By CANDACE MIERS

Contributing Editor

An explosion of musical melody filled the Howard Auditorium, Center for Performing Arts, Jan. 13.

Pastiche, a quartet consisting of a piano, percussion, a clarinet and a trumpet, was presented thanks to the School of Performing Arts and the Louisiana Tech Concert Association.

"Pastiche is a musical delicacy better than dessert," Dr. Kenneth Robbins, director of the School of Performing Arts, said.

David Scott played the trumpet and Jan Fillmore Scott played the clarinet. Behind the Scotts was Lonny Benoit on percussion.

Benoit played several percussion instruments such as the bells, the symbols and snare.

Besides the drum sticks in his hands was a silver whistle in his mouth which accompanied several tunes and added an amazing flair to the music pieces.

"[Pastiche] is not something you hear on the radio every day," Lance Tyson, a junior engineering major, said. "I've [enjoyed] myself."

To add to the enjoyment was Fred Sahlmann on the grand piano.

A small elderly man in a black and white tuxedo made big sounds and rhythm on his piano.

Sahlmann was assisted by a young helper to turn the pages of his music. All it took for a turn of the page was a simple nod.

Pieces such as "Rough and Tumble," "Bayou Rhapsody" and "Quatuor de Ballet" were played.

"At first the music reminded me of cartoon music, kind of like 'Tom and Jerry'," Grover Allen, a senior civil engineering major, said.

And cartoons fall along the meaning of the word 'pastiche,' which means to mock, ridicule, satirize and pretend. It also means a caricature and synthetic.

Some members of the audience were pretending to enjoy the show.

Kyle Stephens, a junior civil engineering major, said while he thought the musicians were talented; he was just not interested in that kind of music.

"[Pastiche] wasn't my type of thing," Stephens said.

Notwithstanding, the quartet said they enjoyed playing for Tech.

Sahlmann said, "You're a wonderful audience."