No era is musically homogeneous. Varied styles and sounds overlap and intersect. Lingering remnants of the past bump into experimental forays into the future.
But few moments in modern musical history were more creatively fertile or chaotic than 1969 — the tumultuous year that provides the title for a theatrical music presentation developed by the new- music ensemble Alarm Will Sound.
Consider that, during that year, the Beatles released “Abbey Road” and some 500,000 people attended a festival now known simply as Woodstock. In classical music, 1969 saw the realization of Dmitri Shostakovich’s 14th Symphony, György Ligeti’s Chamber Concerto and Laurie Anderson’s symphony of car horns.
Alan Pierson, artistic director and conductor of Alarm Will Sound, considered all of this musical history when he began exploring the idea of a concert devoted to that year, but he became especially fascinated by a planned encounter between John Lennon and avant-garde composer Karl- heinz Stockhausen.
Stockhausen biographer Michael Kurtz relates that the two admirers of each other’s music scheduled a meeting in New York City for Feb. 9, 1969, but a blizzard kept it from ever happening.
That anecdote — since debunked — served as the starting point for “1969,” which will be performed Saturday evening at the Newman Center for the Performing Arts as part of the Newman Center Presents series.
The multidisciplinary work uses theater and projections to explore the diverse musical innovators of this time and the unexpected and sometimes unlikely ties among them.
“It definitely is not a straight-ahead concert,” said Pierson, who developed the work with Andrew Kupfer and Nigel Maister. “Of course, music is pivotal to the show, but everything in it is motivated by the story we’re telling about these characters and this period of history.”
The two-hour show, which was last performed in March in New York’s Zankel Hall, features three actors, who portray Lennon, Stockhausen and Italian composer Luciano Berio, and the 20 members of Alarm Will Sound.
Projected photographs and video clips of the spotlighted musicians along with images of other notable figures and events from the 1960s provide context and immerse audiences in the look and feel of this transformative time.
“We decided that all the texts would be first person — everything you’re hearing was said or written by one of the characters,” Pierson said.
“1969” was originally conceived as a more conventional concert, but Pierson said that he and his fellow collaborators quickly realized that the stylistic diversity of the music and the accompanying historical milieu lent themselves better to a multifaceted format.
“As we developed this,” he said, “we started looking at what the story of the show would be and how it would be shared, and it became clear that something more theatrical was needed.”
That said, music remains at the heart of “1969.” The program ranges from arrangements of the Beatles’ “Tomorrow Never Knows” and “Revolution 9” to excerpts from Leonard Bernstein’s stylistically divergent “Mass” to sections of Berio’s “Traces” and Stockhausen’s “Stimmung.”
Pierson expects the Denver audience for “1969” to be varied. “It’s the kind of piece, particularly because it’s so theatrical, that can communicate with and entertain and excite a really wide range of people.”
Kyle MacMillan: 303-954-1675 or kmacmillan@denverpost.com
“1969”
Theatrical Music Presentation. University of Denver, Newman Center for the Performing Arts, 2344 E. Iliff Ave. The New York new-music ensemble, Alarm Will Sound, will present “1969,” a multimedia theatrical presentation exploring that era’s intersecting avant-garde currents in classical and popular music. Featured will be music by Leonard Bernstein, Luciano Berio, Karlheinz Stockhausen and the Beatles. 7:30 p.m. Saturday. $32-$48. 800-982-2787 or .
