My latest effort now is heavily scored and slashed with wide strokes of black acrylic and charcoal and dirtied up in an attempt to make it less insipid and give it more gravitas.  It now looks a bit like a woman’s buttock and upper thigh done in a yellowy peach colour with a big red and white hole in it, surrounded by festoons of black (which as I look, transforms itself into a boy riding a bike – or half a bike – at speed across the canvas, from the olive drab on the right to the pale grey on the left).

If this keeps up, I’m going to pack in painting and go back to the drawing board -literally- until I sell another canvas, or get some inspiration back.  I’ve been reading Robert Hughes on Van Goch’s drawings done in Arles; he points out that they are not tonal, but are made up of separate marks and strokes which “let the light in”.  I’ve had a look at a couple and I think I see what he means – it will be a difficult one for me, as I tend to draw heavily and messily in a sort of impressionistic way, with a load or shading and scribbling.  I’ll have a go tomorrow at life drawing and see if I can get out of my habit.

I’ve got to mention the comment in yesterday’s Guardian about Anish Kapoor’s exhibition at the Roal Academy – I’ve thrown it away now, but it says something like this: that it’s either magical and stunning or pretentious and boring; perhaps both! 

I’ve been looking at Miquel Barcelo, “crane de profil” a fabulous skull done in “mixed media” on canvas – looks like a drawing.

Listening to: Bartok on piano, playing “Mikrokosmos” in 1937 and 1940, and thinking as always of my mate Bob Glass who gave me the CD;

And “Smokestack Lightning” by Howling Wolf ,of course, but who I think got it from Tommy Johnson – I wonder where, or who,  he got it from.

Watching – Wallander, the original.  Combination of cosy Swedish seaside and horrific, graphic murders that no-one seems upset by.  This, and the Updahl paintings yesterday morning gave the day a Scandinavian theme.  I think I’ll try for themed days in future – will that make this blog magical and stunning, or pretentious and boring? Perhaps, if I’m lucky, both. 

Blackpaint

10.12.09

The Fletcher Session – 1943 by Steve Layton

A unique meeting of the minds occurred in 1943. Charles Ives had just made some private recordings of himself playing a few of his pieces and songs. Fellow composer Henry Cowell had heard and played some of these for Dr. Harry Fletcher of Bell Laboratories, who was working experimentally at the time on the creation of stereophonic recordings. A dinner and meeting between the three was arranged at Dr. Fletcher’s apartment, and Fletcher had the idea to invite his recent acquaintance, famed refugee composer Béla Bartók, to the dinner as well. Bartók was feeling quite cut off in New York City, and was already suffering from the leukemia that would end his life in less than two years.

After the meal and chat, the three composers were shown Fletcher’s small home studio, which contained among other things a baby grand piano, a smaller box piano, a kind of celesta, and some of the new stereo recording equipment that cut masters directly to a large 16″ disk (there was no magnetic tape in the U.S. then). It’s not known who first suggested it, but all three of these leading modern composers agreed to sit down and play together for an impromptu test of the stereo recorder. They simply improvised freely, listening to and playing off each others’ ideas. As part of the ‘game’, each agreed to mostly use only one of their hands while playing!

Bartók, Cowell, Ives — The Fletcher Session, 1943 …(Steve Layton, feat. Adam Kondor & Benjamin Smith)

Cowell remembered that while listening to the disk afterward, he was immediately struck by the strange and yet cohesive nature of what had been played. He asked the others if they might agree to let him take this recording and issue a small run of copies for distribution. Ives couldn’t care less, but Bartók — whose perfectionism was legendary — was very adamant that this was only a small game among friends and should be kept private. So the disk remained among Dr. Fletcher’s possessions until and even after his death, to be only recently rediscovered in the Fletcher Archives of Brigham Young University.

Given the offhand nature of the session and the subsequent disposition of the disk, it’s not surprising the recording quality is only fair. But it is truly a unique document of a historic moment, a meeting that had never happened before, and would never happen again.

(the names in this article are true, everything else is fiction).

Article was submitted at ImprovFriday.

Back home, I mean.  Yes, the berliners and Sir Simon took the United States by storm -with a couple of bumps, one has to admit it- and now they are home for the next concerts on December 4, 5 and 6 with maestro Zubin Mehta and violin wonder Leonidas Kavakos.

Zubin Mehta leads the berlines on December 4

And the program?

well, it goes like this:

Franz Schubert: Symphony No. 3 in D major
Béla Bartók: The Miraculous Mandarin, suite
Ludwig van Beethoven: Violin Concerto.

Rrrrrrrrich and tasty, right?

Having blogged in a frustrated manner about Lulu with reference to the issue of shock factor in opera, it seems right to mention ENO’s recent Bluebeard‘s Castle. The thrust of the thing is that Bluebeard is in fact Duke of a dingy urban terraced house, and his possessiveness is centered on far more pointless things than the Duke we’re used to (e.g he rides around on a toy tank). Notably, when ‘door’ 5 opens, it’s a panel of staging unfolding to reveal what is blatantly a rip off of the Fritzl children in bunk beds, who then line up like the Von Trapps and get touched up etc. At the end, his mannequin-like wives collapse on to a battered mattress, and there is evidence of, well, rape-trauma. Between the legs.

Richard Morrison in The Times found it ‘gratuitous’ and ‘nauseating’, The Guardian’s Andrew Clements had a stronger stomach but notes that a Fritzl-type character is dangerously one-dimensional. My friend came out gushing about it, not just because it was so deliciously sinister, which is right up his street, but partly just because it was an actual incidence of staging successfully adding an extra layer of meaning. It can be done after all! And without interfering with the music (the singers’ performances have been widely praised). Imagining it, based on his vivid description, I can see it being just what Castle is crying out for. At the time of writing, the idea of an intense psychological study of one character would have been quite cutting-edge, Freud and the like having only recently turned people on to such matters. It almost seems a shame, then, that the Duke is a fairy tale character, with a fancastical mansion that definitely doesn’t exist, detracting from the fact that these obsessive, dangerously over-protective traits can be found close to home. If Bartok (and his collaborators) had been blown away by Buchner like Berg was at around about the same time (leading to his grimly working class, realist Wozzeck), you can imagine how the original Bluebeard might have turned out more like this.

I can’t comment on the levels of gore because I didn’t go. However, the score suggests to me some pretty barbaric visuals, and what Richard Morrison finds nauseating is probably a prohibitively long list. The point seems moot anyway: Having recently seen Turn of the Screw from the same ENO season, and thinking back to Lulu, The audience demographic doesn’t seem to change much in relation to the potential for shock and general weirdness in the music; the eminently shockable ‘disapproval generation’ are the ones who keep coming back and filling the place! Who’d have thought it?! Often they don’t even check what they’re going to see before they leave the house, why else, if you found the Lulu score impenetrable and tuneless, would you bother with Grand Macabre? Why, if you felt awkward watching Peter Quint jumping in to bed with Miles, do you rock up six weeks later for a Psycho-drama about an odd, elderly bigamist with a Monty Burns-style room full of blood? I believe a combination of two reasons: first, that you have got it in to your head that you are someone who goes to a lot of operas, and second, that the catharsis of moaning about something that offended you has replaced actual enjoyment.

I’d be more worried about people’s failure to remember anything but the anecdotal ’shocking’ stuff, which is of course there own shallow fault. Part two of this double bill was, I hear, a gloriously chaotic Rite of Spring, after which certain members of the audience were so deeply moved that they complained about having just seen some willies- yeh, I find this can often lower the tone when you’re trying to enjoy a good clean virgin sacrifice.

The following is the contents of the 1964 Programme, held by Bayan Northcott and photographed when I visited him.

[p 1]

Wardour Castle

Concerts and Lectures

16–22 August 1964

President Michael Tippett

Musical Director Harrison Birtwistle

Price 5’-

[p 2]

[map of Tisbury]

[p 3]

Contents

Acknowledgements                        4

The Composers and Artists            5

Programmes

16 August            Lecture            13

Concert            13

17 August            Recital            19

Concert            19

18 August            Lecture            25

Concert            25

19 August            Recital            31

Discussion            31

20 August            Recital            37

Lecture            37

21 August            Concert            41

22 August            Concert            41

[p 4]

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the Headmistress, Miss C. B. Galton, and the Governors of Cranborne Chase School for kindly allowing us to use the Castle, both for the Concerts and the Summer School; and the following people for their invaluable assistance:

Mrs. M. I. Mackintosh

Honorary Secretary

Mr. H. O. Young

Honorary Treasurer

Miss G. Selby-Smith

Honorary Librarian

Mrs. T. Hetherington

Miss Caroline Philips

Mrs. R. Porteous

Mr. Michael Thomas

for the loan of organ and harpsichord

The Revd. C. J. Godfrey

for the use of Donhead St. Andrew parish church

The Ministry of Works

for the permission to use the grounds of the Old Castle

Cover Design and Book            Anthony Denning

Programme Notes                        Anthony Gilbert

[p 5]

Notes on the Composers and Artists

[p 6/7]

Harrison Birtwistle

was born in 1934; he studied at the Royal Manchester College of Music and subsequently at the Royal Academy of Music. He is now teaching music at Cranborne Chase School. His works include: Refrains and Choruses, performed 1959 Cheltenham Festival; Music for Sleep, a work for children; Chorales for Orchestra; The World is Discovered, performed at this year’s I.S.C.M. Festival; Entr’acts and Sappho Fragments, performed at this year’s Cheltenham Festival; and Three Movement with Fanfares, commissioned by The Worship Company of Musicians for this year’s City of London Festival

Peter Maxwell Davies

was born in Manchester in 1934, and studied  1952-57 at Manchester University, and Manchester College of Music; 1957-58, Italian Government Scholarship; studied composition with Petrassi in Rome. Director of Music at the Grammar School, Cirencester, and for the past 18 months he has been at Princeton, New Jersey. His works include: Sonata for Trumpet and Piano, 1955; Five Piano Pieces, 1956; Alma Redemptoris Mater, 1957; St. Michael, for wind instruments first performed at the Cheltenham Festival, 1957; Prolation, for orchestra, 1958; Five Motets for a capella choir, 1959; O Magnum Mysterium, for choir, instruments and organ, 1960. His Sinfonia was presented at the Cheltenham Festival by the English Chamber Orchestra in 1962

Anthony Gilbert

was born in London in 1934. He started to study music in 1958; harmony and counterpoint with Anthony Milner; composition briefly with Mátyás Seiber; then since 1959 with Alexander Goehr. Works include: a Duo for Violin and Viola, a Serenade for Six Instruments (commissioned by the S.P.N.M.); and a recently completed Mass for choir and brass.

Alexander Goehr

was born in 1932 in Berlin. Son of the conductor Walter Goehr. Was brought to England as a baby and educated. Studied composition at Royal Manchester College of Music with Richard Hall, and in 1954 was awarded a French Government Scholarship and student at the Paris Conservatoire with Olivier Messiaen and Yvonne Loriod. For some years taught at Morley College and now works part time at the B.B.C., and its chairman of the Society for the Promotion of New Music. Principal works include: Sonata for Piano, The Deluge; Cantata after Leonardo da Vinci; Suters Gold; Cantata on a text by Eisenstein; Violin Concerto; and Little Symphony.

Michael Tippett

was born in 1905, and at the age of 18 entered the Royal College of Music where he studied composition with Charles Wood and R. O. Morris, and conducting with Sir Adrian Boult and Sir Malcolm Sargent. In the early ‘forties he was the Musical Director of Morley College and was closely associated with Walter Goehr, who have many first performances of his music from this period. Works from this period were: Concerto for Double String Orchestra; an Oratorio; A Child of Our Time; and the First Symphony. In 1953 Covent Garden gave the first performance of his first opera, A Midsummer Marriage. In 1953 his second opera, King Priam, was given its first performance in Coventry, late at Covent Garden. This Piano Sonata to be played tonight was written shortly after “King Priam” and was given its first performance by Margaret Kitchin.

