Hearing Your Imagination Suppose you have an idea for a string quartet piece about the beach. You want the players to make their instruments sound like waves, like songbirds, like seagulls. You can hear all these sounds clearly in your imagination, and you can try to score your instructions clearly. But until you hear the piece performed, there's no way to be sure what you've imagined will match up to the sounds the ensemble will make.
This is a key reason why reading sessions like the ones conducted during the JACK Quartet's fall residency at Berklee, hosted by the Professional Writing and Music Technology Division, are so crucial for student composers. In these sessions the world-class new music ensemble provided an invaluable opportunity for Berklee students to hear their score interpreted by professional musicians, and to receive practical feedback on how those musical ideas translate from the mind to the page and into the performer's hands.
An Informal Rigor It's a Tuesday morning. The renowned string ensemble arrives dressed in jeans, t-shirts, sneakers, and hooded sweatshirts. A passerby would never guess that this group has played in venues like Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center and collaborated with some of classical music's most innovative composers-among them Pulitzer Prize winners Steve Reich, John Luther Adams, and Caroline Shaw-or that this same week the group was named Ensemble of the Year by Musical America.
An engineer sets up the microphone in the center of their half-circle of seats, and the quartet improvises a wonderfully discordant crescendo of a soundcheck, stopping in unison a few seconds later. Some students may go on to use today's recordings for graduate school applications or for festival submissions, in addition to their use in future review and refinement of their compositions.
Want a Career Writing Music?
Explore career paths for aspiring composers. Throughout this reading session, the quartet and the composers work toward the clearest possible communication of sometimes lofty musical ideas. For a particularly wavering and harmonically complex passage in one piece, the players advise the composer to write the intriguing direction, sul tasto [played with the bow over the fingerboard], veiled and unstable. Once they've agreed upon new directions, the musicians can edit the score on their tablets in real time.
In other cases their advice aims to make a piece as easy as possible for the performer to read. For example, they impress upon each composer in the room the importance of beaming rests-a way of writing pauses that allows the performer to see more immediately how the rest fits rhythmically into its measure.
Playing the Ocean With nearly every piece the quartet plays, something magical occurs during the conversation after the initial read-through. Another student composer's piece, called Beach Scenes, conjures a coastal soundscape using an array of unconventional playing techniques. Through some sections, the players drag their bows across muted strings to imitate the hush and hiss of waves. Other passages recall the call-and-response of birdsong. But some of the notations strike the musicians as a bit vague.
Be more specific about the distortions of sound, the quartet's cellist, Jay Campbell, advises after they've played through the piece. He returns to the score, to a particular phrase that they've come to refer to as the seagull effect, and he plays through several possible variations on the technique the moment calls for. Then comes the thrilling moment when he finds the exact sound, and everybody in the room hears the seagulls calling after one another. That's it! the student composer says.
Finally, through some technical back-and-forth, they manage to solve the other half of the compositional riddle: how to turn this very precise effect into musical notation. And now that the moment is set on the page, it's ready to come alive again in another player's hands.
Watch the JACK Quartet's performance in the David Friend Recital Hall, featuring the works of several student composers whose pieces were played in reading sessions earlier that week.
Related categories:
News
Related Reading
He Hears a Rhapsody Berklee Today
Spring
2018
Volume
29
Number
3
Charting Her Own Course Berklee Today
Summer
2018
Volume
30
Number
1
Remembering a Guitar Giant Berklee Today
Fall
2018
Volume
30
Number
2
More from Berklee Now
Most Popular
Erika Zade Brings Attitude to The Voice The Cuban-American student caught judge Kelly Clarksons attention with her powerful vocals.
Latest
The Seagull Effect: Finding New Sounds with the JACK Quartet The acclaimed string ensemble performed student compositions and offered vital feedback during their Berklee residency this fall.
Six Berklee Alumni Recognized at Latin Grammy Awards Six Berklee alumni took home Latin Grammy Awards across three categories at the November 15 ceremony.
Poppy.jpg
Curtis's Prime Slices: Poppy, Y La Bamba Read about and hear new releases recommended by BIRN staff member Curtis Heimburger during the week of November 11.
The BIRN
Read All
Subscribe The latest sounds, stories, and ideas, sent to your inbox weekly.
Berklee Blogs
Facebook
Twitter
YouTube
Instagram
Snapchat
Soundcloud
Spotify
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
01/06/2026
January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026
Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...
13/05/2026
New Adobe Premiere Color Grading Mode Accelerated on NVIDIA GPUs
Joel Pennington May 13, 2026
0 Comments
New NVIDIA RTX-accelerated features streamlin...
13/05/2026
Grass Valley announced that dB Broadcast has delivered new IP-based outside broadcast (OB) trucks for Cloudbass, featuring Grass Valley LDX 100 Series cameras a...
13/05/2026
Ikegami will exhibit the latest additions to its wide range of broadcast production cameras, control units, viewfinders and monitors on stand 5D3-1 at Broadcast...
13/05/2026
FISE, working with the founding members of the XR Sports Alliance (XRSA), Accedo, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. and HBS, have collaborated to develop an immersive...
