It’s not background music anymore. Harmonic Awakenings, a recital of new musical works composed by Humboldt State University students and faculty members, will feature several pieces written and recorded for stage performance, dance and film. But this time they will be heard in full and (except for electronic works) live.

These chamber and electronic compositions include music by HSU professor and music composition teacher Brian Post, heard recently as part of the multimedia dance performance, Journeys Before Waking, presented at HSU in September. Excerpts from the dances choreographed by HSU Dance teachers Jandy Bergmann and Sharon Butcher will also be presented.

Works by HSU students comprise the rest of the program. A nonet written by Yong Joo Sim for the play, “Artemisia,” presented by the Dell’Arte Company this summer, will be performed live for the first time. It features violinist Rob Diggins, violist Jolianne Von Einem, and bassist Shao Way Wu.

Composed for the soundtrack of a documentary film, Halim Beere’s three-movement work will be performed by Beere on violin and John Chernoff on piano.

The program also includes three woodwind quintets written by Jeannete Kyle, Halim Beere and Josh Nelson.

Listeners may detect influences of such composers as Aaron Copland, Phillip Glass and Claude Debussy, Professor Post suggests, in “an eclectic and unique tapestry of sound.”

Harmonic Awakenings will be presented on Friday, October 20 at 8 PM in the Fulkerson Recital Hall on the HSU campus in Arcata. Tickets: $6 general, $2 students/seniors, HSU students free with ID, from HSU ticket office (826-3928) or at the door. Presented by the HSU Department of Music: 826-3531.

More photographs and information on Journeys Before Waking here.