All
About Andy
By PETER BURWASSER
Andy
Warhol produced art that echoed hoed musical structure in powerful ways.
His chiseled graphic techniques,
use of repetitive images and unmasked textures mimic traditional compositional
patterns in music. For this concert of new works, inspired by Warhol
works at the current [Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts] exhibit, nearly
every composition did respond to these purely technical dimensions.
But the best work also evoked the ephemeral, even disturbing aspects
of Warhol: Was he a genius, a charlatan, a little of both? What are
the unique qualities that often make his work powerful and silly at
once?
The composer
who captured this elusive magic best, as if wrestling a greased eel
into his boiling pot of notes, was Ron Herrema, who contributed a wonderfully
clever trio for flute, clarinet and violin based on Warhol's Sixteen
Jackies. A baroque intricacy of patterns reflected the symmetry
of Sixteen Jackies, and also conveyed a sly sense of whimsy,
expressed in odd harmonic turns and unexpected manipulations of line.
Herrema, like Warhol, is nudging his listeners in the ribs with a wink.
"tw!TcH," a trio for flute, violin and acoustic bass by Nicholas
Frances Chase, also an aural take on Sixteen Jackies, connects
to the satiric Warhol more broadly than Herrema, but with equal skill,
scattering bright shards of sound across a taut structure, and using
spoken and sung music as humorous accents.
First prize
in the concert went to "Cool RED Cool," by Geoffrey Gordon.
This music attempts a different homage to Warhol. Instead of connecting
to the aesthetic sprit of Warhol, Gordon responds to the more superficial
mixing of pop and high art that was so important in the ionization of
Warhol. Gordon begins with an artful, polytonal soundscape that slowly
morphs into a full-blown be-bop jam session. The middle ground, where
the two styles blend, is the most compelling part of the piece. The
final blast was great fun, but the improvisational virtuosity of the
musicians overwhelmed the composition by this point.
Robert McCauly's
"SilkScream" draws from the darker impulses of Warhol. It
is a dense, fascinating work that is full of surprises, in the manner
of a disturbing dream. Joyce Solomon Moorman contributed a trio for
tenor sax, trumpet and drum set that was a literal interpretation of
Race Riot, 1964, with the sax representing the crowd, the trumpet
the police, and the drums the base violence. Somehow, this riot sounded
tepid. Warhol's image conjures the shame and anger of this event with
immensely greater power.
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