Dreary, cold and gloomy–the mood around EC hasn’t been as energetic in the past few weeks maybe due to the bad weather, but in Marsee Auditorium there’s energy.

Violins, cellos and violas wail; the brightness of horns, trumpets and trombones are heard, while the soft melodies of the woodwinds flow through it all.

This symphonic sound comes from the Symphony Orchestra, as it tunes its instruments for an upcoming performance Sunday, at 3 p.m.

Dane Teter, director of instrumental music, said that the orchestra has been preparing for this concert since the beginning of the semester. He also said that this concert has something to offer to every student, for there are many contrasting varieties in the pieces they are playing.

Josh Braun, business economic major, said that this concert is a “repertoire music program with classical works.”

Teter, with the help of students, picked four pieces for this semester’s concert, including Bach’s Concerto for Two Violins in d minor, with two solo violinists Ken Retzack and Braun; “Rodrigo,” Adagio Para Instrumentos de Viento; Bernstein’s “Overture to ‘West Side Story'” and R.W. Smith’s, “The Divine Comedy.”

Music brings variety

“This program has a lot of variety to it, with Bach’s piece being a very early piece, and “The Divine Comedy” being a pretty recent piece,” Teter said.

The orchestra will play pieces by Bach in the first half of the program, Teter said.

This Bach piece is “very detailed,” Braun said.

Retzack said that this piece of Bach’s is the “most popular and famous piece that he’s composed.”

There are three movements to the concerto; Retzack said he will be playing the solo part in the first movement which is the more “happy, lively, energetic” part.

Braun said the second part of the movement, in which he plays a solo, contains a more “lower range of notes” than Retzack but both movements complement each other.

Classical music lovers will be able to listen to the full range of the violins in this Bach piece as well, Teter said.

“The quality, the range of sound, it’s the best instrument (violin),” Retzack said. “I think it’s the most beautiful, most melodic and emotional out of all the instruments.”

Rythmically driven

Music lovers who like more up-tempo music may find this concert appealing because “there’s also a lot of rhythmic drives in this particular concert,” Teter said.

“This is especially true for the ‘Rodrigo’ piece (which has some Spanish influence) that has slow sections and fast sections,” Teter said. “It’s a very pretty piece.”

Andy Omeyer, who plays the oboe, said, “Rodrigo” is a “beautiful melody handed off to different instruments like flowing water — slow and lyrical.”

“Overture to ‘West Side Story'” has a “jazzy” feel, Teter said.

From hell to heaven

Students who are more contemporary may “find ‘The Divine Comedy’ interesting because there are a lot of percussion instruments in this piece,” Teter said.

Braun said this piece is a “wildly different, nontraditional piece.”

“‘The Divine Comedy’ is the big piece for the concert,” Teter said. “This piece is based on a man named Dante, who’s the author.”

Teter said there are four movements to this piece, each movement being a different stage: “Inferno,” in which Dante starts from hell; “Purgatory,” where Dante gets redemption for his sins, and “Ascension,” where Dante gets ready to go into heaven and paradise.

Silverio Rojas, music composition major, plays the trombone and said that ‘The Divine Comedy is “one of those pieces full of emotions” in which the audience could “feel the different stages of afterlife.”

Rojas, who said he loves this piece the most out of the other three pieces, also said that “you could tell the composer’s idea of hell and heaven.”

Teter said this piece has some “unusual effects in the music.”

“There are moments in ‘The Divine Comedy’ where people moan because they’re in hell,” Teter said. “They drag their feet like they’re carrying heavy chains as they sing. Percussion players play water glasses that make ringing noises.”

Even those who are not big fans of these genres, can still find something in this program they might like because it’s so diverse, Teter said.

“It’s all about the music and having a good time,” Retzack said. “Music is just one big family; there’s different types of music, but it all stems from the same place.”