Author Archives: ivana prpic

I was fortunate to watch a concert unlike anything I had ever seen before during World Music Week at UBC on Wednesday April 3 at 12pm. The ensemble was composed of UBC students from Music classes playing the Balinese gamelan, directed by a Balinese guest instructor familiar with the instrument. I have never heard a gamelan orchestra perform, and I wasn’t aware that UBC was so culturally diverse in the instruments that students are learning! It was very interesting to be exposed to a gamelan orchestra, and I look forward to future opportunities to listen to these kinds of culturally diverse ensembles in the future.

The concert took place at Barnett Hall in the UBC Music Building, and when I walked in, the instruments were arranged on the stage. The instruments themselves varied in size and shape; some resembled xylophones while others looked like large gongs. Members of the ensemble were dressed in what I assume is traditional Balinese attire – simple, colourful robes and shirts. While the instruments were arranged much like a traditional Western orchestra, with louder and larger instruments near the back and higher smaller instruments in the front, what differed here was that one “leader” who played a loud drum sat in the middle of the ensemble and seemed to be the “director” of the ensemble, as there was a lack of a formal conductor. The person playing the drums alerted the other members when it was time to pick up their mallets, and also began most of the songs.

The repertoire was based on traditional music, which in turn had many connections to Balinese spirituality. The songs often were based on one motif, often played by a single instrument, which was then elaborated on by the whole orchestra. The first song, Sinom Ladrang, was an interesting introduction to the musical style; having been raised in the Western musical tradition, it didn’t make sense to me at first, but after listening to each instrument come in one after the other, I understood how the music all came together. The second song, Lengker, was very different in that while the first song was quite loud and brash, this next song was sweetly played, with higher instruments taking the lead. This different sound was reflected in the program, with the program mentioning that this “sweet” style was used in the Balinese royal courts.

All of the performance’s songs were interesting because some songs involved everyone playing together in a monophonic texture, while others did the absolute opposite and had everyone playing a very distinct part in the same mode or tonal centre. This meant that sometimes, the trajectories of the songs were hard to follow, but the songs were very interesting to listen to nonetheless. The group’s guest director was I Putu Gede Sukaryana, a Masters student in the School of Music focusing on Balinese instruments and music, and it was very exciting to see him taking the lead in some songs; because there was no formal conductor, he was often the leader with the drum in the centre. However, other times, he stepped back and allowed one of the students to try leading a song.

Overall, it was so much fun attending World Music Week at UBC and watching this group perform! If I get the opportunity again, I certainly will attend other noon-hour concerts at UBC.

On Friday March 15, I was fortunate to watch the Vancouver Chamber Choir’s “Sea to Sea: The Farewell Tour” concert, conducted by Jon Washburn, at the Shaughnessy Heights Church in Vancouver, BC. This performance was particularly poignant because long-time conductor Jon Washburn is retiring at the end of this year, and this performance was one leg of his final tour. As such, they themed the songs such that they performed their “biggest hits”, so to speak. The Choir searched out their most-performed songs and compiled the program based on that. (They listed the performance count of each song under the titles – some pieces had been performed over 100 times!)

The first piece of the evening was from the Baroque period – Lobet den Herrn, alle Heiden by Johann Sebastian Bach. As the opener to the first half, the piece was expertly performed with ease and comfort. The piece featured entries by imitative polyphony, with a gorgeous polyphonic texture throughout generally. Having grown up a musician, I’m not a big fan of Bach and prefer more rubato and melody-driven pieces, but the choir made the song enjoyable and interesting. My favourite piece of the evening, by my favourite composer of all time, was a set of songs by Claude Debussy; as mentioned by Jon Washburn, the three songs were the only songs for voices that he ever wrote. The first song of the set, Dieu! Qu’il la fait bon regarder, is a song that I know well, and is characteristic Debussy; everything sounds like watercolours, and yet everything makes perfect mathematical sense. However, the other two, Quant j’ai ouy le tabourin and Yver, vous n’estes qu’un villain were quite different in tone and style. The pieces were sharp, sudden, loud, and staccato. The pieces I had originally associated with Debussy weren’t so much like that, but hearing the pieces having been composed by Debussy in this way were certainly interesting and different.

A highlight of the evening was Hymn to Saint Cecilia, composed by Benjamin Britten. The poem, provided by W.H. Auden, was brilliantly put to music such that the structure of the poem was completely retained, and the beauty of the words shone through, while still being a musically complex masterpiece. The piece, composed relatively recently in the 20^th century, featured aspects of madrigals such as madrigalisms which I found intriguing. Near the end of the piece, voices were used for instrumentation. A woman’s voice mimicked a violin, a tenor’s soulful song sounded like a bugle call, and the basses in the choir had a marching bass line that mimicked drums. This is absolutely appropriate for not just the text (“O trumpets that unguarded children blow…) but for the Saint in the title; Saint Cecilia is the patron saint of music in the Catholic tradition and honouring her in this way was most likely important for the composer. Additionally, the refrain, which appeared after each verse, was done differently each time, allowing the listener to get excited about what the next refrain would sound like.

