Issac Pyatt, Dr. Joseph Van Hassel and Dr. Timothy Altman Performed at Moore Hall. PN Photo/ Victor Mays
by Victor Mays
Moore Hall continues their Faculty Recital Series by having UNCP professor and acclaimed percussionist Joseph Van Hassel to the stage. Dr Van Hassel performed a series of songs that he had commissioned for him by various artists that he knows in the industry. He was joined on stage by another faculty member Dr Timothy Altman.
Dr Van Hassel had 2 songs commissioned by one of his former teachers, Rusty Burge. The songs were played on a vibraphone using the minimalism style. The first song by Burge was called ‘Pattern Study in 9’.
Dr Altman commissioned a song from Joseph Sheehan. Sheehan is a close friend of another faculty member of the music department Dr Aaron Vandermeer
Dr Van Hassel decided to get out of his comfort zone by playing a folk song called Nyento Duo using the trumpet and drums. Dr Altman played the trumpet and Dr Van Hassel on the drums. Some of the music commissioned was made by previous guests brought to UNCP.
Stuart Saunders Smith who was last seen at UNCP in 2015 wrote a series of studies, which are short musical pieces usually specializing in one instrument, like the vibraphone. Dr Van Hassel played 2 of the studies for the recital but will be flying out to the University of Hartford on December 1st to play the rest of them.
Upbeat Suite, the 4th song played, got a positive response from the audience, giving a standing ovation. The title of the song is a pun title. The music upbeats into the downbeat.
“This was a dance, like a waltz or polka. I wanted to show a conversation between my left and right hands,” Dr Van Hassel said.
The next song did not get a positive reaction. The name of the song was Algol Rhythms which is a pun title because the song was written by a computer. The computer was inputted with different parameters and spit out this piece. It is considered one of the first pieces of AI music.
“This song is pretty challenging to play and probably even more challenging to hear, Dr Van Hassel said. We have to open our minds. Music is always entertaining, sometimes it’s for teaching.”
During the entirety of the piece, there was a series of groans, laughter and oh my gods. The person at the back who guards the door had to repeatedly ask people to be quiet and to be respectful of the performers. The laughter came to its highest peak when one man let out a loud bruh and proceeded to cause the entire back 4 rows to laugh hysterically much to the disdain of the people who were at the front of the auditorium.
The audience didn’t have this issue for the rest of the pieces that night. The reaction was mostly positive that night with multiple standing ovations from the students of Dr Van Hassel that enjoyed seeing their professor play. The next faculty recital see’s Dr Jaeyoon Kim and soprano singer Alina Cherkasova.