DESCRIPTION:
Rushes Ensemble (l to r): Jeffrey Lyman, Saxton Rose, Lynn Hileman, Michael Harley, Rachael Elliott, Dana Jessen, Maya Stone. With apologies for my mumbling in such a live space, I've transcribed my introduction for those interested in what was spoken from the stage: "A few brief words: First of all welcome to what I know will be a unique musical experience because none of you have heard this before, but one which I hope will be rewarding and very interesting. [Also] a word of thanks to the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance and the Sally Fleming Master Class Fund for helping to bring my colleagues in the Rushes Ensemble here.
This is a very different kind of listening experience. This is the second in a series of works by Michael Gordon in which he is exploring the potentials of like instrument ensembles. Of course we have Rushes for seven bassoons and before this he created a work called Timber for five percussionists all playing amplified two-by-fours, and in both of the works he investigates potentials of layering what happens, which is something that many of you are familiar with in musical works that are most generally labeled "minimalist."
The listening experience will be critical tonight because the visual experience is not going to change: this is what you're going to see. We are playing with click tracks so we will try NOT to dance around the stage. The things you can pay attention to are the variations in patterns that you'll hear right from the start. Each of the seven bassoons, for instance, enters one measure or four beats after the previous one, and for the first portion of the piece we are playing pitches from the C flat major scale. All of the musical variety, all of the musical constructions are based on the layering of single pitches, either descending or ascending, or sometimes a mix. How the composer creates variety and direction for the piece is by sometimes changing the frequency of iterations or articulations per beat: some of us will be playing four per beats, some three, etc. Then he may change the rate of entry: three beats after each other as opposed to four. He may change the rests between each entry, and therefore these layers that are very, very regular at first will eventually start to change in very subtle ways, and it is that subtlety that makes this a very interior listening experience and not a visual one.
We have performed this piece now once at the premiere at Rensselaer Polytech in New York and then several times last fall in the Netherlands and in Belgium, and at each venue we spoke to audience members and encouraged them to engage in that interior listening experience. You can find yourself paying close attention one moment and drifting off at others: all of that works and it is part of the experience of this. It is a single-movement work lasting exactly 56 minutes and we'll see you at the end."

Performed live on November 25, 2013 at Stamps Auditorium, Walgreen Drama Center, University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance

Video recording and editing by Peter Leonard, with additional camera work by Chris Sies and Jarrett Floyd.