The rule about pairing is that you can match, go the opposite way, or go for something weird. Or, do whatever. This is true for fashion too. Just ask style icon, Chloe Sevigny:
 |
| "Chloe Sevigny for Opening Ceremony, Resort 2011" |
Dress with socks and sandals? Hell yes:
 | |
| Barnsley, Dome/Pacific Coast News |
Also true for food and beer pairings, as well as for beer and music pairings. Green Flash Hop Head Red with a sesame red bean bun (just sayin'...)?
Back to the business of pairings. I'm going to say it was Takahashi that inspired this pairing of a tangy, charcoal infused, dark honey flavored black beer called the Suntory Premium Malts <黒> with the unfathomably freaky beast that is the child of set theory. But in performance, Takahashi demonstrates that there's so much more to it as well, like movement, listening, and an obsessive commitment to formations. There's beauty that rears its head out of all of this. In this space of confusion and the joy that comes from it, One Woman finds inspiration to make weird pairings.
With that preamble, I'm going to go ahead and pair Suntory Premium Malts <黒> with Herma by the composer Iannis Xenakis.
 |
| Herma, by Iannis Xenakis (1961), first page. 'Dedicated to Yuji Takahashi' |
The Story
In the summer of 1961, a young 22-year old pianist named Takahashi Yuji commissioned a piece from his friend Iannis Xenakis for 50,000 yen during Xenakis' visit to Japan (in 2010, 50,000 yen is 612 USD). "Herma" is an ancient Greek term that refers to a foundation, or a stringing together. Xenakis was interested in Aristotelean principles of logic, and tried applying ideas of mathematical logic as a compositional method to determine what sounds he would use. The piece set a precedent for the compositions based on rigorous mathematical principles that Xenakis would become famous for in the 1960s. When Herma was completed, pianists insisted that it was humanly impossible to play. For its premiere in 1962, Takahashi played it with a degree of perfection that stunned Xenakis. He also played it entirely from memory. "Well, that's really the only way you can play it," says Takahashi in his soft-spoken but freakishly intense way in this youtube video. Here's the link to the piece without the commentary, but do yourself a favor and find a decent recording. But the best story about Takahashi's performance of this piece is the one about how, during a Paris performance, he sliced his finger on the keyboard sending blood and *a nail* flying into space. And so, the story goes, that this was Takahashi's way of paying respect to Xenakis' devotion to the Socratic dictum, "the unexamined life is not worth living."
Back to the business of pairings. I'm going to say it was Takahashi that inspired this pairing of a tangy, charcoal infused, dark honey flavored black beer called the Suntory Premium Malts <黒> with the unfathomably freaky beast that is the child of set theory. But in performance, Takahashi demonstrates that there's so much more to it as well, like movement, listening, and an obsessive commitment to formations. There's beauty that rears its head out of all of this. In this space of confusion and the joy that comes from it, One Woman finds inspiration to make weird pairings.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment