Postcard from Heaven
John CAGE (1912-1992)
In a Landscape (1948) [8:43]
James TENNEY (1934-2006)
Harmonium No. 3 (1980) [4:31]
Alexander TCHEREPNIN (1899-1977)
Four Diatonic Caprices (1977) [6:43]
Gloria COATES (b. 1938)
Perchance to Dream (2014) [18:23]
John CAGE
Postcard from Heaven (1982) [15:30]
Susan Allen (harp)
Marilu Donavan, Ellie Choate, Jullian Risigari-Gai,
Jaclyn Urlik (harp), Colton Lytle (bowed vibraphone)
rec. 2014, California Institute of the Arts
NEW WORLD RECORDS 80763-2 [55:15]
Harpist Susan Allen has a tremendous track record as an innovative
musician, commissioning and performing a substantial amount of new
repertoire for her instrument, and taking it as far as the jazz genre as an
improviser.
This programme is one which places the timeless tones of the harp firmly
into the world of 20th and 21st century music, but
making the distinction between "composers who take to the harp" and
"composers who attempt to write for the harp". The essence of these works is
the harp as harp, rather than as a novelty springboard for
boundary-stretching effects. John Cage's In a Landscape -
originally for piano but also playable on the harp - is pure music in this
regard, and I'd be prepared to bet that Cage's name would be one of the last
to spring to mind for the vast majority of people heaing this rather sweet
sounding work on blind audition. A limited number of notes creates a
floating tonality, while phrases are guided by rhythmic sets which end up
sounding like conventional 'melody' in music which has something of Erik
Satie about it. It's only a shame that one or two strings sound as if they
are a little out of tune, though as most of the works here seem set on using
'special' tunings of one kind or another I may be missing out on
something.
James Tenney's Harmonium 3 is another superficially rather
attractive piece which joins three harps to sound like a single instrument,
etude-like arpeggios fanning out between the instruments in a single line,
the strings tuned in special ways and the whole process of the work's
progress working on a mathematical formula. The "fiendish" coordination
between the players to get this right - something akin to change-ringing
with church bells - seems a little like building a particle accelerator only
for use as a machine for striking matches. I'm sure it must be impressive in
live performance but the result, while intriguing, isn't especially
memorable to my ears, despite claims from the booklet that we can expect
music which "leaves a deep and lasting impression".
Alexander Tcherepnin has become better known of late with piano solo
works, concertos and other repertoire now widely available on recordings.
The Four Diatonic Caprices are described as "brief musical bonbons"
originally for small Breton harp, but sounding gorgeously intimate and
fragile even on the concert pedal harp used here. Their musical content
ranges from gently impressionistic colours, deceptive pastoral simplicity
and exotic Asian influences, closing with a rousing final
Allegro.
Gloria Coates's Perchance to Dream places the sonorities of the
harp alongside a halo of ringing tones from a vibraphone played using a bow
from a string instrument. This sounds a little like a glass harmonica,
giving the work an "otherworldly quality." There is a fascinating
programmatic story to go along with the piece which is outlined in the
booklet, with inspiration coming from Goethe's novelette Wilhelm
Meister's Apprenticeship. Once again, simple-sounding material takes us
into a strange and rather magical world. Commissioned by Susan Allen, this
is the result of close collaboaration between composer and performer, and
the detail in the relationship between bowed vibraphone and the microtonal
tunings and de-tunings is something to behold. I worry about the re-tuning
of the harp between the second and third of three movements in a concert
context, but I'm sure they'll have thought of practical solutions. The final
movement, An die Tueren Will Ich Schleichen, should really come
with a health warning. If ever there was evidence of music having a
Plato-esque effect on your mood and well-being then this might be held up as
a prime example, "heightening the gloomy aura" of the poem it describes and
sending us all rather dizzyingly into somewhere very profound and very
profoundly dark.
Cage's Postcard from Heaven was one of his last works. It is
written for between 1 and 20 harps, using ebows to resonate the strings
without attack in the opening and end of the piece, and in between
developing a vast range of innovative and non-harp-like effects more in the
nature of what one would expect from this composer. Susan Allen worked and
performed with Cage, so we can trust in her knowledge of the intentions
behind this work - something which is all too easy to get wrong, though the
great man is no longer around to tell us so. The music is based around
"ragas" or pre-determined scale patterns and set pedal configurations, but
the strength of this piece is its ticket into a place of unexpected
strangeness within degrees of recognisability. We know and love a harp
ensemble, but find outselves vicariously playing them with a virtual
blindfold, teasing out shapes, sparks and subtle nuances - exchanging our
ears for our eyes in order to see a way through.
This is a fascinating step into the unusual, the 'antique' sound of the
harp meeting musical minds of our times. The recording is very good indeed,
and there are very full notes on each work in the booklet.
Dominy Clements
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