Meredith Monk has established herself as perhaps the preeminent performance artist of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. To her credit, her work has also expanded well beyond the world of performance art. That being said, in performance art, the composer and the performer are normally one and the same. Monk's works grow from her voice and also from her unique aesthetic vision. Therefore, an attempt to perform works intended to be performed by Monk herself and/or her ensemble changes the nature of the work. The works become more independent from the composer/creator just like most works in the classical or art music realm do.
The ensemble M6 performed a number of Monk's works at Roulette on Tuesday, November 16. All members of the ensemble have worked extensively with Monk. One of the stated purposes of the ensemble is to carry Monk's work into the future by performing her work and by studying her performance techniques directly to create a line, much as different schools or traditions of singing or playing instruments have been practiced for years. How they match up with her aesthetically or philosophically is another question.
When I heard M6 perform I could certainly hear many of the techniques Monk has developed and could also recognize most of the pieces. However, I was never reminded of Monk. I think this might be because the musicians approach the music from a different perspective. In the first group of pieces, performed by the entire ensemble, I thought almost immediately of a street-corner singing group (think "doo- wop"), a feeling reinforced by their physical movements. Other parts of the program featured solo, duet and larger ensemble works. It was interesting to see how Monk's work holds up without the force of her personality and vision (not to mention voice!) behind it. There is certainly sufficient strength in Monk's musical ideas to stand up to somewhat contrasting modes of performance. The last two works on the program were given as "Works-in-progress." I was not sure if this meant that Monk was still developing her ideas for these pieces or the ensemble was still in the early stages of mastering them. I think it is probably the latter.
It is a tribute to Monk's work that there are musicians dedicated to take her music into the future. Whether they are successful or not depends on the future. My sense is that this really matters little to Monk, although I assume she appreciates the interest and perseverance of these performers.
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