I got #369 last week.
I suppose it's ok with your buddies if I reproduce this here, since it's an interesting addition to the news feed?
Catherine Lamb - Waits And Measures - p16 #367 Bites - Nick Cain
"I follow the philosophy that the most intense sound is not the most intensive", Catherine Lamb explains. "I don't agree with those who believe that sounds need to be pushed in order to be physical, or that they need to be loud in order to hear difference or summation tones. Particularly when working with paticularly tonal colourations and shadings, the more the tones are played in a plain and relaxed manner with room to blossom, the more expressive and generative they might become."
The US composer's works eloquently articulate the virtues of restraint and patience. Pieces like the 56 minute In/Gradient (2012, for viola - played by Lamb herself, trombone, double bass and electric guitar) and Matter/Moving (2011, for oscillators, double bass and trombone) exactingly overlay sustained acoustic tones and elongated pitches . The compositions' slow linear motion means that minor structural shifts - slight textural mutations and subtle developments in timbre - generate beautifully resonant harmonics.
The more gestural 45 minute piece Three Bodies (Moving) (2009-2010, for violin, cello and bass clarinet) pivots on evolving cycles of evanescent pitches and string glissandi, continually reassessing a set of tonal contrasts from different perspectives. "Tones and their relationships are very important in my work, or more precisely, the interaction of tone," Lamb emphasises. "And yes, both In/Gradient and Three Bodies (Moving) contain specific tonal structures."
Her works reference compositional tradition, but are not beholden to it. Nonetheless, Three Bodies (Moving) earned her comparisons to Morton Feldman. "Of course I've listened to and studied a lot of Feldman's work," she reflects. "I'd prefer to be compared to Feldman than many other composers, but Three Bodies (Moving) is not consciously trying to extend a Feldman lineage. It's developing through a kind of harmonic progression, actually, through one fundamental tonality. So as it expands, the harmonic activity is situated inside itself more clearly. Feldman would never do this."
Lamb's music also reflects her interest in just intonation, which she explored while studying at California Institute of Arts between 2004-06 under Michael Pisaro and the late James Tenney, a time she recalls fondly. "I was studying Indian classical music - I had been living in India for seven months prior to attending CalArts - so I was already more conscious of a different kind of tonal understanding, but Jim was helpful in directing me towards practical mathematical and acoustical research. He was certainly a catalyst to understanding and hearing the physicality of sound".
Pisaro and Tenney's combined influence at CalArts was informally commemorated by the West Coast Soundings compilation, featuring works by ten young US composers including Lamb, almost all CalArts alumni. The album was released by Edition Wandelweiser, with whose roster of artists she has a clear aesthetic affinity. Now based in Berlin, she composes for and plays in Konzert Minimal, a Berlin ensemble of flexible size whose primary focus is the works of the Wandelweiser collective.
Though only in her early thirties, Lamb has more than 70 compositions to her name, the bulk of which are for small ensemble and solo or duo, though she has also written for vocal groups and electronics. She is currently working on what she describes as a "continued piece" with Bryan Eubanks "where we filter a listening space into a kind of tonal space in which instruments might interact". The collaboration began with the hour long Untitled #12 (After Agnes) (2011-12), a generative work for tuned white noise and sine tones.
"I have two new releases which should come out this autumn," Lamb adds. "I'm continuing my orchestra piece which I'll be doing for quite some time - masses is a new concept for me. I'm also on materials for Konzert Minimal, and a guitar piece for Christian Alvear in Chile, so I'm trying to process quite a lot right now! I've also started singing with some wonderful musicians in Berlin."
The orchestra piece is Portions Transparent/Opaque, premiered by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra at Tectonics Festival in Glasgow in May. At Tectonics Lamb also performed in a duo with German composer Klaus Lang - a rare foray into improvisation?
"Klaus might have called it improvised, but I wouldn't have", responds Lamb. "We had each made a drawing of a kind of structure and then overlapped these structures. Within them there was a kind of openness. I don't call myself an improvisor since I'm too obsessed with structures, development and specific tonal relationships to divorce myself from these limitations. I don't allow for improvisation in my scores. However, to allow one's nature into the music is very important to me, so I hope that there is a certain kind of openness in my music which would allow for that - between the material, time, structure and space".
~ Konzert Minimal perform(ed) Catherine Lamb's Areas Of Presence at London's Cafe Oto on 18 September.
