Spooky Actions performing Anton Webern's Music

http://brucearnold.com/ get more info

This is the 2nd Movement from Anton Webern's5 Movements for String Quarte. Spooky Actions performed the 5 movements for String Quartet at the DOM in Moscow Russia in 2005. This performance is available on DVD at muse-eek. Spooky Actions takes music from all eras and uses this music as a springboard for improvisation. Each composer is analysed and the specific compositional devices used by each composer is incorporated in their improvisations. In this case the pitch class set 014 is used as a cell for improvisation. Spooky Actions is a New York based jazz and new-music ensemble whose diverse recordings include the music of 20th century composer Anton Webern, interpretations of Native American music, and most recently, early music from the 2nd century BC through the 1500's. Their unique and compelling sound is being met with critical acclaim and widespread interest.
The band was founded in 1997 by John Gunther (sax, clarinet, & flute) and Bruce Arnold (electric processed guitar). The two musicians, both professors at New York University, jammed and felt an immediate musical affinity. When they both started bringing in classical music to improvise over, they were inspired to start making their own transcriptions of early and modern classical music and to create a series of recording projects. I've often thought of music as a vessel of the human spirit, a message in a bottle that can travel across an ocean of time, and deliver a note from Bach, or Charlie Parker. So writes John Gunther in his essay for their CD release Early Music. Perhaps embedded in the intervals and sequences
of the melody and rhythm are the thoughts and emotions of the composers themselves he continues. Thus he states the raison d'être for Spooky Actions, and its continued mining of diverse repertoire for examination and re-interpretation.
The name Spooky Actions is derived from a comment by Albert Einstein, in which he noted that certain seemingly unrelated objects could nevertheless exert a powerful influence upon each other. He called these relationships spooky actions at a distance. Spooky Actions, the band, certainly personifies this concept, showing how vivid and accessible improvisations can be derived from music that is often thought of as etched in stone.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Spooky
• Actions
• Webern
• classical
• improvisation
• jazz
• Tony
• Moreno
• Dave
• Phillips
• Bruce
• Arnold
• John
• Gunther

[vth42]

Wow, cool. What is that thing attached to the top of the guitar?

[bruceedwardarnold]

That would be an X Keys Stick which controls the computer program SuperCollider. You will notice that the sound I'm using is a combination of delay and reverb. These sounds come from me playing through this program. The X Keys Stick allows me to select different sounds in the program

[bruceedwardarnold]

The name Spooky Actions is derived from a comment by Albert Einstein, in which he noted that

certain seemingly unrelated objects could nevertheless exert a powerful influence upon each other.

He called these relationships spooky actions at a distance. Spooky Actions, the band, certainly

personifies this concept, showing how vivid and accessible improvisations can be derived from

music that is often thought of as etched in stone.

[stanchinsky]

Wonderful music! Great playing!

[andygjata]

i met john gunther the sax player of this band this october. this guys are REALLY REALLY well educated in music

[splanky87]

Do you has some sort of thermin attached to your guitar? Regards, really cool stuff here... I'd love to see Ligeti put into this context

[P3313]

spooky actions? Like einstein said in reference to the quantum enigma?... maybe I'm reading into to deeply, lol

[bobnannie]

wow! inspirational.