David B. Olsen is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of English at Saint Louis University, where he teaches courses in writing and literature. He is a gallery assistant at the Pulitzer and the co-host of The Review Process, a local arts podcast.

by David B. Olsen, Gallery Assistant

Immersed in the familiar quiet of the Pulitzer, it’s sometimes less easy to lose oneself and drift than it is to develop a kind of sonar.  As a gallery assistant, for example, I have learned to recognize people by the speed of their strides or the force of their footfalls; although everyone is never equally visible, some little electric presence is still always stirring. The space of the building doesn’t echo exactly, so much as it resounds, and the light white noise of movements or murmurs floats through the galleries and collects in the corners. To hear it filled with music for the first time at Wednesday night’s concert challenged my relation to the space. It’s not like I was lost as much as transplanted; the simple shapes and contours of Tadao Ando’s architecture seemed to multiply and became many in the bouncing of sounds between them. Even in its most meditative moments, the music of Jonathan Harvey was expansive and alive, searching, active, and enveloping.

For the first performance of the St. Louis Symphony for Reflections of the Buddha, five works by the British composer Jonathan Harvey were chosen by Music Director David Robertson, who remarked that Harvey’s love of simple sounds and chords belied a dark, slumbering sense of annihilation in his music. In particular, Harvey’s integration of electronic music–reflected in two of the concert’s pieces–seemed to invoke the spiritual world of “ghosts and angels,” whose language was composed of sounds that we would not immediately recognize. And although the Buddha is often associated with a sense of serenity and bliss, there was a certain haunting quality to Harvey’s work that reminds us that to be spiritual is to dwell among spirits, to commune with a spectral world on the other side of our own. In the opening piece, for example– “Buddhist Song No. 1” (2003), featuring lyrics adapted from A Guide to the Boddhisattva’s Way of Life–the piano’s innocent, childlike arpeggios were interrupted by a few violent stabs on the high notes, as though to remind us of the impermanence of joy. The lyrics, sung by mezzo-soprano Debbie Lennon, also recalled the vagaries of life in an often unwelcome world: “Just as on a dark and cloudy night / A flash of lightening for a moment illuminates all, / So for the worldly, through the power of Buddha’s blessings, / A virtuous intention briefly occurs.”

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Peter Henderson, Debby Lennon and Eric Gaston

by Eddie Silva, External Affairs and Publications Manager, St. Louis Symphony

“There’s a certain slant of light…” Emily Dickinson’s phrase comes to mind inside The Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts on a late autumn afternoon. The light enters slyly through Tadao Ando’s sublime architecture, a play of radiance and shadow.

Appropriately enough, silent Buddhas stand sentinel in this light, at peace in the rage of the world.

Peter Henderson is at the keyboard, at the foot of the stairwell below Ellsworth Kelly’s Blue Black. He’s here to rehearse the second of Jonathan Harvey’s Buddhist Songs, which will be performed Wednesday evening as part of the Pulitzer and St. Louis Symphony’s collaborative concert series.

I know nothing about Jonathan Harvey. To know as much as I know you can Google his name. I know now, from listening to Henderson and mezzo-soprano Debby Lennon rehearse Buddhist Song No. 2, “With excellent raiments,” that he can make music that resonates through the body like shimmering water. Read the rest of this entry »

by Tim Rakel, 88.1 KDHX DJ

Last Thursday evening, I enjoyed participating in Sound Waves, providing a musical accompaniment for Reflections of the Buddha. What I realized while putting the music together was that this was going to be different from what I normally do on the radio. Not only the setting but mostly because this music itself is different from so much of what I am usually surrounded by. I’m very glad I accepted the challenge to learn a little more about these musical styles and cultures, enough to feel confident about a set of music. As a result of the positive experience, I hope to do more of this sort of thing in the future. 
 
