Aromas of Quelques Fleurs

Composer and member of Musiqa’s Artistic Board, Karim Al-Zand spoke to Musiqa about his latest composition titled Quelques Fleurs.

Does Quelques Fleurs have a special meaning to you, other than the translation? Why or why not?
The title, “a few flowers,” has two references. It refers to the various movements of the work, each one based on a particular flower. It’s also the brand name of the first mass marketed perfume, which appeared in 1912, and was purportedly formulated, with the essence of hundreds of different flowers.

How did you approach Quelques Fleurs?
I tried to convey in musical terms the character of each flower, in particular my associations with the scent of the flower.

What are your most significant inspirations, pertaining to composing music?
My inspirations are often extra-musical, as is the case in this piece. I have compositions that are inspired by art of various kinds, literature, dance and so forth. There are some purely musical inspirations as well, such as folk music, jazz and other works in the Western classical tradition.

What is the music of Quelques Fleurs inspired by?

Quelques Fleurs is inspired by the fragrance of flowers. Connections between sound and smell have long been a feature of both poetry and science. The vocabulary of the perfumer also relies on musical analogy: a fragrance is formed by a “chord” of three scents—a “top note,” a “middle (or heart) note,” and a “bass note.” The perfume reputedly combined 300 different floral and other scents in its formulation. My piece contains four: Rose, Lavender, Jasmine and Orange Blossom.

How would you describe the music of Quelques Fleurs?

To convey the immersive quality of the flowers’ aroma, each movement is a kind of musical “static study.” The first uses a reiterated rhythmic pattern (an ostinato); the second cycles through a harmonic progression (a passacaglia); the third employs an unchanging collection of notes (a mode); and the fourth maintains constant motion by repeating a few short motives (a moto perpetuo). The piece was written for the Beausejour Trio (Wesley Ferreira, clarinet; Julia MacLaine, cello; Stephen Runge, piano) who presented its premiere in July 2010.

 As previously described, Al-Zand’s inspiration for Quelques Fleurs is drawn from the scent of four specific flowers, Jasmine being the most “heady of floral scents,” he says. 

“[Jasmine] thrives in Texas: there are several jasmine shrubs and vines around the Rice University campus,” said Al-Zand. “As you pass one of the flowering plants in the spring, the smell is intoxicating, almost overpowering in strength. I think of the third movement as an atmospheric nocturne (jasmine blooms only at night), which tries to capture a gradual envelopment by the potent bouquet.”

For Al-Zand, the smell of roses is redolent. He stated that it reminds him of “confectionery, especially the Middle Eastern sweets” he enjoyed as a child. Many of them use perfumed rose water in their recipes.

Aside from the fragrance of flowers, Al-Zand’s music is inspired by Arabic poetry. The subjects of some of his pieces speak to his middle-eastern heritage as well.

“My father’s LP records of Arabic music playing in our living room,” Al-Zand said. “Though we never really knew what the words meant, my siblings and I would occasionally join in with a catchy song. I recall only tiny snippets from these tunes. I quote one memorable fragment in the first movement, “Attar of Rose.” The movement represents a kind of perfumed nostalgia, a fragrant musical trace.”

The Boston Globe has called Al-Zand’s music “strong and startlingly lovely”. His music has been successful throughout Canada, the U.S., and abroad. Al-Zand is the recipient of several national awards, including the Sackler Composition Prize and the ArtSong Prize.

Quelques Fleurs will be featured in Musiqa’s Word Play on Saturday, April 6 at 7:30 p.m. at the Hobby Center for the Performing Arts in Zilkha Hall. 

Thank you, Karim, for taking the time to speak to Musiqa about Quelques Fleurs.

Written by Mia. M. Smith 

The Mystery of the Sphinx, Musiqa's Latest One-Act Play

 

Anthony Brandt took some time out of his busy schedule to chat with Musiqa about his latest musical composition, which is featured in Sphinx, a play directed by Leslie Swackhamer.

Artistic Director and co-founder of Musiqa, Anthony Brandt composed the music for Sphinx, a one-act play by 2012 Blackburn prizewinner Jennifer Haley. The play is a first-time collaboration for Musiqa with Haley. 

Sphinx explores the relationship of a couple during different periods in their life. The play shows the couple's relationship evolving over time from their late teenage years to their mid 60's. The first scene displays the conflict and insecurities of the couple’s frayed bond. Joshua Estrada and Jen Lucy, who happen to be married, play the main characters.