I was pleasantly surprised to see Jon Washburn’s own compositions present in the program! Two of the medleys which he has composed were performed – the first being A Stephen Foster Medley, featuring songs of Stephen Foster such as “Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair” and “Camptown Races.” This set of songs were particularly fun because almost everyone was familiar with the source material, so hearing the Choir’s spin on songs that everybody already knows was exciting. Another set of songs composed by Jon Washburn included Rise! Shine! Four Spirituals, composed by Washburn for the choir’s trip to the former Soviet Union (designed so that the set of songs was nothing like anything the Soviets had ever heard before). Once again, many people were familiar with the source material, and even sung along to “There is a balm in Gilead,” a familiar church song for many.

Overall, I was so fortunate to have attended this performance and I look forward to attending many more performances by the Vancouver Chamber Choir.

I had a wonderful evening listening to UBC piano and clarinet performers at “Premieres: Music by UBC Composers.” The performance took place on Friday March 8, 2019, at the Barnett Hall at UBC. The evening was like nothing that I had ever attended before; certainly, I’ve attended plenty of concerts and I’ve heard lots of classical music growing up as a young pianist and vocalist. However, each piece this evening was performed by a combination of pianos and clarinets. I had never heard these instruments played together and was very curious to ear the combination. Not only that, but I’m not incredibly familiar with the clarinet, so I didn’t know much about its expressive qualities. I was pleasantly surprised to hear that the clarinet is a beautifully emotional instrument! Based on how it’s played, it can sound like a saxophone or trumpet, as well as mimic piano sounds, so it’s quite a versatile instrument. Pieces were (mostly) composed as duets between piano and clarinet, and as such typically most pieces went one of two ways. For example, in the piece beauty after all composed by Jackson Bell and performed beautifully by Astrid Hawkes and Emily Picard, the piano and clarinet worked in tandem, as though the piece were written for one voice and the instruments split them in half so that everyone could get a chance to play; this kind of piece was very cohesive.  On the other hand, it was also possible to listen to songs that sounded so vastly different that it was hard to tell they were of the same piece, yet somehow, they showed signs of cohesion in things like keys and chord progressions – this was illustrated in songs like Underneath composed by Alex Tosh and performed by Miranda Wheeler and Matthew Leung. The song was very unique in that the two melodic lines didn’t fit perfectly, yet certainly complemented each other.

One of the most interesting things about “Premieres” was that all music was written by UBC students, and in addition, performed by UBC students. The pieces were all so unique and so experimental in their own senses (I have never heard music like this before!) – and because they were so impressive, it was hard for me to believe that each piece was written by a composer-in-training, and that the music that I was listening to was not being performed by working professionals. However, realizing this opened my eyes to the amount of great and fantastic talent at the UBC School of Music, and made me proud to be a UBC student.

One piece that really stood out to me was “Flowers on the Train,” composed by Roan Shankaruk and played not just by a clarinet and piano, but by a student on viola as well. This was the only piece of the evening to feature an instrument other than a piano and a clarinet, and it worked absolutely beautifully in the scope of the song. The piece was set up like an argument between two people (between the viola and the clarinet), and the piano in the background acted as a mediator. This song was my favourite because it had characteristics of both types of songs that evening; there were parts where viola and the clarinet were finishing each other’s musical phrases, or “sentences” so to speak, and there were parts where everyone was moving in an entirely different direction.

Overall, I was so grateful to have the opportunity to listen to the songs of UBC composers as performed by UBC students, and I’m certainly going to seek out more opportunities to watch concerts like this again.

I was fortunate to attend UBC Choirs: Stories on the evening of February 15, 2019 at UBC Campus. It was such a phenomenal opportunity; not only were student tickets free, but the concert took place in the iconic Chan Centre on campus – such a perfect venue for choral music and performance! The concert’s theme was how each individual song tells a story, and how when songs are woven together, people are able to construct narratives and meanings from those stories. Directed by Dr. Graeme Langager, each song performed had special meaning to both the members of the choral groups and to the audience.

Three UBC choral groups were featured during the concert. The first of the groups, the UBC University Singers, are the most elite group and travel across the world. Each work performed by the group was sacred in theme, while also exploring other themes such as romantic love and hope. While many pieces were quite formal and serious, one of my favourite pieces by this group was “Rock’a My Soul” composed by Stacey V. Gibbs. The piece was faster in tempo than the other pieces and was the most upbeat piece of this group’s repertoire. It was a choral setting of a spiritual from the American South and was done wonderfully by this ensemble. It featured small groups of soloists during the verses, and additionally featured a wonderful male soloist near the end, doing vocal improvisation over the beautiful Gospel harmonies.

The second group to perform during the concert was the UBC Choral Union. This vocal ensemble is open to all levels of performers and was the largest group of the evening. This group sang some lovely accompanied songs, one of which was particularly unique: “Five Hebrew Love Songs”, composed by Eric Whitacre. The words, as was explained to us by a member of the choir, are in Hebrew and written by Whitacre’s wife. The piece was a tableau of several songs stitched together in meaning. The songs were all about love and relationships and featured sung and spoken text, along with vocal percussion and a lovely violin accompaniment. I hadn’t heard anything like this work before, and I was so glad that I got to hear the UBC Choral Union perform such a unique piece.

