Armed with cello
Because of its large melodic
amplitude and its strength of expression the cello has, more than any other
string instrument, turned out to be an excellent medium for pure solo music.
However, it dit not reach its present possibilities until before as late as
about 1800, at least as a virtuoso solo instrument in concerts with orchestra
as well as a partner in chamber music on equal terms. Therefore, the six suites
for solo cello by Johann Sebastian Bach, dating from about 1720, remained
singular events for almost two centuries. Not until Zoltán Kodály's Sonata
for solo cello from 1915 is its potential as a solo
instrument truly (re)discovered.
On the other hand, especially during the second
half of the 20th century, the medium of solo cello music has
attracted a large number of composers. This is also very much the case in
Denmark, where several generations of cello virtuosos have worked continuously
and closely together with many of the leading Danish composers of our time.
Both the older and the more recent works on this disc bear witness to this.
Poul
Ruders
Bravour
studies for solo cello over "L'homme armé"
The little 14th century
song L'homme armé (literally "The armed man") is the first major example in European
music of what in the jazz music of a later age was to become known as a
standard. That is, a theme with musical possibilities that continuosly inspires
many different composers and interpreters to create their own version of it -
in this case, especially as the starting point for numerous renaissance
settings of the Catholic mass.
Poul Ruders' series of virtuoso studies
based on the theme was composed for Morten Zeuthen's debut concert from The
Jutland Conservatory of Music. Even though the piece has never been recorded
before, it remains one of the central works from Ruders' early period, in which
he again and again occupied himself with interpreting early music, not least
from the Renaissance and Baroque periods.
But Ruders'
approach to music of past eras is neither a literal pastiche, nor a cool Stravinskyan
underlining of the historical, intellectual and emotional gaps between then and
now. Rather, as is also the case in Bravourstudien (Bravour studies), it is a question of finding
ways in which the early music can be re-invented as contemporary and applicable
even today.
At the same
time, the very choice of the most well-known and "recycled" theme of early
music in itself becomes a kind of commentary upon the many different and often
contradictory historical prisms, through which we view European musical
tradition. In this case, they include a very old theme associated with bygone
wars as well as - to those with their musical history present - bygone church
music, a relatively modern instrument such as the cello, the romantic concept
of a collection of virtuoso studies, and for each of the nine variations yet
another historical approach: a dramatic overture in something resembling French
Baroque style, an expressive recitative, a distant serenade played con sordino, a jangling potpourri, one study dedicated to purely showing off, a
calm intermezzo (which includes the cellist whistling), a sweeping fantasy, yet
another serenade, and finally a "Variation classique" which in the end turns
out to be as modern as anything.
Karl Aage
Rasmussen
Silhouette to a poem by Naja Marie
Aidt
Andy Pape
Siciliano sconfortevole
Niels
Rosing-Schow
Siciliana
Svend
Nielsen
Siciliano, "Once upon a time"
The next group of works on this disc
mirrors this question: what happens, and what does the combined picture look
like, if one commissions a number of composers to create a personal
contribution to a traditional genre? The present composers have all been asked
by Morten Zeuthen to write a piece based on the quietly rocking rhythm in a 3-
og 6-beat meter, which since at least the late 18th Century has been
known as siciliano or sicilienne.
As is the case with other traditional
movement titles in early classical music, this rhythm is named after a
geographical region - similar to (mostly French) titles like the ecossaise
from Scotland, the polonaise
from Poland or the allemande
from Germany. On a larger scale, the phenomenon can
be found in Johann Sebastian Bachs English and French Suites for keyboard, as well as in his Italian
Concerto.
However,
contrary to other movement titles from the Baroque era, the sicilienne has
never been a part of the conventional multi-movement suite structure. With its
somewhat melancholy character and often quite long melodic lines, it does not
so much evoke courtly dances in stately halls, as it does the lonely
mediterranean fisherman losts in his own thoughts.
Due to its roots in popular song, the
sicilienne has so to speak had a life of its own down through musical history,
and rather than appearing as a stylized movement form in itself it usually
turns up, anonymously but still clearly recognizable, inside larger forms.
Apart from its frequent appearances in late Italian Baroque opera - and later
in the groundbreaking works of Vincenzo Bellini from the early 19th
century - it appears again and again in the many keyboard works of Domenico
Scarlatti from the first half of the 18th century, and with its
protean face of idyll as well as melancholy it makes a distinct case for itself
in such diverse arias as Erbarme dich from Bach's St. Matthew Passion, He shall feed his flock from Handel's Messiah, and later still in the first movement of Mozart's piano sonata in
A major (KV 331) and the penultimate part of Brahms' St.
