Barbara HARBACH (b. 1946)
Symphony No. 11 “Retourner” (2017) [23:00]
Hypocrisy – Orchestral Suite in 13 parts (2016) [54:29]
London Philharmonic Orchestra/David Angus
rec. 2017, Blackheath Concert Hall, London
MSR CLASSICS MS1646 [77:37]
Barbara Harbach is an American harpsichordist, organist, composer and teacher, and holds multiple academic music degrees. She is a Professor of Music and Director of Fine and Performing Arts at Missouri University. Whilst she has had many works written for her as a performer, she is also a prolific composer across all Classical genres, and this is the twelfth CD on MSR Classics devoted to her compositions along with 5 others where she performs harpsichord and organ works.
This CD contains her 11th Symphony, entitled “Retourner” and an orchestral suite entitled “Hypocrisy”. The latter was composed as an inspiration from the 1915 silent film “Hypocrites”, which became notorious for its sex and nudity, and was banned in several American States – given its date, that is hardly surprising. It is easily viewable on Youtube, where the primitive technical quality of the images is all too apparent, and its naked content wouldn’t cause even an eyebrow to be raised these days.
Harbach has split the film into 16 scenes for which she has composed music – the shortest at 2:18 and the longest at 5:50. Naturally, the music is written to be descriptive of its scene, and with titles ranging from The Gates of Truth, Deceptions, Curiosity, Shock and Death and more; it is good that the CD booklet contains very detailed descriptions of the action in the film of each scene. I first listened to the music without reading the booklet, and my initial reaction was that the music occupied a fairly level strata of restrained dynamic throughout. It reminded me of gentle Debussy and occasionally Alan Hovhaness, whose fondness for trumpets is mirrored here, though not, I might add, with anything like the same intensity or exotic imagination. As with much descriptive music, one would be unable to guess the scene it describes, but the detailed notes allow the listener to relate the composer’s inspiration to the film’s scenes. Her orchestration is imaginative and varied, and whilst melodically there is nothing that had me humming with a remembered tune, it is very pleasant nonetheless. Had I the time, it might find it instructive to actually listen to the music whilst watching the film.
Two of three movements of the symphony are based on a novel written in 1913, which is set in the Nebraska countryside. Harbach loves to use her instruments to illustrate action, as is evident in the Hypocrisy music, and she frequently does the same in the symphony – for example, in the second movement, two people are remembering their youth, and in a scene in a farm office, the composer uses a ‘mechanical’ rhythm to represent the sound of a mechanical adding machine – trumpet and low woodwinds supplemented by a xylophone. There are other examples as well, but she is also careful to use the orchestra to represent an overall mood, rather than just a specific action.
Once again, I found the overall dynamic to be quite restrained, and I must say that I prefer a modern symphony to display a greater contrast in volume and intensity, as well as a sense of organic growth, and so I found my attention wandering. The music is thoroughly tonal.
The London Philharmonic play the music in a thoroughly professional manner, as I would have expected from one of Britain’s top orchestras, and the recording is fine and natural. The booklet is very detailed and worthy of praise in its own right.
Jim Westhead
