OF AND BETWEEN
fivebyfive:

Laura Lentz, Artistic Director & flute
Marcy Bacon, clarinet
Sungmin Shin, electric guitar
Eric J. Polenik, bass
Haeyeun Jeun, piano
Marc Webster, audio engineer

Choreograph Collection
1. Dancing About Architecture: Kamala Sankaram
Laura Lentz, accordion
2. It Can't Not Be Dance Music: Robert Lydecker
3. BOKEH: Yuanyuan (Kay) HE

Glass Works Collection
4. Blue Jewel: Edie Hill
5. Manhattan: Jung Sun Kang
Chase Ellison, drums
6. Procession and Burlesque: Jonathan Russell
7. Of and Between: Andrea Mazzariello

8. ... a tiny dream ... Anthony R. Green

PROGRAM NOTES

It Can’t Not Be Dance Music
Robert Lydecker, composer
It Can’t Not Be Dance Music is my intuitive response to James Welling’s series of photos Choreograph. I watched the photos like I would a movie and improvised music along with the images. It was interesting to see how playing different music along with the photos could influence my reaction to the imagery. Certain music would bring out the energy in the shapes, while other music would bring my focus to emotions coming from the colors. Through this process I settled on a musical approach, and then sketched the piece. While composing, I didn’t set out to translate Welling’s work into music, but certain visual elements definitely seemed to permeate my subconscious and show up in audible ways. For example, Choreograph’s dance motif seemed to inspire some of the levity, movement and uplift that’s in the music, and Welling’s layering of images parallels some of the random and out-of-tempo rhythms I asked the ensemble to perform.

Glass Works Collection:

Manhattan
Jung Sun Kang, composer
When I was commissioned to write a piece inspired by Judith Schaechter’s stained-glass work “The Battle of Carnival and Lent,” I traveled to see it in person. When I stood in front of the piece, the vibrant colors and aggressive energy instantly reminded me of the graffiti art on the streets in New York City where I live. This interaction inspired me to extract the theme from the jazz standards about NYC and write it as a strict counterpoint piece. When I was working on it, I imagined myself carving in glasses- I restricted myself to using only a few notes with the limited motions. As the motive repeats like a mantra, it quietly and sneakily moves throughout the three sections as follows: I. Manhattan (Rodgers and Hart) II. Upper Manhattan Medical Group (Strayhorn) III. Take the A Train (Strayhorn).

Procession and Burlesque
Jon Russell, composer
Procession and Burlesque was commissioned by fivebyfive as a response to Judith Schaechter’s stunning stained glass work “The Battle of Carnival and Lent.” Schaechter’s work is so vital and fresh, so teeming with energy, passion, and intricate detail, that I was initially doubtful about what music could possibly add to it. The approach that finally clicked for me was to think about the inherent qualities of the two media; specifically, how visual art is temporally static, while music progresses through time. What music could add, then, was a narrative. If the artwork depicted a single snapshot, what might have led up to this moment – and what would come after? After an introduction that sets the mood, the “Procession” depicts the lead-up to the moment depicted in the stained glass, as the opposing sides of human nature – “carnival” and “lent” – warily approach one another. An ominous melody repeats again and again, getting more intense and insistent on each iteration, like a procession gradually getting closer and closer. Then a brief pause as the two sides size each other up…and then all hell breaks loose in the madcap “Burlesque,” a whirling frenzy of klezmer, surf rock, and manic carnival music. After building to a searing climax, the "introduction" music returns, and gradually winds down. We are left amidst the wreckage, devastatingly aware of the steep cost of the conflict. 

Of and Between
Andrea Mazzariello, composer
I wrote this piece in response to Judith Schaecter’s stained glass work entitled “The Battle of Carnival and Lent,” after spending some time with it in Rochester, NY, at the Memorial Art Gallery. Among the things I find remarkable about Schaecter’s piece is the way that it supports and rewards my curiosity about changing the scale of watching. I step back and see the whole, but the intricacy of detail then pulls me in, close to the glass. Then I want to see those details in context, so step back. Repeat from the beginning, but with growing awareness.

Of and Between imagines an analogous kind of hearing. We are on the surface of the music, but then broaden our listening gaze to the larger gesture. Or we are listening on a larger-scale level, but some color or surface move pulls us in. Back and forth, accumulating some sense of the whole picture, the whole claim.

I’m grateful to fivebyfive for commissioning this piece and for their advocacy of my music in general. I dedicate it to them with gratitude and in friendship.

