Heterophony: Texture, Technique, and Social Commentary
March 7, 2019
2:00 – 3:30 p.m.
Keller Hall, Center for the Arts
Talk Description: This lecture is in two parts: the first draws from my research on the 1960s jazz avant-garde and musicians’ interests in heterophonic musical textures. I show how heterophony, technique and texture, satisfied a joint aesthetic and social/political goal for musicians and audiences. The parallels between textural and ethnic/racial difference in improvisatory experimentalism, are where aesthetics and social relations become intertwined.
For the second part, I perform original music that utilizes heterophony and “noise” in a solo electronic and improvised format. This performance segment is my own creative response to the historical precedents that I outline in the previous segment.
Biography: Kwami Coleman, Ph.D., is an assistant professor of musicology at the Gallatin School on individualized Study at New York University. His work is focused on improvised music, aesthetics, historiography, identity, and political economy. Kwami is also a pianist and composer, and released a recording called Local Music in 2017 of original music for trio plus field recordings captured in his home neighborhood, Harlem. His current book project is titled Change: The “New Thing” and Modern Jazz.
Sigma Project Sax Quartet
Music from the Americas presents Spanish Sigma Project Sax Quartet, one of the leading ensembles of the European Contemporary new music scene.
Formed by Andrés Gomis, Josetxo Silgero, Ángel Soria and Alberto Chaves.
Music From the Americas Concert Series Presents Low Frequency Trio
Antonio Rosales, bass clarinet / Juan José García, double bass / José Luis Hurtado, piano
May 4th, 3:00 pm, CFA Keller Hall
2016 Composers’ Symposium: Indigenizing Art Music
The 45th Annual John Donald Robb Composers’ Symposium will take place March 28 – April 1, 2016. Indigenizing Art Music: Experiencing the sound of Native American influences in new music