Memorables Vol.6 - Pvg

SKU: HL.277282

UPC: 840126915006. 6.75x10.5 inches.

Program note:

Looking Up is a piece for large chorus and orchestra, and is in three sections, played without pause. In the 16th century, a variety of psalters in meter were printed in England, with the idea of making psalm-singing something that could happen easily at home, with the rhyming meter being an aid to memorization. These translations are wonderful exercises in brevity and sometimes clumsy rhymemaking, and were usually prefaced by a lengthy explanation as to their merits; the title of one of the first such volumes in English is: The Psalter of Dauid newely translated into Englysh metre in such sort that it maye the more decently, and wyth more delyte of the mynde, be reade and songe of al men. I thought it would be appropriate to set one of these introductions, and the first section of Looking Up sets the preface to Thomas Ravenscroft's psalter (1621), in which he writes: “The singing of Psalmes (assay the Doctors) comforteth the sorrowfull, pacifieth the angry, strengtheneth the weake, humbleth the proud, gladdeth the humble, stirres up the slow, reconcileth enemies, lifteth up the heart to heavenly things, and uniteth the Creature to his Creator.”

It begins meditatively, but eventually grows agitated and fervent, with a vision of the “quire of Angels and Saints” “redoubling anddescanting” - an ecstatic and terrifying vision of the skies opening up. Ravenscroft then encourages the use of instrumental musicfor worship, at which point, a long, acrobatic orchestral interlude with jagged edges antagonizes the choir, who sing a kind of private, anxious meditation on two pitches.

One of the most delicious biblical texts is an Apocryphal prayer known as the Benedicite or the Prayer of the Three Children (the same who were rescued by an angel after King Nebuchadnezzar tried to have them burnt in an oven for not bowing to his image). The text is repetitive, obsessive, and a gift to composers - each line is an invocation of an element of the natural world, followed by the phrase, “blesse ye the Lord, praise him & magnify him for ever.” In Looking Up, the setting begins with three solo voices, and then grows to include the whole choir, itemizing the whole of creation. The idea that these boys are spared from the furnace and then five minutes later are saying, “O ye the fire and warming heate, blesse ye the Lord...” has always felt very loaded to me, and the orchestra plays with this conflict between joyful praise and a more terrible (in the 16th-century sense) awefor the divine.

The text for the third, and shortest, section is taken from Christopher Smart's (1722-1771) A Song to David, purportedly written during his confinement in a mental asylum. This ode to King David points out how David, as the author of some of the Psalms, observes the whole world from the “clustering spheres” to the “nosegay in the vale.&rdquo.

SKU: CA.1631000

ISBN 9790007242800. Language: all languages.

