by Zoë Gorman
The String Orchestra of Brooklyn (alternately known as the SOBs, wink) is giving new flair to
concert music by bringing modern
compositions to the streets of New York’s fastest-growing borough. Their concert Saturday at St. Ann’s Church with
the Toomai String Quintet showcased
three pieces from 21st-century composers, two of which were world premieres.
The
SOB rehearses once a week and welcomes musicians of all ages and all
walks of life. While they may not quite be ready for Carnegie Hall, they deserve credit for providing a
thought-provoking performance of innovative modern works. Artistic Director Eli Spindel’s precise, yet
fluid conducting and flawless cutoffs helped the performers achieve an
expressive textural variation that created the illusion of sound coming from far away.
The church, with its high central archway, long corridors, and intimate stage area provided inspiration for all three composers: the sweeping
chords of Somei Satoh’s Ruika, the high, ringing violins and mechanical
rhythms of Richard Carrick’s Adagios, and the long, accented strokes of Chris Cerrone’s High Windows, who placed the second violins
on the opposite sides of the pulpit in order to pass melodic lines from one
violin section to the other.
Written for St. Ann's way back in 1990, Satoh's Ruika utilized evolving
stepwise progressions, eerie violin timbres, and dramatic pauses for a spectral,
cinematic feel. Shifting extended ternary harmonies resolved dissonances into
rich chords in a gradual, yet striking fashion reminiscent of Barber. Satoh complemented
slow progressions with recurring rhythmic patterns in 5/4, 4/4, and 6/4 time,
stabilizing drones, and a cello solo that exhibited John Popham’s virtuosity, making brilliant use of subtle slides and vibrato, emphasizing sonority over speed. The piece took an unexpected turn
with a sudden downward leap in the cellos amidst a sea of stepwise motion in
the instrument’s upper register.
Although Carrick’s piece was originally written for string quartet, the bass
proved essential to the machine-like motion often centered around a
drone. The orchestra’s bassists executed sliding finger techniques and bouncing
bow taps with vigor. While the piece celebrated cacophonous dissonances, it
maintained coherence by passing rhythms among sections and drifting to and from
call-and-response segments with overlapping material.
The parts—especially the fast, short-bowed viola segments—were unpredictable, yet vaguely part of an
entity, like a machine not quite working. Or, as Carrick said: "a person trying
to drudge up a memory." Carrick said he
was inspired to write this series in memory of his father because he
noticed "adagios tend to transcend musical style."
Cerrone’s High Windows layered half steps over repeated
thirds, which he called the “intervals of my life.” Rapid, futuristic arpeggios interspersed with
single, accelerating bow strokes to create a dramatic opening.
With birdlike trills and tremolos, the haunting violins seemed to float above a
slowly moving, low counterpoint. Competing sections then evolved into a central,
energetic theme and settled into melodies passed from one part to another and
continued, so that the end of one became the beginning of another.
As the
energy died down again, a segment of bass pizzicato on each measure’s downbeat
helped to move the piece forward when repeated leaps of a third might otherwise
bore the listener. Although the underlining technique of arpeggio was essential to the piece’s overall
structure and tonal palette, it featured in violin at the piece’s close mostly
to bolster the rhythm rather than the melody.
The SOB, which aims to make modern music accessible to a diverse audience,
will take their music outside next month with a free, open performance of Terry Riley's In C at Fort Greene Park. Email incinfortgreenepark@gmail.com if you have an instrument and would like to join in.