When I walked off the stage, I honestly had no idea how long we had been out there. The whole experience felt completely apart from time. If I had had to guess, I would have said, what, maybe 35, 45 minutes? I glanced at the clock and it said 9:55. The last time I had looked was more than two hours prior.
Wonderful things have been written already about last week's performance of In C at Carnegie; some links are included below, and video from the rehearsal is posted above. (I'm in it for about a nanosecond.) From my vantage point on stage, it was an utterly extraordinary evening, spent in an energy field of unblemished joy. (From the ten-minute standing ovation that capped the event, it seems there were at least a few in the audience who shared the feeling.) A full day later, I was still feeling the afterglow from that evening in a visceral way.
For my own benefit I need to jot down some of the special moments, before they slip from my memory ...
Feeling the pulse emerge from Evan Ziporyn's bass clarinet before consciously hearing it ...
The first time Ustad Mashkoor Ali Khan went up to the high G in his invocation, launching the ship ...
Stuart & Loren Dempster and Mark Stewart rising up out of their seats in figure 6 to didjeridu Stern Auditorium! ...
The crazy, pounding, primal unison at figure 11, and the recorders and kotos at the eye of the storm immediately following ...
Terry's vocal glides and gentle ornaments in something so simple as four whole notes in figure 14 ...
Looking upstage and seeing Adam Sliwinski from So Percussion clapping the pulse, and realizing that the clapping I was hearing wasn't from the monitors but from the audience ...
The almost shocking sense of portent in figure 21 ...
The instrumental ensemble receding in figure 22 to reveal the canon already underway between the adult singers stage right and the children's choir stage left (and then feeling Trevor Dunn come in under that!) ...
The bass frequency leviathans surfacing in figure 29 ...
The moment when the pulse was taken over by the accordion ...
The look on GVSU undergrad Katie Chapman's face when Terry said during soundcheck, let's start the whole evening with contrabassoon on the C drone ...
Suddenly remembering my 24-year-old self listening to big arcs of breath coming from Evan's clarinet in a recording session for Music for 18 Musicians (with Judy Sherman at the board) and now hearing those same arcs coming out of myself at 37 ...
Playing musical catch with Judy ...
David Harrington's limpid melody in figure 35, softly dancing above the pulsation, and all the raucous individual voices that followed his lead ...
So many overtones! ...
The sudden appearance of a banjo in the texture, and knowing that it's from Dan Zanes directly upstage ...
Seeing Francisco Núñez's whole body giving all of his energy to his young singers and having them amplify it and toss it right back ...
Twinkling everywhere and not knowing if they were from the toy piano or the celeste or the percussion or...? ...
The celebratory clangor of the carillon in figure 45 ...
Looking up and seeing the awesome Joan La Barbara across from me singing "ba da doop!" ...
Morton Subotnick playing a clarinet (instead of a Buchla Box) ...
Knowing the stylishly begloved Katrina Krimsky was still smiling around figure 40 CCCCCCCCCC &c ...
The stillness of figure 48, everyone recharging for the final push ...
Dave Douglas's augmentation of the rhythm in figure 52 or 53, soaring above a massive crescendo ...
Dennis Russell Davies's astonishing economy of gesture, suddenly pointing just one finger upward in the final crescendo, instantaneously giving everyone license to smash the ceiling ...
The gurgling of the contrabass recorder as the leviathan resubmerged into the night sea ...
The beautiful, resonant silence that followed, which was all the indication we needed to know that people had been with us the whole way.
Wall Street Journal "The sound was large. It enveloped me. It moved as it if were a living being, shifting, changing, falling away to let me hear (just for instance) the piping of four recorders... I got lost in this sound. I didn't want it to end, and it kept on delighting me for the full length of the piece, which on this festive anniversary was close to two hours. This was one of the happiest evenings of my long life in music, a celebration not only of In C and everything that stemmed from it ... but of life itself."
Theater of Found Sounds "If the European symphony evolved from concrete sound to abstract form, then the American symphony returns it to its etymological roots, a sounding-together. In C is an acknowledged masterpiece, but remains the great unacknowledged American symphony, a symphony in perpetual search of an orchestration, constantly new, constantly searching, constantly reinventing itself."
Village Voice "As all of the performers receded into silence—so that the air of Carnegie Hall itself seemed to thrum with the continuing pulsations of "C"—a nearly ten-minute standing ovation roared from the masses."
