Two years ago today ...
Two years ago today, a local newspaper in Matsumoto City, Nagano (my father’s hometown) featured a retrospective article on my late father, who was once a painter and art teacher and later became a designer. It was a very nice article, written by Nagaaki Ootake, art scholar and Director of Administration Office of Matsumoto-jo Castle.
My father has led a rather unfortunate life career-wise when he was young. The first misfortune happened when he won the first prize at the International Drawing Competition held in France when he was a college student, and awarded one million yen in the 1940's. But his intermediate agent, who was supposed to deliver the award to him, took all the money and disappeared. My father did not know what had happened for months, waiting for the contact from the agent until he realized the shocking fact later.
Another misfortune happened when my father’s former art student came to our house one day to desperately ask his creative advice. The student spent some time at our house, and eventually stole my father’s work-in-progress design from his desk and submitted it as his own graphic design to his boss at one of the largest ad agencies. The design became a big hit, the young designer became famous, but my father did not receive any credit. Similar things happened several times after that, like his long-time client (one of the most famous, long-established green tea companies in Japan) was stolen by the same major ad agency (they still use the same logo and package designs that my father originally designed, with no credit or copyright for him), but my father had never claimed his deserved credit or tried to make lawsuits. He was a reserved, quiet person and did not like causing any fuss in public, so he just held all the anger and disappointment inside, and kept silent. I never saw or heard him yelling or crying over those incidents. When something like that happened, he just sat at his work desk and kept silent in contemplation. When I was a kid, I could not understand why he did not try to take actions against those ill-willed people who took advantage of him. They knew that my father was not a kind of person who would make a fuss about it. I was furious about the injustice when I was a kid. But I kind of understand now - my father wanted to lead a peaceful life, holding onto his pride even if it was not publicly rewarded, swallowing all the sorrow and angers of being betrayed by his friends and acquaintances, and perhaps he still wanted to keep an inner peace and lived an innocent life, staying away from worldly impurity as far as possible. Also, on the other hand, not every design work of his was uncredited. Some of the store layout of a large shopping mall in the Kichijoji station, the graphic illustrations in a major publisher's elementary to high school textbooks (chemistry, mathematics, domestic science, etc.), they credited my father’s name as a designer. I learned how to cut vegetables or how to proceed a chemistry experiment by looking at my father’s precise illustrations, and hang out at some stores in the shopping mall which he designed. His artworks were not radical or cutting-edge, rather conservative and old-school, but the lines he had drawn were different from any other designers in school textbooks. While most designers used just one or two kinds of thick line to outline an object, my father used a variety of thickness of lines from a very thin line to a very thick line, which gave more realistic feel of dimensions and perspective to the object on paper. The extremely thin, delicate line was his signature, so it was always easy for me to distinguish his illustrations from others when I opened my new school textbooks.
Still now, when I visit Japan once in a while, sometime I come across some of my father’s design works in public places; in a wrapping paper of a major department store, in a logo and packages of the green tea company, in a logo of a newspaper .... My father’s name may not be credited to many of them, but when I see them, I feel proud and happy rather than feeling mad at those who stole the designs from him in the past. The fact that his designs have been widely appreciated and have survived over many generations means more than anything, and even though no one may know his name as the original designer of those logos and packages, his works remain here and now, and that is perhaps the greatest thing.
Since I remember my father as having such unfortunate luck in his design career, it was a great pleasure and a big surprise when I received a copy of this local newspaper article about him two years ago. It was a story about my father when he was still young, perhaps when he was holding onto an innocent belief for the future, and knowing that he had such optimistic days in his youth far before I was born was a sort of relief to me.
When I woke up this morning, somehow this article popped up in my mind, and when I looked at it again, I realized that the issued date was today from two years ago. I thought that is an interesting coincidence, so I translated the article to English and posted it here.
Invaluable oil paintings from a phantom local artist
(from an article by Nagaaki Ootake on Matsumoto Citizen Times, January 31, 2016)
When I look into the local history of art, sometimes I come across the artist's name Toshio Zama.
Toshio Zama's name appears in Hakutei Ishii's essay 'Sanga Ari' (Yet Mountains and Rivers Remain), in the chapter of Shinshu Local Artists Exhibition which was held at the Sanrin Sanpo Hall in Asama Hot Spring just before the end of World War II.
"(…) It is worth specially mentioning that a peculiar fellow named Zama, wearing a dark blue tight-sleeved short coat with white splash patterns and work pants, was lingering around the exhibition room for a very long time, standing up and sitting down in front of paintings. Zama kept mentioning Van Gogh's name, commenting that my paintings reminded him of Van Gogh's works, so I told him that I think my style is quite different from Van Gogh's. He also said a bizarre thing like that my painting of 'Matsumoto-jo Castle' had a similar flavor of Millet's 'The Angelus'. He pointed to a poplar tree in the painting and said, "Here is the primary object, which is a bit ghastly. In fact, this castle has a mysterious folklore …"
Toshio Zama was 25 years old at that time. Since Hakutei had adhered to moderate realism throughout his life, his style was quite different from that of expressionism painters like Van Gogh, but it is a pleasant episode that shows Toshio Zama's passion to pursue the new trend in his youth.
Although I have these small fragmented details on the painter, I could not gather enough data to get the full picture of him, and Toshio Zama had long been a phantom local artist to me.
In the autumn of 2013, our 30 year old house began to have problems and our lighting fixtures broke down, so we needed to replace them with new lighting fixtures, but did not know anyone in that business. When I was at a loss, my coworker told me that he had a friend who worked at an electronics shop, so I asked the electrician to come to our house. The electrician saw a huge amount of art-related books and materials stacked in our house, and told me that he knew a person whose uncle was a painter who had worked as a designer in Tokyo and also had taught Yayoi Kusama art a long time ago when she was very young. Surprisingly, that person was Toshio Zama. A clue to know about this artist, which I had been looking for a long time but could not get any hint, was suddenly presented to me with a mere coincidence. Through the electrician, I was able to get in touch with Toshio Zama's relatives who gave me a profile of the artist.
Zama's first name Toshio (敏生) was originally Toshio (敏夫) in Kanji character, but he used Toshio (敏生) as a painter/designer. He studied oil painting and sculpture at the Tokyo Fine Arts School (now the Tokyo University of Arts), and came back to his hometown to become an art teacher at the Matsusho Gakuen High School. Around the same time, perhaps after hearing that there was a new art teacher who graduated from an art college (which was rare in a countryside town then), Yayoi Kusama came to visit Zama to take private lessons to learn art. It was when Kusama was still in the Matsumoto Girls' High School (current Matsumoto Arigasaki High School), somewhere between 12 - 16 years old. Zama started to exhibit his paintings at the second All Shinshu Art Exhibition in 1946 until the third Nagano Exhibition in 1950, and quit his art teacher job in 1951 to move to Tokyo.
In Tokyo, he placed himself in the field of commercial design; he first worked at the Semba Corporation as a designer, and became a freelance designer around 1960. He co-authored a book 'Commercial Design - How To Conceive and Create Store Design' which became a must-read guidebook for commercial design beyond generations. The logo design of the sport newspaper Daily Sports was also a work by Toshio Zama.
It was difficult for me to find the oil paintings of Zama, but I found one small piece at Shizuka, an old Japanese-style pub (izakaya) run by the same family for generations. Shizuka has been a place where local artists and cultural figures hang out from old times, with the owners' family members who have also been art lovers, so that must be why this painting was kept by them until today. Since then, I received news from Zama's family who found another painting of his, which I posted here. These paintings seem to indicate his solid attitude as a painter who graduated from an art college.
(Nagaaki Ootake, Art Scholor and Director of Administration Office of Matsumoto-jo Castle)
続・ふるさと美の風景 ～物故作家のメッセージ22～
（松本市民タイムス 2016年1月31日掲載）
「幻の郷土作家 貴重な油絵」
郷土の美術史を調べていると、時折、座間敏生（ざまとしお）の名前を見かけることがある。
石井柏亭の随筆『山河あり』の、終戦間際に浅間温泉の三鱗産報会館で開催された「在信州有志油絵展覧会」の項に座間敏生が登場する。
「（前略）座間某（なにがし）と云う変り者が筒袖の紺絣（こんがすり）にもんぺ穿きで立ったり坐ったりして長く会場に頑張ったことを特筆するに足りる。座間はゴッホゴッホと云い、私の画をゴッホに似て居ると云うから、私は大分傾向が違うと告げた。彼はまた私の『松本城』にミレの『晩鐘』の趣があるなどと奇抜なことを云い、ポプラの樹を指して『ここが眼目だ、妖怪的なところがある、この城には一寸伝説もある…』などと云った。」
この時、座間敏生は25歳。柏亭は生涯を通して穏健な写実を貫いた人だから、ゴッホのような表現主義的な画法とはまったく異なるが、若かりし座間敏生の新しい傾向を追い求めようとする情熱が感じられて微笑ましい。
こうした断片的な資料はあっても作家の全貌を知るだけのものはなく、わたしにとって座間敏生はずっと幻の作家だった。
平成25年秋、筑後30年が経過した自宅の照明器具が駄目になり、交換したいが気軽に頼める業者がなく困っていたら、職場の同僚が縁者に電気屋さんがいると言うのでお願いしてきてもらった。その折、我が家に美術関係の書籍や資料が沢山置いてあったのを見て、電気屋さんは茶飲み話に、知人の叔父に若かりし頃の草間彌生に絵を教えたり、東京でデザイナーとして活躍した人がいるという話をしてくれた。何とその人物が座間敏生だったのである。長らく不明だった座間敏生を知る糸口が、偶然にもわたしの前に現れた。その電気屋さんを通じて、座間敏生の身内の方々に作家の行歴を教えていただいた。
座間敏生の本名は座間敏夫と書き、作家としては敏生と称した。東京美術学校（東京芸術大学の前身）の油画科と彫刻科に学び、帰郷して松商学園の美術教師となった。その頃、田舎では珍しい美校出身の教師がいると聞いて草間彌生は訪ねてきたのだろう。草間彌生がまだ松本高等女学校（現在の松本蟻ヶ崎高校）の学生だった頃のことである。座間は昭和21（1946）年の第２回全信州美術展から昭和25年の第３回長野県展まで出品し、昭和26年に教師を辞して上京した。
東京では一貫して商業デザインの世界に身を置き、株式会社「船場」に勤め、昭和35年頃に退職してフリーのデザイナーとなった。昭和41年に共著で出版した『コマーシャルデザイン 商店図案の考え方・作り方』は、後々まで商業デザインの手引書として利用された。スポーツ新聞デイリースポーツのロゴデザインも座間敏生のものである。
油絵がなかなか見つからず、老舗居酒屋「しづか」に小品が１点あるのを、やっと探し出した。「しづか」には昔から多くの文化人が集まり、芸術に理解があったからこの絵も残ったのだろう。その後、ご遺族から１点見つかったという知らせがあり、その絵も載せる。美校出身の画家らしい堅実な画風である。
（松本城管理事務所長、美術研究家・大竹永明＝松本市）
Melaine Dalibert performed Peter Garland, Michael Vincent Waller, Melaine Dalibert (NYC)
Last night, the French composer and pianist Melaine Dalibert performed works of Peter Garland, Michael Vincent Waller, and Melaine Dalibert at Daniel Goode's Loft, NYC.
