Composers/Performers: Mer Boel & Ruth Roland, violins; Hank Roberts, cello; Tim Reppert, bass. Guest appearance by Joe Frisino, guitar.
Water Bear founder Mer Boel writes the majority of the compositions on Skinnydipping, with two contributions ( [+]Composers/Performers: Mer Boel & Ruth Roland, violins; Hank Roberts, cello; Tim Reppert, bass. Guest appearance by Joe Frisino, guitar.
Water Bear founder Mer Boel writes the majority of the compositions on Skinnydipping, with two contributions (William and Wylatt) from Hank Roberts, the internationally known jazz cellist improvisor extraordinaire, and two from Ruth Roland (Carma and Janice).
"Water Bear is a string band and a string quartet, a new music ensemble and a folk music function, an improvising group and the presentation of a compositional modus. They sound like European folk musics, like Central and South American musics, like chamber or classical music, and like rural music from our own puddingstone of a country. Nevertheless, they sound like themselves."
-Ithaca Times, Bert Patterns (Robert Patterson), August 8-14, 2001
The Name Music on Skinnydipping is inspired by people's names, and the desire to honor people through music. As explained by Mer Boel:
"Usually what happens is that I find myself thinking about a particular person, reflecting on the qualities they seem to have, both inner and outer qualities. I recall what makes the person laugh, what their vulnerabilities are, how they approach life, or perhaps I am struck by some recent events in their life. Maybe we've had a conversation that has resonated with me. I become curious to hear how the music for their name would sound, and that's it, I'm off and running.
"So I write out the pitches, in order, for the letters in the name, based on the correspondence system I developed where the alphabet fits the first position range on the violin. I play around on my violin with these pitches, trying out different rhythms, styles, and seeing if a particular direction feels right for this person. Usually I pluck my violin, but sometimes I use the bow also during this phase. What are the next parts of the melody for this name? Or should the name pitches be a sort of repeating ground motif? I see what inspirations come, and write them down in pencil (this is smarter than using pen, which I also sometimes do) on some music notation paper.
"Sometimes a whole section of melody will come to me as one piece, flowing very easily, and I have a sensation of knowing that this is right f
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