From the Oct 28 – Nov 3, 2004 issue

Music

CLASSICAL, JAZZ, & AVANT

JOE HILL: 16 ACTIONS

by Christopher DeLaurenti

Viewed broadly, all music arises from political circumstances of class, race, geography, technology, and economics. Yet overtly political pieces such as Penderecki's Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima, John Lennon's "Imagine," Charles Mingus' Free Cell Block F, 'Tis Nazi USA remain the exception, not the rule, which is why I'm intrigued by Joe Hill: 16 Actions for Chamber Orchestra, Voice, and Soloist.

Created by composer Wayne Horvitz (Pigpen, Zony Mash) in collaboration with writer Paul Magid and guitarist Bill Frisell, these "16 Actions" probe the life and times of Joe Hill (1879-1915), the famed songwriter and union activist with the Industrial Workers of the World ("the Wobblies").

Based on church hymns and popular tunes of the day, Joe Hill's still-subversive songs such as "There Is Power in a Union," "The White Slave," and "Workers of the World Awaken" protest harsh working conditions, corporate greed, and government oppression.

In his short essay, "Joe Hill Notes from the Composer," Horvitz writes, "I am not attempting to create a piece about ideology, politics, or labor history. Rather I see Joe Hill as a quintessential American hero. Fanatic, idealist, immigrant, disenfranchised, tough guy, self-promoter, populist and in the end a martyr."

It doesn't matter if Horvitz' Joe Hill culls Joe Hill from his radical ideological context or celebrates it. Now that composers can use the pertinent sonic materials of social change--raw recordings of protests, battlefield audio, personal testimonies, and other aural documents--why transpose and transduce rebellious yet bygone political action into the concert hall when current battles can be catapulted directly from the streets? Last week's martyrs, protests, and testimonies await the artist who hopes to better the world. CHRISTOPHER DeLAURENTI

The Earshot Jazz festival presents Joe Hill Sat Oct 30 (Meany Theater, UW Campus, 543-4880), 8 pm, $25/$28.

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