Ingram Marshall is a composer who refuses to be categorised.
He feels strongly that too many convenient ‘tags’ are placed upon artists
simply to make discussions of art easier; he resists attempts to lump
him together with minimalists (itself a term purloined from the visual
arts), downtowners, New Romanticists or the "California School".
In fact he is on record as saying, 'I hope my music is remembered for
its personality rather than its style or historical position … I feel
strongly now that music always points to something else, has other meanings,
and in that sense I am an ‘ expressivist’'
These comments are interesting in the light of the
present disc, which probably represents the best of his current aesthetic.
Anyone familiar with the ‘younger’ end of contemporary
American music may well recognise the title of one of these works. The
original Fog Tropes comes from 1982 and is probably his most
frequently performed and recorded piece, most recently cropping up on
an excellent disc entitled ‘American Elegies’ and featuring other
works by Ives, Diamond, Feldman and his friend John Adams, who also
conducted (Nonesuch 9 79227-2). The piece is essentially an atmospheric,
slow-moving tone painting in sound, with the live ensemble (originally
brass sextet, reworked for string quartet) underpinned by a taped collage
of sounds from the San Francisco Bay area, such as ship’s foghorn, seagulls
etc. Where the original was able to exploit the timbral similarities
of the brass and foghorns, the new version has sought to highlight the
difference in sonority of the taped ‘environment’( kept identical) with
the softer qualities of the strings. The result is undeniably effective,
even strangely moving.
The title ‘Kingdom Come’ might also be vaguely
familiar from an earlier piece called ‘Peaceable Kingdom’, which
also shows the composer's love of mixing live instrumentalists with
taped sounds from the ‘real’ world. In this case the work has a very
personal significance, as it was composed in memory of Francis Tomasic,
the composer’s brother-in-law who, while working as a journalist in
Bosnia, was killed by a landmine near Mostar. This obviously accounts
for so many of the taped sections reflecting that troubled region, with
the looping and overlapping of a ‘Serbian’ section (soprano cantor,
priest and bells heard at different pitches) and a ‘Croatian’ section
(a congregational hymn slowed down to almost a 'rumble’). The resulting
collage has a strangely unnerving effect (possibly the intention) with
the serene beauty of the singing gradually being overtaken by more ominous
sounds. The piece is ‘book-ended’ by a more controversial idea, a quotation
from Sibelius’s elegiac tone poem The Swan of Tuonela. Presumably
the composer has his own specific reason for using this particular work
(he admits to using it before) and certainly the brooding melancholy
of that masterpiece suits the mood of his tragic subject, but the listener
is brought up short in the wrong way. Marshall’s own (very informative)
booklet note states, 'None of these "techniques" should draw
attention to themselves…’, but unfortunately using such a well known
concert ‘war-horse’ has precisely this effect. Still, the quote is short
and is soon overtaken by the first of the taped choir effects, making
an undeniable impact.
Hymnodic Delays arose from Marshall’s working
relationship with Paul Hillier and his vocal ensemble Theatre of Voices,
a relationship that had spawned several compositions, most notably Sierran
Songs (on texts by Snyder, Kerouac and others). Hillier suggested
that the composer explore the repertory of the New England composers
of the 17th and 18th century – "singing masters"
– for his source material. The result is a ‘reworking ‘ of four pieces
that are given the titles ‘Bright Hour Delayed’ (pun fully intended!),
‘Broad Road’, ‘Swept Away’ and ‘Low Dutch’, and hugely enjoyable it
is, with the simple tunes given the full studio treatment (looping,
digital delay, echoes etc.). In fact it’s fair to say that the early
vocal devices inherent in the originals, such as hocketing (‘hiccups’
in the line), canonic entry, imitation and so forth, respond well to
this sort of treatment, and Marshall is careful to say that he doesn’t
consider his manipulations to be ‘improvements, but simply elaborations
that seek to pay homage to the 'straightforward, honest and often poignantly
expressive music of this era’.
The overall standard of presentation is in keeping
with what we have come to expect from Nonesuch; the extremely informative
liner notes are by the composer, the performances by all the dedicatees
flawless, and the recording is in the demonstration bracket (in fact,
be warned about your speaker cones during the first tape entry in Kingdom
Come!). This is a disc which shows us a composer at his eclectic
best, and although his mode of expression has been fashionable in American
contemporary music for some time, the pieces on this CD show us the
most human and accessible face of this expression.
Tony Haywood
Kronos Quartet