Great Noise Ensemble brings Stillness to the National Gallery of Art during the busy holiday season

Dec. 6, 2012 - PRLog -- On December 9th at 6:30PM, Great Noise Ensemble (GNE) returns to the National Gallery of Art with Stillness, a program influenced by the quest for quiet meditation that prevails in Eastern Orthodox religious tradition. GNE also gives the world premiere of Armando Bayolo's Hesychasmos, a piece that was commissioned by the music department of the National Gallery of Art, Stephen Ackert, director, for Great Noise Ensemble, in celebration of the 35th anniversary of the opening of the Gallery's East Building.

Eastern Mysticism in Arvo Pärt’s Fratres
Almost unbearably beautiful and sublimely still, Pärt's Fratres ("Brothers") is a classic work of late 20th century minimalism influenced by Eastern mysticism. The work exists in myriad versions for any number of performing forces, from violin and piano to the version heard tonight for wind octet and percussion.

Bayolo's secular meditation
Armando Bayolo’s Hesychasmos is, perhaps, a more secular meditation on the desire for stillness as a refreshing, revitalizing practice in human experience. Stillness, here, is achieved through slow motion harmonic movement and a sheer sensual enjoyment of pure sound, particularly the resonance of the National Gallery’s very reverberant space.

Contradiction and Irony in Gorecki's Requiem
Henryk Gorecki’s Kleines Requiem für eine Polka is a piece of inherent contradictions and ironies, with outer movements that channel the stillness of this program’s title broken by two raucous inner movements.

Great Noise Ensemble performs Stillness in the East Gallery of the National Gallery of Art at 6:30pm on Sunday, December 9, 2012. The performance is free. Please visit the National Gallery of Art's website for more information:
http://www.nga.gov/programs/music/index.shtm#dec092012