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Musical innovation on Constitution Day It would be an understatement to describe CU master's degree student Hunter Ewen as "unconventional" when it comes to his musical compositions and performances. This, however, might have also been the perfect reason to showcase his newest piece at a campus concert event honoring Constitution Day, Sept. 17. "We could have easily sent out announcements and asked students to turn in quizzes," said Peter Simons, director of the Institute for Ethical and Civic Engagement, which is co-sponsoring this evening's Constitution Day concert with the College of Music. "But we wanted to do something more enticing and creative to get the students engaged in the day." Enter Ewen, a second-year Master's in Music student with a focus on composition. When it comes to filling the role of "creative" and "enticing," Ewen's innovative performances blend the elements of his undergraduate studies in music and mechanical engineering in a way that tantalizes the audience's senses both audio-visually and emotionally. "Traditional music performances tend to put a wall between the performers and the audience," said Ewen. "I like taking traditional roles and turning them upside down a little bit." Tonight's piece, for instance, titled "Novus Ordo Seclorum" (New Order for the Ages), will feature Ewen conducting the live performances of eight musicians -- among a number of other "surprise" performers -- who will be taking their cues from a program that will be projected onto a screen from Ewen's laptop computer. In lieu of traditional sheet music, the performers will instead play the notes and rhythms that are being generated live from the software Ewen programmed to select the "best" choices to fit any number of variables that he decides to input in real time. As if this wasn't enough to engage those in attendance, Ewen will conducting the performance with a Nintendo Wii remote control -- modified to interface with his laptop -- rather than a traditional conductor's baton. According to Ewen, the daring-yet-holistic nature of his composition is meant to commemorate Constitution Day because it was conceived to reflect the situation the Founding Fathers faced as they set out to pen the historic document. "The piece is meant to mirror the sentiment of the Founding Fathers when they were writing the Constitution in two ways," said Ewen. "First, they were leaping off into the unknown by doing this hugely significant thing without knowing exactly where it would go. And second, it reflects the sense of community where everyone gathered, fought, and agreed in one place to see it through to its conclusion." Ewen said that the unity and individuality of this process is reflected in the "Do something interesting" prompts that the computer will also cue randomly to individual performers as the piece progresses.
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