Posted: Sat Oct 25, 2003 4:41 pm PST
Post subject: Shadow Theater of Anaphoria at Norton Simon, 10/24/03


Anaphoria is a small island in the Far East, in the general neighborhood of Narnia, somewhere off the coast of Middle Earth. The FAR "Far East"... Anaphoria is perhaps more a state of mind, certainly a profound state of hearing.

Kraig Grady, who runs the "North American Embassy of Anaphoria" and "adapts" its "traditional" art music, is an instrument builder and composer/performer who builds his instruments using tuning systems that diverge from the common Western 12-tone equal-tempered scale.

With instruments ranging from large low-tone resonating tubes with metal plates played with mallets, to other re-tuned mallet instruments such as marimba and vibes (these vibes create sonic vibrations not from an artificial vibration mechanism but rather from the many and varied beat frequencies of the various pitches) to re-tuned reed organ, koto, bowed psalteries and more, Grady composes and improvises music with elements of Gamelan-type pulses and repeating figures and other forms that may often relate to so-called "minimalist" music.

Because of the wide-ranging beat-frequency textures of the microtonal tunings and the resonances of the instruments themselves, a Grady performance is typically rich with reverberations, pulsings and a sense of enveloping sound permeating developing form. The natural resonance of the venue space will often factor into the expression of an improvisational performance.

This music envelops the annual series of shadow puppet productions presenting a "newfound" Anaphorian myth each year. This year it was presented in the theater of the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena, and it was entirely up to expectations. It was my first time at Norton Simon, and the theater is a very comfortable and clear-sounding room with ample seating in a main section plus balcony. An altogether satisfying place to experience an altogether unique and often transcendental performance.

For more information and photographs of this production of "Frenzy At The Royal Threshold" see the web site [http://www.anaphoria.com/shadow.html].