Julius Eastman - Music for "Geologic Moments"

Performed by Eastman (piano, voice) and Joyce Solomon (piano). This is a lo-fi recording of a live performance, in which Eastman's music accompanied Molissa Fenley's dance piece 'Geologic Moments'. Dustin Hurt has kindly provided further information about the music performed, erroneously listed in some sources as a version of Eastman's earlier 'Thruway' (1969). "The music here by is actually two compositions - (1) an untitled work (or title currently unknown) composition for two pianos, and (2) "One God" a quasi-improvisatory work for voice and piano." Hopefully more pieces by Eastman, in cleaner recordings, will come to light!
An excerpt from a review of the performance is included below.
Anna Kisselgoff, review of the performance of 'Geologic Moments' by Molissa Fenley and Eastman at the Next Wave Festival, Brooklyn Academy of Music, (New York Times, November 6, 1986)
[...] And now, in ''Geologic Moments,'' [Fenley] forms an even more theatrical partnership with Julius Eastman, a pianist-composer who played here in tandem with Joyce Solomon or performed as a soloist with both dissonant resonance and a strangely muted evangelical fervor.
It is true that the first half of the work uses a tape by Philip Glass -excerpts from another production to be seen in the Next Wave, in a work that Robert Wilson calls ''the CIVIL warS: a tree is best measured when it is down (Cologne Section).''
The Glass score, however, serves merely as aural background, and while Ms. Fenley and her dancers apparently wish to dance against the music, they actually seem to be ignoring it. This is much more difficult to do given Mr. Eastman and Ms. Solomon's presence on stage, their grand pianos standing head to head in the second half. In a succeeding short portion, Mr. Eastman himself half-sings, half-chants, ''One God and Nothing but God.''
[...] Ms. Fenley's program notes suggests that shifting geological strata can be used as a metaphor for changing emotional states, especially those that occur suddenly. This idea is not expressed literally in the work - at best it is a springboard and an outline for certain structures in the choreography. The last sections, especially, use layers of patterns that overlap or succeed one another.
[...] When Mr. Eastman and Ms. Solomon, after the intermission, play Mr. Eastman's music, the chords on the piano - sparse and deep - seem to deliberately slow the dancers down. But when the music on the two pianos gains texture, the dancing picks up furiously. It dies down as three of the dancers bow. The fire curtain comes down, the house lights remain off. The curtain rises and one piano is now missing. Mr. Eastman plays and intones several phrases, repeating them later at a higher pitch. The spatial arrangement of the dancing grows bolder, bigger. Gary Mintz's lighting grows darker. The dancers freeze. For some reason, this viewer was reminded of Kandinsky, of the idea that apparent abstraction contains a metaphysical point of view.

[@meredrums1]

I'd never heard of him till tonight (New World Records email about a new release), but I'm engaged and exploring. Thanks for posting/sharing this, postmeback.

[@ltcoptic]

This work here isn't "Thruway" - that work is from 1969 and includes violin, cello, flute, trombone, soprano, choir, etc - and the score exists from that. The title "Geologic Moments" is the name of the Molissa Fenley choreography - which includes music by Eastman *and* Glass. The music here by is actually two compositions - (1) an untitled work (or title currently unknown) composition for two pianos, and (2) "One God" a quasi-improvisatory work for voice and piano.

[@postmeback]

Dear Dustin, Many thanks for this helpful information. I was going on the information in the essay 'Julius Eastman: A Biography', by Renne Levine Packer,, which states: "Dancer-choreographer Molisaa Fenley knew Julius Eastman from their days on The Kitchen tour of Europe in 1980. In 1985-6 she choreographed 'Geologic Moments' for the Brooklyn Academy of Music's Next Wave Festival. The evening-length work enlists the music of two composers. Music for the first section is by Philip Glass; the second section is a version of Julius Eastman's 'Thruway' for two pianos, performed by the composer and Joyce Solomon; the third segment is a piece for voice and piano performed by the composer, titled 'One God', alluding to the fact that all religions have the idea of a creator." (Packer and Mary Jane Leach, eds., 'Gay Guerilla: Julius Eastman and his music', University of Rochester Press, 2015, p.61)

[@ltcoptic]

People, unfortunately, are mis-remembering lots of details and this stuff is getting printed. The score for "Thruway" doesn't even have a piano in it - it's also essential a graphic score - so not even practical to transcribe or arrange for pianos.

[@postmeback]

Thanks for the clarification! I've amended the video title and description accordingly. I've just been reading about the That Which is Fundamental festival of Eastman's music which you're organising -- it looks really exciting and necessary, and am only sad that I can't make it across the Pond to see it! Incidentally, do you know if any recordings of 'Thruway' exist?

[@ltcoptic]

thanks... ! wish we could bring the project all around the world! and yes - there is a recording of "Thruway" in the University of Buffalo archive... the quality is pretty low... Maybe the most accurate title would be "music for "Geologic Moments"" or something....
interestingly, the video from this performance shows both pianist reading from sheet music - and this is from after the time he got evicted and lost scores.... so this score may still be out there somewhere....

[@postmeback]

Have updated the video title accordingly. Mentions of lost scores are tantalising indeed -- and the recordings in the archives -- especially, too, stories of improvised vocal performances which were likely unrelated to scores and lost unless recorded...Very pleased to see evidence of an Eastman revival in festivals such as That Which is Fundamental -- there were a few Eastman performances in London Contemporary Music Festival in December, including a superb rendition of 'Femenine' which was broadcast on the BBC, so hopefully this revival of interest will see more scores and recordings coming to light!

[@cameronmurphy8005]

Wow - how did you acquire this? cheers!