Sideshow

Based on the dark sideshows of Coney Island’s amusement parks in the early part of the twentieth century, Sideshow is a meditation on virtuosity, freak shows, entertainment, spectacle, business, and the sacrifices one makes to survive in the world. A cycle of six aphorisms by the Viennese satirist Karl Kraus (1874–1936) is embedded as a subtext running through the work. They are as follows: 1. “Ein Gourmet sagte mir: was die Crême der Gesellschaft

anlange, so sei ihm der Abschaum der Menschheit lieber”. (A gourmet once told me: he prefers the scum of the earth to the cream of society.)

1. “Wenn Tiere gähnen, haben sie ein menschliches Gesicht”. (When animals yawn, they have a human face.)

2. “Der Fortschritt macht Portemonnaies aus Menschenhaut”. (Progress makes wallets from human skin.)

3. “In einen hohlen Kopf geht viel Wissen”. (Much knowledge fits in a hollow head.)

4. “Die Technik ist ein Dienstbote, der nebenan so geräuschvoll Ordnung macht, daß die Herrschaft nicht Musik machen kann”. (Technology is a servant who makes such noisy order in the next room that his master cannot make music.)

5. “Wien hat eine schöne Umgebung, in die Beethoven öfter geflüchtet ist”. (Vienna has beautiful surroundings, to which Beethoven often escaped.)

It is extreme, sometimes “over the top” in its theatrical depictions and demonstrations, especially for a piece of chamber music in a classical music venue, and yet it is saved by a ruthless containment. Comical, strange, or grotesque elicitations may result from various acts performed on stage; yet these are never approached by a performer’s attempt to be silly, cute, melodramatic, or histrionical. Quite the opposite: it is an extremely austere theater, more related to the Japanese nō theatre or the tea ceremony. (From perspective of the characters portrayed by the players, there is nothing funny about this theater; on the contrary, something fatalistic or absurdly tragic.) ... Frozen silences or nonactivities are performed with the utmost intensity, presence, and concentration, as if holding up the emptiness of the universe simply with one’s gaze.

... The performers think of themselves as characters in a sideshow. The saxophonist is the Sideshow Giant, having bellow-like lungs. The violist is a sword swallower, expert with a bow sword. The pianist is the Human Spider, having been born with eight hands. The percussionist is the Stuttering Midget and Sideshow Proprietor/Announcer. Each character of this quartet has his or her uncanny double, twin, imposter, accomplice, copycat, deformed clone.

Steven Kazuo Takasugi

 

Written for Alex Lipowski and the Talea Ensemble.

Commissioned by the Bludenzer Tage Zeitgemäßer Musik and sponsored through the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation.

 

Part 1: The Destinies of Hallucinations

Movement 1: The Man Who Couldn’t Stop Laughing

Movement 2: Sodom by the Sea or Mildew of an Inner Room of the Eternal Return of the Same

 

Part 2: Hard Times and a Happy Ending or A Laboratory for Self-Destruction

Movement 3: Electrocuting an Elephant

Movement 4. A Surgical Procedure: The Human Fish

Movement 5: Mourning Glory and Parade Clothes