Fall Arts Celebration presents historic music of Paris

Fall Arts Celebration continues and will next feature “Music from La Belle Époque: Chamber Music for Winds from Turn-of-the-Century Paris,” Monday, September 16, at 8 p.m., in the Louis Armstrong Theatre, PAC, Allendale Campus.

Music Department faculty and guest artists will recreate the historic music of La Belle Époque/the Beautiful Era, performing the woodwind chamber music of D’Indy, Enesco, Bernard and Stravinsky, conducted by renown guest conductor Colonel Lowell E. Graham, USAF, retired, former director of the USAF Band in Washington, D.C.

Starting with the last decades of the 19th century, and through the start of World War I, the European musical world was dominated by the late romantic aesthetics, including the German large symphonic sound of Wagner and Strauss. In Paris however, it was a time of new optimism following the Franco-Prussian War and there was a conscious search for national identity.

“French composers were moving from the German orchestral composers’ jarring dissonance to focus on small chamber groups and resurrecting the unique beauty and sonority of wind instruments,” said Danny Phipps, Department of Music chair. “Their compositions also reflected the melodic and clear beauty of the French language.”

While the concert is primarily music from French composers, Phipps decided to also include Enesco and Stravinsky because they both lived and created compositions in Paris during this historic period. A reception will follow the performance.

All Fall Arts Celebration events are open to the public with free admission. Seating is limited for these popular performances. For more information, visit www.gvsu.edu/fallarts, or call x1-2185.