David LUMSDAINE (b.1931)
White Dawn - songs and soundscapes by David Lumsdaine
Soundscape I [4:44]
A Little Cantata - Tracey Chadwell in Memoriam (1996) [3:51]
Soundscape II [6:07]
Blue Upon Blue, for Solo Cello (1991) [7:24]
Soundscape III [3:56]
Six Postcard Pieces, for Piano (1994) [4:45]
Soundscape IV [5:22]
A Tree Telling of Orpheus (1990) [24:33]
Soundscape V [7:04]
Metamorphosis at Mullet Creek, for Solo Recorder (1994) [2:26]
A Norfolk Songbook, for Soprano and Recorder (1992) [18:10]
Cambewarra, for Piano (1980) [31:20]
Peter Lawson (piano); Jonathan Price (cello); John Turner (recorders); Lesley-Jane
Rogers (soprano); Gemini/Martyn Brabbins
rec. York University, July 2004; Soundscapes: near Lake Emu, New South Wales,
1984 (I-IV), Palm Creek, Northern Territory, 2000 (V). DDD
METIER MSV 28519 [60:29 + 59:21]
‘Absence makes the heart grow fonder’ or something like that,
and in the case of David Lumsdaine born in Sydney eighty years ago, long resident
in England and married to composer Nicola Lefanu it is certainly so. These
discs sum up Australia and its culture superbly well and he has had the idea
of linking what he calls ‘Soundscapes’ - there are six of these
in all, with some songs and instrumental works which reflect on or are an
echo of the natural world.
For example the opening track of birdsongs and crickets leads us into the
fleeting A Little Cantata written in memory of Tracey Chadwell
that wonderful soprano and supporter of contemporary music whose sudden death
in 1996 deprived us all of what might have been many more years of new music
making. Lesley-Jane Rogers is a fine substitute but I’m not convinced
that in her very high register the words are really distinct. Talking of which,
Lumsdaine himself, to make sure that he has maintained the atmosphere of the
soundscape, has written them. He favours here and elsewhere on the CD short,
aphoristic poems from which he can capture a single mood and then move on,
dividing the poetry by brief instrumental sections which themselves are, in
a way, not unlike the bird calls or frog noises in the Soundscapes
which precede and follow them. It’s wonderful how the frogs (Soundscape
II) are followed by a gorgeous piece for solo cello, Blue upon Blue,
so wistful and shimmering. The dawn chorus, which constitutes Soundscape
III with all sorts of exotics, segues into the more brittle sound of the
six bagatelles - very much Beethoven-inspired apparently - which constitute
the Six Postcards. What I love about these pieces is how they make
their mark, say what they have to say and then move on.
Don’t get thinking that the Soundscapes are just Lumsdaine going
around with his tape recorder on a spare afternoon; no, the composer talks
of the counterpoint of frog noises and bird calls, a counterpoint heard in
the music. Some amazing birdcalls are offered. In Soundscape IVwe
hear the extraordinary Pied Butcherbird with its tune, beginning with a tri-tone,
you can easily write on manuscript and after it the lengthy song-cycle A
Tree telling ofOrpheus. This uses a beautiful
text by Denise Levertov (died 1997) who, although born in England and who
lived in the USA seems a perfect poet for an Australian with gift-lines like
‘He sang our sun-dried roots back into the earth/watered them: all-night
rain of music so quiet’. Lumsdaine sets it mostly as a Scherzando, with
a few very still and eerie passages, with a generally modal tonality in triple
or in compound time and with unpredictable dancing rhythms. The whole performance
with Gemini and the pure-voiced Lesley-Jane Rogers is an absolute delight
and worth the cost of CD on it own.
CD 2 starts with Lumsdaine’s attempt to record the ‘Crested
bellbirds’ in a site in central Australia. They sing a single note but
as an equal duple followed by a triplet rhythm, each bird choosing a differing
pitch. As he says, it becomes the most haunting of the five Soundscapes and
flows into an extraordinary piece for sopranino recorder where for a moment
you cannot tell where the soundscape ended and where John Turner’s magical
playing begins. Metamorphosis at MulletCreek is
seemingly a metamorphosis of the birdcalls just heard. I had the weird pleasure
of hearing these tracks on headphones outside where the sounds of Australia’s
birds mingled with those of an English Spring - quite bizarre. But hearing
these far-off birds has whetted my appetite as a keen ornithologist to visit
Australia myself and see these amazing singers live.
There follows another demanding and challenging song-cycle and finally a large-scale
piano work, which builds on previous ideas. The composer Anthony Gilbert admits,
in his witty booklet notes, to visiting Lumsdaine at his North Norfolk home
in 1972. This area was to prove to be another inspirational natural environment
for the cycle A Norfolk Songbook, a sequence of ten poems by
the composer set with simply a recorder - John Turner again moving between
at least three. He acts as a perfect duettist evoking bird sounds mentioned
such as oyster-catchers, gulls and crossbills. The longer settings bookend
eight interior aphoristic poems such as Hedgerow with its lines ‘Yellowhammer
/ Yellowhammer / Yellowhammer / passing tractor / dust.’ In a sense
Australia moves to East Anglia - just briefly.
Written in a remote area of Australia known as Kangaroo Valley Cambewarra
is named after a nearby mountain. To quote the notes it presents ‘three
parallel visions of the same points approaching sunrise’, rather like
Claude Monet as his paintings, say, of Rheims Cathedral in differing lights.
There are three attached movements although the outer ones, both of eleven
minutes duration, can be played separately. Almost outdoing Messiaen, birdsong
totally dominates especially in the middle, scherzo-like movement, but there
is a reminder of a rough, harsher landscape in the ‘chorale’ type
chordal writing and in some of the abrasive piano textures elsewhere. Modality,
coupled with chromaticisms found in other works like the Norfolk Songbook
is lost in this brittle, sun-drenched but beautiful soundscape. Yes, a soundscape
but five years before the first recorded one heard on this CD. In addition
Peter Lawson is quite brilliant and utterly convincing in this vivid and exciting
performance.
The excellent booklet has biographies and texts. With this double CD, we can
say “Happy birthday, David Lumsdaine”, a composer with much that
is original to say. I for one will never forget the effect that his seemingly
forgotten orchestral work Hagoromo had on me at the Proms as long ago
as 1980.
Gary Higginson
Quite brilliant and utterly convincing.
See also reviews by Byzantion and Andrew Mayes