The Bowdoin Orient

March 2 , 2001
Volume CXXXII, Number 18

Bowdoin Concert Band performs student composition

by YANA DOMUSCHIEVA - CONTRIBUTOR

   On Sunday the Bowdoin Concert Band is presenting the Winter Concert at Pickard. The thirty-one members of the band are largely Bowdoin students, though the group is supplemented by several members of the greater Brunswick community, including a married couple who play trombone together. The Director of the Band, John Morneau, is enthusiastic and wholly satisfied with the work the Band has done thus far.
   At the Tuesday rehearsal the Band sounded ready for the performance. The musicians, led by Morneau, have come a long way since the beginning of the semester when they first began practicing. Morneau has chosen five pieces for the Winter Concert to make a diverse program, balanced in difficulty.
   The concert will start with American Fanfare. This is a lively piece composed for the Dallas Brass, one of the many ensembles with which composer John Wasson has worked. American Fanfare will be followed by Prelude in E flat minor, an arrangement of one of the Twenty-four Preludes by Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich. Next is the Concerto for Piano and Concert Band composed by Bowdoin's own Francis Kayali '01. The composing of this piece was facilitated by the use of a computer.
   This might destroy some of the romanticism usually surrounding a composer and his piece - long nights of creative fever and sitting on the piano to put down the new piece on paper - but the use of technology does not detract from the piece's poignancy. In addition to the major piano part, there are also solo trumpet and euphonium parts.
   The piece was entirely unpredictable and it was difficult to know what would come next - soft flute tones or breath-taking percussion, done by the three energetic ladies that make up the percussion section. The Concerto takes adventurous twists and turns. The sound and the overall effect is thrilling.
   After the performance of Taylor Gang's ('00) composition, which was written for the concert band last year, Kayali was inspired to begin writing his Concerto. The last two months of rehearsals have been spent fine-tuning the piece.
   On Sunday "the baby will be born," according to Director Morneau. While the other pieces have already been performed many times, no "official" audience has yet heard the Concerto. "Working with the Band and Francis to adapt the Concerto has been a fascinating process. It has been amazing to see the piece develop."
   Another fact that makes the Concerto exceptional is that it needs a very accomplished pianist to perform the piano parts. The piano part is "extremely difficult" according to Morneau, and will not actually be played by Kayali himself. It will be performed by Martin Perry, a virtuoso pianist and a Brunswick resident.
   Perry has directed productions for the Maine State Music Theater. Perry is also part of a piano duo with Kathryn Lewis, which has performed around the country and abroad. It was astonishing to watch the speed with which Perry's hands danced on the keys of the piano.
   Following the "main event" of the Winter Concert is Old Home Days Suite by Charles Ives. It is a merry thing, of the kind that goes into your head and makes you hum it all day long.
   Composed of a waltz, several sections of songs, a march and a final joyful movement, the Suite plays with familiar tunes, such as London Bridge Is Falling Down.
   The Winter Concert will end with Polka and Fugue from "Schwanda, the Bagpiper" by Jaromir Weinberger. I realize that this is not the first and last Winter Concert. Probably for those who have been around for a while this is just another poster on the wall.
   However, I imagine that for the musicians, Sunday afternoon will be a special day, both for Francis Kayali and John Morneau. "A piece of music is always a work in progress," Morneau said. Come to Pickard Theater at 3 p.m. on Sunday to see just how much progress the Concert Band, and Kayali, have made.