at least remain silent aims to bring people closer

Homoerotic nude male photographs on concert publicity posters were too much to handle for students and faculty at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, especially when associated with a gay affirmative message. CCM student conductor, Miguel Felipe was simply trying to publicize for at least remain silent, a musical pastiche written and conceptualized by himself and Oberlin Conservatory junior, Corey Dargel.

Members of the community continued their ultra-conservative antics up to the October 31 premiere, which received an overwhelmingly positive response and left standing room only in CCM's Watson Hall.

at least remain silent will make its Oberlin debut tonight in Warner Concert Hall at 8 p.m. Since anti-gay sentiments at Oberlin are rare (or hidden), the lack of homophobic fuming over at least remain silent has resulted in less hype than it received in Cincinnati. This fact should not cast a denigrating shadow on the powerful message behind the work, and the intention of its co-creator, Dargel, "to make people want to hold each other."

at least remain silent will be performed by a core of Cincinnati imports: a string quartet, soprano Betsy Sutton, soprano Michael Maniaci, an oboe and harpsichord. The work is a trope combining the music of J.S. Bach, Dargel, Morissey, The Indigo Girls, and R.E.M., the poetry of Frank O'Hara, and spoken text by Dargel. "Only about 50-60 percent of the piece is brand new and the rest is overlay of preexisting materials, or appropriation of Bach," explains Dargel.

"I'm interested in the juxtaposition of things," says Dargel. "The piece is traditional, conventional, in a musical sense. The only surprise is that there's all of a sudden canned pop music during a Bach aria - which is striking... I suppose."

at least remain silent presents a "situation of someone, [who could be identified as Dargel, or the male soprano], unable to communicate, unable to reach out, for unnameable reasons."

Dargel's arrangement of texts is at times witty, clever, and more often, ironic. The Bach Weichet Nur(Wedding Cantata), BWV 202, stands as framework for the piece and provides a light-hearted introduction. The German text here translates: "Flora's pleasure wants to grant the heart nothing but merry happiness, for she is bringing flowers."

Dargel's male soprano enters, "I probably shouldn't say anything," and then shifts to Dargel's setting of Nocturne, by Frank O'Hara. "There's nothing worse than feeling bad and not being able to tell you," says O'Hara, negating the joy and optimism of the wedding cantata only measures before.

Bach's Gavotte, the penultimate section of the piece, bids the newly weds "a thousand bright days of well-being, so that in the near future your love will bear blossoms." Morissey's I'm the End of the Family Line follows.

The only adjustments made after at least remain silent's first performance in October are slight alterations in the lengthy sections of Bach. Some audience members commented to Felipe and Dargel that they wished to hear more "new music," which are encouraging words for any composer. Dargel refrained from lengthening his own compositions, however, out of the rationale that his music is "extremely emotionally draining for the audience and the performers. They need the less urgent, very dry Bach arias to recover."

After attending just one Concert of New Student Works over the course of the year, a listener would become familiar with Dargel's interest in provoking a feeling close to discomfort in the audience. "I want to show that Classical music is not elusive, I want people to feel something," says project collaborator Felipe. "I want listeners to react. If people are just going to listen, clap, go for a drink and that's the end of it, why bother?" Dargel's intent is "to present a situation to the audience, and leave them with the responsibility to acknowledge that this situation exists."

Some have complained that Dargel's work can seem too confrontational, confessional, or politically evocative. "A lot of the time, what is truly personal or autobiographical, is by nature, political," says Dargel. "To try and avoid those politics of expressing myself is dishonest."

at least remain silent will be performed tonight in Warner Concert Hall at 8 p.m.