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Pictured at left, Stewart Gillmor, professor of history and science and
professor of science in society, performs during
“The Bang on a Can Marathon” June 4 in New York City. Below, Anthony
Braxton, professor of music, directs the band. Braxton wrote the band's
composition. |
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| Posted 06.16.06 |
Professors, Alumni Perform and Direct in Tuba Ensemble in New York
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 Strutting
outside the World Financial Center in New York City, Stewart Gillmor
bellowed his five valve double-belled euphonium for thousands of spectators.
He was one of 75 tuba players to march in the annual “The Bang on a Can
Marathon” June 4 in New York City.
Gillmor, professor of history and science and professor of science in
society, is a member of the Tuba Marching Band, directed by Wesleyan
Professor of Music Anthony Braxton. Braxton’s band performed his own opus,
“Composition No. 19,” a marching piece for tubas.
“It was quite a show, and quite a good, avant-garde thing to do in New
York,” Gillmor says.
The “Bang on a Can Marathon” is a 10-hour eclectic super-mix of
boundary-smashing genre-defying music by pioneering artists from around the
world. It featured newly commissioned works by classical, electronica, jazz
and rock artists. The New York Times heralded “Composition No. 19” as the
“biggest spectacle at this year’s … marathon.”
With a baton in hand, Braxton led the tuba band with co-conductors and
Wesleyan alumni Taylor Bynum ’98, James Fei ’99 and Matthew Welch ’01. Each
conductor led a quarter of the band, with players horning with old European
instruments called helicons, and sousaphones, tubas, mini-baritones and
euphoniums.
Gillmor’s euphonium was rare. Most have three or four valves, but his 1940
Holton-brand has five, which allowed him to switch between two horn “bells”
with the fifth key. It is one octave higher than that of a tuba.
“There were several real musicians there, some were symphony musicians, but
most of us were not professionals,” Gillmor says. “Most of us were aspiring
artists. It was a very geeky group.”
The uncomplicated melody of “Composition No. 19,” included fluttering notes,
growls, 10-second solos, whispery sounds and several “blab, blab, blab,”
sounds, Gilmore explains.
In addition to Braxton’s tuba band, performers included Julia Wolfe's piece
for six pianos; Yat Kha, a Tuvan-throat-singing Siberian punk band; Amiina,
the all-female Icelandic ambient quartet; Bang on a Can drummer David Cossin
with Wilco drummer Glenn Kotche; Björk collaborators Matmos with So
Percussion; Evan Ziporyn's Gamelan Galak Tika; cellist Maya Beiser; the
group Alarm Will Sound; and Aphex Twin, among others.
The show finished inside the Winter Garden. Braxton’s group, which is made
up of tuba and low brass players from New Jersey, Connecticut and New York,
had only two rehearsals prior to the performance, one the day before, and
then again on the day of.
“We sounded pretty good and the audience seemed to really like us,” Gillmor
says. |
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| By Olivia Bartlett, Wesleyan
Connection editor. Photos by Stewart Gillmor III. |
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