By Annette Hinkle
Most musicians spend their careers trying to avoid wrong notes, but not George Cork Maul. That’s because for Maul, a composer and pianist, it’s the wrong notes, not the right ones, that are the key to unlocking new musical doors.
“One of the purposes of art and music is to experiment,” says Maul. “If you're improvising, you’re open to inspiration and something special happening. When you’re playing and you hit the wrong note, it’s really an opportunity for something else to happen.”
“Coltrane said ‘There are no wrong notes — only happy accidents.’ That’s one way I look at it,” he adds. “When you’re trying to make music you come across that thing that just happens. It’s something wonderful.”
Maul is a member of the Long Island Composers Alliance (LICA) and this Saturday, he and five fellow composers — Jane Leslie, Joel Mandelbaum, Alexander Nohai-Seaman, Michael Poast and Marga Richter — will present a concert of their work in “When Improvisation Comes into Play” at the Parrish Art Museum. Hidden City, an ensemble with an ever changing roster of musicians (including Maul) will not only take part in performing the pieces, but will improvise on them as well. And as far as this group of composers is concerned, that’s okay.
“It’s a lot about listening to each other and feeling comfortable with who you're playing with,” explains Maul. “But the show won’t be all improv — there will also be written pieces. Different composers use different approaches as to how they use improv.”
For Maul, the improvisation that comes about during rehearsals with fellow musicians is key to the evolution of his compositions. And while the idea of “rehearsed improvisation” may sound like an oxymoron, for Maul these sessions build on the music and take it to a new place.
“There are certain themes that come back,” he notes. “My piece ‘Movement Quartet’ started out as a Hidden City improv and is now one of the places we go to when we improvise. It kind of has an arc. It starts out as something new, then it’s developed, then there’s a time to say I’ve done all I can and go on to something different. Then I might come back to it in six months or a year.”
For this concert, different musicians will perform the compositions, depending on the instruments called for. Some are solo pieces, others might just include two of the players, and some composers might play as well. No one knows for sure what will happen, because, as should be expected from an evening of musical improv, the evening isn’t fully planned out.
“They don’t really know each other,” says Maul of the composers and the musicians. “The musicians get one rehearsal with the composer, then they go home and rehearse by themselves. They’re on stage together an hour before the show.”
While most people would not consider music a visual medium, there will be at least one composition presented on Saturday that certainly ventures toward that realm — Michael Poast’s “Six Dimensional Color Music” which is a unique marriage of composition and improvisation. Color is the operative word in Poast’s composition — his score is literally a painted sheet of music and it’s up to the musician to interpret it.
“He has a list of instructions for the performer,” explains Maul. “Black is a low note, yellow is a high note. If it’s very thick color, play loud, and a see through color is a quiet note.”
Another unique composition being offered Saturday will be Joel Mandelbaum’s “Improvisation with Motives from the Audience.” The audience is, in fact, key in Mandelbaum’s piece and he will call on them to offer a series of notes which he will write on index cards.
“The audience will give him a few notes, a germ of an idea,” explains Maul. “He’ll play them all individually and then weave them all together in the piece.”
As an organization, LICA has been around since 1972 (co-founder Marga Richter’s “Soliloquy” will be performed Saturday), and Maul, who has been with the group for eight years, has found a wide reaching network of fellow music lovers from all over Long Island. Looking to foster that interest in music, he’s currently trying to organize an event at the East End Arts Council in Riverhead where composers and music aficionados can gather to meet one another, discuss their work and engage in forums. He also hopes to offer more concerts like the one coming up at the Parrish.
“I’ve been trying to get composers and musicians together more often to do improvising,” he explains. “I’ve been doing it a long time. I think it’s good for your mind to go off by the seat of your pants to do anything you want. Any time you have a conversation with someone its like an improv, you never know which way its going to go.”
“When Improvisation Comes into Play” is Saturday, October 16, 8 p.m., at the Parrish Art Museum, 25 Job’s Lane, Southampton. The compositions will be performed by Steve Watson (bass), Terry Keevil (oboe), Richard Vaudrey (cello), Marga Richter (piano), Joel Mandelbaum (piano), Jane Leslie (piano), and George Cork Maul (piano). The composers will be present to discuss their creative processes and how they use improvisation in music composition, and the performers will talk about the implicit rules that are used in group improvisation and the nature of collaboration. Tickets are $12 ($10 for Parrish members) and may be purchased online at parrishart.org, by calling 283-2118, ext. 22.
Top: Steve Watson, Richard Vaudrey, George Cork Maul and Terry Keevil.
