Tuesday, May 24, 2016
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When I took an introductory course in electronic music at Eastman School of Music 36 years ago I heard Alvin Schindler, really quite an excellent professor in this area, repeatedly emphasize that we had to take electronically generated sounds and shape them somehow so they sounded “human.” This agrees with George Crumb’s aphorism: “Music might be defined as a system of proportions in service to a spiritual impulse.” Alas, modernism, by and large, often forgets these principles in quest of the newer technique or the yet bolder way to stun and shock the audience for no discernible emotional or heartfelt reason.
However, Mark Chambers, in his 3 Miniatures for bass flute and live electronics, honors both Crumb’s and Schindler’s maxims in creating a work involving the electronic shaping of sound that is quite human indeed, and his complex all-interval pitch-class sets definitely serve the spiritual impulse that inspire these gems. This work was borne out of a challenging chapter of his life and expresses effectively his outcry to the Lord. I have been in Chambers’ shoes myself and often think of my second piano sonata as my own emphatic prayer to God: “Why?” A better-known example of a beautifully poignant work borne out of suffering is the famous second movement of Joaquín Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez, written in memory of his infant son. I hear those same genuine, expressive qualities in this wonderful work for bass flute, so ably performed by Camilla Hoitenga, who also commissioned the work.
However, as I listen, to the work, I would long for greater separation between the movements in the performance. But there is a marvelous entry of a rich sonority surrounding middle C just shy of two minutes into the work, which I suspect opens the second movement. The flute dialogues with this cloud of sound back and forth as this sonority goes back and forth between C and G. When Chambers mentions “all-interval pitch-class sets” we should understand that these are just groups of tones that include every interval from a half-step to a tritone. The use of these groups of tones enables Chambers to depict a desolate landscape of emotions bereft of direction, but all is comfortingly held in place by one of the most stable intervals, the perfect fifth between C and G.
The third movement begins around the 5¾ minute mark. In this toccata, the flute swirls through long runs over her entire pitch range which are gradually more and more echoed and reverberated electronically with processes that sometimes transform the tones in the air into metallic windchimes, bringing a degree of comfort and triumph to the work.
I do think the second, more meditative movement is the most effective since it becomes the goal of the first movement and the launching pad for the finale, and because the electronic sounds are so deliciously inviting and comforting. I never thought I would say this about electronic music, but, here, Chambers transforms the raw sounds of machines into a genuine human journey. It is to be hoped that he will update his website, http://www.markchambersmusic.com, to include this work, but, until then, one can listen to it at http://williamvollinger.com/audio/Chambers2.mp3 – and it is well worth the listening!
Events featuring the music of Walter Saul:
June 12, 2016, 2:00 pm, at the Fresno Art Museum, 2233 North First Street in Fresno, California: Walter Saul will be performing Quiltings live on piano as his wife Daphne’s video of her sister Ann Harwell’s fabric art is displayed on the screen. The Sauls will discuss Quiltings and the creation of the quilt art, music, and video at 1:30 pm just before the performance. Hope to see you there.
June 19, 2016, 9:00 am, at First Presbyterian Church, 1540 M Street, Fresno, California, during the worship service: Walter Saul will perform “Bridalveil Falls,” with the video, from Quiltings for the offertory.