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| Arnold Dreyblatt Ensemble (Current Performing Ensemble)
2009 -
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| The Orchestra of Excited Strings
Founded 1979, General Statement
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| Second Berlin Ensemble
1990-1997
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| Ensemble New York and Wesleyan University
1979-83
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| Arnold Dreyblatt Ensemble (Current Performing Ensemble)
2009 - |
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The "Arnold Dreyblatt" Ensemble was formed in 2009 for a performance organized by Nymusikk in Oslo , followed by performances in Berlin, Utrecht, Geneve, Hasselt and Bari. In 2010, further performances are planned. The ensemble performs in two formulations, with three or four musicians, including Arnold Dreyblatt:
Arnold Dreyblatt, Excited Strings Bass and Laptop
Jörg Hiller, Percussion and digitally controlled Electric Guitar
Joachim Schütz, Electric Guitar
Robin Hayward, Tuba.
A DVD of a live performance has been issued by the Neue Berliner Kunstverein in 2010.
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| The Orchestra of Excited Strings
Founded 1979, General Statement |
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| The Orchestra of Excited Strings was founded by composer Arnold Dreyblatt
in New York City in 1979 for the development and performance of his music compositions.
Within the following years the ensemble performed extensively in the United
States and recorded an LP for India Navigation Records in 1982 entitled, Nodal
Excitation which was re-released on CD in 1998 by Drag City.
In 1984, Dreyblatt moved his base of operations to Berlin where he formed a
new ensemble while composer-in-residence at Knstlerhaus Bethanien. This ensemble
has performed throughout East and West Europe at numerous festivals, museums,
galleries and other music venues. An LP entitled, Propellers in Love
was issued by Knstlerhaus Bethanien in 1985. This recording was reissued by
“Hat Art Records” in 1986 on compact disc along with newly recorded
material.
In composing a performance opera entitled, Who’s Who in Central &
East Europe 1933 (a co-production between Inventionen ‘91/DAAD, Berlin
and Wiener Fest Wochen, Vienna) Dreyblatt reformed the ensemble including New
York vocalist Shelley Hirsch in 1991 and performed with her at the Bang On A
Can Festival at La Mama in New York in the same year.
The ensemble then recorded a number of pieces in New York with clarinetist Andy
Statman which were issued by Extra Platte, Vienna in early 1992. Dreyblatt has
also composed numerous pieces for theater and dance as well as designing sound
installations.
In 1993, the ensemble performed on tour in the former Soviet Union, and through
the middle 90’s performed in Dreyblatt’s theater pieces, including
the Memory Arena which premiered in 1995. John Zorn’s Zaddik
label released Animal Magnetism in 1995, and a collection of solo works
and live performances by the Orchestra of Excited Strings entitled The Sound
of One String was released in 1998. This ensemble was disbanded in 1997.
In 2000, and new Orchestra of Excited Strings was founded in New York.
A CD of this ensemble was released in 2002 on Cantaloupe Records. Additional
archival recordings will be released in 2006 by Table of the Elements.
For more information about the tuning system and instruments, please select
the appropriate links
Instrumentation:
1. Two Excited Strings Double Basses, Modified Piano, Hurdy Gurdy, Pipe Organ
2. Two Excited Strings Double Basses, Modified Piano, Hurdy Gurdy, Pipe Organ,
French Horn, Trombone
3. Two Excited Strings Double Basses, Modified Piano, Violin, Hurdy Gurdy, Percussion
4. Excited Strings Double Bass, Modified Cembalom, Modified Electric Guitar,
Violin, Percussion, Electronics
5. Excited Strings Double Bass, Modified Cembalom, Cello, Modified Electric
Guitar, Hurdy Gurdy, Tuba, Trombone, Percussion
6. Excited Strings Double Bass, Normal Double Bass, Modified Cembalom, Cello,
Two Modified Electric Guitars, Violin, Hurdy Gurdy, Percussion
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| New York Ensemble
1999-2002 |
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Being an “expatriate” living in Europe for almost twenty years, it has long been
my dream to found an American ensemble once again in the States. Since the last
New York Orchestra of Excited Strings was disbanded upon my leaving for
Berlin in 1983, I have formed a number of ensembles in Europe, from which a number
of CD’s have been issued.
In 1999, composer and performer David Weinstein suggested that I form an American
ensemble to perform with new compositions at concerts at Tonic in New York. After
the Bang On A Can All-Stars began performing (and finally recorded) my composition
Escalator , I had been in discussion with a number of the All-Star musicians
about forming a new ensemble. It seemed that the occasion had finally arrived.
A long dormant invitation to teach a workshop in music and acoustics at the Center
for the Arts at MIT unexpectedly re-emerged, and Evan Ziporyn, with whom I had
long been in dialog about the idea, suggested that we could make use of the university
facilities. A number of talented students were selected to complete the ensemble,
and the occasion provided a second concert opportunity, as well as a space to
record.
