Black over white, black on white and 10 fingers applied to a Steinway’s 88 keys was the formula for an evening of music that created an array of euphonious sounds and cosmic colours.
These sights and sounds were meticulously transfigured into a matrix of logical sequences which produced the music of Bach, Schumann, Beethoven and Scriabin, skillfully accomplished by the artistry of Dr. Lynn Rice-See, professor of piano at ETSU.
“I look for contrast in style and contrast in mood,” Rice-See said.
And at Friday evening’s faculty recital in Mathes Hall, Rice-See achieved her objectives. Dressed in a black, sequined evening gown, Rice-See began the evening with an emotional and fluid interpretation of a Siloti arrangement of an Aria by J. S. Bach.
The second selection of the evening, for which the lights in Mathes Hall were momentarily extinguished, was by Robert Schumann.
“The Schumann composition, ‘Carnaval,’ is in 21 movements,” said Rice-See, who is a Julliard graduate, “and I’m using a PowerPoint program to help the audience keep up with 21 movements.”
When the performance area was re-illuminated, the audience was witness to the back side of Rice-See, dressed in an emerald green hooded velvet cape.
When she turned around to the audience, Rice-See was holding a carnival wand mask over her face, which immediately set the stage for the Schumann composition.
“This is actually not a joke,” Rice-See said, as she removed the wand mask, “but Schumann’s ‘Carnaval’ is about a masked ball, much like our Mardi Gras, which is celebrated just prior to Lent.
“Schumann’s idea for the music stems from the name of the small German town of Asch. By using those musical notes, as pronounced in German, A, S, C and H, become A, E-flat, C and B, which makes up the melody.
When AS is not separated, it is pronounced differently, and becomes A-flat, C and B.”
With the exception of the first movement, every movement included one of the two permeations, and each movement was named for something or someone.
The PowerPoint presentation, using scenes from Commedia dell’ arte and other media, was used to guide the audience through the various scenes that coincided to a particular movement helping to create the intentions of Schumann’s music.
After intermission, Rice-See retuned to give a haunting performance of Beethoven’s next-to-last sonata.
“The Beethoven Sonata is No. 31,” Rice-See said, “and was written six or seven years before he died. It was written during the time he was working on his late String Quartets, and the emotion is similar in that its form is original.”
The brooding Beethoven could be visualized in the music, and Rice-See went soul searching and with every bit of emotion imaginable, produced pure Beethoven.
The final work of the evening also included a PowerPoint presentation, but from a somewhat different perspective, as the audience witnessed Rice-See unleash her virtuosity by performing the music of Russian composer and mystic egomaniac Alexander Scriabin.
“One of my favorite composers is Scriabin,” Rice-See said as she laughed, “a kind of odd duck. Actually Scriabin is completely nuts.”
Scriabin had what is known as “synaesthesia.” He saw colours with certain notes. With the note D he might see the colour yellow, and with the note A, he might see the colour blue.
“He was into the cosmic … the new age,” Rice-See said, “and he wrote a poem about longing to merge with the nova star.”
So with the use of photographs from NASA selected by Dr. Gary Henson of ETSU’s Department of Physics, Astronomy and Geology, Rice-See merged Scriabin’s poem and music with the space photographs and produced a musical synaesthesia that Scriabin himself would have been proud of.
And with a seemingly closed fist of her right hand, Rice-See struck the last note of Scriabin’s sonata with complete authority.
Rice-See performed at Carnegie Hall in 1982 and is now in her 16th year of teaching at ETSU, where she has inspired and intrigued students with her vision.
“She has brought a sense of music to my life that is more sensitive, passionate and emotional that I ever thought it could be,” said Jennifer Palmer, a music performance major.
“When she plays, it becomes quite clear that the driving force behind her music is simply her love for it … not ego or desire for recognition.”
Rice-See repeated Friday’s performance at Montclair State in Montclair, N.J. Sunday night and is teaching a master class for piano students there today.
When asked if she ever gets nervous before a performance, Rice-See said, “Oh yes. There’s something that’s saying, ‘Good Lord, how did you get yourself into this again?'”
But “again” is just what the audience requested Friday night, and in return they gave Lynn Rice-See an enthusiastic standing ovation, which she so graciously acknowledged.

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