Improvisation Chamber Ensemble Program 5

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Though Wayne State University improvisation chamber ensemble was organized in
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1966 by Dr. Ruth Wylie. The group was originally conceived
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as a teaching aid but soon it was receiving enthusiastic reactions from concert
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audiences. During the past year Dr. Wiley's Chamber Ensemble has
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performed in several states and an entirely new idiom of musical performance has been
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developed by the performances still maintain their experimental character.
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Now I'm here with tonight's programme of improvisation is Professor Ruth Wylie of
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Wayne State University.
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Tonight we're going to do something of an experiment which we thought you might be
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interested in. We've decided to try to
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give you an insight into what one of our rehearsals or so-called rehearsals.
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It is actually like. And we have a piece here which is written by one of our
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members Jim Harkaway which we have only gone through once or twice
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rather superficially and it still needs a good bit of working. And we thought it
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might be interesting to you if we went about a bonafide
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rehearsing of this piece so that you could see how we go about it what the
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problems are. And how it improves as we become more and more familiar with it.
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This piece is particularly. Interesting or I might even say
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troublesome because of the fact that he has indicated in several spots
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some very specific instructions to us of a rhythmic nature.
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And we have been having a little difficulty in getting these to line up just right so we
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probably will have some problems with these passages. The piece is called a
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sonority and rhythm control. And it begins in a so-called
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recitative style. He is experimenting with different chord
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combinations among the group with one instrument playing a melodic line the rest of them
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playing sustain chords and then as I told you there are these three
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passages where we have. A quick single note
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continuous rhythmic effects one instrument to the other so it might be
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interesting for you and without any further comments or explanations will go
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right into something which closely approximates one of our regular rehearsal sessions.
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Well we have
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my.
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Plan. So.
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We'll. Go.
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The rest. Of.
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Your.
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Life.
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That's what.
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We have.
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Oh right right.
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Right.
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All right.
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You're showing me where you're
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going.
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Her.
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Oh.
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We've used up about as much time as we can spare on this program for the preparation of this
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piece and we feel that we possibly know it well enough that we can make an attempt to play it
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through with complete continuity and with some success.
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So for the remainder of the program that's exactly what we're going to do we're going to start now at the
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beginning of this piece and do a complete rendition of it without any pauses or we hope
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or criticisms or problems. Before we begin however let me
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once again introduce the members of our group who will be performing in this
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piece and what instruments they are playing. Mr. Jim Harkaway the
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composer will be at the piano in this piece will be doing the
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percussion instruments. And as you recall Don Lewandowski on the
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double bass and Frank hold on the trumpet. So now
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without pause we will play this piece from start to finish on the basis of our.
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Rehearsing that we shared with you a few moments ago.
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Why.
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Boo.
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Boo.
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We have just finished playing a continuous performance of a piece by Jim
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Hart way which we worked on in open rehearsal
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before we did the actual performance. Before we finish out the
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program I would like again to remind you that we have some of our structural
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design plans available which you may have upon request if you will mail a
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self-addressed stamped envelope. To music w d e t
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5 0 3 5 Woodward Detroit 4 8 2
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0 2. Also I would like to announce to you the fact that
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the program on Friday night February 17th will be a live
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program open to the public and we would be very happy to have some of you come and attend in
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person. The program of course will be for the radio will be from
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8:30 to 9 but we intend to start playing at about 8:15 so that
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you can get a little extra listening in if youd like
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to. We're going to finish out the program now with a very short
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improvisation and experimental thing for just piano but we have
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two players one will actually play the piano John Raya and the other
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performer Jim Hart great hart way will get various percussion affix
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and in the piano to combine with the piano playing.
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That was Professor Ruth Wiley with the Wayne State University improvisation Chamber
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Ensemble. If you want information on this group and samples of the
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design plans for several of the improvisations send 15 cents in
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stamps to music. W d e t FM 5 0
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3 5 Woodward Avenue Detroit 4 8 2 0 2.
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This program was produced for national educational radio by w d e t
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FM Wayne State University Detroit. The engineers Charles
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Neron and David Pierce producer Oren hood. This is the national
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educational radio network.
This program has been transcribed using automated software tools, made possible through a collaboration between the American Archive of Public Broadcasting and Pop Up Archive. Please note that no automated transcription is perfect nor is it intended to replace human transcription labor. If you would like to contribute corrections to this transcript, please contact MITH at mith@umd.edu.