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CME Performance on Wednesday, September 29, 8 P.M., in Finney Chapel to Offer Works by Wilson, Birtwhistle, Reich and Garland.
Story by Claire Chase
Photo by Michael
Chipman
Concert Poster by Adrienne Leverette
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THE PROGRAM: A City Called
Heaven Dinah and Nick's
Love Song Eight Lines
(1979) String Quartet
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The
Contemporary Music Ensemble (CME) concert billed for
Wednesday, September 29 8 p.m., in Finney Chapel will offer
chamber works by Olly Wilson, Sir Harrison Birtwhistle,
Steve Reich and Peter Garland. The program will present a
wide variety of styles ranging from jazz/classical
cross-over music to lyric free-form and minimalism. The
concert is free and open to the public.
"There's a tremendous amount of contrast in the program, which for me makes the undertaking interesting," remarks Tim Weiss, director of CME and associate professor of wind conducting. "The three pieces balance one another with very different ideas and intentions."
Olly Wilson's A City Called Heaven was commissioned and premiered by the Boston Musica Viva chamber ensemble in 1989. The work is based on the traditional African-American spiritual, A City Called Heaven. Wilson frequently incorporates blues riffs, cross rhythms, blues-like melodic patterns and genres such as the "boogie woogie" into his instrumental compositions. In A City Called Heaven, his manipulation of jazz elements within the framework of classical notation creates, in Wilson's own words, "a composed realization of an abstract blues improvisation."
The second piece on the program, Sir
Harrison Birtwhistle's Dinah and Nick's Love Song, is
scored for harp and three sustaining instruments. "The
composer specifies that the three instruments be the same,
but he does not require that they be violins, violas, flutes
or any other particular sustaining instrument. We have
chosen to use cellos in this performance," explains Weiss,
"which will be positioned, as the composer intends, in the
shape of a triangle around the harp. This piece is unlike
Birtwhistle's other music in its free, rhythmic flow and
long, sustained, at times haunting lyric qualities. There
are no strict verticalities in the notation, and events are
not intended to happen together. The players just react to
each other's slowly changing patterns."
The final piece of the evening, Reich's Eight Lines (1979), is a perpetual-motion minimalist work for two pianos, amplified winds and strings. Though the Wednesday performance of this piece will be in traditional concert form, CME is slated to perform this work again next semester in conjunction with the Oberlin College Dance Department in a new, collaborative version choreographed by Carter McAdams, associate professor of theater and dance. The musicians will memorize their parts to this challenging 18-minute work and "move about the stage freely to Carter's wild choreography," explains Weiss.
The Birtwhistle and Reich have not yet been performed by CME under Weiss' direction, but the Wilson was performed in 1994 by members of the now-acclaimed eighth blackbird ensemble when, as Weiss fondly puts it, "they were all still just CME junkies." He adds, "what's nice about doing a piece for the second time is the feeling that I am not re-inventing the wheel."
Re-inventing the wheel is, according to CME members, the farthest goal for this dedicated group of contemporary chamber musicians. Senior flutist Eric Lamb of Detroit, Michigan asserts, "The group never fails to reach seemingly impossible, and often unprecedented, technical, artistic and ensemble demands."
According to CME members, the
collaborative nature of the rehearsal process contributes to
the success of the ensemble in the face of challenging and
unfamiliar repertoire. Sophmore violist Amy Cimini of
Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania explains, "Everyone gets to play an active role
in rehearsals, and there's a real sense of ownership and
impact in what we do." Senior pianist Mark Polesky of
Malvern, Pennsylvania adds, "Everyone's committed, unlike
the larger required ensembles, and every member wants to be
there."
"Besides, Tim Weiss rocks," says violist Erica Dicker, a junior from Normal, Illinois. Cellist Kivie Cahn-Lipman, a senior from Mt. Vernon, New York, continues, "I've worked with some of the greatest conductors of the world, and I'd take Tim over any of them."
Lamb concludes: "Tim is a diamond that lights the halls of this Conservatory. And we love making music with him!"
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