Composition Concert

I am always one for supporting my fellow students, musicians, and artists when it comes to performances and shows.  Ever since last year’s Dominant 7 concert featuring student composers, I’ve had a new found respect for music composition.  Talking to my peers in the music program at the Aaron Copland School of Music, I’ve come to realize exactly how rigorous a music career is, and how complex the writing process can be.  Tonight’s concert, presented by the Queens College New Music Group, featuring Talujon (a professional percussion ensemble) did not disappoint!  The group mentored Queens College composition students for the past several weeks of this semester, culminating with the amazing feat of writing sixteen phenomenal works of art!  I was, yet again, blown away by the talented musicians and composers that my school fosters.

The program started off with eight short pieces for solo cello, each piece composed by various students in the music department.  The cellist, Sverre Bauge, performed each piece of “portable music” (as the program names them) with emotion and heart.  I’ve always found the cello to be one of the most soulful sounding instruments.  Many works exhibited percussive elements: heavy plucking in which the string audibly hit the finger board, tapping and hitting the wood, and screeching noises emanating from the roughly bowed strings.  Even without a melodic or tonal center, Bauge was able to make each work sound beautiful.  I found these pieces in particular to be quite programatic.  Alida Torres’s The Unavoidable Sentiment When You could easily have been the soundtrack to a silent short film, as Bauge went from playing quite softly to creating jarring sounds by bowing beneath the bridge.  Sam Hoyland’s String of Pearls and George Weisman’s Lento were some of the more melodic arrangements for the cello.

One is always in for a treat when going to a percussion concert.  There is such a variety of instruments when it comes to this type of ensemble: chimes, marimbas, xylophones, snares, gongs, you name it!  Not only this, but the various instruments were used in non-traditional ways.  At times, the musicians would use a bow on a xylophone.  In Alexandra Nicoletti’s Eras: Liturgical, Primitive, and Modern, she plucked the strings of the grand piano instead of playing the keys.  In Alida Torres’s Ceremony for the Mammals of the Sea, she had the percussionists use uncommon mallets for instruments such as the base drum, creating the sound of a “humble whale.”

I would always recommend attending concerts of premiering compositions.  It’s exciting for the audience, the performers, and the composers!  It’s also always interesting to hear the influences of various music genres within the pieces, especially when the musicians writing the works are students who are currently studying music history and theory.  I extend my congratulations to all who performed and composed for tonight’s fabulous performance, and I hope to hear some more Queens College originals soon!

The Queens College New Music Group
LeFrak Concert Hall
October 22, 2013

Marina B. Nebro