Nothing embodies the way classical music is evolving — in positive ways — better than the Boulder Bassoon Quartet.
A professional bassoon quartet? Yes, they’re rare. But it’s just the sort of clever move musicians are making in an era when traditional orchestra jobs are less certain and entrepreneurship is the norm. These days, cellists commission their own pieces and sell them direct on the internet; chamber groups form cross-country cooperatives to make touring cheaper and percussion ensembles perform in whatever nightclub will book them.
In the case of the bassoon quartet, the four players have created a high-quality product that’s in short supply, and demand is growing.
It’s not just musicianship business-minded players are changing, but musical philanthropy as well. The quartet has a Kickstarter campaign going online that allows contributors to pitch in any amount they want toward the cause. A $1 pledge gets you a bassoon ringtone for your phone. Give $1,000 and they’ll play at your house and make dinner.
There’s a sense of humor about it all, a casual take that’s worlds away from the traditional donation model that had patrons writing checks once a year to the local symphony to use however it wanted.
The quartet is asking its fans to help cover the cost of two new pieces of music it commissioned and recorded, regional touring, plus a trip to the International Double Reed Society conference this August in Japan, where it will perform the fresh works. Anyone wanting to sample the goods can go hear the quartet play for free Sept. 13 at the Boulder Piano Gallery.
The group — Kent Hurd, Ethan Turner, Michael Christoph and Brian Jack — had little choice but to commission its own compositions. Only a sampling of music exists for bassoon quartet, and a lot of it is “goofy,” as Brian Jack puts it, mostly arrangements of work written for other instruments or reconfigurations of standards and pop songs.
Not that the group is above a pop song. It can play some Beatles if you ask, or perform at your wedding. But it wanted to step up its game with some serious contemporary classical.
It asked Japanese composer Rica Narimoto to write a piece based on a few months she spent recently in New York. The work, which was previewed in sections at Dazzle nightclub last week, is a dizzying array of short notes that cycle around each other.
Jack describes it as “not necessarily tonal,” which means it sounds like a lot of new art music, but it has structure. There’s some melody to it. The piece is also visceral and immediate; a movement inspired by rain starts as a drizzle of notes and moves into a downpour.
The other commissioned piece is by jazz veteran Paul Hanson. He spent some months in Japan working for Cirque Du Soleil, and the quartet asked him to write based on that experience. The two compositions, plus a work composed by Hurd, come together for the upcoming album “From the Opposite Shore.”
It’s a serious effort, though it is filtered through the oddity of four guys playing the bassoon simultaneously. Each player has his own style and stage presence, but the instruments do sound the same. The players trade off lead parts, some times in sections, other times by alternating each individual note in a passage of music.
It’s unlike, say, a string quartet which features different instruments, or a saxophone quartet, which is likely to include soprano, alto, tenor and baritone saxes, each with a distinct sound.
But that’s what makes it unique, and fun. Few regions can boast such an eclectic ensemble and the seriousness of this particular group implies the sky is the limit. They could use a little help, though. Wonder how many ringtones would it take to get them to Japan.
Ray Mark Rinaldi: 303-954-1540, rrinaldi@denverpost.com or twitter.com/rayrinaldi
BOULDER BASSOON QUARTET The innovative quartet premieres new works from its upcoming album, “From the Opposite Shore,” 7:30 p.m. Sept. 13, Boulder Piano Gallery, 3111 Walnut St., Boulder. Free. 720-891-2259 or boulderbassoons.com.
