The Polyaspora Festival began on Tuesday, September 24 at 5:30 p.m. in Peabody Institute’s Reese-Symington-Griswold Hall. The festival “centers Black and Brazilian perspectives in contemporary music, alongside a showcase of new musical works by Peabody Conservatory students.” The Future is Now I is part of the five-day festival. The first event featured seven different works by current Peabody Conservatory students. Their presentation was followed by a performance by members of the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE).
The festival began with an opening by Associate Professor and Head of Composition Felipe Lara. According to Lara, planning for the festival took a year to prepare. The university said it was made possible by a grant from the Nexus Award, which recognizes projects and programs associated with the Bloomberg Center at Johns Hopkins University in Washington, DC.
The first presentation of the festival was “Res ipsa loquitur” by Zach Fick-Cambria. Fick-Cambria said in the recital program that the work “speaks for itself.” This work was made up of spine-tingling sounds, as if insects were flying along the surface of the metal plate, with lots of sharp harp strings echoing through the air.
Harpist Nuiko Wadden created these sounds by sliding his hands vertically over the harp strings, rather than horizontally as is commonly seen in classical harp playing. The hand movements generated a wiggling resonance that felt almost eerie, as if something sinister was hiding in your room. In this song, there were many scenes in which the harp strings were struck aggressively, which contrasted with the image of the graceful and graceful harp traditionally played on stage. The continuous use of a wide range of sounds caused a loud thunderclap to echo throughout the hall.
In contrast to classical music, the experimental nature of contemporary music pushes the boundaries of more traditionally sounding music by exploring different phrasing and techniques. While classical music expressions may feel very anachronistic, contemporary music feels much more relevant to our society today. In an interview with Newsletter, the composer of the fifth piece, Antonio Sanz Escalon, explained that the key elements in composing contemporary music come from investing not only in the music, but in the performers.
“During the writing process, I emailed (the musician) some questions and he responded,” Escalon said. “We didn’t meet until the day of the show, did a sound check, and talked a little about the piece.”
The second song was “Lucky” by Jay’s Matteo Wharton, performed by guitarist Daniel Rippel. Wharton stated that he wanted to imitate the feeling of restraint, accentuated by the “tightening of the spirit, the situation, and the literal structure of the guitar neck.”
The piece began with several melodic lines, which were intermittently interrupted by pauses. This pattern was repeated consistently throughout the song, but there was a constant rhythmic ostinato that moved back and forth between notes. The slower sections saw interesting use of vibrato as Rippel plucked the strings hard to bring out each note and make every pitch stand out clearly.
Similar to the first song, he creates a skittering effect by moving his hands and fingers up and down the fingerboard, then strumming the strings hard with sudden chords that seem to come out of nowhere. The ending was very unexpected, as very different notes were played together and left unresolved.
As with any compositional work, Escalon said one of the biggest challenges in composing the piece is how vulnerable the music is.
“It’s just one line with one pitch at a time, so the material has to be very strong for people to[want to hear it],” Escalon said. “I’m always thinking about what I want the experience of listening to my work to be. That’s where all the pitches, rhythms, and textures come from.”
The third piece on the program was Zhishu Chang’s “Rosonantia Circuli” performed by bassoonist Alexander Davis. It started with the sound of a foghorn mixed with interesting overtones, leading to a peculiar sustained note that echoed throughout the hall.
The work grew with dissonant sound effects to create the idea of ”introspection and rebellion against the societal gaze,” as Chan stated in the preface. It coincided with a moment in a person’s life when an individual is furious and doesn’t know what to do with that anger, as if the anger is bottled up inside them. The noise in the piece continued to grow endlessly as it continued to accumulate. All the while, it felt like every sound in existence was being exposed by an overwhelming sense of not being able to escape the chaotic world. This feeling was created by musical notes played repeatedly in crescendos and decrescendos.
Following Mr. Zhang, Mr. Zhixuan Chen’s “Fractures” is a work that Mr. Chen says is about “the destruction of everything, including pitch and rhythm.” As with the first and second songs, many of the notes created by viola player Wendy Richman were produced by sliding her fingers up and down the fingerboard. This effect was enhanced by the overtones of the sudden full bow stroke. To create a more dissonant sound, the bow is played above the fingerboard, a common practice to create a more subtle sound. The viola player continued the note by placing his fingers on and off the viola, playing dissonant intervals that exhibited a wide range of tonal qualities. The music was so unique that some of the notes shouldn’t have been played together, but rather felt as if they were working alone.
Escalon’s piece “Etching” was performed by oboist Nick Masterson. Escalon also said that he typically starts composing with a rough sketch and rewrites it five to 10 times before finalizing it.
“(With this piece) I wanted to incorporate the idea of a musician playing alone. The two different musical ideas alternate between being in a location where the musician is trying to get the attention of the audience he’s playing to. ” he said. “On the other hand, there is music that is very remote and isolated, where no one is around to listen and someone is playing by themselves, and it comes and goes.”
From the audience’s perspective, the song begins with a very evocative and dizzying melody, then moves into a section that seems to question the meaning of life and the purpose of existence. This was done by many trills with a long, dissonant, loose air at the end. This pattern continued for a while, leaving the audience wondering what would happen next.
The final song was Caleb J. Abner’s “History and No Lies,” performed by horn player Kyla Sims.
“This work is full of mistranslations and alterations through transitions,” Abner said during his presentation. A loud sound rang out from the horn, creating an interesting atmosphere. The sound went from a really low buzzing sound to a high, loud sound that continued for a while, and then the trumpets rang out throughout the hall. The piece primarily moved back and forth between the two sections, although there were moments of silence in between.
The rest of the week of the festival was held at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg Center, 555 Pennsylvania Avenue. The remaining events consist of “The Future is Now II,” “Coming While Black: AfroDiasporic New Music Today,” and “Antropofagia: Brotherian Perspectives.” All events were free and open to the public.
“There’s a lot of opportunity[in contemporary music]for something really unexpected and powerful to come out,” Escalon said. “You have to be open about how weird[music]can be.”
