The Korean Percussion group will begin
the concert by playing and processing inside from the outside of
the Vanderhoef Studio Theatre. Gamelan—led
by department chair Henry Spiller—will follow with
three special selections: (1) Sekar
Manis with students as a chorus,
(2) Lou Harrison’s Threnody for Carlos
Chavez with Ellen Ruth Rose, viola,
and (3) Tari Topeng Menak Jingga with
Margot Lederer Prado, dancer. After intermission,
the Hindustani ensemble, led by Rita
Sahai, will perform two selections, with Rachel Unterseher,
viola, and Samrat Kakeri, tabla. Samba
School, led by Chris Froh, will play a short
selection with a small group inside the theatre, and then
perform an enredo outdoors, with the rest of the
ensemble.
To support the UC Davis’s program in ethnomusicology (the study
of musics in their cultural contexts), the Department of Music
fosters four performing groups that represent the strengths and
expertise of UC Davis faculty in the musics of Brazil, India,
Indonesia, and Korea. This unique concert features all four
groups!
Those attending the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in
Chicago could visit a faux Javanese village, sample tea and
coffee from the Indonesian island, and hear music of the
gamelan, a large percussion ensemble.
Exposure to this exotic culture produced a “javaphilia” – a
fascination for the music and dance of Java. That long-lasting
allure, and how the music had been transformed, could be seen
nearly 100 years later at the 1986 First International Gamelan
Festival at Expo ’86 in Toronto.
Henry Spiller — a member of the music department faculty
at UC Davis for 10 years — has a new book out,
detailing “American love affairs with Javanese music and dance”
through the stories of four North American artists.
Spiller and the UC Davis Gamelan Ensemble will be
performing music that goes with the book’s theme on Friday
as part of the “Musics of the World” concert in the Mondavi
Center’s Vanderhoef Studio Theatre.
To add the course, please email the instructor, or show up the
first day and obtain the CRN from the instructor.
Learn the basics of Hindustani music theory through group
singing. Students learn five ragas per term through scale
practice, short compositions and improvisation.
Course Information
MUS 148
Meets Mondays, 4:10–6:00 pm, in Room 1152 “Brass” Studio,
Pitzer Center
