There's a copy of Edward
McGuire's score 'Music for Low Flutes'
which glowers redly down at me from
the ancient American organ I have in
my corner of a shared office in the
Royal Conservatoire in The Hague. It's
both a reminder to "get on with it"
and a memento mori for honest toil in the wrong place - I picked up
that score from a pile of rejected sheet
music spotted in a recycled paper bin
outside our library.
I'm sure this is no
reflection of the quality of Mr. McGuire's
music, more a sign of the chronic lack
of space throughout our illustrious
institution. As a flute player and composer
myself, I was enthusiastic about having
the chance actually to hear some of
E McG's work, and with the quality of musicianship on this CD I
find my hunch has borne flute, sorry, fruit - I like it very much indeed.
McGuire's references
will find sympathy with those who were
relieved to find there could be life
after Darmstadt. Folk music is one of
his passions, and while the compositions
on this recording exist outside this
world of performing little inflections
creep in now and again, in the piccolo
solo Prelude 13 and the closing
pages of Twelve White Note Pieces
for example. Heroes and trends are
followed up in works for multiples of
the same instrument, and the guitar
resonances of Dark Cloud are
a "reply to Leo Brouwer's 'Blue Sky and Smile' for large
guitar ensemble." That piece was a Radio 3 hit and broadcast a
number of times in the 1980s and it must have been good - even my mother
liked it. McGuire's guitars sound more
like drops of Japanese rain in the beginning,
and the harmony is extended gradually
downward in a spatial, timeless fashion.
The second-interval tremolo figures
are more of a gesture in Brouwer's direction,
and as they grumble upwards in a return
to the pattering rain a clear reverse-arch
form emerges. Unlike Brouwer, McGuire
resists the temptation to break out
into a hard-to-co-ordinate but hummable
tune, but this piece would sound good
with 400 guitars as well as 4.
Four flutes are brought
together in Celtic Knotwork, a piece which exists in a
variety of versions, but brought together by one player in this
recording. One of a number of McGuire pieces on this subject, the
folk elements of the Scotch-snap rhythm - or ornament, come out strongly, as
might be expected in a work whose intertwining
lines are a deliberate portrayal of
the ancient art-form of knotwork.
The last multi- work
on this disc is also the earliest, Twelve
White Note Pieces having been written
while McGuire was studying in Stockholm.
Far from minimalist, the work does explore
texture and tonal colour through ostinati
and slowly developing harmonies. Rhapsodic
gestures appear over repeated figures
and there is some heavy-handed chordal
thumping, but the overall impression
is of waves of sound. This work was
conceived as having several performance
options, and this a new arrangement
made especially for the recording. As
usual with overdubbed recordings made
with one piano, the effect is -apparently
- less vibrant than a live version with
four different pianos. I wonder if the
effort might have been better spent
in writing a new piece, I know that's what I would rather have
done - all those student works, brrr!
The CD opens with Harbour
of Harmonies, a more recent solo
piano work written for the millennium
celebrations. Inspired by aspects of
Marinell Ash's book "This Noble Harbour",
the work is "based on the deep
water and the people who had to work
in harmony to make (Invergordon) what
it is!" This piece is inevitably
a kind of fantasy: romantic, verging
on the sentimental, but expressive of
lyrical passions and the eternal flow
of the ocean.
The clarity and perfect
intonation of Nancy Ruffer's flute playing
is a real bonus on this disc, and McGuire,
knowing the instrument as he does, gives
it full expression and a wide range
against the softness of the guitar in
Fountain of Tears, and leaning
solidly against the more robust sonorities
of the piano in Caprice. Dancing
Memories is a three movement work for solo flute, dedicated
to a dance teacher called Sarah de Ruyg, the three movements
recreating the "nostalgia of dance classes and solitary rehearsal
- but always with a light-hearted wit."
McGuire's guitar writing in Amazonia,
a response to the destruction
of the rainforests, explores the depth
of sonority in the guitar in a way I've missed in guitar music
of late - fully
acknowledging traditional technique
but weighing the strings with a message
which in many ways digs deeper than
dance or even the 'doloroso' of Rodrigo.
Resistance Movement
brings us right up to date, having been written for the
players on this recording - an unusual combination in
chamber music. The energetic, punchy
rhythms in this work offset the often
reflective or textural nature of many
of the other works on the disc, and,
while the title is something of a pun
on 'pièce de résistance',
is of course also supportive of "legitimate
resistance to occupation and exploitation".
The tropical colours on the cover of this CD
reflect the diversity of material within, and, I suspect, might be
intended to counter the impression we have of the often low grey
skies of Scotland. The music is frequently of a serious nature,
but is never heavily depressing or overly symbolic - it can always be enjoyed
on its own terms, whatever the original
inspiration or message. I sincerely
hope this recording will bring Eddie
McGuire's work to a wider public - this
is surely what it deserves.
Dominy Clements
Nancy Ruffer (flute, piccolo) 
