Single Review for Carolyn Barela
‘Celestial Lullaby (Organic)’,
Composer and Pianist: Carolyn Barela
Strings: String Fever Studio
Review by Marianne Lihannah
Carolyn Barela is a Los Angeles based multi-media composer, songwriter, and arranger. She works with multiple genres but favours neo-classical music, where she is known for orchestrating strong and compelling melodies and weaving modern counterpoint to immerse listeners in a lush sonic landscape.
‘Celestial Lullaby (Organic)’ is a sublime instrumental piece for piano, strings, and synth. It is composed in the neoclassical genre; however, the added ambient synth pad means that it simultaneously has stepped over the boundary into the Contemporary genre.
The piece starts with a C drone, which is sounding through the whole piece. I can vividly imagine the infinity of the starry sky and celestial sphere depicted in this drone. Using a continuous drone also links this piece to early music, where the drone was considered the most sacred part, representing the voice of God. Then the piano enters with a simple beautiful melody over chords, soon followed by a movable drone on low bass strings. The effect of these drones with the piano melody and chords is deeply moving in its simplicity.
Then the violin enters with a much faster beautiful flowery minor melody. It almost sings over the repeat of the melody in the piano. Strings and piano are all moving in completely different tempi almost like a sacred dance of celestial bodies.
Next the same violin melody is heard on a cello, in a quartet with violin, piano and C drone. A gorgeous interweaving of parts over the lovely piano chords is created. The conversation between the cello and the violin starts off as being partly in canonic form, however the violin soon provides new melodic counterpoint. Thereafter they are both heard playing new melodies, which sometimes match rhythm-wise, and sometimes pitch-wise move gracefully in contrary motion. The instruments take off in their final swings and sways all playing together. This section is stunning - I feel completely enchanted by the lullaby’s magic.
After a final re-visit of the initial violin melody, the piece opens up for something completely new. Namely solo piano playing over the C drone. The piano introduces a faster melody with lots of beat divisions making it sound very light-filled and fluid. The violin enters this exquisite rippling dance with the piano for a last gorgeous, sweet heartfelt passage before the piece finishes with a ritardando.
This delightful lullaby reminds me that minor doesn’t necessarily always need to be interpreted as sad. Some countries name minor for moll = meaning soft and major for dur = meaning hard. Nothing like the softness of minor which can stir our heart strings, which this piece certainly has done to me, immensely, with its stellar poetic and tender nocturnal mood.
Bravo Carolyn, what a wonderful lullaby!
‘Celestial Lullaby (Organic)’,
Composer and Pianist: Carolyn Barela
Strings: String Fever Studio
Review by Marianne Lihannah
Carolyn Barela is a Los Angeles based multi-media composer, songwriter, and arranger. She works with multiple genres but favours neo-classical music, where she is known for orchestrating strong and compelling melodies and weaving modern counterpoint to immerse listeners in a lush sonic landscape.
‘Celestial Lullaby (Organic)’ is a sublime instrumental piece for piano, strings, and synth. It is composed in the neoclassical genre; however, the added ambient synth pad means that it simultaneously has stepped over the boundary into the Contemporary genre.
The piece starts with a C drone, which is sounding through the whole piece. I can vividly imagine the infinity of the starry sky and celestial sphere depicted in this drone. Using a continuous drone also links this piece to early music, where the drone was considered the most sacred part, representing the voice of God. Then the piano enters with a simple beautiful melody over chords, soon followed by a movable drone on low bass strings. The effect of these drones with the piano melody and chords is deeply moving in its simplicity.
Then the violin enters with a much faster beautiful flowery minor melody. It almost sings over the repeat of the melody in the piano. Strings and piano are all moving in completely different tempi almost like a sacred dance of celestial bodies.
Next the same violin melody is heard on a cello, in a quartet with violin, piano and C drone. A gorgeous interweaving of parts over the lovely piano chords is created. The conversation between the cello and the violin starts off as being partly in canonic form, however the violin soon provides new melodic counterpoint. Thereafter they are both heard playing new melodies, which sometimes match rhythm-wise, and sometimes pitch-wise move gracefully in contrary motion. The instruments take off in their final swings and sways all playing together. This section is stunning - I feel completely enchanted by the lullaby’s magic.
After a final re-visit of the initial violin melody, the piece opens up for something completely new. Namely solo piano playing over the C drone. The piano introduces a faster melody with lots of beat divisions making it sound very light-filled and fluid. The violin enters this exquisite rippling dance with the piano for a last gorgeous, sweet heartfelt passage before the piece finishes with a ritardando.
This delightful lullaby reminds me that minor doesn’t necessarily always need to be interpreted as sad. Some countries name minor for moll = meaning soft and major for dur = meaning hard. Nothing like the softness of minor which can stir our heart strings, which this piece certainly has done to me, immensely, with its stellar poetic and tender nocturnal mood.
Bravo Carolyn, what a wonderful lullaby!