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Emergence Composer Fellowship 2020
The Monster by Jeremy Rapaport-Stein�
Dramaturgy by Brenda Huggins
About the Composer
Jeremy Rapaport-Stein is a Boston-based composer and educator whose work explores improvisation, vocality, euphoria, and radios. His music has been performed by several leading ensembles, including Yarn/Wire, PRISM Saxophone Quartet, ~Nois, Iktus Percussion, loadbang, Sound Icon, Guerilla Opera, Quatuor Bozzini, Lydian String Quartet, Ludovico Ensemble, Duo Cortona, and Sō Percussion. His upcoming projects include new pieces for Departure Duo and line upon line percussion. Jeremy holds a BA from Swarthmore College and is currently a PhD student in music theory and composition at Brandeis University, where he teaches courses in musicianship, sound studies, and writing. In addition to his musical interests, he is passionate about language education and specializes in working with young adult English language learners. For more information or to hear his music, visit jeremyrapaportstein.com.
Composer’s Note on The Monster
“I've been thinking a lot about affect extremes. This usually translated into dense and active or sparse and static textures, sometimes within the same piece. My interest comes from reflection and research about mental health and the ways in which similar physiological states can be felt as different moods - how anxious panic and wild euphoria have analogous physical manifestations, but radically opposite cognitive interpretations, for example. This writing at affect extremes stems not necessarily from a desire to analogize my experience in a directly corresponding, programmatic way, but rather a desire to create states of overwhelming energy or overwhelming lack of energy that lie on the boundaries of competing affects (euphoria/panic, peacefulness/anhedonia).”
Inspirations for The Monster
Jürg Frey was born in Aarau, Switzerland in 1953. As a composer, he developed his own language as a sound artist with the creation of wide, quiet sound spaces. His work is marked by an elementary non-extravagance of sound, a sensibility for the qualities of the material, and precision of compositional approach. According to Radu Malfatti, Austrian trombone and bass harmonica player, and composer, Frey’s music is about "the evaluation and integration of silence(s) rather than an ongoing carpet of never-ending sounds." His music offers an alternative relationship to time; these pieces become less about duration, but instead, occupying space.
Inspirations for The Monster
Agnes Martin (March 22, 1912 – December 16, 2004) was a Canadian-born American abstract painter. Her work has been defined as an "essay in discretion on inward-ness and silence.” Although she is often considered or referred to as a minimalist, she considered herself an abstract expressionist. Her paintings, statements, and influential writings often reflected an interest in Eastern philosophy, especially Taoist. Because of her work's added spiritual dimension, which became more and more dominant after 1967, she preferred to be classified as an abstract expressionist.
Photo by Alexandar Liberman, 1960
Composer’s Note on Monster continued…
“[The work of] Jurg Frey and Agnes Martin feel paradoxical in that they are so overwhelmingly extreme in their affect, but also that the affect is hard to pin down -- is it paralyzing melancholy? Meditative stillness? Nihilistic stoicism? Frey and Martin both would never put it in these terms, but it's been helpful for me in thinking about my own work, and about The Monster specifically. No piece has an inherently specific meaning or emotion that's permanently glued to it – but I find this emotional multiplicity most interesting in music that tends towards extremeness. This is partially where I found some inspiration in thinking about The Monster. The beginning and end lives in an extremely suspended state of time, while the middle gradually ramps up in energy, both dramatically and musically.”
Jürg Frey Listening Examples
Agnes Martin Documentary
The Monster Bestiary
Loch Ness Monster
In Scottish Folklore, the Loch Ness Monster or Nessie, said to live in Loch Ness of the highlands of Scotland, is often described as large in size with a long neck and one or more humps protruding from the water. Popular interest and belief in the creature have varied since it was brought to worldwide attention in 1933. Evidence of its existence is anecdotal, with a few disputed photographs and sonar readings.
Nessie of Scotland
The Monster Bestiary
Kelpie
Kelpie, or a Water Kelpie is a shape-shifting water spirit inhabiting the lochs and pools of Scotland. It is a Celtic legend; however, analogues exist in other cultures. It has usually been described as appearing as a black horse like creature, but is able to adopt human form.
Painting by Herbert James Draper, 1913
The Monster Bestiary
Siren
In Greek mythology, Sirens were dangerous creatures, who lured nearby sailors with their enchanting music and singing voices to shipwreck on the rocky coast of their island. Roman poets placed them on some small islands called Sirenum scopuli.
English Bestiary, thirteenth century - 1235.
The Monster Bestiary
Lagarfljót
Lagarfljótsormur or Lagarfljót worm is a lake monster purported to live in Lagarfljót, a lake by the town of Egilsstaðir. Sightings have been logged since 1345 and continue into the 21st century. An origin of the creature is given in Jón Árnason's collection of Icelandic folktales and legends published in 1862.
Painting by Herbert James Draper, 1913
The Monster Bestiary
Kraken
The kraken is the legendary cephalopod-like sea monster of gigantic size in Scandinavian folklore. According to the Norse sagas, the kraken dwells off the coasts of Norway and Greenland, and terrorizes nearby sailors.
Drawing by French Naturalist, Pierre Denys de Montfort, 1766–1820.
The Monster Bestiary
Champy
In American folklore, Champ or Champy is the name of a lake monster said to live in Lake Champlain, a 125-mile (201 km)-long body of fresh water shared by New York, Vermont, and Quebec, Canada. French cartographer Samuel de Champlain is claimed to be the first European to have sighted Champ in 1609.
The Monster Bestiary
Nyami Nyami
The Nyami Nyami, otherwise known as the Zambezi River God or Zambezi Snake spirit, is one of the most important gods of the Tonga people in Zimbabwe. Nyami Nyami is believed to protect the Tonga people and give them sustenance in difficult times. The River God is usually portrayed as male.
The Monster Bestiary
The Bunyip is a mythical creature from Australian Aboriginal mythology, said to lurk in swamps, creeks, riverbeds, and waterholes. The word “bunyip” is usually translated as “devil” or “evil spirit” in the modern world, but is also known as the “rainbow serpent.” There are many different descriptions of the creature, from snake-like to four legged beast.
It is of enormous size and said to reveal itself to people as a rainbow as it moves through water and rain, swallowing and sometimes drowning people; or rainmaking and healing powers; blighting others with sores, weakness, illness, and death.
Bunyip/ Rainbow Serpent
The Monster Bestiary
Phaya Naga
In East Asian folklore, the Phaya Naga is a serpent-like creature, believed to live in the Mekong River.
According to Thai folklore, the Phaya Naga are semi-divine, demi-creatures, which possess supernatural powers, as described in Buddhist and Hindu cosmology.
The Monster Bestiary
Lorisauro
In Italian folklore, Lariosauro is a giant lake monster with sharp teeth, said to live in Lake Como in Italy, about 30 miles north of Milan. Como is one of the deepest European lakes, at about 410 m (1200 feet) at the deepest location.
The Monster Bestiary
Rusalka
In Slavic folklore, the Rusalka is a female creature, often malicious toward mankind. It is accounted by most stories that the soul of a young woman who had died in or near a river or a lake would come back to haunt that waterway. This undead Rusalka is not invariably malevolent, and would be allowed to die in peace if her death is avenged. Her main purpose is, however, to lure young men, seduced by either her looks or her voice, into the depths of waterways where she would entangle their feet with her long red hair and drown them.
Painting by Ivan Kramskoi, 1871