Topic: Avant Garde Music for Solo Violin, Viola, Cello and Double Bass.

[Mandryka]

https://vimeo.com/374302445

Evan Johnson, Dozens of canons: Anaïs Faivre Haumonté, Severine Ballon

http://riotensemble.com/a-few-moments-with-evan-johnson/

The performers’ medium is sound; my medium is notation. I try to use that medium to the limit of its capabilities—not necessarily just to represent sound or sounding actions, per se, at least not in a direct and unambiguous fashion, but as a semi-opaque code that generates situations for the performers to inhabit and navigate.

That means a lot of things for me, but one thing it means is that there are a lot of ambiguities in my notation, quite intentionally; a lot of little contradictions, impossible specificities and vague symbols. Everything works, though, more or less, within the domain of a recognizably standard symbology.  These aren’t graphic scores, and they aren’t stimuli to improvisation or a more broadly spontaneous response.

I’m not sure it’s “theatre” per se because relatively little of all this makes its way to the audience.  What one hears in my work is kind of like a shadow, or an afterimage, or a watercolor reproduction of a photograph that you can’t see. This happens in a less extreme fashion in this piece than in quite a few others of mine, maybe; I’m thinking in particular of a cello solo premiered by Séverine Ballon just last week, “dozens of canons: Anaïs Faivre Haumonté,” which is an extremely detailed and intricately worked-out piece which teeters almost exclusively, in both controlled and uncontrollable fashions, between the verge of inaudibility and actual silence. But the tendency is still there in “L’art 3” as well.  This is one of several ways that experiencing my work from the audience is less like hearing and more like overhearing.

[T. D.]

https://vimeo.com/374302445

Evan Johnson, Dozens of canons: Anaïs Faivre Haumonté, Severine Ballon

http://riotensemble.com/a-few-moments-with-evan-johnson/

Thanks for posting this. Going way back (as long as 20+ years), when I read the then-active rec.music.classical.contemporary newsgroup, Evan was a frequent contributor. Just this year I was catching up after long neglect and noticed (on newmusicbox iirc) that he's had some compositional success.

[Mandryka]

Thanks for posting this. Going way back (as long as 20+ years), when I read the then-active rec.music.classical.contemporary newsgroup, Evan was a frequent contributor. Just this year I was catching up after long neglect and noticed (on newmusicbox iirc) that he's had some compositional success.

I was really struck by what he said in the interview -- whatever you think of the music, he has some interesting ideas about what music is. amw likes his music I think, I'm not sure, I should give his stuff more time.

[T. D.]

I was really struck by what he said in the interview -- whatever you think of the music, he has some interesting ideas about what music is. amw likes his music I think, I'm not sure, I should give his stuff more time.

Thanks. The cello piece is ultra spare/sparse, not where my head (or listening preference) is at these days. Will explore the writings and look for other works.

[Mandryka]

Thanks. The cello piece is ultra spare/sparse, not where my head (or listening preference) is at these days. Will explore the writings and look for other works.

Yes my sentiment entirely.

[Mandryka]

This is new to me, Ferneyhough's Intermedio Alla Ciaccona for solo violin.

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/-P1VHrV5SMU&amp;ab_channel=Takaosubforsub" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/-P1VHrV5SMU&amp;ab_channel=Takaosubforsub</a>

He who says chaconne for solo violin says Bach partita of course.

Available on this CD



https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/8359115--miranda-cuckson-invisible-colours

[Mandryka]

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/CSG-pK2PrBQ&amp;ab_channel=Takaosubforsub" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/CSG-pK2PrBQ&amp;ab_channel=Takaosubforsub</a>

James Dillon's Del Cuarto Elemento for solo violin, from the booklet

. . . the solo violin piece
Del Cuarto Elemento (1988), again
written for Irvine Arditti, embodies an
ultra–virtuosic ‘radical new music’
approach to the instrument, involving a
microtonal world full of harmonics,
constant timbre changes and, not least,
complex rhythmic shifts and
simultaneous juxtapositions of, for
example, 5 pulses against 11, requiring
the various fingers of the violinist’s left
hand to lead independent but closely
related lives. The bow hand too can
have a separate existence that goes
beyond merely articulating what is
happening in the left hand. 

So far so good.


Then comes this

In this piece, the ‘Fourth Element’ is
water. As far back as Debussy, water
had become an emblem of (and
metaphor for) compositional flux,
fluidity and ambiguity. Here though, as
so often, Dillon’s immediate points of
reference are literary rather than
musical. The work’s title invokes a poem
by Jorge Luis Borges,

Yes well OK, but it's hard to find a proper translation of the Borges into English or French -- but there's Google Translate.

But now, wait for it, there's this

but a deeper
influence comes from a passage in
Gaston Bachelard’s commentary on
Isidore Ducasse (AKA the Comte de
Lautréamont) that, in Dillon’s words,
posits “a distinction between animal
existence on earth – as the dream of
reality – and existence in water – as
the reality of dreams – explaining the
essential difference as one of ‘dwelling’
on surfaces as opposed to being
‘enveloped’ within a volume.” Surfaces,
in this case are represented by clear
figurations, volumes by more amorphous
gliding and interlocking textures. At
the outset, the surfaces hold sway, but
by the end, the tables have been turned.

