Senior Recital

Attending the Senior Recital of Jonathen Woods was a truly unique experience. There was so much creativity and abstract art that I don’t know where I should begin. Well it started off with a quartet, a piano, a clarinet, a flute, and another brass instrument that I am unfamiliar with. The melodic lines played with seducing. No major or whole sounding scales were played. I am not positive if any scales were played in general, but the harmonies were brilliant. The composer experiments with every kind of harmony. Everything was homophonic in texture. The music was soothing, yet questionable. The pieces to follow all had that same feeling to them. There was a solo violinist, and a slide guitarist with digitally mixed accompaniment. There was a spectacular use of the four speaker panning during the slide guitar piece. There was one in particular that was my favorite. The digital composition seeping out of the speakers while a man was in the spotlight molding on a clay wheel! At first it was odd I admit, but the more and more I watched, the more mesmerized I became with the sound and the site as a whole. The sounds kept speeding up and building and building until they reached their peak, just as the tower of clay spinning kept growing and growing up and up until it reached its peak. Then silence came, and the clay pot fell back into an unshaped pile. The combination of manipulated noise and thrilling site made me feel like I was the clay pot, being tossed and turned, shaped and carved by the music. The music stops, and so do I. There was another piece that caught my attention, and had me wanting to point out every little detail to a friend that I had brought along. It was a trio of percussionists. They circled around a wooden xylophone, and metal xylophone, and a pair of timpanis. Each one of them also had a bow, yes that is right I said bow. They used the bow to stroke one of the planks on the xylophones, making very soothing hums both alone, and with accompaniment. There was also cymbals lying atop of the timpanis. They were lightly struck creating a hollow chime that had a little bit of rumble to it. Those cymbals were taken on and off, to the T’’S were used normally as well. Overall some very experimental composition, but very well done and very intriguing.