An unlikely combination of string, wind, brass, percussion and vocal professors from the UNC music department are teaming up to perform classical chamber music by modern composers William Walton, Maurice Ravel and Jean Francaix in Gerrard Hall at 8 p.m. tonight.
The idea of faculty members performing together with these particular instruments, which are a greater and more diverse combination than many chamber pieces call for, was proposed by professors Matthew McClure and Evan Feldman.
The concert will feature Feldman and McClure, as well as professors Lynn Glassock, Jim Ketch, Wonmin Kim, Merida Négrete, Ed Riley, Terry Rhodes, Brooks de Wetter Smith, Tim Sparks, and Brent Wissick. Both McClure and Feldman said they felt that voice and saxophone were two instruments rarely used in chamber music.
By performing Walton’s “Façade” in a faculty concert, they were able to bring all these different instruments together. “Façade” is a series of poems by Dame Edith Sitwell, an early 19th century British writer, set to music by Walton in the 1920s.
The chamber piece orchestrates an unusual combination of instruments including voice, flute, clarinet, cello, saxophone, trumpet and percussion.
“The poems themselves are a strange combination of nonsense and gibberish,” Feldman said. “The poet was trying to play with the language, assonance, consonance, rhyme, meter and design so you can just enjoy the sound of the voice and not worry so much about the meaning.”
“Façade” and the second piece chosen for the concert, Ravel’s “Chansons Madecasses” share common instrumentation and themes.
“One is extremely English and one is extremely French, but both let you look at some of the things European music was doing after World War I,” cello professor Brent Wissick said.
Ravel’s “Chansons Madecasses” is a work based on the African island Madagascar. Additionally they will perform Francaix’s “Five Exotic Dances.”
