Dana Lyn

A sympathetic, if sometimes overly fragile chamber tone poem that metaphorically  y recounts the backstory of the creation of The Rose painting is the genesis of A Point On a Slow Curve. Surrounded by sympathetic  New York-based instrumentalists and vocalists, composer/violinist Dana Lyn’s nine-part score deals as much with nascent feminism and creative obsession as the visual art itself.

In part the program expresses tough determination and innocent wonderment in equal measure. However, there are times during the suite when the billowy textures from Lyn’s violin, Hank Roberts’s cello and Gary Wang’s double bass, melded with the harmonized voices of sopranos Madeline Healey and Danielle Buonaiuto and altos Catherine Hedberg and Elizabeth Merrill threaten to make the performance simply decorative. While the vocal quartet’s tessitura is exquisite on its own, it’s often sung at such high pitches that the intent of some of the libretto can be lost. 

Jay DeFeo spent eight years creating The Rose, a 12.7 x 8 foot, one foot-thick mixed-media piece that weighs more than one ton. She was so obsessed with it she ignored everything else in her life so that by 1965 she and the art work were evicted from her apartment. From that point The Rose was relegated to an art institute basement for three decades. DeFeo died in 1989, yet ironically The Rose’s unique quality was finally recognized six years later and it’s now on permanent display at the Whitney Museum.

With gentleness taken care of in the performance, it’s up to clarinetist Mike McGinnis, bassoonist Sara Schoenbeck, vibraphonist Patricia Brennan and drummer Noel Brennan to add rugged swing to the proceedings. With the vibes featured extensively it’s often Brennan’s metal bars and resonator that adds additional oomph to the ethereal timbres. Drums and vibe crate a notable call-and-response on “Welcome to Painterland”, with the bassoon’s nasal hork also cutting through any residual sentimentality. Purported melancholy is negated by drum  pops, a walking bass line and reed burbles on “Death Rose”. While there’s some wordless warbling matched with a groove created by drum accents and string sweeps, plus jubilant vibe accents and clarinet trill on the final and penultimate tracks, appropriately “The Rose” is the suite’s climax. Here pizzicato double bass thumps, some slippery call-and-response between bassoon and violin and thick clarinet glissando define musical and visual art properly.

A heartfelt salute to DeFeo’s mater work, the suite offers enough contrasts to properly reflect the art, the struggle leading to its creation and its final acceptance,

–Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1. Mountain Climbing 2. Dingbats 3. If Womankind Can Build This Transportation 4. Welcome to Painterland 5. Daytime Atheist 6. Death Rose 7. White Rose 8. The Rose 9 . Coda – The Removal 

Personnel: Mike McGinnis (clarinet, bass clarinet); Sara Schoenbeck (bassoon); Dana Lyn (violin); Hank Roberts (cello); Gary Wang (bass); Patricia Brennan (vibraphone); Noel Brennan (drums); Danielle Buonaiuto, Madeline Healey, Catherine Hedberg and Elizabeth Merrill (voices)