The 大象传媒 SSO returns to Celtic Connections for the Opening Night of the Festival. The orchestra join American mandolinist and singer-songwriter Chris Thile for his work ATTENTION! a narrative song cycle for extroverted mandolinist and orchestra.
From Chris:
I adore orchestras. Whether scaled up for grandeur, or down for intimacy, nothing makes me prouder to be human than hearing a stage full of highly skilled orchestral musicians practicing their craft together. It鈥檚 magic, and it鈥檚 something I鈥檝e been desperate to participate in since the early aughts, when a hero of mine, Edgar Meyer, walked me through the score of a violin concerto he wrote for another hero of mine, Hilary Hahn. In the late aughts I wrote a mandolin concerto, but after performing it quite a bit for a year or so with some truly lovely orchestras, I realized that it was basically the musical equivalent of fan fiction (like I鈥檓 tempted to rename it 鈥淏artok meets Ad茅s for coffee at Edgar鈥檚鈥�). SO, I went back to admiring orchestral music from afar, even as I continued to monitor my inner ear for something that might justify another attempt.
A year or two ago, a tantalizing text from my pal, Eric Jacobsen (鈥淭hile, whatever you wanna do with orchestra, we can make it happen!鈥�) prompted more pro-active monitoring and I started hearing bits of what would eventually become 鈥淎TTENTION!鈥� I was confused at first, 鈥榗ause these little aural visions included not just mandolin and orchestra, but singing AND talking as well. Whoa, ok鈥UN. Further dreaming led to the conviction that there should be an actual STORY, not just loosely related vignettes (which has pretty much been my MO on long form pieces with vocals up to this point). But WHAT story? I鈥檝e always loved writing songs based on short stories, so I started there, widened the search to essays, then read a bunch of plays, but every time I got excited about something, a nagging little voice (probably remembering my last orchestral piece) would say 鈥淵eah, but why would YOU be the one to musicalize this story?鈥� Ugh. Fair. Ok, fine then: what is a story I like to tell about something that happened to me that my friends seem to like hearing? Ah HA! THIS ONE, hands down, no contest. If you鈥檝e ever had a couple rounds with me at a good cocktail bar, chances are I鈥檝e trotted it out, and the thought of turning it into a piece of orchestral music got my inner ear cranking like never before. It鈥檚 a ridiculous story, but it鈥檚 100% true, and the more I鈥檝e worked on the telling of it, the more aware I鈥檝e become of what a profound impact the whole experience had on me as a person who loves to make things and show them to other people.
