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This page contains postings on compositions, performances and press.
String players surrounded the audience...
Robotic instruments created by Trimpin from Henry Brant's percussion (note hanging chimes)...
Robotics performed by Andrew Schloss via Radiodrum, a 3D controller...
Photos courtesy of B. Macdonald and Miles Giesbrecht.
Lafayette String Quartet concert series dedicated to pioneer composer David A. Jaffe
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AMY SMART / TIMES COLONISTWhen David A. Jaffe set out to write his newest composition, he started by looking backward. The American composer has made a name for himself as a pioneer of electronic music, but as a teenager he occupied his time exploring the worlds of folk, bluegrass, jazz and classical music. Fox Hollow, which makes its world première Friday at Open Space, is an attempt to evoke the atmosphere of a music festival of the same name that he attended during that time in upstate New York.
“It was particularly magical because, for one, they had no electricity at all. So all the concerts were in a natural amphitheatre and people were just very quiet and listened under the stars,” said the resident of Berkeley, Calif.
I will be up in Victoria the week of November 3-10 for a Jaffe Festival, which will include three concerts of my music, including a world premiere, and including compositions that span more than three decades.
As the Orion Fellow of the University of Victoria, I will be presenting a lecture (November 6) and concert of "Silicon Valley Breakdown," presented in its rarely-heard quadraphonic format, with a newly-restored copy of the tape. I will also be addressing the Composition Seminar and teaching a class.
Following this (November 8) will be a concert at Open Space, including the world premiere of "Fox Hollow" for string quartet, commissioned by the Lafayette String Quartet, as well as the Canadian premiere of "The Space Between Us," for radiodrum, Trimpin instruments, and eight strings, the Canadian premiere of "Impossible Animals," version for trombone and tape, and other pieces. The concert is rounded out by "Cluck Old Hen Variations," for solo violin.
Finally, on November 9th is a concert at the University of Victoria focusing on my music for guitars and plucked strings. Program details on the Victoria Guitar Society web site. Most of the pieces on this concert are Canadian premieres. I'll be playing the 5-string banjo on "City Life" and mandolin on "Grass Valley Fire, 1988." In addition, the concert will include "May All Your Children Be Acrobats," for eight guitars, voice and computer-generated sound, "Three Musicians, after the Picasso paintings," for viola and guitar, and "A Little Kid Sees a Skyscraper," for two quarter-tone-tuned guitars.
All in all, eleven works will be presented.
The composition created by 125 composers (I was one) in honor of John Cage was premiered on August 21, 2013 at the Gallery of Contemporary Art in Leipzig.
Press announcement... "Party Pieces is the worlds largest collective composition. 125 artists wrote one piece of music dedicated to John Cage falling on the one year lasting CAGE100 festival. The exhibition shows the original handwritten scores of the following composers..."