Kevin TurnbullMus142February 24th, 2015CMF Concert Review

JACK of all trades: Discussing the multimedia presentation FLiGHT ProjectOne thing I can say for certain is that I walked into the FLiGHT Project on Thursday evening with one expectation, and came out with it having gone in a totally different direction. Perhaps the biggest thing that I found intriguing about the performance was how the musical aspect of it played a much more interweaving role throughout, as opposed to being the paramount piece of the evening. Instead of watching a quartet play on stage, we heard how the sounds of a piece of music can be run through a computer, and come out on the other side sounding entirely different. It was certainly a new approach to music, and one that I had not considered before. That being said, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed the presentation. As an amateur composer myself, it was refreshing to get away from the rigid lines of studying classical theory, and listen to a composition which seemed to pay little attention to these rules. One thing I used to find a major obstacle, and still do sometimes, is the need to often do what is predictable and expected when harmonizing a Bach chorale melody, or something of the sort. However, its clear that Roger Reynolds was doing no such thing in the music that he wrote for FLiGHT. The extended techniques he calls for, as well as the extremely atonal nature of the music, led to a listening experience that kept me alert and attentive. It was never possible to predict what sound or sonority or color would be coming next, so I found myself listening harder and harder to try and get a sense of some sort of musically logical progression. I think the fact that I could NOT hear one is what made the piece so interesting to me. That being said, there is a part of me that wishes the piece did follow a bit of logical progression or flow. I found that there were times I often had trouble processing what was happening on stage, and distinguishing between music and what sounded to me to just be noise. Instead of following a traditional theme, development, recap, coda format which most musicians swear by, there was just idea after idea after idea after idea, and it got to be a bit confusing and cluttered at times. That being said, I think the concept of music becoming a multimedia entity as opposed to entirely audio is an interesting one to think about. The only other truly multimedia setting that music has been in that is well known are the Disney Fantasia movies, in which the Disney animators put animation to major classical works. In that sense, the multimedia nature of the piece serves merely as entertainment. But what if music were to become truly multimedia, such as with FLiGHT, and music, acting, and cinema were all lumped together into a package deal? I know for me personally, I feel like that would severely limit the possibilities for new music. Again, the fact that I like to write my own music weighs in on that opinion. Its hard enough for me to get ideas for new pieces to write just for one instrument. Adding in actors, and words, and film, and other images would just be too much for me personally. And Im sure there are plenty of other amateur musicians, and aspiring composers/music artists who would feel the same way. In short, while I believe the concept of FLiGHT was a cool one, I feel that such multimedia presentations are going to continue to be a very niche field of performance, as cool as they may be.