QUOTES
Critic Stephen Brookes in The Washington Post
"Take, for instance, the superb "Hazmats Sextet" by the Peabody Conservatory's David Smooke, which opened the program. Smooke has some of the most uninhibited brain cells around: The work, which he describes as "birds flying through a continually fracturing landscape," evoked a kaleidoscopic sonic universe where anything could happen. It was one of those rare pieces you fall in love with from the get-go. If this is hazardous musical material, send more."
From Baltimore Sun Critic Tim Smith on his Blog "Clef Notes"
"David Smooke's Requests was also performed in the presence of the composer. This work from 2003, written for Briggs, exploits her technical elan and gets additional color from having her tap on the instrument. A lot of kinetic action is packed into this short and sweet score. Other highlights of hefty program included two more 2003 items: Nico Muhly's Quiet Music, with its tapestry of thick, yet ever-lyrical, chords; and Bruce Stark's elegant, shimmering Waltz."
Rob Deemer in Sequenza21
"Thursday evening was a good night for new music, as a new chamber ensemble formed by Baltimore-based composer David Smooke gave its maiden voyage performance at Mercyhurst College in Erie, Pennsylvania to an enthusiastic and supportive audience. [...] The concert came to a bombastic close with my favorite work of the evening, David Smooke’s work for two pianos and two percussion, Hurricane Charm."
From the blog "wellsung"
"There was a lot to like in the first half. David Smooke creates a rich and involving sound world in his Hazmat Sextet (listenhere)--a kind of impromptu Rite of Spring carried out by the birds of an unidentified planet."
John Chacona in the Erie Times, previewing the premiere concert of LotUS
Tune the toy piano! Avant-garde group debuts at Mercyhurst
David Smooke's website has the usual elements: a links page, sound files and even facsimiles of full scores. But there on his biography page, above a photo of his dog, is a list of anagrams for his name.
"I am a fan of word games," Smooke said. "I stick to crosswords because I'm a bit obsessive and if I went further, I'd do nothing else in my life."
Good thing, because Smooke does quite a bit. The one-time punk and industrial rock musician teaches at Baltimore's Peabody Conservatory. He composes and plays piano. He's also one of the founders of the League of Unsound Sound, a cooperative contemporary music ensemble that performs for the first time in public tonight at 8 at Mercyhurst College's Walker Recital Hall.
Admission is free.
The League's membership varies. Tonight, the ensemble will include percussionists Tim Feeney and David Schotzko, Stephen Buck and Mercyhurst faculty member Shirley Yoo on piano.
And Smooke? He'll play toy piano. And why not?
"I want music to be fun," Smooke says. "But to me the music that is fun has an edge to it, [and] sounds like nothing I've ever heard before."
It looks like nothing you've ever heard either. Thierry De Mey's "Table Music" is played by three musicians dragging, tapping and scraping a tabletop. It's mesmerizing stuff (you can find it on YouTube) and typical of the imaginative, unconventional music the League champions.
And about that name. Smooke the word-game aficionado, says, "it explains everything we're about: what's heard and unheard, noise and beauty, strong and fragile."
Jody Redhage as Quoted in Musicworks Issue #102
"MusicWorks: Tell me about the process of working with and commissioning composers for singing cellist. Jody: It has varied drastically from composer to composer. The simplest situation has been with David Smooke, because he actually wrote blades for singing cellist Victoria Bass, and therefore, just sent me the finalized score. I had some questions for him about pronunciation (the singer is [doing] imitation bird song), so I made a rough home recording of my initial interpretation and e-mailed him an MP3 before the first performance so I could be sure that I was pretty much on track. David clearly has a lot of experience working with both vocalists and cellists, and therefore both parts were challenging, but idiomatic, and worked together beautifully."
From the University of Chicago Magazine
"Led by Cliff Colnot, principal conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s contemporary MusicNOW series and sometimes U of C orchestration instructor, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra—now in a three-year residency at the University—rehearsed, discussed, and tweaked graduate student David Smooke’s composition Breathing the Water. Smooke was one of four composition students to have his work performed and critiqued by the ensemble during the two-day event, organized by University of Chicago Presents.
The energetic, 13-minute piece incorporated piano, strings, and a mix of percussion including the marimba xylophone and crotales, metal discs known for their high-pitched, bell-like tone. Working section by section during the two-hour reading, Colnot made occasional on-the-fly revisions. “Mark that dynamic as forte instead of fortissimo,” he instructed the musicians. The ensemble also helped hone the piece. “Feels like between [measures] 37 and 41, there should be a crescendo, but there’s not,” volunteered the pianist. “Yes,” agreed Colnot, “there’s an implied build there.” Smooke, seated onstage behind the conductor, quietly recorded the suggestions.
The final product, played from start to finish an hour into the reading—and only after the union-member musicians voted and received the go-ahead from their personnel representative to slightly postpone their scheduled break—bounced from dark, jolting chords to soft, dreamy tones. At times menacing and frantic, at others somber and mysterious, the piece experimented with major and minor notes sliding together (“like Stravinsky,” commented Colnot during the reading), gentle piano and strings, and even a waltz-like moment. After the peaks and valleys, it ended quietly, like a violent wave subsiding, gently returning to sea. But the orchestra’s work was not yet done. “There are still three or four things in top quarter to work on,” instructed Colnot. He then released the musicians for their break."
Soprano Carrie Henneman Shaw in a personal note on Some Details of Hell
" ... thanks so much for the wild, unsettling, spine-tingling piece. It was a pleasure to sing it last week. What a yummy, curdly tonality."
Bassist Jeffrey Weisner in a Facebook status update on Introspection #11,072
“Playing the microtonal music of David Smooke is like eating a strange, incomparably rich cheese that you know will make you very sick later in the evening. But you just don't care 'cuz it tastes so good.”
David Rakowski in the article "The Title Pool" on New Music Box.
"We are chock full of titles that reference other sensations, which quite often are described as providing the inspiration for a piece. Indeed, David Smooke's Taste Sensation very specifically refers to such a thing, and it's also a pun."
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