Brass group ties early music to contemporary tunes<\/p>\n
By Helly Minarti<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): The concert was about to start. Yet the only
\nentrance at Erasmus Huis in South Jakarta was still open and all
\nlights were on. The audience was still confused when the sound of
\ntrumpets was suddenly heard from outside the concert hall. This
\nwas followed by trumpets played backstage.<\/p>\n
Three members of Brass of the Moving Image, a brass ensemble
\nfrom Germany, got up on stage. They played several tunes -- like
\nthose played in ancient Rome to herald a public announcement --
\nbefore Rudolf Barth, director of the Goethe Insitute, gave an
\nintroductory speech.<\/p>\n
Six young lads and a soprano then fueled the night with myriad
\ncompositions spanning classic to contemporary. They showed a
\nrange of tonality based on a sextet of three trumpets (Rochus
\nAust, Arpad Fodor, Matthias Kamps), a horn (Adam Lewis) and two
\ntrombones (Michael Bittler and Otmas Strobel).<\/p>\n
\"We mixed the program so everybody could find his own line in
\none of the songs,\" said Aust, 29, who is also the group's leader.<\/p>\n
Brass of the Moving Image was founded two years ago. The young
\nprofessional musicians from different parts of Germany met in
\nJunge Deutsche Philharmonie (Young German Philharmonic), home to
\nGermany's best music students. They all shared the same passion
\nto play in a brass chamber orchestra.<\/p>\n
\"But unlike strings, brass music is relatively newly
\ndeveloped. Compared to the 500 or 600-year-old strings, brass
\ninstruments have only been played in the last 120 years ago,\"
\nadded Aust.<\/p>\n
This has necessitated adapting some compositions for brass.<\/p>\n
For their Jakarta audience they wrapped up a well thought out
\nprogram with the full use of the multilayered possibilities of an
\nextraordinarily rich diversity of sound.<\/p>\n
The first piece represented the English Renaissance --
\nShakespeare's era -- when music and art were venerated. John
\nAdson's Four Courtly Masquing Ayres is a composition personifying
\nthe period when the masquerade emerged as favorite royal
\nentertainment. Arranged by Aust, this composition was played by
\nall six instruments.<\/p>\n
Janis Cimse's Dziesmu Rotas, composed 200 years later, is a
\nBaltic composition which took its inspiration from the existence
\nof chorus groups since the romantic era. Cimse is known for
\nwritten interpretations of old Latvian folk songs. These
\ntraditions were ignored during the country's period as a
\nconstituent republic in the Soviet Union.<\/p>\n
\"It wasn't until five years ago -- when those new nations had
\ntheir freedom from the former Soviet Union -- that we really
\ncould explore (the composition),\" said Aust.<\/p>\n
Soprano Rita Bielieauskaite, a Lithuanian who studied music in
\nKarlsruhe, Germany, sang the lyrics.<\/p>\n
But the surprising element came from the youngest composer,
\nVykintas Baitakas, 27, who also studied music in Karlsruhe. His
\ncontemporary piece, RiRo, was composed earlier in this year
\nespecially for the group. Arranged by Aust, it is a one-to-one
\ntrumpet-soprano, a duet of Aust and Bielieauskaite.<\/p>\n
The melody is a collection of short yet mostly high tones out
\nof Aust's eloquent trumpet, accompanied by the equally intense-
\ncurious cacophony from Bielieauskaite. Sometimes she seemed to be
\nputting all her strength into reaching high notes in an uneven
\nscale, before she plunged into low ones by mumbling two
\nconsonants together in a stacatto-like effort.<\/p>\n
\"How is the vocal written in the text? It is simply by writing
\nthe letters or sound, with musical direction as in the other
\nscore. But it also adds other pictorial hints to show the
\nintensity it requires,\" Aust said.<\/p>\n
Classic Johan Sebastian Bach came as the fourth number, Drei
\nchoralvorspiele, a choral prelude before an intermezzo in the
\nform of a witty composition by Aust himself, Schiffe versenken
\n(Sink Down the Ships). The idea to compose this funny piece came
\nfrom a popular game in Germany usually played by two people.<\/p>\n
All six brass musicians sat in two rows, face-to-face, each
\nrepresenting a group against the other. Instead of sitting on the
\nhigh-level stage, they chose to take a place right in front of
\nthe first-row seats.<\/p>\n
\"Actually I'd like to sit among the audience so they will take
\na side and share the excitement,\" said Aust, who emphasized that
\nthis number is definitely not a \"serious\" composition. \"It's just
\na play where I translate the instrument's sound as the way to
\nattack enemy's ship or to indicate other action.\"<\/p>\n
The end result is never the same. \"Tonight my group was beaten
\nby the opponent, next time could be different. It is also
\nflexible to play this with more than two players taking turns.\"<\/p>\n
The next piece was a soprano-trombone duet, Zodzal ir Magija,
\ncomposed in 1995 by Felikaas Bajoras, another Baltic composer who
\nhas been living in America since the mid 1980s.<\/p>\n
The program was closed with enchanting tunes of Tango
\nApasionado from Argentinean virtuoso Astor Piazzolla. \"The
\noriginal tango is a folk piece from Argentina,\" Aust said. \"And
\nunlike the popular tango people love in Europe, the original did
\nnot use any percussion. That's why people in Argentina think that
\ntheir tradition somehow has somehow been ruined.\"<\/p>\n
He transcribed Piazolla's Tango into a brass ensemble which
\nbrought all fascinating elements of this expressive music: the
\ncollage of a grandeur, melancholic, bittersweet and passionate
\nharmony. They ended the applause of the audience -- who filled
\nthree quarters of the seats -- with one additional piece.<\/p>\n
Brass of the Moving Image will be busy on tour in various
\ncountries until the end of this year when they plan to record.
\nThey left for Singapore one day after their performance in
\nErasmus Huis and then bounced back to present their second show
\nbefore a limited audience here in celebration of 150th
\nanniversary of Siemens. They later flew to perform Baltic numbers
\nin the Music Festival of Nations in Germany.<\/p>\n
\"We simply play all kinds of music -- very old up to very
\nnew,\" Aust said. \"It can be classic, local, Louis Armstrong,
\ncontemporary, anything.\"<\/p>\n
What is special about the group? \"What is best is we can play
\nwhat we really want. The basic technique stays the same. It's the
\nstyle that makes the difference in playing the early music and
\ncontemporary composition.\"<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/brass-group-ties-early-music-to-contemporary-tunes-1447893297",
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