Author Archives: alireza arbabian

The UBC Jazz Ensemble on March 28th was a rather special concert. I got lucky in that the particular program I attended was featuring a guest soloist with the name of Chad Makela, a well known Baritone Saxophonist who has travelled all over North America to showcase his talents. As a result, I think the director made an effort to fit in more saxophone solos to display Mr.Makela’s talent.

Despite being an avid jazz listener, this ensemble was my first time seeing a big band. I had seen a jazz band in Rome with just a pianist, drummer, cellist, and saxophonist. But obviously, with a band this big (20+ players) they sound much more full.

One thing that is consistent in jazz and I noticed at the concert is the constant jazz rhythm held by the drummer. He was playing the classic jazz hi hat loop throughout all of the pieces. This is what makes listeners tap their feet to jazz music.

The first piece titled Tiptoe featured a long piano solo that was backed with light drums and bass.

Another thing I noticed was that the conductor in a jazz big band seems to do a lot less than in a classical or contemporary ensemble. Apart from the initial countdown to starting a song, the players did not seem to look to the conductor for any guidance, where as in the contemporary ensemble concert the players would periodically look to the conductor.

There were some instrumentation changes between the second and third pieces, which swapped away the saxophones for trumpets.

In Celebration Suite part 2 (named Slow Dance) Chad Makela delivered his most memorable saxophone solo. He was supported by the other brass players with whom he played a three minute perfect homophonic composition.

In part 3 of the same composition, named Remembering, the pianist opened the song with a very slow and somber solo, which was in stark contrast to the earlier parts of this piece which were more fast paced and uplifting.

Overall, this concert rekindled my liking for jazz music and gave me a newfound appreciation for its players. I remember seeing the pianists rotating and switching between each composition, which made me realize how difficult it must be to play any one of those compositions at the level of mastery that this ensemble was playing them at.

I attended the Korean Percussion concert on April 2nd, part of the world music week concerts that were held at UBC. This concert was immediately striking as something more than a regular concert– from the traditional outfits to the instruments. This particular performance was done outdoors thanks to the sunny weather. When I arrived, the first thing I noticed was the uniformity of the costumes that the players were wearing. Keeping in mind that this was a student ensemble with mostly amateur players that were signed up through a course, I was very impressed with their dedication to wear these uniforms. It gave the performance a more authentic feel.

The instruments were exclusively percussive, making the rhythmic textures the central figure in each composition. Polyrhythm was used throughout the compositions, and the interplay between the rhythm of the music and the rhythm of the movement of the players became as compelling as the compositions themselves.

The performance started with a sitting potion, and moved to a standing portion, followed by a marching one. The lead player instructed the audience on the basics of Korean Percussion, telling us that it is in essence an interactive experience. She urged us to yell one of many Korean phrases–unfortunately I did not know what they meant, nor could I figure out the spelling to transliterate them on Google.
The marching seemed to have an intricate pattern. Namely, there was a part in the concert where the players were marching in concentric circles, converging on one another. At another point, the rhythm stopped when the players stopped marching, which was the first time I made a connection between the rhythms of the players movements and the music.

One last unique element of the this performance was that, incidental or otherwise, the movements of the players changed how certain drums’ sounds echoed in the plaza. I am not sure if this is an intended effect, but it definitely added another layer of complexity to the otherwise simple-seeming instrumentation.

The Korean Percussion ensemble gave a great performance, and my first entry into the Korean Percussion world. It was interesting to watch such a dynamic concert in which movement is almost as important as the composition of the music.

The UBC Oral Composition class concert on April 1st was an outdoor concert played by ten students enrolled in the Music 530C course taught by Michael Tenzer. This course is very unique in that students each compose a ~3 minute piece of music which they then teach the rest of the class to play as an ensemble. The catch is that there is no notation involved in the teaching of the compositions, as it is all learned and memorized orally. According to the program sheet, some of the piece involve improv. The ensemble also implemented rhythm techniques from world traditions, such as solkattu and mora, and interlocking, and interweaving. I had not previously heard those specific rhythmic techniques before, but I did notice that most of the compositions made use of polyrhythm–two or more conflicting rhythms playing simultaneously.

The instrumentation available to the ensemble were traditional and exclusively percussive. However, some of the percussive instruments were melodic. Notably, there were metallic pots that were played with a mallet that each produced one pitch, and a few of the players had three of those in front of them. The sound of these instruments was very similar to a glockenspiel, although a higher pitch. I later learned that this instrument is called the Bonang.

In addition to a few basic drum instruments, there was a hi hat replacement that consisted of two small brass pieces that were used to hit against the base of the instrument. This instrument was often the most rhythmically consistent.

The first piece by Andrea Ciona used a 4:3 polyrhythm which immediately sounded unusual to my ears since most of modern music is in 4:4 time signature. The ensemble also used a vernacular catchphrase to get accustomed to this unique rhythm.

In the fourth piece by Putu Gede Sukarayana a new instrument was introduced. This was a suspended gong that produced a sustained low pitch sound. The instrument made a distinctly mechanical sound, almost like an elevator or an engine.

