By Will Connor
This past Friday evening, saxophone player John Sampen and composer/engineer Mark Bunce brought a series of modern composition and visual spectacle to the Orvis Auditorium at the UH Music department. The programme included many well known and new 20th and 21st century composers and the duet presented the material with vigor, humor, and tasteful interpretations that delighted the entire audience.
The evening started with a rendition of John Cage’s FOUR 5 performed by Bunce as a warm up for the nights sonicscapes. The piece is originally scored for various saxophones and holds a element of chance for the players, but this presentation seemed less aleatory and was primarily performed using electronics. It was a wonderful opening piece and drew the crowd in nicely.
The next piece on the bill was Luciano Berio’s Sequenza VIIb. This one was scored for oboe, but the duet played a sanctioned, reworked version written for soprano sax. Sampen ploughed through this one bringing out the various textures I feel Berio intended.
The third work was written by composer Marilyn Shrude, who was present in the audience. Her piece was, in her words, a narrative of sorts, pulling the audience and player through the composition. Parts of the piece reminded me of Anthony Braxton’s solo sax language compositions while other parts where unexpectedly smooth. It was accompanied visually by projections of modern paintings the used dance as their main subject. Overall it was a well thought out composition and Sampen brought it to life with taste. One of the better pieces of the night.
One of my professors from North Carolina State University wrote the next work. Rodney Waschka is an electronic composer for the most and in this piece he also wanted to highlight the writings of Ambrose Beirce. For me, Bierce’s writing is wonderful, but in this case a little too wonderful. I felt that it distracted from Waschka’s composing. Taken in sections it was nice, but taken out of context from the “opera” in which it was intended to be performed and isolated with the writings of Bierce being read between passages by Sampen (who had a nice reading voice,) was simply overpowering. Marilyn Shrude made the insightful point that the work exposed those that may be unfamiliar with Bierce’s writings, which was worth whatever dislike I had for the piece. With this, I would agree.
My favourite piece of the night was written by James Mobberley entitled “Spontaneous Combustion.” And that is exactly what it sounded like. It was a well organized bombardment of the senses that took what seemed like old war film music scores gone wrong and allowed Bunce to manipulate them electronically on the fly. A great piece well executed by the duet!
Next was a comical Short Lecture on the Saxophone by William Bolcom. This one didn’t do much for me although I will admit it was gracefully performed and the accompanying visuals were well selected. The piece was just too contrived for my tastes. Of course this an be argued of most concert setting pieces, so perhaps I am being too harsh.
The last piece for the night written by Bunce himself. The composition was an interesting mixture of pad sounds, electronic melodies that I believe were triggered by Sampen from stage, and sparse saxophone melodies. This work was in some ways a nice bridge between concert setting music and something more pop or underground. Parts of it reminded me of old Tangerine Dream or some dark ambient artist like Scandinavia’s Vidna Obmana. There was a good balance between the smooth and the harsh sounds (when they appeared they were light enough to be well incorporated yet still noticeable.) A good choice to end the evening.
Both John Sampen and Mark Bunce are professors at Bowling Greens State University. This show marked the end of their mini tour and they have since returned to Colorado to work on more material. John Sampen uses Selmer saxophones and Mark Bunce performs with his own version of Max MSP software.
For information on other upcoming musical treats from the UH Music department, go to http://www.hawaii.edu/uhmmusic or call 95-MUSIC.
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