Danny Clay Scales Up his “Calming Exercises”

Last night the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (SFCM) live-streamed a new video of Danny Clay’s Music for Hard Times. Readers may recall that this site has been following the progress of this project since its world premiere almost exactly eleven months ago. It would be fair to say that this composition was never intended for any of the usual approaches to concert performance. It is better described as the result of a joint project in which Clay partnered with The Living Earth Show (TLES), the duo of percussionist Andy Meyerson and guitarist Travis Andrews. Ironically, that partnership began right around the time that “Shelter in Place” was imposed in response to the first reports of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The resulting score for Music for Hard Times is described as “a series of composed ‘calming exercises’ used to create every sound in the piece.” The first TLES performance of that score was recorded and released as an album on Bandcamp. The download of that recording also included the PDF of the score, which describes eight “calming exercises” through text, diagrams, illustrations, and even the use of music notation. The first “performance” of that score included the projection of an ambient film created by Jon Fischer; and it was streamed through the Living Music with Nadia Sirota Facebook site.

Since that time Clay has had opportunities to enable subsequent realizations of Music for Hard Times performed by other organizations in different settings. The most recent of those realizations was last night’s live stream. This probably involved the largest range of contributing performers, since it included both SFCM instrumentalists working with SFCM Orchestra Music Director Edwin Outwater and vocalists of the San Francisco Girls Chorus (SFGC), led by Valérie Sainte-Agathe. (TLES also participated in the performance.) In addition Fischer provided a new film, introducing new footage while keeping some of the content of the original version.

I am a bit hesitant to describe the result as a “performance.” Clay’s introduction seemed to suggest that considerable material had been recorded for each of the “calming exercises.” As a result Clay himself undertook an editing process to provide a “final recording” to account for the realization of those exercises; and that “final version” was then combined with Fischer’s film. The result was that the live stream provided a 30-minute viewing-and-listening experience, at least some of which will probably be projected at the FORT MASON FLIX screenings of the end-of-season SFGC performance taking place tomorrow and the following Thursday.

If this means that the result is an “artifact,” rather than a “live performance,” then so be it; the richness of that artifact still makes for a satisfying and fulfilling “concert experience.”