2003 - 2004
THE LAST NUMBER can best be described as a play that
combines the magic of ancient ritual with modern science, and is perceived as
taking place within a mysterious world of sound frequencies. This space-time
quest for knowledge is animated by both humour and thought provoking
observations, and is ground-breaking by the casting of three child actors, amid
a battery of exotic percussion instruments, with two professional pianists in a
context of new experimental music and imaginative staging.
These informal,
unscripted talk/demonstrations by composer James Drew on American Experimental
Music cover the period from composer Charles Ives to the present. Drew gives an on the spot account of both
the music and the philosophy behind the American Experimental Tradition. Exotic
instruments and various music notations serve as a backdrop for the second part
of the program—Drew’s GOLDEN THREADS, a mysterious and elegant experimental
work for 2 pianists and percussion.
James Drew’s “Threads,”
performed by the composer and Mary Gae George, has a basic structure made up of
10 fully notated fragments. These
fragments serve as a “point of departure” for creating a large-scale improvised
development of suspended brilliance. The overall form of the work is created as
the fragments are continuously selected and combined by the performers, using
hand signals, to indicate changing directions within a huge multi-layering
process. The “Threads” reflect both western and eastern sound influences with
some performances including internationally acclaimed guest artists.
These Master Classes on Improvisation for classical
and jazz musicians focus on how to generate variational melodic processes and
how they outline the underlying harmonic structures in all music.
CONTACT US for further information.