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Home »Concerts»MUCO 342 ( April 9th, 2006 )

"Mixing it up"

MUCO 342's class concert #1 was held April 9th in the Wirth Opera Studio at 8pm.


"exposure" - leah reid                                   
 jeff klassen , trumpet 

Exposure is centered around the amalgamation of two worlds: one that was real, tangible and everyday, and one that is surreal. I used two types of sounds to create this sensation: trumpet sounds which represent concrete ideas; and crystal glass sounds, which represent the abstract. In order to create an integrated sound world, I have the different sounds mimic each other. At times, the trumpet presents the melodies and the concrete ideas; at other times the trumpet is mimicing the abstract crystalloid world through quarter-tone glissandi that imitate the natural sound of the crystal glass. My piece is strongly centered on spectromorphological concepts and timbral evolution. All of my sounds grow from one to the other creating a sea of colors, ideas, and sounds. Most of the piece takes place in an imaginary, fantastical world. However, the trumpet part draws the piece back into reality and back to the tangible.

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"thrills, frills and trills or ode to clarinet" - susanne maziarz                                   
 mark bradley , clarinet 

My piece is dedicated to the sound of the clarinet in all its splendor. The electronics use only recorded samples of Mark playing his trusty Bb including some traditional repertoire as well as extended techniques and his own voice. Trills are featured throughout and the idea of audio streaming stems from the two pitches heard in a trill. Normally, we consider a trill to be one line of sound but with the help of electronics, this solo technique can become two distinct linear threads. Listen and enjoy !

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"impressions" - jake woszczyk                                   
 james seeley , alto saxophone 

Basically in this composition the underlying themes are two "musical realms"; one very structured and the other quite chaotic. To build these realms, I felt it was essential to take material from both themes and layer them to emphasize which theme has taken presence. For example, a very rhythmic repeated pattern uses melodic material from an improvised jazzy lick. The rythm is created by random key clicks extracted from that very jazzy lick. The piece is in two parts laying out all thematic material and both worlds are superimposed in full near the end. The role of the solo saxophone is to touch upon both rhealms either in harmony with the realms or not. All material was used strictly from a 20 minute recording session, the only sounds used were of the saxophone.

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"it's so bason" - austin corbett                                   
 georgeanne banker , bassoon 

The primary aim of this piece was to explore the space between notes, and similarly the space between the performer and the computer. I attempted to blur the line between the notes the performer was playing, and those on the computer, primarily through the use of out-of-tune drones. There is also in the piece a disguised quote from one of the most famous bassoon parts. In term of form, the piece is meant to evoke my own musical journey and understanding; as it moves from a twelve-tone system, to one more reminiscent of eastern forms and rhythms.

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"fluggiari" - rémy bélanger de beauport                                   
 justine verreault-fortin , flugelhorn 

Fluggari, pour buggle et bande: 13 minutes 13 secondes crées ce soir dans une salle construite a l'intérieur d'un cube. Pour l'occasion, j'invite l'uditeur à prendre conscience de sa propre respiration, de celle de son voisin, de celle de l'interprete, de celle de la pièce. Nous sommes sous terre. Fluggiari, pour flugelhorn et électronique: composée dans un local au 5e étage d'une bâtisse ancienne donnant sur une récete, où par deux miniscules fenêtres on peut presque apercevoir dehors.

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"twins" - lu ji                                  
 wensi yan , piano 

and now, a word from the composer...

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"oranges and lemons" - trevor grahl                                  
 suzanne maziarz  , melodica 

The title 'Oranges and Lemons' immediately calls to mind something silly, childish or perhaps just simplt fruity. During an objective comparison of childhood behavior, play activities, or particular scenes encountered in youth with those of a mature adult, one discovers a peculiar tension between the child's concept of the serious and the silly. A child's irate tantrum prompts laughter from those adults standing nearby; a group of children laugh as they play a theatre game causing an adult to watch in a still silence as she relives her youth; an entire room of adults roars with laughter except one young boy; for, the adult's joke is not yet comprehensible to the child. Oranges and Lemons explores this peculiarity between the youth's and adult's concept of the silly and serious. What particular characteristic must a sound have to make us receive it as foolish or grave, frightening or fun, weirdly wonderful or terribly terrifying? In this work, sounds are not to be taken at face value; for often times, the serious is the silly and the silly is the serious.

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