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What's my name?
by Jonathan Matis (Morris)My last name is Morris. And also Matis.
Episodes
Blowhards in DC
0s · PublishedStarting with Ned Rothenberg , who was outstanding as usual. He played a duo show with Ayman Fanous (5/11 at a church in Foggy Bottom). Β He did one solo piece on alto sax, as well as duos making use of shakuhachi, clarinet, and bass clarinet. Amazing stuff. His new solo clarinet record ("World of Odd Harmonics" on Tzadik) is also excellent. Here's a sample - not from this concert, but recent and similar material:
Then International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), (5/17 at Atlas) whose program included a solo bassoon piece that required circular breathing. During that passage, the performer made a porcine snort with each breath. I wonder if that's a function of how much air it takes to work a bassoon vs. a sax or trumpet?
Then Travis Laplante and Peter Evans (5/19 at Back Alley Theater): The final piece of Laplante's set was a long theme and variations form built on a long chant like melody - rendered beautifully in "normal" tones then used as the basis for a series of intense psuedo-polyphonic episodes. I think this is the studio version, it's only the tune that he opened and closed the piece with at the show:
<p>&amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://travislaplante.bandcamp.com/track/the-tear-dam"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;The Tear Dam by Travis Laplante&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;gt;</p>
Peter Evans performed what seemed like a quartet for two trumpets, elephant and whale. He played all the parts himself simultaneously on one trumpet.
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Low End String Quartet: commissioning
0s · PublishedOne piece is coming from cello superstar Zoe Keating . The other is from experimental guitar virtuoso Sarah Lipstate (aka Noveller).
I'm having some trouble embedding the video here... so you have to click the link to see the video about our project. We're doing a kickstarter-style fundraiser, but on a different platform. One that comes with matching funds and is nonprofit so donations are tax-deductible.
Learn more and join in here: http://bit.ly/yNpdDj
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Repetition Meditation 1
0s · PublishedHere's a demo of a new piece I'm working on. It's scored for 2 electric guitars and 4 horns. The recording uses fake horns. I'm on the prowl for live human horn players who might help me make an actual recording.
Score is posted here .
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New Release: On the inevitability of loss
0s · PublishedIt's not really designed for live performance, but was conceived for realization in the studio. To play it live would require 3 bass clarinetists, at least 5 cellists, and guitar. Most of those people would sit around not playing for most of the time. So, maybe better to think of it as duo pieces, with a few overdubs allowed.
I had the idea in the back of my mind for a long time to write duos for those two instruments. They sound so great together. Also, in certain registers, they sound almost identical. I don't think you can find a more homogeneous pairing of wind and string instruments?
The first and last pieces of the set are actually the same. First time, done by bass clarinet (with two overdubs), then the work closes with the same material performed by the cello. Track two is a straight-up acoustic duet (without overdubs). Track three is the emotional core of the work, and has the densest sound palette. On that one, I was aiming for something Godspeed You! Black Emporer-esque, but missed and wound up someplace else.
Compositionally, all of the music is kept very simple. Partly because of my own simple-mindedness, but partly as a means of maintaining a sense of austerity to balance the dark emotional tone.
I ripped off an excerpt of a very old chant melody from the Russian orthodox church, probably inaccurately. There's also a Russian lullaby tune that appears (most clearly in track 2). It also has a dark quality, but at the same time has a sort of naive innocence to it. Most of the other original material is made using the octatonic scale (or what jazz players call the diminished or half-diminished scale). Stravinsky seemed to like it, and he proved again and again that it pairs nicely with Russian folk tunes, so it seemed like a safe bet. And it was.
Most importantly, the score includes a great deal of improvisation. The best parts of what you hear were not invented by me, but by the super talented and lovely people that played the piece. They totally killed it. It's a little bit disingenuous to slap my name on there like I "own" it. But I did.
The credits:
Composed by Jonathan Matis.
Performed by:
Ben Redwine: bass clarinet
Natalie Spehar: cello
Gordon Withers: cello section on track 3, first solo on track 4
Jonathan Matis: ambient guitar on track 3
Mixed by T.J. Lipple
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bonus track: bass clarinet & guitar duo
0s · PublishedThe recording sessions have gone very well. Hiring awesome players is definitely the way to go. They got everything done in one or two takes.
We got through the solo bass clarinet music so fast that we had some time to spare before the cellist arrived; so we did a short little improv track together. This won't be included in the dance piece, so from my (metaphorical) editing room floor to you:
Bass Clarinet - Guitar duo by Jonathan Matis
Credits:
Ben Redwine: Clarinet
Me: guitar
mixed by TJ Lipple
Please enjoy.
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We love the saddest songs.
0s · PublishedAmnesia is patriotic.
Together we forget.
Together we repeat.
Together we struggle.
Together we talk ourselves out of failure.
Our favorite songs are the saddest ones.
We love the story of realizing we were wrong all along.
We love that song. We can't get enough.
We hate that story.
We refuse to listen to that story.
We love that song.
We love the songs about sadness and suffering.
About longing and loss.
About wanting and wanting.
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Low End String Quartet at Kennedy Center - video
0s · Publishedsee the whole concert here .
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Upcoming show: Low End String Quartet, Sept 21
0s · PublishedWe were unable to find the audio file for this episode. You can try to visit the website of the podcast directly to see if the episode is still available. We check the availability of each episode periodically.
Low End String Quartet: live
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I think I get ice cream now.
0s · Published- In the last two weeks, I got four proposals submitted to my county arts council. (They have all of their deadlines for the year in a three-week period, which is really awesome) Two from my nonprofit, and two from me as an individual artist. This year, I successfully delegated one of the Improv Arts proposals (thanks, Daniel!). We'll see if any of them work, but if funded we might:
- do after-school shows at Joe's and the College Park Community Center;
- hire a marketing strategy consultant to help us figure out how to put together all the different threads of our organization's communications - which is now a huge clusterf***;
- "commission" myself to develop more solo repertoire - so I can do more concerts like the one I did back in March;
- and take composition lessons from Alexandra Gardner.
- I finished up a big job that had a very short timeframe: producing original (recorded) music for a dance / theater show that goes up next weekend. I'm really happy with the results, and the process. This one had enough of a budget that I was able to hire some great people to play on it, I recorded all the live tracks at home, then took it to a professional studio and got it mixed right. The end result is nice. Sounds so much better than what I can do by myself in my home project studio. (for info about the performances next weekend, see facebook event)
- That job led to a booking for Low End String Quartet: we're doing "street performances" on May 15/16 in Reston, Virginia as part of the Northern Virginia Fine Arts Festival. Our regular cellist is out of town that weekend, but I lined up Gordon Withers to join us again (he played with us at Comet last summer) and the contract and associated paperwork is all done done done. We'll be at Reston Town Center's "South Market Promenade" Saturday, May 15, at noon, 2:45pm, and 4pm; Sunday, May 16, 11:30am. Free free free. Hopefully the weather will be nice.
- I'm working hard promoting "Word Free DC" on May 21st. That's proving to be a challenging task, but today we got some love from The Pink Line Project. Hopefully we'll get some more mentions around town in the coming weeks.
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What's my name? has 25 episodes in total of non- explicit content. Total playtime is 0:00. The language of the podcast is English. This podcast has been added on August 16th 2022. It might contain more episodes than the ones shown here. It was last updated on March 20th, 2024 10:41.
