MINIMALISM REDUX
Margaret Leng Tan
Wednesday (23 January 2019 )
This review was published in The Straits Times on 26 January 2019 with the title "Piano minimalism wins new fans".
In
conjunction with National Gallery’s exhibition Minimalism:
Space.Light.Object, avant-garde pianist and Cultural Medallion recipient
Margaret Leng Tan was invited to give recitals as musical reflections on the
subject. The recital, which attracted a sizeable audience, was a three-hour
long affair organised chronologically in three parts.
The
first involved the music of pre-minimalists and pioneers, opening with John
Cage’s Bacchanale (1945), his first work for prepared piano. With pieces
of felt, a bolt and screws with loose nuts inserted between strings, the
Steinway grand was transformed to a clangourous and rattling gamelan with
drums.
One
of the premises of musical minimalism was repetition of notes with gradual and
minute changes with the progression of time, without particular directions in
mind. That was the essence of the
earliest work, Erik Satie’s Third Gnossienne (1890), which Tan described
as music that “doesn’t go anywhere”. Asian influences underpinning early
minimalism was also demonstrated in Alan Hovhaness’ Jhala (1952), which
resounded with hypnotic echoes and tolling of temple bells.
The
second part highlighted classic and post-minimalists, including Steve Reich’s Clapping
Music (1972), performed by two pairs of bare hands. Tan was assisted by tabla
virtuoso Govin Tan, with the duo clapping out a sequence in unison, then
going out of phase before gloriously returning together.
 |
| The score of John Adams' China Gates, with a personal inscription for MLT. |
John
Adams’ China Gates (1977) and three of William Duckworth’s Time Curve
Preludes (1978) had strong melodic centres, with the added mystique of
overtones colouring the sonorities. In one of the latter pieces, low keys were
kept permanently depressed with cloth wedges, allowing higher tones to reflect
against the lower strings.
Other
than Phyllis Chen’s Wunderkammer from Curios (2015) which saw the
percussionist in Tan unleashed on a smorgasbord of bells, bowls, cymbals and gongs,
the Schoenhut toy piano was the star of the third part.
 |
| Banging on three cans in David Lang's Miracle Ear, with the score seen below. |
Younger
exponents of minimalism were celebrated, with David Lang’s Miracle Ear
(1996, three tuna cans were banged on), Joshua Fried’s You Broke It!
(1989-2006, a banal tune is repeated like a broken record), Yuichi Matsumoto’s Intention
(2012, with Tan reciting a text by Cage) and Milos Raickovich’s Nadja’s Kolo
(2018, a dance with toy piano and grand piano played together).
Most
impressive were the three longish pieces that closed each segment. Varied in
mood, texture and timbre, each resounded differently as a wall of sound and
volume, but all united by Tan’s sheer passion, drive and intensity. Philip
Glass’ How Now (1968), lasting some 25 minutes, was perhaps the most
insistent and mind-numbing piece, but Tan had a clock to check on its excesses.
 |
| Stephen Montague's Paramell Va. |
Somei
Satoh’s Incarnation II (1978) suspended time for 11 minutes, with a
tsunami of repeated low tones washing over a near-spiritual experience. Steven
Montague’s Paramell Va (1981) opened with a succession of crossing
triads (like Debussy and Villa-Lobos), punctuated with chords and clusters,
before closing with a big bang. A standing ovation and most likely converts to
new music were the just result.
 |
| Truly a hard day's night for MLT! |
No comments:
Post a Comment