Page Two
THE MICHIGAN. DAILY
Sunday, March 24 1968
Page Two THE MICHIGAN DAILY
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Jim peters' music
Glee Club Blooms in Icy Spring
I'm surprised that the Mich- numbers, the Glee Club once
igan Men's Glee Club didn't again charmed its way to suc-
begin its concert last night with cess with a truly professional
an utterly bitter rendition of performance. Director Philip
"Good King Wenceslas" or A. Duey led the 75 tenors, bari-
some other ironic tune; for its tones and basses with a know-
109th Spring Concert was more ing hand, emphasizing lyricism
a Winter Festival. The audience always, but never forgetting the
entered Hill Auditorium last basics of rhythm and counter-
night in bedraggled little cov- point.
les, trudging through the tons They began, after the tradit-
of snow. But their effort was ional "Laudes Atque Carmina,"
more than rewarded. with a series of Renaissance
In a perfectly balanced pro- motets including a Sixteenth
gram which tempered classical Century canon, "Dona Nobis
offerings with lighter popular Pacem" which the Club sang
D nast Diversifies
In Ark Non-Coneert
By MICHAEL BEEBIE
The T'ong Dynasty's High
Bandpass Filter Concert pre-
sented a collection of avant-
garde compositions at the Ark
Friday and Saturday nights.
The experimental nature of
some of the compositions, e.g.,
Jack Carraher's "Nights at the
Round Table" for five to six
poker players and five to six
instrumentalists, exemplified
the Dynasty's purpose: to create
a-non-concert hall situation for
which composers can write a
more diversified form of music.
-T'ong composer Robert Mor-
ris' "ioopus Lazili 359" was the
most evocative composition pre-
sented. This environmental
work made use of five perform-
ers who acted as extensions of
recorded sounds. Coupled with
Morris' other work, "Concerto
Pomposo," an opportunity was
created for the audience to par-
take of a wide and varied range
of moods.
Harry Kincaid's "Declara-'
tion" was a mixed media work
for performers, recorded sound,
billboard, and a tarantula film.
The horror created in the begin-
ning by the film and tape fal-
tered with the entrance of the
musicians and the lack of unity
between the different media.
Elliot Borishansky's . "Silent
Movie' was not a movie but a
musical simulation of one. This
composition for solo, clarinet
presented a musical scenario
whose cinematic counterpart
had to be completed by the au-
dience. Sidney Hodkinson's
grimacing, animated perform-
ance gave the listeners good
material for their imaginations.
Hodkinson also assisted Wil-
Lam Albright in Abright's se-
lections from his "Rag Bag,"
a set of unpublished piano
pieces with occasional wash-
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JAMES HENRY
STEWART FONDA
board accompaniment. The first
rag, "The Vehement 2-Step,"
had the rhythmic and harmonic
surprises of a carefully edited
pianola roll.
The last two rags, "The
Queen of Sheba Slow Drag,"
and "Onion Skin Rag" used
Hodkinson's washboard skills.
Jack Carraher's "Nights at
the Round Table" used an ex-
perimental and effective pre-
compositional plan. Each poker
player had a musical kibitzer
who played a set of three notes
which were determined by the,
first three cards drawn by each
player.
Each musician improvised
freely on his three-note set and
used dynamics according to the
quality of the hand, the better
the hand the louder the ki-
bitzer.
William's Hamilton's "The
Secret Chromatic Art of Never
Land" is a satirical comment on
the medieval church's stance
against the rise of chromatic-
ism in ecclesiastical music. ,
This work is a dialogue be-
tween the church as portrayed
by a grimacing, screeching sax-
ophone and the chromatic
musical practice performed by
a small ensemble of musicians.
The piece is completely impro-
vised and is a well-wrought ex-
ample of satirical musical com-
ment done in a contemporary
idiom.
all over the world in their re-
cent global tour. A short piece
for solo and chorus by Schu-
bert featured tenor Jerrold
Vander/ Schaff; his voice was
pure and clear, but I thought it
sounded a little strained in
some passages.
