I can remember being
knocked sideways by a performance of
Roger Smalley’s ‘Missa Brevis’ for sixteen
solo voices in the late 1960s. Several
year later I had the thrill of singing
in it. It occurred to me then that the
voices were used in an electronic way,
if I can put it like that. This was
at a time when Smalley was much under
the influence of Stockhausen. So I was
not at all surprised when Smalley teamed
up with the late, and much lamented,
Tim Souster, to create many electro-acoustic
works even if they were of dubious musical
worth.
The NMC company recorded
Smalley’s 34 minute ‘Pulses for 5x4
Players’ in 1994 ( NMC DO17M) with the
BBC Symphony Orchestra. It is for brass,
percussion and ring modulation and reflects
his many preoccupations. These include
"variable Moment-Form, live electronics,
improvisation and the use of space".
With this new CD we
can see how Roger Smalley, now living
in Australia, has moved on again. Here
the electronics have been abandoned.
Chopin and Brahms are now seemingly
unlikely inspirations, and he is adopting
more conventional instrumental groupings.
However none of this music, which is
in my view of outstanding interest,
would have been possible without his
earlier experiences and experiments.
The work which I especially
enjoyed and which is the longest piece
on the CD is ‘Crepuscule’ for piano
quartet of 1998. Here the form and inspiration
are fascinating. The composer visited
an art exhibition of works by Lesley
Duxbury and discovered fifteen postcard
sized paintings "hung in three
horizontal rows of five boxes with highly
suggestive one-word titles." Smalley
used these titles and wrote a set of
fifteen variations on the theme of Brahms’
Intermezzo in E minor Op. 116 no. 5,
a recording of which immediately precedes
the work. The work is more tonally based
than say the Piano Trio (although hardly
diatonic). Each variation is for a differing
instrumental combination culminating
in the fifth variation of each of the
three sections/movements when the whole
quartet play. A considerable variety
of texture is available and the form
is clear.
Form is also clear
in the other works. For example the
‘Chopin Variations’, is a set of twelve
variations on the Mazurka in B flat
minor Op. 24 no. 4. It is formally classical
and straightforward but also arresting.
The ‘Piano Trio’ is
in two movements each divided into two
parts. Smalley writes "The material
in this trio is based on an extremely
chromatic eight-bar harmonic progression
that occurs towards the end of Chopin’s
A flat Mazurka". The form is a
fairly classical, being a slow introduction
leading into a Scherzo. The second movement
is a Passacaglia and then a set of Variations.
‘Poles Apart’ is in
three movements. Again it betrays a
classical format with a Chaconne and
Chorale to end. This is based on an
eight bar sequence from Chopin’s Mazurka
in C# minor Op. 50 no. 3. There is a
solemn, rather chromatic yet formal
fugue initiated by the cello. I never
thought that I would hear this kind
of music from Roger Smalley. It comes
as a particular surprise after the syncopated,
energetic and jazzy but atonal opening
‘Fast and Furious’ movement.
The ‘Trio’ for a standard,
classical format of clarinet, viola
and piano, lasts just over ten minutes.
Whilst writing it the
composer writes "my thought turned
to the late sonatas of Brahms ... In
particular the first variation of the
Sonata in E flat Op. 120 no. 2."
It begins slowly with a singing melody
on the viola. The Brahms fragment reappears
from time to time from which "everything
that follows is derived".
This is strong and
characterful music. It demands your
attention but is not overbearing or
ugly. Many ideas seem to delve deep
into the listener’s psyche, tapping
some childhood memory. Rhythmic display
is prominent but used at the service
of the overall form of the music and
as a contrast to what is often a thoughtful
and profound statement. There is some
real fun and enjoyment for its own sake
in the use of colour and polyphony which
is especially marked in ‘Crepuscule’.
All in all I recommend
this CD highly but do not expect immediate
gratification.
Finally, a word about
the booklet notes. NMC do not ‘dumb-down’
to readers and listeners and that certainly
applies to these notes. However they
are not abstruse or deliberately obscure.
There is an introductory essay by Christopher
Mark and background notes on each piece
by the composer.
Gary Higginson
Douglas Finch (piano) 