EL MAHBOOB

Category: Compositions

  • Arraymusic Presents “The Music of Bruce A. Russell”

    In two weeks, on Saturday, November 21st at 8 pm EST, the Array Ensemble will present the first ever live concert dedicated to my music, featuring all world premieres. It will be livestreamed from https://www.arraymusic.ca/brucerussell/ and tickets are by donation (or free). The performers are legends: Stephen Clarke and Wesley Shen on pianos, and Rick Sacks on percussion.

    Programme:

    Companion, for two pianos (2019)

    Children’s Suite, nine pieces for piano (2007-2014)

    aix, for two pianos (2004)

    limina, for two pianos and percussion (1996)

    My sincere gratitude to Artistic Director David Schotzko, the performers and the team at Arraymusic for committing to this. I’m donating my earnings from this event after expenses to these organizations, among others: Black Legal Action Centre (BLAC), Black Lives Matter – Canada, FoodShare Toronto, 1492 Land Back Lane – Legal Fund and to Arraymusic, who have been giving artists across communities a space to create and perform for many years.

  • New Kalimba Canon Video

    A little over a week after they gave the live world premiere of Kalimba Canon (1999), Prism Percussion have released a one-take performance video of the piece, recorded earlier in the fall. The performance and acoustics are stunning; the imagery speaks for itself in the moment we’re in.

  • Kalimba Canon Live

    On Friday, October 30th, 2020, Prism Percussion will give the live concert premiere of my Kalimba Canon (1999), in a concert hosted by the Golden Gate Symphony Orchestra and Chorus. The program of percussion duets also includes music by Adrea Venet, Eric Cha-Beach, Alexandra Gardner and Molly Joyce. It can be streamed via this link at Facebook Live. The concert runs from 7:30-8:30 EDT.

    Prism Percussion “explores the expressive colors of percussive sounds utilizing non-standard instruments and seeks to champion works by Black, Indigenous, People of Color, Female and Queer composers.”

  • Emergence: Linea Nigra in Concert

    My octet for strings Linea Nigra (2015) will receive its world premiere this Saturday, October 3rd at 7:30 pm MDT, in the release of a prerecorded performance by the San Juan Symphony, conducted by music director Thomas Heuser. It will feature as part of a program entitled “Black Voices and A Ballet for Martha,” which opens the orchestra’s virtual 35th Season. The program also includes Jessie Montgomery‘s Voodoo Dolls (2012) for string quintet, and the suite from Aaron Copland’s Appalachian Spring (2012) in the original scoring for 13 instruments. The concert requires the purchase of digital access in order to view it.

    I recorded a conversation with Thomas on September 30th which is viewable for a limited time here. I discuss the origins of Linea Nigra, the compositional techniques it employs, and how it relates to my own cultural story.

    The piece will in fact receive a double premiere: a second prerecorded performance, by the Idaho Falls Symphony, will be released in a virtual concert also conducted by Thomas Heuser on Saturday, October 10th at 7:30 pm MDT. This program also includes Jessie Montgomery’s Starburst for string orchestra, Hanna Benn‘s Where Springs Not Fail, and the suite from Copland’s Appalachian Spring. Tickets are available here.

    These performances will represent my debut on a symphony orchestra program. While my piece is for a chamber ensemble, the need for a socially distanced performance environment for the concert provided the opportunity for it to be included. The offer came out of the blue less than three months ago, and I am thrilled and humbled.

    While I was more or less retired from an active life in music, this blog, my SoundCloud page and the writing I’ve done for I Care If You Listen have kept me just visible enough, it seems. Since June, I’ve been getting a lot of requests from musicians and ensembles looking for a Black composer to actualize their commitments to social equity in their programming. It’s sobering as to when and why this has come about, but I’m taking it as a call to action.

    I have donated my earnings thus far from these engagements to Black legal justice causes and the families of the victims of police shootings and SIU incidents in the US and Canada. In several cases, the musicians who purchased my music have made matching donations in their communities; in San Francisco, Louisville and Vancouver, to name a few. It means a lot to me that my music can be part of something more than just art for art’s sake, but whether or not this is all just performative (not referring to musical performance but politically correct virtue signalling) depends on real systemic change happening.

