MATA Interval 7.2 MOBY DICK: EXTRACTS ON DEATH AND OTHER CURIOSITIES
MATA Interval Presents
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MATA Interval 7.2
presents
West Fourth New Music Collective and Contemporaneous
MOBY DICK: EXTRACTS ON DEATH AND OTHER CURIOSITIES
Friday, February 21st, 2014 | 8:00 pm
ISSUE Project Room | 22 Boerum Place, Ground Floor | Brooklyn
Tickets Available at issueprojectroom.org
MATA Interval presents two rising stars of the DIY new music scene in a modern oratorio inspired by Melville’s Moby Dick. Composer collective West Fourth New Music Collective (W4) joins Contemporaneous, a New York-based new music ensemble, in the world premiere of Moby Dick: Extracts on Death and Other Curiositieson Friday, February 21 at 8:00 pm at Brooklyn’s ISSUE Project Room.Collaboratively written by composers and W4 co-founders Matt Frey, Tim Hansen, Molly Herron, and Ruben Naeff, the evening-length piece composes through Melville’s novel, focusing on themes and events related to mortality, identity, and the hunt. Singers will include Lucy Dhegrae, Ariadne Greif, Charlotte Mundy and Sean Christensen. The music will be accompanied by abstract projections inspired by Rockwell Kent’s illustrations to the 1930 Modern Library edition of Moby Dick, created by visual artist Andy Cahill.
Program:
Moby Dick: Extracts on Death and Other Curiosities
I. Hymn | Tim Hansen
II. At the Mast-head | Molly Herron
III. The Graceful Repose of the Line | Ruben Naeff
IV. Some Ships | Matt Frey
V. The Sea | Herron
VI. The Non-Valvular Structure of the Whale’s Blood-Vessels | Naeff
VII. A Song of Wind, Sea and Starts | Hansen
VIII. A White and Turbid Wake | Frey
IX. There She Blows | Hansen
X. All Men are Enveloped in Whale-Lines | Naeff
XI. Lower Away | Frey
XII. Call Me | Herron
The program will be performed without intermission and runs approximately an hour.
About Moby Dick: Extracts on Death and Other Curiosities.
Echoing the multiplicity of Melville’s novel, W4 composers created a collection of responses to themes and events from the book. From a narrative episode depicting the final chase of Moby Dick to abstract meditations incorporating spoken text as a textural element embedded in the music, the evening ranges widely through styles and impressions vividly evoking scenes and emotions from Melville’s world. Balancing collaboration and individual expression, each composer engaged with personal areas of interest while together conceiving the flow and experience of the work as a whole. The libretto was crafted by the composers, in some cases using extended excerpts, and other times stitching together lines from across the whole novel. This oratorio was written specifically for Contemporaneous who work-shopped early sketches.