Dolidze Keto da Kote

 Day 19

Dolidze Keto da Kote

Shalva Azmaiparashvili

Moniuszko Straszny Dwór

Day 197

Moniuszko Straszny Dwór

Soloists

Chorus and Orchestra of Polish National Opéra

Jacek Kaspszyk

Heise Drot og Marsk

 Day 196

Peter Heise Drot og Marsk

Soloists

Danish National Symphony Orchestra and Choir

Michael Schønwandt

This is perhaps the first important Danish opera. It dates from 1878 at a time when Denmark has recently been defeated in a war with Germany. It is thus less overtly nationalistic that some other operas of the time from countries not closely associated with a musical tradition. Ironically it was the German influence that struck me most in the music. It is not overtly Wagnerian but it certainly has some Wagnerian tinges. My initial impression was that the opera it was closest to in sound was Humperdink's Hansel and Gretel, though there were also some characteristics shares with Cornelius' Barber of Bagdad.

My sense was that Heise was more at home in the lighter moments in the opera - there were some lovely folk-like passages, particularly near the beginning. Some of the more dramatic music did seem a little cliched at time though these parts were balanced with some passages which showed genuine operatic flair. Altogether a mixed experience. There is unlikely to be a call for an international revival of the music of Heise, but this was certainly not a negligible piece by any means and I am glad to have listened to it.

Riegger Study in Sonority

 Day 195

Wallingford Riegger Study in Sonority for 10 violins op 7

Louisville Symphony Orchestra

Jorge Mester

I knew nothing about Wallingford Riegger (1885-1961) before starting this project. I knew the name - who  could forget such a distinctive appellation - but otherwise I was vaguely aware he was an American modernist but I couldn't have placed him historically. So I was quite surprised to see that he was born as early as 1885. He was well trained and spend much of his life teaching music in New York State. 

This work dates from 1927. It was quite hard to place stylistically - there were some elements of Schoenberg type atonalism but also some interesting experiments in sonority. With 10 instrumental lines to play with there were a lot of opportunities for quite complex textures and antiphonal effects. The problem with writing for 10 violins of course is that there is no bass register to balance the high notes - the 8th violin is asked to tune the G string down to E but that doesn't really make up for a lack of bass notes. Indeed at times the ever higher texture got really hard to listen to and indeed quite painful though the actually harmonic language was not that difficult to follow. 

The composer called this a study and I suppose on those terms it was an interesting experiment in what could be done. But as a purely music experience I found it unrewarding and indeed hard going. I've no idea of how typical this music is within Riegger's overall output but I can't say I am very keen to explore further.

This marks the end of this week or so of experimental American composers. I'm very glad that I spend the time listening to this music but my overall sense is that a lot of it was was leading to rather a dead end rather than the creation of a really new and vibrant musical tradition. I don't think that it is an accident that these composers, with the possible exception of Ives, have not entered the musical mainstream.

Tomorrow I will start a new series looking at some nationalist operas. 

Crawford Seeger String Quartet

 Day 194

Ruth Crawford Seeger String Quartet

Amati String Quartet

Ruth Crawford, who married Charles Seeger and was the mother of Peggy Seeger the folk music specialist, was one of the most important modernist female composers in the USA in the early part of the 20th century (1901-1953). She underwent a rigorous training and was in contact with many of the leading musical figures of her time. I've never heard any of her music before so this quartet, which dates from 1931 and is acknowledged as one of her most important pieces, seemed a good place to start.

My initial impression was not that positive. I thought that the first movement was fairly anonymous in a broadly Schoenberg/Berg idiom which seemed rather to meander along. It to me had no rhythmic impetus - a feature which I certainly feel was a problem of a lot of the 2nd Viennese School's music. But the second movement had much more of interest. It sprung to life rhythmically and had an energy about it - indeed at times it almost seemed to be looking forward to the sort of rhythmic vitality that Tippett was to explore a few years later. The slow third movement was fascinating. Essentially it was a study in resonance, almost entirely consisting of long notes but with lots of small crescendos and diminuendos but at time times in different instruments - it created a really haunting effect. Seeger suggested that it could be performed by a string orchestra as an alternative to a quartet and I can imagine it making a real impression done that way.  The last movement was also distinctive. This involved quite harsh recitative-like passages in the first violin contacted with arpeggio figures in unison quavers played by the three other players with mutes on. The very end was a little abrupt.

