Soundscape Players stir up bevy of ghosts

Published 7:00 pm Wednesday, October 13, 2004

Halloween-themed music is among the fare at the quartet’s debut performance.

The sounds and sights of autumn open the debut concert of Island Soundscape Players, a new ensemble formed by violinist Pat Strange with cellist Priscilla Jones and pianist-vocalist Corinna Lapid-Munter.

While the Oct. 17 concert, “Colors of Fall,” will feature Americana that may be familiar to audiences – Aaron Coplands’ Old American Songs (1950) with Simple Gifts and The Little Horses, is one offering – the emphasis shifts to the eerie with Henry Cowell’s “The Banshee” (1925), a piece that calls for a pianists to stroke piano strings, rather than plunk keys.

“It’s really a Halloween piece,” Strange said. “The eerie sounds the pianist makes on the strings is like the howl the Irish think the banshee makes when someone dies.”

The self-assigned mission of the music group to create a showcase for less-conventional music as well as familiar favorites, is underscored with the world premier of “Ghost String,” commissioned by Strange from University of Oregon music professor Jeffrey Stolet for the occasion, based on Stolet’s research into ghost-lore of the Pacific Northwest.

Written for violin, the piece creates “musical ghosts” by reinserting, at intervals, modified musical phrases recorded into a computer as Strange plays them.

“I wanted to get some chamber music on Bainbridge Island with an emphasis on the unique and contemporary,” said Strange, who was second principal violinist with the San Jose Symphony for 30 years, and head of the string program at San Jose State University before moving to Bainbridge in 2002. “I think there’re people who don’t come out to local concerts, who want something that’s ‘left of center.’”

The series will encompass the visual arts, as well as narration and multimedia, Strange notes. For the fall concert, Grace Church will be hung with quilts in autumn shades by island artist Maggie Ball.

For the second concert in the series, “Winter-Time,” performers seated among the audience will create the music by “reading” stars from star charts projected onto the church walls, a feature of composer John Cage’s Atlas Eclipticalus.

“If the stars are large, they’ll play ‘large,’” Strange said. “If the stars are toward the top of the chart they’ll play high, and if low, they’ll play low notes.”

The piece also calls for the simultaneous performance of Cage’s Winter Music for two to 20 pianos, a work that will be computer-generated surround-sound, Strange says.

Also on the program is Oliver Messiaen’s 20th century work, “The Quartet For The End Of Time” for violin, clarinet, cello and piano.

The “Sounds of Spring” concert that rounds out the first season of Island Soundscape Players will include Samuel Barber’s Dover Beach for string quartet and voice and Aaron Copland’s “As It Fell Upon A Day” for flute, clarinet and voice.

But “Praises For The Beauty Of Hummingbirds,” a work by contemporary composer Lou Harrison for two violins, flute, percussion and celeste will also be played on the Indonesian gamelan, a percussive instrument with tubes struck by mallets. And “Spring Dancers,” a work by Strange’s husband Allen, will be accompanied by projections of vegetable etchings by artist Fabia Trimble, while the spring theme is reinforced by an exhibit of island artist Pam Fermanis’ pastoral prints and paintings.

At all the concerts, listeners will have a chance to talk about the music with the performers.

Performers benefit, Strange says, from the chance to play challenging, unconventional music in the small ensemble format that offers them both fellowship and the challenge of playing together but exposed.

“In a symphony, you’re one of many, as a soloist, you’re on your own,” Strange said, “but in a small ensemble you’re the only one playing your part, and you have to watch the others.”

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Autumnal hues

New chamber music ensemble Island Soundscape Players debuts with “Soundscapes and Seasons,” a series of three concerts supported by a grant from Bainbridge Island Arts and Humanities Council. The concerts are 4 p.m. Oct. 17, Jan. 23 and May 15 at Grace Episcopal Church. Island Soundscape Players are joined by guest artists Patricia Beasley on clarinet and Suzanne Burton playing flute. The opening concert features wine at intermission donated by Bainbridge Island Vineyards and Winery. Call 780-8449 for more information.