Euridice Remix by Noise Reduction Society

Euridice Remix was premiered at the Forum for Contemporary Art in St. Louis on Saturday, March 23, 2002 to a standing room only audience. The following is drawn from the concert program.

The ancient greek legend of Euridice and Orfeo is a powerful story of the ability of love to overcome evil. It has all the right ingrediants: A beautiful, charming woman, and her strong and capable suitor. Just at the moment of their greatest happiness, tragedy strikes. And in the end, their struggle to overcome evil makes them stronger as individuals and more closely bound in love.

This work also interested me from a historical perspective. In 1600, the first extant opera was performed. Its musical content was carefully crafted to express the newest, cutting edge thoughts on musical aesthetics of the day. Over the next six years, it, and two or three following works established a new form -- opera -- and created a new musical style -- the baroque. In less then ten years, the tone of the middle ages and the rennaissance (a combined period of at least 900 years) changed, forever. Incredible. Now, at the dawn of a new century I thought it interesting to revisit a work that brought about such a drastic change. The early Baroque composers referred to their new style as nuove musiche -- new music. They consciously created a new style and knew they were charting a new course.

With this production, I will not make such enormous claims, although it does represent a strong current trend to incorporate technology into live performance. With advancements in processing speed, elaborate sound processing in realtime with graphic user control is now possible. Complexity of sound manipulation that would have taken hours of computational time even five years ago, can now happen spontaneously and under intricate user control with the drag of a mouse.

We are also exploring the juxtaposition of tonality with non-tonality and non-pitched sound sources. As the manipulation of sound sources becomes more extensive in the digital domain, the presence of sound that is non-pitched can be “performed” as one might perform on a conventional instrument. The result is musical gestures in sound that are without tonal reference. They are not a-tonal, they are non-tonal and create a music that is sound and texture based without reference to chromatic or diatonic tonality. Additionally, we are seeking a relationship between freely improvised music created by technological means and determinate musical structures performed traditionally in an environment that is referenced to the classical music tradition of serious interpretive music.

This performance is an adaptation of Peri’s work. I have made significant cuts, paraphrases, and insertions. Early Baroque music did not notate specific instrumentation, there were many improvised ornaments, and many details were left up to the performers as a way to allow the music to meet a variety of needs and circumstances. Figured bass, the shorthand sketch of bassline and chords is all that Peri wrote for accompaniment to the vocal lines. Performers realized the chord structures in an improvisational style similiar to the way jazz players render their parts when playing from a lead sheet. Choices of instrumentation were based on availability as much as on affect, and the musicians were free to choose whether the part would be played on an organ, lute, harpsichord, or strings. If the peformance took place outside, then brass instruments would have been added to make the music louder. If performed in the upper chamber of a royal palace (as the premiere of Euridice was), the choice of instruments would have drawn upon the softer strings and small portible keyboards.

It is this intrinsic flexibility that suggested the adaption of this work to contemporary musical forces. I have tried to preserve many aspects of the original work, but instrumentation, language, and performance practice are contemporary. I hope the result will be interesting.

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This piece is built on the idea of constructed layers of patterns that interact and juxtapose to create textures of harmonic and melodic flow. Within these structures, memory fragments of the original opera surface. This work is architectural in concept.

It is the morphing between the remnants of an early work, molded and fashioned into a modern statement using current technological tools. It uses the power of the computer to create structures that would not be possible humanly.

At the turn of the 21st century, it is currently fashionable to take existing musical fragments and reuse them in a new context. Like fragments in a collage, these musical elements function representationally as well as structurally and as content. They often provide the underlying framework for new musical ideas. This practice of creating a “remix” of earlier material is reaching the point where the remix goes so far afield from the original as to be an essentially new composition. This has been my goal here.


Prologue
The original prologue was a narrative by the traditional Greek dramatic character “Tragedy” who told of how he usually made the audience “turn pale with pity.” However, on this special occasion (the royal wedding which this performance was celebrating) his usual fateful state is chased away. “Behold, I change my gloomy and dark robes to awaken in the heart sweeter emotions.” Just as Tragedy is transformed, so will this tragic story be transformed in honor of the royal wedding party.
Scene One
Euridice and her handmaidens are awaiting a visit by her husband-to-be, Orfeo. They are dancing and singing in a sun-filled meadow.
Scene Two
Orfeo and his trusted friend Arcetro are reminiscing about how sad Orfeo had been before he met Euridice. But now that he has found her, he is completely happy. They discuss how everyone is joyous about the wedding. A shepherd, Tirsi, stops by to give his congratulations. Just at this moment, the worst news arrives. Dafne, one of Euridice’s handmaidens arrives to tell Orfeo that his bride was bitten by a poisonous snake and suddenly died. At the end of the scene, Orfeo sings a lament and promises to come to her.
Scene Three
Orfeo rushes to the meadow. Arcetro follows but because Orfeo is so sad and distraught, he does not know what to do. Orfeo eventually finds the very spot where she had died and falls on the ground. His grief is so sincere that suddenly out of the sky, a woman riding a chariot pulled by doves appears. The woman lands near Orfeo and reachers out her hand to him. He joins her in the chariot and they ride off into the heavens.
Scene Four
The woman in the chariot is Venus, and she has taken Orfeo to the gates of the underworld. Orfeo confronts Pluto and asks to have Euridice returned to him on Earth. Pluto argues that it is against all laws. Eventually, the power of Orfeo’s beautiful song convinces Pluto. Orfeo is allowed to enter the underworld and bring Euridice back to Earth.
Scene Five
Later the same day, the friends and handmaidens have gathered again in the meadow. They are sad at the loss of Euridice and worried that Orfeo has flown off to somewhere unknown. Aminta, one of the handmaidens arrives and says that Euridice is alive; she has seen her with Orfeo at the home of her parents. Soon afterward, Euridice and Orfeo arrive and everyone is happy. The opera ends with the entire cast singing and dancing.

Italian is used for texts that reflect the original work. English is used for texts that are completely new additions. The primary purpose of Euridice Remix is musical and I have not intended to fully portray all aspects of the story.

Ambient with neoclassical and electronics. I try to express beauty and soul in my music. I started with a VCS3 and a 2340 deck! Along the way I have written and produced my opera with a NEA grant, and worked with amazing musicians. I will always be fascinated by analog synthesizers, digital processing, tape loops, and found sounds.

NoiseReductionSociety.com
James Hegarty
James Hegarty Jazz Visions
jimhegarty.com