Who would have thought that such contrasting styles of music could be celebrated at just one concert? The Ithaca College Chamber Orchestra presented two contrasting but equally epic pieces of music at their concert on Friday, October 3rd, 2014. The first was Fred Sturm's Terra Madre, a contemporary piece written for soprano saxophone, percussion, and string orchestra. (How do you even conceive the idea of combining those instruments?!) The second piece was Tchaikovsky's Serenade for Strings in C, Op. 48, a more conventional choice for a chamber orchestra, but an equally memorable performance.
Terra Madre has 9 movements, each of which represents a different country of the world. The piece as a whole is a plea for world peace, and it seeks to achieve this dream by creating a sort of musical collage of cultures. Each movement contains sounds that are uniquely indigenous to the region they represent. The ICCO performed six of the nine movements. After the performance, my one critique was that there didn't seem to be a flow; as a listener, I didn't feel that there was a line connecting all of the movements to each other, as there should be, especially in a piece that is supposed to be striving for unity. It wasn't until after the concert, when I researched the piece, that I realized that the movements the ICCO had chosen to perform were not actually adjacent to each other in the full context of the piece, so it made sense that the flow was a bit off. And besides, it didn't really matter. Each individual movement was its own experience. One of the movements, entitled Appalachia and written for the U.S., consisted solely of tambourine and body percussion, the latter being provided by the audience! My favorite movement was the one written for the Democratic Republic of the Congo, called Rainforest; it was full of excitement, complete with wild percussions and lively string lines. The soprano sax, played by Marco Albonetti, soared above the orchestra throughout the entire piece. Albonetti's sound was spirited and smooth, and in a physical sense he reminded me of Ian Anderson, a flautist who is known for playing unconventional music and for his visual appeal when playing. Both Albonetti and Anderson have a way of bending their torsos and lifting one leg to create a pose that resembles a flamingo, which I think adds a certain element of freedom and abstractness to the music!
Here's a video of Ian Anderson's famous "flamingo": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAgYOfBycV0
Now let's talk about the percussionist, shall we? Wow! Dane Richeson, who is actually an IC grad, played all of the percussions for Terra Madre on his own. If I had had my eyes closed, I would never have guessed that all of those intricate rhythms and foreign sounds were coming from just one man sitting on a box, with (literally) rings on his fingers and bells on his toes. Appalachia, in particular, was fascinating to behold; Richeson made such a wide range of sounds with just his two hands, his voice, and the tambourine, and the music was absolutely thrilling. He was also in charge of directing the audience for the parts that involved body percussion, and the sounds we made added depth to the overall sound. Also, for me sitting in the audience, being able to actively participate in the music made the experience so much more meaningful and enjoyable. For a moment, I was transported back to the Gospel Invitational that was held at IC last month, during which the entire audience was on its feet, singing and dancing along. Audience participation truly has the power to bring magic to any piece of music. During this particular piece, I felt like I was part of the composer's mission for world peace. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed Terra Madre, and I think that it definitely achieves unity, in many ways. Not only does this piece unite diverse cultures and ethnicities, but it also unites chamber music with many different musical styles and with instruments that are rarely paired with strings.
The second half of the concert was beautiful. The ICCO brought Tchaikovsky's Serenade for Strings to life with passion and enthusiasm. It was clear that the students were invested in the music emotionally, mentally, and physically. I often close my eyes when I'm listening to music, but for live performances I've found that it's good to keep them open because the visual is an important part of the experience. My favorite thing to do is to watch the conductor, partially because I always learn something new by observing them, but also because I like the thrill of anticipating what's coming next in the music based on the conductor's gestures. Since I had never heard this piece before, everything came as a surprise, and watching Jeffery Meyer conduct intensified the feelings associated with each passage. Watching him conduct was like watching a heartfelt dance that would be inconceivable if not performed with Tchaikovsky's String Serenade. Every aspect of the music was reflected in Dr. Meyer's movements, and like a conductor of electricity, he stood at the center and allowed all of the members of the ensemble to be connected to one another and to the piece. His gestures were so distinct that it was possible even for me, an audience member sitting near the back of Ford Hall, to identify patterns and associate movement with sound. I would see his head start to shake and his baton start to bounce a bit, and I'd get excited because I knew that that awesome staccato motif from the first movement was coming back! In the same way that it's usually more fun to jam to a song you know than one you've never heard before, being able to anticipate the direction that a piece is going to take makes the music feel more present in your body; your reactions happen right at the moment at which the action is taking place.
The Serenade for Strings was not perfect. There were moments when the orchestra was not totally together, particularly when the dynamics were very soft, but I applauded their efforts to achieve extreme dynamic contrasts. As a whole, the ensemble definitely managed to communicate the emotions behind the piece and tell a beautiful story; they were all clearly on the same wavelength in terms of the message they wanted to send. As a whole, the Chamber Orchestra concert was a great experience for me because I am quickly discovering a new appreciation, maybe even a love, for instrumental music the more I am exposed to it!
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