STILL (2016) for solo piano
Ashlee Mack in performance at the Clyfford Still Museum (Denver, Colorado) • October 5, 2017
"hypnotic... distills music to its barest essences" — Citation, 2019 Pulitzer Prize in Music
"profoundly meditative, haunting" — The Wire
"develops with the naturalness of breathing" — The New Yorker
"a vast space, both broad and deep" — Fanfare
"unfolds in sparse, slow-moving beauty" — San Francisco Chronicle
UPCOMING PERFORMANCES
June 2021 — SICPP at New England Conservatory (Louis Goldstein)
Fall 2021 — Penn State University (Ashlee Mack)
Fall 2021 — Roosevelt University (Ashlee Mack)
Fall 2021 — Truman State University North Star Music Festival (Ashlee Mack)
Fall 2021 — Penn State University (Ashlee Mack)
Fall 2021 — Roosevelt University (Ashlee Mack)
Fall 2021 — Truman State University North Star Music Festival (Ashlee Mack)
PAST PERFORMANCES
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07-24-24 Misty Shore Salon (Miami)
12-02-19 The Stone (NYC) 10-12-19 Eastern Illinois University 09-22-19 Webster University 09-12-19 Illinois State University 09-04-19 Western Illinois University 06-22-19 Petrified Forest National Park 05-05-19 Timucua Arts Foundation 04-03-19 Rochester, NY 04-11-19 Lawrence Conservatory 02-26-19 Wake Forest University 02-21-19 University of Louisville 02-10-19 Tolstefanz, Germany 01-24-19 Cincinnati Conservatory 11-01-18 Figge Art Museum 10-11-18 University of Denver 10-07-18 Montauk: Clermont, IA 10-06-18 Cedar Rock: Quasqueton, IA 10-04-18 Porter House: Decorah, IA 09-28-18 St. Ambrose University 09-23-18 University of Wisconsin–Whitewater 07-25-18 Darmstadt Musikinstitut 03-10-18 Milwaukee Art Museum 03-08-18 University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee 02-02-18 Butler University 01-26-18 Knox College 12-17-17 Everglades National Park 12-08-17 University of Miami 11-28-17 Murray State University 10-25-17 Carleton College 10-23-17 University of Minnesota 10-19-17 University of Tennessee–Knoxville 10-11-17 University of Northern Colorado 10-06-17 Metropolitan State University 10-06-17 Clyfford Still Museum 10-05-17 Clyfford Still Museum 10-05-17 University of Denver 10-04-17 University of Colorado–Boulder 10-02-17 University of Nebraska–Kearney 09-29-17 Bradley University 09-28-17 Illinois Wesleyan University 09-22-17 Northern Illinois University 09-20-17 Illinois College 09-19-17 Western Illinois University |
Still at the Milwaukee Art Museum • March 10, 2018
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James Romig, composer
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Ashlee Mack, pianist
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RECORDING
Ashlee Mack's recording of Still is now available (cd and digital download) from New World Records
Purchase at: Amazon • iTunes • New World Records
Purchase at: Amazon • iTunes • New World Records
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VIDEO (COMPLETE) |
AUDIO (EXCERPT) |
PROGRAM NOTE
Still, for solo piano, was commissioned in 2016 by Ashlee Mack, Carl Patrick Bolleia, Louis Goldstein, Michiko Saiki, and Paola Savvidou, with additional support provided by the Clyfford Still Museum (Denver, Colorado). The work was a finalist for the 2019 Pulitzer Prize in Music, and a recording by Ashlee Mack is available on New World Records. Still has been performed in concert halls, art museums, historic homes, and in plein air performances at national parks.
As the work unfolds over the course of approximately 54 minutes, a strand of 24 pitches (a linear concatenation of eight unique trichords) is gradually revealed via a series of 43 iterations of equal duration performed without pause. Each iteration comprises three, four, five, or six pitch-classes, progressing successively in a repeating pattern of 3–4–5–6–5–4–3.... Because iterations containing a larger number of pitches also incorporate a higher degree of musical activity, seven large-scale arcs of rhythmic
density are formed over the duration of the piece. On the musical surface, each of the 43 iterations contain a similar arc of intensity, resulting in a fluctuation of moment-to-moment activity that corresponds isomorphically to the work's large-scale structure.
The music is inspired by the paintings of American abstract expressionist Clyfford Still, who felt that his work was best appreciated when shown in a gallery containing only his work. He preferred not to sell his paintings, and on the rare occasions when he did he endeavored to keep the works together in groups. Collections that he parted with during his lifetime can be seen at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, the San Francisco Museum of Modern art, and the Albright-Knox Gallery in Buffalo. Aside from these exceptions, and a smattering of single paintings and small collections held elsewhere, most (95%) of his work was held in storage during his lifetime. After his death in 1980, his estate searched for an American city willing to house the enormous collection, and In 2011 the Clyfford Still Museum opened in Denver, Colorado.
