The Duo Gillis Cunningham (DGC), Glen Gillis (saxophone) and James E. Cunningham (didgeridoo), have experimentally pursued the boundaries of contemporary acoustic expression by bridging ancient and modern musical approaches.

Throughout their twenty-year compositional and performative collaboration, they have sought to blend the melodic and advanced modern techniques of the alto saxophone with the rich low timbres and driving rhythms of the ancient Australian Aboriginal didgeridoo. DGC’s approach relies on the acoustic separation between the high tessitura of the alto sax and the low frequencies and rich overtone spectrum of the didgeridoo. In performance, the disparate timbres and tonal ranges of the sax and didge are then blended together through the application of contemporary electro-acoustic digital processing technology. Their performances have been well-received in concert and conference settings throughout the United States and Canada, and internationally in Iceland, England, France, and Croatia.

Central to the DGC’s experimental approach is the application of advanced high-speed computer processing and the implementation of the digital convolution reverberation capabilities of Altiverb 7 ® software.

Convolution reverb is capable of recreating the natural reverberation of any physical space through the application of impulse response (IR) technology, which has the ability to capture and reproduce the acoustic signature from any ambient space. Their real-time use of IRs includes resonances captured for the Dan Harpole cistern in Washington State to the Gol Gumbas mausoleum in India and the Robin Hood Cave in Nottinghamshire, England.  Covering a wide range of musical styles and approaches, all of the DGC’s compositions weave disparate acoustic and digital elements into a cohesive fabric, creating a sonic environment that transports listeners into alternative ambient universes.

Album Track Excerpts

Complete album available for download on Band Camp:
https://hootwisdom.bandcamp.com/album/sonic-eclipse 

Fanfare (2016) 03’02” Fanfare is the DGC’s traditional opening piece. In performance it integrates a backing track from the Didgeri Dudes’ 1997 recording “Land of Snows” with alto saxophone, conch trumpet, and slide didge in Altiverb environments captured from India’s Gol Gumbaz mausoleum and Washington State’s Dan Harpole Water Cistern with its forty-five-second natural reverberation signature.

Fanfare (excerpt)

Canis Lupi (2018) 3’29” is a programmatic composition, which portrays the plight of two grey wolves separated by a severe arctic blizzard. Throughout the piece they blindly communicate back and forth, coming ever-steadily closer together until eventually finding each other. In addition to alto saxophone this piece incorporates a James E Cunningham hand-carved maple didgeridoo in Eb. The freezing and blustery arctic environment is produced through the combination of the Fort Worden cistern and Hal Saflieni mosque impulse-response technology.

Canis Lupi (excerpt)

Walkabout (2018) 3’29” is offered as a tribute to the Australian Aboriginal originators of the didgeridoo. In Aboriginal culture a ‘walkabout’ is a journey (long or short) where one embarks on an unplanned walk just to see where they may end up. Internationally debuted at the STRATA New Music Festival in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, Walkabout “journeys” through three different meters 5/4, 6/8, and 2/4 as it gathers momentum from beginning to end. In addition to alto sax and Eb sewerphone, this recording features a guest performance by world-class drummer/percussionist Satnam Ramgotra performing on the Hindustani tabla and African shakers. For this composition, all instruments are processed through an IR captured from Selimiye, an Ottoman Imperial Mosque from Edirne, Turkey.

Mr. Hood (2017) 4’11”. Mr. Hood, a DGC tune that was rearranged for sax and didge from the Glen Gillis compositions “Nicole’s Gigue,” and Nicole’s Aria.” It was premiered at the British Forum for Ethnomusicology Annual Conference in Sheffield, England in honor of Robin Hood, who was rumored to utilize a nearby Neolithic cave as a hideout. This recording also incorporates an impulse response from the Robin Hood Cave at Creswell Crags Gorge in Nottinghamshire, England.

Abyss (2019) 14’06” is a new composition inspired by James Cameron’s recent submersible solo dive to the seven-mile depths of the Marianas Trench, chronicled in his 3D film Deepsea Challenge. In this ethereal composition, the alto saxophone and double Bb and Eb sewerphone highlights the transition from the abysmal plain into the bottom of the trench with a dramatic low key change and sub-harmonics enhanced with the Gol Gumbaz IR software.

Bleu Genes (2018) 2’30” is a lively “jazz” piece for alto saxophone and a double Eb and Gb sewerphone. Its swing groove is propelled by Florida Atlantic University percussion instructor Matt Nichols’ tasteful invention of an old-school “drum set” made from found materials such as a large plastic trash can and tin bucket substituting as kick drum and snare respectively.

