Bach's concerti in, Origin alstyle By KERRY THOMPSON THE ARS MUSICA Baroque Orchestra will be performing a very special concert series over the next three months in Rackham Auditorium. In this, its eighth year, the Ann Arbor-based group will perform the complete Brandenburg Concertos of Johann Sebastian Bach on original instruments of the 18th century, or exact copies. This means, among other things, that the violins will have gut strings, a neck at a different angle, measure slightly shorter than our modern instru- ments, and use a different bow. In addition, recorders will be used instead of transverse flutes, the oboes wily have fewer keys and a different reed, and the trumpets and horns will be valveless natural instruments. All instru- ments will be tuned to A-415, noticeably lower than our modern A-440. According to Lyndon Lawless, director of the Ars Musica ensemble, this will be only the second time these works have been performed with original instruments in this country. Why are they doing it? Lawless deemed it an ef- fort to get back to roots, to discover a number of musical characteristics that Bach took for granted. Lawless doesn't consider himself a purist, since the performances are "not for historical reasons." Rather, the group is giving the series because they feel the music will fit better into its original 18th cen- tury mold if performed on 18th century instruments. LAWLESS IS QUICK to point out that a high quality of musical perfor- mance has always been more important to the group than historical ac- curacy, for a dull, historically accurate performance is still a dull perform- ance. "We're doing it," explains Lawless, "because we believe this ap- proach, for us, is the way we can make the music speak to today's audience with the most clarity, the most force and the most beauty." One of the challenges that had to be met was determining which version of the written music to use. They finally decided to perform from facsimiles of the only existing manuscript in Bach's own hand, in order to achieve the greatest authenticity and accuracy. Sometimes this manuscript was not en- tirely clear, especially where Bach would scratch out notes, write over others, and write over the bar line if a lone run of notes didn't fit. An added difficulty was that with the exception of the Fifth Concerto, all that is given of the harpsichord part is the figured bass. Penelope Crawford will therefore be improvising the harpsichord part for the concerts, as was the standard performance practice in Bach's time. Lawless claimed that very few ornaments are to be added to the manu- script, as Bach wrote out almost everything he wanted played. This con- trasts markedly with other composers of his period, who would provide a mere outline and expect the performer to add ornamentation such as trills, turns and even.passing tones and appogiaturas. Bach, in fact, was criticized by his contemporaries for the completeness of his manuscripts, as they felt he took away the performer's perogative. Ars Musica, a professional ensemble, gives a series of concerts each year in Ann Arbor in addition to touring extensively. The 13 musicians com- prising the core of the orchestra are all specialists on 18th century instru- ments. Some are long-time residents of Ann Arbor, and others have moved here.from Basel, Amsterdam, Vienna, Rochester and Princeton to join the ensemble. In addition, there will be visiting guest artists such as Lowell Greer, assistant first horn in the Detroit Symphony. Also featured on this particular three-concert series will be works by Handel, Vivaldi, Albioni, Rameau, Farina and Telemann. The performances will take place in Rackham Auditorium on January 16. February 9 and Mar- ch 15. Some series tickets are still available, at $8 and $10, at TIX/INFO in Jacobson's "J" Shop on State Street. The Michigan Daily- Critics pick the best T O SAY THAT 1977 fell short of being a banner year for films is to understate. The Daily film critics found it extremely difficult to find 10 films that qualified as deserving a place on a "10 best of the year" list, even though we considered our judgements within a highly enter- tainment-oriented context. The in- ability of most American film- makers to produce works of non- negligible artistic merit is scarcely news to most hardened Hollywood cynics, yet even in the realm of pure entertainment, it would seem as if technical virtuosity - like that of Lucas and Spielberg - is necessary to overcome the blahs that result from sticking with the money- winning "trends." Thus, the main- stream of '77 films is characterized by such pieces of non-entertainment as The Deep, Rolling Thunder and Heroes. 