Santa Barbara Independent / Mar 2026
Meanwhile, the night before, Camerata Pacifica rolled out the red carpet for one of its occasional commissioned premieres, David Bruce's hypnotizing Gregorian chantchanneling wind quintet Natural Light, at Hahn Hall. Bruces piece was easily one of the most memorable CamPac premieres in memory.
Bruce, whose prior work under the CamPac commissioning umbrella includes the retro-raucous fun Steampunk in 2016 (see/hear here), has created something magical with Natural Light. He has explained that two influences were the modal palette of Gregorian chant and the influence of shifting light through stained glass windows (a facsimile of which was projected onto a sheet behind the musicians).
Shifting arrays of timbre and harmonic stacking becomes a prominent theme in the piece, in which clarinet (Jose Franch Ballester) may be the semi-soloist of the wind group here, but the conjoined chordal motion of all aboard is even more a salient expressive feature. These chords of refracted light, rendered in sonic terms, lure us into a fresh musical vision. It is a chamber music gem, accessible on impact and yet lined with inventive intentions, in sound and conceptual reach.
Bruce, whose prior work under the CamPac commissioning umbrella includes the retro-raucous fun Steampunk in 2016 (see/hear here), has created something magical with Natural Light. He has explained that two influences were the modal palette of Gregorian chant and the influence of shifting light through stained glass windows (a facsimile of which was projected onto a sheet behind the musicians).
Shifting arrays of timbre and harmonic stacking becomes a prominent theme in the piece, in which clarinet (Jose Franch Ballester) may be the semi-soloist of the wind group here, but the conjoined chordal motion of all aboard is even more a salient expressive feature. These chords of refracted light, rendered in sonic terms, lure us into a fresh musical vision. It is a chamber music gem, accessible on impact and yet lined with inventive intentions, in sound and conceptual reach.