So this was a work which grew in interest as it went on - only tailing off a little towards the end. There was nothing particularly American in the piece as far as I could hear but Crawford clearly had a distinctive voice. From the mid 1930s she seems to have devoted most of her energies to folk song collecting, editing and dissemination. One wonders what she might have written had she written further string quartets into the 1940s and 1950s.

Nancarrow Three Studies for Player Piano

 Day 193

Nancarrow - Three studies for player piano - no 8, 11 and 12

I'd heard some of the player piano studies of Conlon Nancarrow before but I had never listed to any of them properly. I chose these three purely at random. They are written for player piano because Nacarrow wanted to create music that was impossible for any human pianist to play because of the sheet speed, the rhythmic complexity or just the number of notes to be played at the same time.

I listened to these three performances (which I think were computer generated rather than performed on a player piano) with a score and that certainly helped understanding what was happening. To my surprise the basic material was not that unconventional -the music is broadly tonal and some of the basic musical shapes were fairly straightforward. Indeed study no 12 had some Spanish touches which would not have been out of place in Grenados or Ravel! What is far from straightforward, of course, it the way that this is all put together.. Nancarrow was very interested in contrapuntal textures and with the freedom that the player piano brought he was able to use all sort of techniques, including rhythmic displacement , multiple voices and simultaneous voices in different registers. The effect is quite mesmerising in short doses - these pieces each last 4-5 minutes - though I can imagine than playing several of them one after the other could leave your head buzzing. But I'd take this music every day over than of Sorabji (day 96)

Partch Castor and Pollux

 Day 192

Harry Partch Castor and Pollux

Harry Partch was one of the most innovative of the American modernists. He rejected almost all of the standard apparatus of western music - he was interested in microtone and designed and built his own instruments on which to performed his music. He made primitive recordings of some of his pieces uses multi-track tape recordings, but others have gone on to recreate his sound world. This piece is for an ensemble including marimba like instruments, glass bowls of various sizes and large plucked string instruments broadly related to the dulcimer.

I enjoyed the sonorities in this 15 minute piece. Some of it was very reminiscent of the Gamelan music from Bali and reminded me at times of the effects that Britten contoured up with conventional instruments in The Prince of the Pagodas. At other times use of short repeated melodic patterns reminded me of the minimalist music of Steve Reich and others from much later in the 20th century.  Structural the piece is set of duets which are played separately and then combined in large ensembles. There was a real musical imagination underpinning the piece and it certainly has whetted my appetite to hear more of Partch’s music.

Ruggles Sun Treader

 Day 191

Ruggles Sun Treader

Cleveland Orchestra

Christopher con Dohnányi

Ruggles was one of the most self-critical composers. In a very long life (1876-1971) he wrote only a dozen or so pieces - most of them lasting less than 15 mins. I came across a couple of his pieces years ago and rather enjoyed Angels for six muted trumpets. Sun Treader , completed after 5 years work in 1931, is Ruggles’ longest piece. It uses a large but not enormous orchestra. What struck me how ‘normal’ the piece was. There was none of the experimental textures or allusions to popular music that you find in Ives, the mad rhythms of Antheil or the tone clusters of Cowell. Instead this is a serious piece of music firmly in the European tradition. At times is could be mistaken for pre-Serial Schoenberg or even Hindemith. It had an impressive seriousness with some clear building blocks - particularly the opening drum motive which returns at key points in the score. 

I was impressed by the seriousness of the score and can well imagine it making a good impression in performance. It is far more than simply an experiment or a creation of sensation for the sake of it. 

Ruggles by all accounts was an unpleasant individual who held some very unsavoury views. But he clearly was a composer who knew exactly what he was doing. 