The concert opened with Peter Garland’s 1971 piece ‘The Days Run Away’. Melaine Dalibert’s piano touch is distinct and vibrant, bringing out the fullness of the music with an incredible depth of introspective concentration and calmness. Each individual note of the piano felt vital and substantial, with profound dimensions created by the afterglow of each sound, rejuvenating Garland’s meditative masterpiece.
Next piece was Michael Vincent Waller's 2017 composition 'Bounding'. This piece has a warmth and melancholy which faintly echoes that of Schubert, while the atmospheric, shadowy tones evoked the silent landscapes of Béla Tarr's black and white films. While having the straightforward aesthetics of Romantic music in his roots, Waller seems to pursue his own landscapes of music via his unique narrative and evocative soundings. Dalibert played this piece plainly but compellingly with a keen, insightful interpretation.
The last piece of the first half was Melaine Dalibert performing Waller’s 2018 piece 'Cyclone' written for alto saxophone and piano, featuring special guest Elie Dalibert. This composition was subtly layered with the piano part and the saxophone part overlapping organically. The result was a fantastic unity of the two different instruments, performed in perfect chemistry by the Dalibert brothers.
The last half opened with Melaine Dalibert performing four more of Waller's compositions written in 2017-18; the first three of which were dedicated to the late Pauline Oliveros, Waller's late father and his late grandfather (both of them passed away in 2017), each conveying blissful moments of lights and happiness in memory of the loved ones, rather than shadows and sorrow. The innocent peacefulness of these pieces was touching, much more compelling than an intense expression of sadness of loss.
The next piece - Waller's 2018 composition 'Return from L.A.', consisting of four movements - was vibrant. The first movement began with high-pitched tones sparkling like Ravel's piano pieces. The dynamics were clear and sharp, organically changing rhythms and tempos, brightness and shadows, throughout the four movements.
The last pieces were Dalibert's 2017 compositions 'Musique pour le lever du jour' and 'Etude II'. In these pieces, Dalibert delivered complex layers of direct tones, overtones and prolonged reverberation using sustained pedals, to create incredibly rich sonorities. Despite that there were numerous sounds blending together, there was no hint of cloudiness - the clarity was striking. I bought his 2017 album ‘Ressac’ (another timbre) after the concert, which contains another breathtaking piece ‘Ressac’ composed by Dalibert in 2015 (highly recommended).
The acoustics of this room were fantastic, too. With some fabrics effectively placed in the corners of the space, the sound of the piano was not too bright or too muffled, a really nice, cozy and open atmosphere.
The Budapest Festival Orchestra performed Bach, Beethoven, Rachmaninoff under Iván Fischer w/ Dénes Várjon
Last night, I saw the Budapest Festival Orchestra under Iván Fischer performing Bach: Orchestral Suite No. 2 in B minor, Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor, and Rachmaninoff: Symphony No. 2 in E minor. It was magnificent.
I love the cloudless sounds, clear-cut precision and perfectly timed rhythms of Iván Fischer's conducting. (I am a big fan of his Mahler recordings.) Last night at the Lincoln Center, the Budapest Festival Orchestra responded to Fischer with a superb sensitivity and a stunningly wide dynamic range of expressions, from the extremely soft, quiet pianissimo to the dynamic outburst of tutti (both of which I think are crucial to play Rachmaninoff). The orchestra's sounds are straightforward and clean with no excessive colors, evoking the clear water of an unspoiled lake deep in the forest. The clarity of the sounds and the rich, deep reverb of the strings reminded me of the masterful skills of the Cleveland Orchestra, and each section of instruments closely communicated with each other with the intimacy of a chamber ensemble, which reminded me of the perfect chemistry among musicians of the Munich Philharmonic. (These are two of my favorite orchestras in the world.)
The first piece, Bach: Orchestral Suite No. 2 in B minor, began with a rather quiet, reserved manner, performed by an ensemble of seven musicians under Fischer. I liked the understated expressions of the ensemble - it felt like a clean wind quietly blowing through the hall, with no heaviness attached. The lightness of the ensemble’s sounds gradually developed into a more vivid, brisk, clearer sounds toward the end. The gradual transition of the sound texture was refreshing, creating a narrative flow of the music in a very subtle manner.
The next piece was Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor, performed by Hungarian pianist Dénes Várjon. I have not heard his name before this concert, but his piano on this Beethoven piece was exquisite. While maintaining crystal-clear tones and confident touch throughout the piece, Várjon showed a wide range of expression with keen attention to the sounds, especially to the pianissimo in the slow movement. The chemistry between Várjon and the orchestra was so natural and perfect that the sounds of the piano blended into the orchestra flawlessly in every moment when they merged.
The last piece was Rachmaninoff: Symphony No. 2 in E minor performed by the full orchestra. It is rare to see Rachmaninoff pieces listed in concert programs these days, and in fact, it was the first time I listened to Rachmaninoff in a live concert. I am so glad that it was performed by this orchestra, since they have a perfect balance between rustic earthiness and clear, refined sounds, both of which are (to me) very important for Rachmaninoff's pieces, blending two contradictory natures.
But the most remarkable thing about the Budapest Festival Orchestra was the organic flow of music which Fischer created carefully and unpretentiously, to make the music move as naturally as the wind. The tempo of each piece was rather slow, not accentuating highlights so dramatically (and some audience members might have felt it was too plain), but I found the naturalness of this flow beautifully tasteful.
For an encore, they played Rachmaninoff's Vocalise No.14, Op.34, with half of the string musicians standing and singing vocalise while the rest were playing their instruments. Their voices were not as refined as real singers, but the simple, earthy voices filled the hall with a rustic tranquility. I have almost never seen a big-name orchestra like them revealing such fragile moments on stage, but it was refreshing, as if we were hearing their inner voices telling us how much they genuinely love music, just like we do.
My Top 10 Albums / Concerts of 2017
CLASSICAL
1. Munich Philharmonic Orchestra under Sergiu Celibidache - Schubert: Symphony No. 8, "Unfinished" / Dvořák: Symphony No. 9, "From the New World" (MPHIL0004)
2. Boston Symphony Orchestra under Andris Nelsons - Brahms: The Symphonies (BSO Classics)
3. Christian Gerhaher, Gerold Huber - Schubert: Die Schöne Müllerin (Sony Classical)
4. Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra under Mariss Jansons - Mahler: Symphony No. 9 (BR-Klassik)
5. Skip Sempé and Capriccio Stravagante - William Byrd: Virginal & Consorts (INTERARTS)
6. London Symphony Orchestra & Monteverdi Choir under John Eliot Gardiner - Mendelssohn: A Midsummer Night's Dream (LSO Live)
7. Andreas Staier & Alexander Melnikov - Schubert: Fantasie in F Minor and Other Piano Duets (harmonia mundi)
8. Amarcord - Tenebrae (Tallis, Dietrich, Stoltzer, Stahel, Machaut, Boquiren, Ockeghem, Moody, Walter, Byrd, Kedrov, Gesualdo, Walter, Tavener, des Prez, Ludwig, etc.) (edition apollon)
9. MusicAeterna under Teodor Currentzis - Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6 (Sony Music Canada Inc.)
10. Krystian Zimerman - Schubert: Piano Sonatas D959 & 960 (Deutsche Grammophon)
ANTHOLOGY
Walter Gieseking - The 1950s Solo Studio Recordings (APR 7402)
Jacqueline du Pré - The Heart of the Cello (Warner Classics)
CONTEMPORARY/EXPERIMENTAL
1. Jürg Frey - Collection Gustave Roud (at115x2) review
2. Jürg Frey - ephemeral constructions (EWR 1709) review
3. Jürg Frey - l’âme est sans retenue l (ErstClass 002-5) review
4. Antoine Beuger - Ockeghem Octets (at114)
5. Michael Pisaro - Sometimes (EWR 1703)
6. Irene Kurka - chants (EWR 1710)
7. Ryoko Akama - places and pages (at110x2)
8. Keith Rowe / Michael Pisaro - 13 Thirteen (Erstwhile 085-2)
9. Taku Sugimoto - Quintets: Berlin, San Diego (Meena-984)
LIVE PERFORMANCE
1. English Baroque Soloists & Monteverdi Choir under John Eliot Gardiner performing Monteverdi - Orfeo / The Return of Ulysses / The Coronation of Poppea (Lincoln Center, NYC 10/18, 19, 21)
"L'Orfeo" de Monteverdi par John Eliot Gardiner - live @ La Fenice
Kangmin Justin Kim and Hana Blažíková perform the final act duet, Pur ti Miro from Monteverdi's L'incoronazione di Poppea.
