.”Big breaths, nerves of steel, passion of the heart. Try again,” says Dan Farris, the director of Northwestern’s Contemporary Music Ensemble (CME), to five students rehearsing a woodwind piece for an upcoming concert.
Music sophomore Jonathan Proniewski, Weinberg and Music sophomore Erin Futterer, Music junior Jessica Prus and Music graduate students Jen Speer and Nora Lewis sit in an oblong circle facing each other. Farris sits on the end. The students and conductor are in the only visible open space of a cluttered instrument storage room in Regenstein Hall of Music.
Communication is open between musicians. They comment to each other on sections that still need tweaking and try to accomplish the difficult task of not being even 1/32 of a note off each other’s beats. Farris sits as an advisory figure, giving corrections and making suggestions, pushing the individual musicians toward a more harmonious whole.
“Wait, I totally felt like there were two beats there,” says Speer. The group stops, goes back and reworks the difficult section.
Although Mozart and Beethoven will always be staples in any music student’s repertoire, there is always that desire to stay up with the times and experience anything and everything new to the music world.
This is the primary objective of the CME, an elective ensemble composed of around 25 musicians of both graduate and undergraduate levels. The ensemble performs cutting-edge, contemporary works by both composition students and famed composers.
“This is a group many would want to be involved in,” says Prus, who has played the flute for the CME since her freshman year. “We’re happy to see that new and contemporary music is really becoming a bigger part of the school as a whole.”
The CME is currently hard at work, rehearsing twice a week for two upcoming performances in February.
Under the umbrella
The ensemble falls under the umbrella organization of New Music Northwestern, directed by Senior Lecturer Amy Williams. New Music hosts concerts, master classes, lectures and guest artists with the goal of exposing Northwestern students and faculty to the contemporary music scene.
“Students need to be aware of the present state of music,” says Williams. “We try to present a wide range of contemporary music including improvisational, experimental, European avant-garde and music of the American tradition. Many works performed were composed by living composers in the 1990s and up.”
The ensemble was founded over 20 years ago by Don Owens, associate professor of jazz studies. The company’s repertoire has shifted from focusing primarily on original works by student composers to finding a balance between student works and those of established contemporary composers.
Owens is currently on a leave of absence, and, as a result, the director of the ensemble has changed each quarter this year. Fall Quarter, Ryan Nelson, the assistant professor of conducting and ensembles, took the reins; Spring Quarter Bob Hasty, a senior lecturer of conducting and ensembles, will take over for Farris.
“It’s great to work with such an open scope rather than working with a set instrumentation that is standard in other groups,” says Farris, who is also the director of athletic bands at Northwestern.
“This ensemble is flexible, composition-driven and dedicated to what it is the composer wants. Fall Quarter two vocalists performed with the ensemble, because that’s what the piece called for.”
Getting Carter
The first of the ensemble’s two February performances honors and celebrates the lifelong achievements of contemporary composer Elliott Carter on his 95th birthday. The Elliott Carter 95th Birthday Celebration, Feb. 19 at Pick-Staiger Concert Hall, will feature four of Carter’s most acclaimed works, including a brass fanfare called “Birthday Flourish,” “Triple Duo,” “Woodwind Quartet” and “Double Concerto.” The pieces span Carter’s style and career, and will be conducted by Farris, Williams and guest conductor Jan Williams.
“Double Concerto” is the most well-known, complex and experimental piece of the concert. Sixteen of the ensemble’s members will be joined by Williams and John Evans Professor of Music Ursula Oppens performing piano and harpsichord solos.
The evening will kick off with a screening at the Block Museum of Art of “Elliott Carter at Buffalo,” D.A. Pennebaker’s 1980 documentary about the groundbreaking “Double Concerto.” Pennebaker, one of the most prominent documentary filmmakers of the 20th century, has immortalized subjects such as Bob Dylan, Otis Redding and David Bowie. His 1993 documentary on President Bill Clinton’s 1992 presidential campaign, “The War Room,” earned him an Oscar nomination for Best Documentary Feature.
“If (Carter’s) music isn’t performed and appreciated by the people who lived in the same country/atmosphere/era as he, how can it have meaning in the future?” asks Prus. “Contemporary music is the music of our time, and it is more or less our responsibility to the future of music to work with composers and encourage and perform it as much as possible.”
Carter’s music is complex and experimental, constantly bringing together and separating the distinctive voices of different instruments. The sharp notes of the oboe contrast with the fast, high-pitched harmony of the clarinet. While rehearsing Carter’s works, the musicians sway to their own specific beats, tap their feet to keep time and make constant eye contact with one another because, as bassoon player Speer pointed out, “being 1/16 note off can disrupt everything.”
The ensemble’s fall performances were well-attended and well-received, says Farris, although Prus expresses concern that students and others are slightly intimidated by experimental music that is not meant to appeal to a popular audience.
“In regard to the future of the ensemble, I’d like to see a larger audience for all of the ensemble’s performances and a general improvement in the reputation of ‘new music’ on campus and elsewhere,” Prus says. “Contemporary music is hard to accept. Many would enjoy it but are too afraid to give it a try.”
Are you experienced?
“Experienced audience members are very open to ‘new music,'” says Williams. “They’re familiar with it and don’t know they’re not supposed to like it because it’s atonal. They’re not afraid of new experiences and respond to the high quality of music and performance.”
The ensemble’s second performance of the quarter, a student composer showcase on Feb. 26, gives musicians the chance to debut works of their fellow students.
“We approach student-composed pieces the same way we would approach the pieces of an established composer,” says Farris. “Music is music.”
“Performing student compositions is so important,” says Williams. “It’s exciting to work on a piece that no one’s worked on before. It’s a discovery stage. You’re bringing something to people that’s never been heard before.”
