Present Music’s Death Defying Concert

Throughout its 40 years, Present Music has promised its audiences “imaginative and provocative experiences.” Its season-closing concert on June 23 and 24 unquestionably lives up to that vision, presenting a world premiere song cycle based on a book by Edward Gorey along with other compositions reflecting dark and unsettling themes.

Present Music commissioned Carla Kihlstedt to write 26 Little Deaths, the centerpiece of the program. In addition to composing both the music and the libretto for the song cycle, Kihlstedt will be featured as vocalist and violinist in the Present Music performance. She is on the faculty of the Contemporary Improvisation Department at the New England Conservatory and the MFA in Composition program at the Vermont College of Fine Arts.

26 Little Deaths is based on Gorey’s macabre 1963 book, The Gashlycrumb Tinies, an alphabet volume in which text and Victorian-style pen-and-ink illustrations depict 26 ways unfortunate children met their ends. (A sampling: “I is for Ida who drowned in a lake. J is for James who took lye by mistake.”) In an interview at the time of publication, Gorey noted that Ida, James and the other 24 suffered “punishment without misbehavior.”

Kihlstedt’s songs interpret the somber illustrations. “[W]ith most, I had to step into the pictures and into their imaginary worlds to find the wisdom beyond the absurd barbarism,” she said. For example, the movement about Victor, squashed by an oncoming train, explores Victor’s thoughts as he stands on the tracks, “wondering where the train came from, where it might be going, and the smallness of his own life. While the train will get him in the end, the song is more about his sense of wonder than it is about his doom.”

Also featured on the Present Music program are three compositions that use a variety of instrumentation and sonic effects inspired by life’s unpleasant realities. That includes the work, Cheating, Lying, Stealing, by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer David Lang, who says the music illustrates, in a comic way, what happens when composers base a piece “on what they thought was wrong with them.” Omie Wise, part of the Murder Ballades suite by Bryce Dessner, is based an old Appalachian song recounting the drowning of a pregnant girl by the father of her child. Bladed Stance, written by Brazilian native Marcos Balter and named for a martial arts posture, merges electronic and acoustic sound palettes.

Concluding a year-long celebration of Present Music’s 40^th anniversary, the concert will be held at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, June 23 and Friday, June 24 at the Jan Serr Studio, 2155 N. Prospect Ave., Milwaukee. The June 24 concert will be live-streamed. Tickets for both the in-person and livestream performances are available at the Present Music web site.