Donald HARRIS: Sonata 1957 – a documentary film by Daniel
Beliavsky.
A number of years ago I wrote an ‘impressionistic’ essay [1]
about the Piano Sonata, Op. 1 by Donald Harris (b.1931). In
this I concentrated on the ‘sitz in leben’ of this work, which
was the result of the composer’s sojourn in Paris whilst studying
with Nadia Boulanger. It represented the beginnings of a variety
of trajectories that were used by the composer over more than
half-a-century of musical writing. The Sonata was most definitely
a 12-tone serial work. However, the added value was that it
had a significant degree of artistry and an obvious inspiration:
it was not just a fabrication defined by the manipulation of
sets and series.
The pianist, theorist, and musicologist Daniel Beliavsky has
taken this Piano Sonata to his heart. Not only has he made a
recording of the work but has also produced formal analyses
of the piece. In 2011, he made a 50-minute documentary film
entitled Sonata (1957).
Daniel Beliavsky has written the following note which is well
worth quoting in full:-
During the summer of 2000, just after I graduated from college,
I was invited to perform a solo recital at the Festival of the
Hamptons on Long Island, NY. The festival’s director, Lukas
Foss (1922-2009), prefaced the invitation with the condition
that I play a piano sonata by Donald Harris (born 1931), his
friend and colleague. I did, and then met Harris immediately
following the recital. Although I met Harris in person, I had
discovered him first through this music, his first professional
composition finished in Paris in 1957. This Sonata is Harris’
first independently composed work, completed after he left Nadia
Boulanger’s studio and before he began working with Max Deutsch.
In Harris’ own words, he loved every note; he caressed every
note, and he felt liberated to compose freely in a style of
his own choosing after an unremarkable start with Boulanger.
Since that first performance, I have played the Sonata many
times, and have even written analyses detailing the music’s
intricate structures. More importantly, I have grown to love
the piece. This film was born out of the desire to make intimate
and understandable a music whose aesthetic is complex and whose
language is atonal. I wished for the film not only to explain
what circumstances lead Harris to compose the Sonata, but also
to expose an audience to the work’s intellectual vigor and subtle
emotional beauty. In effect, I hoped to make clear to an audience
why this difficult and intricate music so captivated me. In
these ways, the film is also an unfolding composition, one in
which its uncommon protagonist, the Sonata itself, is gradually
assembled from fragments into a complete, meaningful, and freshly
interpreted performance.
There are three things that make this documentary a model of
its kind. Firstly, Beliavsky has allowed a number of people
to speak about their experiences of this music. Basically composer
and performers are encouraged to discuss and debate the music
and the background of the Sonata. Perhaps the most exciting
part of the discussion is the portrait of the composer that
is presented, complete with photographs taken at the time of
his student days in Paris. But just as important are the views
of Veronica Jochum, a pianist who made the second commercial
recording [2] of this work after the late Geneviève Joy’s 1961
recording for the French Radio. Equally interesting are the
contributions by Gunther Schuller, who has been a long-time
friend and associate of the composer. Added to these views are
the considerable insights of Beliavsky himself, who is the work's
current champion.
Secondly, during the course of the documentary, Beliavsky gives
an analysis of the work, supported by images of the score and
musical examples played by himself. However this never sinks
into mere cerebral pontification on complex musicological functions.
There is a danger that any discussion of a ‘serial’ work will
rely heavily on charts, lists and diagrams in order to elucidate
the progress of the composition. Although the documentary is
quite obviously aimed at musically literate viewers, it never
crosses the boundary into sheer pretentiousness. And finally,
a complete performance of this work is given at the end of the
film. After the discussion and analysis it is necessary to hear
the subject of the conversations.
I have not seen many ‘analytical’ films about music, although
I have attended a few lectures and seminars. Not a few of these
have been over-technical, beside the point and sometimes downright
tedious. However, I believe that Daniel Beliavsky gets the balance
absolutely right. At the end of the discussion I really wanted
to hear the piece rather than switch the DVD player off!
The film is produced by Daniel Beliavsky and directed by Engin
Ufuk Kaplan and Alexis Boling and was edited by Bodine Alex
Boling. However it is not at present commercially distributed.
Anyone interested in viewing this film, or making further inquiries
about it is invited to write to the producer directly at his
email address: opus1films@gmail.com
[1] http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2005/Aug05/Donald_Harris.htm
[2] Veronica Jochum New England Conservatory Recording Series,
Volume 7. Includes Robert Schuman’s Piano Sonata No.1 in F sharp
minor, Op.11, Quincy Porter’s Piano Sonata and Donald Harris
Piano Sonata. Golden Crest NEC-107 (LP only)
© John France, July 2011