 Total Eclipse (of the sun) (2018) 8’25”. Total Eclipse was inspired by the 2017 total eclipse that transected the United States. The sun is represented by the melodic passages of the alto saxophone, and the the moon’s obscuration of the sun is represented by the steadily-descending pitch of the Arnold Palmer slide didge. The appearance of the sun’s corona during moments of the total eclipse is marked by the reverberating echoes of a large Balinese tuned-gong in Eb, and an extended saxophone cadenza. Its “outer space vibe” is enhanced by the long echoing reverberation from the Gol Gumbaz mausoleum.

Whales in a Mechanical Ocean (2019) 5’41”. Originally composed for the 2018 STRATA New Music Festival, “Whales in a Mechanical Ocean” is an original album contribution by DGC producer/recording engineer Matt Baltrucki. The “mechanical ocean” is based on hundreds of digitally processed sound samples collected from the David L Kaplan Musical Instrument Collection at the University of Saskatchewan. The “oceanic sonic environment” is overlaid with “whale songs” created by Glen Gillis alto saxophone and the ubiquitous wailphone invented by James E Cunningham. All sonic environments are processed and realized through an IR of the Saflieni Mosque in Edirne, Turkey.

Canon for Marjory Stoneman-Douglas High School (2019) 4’02” is a musical offering to all of those who were impacted by the mass shooting in Parkland, Florida in 2018. It is a polyphonic adaptation of a Shaker-style song composed by Drs. Gillis and Cunningham in 2016. Instrumentally it utilizes alto saxophone accompanied by the “big didge” an eight-foot-long conical PVC didgeridoo in Bb, which overblows at the octave. For this final composition, we rely once again on an IR from the Dan Harpole Cistern with its lengthy and distinctive reverberation signature. 

 

Artist Bios

James E. Cunningham is an Associate Professor in the Department of Music at Florida Atlantic University, in Boca Raton. As an ethnomusicologist, he has explored the gamut of world and popular musics from both cultural and performative perspectives. In addition to his extensive work with the music of Native North America and organology, Dr. Cunningham is a composer and performer of experimental music for the Australian Aboriginal didgeridoo based on his nine-year study with avant guarde trombonist Stuart Dempster at the University of Washington. As a co-founder of the Didgeri Dudes he produced and released two albums of didgeridoo duets, Jamie and Brian ©1994 and Under the Earth Tones: Ambient Didgeridoo Meditations ©1997. Additionally, he has contributed compositions to Glen Gillis’ albums Sax Spectrum 1 and Sax Spectrum 2. In 2007 © he produced and released didgeridoo.diversions a solo album of original compositions for Hoot/Wisdom Recordings LLC.

Glen Gillis is a Professor of Saxophone, Conducting, and Music Education at the University of Saskatchewan. As a graduate student at Northwestern University, he studied under the mentorship of the noted Fred Hemke. His performance career has spanned over three decades in the genres of classical, contemporary, and jazz, with appearances in North American, Europe, and Asia. A Conn-Selmer Artist/Clinician, Dr. Gillis has also presented at the CBDNA, WASBE, TMEA, British Forum for Ethnomusicology, and The Midwest Clinic. As a composer/recording artist he has released numerous compositions and commissioned works for saxophone on the albums SaxSpectrum 1 ©2009 and SaxSpectrum 2 ©2014, which was nominated for a 2015 Western Canadian Music Award. His compositions for saxophone are published by Eighth Note (Alfred Music).

Matt Baltrucki is an Assistant Professor in the FAU Department of Music’s Commercial Music Program. As a producer, recording, mixing and mastering engineer, Matt has worked with ensembles across many diverse styles of music, from traditional and modern classical chamber music to contemporary tango, jazz, punk, metal, indie rock, as well as world and popular music genres. Matt’s sonic approach focuses on collaborative acoustic and electro-acoustic music production techniques, disciplines and workflows utilizing the recorded medium as an active participant in the generation and realization of compositions of new music. His collaborative association with DGC for this project has been integral to the overall concept, production, and final realization of the album. Additionally, his original composition “Whales in a Mechanical Ocean” combines live recordings with music samples collected from instruments in the David L Kapan Musical Instrument Collection at the University of Saskatchewan in connection with an ICCC (Interdisciplinary Centre for Culture and Creativity) grant.