2. Boston Symphony Orchestra under Andris Nelsons, performing Sofia Gubaidulina - New Work for Violin, Cello, Bayan, and Orchestra (NY Premiere, co-commissioned by Carnegie Hall) / Shostakovich - Symphony No. 7, "Leningrad" (Carnegie Hall, NYC 2/28)
Boston Symphony Orchestra under Andris Nelsons, performing Ravel - Le tombeau de Couperin / George Benjamin - Dream of the Song (NY Premiere) / Berlioz - Symphonie fantastique (Carnegie Hall, NYC 3/2)
3. Munich Philharmonic under Valery Gergiev, Pierre-Laurent Aimard (piano), performing Ravel - La valse / Ravel - Piano Concerto in G Major / Beethoven - Symphony No. 3, "Eroica" (Carnegie Hall, NYC 4/3)
Munich Philharmonic Orchestra under Valery Gergiev, Genia Kühmeier (soprano), performing Debussy - Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune / Schubert - Symphony No. 4, "Tragic" / Mahler - Symphony No. 4 (Carnegie Hall, NYC 4/5)
4. Quatour Bozzini with Isaiah Ceccarelli (percussion) and Noam Bierstone (percussion), performing Jürg Frey - Unhörbare Zeit / String Quartet 3 (The DiMenna Center for Classical Music, NYC 8/4)
5. The Philadelphia Orchestra under Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Radu Lupu (piano), Sasha Cooke (mezzo-soprano), performing Bernstein - Symphony No. 1, "Jeremiah" / Mozart - Piano Concerto No. 24 in C Minor, K. 491 / Schumann - Symphony No. 2 (Carnegie Hall, NYC 5/9)
6. The New York Philharmonic under Paavo Järvi, Leif Ove Andsnes (piano), performing Esa-Pekka Salonen - Gambit (New York Premiere) / Rachmaninoff - Piano Concerto No. 4 / Sibelius - Symphony No. 5 (Lincoln Center, NYC 10/12) > review
7. Mitsuko Uchida, performing Mozart - Piano Sonata in C Major, K. 545 / Schumann - Kreisleriana / Jörg Widmann - Fantasy on Schumann (NY Premiere, co-commissioned by Carnegie Hall) / Schumann - Fantasy in C Major (Carnegie Hall, NYC 5/30)
8. Maurizio Pollini, performing All Chopin Program - Two Nocturnes, Op. 27 / Ballade No. 3 in A-flat Major, Op. 47 / Ballade No. 4 in F Minor, Op. 52 / Berceuse in D-flat Major, Op. 57 / Scherzo No. 1 / Two Nocturnes, Op. 55 / Piano Sonata No. 3 in B Minor, Op. 58 / Encore: Ballade No. 1 in G Minor, Op. 23 / Encore: Ballade No. 1 in G Minor, Op. 23 (Carnegie Hall, NYC 5/21)
9. The New York Philharmonic under Jaap van Zweden, Katia and Marielle Labèque (pianos), performing Philip Glass - Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra (New York Premiere) / Mahler - Symphony No. 5 (Lincoln Center, NYC 9/22) > review
10. Staatskapelle Berlin under Daniel Barenboim, performing Bruckner - Symphony No. 8 (Carnegie Hall, NYC 1/28)
10 MORE CONCERTS …
San Francisco Symphony under Michael Tilson Thomas, performing All Mahler Program: Adagio from Symphony No. 10 / Symphony No. 1 (Carnegie Hall, NYC 4/4)
Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra under Franz Welser-Möst, performing Schoenberg - Verklärte Nacht / Schubert - Symphony No. 9, "Great" (Carnegie Hall, NYC 2/26)
Piotr Anderszewski, performing Mozart - Fantasia in C Minor, K. 475 / Mozart - Piano Sonata No. 14 in C Minor, K. 457 / Chopin - Three Mazurkas, Op. 59 / J. S. Bach - English Suite No 6 in D minor BWV 811 (Carnegie Hall, NYC 2/17)
Sir András Schiff, performing All Schubert Program: Piano Sonata in A Minor, D. 845 / Four Impromptus, D. 935 / Klavierstücke / Piano Sonata in G Major, D. 894, "Fantasy" (Carnegie Hall, NYC 3/9)
Jean-Guihen Queyras, Alexander Melnikov, performing Schumann - Adagio and Allegro, Op. 70 / Yves Chauris - D'arbres, de ténèbres, de terre (World Premiere, commissioned by Carnegie Hall) / Beethoven - Cello Sonata in A Major, Op. 69 / Webern - Three Little Pieces for Cello and Piano, Op. 11 / Chopin - Cello Sonata in G Minor, Op. 65 / Encore: Debussy - Prologue: Lent, sostenuto e molto resoluto, from Cello Sonata in D Minor (Carnegie Hall, NYC 1/25)
Borodin Quartet, performing Schubert - Quartet in C minor, D. 703, “Quartettsatz” / Tchaikovsky - Album for the Young, Op. 39 (arr. R. Dubinsky) / Shostakovich - Quartet No. 6 in G major, Op. 101 / Shostakovich - Quartet No. 13 in B-flat minor, Op. 138 (92Y, NYC 10/24)
FOR/WITH: Works by Christian Wolff, Annea Lockwood, Michael Pisaro, Ashley Fure, performed by Nate Wooley, Ross Karre, Jessica Pavone, Megan Schubert, Kristin Norderval, Christian Wolff, Annea Lockwood, Michael Pisaro, Ashley Fure (Issue Project Room, NYC 9/29-30) > review
Michael Pisaro, performing "transparent city (2)" for electric guitar and pre-recorded accompaniment (The Old Stone House, NYC 4/13)
Seong-Jin Cho, performing Berg - Piano Sonata, Op. 1 / Schubert - Piano Sonata in C Minor, D. 958 / Chopin - 24 Preludes, Op. 28 / Encores: Debussy - "Clair de lune" from Suite bergamasque / Chopin - Ballade No. 1 in G Minor, Op. 23 / Bach - Sarabande from French Suite No. 5 in G Major, BWV 816 (Carnegie Hall, NYC 2/22)
Leif Ove Andsnes, Marc-André Hamelin, performing Mozart - Larghetto and Allegro for Two Pianos (completed by Paul Badura-Skoda) / Stravinsky - Concerto for Two Pianos / Debussy - En blanc et noir / Stravinsky - Le sacre du printemps for Two Pianos / Encores: Stravinsky - "Madrid" for Two Pianos from Four Studies for Orchestra (transc. Babin) / Stravinsky - "Circus Polka" for Two Pianos (transc. Babin) / Stravinsky - Tango for Two Pianos (transc. Babin) (Carnegie Hall, NYC 4/28)
SONG (TRACK) OF THE YEAR
Jürg Frey - Farblose Wolken, Glück, Wind from Collection Gustave Roud (at115x2)
(w/ Regula Konrad on soprano, Stefan Thut on cello, Stephen Altoft on trumpet, Lee Ferguson on percussion, Texts by Gustave Roud, Jürg Frey ) > review
Jürg Frey - Ephemeral Constructions (EWR 1709)
I have been listening to Jürg Frey’s music intensively in the last few months. I first became aware of Frey’s works in 2010, around the time when I discovered Wandelweiser composers’ works and became deeply immersed in - first Michael Pisaro’s prolific series of pieces, then more works from Antoine Beuger, Manfred Werder, Radu Malfatti and Jürg Frey.
In the last three years, my taste for music has shifted toward older classical music, often attending concerts performed at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, as well as listening to numerous older classical music recordings - mostly of Romantic composers. What triggered me to dig into this older classical music was Mitsuko Uchida’s Mozart Piano Sonata CD (1984), which I found in my late father-in-law’s substantial collection of classical music CDs. Deeply touched by Uchida’s delicate, sorrowful, contemplative piano tones in Mozart Sonatas and Rondo in A minor, I further dug into her Schubert, Schumann, Beethoven and Mozart Piano Concertos with the Cleveland Orchestra, then into other orchestras, composers, pianists, and an infinite number of classical music recordings up to the present. I used to eagerly listen to Baroque music in my teens, then early music and Renaissance music (and some Mozart) in my 20’s, but listening to Romantic composers’ works so intensively was a completely new and exhilarating experience.
During this time, I did not listen to current experimental music pieces as much as I used to do, since I found a difficulty in loving these two very different genres and eras of music at the same time. However, Wandelweiser music was in a unique position. It was when I came to listen to Webern after going through the Romantic period, when I sensed a similar texture in Webern’s silence which instantly reminded me of that of Malfatti’s silence and Frey’s silence. Perhaps Webern’s silence was rather closer to Malfatti’s than Frey’s (although the hint of Romanticism was closer to Frey’s), and the moment of the two ‘silences’ overlapping in my mind brought me straight back to Wandelweiser music again. There were of course other composers who explored significant meanings of silence during the two eras, but Webern’s silence - which still had a lingering air of Romanticism - was a revelation to me to connect two separate pieces of the puzzle together - Romantic music and Wandelweiser. It broke down the wall between these two worlds, both of which I have been deeply fascinated during the last eight years. Also, after obsessively listening to old classical music for three years, the music of Wandelweiser composers started to reveal more layers and a depth that I did not notice before. Sometimes I find similar aesthetics and structures in Wandelweiser composers’ works - especially in Frey’s - as those of Renaissance or Romantic composers’ works, although there are of course distinct differences in the concepts and styles. Further listening to Frey’s recent works has deepened the connection between these two separate eras of music. I love the way both Frey’s music and some Renaissance or Romantic composers’ works sound coherent with no conflict to my ears transcending genres and eras, even though the atmosphere and textures of both are quite different.
