Michael Sohanlall

The SUNY Purchase Composers Portrait at The Stone NYC was a special concert that
occurred on Sunday May 3rd, 2015. It an astonishing experience for someone looking to get out
of his or her comfort zone of listening to the regular Top40/mainstream music on the radio. The
concert was a two-hour compilation of original pieces by the composers of SUNY Purchase both
undergraduate and graduate and was professionally interpreted by the skillful musicians of
SUNY Purchase. The instruments that were featured in this concert were the violin, the viola,
the cello, and the bass, which are all string instruments.
The Composers Portrait started off with a dark introduction as they played composer
Frank Spigners Sublimation of the Transient. This piece sounded like it came straight off of a
horror/murder scene. The mode of this piece of music was minor as it was the darkest piece of
music I have ever heard for the duration of the class. The dynamics of this were flexible and
very spontaneous, as it would go from soft to very loud at the most random of moments. The
musicians also used the musical technique of the col legno, which is an instruction to strike the
string with the stick of the bow, rather than by drawing the hair of the bow across the strings. It
gave the piece of music a very creep sound, which is what the composer was going for in my
opinion. This piece of music had a non-metrical meter, as everything was just anywhere the
composer wanted it to be. The texture was also a fluctuation from monophonic to polyphonic
as the musicians took turns playing or played together during the duration of the song. Also this
piece was just very dissonant. The era of music that this piece of music was most relatable to
would have to be the Romantic Era because it was very emotional and really showed the
composers dark personality in the sound. The fact that everything didnt need to be scientific like

the Baroque Era makes it perfect for an extreme Romantic Era piece of music. To add on to that
the piece of music sounded like it came straight out of the supernatural, which was a big deal
during the Romantic Era. This piece of music was really something that had a dark, murky, and
shadowy feel to it.
As the concert progressed the musicians played a piece called Duo for Violin and Cello
composed by Andrew Yoon. This piece of music had a totally different feel to it compared to
Spigners piece of music. This song was hopeful, peaceful, and just calm. The way the violin and
cello complemented each other made it all more enjoyable to the listener. The mode of this song
was major and it really did feel like happiness throughout the song. The dynamics of this piece
were mostly soft/piano but there were many pauses/breaks in the song and it gave it an effect of
whats next as the listeners did not know what to expect. As for the rhythm of this piece of
music there were many instances where it was metrical but there were also instances where it
was non-metrical. Throughout the entire concert there was a lot of fluctuation with the rhythm,
which could be considered as the theme of the concert. Andrew Yoon composed this piece of
probably to convey that a person should be hopeful. He uses some instances of syncopation,
which is a stress or accents on the rhythm where they usually wouldnt be and this helps deliver
the message of the music in a great way. The way the texture of the song goes from polyphonic
to monophonic a couple of times really shows that changeability or variation in the typical
musical norms is a big deal in this concert.
Moving forward after a short break the concert comes to a close with composer Jeremy
Wexlers Homage to James Tenney which comes back to the spooky, creepy, strange beginning
style. This piece of music literally sounds like a murder scene or would make good background
music for a murder scene in a movie. The instruments that were used in this work of music were

the violin, viola, cello and double bass. Like the other pieces of music there was a lot of variation
in the style. The mode of this piece of music was minor because it just sounded very grim. The
dynamics were all over the place in this work of art as there were many loud moments and many
soft moments. The texture of this homage was polyphonic as there were always two or more
melodies throughout the song. The purpose of this song was for the composer to pay tribute to
one of his favorite composers and he did so beautifully because you could feel the emotion that
was put into this work of art.
Overall the SUNY Purchase Composers Portrait at The Stone NYC was a super
interesting concert. There were pieces of music that I would not even consider music but after
really sitting there and appreciating the emotion behind them you could clearly see that these
pieces of music are works of art. The way that these pieces of music were all so dark and minor
just shows that the theme of the concert was to showcase works of music that was not the typical
happy music. These songs tell stories that one needs to really think about and even so they might
not be able to grasp the emotion and meaning behind these works of music. The experience at
The Stone for myself will be talked about with my companions and I will probably be returning
as I enjoyed it very much even though I was not comfortable at first. I feel like this experience
has helped me grow not only as a avid music listener but as a person that was very shy and
isolated for most of his life. I look forward to attending and listening to some more of the various
types of music that The Stone NYC has to offer.