As regular readers of this blog will know, my other hobby besides chamber music is playing board games. And regular readers of this blog will not be at all surprised to learn that I track the games I play, using the wonderful BoardGameGeek website. Top of the list is almost always "Unpublished Prototype", since I have friends who are game designers, and I go to board game conventions where games that are under development get tested. But until now, I've never done the analogous activity in chamber music, to help a composer see how her piece works in real life. I rectified that omission Tuesday evening.
The composer was Pamela Marshall, a friend of a friend of mine, and I got in at the last minute on the first reading of her string quintet "Natural Harmony". The viola part was already taken, so I played second violin. The quintet was for standard string quartet with the addition of a double bass: a very nice combination that unfortunately is under utilized (I can only think of the Dvorak quintet for the same group of players off hand).
I liked "Natural Harmony" pretty well on first hearing, and it definitely grew on me with each subsequent play. I find that's generally true for music written since World War II; each composer has her own language, and it takes a while to figure out the logic of that language, and how everything fits together. That's why I find concerts of new music somewhat frustrating; you get to hear a piece once, and then probably never again.
I don't have a quick enough ear to say that I have any understanding of Marshall's harmonic language. Her rhythmic language is interesting, both in how two parts, playing a temporary duet, will be strikingly rhythmically independent, and in the kinds of rhythms the individual parts contain. It's funny how often you hear dotted-eighth followed by sixteenth in classical and romantic music, and how rarely sixteenth followed by dotted-eighth!
I really enjoyed the experience of being in the first group to bring a piece to life, and I particularly enjoyed talking with Pamela: we bonded over our common experience with Sibelius music layout software. And in discussing page turns, the bane of the existence of anyone who tries to do music layout. If architects cover their mistakes with ivy, and cooks cover their mistakes with sauces, music layout people cover their mistakes with V.S. :-)
When I was young I would complain to my dad about how hard it was to get out of bed in the morning. He would reply with the following advice: "Place both feet on the floor and thrust upward". I used to be exasperated, but now I see the wisdom in it.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds as though volti subito is somewhat similar.