Saturday, October 2, 2021
Fernández Terrace
3 pm
Eliza Brown: Masque-Rondeau (2018)
for sustaining instruments and piano
commissioned by a·pe·ri·od·ic
I/O NEW MUSIC
Matthew Gold, director
Jake Eisner ‘22, piano, music director
Robin Eagleton ‘23, flute
Artie Carpenter ‘25, trumpet
Paul Kim ‘24, trumpet
Liam Giszter ‘25, melodica
Francesca Hellerman ‘23, melodica
Caitlin Han ‘23, violin
Will McCormick ‘23, viola
Caroline Tally ‘22, cello
Matthew Williamson ‘22, double bass
Chase Bradshaw ‘25, guitar
Carl May ‘25, voice
Sara Stebbins ‘24, voice
Matt Conforti ‘24, percussion
Jacob Fanto ‘25, percussion
Josh Lee ‘24, percussion
Noah Poll ‘24, percussion
Roman Ruiz ‘22, percussion
TJ Watkins ‘23, percussion
Jeffrey Miller, Stage and Orchestra Manager, Williams College Department of Music
Sara Stebbins ‘24, I/O TA
ABOUT THE PROGRAM
Masque-Rondeau is a music-theater work for 10-26 musicians in which groups of performers gradually spread out across the performance space, shifting, re-organizing, and dispersing, while filling the space with long swells of sound. The pianist acts as a conductor through a series of musical cues that change the musical and spatial roles of the other players. The performers play slow, overlapping chords, at times in concord with other groups and at others creating piquant clashes deliberately reminiscent of 17th-century Restoration music.
Brown conceived of the piece as a stylized solstice festival – part ritual, part party – elapsing in slow motion. Social dynamics emerge from the score, which asks musicians to group and regroup and approach one another with musical propositions, which may be accepted or declined. The slowness with which moments of musical connection and parting emerge heightens their emotional impact in unexpected ways.
Every performance of Masque-Rondeau is a unique event, the details of which are determined by performers in real time as they respond to the score, the performance space, and one another. What its performances share in common is an immersive sonic and visual experience, with a beautiful sonic surface and gentle pace of development that bely the work’s surprising power.
Eliza Brown's music is motivated by sound and its potential for meaning, an engagement with the broader arts and humanities, and fundamental questions about the nature of human existence, social relationships and responsibilities, and sensory experience. Eliza’s compositions have been performed by leading interpreters of new music, including Ensemble Dal Niente, Spektral Quartet, ensemble recherche, International Contemporary Ensemble, Network for New Music, Ensemble SurPlus, Quince Contemporary Vocal Ensemble, and Wild Rumpus New Music Collective. Her works have been heard on stages throughout the USA and in Mexico, Colombia, Germany, Hungary, Spain, Canada, and the UAE, and have been recorded on multiple labels.
Eliza’s work is frequently intertextual, opening dialogues with existing pieces of music, historical styles, and other cultural artifacts. Her work is also frequently interdisciplinary, with a particular focus on music-theater and opera. Recent projects include The Body of the State (2017), a music-theater work about the life of Juana of Castile written in collaboration with six women who were at the time of writing incarcerated at Indiana Women's Prison. Commissioned and premiered by Ensemble Dal Niente, this work incorporates the instrumentalists into its staging as a representation of the oppressive, hierarchical family and society that shaped Juana's life.
Prospect and Refuge (2015), for four female voices, explores how public spaces shape social experience and was created in collaboration with architect Hannah Marzynski, Quince Contemporary Vocal Ensemble, and stage director Emmi Hilger. The piece is designed to be re-staged at each new performance site, with reference to the social history of that particular space.
Eliza’s artistic interests give rise to questions about the interpretation and meaning of music that drive her scholarship. Her dissertation, A Narratological Analysis of ‘Pnima…ins innere’ by Chaya Czernowin, used methods drawn from the interdisciplinary field of narratology (the study of narrative) to examine how Czernowin’s opera tells its story by means of music alone, as the singers in Pnima sing phonemes and vocal sounds rather than words.
Eliza is a dedicated teacher who enjoys helping students strengthen their creative voices and engage complex ideas with rigor and enthusiasm. She is currently Assistant Professor of Music at DePauw University, where she teaches composition and music theory. Eliza has also had a long-time affiliation with the Walden School Young Musicians Program, where she spent many summers as a faculty member and Academic Dean. Eliza holds a B.Mus. summa cum laude in composition from the University of Michigan and a D.M.A. in composition from Northwestern University.
I/O NEW MUSIC, under the direction of Williams College Artist in Residence Matthew Gold, is a collective of student instrumentalists, composers, and singers committed to creating immersive and adventurous musical experiences. As part of the Williams College Music Department’s annual I/O Fest, the ensemble has appeared at the ‘62 Center, the Clark, and the Williams College Museum of Art in programs that feature new voices, fresh perspectives, and creative modes of musical expression. I/O NEW MUSIC seeks to present innovative and visceral programs that invite listeners to experience music in new ways.