Symphonic Winds concludes spring performance tour with timely MC concert

Duval Salvant, MC's director of bands, says the Symphonic Winds tour and concert will be all about time.

According to a study published by the National Library of Medicine, music is a complex structure of sounds whose different parameters can affect the perception of time.

Symphonic Winds, Mississippi College’s ensemble of 55 highly skilled student woodwind, brass and percussion musicians, will perform a catalog of pieces related to time during its first spring concert, scheduled for 2 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 23, in Swor Auditorium on the Clinton campus. There is no charge to attend and the public is invited.

Duval Salvant, MC’s director of bands, said every selection the band will play includes some manner of unique time signature or varying time signatures and meters for different parts of the ensemble.

“They all fit together nicely throughout the work,” Salvant said. “One even has clock effects going on in the piece. That’s where time comes in.”

Among the band’s selections will be an English folk song suite by Vaughan Williams (1872-1958) in which the woodwinds play an alternate time signature to the brass and “Fractures in Time” by Michael Sweeney (1952- ) that includes clock effects.

“As I kept listening to the pieces I wanted us to perform, I kept finding something quirky that has something to do with different elements of music and time,” Salvant said. “’Groovy Loops’ (by J. Scott McKenzie, 1971- ) tricks the audience into thinking something sounds a little off, but in reality, it’s supposed to be that way. It confuses the listener for a second, but it all makes sense in the piece.”

The concert follows the band’s two-day, four-performance tour of schools – including Brandon High School, Vestavia Hills High School in Holman, Alabama, and West Blocton (Alabama) High School – from Thursday to Friday, Feb. 20-21.

“We use this as a recruitment tour,” Salvant said. “It’s important for the ensemble because most high schools play their concert set once for the parents in the spring or fall, and then they’re done. They don’t get to play that music again.

“I enjoy this tour because we get to play our set upwards of five times. You get to fine-tune some things you wouldn’t otherwise with just one performance.”

For more information about Symphonic Winds, visit music.mc.edu/ensembles/band/symphinc-winds.