DIVE IN!
Jessie Montgomery (1981- ) began sketching ideas for Strum as a string quintet in 2006, published it as a string quartet in 2008, and revised it for string orchestra in 2012. It is a piece of music that captivates audiences and has recently become a staple of concert repertoire.
RESOURCES
A live performance of the quartet version, with the composer on 2nd violin!
HIGHLIGHTS
Jessie Montgomery composed Strum between 2006 and 2012 when she was just 25–31 years old.
Montgomery writes: "Within Strum I utilized texture motives, layers of rhythmic or harmonic ostinati that string together to form a bed of sound for melodies to weave in and out. The strumming pizzicato serves as a texture motive and the primary driving rhythmic underpinning of the piece. Drawing on American folk idioms and the spirit of dance and movement, the piece has a kind of narrative that begins with fleeting nostalgia and transforms into ecstatic celebration."
Strum lasts for about 7 minutes and is made up of a few short sections of music which flow into one another. There are brief solo moments for the first chair string instruments with shifting textures being spread through the larger string sections.
Nerd assignments
Do Your Own Research!
Familiarize yourself with other music by Jessie Montgomery. Check out her website here, and giddily follow the YouTube rabbit-hole of seemingly endless recordings of her works.
Actively listen to Jessie Montgomery's Banner. For extra nerdery, listen to Montgomery speak about her work and then listen to it again with a detective's ear for the embedded tunes she mentions.
Read, Consider, Discuss!
In just the past five to ten years Jessie Montgomery has become one of the most celebrated and performed newer voices among today's composers. This 2021 New York Times article highlights her meteoric rise and how it relates to the social relevance problems which persist in "classical" music. Read the article and/or consider the following excerpts, do some additional curiosity research, and start your own conversations about representation, commissioning, self expression, curation, and the stewardship responsibilities of composers, performing artists, presenters, and audience.
The history of classical music in the United States is one long identity crisis: the search for a homegrown sound, free from European influence. That anxiety has manifested itself time and again as self-sabotage, with some composers — almost always white men — exalted as pathbreakers, while truly original work coming from artists of color has been overlooked.
Part of the swiftness in her [Montgomery's] rise to prominence is the result of orchestras finally featuring composers of color — an achievement that can sometimes feel like a burden on a single artist to speak for a whole race or nation.
“I’ve been talking with my colleagues of Black descent, and we’re all feeling that sort of thing of being put on,” she [Montgomery] said. “I’ve been realizing that there’s this shared desire to just be able to create without that kind of pressure or expectation that you’re going to be the spokesperson for the race or for classical music being better or more diverse or whatever.”
“A commission that addresses the injustices on Black people, as a way for the institution to admit or confront their own compliance in the atrocities against Black people, doesn’t allow that composer to express total joy, for example,” she [Montgomery] said. “It boils down to the simple fact that Black people — any people, probably — want to own our own narrative, and not necessarily be put on to be responsible for undoing institutional crimes."
Listen Critically!
Listen to the Colorado Symphony performance of Jessie Montgomery's Strum and again via multiple different recordings if possible. Take note of what you observe and how it affects your idea of texture, pacing, and expression in the different sections of the piece. How do you think Montgomery keeps an improvisatory feeling when there is rhythmic grooving and written out structure?
Comments