Center for New Music Ensemble Concert IV

This concert features "Alu," a new composition by Gregory Rowland Evans (2024 PhD), and is part of #NewWorkCity, the spring initiative by Performing Arts At Iowa to highlight new work created by our talented graduate students in the performing arts. Join us as we celebrate the energy and creativity that crackles across this performing arts community.

Alu (2025)

Alu - The title word "Alu" is a somewhat gnomic term found on a variety of runestones. While a clear definition of the term is not agreed upon, it is used in the context of benediction in the closing of rune texts and perhaps derives from "ale." In this composition, some inspiration was taken from the encryption techniques used to hide deeper meanings within the poetic, ceremonial inscriptions on runestones. In addition to the association of runes with the practice of encoding, there remains an association of runes with the crudeness of the technology of antiquity. This association, combined with the notion of monoliths as unwieldy objects, led to a musical vision of the chamber orchestra as a fairly uniform body articulating swarming, mass textures. The music takes a step back from many of the modern advances in experimental or virtuosic performing technique, preferring a crude and jagged approach to both form and material.

More concert details and artists bios can be viewed here on the Center for New Music website.

This concert will be livestreamed here: https://music.uiowa.edu/events/school-music-livestream.

View the program here: https://digital.lib.uiowa.edu/node/943868

This concert is free and open to the public.