Music compositions debut alongside art at Rice Gallery

By Giancarlo Latta     11/12/13 6:00pm

On its own, contemporary classical music can be difficult to approach for even the most seasoned listener. Occasionally, though, experiencing new music in a certain light can help illuminate its deeper levels and spark fresh associations. 

This proved to be the case at Saturday afternoon's New Art/New Music concert at the Rice Gallery, where new musical works - including the premiere of two pieces by Shepherd School of Music student composers - were performed alongside street artist Gaia's MARSHLAND, on view at the gallery

through Dec. 8.

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New Art/New Music was started in the fall of 2010 by a Shepherd student interested in cross-disciplinary collaborations involving music and visual art, according to Brandon Bell, the series' current coordinator and a doctoral student in percussion.

"My predecessor, a clarinetist named Juan Olivares, was finishing his degree [last spring], and as we both share a taste for new and contemporary music, he suggested I take over curating the series," Bell said.

MARSHLAND is made up of images displaying the rich culture, history and stories that define Rice University and Houston. Saturday afternoon's program showcased five pieces, four of which were written by composers under the age of 35. Each work had a clearly distinct personality - a feature that brilliantly accentuated MARSHLAND's patchwork of images.

Doctoral student Natalie Lin opened the program with Cleveland-based composer Jeremy Allen's "Nameless Grace" for solo violin, prefacing her performance with an explanation of the wide palette of sounds Allen's composition requires the violinist to produce. The piece's fragmented melodies mirrored the layered images and fragmented text displayed in bright oranges and blues on the vast murals covering three walls of the gallery.

Ian Power's "I Seem to Be a Verb" for coffee mug, table and butter knife was worlds away from Allen's piece. Compellingly executed by Bell, the work combined kitchen-table sounds with an eerily choppy spoken part derived from a text by Buckminster Fuller. 

In Roger Sessions' "Six Pieces for Cello," graduate student Francesca McNeeley highlighted the tenderness and excitement in the demanding music. The focal points of Saturday's program were the two world premieres of works by doctoral student Aleks Savitski and Wiess College sophomore Brendan McMullen, both of which were composed specifically for exhibition alongside MARSHLAND.

Rather than looking at the murals, Savitski's "Expressions" for violin and viola turned to the larger-than-life faces hanging in the center of the gallery. In planning his piece, Savitski researched other works by Gaia and was inspired by the artist's depictions of detail in human facial expressions.

"Each of the [five] movements presents sophistication on the level of detail but surrenders to a general expression evoked through the music," Savitski wrote in the program notes. "In my opinion, MARSHLAND attempts a similar agenda through art."

Brendan McMullen's "Refuge Composed," scored for clarinet, violin, cello and percussion, closed the program.

"[The piece] depicts the pursuit for order from an environment of disorder,"

McMullen said. 

The way the piece progresses from chaos to resolution is reminiscent of the transformation across the three murals, from skyscrapers superimposed on one another to colorful birds in flight. Compelling and captivating from beginning to end, Saturday's performance reaffirmed the value and vibrancy of programs that engagingly present contemporary music alongside contemporary visual art.

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