Longtime friends, composer Michael Hersch and sculptor Christopher Cairns have closely collaborated for almost two decades, Cairns' sculpture populating the earliest productions of Hersch's monodrama, On the Threshold of Winter, amongst other projects.
Years ago, Cairns would host small private concert events in his studio which would feature Hersch's work, often with musicians who have subsequently become those most closely associated with his music.
In the face of the pandemic both artists decided to craft a series of pop-up concerts, but this time Cairns opening the studio space to the public. The series will include several world premieres, and many works seldom heard.
OCTOBER 24
2020
MIRANDA CUCKSON
EMI FERGUSON
*world premiere
ONLY
Morton Feldman
DOULEUR ME BAT
Josquin des Prez
IN THE SNOWY MARGINS
Michael Hersch
PUIS QU'EN OUBLI
Guillaume de Machaut
*UNWRUNG, APART, ALWAYS
Michael Hersch
PUIS QU'EN OUBLI
Guillaume de Machaut
THE WEATHER AND LANDSCAPE ARE ON OUR SIDE
Michael Hersch
DOULEUR ME BAT
Josquin des Prez
ONLY
Morton Feldman
In the snowy margins
BRUNO SCHULZ
from the collection:
“Letters and Drawings of Bruno Schulz.”
translated by Walter Arndt
…Thus Far and no Further.
But what has become of the end of the world…
..........................
Only
RAINER MARIA RILKE
from Sonnets to Orpheus Part I, No. 23 (Feb. 1922),
based on the translation by J.B. Leishman
Only when flight shall soar
not for its own sake only
up into heaven's
lonely silence,
and be no more
merely the lightly profiling, proudly successful tool,
playmate of winds, beguiling time there, careless and cool:
only when some pure Wither outweighs boyish insistence
on the achieved machine
with whom has journeyed thither be, in that fading distance,
all that his flight has been.
..........................
Douleur me bat
ANONYMOUS
translated by Emi Ferguson
Douleur me bat et tristesse ma folle
Amour me nuit et malheur me console
Vouloir me suit mais aider ne me peut
Jouir ne puis d’un grand bien qu’on me veut
De vivre ainsi, pour Dieu, qu’on me decolle
Struck by sadness, driven mad by sorrow.
Hurt by love, consoled by misfortune.
Plagued by yearning, that offers no comfort.
I find no solace in good wishes,
Dear God, I’d rather lose my head than live like this.
Puis qu’en oubli
GUILLAUME DE MACHAUT
translated by Emi Ferguson
Puis qu’en oubli sui de vous, dous amis,
Vie amoureuse et joie à Dieu commant.
Mar vi le jour que m’amour en vous mis,
Puis qu’en oubli sui de vous, dous amis.
Mais ce tenray que je vous ay promis,
C’est que ja mais n’aray nul autre amant.
Puis qu’en oubli sui de vous, dous amis,
Vie amoureuse et joie à Dieu commant.
Since you have forgotten me, my love
I give my love and joy to God.
Dark was the day that I gave you my heart,
Since you have forgotten me, my love.
But I will keep my promise to you,
And shall never love another.
Since you have forgotten me, my love,
I give my love and joy to God.
..........................
The weather and landscape are on our side
BRUNO SCHULZ
from the collection:
“Letters and Drawings of Bruno Schulz.”
translated by Walter Arndt
1. Please let me know the diagnosis…
2. What is the hospital world like?
3. Waiting for news…
4. There will be more and better shortly.
5. Gombrowicz also advised me to get a passport right away…
6. I have seen beautiful, shocking, terrible sights…
7. The weather and landscape are on our side.
8. I grow more and more conscious of how remote I stand from real life…
9. For a few steps you may actually pretend you are losing the ground under your feet, confident that at a certain point the parachute will open and carry you off to safety.