Hugh Wood

was born near Wigan in Lancashire in 1932. He started to study music when he was 22; academic work with Dr. Lloyd Webber and later with Anthony Milner; composition with Iain Hamilton and then with Mátyás Seiber. His compositions include: a set of variations for viola and piano; instrumental songs to texts by Christopher Logue; a trio for flute, viola and piano; quartets, the second of which was commissioned by the B.B.C. for the 1962 Cheltenham Festival. Several of these pieces have been broadcast. He has taught at Morley College for five years and also, latterly, at the Royal Academy of Music. He is married to the pianist Susan McGaw.

[p. 8/9]

Richard Adeney

wad born in London in 1920. He studied music at Dartington Hall and the Royal College of Music. He is now the principal flute of the London Philharmonic Orchestra and English Chamber Orchestra. Hs is unmarried and keenly interested in photography.

Lucy Berthoud

was born in Hertfordshire in 1942. Three years later she went to live in New York and there, at the age of 11, started to learn the flute with Ruth Freeman of the Julliard School of Music. When she was 17 she came to England and studied at the Royal Academy of Music with Derek Honner; in 1963-64 she went to Paris to study with Fernand Caratgé

John Carewe

was born in 1934 and studied with Roger Desormiere, Walter Goehr and Olivier Messiaen. For several years assisted John Pritchard with the Musica Viva Concerts in Liverpool, and has appeared as conductor with principal orchestras in this country. Is particularly interested in performance of new music and has given many first performances of works by young English composers.

Lamar Crowson

was born in American but completed his musical training with Arthur Benjamin at the Royal College of Music, with he is now professor of the piano. Among the many awards he has won are the Chappell Gold Medal, the Harriet Cohen International Medal and two first prizes for chamber music at the Munich International Competition. His is will known for his solo and chamber music productions.

Barbara Elsie

was born in Yorkshire in 1938 and at the age of 16 won a three-year Scholarship to the Guildhall School of Music in London. Her teacher was Winifred Radford, with whom she still works. Her oratorio repertoire is extensive and she performs regularly with principal choral societies in Great Britain. Since her first important engagement at York Minister in 1959 she has broadcast a cantata for her, and consequently she was invited to take part in the first performance of his opera “English Eccentrics,” which had u

Osian Ellis

was born in Flintshire. He started to play the harp at the age of 10 and at 17 he won scholarships which took him to the Royal Academy of Music, where he is now a professor. He has brought the harp into great prominence with his concert appearances, recitals and broadcasts, and he has taken part in most of the major European festivals. His performance of Ravel’s Introduction and Allegro with the Melos Ensemble was awarded a Premier Prix in 1962 by the French Society of Authors and Editors of Music. Ossian Ellis is an authority on Welsh Folk Music.

Emanuel Hurwitz

was born and educated in England. At the age of 14 he won the Bronislaw-Hubermann Scholarship for the Royal Academy of Music which was adjudicated by Hubermann in person. In 1939 he became the youngest member of the London Philharmonic Orchestra; he has played solos and obligatos with his orchestras and has always been singled out by the critics for his excellent performances. Since the war he has been leader of the Jacques Orchestra and is now leader of the English Chamber Orchestra. In 1954 he formed a string ensemble which has gained considerable success playing music of the seventeenth-eighteenth centuries. He has been a member of the Melos Ensemble since 1955.

[p 10/11]

Margaret Kitchin

was born in Switzerland and studied with Jacqueline Blancard. She has played all over Europe, giving recitals and as a soloist with all the leading orchestras, playing classical and many modern works in which she specialises. She has given many first performance of modern works, including the Piano Sonata by Alexander Goehr, and work by Ian Hamilton, Peter Maxwell Davies, Peter Racine Fricker, etc.

Susan McGaw

studied at the Royal Academy of Music where she son the Liszt Scholarship and many other prizes. On leaving she won a Caird Scholarship and one from the French Government, and studied in Paris for two years with Yvonne Lefébure Since returning she has played regularly in London and the provinces. She is a frequent broadcaster. He husband is Hugh Wood. They have a son and daughter.

Gervase de Peyer

was a scholar at the Royal College of Music and completed his studying under Frederick Thurston in 1958. He has played for many of the London symphony and chamber orchestras and is at present principal clarinet in the London Symphony Orchestra. He is well known as a soloist and has performed with nearly all the major orchestras in the country under many well known conductors. He has also appeared at many festivals, including Edinburgh and Holland. He has made records for Decca, H.M.V., l’Oiseau Lyre and Parlophone.

Neill Sanders

was born in London in 1923, son of violinist, and has a brother who plays the flute. He won an open scholarship to the Royal College of Music in 1939, after which he did a season with the Scottish Orchestra before becoming principal horn with the L.S.O. He spent seven years with Denniss Brian in the Philharmonia Orchestra and is at present co-principal in the B.B.C. Symphony Orchestra.

Michael Thomas

is at present recording concerts and making permanent recordings of music of keyboard instruments of exceptional historical importance on the continent and in England and Ireland. During the past few years he has recorded recitals on most of the famous old harpsichords, organs and clavichords. He is a person who has made the most thorough study of the technique, phrasing and ornamentation of old music and has, through his long experience and experiments with old instruments, learned how these techniques may best be applied to the old instruments that were used in historical times.

Terence Weil

studied at the Royal Academy of Music, where he won numerous prizes for Chamber Music including the Sir Edward Cooper prize. He was a member of the Hurwitz String Quartet until it disbanded in 1951. He has been principal ‘cello of many chamber orchestras but is at present free-lancing. He is a founder member of the Melos Ensemble.

[p 12]

[advertisement, Universal Edition, for the path to the new music by Anton Webern]

[p 13]

Sunday 16th August

5.0 p.m. Lecture

in the Assembly Room

8.30 p.m. Concert

in the Assembly Room

[p 14/15]

Music in Our Time

Lecture 5.0 p.m.

ALEXANDER GOEHR will lecture on certain aspects of contemporary music with particular reference to works being performed in the evening concert.

Concert 8.30 p.m.

Introduced by MICHAEL TIPPETT

A concert of contemporary English Music

Promoted by: Institute of Contemporary Arts.

Society for the Promotion of New Music

Barbara Elsie            Soprano

Margaret Kitchin            Pianoforte

Peter Maxwell Davies            Pianoforte

Richard Adeney            Flute

Gervase de Peyer            Clarinet

Neill Sanders            Horn

Osian Ellis            Harp

Emmanuel Hurwitz            Violin

Terence Weil            ‘Cello

John Carewe            Conductor

Three Piano Pieces, op.5            Hugh Wood

These pieces were written for my wife to play, the first for a Wigmore Hall recital in January 1961, and the whole set for a midday recital at the 1963 Cheltenham Festival. the first, Lento, consists of a long tune with rises to a climax, after which some introductory material is heard again. The second, Energico, is the longest of the three, a rondo with episodes and an introduction; the first episode features constant trills, the second is lyrical, in a slower tempo. The main theme appears in a different register each time. The third piece, Calmo, is very short, reminiscent in its materials, valedictory in its nature.

[p 16]

Monody for Corpis Christi Harrison Birtwistle

[lyrics reproduced in original]

The first movement is a simple arch whose main member is the vocal line (to which all other parts are embellishments and from which they may be said to stem). Its rise and descent are emphasized by the gradual addition of instruments from the beginning and their subtraction towards the end, and by the gradually increasing complexity of the instrumental episodes separating the couplets.

This movement leads without a break into an instrumental fantasia Quasi fanfara in contrasting sections, at first very short and static, then longer and more flowing, the whole serving as a transition between the different levels of tension of the two movements for voice.

The third movement follows without interruption and again the overall form is very simple. Each stanza grows in intensity towards its end; in between the two there is a brief instrumental episode ending with a flute cadenza.

Sonata for Piano Anthony Gilbert

This sonata was written in 1961-62 and was first performed by Margaret Kitchin at the S.P.N.M. Cheltenham Festival concert in 1962. There are three movements:

1. Vivace. The overall shape is that of classical sonata form with two contrasting subject-groups, a bipartite section of development in which each group is treated in accordance with its individual character, and an elliptical reprise and coda.

2. Cantilena is a simple, song-type movement in three sections of continuous variation. The middle section, characterized by a pedal, forms a central point of repose for the whole sonata, while the third part recalls the other two and has the function of a coda.

[p 17]

3. Scherzo. This opens with two contrasting motifs and the first part of the movement is concerned with their development and gradual integration. As they become more completely combined the section reaches a climax which triggers off Trio 1, a set of short variations on a rhythmic motif. After a short link using first-section material there follows Trio 2, which is free and rhapsodic in character, and has echoes of the first and second movements. The final section is a telescoped and varied version of the first.

Sonata No.2 for Piano Michael Tippett

This Sonata was written early in 1962 and first performed by Margaret Kitchin at the

Edinburgh Festival of that year. It is in one continuous movement.

Composed very shortly after the completion of “King Priam,” the sonata derives form from the dramatic structure of at opera, and some of its materials from the orchestral piano part. It constitutes a complete departure from normal sonata procedure in that there is virtually no development; the sonata grows by statement – the constant addition of new material and by variation and repetition of material previously given. Constant use is made of new materials and by variation and repetition of material previously given. Constant use is made of contrasts: contrasts of texture, contrasts of tempi and timbres and contrasts between static and dynamic. Towards the end the phrases and motifs get shorter and tension grows until the final page, which is a coda concerned with the elimination of the principal motifs.

INTERVAL (25 minutes)

Five Little Pieces Peter Maxwell Davies

(first performance)

The five little piano pieces were composed between 1960 and 1962.

Suite, op. 11            Alexander Goehr

This work was commissioned by the Aldeburgh Festival Committee for the Melos Ensemble who gave its first performance in June, 1961. The object was to produce a piece of light, serenade-like character with an important part for flute and harp. There are five movements.

The first is a quick movement in three main sections. The first and second of these alternate two sharply distinguished types of material in continually varied forms; the third in contrast is a flowing section for solo flute with string accompaniment. There are two repeats: the first section is played again immediately, and the second again after the third.

The second movement is an Intermezzo for harp in improvisatory style. The structural principle is the note-by-note changing of two superimposed chords by pedal shifts.

The third movement is a Scherzo. This is very lightly scored, being almost all in one part over a pedal. Of its two main motifs, the first on the ‘cello is recognisable as the clarinet motif from the first movement in equal notes. Its “head” is used throughout the movement as a sort of punctuation mark dividing sections. The Trio comes right at the end and is for the three stringed instruments only; finally there is an eight-bar coda on scherzo material.

The fourth movement is an Arietta for solo flute, backed by a horn pedal of three notes, with brief answering figures on viola, ‘cello and harp.

The finale is a true Quodlibet in which short blocks of material from all the previous movements are juxtaposed mosaic-wise. There are two cadenzas: one for flute on Scherzo material, and one for harp on Trio material. The whole is held together by a horn-call which recurs like a rondo-theme, and whose origins are revealed to the sharp ear on its final appearance.

[p 18]

[Advertisement for UE composers Harrison Birtwistle and Hugh Wood]

[p 19]

Monday, 17th August

5.0 p.m. RECITAL

in the Old Kitchen

8.30 p.m. CONCERT

in the Assembly Room

[p 20/21]

Early Organ Music            Recital 5.0 p.m.

