Grad Student Composers Write Music for the Experienced EAR

CONCERT

The California EAR Unit

presented by the Harvard Group for New

Music

at Paine Concert Hall

The California EAR Unit performed six intricate, daring compositions by graduate students in the Music Department at Paine Hall Saturday night. Accessible and exciting to watch, the modern classical pieces played by the Los Angeles-based ensemble effectively expressed a broad range of emotions and posed interesting questions about music itself.

The evening began with Period Piece by Anthony Brandt. Written for flute, cello, percussion and piano, the work featured a variety of sounds for each instrument. The piece was at times contemplative and at times frenzied, using a wide range of pitches and dynamics. The soft flute was mournful and beautiful, complemented well by the winding and rumbling cello and piano. The different percussion sounds blended into the ensemble at certain moments and provided dramatic punches at other times. The thickly layered timbre and palpable rhythmic texture made for an intense listening experience, topped off with a burst of sound at the end.

Zym by Peter Alexander wove contrasting registers and tempos into a 12-tone musical fabric. Unlike the tonal classical music of previous centuries, 12-tone music does not use a hierarchy of pitches and chords. The music configures and reconfigures arrangements of all 12 notes in a scale throughout any given piece. The result is a seemingly unpredictable array of sounds that are highly structured and self-reflexive. The piece--for violin, cello and piano--paired soft, slow sections with furious fortes. The instruments seemed to communicate with each other while establishing a fascinating harmonic tension.

Quartet by Alexandros Kalogeras creates an engaging atmosphere of flute, bass clarinet, percussion and piano (keys and strings). The piece begins with a ringing pulse of percussion played by the pianist and flutist and soft, lush bass clarinet. Such stylized, ritualistic moments are followed by dramatic rushes of flute, clarinet, piano strings and swirling, pounding percussion. It is wonderful to listen to and a pleasure to watch.

After intermission, the EAR Unit played Morning Chill by Takashi Koto, a piece for flute, clarinet, cello, violin and piano. Koto achieves deep, dark tone in the piece with instruments often holding on certain notes and going sharp or flat. The rising and falling dynamics add to the jarring atonality of the piece, creating a sensual and disturbing composition.

Raqsa bal Kamangani: Dance for Violin and Cello by Riad Abdel-Gawad juxtaposes Middle Eastern and Western sounds. The lower strings of both instruments are muted, raising the pitches by one-third. The piece opens with plucked violin and cello. The instruments make a rhythmic and harmonic pattern upset by occasional individual sounds. A mix of bowing and plucking follows, which then blends into furious bowing. The timbre is fascinating; the drama of the piece is rich.

The final selection of the evening was Fanatical Dances by Andrew Rindfleisch. The piece is written for piano, violin, cello, clarinet, flute and much percussion. The beginning of the piece features everyone except the flutist playing some kind of percussion--the cellist plays the back of the cello.

The texture and timbre of the piece are complex, exuberant and expressive. The clarinetist and flutist alternate between different clarinets and flutes, two percussionists play a wide range of instruments and the violinist and cellist play at times with their bows upside down. Wild, chaotic sections contrast with tame sections. The piece ends with a fitting explosion of sound which fades into silence.

The eight-member ensemble played these difficult pieces with considerable flair. All of the instrumentalists--Gloria Cheng on piano, Erika Duke-Kirkpatrick on cello, Arthur Jarvinen and Amy Knoles on percussion, Robin Lorentz on violin, James Rohrig on clarinets and Dorothy Stone on flutes--showed amazing versatility and intensity.

Unpretentious and genuinely bold, the concert brought an immediacy to classical music rarely evident in performances of Bach or Beethoven. Upcoming concerts of the Music Department and the Harvard Group for New Music merit attention from the Harvard community.