Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Director/Founder Francisco J. Nez in 2001 to spotlight the childrens chorus as a serious and, indeed,
glorious instrument during that fleeting period of time when a childs voice imbues music with a particular
poignancy and innocence.
The six works on this album are among over 80 pieces of music YPC has commissioned and premiered
from many established and emerging composers of our time, most of whom had never before composed
for childrens voices. Not only do these works greatly expand the repertoire for young voices, but they also
make a significant contribution to the ever-evolving fabric of music in the 21st century. Equally important,
YPC has changed the perception of the childrens chorus, dramatically heightening an awareness of the
unlimited potential of a youth chorus to rise to unforeseen levels of artistry, and establishing it as a
significant and often untapped instrument for making music.
The Kronos Quartet is featured on Terry Rileys Another Secret eQuation, which was written for YPC and
Kronos and recorded live. All pieces were recorded in the studio, in the presence of many of the composers.
Transient Glory compositions are published by Chester Novello, G. Schirmer and Boosey & Hawkes.
So I tried clamping the camera between the subway cars, figuring at least my camera would be out of the way. In so doing,
I found my protagonist: the spring connecting two cars, which moves with acceleration of the car ahead of it. As this flying
coil navigated the city, I felt like each station pulled the next one through the frames of my film, just as the voices of the
YPC pull Michaels measures along. They were exhilarating rides from Queens to Brooklyn and back.
I was eventually collared by an MTA cop (and not by the two seen on the 42nd Street platform in the film). I explained to
him that it was the camera that had been riding between the cars, not me. And furthermore, that the camera had only
filmed the platforms lining the subway, not the subway itself. He gave me a ticket for riding between the cars, but not for
filming on the subway. I thanked him for not busting my chops too bad. To my surprise, he thanked me for not busting his
chops too bad as well. (Bill Morrison)
QUEENS
Jamaica
169th Street
Parsons Boulevard
Sutphin Boulevard
Briarwood
Kew Gardens
75th Avenue
Forest Hills
Jackson Heights
Queensbridge
MANHATTAN
Roosevelt Island
Lexington Avenue
57th Street
Rockefeller Center
42nd Street
34th Street
23rd Street
14th Street
West 4th Street
Broadway-Lafayette
Lower East Side
Delancey
East Broadway
BROOKLYN
York Street
Jay Street
Bergen Street
Carroll Street
Smith Street
4th Avenue
7th Avenue
Prospect Park
Fort Hamilton Pkwy
Church Avenue
Ditmas Avenue
18th Avenue
Avenue I
Bay Parkway
Avenue N
Avenue P
Kings Highway
Avenue U
Avenue X
Neptune Avenue
New York Aquarium
Coney Island
Semaphore Conductus
Performed within a sound design of shortwave radio number system transmissions, Morse code, cell phone sounds, and
heartbeats the live and playback components create a dimensional stereophonic performance piece, employing altered
early music techniques and the evolving timbre history of communication devices (conch, gramophone, megaphone,
walkie-talkies, cell phone).
In 2007, I was approached by Francisco and the YPC to write a work for treble choir and cell phone, after ending up on the
front-page of the Wall Street Journal, for using cell phones as musical instruments.
In order for this original idea to not become one that exotified technology in a world already overrun and accelerated by
gadgets I thought about what elements I could bring in, to make the piece more timeless. I studied the role that cell
phones and technology played in our lives, and how phones were really just a tool and means of communication and
expression over great distances, time, and place (strikingly similar to music). So I traced the evolution of the telephone,
observing what served its function before modern technology.
In primitive times, the call of the conch shell was used. In later eras, radio technology used frequencies to communicate
across different wavelengths, which brought the language of Morse code, shortwave transmissions, various forms of signals.
The gramophone and phonograph were utilized later, with the introduction of recording technology Later, more portable
forms of amplification and communication evolved, like the megaphone, and walkie-talkies, and now cell phones. All these
forms, being ways to throw ones voice, or ones idea from one place to another, across time and place.
I connected this idea of movement of sound and communication, with techniques found in early music: antiphonal choirs,
calling from the balcony, in response to the choir down below, the use of hocket, which passes a phrase from one singer to
another and played with the double entendre of the sacred early song form conductus with the idea of how conduction
works for electricity, energy, and transmission. So in this work, the conductor, or rather conductionist is the central point of
transmission (to the choristers, and electronics), using gestural movements (akin to semaphore), to blossom a soundfield of
signals, harmonies, and music, from the air.
