George Crumb writes
almost as much as you need to know in his own booklet notes
for these pieces: “From 1962 until 1970 much of my creative
activity was focused on the composition of an extended cycle
of vocal works based on the poetry of Federico García Lorca.
Of the eight works constituting the cycle, Songs, Drones,
and Refrains of Death is the largest in conception and
the most intensely dramatic in its projection of Lorca's dark
imagery. The important formal elements of the work are identified
in the title. These are, first, the settings of four of Lorca's
most beautiful death-poems: The Guitar, Casida of
the Dark Doves, Song of the Rider, 1860, and Casida
of the Boy Wounded by the Water. Each of these settings
is preceded by an instrumental "refrain" (also containing
vocal elements projected by the instrumentalists, in most
cases purely phonetic sounds) which presents, in various guises,
the rhythmic, fateful motif heard at the beginning of the
work. And finally, three long "Death-Drones" based
on the interval of the fourth.”
Crumb goes on
to describe each piece in detail, but for our purposes it
is the general impression which is perhaps most important.
For many, this music will represent a fairly archetypical
example of avant-garde music of the sixties. Extremes of contrast,
seemingly directionless, angular, fragmentary passages, shouting
and words declaimed in ‘sprechstimme’ – all elements which
can have an aversive effect on the uninitiated. Each piece
runs on into the next, so that continuity and intensity is
preserved. The poems are not reprinted in the booklet, but
I would suggest becoming acquainted with them would help a
great deal in accessing Crumb’s intentions. Through all of
the echoes and musical commentary from instruments already
laden with symbolism (the guitar, for instance, “the primitive
voice of the world’s darkness and evil”), the texts are clear,
and superbly delivered by Nicholas Isherwood. The prevailing
mood is darkly sinister, at times surrealist, sometimes ironic,
but Crumb is quick to acknowledge the paths which led to his
own solutions – Schubert’s Erlkönig for the Song
of the rider for instance, and Mahlerian influences in
the final Casida of the Boy Wounded by the Water. This
last poem is set to chilling piano harmonics and movingly
simple, rocking motifs. With some fascinating sound colourations
– twanging jew’s harps, water-tuned crystal glasses, a whole
raft of percussion and an electric harpsichord there is enough
here to make you think, ‘hey, play that again…’ You certainly
won’t feel you’ve ‘got it’ on a single hearing, and repeated
visits will reward the listener with a huge spectrum of subtlety.
Crumb writes,
“Quest was composed at the request of the guitarist
David Starobin and was commissioned by Albert Augustine, Ltd.
The final revised version of the work was completed in February,
1994, and is dedicated to David Starobin and Speculum Musicae.
In requesting this new piece he specified only that I write
for acoustic guitar and that the guitar part be treated soloistically.
Within the chosen sextet of players the guitar remains the
principal protagonist, but other instruments, especially the
soprano saxophone, can also take over the principal "voice".
The inclusion of a wide variety of percussion instruments
gave me an exceptionally colourful palette of timbral and
sonoric possibilities. I would specifically cite rather unusual
instruments such as the Appalachian hammered dulcimer, the
African talking drum, and the Mexican rain stick. …although
the movement titles are poetic and symbolic, there is no precise
programmatic meaning implied. There is one use of musical
quotation in the work: phrases from the famous hymn tune Amazing
Grace are played by the soprano saxophone - initially,
at the conclusion of Dark Paths, over a delicate web
of percussion sonority, and finally, in Nocturnal,
over a sequentially slowing ostinato of bare fifths in the
harp and contrabass. On the very last page of the score a
distant echo of the tune is intoned by a harmonica, or, as
in this recording, a concertina.”
Quest immediately
shows how Crumb has developed over the 30 years since Songs…The
music has is in many ways ‘stabilised’, with more immediately
accessible (if still greatly attenuated) tonal relationships
and resonances. The various ‘fields’ of sound are sharply
delineated, and textures effectively corralled so that the
guitar sounds clearly through softly played and transparent
instrumentation. The relationships with guitar and tuned percussion,
dulcimer and double bass are remarkable (III Forgotten
Sounds), and the general effect is one of loneliness,
distance and timelessness. The last movement, Nocturnal,
is sublime.
If, like me, you
consider your life with music to be (among other things) a
constant exploration of new experiences, then I can think
of few better places for widening your horizons. I already
knew Crumb’s Makrosmos for piano and knew I liked his
approach to extending sound worlds beyond the conventional,
but there are some moments in both of these pieces which had
my ears in a spin. Superbly played and recorded as usual,
you can give these unique works a try for the price of a couple
of drinks in a bar so, while such music can never be all things
to all people, I’m once again grateful to Naxos for a such
a stimulating and intriguing release.
Dominy Clements
see also review
by Julie Williams July Recording
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Nicholas Isherwood
(baritone)*