When visiting the Clyfford Still Museum, one wanders intuitively from work to work, making a variety of connections between different paintings. Each visitor has a unique experience, but because all the works come from a single creator a "big picture" eventually emerges. The goal of this piano piece is to create a similar environment, allowing a listener to develop a notion of the work’s entirety by listening to multiple iterative variations of harmony and rhythm (color and form). The inner repetitions and associations within and between the sections of music are likely to provide each listener with a unique experience, determined by whichever musical features are noted, remembered, and compared. It is the hope of the composer that Still is in some ways a "museum of sound" that provides each listener with a variety of aesthetic pathways to wander and explore.
As the work unfolds over the course of approximately 54 minutes, a strand of 24 pitches (a linear concatenation of eight unique trichords) is gradually revealed via a series of 43 iterations of equal duration performed without pause. Each iteration comprises three, four, five, or six pitch-classes, progressing successively in a repeating pattern of 3–4–5–6–5–4–3.... Because iterations containing a larger number of pitches also incorporate a higher degree of musical activity, seven large-scale arcs of rhythmic
density are formed over the duration of the piece. On the musical surface, each of the 43 iterations contain a similar arc of intensity, resulting in a fluctuation of moment-to-moment activity that corresponds isomorphically to the work's large-scale structure.
The music is inspired by the paintings of American abstract expressionist Clyfford Still, who felt that his work was best appreciated when shown in a gallery containing only his work. He preferred not to sell his paintings, and on the rare occasions when he did he endeavored to keep the works together in groups. Collections that he parted with during his lifetime can be seen at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, the San Francisco Museum of Modern art, and the Albright-Knox Gallery in Buffalo. Aside from these exceptions, and a smattering of single paintings and small collections held elsewhere, most (95%) of his work was held in storage during his lifetime. After his death in 1980, his estate searched for an American city willing to house the enormous collection, and In 2011 the Clyfford Still Museum opened in Denver, Colorado.
When visiting the Clyfford Still Museum, one wanders intuitively from work to work, making a variety of connections between different paintings. Each visitor has a unique experience, but because all the works come from a single creator a "big picture" eventually emerges. The goal of this piano piece is to create a similar environment, allowing a listener to develop a notion of the work’s entirety by listening to multiple iterative variations of harmony and rhythm (color and form). The inner repetitions and associations within and between the sections of music are likely to provide each listener with a unique experience, determined by whichever musical features are noted, remembered, and compared. It is the hope of the composer that Still is in some ways a "museum of sound" that provides each listener with a variety of aesthetic pathways to wander and explore.
ABOUT THE COMPOSER
James Romig, finalist for the 2019 Pulitzer Prize in Music, responds to an increasingly fragmented and accelerated world by creating highly isomorphic works that evolve slowly and reveal themselves gradually. Endeavoring to reflect the fragile intricacy of the natural world, his compositional designs exert influence on both small-scale iteration and large-scale structure, obscuring boundaries between form and content. Critics have described his music as “rapturous, slow-moving beauty” (San Francisco Chronicle), "developing with the naturalness of breathing" (The New Yorker), and “profoundly meditative... haunting” (The Wire). He is a two-time Copland House award recipient and has served as artist-in-residence at numerous national parks including Everglades, Grand Canyon, and Petrified Forest. Recordings have been released by New World Records, Navona, Blue Griffin, and Perspectives of New Music. His scores are published exclusively by Parallax Music Press. Guest-composer visits include the Eastman School of Music, the Cincinnati Conservatory, SUNY Buffalo, Bowling Green State University, and the American Academy in Rome. Romig holds degrees from the University of Iowa (BM, MM) and Rutgers University (PhD). His primary teachers were Charles Wuorinen and Milton Babbitt, both of whom served on his doctoral dissertation committee. He has been on faculty at Western Illinois University since 2002.
ABOUT THE PERFORMER
Pianist Ashlee Mack has given recitals in Germany, Italy, and across the United States. Specializing in contemporary music, she has premiered works by many notable composers including Christian Carey, Matthew Heap, David Maki, Robert Morris, Lawrence Moss, Paul Paccione, Bruce Quaglia, James Romig, Edward Taylor, and David Vayo. In 2012, she and Katherine Palumbo founded the Khasma Piano Duo, an ensemble dedicated to performing music from the 20th and 21st centuries. Their albums are available at Amazon, iTunes, and Bandcamp. Other solo and chamber recordings by Mack can be heard on Innova, Navona Records, Parallax Music Press, Perspectives of New Music/Open Space, and New World Records, with an upcoming release on Parma. An avid hiker and nature enthusiast, she has been an artist-in-residence at Wupatki National Monument, Everglades National Park, Grand Canyon National Park, Petrified Forest National Park, and Centrum in Fort Worden State Park, WA. In 2017, she premiered James Romig’s 55-minute piano solo, Still, which was recognized as a Finalist for the 2019 Pulitzer Prize in Music. She has since presented the work more than twenty times, including performances at the Clyfford Still Museum, the Milwaukee Art Museum, Frank Lloyd Wright’s historic Cedar Rock estate in Quasqueton, IA, and The Stone in NYC. Mack is Director of Piano Studies at Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois. For more information, please visit www.khasmapianoduo.com/ashlee-mack.
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