Instrumentation

The alto saxophone, representing the zenith of nineteenth-century European mechanical design and engineering, is a mid-single-reed instrument invented circa 1840 by Adolphe Sax, a Belgian instrument maker and musician. Contemporarily, the alto saxophone is played in jazz, popular, and classical traditions. In the modern era its performance profile has been expanded to include special effects such as multi-phonics, micro-tones, and alternative fingerings and articulations.

Conversely, the Australian Aboriginal didgeridoo is an ancient instrument which has been traditionally played as an accompaniment for song and dance. It is a simple long wooden tube without finger holes that is made from gum (eucalyptus) trees that are hollowed in nature by large white ants often characterized as “termites.” Its fundamental low pitch is produced by the pursing of the players lips in the same manner as a trombone. However, belying its simple construction, the playing techniques of the didgeridoo, developed for more than one-thousand years by the Aboriginal peoples of Northern Australia, give the instrument the ability to produce a wide range of timbral effects and “percussive” rhythms.

The use of the Aboriginal didgeridoo is expanded by James Cunningham in a contemporary manner through the crafting of handmade didgeridoos constructed from a variety of materials. In addition to hand-carved didgeridoos constructed from wood indigenous to North America, Dr. C has invented contemporary instruments such as the sewerphone, the Arnold Palmer slide didge, and the ubiquitous wailphone, all constructed from ABS and PVC plastics.

The sewerphone (no offense intended) is a didgeridoo fabricated from one-and-one-half-inch ABS sewer pipe in the shape of a saxophone. Unlike Aboriginal didgeridoos, sewerphones can be tuned to a precise pitch in order to play with Western instrumentation. The “double sewerphone,” an offshoot of the original model has the ability to sound two fundamental pitches instead of the one produced by a standard didgeridoo.

The Arnold Palmer slide didge is an instrument that is repurposed from plastic tubes originally designed to separate club grips from each other in a golf bag. The AP slide didge is constructed from two one-inch-diameter three-foot-long tubes, one fitted inside the other, which allows it to be expanded and contracted in order to produce a broad range of gliding pitches not unlike a slide trombone. Although the golf tube availability has decreased significantly with the introduction of new golf bag designs, the golf tube remains a staple for beginning students and a staple of Dr C’s didgeridoo quiver.

The wailphone is another “invented” instrument constructed from an Arnold Palmer slide didge with an attached Primos “blue reed” elk-call mouthpiece ®. The wailphone with its flexible plastic reed and ability to be lengthened and shortened can produce a range of extremely high pitches with glides and portamento effects that sound eerily similar to the vocalizations of real whales.

The conch trumpet is another staple instrument for DGC compositions. Dr. C’s conch trumpets are self-made from shells of the Caribbean pink conch. By cutting a mouthpiece opening in the small-end spiral of the shell, it can produce a voluminous sound by pursing the lips in the same manner as a trumpet. The pitch of the instrument is determined by the size of the shell, which can be lowered to the interval of a fourth through the insertion of the player’s hand into the large bell opening.

 

Credits

All songs (except #8) composed by Duo Gillis Cunningham (DGC) aka James E Cunningham b.1954, and Glen H Gillis b. 1956.

Whales in a Mechanical Ocean, composed by Matthew M. Baltrucki b. 1986, feat. Duo Gillis Cunningham
Samples recorded from the David L. Kaplan Musical Instrument Collection at the University of Saskatchewan Department of Music.

Glen Gillis: alto saxophone
James E Cunningham: didgeridoos, conch trumpet, wailphone, and select idiophones
Satnam Ramgotra: tabla, African shakers
Matt Nichols: found materials drum kit

Produced by Matt Baltrucki and James E Cunningham
Engineering, mixing, mastering, post-production by Matt Baltrucki
Assistant engineering by Zach Binder

Album artwork by Kelley Cunningham

Recorded at Studio A, Florida Atlantic University
Hoot/Wisdom Recordings LLC 2019© all rights reserved

This post will chronicle a road trip to the National Saxophone Alliance Region 9 Conference in Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada.and lecture-demonstration by the Duo Gillis Cunningham.

After flying from Boca Raton, Florida to Saskatoon, the trip necessitated an eight-hundred-mile round-trip journey across the frigid winter prairies of Saskatchewan and Alberta, Canada.

Along the route we encountered many obstacles and objectives, including wandering moosei and migrating snow snakes.

The adventure also included a trip down memory lane through the municipalities of Moose Jaw and Medicine Hat, memorialized in the  immortal Guess Who hit song “Running Back to Sasaktoon.”

