Author Archives: jarrett lee

“Saturday night, in a world of possibilities”

As Max Kerman belted out the lyrics to one of the songs off of the Arkells’ latest album, it almost seemed too perfect. These lyrics were incredibly apt for the evening. It may have been a Saturday night at the humble Pacific Coliseum, but it sure felt like the audience had the world at their fingertips. The concert was fueled by energy both from the band and from the crowd, but stylistically the performers matched their showmanship with their musical abilities.

The opening song for the night was their latest single, “Relentless”. This song has received a lot of radio-play off of the local rock stations, but the story of how the song was made has not been as well-broadcasted. The band decided to use the theme from an obscure song (“Sixolele Baba”) by a South African artist, Chicco. This theme provided a recurrent ostinato for the Arkells’ latest single, and has become arguably the most distinguishable feature of the song. There is an old saying by comedian Rob Paravonian, “Punk rock is a joke, it’s really just Baroque”. Although it is not meant to be taken seriously, this piece is an excellent example of the point Paravonian was trying to make. Popular music nowadays continues to draw from features used in the past, and the ostinato used in the basso continuo in the Baroque era.

The lyrics to a lot of these pieces were based on themes from modern-day culture. For instance, the song “People’s Champ” was based off of the leadership (or according to the song, lack thereof) in the United States. The politically-charged “American Screams” is a piece that accentuates the short-fused and feverish political climate. Although not performed on tour, the song “Company Man” was supposed to be a representation of former White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer. For a Canadian band, it does seem as though the Arkells are quite focused on the United States. But this extra-musical association is necessary in the band’s eyes, as these issues dominated news headlines when they were making the album, and continue to today.

Another interesting feature that the band brought with them on tour was the use of a horn section. Although not exclusively part of the band, the Northern Soul Horns have been known to collaborate with the Arkells for certain songs. Specifically for the song “Saturday Night”, the horns were not only a prominent feature in the song, but frontman Max Kerman allowed each instrument to have a solo during an improvised cadenza. With the rhythm of the drum set playing in the background, Kerman would prompt one instrument by asking, “What does a Saturday Night sound like to you?” The instrument would then reply with the idée fixe of the piece, with an improvised transformation added to it. One by one, the synthesizer, guitar, saxophone, and trumpet would reply to the prompt and show their individual skills. The piece would then conclude with a triumphant ending to the song played by the whole band.

But as memorable as the musical elements of their performance are, what elevates the Arkells’ concert from a musical exhibition to an entertainment production is their showmanship. Whether it be crowd surfing or walking through the crowd and handing out sick notes to those who have to work the next day, the entertainment value of the show comes from both the music and the crowd interaction. If you want to see the Arkells for their musical attributes, the band will have you covered. But if you want a combination of that and emotional entertainment, the Arkells will have more than enough in their arsenal.

The second performance I watched at the VSO music festival was a silent film with a live organ accompaniment. As entertaining as the silent film was, the focus of the show was the organ. According to Dirk, the Orpheum is the last installation in Canada left with an originally-preserved organ. The organ has been built into the Orpheum since its opening night in 1927, but it is important to note that it does not appear on the stage at all times. This is because the organ actually stays in the basement, and rises to the Orpheum stage by a hydraulic press. Once turned on, a “blower” in the basement feeds wind through the chambers, giving 949 pipes in the left and right chambers the wind pressure to produce sound. With the many rows of keys, buttons, and pedals in the organ, there are a multitude of noises and sounds it can produce. In the left chamber, there are about 600 pipes that provide the accompaniment. In the right chambers, it will provide the noises that would be associated with a “solo”. Therefore, it would produce noises such as the tuba, oboe, trumpet, drums, etc. The organ can also provide other peculiar noises such as bells, percussion, car horns, train whistles, and bird chirps.

The organ accompanied Laurel & Hardy’s silent film “The Second Hundred Years”. After the performance, I watched the film on YouTube to compare the organ accompaniment. Although the melodies were similar, there were some noticeable differences. For instance, the live accompaniment at the VSO festival provided “noises” for different actions in the film such as sneezes and spitting. For actions such as squatting, the organ would alternate between high and low voices to show the positions of the characters’ squat (if it is high or low). These noises would be accented notes that did not fit in with the melody to accentuate the characters’ actions. Granted, performers have had about 80 years to perfect the nuances of the score, but it nonetheless made the film more enjoyable than it already is.

