{"id":1575,"date":"2013-02-06T00:44:07","date_gmt":"2013-02-06T00:44:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/joelasqo.com\/blog\/?p=1575"},"modified":"2014-07-24T18:46:54","modified_gmt":"2014-07-24T18:46:54","slug":"sarasvati-puja-show-%e0%a4%b8%e0%a4%b0%e0%a4%b8%e0%a5%8d%e0%a4%b5%e0%a4%a4%e0%a5%80-%e0%a4%aa%e0%a5%82%e0%a4%9c%e0%a4%be-%e0%a4%b8%e0%a4%b9%e0%a4%b5%e0%a4%be%e0%a4%a6%e0%a4%a8-msppiano-w-steve-ad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/joelasqo.com\/blog\/2013\/02\/06\/sarasvati-puja-show-%e0%a4%b8%e0%a4%b0%e0%a4%b8%e0%a5%8d%e0%a4%b5%e0%a4%a4%e0%a5%80-%e0%a4%aa%e0%a5%82%e0%a4%9c%e0%a4%be-%e0%a4%b8%e0%a4%b9%e0%a4%b5%e0%a4%be%e0%a4%a6%e0%a4%a8-msppiano-w-steve-ad\/","title":{"rendered":"Sarasvat\u012b P\u016bj\u0101 Show (\u0938\u0930\u0938\u094d\u0935\u0924\u0940 \u092a\u0942\u091c\u093e \u0938\u0939\u0935\u093e\u0926\u0928): MSP\/piano w Steve Adams @Trinity Chapel, Berkeley (Sat 16 Feb, 8pm)"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Sarasvat\u012b on her animal mount, the swan; painting by Navneet Parikh (\u0928\u0935\u0928\u0940\u0924 \u092a\u093e\u0930\u093f\u0916)<\/p><\/div>\n

I’m keenly looking forward to playing in the Trinity Chamber Concerts<\/strong> series, one of the long-standing pillars of the Bay Area music scene, at Trinity Chapel, <\/em><\/strong>2320 Dana Street (map)<\/em><\/strong><\/a> <\/em>(<\/strong><\/span>between Bancroft Way & Durant Avenue) in Berkeley, at 8pm<\/span><\/em><\/strong> on Sat 16 Feb<\/span><\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>A community service of Trinity United Methodist Church for more than 35 years, Trinity Chamber Concerts<\/strong> has cultivated a diverse program of performances that expands the concept of “chamber music”, not only including works from the established Baroque, Classical, Romantic and 20th-C\u00a0 repertoire but also seldom-performed works of early music and the work of pathbreaking contemporary composers and improvisers. Those who know this series and the wide-ranging tastes and deep musical knowledge of its curator, Diane Grubbe<\/a>, herself a master flautist, have come to expect surprises, beauty, and only the highest quality from it eclectic calendar, and I am very proud and happy to be a part of it.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Sarasvat\u012b (\u0938\u0930\u0938\u094d\u0935\u0924\u0940) <\/p><\/div>\n

This concert closely coincides with Sarasvat\u012b P\u016bj\u0101 (<\/em><\/strong>\u0938\u0930\u0938\u094d\u0935\u0924\u0940 \u092a\u0942\u091c\u093e<\/em>)<\/em><\/strong><\/strong>, a lunar festival of India which honors Sarasvat\u012b, the goddess of culture, learning, and, especially music<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Sarasvat\u012b (\u0938\u0930\u0938\u094d\u0935\u0924\u0940)<\/p><\/div>\n

Often depicted riding on her magic animal mount, the swan, or seated in the middle of a lake on a lotus, she plays a plucked lute such as the v\u012b\u1e47a (\u0bb5\u0bc0\u0ba3\u0bc8), the vibrations of whose strings permeate all places and times.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Bus with garlands for Sarasvat\u012b P\u016bj\u0101 (\u0938\u0930\u0938\u094d\u0935\u0924\u0940 \u092a\u0942\u091c\u093e)<\/p><\/div>\n

Of course, for musicians, this is a special festival, celebrating as it does the divine source of musical inspiration\u2026 but it’s also one of my favorite manifestations of Indian culture because of the wonderful custom that is part of it \u2014\u00a0honoring and worshipping one’s tools, the gifts of Sarasvat\u012b to humanity.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Bajaj's with garlands for Sarasvat\u012b P\u016bj\u0101 (\u0938\u0930\u0938\u094d\u0935\u0924\u0940 \u092a\u0942\u091c\u093e) <\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"<\/a>

