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Wolff, Christian / String Noise

A Complete Anthology of Solo and Duo Violin Pieces

Wolff, Christian / String Noise: A Complete Anthology of Solo and Duo Violin Pieces (Black Truffle)

Following their album of compositions by Alvin Lucier, the New York violin duo String Noise of Conrad Harris and Pauline Kim Harris present a series of solo and duo compositions by American avant composer Christian Wolff, a peer of Brown, Cage, and Feldman from the New York School, works composed across the span of his career through a wealth of concepts and motives.
 

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product information:

Personnel:



Christian Wolff-composer

Conrad Harris-violin

Pauline Kim Harris-violin


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UPC: 4250101442001

Label: Black Truffle
Catalog ID: BT 099CD
Squidco Product Code: 32552

Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2022
Country: Australia
Packaging: Digipack w/ booklet
Recorded at Oktavian Audio, in Mount Vernon, New York, on October 21st and 22nd, 2021, by Ryan Streber.

Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

"Black Truffle is pleased to announce its second release from New York violin duo String Noise (Conrad Harris and Pauline Kim Harris), following on from their self-titled double-disc collection of compositions by Alvin Lucier (BT061). Here they present A Complete Anthology of Solo and Duo Violin Pieces by legendary American experimental composer Christian Wolff, (previously published by Astres d'Or in a limited art edition of 25). The youngest and in some ways most radical of the composers of the New York School (alongside Brown, Cage, and Feldman), Wolff has ceaselessly rethought his approach throughout the seven decades of his composing career, moving from early experiments in radical reduction through indeterminacy, improvisation, and leftist political engagement to reach the limpid lyrical fragments of his most recent music.

Beautifully recorded across two days by Ryan Streber with Wolff in attendance, String Duo's complete anthology of Wolff's work for violin solo and duo covers the entirety of the composer's career, from his earliest published work to a major new work written for this recording (presented in a tasteful non-chronological sequence). Written by the teenaged Wolff in 1950 during his brief period studying with Cage, Duo for Violins is a beautifully austere experiment in extreme reduction, using only three chromatically adjacent pitches without octave transpositions. Exploring the possible permutations of the limited material passing slowly between the two violins, the work prefigures the incessant worrying at small intervals of late Feldman works such as For Philip Guston or-fittingly-For Christian Wolff. This recording also presents premiere recordings of two other short duo pieces from the same year, recently rediscovered by Wolff in his papers, which use similarly reduced materials in a livelier, more dynamic manner.

Moving forward to the 1970s, the solo pieces Bread and Roses and The Death of Mother Jones belong to the period in which Wolff was drawing on political music, in this case two early 20th century songs that celebrate women labour activists. In both, arrangements of the traditional melodies are followed by a series of technically demanding free variations in a modernist style. The lyricism of these pieces is carried into the more fragmented, elusive works of the 90s onward. In the beautiful Six Melodies Variation (1993), written in tribute to Cage, fragments of Cage's Six Melodies dissolve into anthemic snatches of the music of 18th century American composer William Billings (whose music Cage used in Apartment House 1776 and other works). The sixteen Small Duos for Violinists (2021) explore the radically disjunctive style of recent major Wolff works such as Long Piano (Peace March 11), where short 'patches' varying in style, density, and notation system are places next to each other without clear concern for conventional compositional principles. Here the individual duos range in length from a few seconds to just under two minutes, in energy from near stillness to churning rhythm, and in harmonic content from crystalline consonance to thorny dissonance. Including pieces inspired by the work of Rameau and Satie, like much of Wolff's later music, the Small Duos manage to be at once lyrically immediate and subtly challenging: as Philip Thomas has written, 'Our ears are not used to such a sustained rate of change'.

Published in a stylish digipak including extensive liner notes and wonderful reproductions of a series of Wolff's delicate abstract works in pencil, crayon, and water colour, A Complete Anthology of Solo and Duo Violin Pieces is both an important addition to the documentation of Wolff's oeuvre and an accessible survey of the many facets of his innovative music."-Black Truffle


Artist Biographies

"Christian Wolff was born in 1934 in Nice, France, has lived in the U.S. since 1941. Studied piano with Grete Sultan and briefly composition with John Cage. Associated with Cage, Morton Feldman, David Tudor and Earle Brown, then with Frederic Rzewski and Cornelius Cardew. Since 1952 associated with Merce Cunningham and his dance company. Taught Classics at Harvard (1962-70) and Classics, Music and Comparative Literature at Dartmouth College (1971-1999). Published articles on Greek tragedy, in particular, Euripides. Writings on music (to 1998) collected in book Cues (published by MusikTexte) and in Occasional Pieces (Oxford University Press, in preparation). Active as performer, also improviser with, among others, Takehisa Kosugi, Keith Rowe, Steve Lacy, Christian Marclay, Larry Polansky, Kui Dong and AMM. All music published by C.F. Peters, New York. Much of it is recorded (Mode, New World, Neos, Capriccio, Wandelweiser, Wergo, Matchless, Tzadik, HatArt, etc.). Honors include DAAD Berlin fellowship, grants from the Asian Council, Mellon Foundation, Fromm Foundation, Meet the Composer, Foundation for Contemporary Performing Arts (the John Cage award); honorary degrees from California Institute of the Arts and from Huddersfield University (UK), membership in the Akademie der Kuenste, Berlin, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, lifetime achievement award from the state of Vermont."

-Dartmouth College (http://eamusic.dartmouth.edu/~wolff/)
3/13/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

"Violinist Conrad Harris has performed new works for violin at Ostrava Days, Darmstadt Ferrienkürse für Neue Musik, Gulbenkian Encounters of New Music, Radio France, Warsaw Autumn, and New York's Sonic Boom Festival. In addition to being a member of the FLUX Quartet and violin duo String Noise, he is concertmaster/soloist with the S.E.M. Orchestra, Ostravská Banda, STX Ensemble, Wordless Music Orchestra and Ensemble LPR.

