Ju-Ping Song Brings Recital Program to Album

Pianist Ju-Ping Song in performance (photograph courtesy of Starkland)

In June of 2019, Julie Herndon curated a series of four performances at the Center for New Music (C4NM). The last of these was a solo piano recital by Ju-Ping Song. As I wrote at that time in previewing this program, she presented “West Coast premieres of powerful, visceral works for solo piano, soundtrack, and video by four women with strong, individual voices: Lois Vierk (United States), Rahilia Hasanova (Azerbaijan), Nicole Lizée (Canada), and Kate Moore (Australia).” One week from today, Starkland will release a recording of Song performing all of those pieces. The title of the album is Monad, and Bandcamp has already created a Web page for processing digital and “physical” orders.

I have to confess that I was somewhat pleased to see that, on that Web page, the “discography” of related albums included two that I had previously discussed on this site. The earlier of these was released at the end of last year, Guy Klucevsek’s solo accordion album Hope Dies Last. The other was Tim Brady’s “Symphony in 18 Parts,” which was also released last year in April.

I have to confess that listening to the Monad article gave me more than a tinge of regret at having missed Song’s C4NM appearance. While I could appreciate the diversity of how these four different composers could pursue individual approaches to the “genre of repetitive structures,” I would have liked to have seen how she added video to the mix. It is now over half a century since I first encountered that genre through a performance in January of 1970 by the Philip Glass Ensemble in the downstairs recital hall of the Guggenheim Museum in New York. The four selections on Monad were composed between 1992 (revised in 2018) and 2016; and the major factors that distinguish those selections from the Glass program involve the video and “soundtrack” electronics.

This leaves me with a mixed reaction to Monad. The first signs of the repetitive structures genre having run its course came when Igudesman & Joo started to make fun of it, and they will be wrapping up their touring career by the end of next year! On the other hand, after several listenings, I am beginning to appreciate how Song has developed what might be called a “journey of dynamics” for each of her selections. The usual joke about repetitive structures is that “there is less than meets the ear;” but Song’s approach to performance seems to have converted “less” into “more!”

Now I am hoping that she will make another visit to San Francisco!