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CONTEMPORARY MUSIC REVIEW
February 27, 2005
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By Alexander Kahn
As audience members drifted into the theater, rock music poured in through a set of loudspeakers onstage. Eventually, a group of four musicians came out, dressed in casual clothes. One of them grabbed a microphone and began chatting with the audience. Soon thereafter the group launched into a well-amplified, fast-paced and raw piece of music recently written by one of the musicians on stage. The concert had all of the trappings of a pop music event, and yet the four musicians on stage at Hertz Hall on Sunday were two violinists, a violist and a cellist, members of the New York-based string quartet Ethel.
Founded in 1998, Ethel falls between the cracks of the traditional categories of pop, rock, jazz, and classical. Its members are thoroughly trained classical musicians with an impressive list of credentials: three of them attended Juilliard. As individuals they have performed with such ensembles as the New York Philharmonic, the Steve Reich Ensemble, the New York Chamber Symphony, and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. But collaborations with rock musicians such as Dishwalla, Roger Daltry, and Sheryl Crow are also in the group's collective history. As a result of this diverse heritage, the quartet seems to move effortlessly between the traditionally segregated worlds of pop and classical music in New York, appearing everywhere from Joe's Pub and the Knitting Factory to Lincoln Center and Columbia's Miller Theater. In the spring, they will begin a 25-city US tour opening for Joe Jackson and Todd Rundgren.
Attempts to bridge classical and rock music do not always produce satisfying results. Ethel, however, was able to deliver the goods, playing with both energy and depth. The quartet has mastered an impressive set of musical styles, presenting pieces with nods to Led Zeppelin, Indian ragas, minimalism, Finnish string band music, and the blues. Most of the music on the concert was commissioned by the ensemble, and all of it has been written within the last few decades. As violinist Mary Rowell joked in an interview, “Jerome Kern is the only dead composer we've done.”
The highlight of the concert was a performance of John Zorn's Cat O'Nine Tails, commissioned for the Kronos Quartet in 1988. The piece reflects the composer's interest in nonlinear music, juxtaposing sixty separate musical “moments” that contain musical references to everything from cartoon music and Tea for Two to Stravinsky, Tchaikovsky and Paganini. It is thus an ideal vehicle for the ensemble, showcasing the virtuosity and versatility of the performers, who shifted among these brief moments musicaux with aplomb. The piece also displays the ensemble's inherent theatricality, as the musicians alternately growled and beamed at one another; at one point, the violist arose from his chair to threaten his fellow musicians with his bow, which he cracked like a whip. This is not a group that shies away from physical gesture. The quartet's most obvious nod to rock is its constant use of amplification. In a question-and-answer session that followed the performance, the group explained that amplification was for them an effective method of bringing the music closer to the listener in the hall. One member also noted that it allows the musicians to get a wide range of sounds from their instruments through techniques that otherwise would be almost inaudible, such as bowing the strings above the left hand and tapping on the instrument as if it were a drum. Finally, Ethel employs amplification in order to mix live sounds with recorded sounds in real time. On one piece, Phil Kline's The Blue Room, phase samplers record loops of musical material that are instantly played back over the music being played on stage. While all of these reasons are convincing, to me the amplification did not always seem necessary, and occasionally detracted from the music. In Lenny Tristano's Requiem, arranged by violinist Mary Rowell, the quartet imitates a New Orleans funeral procession, complete with blues gestures and a march. The stark and melancholic mood of this piece might have been better served by a more hushed acoustic performance. (Alexander Kahn is a graduate student in music history and literature at UC Berkeley, where he also serves as assistant conductor of the University Symphony.) ©2005 Alexander Kahn, all rights reserved |
