Hope Littwin - Hidden Treasure
Hope Littwin - Hidden Treasure
Hidden Treasure is too mind-numbing to engage with a concert hall audience, and too cliché to be separated from any other generic singer-songwriter.
Singer-songwriter Hope Littwin breaks the line between contemporary classical music and standard folk/pop music. Hidden Treasure is a short song, originally written for her on guitar and vocals and later orchestrated for the chamber ensemble Alarm Will Sound. All in all, Hidden Treasure is a cute song which throws just about every possible lyrical cliché at the listener. Littwin's old-fashioned rhyme scheme borders on irritating while taking away from any actual meaning in the lyrics, not to mention her insistence on randomly-placed surface-level references, including name-dropping the writer and Soviet dissident Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, continue to make Hidden Treasure more like any other dime-a-dozen pop song. While Littwin does at least have a solid control over her voice and intonation, she goes in and out of the now mocked breathy timbre associated with younger white female Indie singer-songwriters, which does not blend at all the the chamber orchestra.
In terms of musical arrangement, Littwin's writing adds nothing to the overarching narrative structure of her song. Listening to the solo guitar version and the orchestrated version right after one another, they sound almost identical, except for the scattered 'wrong' notes heard in the ensemble; a poor attempt on Littwin's behalf to modernize the song for a contemporary classical music concert. The players of Alarm Will Sound were clearly not prepared to play pop rhythms. The performance quality would have increased if the ensemble playing was tighter and actively listening to Littwin. However, her percussion flourishes were quite cutesy and fun additions to the song.
In the aftermath of postmodernism and Indie bands, there are few lines to push and an infinite number of niche genres. I want to stress that Littwin's music has potential, but needs a clearer vision, developed lyrics, and a great deal more confidence. Right now, Hidden Treasure is too mind-numbing to engage with a concert hall audience, and too cliché to be separated from any other generic singer-songwriter.
Listen and watch Littwin's performance with Alarm Will Sound at Princeton Sound Kitchen on 21 March 2023 here.
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