Salt Lake City's Contemporary Music Consortium (CMC) wants to change people's attitudes about new music, even though it's an uphill battle. "People should learn that new music isn't scary, but it's a hard sell," said flutist Laurel Ann Maurer.
CMC will be holding its first concert of the season this evening, and Maurer, who is one of the group's founders, said the concert should appeal to everyone. "We try to bring a varied program to the audience. We don't just play very modern-sounding music, but music of all kinds."
One aspect of classical music today that distinguishes it from earlier periods is that there isn't any one particular defining compositional style. It would be accurate to say that there are as many different musical styles today as there are composers. And this gives new music greater interest, allowing it to reach out to a wider audience.
Tonight's CMC concert presents just such a broad spectrum of recently composed music, from the conservative "Songs of Love and Longing" by Stephen Paulus to the angst-ridden "Summer Idyll" for string trio by Geoffrey Gibbs.
Paulus' music should be fairly well-known to Salt Lake audiences since several of his works have been performed here over the past few years. Last April, his parable opera "The Three Hermits" was presented by Utah Opera at the opening concert of the Madeleine Festival.
" 'Songs of Love and Longing' is a very lovely, straightforward work," Maurer said. "It's conservative in style and very accessible."
Totally opposite in character and mood is Gibbs' "Summer Idyll." "There is a lot of contrast in the Gibbs piece," Maurer explained. "There are some beautiful moments in it, but it's also filled with angst. There is an aspect of harshness to it, and it's modern-sounding."
One of CMC's goals is to play one work by a Utah composer at each concert. "I think it's important that we include one piece on each program that's written by a composer living in Utah," he said.
Tonight's concert includes Salt Lake resident William Wallace's "Toccata for Ten" for flute and piano. "It's a short piece, about five minutes long," Maurer said. "It's light and playful and explores different rhythmic variations and the play between the flute and piano." The title comes from the fact that the piece is written in 10/8 meter.
The two other works on the program are "East Wind" for solo flute, by the Israeli composer Shulamit Ran, and "Whispers" for voice, flute and piano, by New Yorker Dana Paul Perna.
"The Ran piece is very lovely," Maurer said. "It's a short work that's not too far out in terms of modern technique." She added that Ran explores different ways of making the piece rhythmically and melodically interesting and tries to give it the feeling of being a fantasy.
Perna's "Whispers" will receive its world premiere at today's concert. "This is also a beautiful piece," said Maurer. The work is based on texts by five women poets, including Emily Dickinson and Christina Georgina Rossetti. "Each of the five movements transports you to another world," Maurer said. "The work creates feelings of wistfulness, longing and aging, and the motions some women go through. It's modern, but (Perna) has an interesting way of bringing in older elements into his music as well."
Tonight's concert will also be the first in CMC's new venue, the First Unitarian Church on 1300 East. Even though the church only has a seating capacity of around 100, Maurer is pleased to be there. "It's not a bad thing being in a small venue. Many of our audience members have a good understanding of new music, and they like the closeness and the feeling of being a part of the concert."
Maurer and her colleagues at CMC are passionate about contemporary music. They want audiences to be exposed to newer works, and they want to give composers a forum where their music can be performed.
"I believe in new music. And I support the continuation of the creation of art, otherwise it'll stagnate and possibly die. We need to cultivate new music."
Concert tonight
What: Contemporary Music Consortium
Where: First Unitarian Church, 600 S. 1300 East
When: Tonight at 5
How much: Admission by donation
Phone: 466-9274
E-mail: ereichel@desnews.com