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28 APRIL 12, 2012
EUGENE WEEKLY
East
Meets
West:
the Sequel
I
n December 1577, when Francis
Drake’s The Pelican and a quartet of
accompanying ships sailed from
Plymouth to commence the first
circumnavigation of the globe by an
English expedition, the flagship vessel’s
complement included not just wine,
cannons, archers and the usual provisions
of a conquering warship, but also lutes (for
the gentlemen officers), trumpets and a
viol quartet — a foursome playing the
stringed instruments also known as violas
da gamba. The English may have been
colonialist imperialists, but they were
musically inclined colonialist imperialists.
Two and a half years later, after
capturing immense booty from the
Spanish, the flagship now renamed The
Golden Hind dropped anchor in Java and,
as was English custom, strongly
encouraged the local sultan to listen to
their viol consort. The Javanese king must
have been impressed, because the next day
a troupe of Javanese musicians came
aboard the British galleon and regaled the
amazed voyagers with their melodically
intricate gamelan music. Gamelan music,
played on bronze keyboards, tuned gongs,
two-string fiddle, bamboo flute, drums and
more, has enchanted Western listeners
ever since.
This first encounter of two of the
world’s greatest musical traditions was
followed by Claude Debussy’s late-19th-
century encounter with a Javanese
gamelan, which deeply influenced his
music as well as that of Maurice Ravel,
Benjamin Britten, Colin McPhee and other
Western composers, most notably
Portland-born Lou Harrison, who helped
ignite an American gamelan movement
that now comprises more than 100 such
ensembles — including three in Eugene.
Sunday, April 15, at United Lutheran
Church, Gamelan Sari Pandhawa joins
the Eugene-based viol quartet Byrdsong
Renaissance Consort to stage an
approximate recreation of that first
multicultural musical exchange on the
shores of Java.
Another commemoration of important
world music happens at UO’s Beall
Concert Hall Sunday, April 16, when two
sons of one of the 20th century’s greatest
musicians, the late Ali Akbar Khan,
celebrate his 90th birthday with a concert
of Indian music for sarod (the beautiful
plucked lute) and tabla drum. Both sons
learned music from some of India’s most
renowned teachers, including their
grandfather, who also taught Ravi Shankar.
The elder, Aashish Akbar, worked in
projects with George Harrison and Eric
Clapton, and on movie scores for Gandhi
and A Passage to India.
The Golden Hind did make it to what’s
now Latin America on its journey around
the world, and there’s music from that
hemisphere on tap April 21, when the
Eugene Concert Choir joins Jessie
Marquez and national dance champions
Catherine and F.J. Abaya with narrator
John Vavrek in a concert featuring Latin
American dance music — tangos, sambas,
rumbas, salsa y mas.
Over in Springfield, the excellent
ensemble of present and former UO music
faculty members Chamber Music
Amici performs music by Mozart,
Beethoven and Brahms, plus an exuberant
piece by the great 20th-century Argentine
nuevo tango composer Astor Piazzolla.
The concert happens Monday, April 16, at
the Wildish Theater.
Music fans might also check out the
new exhibit at Maude Kerns, which
features art inspired by or related to music.
The opening reception Friday, April 13,
features the Eugene Youth Symphony
String Quartet. And there’s also live
music — some of the 20th century’s most
compelling, in fact, at the Eugene
Ballet’s Stravinsky Gala at Hult Center.
In the stately neoclassical music for his
1928 ballet Apollo, Robert Ashens will
lead a 17-member string ensemble. And in
the striking 1923 dance cantata The
Wedding, members of the Eugene Vocal
Arts Ensemble will join Ashens and a
trio of other pianists, plus guest vocal
soloists and percussionists. Alas, the music
for the Rite of Spring will be recorded (it
requires a massive orchestra), but the other
two works are well worth hearing for the
live music alone, as well as the modern
choreography by EBT’s Toni Pimble and
New York choreographer Melissa
Bobick. ew
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