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THE HANDSTAND |
NOVEMBER 2002 |
RTE Living Music Festival  REVIEW, by Rory Braddell The weekend started with the first of four
seminars given by the eminent Berio scholar David
Osmond-Smith of the Sussex University. In each of these
seminars audiences were given insights into music that
was performed during the course of the festival.
Osmond-Smith began his series with an examination of the
influence of James Joyce on Berio’s evolving musical
language of the 1950s. In the late 1950’s the
scholar Umberto Eco, a friend of Berio, introduced Berio
to Joyce’s onomatopoeia and word play in the book Ulysses.
In the early 1950’s Berio had experimented with
electronic tape music and was fascinated with the
flexibility and capability to combine various sources of
material, bringing them into the microcosm of the studio,
and cutting and pasting elements into new arrangements.
It was against this background that Berio expanded
possibilities created in spoken language and the
relationship of words to their sonic components. Joyce had created an interface between words and music, deciphering the world through sounds. Joyce’s assemblages of words provided a borderline between musical coherence and semantic meaning that fascinated Berio. It was Joyce’s prelude to the “sirens” chapter of Ulysses that provided Berio with vocal material for a tape piece Thema (1958). Berio was interested in the juxtaposition of disjunct words and phrases, which create new meanings apparent to the reader, depending on a particular subjective exposure to a text. Osmond-Smith played the later version Omaggio a Joyce, illustrating how Berio blurs the distinction between language and sound by using a theoretical vocabulary of phonetic vocal sounds to derive a new musical language. This is influenced by the theories of structural semiotic linguistics as put forward by Eco. This process of dissembling texts and the creation of a structured matrix of gestural sounds is what Osmond-Smith states is the “germ cell of everything that follows in Berio’s music.” It is the most important concept that underpins his music. The RTE Vanbrugh Quartet gave the first
concert of the weekend. In more recent times this quartet
has expanded their repertoire to include many important
early twentieth century works. Berio’s work Notturno
(1993) provided them with yet a new challenge,
showing the skills of individual players and their
confident grasp of extended techniques, which are
necessitated by this particular musical idiom. In Notturno
the instruments combine to create texture in quite an
individualistic way. Each instrument participating in a
manner, appearing rhythmically independent from the
whole, creating a fluid movement with sustained harmonic
texture. In contrast the Vanbrugh played Gerald
Barry’s Six Marches for String Quatet (2000),
which employs a much more parallel motion and tutti
passages. In typical Barry style, each movement becomes
the exposition of a certain process. The highlight of the evening concert given by the Irish RTE Concert Orchestra was Berio’s Requies (1983-84). The work, which is quite limited in pitch material, was well performed giving a strong sense of the unfolding melody from a sustained harmonic texture. This is effect is not heard as a continuous instrumental line, but as timbre interchange between instruments involving a complete attention to detai by the member of the orchestral. In the first half of the concert we heard the Maurizio Barbetti play Berio’s Chemins II (1967), which was a little more than disturbing, as the soloist could not be heard! As Osmond-Smith pointed out in his earlier performance seminar, this is completely intentional. In this anti-concerto the soloist is struggling against an orchestra, which is pulling and pushing his material, drowning him out in the process. The soloist is only heard in the closing bars, as aggressive confrontation is dissolved into melody. If it were not for the lecture, I would have not have experienced Maurizio Barbetti energetically playing tremolando chords, pushing both his bowing and fingering technique to an extreme. Stockhausen’s formel (1951), was quite a disappointment, as I was expecting something much more radical and noisy. This piece utilises a rather sparse orchestra with quite a degree of prominence given to percussion instruments like xylophone and piano. There is a type of Buddhist like reserve with an eastern gamelan like punctuation, and a distinctive lack of a decisive musical climax. It was however streets ahead of Andrew Hamilton’s MAP (2002), which was a rather amorphous post-minimalist mass of sound, which the orchestra had difficulty in clarifying into a comprehensive musical work. This was one of the several works by young composers performed during the festival, giving them the valuable opportunity to hear and experience their own compositions first hand. In the second day we were provided with even greater musical treats. The Irish ensemble VOX21 gave the first performance of the day with works by Berio, Boulez and Gubaidulina. The highlight of this concert was Berio’s Folk Songs (1964), which in a sense is a surprise coming from an avant-garde composer. What is interesting is Berio avoids a stylised interpretation of folk music, incorporating material from different traditions and incorporating his own individual style, even composing one of the pieces. Quite a large ensemble of wind, string and percussion instruments is used, creating a rich backdrop for the human voice. Of the two vocalists I preferred the sonorous voice of the Latin American mezzo-soprano Susanna Moncayo, as she interpreted the folk idiom extremely well. Of the four pieces performed, Sofia Gubaidulina’s Garten von Freundin und Trauigkeiten (1980) was the weakest. I was intrigued by the texture of flute, viola and harp and the effects achieved, such a gilissando and harmonics, but found my patience stretched, as they seemed rather isolated and sometime lost texturally. The most complex work was certainly Boulez’s Dérive I (1984), which I thought I would like to listen to several times more, as it was certainly the most interesting of the piece, as regards instrumental timbre. The highlight of the day was definitely the concert given by the London Sinfonietta and London Sinfonieta Voices. The audience was quite amused by Kagel’s piece of musical theatre Match (1965), scored for two cellos and percussion. The inspiration for the concert was a dream of the performance, which the composer remembered and transcribed into music. Two cellists are placed on either side of the percussionist, who occupies the central position at the back of the stage. The unconventional use of gesture, waving, pointing and declamation all characterise this piece as a musical theatrical dialogue. The percussion player plays with dice, throwing them on the floor. He also sometimes plays with his instruments in a rather ironic way, as if discovering them for the first time, and banging them off one another. The cello players use extended techniques, such as bowing on the bridge and sliding up and down strings, but also taking part in the gestural exchange occasionally pointing and shouting the word “no.”. Towards the end of the piece they stop playing for a moment and affectionately embrace their instruments. This is an amusing moment, as the audience do not really know how to respond.