Snow snakes aside, Lethbridge in southern Alberta is a picturesque local in western Canada, just north of the US border. Its highlights include tons of grazing deer, and a converted watertower-topped restaurant.

The business end of the road trip involved a lecture-recital titled: “Collaborating and Composing: Traditional and Non-Traditional Instruments Interacting within Re-created Acoustical Environments,”  which chronicled and laid-out the long-time compositional and performative processes of the Duo Gillis Cunningham, developed during a twenty-year collaborative partnership.

Total Eclipse [of the Sun] – Live at Lethbridge

DAPPER DANS’ ANGKLUNG: AN ORGAN-CHIMES-OLOGY OF A DISNEY TRADITION 

This project began under the premise that the incorporation of a set of “exotic” musical instruments into the mélange of Disney spectacle was a clear case of random cultural appropriation. Further research and conclusions show that the issue may not be exactly what it seems to be.

The Walt Disney Magic Kingdom in Orlando, Florida features a barber shop quartet known as the Dapper Dans. The group, comprised of rotating cast members, is an offshoot of the original Dapper Dans, a staple at Disneyland in Anaheim, California, since 1955. Attired in colorful pin-stripe outfits, tap shoes, and straw “boater” hats, the Dapper Dans’ schtick includes their signature harmonized versions of timeless barber shop standards and Disney songs, punctuated by a patter of corny jokes.

In contrast to their Disneyland cousins, the Magic Kingdom Dans’ “acapella” performances also feature a set of hand-held, diatonically-tuned, shaken, metallic, tube-idiophones that bear a striking physical resemblance to bamboo angklung, found throughout the Indonesian archipelago. Musically, the Dans’ “angklung” performance feature both solo melodic and chordal accompaniment functions. Played in pairs by the four Dans, they produce a total of eight tones including the octave. And like their Indonesian doppelgangers, melodies are shared between players.

Initial discussions with members of the Dapper Dans revealed that the instruments were Deagan organ chimes from the early-20th century. The chimes were introduced to the group by founding member Bub Thomas when the Magic Kingdom opened in 1971.

According to www.harmonize.com/dapperdans the Magic Kingdom’s set of instruments originally belonged to vaudevillian comedienne and entertainer Billie Bird, …

…who taught Bub how to play them while they were working together in Southern California clubs during the 1940s and 1950s. During the 1960s, Bub used the instruments in a variety of barbershopesque vocal acts, including the Terpsichords, prior to his formation of the Dapper Dans at the Magic Kingdom.

Subsequent research revealed that the J.C. Deagan Company, run by inventor and entrepreneur John Calhoun Deagan (1853-1934), was a Chicago-based manufacturer specializing in tuned percussion idiophones.

J.C. Deagan was also instrumental in the development of the modern marimba, xylophone, vibraphone, and orchestral chimes, and is also credited with the establishment of 440 Hz as the standard reference pitch in the United States. His three-pitch dinner chimes were, and still are, played as the announcement sound-bite for the National Broadcast Corporation.

As indicated by the Deagan catalog, the organ chimes were available in tuned chromatic sets of twenty to forty-four instruments and were marketed as “novelty instruments,” and purchased by circuses and vaudeville performers, from the turn of the 20^th century until manufacture was discontinued in the early 1920s.

The chimes themselves are tubular, at the bottom end. A long vertical notch cut at the open top of each chime allows for precise tuning. Each individual instrument has three or four chimes tuned in octaves to a single pitch. The metal chimes were constructed from either nickel-plated steel or aluminum. Each individual chime is loosely set into a wooden base, supported by a metal frame that allows it pivot back and forth at the bottom end.

A clear resonance is produced by the manual movement of the frame forward and down, which causes the bottom of the tube to slide and knock against the end of a slot cut into the base of the frame. The organ chimes can produce a single tone and a sustained tone by shaking. Their vibration is dampened when the instruments are tipped back into the starting position.

Were the Deagan organ chimes copies of bamboo angklung?

Perhaps negating the possibility of simultaneous invention, Gary Goss, a Santa Monica street performer and owner of a set of Deagan organ chimes, states that, “…Deagan got the idea for the chimes when he attended the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, where he saw an Indonesian group perform on the bamboo angklungs [sic].” This is supported by accounts which state that the reconstructed Sundanese village from West Java was one of the most popular attractions at the World’s Columbian Exhibition. Another source states that the Sundanese villagers remained in Chicago for a period of nine months.