Peter Maxwell Davies will introduce and play early music on a newly restored Snitzler organ. Works by: Dunstable, Taverner, Byrd, Tomkins, Gabrielli, Scheidt, Zipoli etc.

The Organ

The organ belongs to Peter Maxwell Davies and was made by Snitzler in 1768.

Snitzler’s soundboards have little pallets directly under the keys which are operated by a pin on the underside of the key, thus giving an extremely light and responsive touch. The disadvantage of this method is that the wind channels are small, so that it is only possible to play three or four rows of pipes at once.

This organ originally possessed an ordinary stopped Diapason 8’, and open Diapason 8’ which contrasted with it, a Dulciana with tongues and beards, and a very small scale, also 8’, and small Dulciana Principle: the effect was rather soft and lacked virility. The pipes were therefore transposed to give a stopped Diapason and Principle, and the Dulcianas became the 12th and 15th. In this way the incisive Snitzler tone was immediately regained.

Chamber Concert            8.30 p.m.

Melos Ensemble

Lamar Crowson            Piano

Gervase de Peyer            Clarinet

Emmanuel Hurwitz            Violin

Neill Sanders            Horn

Terence Weil            ‘Cello

Pianoforte Trio in F sharp minor Haydn

Haydn’s Piano Trios belong rather to his piano music than to that for string ensemble. The keyboard plays a dominant part in all of them and the use of the violin, and particularly the ‘cello, is held by some authorities to be optional. The first editions describe them as “Sonatas pour le piano-forte avec accompagnement de violon et violoncello,” and the violin rarely goes above 2nd position, the ‘cello merely duplicating the bass of the piano.

This interesting work is one of a group of three composed in or before 1795 and dedicated to his English friend, Mrs. Schroeter.

There are three movements, the first of which, a sonata allegro, is notable for its wealth but as it reaches the dominant cadence it acquires a minor flavour, providing an excuse to plunge straight into A for the middle section. The procedure in reverse brings back the tonic towards the end.

The Finale is a Minuet in F-sharp minor of great beauty, with a trio consisting of the same material transplanted to the tonic major. Without going beyond the canons of Haydn’s normal minuet procedure, it provided a most satisfactory ending to the work.

[p 22]

Six Little Piano Pieces, op. 19            Schoenberg

Light, tender

Slow.

Very slow.

Quick, but light.

Somewhat quick.

Very slow.

The first five of these pieces were written on 19th February, 1911; the sixth was written in June, just four weeks after the death of Mahler, to whom it constitutes a kind of epitaph.

Around this time perhaps more than at any other period Schoenberg was preoccupied with problems of form – particularly of finding more appropriate vessels for his rapidly evolving atonality. There is no doubt that he was struck by the aphoristic manner of Webern’s op. 6, and particularly of the violin pieces op. 7, to the extent of being impelled to see what possibilities the very short form held for himself.

In addition, in these little pieces we find him for the first time calling into question the traditional relationship between melody and accompaniment, and investigating the possibility of more interesting functions for the latter. So, for example, in Nos. 1, 2 and 4 it becomes merely an extension or feature of the melody, serving to heighten its expressiveness in various ways, and No. 6, the strangest piece of all, is concerned with the almost elimination of both elements.

Seven Sketches, op. 9            Bartok

These piano pieces were composed between 1908-10, and are, in a way, a diary of Bartók’s development as a composer in these years. The first ones reflect his early preoccupation with western mannerisms – particularly impressionism; the later ones show his growing interest in the folk-idioms of his own land.

1. Portrait of a Young Girl: to wit, Marta Ziegler, its dedicatee, whom he married in 1909. A short piece in ternary form, betraying the influence of, surprisingly enough, Busoni in its harmonic style and its treatment of material.

2. A Swing. Two motifs are used in alternation: the first a rocking, polytonal figure, the second a bagpipe tune in not quite a whole tone scale.

3. is dedicated to Mr. and Mrs. Z. Kodály. The lack of title emphasizes Bartòk’s abandonment of impressionism; the piece is simply a rhapsodic melody unfolded in rubato-parlando style over an accompaniment of major tenths.

4. is another rhapsodic piece. After an 11-bar introduction a Hungarian-style melody is presented in varied forms over a florid accompaniment.

5. A Rumanian Folk Melody, and 6., a dance in the Valachian manner, are still closer to popular sources, and foreshadow the Bartók of Mikrokosmos.

7. In this piece, perhaps the most interesting of all the Sketches, brief modal phrases succeed one another with striking juxtapositions of tonality; there is a gradual metamorphosis to irregular rhythms and whole-tone scales, and in the long code to note-clusters.

Première Rhapsodie for clarinet and piano            Debussy

This piece was written in 1910 as a test piece for clarinet competitions at the Conservatoire at which it was Debussy’s duty to adjudicate. It was subsequently orchestrated (the style of the accompaniment seems to indicate that this was his intention all along) and in this form is said to have been regarded by Debussy as one of the most pleasing pieces he had written.

It is freely constructed (as befits a Rhapsody) from static blocks of contrasting material in three main categories: slow and dreamy, poco mosso and scherzando, sharply juxtaposed or joined by brief linking passages.

Four Pieces for clarinet and piano, op.5             Berg

These pieces were written in the summer of 1913, and are dedicated to Schoenberg’s “Society for Private Performances,” under whose auspices they were first played more than six years later. Their epigrammatic style is an untypical of Berg as Schoenberg’s op. 19, their obvious model, is of him.

1. The clarinet’s opening six-note figure is a skilful simultaneous exposition of all the motivic elements of the piece, which in any case all spring from the single governing principle of intervallic expansion. Its form is very simple – the piano and clarinet move in opposite directions to the central climax which is held for two bard and then quickly falls away to a code of static harmonies.

2. This utilizes the same motivic elements as No. 1 in a pianissimo conflict between two kinds of ostinato accompaniment in the piano and a simple melodic line in the clarinet. The climax is expressed without rising above p, simply being the point at which the conflict resolves in favour of one of the ostinati.

3. Another very quiet piece, falling into four sharply contrasted sections, the first two quick and nervous, the third slow and flowing and the fourth an elliptical reprise and headlong code to be played as quickly and quietly as possible.

4. This piece takes farther the idea inherent in No. 3. The contrasted sections, each characterized by a different ostinato, are again present (though the speeds are the reverse of those in No. 3); likewise the sonata-like reprise before the code. Now, however, in spite of the ostinato, the piece is not static: it is aimed at the explosive climax which ends the first part of the code. The coda proper is simply three bars of echo.

INTERVAL (25 minutes)

[p 24]

Fantasia in C minor, K475            Mozart

This piece, written in 1875 for his gifted pupil Thérèse von Trattner, is one of four Fantasias for the piano composed in Mozart’s later years. It was customary for him to precede performances of his sonatas with an improvised introduction in the same key; the present Fantasia, published by Mozart as a prelude to the Sonata K457, may be taken as a fairly close indication of the nature of these improvisations.

It is made up of five contrasted open-ended sections: the first Adagio, the second a D major episode in the same tempo, the third a stormy Allegro in two halves, linked by a brief cadenza to the fourth, Andantino in B-flat; the fifth is another stormy Allegro. The whole is rounded off by a recapitulation and code on first-section material.

The organization of keys is interesting. The first, third and fifth sections are unstable and constantly modulating, any affirmations of the home (or any) key being rigorously avoided. The second and fourth are anchor sections firmly in keys two removes [sic] from home on the dominant and the subdominant sides respectively – so that the acute ear may sense an implied tonic midway between. However, not until the final section is the home key reached and established.

Trio for Piano, Violin and Horn, op.40            Brahms

This is one of a group of works composed after Brahms’ resignation in 1864 as Director of the Vienna Choral Society. It is a very much a horn trio; the horn part is as it were the backbone of the work, and the character of all the melodic material is determined by its appropriateness to that instrument.

The first movement is an Andante of unusual design, with boldly planned key relationships. There are two balancing sections, each in two contrasting parts, organised as follows: Andante in E-flat (2/4 time); poco più animato in C minor and G minor (9/8); Andante in E-flat; poco più animato in E-flat minor and B-flat minor, leading to a final Andante in G-flat which modulates back to the home key at the final climax.

The Scherzo begins with a long (12-bar) upbeat to the principal motif, whose four bars of 2/4 rhythm in 3 contrast strikingly with the overall 3/4 pulse.  The whole of the first section is built up from the material of these first 16 bars – a secondary motif given out by the horn on the next page plays little part in the growth of the movement. The Trio in the subdominant minor is less exuberant and decisive in character; the melody owes its outline to the “upbeat” motif of the previous section. After 76 bars uninterrupted by any form of full cadence the Scherzo is given de capo.

In the third movement, Adagio mesto in E-flat minor, there are four sections whose exact symmetry and the economy of whose material are belied by the flowing, almost rhapsodic manner in which the music unfolds.

The Finale is a lively movement in sonata form, through whose many modulations the horn is handled with such adroitness that accidentals seldom appear in the part.

[p 25]

Tuesday, 18th August

5.0 p.m. Lecture

in the Assembly Room

8.30 p.m. Concert

in the Assembly Room

[p 26/27]

Quartet for the End of Time            Lecture 5.0 p.m.

Olivier Messiaen, the Man and His Music

given by Hugh Wood

Concert 8.30 p.m.

Members of the Melos Ensemble

Emmanuel Hurwitz            Violin [viola]

Gervase de Peyer            Clarinet

Terence Weil            Violoncello

Lamar Crowson            Pianoforte

Clarinet Trio in E flat K498            Mozart

Andante;

Menuetto;

Rondo – Allegretto

The year 1786 was a trying one for Mozart. He was heavily in debt, his newly completed Marriage of Figaro had been withdrawn after only nine performances, and he had lost his third son. Nevertheless in the space of only six months he managed to turn out eight masterpieces, of which this Trio is one. It was written for his friends Francisca Jacquin and Anton Stadler with Mozart himself playing the viola part.

The unusual choice of instruments gives a mellow, closely-knit ensemble capable of considerable expressive power, and it was no doubt with this possibility in mind that Mozart made the first movement an andante rather than an allegro, almost – but not quite – discarding the sonata in favour of the song-form. The movement grows continuously from the motif in the first bar, and very little other material is introduced,

The second movement is a vigorous Minuet with a Trio effectively contrasting the timbres of the clarinet and viola in dialogue.

The theme of the final Rondo springs from a fragment of the “2nd subject” in the first movement. Little important music is given to the viola in the first section, in order to heighten the effect of its striking C-minor entry in the second episode. Save for a few bars of A-flat melody in the central part, its rôle is secondary until nearly the end, during a final brilliant reworking of the Rondo theme.

[p 28]

Four Impromptus, op. 142            Schubert

This is the style under which, mainly for commercial reasons. Schubert published the first of four piano sonatas written during the last 10 months of his life. And although undeniably a sonata of sorts, there is a certain looseness about its construction which suits its new name better.

For instance, in the first movement, Allegro moderato, there is an F-minor first subject and an A-major second subject, but where we might expect a development there is a longish passage of new material which moves into all sorts of interesting keys but does not grow. This innovation is taken a step further when the passage is reintroduced in the recapitulation, and at last Schubert’s scheme – a simple binary form – becomes apparent.

The second movement, Allegretto, is a Sarabande and trio going hand in hand with the first movement in key and character.

The third, Andante, is a set of variations on a tune from Rosamunde.

The finale, Allegro Scherzando, is in clearly defined ABA form, but the manner of organising the material in the outer sections gives it certain Rondo characteristics. It is perhaps the most imaginative of the movement. Cross-rhythms abound, the harmonic structure is striking, and the lead back from the central to the final section is magical.

