On Dissonance and Discovery
"Dissonance / (if you are interested) / leads to discovery.”
— William Carlos Williams
Dear friends,
As we near the holidays and a barrage of familiar tunes finds its way into our daily soundtrack, my nostalgia and excitement for the season bumps up against the anticipation and anxiety that often accompany the end-of-year bustle: deadlines, back-to-back concerts, exams, gift-buying. All of this at a time when the natural world is winding down, the light is getting shorter, the leaves have fallen; as if we existed in a parallel world, we barrel toward a hard stop and likely some form of exhaustion.
It’s not the familiar tunes that manage to slow me down in this season. It’s the tunes I don’t expect, the stories I haven’t heard, and the wise backdrop of a forest of trees that know enough to save up for the next cycle of growth. These things are dissonant with the typical hum and hustle of the season; they make me look up and consider the alternative.
Dissonance is not a fixed idea.
It is fully defined by context, by what has been normalized, and what happens to be co-existing in a given moment, in a given place. Two things pushing against each other until one gives way to the other. And whether it is a rule or habit or assumption that governs the situation, there is usually a way we expect it to resolve. But what if it resolved unexpectedly?
The urge to push against norms is what first inspired me to form Lorelei Ensemble, and what continues to propel us to create music today. The historical limitations placed on female musicians and treble vocal ensembles are now giving way to music that is thrilling, surprising, and relevant in this moment. As we plan for another year filled with music that transforms audiences, performers, and musical norms, your year-end gift helps ensure this kind of musical discovery can continue.
In music, we expect dissonance to resolve to consonance. But even the definition of consonance changes and varies over time and across borders. The sweet thirds that we have come to know as the building blocks of Western tonal music were once considered dissonant. Thinking across cultural boundaries, our perception of dissonance is further skewed: the quarter-tones that are so difficult for many musicians to lean into with confidence are common and fully incorporated into Middle-Eastern music.
While some may find dissonance uncomfortable, to me, it is a patient yet powerful tool carving out new space in my ear and in my mind. It’s disruptive, and it keeps me interested. In his modern epic, Paterson (1945-1948), William Carlos Williams sought to make a new poetry: “It called for a poetry such as I did not know, it was my duty to discover or make such a context,” one that distanced itself from the language of European models. In it, he posits that it is “dissonance” that “leads to discovery,” not the consonance of the familiar and the comfortable. But only “if you are interested”—and if you are reading this letter, I’m guessing you are.
It is my intention to couch at least some portion of every Lorelei Ensemble project in dissonance, and therefore discovery; to present a music/perspective/aesthetic none of us know yet. It is this quality in our work that makes Lorelei a necessary part of the musical ecosystem. This year alone, we have premiered 13 new works—by composers at the top of the field and by student composers just beginning. We have brought this music to more than 12,000 audience members. After the premiere of BREATHE earlier this year, one audience member said, “I was literally on the edge of my seat. I was so engaged—I didn’t want to miss a thing.”
Your gift to Lorelei helps us invite more people to discover, to become more interested in the dissonance of pushing up against norms in pursuit of something we don’t yet know: perhaps a new kind of consonance and a new way of listening.
Will you join us in this spirit of curiosity and growth by making a gift to Lorelei Ensemble before the end of the year? Your generosity fuels our ability to commission new music that challenges and delights audiences, supports our incredible people on stage and behind the scenes, and ensures that this work can continue long into the future.
With gratitude,
Beth Willer
Artistic Director