Mode Records Releases Chaya Czernowin's Maim

Chaya Czernowin's Maim [water] is now available on a new Mode Records CD. Written for orchestra, a quintet of soloists including prominent tubax, and electronics, the title piece is performed by Konzerthausorchester Berlin under the direction of Johannes Kalitzke with live electronics by ExperimentalStudio des SWR. Composed between 2001-2006, the work comprises three sizable movements, Maim zarim maim Gnuvim (strange water stolen water), The memory of water, and Mei mecha'a (water of dissent) that explore the constant mutations of the element of water: Musicologist Martin Iddon explains:

The listener might… expect the almost literal representation of water... Yet even the most cursory hearing of Maim makes clear that the metaphor of water that pervades the piece is just that: water can hardly stand as a metaphor for itself here…though Czernowin is clear that such physical gestures are 'demonstrating clear natural laws,' such as that of gravity, the material which is subject to these laws, this stolen, dissenting water, is hardly a natural element, certainly not one which is recognizable.

Czernowin explains how her composing of this piece was affected by the events of September 11, 2001:

The engagement of studying the beauty and fluidity of water was abruptly interrupted and influenced by these events, turning the flexible and fleeting particles to a wall of one dimensional and fixated gesture, perhaps a slowed down drum hit in a mutated march...The piece became a stage for the dialogue which emerges between the necessity to turn the eyes inside and shut the world out and the necessity of being aware and reacting to the troubled reality.

Czernowin, a professor at Harvard University since 2009, has three other projects available on Mode Records: two CDs Afatsim: Chamber Music (1999), Shu Hai Practices Javelin (2002) and a DVD of her chamber opera Pnima…ins Innere (2006) featuring soloists Rico Gubler, Johnmark Harris, Seth Josel, Mary Oliver, and Peter Veale. The opera will have a new production in Stuttgart beginning in July, 2010 conducted by Johannes Kalitzke.

Chaya Czernowin-Composer Profile.

Chaya Czernowin
Maim (2001-2006)
for large orchestra, a quintet of soloists (with tubax as pre-recorded main soloist) and electronics

Solo Quintet: Tubax(ctrb. sax in Eb/sopranino sax. in Eb)-sopranino ob(musette-ob in Eb/ob., ob. d'am. and e. hrn)elec gtr(6 strings with scordatura)-cemb.(two manuals, one manual tuned a quarter-tone higher than the other/pno)va

orchestra: 4(3.4.pic.)4(3.4.ca)4(4bcl)2asax-4(3ctrbs.)-4.4.4.2-3perc-sampler-str
47'