Occasionally in my life, I have been intensely drawn to some specific music, ending up immersed in the music for quite a long time. It does not happen so often, but when it happens, the irresistible beauty of the music occupies my mind like a storm to the extent that it brings me a heartache or a torment - with words and images welling up in my mind, haunting me all the time with the sounds of the music. The only way to be free from this torment is to write down all those words and images in my text, trying to give verbal shapes to the spell of the music which enthralled me. It happens only once in a while, only when the power of the music is tremendous, and it was very hard when I was very young since I did not know how to get out of the spell of the music then. For instance when I was 13, I fell into a whirl of Pachelbel's Canon in D, and could not get back to the reality (my normal school life) for several months. My brother had a mix tape of Baroque music, and I became to be drawn to the fragments of the music occasionally heard from his room. But he did not let me listen to his music collection when he was home, so I sneaked in his room when he was at school, listening to the mix tape with his headphones while I was alone. There were music of J.S. Bach, Vivaldi, Handel, Telemann and Pachelbel on the cassette tape, but the music which captivated me most was Pachelbel's Canon in D. It was mesmerizing in spite of its simple structure and short length - three violins and a baseline of basso continuo, simply repeating eight bars of music for 28 times, slowly and gradually growing into more complex developments of the theme over the course of seven minutes or so (the version I was listening to then was Jean-François Paillard’s). I was fascinated by the way a simple phrase slowly and organically develops toward the ending, evoking different landscapes of different colors in my mind. Now when I listen to this piece again, I am surprised with the fact that this is only five or seven minutes piece, since when I was 13, it felt like much longer - like 30 minutes or so. There was a hypnotic power in the cycles of this music, and I was completely addicted to it. I tried to follow every subtle change in every repetition of the harmonies, to figure out why this music is so touching. I started to skip school just because I wanted to listen to this Canon with my brother’s headphones while he was not at home. It was the first time when I was captivated by the spell of the music so overwhelmingly, to the extent that I could not relate to reality so well - like sinking deep down into the sea without knowing how to float back to the surface. (Eventually, I started to play and sing music myself in a youth choir and a recorder ensemble, and these involvement with musical activities certainly helped me to get connected to the healthy reality again. I do not play music now, but I found that writing helps me in a similar way.)
Canon is such a powerful form of music, and although it looks so simple and plain in the structure, the accumulated (silent) power with momentum gained from circling and repetition has almost a magnetic (physical) effect on me. Also, the repetitivity of a canonic form seems to resonate with our familiar cycle of living everyday life, while the seemingly indefinite loop of the music echoes with our desperate wish for the eternal. I find a similar compelling, magnetic power of repetition in Schubert’s sonatas, too. I was just thinking about these things when I was listening to Frey’s Circular Music #7 on 'Ephemeral Constructions' (EWR 1709) the other day, which captivated me with its haunting beauty - like Pachelbel's Canon in D did to me before - but in a more peaceful way.
Frey has been releasing his Circular Music series since 2013 - some of them are titled ‘Extended Circular Music’ - in his four recent albums including this one. He also recorded a composition titled ‘Canones Incerti’ in 2013 and 2014, which is more abstract and less simpler than the later Circular Music pieces, seemingly the early canonic piece in his catalog. Each of his Circular Music pieces have a different structure, texture and duration, and some of them are unforgettably beautiful - like Extended Circular Music No. 2 and 3 performed by Tamriko Kordzaia (piano) and Petra Ackermann (viola) on Frey’s 2014 CD ‘Untitled’ (Musiques Suisses).
Frey talked about his other canonic piece Circular Music #2 and how his interest in composing canons or circular music has grown in his later works in his interview on the ddmmyy site, which is quite interesting to read.
“I started to write the first canons in the late 90s. It was more a coming from outside. A curator in Sweden was asking me for pieces who was interested in counterpoint and canon. I thought ‘I should write something for him which is connected with canon’.”
“Well in this piece (Circular Music No.2), I think it was first the idea of being circular. There is a long story behind this because earlier in my career if someone would have told me that circular things could happen in my music in this way, I would have thought it impossible! I always had the impression that I had to place every chord. I have to take it with my hand… It’s not a circular mechanism. So this was very far away from every idea of mine. My idea is that I have to touch every note, every sound, I have to pick it up and put it in the right place for the right duration. It took a long time before I started to write canons or circular pieces. It was a discovery!”
“My first canons were most of them ‘pauses in canons: little single notes and the rest was silences so that you don’t hear any kind of ‘canon’, because there are such long breaks in between the notes. This was the first step. Then slowly I developed more canonic and circular techniques and at the end of this process I learnt that when you take the right notes and the right silences it’s so lovely because it creates something that I was looking for all the time: it goes by itself! The music goes by itself! I don’t touch every note but I let them go. The idea from Feldman of letting notes go. They go by themselves. It took such a long time before I learnt.” (Jürg Frey)
Ephemeral Constructions
'Ephemeral Constructions’ contains Frey’s three recent pieces from 2015 to 2016, performed in the spring of 2016 by the University of South Carolina Experimental Music Workshop under the direction of Greg Stuart, and three musicians - Erik Carlson on violin, Jürg Frey on clarinet, and Stuart on vibraphone and percussion. The first 40 minute piece Ephemeral Constructions (2015-16) and the third 24 minute pieces Circular Music #6 (2015) were performed by the three musicians and the Workshop ensemble together. The middle piece Circular Music #7 (2015), a little less than five minutes, was performed by the three musicians - Stuart, Carlson and Frey.
The first track, Ephemeral Constructions, begins with quiet, dispersed sounds of objects performed by the Workshop ensemble. The sounds of objects - something like lightly hitting wooden blocks and glass material - sparsely appear sporadically in a silent room, evoking flickering lights or raindrops falling onto a floor. These sounds of objects come from all directions, near and far, left and right, creating a spacious feel and a clear sense of perspective with great acoustics. At first, these sounds of the ensemble feel like random abstract sounds, but soon I noticed that there is a hint of cyclic rhythms in the way these sounds appear - though very vaguely. Around 6’24”, two single tones of a vibraphone appear softly at a regular interval, evoking faint warm lights emerging in the middle of the empty spatial room. A husky tone of a clarinet appears as well, followed by a violin with a similar quiet tone, both playing thin, prolonged passages. The two layers of the sounds happening in the space - one is the vertical, cool, realistic sounds of the ensemble’s hard objects, and the other is the horizontal, soft sounds of the three instruments - create a stereoscopic soundscape with a unique contrast of the textures, emphasizing the warm, organic feel of the three instruments. The ensemble’s sparse object sounds gradually increase their volume almost imperceptibly, clarifying the air of the room with the cool echos. Around 18’56”, the three instruments (vibraphone, clarinet and violin) play short phrases in minor scale in unison, bringing a hint of tonal music in the vague, abstract soundscape. In the last half of the track, fragments of faint melodies and chords of the three instruments appear and linger like a trail of a cloud, sharing the same meditative stillness as silence - which evokes of the listener’s contemplative mind. Near the end of the track, some short phrases of melodies and harmonies begin to take more obvious forms, though being still half abstract. It is like watching fine particles of a music emerging in the air gradually drawn to each other, almost forming a tonal music.
The second track, Circular Music #7, begins with a unison performed by the three musicians (violin, clarinet, vibraphone/percussion), slowly repeating a canonic cycle in eight bars for six times in a very quiet, prolonged manner. The previously heard sparse fragments of melodies seem to become one to create a seamless flow of music in this piece. The melancholic, blank tones of the violin and clarinet create a gray atmosphere in minor key, while the warm tones of the vibraphone in the last bar sound consoling. The lethargic melody of this five minute canon is unforgettably poignant, though very simple and short.
The third track, Circular Music #6, is performed by the Workshop ensemble in a similarly sparse, abstract soundscape as the first track, again evoking a large empty room. The sounds of three instruments (clarinet, violin, vibraphone/percussion) emerge softly and vaguely in the stereoscopic raindrops of various object sounds, trailing like a translucent cloud in the meditative silence. The dreamy tones of the three instruments evoke in me a shadow or a mirage of the previously heard short canon (Circular Music #7), floating in the room like a hologram image. The sounds of the three instruments move in a cyclic pattern, slowly increasing their presence as they repeat for several times, then diminishing into silence almost imperceptibly in a prolonged way.
I like to listen to these three pieces as one long composition - the first piece as a prelude in which a special 'room' is set up for small fragments of a canon to emerge, the second piece as the heart of this album: a short-life canon (Circular Music #7), and the last piece as a room where a shadow of the canon lingers like a hologram. The open feel of the space created by the great acoustics can be likened to the listener’s mind (or subconscious), too, where Frey’s canon is organically formed and heard, leaving the residual image in. The simple, quiet presence of Circular Music #7 contains the hypnotic power of a canon, but does not shake my emotions overwhelmingly like Pachelbel's Canon in D did to me long ago.