Sphinx explores the eternal mystery between a man and a woman through the riddle of Oedipus: “What goes on four legs in the morning, on two legs at noon, and on three legs in the evening?” In Greek mythology, the Sphinx sat outside of Thebes and asked this riddle of all travelers who passed by. If the traveler failed to solve the riddle, the Sphinx would kill the traveler. If the traveler answered the riddle correctly, the Sphinx would destroy herself. Oedipus solved the riddle, and the Sphinx destroyed herself.

“Sphinx was a really interesting thought experiment writing it, because theater music is often mood music,” said Brandt. Haley and Brandt wanted the music to be a character in the play. Brandt thought carefully about the story’s meaning and wanted the music to tell the story of the play as well. His concept was that overture is the sexual attraction between the main characters of the play, and it dissolves in the course of the piece, as they get older. 

“It keeps trying to put itself back together again, and it’s always there,” said Brandt. “The beginning of the music has an unusual 6-5-4 pattern. At the very end, when the characters wonder ‘are we meant to be together or not?’ the pattern reverses to 4-5-6.” This was Brandt’s way of “leaving it all hanging.” The music creates an emotional response. The couple wonders if they should stay together by denying who they are, or come together by becoming who they are meant to be. This is an active search throughout the play.

“The jazz music wants to flow, but the characters are in conflict. The music tries to sustain the tension until the end. It never cadences until the final question is answered,” Brandt said.

The world premiere of Sphinx debuts on April 6 at 7:30 p.m. at the Hobby Center for the Performing Arts in Zilkha Hall.

The featured composers, artists and works include:

Rob Smith: Las Pilas

Karim Al-Zand, Quelques Fleurs

Roshanne Etezady, Mother-of-Pearl

JacobTV, Garden of Love

The featured artists include:

Tali Morgulis, piano

Johnny Salinas, saxophone

Barrett Sills, cello

Yung-Hsiang Wang, violin

Ivo van der Werff, viola

Michael Webster, clarinet.

Thank you, Anthony, for speaking with Musiqa about your latest work. 

Written by Mia M. Smith 

Rob Smith, Director of the University of Houston AURA Contemporary Ensemble

Rob Smith took some time to speak with Musiqa about his latest work entitled Las Pilas, a new string trio, which will premiere at Musiqa's Word Play on April 6, 2013, at 7:30 p.m. at the Hobby Center's Zilkha Hall. Smith directs the Aura Contemporary Ensemble and teaches composition and music theory at the University of Houston. 

Rob Smith is a composer and a member of Musiqa's Artistic Board. Las Pilas, a string trio, will be performed on Friday, April 5 at Jan R. van Lohuizen and Sandra L. Tirey's home, which they call Geezerville. The new string trio was commissioned by Jan and Sandra. Las Pilas is based on a sense of community and building relationships, the concept of Jan and Sandra's home. They wanted to build a home where they could comfortably live the remainder of their lives. Geezerville was built next to some of Jan and Sandra's best friends. They combined their backyards to create a communal area. The interior of their house also has an emphasis on communal spaces. Essentially, Jan and Sandra created an ideal place for people to meet and mingle.

"[Las Pilas] is not about the physical things that help people who are getting older. It's really about choosing the people you want to spend the rest of your life with," Smith said. 

A "pila" is a public space in rural Central America, where people wash their clothes and socialize. Smith's wife, a pediatrician, spent a great amount of time working with the people of Guatemala, where some of these pilas are located. After discussing the meaning and importance of his latest work with his wife, he decided to entitle the string trio Las Pilas.

"The sense of community is what's so wonderful about the culture in Guatemala. The people are very kind to one another, and there's a real ability to communicate with other people. My wife believes this is because of the pilas. I find it very intriguing," Smith said.  

The music of Las Pilas is highly energetic and upbeat. Smith also added a lyrical melody, which is presented separately and at the end of the work, the upbeat material and lyrical melody is combined.

Las Pilas is symbolic of everything we go through in life, and at the end, we try to put it all together,” Smith said. Jan and Sandra wanted the music to be celebratory, so he used a pentatonic scale, which made the music sound similar to a folk song. Smith wanted to use a simple, melodic structure to give the “feeling of home.”

Smith grew up in Syracuse, New York, where he began playing the trombone in middle school. His grandmother, among several of his family members, was involved in music as well. She sang 30s Jazz standards and was offered a record contract.

