San Francisco Classical Voice discusses Fung's 'Humanoid'

San José Chamber Orchestra Explores Nature and Humankind

 The San José Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Music Director Barbara Day Turner, gave a concert at the Trianon Theatre on Sunday, March 25, that would warm the heart of anyone concerned with showing that contemporary classical music is alive, vigorous, and addressing today’s concerns.The bill of fare consisted of five short pieces: two first performances, one other, new co-commission, another fairly recent work, and a fairly new arrangement of an older work. Three of the four newer works were by women.The contemporary issues addressed by this music also reinforced a theme or two. Two depicted the natural environment and the human response to it; one consisted of the meeting of live music with electronics; and the remaining two dealt with both these issues at once, in varying ways.

The more thematically austere bit of electronically-enhanced music was also the only work of the evening without orchestra. This was the co-commissioned work, a bit of concentrated introspection by Vivian Fung for solo cello and pre-recorded electronics. The title, Humanoid, intends to reflect the cello mediating between the human and the mechanical. Fung’s style tends toward the brittle, and this piece exploited that proclivity.

For much of the piece, guest cellist Coleman Itzkoff exchanged gnomic utterances with the electronics. He would play crescendo slides, and the electronics would respond variously with buzzes, static, ringing bells, metallic tinkles, the sound of typewriter keys, or whatever. Over time the cello became harsher and more imperative, and when the electronics became a pop music drumkit, Itzkoff jumped right in with it.Full article here...