Both the lyricism and emotionality of Drattell’s musical sensibility are evident in Sorrow is not Melancholy. Written in 1993, this piece is a threnody for string orchestra, a species of composition with a rich tradition in the twentieth century. While not revealing any particular sorrow, the work’s title suggests genuine grief rather than just temperamental despondency.
The initial moments of the piece establish a mournful tone, with cellos and basses tracing a lugubrious figure of just a few notes. This figure proceeds to repeat itself insistently, in the manner of an ostinato. As it does, violins and violas add, one by one, other phrases which, while distinct, are actually variations of the original cell-bass figure. The layering of these sad utterances creates a doleful sonic fabric during the first section of the compositions’ single movement.
Ensuing developments bring expressions of the anger that accompanies grief: harsh chordal textures; short, stuttering phrases, as if the instruments were trying, but unable, to speak; sustained sonorities of unexpected gentleness; and a lyrical passage that transforms the opening material into soft, ethereal music. All this shapes the composition’s overall form into something on an arch. A gentle coda, perhaps intimating resignation, concludes the work.