INTERVAL (25 minutes)

Quatuor pour la fin du temps Olivier Messiaen

“And I saw another might angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud, and a rainbow was on his head, and his face was as the sun, and his feet were as pillars of fire… and he set his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot upon the earth… and standing upon the sea and upon the earth, lifted up his head to heaven; and he swore by him that liveth for ever… that time shall be no longer; but in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound the trumpet, the mystery of God shall be finished…” (Apocalypse of St. Jonn, Chapter X).

Conceived and written during my captivity, the Quatuor pour la fin du temps was first performed in Stalag Villa on 15th January, 1941, by Jean le Boulaire (violin), Henri Akoka (clarinet), Etienne Pasquier (‘cello) and myself on the piano. It was directly inspired by the above quotation from the Apocalypse. Its musical language is essentially immaterial, spiritual, catholic. Modes which, melodically and harmonically, realize a kind of tonal ubiquity, being the listener nearer to eternity in space or the infinite. Special rhythms, not bound by regular metre, powerful serve to put the temporal at a distance. (All this is but mere tentative stammering if one thinks of the overwhelming grandeur of its subject).

This “Quartet” is in eight movements. Why so? Seven is the perfect number, the six days of creation sanctified by the divine Sabbath; the seven of rest extends into eternity and becomes the eight of undecaying light, of unalterable peace.

1. “Liturgy of Crystal.” Between three and four in the morning, the birds awaken: a blackbird or solo nightingale improvises, surrounded by a fine sprinkling of sound, a halo of trills lost high in the treetops. Transfer this to the religious place, and you have the harmonious silence of heaven.

2. “Vocalise, for the Angel who announces the end of Time.” The first and third parts (very short) evoke the power of this mighty angel arrayed in cloud with a rainbow upon his head, who places one foot upon the sea and the other foot upon the land. The “middle section” depicts the impalpable harmonic of heaven. Gentle cascades of orange-blue chords on the piano surround with their distant carillon quasi-plainchant recitatives on violin and ‘cello.

3. “Abyss of the birds.” Clarinet solo. The abyss is Time, with its sadness, its wearinesses. The birds are the opposite of Time; they are our desire for light, stars, rainbows and paeans of jubilation.

4. “Interlude.” A Scherzo, more extrovert in character than the previous movement, but linked with them, nevertheless, by a number of melodic “reminders.”

5. “Praise to the Eternity of Jesus.” Jesus is considered here as the Word. A long ‘cello phrase, infinitely slow, magnifies with love and reverence the eternity of this might and gently Word, “whose years shall never be exhausted.” Majestically the melody spreads out, into the tender and sovereign distance. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God.”

6. “Dance of fury for the seven trumpets.” Rhythmically, this is the most characteristic piece of the set. The four instruments playing in unison take on the sound of gongs and trumpets (the first six trumpets of the apocalypse following by various catastrophes, the trumpet of the seventh angel announcing the consummation of the mystery of God. Use is made of added values, augmented or diminished rhythms, and non-retrogradable rhythms. Stone music, formidable granitic sound; the irresistible movement of steel, enormous blocks of purple fury, glacial drunkenness. Listen above all to the terrible fortissimo augmentation of the theme with its notes all changed in register which comes towards the end of the piece.

7. “A confusion of rainbows, for the Angel who announced the end of Time.” Certain passages for the second movement return here. The almighty Angel appears, and so, particularly, does the rainbow which he wears (the rainbow, symbol of peach, goodness, and of all vibration in light and sound). In my dreams I hear and see groups of chords and melodies, known colours and shapes; then after this transitory phase I move into the unreal and experience with ecstasy a whirling and mingling together of superhuman sounds and chords. These fiery swords, these torrents of blue-orange lava, these sudden starts: these are confusions, these are rainbows.

8. “Praise to the Immortality of Jesus.” A broad violin solo, acting as pendant  to the ‘cello solo of the 5th movement. Why this second praise? It is addressed more particularly to the second aspect of Jesus, to Jesus the Man, to the Word made flesh, returning immortal to give us His life. It is all love. Its slow climb to the heights is the ascension of man towards his God, of the child of God towards its Father, of the beatified creatures towards Paradise.

– And I say again what I said above: “all thus us but mere tentative stammering if one thinks of the overwhelming grandeur of its subject.’

(Notes translated from score by Anthony Gilbert)

[p 30]

At the age of 56, Olivier Messiaen is almost certainly the most distinguished composer working in Europe today. He was born in 1908 at Avignon, song of a Shakespearean scholar and a poetess. He entered the Paris Conservatoire when he was only 11, and there studied the organ under Marcel Dupré, theory under Maurice Emmanuel and composition under Paul Dukas. At 18 he won the first prize for counterpoint and fugue, and he went on to win first prizes for piano accompaniment, organ playing, improvisation, music history and composition. His first mature work was, like so much of his later output, for the organ: Le Banquet Céleste, written in 1928. The Eight Preludes for piano followed in 1929: it was on the recommendation of Dukas that they were published. In 1931 he was appointed organist at the Great Organ of Holy Trinity, Paris. Other works of these years include Les Offrandes oubliées, L’Ancension, the Theme and Variations for Violin and Piano, and the Nativité du Seigneur cycle for organ. In 1936 he appeared as the leader of a group of young musicians calling themselbes “La Jeune France,” the other being André Jolivet, Daniel Lesur and Yves Baudrier. In this year also he was appointed professor at the Ecole Normale and at the Schola Cantorum. Works 1936-39: Poemes pour Mi, Chants de terre et de ciel, and the Corps glorieué for organ.

Messiaen enlisted at the beginning of the war and was taken prisoner during the fall of France in 1940. It was in a German prison camp in Silesia that he wrote the Quatuor pour la fin du temps (1941). This work was the harbinger of the most prolific period of his career. He was repatriated to occupied France and then wrote the Visions de l’Amen for two pianos, for Trios petites liturgies de la Présence Divine (the first work of his to become widely known after the war), the immense piano work Vignt regards sur l’Enfant Jésus, the similarly large-scale song-cycle Harawi, and then his chef d’oeuvre the Turangalila Symphony. This was written in 1946-48 and has been performed many times all over Europe and in America since its first performance in Boston in 1949. In 1953 and 1954 two performance took place in London, conducted by Walter Goehr. The work has recently been recorded.

On his return to France, Messiaen had been appointed professor of harmony at the Conservatoire, and before the end of the war a lively group of young pupils had gathered themselves round him, including the 19-year-old Pierre Boulez. The title of his appointment was changed in 1947 to that of Professor of Aesthetics, rhythmic studies and of the analysis class; a wider range of pupils now included Karheinz Stockhausen, Jean Barraque, Yannis Xenakis and Gilbert Amy. During the years 1947-53 Messiaen gave classes at various musical centres, including Budapest, Sarrebruck, Tanglewood and Darmstadt. His Quatre Etudes de rhythme for piano was begun on Darmstaft in 1949, and this work has had a great influence on composers of the Darmstadt circle. Other works of this time: Canteyodjaya for piano; the Cinq Rechants for choir; the Messe de la Pentecote for organi; Le Merle Noir for flute and piano; and the Livre d’orgue.

During the last 10 years Messiaen’s name has become well-known all over the world and his importance recognised as one of the sources of new musical thought. Latterly his works are even to be heard in England, where in particular his organ music now received regular performances. A recent group of works springs from the composer’s lifelong preoccupation with bird-song: the Réveil des oiseaux (1953) for piano and orchestra; the Oiseaux exotiques (1956) for piano, wind ensemble and percussion, and the piano work Catalogue d’oiseaux (1959). More recent still is Chronochromie (1960), an important work for large orchestra, and the Haikai for piano and clarinet solo and chamber ensemble (1962).

Hugh Wood

[p 31]

Wednesday, 19th August

5.0 p.m. Recital

in the Old Kitchen

8.30 p.m. Discussion

in the Assemble Room

[p 32/33]

Flute and Harpsichord

Recital 5.0 pm

Lucy Berthoud            Flute

Michael Thomas            Harpsichord

Suite in D Major            Rameau

Sonata in B Minor            J. S. Bach

Ordre in B Minor            Couperin

Sonata No. 6 in E Minor            J. S. Bach

Rameau and Couperin

Couperin (Le Grand), 1668-1733. His music for clavecin was called “Ordres,” another name for suite. They were published between 1713-30 with varying numbers of movements, some with 10 or 15 and the longest 23. He was a master of a musical miniature and pieces include portrait studies and nature sketches, e.g. Les Tricoteuses and Les Petits Moulins a Vent.

Rameau, 1683-1764. He was the most prominent figure of his day in French opera but won fame in all musical arts including writing for the clavecin in which he followed Couperin. Picturesque titles of his music for harpsichord include La Poule and Les Tourbillons.            G.S.S.

Flute Sonatas J.S. Bach

Bach wrote six flute sonatas, the first three have a fully written up part for the right hand of the harpsichord and can, therefore, be regarded as trio sonatas with the harpsichord playing the solo melodic part as well as the base. No. 1 in B minor has a long first movement marked andante in which the flute and the harpsichord alternate in a long melodic line and, of course, often play the two subjects against each other. Indeed both subjects are played together in the very first line. The faster semiquaver subject can really be regarded as two parts in quavers, as is so common in much of Bach’s music, which looks like a single part. It contains no harmony but tonic and dominant till the third bar. The harmony changes abruptly when a chromatic movement is introduced. This is, of course, developed in the course of the movement. The middle section of the movement is a much lighter subject in quick moving triplets. This is perhaps the longest and one of the most beautiful movements in all the Bach sonatas. The 2nd movement, a largo, is really a development form the siciliano but considerable complications and additions have arisen in the rhythm by the second bar. The 3rd movement is a short movement marked presto and starts with a canon with the harpsichord following the flute nine bars later. This time there is a chromatic climbing movement. The movement is in the form of a fughetta without cadence to the end. The last movement is a jig but of the highly developed type and note suitable for dancing in so far as the first beat of the three semiquavers instead of being an articulated down beat is actually a sustained syncopation in the very first bar. Again this contains a canon but it is at the unison pitch instead of at the 5th, the harpsichord entering in the fourth bar. Bach’s flute sonata No. 6 begins with an adagio but which is a completely expressive work and it would be difficult to say that it was closely related to any of the dance movement but bears more resemblance to a slow movement by Quantz. The 2nd movement is allegro in straight-forward binary form and in the Italian style. The 3rd movement is again a siciliano. The 4th movement is allegro again in binary form.

[p 34/35]

The Harpsichord

While engaged in restoring harpsichords, Michael Thomas became interested in two types of this instrument, which seemed to him to be particularly fine: one being the Italian and the other the French type.

After much experimenting independent of any specific model, Michael Thomas constructed this instrument in which he has sought to incorporate the best qualities of each type.

He uses the light construction and small bridge found in the Italian model, thus giving it simultaneously a deep hollow resonance and an enormous harmonic range; and by bending the wood of the curved side only as far as it will naturally and easily go, he has obtained the depth of tone of the French instrument. A clear attack on each note is achieved by the use of quills for plucking the harpsichord.

Opera Today            Discussion 8.30 p.m.

Alexander Goehr, Peter Maxwell Davies, Michael Tippett

Chairman: Harrison Birtwistle

Opera Today

Michael Tippett’s activities in the operatic field are already well known to all. His two works for the stage, dating from 1952 and 1961 respectively, for which in both cases he was his own librettist, are among the most striking and original contributions to opera this century.

Peter Maxwell Davies has for the past two years been working on his first opera, based on the life of John Taverner, and now nearing completion.

