Description
Secret of the Seven Stars
2009–11 (19’)
for strings, accordion and percussion
fue 2588
World premiere – 25 September 2011, New Music Concerts, conductor: Robert Aitken.
Joseph Macerollo, accordion, Ryan Scott, percussion
European premiere – 3 & 4 December 2011, Concerto Konstanz, conductor: Wolfgang
Mettler. Stefan Hussong, accordion, Hsin Lee, percussion
Review
“The other standout piece on this program, for me, was Hope Lee’s Secret of the Seven Stars, a new
commissioned work for small string orchestra, accordion (Joseph Macerollo) and solo percussion
(Ryan Scott). This ambitious work had a persistently high centre of gravity – no surprise, perhaps,
given the title. It sifted its opening tutti chords till only the highest notes remained, testing them as a
position of repose and also of sustained tension. It was as if Lee were measuring the melodic value of
the bright upper tones we hear but don’t perceive in every instrumental note, while giving this analytic
process an emotional urgency. Lee’s distinctive scoring was beautifully transparent, even when thick
with independent parts. This clarity, with the silvery upper tones that dominated the piece, gave the
music a magical glow from start to finish. The final sound was a gleaming accord with percussion that
took a long time to fade away completely. I would have been game to hear the piece again immediately,
especially with the fine attention paid by conductor Robert Aitken and the 15 members of his
ensemble.”
Robert Everett-Green / The Globe and Mail, 2011
“Hope Lee’s spiritually inspired, highly gestural style is featured in ‘Secret of the Seven Stars’. Here, the accordion’s extended resources are on display: pitch bending, bellows shaking and other titillating accordion exotica. The work trace the emergence of entire soundworlds from a single, sustained pitch — a process the composer repeats in a consistently fascinating variety of ways.”
Nic Gotham in “The Whole Note” Dezember 2012
