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Susan Alcorn · From: Baltimore, MD, USA

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www.susanalcorn.net

"So this is how you swim inward. So this is how you flow outwards. So this is how you pray."
- Mary Oliver

Anders Eriksson · From: Mora, Dalecarlia, Sweden

I love it!

The Pedal Steel works perfectly with the String Quartet.

Tell the composer that he need to compose more music for You and the Pedal Steel!

// Anders
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Jean-Michel Giry · From: Britanny, France

I always appreciate your work.
A+
JMG

Susan Alcorn · From: Baltimore, MD, USA

Thank you, Anders and Jean-Michel.
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www.susanalcorn.net

"So this is how you swim inward. So this is how you flow outwards. So this is how you pray."
- Mary Oliver

Ken Campbell · From: Ferndale, Montana

Susan,
Excellent! The work was beautiful. Specifically, dynamics, tone, tempo and pace, and separation were outstanding. I really enjoy your stuff. Keep it coming please.

Kc

Susan Alcorn · From: Baltimore, MD, USA

Thank you, Ken, and I'm glad you enjoyed the video. Here is what the composer, Jeff Snyder, wrote about this piece:

Substratum
Mivos Quartet with Susan Alcorn, pedal steel

Substratum (2013) came to be through my association with Susan Alcorn, for whom the piece was written. She performed as the pedal steel guitarist in my electro-country band, Owen Lake and Tragic Loves, and we started talking about how interesting it would be to write a concert music piece that features this unique instrument. Almost exclusively associated with the country and western genre, the pedal steel guitar dates from the mid 1950s, when slide guitarists began to add pedals (similar to those on a harp) to adjust the tuning of their open strings.

The instrument that Susan plays is a descendant of this tradition, expanded from 10 strings to 12, and from a small handful of pedals to 8 foot pedals and 5 levers operated by the knees, giving an unusual amount of control over pitch for a slide guitar. Itâ€™s one of my favorite instruments, and Susan is an incredible player who took on the challenge of learning a difficult piece and basically trying something that has never been done before. The instrumentation is something of a reference to the traditional country music pairing of the pedal steel guitar with twin fiddles, often trading back and forth between who embellishes the verses of a song. It also reflects my desire to write a piece for the Mivos Quartet, who have been playing the crap out of beautiful and challenging music for several years.

The piece itself evokes a kind of non-human internal logic. It aims at a structure that belies an anthropomorphic or emotional characterization. I imagine capturing the thoughts of tree roots finding their way in theâ€¨earth, winding around their siblings and the natural impediments to their path, searching for water. Or possibly the hive mind of an ant colony busily creating a network of tunnels. The piece seeks to look under the surface at those natural processes, tensions and harmonies in the systems that surround us or exist wholly indifferent to us.
_________________
www.susanalcorn.net

"So this is how you swim inward. So this is how you flow outwards. So this is how you pray."
- Mary Oliver

Daniel Morris · From: Westlake, Ohio, USA

Very cool! Quite modern, or post-modern, or...
well, it sounded very contemporary, without being overly dissonant or the other extreme, overly tonic.
Nice pacing. Steel functioned in a somewhat pianistic way, and you pulled it off very nicely, Susan.
Were you able to simply play it right off the page, or did you need to do any substitution? Did the composer know your tuning, or anything at all about pedal steel?
Superb!
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1979 MSA U12 Pedal Steel
1982 Kline U12 Pedal steel
2019 Sierra U12 Pedal Steel
2011 Bear Creek MK Weissenborn
Milkman 40W Mini amp w/Telonics 15" speaker.
Dr. Z Surgical Steel w/TT 15" speaker.
Frenzel MB-50 head.
Spaceman, Empress, Eventide, Pigtronix.

Susan Alcorn · From: Baltimore, MD, USA

I'm glad you enjoyed "Substratum". Yes, I did play the piece note for note the way it was written, which is probably the short answer to a more drawn-out process that started about, I think, about a year ago.

When Jeff Snyder, the composer, first contacted me about writing this piece, we discussed the range of the steel guitar (highest note to lowest) and I sent him my copedent explaining the tuning and the pedal changes. A few months later he sent me the beginnings of a score that had specific instructions on it (3rd string 8th fret, slide down to 6th fret, etc.). My feeling is that, especially for certain tunings, which strings you play for single note runs, chord voicings, etc. have a lot to do with how the music will sound; and that usually you need to have played for a while to have a feeling for it. I told him that it was probably best to just write what he wanted to express using only standard music notation and that we'd work out the pedals, frets, etc. along the way.

