Vibraphone yields pleasing work

By Mike Greenberg

Express-News Senior Critic

Web Posted : 02/25/2003 12:00 AM

{credit}Express-News Senior Critic

{/credit}An elite crew from Aura, the University of Houston's new music ensemble, brought some magical sounds to Friday's final concert of the UTSA New Music Festival.

Sticking most pleasurably in the memory was a virtuosic piece for solo vibraphone by Christopher Deane, who teaches at the University of North Texas.

Deane's "Mourning Dove Sonnet" grows from the song of a mourning dove, transcribed note-for-note, with even the bird's microtonal pitch inflections reproduced by means of enterprising extensions of vibraphone technique.

This richly textured work's sonic palette is wonderfully varied — glassy bowed notes, the metallic buzzing of a hard mallet held lightly against a vibrating bar, subtle variations in the release of the sound envelope, all serving a larger musical purpose. The impressive soloist, Blake Wilkins of the University of Houston faculty, was kept very busy, but the results were well worth the effort.

Henry Cowell, who with Charles Ives and Carl Ruggles was among the most important pioneers of American music, was represented by three pieces for solo piano, handsomely played by Bernardo Scarambone, also of the U of H faculty.

The celestial "Aeolian Harp," most of which was strummed directly on the piano's strings, contrasted with the hellish "Banshee," with its waves of thunder and shrieks and squeals created by rubbing, strumming or plucking the strings. "The Tides of Manaunan" was an Irish folk ballad given pungency by thick tone clusters produced by the left fist.

"Morse Code Pop," a brand-new piece by Aura director Rob Smith, was a bouncy, rhythmically vibrant and lyrical piece for alto and baritone saxophone, nicely played by U of H students Valerie Vidal and Elizabeth Owsijuk.

Two chamber pieces by Eric Ewazen of the Juilliard School faculty merged Elizbethan and American pop sensibilities; the performers were Victoria Dominguez (tenor sax), Matthew Garza (trumpet) and Scarambone. Oberlin Conservatory composer Tom Lopez's "Hollow Ground" for soprano (Jenni Stephenson) and electronics was a wordless prayer chant closely integrated to an atmospheric backdrop. Thursday's concert, featuring UTSA musicians, focused largely on music by the important British composer Malcolm Arnold, who is visiting San Antonio.

Arnold's "Peterloo" Overture portrayed the 1819 massacre of political protesters in Manchester with music of grotesque violence, but closed with a hymn of brotherhood — an excellent example of the kind of serious patriotic music that hardly exists in the United States. The UTSA Orchestra, much improved in the past year, gave a persuasive account under Eugene Dowdy.

Arnold's sharp wit and high craft found equal expression in the "Grand, Grand Overture," well played by the UTSA Wind Ensemble under Robert Rustowicz, with faculty soloists Daniel Gelo and Donald Hodges (first and second upright vacuum cleaners), Gary Mabry (canister vacuum cleaner) and Dowdy (floor polisher).

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mgreenberg@express-news.net

02/25/2003