When I was captivated by Pachelbel's Canon in D when I was a kid, the beauty of the music filled my mind with tremendous joy, but also brought me a pain with a sense of loss afterwards, making it hard for me to reconnect to the reality again. I had a similar experience recently, when I saw John Eliot Gardiner conducting Monteverdi’s trilogy of operas: L'Orfeo, The Return of Ulysses and The Coronation of Poppea in NYC in three nights in October. It was one of the most divine, marvelous, powerful, soul touching live music experiences I have ever had. Gardiner’s straightforward, simple approach highlighted the pureness of Monteverdi’s music, delivering the essence of human emotions with restrained elegance and humbleness. I was deeply moved by the perfectly nuanced, poignant, rich musical expressions, which brought out the epiphanic beauty of the early 17th century librettos vividly. The period instruments of the English Baroque Soloists delivered the subtlety of each phrase with rich, warm, translucent overtones that filled the hall with the celestial beauty. The dynamic range of the sounds from pianissimo to fortissimo was delicately nuanced with precisely timed rhythms and perfectly pitched harmonies. The ceaseless flow of Monteverdi’s music wrapped me in intense emotions over the three days, blowing my mind like Pachelbel’s Canon did to me when I was a kid. But when the three nights of sublime music were done, I felt somewhat lost and depressed - like facing a dead end - seized by deep sorrow with a sense that I may not be able to experience such celestial beauty again for the rest of my life. Some tremendous beauty was experienced, shaking the deepest part of my soul, but when it was gone, the door was closed. The open space, which I used to cherish in mind, felt somewhat to be lost. It was like the ‘perfectness’ of the live performances of Monteverdi’s operas dominated my mind with its stormy power and irresistible beauty, putting my mind to a halt as it receded.
Music from Renaissance and Baroque periods often has this overwhelming power over me, mesmerizing me while the music is on, then closing the door when it is over. Unlike that, Frey’s canon - or circular music - does not draw me into a closed place, though moving me deeply with a similar essential beauty to that of Renaissance or Baroque music, yet in a much calmer way. To me, Frey’s canon ‘Circular Music #7’ is more magnetic and haunting than Pachelbel's Canon in D, because it has an elemental power and because it has an openness for the listener. Both canons are similarly short - about five minutes - but the atmosphere and the effect on the listener of each piece is quite different. Not like pulling the listener into the closed world of music by the force of composition, Frey’s canon lets the listener be synchronized with the music naturally, and lets him/her stay in the music without giving a sense of loss afterwards. I can feel the quiet presence of his Circular Music #7 in my mind even after the music ends, knowing that the door is still open, my mind half overlapping with the reality where I live in.
I often feel that Frey’s music has two layers - one is Frey’s composition performed by the musicians, the other is an open space (often found in silence or in a quiet, sparse soundscape) where the listener’s mind can assimilate into without losing touch with reality. The beauty of this album ‘Ephemeral Constructions’ lies here, in this double layer of ‘construction’ of sounds and silence - one layer is actually heard from the CD, the other layer is formed in my memory. This uncertainty - or a half-formed ambiguity - imprints a long-lasting image in my mind, perhaps since it involves my own imagination to be a part of constructing this music.
Each of Frey’s Circular Music works has a uniqueness in its atmosphere, colors and duration, leaving a different impression behind while sharing a similarly simple, cyclic pattern. It also reminds me of the ways people meet people, being apart after sharing some moments together for a while in a dreamlike half reality - some are peaceful and calm, some are sorrowful and poignant - but all moving in repetition in the transient moments of life. These moments are fleeting and diminishing like a short-life canon, to be destined to disappear into silence, but are so beautiful and unforgettable - since they are ephemeral, since we are living it - not like observing from outside.
Jürg Frey - Collection Gustave Roud (at115x2)
'Collection Gustave Roud' is a double CD of Jürg Frey's recent works from 2007 to 2016. All five pieces of this album are closely connected with the works of the French-Swiss poet Gustave Roud, who has been a profound influence on Frey’s compositions in the last decade. I have been listening to this album over the last month, deeply immersed in the astounding beauty of all five pieces. Time seems to stand still when listening to this album - being lost in contemplation - but in fact, time begins to move forward and a vast expanse of space starts to unfold in my mind when the music begins. A truly rich, warm, open, imaginative experience of beauty and sensitivities is found inside the stillness of the gray landscape of Frey’s music - beyond this dry reality.
Frey explained the close connection between his music and the works of Roud in his recent interview on the another timbre site. “I first encountered Roud’s work more than 10 years ago, and the impact of his work on my music has been profound. I feel a close relationship to a poet whose mode of operation and sensitivity make a precise resonance in me. It’s a unique poetry that speaks from beginning to end of searching for the essence. I would like to compare his mode of work with that of a painter. Every day he went out, not with an easel, but with his notebook, and he wandered through the landscape as a flaneur, observer, writer, laying the foundations of his work with his notes. For me his work constitutes a kind of ‘field recording’, not with a microphone and sounds, but with his soul and body, recording his environment in the broadest sense. He perceived existential dimensions in the finest nuances of the weather, the landscape and its inhabitants, and made it the basis of his work.”
This album intrigued me to learn more about the life and the works of Roud, and I found this great post on a French blog 'de paysage en paysage', which explained the life of the poet and some of his famous poems and journals, along with the blog author's in-depth discussions. (I read this page via Google translation.)
Roud grew up in a family-owned farm in Carrouge, in the countryside north of Lake Geneva, and lived there with his sister throughout his life - as a poet, not as a farmer. He studied classical literature in high school and in college, maintained numerous friendships with artists, musicians, poets, and other intellectuals. His oeuvre is relatively small, but he left prolific writings in his correspondences and journals which showed his deep commitment to literature and art. His style of writing is rustic, simple and contemplative, tinged with a surreal atmosphere and solitary shadows, profoundly resonating with the stillness of the landscapes in his monochrome photographs. (In recent years, his works as a photographer have also been more and more recognized.) Wikipedia describes, “his poetry was dedicated to the landscapes of the Haut-Jorat where he lived, to reach a perception of an ‘elsewhere’ or of a lost paradise.”
In the above-mentioned blog, I was particularly fascinated with the excerpts from ‘Landscape and French Poetry’, a study on Roud by Michel Collot and Antonio Rodríguez (excerpt is in the next paragraph). Rould dwelled in two worlds paradoxically - ‘the real’ and ‘the spiritual space’ - both of which closely resonate with Frey’s music in this album. The real (or the landscapes Roud saw in his external vision) gave rise to his poetic inspirations, which allowed him to communicate with ‘spirits’ of nature intimately “in a closed and harmonious space where a depth of reality and an ecstasy of the subject take place together”. Although he had lived a solitary, closed life as a “fugitive” from the real world, with his homosexuality being considered to be sinful in the rural area at that time, he did not entirely seclude himself from the reality into his imaginative inner self. Instead, he found his own “closed and harmonious space” where the two worlds meet halfway, which became unique landscapes in his works.
“Sometimes the two moments - rapture and distance - take place almost simultaneously: paradoxically, the real is offered in the singularity of its presence - and moving evidence is needed as it holds us a language, or it plays music - then withdraws into its absolute otherness. Humans, animals, but especially flowers seem to open up to exchange and communion, to reveal their intimate truth, before closing immediately in the silence.” (from ‘Landscape and French Poetry’ by Michel Collot and Antonio Rodríguez)
During his solitary walks, Roud encountered the 'spirits' in nature - which vaguely formed a language or a music in his mind - and he captured the fleeting moment of a rapport with them in his poems and journals.
“... with the elements of the landscape in which he lived: hills, groves, trees, flowers had become for him entities with a certain form of life and spirit with which he could dialogue and to whom he lent human forms and feelings. During his long solitary walks, his exacerbated sensitivity made him constantly listening to them and deeply felt the presence of these spirits in his whole being.“ (from the blog 'de paysage en paysage')
CD ‘Collection Gustave Roud’
In Roud’s poems and journals, some musical terms often appear - like unison, melody, harmonies, cadence, symphony - to describe what he saw in the landscape, as if he were hearing distant music or the sounds of instruments (brass, percussion, orchestra, piano, etc.) in the nature. This reminds me of how Frey has composed music utilizing field recording materials in his six hour piece ‘l'âme est sans retenue I’ (1997/98), in which small fragments of the field recordings sometimes sound like forming faint echoes of orchestral music. In this Collection Gustave Roud, Frey seemed to embody the ‘inner music’ that Roud might have been hearing in the landscapes he admired, in a more clearly visualized, magnified, tonal way than what he has done in his ‘l'âme est sans retenue I’ - by using actual musical instruments.
The first piece, Paysage pour Gustave Roud, begins with soft tones of piano and clarinet which evoke a transparent presence of the wind, with the image of a vast expanse of the sky and the ground. Everything moves slowly, sometimes unrecognizably quietly, in a surreal flow of time. The landscape in which the music unfolds - a cloudy sky and a rustic, rural landscape - feels like a very personal, quiet solitary place, but there is also a wide openness with which anyone's contemplation can synchronize. The soft tones of the piano throw thin rays of sunlight, with a hint of warm colors, while the dry texture of the cello (Stefan Thut) increases the shadow in the gray landscape. The fragile tones of the clarinet seem to reflect the slightly insecure, contemplative mind of the poet, who was perhaps once standing in the solitary landscape, gazing at a thin ray of hope. When the sounds of the three instruments overlap in unison, the soul of the poet and the landscape blend together in one entity, opening the door to Roud's two worlds - the rural landscape in his external vision and his inner world.
The second piece, Haut-Jorat, is a series of six short pieces for violin, clarinet, and piano. Frey described this piece, "Haut-Jorat is the name of the countryside where Roud lived. The six pieces are like six photographs: sensations of air, light and landscape."
