May 19th, 1999, Composers Concordance at NYU

After having seen the Composer's Concordance concert last night, I left the theatre with mixed feelins. On one hand, it is rare to walk away from new music concerts that have such high degrees of compositional craft and a sense of clear intent, yet one couldn' help but wonder if this music might as well have been written in 1925. As I began to poner the relative merits of each point I realized that one does not have to redefine contemporary music in order for the composer to make good music. There is however, some responsibility ot keep up with the currents of music and its development so that one's music is enhanced by the modern developments in texture, timbres, form, development, and experimental innovations. These pieces are not bad because they reflect a more aged sensibilty, but theyt simply could be better pieces by incorporating more modern day elements. One example is the in the charming piece by Eric Ewazen for violin, trumpet, and piano. This piece was ermarkabley well crafter and had a wonderful sense of form and pacing with very engaging melodies. On the other hand, Mr. Ewazen could have been a contemporary of Brahms for all the listener knew as he never went far beyond the more traditional and unfortunately aged limits of late nineteenth century harmony. One the other hand, William Bolcom's piece Lilith, for piano and saxophone seemed to grab the attention of the listener more with its exteneded saxophone techniques and more expanded use of the piano. In the vein of George Crumb, the piano player often played inside the piano by plucking strings, dampening strings, and all sorts of interesting sounds that bring out the limitless possibilities of the piano. Here is a good example of a composer who having studied contemporary practice has thereby expanded his own tool box and ability to convey more diverse and varied interpretations of emotions. Overall, it was a good concert, except in the fact that it was far too long and could have had at least three or four less pieces. No justice is done to any piece when the audiences' ability to remember and absorb the music is taxed by a overlong program. (Evan Gardner)

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