Network for New Music's "Trade Winds From Tibet'

If the "American Century" is slowly mutating into the "Asian Re-awakening," music seems to be doing its part. The influence of Asian music on Western composers actually reaches back into the 19th Century, when Debussy first heard, and was astonished by, the music of the Balinese gamelan at a fair in Paris. What began as a ripple is now a wave, as Western and Eastern composers alike are influenced by music from Bali, China, Tibet and Japan.

Many veterans of the field were once fugitives from China's nightmare Cultural Revolution of the '60s who received advanced training in Western music schools before they returned to post-Mao China. Tan Dun, whose music was heard at Orchestra 2001's opening concert this season, is the best-known exponent of that kind of vibrant cultural interchange. Although his sound is dominated by traditional aspects of Chinese music, as expressed by his harmonic structure and use of folk instruments, careful listening will also reveal the influences of such diverse composers as Steve Reich and John Cage.

Network for New Music's first concert this fall focused on a specific corner of this world, as the title of the event, "Trade Winds form Tibet," makes clear. The evening's four composers, young Americans all, sourced their material from recent field work conducted by Philadelphia composer Andrea Clearfield, herself represented on the program by two substantial pieces. Clearfield has traveled to Tibet twice in the past several years, most recently accompanied by anthropologist Katey Blumenthal. Much of their travels were on horseback— a marvelous romantic image, if ever there was one.

Too often, music from this self-consciously styled genre can be laden with clichés. Remarkably, that was almost never the case in this concert. The biggest revelation came in the two pieces by Clearfield, a composer well known to local new music audiences, and who now may be in a stage of her career to step up to a wider level of recognition. Both of her works displayed a daring and imagination that were not as strongly felt in her past work, which has always been highly communicative.

Clearfield's turning point

If this material does mark a new direction in Clearfield's style, then her earlier work, Lung-ta, can be heard as the turning point. She dares herself to amalgamate a huge variety of instrumental timbres (a number of Tibetan wind and percussion instruments are used) and harmonic languages, and to integrate her field tapes of actual Tibetan chanting and playing.

The success of Lung-ta speaks for itself; it has been performed at least four times since its premier more than a year ago, almost always to sold-out audiences. Some of the work's overtly theatrical elements, such as the tape of spoken word, may wear thin over time, but the overall effect is strong.

Echoes of Stravinsky

The more recent work, Kawa Ma Gyur, displays a firmer sense of confidence by Clearfield, with more sustained tempos and an even finer sense of balance within a large structure. In some of the music's freer moments, it reaches far beyond the Asian model, recalling the energy of early Stravinsky, and even the spaciousness of Morton Feldman. This is some of the most impressive writing I've heard from Clearfield. Keep it coming!

Eric Moe's Spirit Mountain echoed the high energy of the Clearfield works, with a decidedly more percussive core. The balance of the program was of a softer reflection. Tony Solitro's Passage and Michael Djupstrom's Three Months are each scored for flute, violin and cello. Although they're distinctive, both were inspired by Tibetan songs, as heard in lyrical, exotic tones.