The Music of Christopher Kaufman

...........A presentation combining Live Performance, Sound Design, Film and Speech. ................................................Christopher Kaufman

..........Picture from performance at New York University's Frederick Loewe Theater:

Christopher Kaufman's HUDSON VALLEY QUINTET was featured on Quintet of the America's 30th Anniversary season. Their concept for the season is presented in concert with the Wildlife Conservation Society's 'Mannahatta Project' - which concerns history and sustainability of the Hudson River Valley environment.

After hearing Kaufman's earlier environmental piece, MUSIC FROM EARTH (written for Demetrius Spaneas), Quintet of the Americas (led by Barbara Oldham) decided Kaufman's present concert music style and the goals of the Quintet were a perfect match.

"Hudson Valley Quintet gives an audience a powerful experience. The performance leaves them 'electrified' and with a feeling of 'unresolved hope'. They are receptive. A performance of this work is an effective way to open a talk on Environmental Issues."

........................................................................................................................................................Long Island Sound and Conn - Ken-Cro-Ken

Christopher Kaufman's Hudson Valley Quintet features Live performance of the Woodwind Quintet, a CDTape of Sound Design and Music including hundreds of Natural Sounds from the Hudson River Valley Environment, and a film of Visual Images created from both Natural Images and the Art of Ken-Cro-Ken and Alice Cotton.

The Composer Writes:

"...For this project I have assembled hundreds of natural sounds. With these I have worked extensively - creating interwoven backdrops of sound over which the musicians perform. I have also created original instruments from the sounds of living creatures... I perform music onto the tape... and composed with orchestral sounds to create powerful rhythmic ostinatos in the central portion of the piece and peaceful textures at the end. Throughout the work musical themes are shared by the sound design, the animals and the live players..."

............A Quick Overview

............of Christopher Kaufman's Hudson Valley Quintet:

HUDSON VALLEY QUINTET tells a story - the audience is given an experience. The work invites them to experience the beauty of nature, gives a feeling of immediacy in regards to environmental issues, and leaves them receptive to hearing speakers on these issues.

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'OCEAN' - The story of Hudson Valley Quintet begins in the ocean at the mouth of the river - the audience hears ocean surf, whalesong and beautiful melody from the players. The sounds of canoe oars paddling is a part of the music and enhances the feeling of being inside the experience. The sounds of Beluga recorded underwater are composed into an eerie soundscape as the surf and whalesong gradually change sides, giving the impression of turning towards the shore.

The music flows to the shoreline - you hear shorebirds and water sounds shift from ocean to river water. A 'symphony of bird song' begins the second movement of the work - 'FOREST BINARIES'. Here the musicians perform wild 'nature fugues', solos and climaxes against a backdrop of rhythmic textures created from frogs, insects, birds, orchestral instruments and original instruments created from natural sounds such as the 'oyster toadfish drum'. The music reaches a frenzy - "the madness of unfettered invention" - and works to an infusion of positive energy before moving into the third movement - 'TRANSITION INTO NIGHT'.

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Here a tapestry of sound is woven from crickets, wolfsong chorus, incisive coyote sounds, bats, red-wing blackbird, bear growls and moose. This composition sounds twice - the first alone and the second time it is integrated with music performed by the Quintet.

The fourth movement is titled 'INDUSTRIAL STORM: BIG BONE CREEK'. The sound design music is created from industrial sounds such as pile drivers, original instruments created from metallic crashes and clashing armour from film music/sound effect libraries. Kaufman also designed the sound of a roaring Mastodon from elephant, elk, bowed gong and thundersheet. The music the Quintet performs expresses fear. The idea of this movement is to create a feeling of fear and immediacy - a touch of the flight or fight reflex - to bring the issue of climate change to the foreground of the listeners' mind. Mastodon bones were discovered in the upper Hudson River Valley - and later to the west in a place the Native Americans called 'big bone creek' - and were a part of their mythology. The bones were also collected by founding fathers George Washington and Thomas Jefferson and symbolized to them the 'Violence of Nature' and 'Empire'.

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................................................................... ........................................... This picture is the result of the extracting Natural Gas from the ...................................................................................................................environment irresponsibly - this is happening now.

The last movement is titled '...AND THE EARTH IS OUR SPIRITUAL HOUSE'. This movement is beautiful and peaceful yet still retains the passionate intensity of the preceding music. Kaufman did not wish to tie in to a specific religion, but rather the spiritual awe John Muir might have felt when in nature. The principal animal characters return in a new chorus composed of their sounds.

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Here is a movement from MUSIC FROM EARTH titled 'AIR' - a work of similar design which I composed for saxophonist Demetrius Spaneas for his tour of Russia, The Balkans and Europe last season. This example is the 'slide film' I developed for the presentation with music attached.

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.................................................. Watch the entire video of MUSIC FROM EARTH on the LIVE EARTH website.

Mr. Kaufman would like to acknowledge the Cornell Lab of Ornithology Macaulay Library - the world's largest archive of animal sounds and video - which was a source for many of the sounds Mr. Kaufman used in Hudson Valley Quintet.