Hearing the music from the speakers in the grates on the gallery floors and listening from the balcony as it played off the walls of the building, I was even more impressed by this music than before. Several visitors to the exhibition that night gave me the same response. As I do for the radio program, I have provided a “playlist” for anyone interested. Click here to see it. The particular track information is not complete, but it should provide an overview of the music that I chose to play. Any questions about these records or any other details I haven’t mentioned can be sent to me by e-mailing mystery@kdhx.org
 
Without the architecture of the building and the Buddhist art, I’m interested in hearing how the music stands alone. Before the exhibition closes, I am planning to devote an episode of my weekly radio show to this music and expose my usual listeners to it as well.

Philip Matthews is a 2011 graduate of the MFA program at Washington University in St. Louis and is this year’s Jr. Writer-in-Residence in the English department. He teaches poetry and creative non-fiction. He is also a gallery assistant at the Pulitzer.

by Philip Matthews, Gallery Assistant

Last Thursday, October 6, I had the pleasure of experiencing the first of a series of Sound Waves events, which will all respond to the current exhibition, Reflections of the Buddha. For this installment, DJ Tim Rakel pumped a variety of Indian and Indian-influenced music throughout the exhibition through a sound system installed in the grates in the floor. The effect was encompassing, and as a gallery assistant stationed in the main gallery over the course of three hours, I found myself considering the Buddhist concepts of impermanence and attachment.

According to Buddhist thought, everything is in a constant state of change. The Pulitzer building exemplifies this principle, as natural light shifts throughout the day throughout the galleries: in one moment, a shimmering reflection of the Watercourt on the ceiling; in one moment, a rod of light through the Buddha on a phyllite plate; in one moment, nightfall reveals the standing Buddha reflected in a window, alongside my own reflection. And Rakel’s musical selections enhanced this principle beautifully: moving from a recording of monks chanting a cappella in unison, to a shimmering of sitars and a woman’s microtonic pipes like I have never heard, to a percussive, upbeat dance fitting of a dakini. Throughout the event, I am struck by how the power of the artworks around me interact with the music and the building, and how those relationships evolve as time progresses. At any given moment, I am satisfied to be here, having the experience I am having. Is this something like samadhi?

But when I begin to become attached: for example, when I begin to miss the blocks of orange light which sunset cast on the wall, I begin to miss out on the current experience of night available to me, with its different beauties and significances. This, I feel, is the Buddha’s most useful teaching to my daily life, which is full of attachments: to loved ones, to routine, to self-image. Because nothing is permanent, my attachments dissatisfy me when the conditions of my life change: I am dissatisfied that the relationship I want to last must inevitably end; I am dissatisfied when my students are not as talkative as they were last week; I am dissatisfied that, at 24, I am still so much skinnier than other men. The Buddha: “…on the cessation of craving ceases attachment; on the cessation of attachment ceases becoming…” (Mitchell, Donald W. “The Teachings of the Buddha.” Buddhism: Introducing the Buddhist Experience. New York: Oxford UP, 2008. 42. Print.)

Here is a creative response to the challenges and questions of intimacy, attachment and impermanence which the current exhibition at the Pulitzer has begun to raise for me. The first draft of this poem was written at Sound Waves on Thursday, October 6, in fragments, on the back of a receipt I had in my wallet at the time.

DJ Needles describes what he’ll be playing at next week’s sound waves: Hip Hop.

It’s almost that time again. Our second to last sound waves is next Thursday from 6-9 p.m, and judging by the guest list on Facebook, it’s going to be pretty crowded. Part of that is due to DJ Needles (a.k.a. James Gates), who hosts Rawthentic on KDHX and has quite a few fans around town. Several weeks ago, I was dropping a sound waves flyer off at a salon in Grand Center. As I handed it to the owner, he pointed to DJ Needles’s name and said, “That’s our deejay!”

DJ Needles has been deejaying in St. Louis since 1994. He was voted best Club DJ in the RFT for 2010 and has opened for national acts, such as the Roots and De La Soul. According to his website, “his style is heavily influenced by raw, traditional, sample-based Hip Hop…this style is the most true to the culture, he believes, because it not only sounds dope, it also teaches listeners about thousands of hidden gems and forgotten songs and artists while opening minds up to many different genres of music.” Next Thursday is going to be dope for sure.

