Equality, Justice, Freedom (or lack thereof…)
Elena Ruehr

How do you turn abstract ideas like “justice” and “equality” into music? This question was composer Elena Ruehr’s starting point for Equality, Justice, Freedom (or lack thereof…). Her answer: music expresses emotions, so how does it feel to experience inequality, to seek justice, and to honor freedom? What musical elements can express those feelings?

Her composition is in three movements, each tackling one concept. In Inequality, sharp dissonance and a driving, unsettled rhythm express distress and tension. Illustrating the need for old patterns to be upended, Ruehr turns traditional voicing on its head and gives the string bass an unusually independent and prominent role. The bass opens this piece with its own melodic and rhythmic material, a lone voice countering the insistent motive of the other strings. 

In the arioso Seeking Justice, a lyrical melody is passed between the instruments, embellished differently each time. Against this tune, steadily rocking chords represent the intentional, ongoing work needed to achieve justice, one slow step at a time. The affect is one of longing, tinged with hope.

The closing movement, Valuing Freedom, opens with a series of rising motives that evoke a lighter feeling. A restatement of the unsettled theme from Inequality is quickly parried by this new material, and the string bass leads the ensemble into a fragment of the uplifting melody Amazing Grace. The mode of this familiar tune is distorted, however, reminding the listener that despite our hopes and intentions, injustice undergirds our world.