By
Phil Leckman
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Chamber Music Ensemble
For many people, the phrase "chamber music" conjures up a concrete set of mental images, probably including string quartets, spring weddings, and Vivaldi's "The Four Seasons."
One local ensemble, however, stretches the term far beyond these narrow stereotypes, highlighting modern, exciting chamber music. The Coyote Consort presents its annual concert, entitled "Voices, Visions," this Saturday at Crowder Hall.
"Our motto is 'Coyote Consort - expect the unexpected,'" Mark Rush, associate professor of violin at the University of Arizona's School of Music, said. "We try to present innovative and challenging concerts that aren't in the typical format for classical music."
Together with assistant professor of piano Tannis Gibson, Rush founded the Coyote Consort in 1997 to perform music that, in his words, "tends to be a little bit more adventurous that what you can get in the average classical music concert." This year's performance, for instance, includes an adaptation of a piece by Jimi Hendrix.
While a homage to a1960s guitar icon may not be typical classical fare, it is in keeping with the Consort's focus on exciting, original music and arrangements.
"The Hendrix piece is a good example of what we like to do," Rush said. "We'll be doing some improvisation and paying attention to Hendrix's music, but it's not a straight Hendrix rendition."
The rest of Saturday's program represents a similar departure from the straight-and-narrow. A piece called "Double Music," by John Cage and Lou Harrison, was written in separate halves - each composer wrote two of the piece's four instrumental parts autonomously, only combining them when completed.
Another offering, "Komachi at Sekidera," is a spare piece for alto flute and voice. The text is drawn from a traditional Japanese noh drama, set to new music by modern composer Alice Shields. The lament of a ninth-century Japanese poetess, the piece will be sung by nationally-recognized soprano Dora Ohrenstein, a longtime solo vocalist with the Philip Glass Ensemble.
The centerpiece of this year's concert is "Ancient Voices of Children," a piece written by modern composer George Crumb and inspired by the work of Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca.
"It's a magical sort of piece," Gibson said, "very evocative and colorful, at times dark, very moving and intimate. The whole piece is vivid from beginning to end."
Gibson said the piece's dramatic quality is underlined by its exciting sonic qualities.
"The timbres in the concert - the actual instrumental colors themselves - are very unusual and compelling," he said. This is in part a result of its unusual instrumentation - "Voices" includes parts for toy piano and musical saw. Even traditional instruments are treated in new and innovative ways.
Gibson, for instance, plays "as much inside the piano as on the keys," plucking and pounding within the instrument as well as "tickling the ivories." The nine musicians involved in the piece also use their voices for percussive effect, sometimes while playing. "No one gets away with playing just one instrument," Gibson said.
The centerpiece of "Voices," a dramatic soprano part, will be sung by Ohrenstein.
"This is one of the major twentieth-century pieces that involve soprano," she said. "It's certainly an exciting opportunity for me to do it. It's a very flamboyant part, and a very spiritual piece."
Together, these diverse and exciting pieces form a whole that Rush and Gibson say will be of interest to music fans of any stripe.
"The way that these pieces work together is very exciting," said Rush. "Anybody going to this concert will really have something there that will grab them."
Phil Leckman can be reached at catalyst@wildcat.arizona.edu.
