Contemporary music mesmerizes crowd

The Oberlin New Music Ensemble exhibited true virtuosity Wednesday night, when they performed the music of Olly Wilson, Harrison Birtwistle and Steve Reich, under the adept direction of Tim Weiss. The opening piece, Wilson's A City Called Heaven, was absorbing and intense. The audience was immediately engulfed in a kaleidoscopic sweep of sound. The piece, with its mesmerizing string melodies swooped and swelled, is reminiscent of a swarm of bees.

The piano melodies tease the listener with hints of jazz, a musical idiom that is an intricate piece of Wilson's past. The piece fades in and out of consciousness with the tone of the gong emphatically bringing the audience back into reality. This piece was both well conducted and well performed. Special recognition goes to Scott Forth and John Tarcza for their percussion performance.

Sir Harrison Birtwhistle's piece, Dinah and Nick's Love Song, consisted of three cellos and a harp. Birtwhistle has been praised as "one of Britain's leading composers of his generation." His recent works such as the opera The Mask of Orpheus and Gawain are a significant contribution to the development of postwar European opera. Dinah and Nick's Love Song demonstrates his love of classical mythology and pre-history.

For the piece, the four instrumentalists were spread out over the stage, facing each other. The piece began with a lovely trance-inducing harp melody. As the harp played, the cellos one by one joined her love song and began to tell their own ballad. The four instruments seemed to melt into one another, preserving the meditative feel of the piece. The audience seemed to enjoy the relaxing nature of the piece, perhaps a bit too much. Even though the overall musicianship of the piece was excellent, the piece was too static.

The third and final piece in the program was Steve Reich's Eight Lines. Reich's pioneering compositions in Minimalism have been inspiring young composers for decades. Eight Lines almost felt as if it was sequenced on a computer and played by a machine. The piece was rhythmic, and the pianos stayed as a constant throughout the piece, the flutes dropping in and out. The piece was lively indeed. This piece was another one that was hypnotic.