Analog By Choice, a local chamber music ensemble, is revving up for a concert featuring works from Kodály, Kidjo and Korngold on Saturday at Somerville Music Spaces.
Zoltán Kodály was a 20th century Hungarian multi-instrumentalist, composer and music educator; the ensemble will tackle his “Duo for Violin and Cello,” a technically challenging composition that marries Eastern European folk music with modern classical form.
The program then moves into the 21st century with Angélique Kidjo’s string arrangement “YanYanKliYan Senamido,” which brings an effervescent touch to the musical tradition of Benin.
Finally, the ensemble concludes with the “Piano Quintet” by E.W. Korngold, who fled fascism in 1930s Europe to become one of the most influential composers for cinema in Hollywood.
That’s a boatload of information. Just focus, though, on the first letter of the last name of each composer: K, K and K. Analog By Choice (ABC, get it?) follows a simple rubric in music programming: alphabetical order.
Three composers, three last names that start with the same letter. We’re on the Ks right now. Their last show was a J program with works by Jaell, Joplin and Janacek. In April they will play an L program featuring Leonarda, Lyuh and Larsen. The autodidact from Sartre’s “Nausea” would be in hog heaven.
The alphabet can be a stern taskmaster. When I asked the artists performing Saturday to describe themselves as musicians with a K-word, most were stumped. ABC artistic director Peter Paetkau and violinist offered “kindled,” because he always wants to feel that creative spark when exploring new music. “Keen” was the word of choice for cellist Shannon Ross because she’s always drawn to the fresh challenge of unfamiliar repertoire.
Not bad, not bad. But what happens when ABC hits the last letter of the alphabet with an all-Z program?
“That’s an easy one,” Peter fired back, without hesitation. “We’re going straight back to A!”
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Friday: Ohio State Fair, Winkler, Tiberius (Warehouse XI, Somerville)
Now That’s What I Call Local Indie Rock, Vol. XI. A band is not a band. A band is a nexus of care, love and devotion that sends out feelers of camaraderie and joy in every direction. Making music is a kind of alibi that provides cover for human beings who dare to make themselves vulnerable in front of other people. There are other kinds of alibis, but music sounds the sweetest. The artists on this bill have more arms than Shiva, more faces than Brahma, and each new incarnation is lovelier than the last. Go see them at an event space that is available for wedding receptions and sundry rental affairs.
Saturday: Lemmyfest 6: A Cancer Benefit (Sonia, Cambridge)
Who’s in charge of putting together the event calendar for guests at the Boston Marriott Cambridge, where listings include this show in Central Square? What does the Marriott pay? I’d like to be considered for the position. I have a proven track record of listing cool events in roughly chronological order. Once upon a time a bill inspired by the bassist from Motörhead, featuring a cover band called Iron Fisted, would be considered too louche for the bourgeois sensibility of the clientele at a middle-class hotel. But we’re a country that reelected a monster who “grab[s] ’em by the pussy.” At least the metal crowd comes by their philistinism honestly, and who would gainsay the glorious moral imprimatur of a 501(c)(3) designation? Hat tip to the Ronnie James Dio Stand Up And Shout Cancer Fund.
Wednesday: Owls (Crystal Ballroom, Somerville)
I just finished reading Alex Ross’ “The Rest Is Noise,” a book that spends 600 pages describing a world in which classical music is unanimously revered as the pinnacle of human achievement, the names of famous composers are spoken in hushed tones of admiration by the rich and poor alike and new works are greeted with fanfare. In other words, a world nothing like our own. Ross says as much by the end. Flying solo without the patronage networks of yore, ensembles such as Owls have to spend more time begging for lunch money, less time composing. The New York Times called them “a dream group,” which is an epithet that will live on forever in the eternal Valhalla of their press releases. If you like string quartets with shades of Mozart, Sibelius and Arvo Pärt, go buy the Fab Four a sandwich.
Feb. 14-15: Sexfest: Music and Drag (Warehouse XI and The Jungle, Somerville)
How much sex will there be at Sexfest, a two-day music-drag jamboree at Sanborn Court on Valentine’s Day Weekend? I’d settle for good vibes, good music and adult beverages at this cheeky alternative to the usual routine on Feb. 14. Seriously, if you’re still competing for reservations at restaurants dishing out mediocre prix fixes during the holiday rush, you’re doing it all wrong. Instead, avoid the dinner crowd, schedule your romantic meal any other time of the month and spend actual V-Day weekend with indie music and acts such as Cecelia Smokinbutts, Stabitha Christie and Harry Ballz, just doing their thang.
Live: Blue Heron at First Church
The renaissance choir Blue Heron met Thursday to practice their latest piece “The Armed Archangel,” based on “L’homme armé,” a secular tune converted for use in a Catholic Mass for St. Michael’s Day during the 15th century.
I’ll never rank practices above official performances, as a matter of principle. But there are small epiphanies that reveal themselves to you at the more rough-hewn stage that are all but sanded away in the final product.
This is especially true with music performances that involve what people in the theater world call “blocking” – choreographed movements for the singers, which will unfold in concert with the various phases of the Catholic ritual. Eventually. It takes a little effort, though, to synchronize the movements with sound, and the small congregation of attendees at 11 Garden St. watched in real time as the choir perfected its art.
The “Procession” is the first and last major phase of movement in the Mass, sandwiching the rest of the ritual. And it’s exactly what it sounds like. The choir, in full polyphony, proceeds around the room, making a pit stop in front of the icon of St. Michael, before returning to their seats.
Artistic director Scott Metcalfe played the role of shepherd, guiding his flock neither too slowly, nor too quickly, to its appointments. A few water bottles were knocked over in all the shuffling. Renaissance choirs are not immune to the craze for gratuitously oversized hydration aids. But with the help of faith, God’s eternal love, and 40 ounces of liquid, Blue Heron will have all the wrinkles ironed out for any and all future performances.
Michael Gutierrez is an author, educator, activist and editor-in-chief at Hump Day News.
A stronger
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