If you were looking for me last Saturday evening, you’d have found me at the Irene and Alan Wurtzel Theater for the TIMARA faculty recital, titled “Signal: Noise.” The Wurtzel Theater’s vibe was intimate, familiar; when asked about the title of the concert, Technical Director Kyle Hartzell joked that it speaks for itself. Overhearing our conversation, a former technical director laughed, “It speaks for itself? I’ve heard that one before.” I recognized faces from the TIMARA, Recording Arts and Production, and Composition majors — all clearly well-acquainted. Considering how down-to-earth the pre-concert vibes were, nothing could have prepared me for what I was about to hear.
The lights dimmed, the projector whirred to life, and the first piece, “Tempus Ouroboros: cinéma pour l’orchestre,” began. The piece was created by Department Chair and Professor of Computer Music and Digital Arts Tom Lopez, OC ’89. Time and recursion were big themes in this piece, which aimed to capture Oberlin Orchestras Director and Director of the Division of Conducting and Ensembles Raphael Jiménez’s experience conducting during the pandemic. This audiovisual experience began with a flock of brass players, socially distanced on the Finney Chapel stage. The organ proceeded to underscore a transition from ebullient opening to solemn ambience — as if you ran enthusiastically into a copse of trees looking for a shady pond only to find mud and gloom — exactly the way March 2020 felt. Lopez was heavy-handed with the rewind button — sound and video moved forward and backwards, sometimes in tandem, sometimes in conflict. The ending of the piece fed back into the beginning, connecting the tail and the mouth of the Ouroboros.
“Tempus Ouroboros” was a great first piece on the program because it introduced me to TIMARA’s emphasis on visual elements in musical performance, preparing me for “3 in e” by Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Associate Professor of Computer Music and Digital Arts Aurie Hsu, OC ’96. In a barebones abstraction of electronic sound, Hsu spun a levi-wand — a glowing wand that appears to levitate between one’s hands — around to pulsing beats from a Moog Subsequent 37 synthesizer. It was fascinating. My favorite aspect was the contradiction between a gritty static and Hsu’s increasingly dynamic motions.
Next on the program was “subtle symbols” by Kyle Hartzell, full of sharpness and split thoughts. It’s an audio microscope of a piece — it brought me to a whole new world on a miniature plane of existence. Hartzell moved objects delicately around super-sensitive microphones and it made me reflect on how loud subtlety can be. Ringing, stuttering, dripping; imperceptible movements in our everyday world were brought to the forefront of my attention.
“Spring Peepers” by Associate Professor of TIMARA Steven Kemper was a shock and a delight to both my untrained ears and eyes. “LED lighting visualizes the amplitude of the sound, translating dynamic fluctuations into a responsive visual layer,” Kemper wrote in the program. Indeed they did — the floor toms went from teal to purple to gold to blue. A tale as old as time, the electronic and the natural melded to create violently crashing layers. I was enthralled — the toms lit up with a plaintive cry as a droning buzz recalled previous samples. The spring peepers’ call finally faded into nothingness.
The silence between “Spring Peepers” and the following piece was the purest silence I’ve experienced. The contrast of the complex sound and following quiet felt incredibly stark.
Easily the most striking performance of the bunch was “ceremonial dove decay” by Visiting Assistant Professor of Computer Music and Digital Art Francis Marion Moseley Wilson, OC ’12, first and foremost due to an aspect of the instrumentation — two caged, taxidermied doves that had speakers for heads. Wilson, wearing a headdress bearing dove wings, bent over a Buchla modular synthesizer, adjusted a wall of noise until it evened out to the electronified coos, emitting from the mouths of the caged doves. The sound, distorted and crisp, played from the speakers which replaced the heads of taxidermied doves. Thudding bass with acoustic drums over it and the flapping of bird wings accompanied.
“Not all doves are homing pigeons,” Wilson said. “This explains the mortality rate of ceremonial releases.”
The caged helplessness of “ceremonial dove decay” stood in opposition to the last piece on the program. “Lapse” by Assistant Professor of Computer Music and Digital Arts Eli Stine, OC ’14, was a kinder soundscape, resplendent with birdsong, the ticking of clocks, and a serene ambience and freedom. Conservatory fourth-year Hannah Stone on cello was magical — she embodied the wonder and constant yet unhurried motion of the piece.
From time to analog abstraction to magnification to frogs to doves and back to time again, “Signal: Noise” was a masterful journey from start to finish. With its array of unusual sounds, this recital reminded me of a book that I’ve been reading recently — A Book of Noises: Notes on the Auraculous by Caspar Henderson. It’s about finding wonder in the music that exists in every pocket of life. I think that a lot of people, myself included, claim to live by this philosophy, but we don’t exactly commit to the bit. These professors aren’t just finding wonder in existing pockets, they’re making new pockets to explore the music of. Imagination isn’t something I get to dwell with for long periods of time, and this recital was the perfect forum for it. I, for one, can’t wait to hear more.
