Concert by Wende Bartley, Susan Frykberg, and Hildegard Westerkamp

Description:

As part of the New Music Across America Festival, Western Front presented a concert of electroacoustic music by composers Wende Bartley, Susan Frykberg, and Hildegard Westerkamp.

The program included compositions by Wende Bartley based on sounds from the Kyai Madu Sari gamelan at Simon Fraser University, as well as a piece based on the life of artist Emily Carr.

Susan Frykberg’s composition “Mother Too” (1992) was performed by singer William Grenzberg with live signal processing and tape. The work centres on a man recalling a question once posed to him by his mother. In this composition, Frykberg extends her ongoing exploration of her dual roles as a sound artist and single parent, engaging sound and technology with a heightened awareness of power structures and gender inequality.

The concert also featured Hildegard Westerkamp’s soundscape “Beneath the Forest Floor,” which incorporated field recordings from the Carmanah Valley to guide listeners beyond the visible forest and into its deeper, unseen spirit.

Program:

Hildegard Westerkamp, “My Horse and I” (1991). 

Solo tape, with poetry and live reading by Sharon Thesen.

Wende Bartley, “IceBreak” (1992). Solo tape.

Susan Frykberg, “Mother Two” (1991). Voice by William Grenzberg, live processing, and tape.

Susan Frykberg, “Saxarba Suite” (1984). Solo tape, with the voices of Richard Truhlar, Steven Smith, and Billie Bridgeman.Commissioned by COMUS Music Theatre with the assistance from the Ontario Arts Council.

Wende Bartley, “Shadows of an Interior” (1992). Interactive electronics with spoken voice by Hildegard Westerkamp.

Hildegard Westerkamp, “Beneath the Forest Floor” (1992). Solo tape, commissioned by CBC.

Presented in partnership with Coastal Jazz and Vancouver New Music.