H.H. Parama P\u016bj\u0101 \u015ar\u012b Ga\u1e47apati Satchid\u0101nanda Sw\u0101mij\u012b worships musical instruments at \u015ar\u012b Ga\u1e47apati Satchid\u0101nanda \u0100\u015bhrama in Mysore, India (where I studied yoga)<\/p><\/div>\n

On the day of this festival and the next, books, hammers, sewing machines, vehicles, computers, and, especially, musical instruments are laden with garlands, dabbed with kumkum paste, perfumed with the scent of sandalwood, and recharged with mantras.<\/p>\n

This beautiful exercise in rendering visibly sacred the means of production (cultural, industrial, intellectual, agricultural, etc.) makes, for a space of time, thousands of everyday objects into symbols of the dignity of labor and the miracle of creativity.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Worshipping your tools for Sarasvat\u012b P\u016bj\u0101 (\u0938\u0930\u0938\u094d\u0935\u0924\u0940 \u092a\u0942\u091c\u093e)<\/p><\/div>\n

Naturally for a concert that will also be an offering for Sarasvat\u012b P\u016bj\u0101<\/em><\/strong>, I’ve taken as a starting point a program highlighting the sensual serenity of Indian music.<\/p>\n

Set 1<\/span><\/strong> will\u00a0start the program with a set of piano and laptop interpretations of traditional classical r\u0101gas such as M\u0101y\u0101m\u0101\u1e3bavagau\u1e3ba (<\/em><\/strong>\u0bae\u0bbe\u0baf\u0bbe\u0bae\u0bbe\u0bb3\u0bb5\u0b95\u0bcc\u0bb3\u0bc8<\/strong><\/em>)<\/em><\/strong> and \u0100s\u0101var\u012b (<\/em><\/strong>\u0906\u0938\u093e\u0935\u0930\u0940<\/em><\/strong>)<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

I’ll also do some laptop+piano Indo-modernist pieces based on extended r\u0101gas and non-traditional meta-r\u0101gas, such as the recent piece, Hexaflected Flakes<\/em><\/strong>, an extended t\u0101nam<\/em><\/strong> using the mirror form of the “All Interval Hexachord”, pioneered by Elliott Carter and Milton Babbit, as its r\u0101ga.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Ty\u0101gar\u0101ja (\u0c24\u0c4d\u0c2f\u0c3e\u0c17\u0c30\u0c3e\u0c1c\u0c41)<\/p><\/div>\n

In honor of the venue, a special highlight of this section will be a piano realization of a k<\/em>\u1e5b<\/em>ti<\/em> composition by the 18th-C South Indian composer, poet, and saint, Ty\u0101gar\u0101ja (<\/em><\/strong>\u0c24\u0c4d\u0c2f\u0c3e\u0c17\u0c30\u0c3e\u0c1c\u0c41<\/strong><\/em>)<\/em><\/strong>, the foremost of the South Indian “Trinity<\/strong>” composers contemporaneous and parallel to Mozart, Haydn, and Beethoven.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Benzaiten (\u5f01\u624d\u5929)<\/p><\/div>\n

Such is the unique appeal of Sarasvat\u012b’s eternal melody that her worship spread through Asia far beyond Hinduism, for example being accepted into the Japanese pantheon as one of the “7 Lucky Gods” under the name of Benzaiten (<\/em><\/strong>\u5f01\u624d\u5929<\/em><\/strong>)<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Fender Custom Shop Benzaiten (\u5f01\u624d\u5929) Telecaster, built by master builder Dale Wilson.<\/p><\/div>\n

So, I’ll bring a bit of “Neo-Gaku” \u2014 re-interpretations of Japanese music, such as a version of the Japanese shakuhachi piece Ch\u014dshi (<\/em><\/strong>\u8abf\u5b50<\/em><\/strong>)<\/em><\/strong> re-imagined for the piano \u2014 into set 1 as well.<\/p>\n

In Set 2<\/span><\/em><\/strong>, sax, flute, and electronics master Steve Adams<\/em><\/strong><\/a> of ROVA Saxophone Quartet<\/em><\/strong><\/a> will join me for a series of avant duets that take these traditions and others as a starting point for deep-space explorations involving extended meta-r\u0101gas, algorithmic musical grammars, graphical scores, and game pieces.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Steve Adams<\/p><\/div>\n

Steve’s versatility, powerful musical imagination, commanding technique, and personal warmth and great sense of humor make him a wonderful collaborator, and it’s been great to have my mind expanded by his beautiful ideas.<\/p>\n

Together we’ll lay out an eclectic mixed set:<\/p>\n

\u2014 Electro-acoustic duets involving various winds, piano and laptop, with influences as diverse as meta-r\u0101gas and musique concr\u00e8te<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