The world premiere of Las Pilas, along with Quelques Fleurs for clarinet, violin and piano by Karim Al-Zand, will be performed at the Hobby Center's Zilkha Hall on April 6. The concert also features works by two contemporary composers: Roshanne Etezady and the Dutch composer JacobTV, whose piece is accompanied by a film by visual artist Amber Boardman, as well as the play, Sphinx, by Blackburn prize winner, Jennifer Haley, with incidental music by Musiqa's Artistic Director, Anthony Brandt. 

Thank you, Rob, for taking the time to speak to Musiqa about your latest work, Las Pilas.


Written by Mia M. Smith

Questions for Blake Wilkins, University of Houston Percussion Ensemble

Blake Wilkins took some time to speak with Musiqa about the music in Percussive Illusions, Musiqa's collaborative concert with Aurora Picture Show on January 12 at the Hobby Center. The University of Houston Percussion Ensemble will perform a wide variety of percussion pieces by composers as varied as John Cage, Musiqa's Marcus Maroney and Anthony Brandt and Thierry De Mey and Lukas Ligeti. Aurora Picture Show will present a trio of percussion-related contemporary films.

Q: In the past century, percussion has evolved dramatically. How would you describe the music the ensemble will perform in this concert?

A: The music for Percussive Illusions represents the full breadth of diversity that the concert percussion ensemble offers: John Cage's Third Construction uses traditional, exotic, and unconventional un-pitched instruments, while the works by Anthony Brandt and Marcus Maroney highlight the ensemble as a "symphonic" medium – a veritable orchestra made up of pitched percussion instruments (marimbas, vibraphones, glockenspiels, and so forth). I think that concert patrons who have yet to experience an ensemble like ours will be astounded by the diversity of music they will hear!

Q: What pieces, in your opinion, are the most interesting or challenging works in the concert?

A: Each work has its own unique character. Thierry De Mey's Table Music is surely one of the most curious. The work is played entirely with the hands (that is, no sticks or mallets) on three small tables of graduated size.  It is a visually stunning piece! On the other hand, Cage's Third Construction uses so many curious sounds – tin cans, a conch shell, various shakers, wooden claves. Perhaps Marcus Maroney's Pantheon is the most challenging, because it also requires the players to sing.

Q: Could you give me an overview of the instruments played in a percussion ensemble?

A: The larger works – Anthony Brandt's My Best Eleven and Marcus Maroney's Pantheon – are dominated by keyboard percussion instruments, and this really serves as the core of the Moores School Percussion Ensemble's standard repertoire. These insruments include marimbas (we use as many as five on this concert), vibraphones (as many as four), xylophones, glockenspiels, and chimes. Lukas Ligeti's Pattern Transformation uses only two marimbas, and Cage's Third Construction uses a wide variety of drums, shakers, metallic sounds, lion's roar, and even a conch shell.

Q: What is unusual about the percussion instruments you will use?

A: We will use many unusual instruments, such as the conch shell and tin cans in Third Construction. But many in the audience will be most fascinated by the unusual ways some of our instruments are played. For instance, in Pantheon, Marcus Maroney calls on the players to use double bass bows on various instruments, which create a wonderful ethereal sound.

Q: From your perspective as director of an award-winning percussion ensemble, what is unique about this group?

A: While percussion ensembles such as ours exist at universities throughout the country, our group is singular in commissioning some of our country's most notable composers to create new works expressly for our group. The nature of these works is also unique: I have strived for many years to encourage works that treat the ensemble as a true orchestra capable of conveying music that emphasizes a traditional "symphonic" mindset.

Q: When did you start in percussion and what drew you to this area of music?

A: I have been in percussion since I was in junior high. Perhaps I was first drawn to it because both my older brothers had played drums, although only I really did anything with it. Percussion instruments are some of our oldest instruments, and I think there is something visceral and almost primal about playing them – the physicality, the choreography...playing these instruments speaks to my core!

Musiqa: Thank you, Blake, for this great overview of the concert.

Musiqa's Artistic Director Anthony Brandt on Deep Sky Objects

Anthony Brandt, Musiqa's Artistic Director, took the time to answer some questions about Musiqa's season opening concert, Deep Sky Objects, which will take place at the Hobby Center on September 22.

Could you please explain the theme of the concert Deep Sky Objects and the artistic elements of music, poetry and dance it weaves together?