Cowell Dynamic Motion

 Day 190

Henry Cowell Dynamic Motion

Chris Brown

Henry Cowell is one of the most well known of the American experimental composers but this is more by repute than by actual experience of his music.  I have heard his piece The Banshee which a piano piece in which the strings are plucked directly by the pianist rather than by the depressing the keys. 

This short piano pieces features Cowell’s characteristic use of clusters - the placing of the arms on the keys to depress a group of notes at a time. I had assumed, because of descriptions of his music, that this would all be at maximum volume but in fact much of it is at a gentle volume.  The music was not unpleasant but once the novelty had worn off  there was not much to recommend it. It sounds like the sort of thing that somebody would sit down at the piano and let his/her fingers (OK arms ) wander idly over the noisy keys.  There’s really nowhere for the composer to go once the novelty has worn off.  

Antheil Ballet Mechanique

 Day 189

Antheil Ballet Mechanique

Boston Modern Orchestra Project

Gil Rose

George Antheil (1900-1959) is certainly one of the more extraordinary composers that I have covered in this project. He was an inveterate self publicist and courted controversy, His autobiography was titled Bad boy of music and if the story that he pulled a revolver from his jacket and laid it on the piano before giving a recital in order to intimidate the critics is true one can see why he was worthy of the label. He was also an inventor and, astonishingly, was granted a patent for joint work with the film star Hedy Lamarr for work on wireless telegraphy which in part led to the modern technology found in Bluetooth and WiFi.

He was a properly trained musician and studied with important figures such as Bloch. But he quickly rebelled against that formal training and started to write extremely modern and challenging works. He was particularly interested in percussive effects and the possibilities of mechanical music. The Ballet Mechanique is by far his most famous work: it is in all of the text books as an example of the extreme avant guarde. His original conception was for an ensemble of 16 synchronised player pianos, 2 grand pianos and a vast array of percussion including electric bells, propellers and a siren.  It was impossible to co-ordinate the player pianos (Stravinsky had the same problem in a proto-version of Les Noces and all later performances of the work were done in an arrangement for much smaller forces without the mechanical instruments.

it is only with the advent of computer technology that it has been possible to go back to the original concept and this performance attempts to do that. It all makes a fantastic noise.  The whole effect is like a combination of The Rite of Spring and Les Noces on steroids with two pianists playing the same piece of Bartok out of synch with each other in the next room. It is great fund for a while - the siren makes some very telling contributions - but at 30+ mins it is far too long. I did feel tempted to shout ‘please stop’ several times, but I did make it though to the end. You can tell that Antheil underneath all of the chaos, was actually a composer who knew what he was doing - but the gulf between this and the music of Stravinsky is almost too great to comprehend. I’d love to hear the piece live once, just to get the full force of the noise when everybody is going at things hammer and tongs but after that it will certainly not go into any of my playlists.

Ives String Quartet no 2

 Day 188

Ives String Quartet no 2

Emerson Quartet

I’ve now reached the halfway point in this project and so far haven’t missed a day. When I started I didn’t have much idea of how I was going to organise things. The first few weeks’ pieces were chosen largely at random but then I started to think in terms of topics. I’ve tried to fit round my working schedule so that some days of the week have the space for longer works whereas on others I only have time for short pieces. I didn’t plan that each piece would be by a different composer but having got this far with a different composer every day I will try to continue to chose a new composer every day - I don’t think that there is any chance to running out of names.

My new topic is experimental music by American composers in the early part of the 20th century - something of which I have only a limited experience.  I start with Charles Ives. I know quite a few of his orchestral pieces but the only one I have played is the 3rd symphony, which is probably one of the most straightforward of his works.

