The Meridian Gallery in San Francisco welcomed in a new kind of music during its Combine/Create/Perform/Learn Concert during the evening of June 1.
CSU East Bay student groups from general studies classes performed unique musical acts during the hour and a half long event.
“Operation Bamgh!” was the first group to perform. They performed a piece where the tempo and key changed throughout the 15-minute performance. The music was almost like being inside a video game, and the instruments, a flute, a trumpet, an electric guitar, a keyboard, a clarinet and a shaker made the music unique and adventurous.
“The Recyclables” was a group of students from the Spirituality Meets the Creative Spirit cluster. The students made their own instruments out of everyday items. Together, in a strong tempo and beat, they played their music to a poem about life. The group effectively combined philosophy, dance and music.
Fredy Pablo, Leo Shulman and Jesus Alvarez were the next ones to present. Together, they premiered a guitar made entirely out of sheet metal. Alvarez, who was the group’s resident engineer, was the one who made the guitar. With Shulman on the sheet metal guitar, and with was Pablo on a regular acoustic guitar, they performed a jazz/pop composition by Pablo.
The metal guitar sounded close, if not identical, to the sound of a banjo. With the acoustic playing in the background, the metal guitar was the leading sound, almost imitating a voice. It was another successful and creative performance.
A special performance was also put on by the Multimedia Music Box Club. With the club having been founded only this year with the assistance of ASI (which was not an easy task), the club is made up of students who were in the music cluster last year.
Club members Aaron Apilado, Lillian Yee, and Alex Bailey together performed their renditions of “Fisherman’s Horizon” from “Final Fantasy VIII” and the theme from “Tetris.” They wanted to put their own spin on these songs from these popular video games by playing them in a traditional manner; with a keyboard, a flute, a clarinet, as well as with a bass violin, a guitar, and a tambourine later on.
The concert finished with a rousing performance feauturing a carnyx, a long, metal trumpet-like instrument often referred to as an ancient Roman war horn.
Composition graduate student David Waugh, together with Jason Alcala-Mosely and Taylor Rankin on pressure tank bells, Waugh premiered the instrument with an improvised piece entitled “Finding Frequencies.” The horns blared and the tank bells added dramatic.
The piece consumed the audience with their unusual sounds and unique appearance.
Waugh’s instruments and piece tied in nicely with the night’s interdisciplinary theme.
