On Aug. 25th, UNC students and community members gathered at Ackland Art Museum to experience an unconventional combination of contemporary paintings and experimental music.
Allen Anderson, a former UNC professor, was tasked with creating a composition for Ackland’s current art exhibition, Arranged, which will be in the museum until Sept. 1. He combined his experience in classical music with a modern electronic track he made to create a sound as abstract as the exhibit itself.
Though music and visual art are two different types of media, Anderson said that music also has color and form, similar to visual art; for him, music is dynamic just like painting is. Through writing movements for five pieces from Arranged, he showed his reaction to the paintings with music.
After a quick introduction by Anderson, the performance began with the soprano saxophone, played by Susan Fancher. This movement was very dynamic in both its volume and articulation, he said, depicting Anderson’s vision about the painting that was the inspiration for the exhibit, entitled Arranged by Peter Halley.
“There’s an austerity to it [the painting] that pops out, or that caught my attention, and as a result the music that I wrote for it — in this case, movement that is for a soprano-saxophone — also speaks with a kind of austerity as well,” Anderson said.
Though most of the composition was notated, Anderson allowed for individual creativity. He told performers what sounds he wanted to hear, but allowed for a little improvisation.
Violist Simon Ertz, a UNC music lecturer, said that Anderson's arrangement was a bit unusual, consisting of a viola, soprano saxophone, electronics, and various percussion instruments. He said that while playing with electronics was daunting, especially because the musicians only had one day of group rehearsal, the performance came together nicely.
“It makes you listen in a very different way, and encourages you to draw different colors out of your instrument,” Ertz said.