On Sunday, Nov. 2 in Leffler Chapel and Performance Center, Faith Shiffer, adjunct professor of music, hosted her faculty recital as part of the Fine and Performing Arts Department’s concert season.
Her recital focused mainly on music that was written during the 20th century and included a composition of her own. At Elizabethtown College, Shiffer teaches saxophone and clarinet; she is also in charge of a few ensembles on campus such as clarinet choir and sax quartet. In addition to playing those two instruments, she also plays flute and is a vocalist as an active member of her church choir.
20th century music is something that may be foreign to many who are not familiar with classical music. People may think of newer genres of music like rock and jazz and singers like Paul McCartney and Frank Sinatra. Shiffer aimed to demonstrate what 20th century music is and how it differs from previous eras of classical music. The Romantic period, which lasted from 1820 to 1900, was an era that already had begun to bend traditional rules that defined pervious eras of music. Moving into the next century, composers began to outright break them and drift away from things that previous composers would consider staples to writing music. Shiffer said that 20th century composers “are quite varied and unique in their approaches. The composers that I chose to feature primarily take musical influences from past periods in history and make them their own.”
Her program consisted of several different pieces from composers born in the 1900s, such as a suite for saxophone and guitar by Alan Hovhaness, a “Little Suite for Winter” by Peter Schickele and another suite for violin, clarinet and piano, by Darius Milhaud. The pieces were performed on one of the three instruments that she plays in addition to accompaniment from her colleagues at Etown, like associate professor of music Dr. Justin Badgerow, who plays piano, and director of preparatory division. Dr. Grant Moore, who plays tuba, as well as other fellow musicians, such as David Pedrick who plays the guitar and Stephanie McCullough, a violinist. The music gave a much different approach to music than one would expect, because the music was recent, written by composers who are still alive and those who have not studied the technicalities of music can understand and relate to it.
One thing that Shiffer looked forward to in her performance was showing people the beauty of music. She spoke about music of the 20th century as a way to connect with musicians and non-musicians alike. Since 20th century music does not necessarily follow all of the rules of music theory that previous eras did, it can be more accessible and appreciated by all. Alan Hovhaness, one of the composers from the recital, said, “My purpose is to create music not for snobs, but for all people; my hope is that they are moved with what they hear.” Shiffer shares this philosophy, adding that she wants “to share music with all people, and I hope that they are pleased and moved with that they hear.” She added that any type of music can be beautiful if an individual keeps listening. To her, music does not necessarily have to be all about the hardest passage to play or the most technically challenging, just simply about how a message can be conveyed and appreciated regardless of who is listening.
Shiffer finished the recital with a final selection entitled “Hello Jazz!,” which had an interesting twist: the selection consisted of multiple songs. As a new song was performed, another one of Shiffer’s accompanists joined the stage, and one by one, created a full jazz band for their final song. It was an interesting concept that helped complete the premise behind the recital: classical music is modern and approachable. This recital completes the faculty recitals for the semester, and it rounds off the season, starting with a guitar recital, a vocal recital and now a woodwind recital. The remaining events for the semester from the Fine and Preforming Arts departments will be senior recitals and ensemble performances, which will occur throughout November into early December.
