Penn State's School of Music students will share their musical compositions --inspired by love, natural disasters and even video games -- in this semester's Musica Nova concerts on Thursday and Saturday.
Several of the student composers for the show agreed the lack of a coherent theme in the recitals adds to the forum of creativity.
The concerts begin at 8 p.m. Thursday and conclude with a final concert at 8 p.m. Saturday. Both concerts will be held in Esber Hall Music Building I and are free of charge.
"This is one of the more instrument-involved concerts," Ryan DeNardis (senior-music composition) said. "Although it could be a bit wilder, and it probably will be in the future, this is a very eclectic show in terms of everything."
DeNardis said he composed a four-piece chamber composition that will be showcased at Thursday's concert, adding he was inspired by an early 1990s video game.
"It's based off the lead character of the Myst video game," DeNardis said. "The entire game has this big theme of duality: the real world and the virtual world, good versus evil, and who's a true, honest person."
DeNardis said he also composed a piece for Saturday's concert about the eruption of Mount Vesuvius nearly 2,000 years ago in the Italian town of Pompeii. However, he said it's less dramatic than he expected.
Zoie Salowitz (junior-music composition), Lisa Duke (senior-flute performance and composition), and DeNardis said they each used the benefits of electronic technology in their works, such as synthesizers, and the program ProTools for help when creating their compositions.
"When working with electronic audio, composing becomes more of painting -- and what colors go where and how," DeNardis said. "Not even that, it's more of a smearing of different colors and substances."
Duke said she used electronic technology to assist her composition, but favors the traditional sound.
She said one of her arrangements, which couples harp and voice, is entitled "Sleep Gently."
"It's just a little lullaby. I wrote it for my boyfriend, actually," Duke said. "I'd written a poem and wanted to set it to music."
Conversely, Salowitz said she took full advantage of electronic composition and just had fun with the sounds. She said her piece is called "That Was Then" and brings together harsh and melodic parts.
She said many people don't realize the advantages of attending a college concert like Musica Nova.
"Concert music isn't dead, necessarily," Salowitz said, adding that the young composers bring a new, modern element to the concert. "People think recitals are all older composers, but there's going to be a lot of stuff unlike anything people may have heard before."
