Like Augie March, “I am an American, Chicago born—Chicago, that somber city . . .” Well, I won’t go into the Cubs most recent tribulations (though I can’t resist saying that I am worried about their relief pitching). My point here is simply that I am, deep-down, a thoroughly urban person who occasionally feels a tad bereft in a college town like Princeton, NJ. It’s really quiet here in the summertime. That’s very good for my writing, but I sometimes feel too far from The Action. But occasionally The Action comes to town.
My daughter (Marion Katz, who teaches Islamic Law at NYU) and son in law (who has just taken the New York bar exam) came out for the evening last Thursday. It was a wonderful summer evening, with a barbecue and dinner on our screen porch, and after dinner we decided to go into town for ice cream cones at one of the three designer ice cream shops in Princeton. Adria and I prefer the Halo Pub (which sells ice cream, not beer) on Hulfish (how Princeton!) Street, which sells really good cones for an unbelievably reasonable price (how not-Princeton!). Then we walked toward the beautiful new Public Library, which abuts a small plaza that has become the center of activity on summer evenings – Albert Hines Community Plaza.
This Thursday we encountered a percussion concert there, and we immediately drawn to the young musicians who were glued to their sheet music in the fading light. We heard several pieces, all beautifully performed by an intensely scruffy group of college-age percussionists. I picked up a Xeroxed program which told me that some of the music we were hearing had been written by well-known composers – Jannis Xenakis, Steve Reich, John Cage and my Princeton Music Department colleagues Barbara White and Paul Lansky. I didn’t recognize the names of the other composers, but that probably just speaks to my sad ignorance of what contemporary composers are doing. The music was beautifully performed and altogether compelling. It was thrilling to realize what interesting sounds percussion-only groups could produce. So there was Action in Princeton on Thursday, and it was free.
It turns out that the performers were part of the So Percussion Summer Institute, which is being held at the University at the end of July and the beginning of August. The So Percussion website tells me that three Music faculty colleagues (Steve Mackey, Paul Lansky, and Dan Trueman) are composers in residence for the Institute, which emphasizes “collaboration between composers and performers.” How great! The results, judging from one concert, are impressive, and it is heartening to see faculty working with students in such a creative context. Good for So Percussion, good for my colleagues, and good for summertime in Princeton!
