Kassof - Collective Bargaining (LIVE) by Evan Kassof

Performed by the 2018 Temple Composers Orchestra and conducted by Adam Vidiksis. ---Program Note--- Collective Bargaining is the process used by unions and their employers to come to negotiated, binding agreements on the terms of work for members of the union. The process is complex, slow, and rarely leads to a contract either side is happy with. Both sides are tasked with submitting proposals and counterproposals ad nauseum to slowly force the other side into accepting their terms. Collective Bargaining, this work for chamber orchestra, is a musical mapping of this obtusely convergent process. A slow convergence of harmoniousness (partials of the overtone series slowly converging on the fundamental E) is juxtaposed with wild gestures equally slowly converging into a singular voice. Indifference from management (microtonal chords in the winds and brass) is met with increasingly organized responses from the workers (aleatoric gestures in the strings) until inevitably something close-to-but-not-quite-right is reached. This work is based on my own experiences negotiating for the Temple University Graduate Student Association – the AFT local union tasked with representing the graduate employees (e.g. Teaching Assistants) at Temple University. Although not intended to give voice to the plight of any specific group of individuals negotiating – often under great duress – for reasonable working conditions, health care, and a living wage, Collective Bargaining is about how every little bit of good working conditions is hard-won. It is dedicated to my friends on the TUGSA Contract Negotiation Team whose tireless efforts have delivered a good (but not one we’re completely happy with) contract.

Genre

contemporary classical