Based on Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach

Two-part Inventions Nos. 8, 4, 13. 1, 6, 10

Elena Kats-Chernin

Re-inventions Nos. 1-6 (based on Bach’s two-part Inventions)

JS Bach

Sonata for flute/recorder and obbligato harpsichord BWV 1030

Katia Tiutiunnik

Tres Reflexões sobre Fátima for recorder and harpsichord.

1. Rainha Resplandecente from Illuminada:
2. Sombras dos Segredos.

Programme Notes

Re-Inventions Based on Two-Part Inventions of J.S. Bach

Programme Notes by Elena Kats-Chernin

Re-Inventions was originally written for string orchestra, commissioned by Symphony

Australia for The Queensland Orchestra, with assistance from the Australian Government

through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body. The version for stringquartet was written for Genevieve Lacey and Flinders String Quartet in 2004 and recorded for their ABC Classic album Re-inventions. In 2010 I created a keyboard reduction for a recording of Alicia Crossley (recorder) and Diana Weston (harpsichord) for their album Blue Skies, Magpies and Goldfish.

This version has been revised in January 2021.When the virtuoso recorder player Genevieve Lacey asked me to write her a piece, we decided to meet for a “brainstorming” session, and at one point she unintentionally played something reminiscent of one of Bach’s most famous Two-Part Inventions and suddenly this idea took hold – why not reflect on some of the Bach inventions?

I was brought up playing them in my early piano lessons and I found the idea intriguing –not only to re-orchestrate them, but also to give them a different structure and to take them in completely different directions from the originals.The task turned out to be quite daunting because Bach is Bach, and is sacred ground for allcomposers. However, in the end I chose six inventions that I found the most inspiring to work with and that would be able to feature different recorders.The movements are like individual independent pieces and the order of them can be variedas required. There are six pieces altogether. The work exists in two versions: for recorder and string orchestra, as well as for recorder and string quartet.

No. 1, for descant recorder, is based on the invention No. 8, in F major.

The challenge here was to write in such a “bubbly” major key, I usually prefer to write indarker, minor keys. This movement is quite insistent in nature and eventually transforms into a waltz.

No. 2, for tenor recorder, is based on the invention No. 4, in D minor.This one is quite slow and hypnotic and perhaps even a little fragile. The texture of theascending and descending scales, over just two alternating chords was what drew me initially to this invention.

No. 3, for descant recorder, is based on the invention No. 13, in A minor, which was myabsolute favourite in my childhood. Violas and Cellos have a repetitive pattern that providesthe base for the main material to be built on. It is the machine-like energy of the invention that interested me.

No. 4, for tenor recorder, is based on the invention No. 1, in C major.In the end I changed the meter of the original to give it an off-balance feel. It is probably thecalmest of the 6 pieces.

No. 5, for bass recorder, is based on the invention No. 6 in E major and is for the “wind-like”sound of the bass recorder. I changed the key to G minor to fit the sound and mood of theinstrument better. It probably has the least in common with the invention it is based on. It isa kind of a mysterious tango in 5/4.

No. 6, for sopranino recorder, is based on the invention No. 10 in G major.I took a direct quote from the very last bar of this invention and just followed my instinctsfrom there. I wanted this movement to be the finale and quite virtuosic – similar to the overall spirit of the 1st movement.

Carl Philip Emanuel Bach (1714-1788)

Fantasia in F sharp minor Wq 67

Bach’s influence on his second son Carl Philip Emanuel was profound. CPE regarded his father’s teaching as the source of all things of musical worth that he produced. “All that I know I owe to my father’. Despite this, or maybe because of it, his compositional style is uniquely his own, bearing little resemblance to his father’s. Having said that, his emotionally-charged Fantasia in F sharp minor, is structurally similar to Johann Sebastian’s more abstract Chromatic Fantasia in the same key. While CPE maintains his fantasia can be played on both harpsichord and piano forte (the score has plenty of dynamic markings), in many respects, its place is in the world of harpsichords.

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 – 1750)

Sonata for recorder and obbligato harpsichord BWV 1030

In his Sonata for recorder and obbligato harpsichord, Johann Sebastian demonstrates the polyphonic schema he favoured, and which he revisited and re-examined in detail in the last five years of his life. This can be best seen in works such as The Art of Fugue and the Goldberg Variations.

 Iluminada: Três Reflexões sobre Fátima ii. Rainha Resplandecente

Programme notes by Katia Tiutiunnik, 20th July 2022

Rainha Resplandecente for harpsichord and descant/treble recorder, or harpsichord and violoncello, is the second composition in my trilogy, Iluminada: Três Reflexões sobre Fátima, commissioned by Australian harpsichordist, Diana Weston, in February 2022. The title of the composition is Portuguese for “Resplendent Queen”, while the English translation of the title of the entire trilogy is, “Illuminated: Three Reflections on Fatima”. The first composition in the trilogy is entitled, Sombras dos Segredos (Portuguese for “Shadows of Secrets”), while the title of the third composition is Dança Sagrada (“Sacred Dance”).

The inspiration for all three compositions of the trilogy, Iluminada: Três Reflexões sobre Fátima, emanated from my own research into, and my ensuing reflections on, the series of apparitions of Mary, Mother of Jesus, to the ten-year-old Lucia dos Santos and her cousins, Francisco and Jacinta Marto, who were eight and seven years of age respectively. This series of six apparitions took place in Fatima, Portugal, beginning on May 13 1917 and culminating in the “Miracle of the Sun”, on October 13 1917.

Rainha Resplandecente (“Resplendent Queen”), the second composition in this trilogy, is intended as a musical expression of the transcendent bliss experienced by the Lucia, Francisco and Jacinta during their first vision of Mary, on May 13 1917. In their account of this apparition, they described seeing a beautiful lady in white, who “shone brighter than the sun reflected through a crystal glass filled with the clearest of waters”. On another level, Rainha Resplandecente reflects the blissful transcendence of the state of spiritual illumination, or enlightenment, in which earthly frontiers no longer have any relevance. This is symbolically portrayed in the fact that the composition is entirely based on a Chinese pentatonic scale (which I personally associate with joy and bliss), while being inspired by events that took place in Fatima, Portugal. On yet another level, Rainha Resplandecente is a celebration of my rebirth as a composer, as I had not written anything new from the time my elder son was diagnosed with a serious illness, in early 2020, up until I commenced work on the three compositions of the trilogy, Iluminada: Três Reflexões sobre Fátima in March 2022.

Since Iluminada: Três Reflexões sobre Fátima comprises the first three compositions I have ever written which feature harpsichord, the creative process culminating in these works entailed a period of intense research into the special characteristics and capabilities the harpsichord–a uniquely beautiful, but often misunderstood musical instrument. This research was greatly assisted by Diana Weston, to whom I am very grateful.