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J. GERBER
Symphony No. 9 for Virtual Orchestra. More than Matter. Lucid: Dream For. Son
to the Universe, Raga
Jerry
Gerber (syn);
OTTAVA
15-013 (51:52)
The remarkable thing about Jerry Gerber and his music
for “virtual orchestra” is the sheer variety he achieves. Although I have
covered some of his symphonies before (No. 10 in Fanfare 45:5 and No. 8 in
Fanfare
45:6), this one (No. 9) fascinates the most. The sheer energy and scope of the
first movement is remarkable. Gerber uses two sound libraries (Vienna
Instruments Symphonic Cube and Requiem Professional) alongside EZ Drummer (which
gets a fair amount of use) plus four others. Those passages featuring a
synthesized snare-drum put me in mind of Shostakovich; others perhaps Dukas,
still others Hollywood film scores.
The Ninth Symphony is proportioned in a traditional symphonic way, with the
outer movements the longest and two shorter ones in between. No tempo
indications are given, simply first movement, second movement and so on. Behind
all this is a sure sense of form: the end of the first movement is carefully
plotted and achieved, before the shifting colors of the second movement take
over, a slightly trippy sound kaleidoscope with a more reflective, slightly
ominous, slower section at its heart before the momentum returns, but initially
colored by that central section before it eventually attains a lightness of gait
that imagine Mendelssohn might have achieved, had he had access to sound
libraries.
A soprano and a tenor feature in the third movement (I assume electronically
generated also, but the sound is remarkably realistic). This is the slow,
beating heart of the symphony, full of dark beauty. The recording supports the
bass lines well; some might find it spot
lit, although that would be part of the process I imagine. The finale is
zany, like a fast-moving mosaic of color: a fast ride in an electronic machine,
as it were, but once more Gerber’s structural sense is spot-on, with the tension
ratcheting up nicely for the close.
The piece More than
Matter is emotionally very different: darker,
far more introspective than any part of the symphony. The piece only lasts
around four minutes but manages to cover vast territory. Underpinning it all
seems to be a fast pulsing, like a fibrillating heartbeat. That pulsing, more
foregrounded, returns in the decidedly more fragmented
Lucid:Dream For
(poem Candy Shue); and
there is a lovely moment where the poem talks of an instant of hush, at which
Gerber imitates the sound of an orchestra tuning. The piece is all too brief; I
for one would have liked more. Instead, Song
to the Universe is for piano, strings and
synthesizer and employs sinewy, chromatic thematic content. This is what
electronically-generated chamber music sounds like; and it ends up being really
quite stimulating and uplifting.
Finally, Raga,
with its references to Indian music. There is certainly a rawness of invention
here, unstoppable, that equates with the momentum of much Indian Classical
music. It works, and brilliantly. I wonder if Gerber will further explore this
inter-cultural idea in the future; it seems to be a very fertile avenue indeed.
It seems to be impossible not to like this music, whatever ideological doubts or objections one might bring to the table. And Gerber’s firmest riposte to those objections lies, of course, in his music, always expertly conceived and realized.
Colin Clarke