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The Indiana Daily Student

arts

Jacobs students to showcase electronic music

German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen is known as a pioneer in electronic and experimental composition. It’s natural that his name would be used in the title of an event showcasing performance art and electronic composition.

The Bishop will host an event today showcasing the performance art and electronic compositions of four Jacobs School of Music students. The event’s title, “Does Stockhausen Dream of Electric Beats?”, also plays on the theme of electronics by making a pun out of Philip K. Dick’s novel “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?”

Music composition majors junior Chris Poovey and senior Aaron Smith came up with the idea for the show last year while taking a course on electronic music. Poovey said he wanted to be involved in something that was more fun than formal.

He also said he wanted to go against the common perception of classical music.

“It’s kind of that we’re very serious here at Jacobs sometimes, and it’s nice to do something that’s a little less serious and just for fun,” he said. “It’s so different being in a bar rather than a concert hall, and too much of classical music is perceived as something to be shown in a concert hall.”

Poovey said they originally intended for the show to be entirely electronic music, but they had trouble filling up the entire hour they had booked.

When they couldn’t find more music, Poovey decided he would do some of his performance art.

Poovey said he’s been doing performance art for about two years and has performed at a wide range of events.

He and fellow music composition student Ian Clarke will open the show with a performance Poovey said he has done several times before.

“The performance art will be weird and make people uncomfortable, but that’s what performance art does,” he said.

The electronic music being showcased has a wide range between the four composers, ?Poovey said.

“My beats in particular that I’m putting on are more poppy, but there are some people’s that I’ve heard that are going to be more interesting,” he said.

Clarke’s piece is one Poovey said will be especially interesting. He said Clarke’s piece is made entirely from classical music samples. Clarke took less than a second from each piece he samples to create a beat out of those bits of compositions.

Poovey said he hopes to give audience members an experience they haven’t had before.

“People should come out to the show if they want to be exposed to something new and fun because that’s what we want it to be,” ?he said.

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