# Myra Melford's Language of Dreams at Yerba Buena Forum, November 9, 2013

[YBCA](http://www.ybca.org/myra-melford) presents [Myra Melford](http://www.myramelford.com/)'s _Language of Dreams_  
2013-11-09  
[Yerba Buena Forum](http://ybca.org/)  
[701 Mission Street, San Francisco, CA](http://maps.google.com/maps?q=701+Mission+Street,+San+Francisco,+CA&hl=en)  
8:00 PM, Saturday, November 9, 2013

## One Set

[8:05 PM lights down, announcements by Debra Cullinan & Isabel Yrigoyen]

### Part I

01. [8:11 PM] _Prelude_
02. [8:m PM] _the Promised Land_
03. [8:m PM] _Snow_
04. [8:m PM] _the Kitchen_


### Part II

05. [8:30 PM] _the Virgin of Guadalupe_
06. [8:m PM] _A Musical Evening_
07. [8:m PM] _For Love of Fruit/Ching Ching_


### Part III

08. [9:00 PM] _Language_ (interlude)


### Part IV

09. [9:m PM] _Times of Sleep and Fate_
10. [9:m PM] _Little Pockets/Everybody Pays Taxes_
11. [9:m PM] _Market_ (video/text only)
12. [9:m PM] _the First Protest_


### Part V

13. [9:m PM] _Night of Sorrow_
14. [9:m PM] _Day of the Dead_ (dance/text only)
15. [9:m PM] _the Strawberry_


### Part VI

16. [9:m PM] _the Virgin of Guadalupe_ (reprise)  
[show ends 9:44 PM]

## Performers

* Jeff Davis: percussion;
* [Liberty Ellman](http://www.libertyellman.com/): acoustic guitar;
* [Myra Melford](http://www.myramelford.com/): piano, harmonium;
* [Ron Miles](https://www.facebook.com/ronmilesmusic): cornet;
* [Oguri](http://lightningshadow.com/): dance;
* [Sofia Rei](http://www.sofiamusic.com/): narrator;
* [David Szlasa](http://www.davidszlasa.com/): video projections.


## Notes 

I enjoyed tonight's show quite a bit, but aside from the very obvious narrative connection, it was hard for me to detect the influence of _Memory of Fire_ in the musical, visual or dance elements of the performance. What with [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butoh|butoh]] being a somewhat abstract performance playpen in the first place, I didn't really expect to see much of a connection between Oguri's performance and the underlying texts, and while I enjoyed his contribution to the performance, it was certainly what I would classify as a nonessential element. The visuals were somewhat more of a disappointment. Being for the most part somewhat blurry and abstract, those qualities combined to push me to putting my attention elsewhere for most of the show: towards watching the performers, or simply listening with eyes shut as is my preferred concert mien. Reminiscing about the visuals, I can only recall a few distinct images: the endless blurry loop of slow travel along a road through the forest that preceded the show; several still images of inuit natives during the _Snow_ section of Part I; a montage of night skies and mountain skylines that shifted back and forth between those two primary elements; a panning time-lapse loop across a busy indoor marketplace during _Market_ in Part IV; and a late piece -- perhaps from the closing -- of icebergs calving from a glacier. I suppose it's possible that Szlaza based his choice of video sources upon the narrative texts in other sections of the work as well, but if so, the connection was entirely too abstract for me to notice!

Turning finally to the music, I'm happy to report that this aspect of the performance was entirely satisfying. The pieces spanned a broad range of styles, from quiet, abstract pieces to marches, blues, and gospel rave-ups. The latter two, in particular, featured marvelous solos from Myra, with the blues piece particularly remarkable because of a clattering and crashing wrist and forearm bashing segment full of tone clusters evocative of Jaki Byard and Henry Cowell. The other musicians turned in masterful performances as well, and the work afforded ample time to all to show off in both solo and ensemble turns.

{{tag>music butoh dance Myra_Melford's_Language_of_Dreams Yerba_Buena_Forum Jeff_Davis Liberty_Ellman Myra_Melford Ron_Miles Oguri Sofia_Rei David_Szlasa}}

[[2013#November_events|Back to the calendar!]]