With guests David Amram and Hafiz Shabazz and The World Music Percussion Ensemble (WMPE), the Dartmouth Wind Symphony played up a storm in Saturday night's main event: "Music of the World."
The concert was organized into two halves: first, the DWS proved that it could play more than "uptight European" works. Then Amram and the WMPE joined them to give the audience a seminar in musical diversity.
Clad in formals and tuxedos, the DWS took to the stage and launched into its first selection -- William Grant Still's "Folk Suite."
Scott Joplin's version of "black classical music," "The Chrysanthemum," was an immediate hit with those who fondly remembered rag style greats like "The Entertainer" and "The Easy Winners." Unconducted and played in turn-of-the century salon style orchestra, "The Chrysanthemum" transported the audience back to days of pre-WWI music when such ensembles could be found in the lobbies of large hotels.
With a sly grin, DWS conductor Max Culpepper warned that the next piece "even makes juniors and sophomores get older fast." Indeed, the DWS really heated things up with Jacques Press's frenetic "Wedding Dance." Based on the type of music heard at traditional Jewish weddings, it was a technical challenge that let Culpepper play the mad conductor from those classic Bugs Bunny cartoons; wisps of hair flew as he stabbed at the air, and the audience could not keep their feet from bouncing up and down.
After the intermission, Amram and the WMPE took to the stage to give the audience a quasi-National Geographic tour of world music. A believer in multi-cultural education, Amram gained a reputation fitting for his third concert at Dartmouth while volunteering at an elementary school-- a young student dubbed him "Mr. Rogers getting down with enthnofunkology."
He started off his half of "Music of the World" with "Rondo Alla Turca," a concert "belly dance" which ended with a Pakistani flute solo that would have left anyone else gasping for air. Then the DWS and Amram played "Cajun," a piece specially transcribed for the wind symphony from the final movement of Amram's "American Dance Suite" for symphony orchestra.
Between pieces, Amram showcased a number of folk instruments. He played "Yankee Doodle Dandy" and "Charge!" on the okarina, a type of Central American flute. He also played a flute from Mexico which honored the dog; carved with four legs, it looked like a "cross between a Chihuahua, an armadillo, and a Windsor Dachshund."
Amram's final work, "En Memoriam de Chano Pozo," comes from a musical exchange sanctioned by the Carter Administration in which Stan Getz, Earl Hines, Dizzy Gillespie, and Amram paid homage to the Afro-Cuban rhythmic tradition of Chano Pozo.
"World music is created by Americans.Any ethnic group with music as a part of culture makes 'world music'," said Shabazz. Chano Pozo looked to his African and Cuban roots and taught jazz artist Dizzy Gillespie many rhythms.Today, the WMPE reflects the musical exchange of various cultures in America and "our shrinking world" by playing works stemming from Cuba, West Africa, South America, and the Middle East. "En Memoriam de Chano Pozo" began with a haunting piano solo by Amram and burst into a passionate, hot-blooded Afro-Cuban rhythm that had the audience and DWS members clapping to the beat.
"Music of the World" turned out to be interactive, cultural, and terribly fun. Capped off with a well-deserved standing ovation, the concert was best described by Samantha Wilkinson '95, a member of the horn section: "it definitely brought a different sound, and we just had a great time."
"Music of the World" also gave Culpepper an opportunity to recognize the outstanding DWS seniors who had dedicated so many years to music: Deborah Healy '95 and Nneka Landrum '95 (flute), Evan Thomas '95 (Contra-bass) and Laura Walker '95 (clarinet), Alison Moll '95, Alex Nikas '95, Wilkinson, Russell Baker '95 (trombone), Peter Jolicoeur '95 (euphonium), Jason Duty '95 (String Bass) and Amy Barto '95 (percussion). Wilkinson, a DWS manager, received the Senior Symphonic Award for outstanding service and musicianship.
