Philip Rhodes was born
in North Carolina into a family with
strong Appalachian roots. This disc
gathers together a number of his works
which have Appalachian themes using
a variety of recordings which were made
between 1976 and 2000.
The disc opens with
‘Two Appalachian Settings’ for string
quartet. The first, ‘Love Song’ is an
attractive, melodic movement in which
the Appalachian tune Black is the
colour of my true love’s hair is
given a treatment reminiscent of Vaughan
Williams, Holst and Copland. The folksong
itself will be familiar to listeners
from the arrangement by Berio. The second
movement, ‘Fiddle Tunes (No. 2)’, is
a lively, modern take on a set of Reels.
In fact it started out life as the piece
for violin and synthesized strings which
appears later on the disc. Rhodes’ treatment
of the music here is more reminiscent
of Stravinsky and Bartók; in
fact he even manages to work in a quote
from The Rite of String. The
Veblen String Quartet give fluent, assured
performances but I had a sneaking feeling
that the music would work just as well
for string orchestra and that Rhodes
has not really explored the uniqueness
of the quartet medium.
‘Mountain Songs (A
Ballad Cycle)’ is a group of five songs
setting Appalachian ballad texts but
in all but one, Rhodes eschews the traditional
tunes for his own settings, thus creating
a very different style of music. It
is perhaps unfortunate that the cycle
begins with a setting of ‘The Unquiet
Grave’, a folksong whose original is
both haunting and memorable. Rhodes
has created an expressionist setting
with a vocal line which is expressive
without ever being tunefully melodic.
This style recurs in the 4th
setting of the cycle, ‘The True Lover’s
Farewell’. As a contrast, the 2nd
song ‘The Old Man and the Devil’ is
given a lively edge as befits the text’s
comic narrative nature; here Rhodes
embeds melodic elements into the texture
and uses some delightfully quirky rhythms.
The third song is the exception, it
uses both the text and melody of a traditional
hymn, ‘Guide me, O Thou great redeemer’.
Rhodes allows the haunting melody to
stand alone with the piano only appearing
in the last verse. The music is flexible
and flowing, the antithesis of a metrical
hymn. The final song, ‘Birdie Went A-Courtin’’
is giving an adroitly perky setting
with a piano accompaniment reminiscent
of a fiddle. The songs are given strong,
committed performances by Phyllis Bryn-Julson
ably supported by Anne Mayer. The recording
was made in 1976 and shows its age in
the poor piano sound. Byrn-Julson is
admirably tireless in her commitment
to the songs, but I wished she had made
more of the text, after all she is singing
in her native language. Though Rhodes
has created some fine music here, the
shadow of the original folk-songs hangs
over these settings and Rhodes has not
entirely solved the problem of how to
re-use the lovely texts without invoking
the spectre of the original folk-music.
‘Fiddletunes (No. 1)’
is written for solo violin and synthesized
strings and it uses the same material
as the string quartet movement. Hector
Valdivia gives a strong performance
of the solo part but I found the use
of synthesized accompaniment rather
puzzling as Rhodes never really seems
to make use of the power of the synthesizer
and the work sounds as if it could be
transferred to string orchestra without
losing any of its qualities.
The final piece on
the disc, ‘Reels and Reveries’ is a
substantial orchestral tone poem written
in a very traditional melodic style.
A well-made piece in which the traditional
reels are never far away, it would make
a very attractive, albeit undemanding,
concert opener.
Robert Hugill
The Veblen String Quartet (1); Phyllis Bryn-Julson
(soprano) (2); Anne Mayer (piano) (2); Hector
Valdivia (violin) (3); Owensboro Symphony Orchestra/Michael
Luxner (4)