By L. Peat O'Neil
Washington Post

Eighth Blackbird
" -- I know noble accents/And lucid, inescapable rhythms -- "

The opening lines of the eighth stanza of Wallace Stevens's poem "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird," from which the sextet Eighth Blackbird takes its name, states the group's aim and sums up its achievement at Tuesday night's Founders Day Concert at the Library of Congress's Coolidge Auditorium.

These six individuals, true to their instruments and quirky personal inflection, have honed their ensemble skills to play iconoclastic music with dynamic energy. They announce and explain the music, engaging the audience with humor, wordplay and movement.

The group opened with a teaser, "Minimum Security Trailer," from a collaborative composition still in the works. The players' coordinated piano and marimba rhythms topped each other, challenging the reeds and strings with a basic syncopated beat.

Frederic Rzewski's "Pocket Symphony" showcased each instrument while adding percussive high jinks with a trash-can lid, jew's-harp and a bull roarer. Sounds like cracking icicles, leonine growls, truck motors and car crashes brought chuckles from the audience, yet the effect was sophisticated, showing fresh musical combinations. At times the rests threatened the composition's momentum, but these artists work in the space between sounds as well as with tone itself.

"Divinum Mysterium," Daniel Kellogg's meditation on a 13th-century motet sung by the ensemble as a prelude, built ominous tension through ripped piano chords, rolling bass and gongs. As they'd promised, the musicians pushed their instruments to the edge with lucid accents and compelling rhythms.

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