THURSDAY, JUNE 27, 2019 // 3
SCRATCHPAD
Pyxis Quartet delivers beauty in chaotic darkness
There was a collective
anticipation in the auditorium
before the lights were com-
pletely extinguished and the
only glints came from the
mostly covered exit signs.
Audience members were
instructed to clap once if they
needed to leave and an usher
would come fi nd them.
It was a bit disorientating
when the lights went com-
pletely down. It took about a
full minute or two to let your
eyes adjust. Even then, it was
diffi cult to make out a clear
outline of who was sitting
next to you.
By JONATHAN WILLIAMS
COAST WEEKEND EDITOR
H
earing a piece of
music played in total
darkness is a truly
singular experience.
From sounds like a car
engine revving to a sub-
way car screeching, sirens, a
machine and music similar to
“Psycho,” the thrilling, trans-
fi xing performance of George
Frederich Haas’ String Quar-
tet No. 3 performed by the
Pyxis String Quartet at the
Liberty Theatre on June 21
was exceptional.
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The quartet, comprised
of violinists Ron Blessinger,
Gregory Ewer, violist Charles
Noble and cellist Marilyn
de Oliveira, made a rectan-
gle with each of them tak-
ing a corner at the edge of
the block of seats closest to
the stage, creating a different
sound experience depending
on where you were seated.
What enfolded was an
18-episode piece with a
beginning, end and 16 epi-
sodes in the middle. The
quartet explained that the
piece has “invitations and
responses” which can be
COAST WEEKEND EDITOR
JONATHAN WILLIAMS
CALENDAR COORDINATOR
BREE ELLIOTT
took twists and turns, too.
While it could be frustrat-
ing at times to listen to the
creeks and screeches, the dif-
fi culty of pressing lightly on
the fi ngerboard or pressing
extremely hard on the strings
demonstrated the quartet’s
musicianship.
Playing in the dark is also
hard for the musicians: they
can’t see each other, their
music or the audience. It
requires them to have “big
ears” and listen extremely
hard to each other.
According to Blessinger,
the piece can last as long as
one hour and 20 minutes or as
short as 20 minutes. The quar-
tet has clocked in at just over
one hour each time they’ve
played it, he said.
By about 45 minutes into
the piece, you could hear
someone who had dosed off
softly snoring.
But that was quickly
changed by an intense sense
of taking fl ight and ascend-
ing higher through a sustained
climb produced by the players
sawing away until you could
feel the machine they created
cooling down and turning off
until the sound petered out to
nothing.
As experimental as the
piece is, Blessinger said the
quartet still has to rise above
the notes to achieve liftoff.
And they certainly did.
This powerful, monumen-
tal performance was a truly
remarkable experience and
one that Astorians are lucky to
have a theater willing to take
a risk to program. CW
CONTRIBUTORS
RYAN HUME
KATHERINE LACAZE
BARBARA LLOYD McMICHAEL
PATRICK WEBB
THE ARTS
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accepted or not. Each par-
ticular episode has specifi c
requirements.
The piece, composed in
2001, has a Catholic sub-
text and is set the night before
Easter and focuses on the dis-
location from God.
There were pizzicatos,
abrupt squeaks, bouncing on
the fi ngerboard, dragging,
slides, screeches, sawing and
bouncing.
The piece holds a spec-
trum of extremes: descents
and ascents, harmonics,
echoey trills, tremolos, key
changes, arpeggios, occa-
sional unisons and vibrato
and louder moments made
bolder by the almost inaudible
pianissimos.
You could feel the mood in
the room change as the piece
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