April 23 – Gabriel Roethle, Graduate World Music Recital
Concert Program
Student Recital Series
Gabriel Roethle, Graduate World Music Recital
Thursday, April 23, 2026
5 pm
Recital Hall
Special Guests
Hong-da Chin,
Oskar Kaut
Patcharita Pankaew
Olive Wynn
Kacee Dugas
Dylan Donnelly
Concert Program
Program
| asap manis | Gabriel Roethle (b. 2001) |
| Gabriel Roethle, suling and gangsa angklung | |
| The Balinese gamelan angklung is traditionally used in funeral rites. Like the sweet sound of the four-note scale, the title refers to a sweet smoke, like the fragrance of a clove cigarette that brings its smoker a little closer to heaven with every inhale. I have reduced the gamelan orchestra to a single player. The characteristic shimmer of Balinese gamelan music, achieved by offsetting pitches between pairs of instruments, is gone. |
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| 後腦勺照片 (back of head photo) | Roethle |
| Hong-da Chin, dizi Oskar Kaut, violoncello Gabriel Roethle, guzheng |
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| This piece mixes Chinese pentatonic idioms with elements of Japanese Nagauta and Gagaku music. Portamento is used not merely as an “extended technique,” but as an essential part of the music. The title of the piece is inspired by Edward Yang’s 2000 film “Yi Yi,” featuring an ensemble of characters grappling with confusion and regret between Taipei and Tokyo. | |
| granadina por soleares | Roethle |
| This piece for flamenco guitar is in a twelve-beat Solea groove, but employs elements of the Granadina, characteristic for its open E string clashing with a B major tonic chord. I mix traditional flamenco techniques such as rasgueado strumming and golpes on the body of the instrument with less conventional techniques such as pitch slides in reference to the North African musical traditions that shaped the flamenco language. | |
| improvisation: khaen | |
| Dylan Donnelly, piano Gabriel Roethle, khaen |
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This improvisation will reference the sonorities of Lao and Thai Isaan music while taking advantage of the piano’s harmonic breadth to extend past the limits of the khaen’s seven notes. |
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| suaratelu | Rothle |
| Patcharita Pankaew, khong wong yai Olive Wynn, piano Gabriel Roethle, javanese gender barung |
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| This piece blends three different tuning systems: A Thai seven-note system of roughly equidistant pitches, a Javanese five-note system also of roughly equidistant pitches, and the familiar Western twelve-tone equal temperament. I manage the three tuning systems so that the music often arrives at moments of strange but pleasant consonance. | |
| 山城へ (yamashiro he) | Roethle |
| Kacee Dugas, shamisen Gabriel Roethle, shamisen Elizabeth Vieyra, shamisen Patcharita Pankaew, percussion Fernando Marroquin Mendoza, koto Nam Yamprai, shakuhachi |
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| This piece for Japanese instruments uses Balinese interlocking rhythms (kotekan) in the context of Japanese musical idioms. This merging of Balinese and Japanese styles is inspired by the Japanese musical collective Geinoh Yamashirogumi, who composed the soundtrack to the 1988 animated film Akira. The Akira soundtrack fuses several kinds of Balinese gamelan with other musical styles, being one of the most prominent examples of a world music fusion project cementing its place in popular culture. | |
| improvisation: gamelan | |
| Dylan Donnelly, keyboard Gabriel Roethle, bonang, violin |
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Dylan and I played together for several years in Lawrence University’s Gamelan Cahaya Asri. This final improvisation will use an electronic keyboard approximately tuned to the notes of our gamelan. For me, one of the most exciting aspects of exploring different musical traditions is playing in tuning systems other than Western 12-tone equal temperament. It is even more exciting to be able to explore this tuning in an improvisation with my good friend. |
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This performance is given in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Music degree.
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