In this new concert project, eighth blackbird curates a program of music from the shadow side of life. Three pieces written for the ensemble are featured, all of which were developed in part during eighth blackbird’s residency at the MCA. In Ghostlight, David T. Little captures ancient ceremonies with half-heard voices and ominous rumblings that give way to beauty and repose. Bryce Dessner’s Murder Ballades—recorded on eighth blackbird’s 2016 Grammy Award–winning album Filament and expanded in a new version here—recounts grisly American tales of revenge and betrayal through simple, upbeat melodies. The evening is rounded out by very special guest performer, Will Oldham AKA Bonnie “Prince” Billy, who joins the ensemble for Frederic Rzewski’s Coming Together, inspired by a letter written by Sam Melville—convicted for bombing eight New York City buildings in 1969—months before the Attica prison riot that marked his death. eighth blackbird joins Bonnie “Prince” Billy in several of his songs that he selected for the program.

CONCERT PROGRAM 

Bryce Dessner: Murder Ballades

David T. Little: Ghostlight

-intermission-

Frederick Rzewski: Coming Together (with Will Oldham)

Will Oldham songs (with eighth blackbird)

eighth blackbird residency at the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art.

Ever since the pioneering 1969 exhibition Art by Telephone, the MCA has collaborated with artists in exciting ways. As the museum develops a vision for its future, it is becoming more audience-engaged as well as artist-driven.

This vision led the MCA to establish a unique artist’s residency. After studying residency models at arts organizations around the world, museum staff decided to distinguish the MCA’s residency as a museum-wide program with audience engagement at its heart.

While traditional residencies focus on production or research, the MCA’s forges relationships between top contemporary artists and the diverse public served by the museum. Resident artists including Mark Bradford, Martin Creed, and Goshka Macuga bring different ideas to the MCA each year, becoming catalysts for community engagement projects and timely discussions that reach communities all over the city.

This rehearsal will be open to the public.

In the legendary Irish tale Táin Bó Cúailnge, foster-brothers and beloved friends Ferdia and Cuchulainn are coerced by the manipulative Queen Medhbh to battle one another to the death. After a three-day battle that neither wants to win, Cuchulainn slays Ferdia and lets loose the most powerful, guttural cry imaginable, the cry known as olagón. Using the rich and conflicted notion of olagón as a starting point, composer/fiddler/electronic-musician Dan Trueman, sean nós singer Iarla O Lionáird, and poet Paul Muldoon are collaboratively creating a new evening-length work with chamber ensemble eighth blackbird. NOW QUEEN MEDHBH HAD BROUGHT ME IN AR SCATH A CHEILE A MHAIREAS NA DAOINE AND MADE ME TEA OUT OF HER WEE TIN These, the opening lines from the text Muldoon is creating for this project, give a sense of the rich possibilities presented by the interwoven languages. The second line translates literally as “we live in each other’s shadows,” but also has the broader meaning that we all depend on one another in various ways. The actual sound of these words is at once lyrical and rhythmic, full of musical and vocal possibility. Surrounding this line are two that invoke the Táin, but also reference a nursery song from Northern Ireland. In the sentences that follow, we discover Medhbh drinking martinis, suffering drug addictions, and ultimately collapsing in the parking lot, marked off by traffic cones. The sobbing cry ochon agus ochon o comes and goes throughout. This is an edgy, intense, trans-historical text, at once evocative of ancient myths and also the contemporary struggles of the post-Celtic-Tiger Ireland. We will weave excerpts from some ancient Irish love poems into this text, in part to provide reflective relief from Muldoon’s intense text, and also to bring more Irish language into the piece and the other worlds it conjures. This hour-long concert work will be wide ranging in tone and affect, at times drawing on elements of the traditional music of Ireland, Norway, and America, and other times engaging the raw urgency and sonorities of contemporary classical music, while avoiding nothing, including colors and grooves of popular music. The stage (which will be more of a concert stage than a theatrical stage) will center on the acoustic instruments of eighth blackbird’s six virtuosi, Trueman’s 5-string Hardanger d’Amore, and Ó Lionáird’s incomparable voice, while extending this world with pre-recorded voices of Ó Lionáird’s brothers and other sean nós singers, and also electronic instruments that extend the piano, the harmonium (which Ó Lionáird will play), the fiddle and the voice. This will be a rich world, both sonically and visually, one that will range from near silence, through near silent keening and impassioned song, to explosive rhythmic walls of sound. A presenter will be expected to provide back-line (the work will be amplified) and technical support for the eight instrumentalists, publicity, and a full day rehearsal/sound-check time in the space. A hall seating 200–800 with ample stage space is ideal. The Fall 2017 premiere will coincide with a CD release of Olagón.

