The Discovery Players Concert

The Discovery Players at CSUN are a group of talented students who meet, practice, and perform postmodern music to expand their own musical knowledge and repertoire, as well as give a professional concert on the school’s behalf at the end of the semester. I was fortunate enough to attend this semester’s concert on April 23rd at CSUN’s Cypress Hall, which turned out to be a very enjoyable mix of recent music, skilled instrumentalists, and a showcase of innovative techniques for various instruments. I also feel as though I had an interesting perspective on the evening, as I attended both the dress rehearsal and the concert; the dichotomy in atmosphere between a piece’s final run-through and it’s official performance were quite interesting to observe, and made the experience that much more enjoyable. Overall, the program was well picked and the students gave an excellent performance. I was pleasantly surprised to find myself rather entertained throughout the entire evening thanks to a captivating and varied set of pieces with committed performances.

The first piece of the evening was the first arrangement of “Canciones Flamencas Antiguas” by Rafael Andia, an exciting flamenco guitar duo. To me, this piece sounded like a fresh take on the now old standby of flamenco guitar because of the interesting dissonances in the introductory passage that is repeated throughout the piece. I enjoyed the melody switching back and forth between the performers from section to section, and I was impressed by the rapid plucking required for a few of the melodic runs, especially the chromatic ones at the end of the piece. I think the performers themselves did an extraordinary job of staying together and playing off one another, as well as hitting all of their notes. One of the only issues I had with the performance was the lack of dynamic diversity. I think this piece offers a great many opportunities to play with the dynamics as it has a few repeating sections that need variety in one way or another. This piece was short and sweet, and a great way to start off the concert. Exciting to watch and listen to, it really got me in the mood for the rest of the concert.

The second piece was the first movement of a very interesting trio for flute, clarinet, and guitar by composer Frank Campo, entitled “Elegy.” Before this semester I really disliked any piece in this kind of postmodern style, but taking Advanced Composition with Liviu Marinescu has really made me broaden my horizons when it comes to 20th century compositions. I was a little concerned for this piece during the dress rehearsal because the conductor and the guitarist couldn’t seem to get on the same page, but I think everything came together quite well for the performance. I loved the fluttery introduction to the piece, as well as the interesting percussion effects from the guitarist. I think the dissonances between the winds were very well used, as well as some peculiar but