The Wisconsin Arts Board recently commissioned six Badger State composers to write short pieces inspired by the state’s land and the people who live here. The resulting Wisconsin Soundscapes is a CD featuring more than a dozen of those works performed by pianist Jeri-Mae Astolfi.
The music covers a good deal of sonic ground. On “Midwestern Mythologist,” a tribute by UW-Milwaukee’s Yehuda Yannay to his colleague, Steve Nelson-Raney (as well as Erik Satie), the silences between notes are as crucial as the notes themselves. Donald J. Young’s “Three Root River Scenes” is a rippling, roiling modernist impression of flowing water. Joel Naumann makes no definite statement with “Wisconsin 2011-2012: The Political Whirlwind,” although a fleeting echo of “Fanfare for the Common Man” serves as a clue amidst the stop, start, push and counter-push.
Of particular local interest is Joseph Koykkar’s suite Streets and Bridges, whose components include the purposeful bustle of “Downer Avenue,” the calm assurance (with a subtext of unease) of home on “Lafayette Place” and the furious pace of change on “Brady Street.” Inspired by memories of the composer’s youth, Streets and Bridges is an aural triptych of Milwaukee’s recent past.
