Hutchins Consort accents musical uniqueness

Joe McNalley’s contrabass probably doesn’t look like any other double bass you’ve ever seen. For one thing, it’s taller, standing a full seven feet, including the end pin. For another, it’s lighter and more gracefully proportioned.

Tell McNalley his instrument looks like a giant violin and he grins, then says: “It is a giant violin.”

He’s not kidding. McNalley’s Contrabass Violin — one of only seven in existence - is the largest and lowest-pitched member of The Hutchins Consort, the Encinitas-based string octet that consists of instruments made by the legendary  Carleen Hutchins, who died in August at her New Hampshire home, at age 98. (Find out more about Hutchins here.)

While Hutchins made approximately 450 instruments during her lifetime, some of which are in museums, The Hutchins Consort - now in its 10^th season — is the only ensemble of its kind in the world.

“It’s a great responsibility,” says McNalley, the organization’s founder, artistic director and Contrabass Violinist, who adds that other such groups didn’t last more than a couple of years. “Right now we’re it. We’re carrying the flag.”

They’re also carrying the instruments and bows. The Consort’s next program is “Sax & Violins,” which features saxophone virtuoso John Gross and is slated for November 14 at La Jolla’s Neurosciences Institute and November 15 at Newport Beach’s St. Mark Presbyterian Church.

The 2009-10 series continues with “A Salute to Vienna” (January 16-17, with soprano Camila Arnold and composer/host Gerhard Track); “Celebration of Strings” (February 20-21, with John Schneiderman on guitar, lute and banjo), and “Microtonality in the Violin Band Tradition” (April 10-11, with works by local composers Alan Lechusza and Barry Wood plus new arrangements of historic works).

The Consort’s schedule includes assorted other performances as well as free family concerts at the Encinitas Public Library. The ensemble can also be heard on a CD, “Concertos from the Time of Holberg,” which was released in 2006. And having previously toured the U.S. and Italy, it will concertize in Sonora, Mexico in January, care of the U.S. Consulate.

The season’s projected budget is $195,000. Of that, approximately 80% comes from donations and the rest from ticket sales.

“The biggest challenge for this ensemble is creating awareness,” says Drew Cady, the arts management veteran who serves as managing director. “When someone does experience a live performance by this group, they tend to be excited and interested and engaged. They figure out that there’s a fun factor.”

Much of the enjoyment comes from seeing and hearing the beautifully crafted instruments in action.

Beth Folsom has played music by composers ranging from Bach to Piazzolla on the Soprano Violin, which is a little bigger than a half-size violin and is tuned a full octave higher. While she loves the sound of the Consort (”the fullness is so amazing - I get goose bumps thinking about it”), she admits that the fingering on her small violin can be challenging.

“You have to sort of stick your fingers together and slide them underneath each other,” she says.

“I have just the opposite problem - I need bigger hands because the reach is bigger,” comments McNalley, who has mastered the Contrabass Violin. “I’ve gotten used to it. But at first, it reminded me of being 11 years old again and playing the bass for the first time.”

Listed from largest and lowest-pitched to smallest and highest, the Consort’s instruments consist of the Contrabass Violin, Bass Violin, Baritone Violin (which has the same range as a cello), Tenor Violin, Alto Violin, Mezzo Violin (which takes the place of a traditional violin), Soprano Violin and Treble Violin.

The eight “scaled” instruments, built between 1979 and 1991, match each other acoustically, unlike the strings in an orchestra.

If, for instance, you were to record a violin on a reel-to-reel recorder, then slow it down 2.5 times so that it was in the cello range, it would “sound nothing like a cello,” according to McNalley. “It would sound like the Baritone Violin in our ensemble.”

But you don’t need to be an expert on acoustics or physics to appreciate the Consort’s distinctive sound.

“The balance is really audible,” says McNalley. “People can hear the difference. You don’t realize you were missing those inner harmonics until you hear them. When the instruments are working together really well, it sounds like an organ made out of strings.”

Cady, who received early training as a cellist, found the tone quality to be something of a revelation.

“There’s a merging of sounds that I had never heard before. As a string player, it was a big wake-up to my ears,” he explains, adding that Hutchins’ achievement as an instrument maker was a “significant technological breakthrough.”

Not that many people noticed.

As plucky and pioneering as she was, Hutchins didn’t inspire a lot of interest in the 1960s, when the music world became fascinated with computerization and electronics. In the era of the Moog synthesizer, her hand-crafted instruments seemed to represent an old-school, retro way of doing things. It probably didn’t help that she was an American woman in a profession that European men had dominated for centuries.

McNalley first played one of her instruments in 1983, when Hutchins was the keynote speaker at the Acoustical Society of America’s annual meeting, held that year in San Diego. But it wasn’t until 1998 that he actually spoke to her.

“I was designing a contrabass according to her principles. But I got stuck,” he recalls. I didn’t understand one of her calculations. So I call her and she started giving me violin-making lessons over the phone.”

They quickly became friends. And Hutchins gave her blessing to McNalley’s idea of starting a musical group that would use instruments she had designed. The ensemble performed for the first time in 1999 and made its official debut in Janury of 2000. Hutchins heard it live in 2000 and 2004.

“She was in tears she was so pleased,” remembers McNalley, who also sent her tapes of performances.

The ensemble has an ever-expanding medieval-to-contemporary repertoire, with about 160 arrangements by McNalley, whose versatility extends to composing and jazz.  And because Hutchins’ educational organization, The New Violin Family Association, has merged with The Hutchins Consort, the Consort is part of the worldwide mission to educate instrument makers and inspire contemporary composers.

“We’ve come a long way from zero to where we are now,” says McNalley. “We’ve  come from an idea to a reality.”

It’s a reality that continues to resonate.

Event info

What: “Sax & Violins,” presented by The Hutchins Consort, with John Gross, saxophone

When and where: Saturday, November 14, at The Neurosciences Institute, 10640 John Jay Hopkins Drive, La Jolla; Sunday, November 15, at St. Mark Presbyterian Church, 2200 San Joaquin Hills Rd., Newport Beach

How much: General admission $25; $15 for students and seniors

Tickets/information: (760) 632-0554; www.hutchinsconsort.org

Valerie Scher is the SDNN Arts & Entertainment editor. You can reach her at valerie.scher(at)sdnn.com; follow her on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/vscher

Tags: Beth Folsom, Camila Arnold, Carleen Hutchins, Drew Cady, Encinitas, Encinitas Public Library, free concerts, Gerhard Track, Hutchins Consort, Hutchins Consort Carleen Hutchins, Joe McNalley, John Gross, Neurosciences Institute, Newport Beach event, Sax & Violins, SDNN, Sonora, U.S. Consulate

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