Events | "Spiral Music" and Film on Buddhism at the Rubin

The Rubin Museum’s series Spiral Music once again presented transcendent sounds in the playing of Max ZT on the dulcimer and Sam Sadigursky on the flute last evening (9/14/11).







Max ZT may indeed be lauded as the “Jim Hendrix of Hammered Dulcimer,” but in the playing we heard, the transcendent overshown the fiery and the improvisatory sounds led, but didn’t hammer on our psyches. This was the duo’s first collaboration, and we hope that we will more.

Following the music, the Rubin’s film series presented To Be A Buddhist Nun, the New York Premiere of "In the Shadow of Buddha". Shot by Heather Kessinger, the film took us to the seldom-seen world of Buddhist nuns in Tibet and refugees in Ladakh, a region in northernmost India.

Most of the nuns were old, wrinkled and with missing or deformed teeth, visual images seldom seen on movie screens. Although shown with prayer wheels or in services, or with prayer wheels, in their words the nuns lamented their lack of education and their second-class status in this Buddhist tradition. “A woman who has been a nun for 100 years must bow to a man who has been a monk for only one day”.

Spiral Music at the Rubin Museum

Spiral Music, with Jen Shyu on vocals, Thomas Morgan, bass, and Ches Smith on percussion, performed at the Rubin Museum last night (Wed., Sept. 8, 2010).
In a mesmerizing performance, while we sipped our favorite mango martinis, we heard Shyu’s earthy voice and improvisatory ways with strings of sounds joined with her sinuous movements.


Vocalizations, along with text in English and non-English languages delivered in atonal melodies created a performance art. Sprechstimme incursions melded beautifully with the accompanying acoustic instruments to surround the voice with a glow. Some of the texts spoke of pain (“sold as a slave for sugar”); some seemed purely aleatoric (“the last word is the fact that all good things”).
On some selections Shyu accompanied herself on a moon lute (moon guitar). In one of these, she sang a strophic song, with hard-driving rhythms (reminisicent of Frankie Lane’s “Mule Train”). Behind her, the Rubin Museum’s electronic introductory images showed horses running across the Himalayan plains while she sang it.
Dressed simply in black, Shyu’s free movement was integral to the performance. Her movements were closely contained in the space, with lots of up-and-down trunk motion and freer hand/arm movements. A long red scarf, which she held in her arms and sang to, turned into a river on the floor, and eventually wore, was her only prop.

Jain Images (with Music)

The Rubin Museum of Art's magnificent show on Jain Images of Perfection has a wonderful surprise--a music piece--i.e, Jain devotional music from Pune, India. So nice to move beyond the tyranny of the eyes.