University Daily Kansan, April 18, 1985
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Carillon peals tunes for a large audience
Connoisseurs of various types of music listen to melodic strains in grand concert halls across the country. But in at least one location, a great outdoors offers a natural concert hall
"It's a nice place to come," Albert Gerken, KU carillonier, said of the natural setting of the Campanile, the tower that contains the carillon. "This time of year the weather is really conducive to getting outdoors. It's not the same situation as going to a reallal ball."
Gerken, who is a professor of music theory, has given carillon concerts almost every Wednesday night and Sunday afternoon since he came to the University 22 years
Since 1951, the carillon has sent its sweet peaflies floating across campus and throughout the city. Students and Lawrence residents can hear everything from classical music to folk songs drifting from the 120-foot Campanile.
"IVE PROBABLY GIVEN two or three thousand concerts," Gerken said as he climbed the tiny metal staircase winding up to the top of the Campanile. "It's become a first love, you might say, even over the organ."
Unlike an organist, the carillonner plays to an unidentified audience, he said, which he usually calls himself.
"It is a way of expressing yourself, as is any other art form, but it is a very unique performing media." Gerken said. "One complements the other."
As part of the department of music's centennial celebration, Ronald M. Barnes, former KU carollhomme, will give a special lecture on his career at 3:30 p.m. Sunday on Campanile Hill.
BARNES WAS THE KU kulleronewer when the carillon was installed in 1951 and was the originator of the Wednesday and Sunday recitals.
Barnes, who worked at KU from 1951 to 1963, is the carilloneur at the University of California, Berkeley, and last year established the Berkeley Carillon Institute. The institute arranges seminars and publishes information on carillon technology, history
Barnes' recital will feature music written by him and two former KU faculty members,
At the time the carillon was installed, Barnes said, it was the finest in the world.
He said, "The University of Kansas should be responsible for the upkeep of that institution."
GERKEN SAID THE 34-year-old memorial to World War II veterans, which cost about $80,000, now needed about $200,000 in repair work.
The bolts connecting the 53 English bells to the frame need to be removed and inspected, the bell clapper bearings need to be replaced, the insulation between the frame and the bells needs to be replaced and the transmission system that connects the keyboard controls to the clapper needs to be overhauled, he said.
He said that a proposal for these repairs had been endorsed last semester by the dean of fine arts and was pending final approval from the KU administration.
Only about 130 carillons are in North America and some of them are in such disrepair they are no longer played, he said.
GERKEN SAID HE tried to avoid playing certain pieces because the condition of the instrument affected the sound of the bells — much like a piano or organ out of tune.
"We're not getting the potential out of the instrument." he said
Gerken said that maintenance of the carillon was not provided for in the original instrument.
Not only does the massive bell tower
the campus into a sort of concert hall,
but it also has a large stage.
Gerken has two students now, he said, but has had as many as seven enroll in his library.
However, Gerken he limited the number of students to five because of the amount of time each student took to practice, to give recitals and to have private lessons.
"A VARIETY OF students have taken the class," Gerken said. "Music majors and non-majors did it just to do something different."
"Especially for non-music majors, it's a nice way to round out their education."
The University does not offer a degree in carillon, however, because the field is so
"If you wind up in this profession it is usually by chance rather than by design," he
Gerken said many people did not realize that the carillon was an instrument — that people actually played it sometimes. Many assume that the bells are always automatic.
He said a combination of the two was true.
A TIMING DEVICE triggers the playing of the bells at certain time intervals, but the mechanism can be switched off when recitals are given or when students are practicing.
Colleen Chase, Washington, D.C., graduate student, said she was taking the carillon class because she liked music and enjoyed slaving it on an unusual instrument.
"This is what I do with my spare time." Chase said.
Gorken said some students were somewhat self-conscious at first about playing the violin, but now they are
"You have to start playing before you are really ready," he said. "You can't close the doors of the recital hall and say, 'No one can be admitted until I'm ready.'"
Chase, who will be giving her first recital Wednesday night, said having much of Lawrence hear her play did not bother her. She knew everyone enjoyed the music.
"When I practice the whole world hears me." she said.
Colleen Chase, above, Washington, D.C., graduate student, plays a fugue on the 53 carillon bells at the Campanile. The music from the bells carries across the campus several times each day. The bells, left, serve as a keeper of time at the Kansai Kansai names on the bells are memorials purchased by original donors to the Campanile, a tribute to World War II veterans.
