MIME THEATER IN THE CRACKS OF NEW MUSIC
                    Contemporary Sounds---and a Sliver of Bunraku? 
                                              By Paul Hertelendy 
        artssf.com, the independent observer of San Francisco Bay Area music and dance 
                                                                 Week of Nov. 15-22, 2011
                                                                  Vol. 14, No. 22
            No one thinks to mention it, and it’s not advertised. But for this viewer/listener, one of the fascinations of the Contemporary Music Players is the mime theater that goes on between numbers.
            Every musical selection uses varying forces: large, small, different instruments. After each, a couple of slender young women entirely in black, like the zukai manipulators of Japanese bunraku puppets, emerge on the darkened stage. They move pianos 10 times their size, slide music stands about, unplug vibraphones and shove percussion upstage. If the stage were fully lit, their silent  theater wouldn’t be half the fun.
            As usual on Nov. 14 the SFCMP trotted out an array of rather new compositions, several from East Coast luminaries, more experimental than what the symphony crowd hears at  premieres. Here, everything is left to hang out, whether it caresses the ear or challenges it, and let the shards fall where they may.
            Half of the program wasn’t grit-your-teeth serious at all. Frederic Rzewski’s “Bring Them Home!” was a jolly, lively entertainment for two percussionists on mallets, and two pianos. The sharply accented piece was sparkling and ear-catching in its velocity, both rhythmic and infectious. And Rzewski added whistles, foot-stomping, and the whooshing of a whirling wind machine.
            John Cage went even farther in his oldie, “Credo in Us” (1942). The irreverent iconoclast tosses in every manner of music for his percussion piece, much of it tapped out on tin cans, mixed in with voice, prepared piano, salon music, and even an electric buzzer. All sound is music, Cage tells us, and all contributes to new timbres.
            The late James Tenney’s “Critical Band” was the only true ensemble opus, with pitches moving outward from the initial A, in long-held notes barely leaving space to breathe.
            Ex-Stanfordite Martin Bresnick, 65, of the Yale School of Music was inspired by Kafka in “Songs of the Mouse People” for cellist Stephen Harrison and percussionist Daniel  Kennedy, one of the SFCMP stars. More traditional was the David Lang violin-piano work “Illumination Rounds,” a vehement work with tremolos and quarter tones.            
            The level of performance, as usual, was very high. My only quibble with the SFCMP is the tightening of belts which has reduced bygone evenings of ensembles to little more than recital personnel, produced just five times a year. Only one of the five works played this time required more than a quartet of players.
            The concert was at Herbst Theatre, with the occasional participation of Musicirector Steven Schick, who announced the 10-work commissioning program currently underway at SFCMP. These events five times a year typically draw over 200 listeners of all ages, from post-college on up---a greater diversity than I usually encounter at symphony or opera. So new music has a consistent audience here, interesting as well as interested.
            S.F. Contemporary Music Players at Herbst Theatre, S.F. Nov, 14, Next concert: Feb. 26, 2012. For info: (415) 392-4400, or go online.
        ©Paul Hertelendy 2011
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           Paul Hertelendy has been covering the dance and modern-music scene in the San Francisco Bay Area with relish -- and a certain amount of salsa -- for years.
    These critiques appearing weekly (or sometimes semi-weekly, but never weakly) will focus on dance and new musical creativity in performance, with forays into books (by authors of the region), theater and recordings by local artists as well.
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