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Crumb Quartet Captivates Public School Children By MIRANDA SIELAFF
One hundred and thirty New York City public-school children screaming, "Dreizehn!" Brand-new extended techniques for string instruments, created and tried out for the very first time. An electric remix of Schubert's Death and the Maiden String Quartet. Twenty crystal glasses filled with water and tuned to various pitches. It sounds like the "Bang on a Can" Circus for Kids, but all of this took place uptown: at Juilliard's Morse Hall on May 1, with the first performance here of George Crumb's Black Angels since the American String Quartet played it as students.
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| George Crumb's Black Angels holds the rapt attention of third-graders from P.S. 166 in a performance at Juilliard by Justine Chen, Nicholas Sylvest, Kivie Cahn-Lipman, and Miranda Sielaff. (Photo by Jay King) |
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This wasn't just your regular electric-string-quartet concert: Black Angels calls for such varied instruments as voices, tam-tams, glass rods and plectrums, thimbles, and the infamous crystal glasses, all played by the four string-quartet members. Between the instruments and the microphones and speakers, there was plenty on the stage to see. Whispers of "I think he's going to play the gong" and clicking sounds imitating the quartet's tongue clicks flew through the crowd during some sections; in others, the children sat spellbound.I'd like to take you behind the scenes of this successful interactive presentation and share a bit of the process that made it all pay off, artistically as well as educationally Usually we Juilliard students prepare for our concerts with hours of careful practice, rehearsals with colleagues, lessons with esteemed teachers, and perhaps a dress rehearsal in the hall. But a great deal of the preparation for the Black Angels performance took place in classrooms at P.S. 166 (on West 89th Street) and P.S. 11 (on West 22nd Street). Morse Fellows Angelina Gadeliya, Annie Hsu, and I taught all year long at these schools, developing our own curriculum and teaching styles as we went along.We were prepared for this work and the Morse Fellowship through courses such as Arts in Education. I spent my fellowship year teaching all about contemporary music: My students looked at rhythm and the process of composition, and studied various contemporary works (including one by Juilliard doctoral student Huang Ruo). When my string quartet at Juilliard began to rehearse Black Angels, it occurred to me that there was no more thrilling a contemporary string quartet to set before these kids—who, through a yearlong exposure to new music, were primed for it. Classroom teacher Ms. Rosenberg at P.S. 166 organized the field trip to Juilliard, and we were ready to go.Well, not quite: We still had to find a space to perform at Juilliard, hire a sound engineer, figure out how to remove the chairs and piano from the hall, work the lights, find glass rods and percussion instruments, find our 20 crystal glasses, and learn the piece. Justine Chen, Nicholas Sylvest, Kivie Cahn-Lipman and I worked with chamber music faculty member Curt Macomber all semester to put the piece together. Mr. Macomber helped us with many technical and musical difficulties, including procuring a set of crystal glasses from Yellow Barn, the music festival and school in Vermont. (Funny looks and disgruntled employees were the only things we got on our first trip to Macy's crowded Cellar, armed with a tuner and spoon.) But as the semester went by, the piece finally came together and we were able to master extended techniques like pedal tones, playing in "viol position," and bowing the crystal glasses.Meanwhile, on the educational outreach front, Annie and Angelina and I shared ideas for lesson plans about Black Angels. I taught a lesson on March 13 called "Happy Birthday Black Angels!" which focused on numerology and counting in the piece. (March 13 is also the date the piece was finished in 1970.) Historical context was also important for the students to learn, and we all taught about how the music was written in response to the Vietnam War. We taught about extended techniques that are used in the piece, with in-classroom demonstrations by Angelina on violin and me on viola. Beyond the classroom activities, the Morse Fellows also spent time preparing our concert presentation. With the help of advisor David Wallace, we developed a script for the show that we honed down to our final presentation over several weeks. Our presentation would feature interactive moments to highlight parts of the score, and we planned to play the work in three parts.After countless hours of planning the details—with indispensable help from Aaron Flagg, director of educational outreach, and Bärli Nugent, assistant dean and director of chamber music—it finally came time for the show. Believe me, it was worth it, to hear a hall full of children singing the "Dies Irae" flawlessly, requesting ingenious new extended techniques from the quartet, shouting the numbers 1 through 7 and 13 in German along with the quartet, and applauding vigorously at the end of each movement. It was one of the most exhilarating performance experiences of my life. Miranda Sielaff earned her master's degree in viola this past May.
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