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COVER STORY First Night 2000: A sampler Thoroughly modern Shostakovich     Excelsior gives a rock/jazz edge to classical works composed decades ago. Above, members Mimi Rabson and Evan Harlan. (Globe File Photo/Dominic Chavez) MORE INFORMATION Fri. 6:15-7 p.m., 7:30-8:15 p.m. Emmanuel Church Excelsior When people hear local band Excelsior, they usually have no idea the music is decades old. The four-piece band - electrified violin, accordion, guitar, and drums - gives the music of 20th-century classical composers such as Shostakovich, Barber, and Stravinsky a distinctly modern rock/jazz edge. "People hear us and are usually surprised to learn the source of the music is a Russian composer who was writing in 1930," says accordion player Evan Harlan. The group's sound often "is closer to a rock band than classical music, but it's a rock band with Frank Zappa leanings." Harlan, a classically trained pianist, started Excelsior four years ago as a result of his fascination with Shostakovich. He thought the composer's piano compositions would work well in a modern setting, spread out among different instruments. "In the beginning of Excelsior, I would take a Shostakovich piece and just arrange the piano score for all three instruments," he says. "If they sounded good, then we would find a way to insert a section of improvisation based on the harmonies in the piece." Harlan has since branched out to incorporate other composers, even earlier ones like Chopin, into the band's playlist. He likens some of Chopin's melody lines to bebop jazz. "His songs can be very twisty and chromatic," Harlan says. "All the composers I've chosen to deal with have a harmonic language that I call dissonant tonality," he adds. "Shostakovich uses the same kind of tonal chords as composers 100 years before him, but he combines them in ways that are very modern and dissonant at the time they were written." - Christopher Muther Previous page | Next page

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