I'm finally getting a chance to write up my week at Sound Symposium. I volunteered last year, and so I remained on their email list and was invited to volunteer again. I signed up to take tickets at three evening concerts, the Cape Spear project, and the outdoor projects on Saturday. (Due to visiting family-from-away, work, and feeling somewhat under the weather, I didn't see as much as I'd hoped, but that seems to always be the way, unless I devote the week to it. Which I may, next year, although I've said that before.) Volunteers at concerts get free admission to the concert at which they work, so it's a great opportunity to see performers, meet people, and lend a hand.
The first day, Friday July 7th, I went down to Harbourside Park at lunchtime to see Delf Hohmann and The Cape St. Mary's All-Stars and Dzolali, the African drum-and-dance ensemble. Dzolali performances, of which I've seen quite a few, are very energetic, expressive dances performed by women (mostly) to the accompaniment of African percussion, all taught and led by Curtis Andrews. I was apparently caught by the CBC cameras filming for Here and Now (so many people said "I saw you on TV!" but I never did see myself, even in the downloaded video) and took some pictures. Got quite a sunburn, too.
Friday saw also the first of nine performances of the Harbour Symphony: music played on ships' horns, coordinated by stopwatches. The sound of the symphonies, a different one each day for the duration of the Symposium, fills the downtown and echoes off the South Side Hills, and never fails to get people's attention. Depending on the available boats and the pitches of their horns, beautiful music can be produced; at the least it's interesting rhythms within the scope of the available notes. Tuesday's was the best, with a full major chord available.
Saturday I worked at Cochrane Street Church at two performances. The first was by local folks Nancy Dahn and Timothy Steeves - MUN Music professors and Suzuki parents - on violin and piano respectively. The first piece was "Spill Out", full of twists and turns, surprise notes, and all kinds of things my girls are forbidden to do with their violins. (There's a reason most people don't play between the bridge and the tuners. Ow.) Although it sounded suspiciously like spontaneous noise, it was revealing to see Nancy paying close attention to her score, and frantically turning pages. The composer, Linda Bouchard, intended it to be played exactly like that! The following piece, "Meditation" by Sid Robinovitch, was quite the contrast: beautiful contemplative music. The third was music written to accompany the poetry of Carole Langille, read by the author. I very much enjoyed her poetry, and will keep an eye out for her books, for both adult and child readers.
Following Nancy and Tim was the performance of Eleanor James and Brian Way, mezzo-soprano and piano, performing bits of modern German opera; Angela Pickett, playing Re-Tuning, a contemporary folk-based piece, on viola; and Teresa Doyle and Kate Poole celebrating the four elements with a variety of fantastic instruments. Angela's using of harmonic overtones to produce higher than usually possible notes on the viola was something I'd have liked to have seen close up. My favourite instrument was played by Teresa Doyle, whom I saw in workshop last time in 2004 or 2002; it's a shallow metal bowl with a cylindrical handle sticking straight up out of the middle and tines of varying lengths sticking up around the edge. The tines are struck with a drumstick. I think she had water or something else that moved inside it, since the sound changed as she moved it around. Greg Locke took a decent photo of it. I have no idea of its name.
Tuesday's show was at LSPU. The concert started with Teresa Doyle (voice) and Bill Brennan (piano) performing "Ancient Gaelic Songs", celebrating Bridget and Mary and their pre-Christian counterparts. Teresa accompanied herself and Bill on a Indian instrument called a "shruti box", a briefcase-size wooden box, one side hinged at the bottom, with bellows that are pumped by hand. (Once I figured what it was called, since it wasn't printed anywhere and she only gave a cursory explanation of it, it was easy to find pictures of it. There's fusion for you! Next was Spanner, composed of Paul Bendzsa on saxophone and clarinet and Rob Power on all the percussion in the city (including squeaky lobster toys), who looked like they (the musicians, not the lobsters... although who knows?) were having a ball. Note to self: do NOT play cymbals with a stringed-instrument bow (Rob's looked like a bass bow) in a small enclosed space. The LSPU could barely contain the unearthly noise. (Appropriate, just very very loud and vibratory. Which I'm sure was the point.) Jackie Gallant's performance was also enjoyable: she had drum pads on a platform that triggered different sampling and MIDI systems when hit, so she was able to control a bunch of different sound productions units with her drumsticks. One of her pieces, she said, used samples taken entirely from Fleetwood Mac's Tusk, which I think I must dig out and have another listen to. This would have been better, I think, with more voice samples (it was mostly drums and short guitar riffs) but I'm vocally prejudiced. She was a good performer as well, using her whole body to underscore the music, so it there was more to look at than it sounds, and the audience seemed to really get into it too.
