Adventure in Affinities

Adventure in Affinities

Splotches of color danced and melted into each other on the walls. From the silhouetted forms of musicians onstage, archaic strains of medieval chansons overlapped with the thumps and twangs of contemporary rock. At the side, electronic sounds erupted from a glittering electronic synthesizer that resembled a far-out version of the Radio City Music Hall's mighty Wurlitzer. Not surprisingly, the program notes listed a consulting psychologist.

It was last week's "Electric Christmas" concert in Carnegie Hall, an experimental, 80-minute program that had no breaks--except with tradition. The participants: the twelve-member New York Pro Musica ensemble, whose long-time specialty has been little-known medieval and Renaissance music; the five-man Circus Maximus, a Manhattan-based rock group; a lighting crew from the Electric Circus, a Manhattan discotheque; and Electronic Composer Morton Subotnick, a professor at New York University.

"This was not a concert but a celebration of the affinities among the musicians," explained Pro Musica Director John White, who conceived the project. Actually, the quality of the program was as mixed as its media. The lighting effects eventually became tiresome distractions; the electronic sounds some-times rambled and screeched. Yet the shattering of conventional concert categories was exhilarating, and the music at its best did reach White's goal of achieving "some great moments," notably in a delightful collaboration between the Pro Musica and Circus Maximus on Guillaume de Machaut's 14th century song Douce Dame Jolie.

The Electric Christmas was an eight-century leap away from the Pro Musi-ca's usual holiday fare. Every year-- including this one--it climaxes its eleven-month season by presenting church performances of two 12th cen-tury music dramas, The Play of Daniel and The Play of Herod. Staged and costumed in period style, these productions unfold in vocal chants and instrumental passages of austere elegance and moving simplicity. White, 43, a musicologist and harpsichordist who took over the Pro Musica after Founder Noah Greenberg died in 1966, has no intention of abandoning such efforts. In fact he plans more: the group will soon start rehearsals for a production of Jacopo Peri's 1600 opera Euridice, the earliest opera for which all the music has been preserved, and is preparing an Elizabethan masque for next season.

Last week's "adventure" outside that direction, says Conductor White, served to show that "somewhere in the past all these kinds of music have a common ground. Our music and rock are similar in that the rhythms are strong and vital, the harmonies are crisp and clear, and there is so much improvisation that the performer is part creator. In our concert, groups thought to be opposed were working together for the same purpose."

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