17 Feb 1971 / Moog, Merchant of Venice

There are two events coming up this weekend and 1 continuing event which you should endeavor to see in the near future. The First Moog (pronounced like Vogue) Quartet will perform Friday night at Symphony Hall, while the MIT Dramashop will be back with "Merchant of Venice" on Friday and Saturday nights. In addition, there is the final centennial exhibit at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts: "Earth, Air, Fire and Water," and the Tsai Cybernetic Sculpture Environment at the Hayden Gallery.

Starting first with the last mentioned, we find ourselves close to home: the Hayden Gallery is located on the ground floor of the Humanities Building (building 14). The new works being shown in the exhibit were done at the MIT Center for Visual Studies. This is definitely a place to avoid if strobe lights give you headaches. But if they don't, you will find the several vibrating artworks are a minor wonder to behold. The principle which makes these viewer-interactive (an important concept in Art these days) is their reaction to sound.

Electronic music is played from a tape recorder much of the time, to keep the exhibits moving. But a microphone(s) also picks up speech, whistling or clapping, and changes the strobe rate in proportion to the sound. I found the whole thing to he a very worthwhile effort to combine modern technology (much of it developed at MIT; you hear Doc Edgerton's name mentioned a lot as you walk around the room) with creative imagination and display techniques. More details on the exhibit, and some pictures from it will appear soon in ERGO. My opinion of the artwork may have been colored by the background however, as I happen to enjoy electronic music thoroughly (when it is well done, as this music is).

Some very well-done electronic music is due in Boston this Friday evening, when Gershon Kingsley's First Moog Quartet will perform at Symphony Hall. As admitted a moment ago, this columnist has a weakness for electronic music, but if you view this performance, you may well develop one yourself. Many have said that the Moog was not a concert instrument, that its complex programming routines, its general inability to synthesize chords, and its wiring requirements would keep it off the stage. No doubt those of you familiar with the Moog will recall that even Walter Carlos of "Switched on Bach" fame said it couldn't be done. But apparently, a full house crowd at Carnegie Hall was convinced: newspaper reports called the bravos "overwhelming". Cershon Kingsley seems to have found the technique: the fact that there are four synthesizers on stage may be a part of it. Again, referring to previous reports, it seems that the set up (programming) between selections is kept to a minimum, while the superb sound performs at its maximum best. The Moog Quartet itself will be joined by Drums, Bass and Soprano for this performance. Kingsley's credentials are impeccable, as he was among the first to see the Moog's true potential as an independent instrument. lie has won awards for his radio and TV commercials which used the instrument, and in addition has (lone a score for many Jewish synagogues around the country, entitled "Shabbat for Today". By all means, broaden your horizon and go see it.

'The Merchant of Venice" was performed 3 times this week, and is due for two more performances this Fridav and Saturday evenings. I witnessed the dress rehearsal, and found the costumes, sets, and performances to be uniformly well done, although I did not have much of a chance to get the "flow" of the play. It did seem that the changes made in the standard performance would improve it. But a schedule clash rendered me unable to see the Opening Night performance, the only night my reviewer's ticket was good for. In my stead, I sent my good friend, a long time Shakespeare aficionado, Jim Lin.

You probably noticed the article last week on the Boston Museum of Fine Arts exhibition "Earth, Air, Fire and Water". There is really not too much that I can add, except to say that the pictures do not really capture the essence of this moving, glowing, breathing, kind of art exhibition; You have to be there to see it. And maybe that is the best kind of art there is the kind that can't be captured in a photo or a half hour TV news special. The museum is on Huntington Ave. and the Fenway, and you can get there either by foot or by the Green Line-Huntington Avenue car. Plan on spending at least an hour there, or you will have no hope of really seeing the exhibit. Admission is $1 to the museum, a donation requested to see the exhibit. Unless of course you were bright enough to buy a student membership which, for a mere $5, entitles you to as many admissions as you want in a year.

You might also want to see the Lowell Institute Lecture Series, held Tuesdays at 7:30 in the Lecture Hall. This week MIT's Gyorgy Kepes, director of the Center for Advanced Visual Studies will explore the interrelationship of art and nature. R. Buckminster Fuller is another of the several distinguished lecturers due between now and April 6 (no lecture March 16).

COMING NEXT WEEK: Who knows? I sure don't.