La Lección Tres by Victor Wooten
A look into the New
NOVEMBER 29TH, 2021
New music often gets relegated to being odd, not beautiful, too academic, or nonsense. However, this isn’t true (in some cases). Yes, some composers get experimental with their works (sometimes too experimental), but this isn’t the norm. Many new, living composers are creating a composition for audiences to enjoy. Thus, we will feature a work by a current composer regularly and delve deep into the music, helping you along your listening journey into this brave new world.
The first one we’ll feature is La Lección Tres by Victor Wooten, which the Boston Symphony Orchestra recently performed; this marks the first time the BSO performed alongside an electric bass soloist in its 141-year history.
Who is Victor Wooten? In short, he is a phenomenal, virtuosic bassist who started learning music at the tender age of two. Not many musicians start this early. You’ll usually hear musicians starting at four (like Mozart did) or possibly three, but two is an awe-inspiring feat.
He has shared the stage with artists such as Stephanie Mills, War, Ramsey Lewis, Frankie Beverly and Maze, Dexter Wansel, and The Temptations and a five-time Grammy winner. Victor Wooten has many accomplishments, and we recommend you read through his entire bio. He’s more than just a great musician, but a good human being.
https://www.victorwooten.com/bio
To hear his new work La Lección Tres, we listened through BSO Now. It was performed in-person at the Symphony Hall in Boston, but fortunately, Boston Symphony now shares its performances virtually for a limited time through BSO Now, and we were able to take a listen to Victor Wooten’s new work. It’s available until December 11, 2021, and we recommend you check it out. It’s an incredible performance.
https://www.bso.org/media/livestream-october-30
To start, this won't be a review of the entire performance. We are only looking into La Lección Tres, a three-movement work for electric bass and orchestra. This is not a standard or familiar pairing, but the unique offering was too fascinating to resist. The composition is a concerto, blending the classical tradition with a rich expansion utilizing jazz/funk ideas.
Upon first listening, it was a difficult work to grasp. We listened intently, hoping to find a familiar idea, a recurring motif, or a melodic line from the electric bass that we hold onto (and not let go). However, this is discouraging. All music needs multiple listenings. What would be the fun in classical music if you heard it once and understood it immediately?
Even with the difficulty of the beginning, we did enjoy the work and were thrilled with its creativity. Still, there were times where the sayings of an old friend crept into our minds, "a good bass is meant to be felt, not heard." After hearing this work quite a few times now, we agree and disagree with this statement. Yes, the bass is usually relegated to being the lower voice, and it doesn't often come out to shine as the soloist. However, when it does make its way to the front, it has a unique color and richness that one should revel in since it doesn't happen often.
The work begins with a slight tremor from the gong, setting up a resonance that allows the other instruments to float on top. The opening of the first movement is unclear, unsettled, and hesitant. It feels like the orchestra and soloist are learning how to play together, improvising to find a solution for this odd pairing. However, once the oboist comes in with a winding melody, the first thematic section begins. The electric bass then follows, playing the melody again, with the flute, piccolo, violin, and oboe providing support to give more expression to the melody.
Afterward, the character changes to a Latin dance with an irregular rhythm. This second section has the quality of an odd dance with its asymmetrical motion, creating a great contrast to the more lyrical theme. The first theme returns after the brief dance interruption, but this time the electric bass plucks the melody vs. playing bowed, as it originally played. To ensure we don't forget, the piece wraps up with a return to the uncertainty that initially narrowly held the orchestra together.
The ending of the first movement is abrupt. Still, it gives the sense that what was found in its beautiful lyrical melody and contrasting Latin dance rhythmic section came together for a brief moment as the orchestra and electric bass riffed and played together.
It gives us the picture of magic being found in a studio, with musicians improvising to find that new hit song.
