Among Mark Applebaum’s compositions are several that incorporate theatrical and visual elements. Three of them are listed and described here as examples of interdisciplinary demands on performing musicians:
Echolalia: 22 amplified and signal processed Dadaist rituals (2006)
Echolalia is a truly unique composition for two people: one percussionist onstage, and one to act as the operator of the electronic sound signal processing. While it doesn't require two artists of differing disciplines (music/non-music), it is interdisciplinary in its very conception. The premise of the piece "is a theatric manifestation of shared psychosis and dissociative identity disorder...A 'subject' attempts a musical expression but suffers an apraxia that manifests itself in a completely different medium, as a series of 22 Dadaist rituals performed in rapid
succession." In other words, the onstage performer desires to achieve a degree of musical 43
expression before the audience, but is unable to perform the specific actions he/she sets out to do. Instead, a series of completely unrelated but strongly gestural actions unfold, the sounds of which are amplified and processed by the second performer. These "Dadaist rituals" are not so much rituals central to the pursuit of Dadaism as nonsense actions, but the word "ritual" indicates to the performer that they are to be carried out with great seriousness and intensity. In this way, the onstage performer (usually a percussionist) is called upon to perform both the sounds (as a musician would) and the actions (as a theatrical performer would) in a way that is compelling to the audience.
Mark Applebaum, “Echolalia : 22 Amplified and Signal Processed Dadaist Rituals,” accessed May 9, 2019, http://
Straitjacket for percussion quartet and percussion soloist (2009)
This piece was commissioned by Steven Schick and the Banff Centre for the Arts for the Roots & Rhizomes Percussion Residency, and takes the form of a four-movement percussion quartet with percussion soloist. Applebaum intended to create a piece for “a percussionist who has done everything.” As a result, the piece is privately subtitled as “four restraint systems for solo 28 percussion and percussion quartet.” The four movements drew thematic inspirations 44
from Ouvroir de littérature potentielle (abbr. Oulipo), which is a group of French-speaking writers and mathematicians who practice writing with constrained-writing
techniques. Applebaum draws from such techniques in the three movements of this piece. In the first movement, he uses the palindrome, which refers to words that are spelled the same forward and backward. For the second movement, he uses the isopangram, which refers to using each letter of the alphabet once without repeating - however, Applebaum here elects to replace the alphabet with 118 hand gestures. For the third movement, he uses the lipogram, which refers to text written while avoiding a certain letter or letters. Applied to this music, Applebaum writes, “in the third movement the ensemble plays a single vibraphone, the quartet articulating unison chords and the soloist muting particular bars in an act of sonic elimination.”45For the fourth and final movement, he uses the taquinoid, which refers to large, square painting, broken into smaller squares and arranged in a random order. To achieve this, the five percussionists draw on five easels equipped with contact microphones, with their marker movements perfectly
Mark Applebaum, “Straitjacket (2009),” Mark Applebaum, accessed May 10, 2019, http://web.stanford.edu/
44
~applemk/portfolio-works-straitjacket.html. Ibid.
(rhythmically) synchronized. The end result is five side-by-side drawings with visual elements that continue, one to the next, to create the impression of one continuous drawing in five segments. This piece is very demanding on the performers, requiring that they perform with precision on percussion instruments, clearly present hand gestures, and even draw on easels in rhythmic unison; they demonstrate both skill in their original discipline (percussion) and compelling performance in the visual elements as well.
Aphasia for singer and tape (2009) 46
Just as Echolalia calls for a percussionist to incorporate theatrical elements into a
performance, Aphasia calls on a vocalist to perform a piece made entirely of hand gestures with no sound performed at all. Indeed, Applebaum himself writes in the score introduction that "This piece is essentially a choreographed dance work. As such, the role of the 'singer' may be taken by any performer of suitably enthusiastic inclination and conviction.” However, the choice to 47
write the piece for a singer, rather than a dancer, is no accident: the word used as the title,
"aphasia," refers to the loss of ability to understand speech, for example in neurological patients. While the singer may not be asked to sing, he/she is accompanied by a tape consisting entirely of modified vocal samples. Some of these samples resemble known words in English and other languages; some do not. The gestures performed by the vocalist are taken from various common and well-known activities; some examples include “Key Turn,” “Tie Shoe,” and “Flip
Mark Applebaum, “Aphasia (2009),” Mark Applebaum, accessed May 10, 2019, http://web.stanford.edu/
46
Sunglasses”. The end result is a collection of sounds and movements that are clearly suggestive 48
and intended to bear some kind of meaning, but are deprived of context that might indicate what that meaning could be. This piece crosses disciplines in that the singer becomes a performer with only their hands, but must apply the same kind of clarity that might be used when declaiming text.
3. Applebaum as a graphic composer: The Metaphysics of Notation (2010)