About this piece

               Music for Heaven and Earth by Alexina Louie (1990) from Music for Heaven and Earth

               Musical selection from the Esprit/CBC CD Music for Heaven and Earth (1996) featuring music by Canadian composers Colin McPhee, Harry Freedman, Alexina Louie and Robert Aitken with guest artist performances by Robert Aitken (flute) and NEXUS (percussion)

               Liner note written by Alan Gasser (excerpted)

               Alexina Louie's composition Music for Heaven and Earth is more complex than the McPhee and the Freedman works, both in the fullness of its metaphorical constructions, and in the exotic sounds of the instruments and practices she uses. Her exposure to experimental compositional techniques during her training in California in the 1970s has been fused with a solid understanding of traditional orchestral techniques, and in this case, with a deliberate pictorial quality.

               Music for Heaven and Earth was commissioned by The Toronto Symphony Orchestra for a tour of the Pacific Rim, with support from the Ontario Arts Council and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. It had its premiere April 25, 1990 shortly before the Orchestra's departure. The character of the work, utilizing sounds from Chinese and Japanese traditions, stems from the circumstances of its commission, giving Ms. Louie a "unique opportunity to reach out to a large part of the world in a very direct and immediate way."

               The work's five sections are contained in one expansive, continuous movement, beginning with the symbolic representation of an individual's human expression, and expanding to a cosmic starscape. The opening Procession of Celestial Deities was influenced by Japanese Gagaku court music. When the brasses and drums enter with a noisy fanfare, we are meant to hear an invocation of the Thunder Dragon; this powerful celestial deity enters to the clanging gongs and cymbals of the Beijing Opera, followed by a tremendous roaring. In the reverberant space left at the Dragon's departure, we approach the "void," whose eerie timelessness was inspired by astronaut Charles Duke's description of the almost palpable texture of the total blackness of outer space.

               Both Void and the following movement, Earthrise, were inspired by the space photographs in the book The Home Planet, edited by Kevin Kelley. The ringing of Japanese temple bowls and a tender oboe melody lead the way into a descriptive passage of the Earthrise, the dawning of our tiny blue planet and its eventual ascent, as viewed from a vantage point on the surface of the moon. Louie's journey ends almost magically, with a return to Earthbound mythology: An aural picture of the River of Stars, as the Milky Way was known in ancient china.

What they say - About this piece

               "The performances on this disc are exquisite. Under conductor Alex Pauk, these works suggest strange landscape, whether they be psychically internal or exotic real places. A very high recommendation."
     — Classical Music Guide, March, 1996

               "This disc features work by four important Canadian composers superbly performed by the Esprit Orchestra, Canada's only orchestra devoted entirely to contemporary music. Two of the works, those by Harry Freedman and Alexina Louie, have been nominated for Juno Awards. The renowned percussion ensemble Nexus and flutist Robert Aitken are featured in two of the works. . .

               In Music for Heaven and Earth, Alexina Louie creates the most fantastic, original and convincing colours and textures when she avoids the programmatic conventions of Western orchestral music. Writing music influenced by Chinese, Japanese and experimental Western musical traditions she is able to vividly re-imagine the orchestra in order to represent such things as the Procession of Celestial Deities, or The Thunder Dragon, and create a piece of great expanse and power. . .

               All the works featured here in some way redefine orchestral tradition: It takes an orchestra with the devoted experience of Esprit, and its conductor Alex Pauk, to play them with such conviction and control.
     — Gary Barwin, Classical Music Magazine, March, 1996

               ". . . The album takes its title from a work by Toronto composer Alexina Louie, commissioned for the Toronto Symphony Orchestra's 1990 Pacific Rim tour. A gorgeous procession of exotic orchestral colours, deliberately incorporating sounds from China and Japan, Music for Heaven and Earth complements two other works of a similarly exotic inspiration, Colin McPhee's Balinesian-flavoured Nocturne and Harry Freedman's African and Asian influenced percussion concerto, Touchings (with the percussionist members of Nexus as soloists)."
     — William Littler, The Toronto Star, Saturday, November 18, 1995

               ". . . The Esprit Orchestra has three CDs on the CBC label, all with works of our time and many commissioned by Esprit. The most recent recording Music for Heaven and Earth (CBC SMCD 5154) is an extraordinary display of Canadian talent for those who listen with a sense of adventure. The works by Colin McPhee, Harry Freeman, Alexina Louie and Robert Aitken are passionate, mysterious and often beautiful - exemplifying what's happening in today's new music scene. (Dry, academic exercises are on their way out.)"
     — Ulla Colgrass, The Globe and Mail, Saturday, March 1, 1997

About the Composer

               In 2002, Alexina Louie was awarded the prestigious Louis Applebaum Composition Award for excellence in composing for film and television.

