Montgomery is a native New Yorker, a graduate of the Juilliard School in violin performance, and holds a master’s degree from New York University in music composition. Her publications focus on various combinations of strings, and enjoy wide performance popularity with noted ensembles throughout the country. She is a devoted supporter of educational activities, and youth musical ensembles. Her musical style is, if anything eclectic, and is obviously a reflection of the enormous variety of musical art in her native New York City. Mahler once somewhat fatuously remarked something to the effect that a symphony should contain “everything.” Well, Montgomery dips into a remarkable universe of musical traditions, and reinterprets them in her own voice—just not all in one composition, of course.
It may seem that the younger generation of composers sometimes appears to focus on composing works that are inspired by, or aim to depict specific references to our real, exterior world, and perhaps our affective reactions. So, it is refreshing to encounter a new, attractive work that celebrates the purely musical experience. Strum is a dance-like composition that expertly explores the vast and varied technical resources of stringed instruments. Originally composed for violoncello quintet in 2006, the work underwent several revisions for other string combinations, including string quartet, before settling on this version for chamber orchestra.
The fundamental premise of the work is that of a charming exercise in superimposing layers of “choppy” syncopated rhythms that propel it all along, and contrasting them with contrasting, smooth fragments of melody that occasionally “sneak in and float over them.
At the beginning some of the players are holding their instruments rather like little guitars and strumming them in guitar fashion–hence the name of the composition. This effect is basic to the “chattery” layers of pointillism, along with cascades of pizzicato, some of which allow the strongly plucked string to whack back against the wooden fingerboard.
Montgomery deftly creates a constantly evolving series of rhythmic episodes, based upon a series of unifying motives. And it’s maddeningly difficult for the listener to determine the time signature, as well. Is it in three or four, or something else? It sounds like complicated syncopation, but is in fact created by constantly changing the time signatures: 7/8, 6/8, 3/8 and so forth. One simply can’t pat ones foot predictably to this rhythmic weft. All of this “plucky,” “scratchy,” strumming is one major component of the work.
The other component is designed to be completely different in every musical respect to all of the above. Against all of this dry, rhythmic activity, the composer from time to time superimposes snatches of serene legato melody in various solo instruments. Montgomery describes these little bits of melody as derived from American folk idioms. The acute listener will sense the very laudable technique of restricting the musical materials, but varying them in creative ways. In this case, the melodic material focuses on the simple intervals of a melodic third and a step. And, as evidence of Montgomery’s sophisticated knowledge of string textures, from time to time you’ll hear string harmonics—ethereal, light pitches, high in the atmosphere, generated by the slightest touch of the finger on the string. All of this—floating above the layers of boldly contrasting plucking and strumming ostinati.
Strum simply a marvelously creative work, borne out of both a deep understanding of the almost infinite technical capabilities of the violin family and the creative possibilities of superimposing two simple, but boldly contrasting textural ideas. The young Montgomery is a rising star, and this intriguing little composition is ample evidence thereof.
–Wm. E. Runyan
©William E. Runyan 2026