By A calming teal backlit the stage of the Daniel Recital Hall on Tuesday to compliment the New Music Ensemble’s array of harmonious music to honor the late Carolyn Bremer.
Alan Shockley, director and professor of composition and theory said the group’s “arc of meditative music” was an appropriate program to commemorate Bremer, the associate director of the Bob Cole Conservatory of Music who died this September.
The contemporary music ensemble played five pieces during the “For Carolyn” concert including “For The Earth and the Wandering Moon,” an original piece composed by Bremer herself.
According to the evening’s program, Bremer based this composition on the third movement of “The Kore,” another one of her original compositions. The movement, titled “dromena,” is based on ancient Greek labyrinthine rope dances.
“The intricate patterns of rope dances and the cycles of nature inspired the wandering path of the music,” Bremer wrote.
After Bremer’s piece, which was the second piece of the night, Shockley asked the audience to close their eyes and reflect as the ensemble transitioned to the second half of the night.
“The composition of [Bremer’s] we did play is for open instrumentation, which means that an ensemble of any instruments can play it,” Shockley wrote in an email.
“Unanimity,” from Für kommende Zeiten by Karlheinz Stockhausen, which began the transition to the second half, took on a different tone, with intermittent notes being played in a rougher style that seemed to deviate from the tranquil piece preceding it.
The other pieces performed, “Awake” from Für kommende Zeiten, “Swell Piece No. 3” by James Tenney and “Für Alina” Arvo Pärt, used non-rhythmic flow and steady drones to envelop the audience in a sound of undisturbed peace.
Shockley, who directed the performance and briefly played the melodica on Swell Piece No. 3, chose these pieces to create a meditative theme.
“The Arvo Pärt piece at the end of the program is probably the most traditionally beautiful,” Shockley said. “It’s very simple; it says a lot with very few notes.”
The Arvo Pärt piece, “Für Alina,” was the fan favorite. The exposed, minimalist piece featured two pianos, a bass and percussion. It was composed in a Tintinnabuli style, a style created by Pärt to mimic the sounds of bells.
“Arvo Pärt is a favorite composer of mine,” said Dan Ramos, a fourth-year composition student. Ramos came to listen to Pärt, as well as to honor Bremer, who he described as “a star to everyone in the music department.”
Ramos’ friend, Paul Smith, a fourth-year composition and jazz studies major, agreed.
“I came partially from obligation, but also because I love Pärt and I saw that they were doing him,” said Smith. “I just [read] a book on Pärt; it was inspiring.”
Since the New Music Ensemble does not have set instrumentation, an array of instruments were present, from the throaty cellos bowing roughly on their strings and the airy flute, to the non-traditional instruments like the melodica and toy piano.
“Dr. Shockley never knows what instruments might come into the ensemble, so that’s why we play more of these types of pieces that can call for any instrumentation,” said Melissa Demarjian, a second-year graduate music and clarinet performance major.
Tiffany Ta, a fourth-year piano performance major, opted to play the toy piano, about two feet in height with a limited range of notes and dynamics, as well as a unique timbre.
“It adds a different sound to the whole ensemble,” Ta said.
To many, the night was dedicated towards reflecting on the life Bremer lived.
“She [was] the best listener in a faculty member that I’ve ever seen,” Shockley said. “She could really listen to student concerns and really hear them. Even if a student was really upset or speaking out of emotion … she could really tune into them and feel what they were saying. The student always felt like they were heard.”
The New Music Ensemble will perform 6 p.m. Friday, Nov. 16 at the Daniel Recital Hall. Tickets will be $7 for students and $10 for the general public. The ensemble will perform works from composers Sarah Kirkland Snider and Alvin Lucier.
