The Breakers Mansion Great Hall in historic Newport, RI resounded Saturday night with new music pronouncing a way forward towards better “harmony” in our society, honoring deeply rooted American traditions with a vision of our better selves, honoring music of past, present and future generations, and giving voice to those artists and composers who have been denied a voice in the past. PUBLIQuartet is Curtis Stewart, who was last season’s commissioned composer returning as violinist, Rubén Rangel filling in for violinist Jannina Norpoth, Nick Revel, viola, and Hamilton Berry, cello.
Jessie Montgomery’s Voodoo Dolls, originally commissioned in 2008 by the JUMP! Dance Company of Rhode Island opened the program with the rapping on the wood of the instruments in driving rhythmic patterns before the entry of string sound. Folksy lyric melodies and chant like motives accompany driving rhythms reflective of West African drum patterns, with improvisational moments, culminating in the rapping and slapping rhythms that closed the work as it had opened. Grammy winning composer Montgomery was proclaimed Musical America’s 2023 Composer of the Year.
MIND / THE / GAP MTG is an ongoing series of “original projects developed in 2011 by PUBLIQuartet that seek to highlight connections between diverse musical genres through PQ’s unique blend of ‘rock meets jazz meets stylistically-crazed’ improvisation and group composition”. What is America? Featured improvisations on Dvořák’s String Quartet No. 12 in F Major op. 96, “American” strains of the original weaving in and out with its “source material” – the American folk music that so influenced Dvořák in the writing of his original – said source material now being updated to include more modern American expressions of blues, jazz, rock and funk replacing the original spirituals that Dvořák might have heard during his time with American composer Harry T. Burleigh. At the deepest levels this work showed how all different musical styles and periods are all interconnected in some way by the music itself.
Sunjata Keita was a warrior prince who founded the vast empire of Mali in 1235 and inspired Fodé Lassana Diabaté, a master player of the balafon (a type of 22-note wooden xylophone) from Mali, to write Sunjata’s Time – the word “time” here used to denote both rhythm and the epoch in which Sunjata lived. African musicians passed their art down through the generations, some instruments being considered “royal” and formed professional guilds and systems of artistic patronage. Techniques were employed by the quartet to imitate the sounds and rhythms of West African instruments and their music with authentic integrity. Sadly, due to time constraints, only three of the five movements of the suite were performed, each highlighting one of the instruments of the quartet in elaborate and expressive solo roles.
Vijay Iyer, an American of Indian descent, composer and a pianist, paid tribute to the legendary James Brown, in Dig the Say, from the lyrics to one of Brown’s songs. This compelling work ,with a gentle and lyric high solo line over open fifth string harmony, sandwiched between rhythms that included clapping, foot stomping, and ostinato patterns, reflected and recreated the essential elements of Brown’s music.
The second half opened with and revolved around the world premiere of Newport Classical’s Commissioning Project, a work by Clarice Assad which expanded of her Chronicles of Ghosts (commissioned in 2022 for the Beaver Island Music Festival and which explored “extraordinary women of the 16th century) to include Chapter III: “Whispers from the Pirate Queen”. This new chapter portrayed an imaginary meeting in a dream of two historic personages, the Irish pirate-queen Grace O’Malley and the Puritan Anne Hutchinson, who in the spirit of Rhode Island founder Roger Williams challenged the religious authorities of her day and came to settle in Newport. While O’Malley and Hutchinson never met in real life, they were spiritually “in-sync” with one another, and in this fictional account a torch is passed to light the way forward to a more just society, one that acknowledged the rights of women to speak out in public, along with a challenge to keep the torch lit and pass it forward to the next visionary.
There was more drama for this performance than the drama itself. Renée Rapier, the scheduled soloist, took ill and was unable to perform, while the composer was unable to attend the premiere due to the airline debacle and cancellation of flights. Forward into the breach stepped soprano Ariadne Greif, who delivered a magnificent performance of the new work she learned while journeying to deliver it. Capturing the elements of the drama in both the narrated and sung portions of the work, at times humorous, elsewhere haunting, she held a presence that united and gave life to the two visionary women of O’Malley and Hutchinson, accompanied by the bold and dashing music provided by the quartet. The music contained modern sound effects for the narration, while evoking more ancient sounds of the time in which the personae of the drama lived, including the Scottish ballad-like and sea-chanty styled songs of O’Malley. Assad’s music spoke with conviction and color, boldness and definition, ethereal in the dream sequences, and deeply moving and uplifting in its torch-bearing message.
Two arrangements for string quartet by PUBLIQuartet’s cellist Hamilton Berry followed: Duke Ellington’s Come Sunday recalling the original poignant violin solo by Ray Nance at the 1958 studio take with Mahalia Jackson. Curtis Stewart took the solo with a brief improvisatory middle before returning to the nostalgic sound of the original. The second arrangement was of Julia Perry’s Prelude for Piano, a piece filled with warmth on the celebration of the 100th anniversary of Perry’s birth.
In the improvisatory closer Wild Women, another in the MIND / THE / GAP series, quotes from iconic American songs — Tina Turner’s “Black Coffee,” Betty Davis “They Say I’m Different,” Alice Coltrane “Er Ra,” and Ida Cox “Wild women Don’t Have the Blues” — provided the inspiration for this set.