GEMS, 20 th anniversary Informal notes remembrances of things past? [Notes for presentation in room C201, Friday, October 24, 2003]

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1 GEMS, 20 th anniversary Informal notes remembrances of things past? [Notes for presentation in room C201, Friday, October 24, 2003] Today, first of all, I would like to give my thanks to all GEMSbers of the different generations, to our GEMS graduates, to the many performers, composers, computer operators, sound technicians, EMS technicians ah Eric Johnstone, Alain Theriault and at present Richard McKenzie merci, gracias, danke to everyone that have been involved with the production of GEMS concerts. Many many thanks. And also to the GEMS directors, Bruce Pennycook, Zack Settel, and today s co-director, Sean Ferguson. We are thankful also to the different administrations at the Faculty Deans Pedersen, Rea, Grew, Lawton, McLean, for the continuous and positive support they have given to the Group GEMS> In reviewing the 50 plus concerts that GEMS has done since 1983, there are a few things that vividly - come back to my memory. The first impression is, of course, that memorable encounter near Queen Victoria statue, when Claude Schryer and John Oliver introduced themselves with the significant statement: we are new graduate student composers at McGill...We asked around and they say for Contemporary music? Talk to professor lanza We would like to play our music, and contemporary music So, here we are Almost with no hesitation the decision was taken to form a performance group; the group better be based around the EMS [no questions asked]; that the group programs should have always a technological component. And so we did. The program of our debut concert of October 4, 1983, offered Augury Music by John Oliver, This was the first piece written for the group GEMS. Quite an omen of good things to come it was. Participant performers in that concert were Paul Saint-Laurent, flute, Claude Schryer, clarinet, Bernard Savoie,

2 saxophone [is he here?], John Oliver, guitar, Sylvie Roux, piano, Helen Barclay and Nicole Girard, percussion. 1 In the program also, Dans un coin, by Claude Schryer [a piece that we will hear again tomorrow], other pieces by John Winiarz, Jan Jarvlepp and myself. Comments heard after the concert, I thought that water was dripping down from the ceiling at Pollack. What had happened was that we had modestly prepared a sound projection using four loudspeakers, with two in the catwalk above the audience, using the old, reliable ALTEC Voice of the Theatre gray boxes and the watery piece was Flotation, by Jan Jarvlepp. From the second concert did we know where we were going or for how long? I remember Claude Schryer presenting a piece for Video, soprano and Synclavier II tape! The John Oliver contribution was the first version of his Before the Freeze [a title we borrowed later on for a GEMS CD recording that included that piece]. On April 4, 1985, concert 4, with the premiere performance of Wende Bartley s a graduate student at the time Rising Tides of Generations Lost [a piece which we heard last night]. Only a concert or so later, a premiere of Portrait d un visiteur, a tape piece from Christian Calon. A new initiative emerged by our concert 6, January 1986: a GEMS commission. With funding from the Canada Council GEMS commissioned Kristy Allik, who wrote Silicon Sidewinder, for two percussionists and tape. It was performed by François Gauthier and Elliot Polsky. The same program had intriguing title Oliver s Guacamayos th Polemic #1, for two guitars, and A Kindred Spirit by Schryer, for ensemble and tape. Up to that moment, it was clear to us that our mandate was to include commissioning and premiering Canadian works, music with a technological component. Looking back from the perspective of concert 6, by 1986 we had

3 already premiered 14 compositions, mostly written by students. Also, we had done works by McGill staff composers, John Rea, Donald Steven, and Bruce Mather, besides myself. By 1986 GEMS had another first, an LP recording was issued, with GEMS Ensemble playing pieces by Donald Steven, Claude Schryer, Richard Lloyd and myself. 2 Now, just jumping ahead to A concert was given with the title Elements d une experience thêatrale. The program an initiative of Bruce Pennycook, was a kind of Homage to John Cage. And what a program The first piece, by South African composer Ulrich Süsse LUFT had brightly colored balloons floating toward PH ceiling, lifting a violin When that piece was over Pennycook said let us leave them there, they look fantastic Cage would have loved seen this. The violinist/actress was Sylvia Mandolini. The same program had two version of Cage s 4:33, one ensemble version; later on a recorded version, and to top it all, we had Marc Couroux in a dazzling performance of Xenakis Evrialy, for piano. Another scene fixed in my memory 1999 Andrew Brouse, wired, with cables fixed to his scalp, delivering Alvin Lucier s Music for solo performer [music for enormously amplified brainwaves and percussion]. Brouse had gone to the Faculty of Medicine and somehow got an Electroensephalogram machine! From 1981 until 1990, McGill run the McGill Contemporary Music Festivals. Co-directed by two McGill composers each year, including John Rea, Donald Steven, Bruce Mather, Brian Cherney and myself. From 1984 GEMS was an eager participant during those festivals of contemporary music.. Composers were commissioned to write for GEMS Ensemble, concerts were recorded for broadcast on CBC Radio and, we did a

4 number of Studio Recordings for Radio Canada, as part of the programs Musique des Canadiennes and Alternances, with producer Gilles Poirier. One singular event was the commissioned piece from composer Michel-Georges Brègent, MELORHYTHMHARMUNDI. This very large, extremely complex piece was revived recently by the group KORE. For that concert, Michael Oesterle from KORE asked me to write what I remembered of the rehearsals, etc. From the article I wrote, printed in the KORE program, the piece for GEMS from Brègent was requested at the suggestion of John Rea. The McGill CMF organizers wanted a work for 4-5 instruments, of medium difficulty, at the educational level and under 10 duration. 3 Brègent delivered MELORHYTHARMUNDI, scored for 8 instruments. GEMS rehearsed the piece, went to a near riot stage.we almost cancelled the performance Eventually, GEMS bravely adapted to circumstances, and performed the piece having 10 performers on stage. As for the length, for the premiere at PH, perhaps 23 The composer s maximum desired length was to be from 14 to 19 minutes,. When we did the Studio recording for the Radio, we finally were able to do it in 17. The composer was pleased. Perhaps a few words on the GEMS Residences. The initiative came from Osvaldo Budón, at the time at the start of his Ph. D. program at McGill, and a very active member of GEMS for several years already He proposed to GEMS, can we look for a way to bring James Tenney to McGill? So, with financial assistance from the SOCAN Foundation, GEMS staged a 4- day residence, a kind of mini-festival: 1998: composer James Tenney 1999: composer, video artist, instrument builder David Rokeby 2003: composer Keith Hamel. All the residences have been successful; having the composer present led to interesting exchanges of ideas with student composers, with our colleagues.

5 And GEMS over two or three concerts, offered an overview of the visiting composer s production. Worth mentioning are the homages, in 2002 GEMS offered an Homage to Iannis Xenakis; a few months later, Homage to Jean-Claude Risset. And to conclude, a pet project of mine is to look for ways to preserve this musical heritage. The several CD recordings of GEMS and the Double CD Tornado, also having GEMS participating, are sonic documents with more staying power. Researchers in the future may be able to consult these sources, a mini-catalogue of Canadian music, with electronics, interactivity and le thêatre musical. And now, to the audiovisual part, some snapshots from the history of GEMS and other documents. 4