|
|
|
Between September 4-17, 2006, Lampo director Andrew Fenchel and U.S. artists Joe Colley (Oakland), Kevin Drumm (Chicago) and Jessica Rylan (Boston) traveled to Russia to meet other musicians, curators and journalists.
|
 |
|
The project, organized by Fenchel with Alexei Borisov, included a series of performances, post-concert discussions and workshops in Moscow (Dom), St. Petersburg (GEZ-21) and Yaroslavl (Yaroslavl Art Museum), as well as a rare session with the ANS synthesizer at the Theremin Center, Moscow State Conservatory.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Of the trip's many highlights, time spent with the ANS synthesizer was particularly special. Theremin Center director Andrei Smirnov described the instrument's history, and composer Stanislav Kreitchi showed us how it works.
|
|
|
The ANS, created by Russian engineer Evgeny Murzin, is a photoelectric instrument—its sound is triggered by light. To generate specific tones, composers draw visual scores on large glass plates by scraping away an opaque black mastic. An individual plate scans left or right across the instrument's photocells, which in turn triggers amplifiers. In effect, the synthesizer transcribes a graphic image into different pitches. Murzin named the instrument for Russian composer Alexander Nikolayevich Scriabin, whose ideas about synthesizing color and sound inspired the inventor.
|
|
|
The ANS was conceived in the late '30s and finally realized in 1958. The first version was made of wood, had a horizontal orientation, and unfortunately no longer exists. Only one other was ever built—a new and improved design, made of metal and standing upright. Kreitchi joined Murzin in 1961, and has been the ANS caretaker ever since. Recently, after returning to his office from a brief vacation, he saved the instrument just as construction workers were moving it to a scrap heap.
|
|
|
On the day of our visit, Kreitchi brought out one of his plates with a very detailed drawing. He played for a while, and the sound was amazing, kind of sci-fi movie spaceship-like. Then he went to make a switch and somehow dropped the plate, which shattered into little pieces. We were all shocked, but Kreitchi didn't seem too bothered. He told us matter-of-factly that it was one of his first pieces, titled "Birth of Vertical." We felt terrible and couldn't believe that a one-of-a-kind score had just been lost forever.
|
|
|
It also was impossible to ignore the irony, given the work's title. Kreitchi's demonstration was, sadly, the death of the birth of vertical. In truth, he never paused, and really just seemed happy that we were interested in this unusual instrument that he has dedicated his life to.
|
|
|
That afternoon Borisov, Colley, Drumm and Rylan each got their hands on the ANS, an exceptionally rare opportunity. Rylan also demonstrated her Personal Synth and discussed its design with Smirnov and Kreitchi.
|
|
|
Funded in part with support from the Trust for Mutual Understanding and CEC ArtsLink.
|
|
|
|
