Matt Bengston, instructor in Penn’s College House Music program, plays Canon B from Nancarrow’s Canons for Ursula:
Month: April 2012
Many, Many Pianists
A few times on this blog I have made passing mention of a composition project of mine for a group of pianists. I’ve hesitated to write about it in more detail, partly because the list of pianists was still in formation, partly because I was having trouble getting going on the piece. Well, those two things are still the case, but I think it is time to go public with this.
Business has been slow since the 09-10 season when I had two orchestral premieres in quick succession in Chicago and Albany – an orchestral peak followed by a rather quiet trough. Since paying work was scarce, I decided to create an opportunity myself, and contacted most of the pianists I know, plus several I didn’t know. I invited them to each chip in a little money and I would write a solo piece that they would all promise to play at least once, thus addressing the perennial problem of the non-existent second performance. Somewhat to my surprise, I have come up with a substantial list of wonderful artists who have signed on. There are still one or two possible participants, but here is the list so far:
Daniel Barber
Geoffrey Burleson
Eliza Garth
Judith Gordon
Stephen Gosling
Aleck Karis
Catherine Kautsky
Ryan McCollough
Eric Moe
Christopher Oldfather
Linda Reichert
James Winn
(twelve pianists, one for each tone, I suppose)
It is hard to describe the mega-giga-terabytes of talent on that list without falling into a lot of program note bio cliches. What I propose to do instead is let you know a little about how these folks got on my list in a series of future posts. For now, I’ll just say I am extremely lucky to have this group of artists on board.
I should say there are a number of people who wanted to participate, but felt that their schedules were too overloaded already – as well as a few folks who just politely declined. It was kind of everybody to even consider the notion.
So, a piano piece. It can’t be just a bagatelle, people are paying for this. It can’t be a forty minute sonata as such things are pretty tough to program. So I am thinking of something in the 12 minute range. The next question is, a short sonata? a single movement fantasia? or a set of short pieces? I have been striving toward the third of these formal schemes; as I said in my last post, I am intrigued by the idea of building a form from a number of short movements. For one thing, it gets away from the neo-classical “fast-slow-fast” pattern of movements, a sonata strategy which is perfectly plausible, but maybe a little tired. You might suggest that a variation set would be a way to bring order to a group of short pieces, but, while I enjoy writing variations, I did that relatively recently (in a piece derived from the sonata mentioned above). It is still possible that this new work will turn into a single movement with multiple sections, but right now I am thinking of a group of short pieces that are ordered to form an expressive arc. The difference is perhaps subtle, but it has to do with how much the individual elements get rounded off into relatively independent forms; how much, if any, material recurs; how much the material is developed, and how much it is simply presented. You might say I am thinking along the lines of preludes rather than a fantasy or ballade at the moment, but it is still early in the process. I am still making sketches of different kinds of piano music, being a little indiscriminate, just writing it all down. It is starting to become apparent that some of the sketches will be more fruitful than others, but whether they will grow into little pieces or sections of a bigger piece is not clear.
As for a title, I am thinking of borrowing from Auden’s poem about the unique nature of music: Pure Contraption, Absolute Gift.
Otherwise, why have a blog?
On the theory that I haven’t been sufficiently self-serving on this blog lately (apart from the intrinsic egocentricity of having a blog at all), here (and in some upcoming posts), is some news about my composerly activities lately and in the near future.
A few weeks ago I finally finished A Flutist’s Sketchbook, a set of 13 pieces for flute and piano on a commission from the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society. The idea was to create a piece for an amateur player of moderate attainments that would still be a satisfying concert piece for a professional to play. Originally I planned a Mikrokosmos-like set of studies on particular scales or rhythms, but only traces of that plan remain. Here is the list of pieces:
1. Chorale
2. Plaintive
3. Slow Waltz
4. Canon by Inversion
5. Asymmetrical
6. Five Against Two
7. Vision
8. Popcorn
9. “Where the Bee Sucks”
10. Nano-Variations
11. Invention
12. Dance
13. Variations on “Be Thou My Vision”
“Five against Two” is all that remains of a series of planned polyrhythmic studies. There were supposed to be modal studies as well, and the “Invention” is a lydian-flavored piece, but sketches for the others of that kind were discarded. Some of the other pieces do play with particular methodical ways of constructing a piece – the “Canon by Inversion” is an obvious one, but “Popcorn” is another. In that piece, short diatonic fragments proliferate, starting canonically, but quickly bursting those boundaries (popping the shell, I suppose). The proliferation subsides gradually, and the whole thing, thanks to the mostly staccato gestures, recalls the sound of popcorn in a microwave with a gradual increase and decrease in density of attacks. Hopefully there are no burned musical kernels.
