Daniel Goode, co-director of the DownTown Ensemble (it was started in 1983) explains how he got the idea to reform the traditional symphony orchestra.
The Flexible Orchestra, an idea and a name both hit me like a bolt of lightening in 2003: The instrumentation of the traditional orchestra is inflexible (with some toying around the edges: adding an exotic instrument or so, or electronics), the system feeds on itself, excluding new blood, its economics impossible, and it has terrible trouble relating both to contemporary developments and needs of its own community. Since I love the orchestral sound, think it is the big invention of Western culture, have loved so much of the traditional orchestral literature since a child, I have tried to re-conceive the orchestra, or if you will, reform it. With some very small sums of money I started the Flexible Orchestra in 2004, now with three years, one-concert per year, we are launched. The basic idea is that we can get the effect of a large orchestral sound with strategic instrumentation. And we change the configuration every year or two, not every 200 or so. Thus in an ensemble of 15 (determined by budget), we had 12 cellos, flute, clarinet, trombone for two years. Then: 11 trombones, 2 clarinets (all doublings), viola, percussion, and this year, 10 trombones, 2 clarinets again, 2 double basses, piano. I plan to rotate the instrumentation through most of the choirs of the orchestra, always having a majority of one timbre, and a few complementing other instruments. Of course all repertory for these combinations must be commissioned. A somewhat utopian idea is for flexible orchestras to spring up in other communities, allowing for co-commissioning and repeat performances of repertory if we co-ordinate our instrumentations. I'm working on this with other interested musicians in Vancouver and Amsterdam, though funding is very, very difficult. Another spin off, however, is easy as it is wonderful. With a choir of cellos, we can revive significant multi-cello pieces (we did with Hellermann and Lois Vierk works), with a choir of trombones we revived a 1969 work by Fred Rzewski for 10 trombones, and this becomes, in general, possible and useful, since pieces like these of artistic merit for specialized combos and numbers have a hard time finding revivals, and are easy to do at our concerts. So, in one sense we can pick up on the neglected recent past, while giving some timbral variety to our orchestral programming. I have been very lucky in our conductor, who has continued to be a David Gilbert protégé, Tara Simoncic. And for my own creative development there has been a huge stimulus. I have written a new piece for each year of the Flexible Orchestra. In 2007 I revised and expanded the one from 2006, Annbling, which will be for the orchestration listed above with some large gamelan gongs in the mix. I wrote a significant essay about the relationship between gamelan and the founding of the Flexible Orchestra for the AMC's NewMusicBox. http://www.newmusicbox.org/article.nmbx?id=4652
Flexible Orchestra 08
-Fifth Season! performs works of Henry Brant, Daniel Goode, Skip La Plante
October 10th, 8 PM, St. Peter's Episcopal Church, 346 W.20th St., #1 Subway to Christopher St. $10. Info 212-925-6684. dsgoode@earthlink.net
FLUTES PLUS!
A completely new orchestration! Eleven flutes, tuba, harpsichord, trumpet, contrabass (Skip La Plant)
Conducted once more by Tara Simoncic; solo flute: Karl Kraber (in Brants masterpiece from 1931, Angels and Devils for eleven flutes.) This is the first performance of the piece since the passing of Henry Brant this year.
Daniel Goode, director/founder
An alternative to the historical orchestra with a section of one
instrumental family plus s sprinkling of others, changing every
year or two!
Flexible Orchestra
Premieres: Tuba Thrush by Daniel Goode. An orchestration for 11 flutes, tuba and harpsichord of an actual Hermit Thrush, emphasizing the wonderful natural harmonies, nature's passacaglia!
Hasibrari by Skip La Plante for 8 flutes, trumpet solo and contrabass. A piece of equal influences from Indonesian gamelan, Sibelius, and Terry Riley.
Revivals: Angels and Devils by Henry Brant. A three movement piece of real gravitas by the famous experimentalist, who died at 96 this year.
Bottle Game by Skip La Plante. A funny and wonderful piece from the early '70's composed for Skip's Homemade Instruments group. Performed on bottles and flutes.
October 10th, Friday, 8 PM, St. Peter's Episcopal Church
finally we surmount the rigidity of the historical orchestra with a section of one instrumental family plus a sprinkling of others, changing every year or two.