I didn't get to anything else until Thursday night, when I went down to the Ship Inn (well, now the Ship Pub, due to labeling regulations, but no one calls it that) for THE ORIGIN OF THE SOUND: "The Injector Fly: Living Rooms 2". I hadn't heard The Origin of the Sound Band before, but they've been playing loud psychedelic rock around town for some time now. They combined forces with Stephen Lush and other actors to present a drama about a man stuck in his own head - sound familiar? - with video footage alongside. Well done, and well-enjoyed by the crowd.
Friday was supposed to be the Cape Spear Project: all performers band together to play in the big bunker at Cape Spear, which is a great venue for the funk/jazz/dance/percussion stuff that seems to reign in this event. However, it rained and rained, so they moved it to the Anglican Cathedral. Good for acoustics, hard to see the performers due to big pillars, and not conducive to dancing, unlike the music! I took the girls, since I could just scoot them home as soon as it was over, and they were pretty good, I must say. Note to self: don't sit them next to the sound board anymore; I wasn't thinking when I seated them just far enough ahead to be able to see but not to be in everyone's way if they stood up, and I'm very grateful for Wallace putting up with them coming and going before the show started. Eleanor midway through got away from me and sat in the middle of the aisle right at the front; after a while, Adam spoke to her and she very nicely came back to her seat. Thanks to Adam for patience as well, since I couldn't get out to fetch her without being a lot more disruptive than she was! They were very interested in Charlotte Hug's unusual bowing style (again, not something they're allowed to do!) and the round cuddly-looking guitar-type instrument played by a member of Safa, whom regretfully I didn't get to see in concert. (It turned out to be a tar.) Mack Furlong's role as the Great Auk was the highlight. Great show, but I hope the weather cooperates for Cape Spear next time.
Saturday the weather continued ominous, but I'd signed up to volunteer at two outdoor events, "Paintcussion" and "Transmissions". Paintcussion, a percussion piece performed by McKudo (Adam Staple, Sean Panting and the omnipresent Rob Power) on drum kit and paintballs-on-drums, went ahead despite the heavy drizzle. Understanding that paintball guns are about as accurate as a spoon-catapult in a cafeteria food fight led weight to the fact that they managed to hit noise-making targets in a sensible rhythm most of the time. It would have been cool to have different-coloured paintballs and some kind of canvas over the whole affair in order to exhibit the resultant percussive art. Too bad the audience had to stay so far back that it was difficult to see what was going on, but the sound projected just fine. (It was odd to see photographer Greg Locke in the midst of the performers with full paintball mask and several-thousand-dollar (I daresay) camera unprotected. Although sensible enough: eyes can't be replaced by insurance, I suppose.)
Later that day, "Transmissions" was scheduled: this was a pair of musicians set up on Signal Hill at the Queen's Battery broadcasting their electronic music on four low-power FM frequencies. The audience, invited to bring boom-boxes or other portable FM receivers-with-speakers, was the sound production unit. Jean, Eleanor, and I suited up again the rain, Dad's ancient AM/FM/shortwave radio (the only one we had batteries for) in tow, and headed up Signal Hill. A very generous Curtis Andrews, whom I hadn't actually met before, offered us a lift some of the way along, saving us a drenching. It was so wet that the couple dozen people that braved the weather were huddled against the rain and we didn't get a really good chance to walk around and hear all the sounds being broadcast, but my radio (sealed in a ziploc bag, yes Dad) did pick up some of the transmission. The scenery was beautiful out there in the fog and rain, and I did take a few pictures while trying to keep my camera as dry as possible. I missed the Improv - the ultimate crazy sound show - that night due to a Very Important Planning Session, and the week was over too quickly. I'm booking holidays for July 4-12, 2008 RIGHT NOW.
Wonderful sounds continue at the St. John's Jazz Festival this week, July 19th-23rd!