This rehearsal will be open to the public and will take place in the gallery. 

In the legendary Irish tale Táin Bó Cúailnge, foster-brothers and beloved friends Ferdia and Cuchulainn are coerced by the manipulative Queen Medhbh to battle one another to the death. After a three-day battle that neither wants to win, Cuchulainn slays Ferdia and lets loose the most powerful, guttural cry imaginable, the cry known as olagón. Using the rich and conflicted notion of olagón as a starting point, composer/fiddler/electronic-musician Dan Trueman, sean nós singer Iarla O Lionáird, and poet Paul Muldoon are collaboratively creating a new evening-length work with chamber ensemble eighth blackbird. NOW QUEEN MEDHBH HAD BROUGHT ME IN AR SCATH A CHEILE A MHAIREAS NA DAOINE AND MADE ME TEA OUT OF HER WEE TIN These, the opening lines from the text Muldoon is creating for this project, give a sense of the rich possibilities presented by the interwoven languages. The second line translates literally as “we live in each other’s shadows,” but also has the broader meaning that we all depend on one another in various ways. The actual sound of these words is at once lyrical and rhythmic, full of musical and vocal possibility. Surrounding this line are two that invoke the Táin, but also reference a nursery song from Northern Ireland. In the sentences that follow, we discover Medhbh drinking martinis, suffering drug addictions, and ultimately collapsing in the parking lot, marked off by traffic cones. The sobbing cry ochon agus ochon o comes and goes throughout. This is an edgy, intense, trans-historical text, at once evocative of ancient myths and also the contemporary struggles of the post-Celtic-Tiger Ireland. We will weave excerpts from some ancient Irish love poems into this text, in part to provide reflective relief from Muldoon’s intense text, and also to bring more Irish language into the piece and the other worlds it conjures. This hour-long concert work will be wide ranging in tone and affect, at times drawing on elements of the traditional music of Ireland, Norway, and America, and other times engaging the raw urgency and sonorities of contemporary classical music, while avoiding nothing, including colors and grooves of popular music. The stage (which will be more of a concert stage than a theatrical stage) will center on the acoustic instruments of eighth blackbird’s six virtuosi, Trueman’s 5-string Hardanger d’Amore, and Ó Lionáird’s incomparable voice, while extending this world with pre-recorded voices of Ó Lionáird’s brothers and other sean nós singers, and also electronic instruments that extend the piano, the harmonium (which Ó Lionáird will play), the fiddle and the voice. This will be a rich world, both sonically and visually, one that will range from near silence, through near silent keening and impassioned song, to explosive rhythmic walls of sound. A presenter will be expected to provide back-line (the work will be amplified) and technical support for the eight instrumentalists, publicity, and a full day rehearsal/sound-check time in the space. A hall seating 200–800 with ample stage space is ideal. The Fall 2017 premiere will coincide with a CD release of Olagón.

This rehearsal will be open to the public and will take place in the gallery. 

