Earth Slips Beneath You by Maddy Wildman (World Premiere) | Vanguard Live

New Year, New Music! We're happy to finally share with you the premiere performance of Maddy Wildman's Earth Slips Beneath You from our concert in October 2021.

Maddy's piece is an exploration of anxiety and how it often lives in the background, but can pile up over time, eventually spilling over. To capture that feeling, this piece is often intentionally unnerving, from the crunchy harmonies, to the quarter-step intervals in the upper voices, to the gradual climb in pitch over the course of the piece. Eventually, we arrive at the final build to the apex of the piece, aptly marked "Unleash the Screaming Baby" in the score, with the oboe and clarinet wailing in the stratosphere while the lower voices honk and rumble away. After all of this sound finally bubbles over, we're left in a more tranquil state, with the bass clarinet finishing the piece out.

Maddy proudly reports in her notes about this piece that the stressful and anxious feelings that inspired this piece have become less frequent and intense than when she originally wrote it in 2019. We were so glad to finally be able to perform it!

Threepenny Suite by Kurt Weill | Vanguard Live @ Ypsilanti Freighthouse

The Threepenny Opera is a play by Bertolt Brecht with music by Kurt Weill, inspired by jazz and German dance music of the 1920s. The Overture opens the play, and it sounds like Weill drew more upon European classical music, especially in the fugue-like section in the middle. "Mack the Knife" serves as a prologue to the play, introducing the main character Macheath. The song has become a jazz standard, recorded by artists like Bobby Darin, Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, and Frank Sinatra.

These two movements are selections from a suite from the opera, arranged by Raaf Hekkema of the Calefax Reed Quintet.

Vanguard Live @ Ypsilanti Freighthouse – Thaw by Becky Turro

It feels weird to post about a piece called Thaw just as the weather is starting to cool down, but here we are! Becky Turro's piece, inspired by a trip they took to Acadia National Park is a beautiful exploration of the transformation of water, from frozen to flowing. We loved putting this piece together and we look forward to performing it again! Here are Becky's program notes about their piece:

Thaw was inspired by a trip with my girlfriend to Acadia National Park, Maine in early March. Each movement is about a specific part of Acadia we encountered during our time in the national park.

The first movement, "Hyperborea," was inspired by Cadillac Mountain, seen in the aftermath of a snowstorm that arrived on our first day there. The second movement is titled "Echo Lake," which is also a place within Acadia. This movement begins with a smooth, frozen texture that slowly thaws and melts away as the sun comes out. The third movement, titled "Kaleidoscope Cove," is the most flowing and bright, and characterizes the ocean dancing and crashing against the orange cliffs.

Chronologically, the movements move from frozen to melted, thawing into the arrival of spring.

Vanguard Live @ Ypsilanti Freighthouse – Red Leaf Collection by Karalyn Schubring

Happy (almost) fall, everyone! 🍁 Red Leaf Collection is another great work from our album — and its namesake! Karalyn's piece is inspired by her experiences of fall in Ann Arbor, picking up red leaves off the ground and adding them to her collection, which eventually have faded over time. As she describes, in the piece, you'll hear swirling winds of fall, bright red color chords, dancing and celebration, as well as the color fading over time.

Vanguard Live @ Ypsilanti Freighthouse – From Lidless Eyes (time knows no bounds) by Douglas Hertz

We're happy to share with you the first video from our concert in July, Douglas Hertz's "From Lidless Eyes (time knows no bounds)". We've performed Doug's work many times over the years, including at National Sawdust in 2018, and we enjoyed programming it again for our first concert back together after so long!

Inspired by "Axolotl," a short story by Julio Cortázar, Doug plays with the idea of timelessness. The pulse is often obscured, and instead, Doug moves the work forwards by slowly evolving the musical ideas.

Recorded by Sly Pup Productions

VanguardTV: Holberg Suite, Op. 40: II. Sarabande by Edvard Grieg

In this week's VanguardTV video, we have a throwback to an older recording of one of our favorite pieces to perfrom. Edvard Grieg's Holberg Suite is a set of 5 movements based on 18th-century dance forms that was written in 1884 to celebrate the 200th anniversary of playwright Ludvig Holberg. The style and form of this piece resembles music that was written in the Baroque period (like Bach). Grieg originally composed this suite for piano, but he also arranged it for string orchestra. We love this piece for its great melodic lines and its dance-like qualities! Enjoy the second movement, Sarabande!

VanguardTV: Mack the Knife by Kurt Weill

The Threepenny Opera is a play by Bertolt Brecht with music by Kurt Weill, inspired by jazz and German dance music of the 1920s. "Mack the Knife" serves as a prologue to the play, introducing the main character Macheath. The song has become a jazz standard, recorded by artists like Bobby Darin, Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, and Frank Sinatra.

The version we're playing here is from an arrangement of a suite from the opera by the fine folks at the Calefax Reed Quintet. The melody gets passed around the ensemble and the accompaniment in each iteration changes the character, from cutesy and cheeky to bombastic and dramatic.

We hope you enjoy and we can't wait to perform this for you in person soon!

