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	Programme Notes T - Z


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Programme Notes T - Z

Traum des Sängers
Two Motets
Two Scenes from Shameful Vice
Unknown Ground
Various Nations
WAM
Yvaropera V

Traum des Sängers

A minstrel sits dozing on the ground, amidst thickly overgrown mallows, in the sky above him three angels are grouped around an organ - seated on the clouds, singing and playing in rays of heavenly light. Caspar David Friedrich's pen-and-ink sketch 'Traum des Sängers' is for a (lost?) transparent painting, one of four described in a letter to Vasily Zhukovsky (14 October 1835) - in a second letter (12 December 1835) Friedrich asks that when the paintings are seen, projected in order like slides or even a proto-cinematic 'narrative' sequence, "in order to enhance the effect...they be viewed only to a musical accompaniment", and he variously describes the music needed for this, the third of the set, as 'religious' and 'the music of spheres'.

Who is dreaming who?

1. The co-existence of real and imagined worlds: the minstrel/troubadour ('des sängers'), real - mundane (but dreaming!) - isolated - tangled (lost) in foliage (another version of that symbolic forest of existence) - with his lute (here: violin, viola, cello and doublebass); the angels ('traum'), imagined (by the minstrel) - idealised - awake and making music (here: clarinet, vibraphone and guitar) - bathed in light (visionary 'white' light, 'illumination' (= insight), perfected inwardly experienced life) - floating in the infinite heavens.

2. Connecting time (real) and timelessness (imagined) - 'the music of the spheres'. The angels' music is based on (real) Byzantine - Rumanian liturgical chant (ancient and 'timeless'), the trio fixed - locked - in canon. The minstrel's world (dream-world?) is invented, composed according to those equally timeless logics (attempted mathematics of the spheres, of the heavens, of the known Universe) of harmony and rhythm: sound proportion, sensibility (the quartet discovering a unity - finding it from writing and hearing).

Traum des Sängers was composed between March and July 1994, and is dedicated to Andrew Toovey.

Two Motets

These two motets were written at the request of the Park Lane Group for Jonathan Kenny (countertenor) and Steve Gibb (guitar). They are both setting of contemplative, religious (but non-liturgical) texts; and both are cast in a repetitive, rondeau-like, form, making use of Gregorian chant.

The work was first performed on 8 January 1992 at the Purcell Room, South Bank, London.

Texts:
I
You may see the innermost power of the Father, which
flows from the heart, like unto a face.
Praise be to you who look on that place where the
heart of Ages has its fountainhead.
O Thou Angelic host, who protect the people, whose
form glows in your countenance. And thou
O Archangels, who are counted in the secret five-fold
number: the seal od God's secrets.
Priase be to you who look on that place where the
heart of Ages has its fountainhead.
Hildegard, Abbess of Bingen
II
God hails thee, God hails thee, Maria! Full of grace.
The Lord is with thee.
Blessed are Thou among women, and blessed is the
fruit of thy womb - Jesus.
Saint Mary! Mother of God! Pray for us sinners now,
and at the hour of our death.
Amen. Jesu. Amen.

Anonymous, Sardinian, Adaptation of the Rosary

Two Scenes from "Shameful Vice"

The title simply indicates that these pieces are scenes 5 and 12 from a projected stage-work on the life of Tchaikovsky. They are indentical in structure and draw on the set of Russian folk songs that Tchaikovsky arranged for piano-duet, albeit with a high level of distortion and adaptation.

The two scenes bear the following stage directions: Scene 5. Tchaikovsky and Saint-Saens dance the Grande Adage from their (improvised) ballet "Pygmalion and Galatea". Scene 12. A succession of black swans bring bottles of poison for Tchaikovsky to drink. Both pieces were written for Marshall McGuire.

Unknown Ground

Am I cashing in on AIDS as a social, moral or political issue? Care must be taken not to exploit AIDS as a fresh type of 'Protest Art'. But too few people protest or bewail (which is what I am doing in this piece), and - like many others - I've seen friends die, needlessly; and I do have something inside me which is uncomprehending and angrily indignant, and demands to weep and shout in public. And while this piece is inevitably about death, it's also about fighting for life, and dignity. This much is of universal significance! But I'm english too, and the English have an appalling history of hypocrisy, misdirected moral outrage, tight-lipped sneering bigotry: exemplified in our own time by Thatcher's return to "Victorian values". That - specifically - makes me weep and shout too, because it affects the way I see people around me responding - or avoiding a response. Avoiding 'trouble'?

