Johannesburg-based musician Adam Howard of Howard Music has just concluded a series of sold-out performances at the Frascati Theatre in Amsterdam as the musical director for acclaimed South African artist William Kentridge’s latest multimedia performance piece, Refuse The Hour, featuring high definition (HD) film projections by Kentridge and South African editor Catherine Meyburgh.
The project was originally commissioned as an installation (The Refusal Of Time) for the 13th dOCUMeNTa in Kassel and comprises original compositions by Phillip Miller, hypnotic choreography by Dada Masilo and inspirational soundscapes by Gavan Eckhart.
Through a provocative combination of dance, music, imagery and mammoth steampunk-esque mechanical devices, the musical performance piece explores the concept of time from a vivid new perspective.
Kentridge performs on stage as himself and delivers a series of lectures on the theory of time and space.
This “avant-garde chamber opera’ has been edited, co-arranged and conducted by Howard and successfully transports the audience to a realm where the cast-iron lines between art and science are unashamedly torn down and re-envisioned. Like the finely tuned cogs of a magnificent musical time machine, the piece captures that most ellusive of phenomenon, the passage and pressure of time, and leaves an indelible impression on the senses.
Pre-production commenced at the beginning of the year when Kentridge and Miller commissioned Howard to edit and orchestrate the score for a full ensemble, sync the resulting music with imagery, and devise a way to not only remotely trigger a suspended mechanical drum set, but keep track of every click and cue throughout the performance.
Howard spent three months crafting pads and scores for the 25 individual pieces, which culminated in over 80 minutes of music. A series of rehearsals at Kentridge’s studio at Arts on Main in Johannesburg took place before the Amsterdam performances.
Apart from Italian pianist Vincenzo Pasquariello, French Soprano Donatienne Michel-Dansac, and Australian vocalist Joanna Dudley, the cast are all proudly South African. After several standing ovations in Amsterdam Refuse the Hour will be headlining the Festival d’Avignon in France, and perform in Rome and Athens later this year.
