New Student Works displayed talented composers

The New Student Works concert in Fairchild Chapel Wednesday night was a delicious event. A motley set of pieces, involving everything from body movement to plastic plumbing pipes, entertained and impressed the audience with their originality.

The concert opened with junior Corey Dargel's perpetual for percussion ensemble. Each percussionist had the same four pages of music and chose an arbitrary order of the four pages to constitute his part in the performance. The three performers played simultaneously but independently. The voice of each percussionist was amplified, with each speaking open-ended phrases such as "what I mean is," and "I don't know what," and playing a rhythm identical to their speech-rhythms on percussion instruments that included a beer bottle, a light bulb, a woodblock, a snare drum, a cap gun, and a tam tam. In between these phrases, each player paused for anywhere from three to 45 seconds.

There was a progression throughout the piece which started with words spoken in unison with the instruments. By the end, the spoken phrases and the rhythms of the instruments did not line up. According to the composer, the composition attempted to portray a conversation in which all people have something important to say but cannot communicate with each other at all. The program notes read, "language is dead; please stop talking."

Evan Gardner's string quartet entitled Temples was Gardner's homage to Bartok. The heavily accented quartet consisted of expressive octatonic melodies. The piece was very rehearsed and well worth the long preparation. "It was difficult because of the amount of rehearsals needed for the piece, but I'm glad the quartet was committed," Evan commented.

Movement accompanied sophomore Margot Bevington's An Unusual melody. Senior Bill Stevens began the piece curled up on the ground singing a muffled melody into his legs. Singing in this fetal position affected the pitches very subtly. Beautiful, resonant vowels were altered dynamically and spectrally as Stevens changed his body position and cupped and un-cupped his hand over his mouth. The unique resonance of performance space allowed for overtones to be heard, although it was not the original intention of the composer. The piece was concluded by Stevens picking up speed while spinning around, still singing, then suddenly dropping to the ground. "I enjoyed the intensity of the piece and I've always loved spinning!" Stevens commented.

Junior David Wright used an old Scandinavian ballad he was familiar with as a basis for The Bonny Hind (Child no.50), a piece for voice and piano. Wright performed his composition, which began with a poignant a capella version of The Bonny Hind using the original melody. Wright then altered the melody in the second section which included piano. First-year Grisha Krivchenia said, "I liked the piece. It was really well performed."

Sophomore Peter Blasser's SD for video was both amusing and disturbing. Blasser's program notes raised many interesting questions. "With the recent death of someone close to me, I have been thinking about how life is really a cycle," Blasser wrote. Images ranging from a blood drenched 'dead' body to colored dots that pulsed along with the music were shown in the video. The piece included popular styles, guitar melodies and even bird sounds.

Sophomore Yun Du performed her piece Realization on Simultaneity for voice and CD, which displayed an excellent distinction between different traditional Chinese genres. In each of the three varying sections; "I. Opera(Peking Opera)," "II. Folk Tune (a Civil War folk tune)," and "III. Hymn (Chinese text, and chant to the AVALOK-ITESVARA BODHISATTVA)," Du used a new vocal quality to distinguish from the last. Du's piece was a demonstration of the fact that listeners tend to group all traditional non-Western music types together. "There's a tendency that when we think of traditional Chinese music, Peking Opera would be the representing one that embodies all," explains Du.

The mixed media piece,Weather Radio:1(elyria, oh amtrak station) by Kate Peterson was conceived during Winter Term, while the composer was snowed into her house. Peterson and another singer improvised with pitches and weather-type sounds, including hissing and blowing into the mike to produce a rumbling "thunder" effect. The two vocalists, pianist, saxophonist, and violist responded to computerized weather radio voices. The piano added a particularly beautiful aspect with sustained chords and a melancholy melody.

The talented and experienced Oberlin String Quartet comprised of juniors Kristen Waite, Rob Reich, Jon Brooks and sophomore Vin Calianno, gave a poignant performance of Jon Brooks's String Quartet. This amusing piece was filled with col legno (tapping and bowing with the wood of the bow) and popularly influenced styles. The constantly morphing texture of String Quartet grabbed the audience's attention and seemed to flow together despite its many varying elements.

Senior Jarred McAdams presented his piece, seriously not (MELANCHOLY WHALES) for tape and performer. Sophomore Yvan Greenberg performed the work, which included jumping and placing a hand over his mouth. These actions were independent from the music and "truly significant in that they occurred when you perceived them," according to McAdams. Although seriously not was suggestive of whale sounds, it was not composed with that intention, and its second title was to be tacked on after the composition was completed.

Before sophomore OrioN's for plastic plumbing pipes began, he encouraged the audience to "move around and treat it [his composition] almost as an intermission." The piece proved to be so intriguing that audience members stayed put and watched OrioN and the two other performers blow through instruments he invented, made of ten foot tubing. OrioN's instrument consisted of pipes into which he buzzed to produce a didjureedu sound with a slide to alter pitches. OrioN commented that most of the piece was improvised except for a few pitches that the performers agreed upon.

Sophomore Jacob Hughes walked up the aisle of Fairchild holding a candle and proceeded to create huge shadows of his hands on the chapel walls during his piece, entitled the Psalm 4:19 for tape. The haunting piece utilized organum with altered pitch, and samples from the movie, "The Prophecy ." While Hughes' actions were very dramatic, his intention was ambiguous. Hughes also stated that he held his hands in the candle flame "for show."

The two final pieces of the evening were Crowd Case for two guitars by conservatory sophomore Wally Scharold and Onion Rings for two guitars by Reich. Both composers participated in each piece. The morphing texture of Crowd Case consisted of rhythmic pizzicato with a pop style beat. Varying effects including beautiful harmonics, a rumbling effect and intense sounds altered with a pedal proved to be very effective. Reich's minimalist Onion Rings made excellent use of contrary sliding of pitches between performers. The length was short, but the music rich.

This New Student Works concert showed off the amount of talent among composers and was well received by the audience.

From the shadows: Works by conservatory students featured in Fairchild concert. (photo by Wes Steele)