Angus Ryan, Ann Carr-Boyd, Nadje Noordhuis, Danielle Gratn, Diana Weston, Alicia Crossley
Crimson Rosella illustration by Kymba Burrows
Snow in Summer
We celebrate the imagination and inventiveness of three Australian women composers. Elena Kats Chernin’s optimistic and exuberant suite Reinventions is based on Bach’s 2-part Inventions. Nadje Noordhuis’ children’s suite Magpie Baby evokes the world of the toddler in a series of delightfully quirky character-pieces. And a song by Ann Carr-Boyd sees humanity from the point of view of insects. Both suites have been arranged/commissioned by Thoroughbass for Thoroughbass and we are delighted to present them for the first time ever. With Alicia Crossley (recorders), Angus Ryan (cello, lyrics), Danielle Grant (soprano) and Diana Weston (harpsichord).
3 PM SUNDAY MARCH 17 2013 ST LUKE’S ANGLICAN CHURCH, OURIMBAH RD, MOSMAN
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Meeting with Ann Carr-Boyd
man is so proud
words by Don Marquis music by Ann Carr-Boyd, composed 1972
Asked where her stimulus to write for harpsichord came from, Ann described how, early in her composing career, she had regularly met and worked with musicians in the exciting and developing world of new Australian music in Sydney and regional areas such as the Blue Mountains. Among them was flamboyant harpsichordist Robert Goode, also a pianist of note and long-time organist of the Sydney Town Hall. Robert formed the chamber music group the Consort of Sydney at the special request of Donald MacDonald, then artistic director of Musica Viva Australia. The group toured extensively in Australia and overseas and helped launch the careers of musicians such as David Pereira and Amanda Thane. Ann was Composer in Residence for the Consort of Sydney for a decade. Robert Goode became the driving force behind much of her music and she was inspired by him to think in many directions – and he was happy for her to write in many styles and ways. The three songs ‘ Trois Lecons ‘ were an early product of this association and were written for Robert and soprano Marilyn Richardson. Ann remembers with great fondness her associations from this period of her life. The fun and creativity of these collaborations is apparent in the absurd, yet serious nature of man is so proud
The satirical yet visual imagery inherent in the poem is realized perfectly by the harpsichord whose fizzing sound creates the burring, whirring noises of insects in a startlingly realistic way. This is best brought out, said Ann, by being as inaccurate as possible!! Forget labouring over getting notes to align, or running passages correct, think of the imagery. And so, slides, glissandi, broken chords, note clusters can be indulged in like a child trying its hand for the first time. And it all suddenly works! There is the fly caught in the spider’s web, the beetle whirring its wings and banging into things, and the moth fluttering helplessly around the light bulb. For this to be most effective, Ann upped the tempo considerably thereby exposing bursts of noisy energy and flights of repetitive fancy. By embracing ‘messiness’ the insect world came alive.
As a satirical song, Ann encouraged Danielle to extremes – to prolong the glissandi, to make dynamics huge, to make as much contrast as possible. And of course, with such ironic and plain funny poetry, diction is all-important. For our part, we accused Ann of imperfect editing. We need more on the score, more descriptive words like ‘as fast as possible’, ‘messy’, ‘crash’, ‘extreme glissando’, ‘mad’, ‘big’. Then we’ll get the idea.
Workshop with Anne Boyd
Anne Boyd’s piece Goldfish through Summer Rain was originally written for flute and piano (the original recording is by David Miller and Geoffrey Collins). Since then it has been re-written for instruments more suited to its Japanese influences – harp and shakuhatshi. And now, also with these origins in mind, tenor recorder and spinet.
‘Goldfish’ is a supremely visually imaginative piece, its inspiration is a poem by K.S.Kim
A Summer Hue
After the rain
The blue sky came upon the pond,
So did the summer morning
And so did the sheet of summer shade,
And there the goldfish wrote their summer verse.
The keyboard’s role is to describe the watery elements implied in the title. In the original, the piano provides a limpid, liquidy quality that is associated with pools of water, droplets falling from leaves, ripples and galoopy air bubbles released from fishy mouths. Over this watery garden engendered by the sounds of the piano, the flute weaves a gentle melody. The effect of the flute and piano is contemplative and mildly melancholic.
A different combination of the blown and the plucked conjures up a different garden. The tenor recorder’s sound is woody and breathy, the spinet’s silvery bright. In this garden, there are flashes of sunlight through the droplets and running rivulets, sparkles on the pools and the goldfish is playful. The sun emerges from behind a cloud and the garden shimmers. (Alternatively, according to Anne, it could be a garden in winter, with shining icicles and frozen streams. But the listener can make up their own mind).
In the workshop, Anne warmed to the changed weather conditions of ‘Goldfish’. She emphasized the free nature of the piece. (Indeed, she would have preferred unstructured notation, especially for the keyboard part). With this stricture in mind, the disparate rhythms immediately fell into place, spaces became spacier, harmonics more reverberative and the melody both more introspective and more elevated. The transposition to a higher key that she had thought necessary, proved not to be the case, with some local transpositions here and there all that was required to accommodate both recorder and spinet’s more restricted ranges. Solo passages on the recorder needed no underlying sustained sound (as in the piano part), nor flashing chords from the spinet. They adopted the improvised nature that was intended.
