Un de Les Six

Toward the end of World War I, when many French theaters and concert venues were shuttered due to the ongoing global conflict, visionaries of the modern art movement began to put on small concerts in spaces that were readily available to them - their own art studios. One such event that took place in 1917 featured a space with walls decorated by paintings of Picasso, Matisse, Léger, Modigliani and others; the music presented was by Erik Satie, George Auric, Louis Durey and Arthur Honegger. Over the next few years a number of these composers banded together (somewhat by chance) to form Les Six; six composers whose common purpose was to write music reacting against the musical styles of both the Germanic Richard Wagner and the Impressionist Claude Debussy.

Les Six (from oldest to youngest) consisted of Louis Durey, Arthur Honegger, Germaine Tailleferre, Darius Milhaud, Francis Poulenc, and Georges Auric. All were French, except for Honegger, who was born in France to Swiss parents. From the moment their names were joined together, these disparate and unique composers forged paths all their own, some writing works that spoke not only to their own time, but that continue to speak to us over a century later.

One of Arthur Honegger's most famous works, Pacific 231, written in 1923,  depicts, through sound, the impressive machinations of a steam locomotive. An avid train enthusiast himself, he once mused: "I have always loved locomotives passionately. For me they are living creatures and I love them as others love women or horses." But it is not the machine age that we visit today, but a beautiful depiction of Honegger's beloved Swiss alps. Inspired by a vacation to Bern in 1920 he composed Pastorale d'été (Summer Pastorale). On the score itself is inscribed an epigraph by Arthur Rimbaud: J'ai embrassé l'aube d'été - I have embraced the summer dawn. The music speaks for itself . . . Enjoy!

Honegger: Pastorale d'ete - Argovia Philharmonic, Rune Bergmann (conductor)

Rocking in the Renaissance

One of my favorite composer from the past 450 years(!) is Anthony Holborne, who was born sometime around 1562 and died 29 November, 1602. Not much is actually known about his life. One detail is that he was one of the composers in the service of England's Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603). The music that has come down to us was written for lute, cittern (a guitar/mandolin like instrument), chittara (similar to the modern acoustic guitar) and instrumental consort. Holborne sometimes arranged his lute/chittara/cittern pieces for a consort of viola da gambas or strings and winds. And lastly, his works consist mainly of Pavans, Galliards, Almains, Airs, and Fantasias, the slower works exuding a melancholy that was highly prized in the English court of the time.

Here are some of my favorite Holborne works:

Muy Linda (Very Pretty) - performed by L'Achéron

. . . and the same piece performed by lutenist Michal Gondko

 

The Night Watch - performed by the Chelys Consort

Countess Of Pembrokes' Paradise - Noam Kanter (guitar)
. . . by the way, Holborne's patron was the Countess of Pembroke, Mary Sidney

The titles of some of Holborne's pieces seem to refer to literary works of the day. In Edmund Spenser's The Shepheardes Calendar (1579), the shepherds, Perigot and Willye meet and decide to have a singing match (a rustic game immortalized in the Idylls of Theocritus). Each shepherd sings a line, answered by the other. One begins 'As it fell on a holie eve', and the other replies 'Heigh Ho Holiday' and so their contest proceeds . . .

Heigh Ho Holiday - performed by ViolMedium

. . . and the same piece performed by lutenist Julian Bream

Two of the courtly dances of Holborne's time were the Pavane and the Gailliard. The word pavane most probably comes from  "padovana" (old Italian: "from Padua"), though it's origin might also derive from the Spanish word "pavón" meaning peacock. This courtly dance, almost certainly of Italian origin, is often associated with Spain, and the decorous sweep of the pavane very much suited the new more sober Spanish-influenced courtly manners of 16th-century Italy. The Pavane is often joined to a second, faster Gailliard. The galliard was a favorite dance of Queen Elizabeth I of England, and although it is a relatively vigorous dance, in 1589 when the Queen was in her mid-fifties, John Stanhope of the Privy Chamber reported, "the Queen is so well as I assure you, six or seven galliards in a morning, besides music and singing, is her ordinary exercise."

Pavan and Galliard - performed by Thomas C. Boysen (lute)

. . . and here's a demonstration of royalty dancing a Pavane and Galliard

And lastly (if you've made it this far!) one of my all-time favorites - The Fairie Round

The Fairie Round - John Bigelow (lute)

The Fairie Round - performed by The Voices of Music

The Fairie Round - performed by Hespèrion XXI , Jordi Savall director

A Brave New (Sound) World

We'll take a little leap today and find ourselves in some very unique and fascinating sound worlds, with three short pieces by John Cage, Delia Derbyshire, and Igor Stravinsky.

During the years 1946, 1947 and 1948 John Cage composed his Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano, a cycle of twenty pieces to be performed on a piano "prepared" with various alterations to the strings and soundboard. These alterations create a sound world far removed from the one we normally expect to hear from a standard grand piano. Cage composed these works shortly after his introduction to two of the major influences that would change his approach to musical composition - Indian philosophy and the teachings of art historian Ananda K. Coomaraswamy.

At the beginning of 1946, Cage met Gita Sarabhai, an Indian musician who came to the United States concerned about Western influence on the music of her country. She ended up studying with Cage, who offered to teach her for free if she taught him about Indian music in return. The purpose of music, according to Sarabhai's teacher in India, was "to sober and quiet the mind, thus rendering it susceptible to divine influences", and this definition became one of the cornerstones of Cage's view on music and art in general. And it is this that he began to explore in his Sonatas and Interludes.

Here's a fantastic video performance of the Sonata No. 5 performed by pianist Carlos Sanchis Aguirre.

I couldn't resist this equally amazing performance by David Greilsamm!

Delia Derbyshire was an inspired and innovative composer of electronic music. For a large part of her career - from 1960 to 1973 - she worked in the BBC's Radiophonic Workshop, experimenting and manipulating sound, magnetic tape and recording equipment. To the world at large she is best remembered for arranging and producing the theme music for the Doctor Who series. Her amazingly creative, experimental and groundbreaking work produced sound worlds that express a unique and forward looking vision, stretching the boundaries of what we consider music to be. Derbyshire's haunting and mesmerising Blue Veils and Golden Sands (1967) was composed for the film The World About Us, a documentary about the Tuareg people of the Sahara desert.

For those interested in finding out more about Delia Derbyshire, there's a fine documentary film called The Delian Mode. You can watch it here

And we'll end with the melancholy and meditative first movement of Igor Stravinsky's Three Pieces for Solo Clarinet (1918) performed by Dimitri Schenker.

 

. . . all Three Pieces (performed by Szymon Parulski)  here

The Confluence of Musical Styles and World Influences - Part 1

While musical styles from various parts of the world intermingled in the early twentieth century, Heitor Villa-Lobos sought to promote Brazilian music throughout the classical music world. Instead of presenting only Brazilian styles, Villa-Lobos, in an attempt to showcase the international adaptability of Brazil's musical culture, developed a style all his own, which was a combination of his classical training in the western tradition and his first-hand experience with both Brazilian popular and Native Brazilian music. Much of his music manifests these influences, but his music for solo guitar, Brazil's national instrument, also features new techniques and timbres  used in his Cinq Preludes for solo guitar.
 - Heather Joy, from her Villa-Lobos’s Cinq Preludes: An Analysis of Influences

Enjoy this beautiful performance of the Villa-Lobos Prelude No. 1 played by guitarist Marcin Dylla

 And from Hungary . . . Béla Bartók's Romanian Folk Dances for String Orchestra played by the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra (get out your dancing shoes!)