Then&Now&Forever

Morton Subotnick's "Then and Now and Forever" in World Premiere at Martha's Vineyard Festival

Morton Subotnick's new work for clarinet, violin and piano, Then and Now and Forever, had its world premiere at the Martha's Vineyard Festival on August 11. The premiere was an acoustic performance of the piece, but in its expanded form the trio features real time sound processing via laptop computer, becoming the newest in a series of pieces which expand on Subotnick's development of the electronic ghost box in the 1970's. Like Subotnick's epic work for solo piano and electronics The Other Piano, the electronic element of the trio is more aptly described as improvised "space painting" of the live instruments, as the computer captures, transforms and plays back the result live in performance. The trio is in one continuous movement with several sections which return in subtle varied utterances. The premiere performance of Then and Now and Forever featured musicians from the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra: pianist Delores Stevens, clarinetist Anthony McGill and violinist Nancy Wu.

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