Reviews

“The ensemble between Advocat and Sharrock is very impressive … Advocat and Sharrock are lauded for their captivating musicianship, versatility of style, and overall technical command of their instruments on this recording.” - The Clarinet

"I had the pleasure of listening through this album and find it one of the more refreshing things I’ve heard in recent years." - KLANG New Music

Transient Canvas "approaches Sift’s interpretations with an ethic of seriousness and attention to detail that less conscientious performers might reserve for older, fully established eminences." - I Care If You Listen

"Everything about this album is done spectacularly well. All the pieces are unique in their approach to writing for these instruments, the performances by the duo are all beautifully done, and the production value is high-end. Anybody interested in contemporary chamber music of any instrumentation should find this album." - Percussive Notes, Percussive Arts Society

The intrepid bass clarinet and marimba duo Transient Canvas present music written for them that explores the wide range of roles and textures for these two instruments. The composers: Daniel T. Lewis, Tina Tallon, Curtis Hughes, John Murphree, and Adam Roberts each tackle the instrumentation in their own unique way. The pieces explore merged timbres, powerfully declamatory unison statements, and narrative structures to draw the listener into their colorful world. sift is a major contribution of five substantial new works that celebrate the craft of composition at the highest level. - New Focus Recordings

1. Daniel T. Lewis | sift (2014)

sift takes its title from a line in a Kay Ryan poem, in which she describes an effort as: “...the sift left of resolve strained too long.” The piece intends to represent an exhaustion, a drawing-up of energy, a struggle to accomplish something, and a final and inevitable collapse.

2. Tina Tallon | dirty water (2014)

Although I wasn't born and raised in Boston, in many ways, I consider Boston to be my home. Boston was where I decided to become a composer, and I owe almost the entirety of my early development to the many performers, presenters, professors, and colleagues in this city. dirty water is the first piece of mine to be performed in Boston since I left for San Diego to start my PhD just over a year ago, and I'm delighted and honored that Amy and Matt are giving its premiere. While it does not use any material from The Standells' hit, it is inspired by the song's quirky, grungy, playful ubiquity, and ultimately, by the city that I love.

            - Tina Tallon

3. Curtis Hughes | Vestibule III (2013)

Vestibule III composed in late 2013, is one of a series of short, related duos that seem to exist in a state of perpetual transition between contrasting textural and stylistic worlds. In each case, the two instruments take a decidedly non-linear tour of a set of interrelated ideas, acting sometimes in tandem and sometimes in opposition to one another. The title refers to the fact that this series of compositions explores musical ideas that are self-contained, but are also thematically connected to a much larger project (for chamber orchestra) which is currently in progress, and they are thus “entryways” into what will soon be a much larger musical “chamber.” In each case, there is at times an almost claustrophobic sense of obsessive repetition and inhibition, exemplified here by the driving material that frames the piece. However there are also glimpses and hints of a kind of ecstatic and sensuous larger musical construction, which inspires sentiments that verge on lyrical tenderness. The music is dedicated to the duo Transient Canvas, whose remarkable virtuosity, sensitivity and versatility were extremely inspirational.

4. John Murphree | Purge (2013)

Nothing feels quite like throwing something away which once was, or still is, important. Purification can pertain to many things: a physical object which now takes up too much room or has lost importance over time, or a mental state which must be sacrificed in order to maintain psychological health. Sometimes the need to enact a Purge isn't obvious. At those times, a lack of action can lead to stagnation, or worse. The expulsion process can be anywhere on the emotional spectrum from subtle to violent, occurring over a long period of time in our subconscious, or in the instant of a verbal outburst.

John Murphree joined the Boston Conservatory faculty in 2009, where he teaches composition and music theory. He is a composer, instrument maker, and sound-installation artist.

Murphree's concert music has been performed in the United States and Europe. His installations have been staged at the Mobius Gallery, the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, and Boston Conservatory. In 2016, Murphree founded Boston Gongs, a manufacturing business devoted to the production of high-quality bell plates, gongs, chimes, and lujons. He was a Fellow in Arts at St. Botolph Club from 2009 to 2012, and in 2011 he was selected to collaborate in the Juddertone project, a collaborative choreography showcase in Boston. Murphree also led a team that built a xylophone made of ice and aluminum for Boston's annual Chisels and Chainsaws ice sculpture competition.

