The Art of Music Engraving
David A. Lusterman, Publisher of Strings Magazine
January 12, 2009

Graham Pellettieri, music editor of Strings, and I recently had the pleasure of organizing a reading and recording session with the Real Vocal String Quartet (Irene Sazer and Alisa Rose, violins; Dina Maccabee, viola; and Jessica Ivry, cello), who apply their prodigious classical chops to a variety of original and arranged music, occasionally enriching their performances by singing and playing at the same time, a practice I find much easier with a guitar in hand than a cello. Not so these four, who break no sweat and sing remarkably well.

The members of RVSQ are helping us to launch a new sheet-music series called Strings Charts (learn more at www.allthingsstrings.com/books). At our January 7 session, we focused on proofreading three editions that were about to go off to the printing plant. My colleague Graham is an uncommonly thoughtful and disciplined music engraver (if I may use that archaic term in this digital era), and he and the quartet members spent considerable time discussing the nuances of printed part-marking. When and whether to include bowings and fingerings? (Sometimes, especially in editions for younger players.) Should the terms "melody" and "harmony" be used to alert ensemble members as to the relative importance of phrases? (Often a good idea, but the phrase "melody octave" is overkill and perhaps misleading.) Will musicians understand the expressive marking "disaffectedly" (Probably, especially in the string arrangement of a somewhat disaffected rock ballad.) And then there's the killer query of the day: How do players interpret notes over which both a dash and a dot appear? (Very differently, depending on the player.)

So if you've ever stared at the music on your stand and wondered what the editor could possibly have been thinking when he/she topped that series of E-flat quarter notes with the mysterious dash-dot articulation, or asked you to play a passage "disaffectedly," rest assured that the editor was indeed thinking . . . and that, in fact, every piece of well-notated music you ever encounter (or write yourself) involves a seemingly endless series of considerations, hesitations, and decisions. A "bad edition" is merely one that has been prepared either thoughtlessly or in needless haste.

And you thought performing was a complicated business!

During the past few decades, ensembles as diverse as the Turtle Island String Quartet, Black Swan Quartet, Uptown String Quartet, and Quartet San Francisco have greatly modifi ed our notions of the string quartet, bending and mixing genres, reinvigorating improvisation, undertaking unconventional collaborations, and re-imagining traditional and vernacular tunes in purely instrumental concert settings.

Now comes the Real Vocal String Quartet (violinists and vocalists Irene Sazer and Alisa Rose, violist and vocalist Dina Maccabee, and cellist and vocalist Jessica Ivry), whose eponymous debut recording on Flower Note Records (rvsq.com) demonstrates the ultimate circling back to musical roots by fusing uncommonly polished string-quartet playing with haunting, expressive singing by the quartet members.

The range of material is wide, from original compositions and improvisations by the quartet members to settings of New York pop, Brazilian choro, Kenyan traditional lyre, and Appalachian fiddling. But this is neither post-modern gumbo nor high-art reworking— the spirit animating this CD, to my mind, is that of folk legend Pete Seeger. These musicians sound as if they have openly and conscientiously explored musical cultures outside their own, enthusiastically embraced these influences, and are expressing their pleasure without overthinking such matters as authenticity and social context.

The playing and singing is gorgeous, the flow of the recording is like a river, and even when the mood is dark, they’re absorbed and having fun. And they want you to have fun, too. —David A. Lusterman