    Is this my emergence as a composer, decades late? Time will tell. Watch this space.

  • Kalimba Canon premiere

    On July 17, 2020, Second Note Duo (Gabriel Costache and Will Richards) gave the world premiere of Kalimba Canon (1999). It was the final composition presented in their socially distanced, video recital A Day in the Life. Second Note contacted me a little over a month prior to the release date, and things came together quickly including sourcing instruments to play the piece. I am thrilled with the result. Funds were donated to the Black Legal Action Centre.

    Two alto kalimbas play identical melodic loops, with the second kalimba echoing several beats behind the first, to create a composite musical line. Minimalism in miniature. Will (kalimba 1) recorded his part at his home in Illinois, while Gabriel (kalimba 2) recorded at his home in Colorado. The mirrored outdoor setting for this sequence in the video—sunsets near water—is a perfect one for the piece.

    Composed January 1999
    Recorded and premiered July 2020

    Photo: original instrument and score notebook, July 2020

    Music and composer’s notes copyright Bruce A. Russell 2020

  • aix

    aix (“waters”), for two pianos, is a short study in rising and falling patterns, with alternating chordal and canonic textures. The primary melodic shape, an ascending seventh followed by a descending second, is heard in several of my piano pieces of this period.

    https://soundcloud.com/brussell/aix

    Composed and recorded 2004, Korg 01/WFD
    Restored from playback on the original device, 2019

    Photo: breakwater, Marilyn Bell Park, Toronto

    Music and composer’s notes copyright Bruce A. Russell 2019

  • 1996+21: limina

    limina, for two pianos and percussion (1996), was composed as an exploratory diversion between larger projects. The title, “thresholds,” is meant to suggest points of transition or spaces between categories.

    There are two sections; the longer and more eventful first is in duple metre and features a pop-like, four-chord progression in A major. The second is in triple metre and A-flat major, with an outro-like quality. The transition between sections introduces more complex harmonies and a percussion break.

    All of the music is built around the initial melodic pattern, a loop that descends in fifths and ascends back to its starting point in fourths. This line is in fact the opening chord unfolded horizontally, and it becomes the rhythmic motor, layered against itself in canon. The final chord is the same as the opening one, though transposed down a semitone.

    Composed and recorded August 1996, Korg 01/WFD
    Remixed May 2017

    Photo: composer, 1997

    Music and composer’s notes copyright Bruce A. Russell 2017

  • Linea Nigra, for string octet

    Linea Nigra (2015) began as an orchestration of my piano piece Canon Chorale (2005). It is scored for string octet, in this case the same configuration as a double string quartet. Most of the structure and content of the earlier work are retained as a kind of continuo, to which newly devised material adds range and contrapuntal detail.

    The general technique is a variation of first species counterpoint. A set of short melodies in each of the modes of C major are heard in two- to six-voice, note-on-note canons at the unison and octave, creating a sequence of block chords, or a chorale. The resulting harmonic progressions may have a cloud-like feel to them especially as melodic lengths and part density increase, and chord roots become ambiguous. Towards the end, faster melodic lines develop out of a recurring a triplet pattern.

    The title of the piece reflects my own quest for my biological and cultural roots. Linea nigra (“black line”) thus references the vertical line that appears on a woman’s belly in some pregnancies, while it also suggests Black lineage and survival. It could also stand in the sense of a melodic line, printed or otherwise.

    My great thanks go to Ashil Mistry, who suggested the instrumentation and generously edited the score, as well as directing the performance heard here.

    Recorded July 3, 2016, London, UK
    Scheme Ensemble
    Ashil Mistry, conductor

    Music and composer’s notes copyright Bruce A. Russell 2016

  • Superscription

    “Sequence, symmetry & simplicity” — my composer’s motto, 1996. 15 years later, inspiration strikes and the same schemes still sparkle.