Rova Scope #9

After a long absence

Hello everyone,

It’s been a while since we have posted a RovaScope. After some time off, Rova has started rehearsing again, and it feels like it’s time to resume our communique. The pause was due first to Bruce’s recovery time from cancer, though we are glad to report that he’s doing very well now. Then we were devastated by the death of Larry’s wife Lyn Hejinian in late February of 2024. Lyn’s death was a tremendous loss for all of us. Her impact on our lives goes beyond words.

It was unclear last year whether Rova would continue to be a performing ensemble, and when and how it would work if work resumed. It’s taken time for things to settle. In the meantime, Rova started organizing our music and other materials and looking for a home to archive them. Jon spent quite a bit of time digitizing analog files and creating spreadsheets of performances.

Gino Robair suggested that Rova work on a book modeled on The Hub: Pioneers of Network Music. Gino had helped the Hub with the overall concept and organization of the book documenting their groundbreaking work, helped to find a publisher, and generously offered to do the same for us.

We meet regularly with Gino and Derk Richardson, a writer and longtime friend and supporter, to develop ideas. We’ve discussed writers and musicians who might contribute, what a table of contents would look like, and what we like and dislike about books by other musicians or writers. The consensus is that a Rova book should be about the ideas that the quartet has worked on as a group, what concepts individual composers had for their pieces, and how the works grew and changed over time. This book planning process has given us cohesion as we look at our various periods, ideas and areas covered. It’s also helped us figure out questions we face as an ensemble moving forward.

Our most recent performance was last summer at the Garden of Memory in Oakland, where we shared space with Tom Djll, Karen Stackpole and Cheryl Leonard, alternating sets with them for 4 hours. The afternoon left us with a feeling that the creative space Rova has developed together is still alive and strong.

Several years ago, Rova commissioned music from a diverse and illustrious group of performer/composers - Miya Masaoka, Henry Threadgill, Gino Robair, and John Butcher. The quartet performed these works regularly during various periods, but never found a label to record them. Each piece demands a very specific set of skills and is strong in its own right, so we decided to work them back up, record and release them. Once this project is wrapped up, we will be well positioned to start the next part of our journey together.