He has performed and recorded with such artists as Elliott Sharp, Robert Ashley, Alvin Lucier, David Behrman "Blue" Gene Tyranny, Jean-Claude Risset, Rohan de Saram and Tiny Tim. His recordings of the Lejaren Hiller Violin Sonatas with pianist, Joseph Kubera will be released in 2018 on New World Records. He has also recorded for Asphodel, Vandenburg, CRI, and Vinyl Retentive Records."

-Conrad Harris Website (https://www.conradharris.com/bio)
3/13/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

"Pauline Kim Harris, aka PK or Pauline Kim is a Grammy™-nominated violinist and composer. The youngest student to have ever been accepted into the studio of legendary violinist Jascha Heifetz, she has since appeared throughout the US, Canada, Europe, Asia and Australia as soloist, collaborator and music director. Currently known for her work with classical avant-punk violin duo String Noise with her husband, Conrad Harris of the FLUX Quartet, she has toured extensively with Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, has been a long standing member of the SEM Ensemble and OstravskaBanda in the Czech Republic and has been a guest artist with leading new music ensembles such as Talea, ICE, Alarm Will Sound, Argento, TRANSIT, Object Collection, Glass Farm Ensemble, Ensemble LPR, Wordless Music and Ensemble Signal in New York City.

Committed to the idea that music is one continuous lineage of expression and demonstration of time, Pauline has been dismantling the norm of expectation of a typical classical violinist by performing in concerts presented in museums, churches, nightclubs, out of doors, rooftops, pop-ups to major stages with an openness to genre. As a composer, Pauline searches for a tactile connection between memory and sound. Her music creates a multi-dimensional sonic matrix through composition, transporting the listener to an alternate co-existence. She introduces an environment that alters the listener's emotional identity to what they are experiencing.

Active in the experimental music scene, her work extends into interdisciplinary worlds, crossing boundaries and connecting visual art, electronics, media, film and dance to music. She has premiered and recorded works by Alvin Lucier, John Zorn, Philip Glass, Steve Reich, George Lewis, David Lang, Du Yun, Annie Gosfield and more.

Crossing over into the rock and pop worlds, she has played and recorded as collaborator and leader for Jeff Beck, Lenny Kravitz, David Byrne (Talking Heads), Jonny Greenwood (Radiohead), Greg Saunier (Deerhoof), Tyondai Braxton, Max Richter, Gordon Gano (Violent Femmes), Jon Brion, Savion Glover, Gabriel Kahane, Mica Levi (Micachu and the Shapes), Jay Z/Beyoncé, Adele, Peter Gabriel, Somi, Jane Siberry, Macy Grey, Laurie Anderson, Björk, Roscoe Mitchell, Max Richter, Rostam Batmanglij (Vampire Weekend), Michael Leonhart, Placido Domingo, Joni Mitchell, John Cale (Velvet Underground), Billy Martin (Medeski, Martin & Wood), Jason Moran, Dan Romer, William Basinski, Jherek Bischoff, Stars of the Lid, Goldfrapp, Chilly Gonzales, Louis Michot (Lost Bayou Ramblers), Kishi Bashi, Nico Muhly & Doveman, Nu Deco Ensemble and with Jónsi Birgisson (Sigur Ros) in the fall of 2019.

Pauline was the first Music Director for the Bill T. Jones/ Arnie Zane Dance Company and has been the featured artist for choreographers David Parker, Kora Radella and Pam Tanowitz. She has performed at MASS MoCA, MoMA, the Metropolitan Museum, Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, iMOCA, Baryshnikov Arts Center, Guggenheim, The Drawing Center, Paula Cooper Gallery, Barnes Foundation, Brooklyn Museum and Noguchi Museum to name some.

She has appeared at Lincoln Center Out of Doors, Ghent Jazz Festival, North Sea Jazz Festival, Lincoln Center Festival, White Light Festival, Big Ears Festival, Liquid Music, Jacob's Pillow, Barbican, Miller Theater, Baryshnikov Center, DiMenna Classical Center, Symphony Space, Joyce Theater, Roulette, Issue Project Room, BAM, Sydney Opera House, Library of Congress, FringeArts, Lincoln Center, and Carnegie Hall.

Pauline moved to NYC at the age of 15 to study with Dorothy DeLay at the Juilliard School and is currently a sought after mentor to dance and drama students through the Juilliard Mentoring Program."

-Pauline Kim Harris Website (http://www.paulinekimharris.com/about)
3/13/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.


Track Listing:



1. Bread And Roses 8:35

2. Six Melodies Variation 3:32

3. Death Of Mother Jones 13:55

4. Duo For Violins 6:07

5. Short Suite 2:16

6. Four Small Duos 2:01

7. Violin Duo For Petr 6:12

8. Small Duos For Violinists 1 1:27

9. Small Duos For Violinists 2 0:56

10. Small Duos For Violinists 3 0:12

11. Small Duos For Violinists 4 0:45

12. Small Duos For Violinists 5 0:46

13. Small Duos For Violinists 6 0:51

14. Small Duos For Violinists 7 0:28

15. Small Duos For Violinists 8 0:57

16. Small Duos For Violinists 9 1:23

17. Small Duos For Violinists 10 0:30

18. Small Duos For Violinists 11 1:04

19. Small Duos For Violinists 12 1:02

20. Small Duos For Violinists 13 0:32

21. Small Duos ForViolinists 14 1:55

22. Small Duos For Violinists 15 0:42

23. Small Duos For Violinists 16 1:39

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