Bolcom is
from Seattle and was a private pupil of another composer
favoured by Naxos, George Frederick McKay. He also studied
with Milhaud. Bolcom’s works include seven symphonies, chamber
music, concertos for cello, piano and clarinet, three cabaret
operas, three operas - a fourth is in the works. Since 1973
Bolcom has accompanied his wife Joan Morris in many recital
tours and several recordings.
The time
invested by Bolcom in the writing of this magnum opus is testimony
to the sheer grip of Blake's poetry. Had this been slacker and
Bolcom’s approach more pragmatic he would never have written
a work so expensive to programme. Also I doubt that he would
have written a piece which has a span longer than the conventional
concert evening.
The Songs
of Innocence and Experience present a varied cavalcade -
a moving and exhilarating tapestry in which styles are not hermetically
divided into movements and tracks. Art-song singing alternates
with spiritual orthodoxy. Salty harmonica and lachrymose Appalachian/Celtic
fiddle jostle with civil war sampler sentiment. Melancholy fiddle
and harmonica solos comes up against country and western style
oratory and awesome Bosch-like apocalyptic material in which
brass and percussion bray and thunder.
The Songs
of Innocence are in three parts, across 22 tracks. They
are mostly for orchestra with soloists and or chorus. These
are on CD1. Bolcom's own brief but to the point note remarks
that some parts were sketched in 1956. However most date from
1973-74 and 1979-1982.
Nathan Lee
Graham's The Little Black Boy is superbly done with the
cawing and rolling harmonica providing jazzy counterpoint to
the sing-song line. Cowboy unison singing, such as you find
in Roy Harris's Folksong Symphony (No. 4), contrasts with tart
Stravinskian interjections from the orchestra. Playground singsong
and simple rhythmic pummelling can be heard in Holy Thursday.
This is instantly contrasted with the skittering bat-flight
represented by the momentary Blossom (CD1 tr. 12). Joan
Morris's pristine singing of The Divine Image is memorable
with minimal and extremely discreet orchestral underpinning.
The nocturnal nature of part III of the Songs of Innocence
is strongly proclaimed. Nocturnal it may be but it is not
gloomy; thoughtful but not pessimistic. On another's sorrow
(CD1 tr. 19) recalls the choral writing of William Mathias
in This Worlde's Joie with a touch of Orff's Trionfi
for good measure.
The Songs
of Experience are divided into two volumes - one volume
per disc: CD2 and CD3. Each volume is in three parts. There
are thirty-three episodes in all.
The first
five tracks or parts of CD2 reflect chaos and nightmare landscapes
leavened with the sort of operatic nobility found in Tippett's
A Child of our Time. When we get to The Fly and
The Tyger (CD2 trs. 6 and 7) innocence returns together
with the rhythmic Orff-like zest that lit up many of the Songs
of Innocence. The Little Girl Found (CD2 tr. 10)
seemingly draws on the English choral tradition of Moeran and
Grainger. Part III of Volume 1 (CD2 tr. 11) starts with Stravinskian
pep - small-scale and then epic, pounding away at first in delicacy
and then Oedipally loud. With the collusion of fiddle and harmonica
Joan Morris returns for The Little Vagabond. Walton wrote
a con malizia movement for his First Symphony. That marking
and mood would also suit A Poison Tree which is relished
in pungency by the orchestra and by Nathan Lee Graham. After
the operatic dramatics of Ilana Davidson's The Angel comes
Marietta Simpson's The Sick Rose (superbly set also,
by the way, by Geoffrey Bush in his Summer Serenade).
Most deeply affecting is the final part of Part III Vol I, To
Tirzah which is delivered both chorally and in speech.
CD3 gives
us vol 2 of the Songs of Experience. Once again the U-M
Chamber Choir are called on for their English pastoral best.
They deliver with vernal fidelity. After this comes the stripped
and acrid Stravinskian soloistic rhythms of The Lilly,
as sung by Thomas Young with the combined choirs. This recalls,
as the choirs rise to prominence, the Morris Dance frolics of
Howard Hanson's Merry Mount (a work desperately in need
of a modern recording - until then enjoy Naxos 's historical
recording from the 1930s - doesn’t sound bad at all). Bolcom
returns to the yawning chasm and apocalypse of despair for Infant
Sorrow. This uses all the apparatus of Ligeti's Grand
Macabre and Penderecki Devils of Loudun.
