After the Premiere

This post was written by Ian Antonio, a percussionist and founding member of Yarn/Wire, recipients of a 2017 Paul R. Judy Center Grant.

On December 2nd of last year, Yarn/Wire, with the support of the Paul R. Judy Center Grant from the Eastman School of Music, presented the sixth installment of our ongoing ‘Currents’ series. We had worked closely with composers Klaus Lang and Michelle Lou to develop and rehearse two new large works, and the world premieres event was here. A world premiere is an exciting event; a brand new work that has lived only in a composer’s head and performer’s hands is about to be shared with the world for the first time. Not to discount this dramatic unveiling, but it is easy to coordinate an exciting promotional campaign around a premiere, breathlessly invite friends (“You’ve got to hear this!), get wrapped up in the newness of the production, and then immediately forget about it the following morning as preparations for the next premiere begin.

Yarn/Wire tries hard not to do this, and while there are certainly pieces that we have never played again (a site-specific piece, a piece with very specific and difficult-to-arrange logistical needs, a piece that we collectively agree does not resonate with us, and a variety of other reasons), the second performance presents great advantages to both performer and audience. The first, and perhaps most apparent, is that when returning to a piece we don’t need to figure out how to put it together. We are immediately able to work on next-level details often based on a recording of the premiere. If our initial performance didn’t reveal the piece’s structure, we can work to clarify it though changes in dynamic, tempo, and articulation. Composers have critical distance as well, and it is not uncommon for changes to be made, sometimes even as dramatic as re-ordering sections, wholesale dynamic changes, or cuts and additions to the original score. In all honesty, sometimes things just get messed up in a premiere. The piece has never been truly performance tested and the unexpected speed-bump is not out of the question.