The final group of the evening was the UBC Chamber Choir. This group was dressed in light colours and all of them were barefoot; the performers gave off a bohemian vibe and cemented themselves as being quite unique from both other groups. This group performed such a vast group of repertoire selections, from different eras and time periods as well as from different genres. This group was conducted that evening by graduate student Demi Chao, and it was wonderful to see someone else take the conductor’s podium. One of my particular favourites from the Chamber Choir’s repertoire was “Stomp on the Fire” composed by Andrea Ramsey. This song was unique because of the use of the singers’ bodies as percussion. The rhythmic clapping, stomping, and body percussion added a breath of life to this work, and the vocal sound effects of fire being extinguished were very interesting. Also interesting to note was “Si ch’io vorrei morire” by Claudio Monteverdi, a composer who has been mentioned in our class work. The piece was an Italian madrigal and with my background from MUSC 326, I was able to listen critically with appreciation to the polyphonic texture and playful text.

The final piece of the evening was performed by all groups was “Mu isamaa on minu arm” composed by Gustav Ernesaks. The song is a famous Estonian piece representing freedom from the Soviet Union and is considered as the country’s unofficial national anthem. The chamber choir on the stage and the other singers, who were sitting in the audience, stood up and all sang together. This piece, choral and homophonic in texture, was gorgeous and seemed classic compared to many of the unique and experimental songs featured that evening.

Overall, I was so lucky to have the opportunity to watch these groups perform and look forward to another opportunity to do so.

I had the opportunity to watch the Vancouver Chamber Choir perform at Shaughnessy Heights United Church on January 25, 2019. As a former choir singer, with experience in chamber and jazz ensembles, I have watched the Vancouver Chamber Choir perform many times; however, as a result of MUSC326’s fruitful discussions about musical texture, I came into this performance with a critical eye and curious mind. The group, on that evening, welcomed guest conductor Erick Lichte, who hails from Oregon and is a published composer and arranger. The theme of the show that evening was “Love and Mercy”, the idea being that sacred and secular works both share in the common theme of adoration and love. The theme was explained in relation to each song during the breaks in between works, and the music was woven together such that most of the sacred material was in the first half, and most of the secular work was located in the second half of the evening.

The first song the Choir sang was called Kyrie, composed by Einojuhani Rautavaara, and takes its text from the part of the mass asking for forgiveness from God. While the text was traditional, the arrangement was anything but that. The work featured the middle voices repeating “Kyrie eleison” utilizing dissonant harmonies and close intervals in order to create a constant pattern throughout the whole work and to emphasize the polyphonic texture of the work. This pattern allowed a smaller subset of higher sopranos to have a musical “conversation” with the basses, back and forth. Many of the concert’s songs involved this kind of grouping for musical effect; for example, the next song, Beati quorum remissæ arranged by Zachary Wadsworth did this as well. At first a small subset of the choir walked off-stage, and roughly half the choir was left on the stage. They began to sing, in English, the words of Psalm 32, in a minor key. All were singing different notes in a homophonic texture. After one verse, they would settle on a minor chord and hum, while the subset that had walked off stage sang Latin lyrics (of the Beatitudes) in a major key. This contrast made it seem as though these voices were coming from the heavens, and was fascinating not just from a listening standpoint, but from a visual one as well; the Vancouver Chamber Choir wanted to provide an interesting experience for all senses. Another instance in which the Choir provided this all-encompassing sensory experience was in the song A Drop In The Ocean composed by Eriks Esenvalds, a Latvian composer inspired by Mother Theresa. The song began with whistling, mimicking wind, after which the women of the choir came in all at different times (imitatively and polyphonically) chanting The Lord’s Prayer in Latin. From the wind and chanting came a single soprano soloist singing the Prayer of St. Francis by herself, while the men’s voices became prominent by singing low notes representing the “despair” and “darkness” present in the prayer.

While sacred works were a major focus of the evening, secular works about romantic love were also featured, and performed beautifully by the Vancouver Chamber Choir. One of my favourite choral composers, Eric Whitacre, was featured in the collection of secular works; his piece “A Boy and A Girl” was beautifully done by the Vancouver Chamber Choir. The song, like many Whitacre compositions, starts its verses with a homophonic texture, with all rhythms and words happening at the same time. Then, about halfway through each verse, all the voices danced on top of the words and exploded into a beautiful polyphonic texture. Another secular work that caught my attention was Love is Here to Stay by George Gershwin, composed by Vernon Duke, particularly poignant because this was the last song that George Gershwin wrote prior to his death in 1937. This particular work was a vocal transposition of jazz music, with bass singers representing bass guitars and colourful chords throughout.

Overall, this performance by the Vancouver Chamber Choir was beautifully structured and conducted wonderfully, and I was fortunate to attend. The show was also very accessible, such that even people who aren’t familiar with classical music could enjoy every aspect.