AMERICAN COUNTERPOINTS | WOSU PUBLIC MEDIA - INTERVIEW
Recording offers new and nuanced readings of Black composers’ works
by: Jennifer Hambrick | February, 2024
There’s a magical kind of counterpoint to rubbing two stones together – strike them against each other in just the right way, and a spark flies out.
Sparks fly in a new recording that sets works by two undercelebrated African American composers in counterpoint and, in the process, brings to light a long-obscured musical masterpiece.
American Counterpoints (Bright Shiny Things) features the world-premiere recording of the Violin Concerto by 20th-century American composer Julia Perry, along with other works by Perry and her younger contemporary Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson. Violinist Curtis Stewart performs as soloist in Perry’s concerto with the Experiential Orchestra under the baton of its founder and music director, James Blachly.
The release of American Counterpoints comes during the year marking the 100th anniversary of Perry’s birth and anticipates the Experiential Orchestra’s Julia Perry Centenary Celebration, March 13-16, 2024, in New York City.
A trailblazing musician devoted to blurring the lines between musical genres and styles, Stewart says the music on American Counterpoints illustrates just some of the stylistic variety among works by Black composers.
“I do a lot of work just bringing the music of Black and blues-oriented composers to the world of classical music. And so I love framing Black composers with other Black composers, just because there is no monolith,” Stewart said in our recent video interview.
“I think some people think Black creatives are put into a certain space. There’s a certain space (where) they can make money, there’s a certain space that they’re supposed to occupy. And putting these two composers on this album, I hope, makes an argument against that type of thinking. Both Julia Perry and Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson are counterpoints to making this argument, de-monolith-icizing Black composers in America,” he said.
Perry’s music, in particular her Violin Concerto, holds special interest for Blachly.
“(Perry’s Violin Concerto) was completely unknown, and there’s something very fascinating about a piece that’s clearly masterful in its compositional integrity and yet has never been heard,” Blachly said. “It is just a tour de force of brilliance and her skill as a composer,” Blachly said.
In addition, Perry’s work composing the concerto over an initial five-year period between 1963 and 1968, before returning to it in 1977 to continue revising it, suggests something of the work’s importance to Perry.
“There’s evidence that this is a piece that mattered to her,” Blachly said.
In devising what would become American Counterpoints, Blachly and Stewart, who had worked together before, had discussed collaborating on another project but hadn’t decided what shape it would take. Blachly suggested to Stewart that they perform and record Perry’s Violin Concerto.
“When he mentioned that there was a (Julia) Perry concerto, I was like, ‘Yes!’ Before he finished (saying) the second syllable of “concerto,” I was like, ‘Yes!’ So we were just of the same mind,” Stewart said.
Rubbing shoulders with Perry’s Violin Concerto on American Counterpoints are Perkinson’s beloved Louisiana Blues Strut and Sinfonietta No. 1 and Perry’s Prelude for Strings, Symphony in One Movement for Violas and Basses and Ye, Who Seek the Truth, arranged for orchestral by Jannina Norpoth. Stewart’s own We Who Seek the Truth for solo violin, strings, verse narrator and electronics, paraphrases the text of Ye, Who Seek the Truth in manipulated audio samples from the recordings of the other works on the disc.
The bold sonic landscape of Stewart’s We Who Seek the Truth packs a punch, but the work’s real impact comes from its message for our times.
“I paraphrased the lyrics of Ye, Who Seek the Truth, which kind of says, ‘forgive those who seek the truth, they’re just looking for solace,’” Stewart said. “’Everyone’s just looking for peace.’”