I suppose it's ok with your buddies if I reproduce this here, since it's an interesting addition to the news feed?
Catherine Lamb - Waits And Measures - p16 #367 Bites - Nick Cain
"I follow the philosophy that the most intense sound is not the most intensive", Catherine Lamb explains. "I don't agree with those who believe that sounds need to be pushed in order to be physical, or that they need to be loud in order to hear difference or summation tones. Particularly when working with paticularly tonal colourations and shadings, the more the tones are played in a plain and relaxed manner with room to blossom, the more expressive and generative they might become."
The US composer's works eloquently articulate the virtues of restraint and patience. Pieces like the 56 minute In/Gradient (2012, for viola - played by Lamb herself, trombone, double bass and electric guitar) and Matter/Moving (2011, for oscillators, double bass and trombone) exactingly overlay sustained acoustic tones and elongated pitches . The compositions' slow linear motion means that minor structural shifts - slight textural mutations and subtle developments in timbre - generate beautifully resonant harmonics.
The more gestural 45 minute piece Three Bodies (Moving) (2009-2010, for violin, cello and bass clarinet) pivots on evolving cycles of evanescent pitches and string glissandi, continually reassessing a set of tonal contrasts from different perspectives. "Tones and their relationships are very important in my work, or more precisely, the interaction of tone," Lamb emphasises. "And yes, both In/Gradient and Three Bodies (Moving) contain specific tonal structures."
Her works reference compositional tradition, but are not beholden to it. Nonetheless, Three Bodies (Moving) earned her comparisons to Morton Feldman. "Of course I've listened to and studied a lot of Feldman's work," she reflects. "I'd prefer to be compared to Feldman than many other composers, but Three Bodies (Moving) is not consciously trying to extend a Feldman lineage. It's developing through a kind of harmonic progression, actually, through one fundamental tonality. So as it expands, the harmonic activity is situated inside itself more clearly. Feldman would never do this."
Lamb's music also reflects her interest in just intonation, which she explored while studying at California Institute of Arts between 2004-06 under Michael Pisaro and the late James Tenney, a time she recalls fondly. "I was studying Indian classical music - I had been living in India for seven months prior to attending CalArts - so I was already more conscious of a different kind of tonal understanding, but Jim was helpful in directing me towards practical mathematical and acoustical research. He was certainly a catalyst to understanding and hearing the physicality of sound".
Pisaro and Tenney's combined influence at CalArts was informally commemorated by the West Coast Soundings compilation, featuring works by ten young US composers including Lamb, almost all CalArts alumni. The album was released by Edition Wandelweiser, with whose roster of artists she has a clear aesthetic affinity. Now based in Berlin, she composes for and plays in Konzert Minimal, a Berlin ensemble of flexible size whose primary focus is the works of the Wandelweiser collective.
Though only in her early thirties, Lamb has more than 70 compositions to her name, the bulk of which are for small ensemble and solo or duo, though she has also written for vocal groups and electronics. She is currently working on what she describes as a "continued piece" with Bryan Eubanks "where we filter a listening space into a kind of tonal space in which instruments might interact". The collaboration began with the hour long Untitled #12 (After Agnes) (2011-12), a generative work for tuned white noise and sine tones.
"I have two new releases which should come out this autumn," Lamb adds. "I'm continuing my orchestra piece which I'll be doing for quite some time - masses is a new concept for me. I'm also on materials for Konzert Minimal, and a guitar piece for Christian Alvear in Chile, so I'm trying to process quite a lot right now! I've also started singing with some wonderful musicians in Berlin."
The orchestra piece is Portions Transparent/Opaque, premiered by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra at Tectonics Festival in Glasgow in May. At Tectonics Lamb also performed in a duo with German composer Klaus Lang - a rare foray into improvisation?
"Klaus might have called it improvised, but I wouldn't have", responds Lamb. "We had each made a drawing of a kind of structure and then overlapped these structures. Within them there was a kind of openness. I don't call myself an improvisor since I'm too obsessed with structures, development and specific tonal relationships to divorce myself from these limitations. I don't allow for improvisation in my scores. However, to allow one's nature into the music is very important to me, so I hope that there is a certain kind of openness in my music which would allow for that - between the material, time, structure and space".
~ Konzert Minimal perform(ed) Catherine Lamb's Areas Of Presence at London's Cafe Oto on 18 September.