St. Louis Shape Note Singers sing in the Pulitzer galleries last November.

This Thursday, January 13, 7-9pm, the St. Louis Shape Note Singers will return to the Pulitzer galleries to sing Sacred Harp music. Sacred Harp is an a cappella tradition from mid-18th century America. Shape-note singing is designed for participation, not performance. (Download a lesson on it here.) In the following letter, one of the Singers reflects on singing here last November.

Thank you for the opportunity to sing in stylus last November. Our group has sung in many different spaces (cinder block churches, people’s kitchens and living rooms, old meeting halls, hospitals, nursing homes, funeral parlors, etc), and in every setting we look for “that sound,” an acoustic critical mass built from our four-part polyphonic voices singing fortissimo. Read the rest of this entry »

Members of the St. Louis Symphony Chorus interact with stylus on Thursday, November 4, 2010.

Yesterday evening, the St. Louis Symphony Chorus had their second official performance at the Pulitzer, in which they used their voices to connect to the current exhibition. stylus has lent itself to more performance art than past exhibitions. For it to come alive, it needs activators. Since its opening, we’ve had classical music, three different sound waves, Intervals, the St. Louis Symphony Chorus and the Banned Book Reading. Next Thursday, modern dancers will be exploring movement in the galleries, and there’s another upcoming show involving lots of yarn and knitting needles. We’ll tell you more about that later.

KDHX DJ Josh Weinstein and jazz legend Charles “Bobo” Shaw talk about playing at the Pulitzer during sound waves: Jazz on November 18. They and composer Zimbabwe Nkenya played alongside stylus and Weinstein’s jazz tracks.

You can see photos of the event on KDHX’s website and learn more about the event on our events page.

Concert-goers in the Grand Foyer at Powell Symphony Hall

Working in Grand Center, or the “the intersection of art and life,” I inevitably pal around with other arts institutions, and experience different forms of art. Friday, November 12, was the fifth annual “Bloggers’ Night” at our neighbor/partner in crime Powell Symphony Hall. Eddie Silva, the St. Louis Symphony Publications Manager, invited me and several other St. Louis bloggers to attend a concert in exchange for online digests of our experiences.

Let me first say that I love Powell, and if you haven’t been to the Symphony in a while, go. You’ll immediately feel more cultured, happier and as if you’re really living, even if you know nothing about classical music. Pronouncing the names of composers is intimidating, and I’ve wondered if I’m not refined enough to touch Powell’s red velvet handrails, but you don’t need to be an art major to enjoy the Pulitzer, and you don’t need to be a classical musician to enjoy a concert. Read the rest of this entry »

Charles “Bobo” Shaw plays a two-valve bugle in the Main Gallery, during the rehearsal for sound waves: Jazz.

When Co-Executive Director of KDHX  Nico Leone met with Ann Hamilton and Shahrokh Yadegari to discuss what kind of music would best fit with the installation stylus, they decided that an important element would be that it represent a range of cultures, in the same way that Ann’s outgoing message for the bell speakers invites you to “share a vocal call from any cultural tradition.” For September and October, sound waves spotlighted rhythms from Brazil and the Balkans. For the remaining shows, it will offer some of our regional musical DNA with hip-hop, blues and jazz. This Thursday is sound waves: Jazz and will feature musicians Charles “Bobo” Shaw, Zimbabwe Nkenya and DJ Josh Weinstein.

In the video above, free jazz drummer Charles “Bobo” Shaw tries out the sound of a bugle in different parts of the Main Gallery during last week’s rehearsal. Born in Pope, Missouri, Bobo has played music for over 50 years, and has worked with a number of artists in St. Louis, New York City and Europe. He was a founding member of Black Artists Group, an arts collective in St. Louis in the 60s and 70s, and continues to play locally. He also drums with Josh Weinstein. Read the rest of this entry »