Oberlin Wind Ensemble to Explore the Reconstruction and Creation of Sound on Sunday, December 5, 8:00 PM in Finney Chapel Story and photos by Michael Chipman
	THE PROGRAM • Chorali by Aulis Sallinen; • Serenade No.1, Op. 11 by Brahms Free & open to the public		The Oberlin Wind Ensemble's program on Sunday, December 5, will offer selections by Brahms and Sallinen "one, a beautiful recasting of a widely known orchestral work , the other a reverberant, sonorous piece that fits the hall's acoustics," says Mitchell Arnold, visiting assistant professor of conducting and conductor of the group. The performance, free and open to the public, will begin 8:00 p.m. in Finney Chapel. The major work on the program, Brahms' Serenade in D major, Op. 11, will be performed in its original nonet instrumentation. "This is actually a reconstruction of the well-known orchestra Serenade," explains Arnold. "Brahms originally composed this piece for five winds and four strings -- and it was in this form that the work was premiered in 1859. He either sensed that it might work better as an orchestral piece, or that his style was already so orchestral in scope that an arrangement for orchestra was a natural outgrowth. Only the orchestral version has survived; the original version has never been found. In 1988, Jorge Rotter made a reconstruction based on the original instrumentation." Arnold adds, "We don't know what revisions Brahms made when expanding the original to its orchestral form. Did he just change the instrumentation? Perhaps he also added or removed measures, or even substantial portions? Rotter's is an excellent reduction of the orchestral version: a carefully thought-out solution to the problem of reconstruction. There are some places that are exactly the same as the orchestral version, such as the opening of the Minuet. Clearly Brahms retained the original instrumentation in the orchestral version in this case." Mitchell Arnold, Visiting Assistant Professor of Conducting Arnold says the reconstructed serenade provides the Wind Ensemble a great opportunity to play music of Brahms. "None of his other chamber works would fit the wind ensemble's instrumentation," he says. "This is the only Brahms work for nine musicians with a significant role for a group of winds. I wanted the students to have a chance to play something like this." The first piece on the program is Finnish composer Aulis Sallinen's "Chorali." Arnold says Sallinen is one of Finland's premier composers. "In 'Chorali' he explores the resonant qualities of sound mass," says Arnold. "This is a work for large ensemble that creates the massive sonorities reminiscent of complex, multi-voice Renaissance choral compositions. It is a great piece to perform in Finney's resonant, reverberant space." "Chorali" requires a large ensemble, consisting of 36 musicians. "Sallinen immediately signals to the audience one of the processes he uses to fill up musical space," says Arnold. "He starts with a single note and very gradually over the first eight measures, expands to a sonorous complement of nine notes before collapsing in a reverse by the fifteenth measure." Arnold says this pattern of expansion and contraction happens several times in the piece, "but always with modification. In between each statement there are contrasting episodes: a plaintive melody first introduced by the oboe, and a solemn figure first introduced by the trombones that is very reminiscent of strict Renaissance counterpoint. These episodes, and modified restatements roll over the listener in waves, one fading into another."
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