Celebrating Canadian Gamelan @ 40
co-presented by Evergreen Club Contemporary Gamelan & Consulate General of the Republic of Indonesia
Evergreen Club Contemporary Gamelan
in concert
with guests: Maxine Heppner dancers, Jennifer Moore (voice), Andrew Downing (cello), Russell Hartenberger (shakers), Robert W. Stevenson (bass clarinet)
at Consulate General of the Republic of Indonesia, 129 Jarvis St., Toronto
Saturday, October 5, 2024, 7pm
free admission
40th Anniversary Statement by Jon Siddall, ECCG Founding Artistic Director
There’s the strength of an idea and then there’s the strength of conviction. Something worthwhile starts with an idea but thrives with conviction. Over forty years ago I had the idea to start an ensemble devoted primarily to contemporary music written for gamelan. The inspiration for this idea began with American maverick composer Lou Harrison at Mills College. Lou introduced me to gamelan in his class, but more than that he encouraged me to write for gamelan.
When it came time to graduate and leave Mills, I realized I could not live without gamelan and so with the help of Lou, Sundanese ethnomusicologist Enoch Atmadibrata, and crucially that of my father, I acquired my own gamelan.
Then there’s the conviction. If you’d told me at its inception the Evergreen Club would still be a going concern forty years later, well, it never even crossed my mind. There was no timeline, just “do it.” Looking back, it’s impressive to see what the ensemble has done, and much of it accomplished since I left the group. Since then, Andrew Timar and then Blair Mackay in turn have led the ensemble with passion and a devotion to the creation and performance of wonderful music. The word that comes to mind is legacy. It’s a rich legacy of performances, tours, recordings and a large library of commissioned works.
A key part of that success has been the conviction held by members of the ensemble over the years all while bringing incredible talent to the music. In the early years of the ensemble when members left, I often replaced them with whoever was the hottest University of Toronto percussion student of Russell Hartenberger. Being a guitarist, it didn’t take long till I felt like one of the weakest players in the group! These percussionists were smoking good. I had to pull up my socks and I learned a lot from them. Ever since, the quality of musicianship has been a hallmark of this ensemble.
Along the way, the support of the Indonesian government has been a strength for the Evergreen Club. In many ways the Toronto Consulate and Ottawa Embassy in particular have encouraged the ensemble as they’ve watched a beautiful element of Indonesian culture take root in Canada and grow into something that never loses sight of its origins while becoming something new.
Not insignificant is the support Evergreen Club has received right from its inception from various levels of Canadian arts funders like the Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council and Toronto Art Council.
Here we are, forty years later. There are many new faces in the ensemble bringing their perspective as they play alongside the most experienced gamelan musicians in Canada. It’s beautiful to witness that mingling of the old and new, the transition to the future. One of the newer faces is Christopher Hull. Chris will be the next artistic director of the Evergreen Club. One senses his conviction. Who knows where his spark of imagination will lead the group next?
Statement by Blair Mackay, ECCG Artistic Director
32 years ago, I took on the role of artistic director and general manager of Evergreen Club Contemporary Gamelan (ECCG). Before then I was a performer, composer, and producer of predominantly alternative rock jazz and pop music, as well as being an active free-lance percussionist, playing in a wide variety of contexts. My backstory completely shaped how I came to say “yes” and embrace the idea of directing a gamelan. Most importantly, any possible scenario for “yes” demanded an artistically strong approach, and something very not-for-profit in every sense of that idea. It needed to be just about the art. It still is.
What a great time we had, all in the wonderful name of art! The idea was to build a body of work that would attempt to bring or move the hybridity inherent in so much contemporary art and music, into some kind of authenticity. Achieving this goal required great amounts of time and tenacity on the part of many talented people, all of whom deserve unreserved thanks.
The ECCG artistic mandate is about artists (composers, choreographers, film makers and performers) finding their voice through the sonic landscape of the ECCG instruments, and (perhaps more importantly) embracing to the fullest hybridity in art.
Every performer and artist who has worked with ECCG has been affected and influenced by this artistic mandate.
The group was fortunate throughout its long history to be able to maintain a core set of very gifted musicians for many consecutive years. This was achieved through good management, great music, great musicians and some good luck. This scenario, in concert with what in retrospect was a robust cultural funding environment, enabled the group to develop many long-term projects, some requiring several levels of complex national and international collaboration and management.