A separate account from the Field Museum supports angklung performance at the Columbian Exhibition’s reconstructed Sundanese village, where “…[s]trolling through the village one heard the melodies of the angklung orchestra (tuned bamboo rattles).” Further evidence of the physical presence of angklung in North American can be traced to the early 20^th century lectures of photographer Dwight Elmendorf, who “…demonstrated the use of angklung rattles and explained that the angklung was a musical instrument used in Java to accompany hobby-horse dancing and was ‘played like the chimes one sees in vaudeville.’” (‘Gossip’, The Van Wert Daily Bulleting, 2 December 1916)

It appears certain that bamboo angklung were the inspiration for the Deagan organ chimes, which J.C. had most-likely seen during the 1893 World’s Columbian Exhibition. Additional speculation suggests that he may have also had the opportunity to measure or even purchase physical instruments as models for his organ-chime design. His original patent, for the Deagan organ chimes, was dated March 6, 1900, some seven years after the Fair.

The notion that the Deagan organ-chime design was copied from an Indonesian model is further supported by the fact that both angklung and organ chimes are often stored or suspended on racks, allowing for multiple instruments to be played, in place, by a single performer.

While Deagan did (perhaps) copy the Indonesian design of the bamboo angklung, it is apparent that he did not attempt to replicate the tetratonic scale common to both bamboo and metallophone angklung ensembles. The use of such a tuning system would have made the practical performance of Western diatonic music and functional harmony impossible.

After Deagan discontinued the manufacture of the organ chimes in the early 1920s, the existing sets of instruments continued to be favorited by novelty acts, which included family bands, and barber shop quartets. Today, Deagan organ chimes are displayed at the Circus World museum in Florida, and in the Percy Grainger museum in Melbourne, Australia. In addition to their continued use by the Dapper Dans, other sets of organ chimes are still in use today by contemporary performers.

In an interesting twist, the role of angklung has become a huge global phenomenon, since Da-eng So-e-tig-na created a diatonic bamboo angklung in Bandung, West Java in 1938. At present, diatonic angklung orchestras perform a wide repertoire of Western classical and popular music compositions globally. The plethora of angklung videos on YouTube include:

“The Titanic Theme” and “Bohemian Rhapsody” by Saung Angklung Udjo from Bandung, West Java; “Beethoven’s 5^th Symphony” by Indah Putri from Japan; “Mission Impossible Theme” by the Angklung Hamburg Orchestra, in Germany; “Rihanna’s Umbrella” by Siarn Langsung from Melaysia; and “New York, New York” by Angklung Einhoven, in the Netherlands.

In 2010 UNESCO designated the angklung as a “Masterpiece of Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.” And on July 9, 2011, 5,182 people from many nations played together in Washington DC, at an event which is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the world’s largest angklung ensemble.

Music is a huge part of the atmosphere at all four main kingdoms, as well as the newly-christened Disney Springs at Walt Disney World. Many, but not all of the Dans’ performances include a healthy dose of Deagan organ chiming. The repertoire of the Dapper Dans is varied and wide-ranging from Stephen Foster to, Chopin, and Irving Berlin with a generous smattering of memorable Disney classics, such as “Whistle While You Work,”, The Mickey Mouse Theme Song, and“Zippity-Do-Dah.

Audience participation and involvement is a key factor in the nostalgic culture created by the Main Street appearances of the Dapper Dans. They perform informally, several times per day, without a stage on Main Street, or in the town square. Their sound is reinforced by a high-quality wireless PA system, where the surround-sound seems to simultaneously come from everywhere and nowhere at all. Guests are encouraged to participate by singing along or just general merry-making, due to the constant barrage of old jokes and comedic banter. The close interaction with the Dans, draws guests into the world of the nostalgic past. Some guests have even been coached to play one of Deagan organ-chime parts during a routine, for which they were rewarded with a certificate, certifying them as an “Honorary Ding-A-Ling.”

Conclusion

The turn-of-the-century storefronts, vintage décor, horse-drawn trolley, antique fire engine, period costumes, and Dapper Dans performances in front of the Harmony Barber Shop are all in keeping with Walt Disney’s imaginative and nostalgic recreation of the ideal small mid-western town from his youth. Together, these factors contribute to the feeling of going back in time as each visitor enters the park through the main entrance. Highly structured and planned, the sights, sounds, and smells of Main Street create a temporal and cultural barrier that immediately consumes visitors, distancing them from the outside world, while simultaneously opening them up for imaginative journeys of fantasy and adventure into both the past and the future in the many “lands” of the Magic Kingdom.

