Klarinet Archive - Posting 000372.txt from 2004/02

From: ormondtoby@-----.net (Ormondtoby Montoya)
Subj: Re: [kl] From classic to "new"" --- 9 contrabasses
Date: Sun, 22 Feb 2004 14:04:36 -0500

Anne Lenoir wrote:

> Where are you from, Toby? I wish I could
> have attended this concert and experienced
> the music of Adam Gilberti.

He is a student at the University of California at Santa Barbara, and
the concert was at our largest concert hall (Arlington Theater) where an
organ enthusiast has restored a full-sized pipe organ as a civic
project. I've forgotten the organ's name, but it is an old timer.
You can hear the blowers (or whatever they're called) when they start
up, which could be a distraction in some situations; but in this case,
the rumble of the blowers set the audience up for the climax tutti in
the same sense that a VII chord leads back to the tonic. With all the
other contra instruments, the blower's rumble was simply one more bass
note with an unexpected texture. I'm sure that Gilberti (who played
the organ) intended it this way. Recall how the organ comes in at the
beginning of Phantom of the Opera, and that's the same feeling that I
had last night, only more so because I was pulled into it rather than
ambushed by it.

I've spent some time wondering why a student would write for a
collection of instruments that (probably) will never be gathered
together again. The newspaper stated that he spent 5 years writing it
for his degree. I don't expect to hear anything like it again....
unless the recording engineer did a first-rate job. I suspect that the
mics weren't able to handle the variety of an organ while it rumbled
half-a-dozen octaves (?) below middle C (the concrete floor vibrated),
and all the other contra instruments, plus high-pitched instruents such
as sopranino saxophone and piccolo and piccolo trumpet and Eb clarinet,
and the unusual high-pitched glass armonica with its own 'surreal'
sound.... .......well, I bought a copy, but I won't be surprised if the
recording equipment (or my CD player) simply can't handle that much
variety.

If you're wondering how a student could come up with the $$$ to hire a
large auditorium complete with full-sized acoustic pipe organ (as
opposed to electronic keyboard) for his 'senior recital', it happened
because the hall's owner sponsored Gilberti and donated the hall. They
sold tickets because the hall is governed by an Equity contract, and
someone had to pay the union stage hands, etc. I imagine that the 100+
other musicians played for free. By the way, they have a name:
"Central Coast Philharmonia." I did a Google search, and there were no
hits. Thus I suspect that the name was created for this concert alone.

....once in a lifetime....

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