The Barometer Online

A new supplemental music program produced through the MU will hold its second performance in a series of student concerts on Tuesday. The event, part of the MU's Midday Music Interlude, is scheduled for noon in the Memorial Union Lounge and will feature a brass quintet playing from a nontraditional set-list composed solely of video game music. Those of you who might enjoy soundtracking your busy heads with scores from games like Star Fox, Super Mario Bros., Tetris and The Legend of Zelda should stop by, if only to temporarily eschew the classical masters for some accessible concert music with a nostalgic edge.

The random appeal of the current act is an epitome of the concert series itself, which was established to provide exposure and public opportunity for students without alternative means of expressing their hidden talents. Anyone who is musically inclined and interested in performing should contact Gideon Alegado at the Memorial Union Business Office, or by phone at 737-4674, for a chance to contribute some musical atmosphere.

Tuesday's as-unnamed brass quintet is made entirely of OSU students, whose majors run the gauntlet from music composition to elementary education. The group initially met while taking a concert band class and have been playing together in various line-ups since winter term of last year. The quintet was originally structured by Patrick McDonald, the group's trombone player and the man responsible for arranging all the music. A senior music composition major, McDonald began playing piano in kindergarten and later picked up the trombone as a middle school concert band member. McDonald also sings in the University Chorale and in his church as a bass.

"I was originally planning on playing a fugue by Bach,"said McDonald said. "I thought this type of music would be more fun."

McDonald arranges the music by finding midis for each piece and applying them to a program that converts the midi to sheet music. The sheet music then requires additional fine-tuning before the songs can be read or played.

"The midis themselves are just the blueprints,"McDonald said. "You have to tweak them out to find and finish their different parts."

In total, McDonald estimates the arrangement of songs took about 30 hours to complete. He originally translated the Super Mario Bros. music to piano, and continued work on different video games for a marching band performance at his former university.

"That was fun,"McDonald said. "I left the school, but I heard they played what I'd arranged."

The current lineup of McDonald's quintet includes Kyle Cooke on the trumpet, Amy Kao on the french horn, Aaron Harada on the tuba and Jenn Munson on the euphonium.

"I thought the idea of playing video game music was pretty cool. I play video games and I enjoy music, so this works,"said Cooke, a sophomore education major from Portland, who has previous experience with the piano, guitar and tuba. "Yeah, I played the tuba. The tuba sucks, man. It killed my back in the 7th grade. I was a little guy and they gave me this great, big thing."

Ready for such girth, Harada, a former trombone player with two years of experience on tuba, was also excited to have the chance to experiment with a different genre.

"The idea was great. It kind of makes us look like geeks, but it's interesting,"he said.

A freshman majoring in computer science, Harada is currently interested in starting a ska band at OSU and generally welcomes any form of music. Collectively, the group is as eclectic as their stage show, citing musical preferences of all tastes and formats.

"I guess anything but country, rap or hip-hop,"Harada said.

"My thing is pretty much straight classic rock,"Cooke said.

"On my computer at home I have over 500 video remix songs and I've been listening to those right now,"McDonald said. "Partly because they're applicable to what I'm doing with the quintet, but also because I just enjoy listening to them."

Following Tuesday's performance, the quintet plans to take a break before meeting again in the fall for a set of Final Fantasy music McDonald has ideas on arranging.

"We'll see each other,"McDonald said. "It's casual."

Sarah Cutsforth is a Diversions writer for The Daily Barometer. She can be reached at baro.diversions@studentmedia.orst.edu.

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