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.”

Only two pieces directly invoked the Buddha, however–both sung by Lennon, with Peter Henderson on piano–while the others seemed to locate the listener in that world the Buddha sought to disclose. In an electronic piece engineered by Joshua Riggs, the ritual sounds of bells commingled with the bleeps and boops that dominate the modern soundscapes of our homes and offices; I touched my own pocket more than once to make sure that what I was hearing was not actually my phone. For me, however, the highlight of the concert was the final piece, “Other Presences” (2006), which was performed on the trumpet by Joshua MacCluer. Playing into a microphone, MacCluer’s signal was then routed, looped, and panned between four different speakers. The slow accretion of electronic noises swelled like liquid, recalling Senior Curator Francesca Herdon-Consagra’s earlier remarks that the sparse design of the building was akin to a “vessel for empathy.” What were once my familiar echoes had been washed away, and my own senses began to feel false; the song, now, was the sound of the world falling a little apart, revealing its inherent hollow. Here, amidst the ensuing din, coming from all sides and resonating from unseen angles, it was almost impossible to distinguish what was still being played live and what was merely a reflection, an image in sound of some long ago breath. It was kind of breathtaking, in fact, and also as close as I’ll probably come to understanding what I am supposed to have learned about Buddhism for this exhibition.

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.

Before the rehearsal Henderson explains to me that Harvey had set certain traditional Buddhist texts to music. But as he and Lennon practiced the work together, they kept coming to a strange endpoint. “Page 6 of the score ends with a fermata,” Henderson tells me, “and the words ‘I request all the holy beings.’” And then it just ended, which seemed peculiar to Henderson and Lennon. They tried to think of it as a transcendental gesture, a sort of sound of one hand clapping sort of thing, but it just wasn’t working for them. They mentioned this to Symphony librarian Elsbeth Brugger, who contacted the publisher. The response she received was the publishing-house equivalent of “Yikes!” Page seven was missing.

I’ve now heard page seven. I’m happy it’s there.

Henderson plays some phrases on the piano. “It’s pretty. There’s some real atmosphere there.” With his left hand he plays what he describes as gong sounds. “You’re not supposed to hear pitches in the lower register. It’s like playing a tam-tam.

“There are harmonies like Messiaen,” he continues, “but without specific intervals. There’s a crystalline quality.

“They’re pretty songs.”

I ask Henderson if he needs to be in a kind of holy Buddha groove for this work. “You have to trust,” he says. “To flow. It would lose the feeling if you had to tighten up.”

The atmosphere of the Pulitzer helps. “I’ve always liked playing in here,” he says. “It has a very lucid acoustic, very transparent.”

Debby Lennon arrives and all is friendly and warm. “We’ve had an interesting journey with this,” she says.

They perform the work. Eric Gaston, Artistic Programs Manager of the St. Louis Symphony, sits beside me on the Pulitzer steps, score in hand. When the artists are done, they look to Gaston for comments.

“I was bewitched,” he says.

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.

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.

Click here to view the embedded video.

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.

Click here to view the embedded video.

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.

It was fun adventure to shuffle through the Pulitzer and try our singing in different galleries. I thought there was merit and beauty in every place we tried, but we function best in a room that provides enough reflective pressure to adequately hear all the parts and allow our voices to weld into a palpable wall of sound, full of resonance and higher overtones. The Cube Gallery seemed to be the best space for our group, and we really appreciate the effort and enthusiasm of your staff to make us feel welcome and to help us activate the room, so to speak.

I especially enjoyed singing while wearing pairs of paper hands (as kindly encouraged by the Pulitzer staff). They seemed to take on a life of their own as I marked out the time to our songs, and seemed to speak with a sympathetic resonance, as we moved from song to song.

We had a great time and look forward to returning later this month. Shape Note singing by definition is not performance art, but rather a participatory event for all to share and enjoy. We hope that folks will stop by for a listen, pick up a book and sing along.

Regards,

David Lloyd

Click here to view the embedded video.

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.

Click here to view the embedded video.

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.

My other half and I decided to be at Powell by 7pm, in order to catch the energetic David Robertson’s talk, the “Pre-Concert Perspective.” It was easy to find free parking, now that parking meters in Grand Center aren’t enforced after 7pm, and there’s simply tons of parking in St. Louis. We arrived almost on time and were greeted by an affable ticket taker. Two jacketed ushers inside the foyer gave us the tip to enter the auditorium at the side door and sit anywhere we wanted. We crept to the front row.

When I listen to David Robertson talk about classical music, he seems in love with it, and it makes me a little in love with it too. Robertson explains concertos and allegros in ways that people can relate to, if not intellectually, viscerally. During the talk, he sang. He conveyed the movement of music in animated gestures. He compared a piece to playing a song in your apartment and your neighbor blasting bass so loud through the wall that it gives you a surprise composition. By 7:30pm, my date, who loves the 1970s movie about Sinbad, was thrilled about Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade.

In the thirty-minute break before the performance, we met with the other bloggers, Eddie, and Dale Fisher (SLSO’s Web and Multimedia Manager) in the Met Bar, which overlooks the lush Grand Foyer. I’m surprised I never checked out the Met Bar before. A glass of wine is just six bucks, and the line wasn’t long. Fred Bronstein, the president and CEO of the St. Louis Symphony, stopped by and welcomed us, before we headed to our seats on the second level.

St. Louis bloggers schmooze in the Met Bar.

I can’t say anything about the musicians’ techniques, but I thought it sounded great. I let the music wash over me. I intermittently shut my eyes or gazed at the choreographed movements of the orchestra. I marveled at how the guest violinist seem to dance as she played, and how she could make so many marvelous sounds come out of that wooden box. I felt elevated listening to the performance, even if I didn’t know the technical details behind the magic.

People often place a lot of pressure on themselves to “get” art. I’ve noticed this a lot with stylus, which isn’t as straightforward as the Pulitzer’s Old Masters installation or Water. People wonder what they’re supposed to be thinking or saying about it the exhibition, but the options are actually endless. As with going to the Symphony, your personal experience is enriching in itself.

Thank you, Eddie and Dale, for a magical evening!

Click here to view the embedded video.

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.

An acoustic bassist, Josh also hosts the highly regarded “All Soul, No Borders,” which airs on KDHX, Sundays at 10:30pm. Through his thoughtful and comprehensive playlists and his own music, Josh is an integral part of the St. Louis jazz scene. He’ll be playing tracks as well as the bass on Thursday. Here he is on bass, with Bobo drumming:

Last but not least, Zimbabwe Nkenya will be blessing the galleries with his creative sounds. Zimbabwe is from Alton, IL. While living in New Mexico for around thirty years, he became known as a innovative musician, but he also worked as an educator, a radio host and a leader in various arts organizations. He has been living in St. Louis for the past few years, and you can hear some of his compositions on Myspace.

In conclusion, this Thursday will be any jazz-lover’s dream. And if you’re not well versed in jazz, this is your opportunity to hear a wide variety from people who live and breathe the genre and have had an influence in its history in St. Louis and beyond. Combined with stylus, this is one rare listening experience.

sound waves: Jazz is Thursday, November 18, from 6-9pm. Admission is FREE. For more information, visit our events page.