The other noticeable difference was the themes that Dirk incorporated into the score. In the original film, the melody seemed to be seamless, as if the different themes were in a mixing pot and melted together. In comparison, Dirk used already familiar themes to the audience for certain moments. In one instance, when a couple of prisoners dug themselves out of their cell and up into the room of the warden, Dirk would play the theme from “Pop Goes the Weasel”. Another example was Handel’s “Hallelujah” theme being played once the prisoners finally escaped the prison. My personal favourite was the “Hockey Night in Canada” theme being played when one of the characters ran around the room attempting to scoop a grape with a fork. It was an excellent utilization of leitmotifs, as the audience was able to draw a greater connection to the scenes from the already-familiar themes.

Overall Dirk’s performance was a needed reminder of the entertainment from a century ago. Although he incorporated modern elements into the score, the use of an organ as a live accompaniment to a film is something that is not readily accessible to most people. Because of this performance, we are able to connect historically to a previous culture, while also appreciating the different “bells & whistles” an instrument such as the organ possesses.

On January 26th, I attended the VSO’s 100th anniversary celebration at the Orpheum. This festival had many performances occurring at the same time in different locations of the venue. One of these was the UBC Percussion Ensemble performing in the lobby of the Orpheum. If you have been to the venue, you can visualize the lobby in front of the Orpheum stage doors as an open area below four levels of four balconies in each direction. Although there was no front stage for the ensemble to perform, the musicians were perched above the lobby on each balcony.

The director encouraged the audience to roam around the lobby and different floors to explore the different instruments, but I decided to stand on the bottom floor in the middle of everything. In this position, I was equally exposed to all of the notes and sounds coming from all directions. This creates an experience where with a polyphonic piece such as Jordan Nobles’s “Perseid Cloud”, being surrounded by the music can pull the audience’s attention everywhere instead of focusing on one voice.

The first piece was Nobles’s “Perseid Cloud”, a piece only played on glockenspiel. Nobles, who was present during the performance, claims that by only using glockenspiels it can give an “out of this world” atmospheric ambiance. The 12 glockenspiels used in this performance represented astroids, or more specifically the debris resonating from a comet; a Perseid Cloud. Although there were 12 glockenspiels used, there appeared to be only 4 voices, and sometimes these voices were isolated for easier detection. Due to my position, sometimes I would hear the isolated voice from my (relative) west, and then it would travel along the glockenspiels on my north and south to the east wing’s voice. This created a sense of being immersed in the music, cultivating an appreciation for the delicate notes from the glockenspiels cascading down from the four levels and surrounding the audience.

The ensemble’s second piece was “Pillow Talking Shop” by Erin Graham. Performed on glockenspiels, xylophones, drum toms, suspended cymbals, finger cymbals, a snare, cowbell, and a wood block, this contained more of a variety of instruments than the previous piece. The piece began with a homorhythmic trill of chords for each voice on the glockenspiels and xylophones. From there, the glockenspiels were being played with the handles of the mallets. This put an emphasis on the rhythm, and allowed the xylophones to carry out the main voice of the melody. At one point, on one side the cymbals and tambourines played, then the timpani and toms would repeat the same rhythms on the other side of the lobby. This was an excellent use of imitation, which allowed the audience to isolate the sounds coming from the left and right sides.

The third piece was another by Jordan Nobles, “Oort Cloud”. This was similar to “Perseid Cloud”, except with cymbals. Before this day, I had never encountered pieces composed in the way Nobles writes. Not only is an all-percussion ensemble atypical in modern pop culture, but there appeared to be a clear direction for the despite despite the amount of instruments and layers of polyphony.

Performing during one of UBC’s noon hour concerts at Barnett Hall, Douglas Finch made the afternoon of January 24th a memorable one for those in attendance. A pianist, composer, and professor, Finch displayed it all in his one-hour programme. Growing up I had been to many piano recitals, but never to one put on by a professional. I was expecting a programme of well-known pieces by famous composers, and that is what it was for half of the concert. However, Finch provided so much more with his own composition, as well as his own signature draw for his performances: improvisation.

