Mr.
CutTime
- Compositions of Rick Robinson
, "Mr. Robinson is
a modern-day Dvorak... [whose] compositional
skills are quite exceptional... I was most
impressed with his remarkably fluent and
original contrapuntal writing. His erudite and
passionate verbal remarks were as moving as
the beautifully crafted and emotional
music."
It began in
2006, when the Detroit Symphony Orchestra (DSO)
premiered member bassist Rick Robinson's "accidental" symphonic score
Essay
(After Sibelius). Detroit Free Press music
critic Mark Stryker wrote
DSO bassist Rick Robinson is "an armchair composer with
promise and a taste for fleshy romantic
textures and orchestration." Subsequently
Robinson (bio)
began to pursue composing intently.
His early work is
imitative of the many great composers he
admires, some of whose works he has transcribed
for his mixed octet CutTime
Players. Yet his skill manipulating traditional
subjects, six-voice counterpoint
and developmental forms control considerable dramatic
tension. Jovial yet
private, there is
much of Robinson within his music's broad range of
feeling and subject matter, flowing
organically between angst and ecstasy and
tone-painting scenarios familiar to romantics. One might wish he would expand his
many ideas
further, but at least he keeps
them moving right along.
A one-time
regular with the Boston Pops Esplanade
Orchestra and a 22-year veteran of the DSO
(now resigned), Robinson is a
relative latecomer to composing. Yet with
considerable experiences as an orchestra
musician, solo recitalist, transcriber,
publisher, ensemble leader and conductor,
he is stubbornly dedicated to creating emotionally
rich experiences for both players and
audiences. Judging from his Essay and
other works so far, there is no doubt he could produce expansive
symphonic works given the opportunities.
Listen to these
SAMPLES
from
a 2009 performance by Chamber
Music North of
his first sextet album MIGHTY
LOVE. Premiered in 2007, Mighty
Love is a tale of romance inspired by the traditions of
Richard Strauss, Dvorak, Brahms, Schubert, Prokofiev, Shostakovich and Piazzola. Written over nine months
"to see if I could really write",
Robinson succeeded in creating a full 5-movement
suite in grand sonata form, similar in the motivic tradition of Robert Schumann. The
musical characters
are handsome yet torn, humorous and athletic. They meet, date,
fall in
bed, fall in love, and
falling ever deeper
thru five stages of love until at last we hear wedding
bells. These are images projected by the
clearest harmonic language you would expect of
an
early German-Romantic composer. Yet Robinson
has proven there is still life in
traditional tonality.
Ironically,
an embrace of such expression today is
considered nostalgia at best and quite
rebellious and even insulting to contemporary
composers at worst.
Still, the expressive power and emotional
fireworks is hard to resist. One almost wants to believe it was actually written a
hundred and fifty years ago. My
favorite example
is the Scherzo movement
entitled Fun
& Games. It may be a well-worn classical
formula but Robinson delivers fresh, driving energy
with crisp virtuosic displays from the
principal violin and viola.
One easily envisions lovers chasing each
other, giggling and laughing thru the spring
forest. The usual Trio
section completely relaxes this fervor with an
extended shepherd's pastorale
that builds, suggesting an
ever-building ecstasy using rising key centers.
Robinson is a gifted musical story-teller. You owe
it to yourself to hear this Valentine's Day
classic unfold.
Robinson's work
over the next two years took him in a surprising
new direction. He sought to write a collection
of lighter
10-minute works. He subsequently began
developing new skills
writing for solo instruments, spinning off music
from famous classical works and seamlessly weaving classical
with dance modes. You will find Latin,
tango, gospel, rock, rock-a-billy, country, folk,
blues and hip-hop incorporated in the Gitcha
Groove On! album like An American in
Detroit. He seems to be showing us how disparate
cultures have more in common than we thought.
Bearing titles such as the "title
track" GITCHA
GROOVE ON! and PORK 'N BEANS,
four works include danceable grooves that invite adventurous players to improvise open-ended
solos.
Listen
to these samples from
the
official launch in 2010 of CutTime
Simfonica. Robinson wrote two
compositions in 2008, IDYLL
for solo English horn and GIGUE-RONDO
for solo oboe. In
the summer of 2009 he wrote the soulful GITCHA
GROOVE ON! and PORK 'N BEANS.
By contrast, there's this stirring ELEGY
for his
friend. And the following fall season saw the birth of
an urban essay for his hometown: HIGHLAND
PARK, MI: CITY OF
TREES. A debut CD of these works is
still waiting to be recorded. Meanwhile you
can see samples on YouTube
and buy commercial
preview singles of Gitcha Groove On! and City of
Trees at CD
Baby or iTunes.
His latest work is another stirring elegy for his
father called First Grief (2011) which
may become part of another collection.
Time
may soon tell the impact such accessible,
personal and hybrid music will have on an industry
desperately in need of
new audiences. Continuing to pioneer artistic engagement
with diverse audiences, Robinson began the
Detroit chapter of the worldwide Classical
Revolution movement during the famous DSO
strike of 2010. In 2006 this grassroots movement with
over 35 chapters worldwide began organizing informal readings and
performances in San
Francisco bars, coffeehouses and art
galleries to bring classical music to the
rock-saturated masses. Here Mr. CutTime as he
is known experiments
with ways to engage the curious with
classical;
letting go of the pursuit for perfection in
favor of the personal and raw truths that the
young seek in popular music. Here's
a 2012 Detroit News video
about his views and work.
The
African-American Robinson is an excellent marriage of old world
and new; of the classical tradition and the
Detroit innovation. His work is an important journey for classical music from
German-Romanticism to an American concrete-ism beneath our feet.
Robinson is taking his work national this year,
resigning his position with DSO to share
the joys of classical music making with a much
wider
public. He draws from a huge library, deep insights and
hundreds of musicians around the country with
tours, partnerships, recordings and videos.
Listen to the NPR
interview with Guy Raz! Read the first critical reviews by CVNC
& the Herald
Sun.
Music is
love.
Bring it to your
community.
Call CutTime today at 313-680-8104!
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