Two of the pieces relate to already existing music of my own. “Where the Bee Sucks” is an arrangement of my setting of a text from Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” – originally for soprano, recorder, lute and viol; then for soprano, flute, harp and cello; and most recently, for soprano and piano – the latter version recently premiered here in Philadelphia on a Network for New Music concert. Another movement re-works a setting of the hymn tune “Be Thou My Vision”. I have tried to make that happen in two earlier versions, one with voice and piano, the other with voice, harp and flute. Unlike the earlier “Tempest” settings, I am not quite happy with either one just yet, but I think this flute and piano instrumental version will fly. In fact, now I think I can go back and fix the earlier vocal versions.
I didn’t have in mind an overall formal plan for the set. There’s no need for performers to program all thirteen pieces in the Sketchbook, though I think it is possible to make that work. In other pieces I have tried to write a number of short movements while creating an overall expressive arc, but I don’t find this easy to pull off. The attraction of the idea is to write a multi-movement piece that gets away from neo-classical models, like a three or four movement sonata pattern; not that there is anything wrong with that, but sometimes you want to try something different. Times Like These (for clarinet and piano) was supposed to have a lot of little movements, but turned out to have just five over the course of eight minutes. Dark the Star (baritone and chamber ensemble, on texts of Susan Stewart, Rilke, and from the Bible) comes closest to the notion, consisting of 9 songs, played continuously over about 20 minutes. I am returning to the problem in one of my current projects, a set of piano pieces. More about this in my next post.
“Quiet, Andres, it was the Freemasons” – Wozzeck, Act 1
WordPress gives you all kinds of neat stats to let you know how your blog is faring in the world. (By the way, Secret Geometry recently passed 16,000 views!!) This includes what search terms people are using to get to your blog. Here is a screen grab of the search engine terms stats for today:
So, the first item, I assume, means somebody is trying to rip off Chinary and get some free sheet music – nothing novel about that, sad to say. But note the second item. Pierre Boulez, a Mason? Doesn’t that at least give you a moment’s pause? Might that not explain something about the history of high modernism and the post-war avant-garde? Didn’t you always suspect there were connections between and among Boulez, the CIA, Die Zauberflöte, the Trilateral Commission, integral serialism, Mary Magdalene, and the pyramid on the dollar bill? And if you didn’t have these suspicions, well, why not? Because they don’t want you to, right? Now, go back and re-read Ligeti’s analysis of the first book of Structures with all this in mind…
A SongFusion State of Mind
I’ve written before about SongFusion, a hot new group in NYC devoted to art song, whose members include my friend Mary Mackenzie. Mary is including an excerpt from Holy the Firm, the cycle I wrote for Dawn Upshaw, on their next program, “States of Mind”. There’s a fine mix of composers involved – I’m honored to be included – check out the repertoire here. The concert is Tuesday, May 8, 8:00 pm at the DiMenna Center in Manhattan.
Mary has been doing – and will be doing – a lot of great stuff, including performances of Pierrot with members of Carnegie Hall’s Academy program. Go to her website and click on itinerary.
