The Orchestra comes alive
Rachel Reid

So, now that the Oktoberfest activities have whet your appetite for world music, where can you go for something out of the ordinary? Look no further than our own Faculty of Music. The faculty hosts a varied and rigorous concert schedule that certainly is extraordinary.

The Music Faculty here at Laurier is itself exceptional, and the concert series showcases just what the program is all about. It features accomplished professionals as well as Laurier's own musicians, who are competitive throughout the country. They play any variety of music from Bach to 20th century pieces. The concerts also give exposure to student and faculty composers presenting their own music.

The main purpose of the concerts is to provide an occasion for the students to participate in big productions with an audience and to thereby open the door to professional performance opportunities. Says Marsha King, a trombone player with the WLU Symphony Orchestra, "In rehearsing for the concerts, the things that Paul Pulford, our conductor, teaches us can be used in a professional setting. Not only are we learning the means by which to play this piece, we also gain knowledge to transfer to future pieces... so that each new piece of the repertoire gets easier to put together as a group."

Each year the schedule includes at least three performances by the WLU Symphony Orchestra, one opera or ballet, several holiday events, appearances by the WLU Jazz Ensemble, Baroque Ensemble and Wind Ensemble, and one larger production put on at the Centre in the Square in Kitchener.

This year's big event, taking place in late March, will be a rendition of Mozart's Requiem by the Choir and Symphony Orchestra.

The WLU Symphony Orchestra's first performance of the year will be staged on Saturday October, 24 at 8pm in the Recital Hall. The Symphony is composed of about 65 musicians along with a full complement of strings, flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons, horns, percussion and more.

The three string pieces to be performed will carry the listener through a whole range of emotion, from light-hearted enthusiasm to gloomy introspection.

King asserts that, "As the concert progresses, the texture of the pieces becomes more chamber-like... fewer instruments. As the orchestra decreases in size, it increases in intensity because each musician has to carry more (of the music). That is how the piece becomes darker and more intense."

The first piece of music, an overture by Italian composer Rossini, is bright and engaging and features several instrumental solos. The second piece is a story about the fictional Russian hero Lieutenant Kije, and was written by Prokofiev the year that Stalin died. As the story goes, Stalin heard about this man Kije and, unaware that he was fictitious began a search for him; Kije's creators had to kill him off.

This piece of music is at first light and silly but becomes profound and robust with the death of the hero. It includes a saxophone, which is a rarity in orchestra, and lots of percussion to give it a jazzy sound. The final piece is called "Kindertotenlieder," or "Songs of Dead Children," and was adopted by Mahler from a collection of German poems. As suggested by the title, this is where the performance becomes somber and fatalistic in nature. Professor Paul Pulford calls it "an extraordinary piece of music." It is much anticipated as it features Daniel Litchi, an internationally accomplished baritone, who will return from Japan just in time to perform.

A complete concert calendar is available from the Music Department. A concert line is also available for more information at extension 3554.