The annual You Are Hear festival at San Francisco International Airport presented us with an opportunity to play this out. Today members of San Francisco’s Magik*Magik Orchestra performed beautiful quartets by Alexis Alrich, Dan Becker, Belinda Reynolds and Clark Suprynowicz and myself in a little enclave overlooking the security line in Terminal One.  Right between some busy escalators and a busy elevator.

You would think that as a composer I would find this setting intolerable for a performance of my music, but I loved it.   I loved the informality of it, and I loved the look on the face of the harried-looking woman clutching her People Magazine while she figured out what was going on after getting off the elevator.  I even loved the security announcements that repeatedly upstaged my very nuanced and contemplative piece.

The ambient noise and the bell on the elevator and the calls for Kim Anderson to pick up the white courtesy phone all became part of the music.  And, there was the added element of theater as I watched passers-by react in different ways to the incongruity of a string quartet playing next to the escalator leading to TGI Friday’s.  Most people were in a hurry and didn’t react at all.  Many paused and smiled briefly, and some stopped, transfixed, and sat on the floor.

I wonder how many of these folks would ever take time out of their life and buy tickets for a chamber music concert.

Here is part of my string quartet City Walks as performed by members of the Magik*Magik Orchestra today at San Francisco International Airport’s You Are Hear festival.

I began composing City Walks at the end of 2008 after finding a few pages of music for string quartet deep in the caverns of my computer’s file system.  I had absolutely no recollection of composing this, and if it weren’t for the date stamp on the computer file, I would have no idea when it was from.  (It was 2004.)  I was also so surprised by how well written it was that I doubted at first that it was my own work!  So using this music, which ultimately became the second theme, marked “Andante Affabile” in the score, I set out to come up with a set of ideas that would contrast and complement this.

At a certain point in the composing process, it began to occur to me that, although this is a one-movement piece, it keeps moving and picking up new material as if it were in several movements, yet it still carries elements of what’s been heard earlier as it progresses.  A contemplative, almost cantorial cello solo at the beginning gives way to a lyrical, sauntering theme.  A tender little melody crosses the threshold into melodrama.  A macabre dance unfolds into a facetious extended coda.

The title “City Walks” came about because the form of the piece started to remind me of a linear walk through some city, where the environment changes as you move through various neighborhoods, yet you somehow know you’re still in the same place. The street signs are all brown, say, and there’s a lovely Craftsman typeface on all the public buildings, yet each neighborhood has its own distinct feel.

The concert is on Saturday, May 9th at 8:00pm in the Dalby Room at the Crowden Music Center, 1475 Rose Street, Berkeley, Ca.

More details are posted on San Francisco Classical Voice.

Castaldo was an important figure in Philadelphia musical life in the ’60s and ’70s, having served as the head of the Philadelphia Musical Academy and guided that institution’s evolution into what is now the University of the Arts.  I am one of countless composers and musicians who studied with him over the years, most notably Stephen Albert, however his own music is not remembered or recognized as I think it ought to be.

As his student I had the opportunity to get to know several of his works.  At that time he was deeply preoccupied with octatonic scales (simply alternating whole steps and half steps), and had found many inventive ways of using them, ranging from aggressive, chaotic sounds to achingly lyrical melodies.  In lyrical passages, melodies seem to be through-composed and have an almost cantorial or improvised quality with impeccable timing.  Aggressive passages are often built on little three-note ostinati suggested by the octatonic scale.

My favorite work of his is String Quartet 1978, and I’m lucky to still have a recording of it.  At the risk of being accused of gimmickry, this score calls for the string players to double their parts with their own voices, at times screaming and shouting as well, resulting in a haunting and sometimes unsettling experience.  The final moments consist of an exciting extended coda that makes full used of the instruments’ capabilities.

Here are a few excerpts.  Unfortunately I have no idea what quartet is playing here, or when or where this concert took place.

String Quartet 1978
Joseph Castaldo

This is the opening of the piece, where the players shout, imitating the percussive parts they’re playing.

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A beautiful lyrical section

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Castaldo’s chaotic side

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Another lyrical section that further explores the idea of the players singing their parts.  Haunting stuff.

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This long excerpt is the coda described above.  It is thoroughly worth the three minutes or so!

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Joseph Castaldo passed away in 2000.   On what would be his 81st birthday, I hope that the work of this extraordinary 20th-Century composer will be discovered and revived soon.