Coming Together

Bowerbird presented an online portrait concert of American composer and virtuoso pianist Frederic Rzewski, streamed during the pandemic. The program premiered a new music video of Rzewski’s Coming Together, made by Camae Ayewa (Moor Mother) and video artist Bob Sweeney, filmed that spring at Eastern State Penitentiary with the Arcana New Music Ensemble. It also included rare archival footage of Rzewski playing his own work and two rarely heard solo pieces, Shtick for saxophone and Sixteen Sneakers for viola.

Program

Rzewski: Shtick (1990)
Aaron Stewart, saxophone

Rzewski: Sixteen Sneakers (2012)
Hannah Nicholas, viola

Rzewski performs Rzewski
Rare archival footage of Frederic Rzewski at the piano

Rzewski: Coming Together (1971), world premiere music video
Camae Ayewa (Moor Mother), performer and speaker
Bob Sweeney, video artist
Arcana New Music Ensemble: Nicholas Handahl, flute; Dominic Panunto, bassoon; Aaron Stewart, saxophone; Tessa Ellis, trumpet; Molly Germer, violin; Erin Busch, cello; David Hughes, piano; Andy Thierauf, percussion

About the music

Rzewski’s minimalist masterpiece Coming Together was composed in response to the 1971 uprising at Attica Prison in upstate New York. Scored for narrator and open ensemble, it sets a letter by Sam Melville, one of the leaders of the uprising, who was killed when the prison was retaken. The text reads:

I think the combination of age and the greater coming together is responsible for the speed of the passing time. it’s six months now and i can tell you truthfully few periods in my life have passed so quickly. i am in excellent physical and emotional health. there are doubtless subtle surprises ahead but i feel secure and ready. As lovers will contrast their emotions in times of crisis, so am i dealing with my environment. in the indifferent brutality, incessant noise, the experimental chemistry of food, the ravings of lost hysterical men, i can act with clarity and meaning. i am deliberate – sometimes even calculating – seldom employing histrionics except as a test of the reactions of others. i read much, exercise, talk to guards and inmates, feeling for the inevitable direction of my life.

Shtick, for solo saxophone, alludes to folk and popular melodies, including the Yiddish tune Yidl Mit’n Fidl. Sixteen Sneakers is a playful work for solo viola (or a small group of violas) that Rzewski composed for his daughter Esther.

Support

Support for this project was provided by the Musical Fund Society of Philadelphia. Special thanks to Eastern State Penitentiary Historic Site.