Most specifically, this piece was originally written to raise funding for the treatment of AIDS sufferers in the Soviet Union, and performance of it (promoted by the AIDS centre in Brighton), were given at the Marlborough Pub Theatre in Brighton, with the overwhelmingly generous support of both the Vaughan Williams Trust and the Britten-Pears Foundation, to whom renewed thanks.

The words of the even-numbered sections (2, 4, and 6) reflect this link to the Soviet Union, being adapted from Russian (gay) poets: Esenin, Kluyev, Kuzmin. the remaining text comes from interviews with AIDS sufferers in England, from which the following excerpts are typical:

"I don't live my life as if I'm going to die. People tell me 'You don't deserve treatment - you don't even deserve being listened to.' I was afraid of not being able to see the garden grow. I had to look for security within myself, to be strong enough to fight the illness. I'm going to build my castle from within. I cannot give up. I'm not a loser. I'll just keep fighting."

Texts:

I
I don't think of death - I know it is going to happen to me -
But I don't live my life as if I'm going to die.
I can't remember the pain and suffering I've been through.
The tremendous loss of self-esteem
brings back certain things from adolescence.
You'll go through patches when you think:
"No-one loves me." or "I'm useless. I don't have any purpose."
People telling me:
"You're dirty. You've done something wrong. You deserve this disease."
Or "You brought it on yourself." Or "You don't deserve treatment -
You don't even deserve being listened to."
I feel I've lost my sexuality. I feel I can;t go with other men.
I don;t know whether I'm denying myself the opportunity.
If I could have a relationship with someone, it would be lovely.
It would be real, positive, constructive,
- a good driving force in my life, - it would create dynamism within me.
I don't know where to go from here - whatever the future is I don't know.
"I hope I know you for a long time." That's a lovely greeting!
Nick W
II
A patch of blackened earth, smelling of sweat,
can I neither love nor lovingly touch it?
I walk by the bracken-tangled path to the lake,
Past the rough brushwood shelters in the fields,
and the reeds drowsily swaying.
Somewhere in the distance, men are singing.
Sergei Esenin
III
I was afraid of not being able to see the garden grow.
Afraid of having to go to hospital and be pathetic...like some people are.
Why the fuck, me?
I knew that I wanted to be with guys, bUt I was never able to manage it...
When you're repressed, or pent-up for twenty-five years,
then you get to a place like New York, you do cut loose...
I think it's wrong if people start rejecting everything because of AIDS.
If we do that, they have got us where they want us -
the sort of Establishment and Right Wing people.
I don't feel guilty for doing things when I didn't even know
that such a virus was around, or it could happen...
and I don't see why anyone should.
Steve R
IV
Our lives-like oceans filled with voices-flow across each traveller's path.
Pine-trees whispering of darkness and imprisonment,
of the flickering stars barely seen through a barred window,
and of the bell tolling on a fateful journey.
Our love began in the summer - Began with a red coloured egg -
meaning desire and blood. - Soon, time will recede into a grey mist.
Then give me angel wings that I might fly in its wake, unseen...
That I might travel to unknown ground.
Nicolai Kluyev
V
I come from London. I left home when I was quite young.
I've done lots of different jobs.
I've never been really able to settle into anything.
I've usually been somebody's "bit on the side".
I had to look for security within myself,
to be strong enough to fight the illness.
I'm going to build my castle from within.
Philip X
VI
Trapped in crystal, sunlight splits apart.
Unless we die we cannot be re-born.
In this Twilight's fiery crimson-flooded sky?
Weary from journeying, your face arouses familiar love, familiar pain.
"Here I am. I have no strength. Help me - Stay with me!"
Now every hour filled so carefully: A single day holding forty days.
I visit the town where I was born. Family and friends have gone.
All traces of me have vanished. But the narrow streets, the houses,
The grey-green distant sea, All remind me...
Remind me of what is unchanging: the dreams and ambitions of youth.
"What do we know? What can we know?"
We know that everything is uncertain. The nothing lasts for ever.
Mikhail Kusmin
VII
I am nearly blind.
Everything is starting to get very dark.
But I cannot give up. I'm a true Leo.
I'm not a loser.
I don't intend for the virus to beat me.
I'll just keep fighting.
I'll just keep fighting.
Brent T

Various Nations

Various Nations was premiered at the Almeida Theatre, London, on 9 July 1992 by Music Projects/London, conductor Richard Bernas and narrated by Eleanor Bron. The title is taken from a mid-nineteenth-century children's book called A Peep at Various Nations and the texts were chosen to show how, despite increased international co-operation and knowledge, we are still guilty of generalizing and drawing bizarre conclusions about our fellow humans. Various Nations is therefore ironic and humourous as well as embodying a basically serious critique of assumptions about foreign lands and people.