The presence of the early 20^th-century Deagan organ chimes in 21^st-century Orlando, Florida presents an interesting perspective into the prominent role nostalgia plays at the Magic Kingdom. The Dapper Dans and their Deagan organ chimes are critical components of Disney’s Main Street Attraction, contributing to the old-time atmosphere that immediately engulfs visitors as they enter the park. As such, the chimes add realistic authenticity to the recreation of the past so critical to the retro atmosphere of Main Street USA.

While at first both out of place and context, the appropriation and re-design of the angklung by J.C. Deagan contributes to the perpetuation of nostalgia at the Magic Kingdom in the 21^st century because of the role the organ chimes played in public performances by vaudeville entertainers, family bands, and traveling circuses at the beginning of the 20^th century. In this sense, Deagan organ chimes are historically accurate in the nostalgic context of the Main Street Attraction.

The Deagan organ-chime performances by the Dapper Dans at the Magic Kingdom organologically connect Indonesia with North America. They also musically connect shared expressive hocketting traditions from pre-19^th-century Asia with global popular culture, such as bell choirs and pan ensembles. The angklung instrument design itself has simultaneously undergone a temporal and geographical journey from Indonesia to Florida, where it has become a permanent fixture for almost fifty years. Perhaps…it is a small world after all?

References:
Cohen, M, 2010, Performing Otherness: Java and Bali on International Stages, 1905-1952, Springer https://qolamii.wordpress.com/2015/02/16/indonesian-angklung -one-of-a-masterpiece-of-oral-and-intangible-heritage-of-humanity/ https://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/additions-to-national-recording-registry-2015/10/ http://www.harmonize.com/dapperdans/ http://www.harmonize.com/dapperdans/deagan_organ_chimes/deoc_emi_article/deoc_emi_article.htm#Deagan%20Organ%20Chimes
http://thescreamonline.com/photo/photo10-01/garygoss/garymain.html# http://www.deaganresource.com/index.html https://www.fieldmuseum.org/java-village-1893-worlds-columbian-exposition

This post will introduce my research agenda for an upcoming  Canadian sojourn to Saskatoon in late-May early-June. Funded by a 2018 ICCC (Interdisciplinary Centre for Culture and Creativity) Linking Fellowship from the University of Saskatchewan the trifold purpose of the trip is multi-disciplinary and multi-faceted due to the co-mingling of creative, performative, and indigenous agendas.

The ICCC project, titled “Resonances of David Kaplan,” is inspired by Dr. Kaplan’s idea of creating a “living collection” of musical instruments from those he collected throughout his lifetime. As a living collection, he envisioned that the musical instruments therein could be used educationally and creatively, as inspiration for contemporary musical composition and performance.

Currently housed in the Department of Music at USASK, the Kaplan collection consists of 400+ global musical instruments, the majority of which are from traditions outside of the Western music canon. However, due to lack of maintenance and poor storage conditions, many of the instruments therein are in displayable, but  not in playable, condition. Because all of the Kaplan instruments are capable of producing some sounds, this ICCC project was conceptualized around the composition of new pieces utilizing digitally-sampled sounds from a broad variety of instruments in the collection.  

To that end, I will be joined by my colleague Matt Baltrucki, a recording specialist, audio-mixing engineer, producer, composer, and Assistant Professor at FAU. 

Our fellow collaborator at USASK is Professor, saxophonist, and composer Glen Gillis, with whom I have enjoyed a twenty-year-long musical association. The goal of the creative team is to create living music from the now dormant instruments in the Kaplan collection.

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The second goal of the research trip is the advancement of the Kaplan powwow drum project at USASK. This project, which began as a memorial to David L Kaplan (1923-2015), involves the making and “gifting” of  a dance drum (similar to the one pictured below) to the students of USASK. Funded by donations to the Kaplan collection, the aim of the to-be commissioned drum is to reconcile First Nations, Inuit, Metis, Anglo-Canadian, and Franco-Canadian students as members of the university community.

The trip will include attendance at the 2018 USASK Graduation Powwow, Wednesday, May 30th, as well as continued talks with university administrators and educators about the furthering of the project.

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The third phase of the trip to Saskatoon will also include participation in the 2018 STRATA New Music Festival, which will take place June 1-10 in venues throughout the city. In addition to an The Saturday evening concert on June 9th at the newly-opened Remai Modern art museum on Saskatoon’s riverside, will feature several new compositions by Duo Gillis Cunningham, who also performed at the 2016 Strata festival.

