Press Release (pdf)
Daniel Goode - Eight Hermit Thrushes
Sunday, May 20 @ 3pm
The Brick Elephant
12 Emily Street
Valley Falls, NY 12185
"For
those with big ears and a taste for the adventurous."—Albany
Times Union
The
Hermit Thrush 
May
20, 2007, 3 pm
Daniel Goode - Eight
Hermit Thrushes
8 performers will perform arranged spatially around the interior space
of the concert hall.
There will be an outdoor installation of hermit thrush field recordings.
A reception for the artists will follow the concert.
[Goode's] "virtuosity with these many little bird roulades is extremely impressive."—Village Voice
The Hermit Thrush is a local bird (and the state bird of Vermont, which is twenty miles away from Valley Falls). Daniel Goode has written a series of pieces meticulously transcribed from field recordings of the bird’s song with instructions on how they are to be performed. A performance can involve one to eight performers arranged spatially around the performance space. This performance will feature eight musicians.
It is a continuing project, re-instrumented for different performances.The performance materials consist of individual instrumental scores with their own durational markings in seconds, a time line for the entrances of the parts, and a spatial set-up and movement chart (which differs in each performance space). Each player is allowed, after a requisite time, to introduce variants, improvised or planned to the material of their score. The guidelines give pitch, durational guides, and a general instruction that further “out” variants, reacting to other parts, should come later. There is no (and cannot be) through-composed score for the whole.
The
Valley Falls concert will have eight performers: Goode on clarinet, Michael
Cirigliano on clarinet, cellist Mimi Lou, Rocco Anthony Jerry on accordion,
Rebecca Shepard on flute, Mandy Kent on flute, Mary Jane Leach on organ,
and William Cridge on cello. In addition, there will be an outdoor installation
of field recordings of the hermit thrush that will be heard in the area
surrounding the building. A two person version of the piece was performed
in Valley Falls in 2004, and one of the villagers recognized the bird
call and was very enthusiastic, which led to the concept of organizing
concerts using extra-musical topics of local interest.
There will be a reception after the concert.
Click here to see a pdf of the complete press release.
Daniel
Goode, composer and clarinetist, was born in New York. His solo, ensemble
and intermedia works have been performed worldwide. He is co-founder/director
of the DownTown Ensemble, which was formed in 1983. He has been a performer
and composer with Gamelan Son of Lion since 1976. In 2004 he was a Fellowship
recipient from the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA).
His innovative music for solo clarinet includes Circular Thoughts (Theodore
Presser Co.) and Clarinet Songs on the XI
label. His music has been on national and international festivals
including New Music America and Bang on a Can.
His latest CD release is Eight Thrushes in New York on Frog
Peak Music.
In 1996 he was part of Gamelan Son of Lion’s tour of Java, playing
his Eine Kleine Gamelan Music at the Second Yogyakarta International Gamelan
Festival. His theater-music work, Eight Thrushes, Accordion and Bagpipe,
was performed at the Pfeifen im Walde festival in Berlin, 1994, in Belgrade,
1996, in Brno, Czech Republic, 2001, and in Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia,
2002. He was director of the Electronic Music Studio of Rutgers University,
1971-1998. A complete catalogue of his works is at Frog
Peak Music.
Top of page
Sound Files
Sonogram of a Hermit Thrush song.
The Hermit thrush recording of the above sonogram (1/4 time) Listen
Daniel
Goode's Mockingbird Listen
The
concerts are held in the Brick Elephant, formerly an old church, in Valley
Falls, New York.
12 Emily Street, Valley Falls, NY 12185.
Admission by donation.
Contact info: Mary
Jane Leach, director
telephone (518-753-0244)
email
Directions
Valley Falls is in northern Rensselaer County,
20 minutes north of Troy, 25 minutes west of North Bennington, Vermont.
From the west: at the intersection of Routes 40 and 67 in Schaghticoke, drive 1.5 miles east, turn right just as you get over the bridge, then drive on State Street (117) two blocks and turn left. The Brick Elephant is the red brick former church on the left at the next corner - it's the biggest building in the village - you can't miss it.
From the east: when 67 branches off to the west from 22 (Eagle Bridge), continue driving for 11 miles, turn left just before the curving bridge, then drive on State Street (117) two blocks and turn left. The Brick Elephant is the red brick former church on the left at the next corner - it's the biggest building in the village - you can't miss it.
This project is made possible in part through COMMUNITY ART$GRANTS, a program funded through the State and Local Partnership Program of the New York State Council on the Arts, a State agency and The Arts Center of the Capital Region.
Re:Soundings is a non-profit 501c3 organization dedicated to the arts. Any donations are tax deductible and will be greatly appreciated.