Tierkreis by Bruce Friedman, Jim McAuley, Jeff Schwartz

In 1974, avant-garde composer Karlheinz Stockhausen wrote a series of short melodies based on the signs of the zodiac (“Tierkreis” is German for zodiac). They were originally intended for a set of custom music boxes, so he was limited by the capacity and range of their mechanisms. However, between then and his death in 2007, he created versions of these melodies for performance by instrumentation ranging from solo voice to symphony orchestra and incorporated them into large-scale works including Sirius and the Licht opera series. He also published instructions for performers to create their own versions, and many have done so.

Los Angeles trumpeter Bruce Friedman attended the 2008 Stockhausen Course in Kürten, then organized a tribute concert that fall at Harbor College on a series curated by Grandmothers of Invention drummer Chris Garcia. Among the pieces he prepared was a version of “Tierkreis” with guitarist Jim McAuley. Friedman invited Jeff Schwartz, who he knew as a bassist, to join them. After studying the score and instructions, Schwartz created a realization for trumpet and two guitars, playing the second guitar part himself to help cover the exact notes from Stockhausen’s original, because the harmonies were impossible on a single guitar and, since they had been written for music boxes, there was nothing in the bass register.

Although all three musicians were experienced in jazz and free improvisation, and Stockhausen’s instructions permit improvisation, they chose to stay with his written parts, focusing on the rare and beautiful sound of post-tonal music played on steel string guitars. Following the tribute concert, they recorded this music in Architecture Studio, the home base of Kronos Quartet sound engineer Scott Fraser, himself a brilliant electric guitarist who performs improvised ambient music with Friedman.

brucefriedmanmusic.com

jeffschwartzmusic.wordpress.com

http://www.paristransatlantic.com/magazine/interviews/mcauley.html