'visual music' tomorrow pm @ national cathedral

[sacriforce]

Dont know if this was posted already but:
 
 PERFORMANCE
 21st Century Consort at the National Cathedral
 July 12, 2005 at 7:30 pm
 Visual music finds new expression as 21st Century Consort presents a mixed media concert of works by Debussy, Schoenberg, Messiaen, and local composer Christopher Patton at the National Cathedral. Patton's multimedia piece features lighting by Daniel MacLean Wagner, whose "light composition" will integrate the cathedral's architecture into the musical performance. No tickets required. Free.
 
 
 NOW FOR SOME AURAL MUSIC

[shoot ur shot]

yes, i'll be there. does anyone know if there's actually going to be an orchestra there performing these works? i imagine there will be but just asking.

[chancegardener]

looks like the 21st Century Consort is a 7-member outfit ... the following is from the National Cathedral's website:
 
 www.cathedral.org/cathedral/
 
 
 The 21st Century Consort returns to the Summer Festival, presenting an unusual and innovative concert. In conjunction with the �??Visual Music�?� exhibit coming to the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, the concert will feature the work of Debussy, Schoenberg, and Messiaen, all composers important to the Visual Music movement, and will include the premiere of a new multimedia work by local composer Chris Patton with a lighting design by seven-time Helen Hayes award winner Daniel MacLean Wagner.

[shoot ur shot]

argh not going to be able to make it. someone tell me how it goes

[chancegardener]

It was totally great.  21st Century Consort is a small chamber orchestra that specializes in 'contemporary' classical music.  Probably about 500 people there, seated in the main hall of the cathedral. They played Debussy's very familiar "Faun" then Schoenberg's disonant "Chamber Symphony", then the organist did 2 pieces by O. Messiaen, one was noisy but the follow-up was the very ethereal "Le Banquet Celeste", it sounded like something off of "Kid A". The finale was C. Patton's "Out of Darkness", a new and spacy piece, which finally featured the light show: the Cathedral was totally darkened and an outdoor spotlight shown thru the stained glass window at one end of the cathedral's main hall, followed by a sequence of richly colored lights melting and merging among the pillars, with a soprano singing in the balcony and monk-like percussionists roaming the cathedral floor all around the crowd.  It was way cool, to say the least!

[snailhook]

i totally enjoyed this performance as well. debussy, schoenberg, and messiaen are three of my favorite composers, and i especially like messiaen's organ pieces. the second one reminded me of krautrock band popul vuh, very drony and ethereal. that potter piece was definitely very cool in that 20th century avant-classical vein, myabe reminded me of hindemith or even ligeti. the color of the lights was incredibly rich and the architecture of the cathedral itself is impressive enough to transport one to another dimension. it would be nice to see more avant-garde music there.
 
 works by composers such as scriabin, gorecki, stravinsky, ligeti, penderecki, hindemith, and ives would be fantastic to experience in this context.