With a repertoire ranging from Portuguese marches to folk songs, the Brown University Wind Symphony demonstrated its ability to highlight specific instruments while maintaining a cohesive sound this past Saturday night in Salomon 101.
In introducing the 44-piece symphony, Matthew McGarrell, senior lecturer in music and conductor of the wind symphony, said, "I tried to find pieces we could use to get to know each other musically, to build our musical identity and I feel like we are doing it."
The set kicked off with two marches. The first, titled "Vida por Vida," is a song from one of McGarrell's bands in Portugal. This upbeat and high-tempo yet traditional march is one out of the band's oeuvre of "older and more conservative" songs, McGarrell said. In the second song, titled "March: Sabre and Spurs," specific instruments sang out variations of the main tune.
Respite from the somewhat frenzied marches came in the third song, "Chorale and Alleluia," which was beautiful and delicate. The band showed its strength in its careful blending of instruments - due to its restrained playing, the real power of the song emerged. The layers of melodies culminated in giant swells of music.
Eli Fieldsteel '08, an assistant conductor, took over for the fourth song. "We have a tradition that the student assistant conductor conducts a song at every rehearsal and also at the concert," McGarrell said.
Fieldsteel's gentle rendition of "Amazing Grace" brought out a sense of roundness to the orchestra's sound. The occasional flute solos and twinkling of percussion contributed to a steadily strengthening sound. Though the instrumental solos were played sweetly and conveyed a sense of innocence initially, they were echoed by deeper and more ominous undertones at the end that illustrated the growing sense of complexity and seriousness.
This dynamic complexity continued in the next song, "Postcard," in which different instruments' staccato notes called back and forth to one another. Syncopated tones rang out from the cymbals and other percussive instruments in contrast with the overlapping bass tones of the woodwinds.
Out of these seemingly cacophonous and unrelated chords came a beautifully multifaceted resonance as variations of the same few notes were layered over one another.
For the last song, "Folk Song Suite," the symphony came full circle. The first movement, "Seventeen Come Sunday," featured a steady rhythm and triumphant, upbeat sound that recalled "Vida por Vida." The second movement's somber poignancy can be credited to the flutes for creating an atmosphere of melancholic desolation. The third movement returned to the cheerful major chords of the previous song, leaving audience members whistling tunes as they exited Salomon.
