project: 2022-2023 Videos

Composed by Elizabeth Raum; Performed by Alexander Panizza, piano Video and audio recording and editing by Alexander Panizza. Post-Porduction video editing by Eero Daniel-Raum

Programme notes from the composer: Jane Gordon, the lady for whom Mutability was written, commissioned this piece as a present to herself for her 60th birthday. The reason for the commission is best described in her own words. The following is a letter I received from Jane on July 2, 2002: “In my non-musical life I am a professor of Sociology and Women’s Studies at Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax. Although I had piano lessons as a child, I gave it up as soon as I could. However, I kept the piano and the books and at age 55 (after I’d finished years of paying for my children’s lessons, from the cultural to the athletic) I decided it was my turn and I started piano again. In my scholarly work, I have spent most of my academic career looking at issues around women’s lives, particularly the paid and unpaid work women do, in the academy and in the home and my research is tied to my teaching areas, primarily the family and work. …as a tie in with my academic interests, I began to learn what I could by Canadian women composers. Last year, as part of the Mount’s celebration of International Women’s Week, I arranged a short performance and lecture called “Canadian Women of Note”. In my recent Grade 7 exam I did (from the old Royal Conservatory syllabus) a study by Nancy Telfer and “Sparks” by Barbara Pentland. In my observation, the experience of women composers parallels that of women in other professional areas: less visible, less valued. I try to use my music (and I am really just an intermediate level student) to share the work of contemporary Canadian women composers, though most of the ‘sharing’ is recitals organized by my teacher and university based opportunities, such as the community hobby and talent show.” Before I began working on this piece for Jane, I found myself drawn to a book of poems by Shelley and upon opening it, the first poem that caught my eye was Mutability. This poem became the inspiration for Jane’s new work for piano.

MUTABILITY — by Percy Bysshe Shelley

We are as clouds that veil the midnight moon;

How restlessly they speed, and gleam, and quiver,

Streaking the darkness radiantly! -yet soon

Night closes round, and they are lost for ever:

Or like forgotten lyres, whose dissonant strings

Give various response to each varying blast,

To whose frail frame no second motion brings

One mood or modulation like the last.

We rest. A dream has power to poison sleep;

We rise. One wandering thought pollutes the day;

We feel, conceive or reason, laugh or weep;

Embrace fond woe, or cast our cares away:

It is the same! For, be it joy or sorrow,

The path of its departure still is free:

Man’s yesterday may ne’er be like his morrow;

Nought may endure but Mutablilty.

For more information on the composer, Elizabeth Raum: https://elizabethraum.com/.

For more information on the pianist, Alexander Panizza: http://alexanderpanizza.com/.

Mistico” from “String Quartet No. 1”; Composed by Ronald Royer; Performed by Odin Quartet (Alex Toskov, violin / Tanya Charles Iveniuk, violin / Laurence Schaufele, viola / Samuel Bisson, cello). Featuring Mark Asselin as “The Observer”.

VIDEO: Director: Jamie Way. Video edited by Samuel Bisson. Cinemaphotographer: Darcy Way. Editor: Samuel Bisson. Producer: Igor Vrabac. Learn more about the Odin Quartet: http://www.odinquartet.com. Learn more about Ronald Royer: https://www.ronaldroyer.com.

WARNING: This video may potentially trigger seizures in people with photosensitive epilepsy. Viewer discretion is advised.

Composed by ICOT (Iranian-Canadian Composers of Toronto; Saman Shahi, Keyan Emami, and Maziar Heidari); Performed by Odin Quartet (Alex Toskov, violin / Tanya Charles Iveniuk, violin / Rae Gallimore, viola / Samuel Bisson, cello).

Audio recorded at Desert Fish Studios, Toronto (Jeff Wolpert, Engineer). Audio edited by Brandon Walker. Audio produced by Ronald Royer. Video edited and produced by Naghmeh Ghasemzadeh. ——————————————

NOTES FROM THE COMPOSERS: “Oasis” in three movements is a composition by members of ICOT (Saman Shahi, Keyan Emami, Maziar Heidari) for string quartet. The piece explores the vagueness and intangibility of mirages in both physical and spiritual realms. While aspects of the piece have inspirations from poetry and other extra musical sources, the composition is mostly an abstract expression of what oasis means to each composer in their own personal ways. Toronto-based artist Naghmeh Ghasemzadeh also added her own layer of artistry by creating video art for the piece using patterns, textures, visual loops, and abstract imagery. “This video includes footage, textures and visual loops from its creator (NAG). In addition, still images from Unsplash website were used to create some of the visual loops.

The still images were created by: Alexander Ant, Pawel Czerwinski, Ricardo-Gomez-Angel, Christopher Burns, Casey Horner and Hao Wang.”