1) Annie Hall. After a long series of films in which he seemed content to probe the belly-laugh potential of the absurd, Woody Allen demonstrated he could move smoothly and skill- fully into the character and narrative intricacies of romantic comedy, and do so with touching sentiment and a keen eye for social comment. Annie Hall is Allen's humor at its delirious height, a foregoing of gratuitous non- sequitor for a humor distilled from the situations peculiar to modern life. In addition, the film is a winsome romance that, unlike the pasted- together every - scene - is - obliga- tory jobs of Hollywood, people could genuinely take to their heart. 2) Star Wars. Even more so than Rocky, George Lucas' Flash Gordon- esque "space fantasy" gave America what it wanted - a journey back to the simplistic thrills and chills of old- fashioned "entertainment" - and did so with a technical flair and imagination that made the whole business pretty darn well irresist- able. With Chubacca, R2D2 and C3PO, Lucas has given us a Tinman, Scarecrow and Cowardly Lion for the seventies. 3) Welcome to L.A. Robert Altman. protege Alan Rudolph wrote and directed this flowing, impressionistic vision of the "city of the one night stands," and it succeeds quite ad- mirably despite occasional lapses into heavy-handed artiness. Using the open-ended, multi-character for- mat associated with Altman's own Nashville, Rudolph's debut effort stands as one of the few American films to intelligently and sympathet- ically examine the question of Imo- tionally fragmented human relation- ships. 4) Saturday Night Fever. Despite its overtly commercial exploitation of the disco craze and teen idol John Travolta, Saturday -Night Fever managed in spite of itself to capture the animalistic drive of disco music with a mood and ferocity reminiscent of Scorcese's Mean Streets. Travolta proved he was worthy of more than just Kotterisms, as his charismatic performance overcame the often cliche script and made the film an infectious, if rough-hewn, piece of entertainment. 5) Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Hollywood wunderkind Steven Spielberg spent two years and twenty million dollars creating his follow-up to Jaws, and the result is not only technically superb, but infused with a. sense of mysticism and child-like wonder. The mood pervading an eventual meeting between man and extra-terrestrial beings is not as ethereal and intellectually sugges- tive as that of Kubrick's 2001, yet Spielberg's depiction uses the poten- tial vastness of the film medium to achieve a wondrous and somehow reassuring feeling of universality. 6) The Goodbye Girl. Neil Simon's script is his Most human and compel- ling yet, refreshingly free of the stodginess and obsessive one-liners that characterized The Sunshine' Boys and Murder By Death. With the help of Richard Dreyfuss' wise- cracking charm, this story of a young actor, forced in his first Broadway role to portray Richard III as gay, and an ex-dancer, abandoned by her actor-lovers one too many times, glides along smoothly and ends up a heart-warming, immensely satisfy- ing entertainment. 7) Three Women. Robert Altman departed from his usual sociological mode to produce this chilling, moody "dream" of visionary matriarchy. -Saturday, January 7, 1978-Page 5 n film Altman's reduction of machismo to a desert of shooting ranges, gun-wield- ing ex-stuntmen and motorcycles, as well as his impressionistic use of murals and dream-like narrative leaps, help make Three Women onel of the most successfully innovative films of recent years, both stylistical- ly and thematically. As usual, the peculiar grace of Shelly Duvall's per- formance almost eludes analysis.A 8) Sorcerer. Holder of the unenvi- able title of biggest bomb in the history of movies, Sorcerer con- sumed three years and 26 million dollars in the making, then returned perhaps one twentieth of its invest- ments when released last June. This was unfortunate, since William Friedkin's remake of the French film The Wages of Fear was largely a remarkable, if rather soulless work. Though it was difficult to become involved with the four principle characters, all fugitives from justice rotting in the fetid squalor of a poor South American country and given a chance to escape their environment by driving deadly nitroglyeerine some 200 miles to an oil rig fire, their ensuing adventures provided for some visually brilliant and often .breath-taking cinema. 