Tonight’s performance has been made possible by the generosity of Brad Anderson and Kay Mead.
WWCMF welcomes groundbreaking percussion ensemble, Beyond This Point, for an immersive Special Event. Timber by composer Michael Gordon, is a work for six pieces of wood. I suppose in a way, a string sextet by Brahms could also be considered a work for six pieces of wood. But Timber is more elemental.
What was the very first musical sound ever made intentionally by a human? My guess is that it was a percussion sound, probably produced by a concussion idiophone, fancy talk for clacking a pair of rocks together. Next, maybe, came the percussion idiophone, striking a log or a rock or a seashell with a stick of some kind. And here we are tonight, only two steps into the invention of music. And yet the ancient, futuristic and infinite become fused in this magnificent work. Add in a little tech in the form of some contact mics, an integrated light display and the magnificent acoustics of The Walls Winery production space and you have something deep, pulsing, meditative and beautiful.
Like the world’s first musicians, we looked around our immediate environs for something to hit with a stick. We came up with six staves from a decommissioned wine puncheon. Turns out there’s this whole wine industry around these parts. Enjoy a glass from The Walls Vineyards and settle in for an epic journey through time and space.
Artists: Garrett Arney, percussion; John Corkill, percussion; James Doyle, percussion; Sijia Huang, percussion; Nonoka Mizukami, percussion; Adam Rosenblatt, percussion