In Deep Sky Objects, as in all Musiqa concerts, contemporary artforms mix. Our guest composer Sebastian Currier, author Sarah Manguso and choreographer Tina Bohnstedt and the dancers of Houston Ballet II are coming together with us to create a truly special evening highlighted by exceptional, world-class performances.

Musiqa received a grant to commission the musical work Deep Sky Objects* as a world premiere. Why did Musiqa select Sebastian Currier to create the commission?

Several years ago, Musiqa performed Sebastian’s Verge on one of our Downtown Series concerts. As our Artistic Board weighed whom we wanted to approach for a commission, we were all drawn to Sebastian’s electrifying writing.

Sebastian is an internationally acclaimed composer. What are some of his accomplishments in the world of music?

There isn’t a Nobel Prize in Music Composition but the closest thing is the Grawemeyer Award, an annual international award. Sebastian won the Grawemeyer in 2007, joining a very elite group of composers. His work has been championed by the violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter and the Berlin Philharmonic. Sebastian has written for some of the world’s great ensembles; we’re thrilled he’s written a piece for us.

About Sebastian's collaboration with Sarah Manguso for the libretto; have they worked together before?

Sebastian and Sarah are longtime friends but this work represents their first collaboration. They so much enjoyed working together on this piece that they collaborated again on Sleepers and Dreamers, a work for orchestra and chorus that was recently premiered to great acclaim in Chicago.

A noted author and a poet, Sarah wrote the lyrics for Deep Sky Objects as a tale of intergalactic romance. Can you tell us a little about the story?

After 35 years of traveling through space, Voyager 1 is about to become the first human-made object to leave our solar system. The distance it has traveled is unimaginable—it will take it another 10,000 years to reach the nearest star. Sarah’s poetry movingly captures the immensity of these distances and the questions we all ask when we contemplate it. The libretto begins close to Earth—with satellite, clouds and storm—and gradually moves further and further away, eventually reaching out to the far corners of space.

What is it about the instrumentation and vocals of Deep Sky Objects that make it unique?

To suggest a dialogue between the earthly and the celestial, Sebastian had the interesting idea of juxtaposing soprano voice and piano quintet—an ensemble rooted in the classical tradition—with electronic samples inspired by 1950s science fiction soundtracks. The synchronization of live and electronic is quite intricate and the blends it creates very unique.

The second world premiere on the concert is a ballet commissioned from the Houston Ballet. Ballet master Tina Bohnstedt is choreographing the dance to two works by Sebastian Currier. What will the audience be able to expect?

The dance will be brilliant, and we have the special privilege of having the composer present at the premiere. Tina has chosen two movements from Sebastian’s Quartetset for string quartet: Divided and Scatter-brained. The Houston Ballet’s Nathan Haworth is doing the lighting.

The concert also features Secret Alchemy by Musiqa composer Pierre Jalbert and works by contemporary composer Lera Auerbach. How do these works reflect the theme of the concert?

Musiqa’s Pierre Jalbert has written a substantial body of chamber music: he received the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center's prestigious Stoeger Prize for Chamber Music several years ago, among his many other awards. His Secret Alchemy likens the creative process to the methods of a medieval chemist. Lera Auerbach is a dynamic, Russian-born composer whose music has been performed by the New York Philharmonic, National Symphony Orchestra and numerous ensembles worldwide. Selections from her fiery and evocative violin and piano preludes open the concert.

Thank you, Tony, for this insightful commentary on Musiqa's upcoming concert.

*This commission has been made possible by the Chamber Music America Classical Commissioning Program, with generous funding provided by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the Chamber Music America Endowment Fund.

Questions for Ballet Master, Houston Ballet II Claudio Muñoz

(Left photo: Claudio Muñoz)

Claudio Muñoz will be choreographing a new dance for Houston Ballet II to be premiered on Musiqa's Jan 7, 2012 concert Free of the Ground. The music for this new ballet, Argentinean composer Astor Piazzolla’s Tango Suite arranged by Kyoko Yamamoto for piano, will be performed live by Tali Morgulis.

The Jan 7 program also includes Karim Al-Zand's Tagore Love Songs, Anthony Brandt's Creeley Songs and Philippe Hurel's Tombeau In Memoriam Gérard Grisey.

Claudio Muñoz graciously took some time out of his busy schedule to answer a few questions for the MusiqaBlog about choreography, ballet, and music.


