Isotone New York Debut
October 24, 2011
8:00 PM
Program
II. Stable & Unstable Elements
Susan Eddlemon,
Violin
Improvisations on
Scott Eddlemon
Three Isotopic
Spectra
Dedicated to Joe Eddlemon
I. Cobalt:
60Co
Metal
II. Sodium:
22Na
Wood
III. Uranium:
238U
Skins
Scott Eddlemon,
Percussion
INTERMISSION
15 minutes
Dialogue for Violin and Mark Harrell
Percussion
Susan Eddlemon, Violin
Physics Song Cyclotron
II.
Pi of the Bumble-Bee
Archimedes, Rimsky-Korsakov
III. Decay Chain Habanera
Curie, Bizet
IIII. Nano Song
Miyakawa
Christina Mullikin, Voice
Scott Eddlemon, Percussion Larry Spivack, Percussion
II. Asteroid Storm
III. A Black Hole
Christina Mullikin, Voice
Scott Eddlemon, Percussion Larry Spivack, Percussion
Program Notes
A New Light
Victoria Bond
When Isotone commissioned me to compose “A New Light” for a concert
dedicated to the great physicist Marie Curie, I wanted to connect some
aspect of her discovery of radioactivity to the language of music.
Learning that stable and unstable elements were an integral component of
radioactivity, I realized that this could be expressed by musical
passages that contrasted stability with nervous, unstable rhythms and
motives, and the second movement centers on this concept. The
first movement uses the idea of light as an inner beacon illuminating
and charging the air with its bright particles.
Improvisations on
Scott Eddlemon
Three Isotopic Spectra
From early childhood I recall my father working with multi-channel gamma
spectrum analyzers. Through his work I have seen these instruments
evolve from large racks filled with electronics connected to IBM
electric typewriters to print out reams of numbers to the small
computer-based analyzer in use tonight with its graphic data display.
In this work, we use the graphic display of three radio-isotopes
as the basis for percussion improvisations.
Dialogue for Violin and Mark Harrell
Percussion
Knoxville News-Sentinel makes the following comments about this work:
“The concert also featured the world premiere of Knoxville
composer Mark Harrell’s “Dialogue for Violin and Percussion,”
commissioned by the Eddlemons for this concert.
Moving outside his usual approach to composition, Harrell
structured “Dialogue” in the 12-tone system. The opening of “Dialogue”
made one think of Schoenberg’s gorgeous ‘Verklarte Nacht.’ Beginning
simply, but becoming increasingly complex, it is a satisfying work was
thoughtfully played, none of it more so than the beautiful, melodic
closing passages.”
Physics Song
Cyclotron
Each Isotone concert incorporates some kind of fun physics music.
We present here a special song cycle using Tom Lehrer’s song,
“The Elements” as a jump off point.
In addition to the elements, we have an arrangement of the number
Pi to 304 places adapted to “Flight of the Bumble-Bee.”
We have intentionally altered one of the numbers.
Let us know if you spot it!
Bizet’s Carmen provides the musical setting for the “Decay Chain
Habanera” of Uranium-238.
Finally, we present the Nano Song from a video project of several
Berkeley students to teach about Nano-Technology.
Ryan Miyakawa was pleased to give us permission to perform the
song here. Be sure to check
out the video at
www.nanosong.com.
Space
Larry Spivack
This work is a tribute to Stephen Hawking.
It is based on his children’s book, “George’s Secret Key to the
Universe.”
“ Floating” begins with low sounds that are very long.
They’re played on the tam-tam, which is a big gong, and on the
bass drum. These sounds are
produced by rubbing the tam-tam and bass drum with superballs.
Introduced in this movement is a new instrument, the GLOCKCHIME,
played by our soprano who also sings melodies without words.
Our violinist plays an electric instrument allowing her to
produce special effects emulating the feeling of floating in space.
“Asteroid Storm” is a duet between the timpani and bass drum.
Imagine giant rocks flying at you very fast!
Two other new instruments are employed in this movement, the
CYMBAL GUY and the MARBLEDRUM.
“A Black Hole” engages the entire quartet.
The movement starts with sounds that get shorter and shorter, as
if being sucked into a black hole.
Then, quiet: total
silence in the black hole.
Scientists used to think that nothing could escape a black hole.
Stephen Hawking predicted that black holes actually should emit
radiation, which is today known as Hawking radiation.
The music depicts this slowly at first, then faster and faster.
Here the audience participates using clickers distributed at the
beginning of the performance.
When the time arrives, we will conduct you so you know when to
come in. Begin slowly and
build. Then listen to the
sound around you. You’ve
probably never heard an orchestra of clickers before!