All Our Musical Offerings

Last evening’s Sanford Dole Ensemble concert of “All New – All Local” music was a wonderful experience, on many levels. Obviously, it was the culmination of a few weeks of intense individual music-learning, punctuated by a few rehearsals, not to mention life—the coming together of all the vital ingredients and the fruition of them as a live musical offering.

I cannot completely speak for composer Michael Kaulkin, but I do know that he was very pleased with the first outing of his piece, “Waiting…”

For myself, I can say that it was a much more emotional experience than I imagined it would be. The poetry that was set in “Waiting…” had been given birth long ago. Now, in the hands of someone else, the texts have taken on a new, and perhaps, more fascinating life beyond the page—a life, in fact, that I could never have imagined for them. They now occupy a sonic landscape that is to some extent beyond even the composer’s control. Being one of many performers in this premier was a very precious and beautiful experience for me.

Before the presentation of the piece, both Michael and I were asked to say a little something about how it came to be. I cannot remember everything I said—I confess to feeling extremely awkward when asked to speak extemporaneously—but here are the few things I do remember saying:

This was a collaboration done almost entirely by email—an interesting and unexpected (for me) way to collaborate. Michael had certain ideas for mood and color that I tried to match with material culled from my poetic diary. The pieces he selected were from a time period spanning twelve to thirteen years, and there were a lot of words to set! The challenge was to find a piece that had driving momentum. My work, being as it is a diary, frequently contains snapshots of static moments or moments whose time I attempt to stretch beyond a moment. Michael did find the piece that had the driving momentum he wanted, and around that, he framed the other texts.

Michael and I agreed that “meaning” would not be part of any “collaborative discussion.” As I said to the assemblage of audience and performers last night, “Yes, this piece may mean something specific to me, it may mean something specific to Michael, and to each of us on the stage—but once we put it together as a package and offer it to you, it’s yours!” What it might mean to us doesn’t matter, at that point; all that matters is what it means to you.

The enthusiastic audience response to Michael’s piece was thrilling behold.

Kudos to you, Michael, for creating this beautiful piece of music.

Thank you, Sanford Dole, for introducing me to Michael, and for programming “Waiting…” And thank you to all my colleagues in this lovely adventure: Pamela Sebastian, Ann Moss, Heidi Moss, Helene Zindarsian, Linda Liebschutz, Sally Mouzon, Heidi Waterman, Alan Cochran, Kevin Baum, John Davey-Hatcher, David Meissner, Dale Engle, Paul Thompson, Steven Rogino, Gregory Whitfield, Steven Bailey, Richard Riccardi, Mckenzie Camp, Matt Dodson, Michell Maruyama, Emanuela Nikiforova, Jason Pyszhkowski and Rachel Turner Houk. Thanks to composers Michael Kaulkin, David Conte, Peter Scott Lewis and Sanford Dole for creating new, beautiful and challenging works for us to perform.

And our deepest appreciation goes to you, the concert-goers!

All our musical offerings are for you!

Concert of Bay Area Premiers Tonight!

Sanford Dole Ensemble presents:
"All New - All Local"
Saturday, February 4, 2012 at 8:00pm
San Francisco Conservatory Recital Hall
50 Oak St., San Francisco

Featuring four new works by Bay Area composers, receiving their local premieres:
David Conte: The Nine Muses with text by John Sterling Walker
Peter Scott Lewis: The Changing Light sets three poems by Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Sanford Dole: Gertrude and Alice songs from a work in progress about the lives of Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas with text by Brad Erickson
Michael Kaulkin: Waiting... sets various poetry by Elisabeth Eliassen

All of the works on this program employ various combinations of voice, strings, piano and percussion.

Tickets available at the the door.

This is a wonderful opportunity to hear a varied program of new chamber music for voices and instruments. There are some truly exquisite moments on this varied program of works by Bay Area composers.

Music is a powerful communal event, one intended to draw an audience into a singular experience, where we might well be entrained, whether by the rhythms or by tonal elegance, to join our minds and bodies in a similar emotive idea. Aristotle said it in this way:

Music directly imitates the passions or states of the soul...when one listens to music that imitates a certain passion, he becomes imbued with the same passion; and if over a long time he habitually listens to music that rouses ignoble passions, his whole character will be shaped to an ignoble form.

Socrates expressed this about the power of music:

Musical training is a more potent instrument than any other, because rhythm and harmony find their way into the inward places of the soul, on which they mightily fasten, imparting grace, and making the soul of him who is rightly educated graceful, or of him who is ill-educated ungraceful.

Plato knew music to be powerful and even dangerous:

Any musical innovation is full of danger to the whole state, and ought to be prohibited. When modes of music change, the fundamental laws of the state always change with them.

Even though Plato knew that music has the potential to spark revolution, he admitted that:

Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything.

So, I ask: How will you respond to the hearing of these new works? What will you take away with you, as you depart into the night after this concert? What will you share with your fellow concert-goers or talk about in the coming days?

How will you be changed?

