A Sweeter Music
Sarah Cahill, Piano
John Sanborn, video
premier performance
The Residents’ drum no fife (Why We Need War)
for solo piano and voiceJanuary 25, 2009
As part of the Cal Performances series, Sarah premieres new compositions, written on the theme of peace, from her project A Sweeter Music. New works include Frederic Rzewski’s Peace Dances, Terry Riley’s Be Kind to One Another (Rag), Peter Garland’s After the Wars, Yoko Ono’s Toning, Larry Polansky’s b’midbar, Pauline Oliveros’ A New Indigo Peace, The Residents’ drum no fife (Why We Need War), and Preben Antonsen’s Dar al-Harb. Video projections, on three screens, are by John Sanborn, who has collaborated with such artists as Bill T. Jones, Van Halen, and Mikhail Baryshnikov. Hertz Hall, UC Berkeley.
The concert will tour.
Information about Sarah Cahill.
She specializes in new American music as well as the American experimental tradition, and has commissioned, premiered, and recorded numerous compositions for solo piano. Composers who have dedicated music to her include John Adams, Terry Riley, Frederic Rzewski, Pauline Oliveros, Kyle Gann, Andrea Morricone, and Evan Ziporyn, and she has also premiered pieces by Lou Harrison, Julia Wolfe, Ingram Marshall, Toshi Ichiyanagi, Ursula Mamlok, George Lewis, Leo Ornstein, and many others.
MUSIC NOTES
The idea of dealing with concepts as challenging as War and Peace is daunting. While it certainly seems simple enough - War is bad and Peace is good - life seldom offers such concrete platforms from which an artiste can launch his peace seeking missiles. Gone are the good wars - if they ever existed - and left in their place is the gray, drab reality of death, injustice and intolerable waste, filling our lives with the noise of unwinnable wars. And why? If life made any sense, we would have been wiped out a long time ago. But it doesn't and so we struggle along, embracing the battle as much as life itself. Like it or not, it's who we are. Rejoice, sing hosannahs and pass the bottle - just don't forget to duck.
- The Residents
Audience Recording of the performance January 25, 2009
Sarah Cahill, piano - The Residents, prerecorded voice
drum no fife (Why We Need War)