Musiqa: Where do you begin when choreographing a new ballet? Do you start the music and let it inspire the movement?

Claudio Muñoz: In this particular case, the music was a given. Putting it on, I start to play around with ideas, shall I say… poetic ideas, the poetry, not of words, but of what’s beyond words. Only ideas though, not steps. Not yet, anyhow. For that, I would wait until I meet the second important element of my art: the dancer. Music first, the human medium comes second. I come last. My choreography is the soul of the music, expressed through the body of the dancer. A tailor doesn’t make a dress until he sees the lady who’s going to wear it. Neither would I make a choreography until I have seen the actuality, the physicality who’s going to put it on, on stage.

M: Are there certain elements in music that you feel ballet dancers respond to? Or can a good dancer dance to anything?

CM: Dancers are music. Period. There’s not even a question of responding. You are music, or you are no dancer. A good dancer would response to even silence, the inner rhythm, let alone music. So I would have already typically gone with a dancer whose response is spot-on, nail-on, dead-on, since the very first second. Nothing else is good enough.

M: Is ballet in Latin America different than what one sees onstage in Houston or New York? Is it, like much classical music, an art form that simply lands in the same identifiable form no matter where it’s performed? Or does it take new shapes and influences as it is developed and received across different cultures?

CM: There would of course be a slight difference in the feel and the look, chiefly because the ballet there has very strong roots in the Russian school. Here in the States, ballet is eclectic, it is pluralistic, it combines many styles. Of course that’s good. But, south of the equator, things somehow stay more resolutely Russian. It would also look different, just because of the feel of it…a certain approach to the roles, how to interpret them, how to get them across to the audience. That’s basically because Latins live life at a different beat than norteamericanos. There is something in the Latin American air, maybe the cultural background, the ambiance, the nuances, that affect the sensibility of the dancers, a much more earthy, physical, abandoned, free, feeling for movement, for the expression of what’s inside. It has helped Latin American dancers capturing the world stage of late.

And no, on the other hand, Ballet itself, with a capital “B” doesn’t pick up on local colors…Swan Lake is going to be recognizably Swan Lake no matter where it is staged. Of course there were variants from the many classical schools, or there will be legitimate variants from the individual artistic choice of a specific choreographer, but never from the geographical location. Ballet is an attitude, not a latitude. Classical art aims for the universal, not the local. You can add nuances, but not change the color spectrum. Aurora in Sleeping Beauty let’s say is a diamond. She can never become a topaz, an amethyst, an emerald…she can be cut into many shapes, but a diamond she’s got to stay.

Support Musiqa's Educational Programming

Dear Friends,

As someone who believes wholeheartedly in the transformative qualities of music, I support efforts to provide music and music education to those who can most benefit from it. Musiqa and its far-reaching music education programs give Houston students what they are missing, and much more.

Founded in 2002, the non-profit organization Musiqa presents innovative, interdisciplinary concerts showcasing contemporary classical music through arts integrated curriculum at Houston area Title 1 schools. At no cost to schools, Musiqa provides programs that include:

• in-school workshops
• 10-week or year-long school residencies
• teacher study materials
• bus transportation, and
• a downtown Musiqa performance at the Hobby Center

Musiqa’s music education programs are changing the lives of thousands of these students. By bringing music into the classroom and integrating it with subjects including English, Math, and Science, Musiqa is teaching students to think creatively so they have a chance to overcome predicted outcomes of the low socio-economic status they have inherited.

We need your support to bring this nationally award-winning program to the most underserved children of Houston. Help us offer these children a window into a better world, one of music and innovation, creative thinking, and flexibility to reach for higher goals in life. Please make a donation today and share our commitment to help children access arts integrated curriculum and achieve a better tomorrow.

Thank you,

Roger Hochman, President
Musiqa Board of Trustees

"Our students are very low income students. Any experiences that we can provide for them are valuable. Many have never been downtown, in a theatre, or heard live classical music. It enriches their lives, and broadens their horizons to music and careers they never knew existed."

HISD teacher at a Title 1 school commenting on Musiqa's educational programming.

“Creativity is not a specialized gift: Rather, it is an underlying mechanism of our mental lives...We need to train the whole brain. We need communities of richly mediated minds. Our future as a thriving, productive society-and species--depends upon it.”

Musiqa founder Anthony Brandt, describes the need, “Why Young Minds Need Art,” in a Houston Chronicle editorial, September 9, 2011.