On Friday October 26th, the City High Orchestra hosted the Jack Quartet in Opstad auditorium. The quartet from Rochester, New York, performs ultra contemporary music and arrangements, including a selection by the late composer Iannis Xenakis, who combines music from his native Greece with mathematical models and theories to produce a very unique and contemporary sound.

The piece that was played is a perfect example contemporary classical music. The quartet used a diverse range of methods to produce the sound. From rubbing the bow up and down to string, to playing on the bridge of their instruments.

This of course makes for a very interesting sound, and requires a vast amount of skill. The music itself was almost completely free of any recognizable pattern or melody. Xenakis completely rejects any and all traditional rules of music and Who thus created a sound that was absolutely alien to my ears. At points I found it downright unpleasant to listen to and attempt to interpret, due to the lack of classical music patterns and norms. This made it impossible for me to become emotionally invested in, and bewildered me. If composers like Romberg and Brahms can be compared to artists like Monet, than Xenakis is Salvador Dali, or a mutated Jackson Pollock. As a result there appears to be absolutely no order, just utter chaos.

The members of the Jack Quartet are insanely skilled musicians, and it shows. But, the level of concentration and perfection that must be achieved to play a piece with no clear and obvious rhythm, or harmony/melody is immense.

While this is not what I would call “easy listening” in any sense, it does become more thought provoking as you listen to it. Maybe I am just not well versed in good music, but I found them confusing. If there was an imaginary line called “Contemporary Music” than the line was crossed… by a mile, into a place called insanity.