| SOME NOTES ON NEW AMERICAN MARCHES: This recording came together in the usual way: it started out as one thing and became something entirely different. My plans for a regulation piano trio of piano, bass and drums mutated into a string trio with vestiges of the piano group still audible. The reasons for this were the time it was recorded, the players involved, and the assertion of the thing wanting to be expressed. More and more, I seem to take cues from circumstances: the danger, of course, is producing a polemic, rather than a work of art. In this case, it couldn�t be helped. As the events of 9/11 insinuated themselves into my conception of American Ecstasy (For Unprepared Piano), so too did the war in Iraq make a deep impression on me, seeming emblematic of a deeper sickness that was threatening the country, a virus of extremism, intolerance and hatred. For the first time in my life, I felt, as I had never felt before, the very real possibility that the country as I had known it was in danger of disappearing. The need to speak to this now became the impetus for the project. I�m not sure when I thought seriously about the string trio, though it seems to have coincided with approaching cellist Helena Espvall-Santoleri about it and having her recommend this bass player she knew, Michael Barker. It felt like a good fit. The music needed strings: it needed a more delicate voice than I had been accustomed to using. The first four tracks feature the piano/cello/bass group and comprise a suite, with the first three (ink=blue, blood=red, breath=white) acting as separate-but-connected pieces that culminate in the finale of flag. The martial rhythm that dominates it is, of course, partly satirical, but it would be a mistake to limit its intent to that. Structured in an A-B-C-A-B-C format, it�s meant to end on a note of hope, its closing chords an open sky. The title NO USA actually came from what is probably a mistaken reading of letters that can be seen on Michael Rennie�s robe early on in The Day The Earth Stood Still, a film which was referenced in more than one piece I read about the situation in Iraq (and which was on my mind due to my work on Planetaria, an unproduced piece intended to commemorate the 70th anniversary of Philadelphia�s Franklin Institute). At one point I remember wanting to ask Michael to play the theremin on it, as a nod to that film�s famous soundtrack. It�s a lengthy improvisation for a string trio of viola, cello, and bass. Its title can be read any number of ways, intentionally so. My favorite is to note that by changing one letter it becomes SOUSA, whose spirit inspired the �marches� offered here. My gratitude and thanks to Helena Espvall-Santoleri and Michael Barker, superlative musicians whose talent and kindness have made this recording what it is. You made it a magical experience and I hope you enjoyed it half as much as I did. Thanks also to Stephen Rossmeisl and Turtle Studios, for providing the best atmosphere one could hope to work in. I probably owe you a piano tuning. Also thanks to Tad Roebuck, Thomas Myernick, Elliott Levin, George Bond, Nate Dorward, and Phil and Ennis Carter. Your encouragement has helped this little engine get up the hill when things don�t go the way we�d hoped. I hope you like it. Finally, for Sheva. Smart as a whip, sweet as molasses, it�s all meaningless without you. See you in the voting booth, Robert W. Getz, 9/11/03 |