I’d never heard either of the Ives string quartets. This second one is an intriguing piece. It starts out in a broadly Schoenberg-like idiom not sounding much like Ives but gradually some of Ives’ typical characteristics - polyrhythms and popular melodies - start to emerge out the texture. The three movements all have titles Discussions; Arguments; the Call of the Mountains. The middle movement is probably the most experimental. The instruments are pitched against each other in a loud aggressive argument with some very complex cross rhythms where the bar lines don’t coincide. This is extraordinary music for the early years of the 20th century. The movement ends with what is now one of my favourite musical expressions :Andante con scratchy (as tuning up)", followed by a final fff eruption marked "Allegro con fistiswatto (as a K.O.)".

The last movement is more lyrical though still highly rhythmically and harmonically complex. It ends with a really beautiful expressive passage - if there was ever any doubt that Ives could write ‘proper’ music this coda removes any such doubts. I can’t imagine that the work will be performed very often - it must be incredibly difficult to play. Ives is such an interesting composer - he seemed to anticipate so many later musical developments (though there are some theories that he added more modern touches to piece many years after they were written). He was in many ways the spiritual godfather of a whole group of American experimental composers - some of whom I will be exploring in the next few days. 

Howells Requiem

 Day 187

Herbert Howells Requiem 

Choir of St John’s College Cambridge

Christopher Robinson

I’ve mentioned before here that I never sang in a church/cathedral choir so there is a whole genre of music that I know very little about. Howells was predominantly a composer of church music so I don’t recall ever having heard any of this music. This piece has an interesting history. It was written in 1932 for unaccompanied choir but much of the music was re-used in Howell’s Hymnus Paradisi and the original was not performed or published in the 1980s.

Unlike all of the Requiems this week this one is in English and not Latin. It includes some psalm settings as well as parts of the traditional text of the Requiem mass. The music is tonal but highly chromatic. At times I found the harmony a bit overheated but generally I found the work mellifluous and indeed at times rather moving. I can’t imagine how choirs can sing such complex music and still keep up to pitch. Being an orchestral musician is much easier.

This is the last of this series of Requiems - it has been an interesting exploration across many centuries and musical styles. The next topic will be  quite different - American experimental music from the first half of the 20th century.

 

Gossec Requiem

 Day 186

Gossec Requiem

Soloists

Louis Devos

This was a fascinating piece. Gossec (1734-1829) lived though all of the turbulent developments in French history from the excesses of the Ancient Regime, the French Revolution, Napoleon and then the restoration of the monarchy. This impressive full-length setting of the Requiem dates from 1760 yet seems to foreshadow much that was to develop in French music. The basic musical language is Haydnesque but tinged with the spirit of French opera, particularly Rameau but sometimes looking forward to Mehul and Spontini. But the antiphonal effects in the Tuba Mirum and the general scale and ambition of the work are reminiscent of Berlioz’s own Requiem of two generations later. None of this would matter if the music itself was mundane but in fact there is some astonishing invention here both in the choral and orchestral writing. Some of it was quite thrilling.  

This was a significant discovery. I’ve long been interested in the development of French music from Rameau to Berlioz and beyond but hitherto Gossec has escaped my attention. I must put him higher up my list of composers to explore - there is plenty to go at. There are a dozen or so operas, at least 50 symphonies and a setting of the Te Deum which is said to require 1200 singers and 300 wind instruments.

Ockeghem Requiem

 Day 185

Ockeghem Requiem

The Clerk’s Group

Edward Wickham

This is the earliest surviving polyphonic setting of the Requiem. Ockeghem, whose dates are c1410-1497, Not much is known about its origins - various dates from the 1460s to 1480s have been proposed. There is also some controversy about whether the work has come down to us in an incomplete state as some of the key sections of the Requiem text are missing. Nonetheless what we have is an imposing piece lasting half an hour or so. 

I found it a fascinating piece. It seems to occupy a position between medieval music such as that of Machaut and the music of the Renaissance. So it has the angular shapes of medieval music with lots of open 4th and 5ths and some really odd rhythmic distortions. At the same time it does have elements of Renaissance polyphony with much smoother lines and worked-out counterpoint.