Announcing the Premier of a Choral Work

Sanford Dole Ensemble presents:

"All New - All Local"

Saturday, February 4, 2012 at 8:00pm
San Francisco Conservatory Recital Hall
50 Oak St., San Francisco

Featuring four new works by Bay Area composers, receiving their local premieres:

David Conte: The Nine Muses with text by John Sterling Walker

Peter Scott Lewis: The Changing Light sets three poems about the light in California by Lawrence Ferlinghetti

Michael Kaulkin: Waiting... sets various poetry by Elisabeth Eliassen

Sanford Dole: Gertrude and Alice songs from a work in progress about the lives of Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas with text by Brad Erickson

All of the works on this program employ various combinations of chorus, strings, piano and percussion.

Tickets available at the  Sanford Dole Ensemble web site and also at the door.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You might notice that one of these works is a setting of "various poetry by" me! So, I thought I might take a moment here to talk a little about that, as well as to invite you to come, if you live in the San Francisco area.

First of all, I have to say that I am absolutely thrilled to be involved in this concert as a performer. I am really enjoying the sonic thematic material that is embroidered throughout the piece, and I can't wait to hit the stage with my colleagues at its premier. 

So, here is a little background. Two years ago, I was introduced to Michael Kaulkin at concert of the Bay Area Choral Guild, by Sanford Dole is the group's Artistic Director. He is also the founder and Artistic Director of the Sanford Dole Ensemble, whose mission is to present contemporary music written for voices and instruments. Sanford had set one of my poems as a movement in his fabulous work called "Fabric of Peace", a commission for the 50th Anniversary of the Oakland Symphony Chorus, and I was in attendance at this BACG presentation, hearing the piece again for the first time.

As he introduced me to Michael, Sanford mentioned that he was interested in having Michael create a piece for the Sanford Dole Ensemble. The introduction led from exchanging business cards to exchanging emails, and now, two years later, there is this piece of music! I have to say that I really enjoy that my work moves beyond me into the world to find new life through the vision of others.

To find out more about Michael, please see his website, where you can hear excerpts of some of his other compositions, and even hear a snippet of this new work called "Waiting..."!

The most interesting aspect for me about this piece is that it is a single movement with an array of emotional content. After exploring themes, density and speed of my written material (more for a future discussion), he finally selected not one piece, but five! I was flabbergasted, frankly. What audacity and courage to work with that many words that are not, I have to confess, really all that lyrical! I asked him what he was planning to do, and he said that his intention was to create a single movement that worked all the texts together, revolving them around one poem in particular--a piece from Songs of a Soul Journey entitled "Come Again."

Over the next year and a half, bit by bit, Michael engaged with my poetic material in his musical process. Ultimately, he decided not to use all the stanzas of "Come Again", since the piece was becoming very long, and also for a contextual reason. Throughout his creative process, Michael was concerned that the pieces he chose to weave into the single movement he had envisioned would have a coherence. I am pleased to say that I find a great deal of coherence to the way the material is wedded into a single thought, if you will--although I haven't disclosed to Michael the what and why of that. My feeling is this: Michael found a coherence to the material that has resulted in his music. The audience will find a coherence to the material, as they hear it and process it during the performance. Meaning lies in each person's experience of the work.

I won't give anything away by printing "Come Again" in its entirety, but you should know that only the first four stanzas are set in "Waiting..."

Come Again

Waiting,

an eternity of waiting,

a people of waiting in-waiting,

whose sole occupation is waiting,

for an end or a beginning, waiting

for that something beyond waiting

that will make all the waiting

worth having been waited.

Waiting,

this grand pause of waiting,

for a turning or a returning, waiting

as if life were stalled on a comma, waiting

to be launched into a newer verse, waiting

to be sung by all the returning dead, waiting,

as have we done, for the next coming; hoping and waiting,

waiting, waiting, waiting for a next coming.

Waiting,

but what of living, doing, being? Waiting,

as it were, on the presumption of an IF, waiting

for future thought to manifest itself into action, waiting

without a thought that this thought now must also breathe, waiting

on the heartbeat of the collective soul, waiting

for us all to act on our common goal, waiting

for this generation to generate the next anything.

Waiting,

beyond waiting, there is nothing waiting,

and no one shall come down from on high, waiting,

as one might be, for a sign that we are ready and waiting,

for, lacking such an offer, still for some reply we are waiting

for something, from what we suppose to be a heavenly realm, waiting

for a new and familiar face to appear, waiting

to be acknowledged, to be loved, to be led.

Waiting,

surely, we must be beyond waiting;

could not that new and familiar face facing me, waiting

for me to hurry up and move, to get up and go, waiting

for me to do the chores and the mending, waiting

for me to make a beginning and an ending, waiting

for me to heal the tedium of all this waiting,

could that face be the face of God? Waiting?

Waiting,

day on day, moment on moment, waiting

in sight of the face of God, waiting

in the reflection and shadow of God, waiting

on the endless pageant of all the faces of God, waiting

is not the fulfillment of the promise; waiting,

we miss the clear and present signs awaiting

our recognition that the kingdom is here, subtly waiting;

patiently and impatiently, the face of each being is waiting

for me to take the next step.

from © Songs of a Soul Journey, 2002 by Elisabeth Tamar Eliassen