Anthony Cheung - Double Allegories

Performance notes:

Anthony Cheung's piece Double Allegories premiered with the Grossman Ensemble on December 6, 2019.

The various allegories depicted here — senses, elements, seasons, affects, etc. — are common themes throughout the history of art. Some of my own favorite visual representations of the senses hovered in the background, such as the enigmatic “Lady and the Unicorn” tapestries from Flanders (c. 1500) and Jan Brueghel’s and Rubens’ The Five Senses, especially in their ability to convey cross-sensory experience and transference in spite of two-dimensional visual surfaces. Thinking about the stimulation of the tactile in sound, the first section of the piece (“…of touch/heat”) opens with a sensation of touch traded off between unrelated instruments, each action resulting in something malleable and elastic. In our own touchsensitive age of haptics, the screens and sensors we interact with are similarly reactive and adaptable, despite their hard or invisible surfaces. I wanted to play with this sensation of action/reaction, plasticity and tactility in the materials, bouncing off and between the instruments. I imagined heat and sparks being set off by these interactions, raising the temperature on the overall activity. “…of solitude/winter” turns more towards existing tropes, with western music history being replete with sonic signifiers and allegories of both themes. Passing historical references — some familiar and others transformed — dot a frigid and desolate landscape around a minor/ modal key center (D) that has overwhelmingly connoted such depictions. An inner storm turns outwards and turbulent, and the final section (“…of breath/air”) begins in its aftermath. The ensemble breathes each successive phrase of the final section as a single, hushed gesture, chosen in the moment by the conductor, while a sax/harp duo breathes as one continuous current underneath. Double Allegories is dedicated to Joseph Koerner and the musicians of the Grossman Ensemble.