voice to emerging composers, and to that end has premiered over 100 new works and commissioned over two dozen compositions. Specializing on works which combine interactive electro-acoustics with solo piano, Kirchoff's Electroacoustic Piano Tour has been presented in ten countries, and has spawned three solo albums. Kirchoff is the co-founder and a director of SPLICE and the founder and Artistic Director of Original Gravity Inc. Kirchoff has won awards from the Steinway Society, MetLife Meet the Composer, the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, and was named the 2011 Distinguished Scholar by the Seabee Memorial Scholarship Association. He has recorded on the New World, Kairos, New Focus, Tantara, Ravello, Thinking outLOUD, Zerx, and SEAMUS labels.
You can follow Kirchoff on Twitter @keithkirchoff and learn more at his website: keithkirchoff.com.
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Described as “phenomenal and fearless,” Grammy nominated pianist Vicki Ray is a leading interpreter of contemporary piano music. Known for thoughtful and innovative programming which seeks to redefine the piano recital in the 21st century, Vicki’s concerts often include electronics, video, recitation and improvisation. As noted by Alan Rich, “Vicki plans programs with a knack for marvelous freeform artistry…what she draws from her piano always relates in wondrous ways to the senses.” As a founding member of Piano Spheres, an acclaimed series dedicated to exploring the less familiar realms of the solo piano repertoire, her playing has been hailed by the Los Angeles Times for “displaying that kind of musical thoroughness and technical panache that puts a composer’s thoughts directly before the listener.
As a pianist who excels in a wide range of styles Vicki Ray’s numerous recordings cover everything from the premiere release of the Reich You Are Variations to the semi-improvised structures of Wadada Leo Smith, from the elegant serialism of Mel Powell to the austere beauty of Morton Feldman’s Crippled Symmetries. Recent releases include David Rosenboom’s Twilight Language on Tzadik Records and Feldman’s Piano and String Quartet with the Eclipse Quartet on Bridge Records. Her 2013 recording of Cage’s The Ten Thousand Things on the Microfest label was nominated for a Grammy.
Ms. Ray’s work as a collaborative artist has been extremely diverse and colorful. She was the keyboardist in the California E.A.R. Unit and Xtet. Her chamber music contributions to the vibrant musical life in greater Los Angeles include frequent performances on the Dilijan, Jacaranda and Green Umbrella Series. She performs regularly on the venerable Monday Evening Concert series and was featured in Grisey’s Vortex Temporum on the 2006 celebration of the re-birth of the series. Vicki has been heard in major solo roles with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Master Chorale, the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, the German ensemble Compania, and the Blue Rider Ensemble of Toronto, with whom she made the first Canadian recording of Pierrot Lunaire.
She is currently head of the piano department at the California Institute of the Arts, where she has been on the faculty since 1991. In 2010 she was awarded the first Hal Blaine Chair in Music Performance. For the past eight years she has served on the faculty at the Bang on a Can summer festival at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art.
For current information on upcoming concerts please go to: vickiray.net/concerts
Vicki Ray is a Steinway Artist.
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Adam Vidiksis is a drummer and composer based in Philadelphia who explores social structures, science, and the intersection of humankind with the machines we build. His music examines technological systems as artifacts of human culture, acutely revealed in the slippery area where these spaces meet and overlap—a place of friction, growth, and decay. Vidiksis is a sought-after champion of new works for percussion and electronics, performing as a featured artist in venues around the world. Vidiksis’s music has won numerous awards and grants, including recognition from the Society of Composers, Incorporated, the American Composers Forum, New Music USA, National Endowment for the Arts, Chamber Music America, and ASCAP. His works are available through HoneyRock Publishing, EMPiRE, New Focus, PARMA, and SEAMUS Records. Vidiksis recently served as composer in residence for the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia and was selected by the NEA and Japan-US Friendship Commission, serving as Director of Arts Technology for a performance of a new work during the 2020 Olympics in Japan. Vidiksis is Assistant Professor of music technology at Temple University and President of SPLICE Music. He performs in SPLICE Ensemble and the Transonic Orchestra, conducts Ensemble N_JP, and directs the Boyer College Electroacoustic Ensemble Project (BEEP). [www.vidiksis.com]
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