This piece begins with a dry, matte tone of violin, which evokes a monochrome drawing of a rustic landscape. While the sounds of the three instruments are extremely subtle and quiet, each tone has a rich, substantial texture and depth. Listening to this series of short pieces makes me feel like slowly walking on the trails where Roud used to take a solitary walk in contemplation.
The third piece, La présence, les silences, evokes a vast expanse of a monochrome landscape, and simultaneously the unspoiled beauty of the soul of the poet, apart from secular noises.
The fourth piece is Farblose Wolken, Glück, Wind, performed by soprano (Regula Konrad), trumpet (Stephen Altoft), cello (Thut), percussion (Lee Ferguson), harmonica and piano (Frey), and sound samples from CD. This is another beautiful, compelling piece in this album, one of the greatest compositions among all of Frey's works I have heard.
In this piece, Frey used his German text - a list of words (meaning 'stone', 'shine', 'leaves', 'death', 'happiness', 'wind') - read by soprano voice. Some of these words also appeared in his 2015 release '24 Wörter' (Edition Wandelweiser), sung by the same soprano singer Konrad, and are seemingly the essential keywords of the Roud’s journal which inspired Frey for this piece. (The excerpts of Roud's journal and Frey’s list of words are included in the CD liner notes.)
If Frey's 'Weites Land, Tiefe Zeit: Räume 1-8' (b-boim) is a silent micro symphony composed of numerous, almost unrecognizable subtle changes and moves of extremely quiet sounds, then this 'Farblose Wolken, Glück, Wind' can be called a silent micro opera - unfolding in the listener's mind, not on stage. The transient appearances of soprano voice, trumpet, cello, percussions, piano and harmonica humbly emerge from silence and retreat into silence, with a floating-in-the-air lightness and fragility. The lyrics which the soprano sings with a haunting melody are the French narrative from Roud’s journal, conveying to us the tremors of joy and awe that Roud cherished in his intimate relation with nature. The emotional expressions are minimum and subtle in this Frey’s song piece, not obviously dramatic like conventional operas, but if you listen carefully, magnifying the micro world consisting of subtle shadings and wavers of the trembling voices of soprano and instruments that are sparsely dotted in silence, you can see (hear) the extraordinary beauty arisen from the deepest part of the human heart. The translucent tones of the soprano in this piece also remind me of the celestial beauty of Monteverdi's operas (very quiet scenes), which seep into my heart with the similarly simple, understated manner and straightforward approaches to the essence of pure beauty.
Frey's song piece is not a strong music full of vital energies like Monteverdi's operas, but the quiet presence of the music has a different power (and a different path) to reach the listener's mind. The two are very different or opposite in a way: while Monteverdi's operas are solidly structured with a ceaseless, determined flow of precisely timed sounds with a clear sense of the beginning and end, Frey's music seems to be rather blurred, uncertain, half-formed, indirect, not being anchored in one solid place or time, with almost imperceptible molecular changes of shades and long stretches of silence. The subtleties of the quiet sounds activate the listener's ears to be more sensitive, while the sparsity and uncertainty leave a wide open space for the listener's contemplation, so they can hear the extended stretch of music in the silence - where poetry forms in music. It reminds me of Romanian pianist Radu Lupu’s semi-transparent pianissimo tones, which must arise from his very personal world a bit far from reality, but also deeply resonate with the listener’s inner world - like a door to another dimension (or contemplation) is opened in the passages of the distant tones.
Supposing that this Frey’s Farblose Wolken, Glück, Wind is a silent micro opera, I divided this 48 minutes piece into several scenes as below (mostly based on my imagination evoked from the music).
The inner world of the poet and the outer world he was watching (the landscape) slowly emerge (0:00)
Very subtle, feeble but keen tones of high-frequencies appear quietly, flickering a faint light on the edge of the silence, evoking an extremely sensitive, vulnerable soul of the poet. The soft sound of a trumpet comes in, gradually unfolding the landscape where the poet was immersed in, with its spatial sounding. The soprano voice appears, trembling but in a forthright tone, singing about Roud’s intimate feelings for the nature hauntingly while closely tracing the words of Roud’s journal.
The ethereal tones of the soprano leads the listener to the mystical place between reality and the other world, where the soul of the poet dwells. While the sounds of the soprano and the harmonica appear close, the trumpet appears in the middle, and the bass drum appears far away, the cello creates a mood of disquiet behind them. The thin edge between discord and accord shows the swings of the poet's sensitivities, who sometimes seeing a faint ray of hope and happiness, but sometimes sinking deep down into a sorrowful, solitary void. The fragile but earnest soprano voice is a prayer of the poet, staying slightly off but not out of balance, reflecting the shadows of the poet’s mind. All the sounds move slowly, revealing the inner world of the poet and the expanse of his outer landscape simultaneously.
The other world, where the poet’s spirit floats in, or his closed life distant from the reality (7:02)
Faint sounds of a piano are heard in the soundscape of the soft, distant tones of a trumpet, hoarse, low sounds of a cello, a percussion (a heavy bell rolling), and weak sounds of a harmonica. These subtle sounds sparsely dotted in the thick silence create a mildly spiritual atmosphere, evoking the world after death. (This section reminds me of the mystical air of the third act of Monteverdi’s Orfeo, when Orfeo sings 'Possente spirto' while crossing the river that divides the mortal world from the world of the dead, in which the obscure sounds of trumpet evokes the other world along with a short phrase of a violin, trumpet or harp following each passage of the song.)
Unison, harmonies, a faint ray of hope into the shadow of the poet’s soul. Brightness of the first spring sunlight shines in, transient moments of happiness knock the poet's heart (16:16)
After a silence, the soprano and all the instruments sing and play in unison softly but earnestly, with short intervals of silence. Every time they form harmony, a faint light of happiness shines in the dark. The contrast between the high range and the low range of the sounds of instruments evokes the extremes of the poet’s mind, longing for hope on one hand, sinking into a dark melancholy on the other hand.
Suddenly, the positive, crisp sounds of percussion come in, blowing the melancholic air away with the brightness of a sunlight, clarifying the following silence. Again, a faint harmony of soprano, trumpet and cello come back, slowly increasing the brightness of the air. Trembling with hope for transient moments of happiness, the poet sees the first sunlight of the spring which reinvigorates a life in nature, although very transient.
Soprano voice reads Frey's text (a list of words), spring brings inspiration into the poet’s mind via the spirits of nature, softly and warmly (22’20”)
In the middle part of the piece, a soft voice of soprano appears repeatedly between short silences, evoking a voice of a night bird, deepening the air. The soprano voice quietly reads the words of Frey’s text one by one, accompanied by the sounds of heavy bells rolling, the dry tones of a trumpet and a cello in the background.
The sounds of percussion gently knock on the door to the closed mind of the poet. As the thin streams of high-frequencies and a harmonica come in and gradually become stronger, the soprano voice increases its warmth and brightness as if it were pouring in enduring strength to a fragile life. The soul of the poet wakes up in the ethereal tranquility, listening to the words echoing in the air.
Bright sounds of trumpet and percussions cleared the air, the arrival of spring, awakening the poet’s half-asleep soul, deepening and clarifying the following silence (33’00")
After a long silence, a powerful high-pitched sound of the trumpet comes in out of the blue (you will be blown away), reverberating in the silence like a messenger of the arrival of spring. Intense emotions - joy, surprise, excitement - suddenly fill the poet’s mind, drawing him back to the grand reality from his half-asleep dream. Percussive crisp sounds join with the sound of the trumpet, spreading the bright lights of spring throughout the space. After the following silence - which was deepened and clarified by the absence of the powerful tones of the trumpet, the extremely quiet, trembling voice of the soprano comes back prayerfully, synchronized with a thin stream of a high-frequency sound. Here, the clear contrast with the powerful sounds of the trumpet brought out the semi-transparent, fragile beauty of the soprano voice more strikingly. Grand nature (trumpet) and the poet’s frail mind (soprano) alternately appear, coming back and forth in the state between sleeping and waking, evoking the poet’s mind which swings between joy and grief, reality and the other world.
Immersed in the moment when his two worlds married - the nature and his inner world - in a peaceful silence (37:23)
In a slow repetition of a slightly irregular beat of the percussion, the trumpet sound and soprano voice sparsely and alternately appear, very slowly and gradually, diminishing into the peaceful silence. The two worlds - the nature and the poet’s inner world - are peacefully married in a meditative silence.
The beauty of this song piece is breathtaking - evoking vague, dreamlike images of the soft sunlight and shadows, reflecting on small pebbles, flowers and leaves in the poet’s view, bringing out faint images of the spirits of nature. The thoughts of the poet, who was once watching the same landscape with awe, are still lingering in the wind quietly blowing through the scene. His sensations of happiness and pain, softly covered by the thin veil of oblivion, come back again transiently in the fragments of the nature scene that Frey was watching. The fleeting spirits that dwelled in nature - which only poets can see - were once captured in Roud’s writings, and now in this piece of Frey’s. With his cloudless inner eye and the extreme delicacy close to the sensitivities of Roud, Frey scooped the trembling, fragile soul of the poet with his careful, warm hands into this incredibly beautiful, embracing song piece - or a silent micro opera.
The last piece of the album is Ombre si fragile, a short piece for violin, cello, and piano. In this piece, very quiet, subtle sounds of violin, cello and piano appear, moving very slowly, then disappearing into silence. Extremely thin, dry textures of a violin and a cello (evoking the rustles of dead leaves) reflect the extremely sensitive, fragile soul of this poet who lived in solitude. Soft tones of a piano come in with the naturalness of the air, like a stream of the faint light momentarily coming into a dark room. The low contrast in the hollow sounds, which is as tranquil and solemn as the silence, creates an uncertain atmosphere in the gray area between the reality and the other world.