The first two pieces came from Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier Book II. The opening piece, Prelude and Fugue No. 15 in G-Major, was originally written as a harmony exercise for his son. Because of this, Finch decided to play the bare harmonic chords of the piece in slow motion at the beginning as a “prayer”; a prelude to the Prelude. The second piece from WTC Book II was Bach’s Prelude and Fugue No. 9 in E-Major. This was based on the plainchant “Pange Lingua” theme, which Finch decided to improvise on. This would be the ending to the piece, capping the Prelude and Fugues with a meditation at the beginning (the “prayer”) and a plainchant theme at the end. This improvisation is especially important to recognize since Fugues were based on the the Fugue Subject. The Fugue Subject would be introduced in The Exposition, but following this there was no set structure or formula for the rest of the Fugue. Therefore, the identifiable theme is repeated in different ways according to how Bach wrote them. In a way, the improvisation of the “Pange Lingua” theme harkens back to the way Bach would compose his fugues; no clear formula, writing whatever composition he wanted to with the Fugue theme.

The next pieces were Finch’s compositions, “The Enchanted Mesa” and “Too Much Happiness” from “Epiphanies”. Both pieces had an eery feeling to it. For the first piece, this is because every time the audience expects the melody to resolve, a minor chord would be played to avoid resolution. The second piece was a form of extra-musical association, as “Epiphanies” is based on the writings of Alice Monroe. This piece emphasized the spoken words by Finch, with a piano accompaniment.

The crown jewel of his repertoire was saved for the end though: a melee of improvised themes suggested by the audience. The audience picked these three themes: “Maria” from “West Side Story”, “Mary Had a Little Lamb”, and “When You Wish Upon a Star”. In terms of theory, I probably would not be able to properly put into terms what exactly was happening. However, the lack of hesitation Finch had was astonishing, especially during the quick and intense parts. During these parts, he would do a “question and response” motif with the “Mary Had a Little Lamb” and “When You Wish Upon a Star” themes. It was amazing to see Finch revive a lost art in improvisation; this was something composers such as Mozart left for performers in his era.

While Finch himself is a talented musician, the improvisation essentially stole the show. It is a nice change to be able to walk into a concert and have no idea of what could come at the end.

Fire & Grace. In terms of characteristics, these can be two polar opposites of each other. A fiery temperament versus a graceful finesse. Yet the duo of William Coulter (guitar) and Edwin Huizinga (violin) is able to contain the two, producing a passionate yet graceful product. Famous for the combination of Baroque and Folk, the versatile string duo carries over elements from previous eras, while incorporating their own spin on pieces as well.

The concert opened with Bach’s Prelude from Cello Suite No. 1. Performed at a quick tempo, the violin carried the melody. While it was normally quick, the violin was able to draw out long fermatas and slow the piece down when needed. Different dynamics and tempos were able to captivate the audience, building up a grandiose conclusion. Meanwhile, the guitar almost provided a percussion rock-beat. The repetitious “boom-cha-boom-cha” from the guitar sounded very similar to a bass and snare drum alternating in a standard rock beat. This not only provided the rhythm for the violin, but the strumming would also have an effect as an additional voice to the melody. Although there were two instruments, the main voice of the violin and accompaniment from the guitar made the piece mostly homophonic.

The modern minimalistic performance still retained elements of the Baroque period, specifically a basso continuo. This was evident in Bach’s prelude, and also in the Fire & Grace’s “Liquid Gold Suite”. This medley alternates between pieces by Bach and traditional Irish jigs. In Bach’s pieces, the guitar continued to provide the basso continuo while the violin played the melody. Since the pieces were very distinct from each other, I was curious as to how both Coulter and Huizinga would transition between a Baroque-style piece to a traditional jig, and vice-versa. The answer was seamlessly. For instance, between Bach’s Allemande from Partita No.2 and Brian Finnegan’s “Marga’s Moment”, the guitar would be isolated by repeatedly a few notes of the tonic chord from the end of Bach’s piece. From there, the guitar would change modes into the Finnegan’s key. All of this was done while the violin provided an ongoing drone. Then between Finnegan’s piece and Bach’s “Courante”, Fire & Grace would replace the resolving last note of Finnegan’s piece with the first note of Bach’s. These types of transitions continued from one movement to the next, playing the Suite as interwoven fabrics sewn together by the same seamstress.

Although they were played together, there were definitely some noticeable differences between the types of pieces. While Bach’s pieces were simple with a melody and continued bass, the jigs were lively with both parts contributing to the dynamic. Because of this, it was easier to isolate the different instrumental parts in Bach’s pieces, while it was best to listen to both parts as a product from the Irish jigs. The contrast between finesse and passion. Fire & Grace.

The duo put a unique twist on a typical concert. While they continued to represent the importance of the Baroque era, they also showed how other traditional lively pieces can be interwoven with instrumental Bach classics.