9) Julia. This is an unquestionably fine film with a few niggling flaws. Jane Fonda gives one. of her finest performances as playwright Lillian Hellman - tense, bursting with restrained emotion; Vanessa Red- grave does rather less well, but still wonderfully, as Hellman's childhood friend Julia. If director Fred Zinne man fails even slightly, it is because he tries to combine genres - the lush, historical drama (depicting Europe before WW II), and the spy thriller. Certainly thereare few films that compare with this for pure cinematographic beauty, and the film succeeds to a far greater extent than any similar attempt. 10) The Turning Point. Ann* Bancroft and Shirley MacLaine give excellent performances in this occa- sionally overly sentimental but pri- marily intriguing peek behind the scenes of ballet. Director Herbert Ross' wife, former dancer Nora Kaye, conceived the successful transference of ballet to the screen, and Mikhail Baryshnikov steals the movie with his spectacular dancing. While the plot may seem melodra matic to some, the fine acting and superlative dancing make The Turn- ing Point one of the most enjoyable films of the:year. -Owen Gleiberman Dobilas Matulionis Christopher Potter Among those who brought us the best films of 1977 were Woody Allen, top left; Shelly Duvall, top right; Robert Altman, bottom left; and Mikhail Bary- shnikov, bottom right. New Boz LP pleasant but empty By MIKE TAYLOR W HEN PEOPLE discovered Boz Scaggs' charming brand of soul on last year's Silk Degrees, a new superstar was born. Although the lyrics lacked substance, the music was so catchy and the production so glossy that many hard-rock cynics like myself were won over. Scaggs' new LP, Down two then left (Columbia JC 34729), should please most of his fans, but it won't win him any new ones. It's a fluffy entertainment, not very good, really, but hard to resist. There've been some changes, how- ever. While Silk Degrees had its share of rockers, with "Georgia", "Jump Street", and "Lido Shuffle", the new record doesn't have any. Replacing them in the fast-paced department are a couple of neat disco tunes, the two best tracks on the album, in fact. "HOLLYWOOD", a swinging tune with mindless lyrics like "Camera- action-do it again /What-a-reaction- do it again" would sound great in any disco. Of special note is Scott Edwards' assertive bass playing; Edwards plays fantastic bass throughout the album - he's sure to be going places. Jeff Porcoro's flashy drums also bear a mention, and Victor Feldman, a frequent contribu- tor to Steely Dan, offers vibraphone, making the song all the more fun. "Gimme the Goods" has lyrics that don't even make much sense, but with the rhythmic combination of horns and strings over a pulsating, rhythm section that Scaggs has c o n c o c t e d, who's complaining? Scaggs' arranger and keyboard play- er, Michael Omartian, deserves much of the credit for this rollicking number. THEBALLADS ALSO represent something of a shift for Scaggs. On last year's album, he utilized strong, but conventional sounding melodies on songs like "Harbor Lights" and "We're All Alone." This time out, Scaggs has tried melodies with a more exotic feeling. Unfortunately, the experimenta- tion doesn't quite come off. "We're Waiting" and "Tomorrow Never Came" have eerie, almost droning melodies, making each of them seem longer than they really are. At over six minutes to begin with, "We're Waiting" becomes a rather tedious exercise. After just a few minutes of "Tomorrow Never Came", it's ap- parent that the song isn't going anywhere. "Hard Times" is a little better, but Scaggs' guitar solo is disappointingly ordinary sounding. In all, these tunes just don't have the impact Silk Degrees' ballads did. But least successful are the me- dium tempo tracks. Though "1993", a futuristic sounding tune with a complex arrangement of a simple melody, and "Still Falling for You", a simple tune characterized by Scaggs' silky voice, are pleasant, "A Clue" and "Whatcha Gonna Tell Your Man" are downright tepid. "Whatcha Gonna Tell Your Man is a tuneless exercise in funk, made listenable only by Scaggs' excellent guitar solo. "A Clue" has another dull melody and shining lyrics like "If you need a clue/The Secret to me is you. Steve Lukather's fine guitar solo is wasted, unfortunately. So