Uncanny Valley

In this program (a newly-commissioned concert-length piece by composer John Gibson), the piano performance of Oni Buchanan joins and reflects the spoken text of the poem “Uncanny Valley” as performed by its author, poet Jon Woodward. “Uncanny Valley” is a long serial poem in 16 sections, meant to be read out loud, with numerous optional repeats throughout the text. These repetitions act as accumulations of sound, maddening as well as hypnotic, and Gibson’s piece provides a sonic environment in which they can truly blossom. Although the pacing is determined by the two performers, the musical specificity of each section (from Morse code to sine waves to jazz to a brief quote of Schumann) reflects the poem text in ever-different ways. Digital samples triggered by the reader enmesh the piano and spoken text, haunting the music with echoes of itself. Extending outward from the phenomenon of “semantic satiation” (whereby a single word loses all apparent meaning and identity when repeated for even a short duration), this program investigates whether or not the same satiation is possible with phrases, sentences, pairs of verse lines, or musical forms.

In 1970, roboticist Masahiro Mori coined the term “uncanny valley” to describe the emotional and empathic chasm between humans and imperfect human simulacra, a gap created by their imperfection. This program searches out what is most uncanny, and most human, in both language and music.

Listen to some sample excerpts of the full piece:

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Video from the world premiere:

Oni Buchanan Premieres ‘Uncanny Valley’

This fall marked the first-ever performance of John Gibson’s “Uncanny Valley“ from Oni Buchanan and poet Jon Woodward! The work, detailed here and here, sets to piano and electronics shards of Woodward’s fractured, serial, and apocalyptic work of the same name. The two traveled to the University of Michigan to perform the piece as part of the school’s Zell Visiting Writers Series.  Gibson was also in attendance, and all three took questions in a short Q&A after the performance.

While in Ann Arbor, Jon and Oni also gave a poetry reading with Benjamin Paloff at METAL (a working metal shop and art space) as part of One Pause Poetry.  The next morning, they took part in a roundtable discussion along with poets Paloff and Pulitzer Prize winner Tracy K. Smith, set among the plants of Pot & Box garden shop.  Other highlights of Ann Arbor included patronizing restaurants with alternating consonant/vowel patterns (Seva’s, Lena’s, and Sava’s, in particular), and meeting the goats at White Lotus Farms.

In Holland, Mich., home of Hope College and De Zwaan, they visited a working Dutch windmill which they were fortunate enough to tour with organist and fellow Ariel Artist roster member Rhonda Sider Edgington and her two-year-old daughter, Esther, who did a fabulous impromptu dance to the street organ music.  Jon and Oni performed “Uncanny Valley” in the Knickerbocker Theater, whose marquee welcomed them to town as they rolled in on Main Street.

At Hope, Jon and Oni also took part in Q&A sessions and lectures and enjoyed both formal and informal discussions with students, including a run-down of the vast Tulip Time festival as well as the ever-evolving law enforcement strategies and fines concerning picking or accidentally knocking over tulips during Tulip Time.

After their fascinating time in Holland, Oni and Jon continued onward to Saginaw Valley State University, where they visited an advanced poetry class and performed the next night in the Founders Hall, again with the performance followed by a Q&A where the audience offered both their questions and their responses to the performance.

All in all, it was an extremely fun world premiere tour. They’re looking forward to going back out on the road from January through April, taking “Uncanny Valley” to Illinois (in a quickly approaching residency at Wheaton College), Iowa, Massachusetts, New York, California, and Nebraska, as well as into the recording studio.

Oni Buchanan to Give “Uncanny Valley” World Premiere in September

Pianist Oni Buchanan will be kicking off her fall season with an incredible new piece commissioned from the electroacoustic composer John Gibson, giving the brand new “Uncanny Valley” its world premiere at the University of Michigan Museum of Art in Ann Arbor, Mich. on September 27.

The piece promises to be unforgettable.  Based on brand new poetry from Jon Woodward’s book Uncanny Valley (Cleveland State University Poetry Center), the complex, concert-length score features delicate interplay between piano, electronics, and spoken word (Woodward will be on hand to perform the reading throughout the piece).

The performance is part of a regional tour that Buchanan will be taking through the area, including concerts and larger music-and-poetry-based residencies at University of Michigan, Saginaw Valley State University, and Hope College.

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Ariel Artists Take On Eliot in “Four Quartets: Variations”

Mark your calendars now!  Major group performances are set for New York City, Cambridge, and Burlington this season as a Ariel Artists unveils its new “Four Quartets: Variations” program for late November and early December.

“Four Quartets: Variations,” revolving around T. S. Eliot’s inimitable sequence Four Quartets, is a theatrical, musical and poetic tour de force. Moored by the performances of four vocalizing actors and four poets interacting with excerpted and remixed text of Eliot’s Four Quartets, the project also features byways into performance sets by Iktus (percussion quartet) and The Guidonian Hand (trombone quartet) which expand the musical reaches and correspondences of the poem. Emphasizing the profundity and structural revelations of Eliot’s book-length text, the actors and musicians surround the poets’ recitations with extended techniques of all varieties, from improbable instrumental sounds to extremes of vocal and improvisatory production, letting the text re-echo in time past, time present, and time future. Fare forward, voyagers.

The performance in Cambridge, Mass., will feature the incredible Bryant Park Quartet in place of Iktus.  Poets will vary with each performance, but overall will include Jon Woodward, Oni Buchanan, R. Dwayne Betts, Thalia Field, Paige Ackerson-Kiely, Major Jackson, Katie Ford, and Cathy Park Hong.

Actors include Marya Lowry, Phil Timberlake, Corianna Moffatt, and Nate Speare.