As an . interlude, baritone
Frank Wiens performed a very
competent "Waltz in A Flat,
Opus 12" by Chopin. I was
particularly pleased by the
clear differentiation between
the two whirring lines in the
waltz, revealing subtleties too
often missed.
His encore was "Golliwog's
Cake Walk" from Debussy's
"Children's Corner Suite;" how-
ever, I missed the usual warmth
and humor in the piece. His in-
terpretation was too straight,
lacking all "rubato" clever-
ness.
The Club then turned to
some lighter songs in remark-
ably well balanced fashion.
The slowly rising sound in
"Money, 0" was carefully sus-
tained. I liked the second of
two songs by Ralph Vaughn
Williams called "The Infinite
Shining Heavens" in which
tenor Schaff's voice was very
fine, and a long piece by Wil-
liam Schuman where the choir
handled the dissonances most
smoothly.
Baritone Daniel Swartz closed
the first half with, a fluid and
rousing performance of Frank
Loesser's "Luck Be a Lady."
His voice has a professional
quality that rings out above
t h e accompanying chorus.
Duey's arrangement of the
song with its choral accents and
hummed sympathy was excel-
lent.
The Glee Club members are
good singers is evidenced by
the long medley of songs from
the 1920's and '30's -- there
was a suberb "In the Still of
the Night" and a too choppy
arrangement for "The Most
Beautiful Girl in the World"
- but they are also successful
entertainers.
Their dice imagery in "Luck
Be a Lady," the humor in the
songs by Tom Lehrer, and the
individual acts by members of
the Club, all contributed to
their standard of quality plus
entertainment. The numbers
by The Friars, a small group
within the choir, were sharp
with visual and musical wit in
a satire on the KKK and a big
"Mock Motown". imitation of
the "Temptations.'
The concert closed with num-
erous songs from the Club's
new Sesquicentennial Song
B o o k, conjuring Michigan
memories from times past.
The snow-conscious audience
responded enthusiastically to
all this excellence, and the
only applause that seemed un-
deserved was for the tuxedoed
"janitors" who moved the
piano around.
4 0
A look at
'Pienic on the Grass'
by Henry Grix
It's not just an ordinary picnic at Cinema Guild this weekend.
After all, Picnic on the Grass was prepared and served by Jean
Renoir. Georges Leclerc's photography looks beautiful, the female
lead (Catherine Rouvel) is delectable, but unfortunately you get
your fill of the whole thing after a while.
Part of the problem lies, as in so many foreign films, in the
translation: Americans can't eat too much rich French food with-
out getting an upset stomach. The jokes seem overcooked; the plot
seems half-baked and it never seems to be getting anywhere; the
characters seem to be overacting their trite roles. To. American
taste, Renoir's offering seems more like Jerry Lewis than genius.
However, Renoir's preposterous comedy has deeper roots in
the broad farces of Moliere. Renoir's characters, like Moliere's, are
caricatures, and the comedy rests in bursting the bubble of pre-
tensions which surround them.
Renoir's hero, masterfully played by Paul Merisse, is a stuffy
scientist who intends to become President of Europe and create
the best of all possible worlds by enforcing artificial insemination.
He has the support of French television and even some citizens.
But when the renowned doctor plans to announce his own
marriage with the leader of the French girl scouts ("a reunion of
scouting and biology") at a picnic on the grass, a wind storm
blows him into the heroine, Miss Rouvel. The curvaceous country
girl had wanted to have a baby artificially, but of course, they end
up doing what comes naturally, and the doctor abandons his con-
fidence in science for the joys of nature.
Merisse is funny in any language. He looks no less dignified,
although a lot more ludicrous, on a motor scooter than in his
Louis XV salon.
It is the caricatures of thoroughly French types, like the coun-
try girls, that fail to please an American audience. Renoir, in the
manner of Pagnol has cut a slice of French life to serve at his Picnic
on the Grass. Any Frenchman seeing the crew of pretentious serv-
ants, the wild bunch of journalists, the regimented girl scouts
would recall the jokes his friends tell him. But the American only
sees servants, photographers, and kids.
P L
,ad
Is a Love-in...Turned Kill
COLOR FROM CRC
1 :20-3:20-5:20-7:25-9:25
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SUNDAY Matinees are
not continuous
I
L-in a
~jThATE
Dial NO 2-6264
inliinlii
University Players Department of Speech announce..-.