'I've probably given two or three thousand concerts. It's become a first love, you might say, even over the organ.'
—Albert Gerken KU carillonneur
Story by Shelle Lewis
Photos by John Lechliter
Troupe to bring its pizzazz to KU
By RICK ZAPOROWSKI
Staff Reporter
THE 14-MEMBER DANCE troupe is known for its upbeat blend of jazz, tap and ballet. Under the artistic direction of Lou Conte, the company has grown from a quartet of students in a small Chicago studio years ago to the stylish group it is today.
A growing Midwestern dance company, rivalling some of the best-known ensembles in New York, will bring its innovative styles of dance to campus this week.
Chicago's Hubbard Street Dance Company will perform two concerts at p.m. tomorrow and Saturday in Hoeh Auditorium. The company is one of the few groups which will close KU's '1984-85 Concert Series.
Tickets are on sale at the Murphy Hall box office. Tickets cost $10 and $8 and are half-price for students. All seats are reserved.
Conte mixes tap, soft shoe and jazzy ballroom steps to characterize the Hubbard Street style. Gail Kalver, general manager for Hubbard Street, said the company
preferred not to be labeled as one particular type of dance troupe.
"We're not really a jazz company and we're not really a ballet company," she said. "We're more of a mixture. We're sort of a company that persists in breaking the rules."
Conte is from Illinois but spent a lot of time dancing in New York. He performed in a Broadway musical at age 22 and has been a featured dancer in several stage hits. In the late 1960s he choreographed summer stock musicals in Milwaukee and Chicago while continuing his dance studies with the Joffrey Ballet and American Ballet Theatre.
Kalver said that Conte originally choreographed all works the company performed, but as the ensemble grew it began using guest choreographers too. She said the variety of choreographers contributed to the diversity of the company's performances.
"THEE'S NO RHIYME or reason because all our choreographers seem to be turned on to different things at different times," Kalver said.
By the time he started the Hubbard Street Dance Company in 1977, Conte had choreographed more than 30 musicals. The original intention was for the group to perform at
The company will perform a variety of works at KU, showing the versatility of the relatively small company of dancers. Kalver is responsible for about four works to its repertoire each year.
Hubbard Street has performed live for about 40,000 people in Chicago alone, Kalver said, indicating the demand for dance outside New York, where most notable dancers eventually settle. She said the company would remain loyal to Chicago.
KALVER SAID, "EVERYONE got carried away with it and liked it so much. we just kept going."
such places as schools and retirement homes. But that quickly changed
Cellist to give week of 'informances'
The KU performance is part of a spring tour of 17 cities in three months. Two works that will be presented for both concerts are "Tiempo," choreographed by John McFall and performed to music by Stravinsky, and "The 40s," choreographed by Conte and performed to music by Sy Oliver and Ralph Burns.
"We're not working our way to New York," she said. "We're from Chicago, we're in Chicago and that's where we're going to stay."
By SHELLE LEWIS
"Some people are intimidated by it," Gary Hoffman, cellist, said recently in a telephone interview from his studio in Bloomington, Ind.
Hoffman said, "Classical music is not an elitist thing. It's not just for those from upper-class families."
Many people tend to give classical music the thumbs down sign and stereotype it might be.
Staff Reporter
Hoffman will attempt to defeat that stigma next week by performing his music in a series of informal performances — called informances — on campus and throughout
The performances in Lawrence, including an informal concert at noon Thursday in the Kansas Union lobby, are presented by the KU Swarthout Society and sponsored by the Reader's Digest Association as part of Affiliate Artists Inc.
Affiliate Artists Inc. a non-profit organization, was founded in 1986 and supports artists from around the world.
"IT'S A CHANCE to bridge the gap between listener and performer," he said.
Besides his concert on campus, Hoffma will perform at 8 p.m. April 27 at the First Christian Church, 10th and Kentucky streets. There is free, but tickets must be picked up in advance at the Murphy Hall box office. They will be available beginning Monday.
HOFFMAN, 28. HAS performed with orchestras in Chicago, Baltimore, 'oronto and other cities and has taught i. Indiana which he is a graduate, for the last six years.
Hoffman, who did his first residency recently in Meridian, Miss., said the series of informal concerts was gratifying, but also demanding.
Hoffman will be performing on a cello he bought three weeks ago, he said. The cello was made in 1662 in Cremone, Italy, and banged to a well-known cellist, Leonard Rose.
