Page 8 - The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, March 18, 1987 University Choir lacking in enthusiasm By Sherrry L ichtenwalner The University Choir churned out a rather uninspired performance last Monday night at Hill Auditorium. Joined by the Contemporary Directions Ensemble in a repeat performance of Jacob Durckman's Bo, the choir also sang works by Felix Mendelssohn, Leos Janacek, and Nicholas Thorne,. The Contemporary Directions Ensemble performed excellently as Considering Abortion? Free Pregnancy Test Completely Confidential Pregnancy Counseling Center 529 N. Hewitt, Ypsilanti Call: 434-3088 (Any Time) usual. Conducted by David Gompper, the ensemble performed Druckman's unusual work with the emotion necessary to convey the meaning of the piece. Even Hill's organ pipes "whooshed," a testimony to the extreme quietude of the work. Imitating the sounds of waves, Bo crescendoes into a crash of the gong and recedes once more into the quietness of a calm sea. Mendelssohn's Watching Over Israel , although technically well- performed, had little feeling. The choir sounded lovely. Bored, but lovely. The tenor section was especially notable for their beautiful sound, but I found myself wishing the choir would "go for it" and sing like I know they can. This is not to imply that their performance was poor. It wasn't. But the lack of enthusiasm displayed on most of the singers' faces caused my interest in the beautiful piece to fade. Otcenas, by Leos Janacek, is a Czechoslovakian translation of The Lord's Prayer. The composition for harp, organ, and tenor solo with choir, was the longest work on the program. The choir performed this piece well, doing a rather impressive job with the Czech text. Here they let their expression show a bit more, but each time their fervor was interrupted by the insertion of a tenor solo, sung by Stanley Cornett. Cornett had difficulty with the high notes of his solos and inserted an operatic quality inappropriate to the soaring line of the piece. The choir displayed their large range of dynamics, but again, seemed rather uninterested in the work as a whole. Four Fall Etchings, by local composer Nicholas Thorne, consisted of three sections, none of which employed any standard text. All three sections were sung a cappella, allowing the choir to be heard clearly. Part One, Fall Sky, consisted of a repeated "ooh" through the whole section, with about four measures of "ah." The change made me happy. Conductor Pat Gardner appeared to have some trouble with the choir in this section, conducting with very large movements to keep the singers together. Part T wo,Catching Leaves, was basically a percussion section, with hard syllables and hissing to represent falling leaves. Here the choir showed some interest in the work, a few members fairly dancing on the risers. The final section, A Song in the Dry Hills, consisted of more "ooh" and "ah," with short solos to represent various woodland creatures. The work was different, to say the least, and the choir did an admirable job with the difficult tonality of the work. Although the University Choir is talented enough to perform difficult works such as the Thorne and the Janacek, perhaps the choir should stick to repetoire they enjoy performing. The obvious lack of interest from most of the choir members only caused the audience to join in their reticent attitude. But, they are a beautiful sounding choir and should be closely watched. If they decide to do Mozart's Requiem, I'm there. Ouija Board says 'stay home' ART : A full-text retrieval database of classical French Writings The University of Michigan participates in a consortium of institutions with access to a computerized full-text retrieval database of classical French writings. Known as ARTFL (American and French Research on the Treasury of the French Language), the database is a cooperative venture between the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and the University of Chicago, ARTFL users can create a dictionary and frequency count of words used in a text; trace the origins of a word or phrase back through the 17th century; develop a concordance for particular terms; graph the distribution of word occurences; or search for a specified configuration of words and phrases in a single text or across any number of works. The database includes literary works, political tracts, philosophical writings and technical treatises. It is therefore useful to scholars in a number of disciplines. This seminar will demonstrate some basic uses for the ARTFL database and will provide instruction how to access the system either through the Graduate Library or directly via a personal computer. Faculty already using the system will be invited to discuss how ARTFL supports their work and to answer questions about the potential of such a tool for research in the humanities. Wednesday, March 25 3:00-4:30 Room 205C Graduate Library Instructors: Ronald Austin John Price-Wilkin (Continued from Page 7) threatened, upon pain of death, to exclude anything that hasn't been tested and approved in at least a dozen other horror movies (Tenney: "Gee, we need one more good scare to reach our quota. What say we have a pair of hands shoot out of a coffin and strangle the heroine as she's bending over it? It's only been used 150 billion zillion times before." Cohort: "But that has nothing whatsoever to do with the plot!" Tenney: "Details, details...") The story, for anyone who's still reading, concerns a young couple (the earth-bound goddess Tawny Kitaen and the irratatingly ami- able/amiably irratating Todd Allen) whose bowl full of cherries is upset by the arrival of a sinister Ouija board and Kitaen's deepening obs- sesion with it. The board slowly gets under Kitaen's skin as she uses it to rap with a spirit who might be a 10 year old boy or who might be - just concievably might be, mind you - a vicious axe- murderer. Tenney does generate a little excitement by utilizing helter- skelter, ghost's-point-of-view cam- era movements during the killings - hardly an idea bursting with originality, but one which does break up the monotony a bit. This little innovation, however, seems to exhaust his well of creativity, and the remainder of Witchboard left me with little to do except admire Kitaen's cheekbones and try to ignore that whiny little bastard of a voice that kept repeating, over and over, "Sucker..." A For one week only, order and save on the gold ring of your choice. For complete details, see your Jostens representative. JOSTENS A M E R I C A S C O L L E G E R I N G Let Them Know How You Feel! ! DAILY PERSONALS 764-0557 Be Our Guest at The University of Michigan-Dearborn Students in good academic standing are invited to take advantage of spring and summer by enrolling in course- work at our easily accessible campus. We offer University of Michigan credit through a full array of day and evening classes. Spring/Summer Term Registration April 29-30 Term Length May 4-August 31 Spring Half-Term Registration April 29-30 Term Length May 4-June 27 Summer Half-Term Registration July 1-2 Term Length July 7-August 31 See your registrar or call the Office of Admissions at (313) 593-5100 for a guest application and tuition information. The University of Michigan-Dearborn is an affirmative action/non-discriminatoryinstitution. k MARCH 18, 19 & 20 11-4 Deposit Reanirpd $25 MICHIGAN UNION BOOKSTORE -55 tr Ir v buy jxk0 aac e. The American Express" Card can get you virtually everything from a leather jacket to a leather-bound classic. Whether you are bound for a bookstore or a beach in Bermuda. So during college and after, it's the perfect way to pay for just about anything you'll want. How to get the Card before graduation. College is the first sign of success. And because we believe in your potential, we've made it easier to get the American Express Card right now You can qualify even before you graduate with our secial student offers. For details, look for applications on campus. Or just call 1-800-THE-CARD, and ask for a student application. The American Express Card. Don't Leave School Without Itsm ATTENTION COMPUTER USER DEPARTMENTS: Now you can have a high quality service and save money, too. * Authorized Wang PC/APC/WOA and OIS Service Center * Factory Trained Field Engineers * Local Ann Arbor Office * 10 years experience serving Computers and Word Processors * Loaner Units Available * Circuit Board Repair Shop * Quick On-Site Response * On-Site, Depot, Carry In, and Mail-In Service Plans * After Hours Service * Eight Years Experience Meeting the Requirements of Servicing the University of Michigan Also Featuring * IBM PC's and Printers * Compaq PC's * Epson Printers * Toshiba Printers I 4 I - 1