The result of this fortunate environment was realized in ECCG’s 10 critically acclaimed self-produced CDs, and collaborations with artists and arts organizations. We created some 200 new works for gamelan, many tours and projects involving some of Canadas finest instrumentalists, singers, composers, film makers, dancers, choreographers and more.
The works you are hearing tonight are only a small representation of ECCG’s journey under my directorship - all works that represent pivotal eras in the ECCG legacy. Together, they represent an homage to the composers within the ensemble, beginning with the groups founder and three of the group’s longest standing members. Enjoy
Evergreen Club Contemporary Gamelan
History
Evergreen Club Contemporary Gamelan (ECCG), Canada’s first gamelan performing group is an ensemble typically of eight or more professional Canadian musicians with a commissioning, performing and recording career that stretches over 40 years and several continents. The group plays on a custom gamelan degung, an orchestra indigenous to West Java, Indonesia. It often also incorporates other instrumental soloists, ensembles, orchestras, vocalists and other artistic disciplines.
Founded in 1983 in Toronto by Canadian composer and musician Jon Siddall, ECCG is dedicated to the development and expansion of its unique repertoire through active commissioning (some 300 new works to date) by Canadian, Indonesian and international composers. Its extensive body of “gamelan-plus,” feature works which include guest soloists, ensembles, solo and ensemble dance, plus media such as film, video, turntables and live acousmatic music.
ECCG’s repertoire reflects a Canadian transcultural music aesthetic which intermingles sensibilities rooted in West Java, Indonesia with that of Europe, North America and elsewhere. The group’s mission also embraces works by Indonesian composers, bridging cultural divides through music. Over the years, ECCG has hosted Indonesian musician-composers such as Nano S, Burhan Sukarma, Iwan Gunawan, Sutrisno Hartana and Ade Suparman, as well as dancer Nurrika, star vocalist Rita Tila and a contingent of artists from ISBI Bandung university.
The group’s numerous concert appearances have delighted audiences across Canada, USA, England, Belgium, Holland, France, Germany, Japan and Indonesia. In live performances, broadcasts and on numerous commercial recordings ECCG has presented world premières of works by renowned composers including John Cage, Ana Sokolović, James Tenney, Gilles Tremblay, Linda C. Smith, Walter Boudreau, Linda Bouchard, Lou Harrison, Katia Makdissi-Warren, Iwan Gunawan and Dieter Mack, among many others.
ECCG can be heard on the soundtracks of TV documentaries and short subject and feature films, including Balifilm (ECCG/Peter Mettler), Antoine Fischer (Mychael Danna/Denzel Washington), The Ice Storm and Life of Pi (both by Mychael Danna/Ang Lee). Composer Danna was awarded the 2013 Oscar and Golden Globe Awards for his Life of Pi soundtrack on which ECCG musicians played gamelan degung.
ECCG is an ensemble in residence at ArrayMusic, Toronto. ECCG acknowledges ArrayMusic and the following Arts Councils for their generous support.
CONSULATE GENERAL
OF THE REPUBLIC OF INDONESIA
IN TORONTO, CANADA
ECCG also wishes to thank the Consulate General of the Republic of Indonesia in Toronto for co-presenting this concert, part of a legacy of four decades of Indonesian-Canadian musical partnership.
Concert Programme
North of Java (1983; rev. 2024) Andrew Timar
My minimalist composition North of Java, accompanied by a Southern Ontario field recording soundtrack, was the first work on ECCGs inaugural concert over 40 years ago. Commissioned by ECCG founder Jon Siddall, the three-movement score is based on short interlocking melodies inspired by Vietnamese field recordings. The resulting music sonically bridges two geographies: Southern Ontario and Southeast Asia, while also exploring real-time interaction between human and nature sounds.
For ECCG’s 40th I added a processional opener, animating the space in celebration with four Javanese village iron gongs and two rebana (Javanese frame drums).
The Greenhouse Revisited (2009) Jon Siddall
The Greenhouse Revisited was commissioned by the Evergreen Club in 2009 to mark the 25th anniversary of the ensemble. As the title suggests, it's a reworking of a music theatre piece, The Greenhouse (1985) created with visual artist Erica Runstrom with dance by Claudia Moore at the premiere and subsequently by Danielle Belec.
