Oberlin Wind Ensemble Ends Academic Season with Performance on Friday, May 12, 8 P.M. in Finney Chapel By Emily Manzo
	RELATED Arnold's Program Notes About Mitchell Arnold   THE PROGRAM Rrrrrrr...(1981-82) by Mauricio Kagel (b.1931) Book II Reveille / Retraite Rheinländer Ritornell I Ritornell II - Rhapsodie Yün (1969) by Chou Wen-chung (b.1928) Rrrrrrr... by Kagel Book I Raccontando Rauschpfeifen Rejdovák Register Réjouissance - Reprisen INTERMISSION Serenade in E-flat Major, KV.375 Wolfgang Amadéus Mozart (1756-1791) Allegro maestoso Menuetto Adagio Menuetto Finale (Rondo - Allegro)		The Oberlin Wind Ensemble, under the direction of Mitchell Arnold, visiting assistant professor of conducting, will perform its final concert of the year on Friday, May 12, 8 p.m. in Finney Chapel. The concert, featuring works by Mauricio Kagel, Chou Wen-Cheng and W.A. Mozart, is free and open to the public. In reflecting upon the Wind Ensemble performances this year, Arnold says in this pre-concert interview, "All the Wind Ensemble programs have been challenging and fulfilling. Timothy Weiss, director of the ensemble, sets a very high standard for the students and I know this program will again present great challenges in virtuosity for the students." The program includes an early wind piece written in 1781 (Mozart's Serenade in E-flat Major) and a piece written in 1981 (Kagel's Rrrrrrr...). "Ironically," says Arnold, "The piece written in the last 20 years makes vague references to music dating from even earlier than the Mozart senerade." Arnold on the Program: Mitchell Arnold, Visiting Assistant Professor of Conducting "'Rrrrrrr...' by Mauricio Kagel, is a work for a large ensemble (winds, brass, basses and percussion) and so utilizes most of the players in the ensemble. It is difficult to grasp the challenging rhythms, balances and textures in what is at times an extremely dissonant context." Arnold adds, "Kagel has become one of Europe's foremost and most prolific contemporary composers. Writing stage, orchestral, and chamber works, film scores and radio plays, his works are noted for their originality, humor, irony and absurdism. Kagel's characteristic acerbity and irony are evident in many of the pieces from 'Rrrrrrr...' which the ensemble will play on Friday. Some rather vaguely relate to the titles, often clouded by dissonance, fragmentation and multiple layers of activity. "Chou's piece, 'Yun,' which is second on the program, calls for difficult nuances in pitch, vibrato and dynamics in order to create its delicate sonorities," Arnolds says. "Yun" was composed in 1969, and is scored for flute, clarinet, bassoon, horn, trumpet, trombone, piano and a large variety of percussion instruments to be played by two musicians. Reaching back into the 18th century, the ensemble will end the program with Mozart's Serenade in E-flat Major. Although originally written in 1781 for pairs of clarinets, bassoons and horns, the Serenade was later expanded in 1782 to include two oboes and it is this version for octet that will be performed Friday. "Such small wind ensembles were quite the rage in the 1780's in Vienna; Mozart, in fact, had arranged Abduction from the Seraglio for such an ensemble," says Arnold. "The first movement is cast in the form of a noble march yet its florid, cadenza-like melodies suggest certain operatic aria-types. Later, in the recapitulation, Mozart inserts a gavotte-like dance initially featuring the horn. The second and fourth movements are minuets, typical of the Serenade's genesis as evening entertainment," continues Arnold. "Mozart calls for virtuosic technique balanced by accomplished musicianship from all members of the octet."
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