ARTICLE

Music for the 21st Century

"The most beautiful chord is made from dischord" -Heraclitus

On May 29, 1913, 'The Rite of Spring', performed by Diaghiler's inimitable Ballet Russes made its world premiere at Paris' Théatre des Champs Elysées. The physically unnatural choreography accompanied by the atonal, rhythmically ambiguous music of Igor Stravinsky was too much for the audience's sensibilities. Hissing and booing grew to such a volume that the dancers were unable to hear their cues and the performance eventually dissolved into a state of chaos and rioting in the theatre. It was in this fashion that Modernism in music was born and in this sense did Stravinsky foreshadow all that would follow in the tumultuous 20th century.

So it seemed darkly fitting that tonight, nearly a century later, with the world's eyes once again focused on Paris as the major themes of our time play out against the fiery backdrop of its poorest districts, that Stravinsky would feature on the roster as symphony-goers in Vancouver Canada were treated to an evening of new sounds and new ideas which also included Michio Kitazume's Ei-Sho and John Adam's 'The Dharma at Big Sur', a piece that was inspired by Beat writer Jack Kerouac's novel 'Big Sur'.

While 'On the Road' is without question the book that rocketed him to fame and inadvertantly launched the Beat Generation, 'Big Sur' could be considered Kerouac's seminal novel in that it represents the tipping point: the writer at the most realized and mature state of his craft but also at the beginning of his sad decline into death. Big Sur to Kerouac at that time meant freedom. Freedom from unwanted fame and the lifestyle that came along with it. To a greater extent, the West Coast of both the US and Canada has stood as a symbol of freedom for almost anyone who has set out for it.

John Adams had this in mind when he began composing 'The Dharma at Big Sur' as a commissioned piece to celebrate the opening of the Disney Concert Hall in LA. This was the one half of his inspiration. The other came in the form of rogue violinist Tracy Silverman, a Juliard trained protege who rejected his rigid formal education for an electric violin and the free form experimentalization of jazz.

Led by the brilliantly engaging conductor and VSO Music Director Bramwell Tovey, and featuring soloist Mark Fewer on a 6 string electric violin, 'The Dharma at Big Sur' was by far the most exciting piece of the evening introducing the audience to musical concepts that reached far beyond the typical classical palette of Beethoven and Brahms. This was not easy music to swallow. That said, the just-intonation (pure) melodies - in which pitches are given as fractions - that rose up from the stage this evening were not entirely new to anyone who has dabbled in world music. Eastern influences were present in both the signature and the phrasing. And as difficult as this piece was to fully wrap one's pop drenched sensibilities around, there was something very familiar in its purpose. It seemed to make sense, to be appropriate for the present state of the world with its great bombardment of information and blur of cultural influence.

When it was over, we didn't riot. But we did feel something, an excitement that comes with experiencing something new. We carried this with us as we left the Orpheum talking of Beat poetry and oblivious for the first time in days to the chill of November's endless rains.

 

 
 
 
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