Raging Against The Machine - Twitter Comments

Welcome to #ragingagainstthemachine presented @FoxCabaret by the incomparable @david_pay & @musiconmain.

Tonight's show features @Paramirabo & @Thinedge_music playing @SteveReich, Andriessen & new works. #ragingagainstthemachine #musiconmain
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Approaching 8pm & the Fox Cabaret is filling up. I'm hanging at the bar, hoping to be unobtrusive.

Just overheard @david_pay whispering to a new arrival: "It's going to be a killer show!" #ragingagainstthemachine
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My first time in the converted @FoxCabaret - long narrow room, bar on the right, lots of red & black. Instruments are set up in the middle.

Up before intermission new commission "Le sel de la Terre" by Patrick Giguere & classic "Double Sextet" by @SteveReich. #musiconmain

#ragingagainstthemachine is on the last night of its tour & @david_pay just promised not to make jokes about this porn theatre #coincidence?
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First piece by Quebec composer Giguere is inspired by those who are not in the mainstream of society. Here they go!

Starts with an outburst - violin. clarinet, flute... And the piano slowly joins & then I hear more instruments of the 12-member ensemble.

I notice a man with a flute standing near me...

Check the picture sent out by @musiconmain - the audience is onstage because not big enough for 12 musicians!

#newmusic with Thin Edge New Music Ensemble @foxcabaret with audience on stage. https://instagram.com/p/2H7dDCHAf5/ 
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The audience is very quiet... Listening with intent.

Aha! The first piece is @Thinedge_music only - now @Paramirabo joins them onstage (Jeffrey Stonehouse is the flautist I noticed earlier).
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They begin Double Sextet with a bang. The rhythm carries us along & I see audience members tapping fingers & toes!

Loving the percussion in this piece - such talented musicians in this room tonight!

The music I'm hearing won @SteveReich a  Pulitzer Prize in 2009. It is stunning & these musicians are sharing it with us tonight.

Scored for two sextets of flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano, vibraphone - can be played by 12 musicians (tonight) or six plus recording.

I close my eyes & can feel the pounding of the sound. I relax into it & it carries me on a river of rhythm where I am afloat & alive.

I don't want it to stop.

They stop. The applause is tremendous. INTERMISSION.
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Next up "Hum" by @Composerbrian (aka Brian Harman), "Fog" by Anna Hostman & "Workers Union" by Louis Andriessen. #ragingagainstthemachine
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"Hum" was written specifically for this show - all 12 musicians will be performing. Apparently it's quirky!

Very full house tonight, BTW.

Starting quietly, sounds emerge like crickets chirping & low whistling moans. Then it begins to build, piano flourishes & bows on strings.
I look around me - some people have closed their eyes & lean back... Others peer intently. The music suddenly speeds up?

The musical hum swells grows dips ebbs intensifies mellows pings climbs trills abandons recreates shrills shrills shrills!

RT @Murray_Nichol  ·  2h 2 hours ago
Loving Reich's music at @musiconmain #concert! How appropriate to have a SEXtet in former porn theatre!@FoxCabaret 
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Coming to an end, "Hum" is complete. Now we will hear "Fog" which rebels against the show's theme... Played by @Paramirabo.

"Fog" is slowly starting to draw pictures in my mind. Shadowy, unclear images - light & dark outlines only.

Long, slow, languorous sounds of strings interspersed with gentle piano chords, I see the audience drift into trance #rageagainstthemachine
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Pounding pouncing sounding starts up he Louis Andriessen "Workers Union" - oldest piece tonight written the year I was born.

Is this what work sounds like? Chasing turning twisting increasing repeating bonk bonk bonk? #rageagainstthemachine
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I watch all the musicians' heads bob up & down together - they are working hard! It gets louder & faster - oh so precise!

I see faint smiles in the audience - do we recognize this demanding rhythm of our daily lives?

Is it uncomfortable to hear this oh-so-fast composition played through louder louder loudest?

It is astonishing to see 12 musicians moving in time speeding up, then slowing down, now faster than ever before! #rageagainstthemachine

The tempo keeps switching - no one is toe-tapping now.

Speed keeps increasing - how can everyone keep up? Ends with a bang!

Well-deserved applause & cheers for @Paramirabo & @Thinedge_music - thanks again to @musiconmain & The Little Chamber Series That Could!
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