#30, \u24b8 Steve Adams<\/p><\/div>\n

\u2014 Some of Steve’s wonderful graphic-score pieces, whose state-transition diagrams and “blackboard architectures” are surprisingly reminiscent of certain AI knowledge representations.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

#39, \u24b8 Steve Adams<\/p><\/div>\n

I’ve rarely had as much fun as rehearsing these witty, game-like pieces! You’ll love them too.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Larry Ochs & friend<\/p><\/div>\n

\u2014 A sublime piece called Failure<\/em><\/strong> by Steve’s ROVA<\/em><\/strong> colleague, Larry Ochs, whose elegiac beauty has made it a mainstay of my Viracocha repertoire.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Stockhausen: Mantra<\/p><\/div>\n

\u2014 An expanded duo version of a piano piece of mine, M-MOD4<\/em><\/strong>, developed by extending the two 13-note rows from Stockhausen\u2019s 2-piano classic,\u00a0Mantra,<\/em><\/strong> into meta-r\u0101gas by means of modulo-arithmetic operations and creating row-based themes used in both composed and improvised sections of a South-Indian pallavi-anupallavi<\/em> form.<\/p>\n

<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Steve Adams<\/p><\/div>\n

Steve Adams<\/a> is active both as a composer and a performer on saxophones, flutes and electronics. Steve is best known as a member of the Rova Saxophone Quartet<\/em><\/strong><\/a>, with whom he has played for 20 years and released over 25 recordings. Rova has been called “one of the most daring ensembles of any instrumentation to emerge in recent years” by Downbeat magazine. He has performed with Anthony Braxton<\/a>, Sam Rivers<\/em><\/strong>, Dave Holland<\/a>, Cecil Taylor<\/a>, Roscoe Mitchell<\/a>, John Zorn<\/a>, Steve Lacy<\/em><\/strong>, Mark Dresser<\/a>, Joan Jeanrenaud<\/a>, Fred Frith<\/a>, Tin Hat Trio<\/em><\/strong><\/a>, Yo! Miles<\/em><\/strong> with Henry Kaiser<\/a> and\u00a0Wadada Leo Smith<\/a> and Ted Nugent<\/a> as well as many other jazz, rock, dance and theater groups. Steve has appeared on more than fifty recordings, and has five recordings as leader or co-leader on the 9 Winds and Clean Feed labels.\u00a0 Steve has performed the premieres of numerous classical compositions, including Prisoner of Love<\/em><\/strong> by Robert Aldridge<\/a>, Thomas Oboe Lee<\/a>\u2019s Saxxologie\u2026\u00a0 A Sextet<\/em><\/strong>, and Passing Time<\/em><\/strong> by Jon Nelson<\/a>. He performed Edmund Campion<\/a>\u2019s Corail<\/em><\/strong> with the Berkeley Symphony and at the Ojai Music Festival, and was a member of the 25th Anniversary performance of Terry Riley<\/a>\u2019s In C<\/em><\/strong>.\u00a0 Steve has written more than 50 compositions for saxophone quartet, as well as many others for varied instrumentations.\u00a0 His piece Cage (for John Cage)<\/em><\/strong> was performed at the 1993 Bang on a Can festival, and his piece The Gene Pool<\/em><\/strong> was commissioned in 1993 by Meet the Composer and performed at their festival \u201cThe Works\u201d in Minneapolis in 2002. He received a California Arts Council Fellowship in 2000, and teaches at Mills College. Steve is a graduate of the School of Contemporary Music in Brookline, MA and studied composition with Allan Crossman<\/a>, Christopher Yavelov<\/a> and Thomas Oboe Lee<\/a>, saxophone with David Birkin<\/a> and Indian music with Peter Row<\/a> and Steve Gorn<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Going our way? \u2014 Motorcycle with garlands for Sarasvat\u012b P\u016bj\u0101 (\u0938\u0930\u0938\u094d\u0935\u0924\u0940 \u092a\u0942\u091c\u093e)<\/p><\/div>\n

Join us on this auspicious day for a unique set of musical offerings!<\/p>\n

Joe<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m keenly looking forward to playing in the Trinity Chamber Concerts series, one of the long-standing pillars of the Bay Area music scene, at Trinity Chapel, 2320 Dana Street (map) (between Bancroft Way & Durant Avenue) in Berkeley, at 8pm … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/joelasqo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1575"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/joelasqo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/joelasqo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joelasqo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joelasqo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1575"}],"version-history":[{"count":23,"href":"https:\/\/joelasqo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1575\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1577,"href":"https:\/\/joelasqo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1575\/revisions\/1577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/joelasqo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joelasqo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joelasqo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}