BY LEWIS INGHAM
Oracle Marker
The Letter String Quartet
Chandelier Room, Hawthorn Arts Centre, 23 April
Under the intricate ceiling of the Chandelier Room, the string quartet form becomes a true vehicle for exploration at the hands of The Letter String Quartet. As innovative as the group is entrancing, The Letter String Quartet brings an engaging collection of recent Australian works for string quartet, electronics and voices to the Hawthorn Arts Centre for its latest concert, Oracle Marker.
With her viola amplified and affected with heavy delay, Biddy Connor rests a resonating tuning fork against the bridge of her instrument, creating a drone which pairs with the raw timbres of the non-amplified cello and violins. This is the meditative Herd Immunity, a composition by Connor herself and the first of several pieces in the program composed by members of The Letter String Quartet. This short opening composition establishes a sense of intimacy in this pleasantly lit room, sheltering an intrigued audience from the outside hubbub of Glenferrie Road.
A playful pizzicato gesture shared individually and collectively among the quartet marks the opening of the concert’s second piece, Evelyn Morris’ Oracle Marker. Another piece of short duration, the bubbly opening gesture stays throughout Morris’ composition with the introduction of more chaotic rhythms, gradually disrupting the unity developed at the beginning of the work. The lightness of Oracle Marker gives way to Old Wounds, the moody second movement from Wally Gunn’s Blood and the highlight of the concert. Entering in a canonic manner, Gunn’s piece layers long-sustained phrases on top of one another, diminishing the individuality of each instrument to form a thick and flowing progression of slowly evolving chords and melody. The stirring slow and wide vibrato that is passed around the quartet combines with constant long glissandi to form an incredibly moving moment in the concert.
Accompanying Old Wounds is a video that appears to show a collection of red blood cells moving fluidly from left to right and clotting into dense shapes. This video, created by the quartet’s violinist Steph O’Hara, adds another dimension to the performance and shows the intent of the ensemble to offer a deeper concert experience beyond the new music they perform.
The remainder of the program features compositions by members of the The Letter String Quartet and the versatility and individuality of the ensemble is brought to the fore as a result. Platelet by violinist Lizzy Welsh weaves a beautiful collection of textures from harmonics and bowing techniques around a fluctuating drone emanating from the cello. The Nervous Atmosphere by Zoë Barry (cello) and Jed Palmer sees O’Hara’s visuals once again feature and is also the first piece to showcase the quartet’s ability to sing whilst playing. The use of voices adds a wonderful coating to a harmonic progression in The Nervous Atmosphere before the composition plunges into an intense section of textural exploration. O’Hara’s visuals mirror this trajectory, with simple black and blue contours becoming steeper and more jagged as the dynamics increase.
If both Welsh’s and Barry’s compositions presented the textual capabilities of a string quartet, O’Hara’s Loop Exercise No. 1 for String Quartet amplified this fourfold – literally. With each instrument in the quartet now amplified, O’Hara constructs a sonic landscape where the most minute scratching of the bow or plucking of a string booms with clarity through the sound system. At times, I wish O’Hara would let the various loops she creates descend into absolute chaos, letting beautiful drones and percussive sounds continually unfold into new territories. However, the constant stopping and starting of the loops does provide alluring moments of exploration into the intricate sounds that can be pronounced by an amplified string quartet.
The intrigued and spellbound audience is treated to another composition by O’Hara to conclude the concert. Twice, a film score, has more progression than the other works featured so far and moves from static moments of pale high register notes through to rapid phrases and slowly unfolding harmonic progressions. The film featuring O’Hara’s composition, created by Anne Scott Wilson, depicts a figure who moves, contorts and climbs about in an undercover carpark. Interestingly, the film is presented upside down and with three different scenes of the one figure simultaneously shown.
It is apparent through visuals, amplification, and program that The Letter String Quartet wants to show the audience what it fully embodies as an ensemble. To see an all-Australian program presented with such innovation and individuality is something wonderful to experience and the audience certainly seemed to appreciate this. Across the seven featured compositions, these talented musicians displayed their versatility and allowed the audience to hear so much of the sonic potential available to a string quartet. Engaging and creative, The Letter String Quartet is an ensemble worth keeping an eye on.
Image supplied.