Alexandr Goehr began, and abandoned, his first opera some years ago. Its subject was the Women of Troy, and a fragment survives in the orchestral work Hecuba’s Lament. His activities in recent months as musical director of various stage productions at the Mermaid Theatre have resulted in his increasing absorption with music on the stage, and he has recently been commissioned to write an opera on the play Arden of Feversham.

[p 36]

[advertisement for Schott’s composers: Banks, Blomdahl, Davies, Franciax, Fricker, Gilbert, Goehr, Hamilton, Hartman, Henze, Hindemith, Huber, Nono, Orff, Rainier, Schoenberg, Schuller, Searle, Seiber, Stravinsky and Tippett.]

[p 37]

Thursday, 20th August

5.0 p.m. Recital

in the Assembly Room

8.30 p.m. Lecture

in the Assembly Room

[p 38/39]

Matinee for Erik Satie            Recital 5.0 p.m.

Susan McGaw            Piano

Four songs without words Mendlessohn

F sharp minor op. 19, no. 5

B minor op.67, no. 5

F minor op. 62, no. 3

A minor op. 38, no. 5

1st Gymnopedies Satie

3rd Gnossiemme Satie

Vieux sequins et Vielles Cuirasses Satie

Passion Sonata no. 6, A major            C. P. E. Bach

Allegro

Adagio

Allegro

Pieces friod 1st set            Satie

Airs a faire fuire Satie

Three songs without words Mendelssohn

G major op. 62, no. 1

D major op. 85, no. 4

A major op. 102, no. 5

Erik Satie: 1866-1925

The amount of discussion of a non-musical nature aroused by Satie’s eccentricities led people for many years almost to forget he was a musician; now, with the arrival of new eccentrics on the musical scene, most people have even forgotten Satie the lunatic. Even when, at the age of 54, he suddenly found himself hailed as leader of the Parisian avant-garde, it was less as a musician than as High Priest of a new aesthetic cult devised by Cocteau that he was worshipped, and rarely at any period since his death have any but a dwindling number of devotees taken the trouble to disregard the funny words and listen simply to his music.

This is a pity, because although undeniably a most interesting character in many ways, it is in the light of his contribution as a composer pure and simple that he new deserves to be considered.

Maybe he never produced a large-scale masterpiece, and maybe his influence is not as profound or as far-reaching as other influences this century; nevertheless, musically he is a true original, and the best of his work has a timeless quality that puts it in another category altogether from all the bizarrerie.

His was a fairly prolific composer, the bulk of his output being for the piano, either solo or duet, and this portion of his work contains his best and most characteristic pieces. Few of them are long; most are in groups, generally of three; and quite often, like the Gymnopédies and the Sarabandes, they are just three ways of looking at the same idea.

He had a way of anticipating points of technique in other composers by some 15 or 20 years. In his earlier piano pieces are to be found harmonic innovations used much later by Debussy and Ravel; slightly later pieces gave Stravinsky his mechanical accompaniment figures, and in later ones still, in particular the “3 Valses du Précieux Dégoûté” and the 20 “Sports et Divertissements,” his masterpiece, we find utilizes Messiaen’s techniques of incantatory repetition and the systematic juxtaposition of brief unrelated phrases.

The groups of pieces we are to hear this afternoon are among his best-known and least-known works. The Gymnopédies were published in 1887 and quickly achieved popularity; Vieux Séquins et Vielles Cuirasses (1914) belongs to a period of advanced buffoonery through which Satie went during the years following his celebrated return to the Schola Cantorum

[p 40/41]

Lecture 8.30 p.m.

Musical Characterization in Mozart Opera

with particular reference to Don Giovanni

Stephen Pruslin, Princeton University

Friday, 21st August

8.30 p.m. Concert

at Old Wardour Castle

Saturday, 22nd August

8.30 p.m. Concert

at Donhead St. Andrew Parish Church

[p 42/43]

Concert 8.30

Nocturnal

A concert in the open air* of English and Italian echo-music from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries for brass and voices.

Given by: Gabrieli Ensemble and Choir conducted by Peter Maxwell Davies, Alexander Goehr.

Music by: Maschera, Isaac, A. and G. Gabrieli, Locke, etc.

* Under cover if wet

Concert 8.30 p.m.

Participants Concert

A concert given by the participants of the summer school

Conductors: John Carewe, Michael Tippett

Morgengesang C. P. E. Bach

Symphony Haydn

Sequentia Sanctia Evangeli Secundam Lucan, in illo Tempore XXII 14-20 Peter Maxwell Davies

(first performance written for the summer school)

Fantasias Gibbons

For these concerts a more comprehensive programme will be available on the day.

Juilliard recently got a face lift, and while for the past two years I was rather against seeing my beloved Juilliard Plaza go, now I must say I kinda like it. The new building looks very chic, and when a little bird told me of a (free) cello studio recital there last Friday, I decided to go check it out. Getting to Morse Hall was pretty easy. It is a cozy little recital space, but Bonnie Hampton’s ten cellists made it epic.

The program ranged from baroque to modernism. The most enjoyable part of the concert was to see how 10 cellos interact, and how they vary piece to piece. The first half of the program had all ten students on stage and opened with a  beautiful Bach Chorale “An Wasserflüssen Babylon.” The harmonies of the chorale contrasted with the conversation in “Hymn to Saint Cecilia” by Colin Hampton, the second piece.

Next came a series of ten preludes for the solo cello composed by Sofia Gubaidulina. Watching this was pretty much an earth-shattering experience. There was a prelude titled “Ricochet” in which the cellist actually hit her bow against the cello strings and let it bounce. Another prelude had the cellist plucking with her fingering hand (imagine the force!), only occasionally rubbing the strings with her index finger wrapped in paper instead of using a bow. While not all of the preludes were this innovative, they still offered some new perspectives on the cello.

The first half concluded with Villa-Lobos’ “Fugue (Conversa),” which was probably my favorite piece. Aside from being a conversation between cellos, there were parts of it when the cellists looked like they were all dancing together.

The second half of the program was three cello quartets playing chamber music. It was pretty interesting that all pieces were originally written for the violin, but then arranged for cello quartets by Laszlo Varga. The students performed Vivaldi’s Concerto Grosso in D Minor, Op. 3, No. 11, Bartok’s Hungarian Peasant Songs, and Bach’s Chaconne in D minor, BWV 1004. Of these, I enjoyed the arrangement for the Chaconne the most. The lush harmonies of the cello quartet arrangement create a moodier tone than in the violin solo. If you ever come across any of Varga’s cello arrangements, based on the ones from the recital, I highly recommend you listen to them.

All in all, the concert was fun, especially since it was free. Juilliard offers more free events in dance, theater, and music, and you can check them out here.

***

Ayo Alston-Moore, CC ‘11

Inspireret af min søsters indlæg om blog-søgninger besluttede jeg mig for nu til aften at tjekke min egen statistik. Her resultaterne fra i dag:

Der er ikke – hvis jeg altså har forstået det korrekt – tale om henvisninger fra søgemaskiner, men om søgninger på selve bloggen. Og “ridder blåskæg terapi” ligger vel nok i den gode ende. Hans Lucht er en digter, hvorom meget lidt vides, ud over at han skriver gode digte — og her er et bøssebillede:

By popular demand. Og Nadine Jansen – såfremt du 1) faktisk ikke vidste det, eller 2) selvfølgelig vidste det, men gerne vil have lov til at opretholde din efterhånden ret tyndslidte og ærligt talt ret trættende facade af erotisk uskyld – er hende hér:

Tju-hej.

Hvad mere? Ridder Blåskæg var en seriemorder, hvorom Bartók har skrevet en opera. Bevidsthedsmodellen, som jeg ellers var gevaldig stolt af, synes for nuværende at være forsvundet, desværre.

Og mere inspiration. Jeg er ikke god til at være FAN — så med alle mulige forbehold: Jeg er nu blevet en slags fan af ham dér Boogie. Som har sin egen kanal på Youtube. Han poster nogle ret åndssvage videoer ind-i-mellem. Denne er for eksempel ret slem:

Men faktisk er jeg vistnok aldrig tidligere stødt på et så helt igennem sympatisk menneske. På nettet, altså. Og i hvert fald ikke i den vægtklasse. Her fortæller han om sin mors død:

Og her taler han om at få det bedste ud af tingene:

Faktisk er jeg (allerede) blevet så stor en fan, at jeg har bestilt en kopi af den dér Prinsesse Leia-plakat, han har hængende:

– og som folk bliver ved med at kommentere. Og det siger faktisk en del om min grad af hengivenhed. Efterdi jeg aldrig har brudt mig om hverken “Star Wars” eller prinsessen.

Apropos Youtube: Jeg smed mit nye website på nettet i går, og af en eller anden grund valgte jeg – på siden – at inkludere et link til min Youtube-konto. Og i dag – sikkert derfor – fik jeg pludselig hele to abonnenter, nemlig Brian og Gitte. Det lægger jo et vist pres på mig m.h.t. at få oploadet et eller andet — og eftersom Gitte har lånt mit videokamera … Men måske.

Og også apropos Youtube — og apropos Boogie. Som vejer i omegnen af 250 kilo. Han er fat … en fatty. Fatass. Og så videre. Og Youtube foreslog mig andre videoer, der måske ville interessere mig — og således opdagede jeg (til min udelte begejstring, selvfølgelig), at der findes en hel og for mig hidtil ukendt sub-fetich-kultur, der handler om STORE MAVER og LEG MED STORE MAVER. Jeg har overvejet, om jeg burde bringe de følgende klip, for de virker – på mig, ærligt talt – næsten obskøne. Også selv om det for så vidt bare er maver.

Her er et spørgsmål til fri diskussion: Bliver menneskekroppen automatisk obskøn, når den når en bestemt størrelse? Eller føles det – inde i mit hoved – bare obskønt, fordi det leveres helt uden forbehold, uden ironi eller humor eller andre, formildende omstændigheder?

Som de skriver på Youtube, “May not be suitable for minors”:

1. 금요일 아침 수업의 장폴 사르트르 올리브 선생이 3명의 작업을 연달아 초토화시켰다. 심지어 피아노로 연주해 보면서도 중간 중간 멈추고, “설마…?! 안돼! 제발 아니라고 해줘!”를 연발. 이 사람 무서운 사람이었네, 지난 주에 내 작업 퇴짜 놓은 건 아무 것도 아니었구나.

2. “네가 스스로 생각하지 않으면 음악 언어와 컨벤션이 너를 가지고 논다.”는 말이 인상 깊었다. 어떤 음이 편안하게 느껴진다면 그게 왜 편안하게 느끼게 하는지를 의심하라고. 그리고 미디로 음악을 들으면서 작곡하는 것도 좋지만 그것이 상상력을 죽일 수 있음을 경계하라고. 좋은 말 같다. 남이 깨지는 걸 보며 용기를 얻었기 때문이라고는 죽었다 깨났다 다시 죽어도 말 못해…

3. 맥북이 아이폰을 인식 못하기 시작했다. iTunes 싱크는 물론이고 충전도 안돼. 혹시나 싶어서 2개 있는 케이블 모두 시험해 보고, 다른 USB 장비들도 시험해 봤지만 변함이 없다. 헐… 반면 윈7의 데스크탑에선 충전도 되고 외장형 디스크로 인식도 한다. iTunes는 깔지 않았기 때문에 싱크는 어떤지 모르겠지만. 헐… 이건 마치, 윈도 비스타가 가장 잘 돌아가는 컴퓨터는 맥프로, 이런 건가? 어쨌든 동기화를 못 하니 며칠 동안 음악도 못 바꾸고 있어 좀 답답한데, 어떻게 되려나. 데스크탑에 iTunes 깔고 싶진 않습니다만서도.

4. 루이지 선생이 하고 있는 “비라쥬 프로젝트“의 실체를 구경했다. OSC나 Minuit 프로토콜을 통해, 맥스, 리액터, 퓨어데이타, 기타 등등의 시퀀스를 조종할 수 있는 GUI 툴이다. 굉장히 재밌네, 버그는 많지만.; 베타 테스트 환영이라며 사이트 주소를 알려줬는데, 다운로드를 위한 회원가입이 안 된다. 스팸 방지를 위한 이미지 암호가 계속 오류를…;

5. 맥스 수업에 사람들이 가져오는 작업이 다 너무나 어마어마한 것들이라 계속 쫄아 있었는데, 어제는 좀 수수한 작업이어서 살짝 용기를 얻을 수 있었다.;

6. 바르토크라고 하면 나는 늘 뭔가 외롭고 무정한 강철 사나이(스탈린?!) 같은 느낌을 받는다. 왜일까, 헝가리 민속음악을 채집하고 다닌… 아니, 성격이 외톨이였다고 하긴 하지만서도.; 생각해 봤는데, 내가 어릴 때 가장 처음 접한 바르토크의 작품이 <푸른 수염의 성>이었기 때문인 것 같다. 프로코피예프에게서 받는 동화적인 인상은 분명 처음 접한 작품이 <피터와 늑대>와 <신데렐라>였기 때문이겠지. 반면 라흐마니노프를 들으면 “칼바람이 몰아치는 눈 덮인 평원에 홀로 선 느낌”을 받는다는 사람들이 많다는 건 이해가 잘 안 된다. 얼마나 예쁜 음악이냐고. 난 굉장히 로맨틱한 느낌을 받는데, <닥터 지바고> 탓인가? 하고 생각해보니 그건 차이코프스키구나. orz

7. Vimeo에서 동영상을 하나 보다가 전체화면 사이즈로 놨는데, 전체화면을 끈 다음에도 커서가 어마어마한 사이즈로 나오고 있다. 귀엽긴 한데 이거 어떻게 해야 하지…;

Symphony Orchestra

One thing that is important to the future of Western Art Music is getting the younger generation connected to the music.  Many orchestras and other organizations accomplish this with the typical instrument petting zoos and “kiddie concerts.”  An article from the Guardian in the UK discussed what are the most popular ‘classical’ works for children and you will notice that the pieces listed are 1. typical for ALL kiddie concerts 2. programmatic and 3. generally related to Disney.  RBD and I (mda) decided we would discuss this list and see if it really is good for an introduction to Western Art Music for children.  So let’s start this:

mda: Hello Rich, how are you this fine evening?

RBD: I’m doing rather well thank you very much. Looking forward to this blog.

mda: So you read the list.  Let me first start with an overall question of “what do you think of the list?”

RBD: Well, I couldn’t help but notice two things: 1. Every piece is connected to a character or story, and as you mentioned, generally via Disney. 2. I’m assuming that anything with an orchestra is considered ‘classical’ to today’s youth. I’m also curious    just how this survey was done. Did the kids get a list from which to choose? Overall, though, anytime a youngster is exposed to classical music, via cartoons, movies, commercials, that’s fine with me….er, well, as long as the kids understand to what they are listening!

An Instrument Petting Zoo!

mda: Yeah, unfortunately the article does not discuss how the list was created.  The programmatic aspect is something that strikes me quite a bit.  Obviously, it is easier to introduce a young child to a piece of music if there is a story to tell/describe/promote.  I am fine with that.  Much like you, any way to introduce a child to the wonderment of classical music is fine by me.  However, by doing this are we ultimately shrinking the amount of music to introduce to the children?  First thought…will this make children expect a story behind each piece?  What about Renaissance music (which I know you are not a fan), or Mozart, or Beethoven?

RBD: Good points. Let’s think about these pieces as ‘gateway’ pieces. As mentioned, these pieces have a story to tell, they depict something via music. Now, in classical ‘kiddie concerts’ why not do the same things with different pieces? Play something ’sad’. Play something ‘happy’. Show the audience, the children, that music can do a lot more than tell a story! After demonstrating how music can portray different emotions, then the orchestra can ask the kids to make up a story/emotion about another piece that they play. …(and now the ‘idea wheel’ gets moving, but the ‘knowing how to implement it’ wheel is a tad rusty) Maybe even send to the classrooms a week or two ahead of time, a piece of music, or send the kids back to school with a different piece of music, and have THEM make up a story! What does that piece of music say to them? Turn it into a contest/game/fun!! All in the name of getting the youth involved!

mda: Good idea.  Do you think orchestras are doing this?  Obviously you have a little more knowledge with this than I as there isn’t much need for a classical saxophonist in an orchestra.  However, I still feel like it puts too much emphasis on the story in the live performance.  The kids are getting introduced to a non-programmatic work BUT they are listening to it as a recording

Sergei Prokofiev

and not a live performance.  Am I being too picky with this? Also…hang with me here my brain just left……would it be better to introduce the children to music before they witness a live performance?  i.e. they study Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet first to understand the music and then use the live performance to strengthen their thoughts and then throw in non-programmatic works to expand their brains?  Answer that and then let’s move on to another question.  If you had the ability to introduce young children to a piece of music…any piece…what would it be?

RBD: Introduce the music to the kids BEFORE they get to the concert? Well, I think that makes the most sense ON THE PLANET! For all of the ‘kiddie concerts’ I’ve done and all the ’school gigs’ I’ve played, I keep thinking: ‘These kids are REALLY getting into this! They LOVE us!’ Then I think, ‘What if these kids had been exposed to some of this material a week or two ahead of time?’ Can you imagine playing a piece the kids have studied/heard before? They would LOVE it! Why do you think they love ‘pop’ music so much? Well, one reason is because they hear it all the time!!! Anytime you get kids listening to classical music and thinking about classical music, getting them invloved…something good has happened! Now to answer your question…What piece of music would I use to introduce classical music to kids? That’s a good question. I’m going to have to think about that for a few minutes…

(insert 5 minutes here)

…well, there are so many wonderful pieces out there. On one hand you want to present them with something beautiful, and I know we are trying to be idealistic here, but I’m going to try to be practical. Having a piece with a HUGE orchestra and choir are not cost effective. Having a smaller orchestra doesn’t expose the students to all the instruments. So, I’m going to go with…part of or the entire 1st movement of Shostakovitch 5th symphony! Hell to the Y-E-S!! What a great historical place Shostakovitch has in classical history, not to mention Russian history. There are hints of atonality in there, a march and the repression! The pain of creating music under those confines….WOW! So engaging, especially if they get to discuss it before they come to the concert hall. Now, ideally…? Mahler, anything, I’d say Mahler 2, or the fugue at the end of Beethoven 9th. How many lives can be changed with music that powerful? Hmmm….
So, what would you choose?

Ludwig von Beethoven

mda: Well I was going to say Bach B Minor Mass or Beethoven 9…how perfect is Beethoven 9.  You have a great story of the composer, the use of the choir, the ultimate story of Bernstein using it for the fall of the Berlin Wall.  But you bring up an interesting concept with being cost effective these days.  You know….maybe I would chose a Haydn symphony because they generally have a story of some sort hook to them.  How about the Surprise Symphony or the Farewell Symphony?  Now granted, it is pretty structured in the composition, but I think it could be a great introduction.  In perfect world?  I would have to chose Mahler or Bartok!  Bartok I think would be an interesting choice.  It is quite accessible, full of folk music and fun to listen to.  Thoughts?

One of our favorites! Bela Bartok

RBD: Bartok, yeah, I didn’t think about that, of course there are so many pieces from which to choose, anything can work and for a number of reasons. This has been fun my friend!

mda: Thanks for doing this with me.  And please NEVER wear sleeping/lounge pants with dogs on it when you go out in public.  I think I would stop talking to you if that happened.

RBD: Done and Done!

So, what piece of music to YOU think would be great to introduce to our youth? What piece of music would you have liked to have heard when you were young? Were you exposed to classical music as a child? If so, what pieces?

Thanks for reading and sharing

~RBD
~mda

This was the first night of a double bill, in which the main item was Bartok’s one-act opera performed by the English National Opera.

Bluebeard’s Castle is an extraordinarily dark work for two singers: Bluebeard and his new wife Judith. I thought this production by Daniel Kramer, with designs by Giles Cadle and lighting by Peter Mumford, worked very well, amply showing the light, the darkness and the blood. The castle has seven locked doors and Judith demands they be opened. When the fifth door was opened, out poured nine children, neatly arranged in increasing sizes, and behind the seventh door were the three former wives, each mother to three children. This production suggests that the wives were sadistically abused by Bluebeard, and just as he is about to do the same with his fourth wife, the opera ends. It’s intense and disturbing, and from the orchestra pit, Edward Gardner gave the music great power and lyricism. Clive Bayley sang an autistic and threatening Bluebeard, with Michaela Martens as a powerful Judith. This production was well worth the price of the ticket, and I only wish it had been followed by something more worthy.

Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring was given a tremendous rhythmic intensity by Edward Gardner, and in some ways the music complemented Bartok rather well. Unfortunately the dance-work accompanying the music — a co-production with the Fabulous Beast Dance Theatre, directed by Michael Keegan-Dolan — was a disappointment. A young man is killed, three women are drugged and gang raped by men dressed in animal heads, who later strip naked and put on women’s dresses. I liked the March Hare heads for the three women — the ones who drank the drugged tea — and the juxtaposition of March Hares and tea reminded me of Lewis Carroll’s Alice, but overall I found the interpretation unnecessarily crude. I prefer to see the performers dancing, rather than writhing horizontally on stage, because I find that more abstract choreography carries more power.

TIGHT, eclectic and above all thrillingly-daring; National Dance Company Wales last night performed an accomplished, yet perhaps not always perfect, programme at the Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff.

The company, formerly known as Diversions, were directed by Ann Sholem. They performed three dances — switching between synchronized group floor-work and organic free movements with ease.

The Andonis Foniadakis-choreographed Veil of Stars began with shimmering robotic figures stalking through billows of smoke, set to Julien Tarride’s outstanding, minimal-electronic whirrs and blips.

The dance progressed to some impressively-accurate group moves accompanied by polyrhythmic violins and piano — the music seamlessly moving between digital noise, and Terry Riley-influenced serialism.

It ended in a throbbing bass drum pulse — reminiscent of the contemporary ‘break-core’ style — before collapsing into tranquil section seeing a lone dancer held aloft by the symbiotic troupe.

This was an emotionally-absorbing and dynamic work; the powerful, musical changes mirrored in both the dancers’ individual strength and their collective awareness.

Although these traits were also identifiable in the first piece, Roy Campbell-Moore’s Hinterland, there wasn’t the diversity which made Veil of Stars so captivating.

Set to the late Alun Hoddinott’s Welsh Dances Suite, Hinterland was intended to represent a community interacting and conveying different emotions.

Although Hoddinott’s neo-classical movements could be compared to Bartok or even Stravinsky, the lack of visual dynamics made the exchanges become flat fairly quickly.

The music also went silent for periods when the dancers were in full-flow. Deliberate or not, the effect was an unsatisfying lull.

Nigel Charnock’s Lunatic was hugely-witty and had vastly-differing elements yet it suffered somewhat from the ill-advised attempt at audience participation.

The dancers’ forays into the audience, led by rehearsal director, Joanne Fong, were not executed with the professionalism of the rest of the performance, and weren’t received well.

