Main Squeeze

Two artists strike an accord for the unloved accordion.

by Shaun Brady

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Published: Feb 19, 2008

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In the hierarchy of musical instruments in America, the accordion has always been the red-headed stepchild, the kid who gets picked last for the team. South of the border, the accordion can get downright sexy, with all that tango and Astor Piazzolla and what have you. But here in the States, the cultural touchstones are "Weird Al" Yankovic and Myron Floren.

It might be overstating the case to say that Guy Klucevsek has led a lifelong struggle to change that perception, given that he's never really courted the spotlight. But the accordion has been Klucevsek's primary instrument since the age of 5, and over the 55 years he's wielded that squeezebox, he's helped shape the language of the instrument in new music circles, penning myriad works and commissioning pieces from the likes of John Zorn, Fred Frith and Aaron Jay Kernis.

While in his teens, Klucevsek began hearing the results of an American Accordionists Association initiative to commission new works for the ax from modern American composers. He instantly fell for these works, from composers like Virgil Thomson, Paul Creston and Alan Hovhaness, recognizing a more contemporary language than he was used to playing in the classical repertoire. "My teacher and I parted ways on that," Klucevsek recalls, "because he couldn't stand the language of contemporary music and I loved it."

The discovery led Klucevsek to major in composition in college, after which he played with a variety of chamber ensembles — becoming one of the early members and music advisers for Philly's venerable new music ensemble Relâche, who are co-presenting this performance along with Ars Nova Workshop.

He has contributed pieces to Relâche throughout its existence, as well as composing for his own projects, but particularly enjoys encouraging contributions for the instrument from other voices. "The nice thing about working with other composers is that they tap parts of me I didn't know were there. My language is very particular as a composer: It's got elements of world music and minimalism but it has almost no improvisation in it. The piece that Zorn wrote for me is filled with improv, though, and Aaron Curtis' piece is filled with very exact and virtuosic classical music elements. So their language is so different from mine, and they see things in my musical personality which I don't always know are there until they bring them out."

Notefalls (Winter & Winter) is the latest product of Klucevsek's fruitful collaboration with fellow accordionist Alan Bern. The two come to the instrument from two completely distinct paths: Klucevsek a lifetime practitioner with a classical background, Bern self-taught, a classically trained pianist led to the accordion via his interest in world music. Klucevsek spotted him onstage with the U.S./German klezmer ensemble Brave New World in 1996 and invited him to complete the Accordion Tribe quartet (with Pauline Oliveros and Amy Denio) about to embark on a European tour. The pair sparked in duo numbers, and a more permanent collaboration was born.

"We had this meeting point in the middle with classical music, but then went in different directions. I was more towards the new music side of things and he was more towards the world music side of things, and I thought it would be really interesting to bring that other perspective into my own work and vice versa."

Klucevsek is particularly attracted to the sound of two or more accordions in tandem, inspired by the massed reed sound of accordion orchestras he heard as a child.

"It's not quite right," he says, "because the accordions are never exactly in tune with each other. It's a little raw and — I don't know if ugly's the right word — a little dirty. It's like you can't make anything sound too pretty. It's always going to have a little bit of dirt on it when you have more than one accordion, and the dirt in music is what I really find interesting."

(s_brady@citypaper.net)

Guy Klucevsek and Alan Bern play Fri., Feb. 22, 8 p.m., $15, Trinity Center for Urban Life, 22nd and Spruce streets, arsnovaworkshop.com, relache.org.

 

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