‘Goldfish’ has proven to be an immensely popular piece over the years. We hope this interpretation, this instrumentation, shows it in a new light.
Notes on rehearsal with Elena Kats Chernin.
Elena tells: ‘Here is a note about the original. It was commissioned by the QSO and premiered by Genevieve (Lacey) in 2004 under Simon Hewett conducting and in the same year I made a version for string quartet with recorders. This happened around 2009. Re-Inventions: 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 the Bach’s most famous two part inventions and suddenly this idea took hold- why not reflect on some of the Bach inventions? 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 all composers. 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 varied as required.
There are six pieces altogether. No. 1 is based on the invention No. 8, in F major. The challenge here was to write in a such a “bubbly” major key, I usually prefer to write in darker, minor keys. This movement is quite insistent in nature and eventually transforms into a waltz. No. 2 is based on the invention No. 4, in D minor. Tenor recorder is played here.This one is quite slow and hypnotic and perhaps even a little fragile. The texture of the ascending and descending scales, over just two alternating chords was what drew me initially to this invention. No. 3 is based on the invention No. 13, in A minor, which was my absolute favourite in my childhood. Violas and Cellos have a repetitive pattern that provides the base for the main material to be built on. It is the machine-like energy of the invention that interested me. No. 4 is based on the invention No. 1, in C major. In the end I changed the metre of the original to give it an off-balance feel., even though it is probably the calmest of the 6 pieces. No. 5 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 the instrument better. It probably has the least in common with the invention it is based on. It is a kind of a mysterious tango in 5/4.No. 6 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 instincts from there. I wanted this movement to be the finale and quite virtuosic – similar to the overall spirit of the 1st movement.
Elena’s transcription for keyboard and recorders is a welcome addition to the modern repertoire for both harpsichord and recorders. The suite allows us to hear all types of recorder from the liquid sounds of bass recorder to the chirpy soprarino. The keyboard part, though intended for piano, is ideal for harpsichord, perhaps because of its origins in the music of Bach. Playing the suite on harpsichord means quite a few changes have had to be made to the score however. For a start, the harpsichord’s range is more limited so many notes and passages had to be relocated – at the same time keeping the sense of the phrase. Balance can be a problem due to lack of the harpsichord’s capabilities (or lack of ) with dynamics. Elena unhesitatingly reduced activity, cut out chords, put in chords, reinforced melody in octaves and generally isolated a myriad details to overcome this issue. Peculiarities of the harpsichord again governed our tempi – generally being on the slow side in the fast movements and on the fast side in the slow movements, this to allow clarity of articulatory detail on the one hand, and smooth and sustained connections between notes on the other. The forgotten problem of page turns proved to be something Elena was well aware of. With such busy and relentlessly-moving fast movements, and the lack of any sustaining pedal, strategic rests and cuts were very welcome. Most of Elena’s attention was thus taken up with sorting out harpsichord difficulties. Alicia’s recorder playing left nothing to be desired.
Rehearsal and Recording Session with Nadje Noordhuis
Nadje Noordhuis’ children’s suite Magpie Baby was commissioned by Thoroughbass early in 2011 on a wing and a prayer. Nadje was in the process of heading back to New York, where she lives and works as a musician, jazz trumpeter, teacher and composer. Thoroughbass was toying with the idea of making a recording of works by Australian composers for recorder and harpsichord, and finding that not much existed. In a meeting in Manly, Nadje rose to the challenge to fill the void. Ten months later, in another coffee shop, this time in Greenwich NY, Nadje presented two short pieces, one called Magpie Baby
Nadje describes why –
My sister emailed me a short video of my then two-year old niece, sitting in her backyard wading pool in Canberra. She was playing with some plastic teacups and practicing her conversational skills. When a couple of magpies began their distinctive call from the nearby trees, she tilted her head and listened intently. She then began a very insistent burble of nonsensical words, but then a couple of recognisable words popped out: “magpie baby!”. Entranced by this story, we decided that we must have a whole suite of pieces about childhood. Over the ensuing months, one piece after another, (totalling eight altogether) came through on the air-waves, all describing another facet of the developing toddler from the initial wobble-head (Wiggle-Wobble) to the confident though erratic Running Rampant, with moments of quiet in between (Li’l Lullaby). The initial plan for music for recorder and harpsichord had expanded to include other members of the group as they got to hear the pieces and wanted in on the action! And finally, Angus’ poem about looking back on life became the basis of the lyrics for the final song Memory Mine. The result is a collection of whimsical and playful pieces that capture in music what can be seen in every toddler. A winner!
We are indebted to Nadje, not only for her delightful suite, but also for her input during rehearsal, and in the recording of this piece. Her meticulous attention to detail was much appreciated.
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