Blip. Blop. Bleep. These sounds were only the tip of the iceberg of iEAR’s “Worlds of Sound” performance on Wednesday at the Chapel and Cultural Center. A show in two parts, the crowd of about 60 people was first treated to a performance of five pieces of traditional Japanese music, followed by an experimental electronic piece entitled “Quantum Flirts and Fits—meeting in the wave function . . .”
The first part of the performance was a series of traditional Japanese compositions by Tomie Hahn, assistant professor of the arts department, and Mayaso Ishigure, professor at Wesleyan University and an accomplished kotoist. The koto, a Japanese string instrument, is approximately six feet long and has 13 strings. Laid horizontally on the floor or on stands, the kotoist sits or kneels to play it.
Hahn played a Japanese bamboo flute, known as a shakuhachi, for most of the performance. As she used it for the first four out of the five Japanese pieces, Hahn proved the shakuhachi to be extraordinarily versatile, from simple, flowing tones in the first piece—a meditation piece titled “Choshi”—to sounds evocative of rolling hills covered with trees in “Shika No Tone.” In addition, Hahn deserves credit for the sheer lung capacity necessary to play some of the long notes heard Wednesday evening.
The most impressive piece, however, was a duet between Hahn’s shakuhachi and Ishigure’s koto, called “Chidori No Kyoku.” Written in the mid-19th century by Yoshizawa Kengyo, the piece emulates the sounds and flight of the plover, a migratory shore bird.
In this piece, the shakuhachi provided a base melody from which the koto’s staccato notes leapt. The two musicians did a very good job of portraying birds in lazy, meandering flight and the audience was very appreciative of the skill necessary to play such a piece.
The final piece of the first part of the show, titled “Kurokami,” was a traditional dance, set to music and the singing of a poem which, along with the movements of the dance, tells the story of a woman who waits a very long time for her lover to return.
The second part of the show could not have offered a larger contrast to the traditional Japanese music played so gracefully and patiently.
“Quantum Flirts and Fits— meeting in the wave function . . .” was an experimental electronic piece by Pauline Oliveros, an accomplished modern performer, playing an accordion and electronically enhancing the sound; Curtis Bahn, director of the iEAR studios at RPI, playing a “sensor bass” system that does not require the bow to move the strings to make sound; and a return of Hahn on her shakuhachi.
The best description of the ensuing melee of sound is that it could be the soundtrack to a Salvador Dali painting. The trio created all manner of noises, from squeaks to booms, and from clicks to crashes. The general pattern seemed to be that whatever sounds were playing at the moment would build to a terrifying crescendo and then suddenly drop off to oblivion.
Although rather surreal and a bit long, the experimental piece was rewarded with extended applause, which is significant from an audience that, by the end of the show, had been expanding their musical horizons for over two hours.
In the end, “World of Sound” showed its audiences new vistas of music and performance, and provided a refreshing change from traditional genres.
