| THE
VOICE OF THE CITY | 
The
composer--who is also the mayor of Springdale, Utah, population
350--cites Connecticut saxophonist Paul Winter, whith whome he has
collaborated, and minimalist composer Steve Reich as predecessors,
although not necessarily as influences. "What I do is quite
different," Bimstein says. "I want to have natural sounds, but
I want to see what happens when I start fooling around with them."
Bimstein's
as-yet-untitled composition focusing on St. Louis is scheduled to be
performed by the ECP this coming July 4, during the "Americana"
concert at Fair St. Louis.
The ECP is scheduled to perform
several Bimstein works, including "Dark Wind Rising" and "Half
Moon at Checkerboard Mesa, A Fantasy for Crickets, Frogs and Coyotes,"
at 4 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 30, at the Tyler Place Presbyterian Church, and
at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 3, at Crossroads School in the Central West
End. For more information call 862-5494 or e-mail bowmire@earthlink.net.
--Paul
A Harris.
|
Which
sounds convey the essence of St. Louis? Organist Ernie Hayes and a
roaring baseball crowd, as they swoop into "Take Me Out to the Ball
Game?" A Scott Joplin rag by a four-piece band, echoing along the
levee? The traffic noises of trains, planes, trucks and automobiles? All
of the above and more, according to Utah composer Philip Kent Bimstein,
who came to town inthe fall to gather authentic St. Louis audio samples.
When he was here, Bimstein hobnobbed with patrions of area dining and
drinking establishments, including Dressel's and the Red Sea restaurant.
He partied long into several nights with various members of the local
music community. And he spent the last days of the baseball season
wandering around Busch Stadium, talking about St. Louis with Tony
LaRussa, Red Schoendienst, Bushy-Wushy the beer man (a.k.a. Robert
Logan), and quite a few others. And all the while the composer kept his
portable DAT recorder running.
Bimstein was working on a
commission from the Equinox Chamber Players--a wind ensemble comprised
of five area women--to create an original work for and about St. Louis,
based on this city's themes, history, hopes, and values.
Bimstein,
a New Wave rocker-turned formal composer (he spent the late '80's
playing in Chicago's Phil 'n' the Blanks), frequently creates music that
blends live instruments with digitally sampled audio, including the
human voice and other natural sounds.
The Equinox Chamber
Players (ECP) performed three Bimstein works late last September in
Tower Grove Park. That performance included "Dark Winds Rising,"
a Bimstein score that blends flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, and French
horn with the recorded voices of a native American family. (He had
interviewed them shortly after they turned down a hefty sum of money to
turn some of their tribal land into a toxic waste dump.) |
"We
really like his ability to tell stories with his music," says ECP
French horn player Carole Lemire. "I don't see Philip's music as a
gimmick," she says. "The voices and other sounds are not a
sideshow. They addpower to the work because they are incredibly
interesting."
The other members of ECP are bassoonist
Donita Bauer, clarinetist Jeanine York, oboist Ann Homann, and flutist
Rebecca Meador. They have a notably adventurous repertoire that includes
classics and modern formal pieces for wind quintet as well as jazz
classics.
Early this year, the ECP sent out a search for scores
as part of the Continental Harmony Project, that issues grants for works
focusing on community life at the millennium. Bimstein's submission
turned up with approximately two doxen other musical proposals from
composers throughout the United States. The chamber group was looking
for a 12-18 minute work which would be accessible to the widest possible
range of listeners.
"We had to find a composer who could write melodically,"
Lemire explains. "We are a very serious quintent, and all of the
composers who submitted proposals are very serious. But we did not want
a bunch of serial music or tone rows, or anything like that. We want to
approach people who haven't heard us before, and we don't want to lose
them because the music is too heavy." |
| From
St. Louis Magazine February 2000 |
back to the Equinox Chamber Players press page
Equinox Chamber Players Photo: Thomas Shepherd
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