In the legendary Irish tale Táin Bó Cúailnge, foster-brothers and beloved friends Ferdia and Cuchulainn are coerced by the manipulative Queen Medhbh to battle one another to the death. After a three-day battle that neither wants to win, Cuchulainn slays Ferdia and lets loose the most powerful, guttural cry imaginable, the cry known as olagón. Using the rich and conflicted notion of olagón as a starting point, composer/fiddler/electronic-musician Dan Trueman, sean nós singer Iarla O Lionáird, and poet Paul Muldoon are collaboratively creating a new evening-length work with chamber ensemble eighth blackbird. NOW QUEEN MEDHBH HAD BROUGHT ME IN AR SCATH A CHEILE A MHAIREAS NA DAOINE AND MADE ME TEA OUT OF HER WEE TIN These, the opening lines from the text Muldoon is creating for this project, give a sense of the rich possibilities presented by the interwoven languages. The second line translates literally as “we live in each other’s shadows,” but also has the broader meaning that we all depend on one another in various ways. The actual sound of these words is at once lyrical and rhythmic, full of musical and vocal possibility. Surrounding this line are two that invoke the Táin, but also reference a nursery song from Northern Ireland. In the sentences that follow, we discover Medhbh drinking martinis, suffering drug addictions, and ultimately collapsing in the parking lot, marked off by traffic cones. The sobbing cry ochon agus ochon o comes and goes throughout. This is an edgy, intense, trans-historical text, at once evocative of ancient myths and also the contemporary struggles of the post-Celtic-Tiger Ireland. We will weave excerpts from some ancient Irish love poems into this text, in part to provide reflective relief from Muldoon’s intense text, and also to bring more Irish language into the piece and the other worlds it conjures. This hour-long concert work will be wide ranging in tone and affect, at times drawing on elements of the traditional music of Ireland, Norway, and America, and other times engaging the raw urgency and sonorities of contemporary classical music, while avoiding nothing, including colors and grooves of popular music. The stage (which will be more of a concert stage than a theatrical stage) will center on the acoustic instruments of eighth blackbird’s six virtuosi, Trueman’s 5-string Hardanger d’Amore, and Ó Lionáird’s incomparable voice, while extending this world with pre-recorded voices of Ó Lionáird’s brothers and other sean nós singers, and also electronic instruments that extend the piano, the harmonium (which Ó Lionáird will play), the fiddle and the voice. This will be a rich world, both sonically and visually, one that will range from near silence, through near silent keening and impassioned song, to explosive rhythmic walls of sound. A presenter will be expected to provide back-line (the work will be amplified) and technical support for the eight instrumentalists, publicity, and a full day rehearsal/sound-check time in the space. A hall seating 200–800 with ample stage space is ideal. The Fall 2017 premiere will coincide with a CD release of Olagón.

This rehearsal will be open to the public and will take place in the gallery. 

In the legendary Irish tale Táin Bó Cúailnge, foster-brothers and beloved friends Ferdia and Cuchulainn are coerced by the manipulative Queen Medhbh to battle one another to the death. After a three-day battle that neither wants to win, Cuchulainn slays Ferdia and lets loose the most powerful, guttural cry imaginable, the cry known as olagón. Using the rich and conflicted notion of olagón as a starting point, composer/fiddler/electronic-musician Dan Trueman, sean nós singer Iarla O Lionáird, and poet Paul Muldoon are collaboratively creating a new evening-length work with chamber ensemble eighth blackbird. NOW QUEEN MEDHBH HAD BROUGHT ME IN AR SCATH A CHEILE A MHAIREAS NA DAOINE AND MADE ME TEA OUT OF HER WEE TIN These, the opening lines from the text Muldoon is creating for this project, give a sense of the rich possibilities presented by the interwoven languages. The second line translates literally as “we live in each other’s shadows,” but also has the broader meaning that we all depend on one another in various ways. The actual sound of these words is at once lyrical and rhythmic, full of musical and vocal possibility. Surrounding this line are two that invoke the Táin, but also reference a nursery song from Northern Ireland. In the sentences that follow, we discover Medhbh drinking martinis, suffering drug addictions, and ultimately collapsing in the parking lot, marked off by traffic cones. The sobbing cry ochon agus ochon o comes and goes throughout. This is an edgy, intense, trans-historical text, at once evocative of ancient myths and also the contemporary struggles of the post-Celtic-Tiger Ireland. We will weave excerpts from some ancient Irish love poems into this text, in part to provide reflective relief from Muldoon’s intense text, and also to bring more Irish language into the piece and the other worlds it conjures. This hour-long concert work will be wide ranging in tone and affect, at times drawing on elements of the traditional music of Ireland, Norway, and America, and other times engaging the raw urgency and sonorities of contemporary classical music, while avoiding nothing, including colors and grooves of popular music. The stage (which will be more of a concert stage than a theatrical stage) will center on the acoustic instruments of eighth blackbird’s six virtuosi, Trueman’s 5-string Hardanger d’Amore, and Ó Lionáird’s incomparable voice, while extending this world with pre-recorded voices of Ó Lionáird’s brothers and other sean nós singers, and also electronic instruments that extend the piano, the harmonium (which Ó Lionáird will play), the fiddle and the voice. This will be a rich world, both sonically and visually, one that will range from near silence, through near silent keening and impassioned song, to explosive rhythmic walls of sound. A presenter will be expected to provide back-line (the work will be amplified) and technical support for the eight instrumentalists, publicity, and a full day rehearsal/sound-check time in the space. A hall seating 200–800 with ample stage space is ideal. The Fall 2017 premiere will coincide with a CD release of Olagón.