Poster for the New York City performance of "Four Quartets: Variations"

PERFORMANCE DATES AND DETAILS:

November 28, 2011
Featuring Artists: Bryant Park Quartet, Jon Woodward, Oni Buchanan, R. Dwayne Betts, Thalia Field, Nate Speare, Corianna Moffatt, Phil Timberlake, Marya Lowry, The Guidonian Hand
Where: OBERON
Cambridge, Massachusetts
$15 adv/$20 door ($10 student)

November 30, 2011
Featuring Artists: The Guidonian Hand, Oni Buchanan, Nate Speare, Corianna Moffatt, Phil Timberlake, Marya Lowry, Paige Ackerson-Kiely, Major Jackson, Jon Woodward, Iktus Percussion Quartet
Where: University of Vermont, Davis Center
Burlington, Vermont
free admission

December 2, 2011
Featuring Artists: The Guidonian Hand, Katie Ford, Jon Woodward, Cathy Park Hong, Oni Buchanan, Nate Speare, Corianna Moffatt, Phil Timberlake, Marya Lowry, Iktus Percussion Quartet
Where: The Tank
New York, New York
$15

“Uncanny Valley” + New Piece for Solo Piano Commissioned from John Gibson!

Solo pianist Oni Buchanan and poet Jon Woodward have just announced a new piece for piano and electronics from American electroacoustic composer John Gibson.

The piece will serve as accompaniment and counterpart to a live reading by Woodward of his mind-bending new poem “Uncanny Valley.”  The full program is now in the works and is set for performances beginning in September 2012.

“Uncanny Valley” is a long serial poem in 16 sections, meant to be read out loud, with numerous optional repeats throughout the text. These repetitions act as accumulations of sound, maddening as well as hypnotic. Gibson’s piece provides a sonic environment in which the text floats freely, with its pacing determined by the two performers. Digital samples triggered by both performers mirror and enmesh the piano and spoken text.

Jon Woodward’s Uncanny Valley manuscript  recently won the Cleveland State University Poetry Center’s 2011 Open Competition and will soon be published by the school.  He  has two other volumes of poetry published: Rain (Wave Books, 2006) and Mister Goodbye Easter Island (Alice James Books, 2003).

John Gibson’s works have been performed across the world by groups like London Sinfonietta, the Da Capo Chamber Players, the Seattle Symphony, the Music Today Ensemble, Speculum Musicae, and Ekko!  He writes sound processing and synthesis software, and has taught composition and computer music at the University of Virginia, Duke University, and the University of Louisville. He is now Assistant Professor of Composition at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music.

Four Quartets: Variations

“Four Quartets: Variations,” revolving around T. S. Eliot’s inimitable sequence Four Quartets, is a theatrical, musical and poetic tour de force.  Moored by the performances of four vocalizing actors and four poets interacting with excerpted and remixed text of Eliot’s Four Quartets, the project also features byways into performance sets by the Bryant Park Quartet (string quartet) and The Guidonian Hand (trombone quartet), as well as guest artists Iktus Percussion Quartet, which expand the musical reaches and correspondences of the poem.  Emphasizing the profundity and structural revelations of Eliot’s book-length text, the actors and musicians surround the poets’ recitations with extended techniques of all varieties, from improbable instrumental sounds to extremes of vocal and improvisatory production, letting the text re-echo in time past, time present, and time future.  Fare forward, voyagers.

The quartet of actors are Marya Lowry, Phil Timberlake, Corianna Moffatt, and Nate Speare, while participating poets include Thalia Field, R. Dwayne Betts, Cathy Park Hong, Katie Ford, Major Jackson, Paige Ackerson-Kiely, Jon Woodward, and Oni Buchanan.

Grateful thanks to the following individuals for their support in producing this project:
Sponsors: Colleen Hovey and Chris Bator, Sirkku Kontinnen and Harri Kytömaa
Contributors: Robin Welte and Art Murray, Paula and Jack Barthel, David and Joella Hricik, Tom and Debbie Bross, Greta and Bob Ingraham, Jan Pechenik, Jaqueth Hutchinson

“Oni Buchanan is a species unto herself. Her playing is informed by a persuasively lyrical touch in the service of great poise and charm. No less affable than intelligent, her combination of brains, devotion, and personality produces a highly principled and attractive approach to art and to music.”

–Russell Sherman, Distinguished Artist in Residence,
New England Conservatory, Boston, MA

“Oni Buchanan is a lovely person and a great artist. The audience responded with the warmest applauses, particularly in regards to the Villa-Lobos. Her interpretation of Rudepoêma was completely full of passion; I’ve never heard someone play that piece bringing this variety of sound and character as she did. Absolute success!”

–Riva Fineberg, Diretora Cultural, Instituto Brasileiro de Administração Municipal (IBAM), Rio de Janeiro, BRAZIL

“Oni Buchanan gave a very fine performance of a carefully crafted program exploring music associated with nighttime, ranging from Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata of 1801 to a piece composed in 2000 by Kelly-Marie Murphy. To enhance the audience’s experience, she provided extraordinarily informative program notes. She is an excellent young musician whose poetic sensibilities come through in her playing and her programming. She was deservedly greeted at the end of the concert with enthusiastic applause and bravos. This fine young artist is exactly the kind of musician the Myra Hess series is designed to showcase, and she would be an asset to any recital series.”

–Ann Murray, Executive Director, International Music Foundation,
Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert Series, Chicago, IL

“Oni Buchanan’s residency included work in both poetry and music, two arts in which she excels. A thoughtful and intelligent person, Oni plays with great interpretive and technical facility. Her program for our concert series concentrated on the musical interpretation of some carefully selected poetry. Her introductions were cogent and added enormously to the enjoyment of the music. Our audience responded in a most positive way and immediately requested her return.”

–Jane Ambrose, Director, UVM Lane Series, Burlington, VT