there we have it. Down two then left is nothing new, but it's fun to listen to in some places. If only Scaggs could come up with some lyrics to match his music, he'd (and we'd) have it made. TEST ANXIOUS? Does test anxiety cause you to -Freeze on exams? -Have trouble studying? -Do more poorly in courses than you feel you should?' If any of the above apply to you, our test anxiety program may be helpful to you. for futher information -CALL- 11, 764-6311 K-117 W. Quad Institute for Human Adjustment 764-9481 1610 Washtenaw Reading and Learning Skills Center . ,. Elvis Costello. vicious rocker plays with fire and doesn 't miss Program under direction of .1 Dr. James D. Papsdorf Associate Professor of Psychology, U-M Sponsored by Laboratory of Applied Psychology This is a service-research program By ALAN RUBENFELD O NCE EVERY several years, an ob- scure young singer releases a record whose music leaves an indel- ible mark on the spirits of its listeners. These artists include Bob Dylan, Jackson Browne, and Bruce Springsteen. Now a new performer earns the right to be admitted to this select club - Elvis Costello. Costello's album,'My ,Aim Is True (Columbia JZ 35037) was the most powerful debut album of last year. He combines the essence of rock 'n' roll with acrid, poignant lyrics to create an emotional collage of a man disenchanted with the drudgery of modern existence; his songs deal with the frustrated attempts of an individual to cope with a heartless world. Elvis is a product of the 1970's. These tunes seem to bear the burden of his soul and the albatross of bitterness on his guitar. He accom- plishes this through his utilization of primitive rock rhythms coupled with jittery guitar solos. on amphetamines. Different. EACH OF COSTELLO'S composi- tions reaffirms his musical individ- uality. Every cut is between two and three minutes in length; usually they are uptempo rockers, coupled with spartan yet entirely effective instru- mentation. Just listen to "Miracle Man", "Mystery Dance," and "Blame It On Cain" for examples of this ingenious and primal pub rock. "No Dancing" is a throwback to Phil Spector-style production, with the patented Ronettes "Be My Baby" heartbeat on the bass drum. Quite effective. "Watching the Detec- tives", a reggae number, demon- strates lyrically why this world is not conceived for such thinkers as Cos- tello, with his embittered, desperate vocals. But the best two songs on the album are "Alison" and "(The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes." "Alison" is a tribute to an ex- flame he returns to visit, only to find her happily fulfilled in marriage, while he remains his frustrated self. "Red Shoes" is a bittersweet rocker whose infectious chorus and verse offers a prime example of Costello's inventive lyricism: i said "I felt so happy I could die. She said "drop dead' and then left with another gu That's what y.ou get w~hen x.oo go chasing after vengeance And since you got me punctured it spinned in}, senses "I'm Not Angry" contains some cut- ting remarks to another past remem- brance: You're upstairs with Hourhoyfriend While I " left here to listen ingry I hear you whispering his na me I hear the stutter of ignition Angry I (an hear you whispering as I crept 1)y your door Soyourfound another joker whopleases you more There is not one song on My Aim Is T'rue that does not meet the standards Costello has set for himself so soon. The album is an undeniable gem of the New Wave. THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN HOUSING DIVISION AND LS&A PILOT PROGRAM/ALICE5 LLOYD HALL POSITION OPENING: Resident Advisor-Alice Lloyd Hall (UNDERGRADUATE WOMEN'S CORRIDOR) Margot Morrow, Building Director for Pilot Program/Alice Lloyd Hall has announced a Resident Advisor position opening on a women's corridor for the Winter Term 1978. Candidates must be enrolled in a graduate degree program. Preference will be given to those who, in addition to corridor advising are also able to teach a credit mini-course in the Winter Semester and/or can co-direct a new Pilot Program field placement project. Full details are available from the Pilot Program Office, Alice Lloyd Hall, 100 Observatory St., 764-7521. Margot and the nominating committee will review the applications and resumes and will contact individuals whose background and experience coincides with the position open to arrange an interview time. NOW AT ladobwabl, REMUNERATION: 100% room and board plus a $200.00 stipend i