5. Adam Roberts | Nostalgia Variations (2015)

Nostalgia Variations engages with the tradition of theme and variation. The title refers to the emotional quality of the opening tema. “Nostalgia” is a wrought-emotion in contemporary art, bordered on one end by saccharin expression, and on the other end of the spectrum by irony and rejection of emotion. The piece is about finding a way to engage with such emotions in, as a Buddhist would say, the middle path.

The piece has eleven short variations, some more obviously based on the Tema, some less. The piece asks the question of how different can a variation be and still connect to a beginning idea?

Adam Roberts writes music that takes listeners on compelling sonic journeys while drawing on a vivid array of sonic resources. Roberts’ music has been recently performed by ensembles such as the Arditti Quartet, the JACK Quartet, le Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, the Callithumpian Consort, Earplay, andPlay duo, Transient Canvas, Ums ‘n Jip, Fellows of the Tanglewood Music Center, the Boston Conservatory Wind Ensemble, the Association for the Promotion of New Music, violist Garth Knox, Guerilla Opera, and at festivals such as Wien Modern (Vienna), Tanglewood, the Biennale Musique en Scene (Lyons), and the 2009 ISCM World Music Days (Sweden). Roberts is a 2016 Guggenheim Fellowship, and is the recipient of a Fromm Foundation Commission, the Benjamin H. Danks Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, an ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Award, and other awards. Commissions have come from the Callithumpian Consort, the Boston Conservatory Wind Ensemble, pianist Nolan Pearson, the Tanglewood Music Center, Guerilla Opera, and others.

SIFT - PRESS RELEASE

Duo repertoire is a fascinating exploration of the tension between monologue and dialogue, homogeneity and duality, and contrast versus hybridity. On their bold debut full length recording, the intrepid bass clarinet and marimba duo Transient Canvas (Amy Advocat, bass clarinet & Matt Sharrock, marimba) present music written for them that explores the wide range of roles and textures for these two instruments. The pieces explore merged timbres, powerfully declamatory unison statements, and narrative structures to draw the listener into their colorful world. On top of the excellent performances is the major contribution of five substantial new works that celebrate the craft of composition at the highest level. Daniel T. Lewis’ sift, the title track, opens with a haunting timbre — beautifully high overtones of the bass clarinet create a halo effect floating above both instruments material in the low register. The work evolves patiently, as more pitches from the overtone series are explicitly articulated, and the bass clarinet begins to glide between the well tempered pitches of the marimba with gooey microtones. The bass clarinet takes a lead role in Tina Tallon’s dirty water, framing blistering outbursts, plaintive wailing, and bravura rips with percussive punctuations. Midway through the piece the dense activity gives way to haunting trills in both instruments before the insistent staccato punctuations signal a return to the denser, virtuosic material from the opening in a compressed coda. The raw energy of the attention grabbing opening of Curtis Hughes’ Vestibule III leads quickly into more introspective material. The composer describes the work as a “series of short, related duos that seem to exist in a state of perpetual transition between contrasting textural and stylistic worlds.” The dichotomy between driving, rhythmic textures and thoughtful, reflective moments predominates throughout. In John Murphree’s Purge, the duo finds plenty of opportunites to show off their individual chops and impeccable ensemble coordination, as both instruments dance around in kinetic passagework. Adam Roberts’ Nostalgia Variations is a perfect marriage of form and content, as it is an exploration of an affect of longing for the past in a form that had its heyday in prior centuries. Roberts’ creativity in finding fresh contexts for his poignant, emotive theme makes this twenty minute work remarkable. As with all great variations sets, the shape of the work as a whole is the sum of its component variations, and in this case Roberts is able to capture the wide range of expressive territory in the present that is associated with contemplating the loss of one’s past. He writes in the program note that the work is “about finding a way to engage with such emotions in, as a Buddhist would say, the middle path.” Not surpring then that Nostalgia Variations ends unresolved, with a disembodied statement of the opening theme that seems less to look back to the past as to look forward to the future, albeit with a question mark. Advocat and Sharrock bring virtuosic instrumental command, deep interpretive understanding, and infectious energy to these performances of works they are responsible for bringing into the repertoire. These are the ingredients that meaningful activity in new music are made of, and Transient Canvas has them in droves.

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