At the end, the sounds disappear imperceptibly like an unfinished sentence, assimilated with the last silence. This piece evokes in me a fleeting light that the poet might have seen in his diminishing mind in the very last moment of life - the translucent beauty that he had been desperately holding to - which long remains in the silence after the music ends.
My new essay on Jürg Frey's L'ame est sans retenue composition series
“It’s about how ‘normal’, ‘regular’ things are transformed - by the work of composing, by decisions, by intuition, by the ear - to an art work.” - Jürg Frey (8/16/2017)
My new essay on Jürg Frey's L'ame est sans retenue composition series has been published online in the issue 4 of surround journal.
Borders Disappear - Jürg Frey's L'ame est sans retenue composition series (9/22/2017)
"Inspiring, among others, a profound and meaningful piece about L'ame est sans retenue. Thoughts about this piece and the connection of my music to art and poetry by Yuko Zama." - Jürg Frey
Jürg Frey - L'ame est sans retenue I (ErstClass 002-5)
http://www.erstwhilerecords.com/catalog/EC002.html
The New York Philharmonic perfomed Salonen, Rachmaninoff and Sibelius under Paavo Järvi w/ Leif Ove Andsnes
October 12, 2017 (Thurs) @ David Geffen Hall - 7:30 PM
On Thursday, the first half of The New York Philharmonic concert under the baton of Estonian conductor Paavo Järvi opened with Esa-Pekka Salonen's 1998 composition Gambit (revised in 1999), the NY premiere of a nine minute piece for a large symphony orchestra of overture character. In this short piece, a few archetypes emerged in various different formations and circumstances to unfold thrillingly intertwined layers of sounds. It began with soft sounds of simple tones on the pentatonic scale, penetrating the air like fine rays of light to create a serene atmosphere, gradually growing into a translucent mixture of colorful chords. Järvi brought out clear sounds with a brisk tempo from the orchestra with his fresh approach. The vivid, sharp-pointed contrast in the passages between pianissimo and fortissimo was striking - evoking in me a sparkling northern European sunlight swiftly changing its brightness and softness while reflecting on the vast water surface of the Baltic Sea (which mesmerized me once when I saw it from the Kiel harbor). The rich sounds of the string and the brass sections conjured the fullness of the water of the sea - filled with vital spirit, evoking lively dances of cheerful water nymphs. The imaginative power in this nine minute piece of Salonen's was dazzling. The surging waves of the bright sounds expanded vigorously in several passages, but not with heaviness or massiveness at all - instead with a light clean texture with Järvi’s clear-cut conducting, which elegantly united the entire piece into a silky flow.
The Salonen's piece, which swept through the hall with its northern European coolness, was a perfect overture for Norwegian pianist Leif Ove Andsnes' performance of Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 4. Crystal-clear tones of Andsnes' piano highlighted the cool, translucent texture of the orchestra's sounds with natural touches. His rhythm and tempo were as sharp as Järvi's conducting, creating a perfect chemistry with the orchestra throughout the piece. His solo in the second movement was breathtaking - so intimate and unpretentious that it felt as if he was playing the piano for his close friends at home. After the coolness of Andsnes' piano sounds breathing in the ethereal air, in the last movement, the orchestra swelled up to a vast expanse of music with a poignant coda which reminded me of Shostakovich's symphony, surging toward a spectacular ending.
In Sibelius's 5th Symphony, in the last half of the concert, Järvi surprised me with a fresh liveliness which I did not expect from this rather unpopular Symphony. His fast-paced conducting brought out crisp and vibrant sounds from the New York Philharmonic, blowing away all the extravagant phrasings and old-fashioned soundings from my memory like an exhilarating sea breeze. It sounded completely different from the past recordings of other conductors/orchestras I had heard before. The brass instruments’ solos were incredibly graceful, reminding me of the polished, silky tones of the brass section of the Orchestre de Paris - which I heard before with Järvi’s conducting on some CDs. While changing the textures of sounds from extremely delicate nuances like in the slow movement of Mozart to uplifting beats like in the scherzo of Beethoven’s symphonies, Järvi navigated the orchestra freely with his pliable, precise conducting, and the orchestra responded to him briskly. The resulted music was deeply compelling with the essence of the piece directly touching our hearts, filled with earnest intensity and sincerity of the conductor and the musicians. In this performance, Järvi and the orchestra liberated this Sibelius' 4th Symphony from heaviness and excessiveness of the old era, while extracting the maximum lyricism of the Romantic music very clearly.
Although these three pieces are rarely heard at classical music concerts, the program of the day was one of the most exciting sets of music that I have experienced live. Salonen's nine minute piece cleared the air and filled the hall with a cool breeze, accentuating the contemporary freshness of the two subsequent early-modern compositions of the Romantic composers. The birth of music does not mean just the moment when a composition was made by a composer, but also the moment when a fresh interpretation of a conductor and a perfect realization by the orchestra stun us with its freshness - like Paavo Järvi and The New York Philharmonic did on this day.
FOR/WITH: Works by Christian Wolff, Ashley Fure, Annea Lockwood, Michael Pisaro (9/29-30) @Issue Project Room, NYC
Successful interaction of composers and improvisers
The trumpeter and composer Nate Wooley organized a two-night mini-festival “FOR/WITH” at Issue Project Room in Brooklyn on September 29th and 30th, featuring four iconoclastic composers—Christian Wolff, Ashley Fure, Michael Pisaro, Annea Lockwood—each of whom have been breaking new ground in contemporary classical/experimental music scene with unconventional approaches. Wooley commissioned each of the four composers to write a piece, and two of those commissioned works (of Wolff's and Pisaro's) were performed at this event. Five performers—Nate Wooley, Ross Karre, Jessica Pavone, Megan Schubert, Kristin Norderval—played compositions and improvisation in various forms of ensemble and solo, together with the composers in some of the sets.
Wooley—as a distinguished improviser who also composes for his works—organized seven sets over the two nights featuring compositions and improvisations in various forms. The seven sets were:
1) Wooley played solo trumpet on Wolff's commissioned piece For Trumpet Player, partly with improvisation
2) Karre played solo percussion on Fure's piece Shiver Lung 2 (2016)
3) Two composers Wolff and Pisaro played pure improvisation
4) Four performers (Karre, Schubert, Pavone, Wooley) and two composers (Wolff, Pisaro) played Lockwood's piece Bayou-Borne, for Pauline, partly with improvisation
5) Norderval played solo soprano voice on Lockwood's piece I Give You Back (1995)
6) Wooley played solo trumpet along with Pisaro's sine tones (pre-recorded) on Pisaro's commissioned piece Stem-Flower-Root
7) Two performers (Wooley, Norderval) and two composers (Wolff, Pisaro) performed Wolff's piece Exercises, partly with improvisation
Christian Wolff: For Trumpet Player – Nate Wooley (trumpet) (25’)
In the first set of the first day, Nate Wooley played solo trumpet on Christian Wolff's commissioned piece For Trumpet Player. This 25 minute piece has an open space for a solo performer to add free improvisation gestures within the composed structure. Wooley cut in fragments of short trumpet notes sharply from various geometric angles, with short silences in between. While the vertical complex of hard trumpet sounds delivered an intense, dry, direct impression of the composition, Wooley added soft textures to the piece as improvisational elements with his muted sounds of trumpet and his own voice, which created a sense of perspective with a realistic, immediate connection between the music and the performer with human touches. The elements of improvisation Wooley inserted in a few spots seemed to add a fresh body and character to the composition, seemingly expanding the dimensions of the music to reach a personal level of listeners' minds.
Ashley Fure: Shiver Lung 2 – Ross Karre (percussion) (10’)
In the second set, Ross Karre performed Ashley Fure's 2016 piece Shiver Lung 2 on percussion. On the table in front of Karre on stage, there were a pair of bowl-shaped percussion instruments resembling a pair of lungs, rapidly spinning. There were also several objects and chains near the percussion instruments. Karre picked one of them (necklace-like chains first), holding it with both hands symmetrically, and slowly lowered the chains so they made contact with the thin edges of the spinning percussions. Very subtle frictional sounds came out from both sides of the speakers, or from a single speaker in turn. Karre changed objects from one to another, creating an ominous atmosphere, and gradually increasing its intensity and explosive energy toward the end.
In this piece, the performer did not make sounds by actively adding his gestures. Instead, he let the percussion instruments make sounds with his careful attention to the moment when the object touched the percussion instruments, being extremely alert to avoid excessive contact which would cause unexpected chaos, in order to place the sounds within the frame of the composition. In a way, 'listening' and ‘expecting (predicting)’ the possible outcome of the contact seemed to be the most crucial key in this performance rather than just 'performing', and this alertness and intensity of the performer seemed to heighten the tension of the music. This method, utilizing gravitational force and the different textures of objects to contact the percussion instruments, reminded me of Michael Pisaro's 'rice fall (1)' in which the sounds of rice falling on various objects created an organically composed music with extremely delicate control of the percussionist Greg Stuart, utilizing the difference of intensity in falling rice and various objects of different textures to receive the falling rice. In Fure's piece, the music contained more vigorous energy inside, gradually swelling up to the maximum loudness by the end. The way it reached a climax in the end had a similar impression as the raw, explosive energy of free group improvisation in the 60's, but this piece had more restrained, sophisticated balance and meditative calmness within a precisely structured composition.
