Perfect Fifths

If there’s anything that Pearl and the Beard’s Killing the Darlings taught me — or rather, reaffirmed — about music, it was the heart-shaking potential of cello.

On the album’s final track, “The Black Hole of Calcutta,” cellist and singer Emily Hope Prince marries a remarkably smooth, expressive voice with the warm undertones of her cello, delivering one of the most incisive pieces of songwriting this year.

There’s something special about the cello (beyond its impressive connectivity, at Prince’s fingertips). The cellist’s intensifying pulls on the instrument bear as much character as any rambunctious drum solo or self-assured guitar riff.

The cello is at once unimposing and reassuring. It doesn’t attract attention to itself, but you can instantly tell that it’s there — whether because it seems the slightest bit out-of-place in a pop outfit, you’ve come to expect it, or, in this case, it’s one of a spare number of  voices. Its dynamic plunks are a patient reminder of its presence, as a foundation and an incubator.

The cello is like a grandmother or a therapist: It’s an unassuming, calming voice that contrasts with  the chaos of everyday life. More than any other instrument I can think of, the cello is human sympathy, rendered in sound.

Sympathy often shines in the darkest of circumstances. On The Roots’ undun, the collective broadened its typically diverse hip-hop lineup to include strings, featuring them on several tracks. On the last “rap song” of the album, “Tip the Scale,” the underlying cello tones bring an element of human softness to an otherwise desolate landscape.

This contrast between warm and cold, subtle and brash, has been used to great effect before. On one of pop history’s most deliberately abrasive hits, Nirvana’s In Utero, the use of cello stands out as a force that mellows the boldness and thorniness of the group’s rock instrumentation.

Just before the chorus of “All Apologies,” the cello asserts its presence with a simple, rising melody, and the verse gains an extra layer of solemnity. A moment later, distorted power chords erupt, engulfing the soft melody — like a fit of angst destroys quiet contemplation.

The cello, for all of its subtlety, is at the center of this emotional shift.