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If you notice that the next piece you are about to hear is written for harpsichord, cello and two violins, it's fair to assume you will soon be treated to the pulsing polyphony of a Baroque trio sonata.
At Sunday's NOVA Chamber Music Series concert, you would be right once with that assumption — and then dead wrong.
Piece for Mixed Quartet, by Utah composer Steven Ricks, is written for the same instruments as the trio sonata and makes affectionate references to the Baroque aesthetic while standing the trio sonata on its ear.
It will be preceded on the concert by a trio sonata by Archangelo Corelli (1653-1713). The Baroque work is played as a reference point for Ricks' new one — a trio sonata Corelli might have written had he lived in the 21st century and possessed Ricks' prowess with modern technology.
Many of Ricks' compositions employ electronic music filled with the beeps and growls of computer-generated sound. Ricks composed the work on a computer, although it will be performed on acoustic instruments (by keyboardist Jason Hardink, violinists Gerald Elias and Hasse Borup, and cellist Walter Haman).
Several years ago, Ricks created a software program that he calls a "universal music machine." "It's a little program that allows me to input sets of notes or rhythms," Ricks said. "The program will combine those in different ways — randomly, sequentially or in other ways. I worked out the pitch sets and chord progressions and input that into the program, then let it make the local level decisions about what comes next."
The unusual trio sonata is in two movements, titled "Dance of Spheres" and "Baroque Assemblage." For the harpsichord part in the first movement, Ricks laid out various major and minor triads and different sets of rhythms, then allowed the computer program to organize them into a sequence of musical events.
That accomplished, he composed the string parts that "decorate" the computer-assisted music with man-made embellishments and echoes.
The NOVA commission to Ricks, who is a professor at the Brigham Young University School of Music, came after series director Hardink heard a CD of Ricks' music. The album, "Mild Violence," received a five-star review from BBC Music Magazine.
"I just found that all of the music on this album really spoke to me," said Hardink, a Utah Symphony keyboardist who is noted for tearing through the difficult modernism of a Messiaen tone poem or a dizzying Baroque variation with equal facility. "I really felt drawn to his language and had an immediate connection with it."
Hardink reasoned that since Ricks writes a lot of electronic music, the composer would respond well to the harpsichord's metallic and percussive qualities. "The piece he wrote certainly makes allusions directly or indirectly to Baroque music, and there is an interesting groove in the piece," he said.
Knowing Hardink would be the one giving life to Ricks' first piece for harpsichord gave the composer a sense of freedom. "I knew that whatever I put on the page, Jason could find a way to play it," he said.
The idea of contrasting old with new continues throughout the rest of the NOVA concert, which consists of Italian music from two very different time periods.
Players from the Utah Symphony brass section will fill Libby Gardner Hall with the rich sonorities of Giovanni Gabrieli's antiphonal music from the Italian Renaissance.
By way of contrast, listeners will hear works of Luciano Berio (1925-2003), whose fiendishly modern "Chemin II" will feature Utah Symphony violist Brant Bayless. Mezzo-soprano Kirsten Gunlogson, of the University of Utah School of Music faculty, will sing Berio's modernist "Folk Songs."
Steven Ricks' new sonata
P NOVA Chamber Music Series presents the world premiere of Utah composer Steven Ricks' Piece for Mixed Quartet. The concert also includes works of Corelli and Gabrieli and Utah premieres of two works by Luciano Berio. Violist Brant Bayless and mezzo-soprano Kirsten Gunlogson are featured, along with members of the Utah Symphony brass section.
When • Today at 3 p.m. at Libby Gardner Concert Hall, 1365 E. Presidents Circle, University of Utah campus, Salt Lake City
Tickets • $18; $15 for seniors; $5 for students, available by subscription or at the door (cash or check only)
Sample this • Hear excerpts of Steven Ricks' music at http://www.stevericks.com.
Information • For more background, visit http://www.novachambermusicseries.org.