Due to illness Berio could not attend the festival in person and the planned public interview with Raymond Deane was facilitated by telephone link. Among the subjects discussed during the short twenty minute talk was the influence of Joyce, Berio’s latest Puccini project, and his attitudes to the diversity talents available in today’s musical culture. Despite the fact that it was often difficult to make out what Berio was saying, the majority of the audience were very moved by the experience of being able to hear the composer voice. Afterwards, responses to the interview were tabled by Raymond Deane and elucidated by Berio’s confidant Osmond-Smith. The composer Ben Dwyer criticised Berio’s utopian vision of the multi-faceted composer, pointing out that compartmentalised thought is an everyday reality in our musical culture. Osmond-Smith responded by saying that Berio’s vision is a global sociology of contemporary musical, stating that younger composers have a more diverse range of activity than ever before. Osmond-Smith went on to discuses Berio’s interest in far-left politics, his interest in human diversity, and his social responsibility as an artist. Berio wrote in a letter to the organisers of the festival: "I feel as if I were a citizen of Dublin, even though I have never had the privilage of visiting it." The final seminar in the series was on the
topic of Berio’s 14 Sequenza, which are each In the final concert Lindberg also played
Berio’s SOLO for Trombone & Orchestra
(1999) with the National Symphony Orchestra in a
programme that included works by Seóirse Bodley, Edgar
Varesè, Witold Lutoslawski. After listening to Chemin
II, I found SOLO much more satisfying
concerto, as it explores a much more extensive dialogue
with the orchestra. Lindberg yet again excelled himself
by meeting the challenges of the work, allowing his
instrument and body to explore every gestural nuance of
this work. The orchestra, which played adequately, was
able to convey the harmonic background of the piece and
the gradual unfolding of harmony that is found in
Berio’s more recent music style. This work, unlike
some of the more fragmented works like the serialist nones
(1954) and Bodley’s rather academic composition Configurations
(1967), has a much more cohesive structure and
sustained harmonic texture that I really enjoy. The
beautifull and sonorous Lutoslawski was an excellent
close to the festival. |
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In the first
movement the quartet use quite limited pitches, playing
together, accentuating each note with an exaggerated
bowing movements. The following section uses rapid pizzacato
scale passages and the third movement a more fluid
texture. At this point the form begins to rewind with a
return to pizzacato in the third movement, and
then a much richer texture in the final movement that
adopts counterpoint and differentiated musical line,
building to the finale. What interested me about this
composition was that it was rather like depicting an
object, with each process describing a different surface
or facet of the entire work. The odd piece in this
recital was Frederick May’s Quartet in C minor,
coming from the more lyrical and expressionist phase of
very early twentieth century music. The Vanbrugh Quartet
quite successfully accentuated the lyrical expression of
this work, involving extended lyrical melodies, often on
first violin, that are set against the backdrop of rather
static textures. One can appreciate the extreme clarity
with which May builds his texture, using effects like
bowing on the bridge that provide interesting timbre for
his effusive lyricism. The Vanbrugh really excelled in
this performance, bringing to the audience three new
works that probably not many people there had heard
before.
If I were to
award a prize for the best-performed piece it would be Laborinthus
II (1965) by Berio. This work was based on a libretto
supplied by Edoardo Sanguineti, who collaborated with
Berio on a number of projects. In addition to text by
Sanguinetti, Berio used material by Dante from Vita
Nuovo, Inferno and Convivio, and also
Ezra Pound’s Canto XLV: With Usura. The work
uses a narrative, which is read by a male speaking voice,
exploring social themes like love, the depiction of hell,
a condemnation of capitalism and usury. In the
second sequence of the work words evoke sleeping children
and the theme of responsibility, which Osmond-Smith
indicates is referring to the social responsibility of
the artist. An entire array of voices at the back of the
stage declaims various verbalisations, in various
different languages, including lists of cultural junk.
Berio’s use of text is verbal fragmentation that
dramatises the poetical word with bodily energy, creating
his unique interest in gesture and theatrical speech. In
this work, the influence of Joyce and Beckett is
apparent, as Berio juxtaposes fragments, often as vocal
timbre, and the audience can interpret meaning in
different ways. As Osmond-Smith points out, Berio
integrates music and textural entities, inviting the
listener to take part in the interpretive process. As a
listener, I felt drawn into the music, and in a sense
involved in what I was hearing, compelled to find my own
subjective meaning from this rather dream like sequence
of texts and musical expressions. The performance of Laborinthus
II was aided by the excellence of the London
Sinfonietta ensemble and their confident grasp of all the
techniques that are required to make a piece like this
work. I left the concert hall feeling the significance of
this memorable event.
written
around the technical abilities of particular performers.
The audience were able to hear the entire Sequenza V (1966)
played by the Swedish virtuoso trombonist Christian
Lindberg. In his score, Berio worked out the minute
intricacies of the extended techniques available to the
trombonist, which include singing into the instrument and
taping the mute against the rim of the horn. Like many
other works, Berio creates an instrumental theatre out of
the technique of playing an instrument, translating vocal
gestures into sounds. Lindberg, who has had the piece in
his repertoire for some time, played the work with
relative ease that is only accomplished by the virtuoso
who plays from memory.