At the start
of CD3 there is a vocalise for choir. This is totally unlike
Rachmaninov’s Vocalise. Instead we have what amounts to a virtuoso
concerto for chorus which wails like a tsunami and injects ‘pica-pau’
rhythmic material of the sort you can hear in Villa-Lobos’s
Brazilian pieces. There is a lashed momentum in Bolcom and Blake’s
description of London; portrayed as a feral sink of depravity and
violence. This is tartly married with a sort of hideous rumba
undertow. If you are looking for a single demonstration track
try this one. Listen for Nathan Lee Graham - one of the real
stars to emerge from this recording - rasping out the words
accompanied by saxophone and brass. In Voces clamandae
the horror of the chasm is evoked. Fear wells up in terrible
triumph in the repeated Brucknerian waves at the start of CD3
tr. 16. The image summoned is of emotionally misshapen creatures
singing in raw and ironic paean to imperfection:-
Cruelty
has Human Heart
And Jealousy
a Human Face
Terror the
Human Form Divine
And Secrecy
the Human Dress
The Human Dress
is Forged Iron
The Human
Form a fiery Forge
The Human
Face, a furnace seal'd
The Human
Heart is hungry Gorge.
The piece
ends with a repeat of those clamant Brucknerian waves now touched
with bleakness. Bolcom and Blake offer no false redemption;
no transfiguration.
In the booklet
Bolcom acknowledges and thanks fellow composer Michael Daugherty
for initiating this ambitious project. His programme notes are
from 1984 and these are brought up to date with several paragraphs
from 2004. He recounts the work's performance history: sixteen
in all. Stuttgart saw the world premiere with Dennis Russell Davies, then came the US premiere in Ann Arbor with the
Brooklyn Phil under Lukas Foss. Other performances have been
given in St Louis, London, New York and California. There were approaching 450 performers on
stage for the Ann
Arbor performances. Blake's poems are printed in
full in the booklet which also lists every member of the orchestra
and choirs.
All credit
to Naxos and everyone concerned for their benevolent
opportunism in capturing this major work at a rare live concert.
Rob Barnett
Link
to press release
COMPLETE TRACK LISTING
Disc: 1
1. Introduction - Thomas Young
2. The Echoing Green - Combined Choruses
3. The Lamb - Measha Brueggergosman
4. The Shepherd - Peter 'Madcat' Ruth
5. Infant Joy - Marietta Simpson
6. The Little Black Boy - Nathan Lee Graham
7. Laughing Song - U-M Chamber Choir
8. Spring - Thomas Young
9. A Cradle Song - Linda Hohenfeld
10. Nurse's Song - Joan Morris
11. Holy Thursday - Combined Choruses
12. The Blossom - Measha Brueggergosman
13. Interlude - Orchestra
14. The Chimney Sweeper - Nathan Lee Graham
15. The Divine Image - Joan Morris
16. Nocturne - Orchestra
17. Night - Thomas Young
18. A Dream - Ilana Davidson
19. On Another's Sorrow - Combined Choruses
20. The Little Boy Lost - Carmen Pelton
21. The Little Boy Found - Nathan Lee Graham
22. Coda - Orchestra
Disc: 2
1. Introduction - Orchestra
2. Hear The Voice Of The Bard - Nmon Ford
3. Interlude - Orchestra
4. Earth's Answer - Christine Brewer
5. Nurse's Song - Joan Morris
6. The Fly - MSU Children's Choir
7. The Tyger - Combined Choruses
8. The Little Girl Lost - Nmon Ford
9. In The Southern Clime - U-M Chamber Choir
10. The Little Girl Found - Combined Choruses
11. The Clod And The Pebble - Thomas Young
12. The Little Vagabond - Joan Morris
13. Holy Thursday - Carmen Pelton
14. A Poisin Tree - Nathan Lee Graham
15. The Angel - Ilana Davidson
16. The Sick Rose - Marietta Simpson
17. To Tirzah - Combined Choruses
Disc: 3
1. The Voice Of The Ancient Bard - Nmon Ford
2. My Pretty Rose Tree - Chorus Men
3. Ah! Sun-Flower - U-M Chamber Choir
4. The Lilly - Thomas Young
5. Introduction To Part V - Orchestra
6. The Garden Of Love - Thomas Young
7. A Little Boy Lost - Carmen Pelton
8. A Little Girl Lost - Christine Brewer
9. Infant Sorrow - U-M Chamber Choir Soloists
10. Vocalise - Combined Choruses
11. London - Nathan Lee Graham
12. The School Boy - Linda Hohenfeld
13. The Chimney Sweeper - U-M Chamber Choir
14. The Human Abstract - Nmon Ford
15. Interlude: Voces Clamandae - Orchestra
16. A Divine Image - Soloists
