Pop Composition

Once upon a time, John Lennon had a plan to do a concert with Karlheinz Stockhausen, a hugely influential modernist composer and pioneer of electronic music. That concert never happened — but an experimental multimedia ensemble can imagine, can’t it? From the idea for that potentially mind-blowing concert comes 1969,...

By Jef Otte

April 21, 2011

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Once upon a time, John Lennon had a plan to do a concert with Karlheinz Stockhausen, a hugely influential modernist composer and pioneer of electronic music. That concert never happened — but an experimental multimedia ensemble can imagine, can’t it? From the idea for that potentially mind-blowing concert comes 1969, a multi-disciplinary performance piece from Alarm Will Sound, a twenty-piece band and performance group that will combine compositions from ’60s-era figures as diverse as Leonard Bernstein and the Beatles, along with actors and three video projections, to tell the weird story of a time of political and musical tumult.

“It’s a little hard to explain,” notes Steve Seifert, executive director of the Newman Center for the Performing Arts, where the performance will take place. “It’s musical, it’s theatrical, there are two professional actors, and members of the band will deliver lines. It’s almost like a mixtape, or a mash-up of excerpts from both pop and avant-garde compositions from that era, as well as some new music that’s been composed for this piece.”

And it’s one of the most interesting deconstructions of modern symphonic and pop music around. Alarm Will Sound brings it to the Newman Center, 2344 East Iliff Avenue, tonight at 7:30 p.m.; for tickets, $32 to $48, or more information, visit www.newmancenterpresents.com or call 303-871-4154.
Sat., April 23, 7:30 p.m., 2011

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