Pulse

Rihla

Abu Abdullah Muhammad Ibn Battuta was one of the most widely traveled explorers of the 14th century. This near contemporary of Marco Polo covered over 75,000 miles during his years (far more than his famous predecessor). Visiting places such as West Africa, Pakistan, India, the Maldives, Egypt, Mesopotamia, Palestine, China, Malaya, Cambodia, and Persia, Ibn Battuta was the only traveler known to have visited almost every Muslim land of his time. Several years after returning, Ibn Battuta dictated an account of his travels to Moroccan scholar, Ibn Juzay al-Kalbi. The subsequent documentation, A Gift to Those Who Contemplate the Wonders of Cities and the Marvels of Traveling, became known as simply the Rihla. While often fictional or exaggerated in places, the Rihla gives a rich report of life in the lands of Islam during the Middle Ages.

Today rihla has taken on different meanings. Not only does it refer to the actual Ibn Battuta book, but depending upon the context, it can also signify a journey (physical or spiritual) and a documentation of one’s travels.

Rihla is inspired by a trip my wife and I made to Malaysia. While we spent our first and last days in the capital, Kuala Lumpur, we spent most of our time in less urban settings, riding public buses to and from destinations around the country. On one particular day we traveled between Kuala Selangor and Lumut on at least 5 different buses! Usually the only foreigners on board, we saw evidence of kampung (village) life and spirit in the places we passed through and stopped in along the way.

Throughout our travels in Malaysia, experiences such as riding around Pankgor Island on a rented motor scooter, observing frolicking monkeys in the trees along (and sometimes in) the road, witnessing contests of Sepak Takraw (a game similar to volleyball except players can only use their feet and head instead of hands), eating local cuisine at Malay restaurants, visiting the mountainous Cameron Highland region, and watching Islamic school children boarding the bus in their colorful clothing, inspired me to want to create a sort of musical travelogue of our journey. While not trying to directly interpret our trip in any programmatic way, my attempt with Rihla was to create a musical impression of the many wonderful emotions and feelings experienced while moving from place to place within Malaysia.

For audio excerpts and more commentary on "Rihla," listen to Joe's podcast. This work will be premiered at our Sihr Halal concert at Roulette on May 5.

Sihr Halal Pulsecast #2: Joshua Shneider - "While You Were Out"

Our second podcast features Josh's piece "While You Were Out." In this episode, he discusses the challenges of writing for koto, nonwestern percussion, and laptop, and talks about trying to integrate the various disparate sections of his piece into a coherent whole. MP3: Sihr Halal Pulsecast #2: Joshua Shneider - "While You Were Out" To subscribe to the Pulse podcast via RSS, click here. iTunes subscription link coming as soon as Steve Jobs personally verifies that our podcast is legit.

UPDATE: Subscribe via iTunes. (Thanks, Steve!)

Sihr Halal Pulsecast #1: Joseph C. Phillips Jr. - "Rihla"

In our first-ever podcast episode, Joe talks about his piece "Rihla," which will be premiered at Roulette on May 5. You will also hear some choice excerpts from the piece, recorded at Thursday's rehearsal.

MP3: Sihr Halal Pulsecast #1: Joseph C. Phillips Jr. - "Rihla"

(iTunes and RSS subscription links coming soon. Have patience, grasshopper.)

Worlds Apart – Together

My entry for the Sihr Halal project is entitled “Worlds Apart – Together.”

As I began thinking about this project and the unusual ensemble it entails, I struggled with how to approach this ensemble on a number of levels.

Form, pitch content/organization, shape and length are all the usual topics any composer deals with when starting a new piece but nothing came to my mind along those lines; I needed an overarching concept for the piece, perhaps even a title, which is a complete departure from my usual compositional process; I prefer to let the music tell me what the title is rather than the other way around.

I began daydreaming about the world: our world of PULSE, the world being a musician, of being a New Yorker, of being a citizen of the U.S., of being one of 3 billion unique people on the planet etc…  How aware are we of those worlds outside our own?  So many things happen at the same time at any given moment it’s impossible to be so aware.

I began to think it might be cool to separate the orchestra into smaller units rather than try to unify it; kinda’ like each distinct grouping of the orchestra is its own little world, hopefully coexisting peacefully with all the other worlds going on around it.

So I began thinking of goupings: violin and cello together, woodwinds together, percussion together too. (yes, I know… boringly logical – but I had a deadline!)  My “free-radicals” would be the koto and the laptop.