As with all of the music of this period much of the way a piece like this is performed must be guided by educated guesswork. The surviving sources give no performance indications all - the notes and the rhythms are there but nothing else. So decisions about speed, dynamics, number of voices, etc have to be made by the editor and performers. This performance was beautifully voices with enormous care and subtlety. It made a real impression but I did wonder, as I have done before with early music, whether the original performance would have sounded like this - wouldn't it be wonderful to have a time machine to be able to go back to the 1400s and hear a contemporary performance - though I suspect that it might some as something of a shock after hearing such a professional and mellifluous performance as this one.

Victoria Requiem

 Day 184

Victoria Requiem

Tenebrae

Nigel Short

Victoria (Thomás Luis de Victoria) got a mention in the history of music section of my degree. I think that it is possible that I heard some of his music as part of that but I don't have any memories of it. But I do recall him being considered one of the great figures in late Renaissance polyphony - perhaps the only person to rival Palestrina.

This Requiem dates from 1603 and was written to commemorate the death of the Empress Maria, sister of Phillip II of Spain. It has quite a complex structure, including a motet which doesn't form part of the liturgy of the Requiem Mass. It is an impressive piece in 6 parts lasting in total something like 40 minutes in total. I assume that when originally performed it would not have been sung as a single piece but the movements would have been broken up with readings and prayers, but I am no expert in the music of this area.

It is a very meditative work with a sense of calm resignation. The music is certainly polyphonic but the individual lines are quite often brought together into more harmonic passages. The harmonic is generally very consonant, which makes the occasional dissonant moments stand out quite markedly. Overall it was a calming piece and is the sort of music that can easily wash over you if you let it. I can see why Victoria is such a highly-regarded composer Looking back it would have been good to have taken up opportunities as a student to sing this sort of music in a small choir but I never did and it it is rather too late now. But certainly I am glad to have heard this piece.

Salieri Requiem

 Day 183

Salieri Requiem

Soloists

Gulbenkian chorus and orchestra

Lawrence Foster

it is very difficult to consider Salieri without thinking about the film and play Amadeus. The narrative of the older composer with talent and prestige and the young upstart possessed by genius is compelling and whatever the historical inaccuracies in the film the central premise is hard to deny. I've not heard much Salieri - only the recital disc of blockbuster arias recorded by Cecilia Bartoli some years ago - comes to mind and this requiem was new to me.

I have to say that it did nothing to convince me that Amadeus got it wrong. It is damming with faint praise to say that the music was competent, but that was honestly what I felt. There were some striking phrases but also a lot of fairly routine material which could have been written by any number of late 18th century composers. The fugue subjects seems curiously angular for no real reason and some of the melodic material was rather trivial for such a solemn piece.  The orchestration was interesting, with an important part for Cor Anglais and much use of the trombones, but in itself that was not sufficient reason to want to hear the piece again.  Sometimes the verdict of history is right. 

Pizzetti Requiem

 Day 182

Pizzetti Requiem

Westminster Cathedral Choir

James O'Donnell

The only things I knew about Pizzetti is that he had a splendid first name - Ildebrando - and that he wrote an operatic setting of Murder in the Cathedral. So I came to this Requiem with a completely clear mind. I have to say that it was a real eye opener. Unlike any of the other Requiems I have listened to this week this one is for unaccompanied choir. Pizzetti uses a variety of combinations of voices from a single choir through to multiple parts divided into three choirs. The effect is breathtaking when the choir is divided up in this way and brings to mind some of the effects in Venetian Poly-Choral music of the 16th and 17th centuries. The harmonic style is basically tonal and the harmony is rich and constantly inventive. A lot of the choral writing has its basis in plainchant - this is particularly true of the Dies Irae, which uses the traditional chant as the building blocks to an impressively managed build up of tension over a five minute passage - very difficult for a composer to achieve such concentration.

I was expecting something more modernist that this (the work dates from 1922) but reading up on the composer makes it clear that he wanted to move away from the almost exclusively operatic work in Italy back to the world of previous generations of church-based composers. I think he succeeded brilliantly in this. This music is ever pastiche - it belongs of its time - but it has its roots in music of several centuries ago.