Anthony Variations.
Silhouetto by Karl Aage Rasmussen takes its cue from a poem by the Danish poet
Naja Marie Aidt, in which a coquettish flower seller turns out to be much more
desperate and rude than she appeared at first sight. The same happens to the
siciliano rhythm here, as it begins gently and serenade-like, but gradually
becomes more and more abrupt and intrusive.
Siciliano sconfortevole ("depressed", "shocked") by Andy Pape also turns the gently rocking
basic rhythm inside out, although in a much different manner. Most of the time
the cello remains in its lowest area, like a caveperson who only momentarily is
able to get to see at least the shadow of the sun.
In Niels Rosing-Schow's Siliciana
(in the plural), however, the rhythm itself remains
far away most of the time. Or rather: it remains hidden deep inside the dense,
fragile web of rhythms and chords, which is continuously weaved over and around
it, filled with harmonic effects as well as ornamentation.
Svend
Nielsen's Siciliano with the subtitle "Once upon a time"
also uses the siciliano more as a foundation than as a façade. The subtitle
refers to P.E. Lange-Müller's romantic stage music for Holger Drachmann's play
of the same name, especially the serenade movement. But first and foremost the
music here is one long, evolving line of melody and colour, gradually turning
into a small drama in itself, with the cellist singing and shouting as well as
playing.
Per
Nørgård
Sonate breve: "What - is the
word!"
(3rd Sonata for solo cello)
Per Nørgård's 1st sonata
for solo cello is a very early, juvenile work, and his 2nd sonata is
a combination of two movements which were composed separately with several
decades in between. So actually, his 3rd sonata is his first
coherent, recent work in this genre.
The fact that it is conceived as a unity
is obvious from the fact that the two outer movements are closely related. The
long, immediately recognizable melodic line which dominates the first movement
appears in the third movement as well, first in an inverted version and then
almost identical to its original appearance, only shorter.
In contrast, the middle movement is a fast
one, constantly and intensely on the move, with many changes of pulse and
meters, as well as large melodic leaps. And while the outer movements each are
composed as a single melodic line, the middle movement makes extensive use of
the cello as a polyphonic instrument, employing lots of chords, double stops
and flageolet effects.
Hans
Abrahamsen
Sonata for solo cello
Hymn. Storm and Still. Siciliano
The sonata by Hans Abrahamsen
contains three movements that were originally composed as independent works,
the third movement being also a part of Morten Zeuthen's siciliano project. All
three movements are remarkable by being some of the very few works Abrahamsen
composed at all during the ten-year period in question.
Furthermore, the first movement as well as
the first half of the second movement (written for an exhibition by the Danish
artist group "Storm og stille") remains perhaps Abrahamsen's most violently
expressive music ever, full of furious glissandos and rich ornamentation. On
the contrary, the second half of the second movement as well as the entire
third movement - which, with a duration of more than six minutes, stands out as
a very long work by Abrahamsen's miniaturist standards - shows him in his most
delicately poetic, complex and epic mood. The siciliano rhythm flows along as a
distant undertow, which never the less runs through everything that happens.
Vagn
Holmboe
Sonata for solo cello, opus 101
Holmboe's starting point as a
composer was late Nordic romanticism, especially the music of Jean Sibelius,
but from the 1940's and onwards, his experiences with Eastern European music
(art music as well as folk music) became just as influential. This includes his
only work for solo cello, by far the oldest work on this disc, which has the
Hungarian composer Zoltán Kodály's groundbreaking solo sonata as its obvious
source of inspiration.
This is not only the case in terms of
melody and harmonization. Its huge, and for the usually austere Holmboe quite
atypical pathos also points far beyond the Danish borders and further south, as
does its broad, epic scope.
The unconventionally slow, long movement
which opens the sonata, sets the mood for the entire work. The title Prelude
is very much an understatement of the weight and
expressive force of the movement, as is Holmboe's labelling the just as weighty
third movement simply an introduction to the final movement.
But the two fast movements are just as
unconventional. Among other things, the second movement plays tricky games with
the soundscape of a quick, Baroque fugue movement, without coming anywhere
close to a simple pastiche. And while Holmboe in many other final movements
settles for a folkloristic full-speed-ahead-approach, the present finale is a
joculous tour-de-force of nuanced pulse, gliding to and fro between a number of
different meters and subdivisions thereof.
Jakob levinsen,
2005