Wednesday, April 6, 2016
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Someday, all four of these wonderful CD’s of David Canfield’s stunning chamber music will be collector’s items, if they are not already. Certainly, nobody is ever taking my complete collection of Canfield’s energetically and vibrantly performed chamber music away from me! And the fourth volume is a most fitting continuation of this terrific series.
Sometimes, great music is expensive to write, and the loss of both of Canfield’s parents in 2014 seems to figure prominently in my two favorite works on this album, the Sonata for Cello and Piano “Ordo salutis” and A Life Remembered, for string quartet. These are, to be sure, the more serious works on this album, which are effectively balanced by two lighthearted works, Five Mangled Expressions and Sour Note Suite for Two Pianos, and well complemented by the thoroughly German Romantic Quintette nach Schumann.
Canfield has chosen to present these five works in the chronological order of composition. They were all completed between 2012 and 2014. The duo for alto saxophone and horn, Five Mangled Expressions, consists of musical interpretations of common proverbs aptly pretzeled by Canfield, such as “A bird in the hand is bent out of shape” or “Fools rush in until the fat lady sings.” The combination of “the most brass of the woodwind instruments and the most woodwind of the brass instruments,” as my student Colson Cluff aptly put it, is perfect for these short bagatelles that aptly explore many different roles and combinations of the saxophone and horn, including solo features for each in the second and fourth movements. This is a duo combination that deserves more of its own literature, as the stellar performances by Stacy Maugans, saxophonist, and Valparaiso University colleague Ericka Tyner Grodrian prove.
The Quintette nach Schumann continues a series of new works in which Canfield speaks in the voice and musical language of the earlier composer. Earlier works include the Steichquartett nach Mendelssohn in A moll, Trio after Brahms, and the Concerto after Glière for alto saxophone. In each case, Canfield has infused himself so much with the music of the other composer that he becomes a dead ringer for the latter, and this is especially true for the Quintette nach Schumann which breathes the very air of Schumann’s renowned Piano Quintet, but is scored for saxophone quartet and piano. Not only is this a significant addition to the growing saxophone literature, but it enables us to speculate on how Schumann might have written for this newly-invented instrument if he had known about it. His music probably would have come out rather like Canfield’s Quintette. Our only regret is the century-and-half wait. The crowning jewel is the second movement, which, though the scherzo movement, is also Canfield’s first venture into the theme-and-variations form. This work is splendidly presented by the Oasis Quartet and Chia-Ling Hsieh at the piano.
However, while I am entertained and astonished by the first two works on this disc, the Sonata for Cello and Piano, “Ordo salutis,” speaks not only to my mind, but my heart. This is unabashedly modernistic music, with impassioned and groaning dissonances vividly portraying the successive states of man from sin’s bondage to glorification in Jesus Christ. The first movement, “Servitus,” remains largely in the low bass range of both instruments, with only a few outcries from the cello pleading for release from man’s desperate enslavement to sin. “Convictio,” the second movement, brings hope, as the entire soundscape elevates into the higher registers of both instruments, immediately followed by the plaintive “Paenitentia,” a lament of repentance that softens its harsh dissonant tones to admit a few plain triads and even brushes of tonality as it cadences on a pure A Major triad. These last two movements remind me of some of the movements of Olivier Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time as they journey smoothly in and out of tonality, expressing the increasing hope of the penitent soul.
Canfield warns us that the next movement, “Justificatio,” may be the shortest movement ever written, with only one pizzicato note on the cello, representing the immediate act of redemption by God. It is good to read the liner notes, because the one note could be taken to be merely the prolongation of the final triad of “Paenitentia.” The celebration of “Sanctificatio” is thereby set up, as the music rebalances itself into a more tonal idiom mirroring the greater sense of direction and purpose in life the now-saved person possesses. Thankfully, there are sprinklings of the earlier dissonances that portray the realities and struggles of the now-Christ-centered soul. A swirl of confusion and dissonances, representing the earthly death of the believer, propels us into the concluding “Glorificatio,” portraying the eternal state of bliss with the cello playing only harmonics and the piano accompanying with mostly major triads over the entire keyboard, again, reminiscent of Messiaen. It is as though the dissonance of the earlier movements has been “resolved” by the tonality of the latter, much as a tonic triad resolves a dominant seventh chord. Cole Tutino, cello, and Lin-Yu Wang, piano, collaborate beautifully on this wonderful journey.
The Sour Note Suite for Two Pianos is a delightful and humorous respite from the weightiness of Ordo salutis. “Vicissitudes” is a delightful, Lutoslawski-like parody of the myriad challenges that daily life poses, especially noteworthy for its jovial syncopations in both pianos. Canfield’s delightful word and music play is again evident in the hilarity of the following “Uncle Walt’s Carbuncle Waltz,” which leads into “Lullaby for Ethan,” written with the two-year-old son of Lin-Yu Wang (piano II) in mind. His rebellious laughter and falling asleep are effectively represented musically, including strums of the piano strings with a credit card. The “Galop Piccola” (a play on the name of composer Luigi Dallapiccola) is the perfect closer for this set. Wang and her partner on piano I, Marcia Cattaruzzi, play this suite with much joy and laughter, as though they were one and the same performer.
The disc concludes, fittingly enough, with the Calvin Quartet’s heartfelt recording of A Life Remembered, composed in memory of both of Canfield’s parents only hours before his father’s funeral in September, 2014. Canfield himself plays the second violin in this eulogy to his parents that so artfully displays their own spiritual and musical journeys. I generally do not care for direct quotations, particularly of familiar hymns, but Canfield simply ruminates on “Fairest Lord Jesus,” barely suggesting it in the opening, in such a way that the blossoming of the tune toward the end effectively works musically, besides being such a suitable tribute to the elder Canfields who invested so much of themselves into the spiritual and musical upbringing of their son, for which all of us are the richer.
This wonderful CD may be obtained through http://www.hbdirect.com. Search for “Canfield” and scroll down a couple of screens.
We are running a special on CD’s of Walter Saul’s music. To purchase CD’s please visit https://squareup.com/market/waltersaul.
Walter Saul’s next event will be April 29, 2016, at 7:30 pm, at University Presbyterian Church, 1776 E. Roberts Street, in Fresno, California, in conjunction with Soli Deo Gloria, the acclaimed women’s chorale. Matthew Cockrum, timpanist, will be joining Walter Saul, pianist and composer, for a performance of his Gracefully! This work depicts us boldly coming into God’s presence in repentance and living in the joy of His salvation.
June 12, 2016, 2:00 pm, at the Fresno Art Museum, 2233 North First Street in Fresno, California, where I will be performing Quiltings live on piano as my wife Daphne’s amazing video of her sister Ann Harwell’s is displayed on the screen. Hope to see you there!