Program Notes For Ancient Future I imagined a realm where, beneath their apparent surface differences, the horn and the electronics could exploit some of their shared qualities. The techniques I used for creating the real-time electronic ambience, which included distortion, feedback, flanging, chorusing, phasing, resonant delays, echoes, loops etc., kept reinforcing the oldest and most elemental building material of music - the overtone series. The horn's relationship with the harmonic series has, of course, always been a close one. The use of mostly simple, modal themes prevents the piece from straying too far from this overtone territory. © Copyright 1999 by Clive Smith, ASCAP Serenade (Op.46). The instruments form a dialogue around fixed sections, comprising tonal, atonal, and serial materials; and improvisational sections, where the players are asked to imitate human, animal, instrumental sounds and each other. The second movement adds a vocal text, parts of which are written in Esperanto, one of the first universal languages. The horn is electronically processed to extend its range and timbre. The theremin, one of the earliest electronic instruments, is ideally suited to carry music into the future. It's a human instrument, extremely sensitive to touch and control. © Copyright 1995 by Eric Ross Ty'ava Music, BMI Sacred Postlude - Archangel Sandalphon is the only horn piece from Deborah's debut New Age CD, Angelic Waves. The melodic theme, Avinu Malkeinu, played by the horn is a well known Hebrew prayer sung during the Jewish New Year. The quarter tones played on the horn provide a cohesive blend with the natural harmonics of shofar, Tibetan singing bowl and tingsha. © Copyright 2000 by Deborah Thurlow, ASCAP Prolonged Shofar Variations -Yaacov Mishori plays first horn in the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. He is a member of the Israel Brass Quintet, teaches at the Rubin Academy of Music at Tel Aviv University, and a journalist in the fields of arts and social sciences for various newspapers. Mishori also writes and hosts a weekly program, "Classical is Fun," on the army radio station. The Prolonged Shofar Variations is based on quotations from Jewish prayers and biblical cantillation. The work is dedicated to the composer's father, a famous cantor and teacher of biblical cantillation, on the occasion of his eightieth birthday. © Copyright 1981 by Israel Brass Woodwind Publications, ACUM www.ortav.com The Chaotic World explores three types of improvisations: Jazz, Aleatoric, and Free Contemporary. It opens with a Free improvisation of electric guitar textures, which segues into a fugal section played by the solo horn and strings. The fugal section transforms into a jazz style, with the strings swinging the eighths while the horn continues to play its line straight creating a duality. Then there is an abrupt grand pause followed by a two bar string vamp leading into a Jazz and Aleatoric improvisation by the horn and electric guitar. After the improvisation, the horn returns to playing in a straight manner with swinging strings. The fugal section repeats, suddenly interrupted with the horn's statement of the Gregorian chant, Dies Irae, Dies Illae (Day of Wrath, Oh Dreadful Day). You hear the additional sounds of the theremin, gong and Free Contemporary improvisation interrupted three times by the strings playing a twelve-tone passage. The piece ends with a short, three-part canon with the echo of chimes in the background. © Copyright 2001 by Deborah Thurlow, ASCAP Sound Healing Association REVIEW CLIPS The Horn Call – John Dressler – Volume XXXVI, No. 1, October 2005 - PATCHWORKS …performers may find great value in the literature on this particular disc. All About Jazz – Budd Kopman – October 2, 2005 - PATCHWORKS Thurlow is clearly a master of this area of musical composition and performance, attracting talented composers and performers into the orbit of Turn on the Music. Computer Music Journal – Sandy Nordahl – Volume 27 – Issue 3 – Fall 2003 – I Am Overall, this disc is an impressive endeavor. Ms. Thurlow really knows how to create a mood that hangs thick, like a fog clinging to the ground on a cold, full-moon night." iTunes Music Blog – Hank Shiffman – December 31, 2004 – I Am …this album is a noble effort. Ms. Thurlow and her collaborators combine instruments that have probably never been heard together before. I am hangs together and creates a mood and a sense of place and purpose…feels like a soundtrack to a fantasy film…not a low budget shlocky film. I’d love to see the movie that merits these sounds behind it. Metaphysical Reviews – Richard Fuller - April 2002 – Angelic Waves – Part 1 Composer and musician Deborah Thurlow now gives us an album that can lift the spirit of the listener while at the same time, offer the perfect means to meditation. And if that's not enough, Deborah Thurlow gave this reviewer a magic carpet that transported me to a better place, all within my heart. Electronic Music Foundation – Joel Chadabe - December 2001 – I Am "...chooses the music that she plays to allow her to create striking timbres that range from the reflective to the dramatic, from the romantic to the brash; and as she puts it all together, she emerges with an original and strong voice as instrumentalist and as composer...Thurlow plays horn, shofar, Tibetan singing bowl, and tingsha; Eric Ross plays theremin and piano; Clive Smith electric guitar with devices ... In short, the very choice of instruments is surprising, and she uses them in various combinations to great effect." The Horn Magazine – Ian Wagstaff - December 2001 – I Am "Forget Rattigan and Shilkloper, this jazz horn CD, entitled ‘I Am’, is really different. Quite how different? New Jersey horn player, Deborah Thurlow uses an eclectic mix of instruments...strong electronic influence." IAN WAGSTAFF The Horn Call – John Dressler - November 2001 – I Am "Most of the music on this latest recording is atmospheric, metrically free, and soul-searching. Sections are reminiscent of music of Harry Partch, Rick Todd, and Tom Varner; other sections are pensive, subtle, and reverberant." Redludwig.com – George Follett - October 4, 2001 – I Am "At times, I Am, is also a study in contrasting derivations, sounding like a curious amalgam of early Stockhausen, the tone poetry of Diamanda Galas and the soundtrack to a '50s sci-fi movie." "The most satisfying track, Thurlow's The Chaotic World, mixes quasi-melodic string passages with the whirring theremin and clanging, pseudo-metal guitar riffs from Clive Smith. The contrasts of styles, tones and sensibilities is mesmerizing." New York Times - Allan Kozinn - June 15, 1991 - "The program also included Deborah Sandoval-Thurlow's `Lunch at Moishe's Delicatessen,' an amusing inventively colorful score." Biography Deborah Thurlow - CUNY BA, Kingsborough CC/Lehman College, MFA, SUNY Purchase - a resident of Teaneck, New Jersey is a freelance musician in the tri-state area and Europe. In 1999 she produced a two day music event, Next Horn Wave, where she got together horn players from the East/West Coasts and Europe to perform music devoted to the art of both Contemporary and Jazz Improvisation. She is presently on faculty at Newark School of the Arts. In 1995 she performed in, That New Group concert of new works in the spirit of Dada and Futurism. Directed and produced by Joanne Mafia. She performed with Eric Ross in a work written especially for her by Mr. Ross, for horn, theremin and piano called, Serenade, at St. Peter’s Lutheran Church in Manhattan. On the same program she performed in her one act play, Horn Ritual, where she not only plays the horn and shofar using electronic sound effects she streches herself by acting. She has also performed with Pina Baush Ballet Company, Franz Kaman, David Amram, Anthony Davis, The New York Composers Orchestra, Clive Smith and many others too numerous to mention. She is on occasion an editorial contributor to, The New Music Connoisseur, a magazine devoted to the contemporary music scene. She studied composition and orchestration with John Corigliano at Lehman College. Her works are published with Ensemble Publications/Nichols Music Company and DSM Producers. She has received grants from Meet the Composer, William Petshek Music Fund, The Puffin Foundation and also Composer in Residence at Morehead State University in Kentucky in the summer of 1988 and has been reviewed favorably in the New York Times and other printed media. Her one act play with music The Creative Void Of The Planet Earth, had an Equity Showcase of seven performances in April of 1997 by the New Media Repertory under the direction of Miranda MacDermot. She has five recordings to her credit, Angelic Waves - Part 1 (2000), Angelic Waves - Part 2 (2003 and It’s Not The Way – CD Single (2007) are independent releases and I Am (2001), Patchworks (2004) on the Capstone Records label. In 2008 she will release her recording, The Darwin Effect, with Capstone Records. Equipment DOD GS30 - Digital Multi-Effect Guitar System Shure Wireless Microphone System - L Series Peavey Bass Amplifier userweb.cybernex.net/~sandee Eric Ross is an American composer working in an avant-garde idiom. He received his BA and MA from SUNY. He's performed concerts of his original works at Lincoln Center, Newport Jazz Festival, Berlin, Montreux, North Sea Jazz Festivals, Copenhagen New Music Festival and Gilmore International Keyboard Festival among many others worldwide. For over twenty years he's led his own ensemble which has featured jazz giants John Abercrombie, Larry Coryell, Andrew Cyrille, Oliver Lake, Leroy Jenkins, and new music virtuosos including Youseff Yancy, Lydia Kavina and Robert Dick. He's also performed with blues legends Champion Jack Dupree, Lonnie Brooks, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee. With his wife, Mary Ross, video and computer artist, he is presented multi - media concerts with music, film, video and computer art. He is written several works for symphonies, chamber ensembles and solo instruments. Since 1975 he's written and performed on the theremin. He is appeared on radio and TV, written an overture for 14 theremins playing simultaneously, and gave the world premiere of Percy Grainger's Free Music No.1 in New York City. He was personal friends with Clara Rockmore and met and played for Professor Lev Termen in 1991. He's drawn inspiration from them to continue developing the theremin as a voice in his own compositions. The NY Times calls his work, "a unique blend of classical, jazz, serial and avant-garde." Equipment Customized Moog Etherwave Model Theremin MXR Digital Delay Eventide Harmonizer Italien Custom Wah-wah pedal www.geocities.com/theremin_eross/ Clive A. H. Smith (born, London, England) is a composer/performer, ASCAP member, guitarist, vocalist, synthesist and sound designer. He holds an MA in composition from New York University. His most recent CD releases are his first solo album of songs, Clever Animals, and The Gallery Soundscapes, Vol.1, a collection of ambient instrumental music he co-wrote with Bob Kaus and which he and Bob performed under the name In Real Time. Film credits include co-writing the music to the underground cult film Liquid Sky. At present he continues to write instrumental background and theme music for TV and film. His music has been used on U.S. television by ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, PBS, local stations and cable and oversees in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Britain, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Holland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Norway, Poland, Portugal, South Africa, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. Equipment Customized 1966 Gretsch Viking electric guitar Ebow, electronic bowing device Line 6 POD amp modeler Line 6 delay modeler, delay and looping device Akai Headrush, delay and looping device Modified Roland Chorus/Echo RE-301, tape delay and vari-speed looping device Roland GP-8 effects unit w/pedal board controller (distortion, chorusing, flanging, phasing, EQ etc.) Yamaha DMP11 mixer and digital effects unit Electro-Harmonix ring modulator ART Dual MP, tube mic preamp Fender 1960s Princeton tube amp www.clivesmith.com PLAYING TIME - 61:00 OR 1:1:00