_____________________________
Songfusion members (L to R): Victoria Browers, Liza Stepanova, Michael Kelly, Kathleen Tagg, Mary Mackenzie
Price sings Barber
Did you know that the first performance of Barber’s Hermit Songs is available on disc? You’ll find it on an RCA collection from 1994: Leontyne Price, with Barber at the piano in the Coolidge Auditorium of the Library of Congress, October 30, 1953. Often a first performance is, well, a first performance, meaning not as secure as subsequent performances. But this premiere is very impressive, with Price sounding in lovely voice, and Barber commanding the piano parts elegantly. Nothing extraordinary to report if you are thinking about the recording as a resource for insights into interpretation – for example, tempi seem quite in the range that is commonly chosen. The only unusual tempo is in one of the four additional songs that are also included: they race through “The Daisies” in a mere 49 seconds here; compare the 1:20 duration of the performance by Thomas Hampson and John Browning on the DG collection of Barber’s songs. The Price album also includes Knoxville: Summer of 1915 and two excerpts from Antony and Cleopatra. Price is Price – the voice is gorgeous and she can do pretty much whatever she wants. But her voice is essentially large, and her Knoxville is a bit on the diva-ish side. I prefer Upshaw’s recording on Nonesuch, though the New Philarmonia under Schippers on the Price disc has Upshaw’s Zinman and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s beat for sheer beauty of sound. Two excerpts from Antony and Cleopatra close out Price’s disc. I found “Give Me Some Music” to be rather less effective than “Give Me My Robe”, which is more tightly focused, and has more memorable musical material. One small detail regarding the live Hermit Songs recording – we sometimes fuss over whether contemporary audiences are too inhibited about applause compared with 18th or 19th century listeners. I was surprised to note that the audience applauds warmly after every one of the ten songs in Barber’s cycle! I would have thought that reverent silence would be the rule in 1953, but it is not so easy to generalize about these things.
Crumb’s Orchestral Music
In honor of the American Symphony Orchestra’s concert of George Crumb’s orchestral music tomorrow night at Carnegie, here’s a New Music Box link to an extended interview with George. American Symphony director Leon Botstein’s essay for the concert is here; another essay by Robert Carl is here.
Sondheim on Piano Jazz
You know about Sondheim, and you know about Marian McPartland’s Piano Jazz on NPR – but you probably would not have thought of Sondheim as a guest on that show.
Narucki sings Biggs
My friend from back in my Columbia U days, Hayes Biggs, has posted video from his Manhattan School of Music faculty recital that took place earlier this season. The superb team of Susan Narucki, soprano, and Christopher Oldfather, piano, premiered Hayes’s Psalms, Hymns & Spiritual Songs, and the very fine Avalon Quartet offered String Quartet: O Sapientia/Steal Away. Here is a sample of Narucki and Oldfather; find more here and here.
Easter Friday Miscellany
– David Patrick Stearns offer a substantial interview with Esa-Pekka Salonen.
– The inimitable Jeremy Denk writes about the Goldberg Variations on Deceptive Cadence.
===============================================================
Here are some pictures from last week’s New York New Music Ensemble concert at Penn. The performance was superb, at times astounding. All the pieces had merit – I was especially struck by On That Swirl of Ending Dust by master of electronic media Eric Chasalow. The piece combined Eric’s exquisitely crafted electronic sounds with the live ensemble in tight synchrony. There were hints of jazz in the second movement, while the third movement was a quiet ritual, with bits of spoken text in the electronic component that made me think of a sober family gathering. Rand Steiger’s exuberant tribute to Elliott Carter, Elliott’s Instruments, enfolds fragments from an array of Carter’s own pieces. It was interesting how one could still recognize references to essentially athematic music. Yiorgos Vassilandonakis’s Quatuor pour la fin d’une ère evocatively explored liminal sounds, a dreamscape not quite in focus. Cloud Earth by Pulitzer Prize winner Zhou Long was less densely worked than some of the other music on the program. There were imaginative textures here, as well as a little too much wood block for me.
Here are (l to r) Linda Quan, Steve Gosling, Chris Finckel and half of Jean Kopperud in rehearsal:
James Baker, Steve Gosling, Jean Kopperud, Jayn Rosenfeld, and guest artist Dave Shively (regular NYNME percussionist Daniel Druckman couldn’t make it):
and the band bowing after the show:
