Portland’s Third Angle presents new piece for percussion and ASL poetry

Portland’s Third Angle New Music will debut a new commissioned piece at its upcoming show on April 16 at OMSI’s Kendall Planetarium. The composition, called “Spheres,” was written for percussion quartet and three American Sign Language performers. Deaf and hard of hearing audience members can experience the program through haptic vests that translate the sound from the instruments’ music into physical vibrations. The vests were developed by local nonprofit CymaSpace, which aims to make arts and culture performances accessible to Portlanders who are deaf or hard of hearing.

Sarah Tiedemann is the artistic director of Third Angle. She joins us to talk about the new show and accessibility in the arts.

Note: The following transcript was transcribed digitally and validated for accuracy, readability and formatting by an OPB volunteer.

Dave Miller: This is Think Out Loud on OPB. I’m Dave Miller. Portland’s Third Angle New Music will debut a new piece at its upcoming shows this Wednesday and Thursday at OMSI’s Kendall Planetarium. It’s called “Spheres.” It was written for percussion quartet and three American Sign Language performers. Deaf and hard of hearing audience members can experience the program not just through that ASL, but also with special vests that allow people to feel the music physically. The vests were developed by a local nonprofit called CymaSpace, which aims to make arts and culture performances accessible to Portlanders who are deaf or hard of hearing.

We had planned to talk with someone from CymaSpace in this conversation, but unfortunately that fell through. But Sarah Tiedemann is with us. She is the artistic director of Third Angle. It’s great to have you back on the show.

Sarah Tiedemann: It’s nice to be here.

Miller: The name for this overall program is “People Into Trees.” Where does that name come from?

Tiedemann: One of my favorite quotes is by a philosopher and spiritual figure named Ram Dass, and it’s about how, when we go into the forest, we see trees growing every which way and we just kind of accept them. That’s the way they are, that’s the way they found the light. And then, when we meet people, we don’t show them that same grace. So the point of the quote is that Ram Dass likes to practice turning people into trees and just accepting them as they are and appreciating them.

Miller: As opposed to judging them or thinking why are you like this.

Tiedemann: Exactly.

Miller: How does that quote inform… well, I was gonna say, the concert you’re putting on on Wednesday, but maybe more broadly the way you think about your work right now?

Tiedemann: That’s a big question. I think one of the things that I’ve learned from working with CymaSpace in particular on a project a few years ago is that we tend to look at people as having deficits when they interact with things in a different way. And I don’t think that’s necessarily the case anymore. Especially being in the music field, we’re so focused on aural experiences and sound and hearing that I think we can neglect to appreciate the other ways people perceive the world, and we’re working on that.

Miller: So for you, if we had talked, I don’t know, 15, 20 years ago, and I’d said, “Is there a way for people who are deaf or hard of hearing to take in your life’s work, music?” Would the answers just have been a simple, “Sorry, no?”

Tiedemann: Well, I think there’s the common thought that people perceive music through vibrations, and if it’s percussion or something, it’s easier to feel in the body.

Miller: You can feel the bass or the drums reverberating in your chest.

Tiedemann: Yes, exactly, and I think technology is helping us figure out new ways to reach people physically through music. So that’s part of what we’re trying to do in this concert, is reach people very different ways than they would have 20 years ago.

Miller: The first piece, as I mentioned in the program, is one that you commissioned. It’s called “Spheres.” What is it?

Tiedemann: I actually got this idea a few years ago while working with CymaSpace. I hadn’t interacted with people who communicate with ASL much, and I realized that it’s a language. That it’s not just something to translate into at a concert when we’re speaking and we have an interpreter there. I actually feel bad that I ever perceived it that way, because it’s such a beautiful language. It’s no less beautiful than say French or Italian, and we sing in those languages. We expect that.

But there’s this beautiful other language that is a language in and of itself that deserves that same kind of respect, and also that has this extra element of kind of choreography to it. We perform with dance a lot and I really appreciate the way music can manifest physically in that way. So I got the idea to utilize ASL as a language, and instead of singing in this piece and just having it translated, we commissioned a poem by a deaf poet that is specifically written for the ASL language.

Miller: So the language in this piece was born in ASL, as opposed to being written in English and then translated into the physical language of ASL. It started in ASL.

Tiedemann: Yeah, there is an English translation, but it’s sort of going that direction, instead. And the poet has utilized the particulars of ASL to elevate the piece in a way that you couldn’t with spoken language. So, the performers are moving, and you’ll see, since the concert is themed about trees and people, they’re sort of physically representing trees. They begin with their hands up higher and and they slowly descend into a lower position on their bodies as the piece goes on, kind of representing moving from branches to roots.

Miller: So, you started in this commission with this ASL poem or work. Where did the music come in?

Tiedemann: You know, it’s interesting. Oftentimes, you’ll have the poem exist first as a libretto and then the composer will write to that. In this case, it went the other direction. Our composer, Molly Joyce, wrote the piece, and then we sent one of CymaSpace’s haptic vests to the poet so she could feel the music that had been written, and they wrote to that, and our poet, Meg Day, worked with an ASL artist who they collaborate with often, so that was very cool.

Miller: You mentioned the haptic vest. What does it feel like? What does it do?

Tiedemann: It’s really interesting to put on. They are often used for gamers, or virtual reality. They translate the sound into sensation with different dynamics being more intense as it gets louder and softer, and also the pitches manifesting at different spaces on the vest, so you can really get a sense of the pitches and also the counterpoint of the different parts going together.

Miller: I’m just imagining, I mean, I don’t think I’d heard of the word “haptic” before I saw it as one of the options on your phones. Basically, is it going to vibrate if you turn it on silent? So I’m just imagining tiny little motors that hum and buzz, that make you feel something, and you feel things differently based on how loud something is, or or how high, or low the tones are.

Tiedemann: Yeah, exactly. I tried one on last summer for the first time, and we went through all of the pieces on the concert. It’s very cool, I have to say. And we picked the music, so that it would feel good in the vests, a lot of it, too. So, if there’s a sustained tone, that might not be as physically interesting as something that does have more counterpoint motion.

Miller: For audience members who have never experienced ASL poetry performance before, what can they expect?

Tiedemann: You know, I think a lot of our experience with ASL is just through translation.

Miller: Some elected official is now on a podium, and then a little bit to the side, there’s somebody who’s doing real-time translation of, “this is what the tariffs are going to be,” or whatever…

Tiedemann: Yeah, exactly. And in this case, there are specific ASL performers. They’re called DASL performers. I can’t remember what the D stands for, but it’s DASL. I thought it was D-A-Z-Z-L-E when I first heard it…

Miller: It does sound better that way…

Tiedemann: …so I still like to think of it that way. But they’re very musical about their gestures, and the music involves them rotating positions and all kinds of physical things.

Miller: How do the other pieces in the program highlight different sensory experiences? Because we’ve just been talking about one of the pieces of an entire hour-plus program.

Tiedemann: We really dug deep into different ways that people experience things as input and also as output. So, there’s a piece by Andy Akiho, who’s a local composer, that’s built around synesthesia and hearing different tones of music, and your brain is wired in such a way that you see colors. So that one’s called “Crimson.”

There’s also a piece called “Potential Music” that involves the percussionist going up to different instruments but not actually playing them. So you’re left to imagine the sound that’s about to come out, and that’s really interesting, because we don’t think about expectation quite as much, but the visuals and the expectation are such a huge part of performance.

Miller: I’m just imagining how interesting and satisfying and discombobulating that would be, watching somebody walk up to a timpani – I don’t even know what instruments you have – knowing, “Okay, it’s about to be this booming sound,” and it never arrives.

Tiedemann: Yeah, exactly. It is kind of discombobulating, and I would say, also, we’re at OMSI in the planetarium, so the dome visuals are just an incredible way to manifest the music visually, too.

Miller: So there are going to be projections on the dome throughout as well?

Tiedemann: Yes. We have trees, obviously, but we also have crimson things for the synesthesia piece. We have different colors at some points. There’s also a piece called “Synesthesia” where the composers are all using a gestural language that’s not ASL. It was just invented for the piece, and that we’ll do in total darkness. So there’s a really wide variety of what’s happening in the dome and also with the lighting.

Miller: Has working on accessibility in various ways for people who have disabilities that you don’t have, has it changed your understanding of music itself?

Tiedemann: Yeah. You know, I had a teacher back in the day who used to say, “When you perform, you should also imagine that you’re on TV and no one can hear you. You’re muted, and think about the way you move physically and such,” and this is kind of an extension of that. We don’t think about the other forms of communication that we’re using when we perform as much as we think about the sound. So, that has been really interesting. I think the use of the different tech, but also trying to reach different people has changed how I perceive sensory input in general, too, which is really interesting as a musician.

Miller: Sarah, thanks very much.

Tiedemann: Yeah, my pleasure. Thanks for having me.

Miller: Sarah Tiedemann is the artistic director of Third Angle. They’re putting on a concert at OMSI in Portland this Wednesday and Thursday evenings in partnership with the Portland Percussion Group and the accessibility nonprofit CymaSpace.

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