Dear Stuart and all
"But I think serial music could work on a lute or lutes." Stuart
I was thinking eactly the same thing Stuart (nice playing and
piece), while I was mulling over the previous Baroque lute thread "New
music to d-minor tuning?", and trying to clarify my thoughts.
Appologies for thinking aloud:
No one mentionned the two (possibly three) pieces written by the
Australian composer, Robert Allworth for Baroque lute, available from
the Australian Music Centre.
[1]http://tinyurl.com/create.php
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I believe at least two of these pieces were written for Susan King,
including a 12 tone style composition for solo Dm lute, "Memories of
Rain".
The sheet music and a recorded extract can be found here:
[2]http://tinyurl.com/2e99dzg
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I heard Susan play this in a Parisian Salon (I think on her beautiful
11c lute having belonged to Michael Schaeffer made by Michael Lowe).
Her playing is subtle (more so than seems on this "amplified" recorded
extract), and I enjoyed the piece, but perhaps others would prefer
something more neo-baroque.
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It is true that the lute generally projects less than the Theorbo
(Jerzy Zak) and even during the baroque era, the latter did tend to
dominate in orchestral ensembles; but I do think a lute can work quite
well in small ensembles or with voice or flute.
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An example of this can be found in Allworth's concerto for French
Baroque lute, harp, violin, viola da gamba, here:
[3]http://tinyurl.com/26dyuxt
I believe this was also written for Susan King; but this short extract
admittedly does not allow a clear judgement, and I have'nt heard the
complete recording.
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However, I suggest, except for the acoustics of modern auditoriums, as
proved by the above (and Stuart's work), serial-type music could be
applied to any instrument including the lute.
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There is a recording of contemporary music by Pete Soderberg, but I
don't know on what type of lute it has been performed; and it is of
course not music specifically written for the lute. Although, if
successful (and I have not heard it) it could show how apt the lute is
to perform such music.
[4]http://tinyurl.com/33m6wzl
If you have heard it, I would like your comments.
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Perhaps, T. Satoh's works could be classified as Neo-Renaissance or
Baroque; but there seems to have been an unbroken Japanese ancient
music tradition up to the present, from which contemporary Japanese
composers can almost directly borrow, and TS can surely rely on this
continued skill even when borrowing from early forms of Western Music,
which might lead to a less artificial modern "transfusion".
[5]http://www.channelclassics.com/works-of-toyohoko-satoh-1.html
[6]http://www.channelclassics.com/works-of-toyohiko-satoh-2.html
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Other relatively unbroken traditions might include Scottish or Irish
(and perhaps central European RT?) folk-baroque. Perhaps, Maxwell
Davies, now in his quieter Orkney's mode, could be persuaded to write
something for Rob Mackillop's sensitive playing?
[7]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOuauqi2oBM&feature=related
(although I personally far prefer MD's Neo-Baroque adventure with the
Fires of London).
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Actually, I think there are more than one interpretation of the
expression "Neo-Baroque",
depending on the degree of "newness" one feels "Neo" expresses (see
neologism).
At least one sense of this I feel, could be a contemporary music
obtained by abstraction through synthesizing of the principles of
Baroque construction, and fusing it with elements of modern
composition. In other words a "new Baroque" but in which features of
the old remain clearly audible, not just new pieces created by someone
who has mastered the rules of French or German baroque composition
which I would prefer to call Baroque revival.
Although I see "Neo" in Neo-classical can receive this weaker meaning,
albeit only if the composition adds something new to what has already
been said by the Classical masters:
"an artist, well schooled and comfortably familiar with the canon, does
not repeat it in lifeless reproductions, but synthesizes the tradition
anew in each work. (...) a neoclassical artist who fails to achieve
(this) may create works that are inane, vacuous or even mediocre,
gaffes of taste and failures of craftsmanship are not commonly
neoclassical failings."
[8]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoclassicism (sorry, I see no
author)
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In order to create a new Baroque in the stronger sense, I feel (as
suggested above) a composer must have been steeped in a musical
tradition in order to operate such an abstraction, which implies either
no break in the tradition, or a period of Baroque revival (as hopefully
at present). Could I be allowed, in that sense, to consider Schoenberg
(at least in some works) to be a neo Mahlerian?