Next, the second movement opens with a meditative, hypnotic figuration from the bass. It's more akin to an intro than a first theme, almost as continuing the theme of improvising/playing to find an idea which we first were introduced to in the first movement. The figuration is interrupted by an almost obnoxious tuba playing loud and asymmetrically to the electric bass. As it begins to climax in its unsettled creation, the music settles with the strings, calmly persuading the rest of the orchestra to mellow.
The harp later comes in with the figuration as an accompaniment to what will be the first thematic section. The horns grow, on top of the harp, with a motif, an idea that will later develop and be frequently heard throughout the movement. The electric bass returns with an improvisatory interlude before the violins come in with the actual theme of the section, a more refined version of the motif the horns originally played. As the violin plays this first theme, the electric bass takes a back seat as an accompaniment or counter theme.
This first section reaches a climax, with growing, more dissonant, tension, and thicker texture, leading to a transition. In this interlude, the orchestra plays lightly, with light orchestration, as the electric bass grooves and plays a semi-improvisatory role. The soloist is given the spotlight to showcase their talent (for about a full minute) before the orchestra starts to pick up again to move on to a new thematic section with a distinct character from the first.
In the second theme section, the orchestra transitions into a major key; this creates a television show-like character as if it was the theme of a 70s comic detective series. Wooten creatively utilizes the central motif in a new way, giving a cohesive glue to the entire work.
The percussions then leads the move into a new interlude section that allows the electric bass to play again in a semi-improvisatory role. The electric bass mimics the percussion, playing more rhythmically and creating more beating sounds. These interludes allow the electric bass to play in an improvise-like fashion, blending the classical symphonic tradition and jazz genres.
Before returning back to a major key, we are again treated to the second movement's hypnotic beginning figuration played by the electric bass, which transitions to a groovy combination of the electric bass playing over a playful conga drum. The orchestra also begins to join in the fun with the flute leading the way, in true Will Ferrell jazz flute fashion (not exactly like that, but it was hard not to picture).
As the groove section begins to settle down, the lower basses start to play the central motif as it was initially heard in the horns long ago in the beginning. This motif never left. It was always utilized and manipulated in different ways, keeping the work connected throughout. The return of the original motif ushers in for the electric bass to groove above a clapping orchestra as it returns to the original theme (in a more hip fashion). The violins eventually join in with the theme as well. It never reaches the same level as we first heard, but it creates an entertaining reminder as the work transitions into its climax.
The movement reaches its peak as it returns to its central key theme that we were introduced briefly, with the central motif in a fanfare being called out by the upper brass and winds. The second movement then ends with the hypnotic figuration that we were introduced to in the beginning and a true traditional cadenza by the electric bass.
Composed longer than the first movement, the second movement emulates the first in its idea of magic happening in the studio, the intro and outro being the frame for riffing.
Instead of pausing before the final movement, a transition is played between the double bass and the star electric, almost as a joke. It's a call and response that create a fiddle-playing contest between the two.
This playful banter, conversation guides the music into the final movement. Out of all the movements, the third movement is the most traditional, as if the soloist and orchestra have finally settled out of their riffing frame into a conventional concerto movement. You'll hear two different themes, with the first one returning in the end. In the orchestra fashion, the two themes contrast greatly. The first is more militaristic, march-like with an aggressive energy, and the second is lyrical and smooth.
Final Verdict on Victor Wooten’s La Lección Tres
Wooten creatively and expertly combines the feelings and styles of multiple genres – classical tradition with jazz/funk. We enjoy how well he develops his idea and how he forms them together.
Our only negative would be the low clarity of the bass when playing along with the full orchestra. As mentioned, we had a friend with his saying, "a good bass is meant to be felt, not heard." In these dense sections, it wasn't easy to hear the bass. Whether this was intentional or not is not clear. We also were listening to the work via a live stream, so the program may have been the recording of the performance. In a live setting, this may not be an issue at all.
With the work being performed by major orchestras like the Boston Symphony orchestra, we think this work will make its way atop contemporary works with its creativity and unusual pairing of electric bass and orchestra. We highly recommend you take a listen. You may even find yourself grooving in its jazz-inspired sections.
