ICE’s world premiere presentation last month of In Plain Air, our collaboration with Christ Church Philadelphia, was an amazing experience. We’d like to present composers Phyllis Chen and Nathan Davis’s own descriptions of the component pieces that made up the cycle, which were played continuously.
In the Christ Church cemetery and courtyard:
Chen: Floating Verses
for suspended music boxes
Music box strips created in collaboration with over 150 community members during a July 2018 workshop at Philadelphia’s Magic Gardens. —Phyllis Chen
Chen: Rapunzel
for amplified music box suspended from the top of Christ Church’s steeple and played on ground level in the courtyard
Phyllis Chen, solo music box
Since July 2017, we have been making regular visits to Christ Church to witness the different phases of the organ being assembled until its completion. During a visit in November, we were shown a close-up view of this incredibly sophisticated mechanical instrument. I’ve been composing and performing with custom-made hand-cranked music boxes for many years and I saw the coincidental overlap of these two mechanical instruments as a place of inspiration. On one hand, the music box is very limited in register and timbre. It is very small and makes a beautifully plucked sound. The organ, on the other hand, is a grand instrument with incredible sustain power and so many timbral possibilities. —Phyllis Chen
Davis: Bellarmonic
for the bells of Christ Church, Philadelphia
In November I made detailed recordings and samples of the eleven bells in the Christ Church tower, with the help of my ICE colleagues. In bypassing the carillon mechanism, we are able to make longer sounds that aren’t dependent on the single attack of a clapper. With these I am creating a piece for the bells, closely mic’ed, so that the audience can have the rare and extraordinary experience of hearing these wonderful and historic instruments as they actually sound in the belfry, rather than at a distance. In this piece, I am hoping to evoke something of the “Bellarmonic” which was theorized and prototyped by [Christ Church parishioner, composer and signer of the Declaration of Independence] Francis Hopkinson, trying to build on Benjamin Franklin’s glass armonica. —Nathan Davis
Levy Lorenzo sounding the bell in the church
In the chapel:
Chen: Organ Pulses
for solo horn and organ
Nicolee Kuester, horn
During our first visit to Christ Church, the old organ had been gutted out of the sanctuary, leaving a hole where the new Fisk was to be installed. The site was unusual as the organ is often considered the heart of a church’s sanctuary. “Organ Pulses” uses only the pedal stops that include 16’ and 32’ pipes in order to create physical beatings in the church with the sound of the horn. I was making regular visits to an Eastern medicine doctor who would take my pulse for nearly ten minutes at the start of each visit. This mysterious process give him detailed information on the wellbeing of my vital body organs. Only later did I learn that there are over one hundred different Classical Classifications to describe pulses, such as stringy, floating, slippery, taut, lazy, etc., all revealed through subtle difference in my pulse character. This ancient practice of pulse reading became the impetus from this work. —Phyllis Chen
Davis: Inside Voice
for ensemble and electronics
”Inside Voice” was inspired by the Fisk Organ in a transitional state of becoming. During my November trip to Philadelphia to work with it during installation, many of the ranks were in place, but some were not. Therefore the keys would always produce air through the system of hoses, but when certain stops were engaged (those with no pipes installed) they produced only filtered white noise. It is a wonderful sound, but one that is not playable on the finished organ. Instead, the member of ICE, using their instruments to produce air sounds, form a metaphoric human bellows that is played using virtual valves created electronically. A glimpse inside the workings of a living instrument, this was a moment that will not happen again. —Nathan Davis
Davis: Pistons and Divisions
Jacob Greenberg, Indian harmonium
This work examines the sense of space within Christ Church. A rapid toccata texture in the organ is answered by slow-swelling sustained harmonies in the Indian harmonium in one of the pews, halfway back through the church’s length. The doppler effect on how one hears tuning in spread-out spaces makes one aware of how both organs—the enormous pipe organ and the tiny harmonium—are projecting in the cavity of Christ Church. —Jacob Greenberg
Chen: Field Gaze
for toy horn ensemble and organ
Davis: Terz, Quinte & Cymbelstern
for percussion and organ
Ross Karre, percussion
Davis: Dulcian and Bombarde
for contrabassoon and organ
Nanci Belmont, contrabassoon
These three works examine the timbre of the near-infinite possibilities of registration in the organ, from high to low, piercing to rumbling, and the initial “chink” of the onset of sound which is similar to blowing in a toy horn. —Jacob Greenberg
Chen: From High Windows
for music box and organ
Phyllis Chen, music box
”From High Windows” was written to evoke the image of cranking the music box strip from one of Christ Church’s iconic open windows. The clear windows have signified the open exchange between the church and the outside community. “From High Windows” musically bridges the outside world, bringing the music boxes in the garden into the sanctuary. —Phyllis Chen
Chen: When Breath Becomes Air
for organ whistles, bassoon, clarinet, and percussion
While touring the innards of the organ, we saw the various sizes of and materials used in the pipe whistles. Many of the pipe whistles were small enough to make a sound by blowing in them. I decided to create a miniature mobile organ by making small organ whistles that ICE would perform. I worked with a longtime collaborator, Ranjit Bhatnagar, to design these whistles that were later assembled iwth students from the Charter High School of Architecture and Design of Philadelphia. Fifteen of the whistles assembled during our workshop became this mobile organ. “When Breath Becomes Air” is named after Paul Kalanithi’s memoir—the delicate line at which air becomes proof of something living has been a preoccupation of mine throughout this project. —Phyllis Chen
Davis: The Proof Notes
for ensemble and organ
The slowly shifting harmonies of this work for organ and ensemble of sustaining instruments is inspired by [Francis] Hopkinson’s process of tuning the harpsichord. —Nathan Davis
In Plain Air
World Premiere with International Contemporary Ensemble
Christ Church, Philadelphia
Parker Kitterman, organ
International Contemporary Ensemble
Joshua Rubin, clarinets
Nanci Belmont, bassoons
Ryan Muncy, saxophones
Nicolee Kuester, horn
Michael Lormand, trombone
Bridget Kibbey, harp
Daniel Lippel, guitar
Ross Karre, percussion
Nathan Davis, dulcimer
Randy Zigler, bass
Jacob Greenberg, keyboard and Indian harmonium
Levy Lorenzo, electronics and sound design
Photo credit: Plate 3