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Logan High School’s chamber orchestra, Camerata, performed a site-specific outdoor piece today called “Black River.”
The performance was played outside at the Great River Landing in Onalaska. The high school performers were positioned around the site and created an environmental soundcloud, so the music they played combined with the sounds of traffic noises, children playing in the area, train whistles, people talking, dogs barking, and more all becoming part of one musical experience.
The Camerata is Logan High School’s auditioned chamber orchestra and this year group is made up of about 25 students in 10th, 11th and 12th grades.
“We’ve never done anything remotely like this, which is what I hope will make it memorable for the students and anyone who happens to walk, bike, or drive by or who might stop to listen as they hear us,” said Logan High School orchestra teacher Bill Sisson, “The students have never played this way, scattered and playing simple independent parts at their own tempos. Standing either by themselves or in groups of two or three, pushes them to be soloists and not hide their sound behind better players in the group.”
The Great River Landing was chosen as a venue because when the park was built, a number of pentatonic (five-note scales) percussion instruments were installed. Those instruments were also played by members of the orchestra during the performance.
The inspirations for this project were composers who have written music to be played in particular places, outdoors or indoors, so it becomes another part of the usual sounds of the place it is performed. Some of those composers are John Cage, Morton Feldman, Robert Moran, and John Luther Adams.
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