Bang on a Can All-Stars, Trio Mediaeval Recount John Henry Legend November 19
November 3, 2009
On the Thursday before Thanksgiving, perhaps the most American of holidays, artists from two continents are gathering at Penn State to perform Steel Hammer, a 21st-century adaptation of a quintessentially American folktale. New York City’s Bang on a Can All-Stars and Norway’s Trio Mediaeval perform the evening-length Steel Hammer at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 19, in Eisenhower Auditorium.
“Steel Hammer is inspired by my love for the legends and music of Appalachia,” notes Pennsylvania-born composer Julia Wolfe, whose earliest musical epiphanies came from her love of American folk music. As a young woman she studied and played the mountain dulcimer—a key component of the Appalachian musical tradition.
“Culling from both the music and oral traditions of the region,” Wolfe continues, “the piece focuses on the legend of John Henry, immortalized for his race against ‘the machine.’ Wielding a steel hammer, he faces the onslaught of the industrial age as his super-human strength is challenged in a contest to out dig an engine. With its over 200 versions and myriad of differing details, the tale has been embraced by a wide variety of American communities in the cause and glorification of the worker.”
Tickets for the Center for the Performing Arts presentation are $29 for an adult, $10 for a University Park student and $19 for a person 18 and younger. Buy tickets online at www.cpa.psu.edu or by phone at 814-863-0255. Outside the local calling area, dial 1-800-ARTS-TIX. Tickets are also available at four State College locations: Eisenhower Auditorium (weekdays 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.), Penn State Tickets Downtown (weekdays 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturdays 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.), HUB-Robeson Center (weekdays 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.) and Bryce Jordan Center (weekdays 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.). A grant from the University Park Allocation Committee makes Penn State student prices possible.
The new-music ensemble Bang on a Can All-Stars—equal parts rock band and amplified chamber group—expands its usual gathering of clarinets, cello, keyboard, electric guitar, bass and percussion with a chorus of dulcimers, wooden bones, banjo, steel hammers and other instruments to lay down the musical bed for Steel Hammer.
Bang on a Can was formed two decades ago “as a collective of composers and musicians frustrated by the insularity of the new music scene and by the downtown-uptown divide that defined music in New York,” observes a Chicago Tribune writer.
Trio Mediaeval, known for what a San Francisco Chronicle critic calls an “unerringly precise blend of voices,” sings the narrative for Steel Hammer. “Singing,” the Chronicle writer asserts, “doesn’t get more unnervingly beautiful” than that of Trio Mediaeval. “To hear the group’s note-perfect counterpoint—as pristine and inviting as clean, white linens—is to be astonished at what the human voice is capable of.”
The usual fare of the Scandinavian sopranos, who formed their trio in Oslo in 1997, is a varied and inviting repertoire of polyphonic medieval music from England and France, traditional Norwegian ballads and contemporary songs composed for them. “Whatever the ensemble is singing,” writes a critic for The Plain Dealer of Cleveland, “Trio Mediaeval takes the listener to an ethereal world far removed from contemporary angst.”
WPSU-FM is the media sponsor. Artistic Viewpoints, an informal moderated discussion featuring a visiting artist or local expert, is offered in Eisenhower Auditorium one hour before the performance and is free for ticket holders.
Contact: Laura Sullivan, 814.863.6379