On May 9, The Newman Center for the Performing Arts hosted a student-led baroque orchestra, featuring four musical pieces.
The first was called “Conte Fantasrique,” a traditional ensemble performance written by André Caplet. The piece is based on Edger Allen Poe’s “The Masque of the Red Death,” a short story about a fearful prince isolating himself in his court to protect from a plague called the Red Death.
Performed masterfully by DU students Timoteo Cruz-Leyva, Auty Maddock, Veronica Gil Amarista and Hudson Schill, the piece depicted the fear of a horrific disease that can, and inevitably will if caught, carry someone towards a painful death.
Painstakingly composed and crafted, baroque music often features stories just like this one. It reflects a composer’s musical intention for their piece and shows what they draw from to craft it.
The second and most notable performance was a solo harp sonata called “Sonata for Harp,” written by Pierick Houdy. The song was performed by harpist and DU student Anastasia Arango, who delivered a somber, yet happier performance than the first piece’s brutal recounting isolation in the name of safety.
“Sonata for Harp” was written as a wedding gift from Houdy to his wife, Ghislaine de Winter. They married in 1954, and remained together until Houdy’s death in 2021 at the age of 92.
The imagery of a newlywed couple listening to this beautiful piece during their wedding combined with a unique sonic structure including three very long breaks between sections allows for the burgeoning of a beautiful love story that is identified through the musical intricacy and intentionality of the piece.
If one paid close enough attention to the three intermissions, you were emotionally rewarded with grand moments of emotional expression that rewarded the choice to pay attention to the silence.
Viewers desperately wanted the silence to subside. They wanted an evolution of the story into the next chapter of Houdy’s lovely conception of grace and beauty in his new found partner.
Houdy’s pauses were relatively short, but were depicted with great musical skill through Arango’s performance. The audience experienced a kind of musical expression very difficult to communicate through production softwares and expensive recording practices.
It was a simple story — just like the ones you’d find at a local book store, and the applause was raucous.
Baroque classical is crafted in intricate ways to reflect emotion just as most other music aims to do. However, this genre has the ability to do so often without vocals, layered recordings or post-production of any kind. Well played instrumentation can give an emotional beauty unique to the live performance of the genre’s vast musical library.
The Newman Center features similar performances just like this one where listeners can listen to a variety of genres and performances from jazz ensembles and classical performances, to indie theater productions and concert dance.