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Have we reached the stage in which the break in the Baroque lute
tradition has been sufficiently bridged to allow a Neo-Baroque lute
music, in this stronger sense to be developped?
At present, I would think only a composer-lutenist familar both with
Baroque and contemporary principles of composition would be in a
position to do so for the Baroque lute.
Listening to all the Modern Lute music links that have been sent to
this thread, I feel the only one which, for me nears this goal, could
be Meinhard Gerlach's "Noa Noa, Tombeau de Gauguin (Laute/lute solo)"
[9]http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/dsmg
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An example of Neo-Baroque in the weaker sense, might be CHRISTOPH
DALITZ' corrente, but whether he adds anything to the Baroque masters
is for you to judge:
[10]http://music.dalitio.de/audio/corrente-archlute.ogg
Please, don't get me wrong, I would love to write this sort of piece,
and such skill in synthesis, is necessary when interpreting early
Baroque works, particularly the French, where only the bare bones are
written, the rest left to the composer-interpreter, and also for
filling out incomplete works.
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Nevertheless, I feel there might be yet another very different
Neo-Baroque, which consciously plays on the breaks in tradition, and
which most creative contemporary composers, have tended to adopt. This
would fuse some strands of Baroque composition with the principles of
contemporary music (Baroque from the contempoary point of view). This
almost shouts out for a shift in instrument away from anything
historic.
A supreme example could be Maxwell-Davies' compositions for the Fires
of London. His music in this phase is Baroque in itself, but sprinkled
with quotations from the early Baroque and Renaissance masters (often
with ironic over, or undertones). MD holds up the "cracked
multi-faceted mirror" of his own creativity, bending and distorting
these pieces to create his very own Baroque (see his "Baroque and
Renaissance" LP), rather as Picasso might have done with (or to) the
old masters: consciously showing his debts to his forebears, but
avoiding any too direct pastiche that could smack of "Art Pompier".
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The LP cover can be seen here:
[11]http://tinyurl.com/2ap5xvx
A typical example (track one) can be heard, here:
[12]http://tinyurl.com/2eax3gs
"PURCELL Fantasia and Two Pavans (1968) (The Fantasia, in Purcell's key
of F-major, is presented in the boldest possible colours.
Paradoxically, the boisterously updated orchestration (in particular
the piccolo doubling at
the twe1fth) creates an authentic dimension of its own: a superb
impression of the shrill brilliance of a baroque organ." Stephen
Pruslin LP notes 1991
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All the tracks can be found here:
[13]http://avantgardeproject.conus.info/AGP71/
Record notes from which the above quote is taken can to be found here:
[14]http://williamts99.com/agp/agp71/AGP71.pdf
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(These may not his best baroque works, but comparison with the original
Baroque compositions, speaks for itself).
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Such an iconoclastic performance needs both sympathy and an ironic
distanciation with the earlier composition, which makes a shift to
modern and different instruments the more evident option: even when
evoking the sounds of an original instrument, as in the case of the
baroque organ (Pruslin above).
%
MD and Britten (in a less jarring mode) neverthesss both substituted
the guitar for the lute, even in the case of Britten's "Nocturnal after
John Dowland Op.70 (1963)", first played on the guitar by Julian Bream,
when the lute should have been available and perhaps the more obvious
choice:
[15]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJETmCQI2fA
This seems quite strange, as we have all seen Julian Bream (YouTube)
"begging" Stravinsky for a modern piece for his lute.
I don't think this shift can simply be due to problems with the lute's
projection, or because the guitar was more widely available, but rather
a deliberate abstracting shift.
(Note that "1960 saw the formation of the Julian Bream Consort, a
period-instrument ensemble with Bream as lutenist." wikipedia).
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For me MD's "Dark Angel" for soprano and guitar, also "harps" back to
earlier lute and voice:
[16]http://tinyurl.com/278pglq
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Again, it seems to take a lutenist-composer to create something similar
for the lute (if not possibly quite of the same calibre), the music of
Peter Croton or Peter Wallace, on renaissance, and of course Stefan
Lundgren on Dm, Lute perhaps?