VanguardTV: Troubadour by Daniel Zlatkin

In the early months of the pandemic, Daniel Zlatkin reached out to me as he was revising his work for solo oboe and offstage cello, Troubadour. Some of you may remember that Daniel and I worked together before on his piece for Vanguard, Out of Bodies! Troubadour's two movementsshow a great contrast in the capabilities of the oboe, from fast passages and multiphonics in the first movement to beautiful lyrical lines in the second movement.

Here are Daniel's notes about the piece:

The oboist takes on the role of a mysterious troubadour. While the first movement is both joking and sinister, the second is a goodbye. The musician's ancient and grinning spirit fades into oblivion. An invisible companion aids his final journey.

Big thanks to Daniel Kaler for providing the "offstage" cello in the second movement!

~ Sagar

VanguardTV: Preludio from Violin Partita No. 3, BWV 1006 by J.S. Bach

I’ve always loved the cheerful Preludio of J.S. Bach’s third partita for solo violin. I was inspired to arrange it for Vanguard Reed Quintet after hearing a fantastic recording by the Masato Kumoi Sax Quartet. The quartet’s bold and symphonic reimagining of Bach’s solo piece struck me, and I couldn’t wait to hear what it sounded like for reed quintet. I soon discovered that this arrangement was based largely on Rachmaninoff’s arrangement for solo piano. Not only that, but Bach had re-tooled the bubbly opening theme himself as the instrumental overture to his Cantata BWV 29. This arrangement is based closely on Rachmaninoff’s version for solo piano, but I’ve borrowed ideas from a few other arrangements and added some flair of my own.

It’s been a long, difficult year without live music and without the ability to gather with friends and family. Listening to this piece always lifts my spirits, and I hope this little arrangement can bring some joy and optimism as we look forward to gathering again. Enjoy!

VanguardTV: Splinter, II. Sugar Maple by Marc Mellits

"Sugar Maple," the second movement of Splinter by Marc Mellits, is another one of our favorite movements from this piece. This movement especially highlights the reed quintet's ability to sound homogeneous. From the beginning, the bassoon and bass clarinet play alternating patterns that create a composite texture. The saxophone and clarinet at first join in with interjections but then also fall into the texture set up by the bass instruments. When the oboe enters, it's something completely different, with a soaring melody over the other instruments' perpetual motion. "Sugar Maple" is an excellent exercise in blending, and it's a fun and energetic movement that we love playing! We hope you enjoy it!

VanguardTV: Holberg Suite, Op. 40, III. Gavotte by Edvard Grieg

Edvard Grieg's Holberg Suite is a set of 5 movements based on 18th-century dance forms that was written in 1884 to celebrate the 200th anniversary of playwright Ludvig Holberg. The style and form of this piece resembles music that was written in the Baroque period (like Bach). Grieg originally composed this suite for piano, but he also arranged it for string orchestra. We love this piece for its great melodic lines and its dance-like qualities! Enjoy!

VanguardTV: Collision Etude No. 4, "Rainbow" by Alyssa Morris

Alyssa Morris writes some of the most interesting, fun, and engaging new music for oboe, and her Collision Etudes are no exception. This set of six etudes are an homage-of-sorts to another well-known etude collection, the Six Etudes pour Hautbois by French composer Gilles Silvestrini, which are each inspired by a French Impressionist painting. Similarly, Morris’ Collision Etudes are inspired by six paintings by American women. In today’s video, I play the fourth of these etudes, titled Rainbow, after a work by 20th-century African-American painter Alma Thomas from her collection “Moving Heaven and Earth.”

Alma Thomas (1891–1978)
Rainbow, 1978
acrylic on canvasboard

The piece unfolds in five distinct sections, each corresponding to a block of color in the painting, with the key centers determined by chromesthesia (sound-to-color synesthesia). A key element of the etude, and one of my favorite things about it, is Morris’ use of harmonics, or alternate fingerings for certain notes on the oboe that create a different tone color. From the very beginning, you’ll hear me oscillate between two versions of the same note that have slightly different qualities. Another great feature of Rainbow is Morris’ use of some of the highest notes on the oboe towards the middle of the etude. Though playing those notes can be tough, it’s also a lot of fun!

VanguardTV: Splinter, VIII. Red Pine by Marc Mellits

Welcome to VanguardTV, a weekly video series where we’ll be sharing virtual performances of some of our favorite reed quintet music, plus some solo projects and other exciting content! We’ve also recently launched a Patreon and we’d greatly appreciate your support. For just $5 a month, you’ll get exclusive access to our video content on Fridays, 3 days before everyone else gets to see it!

We’re starting off this series with one of our absolute favorites in the reed quintet repertoire. Marc Mellits’s Splinter does an excellent job of showing off the reediness of this ensemble. This last movement, Red Pine, puts the spotlight on our bass section, Nico and Jaquain! The cool rhythms and the funky melody make this movement an excellent closer for the piece and are an absolute blast to play.

We hope you’ve enjoyed the first video in our new series! Let us know what you thought in the comments below.