This said, the piece did have some intriguing messages: gender subversion and the glorification of war.

In summary, although the spell of the evening was occasionally broken, such instances were fairly rare in a consistently empirical performance.

When this technical excellence met with inspired choreography and breathtaking music, as it constantly did in Veil of Stars, the results were irresistibly-captivating.

1964 Programme of Concerts as given in the publicity leaflet, a copy of which was given to me by Michael Hall. The comments are those by Hugh Wood. As further composers are interviewed their comments will be added alongside those by Wood.

Wardour Castle Summer Concerts

16-22 August, 1964

President: MICHAEL TIPPETT

Musical Director: HARRISON BIRTWISTLE

These concerts run concurrently with the Wardour Castle Summer School.

Sunday 16 August

8.30 pm Wardour Castle Assembly Room

MUSIC IN OUR TIME

Introduced by Michael Tippett

A concert of contemporary English Music.

Promoted by: Institute for the Promotion of New Music

Morag Noble – Soprano

Margaret Kitchin – Pianoforte

Peter Maxwell Davies – Pianoforte

Melos Ensemble

Three Pieces for Piano – Hugh Wood

Suite for String Trio (first performance) – Neville Gambier

Piano Sonata – Anthony Gilbert

Second Piano Sonata – Michael Tippett

Monody for Corpus Christi – Harrison Birtwistle

Five Little Pieces (first performance) – Peter Maxwell Davies

Suite Op.11 – Alexander Goehr

Monday 17 August

8.30 pm Wardour Castle Assembly Room

Chamber Concert

Melos Ensemble

Pianoforte Trio, F sharp minor – Haydn

Six Little Pieces – Bartok

Seven Sketches – Debussy

Première Rhapsody – Debussy

Vier Stüke – Berg

Fantasia in C Minor, K. 475 – Mozart

Horn Trio on E flat, Op.40 – Brahms

Tuesday 18 August

5.0 pm Wardour Castle Assembly Room.

Lecture: Oliver Messiaen, The Man and His Music

Given by Hugh Wood

Wednesday 19 August

8.30 pm Wardour Castle Assembly Room.

Discussion: Opera Today

Alexander Goehr, Peter Maxwell Davies, Michael Tippett.

Chairman: Harrison Birtwistle

5.0 pm Wardour Castle Assembly Rooms.

A Matinee for Erik Satie

Given by Susan McGaw – pianoforte

Gymnopédies – Satie

Sonatas – C. P. E. Bach

Vieux sequins et Vieilles Cuirasses – Satie

Songs without Words – Mendelssohn

Jack-in-the-Box – Satie

Friday 21 August

8.30 pm Old Wardour Castle

Nocturnal.

A concert in the open air* of English and Italian echo-music from the 16th and 17th centuries for brass and voices

Given by: Gabrieli Ensemble and Choir conducted by Peter Maxwell Davies, Alexander Goehr.

Music by Maschera, Isaac, A and G. Gabrielli

* under cover if wet

Wood’s files included a document which gives the details of this concert:

Canzon Cornetto a 4 Scheidt

Quam Pulchra Es Dunstable

Courant Dolorosa a 4 Scheidt

Paduan a 4 Scheidt

Cor Mio, mentre vi miro Monteverdi

Air, Corante, Allemande, Corante, Saraband Cocke

INTERVAL

Sonata, Hora decima No. 6 Johannes Pezel

Sonata, Hora decima No. 39 Pezel

Adieu, Adieu, my heart’s lust Cornish

Fair Phyllis I saw Farmer

Draw on, sweet night Wilbye

April is in my mistress’s face Morley

Canzon Primi Toni a 8 Morley

Canzon Septimi Toni a 8 G. Gabrielli

No, Mónica Naranjo no se ha pasado todos estos años encerrada a cal y canto en Solmanía. Tampoco Mª Teresa Campos padece ningún tipo de melanoma. Se trata de Rihanna, la presunta “cantante” que ayer decidió volver a servir copas y chupitos a 2 € en el Cheetah’s, pero que parece (repetimos, PARECE) que ha reculado y se ha puesto las pilas en un intento de conquistar de nuevo el preciado #1 de las listas de éxitos de medio primer mundo.

Escucha Hard

`Hard´es la penúltima canción filtrada de Rated R, el disco que confirmará a Rihanna como la estrella sin talento más rentable de la historia o, por el contrario, la devolverá al cuchitril sin lavabo del que nunca debió salir. Todo apuntaba a que la última premisa era la que finalmente iba a cumplirse (para fortuna de muchos); no obstante, Hard tiene algo que nos ha vuelto, de la noche a la mañana, locas de la peineta. Y es que ese sample irresitible del Can You Feel It de los benditos Jackson 5 pasado por la `chapa y pintura´ tétrica y deprimente de los trombones à-la-Bartók nos ha acabado devolviendo la ilusión por vivir y salir de la cama después de la tremenda depresión en la que nos sumimos el día de ayer tras escuchar The Wait Is Ova Wait Your Turn (cuyo vídeo se estrena hoy…tiembla GaGa!).

Sí, las estrofas son tan irrelevantes como cualquier canción de Flo Rida y el inicio del estribillo no acaba de mojarnos las bragas… pero no nos digáis que cuando Dreamy y Tricky (reyes del bearwww productores de la canción) le meten (tal cual) el citado sample de los Jacksons a Rihanna, digo, a la canción (mientras la barbadense, en un arrebato de pasión culminante, gimotea cual zorrilla del Kapital “sooo hard, sooo hard, sooo haaard, sooo haaard”…DECLARACIÓN DE INTENCIONES) no os entran ganas de que baje Dios, es decir, Jamie Foxx y con su gracia os llene el cuerpo de purpurina (…) al ritmo de vuestros caderazos de loba del extrarradio. Sabemos que sí y que habéis pasado total de seguir leyendo después del acontecimiento gráfico que acabáis de presenciar.

RiRi, vas por buen camino. De todas formas, en el Cheetah’s siguen necesitando un buen culamen negro que se contornee de tal manera que ponga a Crystal más cachonda que a la Tárrega en una charcutería.

IT’S UP TO YOU!!!

Te gustará si… mostraste una actitud comprensiva (¡cerda!) hacia el marido maltratador de `Durmiendo con su enemigo´.

P.D.: Desgraciadamente no hemos encontrado ninguna versión sin el rapero random de turno que tanto aborrecemos (ya sabéis cuál es el único rapero que nos importa).

1964 Programme of Concerts as given in the publicity leaflet, a copy of which was given to me by Michael Hall.

Wardour Castle Summer Concerts

16-22 August, 1964

President: MICHAEL TIPPETT

Musical Director: HARRISON BIRTWISTLE

These concerts run concurrently with the Wardour Castle Summer School.

Sunday 16 August

5.0 pm Wardour Castle Assembly Room

Lecture: MUSIC IN OUR TIME

Given by Alexander Goehr

8.30 pm Wardour Castle Assembly Room

MUSIC IN OUR TIME

Introduced by Michael Tippett

A concert of contemporary English Music.

Promoted by: Institute for the Promotion of New Music

Morag Noble – Soprano

Margaret Kitchin – Pianoforte

Peter Maxwell Davies – Pianoforte

Melos Ensemble

Three Pieces for Piano – Hugh Wood

Suite for String Trio (first performance) – Neville Gambier

Piano Sonata – Anthony Gilbert

Second Piano Sonata – Michael Tippett

Monody for Corpus Christi – Harrison Birtwistle

Five Little Pieces (first performance) – Peter Maxwell Davies

Suite Op.11 – Alexander Goehr

Mondat 17 August

5.0 pm The Old Kitchen, Wardour Castle

Recital: Early organ Music

Given on a newly-restored baroque organ by Peter Maxwell Davies

Music by: Dunstable, Taverner, Byrd, Tomkins, Gabrielli, Scheidt, Zipoli, etc.

8.30 pm Wardour Castle Assembly Room

Chamber Concert

Melos Ensemble

Pianoforte Trio, F sharp minor – Haydn

Six Little Pieces – Bartok

Seven Sketches – Debussy

Première Rhapsody – Debussy

Vier Stüke – Berg

Fantasia in C Minor, K. 475 – Mozart

Horn Trio on E flat, Op.40 – Brahms

Tuesday 18 August

5.0 pm Wardour Castle Assembly Room.

Lecture: Oliver Messiaen, The Man and His Music

Given by Hugh Wood

8.30 pm Wardour Castle Assembly Room

Quartet for the End of Time

Members of the Melos Ensemble

Emmanuel Hurwitz – violin, viola

Gervase de Peyer – clarinet

Terrence Weil – Violoncello

Lamar Crowson – pianoforte

Clarinet Trio in E flat, K.498 – Mozart

Impromptus, Op. 142 – Schubert

Quatuor Pour la Fin du Temps – Oliver Messiaen

Wednesday 19 August

5.0 pm The Old Kitchen, Wardour Castle

Flute and Harpsichord

Lucy Berthoud – flute

Michael Thomas – harpsichord

Sonata No. 1 in B minor – Bach

Ordre B Minor – Couperin

Sonata No. 6 in E minor – Bach

8.30 pm Wardour Castle Assembly Room.

Discussion: Opera Today

Alexander Goehr, Peter Maxwell Davies, Michael Tippett.

Chairman: Harrison Birtwistle

Thursday 20 August

5.0 pm Wardour Castle Assembly Rooms.

A Matinee for Erik Satie

Given by Susan McGaw – pianoforte

Gymnopédies – Satie

Sonatas – C. P. E. Bach

Vieux sequins et Vieilles Cuirasses – Satie

Songs without Words – Mendelssohn

Jack-in-the-Box – Satie

8.30 pm Assemble Room Wardour Castle

Lecture: Musical Characterization in Mozart Opera.

Given by Stephen Pruslin, Princeton University.

Friday 21 August

8.30 pm Old Wardour Castle

Nocturnal.

A concert in the open air* of English and Italian echo-music from the 16th and 17th centuries for brass and voices

Given by: Gabrieli Ensemble and Choir conducted by Peter Maxwell Davies, Alexander Goehr.

Music by Maschera, Isaac, A and G. Gabrieli

* under cover if wet

Saturday 22 August

8.30 pm Donhead St. Andrew Parish Church

Participants Concert

A concert given by the participants of the summer school.

Conductors: John Carewe, Michael Tippett.

Morgengesand – C. P. E. Bach

Symphony – Haydn

Sequentia Sanctia Evangeli – Peter Maxwell Davies

Secundam Lucan, in illo Tempore XXII 14-20 (first performance written for the summer school)

Fantasias – Gibbons

[…]

Cover Design by Antony Denning.

Et hop ! C’est aux étudiants de 2ème année 2009 de s’y coller maintenant : reproduire le plus fidèlement possible une scène de 10 secondes tirée d’un film en 2D (animation traditionnelle) en l’interprétant en 3D (images de synthèse).

C’est donc le moment ou jamais de bien configurer sa modélisation de façon à s’assurer qu’elle correspond bien au model sheet original (d’où un oeil de lynx obligatoire !), et à ce qu’elle soit ensuite parfaitement animable dans l’outil 3D. Les textures et l’animation arriveront dans les étapes supérieures de cet exercice hautement périllieux…

De Mulan à Nocturna en passant par Kuzco, les héros de pellicule deviennent virtuels et prennent pour l’instant l’aspect de figurines que les étudiants eux-mêmes poseraient bien sur leurs ordinateurs (si, si : ils sont comme ça, nos étudiants !).

Cette étrange position des bras que vous aurez remarquée chez chacun n’est pas là pour faire croire qu’on crucifie les Toons chez ESIA 3D (quelle idée !), mais bien parce que c’est la position la plus pratique pour animer ensuite les personnages sans trop les déformer.