The ensemble represents an interesting collaboration drawing from a number of generations. In contrast to the well-known talents of Bang On A Can All-Stars members (Evan Ziporyn, Marc Stewart and Robert Black), Jeff Lieberman and Laurel P. Smith, both recent graduates from MIT are both in their early 20’s. Danny Tunick, with his extensive background in both rock/punk and classical styles, provides a solid driving force which is inspiring for the entire ensemble. It is a great challenge to compose for musicians of such caliber, and I would say that it is the best “Orchestra of Excited Strings” which has existed to date.
A CD entitled “The Adding Machine" iis now available from this ensemble from Cantaloupe Records (Bang On A Can).
Members: Evan Ziiporyn: Cimbalom, Robert Black: Double and Excited Bass, Marc
Stewart: Electric Guitar; Monochord and Excited Bass Jeff Lieberman: Electric
Guitar and Excited Bass Laruel Smith: Violin and Hurdy Gurdy. Danny Tunick: Percussion
TOES (Adding Machine Band), Tonic, New York, 2000
1. Dateline 18:06
2. Meantime 17:31
3. Lapse 8:53
4. Adding Machine 10:23
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 Download NY Times Review
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| Second Berlin Ensemble
1990-1997 |
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| First Berlin Ensemble
1985-1987 |
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In September of 1984, under a grant from the Overbrook Foundation, Dreyblatt
took up residence in Künstlerhaus Bethanien in West Berlin where he began
a new ensemble which included percussion and violin. A set of percussion instruments
were first added to the ensemble at this time: two snare drums, small and large
tom tom, and a copy of a 'gardon' trannsylvanian string drum. The addition of
percussion to the ensemble has stimulated a new rhythmic complexity in the music.
The range and tone colour of the violin blend excellently with the combination
of basses and piano. This ensemble performed extensively in Europe between 1985
and 1987.
“Propellers in Love” was recorded during the first tour to Holland,
West Germany and Switzerland.
Performers: 1985-1987
Jan Schade: Modified "Princess" Piano; Arnold Dreyblatt and Dirk Lebahn:
Excited Strings Bass; Wolfgang Mettler, Frederic Le Junter: Violin; Wolfgang
Glum: Percussion
Program notes from the period:
“From Excited Strings come sounds that seem to stand on their own. In
performance, we feel like jugglers: we make something down here, and something
happens up there.“
“One could say that the entire history of my work in music has been derived
from a single, subjective experience with sound. It is this experience which
generates the music ideas - and not the other way around.”
TOES, Hessischer Rundfunk, Batchkapp, Frankfurt, 1985
1. Harmonics 14:50
2. Odd & Even 10:32
3. Bowing 7:55
4. Propellers In Love 15:22
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| Ensemble New York and Wesleyan University
1979-83 |
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Performers:1979-83:
1979-80: First New York Ensemble
Performers: Arnold Dreyblatt, Michael Hauenstein, Peter Phillips, Tracy Kirschenbaum
1981-82: Wesleyan University Ensemble
Performers: Arnold Dreyblatt, K. Mason Hill, Randal Baier, Ruth Charloff, Michael
Hauenstein, Peter Phillips, Greg Lewis
1983: Second New York Ensemble (Early Period)
Performers: Arnold Dreyblatt, Michael Hauenstein, Siobhan O’Looney, Eric
Feinstein, K. Mason Hill, Peter Zummo
The first New York City Ensemble was formed for a concert at the Experimental
Intermedia Foundation. With Peter Phillips as "concert master", the
first Orchestra of Excited Strings included two double basses modified with
piano wire (one with an extended neck), the premiere of the "Midget Upright
Pianoforte" (restrung with unwound wire and excited with feltless wood
hammers) and a Hurdy Gurdy. Later a portative was built with pipes and keyboard
in Dreyblatt's intonation, and in later periods French Horn and Trombone were
added.
In 1981 I reformed the ensemble with a mixture of new and original members at
Wesleyan University where I was invited by composer Alvin Lucier for a graduate
fellowship. In 1981, I built a portative pipe organ with a specially designed
keyboard to represent the 20-tone per octave just intoned tuning system.
Upon recieving a M.A. degree in Composition and Ethnomusicology from Wesleyan,
I returned to New York City and the ensemble was re-formed with the
inclusion of French Horn and then Trombone which, as all brass instruments,
easily play in the intonation of the naturally-occurring harmonic series through
overblowing.
Selections from early program notes:
"The melodic events present are for the most part not played on any one
instrument but occurr as partials coalesce in the space and in the ear. By that
time it is more or less a 'now you hear it, now you don't' sort of situation".
"The sound itself is strikingly original: the overtones emerge in something
like geological strata, from simple, steady thirds, and fifths at the bottom
to elusive pings on top, with percussive thwacks in between that with careful
listening seem to change from timbres into melodies." -The Village Voice
TOES, Real Art Ways, Hartford, 1981
1. Harmonics 13:14
2. Slow Changes 11:16
3. Organ Tones 3:47
4. Bowing 6:40
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