As a result, what has transpired is Semaphore Conductus, an electroacoustic choral work, sung in surround formation around
the audience, inspired by the conduction of energy, the musical language of signals, and sound.
The text is comprised of new and old Latin proverbs that allude to the cyclical nature of communication and technology:
Sum quod eris, sum quod es
unda est ortus
sepulchrum pluvia, festina lente
in lumine tuo, videbimus lumen
(translation)
The spatial arrangement of the chorus embodies the vernacular of contemporary sonic geometry, found today in the
visual language used by modern digital interfaces to signify signal strength, volume, and power which are akin to venue
acoustical structures, patterns of sonic resonance, and audience seating design. (Bora Yoon)
Semaphore Conductus speaks to the notion of music as a universal and timeless medium for communication, resonance, and
expression across distances, formats, and time.
Tembandumba
Music (2009) by Paquito DRivera
Text by Luis Pals Matos, Pucho Escalante, and Paquito DRivera
Paquito DRivera - narrator
Commissioned by the Young Peoples Chorus of New York City
Premiered June 12, 2010 at the 92nd Street Y in New York City
My vocal work Tembandumba was created for the magnificent Young Peoples Chorus of New York City, as requested by its
director Francisco Nez. The title is inspired by Tembandumba de la Quimbamba, the main character the poem Majestad
Negra (Black Majesty) by Puerto Rican poet Luis Pales Matos. Two soloistssoprano and altoplus a pair of Cuban claves
add contrast and color to the choir; and although I used some extra lyrics and onomatopoeic sounds for rhythmic effects,
the beautiful poetry of the Puerto Rican maestro stays intact in all its grace and glory. This is my humble musical tribute to
the master poet from Borinquen. (Paquito DRivera)
Temdandumba de la Quimbamba, woww!
Tembandumba, mulata de rumba, kitate kete tumba, maraki bong.
Por la encendida calle antillana va
Tembandumba de la Quimbamba.
Pakete sumba, mulata de rumba, kitate kete tumba, maraki bong.
Maraki bong? Maraki bong. Kochere kon koko. Konkn.
Hmmmm!
Por la encendida calle antillana va
Tembandumba de la Quimbambarumba, candombe, macumba, Bmbulaaaa!!!
entre dos filas de negras caras.
Ante ella un congo - bongo y maraca a lo lejos repican los cueros
ritma una conga bomba ke bamba.
Culipandeando la Reina avanza, y de su
inmensa grupa resbalan meneos cachondos
que el gongo cuaja en ros de azcar y de melaza.
Prieto trapiche de sensual zafra, el caderamen, masa con masa,
Exprime ritmos, suda que sangra, y la molienda culmina en danza.
kitate kete tumba, kochere konk.
mulata de rumba, kitate kete tumba,
Chebere konk? Chebere konkon. Kochere kon koko. Konkn.Hmmm!!
(translation)
Down the scorching Antillean street
Goes Tembandumba of the Quimbamba
Between two rows of black faces
--Rumba, macumba, condambe, bmbula.
Before her, a congo band thumps
A bombastic congagongos and maracas.
Sinuously swaying, the Queen steps up
And her lithe body with drums collide
So that seductive wiggles slide
In curdled rivers of sugar and molasses.
Brown-skinned mill of sweet sensation,
Her colossal hips, those massive mortars,
Make rhythms ooze, sweat bleed like blood,
And all this grinding ends in dance.
Down the scorching Antillean street
Goes Tembandumba of the Quimbamba.
Flower of Trtola, Rose of Uganda,
For you the bombs and bambulas crackle.
For you these feverish nights go wild
And set on fire Antillas iga blood.
Haiti offers you its gourds;
Jamaica pours its fiery rums;
Cuba tells you, give us what you got, mulata!
And Puerto Rico: melao, melamba!
Get down, my black-faced love-crazed rascals.
Jangle, drums, and jiggle, maracas.
Down the scorching Antillean street
Goes Tembandumba of the Quimbamba
Rumba, macamba, candombe, bmbula.
