concert review

Concert Review : Southern Illinois University Carbondale Wind Ensemble

The wind ensemble of Southern University Carbondale began its May 3 performance with Dmitri Kabalevsky 's overture to Colas Breugnon (1938 The concert was held in the school of music with Christopher Morehouse conducting . Kabalevsky 's overture is brassy and up-tempo with easily discernable melodies . There is little variation in pitch or tempo , as the piece mainly focuses on phrasing simple melodies . The listener immediately gets a sense of drama from crashing percussion and blaring horns . The concert program claims that Kabalevsky shares Tchaikovsky

's "idiom " while adding his own "modern trimmings " If this means Kabalevsky likes melody , then the parallel is accurate , though there is little of the "modern trimmings " that might be heard in the work of a composer like Arnold Schoenberg

The performance continued with David Gillingham 's Concertino for Four Percussion and Wind Ensemble (1997 . This piece begins with an intricate melody played on the xylophone . The percussionist 's technique was impressive . The first half of the piece is a slow introduction , a change in tempo from Kabalevsky 's overture . The second half of the piece is an allegro , and there is little in the way of melody . The piece is an exploration of texture and timbre , variations that demonstrate the mixture of sounds that are possible as the vibraphone xylophone , and marimba interweave with brass

Written in 2001 , the next piece had something of a comic effect on the audience . A composer named Scott McAllister wrote an...