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Home - Culture
| Blending Bach
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Omaha has missed out
on 20th-century music, and the Analog Arts Ensemble means to do
something about it. With a thriving indie-rock scene and a thriving
arts scene, it seemed strange to Joe Drew, co-director of Analog
Arts, that there wasn’t a contemporary music scene in Omaha.
The style of music is often criticized for being dissonant
or hard to understand, but Drew intends to change the perception of
last century’s sound by showing people just how accessible it is.
“The type of music we do is the cross-pollination of
things,” Drew explained, “where you have rock meeting jazz meeting
Bach, and the avant-garde just seemed to fit right into that scene
and we were surprised that nobody had done it yet.”
A virtual
organization with 16 members from all over the world, Analog Arts is
a contemporary arts collective of classically trained artists who
explore new trends through a variety of disciplines. Drew and
founding director Dolf Kamper met in college and decided to stay in
touch as they continued to study and perform in New York and
Germany. Omaha became the beneficiary of this collaboration when
Dolf’s wife Marcia Kamper joined the Omaha Symphony.
“The
tools that you need to enjoy Stockhausen are the same tools that you
need to enjoy Bach,” Drew said. “It’s just that he requires a
different way of listening and you kind of have to put on a
different set of ears. But if you can listen to one, you can listen
to the other.”
Not only can you attend with a different set
of ears, you can show up in your jeans. “We are not elitist,” he
said. “Historically these artists have been put on a pedestal, and
you are supposed to shuffle in, in respectful silence and scratch
your chin. Analog is really about tearing down those barriers … in a
way that brings it directly to people, and doesn’t put a wall
between the audience and the music.”
About the only composer
whose pieces will be played next week at ARTSaha! that isn’t 20th
century is Bach. Drew feels Bach’s work has been performed largely
on period instruments lately, and breaking out of that
instrumentation can make the man’s work fresh and new
again.
Bach’s Musical Offering will be preformed
simultaneously by a flute trio, brass quintet, percussion ensemble
and on the First United Church of Christ’s organ. Each group will be
free to express its own interpretation of the piece. “The experience
with the Bach is to make it interactive,” Drew said. Audience
members are encouraged to move between the various performances at
will.
Three centuries away from Bach is Karlheinz
Stockhausen, whose music also figures prominently in ARTSaha! 2005.
Stockhausen is arguably one of the most innovative composers of the
late-20th century. His influence is heard in avant-garde, rock and
dance music. Members of the Analog Arts Ensemble studied with
Stockhausen, and have been in consultation with him to prepare their
performance of his piece From the Seven Days.
The piece consists
of a textual “score” or series of instructions, such as “Play a
sound with the certainty that you have an infinite amount of time
and space,” or “Play a vibration in the rhythm of
dreaming.”
“We are going to be set up at different stations
throughout the Mall,” Drew said. “The way the pieces work is that
there is no beginning, there is no end. For the musician, they are
not playing together as an ensemble, per se. So when one musician is
done with one piece he can move on to the next station along with
the audience, so both the musician and the audiences are free to
move from station to station.”
Electronic instruments will
appear in a variety of events, and on Tuesday, Aug. 23, an
all-electronic music program will be performed. Some of the pieces
will be soundtracks that Analog Arts Ensemble members have composed,
and will be played to accompany the short films for which they were
written. Several methods of creating electronic music will be used,
including live instruments processed on the spot, synthesizers, tape
loops, and “found sound,” including one of Drew’s electronic pieces,
a collage of George Bush talking. Drew noted that he and the other
musicians will be available to discuss the performances.
ARTSaha!
slams together Omaha and the arts in some unique ways that promise
both insight and challenge with this wide-ranging and eclectic
festival.
ARTSaha! 2005 will be held in various downtown
locations Aug. 19-28. Attendees can pay per event or purchase a
global pass for $20. For more information, visit artsaha.org or call
346.1434. |
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