<< Front page Arts April 30, 2004

Percussion group impresses crowds

Percussion perks: Members of the Oberlin Percussion Group perform in Warner Concert Hall on Tuesday night.
 

Students, professors and members of the Oberlin community filled two thirds of Warner Concert Hall on Tuesday night at 8 p.m. for an intriguing concert by the Oberlin Percussion Group, led by Michael Rosen, that focused on contemporary composers. All the pieces performed were written by living composers within the last 20 years. The composers seemed to be interested in timbral effects and many utilized indeterminate performance procedures.

Performances of a short piece by Brian Fernyhough titled Fanfare for Klaus Huber opened both halves of the concert. The extensive program notes that accompanied the concert included the one-page score for this piece and a description by the composer of his intensions and the performance procedures. Both performances of the piece were playful, poised and stunningly accurate.

In addition to leaving the choice instrumentation up to the performers, Ferneyhough calls for a series of “UNIQUE SOUNDS,” sounds that are not to be repeated. The OPG players took this seriously and included a barrage of traditional and non-traditional percussion instruments from all over the globe, side by side with random sonorous objects like sheets of thin metal and empty applesauce and Bacardi bottles. They used a different set for each performance, one of which was situated in the center of the audience.

The world premiere of Dominique Lemaitre’s Ksi was, perhaps, the gem of the concert. This subtle exploration of timbres and rhythms called for a number of pitched and non-pitched instruments including marimbas, timpanis, bells, snare drums, bass drums, chimes, gongs and others. The pitches in the marimbas seemed to circle around some sort of loose central tonality but refused to concretely establish or deny it. The piece, in effect, floated subtly and with ease in and out of different tonalities and featured some very inventive and fresh composite sounds.

In one of the piece’s most interesting moments, an eerie ostinato figure of even notes in a unison rhythm but various pitches emerges from one of the quieter parts of the piece and provides a backdrop for one of the smaller sections. Lemaitre’s piece displayed a boldly individual sound and the OPG, under Rosen’s simple and clear conducting, provided a stellar premiere. Lemaitre had traveled to Oberlin for the premiere and joined the players onstage after the performance for a long round of applause.

While people returned to their seats for the second half, three OPG players with sticks of wood in each hand came to the front of the stage and began hitting the sticks together in an extremely complicated, choreographed succession of rhythms, meters and movements.

The piece, which Rosen later announced was Click by Mary Ellen Childs, sounded like something out of the show Stomp but with more intricate rhythms and meter changes.

The audience went wild afterwards and the performance communicated an important message: because of the abstract nature and indeterminate elements of the concert, some inexperienced listeners could miss the technical prowess and musical intuition that these players have. Click reminded the audience that it was listening to precise and well rehearsed music, not random sounds in some sort of total improvisation.

The ensemble also performed The Frame Problem by James Romig, Anima by Theodore Wiprud, Drama by Guo Wenjing, Strange Attractions by Sebastian Armoza, and Cross Section by Akio Yasuraoka. All of the performances were equally thrilling and the concert itself was undeniably a success.


 
 
   

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