The Remai Modern venue will also offer opportunities for sonic interaction with a site-specific sound instillation by guest artist Gordon Monahan.

 

 

 

 

 

 

For many years I have been fascinated by the contemporary countertenor movement. My interest was spurred by after listening to a broadcast on NPR’s “All Things Considered” about singer David Daniels, who found his true voice after an unsuccessful attempt to become a classical  tenor.

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My curiosity was further peaked by the movie Farinelli (1993), which was a lascivious adaptation of the life and career of famous 18th century castrato Carlo Broschi. 

In order to recreate the vocal timbre and wide tessitura attributed to castrati, the singing voice of Farinelli in the film was Frankensteined together from the combined voices of a female mezzo-soprano and a male tenor, which resulted in a somewhat effective,  but likely inaccurate approximation of the Baroque castrato voice.

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Castration of young boys with gifted high voices began in Italy in the mid-16th century. Select individuals were emasculated before reaching puberty, resulting in the retention of the pre-pubescent larynx (small vocal cords), but mature development of the chest cavity and lung capacity of adulthood. Castrati or “musico”  were sought-after commodities among the aristocracy and the Catholic church in the 17th century. In religious contexts castrati sang the high harmonies because women were prohibited from singing in church.

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At the height of the castrati craze between 1720 and 1730 an estimated 4000-plus boys were castrated annually in the service of the art. It became  a common practice in 18th-century Baroque opera to cast castrati in women’s theatrical roles, and many renowned composers from that era, including Monteverdi and Handel, wrote specifically for the castrato voice. A 19th-century shift in preferences for featuring female sopranos in operatic roles relegated castrati to strictly religious contexts, which continued until the end of the century. The last bastion of the castrati ironically seems to be at the Vatican Sistine Chapel.

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It is important to note that, aside from descriptive accounts, there is no clear example of what a castrato actually sounded like. The “last” known castrato was Allessandro Moreschi (1858-1922), who sang in the Vatican Sistine Chapel Choir from c. 1883 until his retirement in 1913. In 1902 and 1904 he recorded a number of selections on wax cylinder in Rome for the English Gramophone Company, which are available on CD.

The low-fidelity of the recordings, the scratchiness of the wax-cylinder format, and poor quality of the performance in terms of breath support and intonation makes it very difficult to get an accurate picture of his vocal acuity. Although this 2017 digitally-enhanced “scratchless” version of Alessandro singing “Ave Maria”  in 1902 presents a much better idea of how the natural castrato voice would have sounded, the musicality of the performance is severely lacking.

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In my mind’s ear, the closest affected representation of the castrato voice to date is the “Diva Dance” segments from the 1997 film, The Fifth Element. Although it was made only four years after Farinelli, technological innovations created a more believable “castrato” voice for the androgynous alien diva Plavalaguna, portrayed by French actress Maïwenn Le Besco, with an digitally-enhanced auto-tuned voice-over by Albanian soprano Inva Mula.

Despite its electronic artifacts, the power, clarity, and the facility often attributed to virtuosic Baroque castrati does seem to be apparent in Plavalaguna’s scene, which comingles the mad-scene aria “Il dolce suono” from Donizetti’s  Lucia di Lammermoor, and the EDM-inspired “Diva Dance,” with its huge vocal range and acrobatic melismatic passages.

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The 20th Century Countertenor

The countertenor voice is apparently a mid-to-late 20th century phenomenon. Countertenors often begin as baritones, but then raise shaping their tessituri into the countertenor range through the use of falsetto technique. Beginning in the late 1940s, the twentieth-century countertenor revival was heralded by Englishman Alfred Deller, who reprised selections from the age-old Baroque male soprano repertoire.  

His American countertenor contemporary was Russell Oberlin, another pioneer of early music revival, whose career blossomed in the 1950s and 1960s.

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Contemporary Countertenors

Beginning with the emergence of American David Daniels in the early 1990s, there has been a steady growth on the number of, and demand for, countertenors. 

Some of the other top names in the genre include fellow American Bejun Mehta, German-born Andreas Scholl, and Frenchman Philippe Jaroussky.

Jaroussky “Vedrò con mio diletto” from Il Giustino, Verdi (1724).

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Complicating the contemporary countertenor craze is the arrival of the male soprano whose natural vocal range extends into that of the countertenor without the use of falsetto technique. As with some of the musico from earlier centuries this phenomenon occurs as a result of a hormonal abnormality during puberty, rather than by a purposeful means.

