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Life & Arts

Moores event features seasoned composer

Montague's 'Dark Sun' commemorates Hiroshima bombing

by KAREN KLUCZNIK
The Daily Cougar

Ever thought you could listen to cars perform as an orchestra, watch amateurs as they make their debut on the stage of the Moores Opera House and listen to a piece of music sure to transport you back in time -- all in one evening? You can at 7:30 p.m. Friday at the Moores Opera House as The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for the Arts presents works by international composer Stephen Montague.

The concert kicks off at the Fine Arts Quadrangle with the performance of Horn Concerto ? written exclusively for an orchestra of automobiles ? featuring Houston Art Cars and performance art duo The Art Guys. Presented in collaboration with the Orange Show Center for Visionary Art, Horn Concerto also features soloists playing klaxon horns.

"This piece was commissioned by the city of Manchester, England in 1998," composer Montague said. "They were having a festival and wanted something eye-catching. The festival was being sponsored by a large taxi cab firm, so I put it together using horns and windshield wipers from the cars.

"The taxis lined up in front of Manchester town hall and the effect was quite luminous," Montague said.

Following the outdoor performance, the audience is invited to move on to the Moores Opera House for the remainder of the concert, which features the AURA Contemporary Ensemble, members of the UH Dance, Band, Choral and Orchestral Programs and an amateur orchestra. This portion of the concert will feature Montague's "Dark Sun."

"It is so bloody entertaining to watch this car concerto; it's very amusing and inventive and is an engrossing 10 minutes," assistant music professor Rob Smith said. "The concert is very professional, and you will see the best UH has to offer through it and the choreography.

"Even if you are more familiar with pop music, you will readily understand this music."

Pieces to be performed during the second half include percussion piece "Rim Fire" and a light-hearted cowboy piece titled "Texas Pulp Fiction," both of which will be accompanied by a contemporary dance piece by the UH Dance Program.

Montague, who grew up in West Virginia and Florida, has worked as a freelance composer based in London since 1975. After winning a Fulbright Fellowship to work in Warsaw, Poland, he first came to England as a musician with the Strider Dance Company. His music has been widely performed at international festivals, including the BBC Promenade Concerts at the Royal Albert Hall in London, the Warsaw Autumn Festival and the Paris Festival d'Automne.

Commissions for his work include a piano concerto for the BBC Proms, the Hilliard Ensemble and the Contemporary Music Making for Amateurs, for which the last performance of the evening was written.

"COMA wanted a piece that was flexible enough for both professional and amateurs alike. At first, I was going to write something light-hearted, but when I realized it would be performed on Aug. 6, 1995, I decided to write something serious in commemoration of the bombing of Hiroshima," Montague said. "It is a piece that can take as many as 100 to 200 performers or as few as 50 to 60.

"I thought it would be a one-off thing, but this is probably the 75th time it has been done — in many countries around the world."

With an aggressive beginning similar to that of a nuclear blast, "Dark Sun" incorporates into its music three recordings of radio broadcasts to give listeners a feeling of the time period. To the right is the recording of a Japanese propaganda station featuring "The Zero Hour" with Tokyo Rose. In the center is a recording of the BBC broadcasts from the war in the Pacific, and to the left is the recording of "Terry and the Pirates," an American children's program.

At one point, the amateur performers join in, each playing a different instrument, to create a collage of music that may have been performed somewhere in the world on the day Hiroshima was bombed.

"Being able to work with an international composer and being able to collaborate with the dance department has been most rewarding," Smith said. "These are some of the very best musicians in this school and it is an incredible honor to be a part of the ensemble.

"We are not just doing a concert; we are doing a concert with dance and that is a very special event."

Admission for the outdoor performance of Horn Concerto is free. Tickets for "Dark Sun" are $15 for students and $10 for seniors. For more information, call (713) 743-3313.

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