Clamor by Jessica Pavone

Program notes:

Clamor rethinks the notion of 'women's work' as a space for both collaboration and singular voice. Just as our ensemble is limited and enabled by the written score, so might be individual enunciations of how gender norms limit agency. Clamor utilizes a collective, improvisational vision that prioritizes an intentionally fluid style by employing indeterminacy, navigated by the performers via time-based scores. These principles are balanced with metered notation to shape the overall form of the pieces, reflecting circumventing obstructions to one's freedoms. The alternating music notation styles mirror these restraints and solutions. Through the open spaces, the musicians re-create the compositions together each time they perform, establishing a collaborative relationship between the individual musician and larger group performance.

Clamor's movements are titled after innovations made by women throughout history to circumvent obstructions to their freedoms. Neolttwigi utilizes rhythms representing the 17th-century Korean standing seesaw invented by women who could not freely go outdoors to provide a glimpse of the scenery beyond their property walls. Nu Shu honors the secret language created and used exclusively by Chinese women forbidden to go to school like their brothers. Nu Shu features the improvising soloist in dialogue with the ensemble.

Bloom is named after bloomers, which Amelia Bloom designed during the 1850s Victorian dress reform.

Nu Shu features bassoon soloist, Katherine Young, attending to her talent for improvising within a collaborative context. Young is a composer and sound artist who has developed a unique language for bassoon. The movements to feature her have built-in moments of gently structured spontaneity that attend to her original voice.

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