[17]http://www.modernlutemusic.com/DALITZ_CHRISTOPH.html
[18]http://www.luteonline.se/a_luteshopgallery.htm#dminorlute
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Has the modern revival of the Baroque or Renaissance lute sufficiently
bridged the gap with the old, to allow a valid Neo-Renaissance or
Baroque (in the first but strong sense above), neither "pompier" nor
cracked and fragmented, to develop with a non lute playing composer
drawing on historic type instruments? Roman's link to the
Vox-Saeculorum site makes me optimistic, as there do appear to be more
composers skilled both in modernist and Baroque composition
[19]http://tinyurl.com/3xbb673
e.g. "Vox Saeculorum welcomes composer Jocelyn Godwin to our fold. Mr.
Godwin is Professor of Music at Colgate University, where he teaches
Music History. He was a keen modernist composer, but inspired by the
Vox Saeculorum principles, he has returned to composition, writing
harpsichord music in French style and filling gaps in the repertory of
other instruments."
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Meanwhile, I have greatly enjoyed performances of MD and the Fires of
London's very disturbing Neo-Baroque masterpiece, "8 songs for a Mad
King", but which really must be heard and seen on stage.
"The eight songs are all based on the tunes played by an actual
[20]mechanical organ owned by George III which he used to try and train
[21]bullfinches to sing."
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One final question, which string types, synthetic, or gut, would be
most suitable for a Neo Baroque (in the first sense ) piece, leaving
aside the breakages issue?
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Well in relation to this last, it is not just with the breaking of a
lute or violin string that MD signals King George has finally "gone
over the top", but by smashing the first violinist's violin. Who offers
up their Warwick for such a "shattering" Neo-Baroque lute enterprise?
[22]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IV35uha6rrQ&feature=related
regards
Anthony
(appologies for meandering from the Baroque lute rather, and speaking
aloud my inner conundrums).
---- Message d'origine ----
>De : "Stuart Walsh" <s.wa...@ntlworld.com>
>A : "Lute Net" <lute@cs.dartmouth.edu>
>Objet : [LUTE] dodecaphonic lute: Jelinek's Two-part Invention No 3
>Date : 15/10/2010 23:50:14 CEST
>
> This is just a (maybe daft) little experimental curiosity - some
> serial music played as lute duo. But it's real music from 'Four
Two-part
> Inventions' by Hanns Jelinek (1949). He says that these pieces are
'to
> all friends and lovers of composition in the twelve-tone system'.
>
> [23]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDT4kheGWIk
>
> The piece goes beyond the three octaves of a lute so I had to do some
> octave transposition. The phrases are very clearly marked and I
didn't
> do any Baroque guitar-style octave hopping: I only moved complete
> phrases. Also the tempo of quaver=76 is too slow for a G-lute so I
> played it a bit faster.
>
> Overall, I probably murdered the piece!
>
> But I think serial music could work on a lute or lutes.
>
>
> Stuart
>
>
>
> To get on or off this list see list information at
> [24]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
>
--
References
1. http://tinyurl.com/create.php
2. http://tinyurl.com/2e99dzg
3. http://tinyurl.com/26dyuxt
4. http://tinyurl.com/33m6wzl
5. http://www.channelclassics.com/works-of-toyohoko-satoh-1.html
6. http://www.channelclassics.com/works-of-toyohiko-satoh-2.html
7. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOuauqi2oBM&feature=related
8. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoclassicism
9. http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/dsmg
10. http://music.dalitio.de/audio/corrente-archlute.ogg
11. http://tinyurl.com/2ap5xvx
12. http://tinyurl.com/2eax3gs
13. http://avantgardeproject.conus.info/AGP71/
14. http://williamts99.com/agp/agp71/AGP71.pdf
15. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJETmCQI2fA
16. http://tinyurl.com/278pglq
17. http://www.modernlutemusic.com/DALITZ_CHRISTOPH.html
18. http://www.luteonline.se/a_luteshopgallery.htm#dminorlute
19. http://tinyurl.com/3xbb673
20. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mechanical_organ
21. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurasian_Bullfinch
22. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IV35uha6rrQ&feature=related
23. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDT4kheGWIk
24. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/%7Ewbc/lute-admin/index.html