 

[Mandryka]

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/43txN145VO4" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/43txN145VO4</a>

Enno Poppe Haare, sounds from the violin like Sciarrino - very nice IMO.

[Mandryka]

And here's Sciarrio’s Capriccio di una corda for violin to compare with the Poppe (Sciarrino fans will know what to expect before they listen. Very good though.)

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/3cj4gr1qX2I&amp;ab_channel=StradivariusClassicalMusic" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/3cj4gr1qX2I&amp;ab_channel=StradivariusClassicalMusic</a>

[Mandryka]

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/EI8B0HmZYeA" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/EI8B0HmZYeA</a>

Dmitri Kourliandski’s prepositions for violin solo. Lachenmann style use of the instrument, but formally not really like Lachenmann, at least from my superficial point of view. I like.

[Mandryka]

Amusing review here:

https://www.sonoloco.com/rev/composers/fox/inner/inner.html

 review here

http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2002/feb02/Fox.htm

I concur with the one thing in both those reviews  - Inner, which sounds at first totally unpromising, repays getting to know.

[Mandryka]

Mark Andre, iv2 for solo cello -- much better to see and hear than to hear without seeing

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/5njhI0e2Rgc&amp;ab_channel=ElsaDorbath" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/5njhI0e2Rgc&amp;ab_channel=ElsaDorbath</a>

[Artem]

I think this disk fits the theme of this topic. Lamb's piece is very nice.

[Mandryka]

I think this disk fits the theme of this topic. Lamb's piece is very nice.

Thanks, will listen very soon.

[Mandryka]

James Weeks. Tide for solo cello, minimal, complex in a minimal way, solo cello. Single note and overtones sort of thing. Beautiful. Part of a series, slightly more info here

https://divineartrecords.com/recording/james-weeks-tide/

[Mandryka]

Liza Lim's An ocean beyond earth, a prepared cello piece. She's not a composer who's caught my imagination up to now but this is worth noting, I think, because of the technique -- and anyway many people love her music.

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/N6PhllQ6zQU&amp;ab_channel=LizaLim" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/N6PhllQ6zQU&amp;ab_channel=LizaLim</a>

And here's another one I feel the same way about, Invisibility for cello  -- this time the thing worth seeing is the twisted bow.


https://vimeo.com/98817622

[Brian]

"Cellist Wilhelmina Smith’s second album release on Ondine continues exploring contemporary Nordic repertoire for solo cello. In her new album Smith has focus on Danish contemporary composers, Per Nørgård (b. 1932) and Poul Ruders (b. 1949). Both Nørgård and Ruders are known for their large-scale orchestral works. Nørgård, in particular, is known for his eight symphonies and has been hailed by many as one of the greatest living symphonists. It is therefore intriguing to look closer to his two very early lyrical solo cello sonatas, early masterpieces written just before completing his 1st Symphony. In 1980, the composer revised his second sonata by adding an extensive second movement, almost an entirely new sonata, to the existing work. Nørgård’s 3rd sonata “What – Is the Word!” from 1999 is a short “Sonata breve” that takes its title from a quote by Irish playwriter Samuel Beckett. Another major Danish composer of our times, Poul Ruders (b. 1949), has also written 5 symphonies alongside several concertos and three operas. Ruders wrote his 10-movement Bravourstudien in 1976, just at the brink of a major stylistic change. This work is a set of variations on a Medieval folk tune “L’homme armé”. In this work, however, the original theme is heard at the very end of the work."

[Mandryka]

Ola Henrik Moe’s Ciaccona for violin lasts 43 minutes and I think it is indeed a chaconne. It uses violin techniques which go beyond the conservative conservatory. I wonder if this is a single take, 43 minutes can’t be easy physically. This music is full of dramatic contrasts and I suppose that helps.

Like Maja Ratke, Moe’s the music is more visceral than intellectual, we are faced with a circus act of violin events which are designed to make us go wow! I suppose the duration is also designed to impress.

Holding a listener’s interest for three quarters of an hour with an instrument that can’t do polyphony very easily is quite a big ask. I can imagine that this sort of bravura music would work well in a concert, where it becomes a bit like watching someone face a challenge.

[Mandryka]

This is a sequence of six pieces for solo string instruments and a duo. Some of the solo pieces are quite long (eg 20 minutes of viola)  The style seems similar to Rihm’s Uber die Linie cycle, long lines, standard instrumental techniques, the sounds have a determinate pitch, mostly bowed, quite tonal and consonant, a free structure. If anything Nikolaus Brass’s Songlines is more expressive than Rihm, more bleak. The duo for violin and double bass is a high point for me, partly because it is more contrapuntal, partly because it is more articulated, and partly because the growling bass makes such a cool noise!  The bass appears magically in a solo piece as finale - epilogue.


https://cdn.naxosmusiclibrary.com/sharedfiles/booklets/NEO/booklet-NEOS11021.pdf

I think this is very much worth experiencing if you’ve got the stamina,  there’s something very human about it, full of humanity and tenderness. When I’m in the mood, I find Brass’s chamber music most rewarding.

[Mandryka]

I think this disk fits the theme of this topic. Lamb's piece is very nice.

And the Schweinitz! Have you heard the other recording called Plainsong Glissando Modulation, also on Neos?