BY CUTCOMMON
Joseph Franklin isn’t afraid to admit that today’s world is…well, worth being afraid of.
As a global community, we face the horrors of environmental degradation, income inequality, and even time itself, according to the Naarm/Melbourne composer.
His new concerto for piano, percussion, and 13-piece ensemble THE HORROR OF THE AVANT-GARDE(S) confronts all these fears — and invites you to feel them through the multi-sensory experience of theatre, improvisation, and even food and drink.
Joseph composed his music for some familiar and impressive names in the arts industry — flautist Laila Engle, percussionists Louise Devenish and Satoshi Takeishi, violinist Sophia Kirsanova, and violist Phoebe Green to name a few. They’ll be conducted by renowned Australian composer Elliott Gyger — and they’ll come together for just one night.
Joseph tells CutCommon about this large-scale concerto ahead of its world premiere.
Hi Joseph! Talk us through your unusual concerto. How’d it all come together in the first place?
The idea came about sometime in 2020 when I received funding to record a second album in New York with Australian pianist Marc Hannaford and Japanese drummer/percussionist Satoshi Takeishi — two collaborators on a 2019 album called Amen. Like most plans, covid had other ideas.
Composing a concerto seemed like an ideal solution, as it was a way that I could continue to work with Marc and Satoshi, albeit from a distance.
I began composing the work during the gruelling Melbourne lockdowns. Initially, I thought it would be for a smaller ensemble of around six musicians. However, it ended up becoming a 13-piece ensemble plus conductor. The thought of a premiere seemed a very distant idea at that time.
Composing for the piano is terrifying at the best of times — so I thought it was time to confront this epic instrument. I’m quite familiar with Marc’s approach, and we share some important influences, including Elliott Carter, Oliver Messiaen, and Anthony Braxton. When Satoshi (pictured below) expressed interest in coming to Australia for the premiere, I couldn’t resist making the percussion a feature!
You’re working with some huge names in the industry — and this music was specifically commissioned for this ensemble. What was it about these artists that you knew would be a great fit for your concerto? How did your knowledge of their work inform your own?
As a composer-bassist working between spontaneous and formal composition, I was looking to put together an ensemble of players who could handle what I suspected might become difficult music, as well as respond to improvisational cues embedded within the work. It’s an extraordinary collection of musicians, not to mention one of my favourite Australian composers and mentor Elliott Gyger, who will be conducting the performance.
I always aim to create a context that supports ways of teasing-out something new and interesting from the musicians that unprovoked would not have occurred. Each player brings their own highly developed skill sets, and so the compositional approach varied from player to player.
Throughout the process, I engaged in workshops and ongoing dialogues with each of the performers, tailoring and refining each part to their particular strengths, and hopefully coaxing the performers into new territory.
So tell us about the story behind the work and its unusual title.
My album Amen was described as ‘the avant-garde of today’ (The Weekend Australian), a description I always loved but found somewhat ambiguous. Early in the compositional phase, I played a midi-audio version of the first movement to artist Tina Stefanou — art director for the event — who instantly called it ‘a horror’! Whether it was the laptop midi playback — a horror in its own right, my musical material, or a combination of both — highly likely, I couldn’t shake this idea of horror, which helped shape the musical direction. The title, however, emerged very late in the process.
Conceptually, THE HORROR OF THE AVANT-GARDE(S) is a response to the horror of imminent environmental collapse, the horror of classed experiences, the horror of finite time, the horror of neo-liberal capitalism that swallows up everything in its path, the horror of life in the arts as someone without an inheritance, and so on.
It also references the military history of the term avant-garde, the institutionalisation of what was considered avant-garde music, and its use by the United States in the Cold War with the Soviet Union, who preferred tonal music. This institutionalised form of the avant-garde, for better or worse, continues in those of us privileged enough to have studied in conservatories. This work addresses the contradictions and loops: the ouroboros.
It sounds as though you’re using as many artforms as possible in this work of horror, challenging what audiences might expect from a traditional concerto performance. Why did you want to use elements such as costumes and conceptual food and drink to create such an immersive experience?
There can be something oppressive about formal music concerts where one is seated in a chair that isn’t quite comfortable — not for all bodies, at all times; where one is expected to be quiet, attentive, clap in the right places, and be a passive receiver the music. […] THE HORROR OF THE AVANT-GARDE(S) demanded something else, something more.
Beyond the musical reasons for not wanting to write a traditional concerto, nor perform in a concert hall — at least not for the premiere — all the extra-musical magic comes from the wonderful mind of artist and long-term collaborator Tina Stefanou (pictured below). We have discussed many aspects of the event at length, but I have really left the additional elements in her hands.
What’s on offer when it comes to those culinary horrors? And why did you want to create a visceral response through the sensations of eating and drinking?
This will be revealed only to those brave enough to face the HORROR! Food wizards Long Prawn will be taking care of the horror-themed drinks and snacks. This idea also came from Tina who considered taste as another extension to the expansive concerto form.
This work forms part of a broader environmentally driven series for you. What ultimate — perhaps even apocalyptic — message are you trying to share?
This is the third work in a series where abiotic factors — a “non-living part of an ecosystem that shapes its environment” such as rain, humidity, temperature — play an integral role in my compositional process.
I am not looking at data and correlating this with compositional techniques. Rather, the abiotic factors are responded to directly from the body: for example, when the temperature drops, fingers can’t move quickly, and the passage of music becomes slower.
The music explores cycles of collapse and regrowth, interjections, rhythmic elasticity, and trance as a way through the shimmering maze of our ever-more absurd reality.
While the title might suggest an apocalyptic notion or fetish, that is not my focus. It strikes me that all artworks respond to environmental degradation, species lost, also known as the sixth extinction period, whether we acknowledge or focus on it or not.
My message is not didactic. I am simply sharing the result of a series of processes: the body is affected by its environment, acoustic music is created by movement, and the aesthetics of the work emerge as a result.
Any parting words on what audiences can expect from such a unique event and inventive concept?
Audiences can certainly expect a unique event.
Young Voices of Melbourne, conducted by Mark O’Leary, will sound the words of Mexican writer and artist Diego Ramirez.
Acclaimed Butoh performer Yumi Umiumare will grace the space, embodying the essence of the non-existent working classes like a haunting spectre.
Moreover, the event promises culinary surprises crafted by local food-artists Long Prawn, adding a sensory dimension to the concerto experience.
The music itself is anything but conventional […] It’s the music of a working-class composer in a middle-class world.
The world premiere of THE HORROR OF THE AVANT-GARDE(S) takes place at 8pm August 17, Alpha60 Chapter House. More information available on the booking page.
Images supplied.
