Platform is planning to have a performance of Terry Riley’s 1964 classic minimalistic music piece In C in Vaasa on Sunday, March 8th. We would like to invite you to join us in the performance, mostly because it’s such a fun to play in a big group of players and also because Riley himself says that the ideal (though not the only possible) amount of players for In C is somewhere around 35 musicians. More than that is no problem as long as we don’t have to rent an ice hockey arena for the performance.
The piece consists of 53 small melodic patterns, all played in sequence from 1 to 53 as many times as the player wants and whenever he or she wants. Nearly all the patterns are fairly easy, so you don’t need super virtuoso skills to play this music. What you need is the ability to listen everybody around you, some sense of rhythm and decent understanding of how this kind of music develops and works. Of course a very big help is to be able to read music. To In C you can bring whichever instrument you feel comfortable with, electric or acoustic. One guy plans to play the whole thing on his hurdy-gurdy! The performance in March in Vaasa will be at Kuula Institute’s hall, so 1-3 players can just come there and play the grand piano of the venue.
The score and the instructions you find here:
http://www.flagmusic.com/content/clips/inc.pdf
And here’s one version of the piece played by a Danish contemporary music group. You can find plenty of others (better or worse) in Youtube, Spotify and Naxos library:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbBkdYCViLs
But it’s said that ”the best performance of In C is the one your local new-music ensemble will give sooner or later.” That ensemble being us this time!
We will have at least one rehearsal for those unsure of their skills and/or for those who just want to play through the passages early enough. Maybe play the whole piece through lightly, too. A little bit like getting the brains adjusted. That would be in February, well before the spring holiday season. Other February rehearsals are optional. On the performance week we should have a rehearsal in Vaasa at least on Friday the 6th for all possible players and on Saturday the 7th at the day time for everybody involved.
This is the only performance now, but next autumn (September most likely) there’s a chance to have a retake on In C with the dancers of Liisa Pentti Dance Company.
So let us know by sending an email to aanilaani@gmail.com if you or someone you know became interested to participate and join the Platform New Music Forces for this concert. See you all soon, here and there, on soil and in C!