INFORMATION FOR
William Paterson University in Wayne will present a rare performance of composer Robert Morris’s immersive, interactive composition “Oracle” on Sunday, October 7 at 3 p.m. The performance will take place along the Red Trail in High Mountain Park Preserve, which can be accessed from the Preserve’s parking lot on University Drive adjacent to the William Paterson campus. The performance is free and open to the public and media.
Thirty musicians, including William Paterson University music faculty members, students, and alumni, will participate on a range of instruments, including voice, flute, keyboards, horn, trumpet, saxophone, tuba, guitar, bass, vibraphone, glockenspiel, chimes, and other percussion instruments. Performers will be spread out along the Red Trail to perform the 64-minute work, which is designed to explore the connection between music and nature and is meant to be performed in a natural setting.
Morris, an award-winning composer and a professor of composition at the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester, will be present for the performance. “Oracle,” written in 2005, is the third in a series of his works that are designed to be played outdoors in a park or in the country, woods, or highlands, although it may be also played indoors. The structure of the work is based on the I-Ching, the oldest of the ancient Chinese texts, in which 64 hexagrams are used to suggest appropriate actions in response to questions posed by the reader. Morris’s composition has 64 sections, each lasting one minute.
“There will be constant music along the trail for the duration of the work, which is controlled by time, not by a conductor,” says Payton MacDonald, a percussionist and William Paterson professor of music, who is organizing the performance. “This is a rare opportunity for people to experience music in a different setting, and in a way that is very interactive.”
In the event of inclement weather, the performance will be held in the University’s Machuga Student Center.
For additional information, contact the William Paterson University Shea Center Box Office at 973-720-2371 or boxoffice@wpunj.edu.
For media inquiries, email Phillip Sprayberry or Maria Daniels of the University’s Marketing and Public Relations Office: sprayberryp@wpunj.edu or danielsm11@wpunj.edu.
