By Devonne Tourre, Asst. Digital Media Editor
Musicologist Joy H. Calico performed as a guest of the Martha Barker Blessing Musicians-in-Residence series on Nov. 13 in Stretansky Concert Hall.
Calico directed a recreation of Austrian-American composer Arnold Schoenberg’s “Skandalkonzert” or “Scandal Concert” of 1913.
Associate Professor of Music David Steinau and Calico both collaborated on putting the recreation together.
“I’ve been researching this Scandal Concert of 1913 for quite a while,” Calico said. “I talked about it a lot but no one has ever been crazy enough to say, ‘We should totally play that concert,’ until [Steinau] reached out to me and I thought, ‘Yes, I would love to do that.’”
Student performers noted what stood out to them in the repertoire.
“The music itself and listening to it [was the most interesting],” said senior Augustus Black. “Percussion is pretty easy [for these pieces]. Most of it was marked as inaudible, or close to inaudible.”
Black performed in Anton Webern’s “Six Pieces for Orchestra, Op. 6.” Webern’s piece had the most performers, including a conductor, flutist, oboist, pianist, violinists, violists, cellist and a bass player. Other pieces either consisted of a soprano singer accompanying a pianist or violins and a piano.
Another piece by Alexander von Zemlinsky, “Songs of Poems of Maeterlinck, Op 13,” had emotional poems sung throughout the performance.
Calico spoke on the intricacies of Schoenberg’s piece “Chamber Symphony No. 1, Op. 9.”
“He was an evolutionary composer, not a revolutionary composer,” Calico said. “The chamber symphony stretched traditional tonal harmony to, and sometimes beyond, the point in which keys can be clearly defined; forcing texture, melody and sonority to carry greater importance as form-giving devices.”
This performance ended up being the longest, clocking in at 17 minutes.
Making it more than just an average performance, Calico noted the riots that broke out during the original concert in 1913.
“Some people believe that a portion of the audience showed up spoiling for a fight,” Calico said. This then became a “full on fight,” according to Calico.
History appeared to repeat itself during “Five Songs on Picture-Postcard Texts:” audience members hissed and murmured, which eventually built up to a fight among the crowd.
The “fight” was orchestrated by the Department of Theatre to accurately recreate the concert that took place over a century ago. “It was a great deal of fun [to choreograph the reenactment],” said Visiting Assistant Professor of Theatre Aaron White. “We stepped through it very slowly and built it very specifically.”
“It was mostly music and theater majors who have done fighting before,” White continued.
Attendees noted both the music and interactive experience of the performance.
“I thought [the concert] was super cool,” said first-year John LaRotonda. “I came into it and knew that it was going to be all of these pieces, but I didn’t think there was going to be a riot at the end.”
“That was hilarious,” LaRotonda continued. “I thought that they were talking during the performance, but that wasn’t the case.”
