School of Music faculty express the idea of a day through song
September 26, 2013
Historically, music composers have relied on time of day as a theme for their works.
Julie Wieck, a soprano and professor at the WSU School of Music, said she hopes to convey tradition in her performance entitled Dawn to Dusk in Song.
“For this one I found that I really wanted to do The Morning, by Thomas Arne,” Wieck said. “It is a piece many students don’t get the chance to hear. Arne isn’t a composer most think of when you think about Baroque music.”
Accompanying Wieck on piano will be piano professor Gerald Berthiaume, with whom Wieck has done recitals for 15 years.
The concert program will include four Ukrainian pieces.
Though Wieck said she hopes to model skills she teaches her students during class time, she is also motivated by Ukrainian music’s relative inaccessibility in the United States.
“That will be the basis for a CD we are working on of Ukrainian music that is not readily available,” Wieck said
Some of this music she brought with her from the Ukraine during a trip, which presented another opportunity for her to perform with Berthiaume.
“I played for Dr. Wieck in Kieve, Ukraine, so there will be music she brought back from that trip,” Berthiaume said.
Wieck said in creating Dawn to Dusk in Music she explored a wide variety of musical pieces that are related in unique ways. She said finding those connections was not always easy.
The compositions she has chosen represent several languages: English, French, German, Russian, and Ukrainian.
“It challenges me to do research to find pieces that fit together,” she said. “I like to have variety within unity.”
Wieck found this unity by combining the works of Baroque and Ukranian composers. Alban Berg’s “Seven Early Songs” will be featured in the performance.
“The ‘Seven Early Songs’ is a lot about evoking the night,” Wieck said. “They’re very lush, chromatic and romantic in the music.”
Wieck will also perform Gabriel Fauré’s “Poem of a Day,” a piece which details the evolution of a relationship over the course of a single day.
“It goes through a relationship that lasts one day, with the early stages of infatuation, then wild compassion and ending with an indifferent goodbye,” she said.
The final composition Wieck will perform, “Adieu,” also by Fauré, she said will be emotionally poignant for her and the audience.
“The last song is very cruel, in the ‘nothing lasts forever’ attitude,” she said.
Wieck and Berthiaume will also perform compositions by Laitman and Ukrainian composers Lysenko, Alchevsky, Nadenenko, and Bilash.
Wieck and Berthiame agreed it requires more organization than one would expect to prepare for a performance such as this.
Berthiaume added that these performances allow them to exercise their passion for music and the pieces they select.
Wieck and Berthiaume will perform tomorrow at 8 p.m. in Bryan Hall Theatre.
Admission is free for WSU students (student IDs are required), $5 for non-WSU students and seniors, and $10 for the general public.
All proceeds benefit the School of Music Student Scholarship Fund.