A matinee performance
of
Sophocles'
Sunday
April 7, 1968
2:30 P.M.
Trueblood Theatre
Enclosed find $ for tickets to the
Sunday matinee performance of Antigone, at .the price
,J4IMNS"
)I
Foreign Study
Not Hit by Tax
The travel restrictions proposed
by the Johnson administration
last month have no effect on the
University's Junior Year Abroad
program, officials of the program
say.
Prof. Valentine C. Hubbs of the
German department and coun-
selor for the program, explains,
"There's a contingency in the
proposals which states if a student
stays over for more than four
months, he doesn't pay the tax."
Students participating in the
University program study from
September to June and thus would
be exempt from the tax.
'I
4
of $2.00
$1.50
TODAY FROM
1 O'CLOCK
1 dgm
DIAL
8-6416
"Perhaps the most beautiful movie in history."--Brendan Gill,
The New Yorker. "Exquisite is only the first word that surges in
my mind as an appropriate description of this exceptional film.
Its color is absolutely gorgeous. The use of music and, equally
eloquent, of silences and sounds -
is beyond verbal description. The<
performances are perfect-that is
the only word."-
B o s I e y Crowther,
New York Times.
"May well be the
most beautiful film ."
ever made." --
Newsweek.
(The- lower price seats are, located in the rear of both
the orchestra and the balcony.)
I prefer (check one) : orchestra balcony
PLEASE CHECK ONE:
I enclose a self-addressed, stamped envelope. Mail
my tickets to me.
I enclose NO envelope. I will pick my tickets up at
the box office the week of the performance.
i
!i
NAME-
.PHONE
ADDRESS-
CITY
GUILD HOUSE
802 Monroe
4 1
I I 1 .
ZIPI
(Please make checks payable to
University Players)
Monday, March 25
NOON LUNCHEON-25c
End of Series:
"THE THIRD WORLD"
-I
Continuous
Today
from 1 o'clock
With Thommy
Berggren and
Pia Degermark,
Winner, Best
Actress, 1967,
Cannes
Festival
DIAL 5-6290
NOMINATED FOR
4 ACADEMY
AWARDS
Mail orders to University Players, Dept. of Speech
The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Mich. 48104
Regular Performances Nearly Sold Out
sometimes truth is ImoTCre xliIlq
r"M1
~'4
1 1
Summary-Discussion
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I
HIGH CAMPf!a
OBEY FU MANCHU... T E
OR EVERY LIVING
THINGO WILL DIE! FACE
Matinee Today 1:00
SEATS Pu MAICHI
75c TECHNCOLOR*TECHNSCOPE"
Sun.-3-5-7-9:15 Mon. thru Thurs.-7-9:15
Truman Capote's
IN COLD
BLOOD
"LEAVES ONE
CHILLED!
-N.Y. Times
Wriien for the screen and dee we by
Richard Brooks
Posdvely no one under 16 admitted unles
01
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AT
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t-2 3.. v~~ Muiuy 'U.uincy!oe
A Columbia Pictures Release In P4
',e
INNE
ACADEMY
NOMNAT106NS!
. BEST PICTURE
* BEST ACTOR DUSTIN HOFFMAN
0 BEST ACTRESS ANNE BANCROFT
JOSEPH ELEVINE 0 BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
MIKENIC HOLSNKATHERINE ROSS
AWRENCETURMAN 0 BEST DIRECTOR
MIKE NICHOLS
' BEST SCREEN
PLAY
't BEST
TOGRAPHY
THE L..
GRADUATE
4
'I
THE CONCERT SOUND OF
HENRY
A
CI
with orchestra of forty
SATURDAY MARCH 30, 8:30 P.M.
UNIVERSITY EVENTS BUILDING
{+
TICKETS AT HILL-8:00 A.M.-4:30 P.M.
AINNEBANCROFTDUSTIN HOFFMAN - KATHARINE ROSS
CALDER WIWNGHAM BUCK HENRY PAUL SIMON
$4.00, $3.50, $3.00
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