Christian Wolff / Michael Pisaro Duo – Wolff (small percussion, melodica), Pisaro (electric guitar, melodica) (15’)
Christian Wolff and Michael Pisaro have performed improvisation as a duo on their 2016 CD 'Looking Around' (Erstwhile 080), but this was the first time for them to play as a duo at a live concert. In this set, Wolff played melodica and small percussion instruments, while Pisaro played electric guitar and melodica. Both of the two played quiet, sparse sounds in a horizontal flow with a substantial component of silence. The vertical ripples of sounds that Wolff occasionally cut in gave the flow a sharp, wide awareness. Pisaro was keenly attentive to the sounds and silences Wolff created, responding to him naturally with no forceful effort. The sounds of the two melodicas, which were closely connected to the performer's breathing, added human elements to the improvisation with their organic textures. The balance between the duo was exquisite with a perfect chemistry, making it feel like one performer was playing.
Seeing (and listening to) this duo's improvisation was very interesting. These two composers seemed to trust each other's aspirations for perfection regardless of whether it was composition or improvisation, both minds deeply rooted in the concept of ‘composition’ (which has a structure), knowing each other's philosophies for music with respect. I was not sure if either of the two was consciously trying to play 'improvisation' outside a frame of composition, but what I felt in their performance was that the duo was 'composing' something profound in a certain 'frame' (structure) with immediate, simultaneous and spontaneous approaches with keen attentions to the space and time of the 15 minutes, without suffocating a sense of openness of free improvisation. With the close interaction of two extraordinary composers' inspirations and their intensity, the duo seemed to open even another dimension in the time-space of the room, making their performance feel like 30 minutes or even longer, with a sense of connecting to somewhere infinite.
Annea Lockwood: Bayou-Borne, for Pauline - Christian Wolff (melodica), Ross Karre (percussion), Nate Wooley (trumpet), Michael Pisaro (electric guitar), Megan Schubert (soprano voice), Jessica Pavone (viola) (20’)
The last set of the first day was Annea Lockwood's Bayou-Borne, for Pauline (20')—dedicated to the late Pauline Oliveros (1932 - 2016)—performed by six musicians: Christian Wolff (melodica), Ross Karre (percussion), Nate Wooley (trumpet), Michael Pisaro (electric guitar), Megan Schubert (soprano voice) and Jessica Pavone (viola). The score is based on a map of the six bayous converging near Houston, Texas, and each of six musicians was assigned to play his/her instrument, keeping one of the bayous' route in his/her mind. The timing of each musician beginning to play or entering was precisely written on the score, but the last three minutes were open for free for the musicians to decide when to stop with fading out.
In this 20 minute piece, six performers played each instrument - two of them (Pisaro on guitar, Karre on percussion) on stage from the start, the other four began to walk, slowly circling around the audience in a discreet manner, playing their instruments (Schubert singing). The mixtures of the six musicians' soft sounds reverberated ethereally in the large high-ceiling room and wrapped the audience within a peaceful, serene atmosphere. Performers were listening to the each other's sounds and the reverbs in the room carefully, keeping the delicate balance between them without any particular instrument standing out. It was a great piece to be performed by taking advantage of a remarkably high ceiling of the Issue Project Room, which naturally created a phenomenal acoustic effect, evoking a solemn wind slowly ascending in a whirl toward the sky.
Annea Lockwood: I Give You Back – Kristin Norderval (soprano voice) (8’)
The first set of the second day opened with Annea Lockwood's eight minute piece I Give You Back, performed by Kristin Norderval (soprano voice). Norderval, whose repertoire spans from Renaissance to downtown New York avant-garde, began to sing narrative-style lyrics, acutely but softly going up and down an octave while echoing her calm but intense voice throughout the room. The lyrics of the song, stating existence of a past violence a woman had experienced before, were sung in an unemotional, matter-of-fact way (despite the lurid details), finely controlled at the absolute edge between sanity and insanity. The heart-wrenching lyrics were wrapped in the dream-like translucent, impassive tones of Norderval's soft soprano voice, paradoxically highlighting the chill of the story.
Michael Pisaro: Stem-Flower-Root – Nate Wooley (trumpet) and Sine Waves (30’)
The second set of the second day was Michael Pisaro's commissioned work for trumpet and sine waves, Stem-Flower-Root, performed by Nate Wooley along with Pisaro's recordings of his sine tones. In this 30 minute piece, the sounds of trumpet and sine tones moved forward slowly sometimes in parallel, sometimes precisely with the same frequency as each other - together expanding the music in a quiet manner. Although they were basically simple linear sounds, very subtle changes of the closeness between two different sound sources increased and decreased harmonic overtone, adding roundness to the music with mysterious microtones inducing a feeling of floating.
While Wooley played his trumpet part adhering strictly to the notes written on the score, he also created a distinguished contrast against the round, glossy textures of Pisaro's sine tones, with rather thin, dry, distant sounds of trumpet. This contrast gave a unique perspective to the music: the direct, acoustic sounding of the trumpet evoked a realistic human voices emerging on the surface, while Pisaro's sine tones evoked a hidden inner voice powerfully reverberating in the heart of a human being with elastic, soft and warm textures. When the two sound sources overlapped with each other's frequency, the gap between the outer world and the inner world seemed to be bridged - just like a strong stem connecting a flower (surface) and a root (inside) of a plant. In this piece, Pisaro's sine tones were especially captivating, as if they were unfolding a spacious, profound world prevailing under the ground where the roots are supplying a vital life to the plant—like a soul of a human being.
Christian Wolff: Exercises – Nate Wooley (trumpet), Christian Wolff (small percussion and melodica), Michael Pisaro (electric guitar), Kristin Norderval (voice) (20’)
The last set of the second day was Christian Wolff's piece Exercises, featuring Nate Wooley (trumpet), Christian Wolff (small percussion and melodica), Michael Pisaro (electric guitar and melodica), and Kristin Norderval (voice). This 20 minute composition offers some freedom to the performers to play improvisation. Each performers made vertical, angular sounds with brief silences between, intertwining with each other like four different human voices intensely moving a thrilling conversation forward. In this set, the intimate and natural communication between Wolff's melodica and Pisaro's melodica was particularly memorable.
Roundtable Q&A - Ashley Fure, Christian Wolff, Annea Lockwood, Michael Pisaro, Nate Wooley
The idea of mixing composition and improvisation (or composers and performers who can also improvise) in this mini-festival showed Wooley's current interest in exploring a new ground of music—some new form of music that does not fully belong to either improvisation or composition. When an improviser performs composed music—like Wooley performing Wolff's piece and Pisaro's piece—the music seemed to obtain some notable spontaneity and immediacy which the improviser gives off naturally. All the other performers, not only Wooley, were skilled improvisers as well as classically trained performers of compositions. These performers, who have virtuosic improvising skills as well as great ears, infused new breath and vivid life into each composed music, opening a wide open space for the development of the music in an organic flow. It was a different experience from more conventional performances of contemporary classical compositions which often give me a rather rigid impression, or some of the old-style improvisation which has a total freedom for the performer but not so much structure in music. On the other hand, these approaches taken at this mini-festival were refreshing: improvisers played compositions with a free open frame of mind as improviser, while composers played improvisations with comprehensive knowledge and experiences in composing music with structures (frames) in mind, with the same intensity and a care for details they put into compositions. These approaches that Wooley and the composers/performers tried to embody in various combinations in this two-day festival seemed to be a successful presentation of how the elements of composition and improvisation can interact thrillingly with each other in a state of harmony.
Jürg Frey - L'ame est sans retenue I (ErstClass 002-5)
Jürg Frey - L'ame est sans retenue I (ErstClass 002-5)
Jürg Frey's L'ame est sans retenue I (ErstClass 002-5) is officially released from Erstwhile Records today (10/6). This is so far my favorite package I have ever designed. The cover art was inspired by Jürg Frey's first composition/artwork Stück (1975) #36, which has the same design except with a German sentence instead of the French title of this 5 CDs. (You can see Jürg's original artwork here.)
PRESS RELEASE (Oct. 7, 2017)
Jürg Frey - L'ame est sans retenue I (ErstClass 002-5)
Swiss composer Jürg Frey's six hour long electronic tape piece L'ame est sans retenue I was recorded and assembled in 1997/98 and is now being released for the first time. It is the longest piece Frey has ever composed in his over 40 year career.
In this piece, Frey utilized the sounds of field recordings he made in Berlin in 1997 as the source materials, alternately inserted between long stretches of silence. Frey was particularly focusing around that time on how the dynamic relation between sound and silence can affect our perception of the silence in a frame of space and time. By using the environmental sounds of field recordings and silence as materials, which was an unusual method of composing music at that time, Frey created a subtle but captivating flow over the six hours in which nearly imperceptible pitches, rhythms, dynamics, textures, overtone - all emanating from the natural environment - are faintly consonant with each other. “It’s about how ‘normal’, ‘regular’ things are transformed - by the work of composing, by decisions, by intuition, by the ear - to an art work.” (Jürg Frey)
The title “L'ame est sans retenue I” is a quotation of a single, isolated sentence from French poet and writer Edmond Jabès’s book Désir d'un commencement, Angoisse d'une seule fin (Desire for a Beginning, Dread of One Single End). The simple clear-cut structure and slightly enigmatic, ambiguous air of Frey’s L'ame est sans retenue I echo with the world of Jabès’s book, in which a large portion of white space (silence) is distinctly present between blocks of sentences and a list of evocative keywords create introspective, silent, distant atmosphere.
5 CD set: $42 plus shipping ($30 for lossless digital DL file)
http://www.erstwhilerecords.com/catalog/EC002.html
More info on Jürg Frey
http://jurgfrey.blogspot.ch
http://www.wandelweiser.de/juerg-frey.html
