Oberlin composers will join forces with students from four other prominent composition schools this weekend in a rapid-fire series of concerts featuring recent student works from around the Midwest.
Senior composer Adam Schoenberg encouraged college Obies to attend.
“It’s a great opportunity, not only for other composers, but the community,” he said. “Composers at Oberlin have certain styles, but now there are styles from four other universities as well.”
Spanning genres from electronic music to experimental rhapsodies, the annual Midwest Composers’ Symposium is rotated every year between the Universities of Michigan, Illinois and Iowa, Indiana University and Oberlin. The oldest student composer’s festival in the United States, will celebrate its 50th anniversary this weekend.
Oberlin is the only non-graduate program in the symposium, which includes one large orchestra and choir concert Friday in Finney and four smaller ensemble concerts Saturday in Fairchild Chapel and Warner Concert Hall.
“What makes this event special is it’s all about the students,” composition professor Lewis Nielson said. “The faculty doesn’t interfere too much.”
Explaining how students from each school relate to each other, he said, “We set up times when students can talk, and let them take it from there.”
Each school’s composition faculty submits a list of pieces to the host school for consideration. This year, seven Oberlin composers will have their works performed.
Senior composer Nathan Sutter’s piece Tilth, for 12 strings, is arranged in six duets. To write the piece, Sutter composed 19 duets on pieces of manuscript paper, each around three to four minutes in length. He arranged them, overlapping and connecting the parts until he found a satisfactory arrangement. The piece itself is without rhythmic meter and includes specific vibrato indications and col legno — playing the instrument with the wood of the bow.
Schoenberg’s piece, Fleeting, though not tonal, is hardly experimental either, he said.
“The piece builds up, builds up tension,” Schoenberg said. But since the drop-off after each climax is so quick, “it doesn’t give the audience a chance to digest things.”
Senior Clara Latham’s piece String Trio, begins with every instrument on the same pitch. The piece then changes timbres abruptly into a section of harmonics, ending with a section in which the violist bows directly onto the wooden side of the instrument.
According to Latham, the effect of bowing the instrument is a whisper so quiet it is often inaudible. She added, however, that String Trio will be performed in Fairchild Chapel, so the effect should be heard.
Other Oberlin compositions on this weekend’s programs include: Dal Niente, Al Niente (by senior Michael Leibowitz), Paper Tigers (by senior Angie Knotts), Mobile (by junior Michael Weyandt), and Faultliner (by senior Clint McCallum).
Midwest Composers’ Symposium Concert I: Finney. Friday, Feb. 14 at 8 p.m. Concert II: Fairchild Chapel. Saturday, Feb. 15 at 10 p.m. Concert III, IV and V: Warner Concert Hall. Saturday, Feb. 15 at 2 p.m., 4 p.m. and 8 p.m.