Chamber pieces that you can tap your feet to

Instead of watching a world championship, a handful of Angelenos chose to spend Super Sunday listening to a world premiere. Pacific Serenades opened its 2004 season by introducing its latest commission: a new piece of chamber music written by L.A. resident Daniel Catan. His Divertimento for Strings was played by six local string musicians, some of whom also performed an assured Mozart quintet (C major, K. 515) and a lively if somewhat ragged rendition of Beethoven’s String Quartet in G, Opus 18, No. 2.

But Catan and his sextet were the main event at the Neighborhood Church in Pasadena on Sunday afternoon. The composer was on hand to introduce the piece, which he described as “heavily influenced by the rhythms of Caribbean music.” Indeed, it opened with a few measures of a swaying, almost calypso-style melody that was eventually punctuated with a playful pluck of the strings.

The title of this concert was “Of Golden Hills and Dark Forests,” and although this may not have had much relevance to the afternoon as a whole, it went a ways toward describing the contrasts of Catan’s writing. His piece steers the listener -- especially in what he called the more “meditative” second movement -- through dramatic shifts of mood: Dark, menacing passages flowed directly into light, breezy measures.

The third movement began with a plaintive wail from Philip Levy’s violin, accompanied by a loping cello line. More dance-like melodies emerged. In the program notes, Catan wrote about the challenge of using rhythmic, Caribbean-style themes for a string ensemble, “which, by its very nature, is more geared toward melody than rhythm.” However, by continually repeating these island melodies, Catan succeeded in giving the work a rhythmic sense of motion. Interestingly, this cadent repetition sometimes gained such momentum that it generated a minimalist, almost Philip Glass-like sound.

Most striking about Catan’s new work was its ability to sound both modern and fun. Although there was no shortage of dissonance, a few audience members could be seen quietly tapping their feet -- and everyone seemed to take great enjoyment from the extended violin and double-bass glissandi toward the end of the piece.