10. May we be granted the opportunity to continue our exchange, which is important and real, peacefully…
11. No one will be left, all of it will become mere legend.
unwrung, apart, always
ANJA ÜTLER
translated by Kurt Beals
again, then again came
unwrung, apart, always, bare
am murmur am: as if
wounded, raw
under cilia,
raw
**** **** ****
streaked, [the swellings, the fibers released from the] inside
enwombed: so they wanted to germinate …
sprouting layers, they wanted to hem in …
… to lift and to lower the ribs
underneath is: the lung, now laid bare, but still bundled,
pressed under the air …
… finger through trace the darkening furrows serratus
abdominal muscles …
… this precipitous wound
the mouth: deepened …
… and it wells out it gurgles it screeches out from him - a moan -
… abandoned quenched like ashen tunnels …
… they loom up behind, in silence, they carry it out …
… through the veins, capillaries they draw -
what was breath - that unravels …
… and for now just: unbound [by the horror turns marsyas turns-]
finally: flows out and into the waiting land …
MA
Y
1
6
2021
MIRANDA CUCKSON
EMI FERGUSON
COLEMAN ITZKOFF
Fantasia No. 4
for flute and violin
ORLANDO GIBBONS
...un jour
for solo flute
ALICAN ÇAMCI
*world premiere
de terrae fine
for solo violin
GEORG FRIEDRICH HAAS
Fantasia
for flute, violin, and cello
ORLANDO GIBBONS
arr. MICHAEL HERSCH
Morte Tamburo
for solo flute
SALVATORE SCIARRINO
Sonata No. 2
for solo cello
MICHAEL HERSCH
Fantasia No. 4
for flute and cello
ORLANDO GIBBONS
JUNE
12
EMI FERGUSON
DANIEL GAISFORD
CONRAD HARRIS
AH YOUNG HONG
2021
We Were Together
for soprano and violin
Dmitri Shostakovich
Mikka "s"
for solo violin
Iannis Xenakis
Three Settings
from Nine Settings of Lorine Niedecker
for soprano and cello
Harrison Birtwistle
Bioluminescence
for solo flute
Liza Lim
O Lord, I lift my heart to thee
for soprano, flute, violin, and cello
Orlando Gibbons
arr. Michael Hersch
Figura V
for solo cello
Matthias Pintscher
Sea Poppies
for soprano and flute
Christopher Fox
*world premiere
Balancen
for solo violin
Isabel Mundry
We Were Together
for soprano and violin
Dmitri Shostakovich
Paul
when the leaves
fall
from their stems
that lie thick
on the walk
in the light
of the full note
the moon
playing
to leaves
when they leave
the little
thin things
Paul
LORINE NIEDECKER
O late fall
marsh —
I
raped by the dry
weed stalk
Sleep’s dream
the nerve-flash in the blood
The sense
of what’s seen
“I took cold
On my nerves” — my mother
tall, tormented
darkinfested
WE WERE TOGETHER
Alexander Blok
translated by David Angell
Мы были вместе, помню я...
Ночь волновалась, скрипка пела,
Ты в эти дни была моя,
Ты с каждым часом хорошела.
Сквозь тихое журчанье струй,
Сквозь тайну женственной
улыбки К устам просился поцелуй,
Просились в сердце звуки скрипки...
We were together, I recall...
Violins sang in vibrant darkness;
Day after day you were my own,
With every hour you grew more fair.
The secrets of a woman's smile,
The quiet whispering of breezes
Set tender kisses on my lips,
And filled my heart with violin songs...
FUTURE
CONCERTS
MIRANDA CUCKSON
AH YOUNG HONG
*New work, I
for soprano and violin
Missy Mazzoli
Kafka Fragments (excerpts)
for soprano and violin
György Kurtág
*New work, II
for soprano and violin
Missy Mazzoli
Kafka Fragments (excerpts)
for soprano and violin
György Kurtág
*New work, III
for soprano and violin
Missy Mazzoli
… From El Araïch
for soprano and violin
Georg Friedrich Haas
*world premiere
FUTURE CONCERTS
FLUX QUARTET
obsidian chorale
composition no.305
*new work
quietly
flowing along
unbreathed
quietly
flowing along
*new work
composition no.304
obsidian chorale
MEREDITH MONK
ANTHONY BRAXTON
PATRICIA KOPATCHINSKAJA
JOHN CAGE
REBECCA SAUNDERS
JOHN CAGE
PATRICIA KOPATCHINSKAJA
ANTHONY BRAXTON
MEREDITH MONK
