For the past few weeks, I’ve been listening to pieces by the ten contemporary composers named in this article, “Ten Young Composers Who Are Redefining Classical Music," HERE. Last week I listened to Ann Cleare’s “Dorchadas” (the Irish word for ‘darkness’), described by Mic as a multi-instrumentalist exploration of “the primal fear of the dark.” This week, I listened to “The Flying Trapeze” by Angelica Negron, the fifth name on the list.
Okay, I’ll admit -- I’m being petty. I did enjoy the work; however, the title of the piece just didn’t work for me. I kept waiting for a musical impression of a flying trapeze, and I never got it. This issue with the title of a work has, in the past, prejudiced my mind -- it happened with Missy Mazzoli’s “Sinfonia (for Orbiting Spheres), HERE -- and it happened here too. I kept waiting for aural impressions of soaring and dizzying heights and aerial acrobatics. Instead, I heard impaired balance and stumbling, dizzy coordination and restlessness, staggered beats and confusion. I thought of Emily Dickinson’s lines, “A Drunkard cannot meet a Cork / Without a Revery.” “That’s it,” I thought, “this piece should be called ‘A Drunkard Cannot Meet a Cork.” It’s a fun piece, so take a listen when you get a chance -- but let me know if you hear “the daring young man on the flying trapeze” (as the old song title goes) ~ OR ~ if you hear Otis Campbell, the fictional “town drunk” stumbling around the town of Mayberry on the old Andy Griffith show. On a side note: At the start of the YouTube video of the Contemporary Chamber Players, HERE, the young woman who introduces the piece mentioned that the composer, Angelica Negron, was working on a lip-sync opera to be performed by drag queens and chamber ensemble. When I heard that, I knew immediately that I’d have to pass the information on to my daughter who creates artwork and jewelry in the world of drag (check it out HERE). She was excited to hear that drag star Sasha Velour was to headline the opera (info HERE), and she sent me this text: “Sasha is a great lip sync artist. Here’s what made her ~*iconic*~ … Shea Couleé (a Chicago queen) had won four challenges this season (on RuPaul’s “Drag Race”), Sasha had one, and this was the first year they did the lip sync for the crown. Everyone thought Shea would win, and then Sasha did THIS.” Listen to the audience’s reaction at about 1:30. My daughter’s follow-up text: “It was truly a jaw-dropping moment, and she won the whole season because of this lip sync-off.” Just a little more: “We all went wild at home. Omg we were all so fully gagged 😂😂😂” By the way, “fully gagged” is a good thing. Hmm. Maybe Ms. Negron should have named her piece “Fully Gagged”?
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A New Hope:As the header above says, each week I will listen to a piece of classical music that I've never heard before, and then I will report out what I thought about it. Archives
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