New York New Music Ensemble :: essays research papers

The New York New Music Ensemble began with a bang, literally. This ensemble has been around for twenty-three years and it is considered to be â€Å"the raising standard† in contemporary chamber music. On Thursday afternoon, I saw the ensemble perform three pieces: Trio, Nutturno, and Marxville Songbook. These three possess very similar tone color and composition. The ensemble’s first piece, Trio, was composed by Donald Martino. This musician pursued his interest in music at a very young age. By age fifteen, he did not only know how to play various instruments, but he also started composing. Martino excelled as a member of American Academy of Arts and Letters and was rewarded scholarships. In 1974, Martino’s classic sextet, Notturno, won him the Pulitzer Prize in music. In Notturno there are three large parts, which could be described as movements that maintain the music’s continuity. Within these three movements, there are nineteen smaller parts. The first and last movements have nine parts that make up the contrasting sounds in the music. The final movement concentrates more on the pitch transformation. Structurally, this format would be a recapitulation, but the use of pitch transforms it into something new. To emphasize the pitch fluctuation, three different kinds of flutes were played. Because of the pitch variation in this piece, there were many melodies to follow. In a way, the music sounded like sound effects to a horror flick. For example, the tone color of the piece would be nice and calm then all of a sudden the percussion would contribute a crashing sound and disturb the quiet. Towards the end of the piece, the musicians tapped their instruments to add to the eerie atmosphere. In comparison to Notturno, Martino’s Trio (the first piece played) still produced the same psychotic and dramatic sound. This instrumental consisted of small packets of sound played softly then fiercely. The ensemble began the piece slowly and worked its way to climactic units of music throughout the set. The violin’s sound danced along the piano’s ground. The piano set the rhythm, while the clarinet and violin built on top of it. This piece was a good example of non-imitative polyphony because the clarinet and violin were playing melodies of their own. To complete the piece, the clarinet trailed off leaving the audience uneasy. The second piece the ensemble performed was the Marxville Songbook, which was composed by Jeffrey Stadelman.