One such individual is Michael Maniaci, a classically-trained American opera singer, whose voice did not “break” during puberty and sings in the upper register without falsetto technique.

The Countertenor in Popular Culture

Despite all its art-music connotation, the high-male vocal phenomenon permeated popular culture throughout the 20th century. An early noted example is Western yodeler Tex Owens who penned and recorded the classic tune “Cattle Call” in 1934.

“Cattle Call” continued its popularity into the mid century when it was re-recorded by numerous other country singer including Slim Whitman and Eddy Arnold, for whom it became a signature tune.

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Although not identified as countertenors per se, the high male, almost androgynous, vocal tone became the trademark sounds of artists such as 1950s crooning jazz trumpeter Chet Baker, and teen-age phenom Wayne Newton.

 

 

 

 

 

Chet Baker “Everything Happens to Me” (1958)

Notable examples of the high male voice in the 1960s included Motown’s Smokey Robinson and English folk falsettist Tiny Tim.

 

 

 

 

 

 

From the late 1960’s and beyond Canadian Neil Young, with his high natural voice, was instrumental in bridging folk and rock mediums, and Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant was the poster-child for a plethora of “metal” singers  to follow.

 

 

 

 

 

 

However, the top rung in the high tenor ladder must be occupied by Freddie Mercury (born Farrokh Bulsara), who shattered the glass ceiling of the classical tradition with his incredible vocal range on Queen’s A Night at the Opera album.

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Into the 21st Century

Where the countertenor revival will lead is anyone’s guess. In the rock idiom, Adam Lambert seems to be seated soundly in the vacant throne of Mercury. But, perhaps a glimpse into the future can be gleaned from the musical idiosyncrecies of Latvian-born Vitaliy Vladasovich Grachov, aka “Vitas,” whose five-octave vocal range is well-suited for a wide range of genres, from classical, to folk, and popular music.

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If a conclusion is to be drawn from this brief observational study, it would have to revolve around the notion that in this age of digital processing and auto-tuning, that there is still a human fascination with the varied remarkability of the natural human voice, as evidenced by Vitas’ signature “turkey call” vocalaise, which has garnered over twenty-two million YouTube hits.

However in an ever-changing YouTube world, nothing is permanent as expressed by this musical answer to Vitas by Dimash Kudaibergen from Kazakhstan, who raises the bar several notches in his high-altitude cover of Vitas’ “Opera #2.”

Now I’m down for the countertenor battle royale of the future. To be continued…

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The Duo Gillis Cunningham (Glen Gillis alto saxophone, James E Cunningham didgeridoo and live electronic effects) recently participated in the North American Saxophone Alliance Biennial Conference in Cincinnati, Ohio. The conference was hosted March 8-11, 2018 by the University of Cincinnati at the expansive College Conservatory of Music (CCM)  facility on campus.

The purpose of the DGC’s visit was to present the world premier of a new composition “Total Eclipse (of the sun), ” which was inspired by the 2017 eclipse that bisected North American on August 21st. Utilizing time-lapse projected video of the eclipse and real-time electro-acoustic convolution reverberation effects, the duo performed an eight-and-a-half minute audio/visual reenactment of the moon gradually obscuring the sun, and revealing its bright corona as a brilliant ring of fire and light.

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Below is the original projected footage, to which has been added the live audio feed from the concert itself.

“Total Eclipse (of the sun)” University of Cincinnati, CCM, 3/10/18.

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In addition to the equally technical and florid alto sax part, composed and performed by Glen, which climaxed in a two-minute solo cadenza, the piece was grounded and supported by Jamie playing an ascending drone on the didj flute, a red-cedar instrument with four finger holes and an interior labyrinth that sonically triples its two-foot exterior length. 

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Both musicians were miked with DPA d:vote DAD4099 clip-on mics, whose supercardioide characteristics alleviated both bleed-through and feedback potential. 

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Both mics were connected to a Macbook Pro computer via an Antelope Zen Tour thunderbolt interface.

The computer’s Logic DAW environment was utilized to process the microphone signals in real time through the Altiverb 7 convolution reverberation software,

…which afforded the opportunity to place the didj flute inside the giant ambiently reflective interior of the Gol Gumbaz dome, creating an out-of-this-world sonic effect.

The debut of “Total Eclipse” at NASA [pun intended] was a grand chance to test out the piece, which may perhaps be one of our strongest compositions yet. The duo has several events and projects coming up this summer, including performances at the International SaxOpen Congress in Zagreb, Croatia in July, and a new album project scheduled in early August. Please stay tuned.