               In the Spring of 2002, Louie received the first National Arts Centre Award, a new prize spanning 4-years of creativity with the National Arts Centre Orchestra.

               Alexina Louie has been widely commissioned and performed by Canada's leading orchestras, new music ensembles, chamber groups and soloists. Her music emphasizes craft and imagination stemming from a wide variety of influences - from her Chinese heritage to her theoretical, historical and performance studies. Through an on-going investigation of scores, recordings, literature, poetry and visual arts, combined with introspection and continuous composition, Alexina Louie has developed a uniquely personal style rooted in a blend of East and West.

               Notable performances include the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra's performance of The Ringing Earth for the gala opening of Expo 86, the Montreal Symphony Orchestra's performance of the same work in the United Nations General Assembly on United Nations Day (1989), the Toronto Symphony Orchestra's tours of Europe (1986) and the Pacific Rim (1990), and pianist Jon Kimura Parker's performance of Scenes from a Jade Terrace, on the programme for the gala opening of the Canadian Embassy in Tokyo (1991).

               1993 marked the world premiere of Gallery Fanfares, Arias and Interludes, a one-hour work commissioned by the Art Gallery of Ontario for the opening ceremonies of its new gallery spaces and renovations. In 1993, Louie's O Magnum Mysterium: In Memoriam Glenn Gould was performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra. It was performed again in 1994 by the St. Louis Symphony, Leonard Slatkin conducting.

               In 1992, Louie, winner of two JUNO Awards, received the SOCAN Award for being the most frequently performed Canadian composer - the second time she has received the award since it was established in 1990. In 1994, she was presented with the Chalmer's Award National Music Award for the vocal movements of Gallery Fanfares, Arias and Interludes.

               Louie has served as composer-in-residence at several music festivals including the 1993 Scotia Festival, the 1994 Vancouver Chamber Music Festival, the 1996 Boris Brott Summer Music Festival and the 1999 Banff Arts Festival.

               Among the highly-regarded conductors who have performed Louie's music are Kazuyoshi Akiyama, Mario Bernardi, Sir Andrew Davis, Charles Dutoit, Gunther Herbig, Alexander Lazarev, Keith Lockhart, Alex Pauk, Leonard Slatkin and Bramwell Tovey.

               From 1996 to 2002, Alexina Louie was composer-in-residence at the Canadian Opera Company, for which she developed a main stage, full-length opera, The Scarlet Princess, with Tony Award-winning playwright David Henry Hwang (M. Butterfly). Their erotic ghost story, based on a seventeenth-century Kabuki play, was given its full concert premiere by the Canadian Opera Company on April 23, 2002 in Toronto

               

"The Asian element (in The Scarlet Princess) is no mere chinoiserie that ornaments the music, but a careful integration of slithering strings, a bevy of gongs, bowed cymbals and percussive piano, into a richly colored tapestry for large orchestra. Relentless force plus disciplined dissonance mark the score as modern, while moments of spell-binding lyricism supported by near-Straussian opulence give it warmth. . . it is a work of weight, profundity and promise." - Wes Blomster, andante.com

               Louie's film work includes co-writing, with Alex Pauk, the orchestral soundtrack for Don McKellar's feature film Last Night (winner of the Prix de Jeunesse, Cannes Film Festival, 1998). The score received a 1998 Genie nomination for Best Original Score and the music has been released as a CD on the Sony Classical label. Louie and Pauk also co-wrote the score for Jeremy Podeswa's feature film The Five Senses which garnered praise both at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival, where it was premiered, and the 1999 Toronto International Film Festival. They have recently completed the score for Barbara Willis Sweete's Perfect Pie, a Rhombus Media feature film based on a Judith Thompson play. The film will be premiered at the 2002 Toronto International Film Festival.

               Recent film and television projects include collaborative scores with Alex Pauk for the made-for-television movie After the Harvest, directed by Jeremy Podeswa, 24fps, a short film commissioned to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of the Toronto International Film Festival and Ravel's Brain, a Rhombus Media docu-drama directed by Larry Weinstein.