The result brings much new composition to bear on the original themes. I’ve taken liberty with the subtitles of each movement, even in assigning theatrical references. The movements of the work flow uninterrupted as follows: Act I: A Knock on the Door; Act II: Arrival of the Puppets; Interlude: Inside Looking Out; Act III: Dance Amongst the Tulips; Act IV: Outside Looking In.
Gamelan Solo (2000) - music Mark Duggan
Nine Bronze Pieces (2002) - choreography Maxine Heppner
dancers: Katie Adams-Gossage, Mio Sakamoto, Simon Mazziotti, Jen Hum
lighting: Christos Giotis
general acknowledgements: Across Oceans Arts
Gamelan Solo explores and highlights the tone colours of ECCG’s degung instruments. The piece features each of the ensemble’s voices in small instrumental combinations. Thus, Gamelan Solo contains nine movements in which there are two quartets, two trios, one sextet, one quintet, one duet, one solo and an octet. The work is continuous, without breaks between the movements, and each has a distinct character. The work does not an attempt to evoke an Indonesian aesthetic, but rather draws from a dramatic, minimalist language.
The title of the piece has two meanings - a composition for solo gamelan, and a gamelan from the city of Surakarta, Indonesia, also known as Solo, where many of the ECCG instruments were manufactured by the renowned late gongsmith Tentrem Sarwanto.
The choreography Nine Bronze Pieces traces energetic lines created by the intersection of ECCG’s degung instruments' vibrations and the dancers' gestures. Some of the intersections follow cyclical pathways in space and/or in the dancers' bodies. Others result in strong moments of impulse that propel the dancers’ action in very specific directions. This abstract movement language is non-narrative, yet carries emotional implications that are open to each individual's interpretation.
The combined music-dance work was premiered by ECCG and Maxine Heppner Dancers on tour in Indonesia in 2002. It has been staged many times since. Maxine Heppner wishes to thank the dedication of the original dancer cast of Nine Bronze Pieces: Jessica Runge, Louis Laberge-Côté, and Susan Lee. The creation and performance of the dance was made possible by the generosity of the Laidlaw Foundation, the Toronto Arts Council and The Canada Council for the Arts.
Intermission
Translating Grace (2005) - Bill Parsons
text: Jean Marc Lariviere
guest musicians:
voice: Jennifer Moore
cello: Andrew Downing
bass clarinet: Robert W. Stevenson
keyboard: Mark Duggan
The story of the prodigal son is reframed in several languages by vocalist Jennifer Moore. Composer Bill Parsons creates two ensembles - one the ECCG degung, the other a Western trio of cello, bass clarinet and keyboard – which in his score work together to sonically illuminate the dramatic narrative. The Sundanese kacapi, played by the composer, is prominently featured throughout the work, its plucked string timbre evoking a mythical mindscape.
Islands of Silence (1994) John Wyre
steel pan: Yang Chen
darbuka: Mark Duggan
maracas: Russell Hartenberger
John Wyre, one of the founding members of the world-renowned percussion ensemble NEXUS was a close friend of ECCG. He composed several works for ECCG, including Islands of Silence which features the steel pan alongside the ensemble’s typical degung instrumentation. The multi-section work features polyrhythms associated with West African music and catchy melodies rendered by the steel pan and suling. Rhythmic interest is amped up by contributions of the darabuka and maracas.
Kalangkang (1986) Nano S. (Suratno)
The songs of the late Sundanese composer and songwriter Nano Suratno (aka Nano S) have frequently been arranged by ECCG musicians. Based on Sundanese melodic modes, Kalangkang’s marvellously inventive melody, its rhythmic hooks and lovelorn Sundanese lyrics made it Nano S’ biggest hit out of a vast 450-song catalogue. Mark Duggan’s arrangement garnered Nano S’ enthusiastic approval in 2008 when he was ECCG’s composer in residence. Andrew Timar plays the vocal melody while Jake Parker Scott joins ECCG in his first concert appearance as suling understudy.
Evergreen Club Contemporary Gamelan musicians
Yang Chen
Christopher Hull (Assoc. Artistic Director)
Mark Duggan
Etienne Levesque
Blair Mackay (Artistic Director)
Bill Parsons
Jake Parker Scott
Jonny Smith
Andrew Timar
Naoko Tsujita