13/05/2026
Canon Unveils New EOS R6 V Full-Frame EOS Camera and RF20-50mm F4 L IS USM PZ Bu...
13/05/2026
Boston Conservatory at Berklee Honors Beth Morrison and Moses Pendleton at Comme...
13/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
13/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
13/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
13/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
13/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
13/05/2026
Creative software developer Foundry today announced the latest developments on Nuke Stage. A purpose-built application for end-to-end virtual production and in-...
13/05/2026
A definitive portrait of one of Ireland's most influential musicians
New TV documentary airs Monday 18 May on RT One and RT Player at 9.35pm
Watch the...
13/05/2026
Agentic AI is changing the way users get work done. Following the success of OpenClaw, the community is embracing new open source agentic frameworks. The latest...
13/05/2026
Reinforcement-learning agents - AI systems that learn by trial and error - can c...
12/05/2026
Beyond the Hype: A Strategic Post-Hoc Analysis of NAB 2026 If NAB Show 2026 had an underlying theme, it was a quiet, industry-wide pivot from the high-energy sp...
12/05/2026
Guntermann and Drunck (G&D), a Panoptec Technologies Group company, and CT Square, led by Chandresh Shah, have announced a joint venture to distribute G&D and V...
12/05/2026
With 30 days until the start of the FIFA World Cup 2026, Telemundo, the exclusive Spanish-language home of the tournament in the United States, has announced th...
12/05/2026
The NHL has announced the return of Stanley Pup for its third consecutive year, a 90-minute special featuring adoptable rescue dogs competing on a miniature rin...
12/05/2026
NBCUniversal presented its 2026 Upfront to advertisers at Radio City Music Hall, detailing upcoming programming across NBC, Peacock, Bravo, and Versant properti...
12/05/2026
FOX Sports has announced funding for the Fandom and Social Connection Initiative at Harvard Kennedy School's Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics, and Publ...
12/05/2026
TNDV and Live Media, both divisions of Live Media Group, supported live broadcast coverage around NCAA Final Four weekend in Indianapolis, including the March M...
12/05/2026
The European Football Alliance (EFA) has announced a content distribution agreement with Fubo Sports Network, the free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) channel ...
12/05/2026
For the first time, Spanish-speaking fans in the U.S. will have two separate tel...
12/05/2026
CP Communications led a comprehensive spectrum management initiative on behalf of Churchill Downs during Kentucky Derby week, coordinating RF assets across the ...
12/05/2026
LiveU has announced a strategic partnership with DRONERESPONDERS, a 501(c)3 non-...
12/05/2026
Open Broadcast Systems has announced that BMC TV, a specialist in IP transport of broadcast content, has selected the Open Broadcast Systems 5G Flyaway solution...
12/05/2026
NEP Europe, part of NEP Group, has announced it will deliver broadcast solutions...
12/05/2026
Grass Valley has announced continued collaboration with Ravensbourne University ...
12/05/2026
Stats Perform has announced the launch of Opta Pulse, an AI-assisted video creation and distribution platform for leagues, rights holders, and broadcasters. The...
12/05/2026
FOX Sports has announced a collaboration with Sesame Workshop to integrate Sesame Street characters into FOX Sports' FIFA World Cup 2026 programming. Conten...
12/05/2026
To date, NHL Productions has produced 19 broadcasts with commentary in American Sign Language
NHL in ASL (American Sign Language) may be just one show, but the...
12/05/2026
Google's Brian Albert: creators, athletes, highlights, nostalgia, second-scr...
12/05/2026
A still from Past Lives by Celine Song, an official selection of the Premieres program at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. (Courtesy of Sundance Institute | p...
12/05/2026
Spotify is where fans and artists come together, turning discovery into somethin...
12/05/2026
Features patented Marco-MMC clocking technology
Black Lion Audio's latest release combines the company's expertise in clocking with their renowned p...
12/05/2026
New Track Panel, sequencer upgrades & more
Following their recent public beta release, Reason Studios have announced the full release of Reason 14. With the...
12/05/2026
One month to go! SBS reveals expansive FIFA World Cup 2026 lineup beyond the pi...
12/05/2026
Rohde & Schwarz presents its advanced solutions for power electronics testing at...
12/05/2026
aconnic AG (ISIN: DE000A0LBKW6), Munich, has developed a modified fund raising p...
12/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/05/2026
Tyrell Corporation, specialists in high-end live sports and entertainment broadcasts, was tasked with delivering compelling broadcast coverage of premier equest...
12/05/2026
Registration is now open for IBC2026 as the global media, entertainment and technology community prepares to converge on the RAI Amsterdam from 11 14 September ...
12/05/2026
Ross Video, a global leader in live video production technology, will present its latest innovations and integrated production workflows at BroadcastAsia 2026, ...
12/05/2026
500 selected leaders from around the world across start-ups, corporates, and venture capital. Over 50bn in assets under management among attending investors, a...
Hearing Your Imagination Suppose you have an idea for a string quartet piece about the beach. You want the players to make their instruments sound like waves, like songbirds, like seagulls. You can hear all these sounds clearly in your imagination, and you can try to score your instructions clearly. But until you hear the piece performed, there's no way to be sure what you've imagined will match up to the sounds the ensemble will make.
