The classical masterpieces of bygone eras are much like old friends — reliable and comforting. However, music is dynamic. It constantly evolves and for a taste of contemporary classical music, Tonus Vivus is that breath of fresh air.
Previously known as Edmonton Composers’ Concert Society, it is undergoing a vibrant period as it celebrates its 25th anniversary with a concert at All Saints Anglican Cathedral tonight at 8 p.m.
Back in the summer of 1985, five former University of Alberta music students of the iconic Violet Archer organized a society devoted to performing works by new music composers.
Now Tonus Vivus (Latin meaning ‘living sound’) has 50 members across Canada. At the concert, many of those composers will fuel the dreams of those original visionaries. “You will not hear anything like it. It’s unique. It’s exciting. It’s challenging. It’s thrilling,” says artistic director Piotr Grella-Mozejko.
In building a hybridized repertoire, Grella-Mozejko chose music from every generation in the society. The oldest composition is Archer’s 1949 Divertimento No. 1 performed by WindRose Trio and the most recent is the world premiere of Colin Labadie’s Tonus Tatiana.
Labadie, a University of Alberta composition student, was commissioned by Tonus to compose this work for violin/computer. He christened it after Tatiana Warszynski, the first violinist performing it. “Colin will use the computer,” adds Grella-Mozejko.
Another world premiere is Reinhard van Berg’s Void, a piano/computer combo accompanied by a Philip Jagger video. “Reinhard likes to give his pieces catastrophic titles and I like to joke he displays his tormented soul.”
St. Albert saxophonist Charles Stolte reintroduces one of the most challenging works of the program — his 1994 composition True Confessions. Now acting chair of King’s University music program, he wrote this seven-minute piece as a reaction against melodramatic music that presented a series of affectations.
“My piece, instead of many notes, uses only one note and mutates and explores many aspects,” says Stolte. Using a harmonic series of B-flats, it expresses all the different things that one note can be do without repeating.
Beth Levia (oboe) and Ernst Birss (guitar) pair up to perform Grella-Mozejko’s Silver Wound, an ode to a crescent moon in the night’s inky sky, and Ainsley Hillyard dances to Jacek Sobieraj’s Saw.
For a program list visit www.tonusvivus.com.
