Composer's St. Louis work takes him out to the ball game

by Sarah Bryan Miller
Post-Dispatch Classical Music Critic


Composer Phillip Kent Bimstein, a classically trained graduate of the now-defunct Chicago Conservatory of Music, was the leader of an '80s New Wave group called Phil 'n' the Blanks, which appeared on MTV. For the last 10 years he's been striking out in a different directions, writing what he calls "character pieces." He's got a commission to produce a work about St. Louis, and he'll offer a preview of it and a sampling of his other work at Crossroads School on Wednesday (in a workshop for professional musicians) and Thursday (in a concert with the Equinox Chamber Players) nights.

"A lot of the work that I do tells stories," says Bimstein, whose music incorporates what might be called "found sounds" -- a creaking door, a mooing cow, the hoot of an owl sampled and synthesized and put to use. He writes for various instrumental ensembles. And he uses human voices: "I interview a real person, talking about his life, and I mine the voice for its tonality, pitch, shape and rhythm. I write music that flows out of speech patterns. The piece I'm working on now, it sounds like he was singing."

This is music that's hard to pin down. "There's a blending of music in my life. There's classical, all the way back to Bach. There's Stravinsky and very contemporary music. But I also like alternative rock, techno, hip-hop and jazz." His well-done Web site, www.bimstein.com, gives the full picture.

"When I first started getting back into classical music, I thought, 'I'd better keep the pop in the background, or people won't think I'm for real.'" But composer John Adams, who also played in a rock band, helped to open the doors to musical combinations in "serious" music.

Not that Bimstein's compositions are always particularly serious. His critically acclaimed CD "Garland Hirschi's Cows," which features (in three movements: "A Little Bit About My Cows," "Pasturale" and "Moovement") the sampled voice of a Utah dairy farmer talking about his herd to a background of mooing and cowbells (with a photo of a bovine hind end on the back cover) is playful, even while telling a factual story. On the same disc, "The Door" consists of variations on a creaking door theme - the door to his studio, sampled while opening and closing at different speeds.

Bimstein left Chicago 12 years ago, intending to go to Los Angeles and compose film scores. He wound up in Springdale, Utah, a small community at the entrance to Zion National Park, and five years later was elected its mayor. His politics tend toward the environmental, but music is still his primary focus. "Being mayor in a small town is not a full-time job."

His St. Louis commission, for the local woodwind quintet the Equinox Chamber Players, came from Continental Harmony, a project of the American Composers Forum and the National Endowment for the Arts. On July 4, 2000, 58 "host communities" in the 50 states will celebrate the turn of the millennium with new music that, according to the fact sheet on the project, will "best reflect their history, culture, and hopes for the future."

"We had 25 applicants" to do the St. Louis commission, says Carole Lemire of the Equinox Chamber Players, "and Phillip was the hands-down choice for all of us. He has the ability to tell stories with his music, so that it's more than just a woodwind quintet. We work with everyone from kindergartners to the elderly, and we need something that speaks to a lot of people. Phillip's music is not only fun - it has messages.

"We know that he'll give us a very exciting premiere that will appeal to a diverse group of people."

Bimstein categorizes his new piece, to premiere at Fair Saint Louis, as "bigger, more boisterous" than some of his other work and "definitely not meditative." It won't be done until late May, but it's starting to take shape. "I'm furiously trying to flesh out the sketches so people can hear them. It's a chance for people to see a composer and an ensemble working on a new piece."

He started his explorations last summer with baseball, "with the Cardinals as a symbol of the city." Winning, with some difficulty, a field pass, he went to several games at the end of the season to record sounds - the sound of the ball smacking into a bat, the crowd sounds, the players and the vendors.

Then he discovered Bushy-Wushy, "the beer man." "He has a great voice; he's been selling for 39 years. He's got a great spirit." Bimstein interviewed the vendor, "almost like a journalist, but I'm interested in the sound as well as the story. Bushy's going to be a star. He embodies the storehouse of memory. He's been a witness to great events; he's a lively part of the community. He wants to make the crowd happy. He's a heroic Everyman. He embodies a certain entrepreneurial aspect of St. Louis."

Bimstein also visited Dressel's Pub, where he heard members of the Scott Joplin Society playing the master's tunes. Since Joplin lived here nine years, incorporating his music was a natural. "I'm thinking of taking fragments of the 'Maple Leaf Rag,' deconstructing them, and interweaving them with melodies derived from Bushy's voice and with my melodies. And I'm going to use the 'St. Louis Blues.' I may reduce them to just a measure, a fragment; at other times I'll use a whole phrase, so people know" what it is.

The percussion section will be pure baseball: the bat striking the ball, the ball hitting a glove. "And the people of St. Louis will be in the piece, in the cheers of the crowd." The Equinox Chamber Players "will be playing more classical themes."

The 12-minute work will take Bimstein a year to complete, from talking to the Cardinals' front office for a month to get that field pass to completion. He spent two months collecting sounds, a couple of months more "to let the ideas germinate" and six months to complete his composition.

Does he think it will summarize St. Louis? "I don't think I can sum up a city," he says. "Given that, you have to focus somewhere."

Composer Phillip Kent Bimstein and the Equinox Chamber Players in a workshop for professional musicians and a special preview concert
Where: Crossroads School, 500 DeBaliviere Avenue
When: Workshop 7-9 p.m. Wednesday and concert 7:30 p.m. Thursday
How much: $15 for the workshop; $9 for adults and $4.50 for students and seniors for the concert
Info: 314-367-8085

Top collage by J Kearns.

home : organization : faq : musicians : board : special events : calendar : programs
articles : recordings : sponsors : contact : press : store : mailing list : support