"Forces of Nature" Faculty Recital

On November 4th, I had the opportunity to see another After Dinner Mint Faculty Showcase in Hockett Family Recital Hall. The program, which features songs about the "Forces of Nature," featured such professors as Michael Galvan, Susan Waterbury, Frank Campos, Nathan Hess, John White, Marc Webster, Jenny Stockdale, Blaise Bryski, and Paige Morgan. The instruments that were featured were oboe, vocals, piano, clarinet, violin, and flugelhorn. The recital, which took about two hours, played without an intermission.

As I was walking into Hockett, waiting for the recital to begin, I was surrounded by the sounds of nature. While the audience was waiting for a performance to begin, the surrounding speakers would play the sounds of nature (wind, animal noises, etc.) as the projector would show pictures of natural landscapes which further adding to this experience. It was easy to see the connection to nature through each performance. Every performer chose a piece that differed from the rest, making the musical journey through nature very enjoyable.

A piece that was memorable from this recital was "Ferdinand the Bull for Speaker and Violin (1936)" performed by Susan Waterbury (violin) and Paige Morgan (speaker). I thought this piece was very interesting because it told the story with music and through a speaker. The way the song is composed is that the speaker would start off by telling a small section of Ferdinand's life and the troubles that come upon him. Once a small section of text is spoken, the violin would enter, playing a melody that the audience can connect to the emotions that Ferdinand is feeling. The song, which started off very happy, soon became very dark as Ferdinand was finding himself in a lot of trouble and not doing what he wanted to do.

I found this recital to be very enjoyable! I loved how the faculty would talk to the audience before beginning the piece, explaining the detail in the song and what they hope the audience will pick out. I think it is outstanding how the faculty in the music school want the audience to walk away with new ideas of performing, as well as understanding the song and it's importance to the overall recital. I would suggest for every student to see a faculty recital because of the wonderful work the faculty puts into every second of the performance.

The songs that were played in the recital were very modern. No song was played that was before 1900. It was great to see songs that focused on the individual and what the composer thought would be the best way to represent their ideas. Like we talked about in class, the cadences took a long time to appear, which gave the audience a sense of incompletion. The audience had to wait before an idea can be considered complete with a PAC.