Flutist Karl Kraber has performed on five continents
and in 49 U.S. states as a soloist and chamber artist. From 1965-85
he performed 900 concerts and made numerous recordings with the
Dorian Wind Quintet. He has also been a member of the New
York Chamber Soloists and the Aeolian Chamber Players. He
has been a guest artist with the Lincoln Center Chamber Music
Society and the Berkshire, Cavani and Galimir Quartets, and is
a founding member of The Chamber Soloists of Austin which has
toured South America as U.S. Artistic Ambassadors and performed
at the Kennedy Center, and he performs with New York Philomusica
Chamber Ensemble. He has been a concerto soloist with
the Boston Pops, the UNAM Filarmonica of Mexico City, the Santa
Cecilia Orchestra of Rome, the Sunriver, Flathead, New Hampshire
and Waterloo Festivals among many others, as well as the Austin
Symphony where he was Principal Flute for 21 years.
As an orchestral player and New York
free-lancer he was a regular alternate Principal Flute with the
American Symphony and the Brooklyn Philharmonic, and a frequent
sub in the NY Philharmonic, sitting next to Julius Baker.
He has played under Abbado, Barbirolli, Bernstein, Comissiona,
DeCarvalho, Fiedler, Foss, Kubelik, Rostdestvensky, Schwarz and
Tilson Thomas, among many others.
Tara Simoncic is enjoying
her fifth year as conductor of the Flexible Orchestra. In
the New York area she has worked with the Brooklyn, New Amsterdam,
Kingsborough, and Greenwich Symphonies and the Bergen Philharmonic.
Dedicated to working with young musicians, she served as the conductor
of the C.W. Post Summer Music Festival's Seminar Orchestra for
three years, has guest conducted at the Kinhaven Summer School
of Music in Vermont, and is the conductor of the Principal Orchestra
of the Norwalk Youth Symphony, a position that she has held for
four years. After receiving her Master of Music in orchestral
conducting Ms. Simoncic won the position of Assistant Conductor
with the Knoxville Symphony and was the conductor of the Knoxville
Symphony String Chamber Orchestra and Youth Orchestra.
Ms. Simoncic's training extends to Europe
where she has participated in master classes with the Canford
Summer School of Music (England), Bohuslav Martinu Philharmonic
(Czech Republic), West Bohemian Symphony Orchestra (Czech Republic),
the Adygeya Republic National Symphony Orchestra and the Astrakhan
Symphony Orchestra (Russian Republic) where she has recently been
invited back as a guest conductor
Daniel Goode, composer and clarinetist,
was born in New York. His solo, ensemble and intermedia works
have been performed worldwide. He is co-founder/director of the
DownTown Ensemble, formed in 1983. He has been a performer and
composer with Gamelan Son of Lion since 1976. He was a 2004 Fellowship
recipient from the New York Foundation for the Arts. The
same year he founded the Flexible Orchestra, a new concept of
orchestra. He has premiered three works for it since then, which
are among the Flexible Orchestra's eight new works. The Flexible
Orchestra received a major grant from the New York State Music
Fund in 2006.
His innovative music for solo clarinet
includes Circular Thoughts (Theodore Presser Co.) and Clarinet
Songs on the XI label. He has performed on solo clarinet and
in ensembles world-wide in international festivals from Moscow
to Java, including the Krakow Audio Arts Festival of 1997. Tunnel-Funnel
for 15 instruments, was performed at New Music America and
Bang on a Can festivals, and recorded on Tzadik.
WHAT'S NEW IN 2008: In October 2008, the Flexible Orchestra will consist of 11 eleven flutes, tuba, harpsichord, and homemade instruments. We have commissioned Skip La Plante to do a new piece with the orchestra and ensemble, Music for Homemade Instruments. I will do a new piece, a transcription of a beautiful Hermit Thrush song recorded in Cape Breton Nova Scotia in the '80's. And we will do a revival of Henry Brant's wonderful 1931 Angels and Devils for eleven flutes, featuring virtuoso, Karl Kraber in the solo role. For more information, contact, Daniel Goode at dsgoode@earthlink.net