The musical material is derived from authentic folksongs of the various countries through none are quoted directly. The folk materilal was deliberately chosen to reflect how similar the character of folk music can be, even from widely different sources.

Various Nations

1 Africa
The western parts of Africa are inhabited by a poor, unhappy race of men, called Negroes, who, to the eternal disgrace of Europeans, are bought and sold, like cattle. The other parts, however, are more civilised, and comprise several powerful nations.

2 Bohemia
Bohemia, or Hungary, is a large tract of country, between Austria and Turkey. It is very fertile, and produces the finest grapes grown in Europe. The Bohemians are a hardy, active, and spirited kind of people; but much addicted to plunder.

3 China
China is situated in the eastern part of the world. It is an immense, large, country, being two thousand miles in length, and sixteen hundred in breadth, surrounded with a wall, thirty feet high. The Chinese are an indolent race of people, fond of processions. The women are most remarkable for the smallness of their feet. The Chinese boast of an antiquity no other nation can or do pretend to. Their traditions assert that they existed even long before the time at which we believe the sun or moon was created.

4 Denmark
Denmark is a flat country, surrounded by sea, and subject to fogs and foul air. Little corn is grown here. The desolate and frozen regions of Greenland also belong to Denmark. Dogs are much used in these cold countries, in drawing the sledges. The men walk in snow-shoes, which prevent their sinking into the snow. They often venture out in little canoes, made of fish skin, and so light as to upset by a rough sea; this accident has little effect upon them, when, braced to their canoes, they give a sudden jerk, and soon right themselves.

5 England
England is but a small island. The English are an uncommonly persevering race of people: celebrated for their enterprising spirit. England has been several times conquered, by Romans, Danes, Saxons, Picts, and Normans, its native inhabitants mostly massacred; and if any trace now remains of them, it must be sought among the Welsh, in whose mountains the persecuted Britons sought safety.

6 Holland
Holland consists of seven provinces, which are exceedingly well peopled. The Hollanders are distinguished from other nations by their peculiar cleanliness and economy. In the severe winter their canals are frozen over, and covered with people skating in all directions, some with large burdens on their heads. Even women with little children in their arms, or fastened to their backs, are seen darting forward with the rapidity of lightning.

7 Italy
Italy, the remains of ancient Rome, is deservedly styled the Garden of Europe. But beautiful as this large country is, yet the common people are wretched beyond expression. Thousands of beggars, called lazzaroni, infest the streets, to the annoyance and disgust of strangers.

8 Otaheite (Tahiti)
Otaheite is one of the South Sea Islands. The inhabitants are particularly pleased with toys, such as looking-glasses, beads, and the like, and willingly part with their provisions in exchange.

9 Zealand
Zealand is situated on the Northern part of America, and is inhabited by wandering tribes of wild Indians, who subsist by fishing and hunting. They worship the Great Spirit, as they call their Deity; and they sacrifice to the Evil Spirit, as they call the Devil, because they imagine he will not then hurt them.

WAM

WAM - is an investigation of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - it uses hundreds of slightly altered fragments of, or parodies of, his music - and, instead of assembling them as he might if he were composing, allow them to float by rather as he might if he was daydreaming. Perhaps it might seem like bad archaelogy, discovering the shards but not having the skill to re-create the original: but I wanted to make some sort of point about the way we listen to music two hundred years after its composition: and that's usually without a sense of the adventure of putting it together from scratch!

Yvaropera V

Yvar Mikhashoff was an American pianist, composer and arranger - unusual and admiral in his championing of new music. We met in Holland, around 1977 or 8, he played Ives' 2nd Sonata ("Thoreau" is recalled at the beginning of this piece), and he was a constant source of encouragement from that time on.

Our last meeting was also in Amsterdam, our final work together on Cage's Europeras 3 and 4: Yvar was playing Liszt's operatic paraphrases (in the context both disturbing and apocalyptic). This piece is the last in a series of commemorative portraits of our friendship.

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