YPC Choristers
Saji Abude
Blaize Adam
Nicholas Agar-Johnson
Clare Altman
Tiffany Alulema
Joshua Batista
Dylan Batista
Billy Beltran
Nicole Bennet
Danielle Bennett
Nicole Bennett
Tommaso Bernardini
Alexis Biegen
Lexi Biegen
Corey Black
Chloe Bodden
Adonis Bodzwa
Lindsay Bogaty
Bryanna Brown
Isaac Burg
Quint Burke
Daniel Cabaniss
William Cabaniss
Melissa Cabat
Emily Carter
Kelli Carter
Argenis Castillo
Victoria Cece
Sandra Cedillo
Jordan Centeno
Hannah Chinn
Naomi Clark
Nadine Clements
Jared Colon
Remy Comp
Francis Connolly
Sofie Cornelis
Brianne Cotter
Laura Cottrell
Kieran Coyne
Erin Craig
TaSean Crandoll
Victoria Creary
DaSean Cruz
McKinny Danger-James
Alex DeCastro
Pascal Diaz
Lindsey Diego
Sofia DiGiandomenico
Justin Donaldson
Elizabeth Dorovitsine
Stephan Douglas-Allen
Jamila Drecker-Waxman
Nia Drummond
May El-Harazy
Leonardo Escudero
Catherine Estrada
Mia Farinelli
Juliette Ferdschneider
Mary Joe Fernandez
Sydney Fishman
Aneesa Folds
Ziani Francois
Jamil Fuller
Msmichella Gamble
Sydni Ganaway
Bryan Garcia
Mariah Gilmore
Solveig Gold
Christopher Goodwin
Spencer Gordon-Sand
Alexander Grant
Devon Hailstock
Christopher Hall
Myles Hall
Breigh Hammel
Emma Higgins
Maya Hodge
Max Hoffman
Ada Huang
Marquis Hughes
Samantha Huynh
Izoduwa Idehen-Amadasun
Jubei Inoue
Gavin Jablonski
Alexandra Jankousky
Vera Kahn
Ange Kandolo
Nina Kapoor
Olivia Katzenstein
Ross Kennedy
Alexandra Kessler
Lindsey Knapp
Bethany Knapp
Caroline Kuhn
Camille Labarre
Rose Labarre
Celeste Lejeune
Jamie Lerner-Brecher
Nicholas Leung
Christine Lim
Noah Lipnick
Gregory Lipson
Greg Lipson
Rosa Loveszy
Reuben Loveszy
Charles Lovett
Katie Lovins
Christina Lu
Dustin Lu
Ross Macatangay
John Maldonado
Claudia Malpeli
Jamal Marcelin
Hadley Maya
Maud Mayer
Joshua McCartney
Rebecca McCartney
Catherine McGough
David Mercado
Raphael Mercado
Madison Miller
Alex Miller
Aubrey Miller
Jeremy Munoz
Noni Murphy
Nichole Musumeci
Miki Nakano
James Nash
Ariana Nathani
Gabrielle Nesmith
Sophie Nir
Kayla Norflus
Alex Nouri
Victoria Pagan
Lluvia Perez
Ranya Perez
Auguste Perl
Lucas Petrello
Shereen Pimentel
Isaac Ponce
Eddie Rakowicz
Jordan Reynoso
Jacob Rhee
Olivia Rivera
Jonas Robin
Oona Rodgers
Marisel Rodriguez
Maggie Rouen
Nathaniel Sabat
Sofia Salen
Isabel Schaffzin
Tohar Scheininger
Mitchell Schor
Isaac Schultz
Evan Schweitzer
Veronica Shclover
Naomi Shifrin
Brittany Shoughi
Kalia Simms
Malaia Simms
Owen Smith
Caroline Smith
Gabrielle Smith
Cameron Smith
Jonah Smith
Jonah Sotomayor
Monica Soyemi
Nia Soyemi
Alec Spector
Betina Stennett
Jacqueline Stern
Hannah Stoffer
Louise Sullivan
Brian Sussman
Evan Tatnall
Rebecca Teich
Isabelle Teron
Joan Terrado
Olivia Thompson
Lewalys Torres
Lucy Tuchman
Julie Urena
Erika Urgiles
Clark Vaccaro
Silvia Valentini
Dianne Vasquez
Emily Viola
Andrew Vogel
Devon Wade
Brian Ward
Audrey Weber
Samuel White
Lucy Whiteley
Lucien Whitman
Christian Williams
Sierra Williams
Troy Wilson
Anthony Wyche
Galen Xing
Daniel Zuzworksy
August Zuzworsky
Executive Producers: Michael Gordon, David Lang, Kenny Savelson and Julia Wolfe
Label Manager: Bill Murphy
Cantaloupe sales manager: Adam Cuthbert
Cover design: Donald Giordano
Art direction: John Brown @ cloud chamber
Photography: Stephanie Berger
Management for Kronos Quartet:
Kronos Performing Arts Association
kronosquartet.org
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UPC/EAN: 713746311322