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Will AYTON (b.
1948)
A Reliquary for William Blake * [32:20]
Four Pieces from “Songs
of the British Isles” [8:44]
Two settings of songs by Thomas
Campion* [6:32]
Incantations [9:42] “Rest sweet nymphs”*
[4:30]
Fantasia on a theme of Henry Purcell [4:32]
Ballad
of the Rosemary* [7:30]
Parthenia – A
Consort of Viols (Beverly Au (bass viol); Lawrence Lipnik
(tenor viol, recorders); Rosamund Morley (treble and
tenor viols); Lisa Terry (tenor and bass viols); Alexandra
Montano* (mezzo))
rec. June 2005, Grace Church, Nyack, New York MSR CLASSICS
MS1216 [74:01]
Will Ayton, the
son of missionary parents, was born in Kansu in China and educated
there, in Taiwan and in the United States. He teaches music
and culture at Roger Williams University in Rhode Island. Although
the very brief biographical note says that “he attempts to
steal a few moments for his passions, early music and composition”,
neither it nor the composer’s own notes give any indication
of what other music he has written or of the dates of the pieces
on this disc.
All of the music
here is for a viol consort – the composer refers to it as an
effort to put new wine into old bottles. This is by no means
a new activity, but is one well worth attempting as a means
of broadening the repertoire of groups otherwise concentrating
on early music. Two of the items here – the Incantations and
the Fantasia on a theme of Henry Purcell – are for viol consort,
and the extracts from the “Songs of the British Isles” add
a recorder. The remainder add a voice.
The largest work
is the song cycle “A Reliquary for William Blake”. It sets
six poems as songs and another six as spoken recitatives. In
addition there are two purely instrumental movements. The composer’s
keen interest in the poet is apparent in his notes which refer
to the work as “ a homage, a deeply reverent bow to an artist,
a humanist, and a mystic – a man of many dimensions”. I fail,
however, to see that Ayton’s settings add anything significant
to the texts, neither do the latter appear have encouraged
the kind of specific musical response to each text that one
might have expected. Indeed the most striking moments are purely
instrumental. This may be due in part to the very dour and
uninflected singing of Alexandra Montano, who makes little
of the words, and whose presentation of the spoken sections
is only understandable with the text to hand. This may be mainly
the fault of the setting, although I could imagine a more committed
performance making much more of the poet’s wonderfully compelling
aphorisms. Overall however all too often the music seems to
subside into a kind of grayness, lacking the kind of vivid
response to Blake’s words that such different composers as
Britten and Virgil Thomson have provided.
Similar comments
apply to the rest of the disc. I very much enjoyed the purely
instrumental items. The items from the “Songs of the British
Isles” make much of their Celtic background, and the middle
movement of the Incantations is a solo for bass viol (Beverley
Au) which whilst being closely related to similar movements
by Marais and his contemporaries has a character all of its
own. By the end of the disc I found myself wanting to hear
more of Ayton’s instrumental works, but being unconvinced of
his abilities to write memorably for the voice. This nonetheless
remains an interesting disc, with an obvious interest as an
expansion of the repertoire of the viol consort, and also as
introducing a composer of modest aims but with a distinctive
talent in writing for that instrument. The playing of Parthenia
is fluent, although neither they nor the singer are flattered
by a close recording which emphasizes the airlessness of much
of the writing.
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