Rebecca Bruton – a roof or mirror, blossom, madder, cracks; Jason Doell - together
Quatuor Bozzini; junctQin keyboard collective
Collection Quatuor Bozzini CQB 2433-2 (collectionqb.bandcamp.com/album/rebecca-bruton-jason-doell-a-root-or-mirror-blossom-madder-cracks-together)
Listen
The Faerie Ribbon Part One
The Faerie Ribbon Part Two
to carry dust & breaks through the body
Read the Review
Montreal’s internationally renowned contemporary string quartet Quatuor Bozzini is known for championing composers. On this album of two new works, they join forces with Toronto’s junctQín keyboard collective, a trio of expert advocates of the rare art of six-hand piano playing.
Toronto composer Jason Doell in his performance notes reflects on his work together in poetic terms. It’s “a work born of strange conversation caught in webs that cling to beliefs still continuously being spun….” Early in together a mysterious ppp drone appears. Unlike most drones however, it continuously and very slowly, drifts down in pitch by a disciplined half-tone. While the string quartet skilfully tunes to the shifting drone, the piano cannot. For much of the work’s 20 minutes therefore Doell creates the perception of a transient out-of-tune-ness in the slowly flowing texture as the two sonic components drift apart. The consequent tension is finally relieved by a complex tonal quasi-resolution at the work’s close.
Alberta composer Rebecca Bruton’s eight-part The Faerie Ribbon consists of four initial movements each with its own magical subtitle, each mirrored by its own alter-version. The string quartet textures are punctuated by deep sustained piano chords, contrasted in two sections by voices singing consonant harmonies. What to make of the title? Faeries in folklore are anthropomorphic liminal creatures associated with nature and magic. In some myths they haunt specific locations and dangerously lead travelers astray. Could Bruton - and Doell - be evoking the power of music to catch us unaware, acting as a transformative agent of the musical medium and listeners alike?
