April 18, 2014
Merriam-Webster’s first definition of music is as follows: “the science or art of ordering tones or sounds in succession, in combination, and in temporal relationships to produce a composition having unity and continuity.” Its second explanation is simply “an agreeable sound.”
The subjectivity of this second statement is clear. What outside forces and human predispositions shape our understandings of what is an “agreeable” sound? And speaking to the first definition, should all music possess unity and continuity? (Many modern composers have suggested that it need not). These questions are important to consider in the context of the International Contemporary Ensemble’s upcoming performance at Hamilton.
This Friday, April 17 at 7:30 p.m., the leading new music performance group will appear in Wellin as a part of the Schambach Center for Music and Performing Art’s 25th anniversary season.
The critically-acclaimed, award-winning International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) started off with a group of undergraduate musicians and a small grant for a senior project at a place not unlike Hamilton—Oberlin College—according to Hamilton College Orchestra Director and Associate Professor of Music Heather Buchman. Buchman will lead HCO students in collaboration with ICE this Friday for a unique performance of American indeterminist composer John Cage’s Atlas Eclipticalis.
“They (ICE) should be inspiring to Hamilton students by the fact that the very birth of this organization was at a college,” said Buchman.
Today, 33 musicians comprise ICE, players that come together in different combinations depending on the collaboration of the moment and the instrumentation required of a work. ICE works with many living composers on long-term projects and so far has premiered over 500 compositions across the world.
Six members of ICE will perform at the concert, representing “the breadth of ICE’s core musicians,” according to Program Director Josh Rubin. In addition to the Cage, ICE will present works by performers Arthur Kampela, Christian Wolff, Sergio Kafejian and Tyshawn Sorey. They will also play a few pieces written by group members Nathan Davis, Rubin and Cory Smythe.
A brief conversation with Buchman helped me understand what to expect from the performance. Buchman teaches Music 253, “Music in Europe America Since 1900,” so the modern is her specialty. As she explained, Cage as a composer was significant to 20th-century music in that he redefined music as simply the “organization of sound.” His philosophy of music meant accepting sounds as they are without judging them as beautiful or ugly, she said.
Buchman believes that the Cage piece may present HCO instrumentalists, the majority of them classically trained musicians, with some challenges. Cage’s work often leaves key compositional decisions—such as the placement of notes—up to performers, making his pieces almost improvisational.
“That is really mind-boggling to those of us who think of composers like Mozart and Beethoven who hear a piece in their heads and they notate them down. And they will sound the same from one performance to the next,” Buchman said. “But with a piece of indeterminate music, if it’s one where a performer has to make all of these decisions, then no two performances are going to sound the same.”
Though some might argue that the genre can be at times indigestible to the everyday ear, Buchman sees this as a noble challenge.
“Charles Ives talked about the importance of stretching our ears,” said Buchman. “It [being witness to new music] gives us an opportunity to learn to receive something unfamiliar. Learning to become receptive to things we haven’t heard before.” Buchman believes that today’s culture is majorly oriented by our sense of sight, noting that new music can help us become aware of often-ignored sounds.
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