By Erik Eriksson
Northeast Wisconsin Music Review

eighth blackbird on the Wing
Green Lake Festival of Music
Demmer Recital Hall, Ripon College, Ripon, WI

A new music group of bracing distinction, eighth blackbird (no capital letters) brought this Green Lake Festival of Music audience to a pitch of excitement in the first of a series of 2005 festival events. Even those who may not have fully anticipated the edge with which this sextet performs were won over by their craft, commitment and passion as applied to contemporary classical music. Winners of the Naumburg Chamber Music Award and the Concert Artists Guild International Competition (among others) they have recorded three superb CDs for Çedille Records (the latest of which, “Fred,” is reviewed in this issue). Residents at both the University of Chicago and the University of Richmond, they are three-time winners of the CMA/ASCAP Award for Adventuresome Programming. The ensemble has attracted much attention and for all the right reasons.

Every player here is commandingly proficient both in solo and concerted passages, able as well to produce a spectrum of instrumental colors. For George Crumb’s now iconic “Vox Balaenae” (Voice of the Whale), amplification was employed though never to the point of inducing pain. Each work is accorded the kind of unreserved investment that engages the listener and maintains its hold for the duration.

Derek Bermel’s 2004 “Tied Shifts” began the evening, exploring compound meters as encountered by the composer during a trip to Bulgaria. By tying notes across bar lines and often decorating them with mordents, the listener’s sense is that meter is in flux. The members of eighth blackbird are credited by the composer with having aided his finalization of notation, making clearer what is a complex interlocking of theme and pulse. The execution by pianist Lisa Kaplan, violinist Matt Albert, cellist Nicholas Photinos, flutist Molly Alicia Barth, percussionist Matthew Duvall and clarinetist Michael J. Maccaferri was fluent and precise, allowing the shifts to register their prismatic effect.

Frederic Rzewski’s “Les Moutons des Panurge” is inspired by the fourth book of Rabelais’ “Gargantua and Pantaguel,” in which Panurge, traveling by ship meets a merchant ship carrying sheep. Despite being ridiculed, Panurge manages to buy one sheep and pitches it overboard; thereupon all the other sheep, save one, follow it into the sea.

The composer’s piece, written for any combination of instruments, holds just 65 notes. Rzewski directs the performer to play the notes, each time adding another until the 65th note is reached. A that point the performer reverses course, subtracting a note with each repetition. The effect that results as one player gets out of sync (and is directed to stay that way) is that the rest similarly get off and must therefore follow suit. An ingenious piece, especially effective as heard – and seen – in live performance. The eighth blackbird members did it diligently, amusingly.

George Crumb’s 1971 “Vox Balaenae” was inspired by a tape which recorded the singing of a humpback whale. The work calls for the artists to wear half, or visored, masks to “de-humanize” themselves allowing the whale’s song to be present without human commentary. Calling for electrified instruments, it makes significant demands on the players, beginning with the flutist who both plays and vocalizes the mysterious sounds of the whale. Through a series of variations named after geological ages, a timelessness is evoked and a sense of awe is called forth. The musician’s performance was eloquent and virtuosic in every aspect.

Jennifer Higdon’s “Zaka” from 2003 derives its identity from its name describing a rapid, essentially unbroken series of actions. Its manically-propelled cadences spill out in machine gun haste, setting the ensemble in driving motion. Invigorating. Amusing.

Finally, Fred Rzewski “Coming Together” (in an arrangement by eighth blackbird member Matt Albert) provided a powerfully emotional conclusion. In this 1972 work, a letter written from Attica prison shortly before the infamous riots there is read over an increasingly desperate accompaniment. In assigning fragments of the text to other players, Arnold has enhanced the corrosive atmosphere that suggests both the unrest being described and the writer’s possible insanity. The steady crescendo builds to a harrowing end, one to leave both performers and listeners purged of energy. One could scarcely imagine a more powerful, comprehensively-conceived performance.

Despite their concentration on modern and difficult music, eighth blackbird is an intensely communicative ensemble. The repertory they champion is large, varied and significant – and they are consummate in their performances. The Green Lake Festival of Music chose well when they booked them and this riveting concert should surely have won them reengagement.

Cheers all the way ‘round (and note our review of the latest CD release in the classical recordings section of this issue).

Of the five works played on this concert, none was completed before 1969 and two dated from the new millennium.

Copyright © 2005, Northeast Wisconsin Music Review