Oberlin’s Contemporary Music Ensemble performed their second concert of the year last Saturday evening with a particularly thought-provoking program. The various ensemble groupings presented works all composed in the late 20th century, save for one, including movements from a piece by Composer-in-Residence Philippe Manoury.

First to appear was a trio piece for violin, cello and clarinet, performed by sophomore James Garlick, junior Gwendolyn Krosnick and fifth-year Jacob Wise, respectively. Written by New York native Elliot Carter, Con Leggerezza Pensosa (With Thoughtful Lightness) (1990) was expertly maneuvered by the three musicians, conducted by CME director Timothy Weiss. Textural pizzicato figures were sprinkled throughout, helping give air to the occasional sustained chord. Ending with a fast and light flurry of notes, Carter described his work as being serious but also light.

Manoury’s composition was featured next, consisting of two movements from Le Livre des Claviers (1997). The first movement, “Marimba Duet,” was very much a marimba conversation. Ideas shifted back and forth between the two percussionists, junior Matthew Cook and senior Jared Twenty, with seamless ease.

Manoury explained his intention that “phrases are constructed with a series of points that connect together, cross, intersect and collide.” This movement sounded like a conversation because of the musical threads between the parts, and the interplay between the two talented musicians was convincing.

The second movement featured from Manoury’s work was “Vibraphone Solo,” a piece that developed characteristics of the instrument. Senior Jonathan Hepfer, who performed this piece at the recent Danenberg Honors Recital, once again impressed the audience with his artful mallet work. Interestingly, the piece focused not only on the creating but also the ending of sounds with mallets and fingers. Manoury, who is one of the world’s leading composers and computer music researchers, related this dampening of sound to “the role of filters in electronic music.”

The next piece, Different Trains (1988) by Steve Reich, was one for a live string quartet (Garlick and junior Tae-Hee Im on violin, Krosnick on cello and first-year Clio Tilton on viola) and pre-recorded performances, including three other string quartets, train sounds and speech from interviews with individuals. It was an interesting and, at times, cryptic program piece combining Reich’s childhood love for trains with comparisons to the Holocaust, which took place during his younger years.

Different Trains was composed of three movements: “America before the war,” “Europe during the war” and “After the war,” unified by the idea of how the trains in these different places were being used for different ends. Steady string ostinatos with slow changing chords dominated the sound coming from the stage, leaving no question as to what was being portrayed. Bits and pieces of spoken text were interspersed throughout each movement, and the repetitive strings changed tempos and tones to accompany the character of every clip, which in turn was being featured in a solo by one of the live string players.

After the words from the Americans came recordings of Holocaust survivors speaking of their experiences. At one point, during a transition into the last section, the string ostinato disappeared leaving a striking void. The last section told of post-war life, riding trains across America and settling back into normal life.

Serenata No. 2 (1957) was next on the program, composed by Bruno Maderna. Although this piece was the only one that did not fit the trend of the composition date, it was composed during a time of musical turmoil when composers in the post-war world were trying to work out the next step. This was an excellent choice of music considering the time frame of the previous Reich piece.

Maderna’s work was fascinating, played passionately by the 13-piece ensemble. The music was delicate and slow, passing ideas around the group before growing and fading until a new one started. The music reached a dense, growling chord at one point, and then returned to a quiet trumpet call. This movement of sound flushed away expectations of tonality and easily let listeners enjoy musical textures and colors.

Last was Jonathan Harvey’s Wheel of Emptiness (1997), the most recent work of the night, performed by a 16-piece ensemble. The title refers to Buddhist teachings of attaining freedom from the self and the ego. In addition to being influenced by Buddhism, Harvey was “marked by the teachings of…Rudolph Steiner’s anthroposophy,” a form of spiritual science.

The music produced from this piece was a soundscape. Circular bowing, multiphonics, polyrhythms, various percussion instruments and a MIDI keyboard that sampled acoustic sounds were all part of the composition and helped bring together Harvey’s surging ideas.

The large crowd in Warner was extremely warm during the performance. CME continues to draw a keen and appreciative audience from both the Conservatory and College pools, and has yet to come up short in deliverance. The ensemble will be performing next on Fri., Dec. 8, at 8 p.m. in Warner Concert Hall.