Inaugural Concert in Honor of 15th MIT President Charles Vest
HARRIS: Good evening. I'm Ellen Harris, Associate Provost for the Arts, and it's my very special pleasure to welcome you tonight to this showcase concert of MIT student music-making.
I want to take an opportunity to point out to you, to emphasize that, however wonderful this concert is, that it is only a fraction of the music-making that goes on at MIT, and I urge you-- after the concert, not during the music -to read the center portion of your program, which will give you some more information about the kind of music-making that goes on here.
And I'd like to say, beyond that, that, of course, music-making is only a fraction of the arts on this campus. We also have many programs in the visual arts, in theater, in dance, and in writing, to name but a few. And we'll try to schedule showcase concerts for all of those things down the line. We'll let you know.
Of course, it wouldn't be a concert if there weren't an announcement. So let me make the announcement for the evening, which is that we are very sorry that John Oliver, the conductor of the chamber choir, will not be able to conduct tonight because he has a very painful fractured foot.
We are happy, however, to have William C. Cutter, the Assistant Conductor, who will be conducting, not only tonight, but tomorrow at the Inauguration, also. And we are very lucky, and we are very happy to have Mr. Cutter with us.
I would also like to invite all of you to come to the Student Center following the concert-- to the third floor, where you can meet the student performers and composers whose work is being highlighted tonight. They and I look forward to greeting you there. Thank you very much.
[APPLAUSE]
[MUSICIANS TUNING]
[APPLAUSE]
[ORCHESTRA PLAYING]
[APPLAUSE]
[RUSTLING AND MURMURS]
[MUSICIANS TUNING]
[APPLAUSE]
[MUSICIANS TUNING]
[APPLAUSE]
[ORCHESTRA PLAYING]
[APPLAUSE]
[RUSTLING AND MURMURS]
[APPLAUSE]
[MUSIC - CHARLES POKORNY, LYRICS - WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS, "QUICK"]
VOCALIST (SINGING): White flash, mangled insect screams. I woke up with the taste of metal in my mouth, back from the dead.
Trailing the colorless death smells. Afterbirth of a withered grey monkey. Phantom twinges of amputation.
"Taxi boys waiting for a pickup," Eduardo said, and died of an overdose in Madrid. Powder trains burn back through pink convolutions of tumescent flesh. Set off flash bulbs of orgasm.
Pin-point photos of arrested motion. Smooth brown side twisted to light a cigarette. He stood there in a 1920s straw hat somebody gave him. Soft, mendicant words falling like dead birds in the dark street.
No. No more. No más.
A heaving sea of air hammers in the purple brown dusk tainted with rotten metal smell of sewer gas. Young worker faces vibrating out of focus in yellow halos of carbide lanterns. Broken pipes exposed.
"They are rebuilding the " Lee nodded absently. "Yes, always." Either way is a bad move to The East Wing. If I knew, I'd be glad to tell you.
"No good. No bueno hustling myself. No glot. C'lom Fliday."
[APPLAUSE]
[MUSIC - RIGOPOULOS, LYRICS - THOMAS HARDY, "BEFORE LIFE AND AFTER"]
VOCALIST (SINGING): A time there was, as one may guess. And as, indeed, earth's testimonies tell. Before the birth of consciousness, when all went well.
None suffered sickness, love, or loss. None knew regret, starved hope, or a heart-burnings. None cared whatever crash or cross brought wrack to things.
If something ceased, no tongue bewailed. If something winced and waned, no heart was wrung. If brightness dimmed, and dark prevailed, no sense was stung.
But the disease of feeling germed and primal rightness took the tinct of wrong. Ere nescience shall be reaffirmed. How long, how long?
[APPLAUSE]
[MUSIC - CYNTHIA HARRIS, LYRICS - WILLIAM BLAKE, "HOW SWEET I ROAM'D FROM FIELD TO FIELD"]
VOCALIST (SINGING): How sweet I roamed from field to field, and tasted all the summer's pride. Till I, the prince of love beheld who in the sunny beams did glide.
He shew'd me lilies for my hair, and blushing roses for my brow. He led me through his gardens fair, where all his golden pleasures grow.
With sweet May dews my wings were wet, and Phoebus fir'd my vocal rage. He caught me in his silken net, and shot me in his golden cage.
He loves to sit and hear me sing, then, laughing, sports and plays with me. Then stretches out my golden wing and mocks my loss of liberty.
How sweet I roamed from field to field, and tasted all the summer's pride. Till I, the prince of love beheld who in the sunny beams did glide.
[APPLAUSE]
[MUSIC - YUMI OSHIMA, LYRICS - WILLIAM BLAKE, "SPRING"]
VOCALIST (SINGING): Sound the flute now it's mute. Birds delight, nightingale. Lark in sky day and night. Birds delight. Birds delight. Day and night. Nightingale in the dale. Lark in sky. Lark in sky. Merrily, merrily, merrily to welcome in-- in the year.
Little boy full of joy. Little girl, little girl, sweet and small. Little boy, little girl. Sweet and small. Cock does crow. Cock does crow. So do you.
Merry voice, infant noise. Merry voice, infant noise. Merry, merry, merrily, merrily. Merrily, merrily to welcome in the year.
Little lamb, little lamb. Little lamb, here I am. Come and lick my white neck. Let me pull your soft wool. Let me kiss your soft face.
Little lamb, here I am. Come and lick my white neck. Let me pull your soft wool. Let me kiss you soft face. Merrily, merrily to welcome in the year.
[APPLAUSE]
[MUSIC - DUKE ELLINGTON, ARR. RICKS, "PARADISE COMPLETE"]
[APPLAUSE]
[MUSIC - HOAGY CARMICHAEL, ARR. WARREN, ADAPTED BY VALDEZ, "A QUIET PLACE"]
[APPLAUSE]
[MUSIC - JAMSHIED SHARIFI, "THE CHANGE"]
[APPLAUSE]