Caroline Shaw, in gold sweater, coaching the Giannini String Quartet
Between performances of Lo, her new quasi-violin concerto, Caroline Shaw paid a visit to our Composition Department yesterday. Her visit came in two chunks: first coaching a graduate string quartet in her 2011 composition Entr’acte, then speaking with the composition students about her music and theirs.
If you haven’t heard any of Caroline’s music, type her name into your favorite search box and get listening. It’s a treat: full of joyous sound in service of penetrating thought.
Entr’acte takes the minuet of Haydn’s Op. 77, No. 2 string quartet as a launch pad for a delicate excursion, juxtaposing 18th-century harmony and phrasing with 21st– century notions of pacing and instrumental color. Of particular note is what I think of as the introverted side of Shaw, passages of such spare, tiny sound as to be barely audible from a short distance. Indeed, the work as a whole occupies a world of restraint: no fist-pounding or heart-wrenching necessary, just an affecting appreciation for nuance and tone.
When speaking about her music, Caroline similarly communicated a great deal by saying very little: she began the seminar by playing the Allemande from her widely loved Partita, after which she opened the floor to questions. Her responses to the questions were usually very brief, followed by turnabout: she would ask the student the same or similar question. Their responses were often met with generous, even enthusiastic, acknowledgement. Again, artist and art found a place of convergence: grace, focused attention, intimacy.
Lo was jointly commissioned by the North Carolina Symphony and Cincinnati Symphony, with Caroline as the soloist. Rumor has it we may be hearing much more of it in the future.