Handcuffs. Metal detectors. Slamming cell doors.
These are sounds that most people aren't familiar with.
Composer Phillip Bimstein knows that, and that's part of why he created "Lockdown," a three-movement musical work that incorporates these sounds, along with the voices of incarcerated youths — telling their experience in their own words.
"I have ideas from time to time about creating pieces from people's stories, people's voices, as well as sounds from their environment," Bimstein said.
He uses the sounds and voices as musical instruments and then combines them with traditional musical instruments to create a piece that is thought-provoking, true to its source and that can stand on its own as an accessible musical creation.
"Lockdown" will be performed by Bimstein and his group blue haiku on Saturday in the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center.
The project started when Bimstein received a "Meet the Composer" grant from New York, which was a three-year residency to write works based on the people and landscapes and communities of southern Utah. "All of the works that I planned to write were on the beautiful landscape and the stories of the people who grew up in the community.
"But I thought I just wanted to cover a little bit of the other side — in this case, the extreme other side, kids who are confined out in that landscape. Kids who have gotten into trouble. So it's quite different from what I was primarily telling. But still, I thought, it's still an aspect of our community."
Bimstein — who was mayor of Springdale at the time — went out to the Washington County Youth Crisis Center on a weekly basis (on average) to mentor the kids. He played examples from his own music and encouraged them to express themselves creatively in a positive, constructive way.
In addition in saying things to the young inmates, Bimstein also listened to them. He heard their feelings, their experiences. He got to know them.
And in addition to hearing their message, as a composer Bimstein heard the various noises as music. "I love sounds. They interest me, not just what they mean. Like a car horn means 'get out of my way' or the sizzle of the bacon means that the bacon is cooking. But for me, I also like sounds for their musical quality, for their texture.
"So I thought, well, what kinds of sounds could I find in this environment? Sure enough, there were all kinds of sounds. Slamming cell doors, electronic locks of the doors that the guards would operate from the control room. Their handcuffs and shackles. These beep-beep-beep sounds of various alarm systems, metal detectors, the sounds of the guards' radios, the sounds of the kids themselves."
To a composer's ears, they were percussion and melody.
So during his visits, Bimstein started taking along a tape recorder and microphone. He recorded the kids' voices, their stories, their experience.
"I don't write a script for them. I do create a script out of what they actually said, after the fact. I just kind of ask them questions."
The final product is a collaborative performance with a CD (which provides the kids' voices and the various "percussion") and three live performers on oboe, bass and guitar. Then, Bimstein's group, blue haiku, will have a notated score with certain key phrases and percussion sounds as cues.
While Bimstein hopes that the piece can provoke introspection and conversation for those in a similar situation, he said that it was written for a general audience. "I really like things that give us the opportunity to explore diversity, to understand other people's lives and situations and so I hope this piece does some of that. I hope it gives the listener a greater understanding of other people's lives."
If you go . . .
What: "Lockdown," blue haiku
Where: Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center, 138 W. 300 South
When: Saturday, 7:30 p.m.
How much: $12 and $15
Phone: 355-2787 or 971-0152
Web:www.arttix.org
E-mail: rcline@desnews.com