For some seniors, laboring over honors projects means wading through mountains of books on the sixth floor of Hubbard Hall. For music majors, it means working with choirs, organs, and synthesizers to create original compositions.
For three Bowdoin music majors this weekend, months hard work will culminate as professional musicians perform the student's compositions.
Tonight at the Studzinski Recital Hall in Kanbar Auditorium, the Harlequine Quartet will perform two pieces written by Jeffrey Friedlander '08 and Nicholas Kasprak '08 in a concert entitled "Sound Wave Chalet."
Friedlander's piece entitled "Love, Stars and the Moon," is a four movement work for chamber choir and piano quartet. Friedlander drew on his knowledge of many different modern music genres, including rock, pop and, as the former music director of the Meddiebempsters, a cappella.
"I think that unless you live in a cave in Siberia, pop music is going to affect what you write because it's present in everything around us," said Friedlander.
The Bowdoin Chamber Choir will perform the choral part of Friedlander's piece, which includes the works of Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca. Concert-goers should expect non-traditional choral music.
"Because I'm an a cappella singer, I like thinking of voices producing sounds that aren't necessarily classical choral sounds," Friedlander said.
In addition to unique choral arrangements, Friedlander employed other unusual musical stratagems in his work, such as turning a violin bow upside down to hit the strings and incorporating a bass line from a song he plays with his rock band, the Day Jobs.
"The most rewarding part of the process was working with the chamber choir and Shannon Chase, the choir's director," said Friedlander.
"It's been great having someone like Shannon who really wants to see that her interpretation is as close as possible to what I originally intended while also contributing to the growth of the piece," he added.
Kasprak, who, according to music major Zachary Tcheyan '08, "has been analyzing Beethoven since he left the womb," approached his senior independent project differently. His piece, "Prelude and Fugue in A minor," is a piano quartet. It reflects classical music styles and includes a part for flute.
"I really like baroque texture and romantic harmonies so I wanted to write a piece that captured that," he said.
"I also wanted to write a piece that would appeal to the general public and that people would enjoy listening to music that I would like to listen to if I were not the one writing it," Kraspak said.
Because the piece evokes several different musical styles, the challenge for Kasprak was making the different types of music fit together.
"It's basically a synthesis of all the types of music I like," he said. "The piece is held together by similar chord progressions, small building blocks, and small motives throughout the piece."
Kasprak met the musicians for the first time on Thursday, but he has been e-mailing them parts and revisions and expects the piece to go well tonight.
"I've never had any music performed professionally before," he said. "I'm really excited about it."
On Sunday, the Oratorio Chorale and Bowdoin faculty members will perform "Senorum Septum Missa," a piece by accomplished organist Andrea Printy '08, in the chapel.
"It's a piece for four part choir and organ based on the five parts of the Catholic mass," said Printy, who set traditional Latin texts to her music. The five parts include the Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei.
"I was inspired by some Renaissance composers such as Palestrina and a lot of 20th Century English choral music, including that of Olivier Messiaen" Printy said.
"Otherwise, it's just me," she added.
Although Printy admitted that she sometimes suffered from "composer's block," she said, "I've definitely progressed as a composer over the year, which has resulted in a lot of editing."
Like Kasprak, Printy has struggled making all the music work together.
Printy will not play the organ part of her own piece, but she will perform an organ prelude to open the concert and postlude to conclude it. Both pieces are by Messiaen and inspired a movement of her piece.
Printy has worked with Bates Professor of Composition William Matthews over the past year. He will conduct her work. Bowdoin Assistant Professor of Music Vineet Shende served as both Kasprak's and Friedlander's adviser.
All three musicians agreed that hearing their music performed has been and will be the most rewarding part of the process.
"It's been really nice hearing the parts actually sung and realizing that it all works," said Printy.
"Sound Wave Chalet" will begin at 7:30 p.m. tonight at the Studzinski Recital Hall. Printy's concert will begin at 3 p.m. on Sunday afternoon in the Chapel. Both concerts are open to the public.