Maya Beiser, cello
Michael Harrison, piano

Just Ancient Loops brings together virtuoso cellist Maya Beiser and the extraordinary composer and pianist Michael Harrison.  Harrison’s music is perfect for our times: it’s architectural and precise, yet exhilarating and beautiful. It draws on music from ancient Greece and the Renaissance, Indian ragas and minimalism.  Complementing Harrison’s compositions is music by two composers he reveres: Arvo Part and J.S. Bach.

The program takes its name from the center piece of this concert: Just Ancient Loops, a 25 minute musical odyssey that unveils every aspect of the cello – from its most glorious and mysterious harmonics to the earthy rhythmic pizzicatos. The cello becomes an “Uber instrument” – laying down the drones, building rhythmical grooves on top of each other, singing melismatic melodies, and reaching up to the stratosphere as the music evolves and builds into a massive, exhilarating climax.

Juxtaposed with Just Ancient loops is the Suite for Solo Cello in G Major by J.S. Bach. The cello is tuned in “just Intonation,” which requires some adjustments to the original Bach score. The result is a unique and fresh approach to the interpretation of this well-known masterpiece.

Bach/Gounod’s famed Ave Maria, receives its own surprising interpretation as Harrison accompanies Maya’s cello on a specially tuned piano, along with two Raga-preludes inspired by Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier. The inclusion of Arvo Part’s Fratres and Spiegel Im Spiegel in the program, exemplify Part’s own exploration of timbre and reverberation and the intrinsic spirituality of his music.

When possible, the concert closes with the breathtaking Hijaz, a piece commissioned by 2011 MacArthur “Genius Grant” recipient, conductor Francisco Nunez for female or professional children’s choir, solo cello, piano and tabla, which Harrison composed for Maya and the Young People’s Chorus of New York City.

You can read more about composer Michael Harrison on his website.

Notes on Just Ancient Loops by Maya

There are those rare moments in an artist’s life when you realize that you are part of something that is greater than yourself, your collaborators, your listeners – when everything falls into place and music just lives and breathes on its own: raw, naked, real. It takes over. It becomes a force of nature. Such was the moment when I listened to the first mix of “Just Ancient Loops” – a 25 minute musical odyssey that unveils every aspect of the cello – from its most glorious and mysterious harmonics to the earthy rhythmic pizzicatos. The “just intonation” tuning used in the work reveals how music exists in nature. In the process of working on this project I read several books diving into its harmonic principles. For me however, it was a simple revelation: I have always heard music in just intonation. The sound of the cello shimmers and bounces through space when it’s tuned correctly. You start hearing all the nuances, the shades of light that the natural harmonics create. It’s as if you are turning all the artificial lights off and just letting the rays of sunlight into your space.

In “Just Ancient Loops” the cello becomes this “Uber instrument” laying down the drones, building rhythmical grooves on top of each other, singing melismatic melodies, and reaching up to the stratosphere as the music evolves and builds into a massive, exhilarating climax.

Program Notes:

Concert program notes
Just Ancient Loops notes by Maya Beiser
Just Ancient Loops notes by Michael Harrison
Hijaz notes by Michael Harrison
*Downloads courtesy of Serious Music Media