               A CBC Records compact disc comprised entirely of orchestral music by Louie was released in June, 1999. Performances on the disc are by the National Arts Centre Orchestra, conducted by Mario Bernardi with soloists Russell Braun, baritone, and Martin Beaver, violin. Music for a Thousand Autumns, the second CD devoted exclusively to her music was released on the Centrediscs label in 2002.

               In October, 1999, the Jules Leger Prize in chamber music was awarded to Dr. Louie for her string ensemble composition Nightfall. In November of 1999, the world premiere of Dominique Dumais' choreography for Louie's O Magnum Mysterium: In Memoriam Glenn Gould was unveiled at the National Ballet of Canada in Toronto.

               Toothpaste, Louie's 5-minute tragic opera buffa, with libretto by Dan Redican, has been made into a Bravo!FACT music video, as well as an interactive DVD which can also be accessed on the Internet at toothpastetv.com. This mini-opera has captured world-wide attention at its screenings at MIDEM (Cannes) and INPUT (Rotterdam) and has been purchased for broadcasts and screenings in The Netherlands, Germany, Finland and Taiwan.

               Louie is active as an arts advocate and has served on the Boards of the Toronto Arts Awards, The Corporation of Roy Thomson Hall and Massey Hall and The SOCAN Foundation (Society of Composers and Music Publishers of Canada). She currently serves as a Director of The SOCAN Foundation (Society of Composers and Music Publishers of Canada), The Governor General's Awards in the Performing Arts, Esprit Orchestra, and Bravo!FACT. As well, she is in demand as a speaker, arts advisor and juror on arts-related matters.

               In the Spring of 2002, she was a recipient of the first National Arts Centre Award, a new prize spanning a 4-year period of creative activity with the National Arts Centre Orchestra. During this time, Dr. Louie will compose three new works for the orchestra and will also develop outreach and educational projects.

               In August 2000, Ms. Louie and Supreme Court Justice Louise Arbour were special guests of Governor General Adrienne Clarkson on her first official tour of the Northwest Territories and in the Fall of 2001, Ms. Louie again traveled with the Governor General on a State Visit of Germany. In 1997, Alexina Louie was awarded an Honourary Doctorate from the University of Calgary and in 2001 she received The Order of Ontario.

               Ms. Louie's most recent film composing project was a score for the made-for-television film The Interrogation of Michael Crowe directed by Don McBrearty for Court Television in Los Angeles. In November, 2002, Alexina was awarded the prestigious Louis Applebaum Composition Award for excellence in composing for film and television.

               Composer Interview by Paul Steenhuisen, Wholenote Magazine

               Alexina Louie kicks off winter session of Performing Arts Lecture Series

               Composer's role with the National Arts Centre

About the guest artists

               Over the past 25 years, the innovative percussion group NEXUS has come to be recognized as one of the foremost chamber ensembles of its kind in the world. Their unique repertoire and rapport has captivated audiences throughout the globe.

               Formed in 1971 by Bob Becker, William Cahn, Robin Engleman, Russel Hartenberger and John Wyre, NEXUS has traveled extensively, including tours of Australia, New Zealand, Asia and Europe, as well as regular appearances in the United States and Canada. They are also very active in recording, radio and television broadcasts, film and video. NEXUS performs a wide and eclectic range of music, including 20th century xylophone rags, ethnic music, group improvisations, works by some of the world's foremost composers and compositions by the members of the ensemble itself.

               NEXUS has developed a unique repertoire for percussion and orchestra, which has led to appearances with orchestras throughout North America. In March 1995, they premiered Glenn Buhr's cathedral songs with the Toronto Children's Chorus, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and conductor Jukka-Pekka Saraste, a work written for the atrium of the CBC's broadcasting center in Toronto. International acclaim has resulted from NEXUS' performances of Toru Takemitsu's From me flows what you call Time, composed for the ensemble and the Boston Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Seiji Ozawa and commissioned by Carnegie Hall for its Centennial Celebrations. Symphonic and solo programs for children introduce the broad and colourful scope of percussion instruments and music in a delightful way. In addition, NEXUS has given workshops and masterclasses at high schools, colleges and universities around the world. NEXUS is featured in several recordings, including Dance of the Octopus (CBC Records MVCD 1037).

               For More About NEXUS:

               http://www.nexuspercussion.com/Nexus2.html

               http://www.franksalomon.com/Artist.asp?ArtistID=23