Rutherford Hayes steals the show in Con

Student composers show offers wide cross section of new music

November ran the composition department ragged, for it was a stacked month of New Music at the conservatory. Student composers pulled in the reins on the Friday, Nov. 21, presenting a large amount of material and in fairly decent concert attire. Their turkey-come Thanksgiving Day-was well deserved.

The evening began with junior Rob Reich's "The Galilee Hitchhiker," a boggling little world based on text by Richard Brautigan. Enclosed in a repetitive piano intro and recessional, one got the sense of screwing on an acid eyeball and witnessing surreal episodes, such as "The Flowerburgers," "Insane Asylum," "My Insect Funeral," or-quite fittingly-"Salvador Dali." An excellent show by all of the performers, especially vocalist junior Katherine Miller who, like others in this piece, appeared at least once again on the program.

Sophomore Wally Scharold, for example, left Rob Reich's "Insane Asylum" ripe for a high-wattage appearance as the soloist in a quasi-concerto for trombone. Sophomore Vincient Calianno's 30-minute creation entitled "Rutherford B. Hayes," initiated an 'anti-virtuoso,' by indicating in the score "that the soloist should not know how to play the trombone."

Much to the discomfort of Conservatory Administration, Calianno chose to stretch the resources available in Warner Concert Hall as well, including chairs thrown from the stage and the dropping of the lid of a 9-foot concert grand piano from its full, upright position.

Calianno's piece had no intention of staying within the confines of any establishment, concert programming time included. While the chairs and lids and theatrics of the soloist were artistically conceived and even aesthetically pleasing, Calianno's large scale work really needed an evening of its own. Seemingly oblivious to this concept, the ensemble went on to play an encore to the enthused audience members-many of whom left directly after, missing another hour of good compositions.

Highlights from the post-trombone extravaganza include first-year Rachel Sarchet-Waller's "Violin Solo," as performed by graduate student Etienne Abelin, a light piece with what sounded like occassional hints of baroque dance suite.

"sometimes i think i'm a bad person" by junior Corey Dargel rang listeners through a psychological spin cycle. What characterizes most of Dargel's works is a driving monotony that can-and should-become disconcerting. Like the sour taste buds on your tongue, Dargel's piece hit the sour palette of your ear, and made you like it. Something near ecstatic discomfort was reached by the end of this brilliant work.

Miller's performance in junior Evan Gardner's "One Art" displayed her versatility by singing in more of a jazz style. Although the music was extremely bland and emotionally stagnant, Miller's unique tone gave the audience something nice to listen to.

Scharold's "Fall Break Improv" was a four movement work for tape playback. Scharold on guitars, prepared guitars, quasi-alto saxophone, throat percussion, found object percussion voices and a variety of other things produced more than a lot of us in his ten days off. "Cleft Loggerz," or Movement III, was the height of this very sensual funk-infused material.

"Standard Stoppages" by sophomore Yvan Greenberg was a different test for the ear, as oboe, cello and bass were spread to the parameters of Warner. The instruments passed anemic tones over the audience member's heads, as everyone waited-in vain-for some resounding space to be filled.

By the end of this huge program, first-year Richard Sanford's "Groundbeat: Dena" felt like a cruel trip to Shopper's World. Segments of cheezy melody created a browsing-background music feel, and refused to do much else.

Unique to this evening, composers invited audience members to a post-concert talk, where they would discuss their pieces. An alternative-or supplement, in some cases-to program notes, this is a way to add more information to the musical information being received. After such a long concert, the talk was sparsely attended.