Once I settled on the groupings I began looking for pitch material.  One thing I noticed was the wideness of registral range I had at my disposal (violin & cello / soprano sax and bass clarinet) so I looked for things that sounded cool spread way out.  I came up with a short 4-note motif between woodwinds, then found a few of notes for the strings that would sound surprising against the woodwinds – a favorite trick of mine.

Completely at a loss as to how to approach the koto, I used another favorite trick to get some ideas: I took the sum of the pitches I had set aside for the strings and woodwinds then looked for what was left over.  Oddly enough, a simple d minor lower tetrachord and a lonely F# were all that remained.  Rather than omit the F# (“one of these notes just doesn’t belong here, one of these notes just doesn’t belong” – Sesame Street anyone?)  I decided to incorporate it as a foil to the d minor tetrachord.

As I began thinking about pacing and organizing the piece I decided to see how long I could wait before I brought the percussion in.  I always look for a “surprise” factor in my music, so after two+ minutes of adagio “separate worlds” I thought having the percussion section bust out in a classic latin percussion groove à la Ray Barretto might be fun.

So that’s it – adagio separate worlds into a latin groove with some individual solos interacting with the computer, interspersed with references from the adagio section and you have “Worlds Apart-Together” – just add water!

For audio excerpts and more commentary on "Worlds Apart - Together," listen to Jamie's podcast. This piece will be premiered at our Sihr Halal concert at Roulette on May 5.

Sihr Halal, an explanation

Next week Pulse will close out our successful 2006-2007 "season" with our exciting new music project. Sihr Halal, Music of Praise and Celebration will be performed on Saturday, May 5th 2007 at 8:30 PM at Roulette located at 20 Greene Street in SoHo (tickets are $15 at the door, $10 students/seniors). This project is funded in part through Meet the Composer’s Creative Connections program.

Sihr Halal features the premiere of six compositions by the composers of Pulse—Darcy James Argue, Jamie Begian, Joseph C. Phillips Jr., JC Sanford, Joshua Shneider, and Yumiko Sunami. The new works meld improvisation, contemporary classical and world music in a re-imagining of musical traditions. Often tradition is used as an excuse for not trying to find solutions to modern questions-the way it has always been done is the way it has to be done. Sihr Halal seeks to create a dialogue between the past and present; distilling the essence behind the traditions in order to create a contemporary and new musical language that naturally reflects both Western and Eastern sensibilities without being either.

Sihr halal is an Arabic word meaning "lawful (or legitimate) magic”, an effect that the rhythm, rhyme, and music create in listeners during the recitation of classical Arabic poetry. Historian Philip K. Hitti, in his book, History of the Arabs (first published in 1937, 10th edition in 2002), describes modern audiences in Baghdad, Damascus, and Cairo as being “stirred to the highest degree by the recital of poems, only vaguely comprehended, and by the delivery of orations in the classical tongue, though it be only partially understood.”

I read the above quote in the fall of 2006 and was intrigued by the fact that this description of heighten emotions from an artistic statement such as poetry is what all artists hope to achieve with their work. The depiction struck me as very human.

So thinking about doing a Pulse non-Western project, I did not wanted to do something that superficially recreates the sounds of non-Western music. Rather I wanted to explore using non-Western instruments and traditions in a way that would respect yesterday but look toward today. Also the intention was to be neither political nor even religious in nature, rather it was to create music that might reflect the celebratory spirit that is within all humans.

Plans for the project moved forward after our IAJE performance in January when all the composers discussed what kind of instrumentation we might possibly write for. I also proposed the idea of Sihr Halal, Music of Praise and Celebration as our theme, with the instructions to the composers to interpret the meaning of sihr halal (and Music for Praise and Celebration) as they see fit. From our discussions on instrumentation, I then selected a varied ensemble of eight Western and non-Western instruments, with suggestions from each composer on various performers.

In Pulse we are always fortunate to be working with some of the finest musicians in New York City. The Pulse ensemble for Sihr Halal are: Ben Kono (flute, clarinet, shakuhachi, dizi, oboe, English Horn, soprano saxophone), Steve Kenyon (clarinet, oboe, alto saxophone, bass clarinet), Meg Okura (violin, erhu, voice), William Martina (violoncello), Jacob Garchik (laptop), Yumi Kurosawa (koto), Michael McCurdy (percussion), and Justin Ahiyon (percussion).

We have begun rehearsals this week and it has been exciting to hear what and how each composer has interpreted sihr halal. Starting the week of April 30th, additional information about Sihr Halal including discussions on each composition and interviews with the composers (including audio samples of the upcoming pieces) will be available here on our blog! Check back each day to read and hear what Sihr Halal is all about and then come out to Roulette to see it live!

Joe