Eric Gamalinda "[You] found yourself traveling through the edge of the universe, where other worlds wafted and faded out of view. There were stretches of desolate, uninhabited spaces, exoplanets with their own tumults and surprises, and now and then a glimpse of some heavenly realm and strains of eerie, angelic voices."
Feast of Music "The biggest, most captivating performance of In C I've ever heard."
Michael Phelps's Bronze Medals "At the end of In C, there was nothing but the memory of sound in Stern Auditorium, and I could live in that moment for a long time."
Sequenza21 "In C is not so much about politics as about friendship."
New York Times "A view of music as a communal action and a key to transcendence."
disoriented "Riley is billed as a 'minimalist' composer, which suggests the idea of something spare and austere. In C was as rich and complex as you could ask for, the music not minutely pre-scripted but emerging naturally from the interactions of a stage-full of gifted musicians."
Decider "Terry Riley stood in the middle of the stage, hands clasped in prayer, smiling, and bowed. He walked away. People cheered again. He returned. More clapping. He walked away once more. Even more clapping and hollering. He returned. And it happened again and again—a moment no one was ready to leave."
Cool,
Nice,
I would have never guessed that chereogrphers would need anything,
Thanks for writing about it
Posted by: coach handbags | Dec 15, 2010 at 11:23 PM
"My dream is to travel across the U.S.A. and dance in a new place every night!"
Agh! That sounds so cool! If you ever do that (even a mini version), let us know. Meetup could be a great way for you to find dances to attend! =)
In the mean time, I spotted this Meetup Group in your area that might be perfect:
Posted by: coach outlet | Dec 28, 2010 at 11:01 PM
je veux regarde la chaine manga tv et merci.*_*
Posted by: Taobao | Jan 04, 2011 at 12:44 AM
To offer a different perspective, I'm not sure that economics of transportation will ever drive us to become Locavores. Oil is but a sparse fraction of the cost of transport and distribution.
To me it is all about community and a healthy lifestyle. I would much prefer buying local even at higher cost because of the value to our community. And if we can get local volume over the threshold of economies of scale, then will be self sustaining. Unfortunately, Locavorism today is really on the fringe. In business terms, we need more market share - and then the economics will work too.
Posted by: coach coupon outlet | Jan 05, 2011 at 11:26 PM
Um...like the style of your writing.*_*
Posted by: Taobao buy | Jan 11, 2011 at 07:52 PM
*Forget about stupidity, discover your ability.
Posted by: Taobao buy | Jan 17, 2011 at 07:34 PM
Benim için bu toplum ve sağlıklı bir yaşam tarzı ile ilgilidir. Ben çok bizim toplum için değeri nedeniyle yüksek maliyet bile yerel satın alma tercih ederdim. Ve ölçek ekonomilerinin eşiğinden yerel ses alabilirsiniz, daha sonra sürdürme öz olacak. Ne yazık ki, Locavorism bugün saçak gerçekten. ve ardından ekonomi de çalışacak - iş açısından, biz daha fazla pazar payı gerekiyor.
Posted by: alüminyum doğrama firmaları | Feb 20, 2011 at 07:25 AM
Have you ever felt misplaced for words and pondered what topics to discuss on your own blog site? Very well, instead of feeling puzzled, your time may very well be invested on enhancing your writing capabilities.
Posted by: Nike Air Max 2011 | Feb 21, 2011 at 12:38 AM
It's no doubt that these performers will get an SRO rate. Aside from their exemplary and captivating chorus, their dedication is what makes each of their performance at its best.
Posted by: Ann, best acne treatment specialist | Feb 23, 2011 at 08:06 AM
Sounds and even looks amazing. Never been to Carnegie Hall but looks like the events there are usually a blast. Someday would love to see performers on stage.
Posted by: Compounded Annual Growth Rate | May 14, 2011 at 04:03 AM
Carnegie Hall looks awesome. I've always read that real music comes from Carnegie Hall and its true. Performing at Carnegie Hall must be a dream come true for many artists.
Posted by: Cash gifting leads | Jul 03, 2011 at 02:52 AM
I can't believe I've been going for years without kwonnig that.
Posted by: Jaclyn | Aug 23, 2011 at 10:11 AM
future political Coach Outletand to ensure their re-electability after passing unpopular measures
head of state will oversee
Posted by: Coach Outlet | Nov 12, 2011 at 09:45 PM
that was indeed awesome and I would stay with what Michael Phelps said "At the end of In C, there was nothing but the memory of sound in Stern Auditorium, and I could live in that moment for a long time."
Posted by: Generic Viagra | Jan 06, 2012 at 09:17 AM