Volume 25 Issue 4 - December 2019 / January 2020

NEW MUSIC
THE ART OF
FALLING
Laurie
Anderson
at 21C
WENDALYN BARTLEY
EBRU YILDIZ
Deep in the heart of Toronto’s upcoming winter, the
poignant and idiosyncratic composer, violinist,
singer, filmmaker, storyteller and electronics
virtuoso, Laurie Anderson, will be appearing at the
seventh edition of the Royal Conservatory’s 21C Music
Festival. The Art of Falling is the title she is giving
this sold-out performance happening on January 18
at Koerner Hall, and during a recent interview I had
an opportunity to ask her about what to expect that
evening. We also discussed other works that are being
programmed as part of the festival: her film Heart of
a Dog, her virtual reality piece To The Moon, and her
string quartet Standing Island.
As to whether or not Anderson considers The Art of Falling a new
work is something she herself questions: “I don’t know to what extent
it will be a brand-new work or to what extent it will be a collection of
things. So much of what I do looks back and forward at the same time,
and so it will probably be something like that. And then again it might
go another direction too.” However, one aspect of this performance she
is unquestionably excited about is the opportunity to work with cellist
Rubin Kodheli. “He’s just an amazing musician and it’s a huge amount
of fun to improvise with him. I’m leaving a lot of accordion-like room
in this piece for us to do things that go off the track a little bit and take
their own time. I never used to have the nerve to do that, so I’m really
happy to make things a little bit more luxurious in that way.”
Even the question of using projected images that are often part of
her performances is unresolved. She is preparing some to use, but
they might get edited out. “Sometimes I think: how about people
just listen to this one. So we’ll see.” Musically, she’ll be using her
familiar electronic setup that includes iPads, laptops, foot pedals and
microphones, as well her electric string instrument which, although
considered a violin in the world of its maker Ned Steinburger, is more
like a viola with its low C string “which I like very much because it
gives you access to a couple octaves down when used with the electronics.
You can really get into double bass land with this instrument.
It’s just a thrill to play down there.”
Later on in our conversation, she offers a few glimpses into what
elements may appear in the Toronto performance of The Art of
Falling. In September of 2019, she along with musicians Tenzin
Choegyal, Jesse Paris Smith, Rubin Kodheli and Shahzad Ismaily
released an album titled Songs from the Bardo. This recording grew
out of an improvisational performance at the Rubin Museum of Art
in 2014, and offers an 80-minute meditation on mortality, through
word and sound, designed to help people face the challenges of being
alive at this time. The chanted and spoken texts are a translation of the
Tibetan Book of the Dead, also called Liberation Through Hearing,
and are designed to guide one through the experiences the consciousness
has after death while in the bardo, the interval between death
and the next rebirth. An adapted version from this album arranged for
two instruments (violin and cello) along with electronics may appear
in The Art of Falling, she told me.
As well, Anderson’s Toronto performance may include a duet
version of her orchestral piece, Amelia, a piece she created using
texts from the legendary Amelia Earhart’s pilot logs and the telegrams
Earhart sent to her husband. These excepts appear alongside
Anderson’s imaginings of Earhart’s experiences while flying solo, with
the constant sound of the plane’s engine in her ears. Earhart was the
first woman to fly nonstop and alone across the Atlantic in 1932, but
disappeared without a trace during her voyage around the world five
years later. Recently, on November 13, an updated version of this piece
was performed by the Brno Philharmonic in the Czech Republic with
duets by Anderson and Kodheli.
12 | December 2019 / January 2020 thewholenote.com