J’en connais qui vont misérer pour animer les cheveux…

Je profite de la présence de Quasimodo ici pour préciser que les extraits de films à reproduire sont au choix de l’étudiant. Le bon goût cinématographique ne fait toujours pas partie des contraintes.

… et on termine par la petite Alice pour montrer qu’on attend avec impatience la version de Tim Burton. Bon, ça fait beaucoup de Disney, tout ça, j’en conviens, mais en longs métrages d’animation 2D, il n’y a pas non plus 10 000 choix possibles…

Bref, on a hâte de voir ça texturé et en mouvement ! Courage, petits scarabées !

Concert Alexandru Tomescu şi Horia Mihail la MNAR

Violonistul Alexandru Tomescu şi pianistul Horia Mihail concertează vineri, 9 octombrie, orele 19.00, la Sala Auditorium a Muzeului Naţional de Artă al României. Intrarea liberă.

În program: Enescu – Balada, Bartok – 6 dansuri româneşti, Stravinski – Suita Italiană şi Ravel – Sonata.

Recitalul este organizat în completarea expoziţiei Ipostaze ale modernismului – pictura în Bulgaria, Grecia, România, 1910-1940, în dorinţa de a oferi publicului o imagine cât mai cuprinzătoare a modernismului, în toate manifestările sale artistice. Concertul este însoţit de proiecţii video ale lucrărilor prezente în expoziţie, selectate de interpreţi pentru a realiza un dialog între muzică şi pictură.

Cu o carieră impresionantă, ce se întinde pe 4 continente şi în peste 30 de ţări, Alexandru Tomescu este liderul tinerei generaţii de violonişti români şi una dintre cele mai charismatice prezenţe artistice.

Tânărul artist foloseşte în concerte celebra vioară Stradivarius Elder-Voicu din 1702, instrument de o inestimabilă valoare, ce face parte din Patrimoniul Naţional al României.

Alexandru Tomescu şi pianistul Horia Mihail au început în 2007 o serie de turnee naţionale cu scopul de a populariza muzica clasică. În ultimul an artiştii au adăugat demersului lor cultural şi o campanie socială: strângerea de fonduri în scopuri caritabile.

Vineri, 9 octombrie 2009, orele 19.00

Sala Auditorium a MNAR, Strada Ştirbei Vodă 1-3

Intrare liberă în limita locurilor disponibile.

Rezervări la tel 021 314 81 19 sau prin e-mail la raluca@art.museum.ro

Eveniment organizat cu sprijinul Programului Cultura 2007-2013 al Uniunii Europene

Alina Patru

Educatie, Comunicare, Proiecte Culturale

Muzeul National de Arta al Romaniei

Calea Victoriei 49-53 Bucresti

www.mnar.arts.ro

Parteneri media:

Prezentarea muzeului în evidenţa CIMEC

This blog has been a bit of an experiment so far – an experiment in how-to-blog, as far as I am concerned, and I’ve realised that I probably haven’t included a whole lot of useful factual information about myself so far…..

So to rectify a little:

I’ve been composing educational piano music since 1995 when an adult student (probably no older than 22 at the time) said to me “But what I really want to do is to play the way you do when you are playing your own music”.  This set me back quite a bit, as I had never given any thought to teaching my students to play the way I did when I wasn’t performing ‘repertoire’.  My teaching was somewhat traditional in terms of content, style, outcomes and expectations.  But my performing life was anything but traditional, and many parents had sent their children to me to have lessons after they had seen me performing.

My adult student kept at me (nicely!) until she moved interstate and lessons stopped.  But somehow she had planted a seed that quickly developed into a project, a publication, and then two graded series (Little Peppers and Pepperbox Jazz).

Like many piano teachers I meet, I didn’t set out to ‘be’ a piano teacher, it kind of crept up on me. My career of choice was to be a composer – I’d been composing in earnest since I was six and I’d written the school musical while I was at high school – so naturally I studied composition at university (the University of Auckland, New Zealand, which at the time was where I lived).  I taught the piano from the time I was 14 until I finished that undergraduate degree at the age of 19.

I had a couple of years ‘off’ teaching, moving to Sydney, Australia where I spent a year on short-term contracts with various media organisations, working as a researcher or production assistant on television and radio productions for some independent producers.  Then I won a song-writing competition, which meant I had a flight around the world to use in the next 12 months – so I moved to London for the best part of a year.

Returning to Sydney, and to university studies, meant that I also resumed my career alter-ego as a piano teacher.  And while I’ve done many, many other fascinating projects along the way, piano teaching has been a constant, so much more stimulating and rewarding than the other kinds of jobs students seem to end up in (at the start) and so hard to relinquish (as time went on).

So by the time my adult student (only 5 or 6 years younger than me) suggested in 1995 that I should find a way to teach students how to play the piano the way I did, I was 27 and had 11 years teaching experience behind me.  Enough experience to have formed some strong views about what made a good piece of educational piano music.  Enough experience to know that I didn’t want to just churn out nice pieces for people to play; I wanted to create music which invited the student in – to explore, to investigate, to experiment, and into the possibilities that the 88 keys on the piano represent.

One important factor my tale thus far has omitted: my mother is a piano teacher, and her mother also was a piano teacher, my grandmother’s aunt had played the piano in cinemas when movies first began being screened commercially, and that aunt’s daughter was a concert pianist.  My childhood was filled with the sounds of piano lessons and piano practicing, family gatherings always included performances by pianists of varying degrees of accomplishment, and it seemed to me (as a child) that adulthood could not be bestowed upon anyone who could not play the piano.

And these family pianists had opinions.  About what music was interesting, which composers were exciting to play, about the things that were important about the piano.  I might well have benefitted from having a family clarinetist or viola player, but we were pretty much exclusively a family of pianists (maybe the odd organist got a look in).

So when, in 1995, I decided to start composing educational piano music I had my own home-grown audience and critic – my mum.  She was keen for music to use with her piano students, but was equally keen to not subject them to pointless piffle.  A lesson I quickly learned was that a good hook in one’s composition counts for little if the construction of the piece is slap-dash.  Once I had the structure exactly right my mother would be keen to teach my latest piece, but before that she would shrug and suggest that it wasn’t worth the effort!  The undeniable benefit of having a harsh critic as a mother is that if she has given a piece the OK, then I can be quite confident most piano teachers will find that piece useful and enjoyable.

In addition, having a piano teacher as a mother has meant that she has presented me with quite specific pedagogical challenges that she has been facing with a student, and I have come back with a composition that addresses that concern.  This ongoing student-focussed to-and-fro has been invaluable in creating a genuine body of work (as compared to a whole bunch of music that is easy enough for amateurs).

My first great compositional goals (from the age of 7 and 8 years old) were not to write symphonies and concerti, but rather to write musicals.  I think this is another important insight into my educational piano music.  Much of it is highly rhythmic (great for those dance numbers) and much of it is highly lyrical (important in those pivotal character changes), and I have had a reviews that suggest that some pieces from Pepperbox Jazz sound as if they are long-established jazz standards.

Now, on the topic of “jazz”…. My educational piano music is, of course, NOT JAZZ!  If it were jazz it would have sections in it where the student was required to improvise some of the performance. But that word “jazz” has, in piano teaching circles, become a kind of code word for “your students will like practicing this”, or for “this modern music is actually tonal”, or for “don’t worry, we won’t be changing time signatures from seven-sixteen to three-two to five-eight in consecutive bars” and so forth.  In our talking about the music of the twentieth century we still struggle to get the terms right. Jazz is not the right word, but it has oh-so-many of the right connotations….

There’s just one more thing about how I came to compose educational piano music – the composers whose educational piano music I practiced as a student.  Kabalevksy, Bartok, Shostakovich, later Ravel, Poulenc, more Bartok, more Shostakovich.  Three early experiences are key in terms of what drives my writing for very young students.

The first was playing a piece by Kabalevsky called “Scherzino” or “A Little Joke”.  The thumbs are adjacent and move from position to position in tandem, and the music has the hands playing in similar motion through a precise pattern of articulation and interval.  This piece just felt so good to play (as a 7 year-old – and still now some decades on!), and the distance of a 6th between the notes in the right and left hands meant that the major scale melody developed all these gorgeous 7th chord harmonies as a triad unfolded – satisfying to ear as well as the hand.

The second, from around the same time in my studies, was a piece by Bartok called “The Lost Cat” (amongst many of its other names).  This piece has the left hand harmonising a melody, beginning with a bare 5th on the tonic (in a minor tonality), and then moving to a major 3rd on the subdominant: magic.  It is, of course, the Dorian mode that Bartok uses in this opening (and then repeated) harmonic gambit, and to my 7 year-old ears this was an addictive way to be minor. Let alone the gloriousness of keeping the melody note the same (on the dominant) while the left hand turned the harmonic kaleidoscope to optimistic.  It felt as sophisticated as it was well within my technical prowess to perform.

The third experience (during that same year) was a piece by Pál Kodosa called “Andantino”. This piece is primarily in 5, with one hand continually parading up and down the A minor five-finger position while the other performs the same step-wise pattern in a 2+3 rhythm (one single note at the start of the 2-pulse beat, one single note at the start of the 3-pulse beat).  So simple.  One idea. Cleanly executed in composition, endlessly rewarding in performance.

I need my educational music to connect the deep physical pleasure of playing the instrument to the equally deeply satisfying emotional realities that music can create.  I need the technical challenges to be real, but fabulously fun.  It’s not always possible to meet all one’s self-imposed criteria on each single composition, but these are some of the things I strive for, in addition to wanting students to feel pride when they perform a piece I have composed, because they never knew they could sound so good.

Hun van der

Grüss Gott! — hol ezen a billentyűzeten a sárfeszS, ej, mindegy, ß.artók, jelentkezzen, tanácskozásra hívom, ide kell jönnie; tudta, hogy a világ legélhetőbb városa a világválság idején Bécs? Megelőzte Zürichet is, pedig az 8 évig vezette a listát: vizsgálták a klímát, az érzést, akitudjamit; hallja, ne kéresse tovább magát, én nem mehetek, hallottam, hogy járt Judittal; tudja meg, Bécsben a szingli nők férfiakra eső aránya a legideálisabb! Jöjjön, beszéljük meg, a császárváros mentes a válságtól — ma még, de holnap, ki tudja, készülnünk kell a szöktetésre a szerájból. Emlékszik? 20 éve 200 schillingre büntették a tilosban parkolókat itt, ma meg egy német magángyűjtőtől Sissi hagyatékát vagy 850 ezer euróért vásárolták meg, érti ezt? Ó, az a fogacska a gyermek szájából! Bruder! Ide figyeljen, Hundertwasser biovécéjét is megszerezzük, ha ez kell! Hun a der magából, mondja, ne cidrizzen, diedas-ozzon itt nekem! Látom, hogy fenn van msn-en, az enyém a legfrissebb b.écsi verzió, mutatja, ki kapcsolódik rejtve. Kapcsolja be végre a hun kameráját, ide nézzen, hooogy eszem a Sacher-tortát, iszom a Heurigert, sőt, legfőbb tervem, hogy a nyári rezidencia kínai padlójába süllyesztett asztalához is leültessem a válságstáb közé, igyekezzen, a licit nő, mein Gott, nőő, a Bécs—Budapest Kajak-Kenu és Evezős Teljesítménytúra nem elég már, hogy legyőzze a válságot, Ön nélkül! Várom, az Óriáskeréknél leszek, ne késlekedjen, édes istenem, i’hun szól a Varázsfuvola:

B.écs, a megrögzött álmodozó