"It's difficult not to become quickly immersed in it," I feel like I am a vain admirer of the way alzheimers was always alzheimers.
On Monday, Hoffman will begin his one-week residency by visiting the Lawrence Rotary Club and Lawrence High School.
He said this would be only his second residency and would be his first trip to Korea.
IN ADDITION TO his performances and visiting KU masters classes, he will visit
area schools and businesses and perform for community groups
Scott Neumann, conductor of the Lawrence High School orchestra and a strings instructor for the school district, said the opportunity for students to talk informally with a professional musician was better than merely attending a performance.
Another stop on Hoffman's musical journey will include an infornance for fourth, fifth and sixth graders at Pickney School. 810 W. Sixth St.
"It makes all the difference in the world," Neumann said.
"Most kids aren't exposed to classical music and so many people presume they won't like it," he said. "But if anything, the opposite is true. They are ( fascinated by someone doing something that they may have never seen before."
"If you bring the music to them, they may be enriched by it and perhaps not be intimidated and attend a formal concert later," he said.
Hoffman said the point of the inferences was to make classical music more accessible
Poet gives something else in unique one-man show
Staff Reporter
By RICK ZAPOROWSKI
The advertisements for the performance gave the warning, "Not recommended for those who prefer pretty putty. Tin cans care too. Even the least of our laughter assumes the most horrible."
Based on that publicity, one couldn't predict what events would occur in the gallery of the Art and Design building last night. The audience of about 75 people came prepared for the unexpected — and they weren't disappointed.
Lynn Shoemaker, instructor in English, performed the aptly titled "Something Else", a combination of several artistic media, last night. He said yesterday afternoon that such a performance probation unprecedented at the University of Kansas.
THE AUDIENCE REACTION was mixed with the grins, chuckles and perplexed looks. Often it was difficult to extract explicit meanings from the works, but Shoemaker himself said the performance also puzzled him sometimes.
THE ONE-MAN PERFORMANCE consisted, in simple terms, of poetry readings combined with movement, expression, music, slides and a few props. Shoemaker used each medium in the eight original works he presented.
Dressed entirely in navy blue and without shoes. Shoemaker puzzled and pleased the audience with his generally low-key voice and his gestures. In some of the works, he used simple costumes such as a scarf, a red plastic clown nose, a clear plastic mask and false nose, glasses and a cigar — a la Groucho Marx.
"The stress is put on free play and interaction rather than individuals," he said.
He also used a limited number of props as he performed. In one selection he said the part he was playing made him tired and it briefly干脆ly toaked to take a bite of an ample.
Shemawker called the event a postmodern performance. Shemawker said various definitions existed for postmodern because it was a trend occurring in a variety of media. Literature, architecture, drama and the visual arts all are experiencing a turn away from the established modernist traditions.
Shoemaker said the performance had
many possible meanings or messages, but he intended to stress the language and rely less on the personality of the human author or the human actor.
"WORDS ARE USED in non-
representative ways," he said yesterday
before the performance. "There's a lot of
word play. A lot of it will come out funny."
The general mood of the show wasn't directly humorous, but the audience often laughed at the irony and sarcasm packed in the works.
For example, the first piece, "To Find Your Own Absence," opened with recorded music from Laurie Anderson's album "Oh. Superman," and Sheoaker standing for about a minute with his back to the audience. Sheoaker slowly and deliberately walked to different locations in front of the audience and gave words of advice such as, "it is important to choose a direction but not to stick with it."
The work closed with a slide that read, home is where nobody knows your music.
IN ONE SELECTION. Shoemaker wrapped his knee with a scarf and apologized to the audience saying, "I'm sorry, telephone has blinded my leg. I'm sorry, the film screen has blinded my knee." He made reference to a slide of the promotional poster of last year's KU Theatre production of "The Oedipus Project." A hand holding an apple rested on the poster in the slide.
Later in the selection he asked why the apple was in the picture. Included in the poetry was the rhetorical question, "Do all apples belong to Eve?" I always thought there was something to be said for the side of the snake."
Later, he offered an answer to why the apple was on the picture, saying that farmers had an overabundant crop of apples so they put their surplus in the picture. The selection closed as Shoe Company selected and housed his knee, and beil it to the floor.
Last night's performance was the first of its kind for Sheaoker. However, he has done poetry readings and has written books. He had never any training in acting or dance.
During one segment of the show,
Doe maker said the poetry served the audience
by reading from his own books.
"My ego is not my amigo," he said
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