Bonus track:

…a tiny dream…
Anthony R. Green, composer
In Grey by Ani Difranco, she sings: “I smoke and I drink. And every time I blink, I have a tiny dream.” While this song is actually very depressing, this particular line stands out to me for many reasons. During summer 2010, I spent time in London, Greenwich, Frankfurt, Seoul, Daejeon, Busan, Fukuoka, Okayama, Naoshima, Tokyo, Kyoto, Leiden, Amsterdam, and Den Haag. After returning to the states, I started thinking about other places to where I’ve traveled. For me, the more time that passes between the end of a journey of an unknown place and the present, the more those memories seem like tiny dreams. In fact, after a while, you can blink and have mini-dreams about past experiences that are now so distant that they seem to have never existed, like a dream. This piece is music written to pay tribute to the existence of our past precious moments, as well as those future moments that will eventually become our tiny dreams. ... a tiny dream ... was composed in 2010, with a version commissioned by and specifically created for fivebyfive completed in 2020.

James Welling AND Judith Schaechter

James Welling is an American Conceptual artist known for his color-filtered and digitally manipulated photographs. Throughout his practice, Welling often focuses on locations that were personally or historically meaningful, particularly landscapes and architecture such as Phillip Johnson’s seminal Glass House. He explores both ambiguity and skepticism while maintaining a deeply formal process that connects the legacy of Conceptual Art to the technical practice of photography. Born in 1951 in Hartford, CT, Welling went on to study at the California Institute of the Arts under professors like John Baldessari and Sherrie Levine. Welling is in the permanent collections of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, and the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, among others. Welling lives and works in Los Angeles, CA.

“By choosing to use ‘choreograph,’ drawing with space, as a noun, I am noting its similarity to ‘photograph,’ drawing with light.” — James Welling

James Welling’s recent body of work integrates several strands of his artistic exploration over the past forty years. Each Choreograph is a large inkjet print combining images of dance, architecture, and landscape in layers of distinctive, luminous color. The works prompt associations with bodies in motion, eliciting sensations of momentum, force, and rhythm.

Every work in the series begins with three black-and-white photographs, each digitally entered into one of three color channels—red, green, or blue—in Photoshop and combined into a single image. Welling makes adjustments until the picture resolves to its final form, which he secures by making an inkjet print. The result is a dense visual field infused with the science of color perception, the psychosomatic experience of physical space, and the history of photographic representation.

Judith Schaechter (b. 1961) has stretched the medium of stained glass into a potent and incisive art form for the 21st century, boldly paving her path in the diverse arena of contemporary art. Her work is represented in over a dozen museums including the Museum of Art and Design, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Smithsonian American Art Museum, and Toledo Museum of Art, and in major exhibitions around the world. In addition, through her extensive teaching, she has furthered her influence to her peers and younger generations of artists. Her awards include two NEA Visual Artists’ Fellowships, a Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award, a Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters and Sculptors Grant Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship Award, a USA Artists Rockefeller Fellow, and an American Craft Council College of Fellows Award. Schaechter has lived and worked in Philadelphia since graduating in 1983 with a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design Glass Program.

The Battle of Carnival and Lent responds to the penitentiary’s narrow skylights and arched windows. The imagery, which Ms. Schaechter describes as “addressing in a non-religious way the psychological border territory between ‘spiritual aspiration’ and human suffering,” is evocative of theology but secular in purpose.

The figures depicted are literally confined by the unnaturally tall and skinny apertures of the window frames – squished, cropped, straining, and reaching – as a representation of the types of incarceration that are basic to the human experience. Ms. Schaechter balances them with more traditional, cathedral-esque stained glass windows, based very loosely on the design of 13th century European cathedral windows (e.g. Chartres). Her intention is to draw an association between the prison’s original purpose – to provide an environment conducive to self-reflection and, ultimately, penance – and the harsh realities of solitary confinement.

A note from fivebyfive…

fivebyfive is so grateful for the amazing artistry of Judith Schaechter and James Welling whose stained glass and photographs were the inspiration for the music on this album. Sincere thanks to the teams at The George Eastman Museum and The Memorial Art Gallery for their partnership in working with fivebyfive during both exhibitions of these two inspiring artists.

Thank you to the composers who reflected on the artwork and gave us incredible new music to explore the art even more deeply. fivebyfive is very grateful to New Music USA for funding the new pieces by these wonderful composers and to The Eastman School of Music for its support of this album through its New Artist Program with ArtistShare. Thank you also to Genesee Valley Council on the Arts for additional support.

And fivebyfive is grateful to all of our friends and supporters who donated to make this debut recording a reality. Sincere thank you to all of you for your generosity!

This album would not be at all possible without the tireless energy and innovative vision of Marc Webster at Blue on Blue Recording - our 5th Beatle and good friend who went above and beyond in making this album come to life.

We appreciate everyone who has been part of this journey with us. Thank you!

-fivebyfive