The eighth piece by Ivan Salazar Gonzalez ended up being the most memorable for me. Up until this composition, the melodic element of the songs were often indistinguishable or pushed to the background by the abundance of the other percussion. This was the first music with a melody that seemed to be in the foreground of the song. The catchiness of the melody meant that Mr.Gonzalez’s composition stood out among the rest. It was also the first one where I could almost hear chords from the Bonang, and the chord progression made this one easily my favorite.

The limited instrumentation meant that the entire repertoire sounded homogenous. But the variety came mostly in the form of different rhythms. It was amazing to see this ensemble ultimately make ten unique compositions with their limited instrumentation and time constraint, and the fact that it was all learned orally made it all even more impressive.

The UBC Balinese gamelan concert was the third installation of the world music week programs. This student ensemble was made possible by the course Music 165/565. This was my first introduction to any music from the Indonesian regions, and it was a great one at that.

The ensemble was immediately striking in that they were wearing traditional pants and head scarves, along with their variety of bronze instruments which also looked traditional. I immediately recognized similar instruments that were used by the Oral Compositions ensemble earlier in the week, namely the bonang. There was a row of players with metallophones, and a few others with various drums and gongs.

The ensemble performed 6 pieces: Sinom Ladrang, Lengker, Sekatian I: Selisir, Sekatian I: Sunaren, Sekar Gendot, and Tabuh Pisan Bebarongan. Most of these compositions featured constant rhythms, thanks in part to the fact that most of the instruments in such an ensemble are percussive. There was an apparent use of monophony, with multiple voices playing the same melody to deliver a full range of frequencies in each pitch. Arpeggiation was also the melodic technique that was most widely used in the compositions, which makes sense since arpeggiated melodies have a more noticeable rhythm. The heavy emphasis on the constant rhythm of the melodic instruments sometimes brought the non-melodic percussion to the foreground due to the juxtaposition.

Although there were no instruments that acted like a bass or baritone, one of the two gongs was often played as a single pitched bass instrument, marking the transition from one section of a song to another. The sections of each composition tended to seamlessly change the tempo of a song. In general, the ensemble made tempo changes very effortless for the listeners to follow, which is a difficult task in itself. For example, in Sekatian I: Sunaren, the song is played at a fast tempo for most of the progression, until it comes to a slowed down pace using a natural transition.

In Sekatian I: Selisir, the first woodwind instrument is introduced and used by the ensemble. The flute in this piece was a very refreshing and welcome addition, as I felt that at times the heavily repeated rhythms of the music bordered on sounding chaotic. The flute however added sustained pitches that really stood out among the percussive hits of the other instruments.

Overall, the Balinese gamelan student ensemble opened another world of music to me that I had no previous knowledge of. The entire world music week programme was a refreshing experience that I really enjoyed. I plan to attend more of these events in the future as I feel that they are a great opportunity to learn about new genres of music.

The UBC Contemporary Players Ensemble I attended consisted of multiple musical works with a nice variety of instrumentations. The first composition, titled Bagatelles, was a trio of flute, cello, and piano. It was also broken up into 3 separate parts: I. the palest of blues, II. elixir, and III. still waters.

The palest of blues started with melodies being exchanged between the three players sequentially, making it feel like the instruments were ‘responding’ to one another. The melodies then started to overlap with each other as time went on, eventually converging into homophonic harmonizations.

In elixir, the pianist did something that I had never seen before; he played the strings of the open piano with soft mallet sticks, striking the strings that he wanted to play. I could not figure out the tonal differences of this method as opposed to the regular way of playing the piano, but I would guess that the player has more control over the force with which he strikes the strings with the mallet. In any case, the pianist started this portion of the composition with the lowest octave of the piano, setting a dark tone. The flute player switched to an alto flute to match this change of register. Together, the trio completely changed the mood from the melancholy of the palest of blues to the ominousness of elixir.

The third and final part, titled still waters, primarily featured the cellist playing very long bending notes that would often create an uneasy tone thanks to their dissonance. The flutist accompanied this with fast arpeggiations of 2 notes, with the piano playing chords in the back.

Overall this was my favorite composition of the concert because it caught my attention and never seemed to get stale. It was also interesting to see the unusual methods of playing instruments that I had never seen before.

There were a few other notable compositions; Tenebrae showcased a vocalist, a clarinetist, along with a string quartet. A memorable aspect of this composition was its use of imitation, with the vocalist setting a motif and the clarinet repeating the same melody shortly after. There was also a great use of juxtaposition between the voices of the instruments; the voices of the vocalist and clarinetist had a sharp contrast to the strings that were heard most throughout the piece, giving the vocal and clarinet melodies a sharp emphasis when heard. Tenebrae also had a distinct arc in its progression. It started very calmly and worked its way up in intensity until a climax was reached, during which every instrument could be heard. The composition ended by calming back down to a lower intensity before fading out into silence.

The next composition also featured the same ensemble and was called Capricious Zephyrs. The difference in this was the addition of a percussionist playing the glockenspiel and xylophone. I mainly focused on the percussionist during this piece because it was a nice change of sonics compared to the other compositions. He had two soft mallets in each hand and used them to play two complimenting notes at a time; this made me wonder if he could use three mallets with one hand to play a basic chord. The existence of a glockenspiel and xylophone made this piece sound and feel much brighter than its peers.

Although the rest of concert was interesting, I outlined my favorite compositions above. Overall this concert made me appreciate my local musicians more, and want to support them by attending more of these ensembles.