This rehearsal will be open to the public and will take place in the gallery. 

In the legendary Irish tale Táin Bó Cúailnge, foster-brothers and beloved friends Ferdia and Cuchulainn are coerced by the manipulative Queen Medhbh to battle one another to the death. After a three-day battle that neither wants to win, Cuchulainn slays Ferdia and lets loose the most powerful, guttural cry imaginable, the cry known as olagón. Using the rich and conflicted notion of olagón as a starting point, composer/fiddler/electronic-musician Dan Trueman, sean nós singer Iarla O Lionáird, and poet Paul Muldoon are collaboratively creating a new evening-length work with chamber ensemble eighth blackbird. NOW QUEEN MEDHBH HAD BROUGHT ME IN AR SCATH A CHEILE A MHAIREAS NA DAOINE AND MADE ME TEA OUT OF HER WEE TIN These, the opening lines from the text Muldoon is creating for this project, give a sense of the rich possibilities presented by the interwoven languages. The second line translates literally as “we live in each other’s shadows,” but also has the broader meaning that we all depend on one another in various ways. The actual sound of these words is at once lyrical and rhythmic, full of musical and vocal possibility. Surrounding this line are two that invoke the Táin, but also reference a nursery song from Northern Ireland. In the sentences that follow, we discover Medhbh drinking martinis, suffering drug addictions, and ultimately collapsing in the parking lot, marked off by traffic cones. The sobbing cry ochon agus ochon o comes and goes throughout. This is an edgy, intense, trans-historical text, at once evocative of ancient myths and also the contemporary struggles of the post-Celtic-Tiger Ireland. We will weave excerpts from some ancient Irish love poems into this text, in part to provide reflective relief from Muldoon’s intense text, and also to bring more Irish language into the piece and the other worlds it conjures. This hour-long concert work will be wide ranging in tone and affect, at times drawing on elements of the traditional music of Ireland, Norway, and America, and other times engaging the raw urgency and sonorities of contemporary classical music, while avoiding nothing, including colors and grooves of popular music. The stage (which will be more of a concert stage than a theatrical stage) will center on the acoustic instruments of eighth blackbird’s six virtuosi, Trueman’s 5-string Hardanger d’Amore, and Ó Lionáird’s incomparable voice, while extending this world with pre-recorded voices of Ó Lionáird’s brothers and other sean nós singers, and also electronic instruments that extend the piano, the harmonium (which Ó Lionáird will play), the fiddle and the voice. This will be a rich world, both sonically and visually, one that will range from near silence, through near silent keening and impassioned song, to explosive rhythmic walls of sound. A presenter will be expected to provide back-line (the work will be amplified) and technical support for the eight instrumentalists, publicity, and a full day rehearsal/sound-check time in the space. A hall seating 200–800 with ample stage space is ideal. The Fall 2017 premiere will coincide with a CD release of Olagón.

This rehearsal will be open to the public and will take place in the gallery. 

Through the generous support of the Daniel J. Epstein Foundation, a partnership between Eighth Blackbird and the Chicago Arts Academy has been developed over the last two years. This past fall, Eighth Blackbird graciously invited Academy students to participate in their residency at the Museum of Contemporary Art. Collaborations between staff from all three organizations and Academy students resulted in the Family Day programming that exists in conjunction with Kerry James Marshall’s Retrospective. 

“The students were thrilled about the opportunity. We dropped them right into the middle of the project and they developed new, creative pieces of music, both analysis and responses to Kerry James Marshall’s work, all within a couple of months. It was impressive to witness the quality of work they did on a professional deadline,” said Chicago Academy for the Arts Music Teacher Jesse Langen. Students in The Academy’s New Music Ensemble led the project, creating original compositions inspired by both the work and instrumentation of Eighth Blackbird, and the visual art of Kerry James Marshall. Four groups comprised of Academy students and members of Eighth Blackbird will occupy corners of the main room of the Museum of Contemporary Art, surrounded by the work of the featured artist.