SF Classical Voice: "Percussionist Steven Schick Takes a Hike"
“One day in 2006, Steven Schick decided to take a walk. A very, very long walk. He started out in San Diego, his home, and headed north, hugging the coast. He ended up in San Francisco…That grueling 2006 hike ultimately inspired a work of art: George Lewis’s Soundlines for voice and solo percussion. It’s one of the many highly creative pieces Schick performs on his new three-CD set, Weather Systems II — Soundlines: On Language and the Land (Islandia Music Records).”
An excerpt talking about The Ice Is Talking:
I’d like to ask about one other piece on the new set, The Ice Is Talking by Vivian Fung. It’s not unusual to hear contemporary works that attempt to make a statement about climate change, but this one is uniquely visceral, as you are performing it on a block of melting ice. At times, you can actually hear your “instrument” crack as it fades into oblivion.
It was commissioned by Banff Centre in Canada, a place where you can actually see glaciers receding. Vivian spent her youth in Canada and has vacationed with her family in Banff, and she has noticed the shrinking of the ice caps over the years.
The ice block lasts about 90 minutes to two hours before it becomes unplayable. But there’s a sweet spot — a moment when it’s starting to melt — when the harmonics of the ice block are clearer, the voice is more beautiful. The metaphor for climate change is we are enjoying the beauty [of a disintegrating environment], as when pollution leads to beautiful sunsets.