My professor, George Lewis, was like, why are you writing papers? Your paper is like, not that great, and this music is really good! And it was such a shock to me because I had started writing music like a year before and it was the first time anybody ever said that to me, and it really made me think about it and kind of I was like, what if I just do that?

—New Music USA. “Ellen Reid: More Than Sound.” YouTube, commentary by Ellen Reid, 1 Feb. 2019.

Push/Pull: Orlando Sleep Requiem (2018)

Text Inspired by Virginia Woolf's Orlando Mandy Kahn's Sleep Requiem

Duration: 14:00

Instrumentation:

flute, oboe, violin, cello and piano, percussion

My introduction to Ellen Reid’s music came while I was researching percussion ensemble literature a couple of years ago. One of the albums that I gravitated to during this period was Beyond by the Los Angeles Percussion Quartet. That album featured Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s Aura, which was part of last year’s summer listening project. (She’ll be back.) It also contained a short piece by Ellen Reid called Fear | Release. I remember liking it at the time, but I chose to focus on Thorvaldsdottir’s work because it offered a broader spectral palette, which I found useful at the time. Reid’s piece focuses primarily on metallic timbres with its upper harmonics and frequencies.

As I became more familiar with Reid’s work, I became aware of three characteristics present in Reid’s music: (1) a focus on the spectral qualities present in high-frequency soundwaves, (2) a desire to create unique performance situations tied to specific venues (Travertine Ensemble, Stellar Remnants), and (3) a hip hop predilection for collage and color which I found interesting (Familiar Melody, Boom BOOM Box, Push/Pull), especially when it crossed over into a type of sonic tourism, engaging the listener in an exploration of geography,  sociology, and culture (Knoxville: Summer of 2015, dreams of the new world). 

Suddenly, my thoughts drift to Dawn Upshaw…

Ok, I’m back.

Her Pulitzer Prize-winning opera, p r i s m, is a work beyond the scope of my intentions with this project. A lot of attention was given to it when it won, and rightly so, especially with the wave of #metoo crashing over a cultural landscape desperately in need of disruption. It’s a compelling story that should be told primarily by its creators. I have only had the opportunity to hear the commercially available audio recording and hope to attend a full performance soon. So much of the work’s fascination with color and polystylism can only be experienced live. 

Instead, I chose to highlight a work that combines Reid’s fascination with collage and high frequencies, Push/Pull (Orlando Sleep Requiem). I’m also only going to focus on the elements that connect this work to Fear | Release, the work featured on LAPQ’s album. There is a textual collage element that I will leave to the reader to explore on his/her own. (Good luck.)  

In Push/Pull, flute and oboe timbres combine using both air columns/key clicking and melodic phrases. I love this combination. There is a back and forth between sections of rhythmic counterpoint and sustained atmospheric textures. Even the lone percussionist is tasked with handling pitched vibraphone in one hand and non-pitched snare drum in the other. One can sense the theme of dualistic push/pull throughout the piece. Still, as with Fear | Release, the work lives primarily in the upper end of the harmonic spectrum with piano and vibes often being asked to produce the same frequency allowing their timbres to combine in a familiar spectralist fascination. The oboe oscillates its melodies between pitch bends and centered tones, never seeming to settle in on a preferred landscape. There’s a lot to explore, and it rewards multiple listens, as does each piece of Reid’s that I have encountered.