He wrote the piece, pretty much as it sounded in the video, in one week. I think he said it just came to him. As a trained composer, he was familiar with writing for the string quartet, so we collaborated on what would and would not work on the pedal steel guitar the way I have it tuned and with my somewhat limited technique. Much of the piece as it was originally written, often 8 or 16va, sounded absolutely gorgeous on a piano, but on my pedal steel, sometimes less so. Some of the passages were so high that I had to have the bar almost on top of the pickup which was, for me, often a challenge for intonation on top of the fact that I couldn't see the note and had to pick directly above the pickup. This was also problematic when I had to get to a note quickly from farther down on the neck.

I wrote tablature for the piece so that I could remember what strings, where on the neck, etc, to play this piece. There was little muscle or musical memory from past performances that I could use with Substratum.

We corresponded by email, and after I finished with the tablature he came to visit in Baltimore so that we could see how the piece sounded and make additional changes. There were a few spots where the note spread and counterpoint in certain chordal phrases wasn't going to work (difficult to press lkl and lkr at the same time). Also, the higher up you go on the strings, the less sustain was available (some high phrases had me holding a chord for three or four bars). As a result of this, he re-wrote a couple of sections, and we lowered the octaves on some of the highest passages unless it was absolutely necessary (as in toward the end).

"Substratum" was one of the most difficult pieces I ever performed, and learning it was a bit of a nightmare at times because I was so certain I wouldn't be able to get through it without a ton of embarrassing mistakes. So I practiced it. We had one 60 or 90 minute rehearsal with the Mivos Quartet (quite a talented group of musicians - their repertoire is definitely worth checking out) and a short soundcheck at the auditorium in Princeton. The night before the performance, I got together with a page turner. I had transcribed my parts directly from the score, but I read from my own somewhat arcane version of tablature. So we noted the bars which were page transitions in my tablature (bars with sustained notes or easily remembered passages), and he wrote these (for his use) on the written score. His page turning was flawless.

During the performance I used the tablature not so much to read - the music moved too quickly for that - but as a way to see "landmarks" through the score, reminders of which sections came when, which sections to cue or be cued by which member of the quartet, etc.

So what I played was, except for a few mistakes, what the composer had written. Jeff Snyder had a basic familiarity with the sound of the pedal steel and the tunings, and now I think he knows a lot more. Jeff is a completely "legit" and gifted composer; he has quite a brilliant mind, a keen ear, and a boundless musical curiosity. While I was up in Princeton, he bought himself an old MSA S-12, and he's learning to play. If that's what he wants to do, he'll be a great steel guitarist.

Writing challenging music for an unfamiliar instrument is at best a challenge, and it's the same way with performing this music on our instrument, but this is important music that deserves to be heard. Not always easy, but that's life, and you have to live it.

I hope this was helpful.
_________________
www.susanalcorn.net

"So this is how you swim inward. So this is how you flow outwards. So this is how you pray."
- Mary Oliver

Daniel Morris · From: Westlake, Ohio, USA

Fascinating stuff, Susan!
Sounds like the composer was pretty cool, if he didn't expect your knee to go both ways at once.
Thanks for the insight,and...more, please!
_________________
1979 MSA U12 Pedal Steel
1982 Kline U12 Pedal steel
2019 Sierra U12 Pedal Steel
2011 Bear Creek MK Weissenborn
Milkman 40W Mini amp w/Telonics 15" speaker.
Dr. Z Surgical Steel w/TT 15" speaker.
Frenzel MB-50 head.
Spaceman, Empress, Eventide, Pigtronix.

Daniel Policarpo · Posted 18 Apr 2014 3:33 am

That was excellent, Susan! I will have to start exploring more of your work, as well as Snyder's. You sounded great with the Quartet; a very cohesive sound.

Susan Alcorn · From: Baltimore, MD, USA

Thanks, Dan and Dan!
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www.susanalcorn.net

"So this is how you swim inward. So this is how you flow outwards. So this is how you pray."
- Mary Oliver

Mike Neer · From: NJ

Amazing performance, Susan. Still regret not being there. You have nerves of steel.
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David Mason · From: Cambridge, MD, USA

This is wonderful - are you planning any CD release? I''d certain get a few. I suspect that, unfortunately, the actual market for live modern... "classical" (?) music is a pretty tiny slice of the pie. I'm not sure what to really call it either!

It's nifty writing too, I was thinking "mature" in that, as noted, it's (thankfully!) far beyond the "Kiss me, I'm atonal!" stuff that seems designed mostly to generate shock value by continually insulting the do-re-mi mind. Me needeth anchor... I can guess how it would be an unholy terror to try to remember well enough to play, as the familiar (mental) reference points just ain't there. I hear some minor thirds, but I'll have to listen more - does it conform to a single symmetric
1-1/2-1-1/2-1-1/2-step base?

I poked around a few other videos and the composer looks to be about 13, and enthusiastic as all get out. And he bought a steel! It's certainly another baby step for the instrument - the left coast guys Bovine & Perlowin are storming the gates too, of course. I have this feeling like, it's just out there for the taking - just one hit movie soundtrack....

