On Wednesday march 13 I attended a concert at Roy Barnett Recital Hall. As soon as I walked into a concert hall I realized this not a usual concert, there were many percussion instruments such as metal and wood, shakers, rattles and a couple more and this ensemble made me very curios since it was my first time to attending a percussion concert. The event featured the composers, Daniel Tones who is an award winning percussionist and Owen Underhill who is a active composer, artistic director and faculty member in the School for the Contemporary Arts at Simon Fraser University.
The concert start with a great hook that draw all my attention. Daniel Tones performed the piece called To the Earth by Frederic Rzewski where he played four flowerpots while he speaks. In this piece the musical and vocal text move simple parallel motion. Calming tunes there were created from the flowerpots and the percussionist speak like storytelling creates a very ritual atmosphere. Next, both performers, played the one the recent works of Owen Underhill and it was called A Symmetry Ritual. This piece was very fascinating because it does not look like anything I have seen before. In left side of the concert hall there were percussion instruments and on the right side there are some other percussion instruments symmetric the each other. Left side instruments were played by Owen Underhill and right side instruments played by Daniel Tones. In nine parts, it utilizes a variety of percussion instruments including frame drum and bongos, alto melodica, bells, whistles, ocarinas, toys and noisemakers. The work plays with symmetries and asymmetries, beginning with both players offstage, progressively moving to meet in the middle and then gradually moving apart again. Third piece was Invisible Cities by Linda Catlin Smith played with the vibraphone. In my opinion this piece, connections in melodic and harmonic material are presented very well, obscured, and again realized through subtle changes in color, texture, and density. And the last piece was Temazcal by Javier Alvarez. This is a piece which include traditional rhythmic patterns found in most Latin America music. In this piece the maracas were used in a accompanimental manner to a type that is played on the background. The sound sources on tape include harp, a folk guitar and double bass pizzicatti for the tape’s attacks, the transformation of bamboo rods being struck together for the rhythmic passages and rattling sounds created with the maracas themselves for other gestures.
Overall, I am very glad that I have attended to this concert and made new experiences. Also had the change of seeing two well know artist performing live. Besides the spiritual setting of the concert help to relaxed during the stressful exam period.