1989. Stay in Aix-en-Provence, France, doing a language course. Reading, discussing and analyzing Les Georgiques; this pursuit is going to be the foundation of the multiple intellectual and literary levels of my composing. 2. THE WOODEN PLATFORM IS COVERED WITH FINE WHITE SAND (OR SALT), THE TWO SHELVES WITH BLACK CLOTH ... At the time I work on my first serious piece, still a far cry from the under-standing of writing music I have today. << tellement froid que >> (georgiques I) for bass flute, electronics and scene (1995-96), sections 1-7. << comme si le froid >> (georgiques II) for baritone saxophone, timpani and piano (1998), sections 18-24. << n'etait le froid >> (georgiques III) for orchestra (2000-2002), sections not yet decided. 3. THE INTERPRETER WILL BE DRESSED IN BLACK AND WHITE, MAINLY WHITE IF BLUISH LIGHT IS AT HAND ... The enormously rich vocabulary and the accuracy of expression - in temporal, spatial and material terms - is particularly impressive. To comprehend all of it, a reading on three different levels is called for: a first reading of one passage, then the acquisition of unknown vocabulary; thirdly a repeated - knowing - reading, which points out the utopia of precise expression: The text is treated in a rather problematic (cold: le froid?) manner: it's not the semantic content that is primarily dominant, but rather the outward appearance, the mise en page and the syntactic structure. 4. THE INTERPRETER ENTERS THE STAGE WITH ALL THE FLUTES (S)HE WILL PLAY DURING THE CONCERT AND DEPOSITS THEM - EXCEPT FOR THE BASS FLUTE - ON SHELF B; IF (S)HE ONLY PLAYS THIS PIECE, (S)HE SHOULD PUT THE PROGRAMME OF THE CONCERT THERE; IN ANY CASE THE INSTRUCTIONS IN BAR 195 MUST BE FOLLOWED ... In concrete terms the 10 centimetres of a line in the minuit edition correspond to 10 seconds of musical structure (which is three times as slow as the average reading speed). Only seven years later is the term / expression casse ferique changed into casse ferrique, and thus its secret is revealed, which almost becomes - due to its unreadability - the key to the planned musical cycle. The text is measured from section to section (big format: each section is marked with a continuous, ,,cold chord by the bass flute, played on tape recorder), from full stop to full stop (new entry of keynote material), from comma to comma (tripling of continuous resonances) etc. 5. DURING THE PERFORMANCE UP TO BAR 195, THE INTERPRETER WILL TRY - IN A KIND OF THEATRICAL ADAPTATION - TO EXPRESS HIS/HER OWN FEELING OF IRREPRESSIBLY GROWING FRUSTRATION; FROM BAR 195 ONWARDS (S)HE WILL DEFINITELY HAVE PUT UP WITH THE BASS FLUTE ... Brackets in the text bring about a reduction of sound (the differentiating micro tones are no longer used), the syntactical progression to subordinate clauses of the remotest degree has its immediate effect on dynamics (degree of volume). Then: the perception of a logical and yet erratic syntax, vastly progressive layers of subordinate clauses and brackets (lowering tone of voice?), a polyphony of ,,memoire, which leads to a maelstrom of attention, a tonally centric / concentrated (main material?) and progressive (subordinate and brackets-material?) reading, listening and proceeding. The different levels are constantly in touch - transferring the sensuous moment of scenes of bodily encounter (Tryptique) that are evoked again and again - in perpetual excitement of text and imagination, memory and remembering sensitivity. 6. THE BODY MOVEMENTS AND FIXATION (FIGE) , BOTH CLEARLY PERCEPTIBLE, WILL EVOKE AND SUPPORT THE SAME EMOTIONS ... The basic moods of the text will be reflected in the relationship (which is very important here) of the interpreter to the music; (s)he is somehow at the mercy of given (and not always transparent) structures on the one hand and the complexity of musical sensations on the other, which has to be defeated inspite of exhaustion. It's not only here that semantic agreement (besides the materialistic structure) of music and text can be felt: On top of that there's the existential helplessness in view of the mercilessly flowing polyphony of levels and events -- as a mirror of this there are the remembered scenes of the Flemish cold in the second chapter (Les Georgiques). The interpreters are confronted with unusual directions which correspond to the adjectives in the respective passages of the text: anachronique, engourdi, glace et acre, monotone et desert etc. The possibilities of interpretation are amplified, the ability to perceive and personal reaction is opened. The impression of this inexorability is multiplied in the extremest way by the fact that the particular layers can be found in Simon's complete works. It's a continuous work of art in which each novel turns into a chapter of a complex, cyclic whole; its title denoting only one main strand, as it were. A personal comment is made also as regards the clearly defined stage; the mise en scene points out the extra-musical elements and the correlation between text, human being and music. 7. THE INTERPRETER IS ASKED TO MOVE FREELY WITHIN A DEFINED SPOT WITHOUT LOOKING ARTIFICIAL; SOUNDS CAUSED BY THE FEET MOVING ON THE SAND ARE WELCOME DURING THE WHOLE PIECE ... And here the idea of a cycle is born, an attempt to transfer these nuances of memorized structures, this clarity and coldness, to transform the text into musical material. Walter Feldmann.