I have always thought that movie soundtracks can occupy a powerful chunk of mental and cultural territory, but most of that writing is, like, 20 years out of date - terribly dated. 70's detective movies seem to have just then discovered 1955 "cool" jazz. Why would you score "space opera" movies like "Star Wars" with violins, when you have 40 years of electric (and electronic) music to draw on.... those (Star Wars) tracks could be dropped verbatim into a 1950's "epic" with Burt Lancaster & George C. Scott running around in tights and flappy little leather aprons, acting as "Roman" as only they could do so well. Rolling Eyes

There was some drastically re-worked steel on "Man of Steel", scored by movie soundtrack superstar Hans Zimmer - so the studio muso-sniffers* are at least a bit alert. Daniel Lanois? Johnny Depp's a big steel fan... Ah, but alas, my inner topic-driftomatic has run amuck.

So anyway, Susan, Git'm tiger! I wanna buy some NOT-MP3 CD's....

*(This is a real job, lie around listening to music all day! - ranks right up there with Li'l Abner's mattress testing career.)
Laughing

Susan Alcorn · From: Baltimore, MD, USA

Thanks Mike, perhaps next time. And I definitely don't have nerves of steel (maybe plates in my head somewhere, but not in my easily-jangled nerves).

Dave, Iâ€™m glad you enjoyed the music. I enjoyed playing it. The difficulties were not so much the mental reference points (Iâ€™m somewhat used to that by now), but some of the demands on technique and some of the passages where you had to play one note and sustain it, then another note and another and another , so lots of open strings, harmonics, and re-writing where possible.. Also, timing was tricky - lots of dotted 16th triplets. Those sort of had to be played by feel.

I agree with you that Jeff Snyder wrote a really beautiful piece (in many ways, the first of its kind for our instrument) By the way, Jeff Snyder is 36 years old, and before teaching at Princeton, he received his PhD. in composition from Columbia University where he studied under George Lewis. In addition to taking up the pedal steel guitar, heâ€™s also a talented instrument builder who specializes in analog circuitry.

Youâ€™re very right that adventurous classical music (I would consider â€œSubstratumâ€ to be in that category) is a pretty tiny slice of the pie, especially compared to country music, pop, and jazz, but there is an audience for it. When I attended the celebration of Terry Rileyâ€™s â€œIn Câ€ at Carnegie Hall, the room was completely full. The Kronos Quartet gets huge audiences wherever they play, and the Arditti Quartet (farther to the left in that spectrum) gets good audiences as well, as does the Mivos Quartet who played at that concert. Still, if oneâ€™s sights are on fame and fortune, thereâ€™s probably better opportunity in country, rock, or hiphop. Plus you can get by without the intense level of training.

Movie soundtracks. 20th/21st century classical music, â€œnew musicâ€ is pretty well-represented in movie soundtracks. Gyorgi Ligeti, Arvo PÃ¤rt, Krzysztof Penderecki, Phillip Glass, and John Adams - also, Toru Takemitsu's contribution to Japanese films.

Jeff has talked about making a recording of Substratum, which wonâ€™t make anyone rich, but . . . music is music; itâ€™s art, and thus life. So we who have no choice have to do what we have to do.
_________________
www.susanalcorn.net

"So this is how you swim inward. So this is how you flow outwards. So this is how you pray."
- Mary Oliver

Bob Hoffnar · From: Austin, Tx

Really nice piece.
Thanks for sharing it with us.

Looks like the Pedalsteel is in danger of becoming an actual musical instrument Smile

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Bob

Shane Reilly · From: Melbourne, Australia

Very inspiring Susan, thanks for sharing this!

Jeff Snyder · From: New Jersey, USA

Hi,
Thought I'd chime in, since I'm on the forum now. As Susan mentioned, I recently bought an MSA-12 through the forum and am getting started learning, very exciting!

Also, "hi" to Bob Hoffnar, who I haven't seen since his move from NJ. He played on my album "A Love on My Mind" that I released as my Owen Lake alter-ego.

Writing this piece and having Susan play it was a fantastic experience, and I was blown away by her dedication and skill in making the music come together. What an absolutely amazing musician!

There are plans in the works to record this piece, and Susan and I will let people on the forum know when the record comes out. Thanks for listening Smile

-Jeff

Susan Alcorn · From: Baltimore, MD, USA

Thanks, Shane and Bob (Bob, mum's the word on "musical instrument"; don't want to destroy such a well-kept secret)

And Jeff, welcome to the Steel Guitar Forum!
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www.susanalcorn.net

"So this is how you swim inward. So this is how you flow outwards. So this is how you pray."
- Mary Oliver

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