This brings the blog up to date both with some recent acquisitions, and with my latest thoughts on the conundrum represented by the "track listing" (this phrase seems ludicrously inappropriate, but I'm really not sure what else to call it) for the album Ensemble Montaigne (Bau 4) 2013, which I bought a month or so ago; I detailed (what were then) my latest musings on the problem earlier this month, just before taking a short break to escape the royal coronation. At the time, I hadn't managed to get hold of a copy of Comp. 174 - that is to say, a copy of Composition No 174 (For Ten Percussionists, Slide Projections, Constructed Environment And Tape), the 1994 Leo Records album. (This is the only place to find that particular work, until the 2013 release noted above - except really I suspect it's the only place to find it, full stop.)
I wasn't about to pay a silly price for it, no; but as it turned out, I hadn't actually missed out on the one I'd come close to buying before - the seller relisted it, and this time I snagged it. (This, despite the fact that by now, I was more or less persuaded without even hearing the album that a mistake had been made with the listing of materials on the Ensemble Montaigne project... see below.) At the same time, the seller was also listing another Leo album which I didn't already have* - and had similarly never heard: Composition N. 169 + (186 + 206 + 214), the recording of a June 2000 performance at the Ljubljana Jazz Festival.
The obvious problem with the idea that Comp. 174 might be the primary territory for the Ensemble Montaigne performance organised by Roland Dahinden is the instrumentation. The only thing which fits here is, by a happy accident, the number of players: the Ensemble Montaigne - at least on this occasion - numbered ten players, whilst Comp. 174 was previously described as a work for ten percussionists. That numerical synchronicity is where the similarity ends, however, as the European group features a mixture of horns and strings - without a single percussionist of any description. Granted the inherent adaptability of the vast majority of B's works, which allow for (almost) any piece to be performed with (almost) any instrumentation... is it nonetheless even possible for a piece written for ten percussionists to be meaningfully interpreted by a group of horns and strings?
Composition No 174 presents a work which is essentially very similar to the one immediately before - Composition No- 173 (For 4 Actors, 14 Instrumentalists Constructed Environment And Video Projections) - in that it's effectively a short play, with musical accompaniment for written dialogue (delivered, in this case, via a prepared tape-recording rather than by live actors**). In both cases, the written text is witty and entertaining, charmingly eccentric in some of its phrasing, and self-referential (in that prescriptive instructions, which relate to navigation of a physical territory within the world of the play, also appear to relate indirectly to movements within the musical score). Anyone who has come across any of B's previous efforts along these lines will doubtless have a pretty good idea of what I mean. That said, the "percussion-only" nature of the instrumental voicing here makes this one unique, and with its frequent use of tympani and steel pan (as well as vibes and other assorted bits and pieces), it's certainly not without drama or colour.
However, I wasn't very far into the album before I'd confirmed my previous conclusion: this really is extremely unlikely to be the same piece which forms the backbone of the material for the 2013 performance. It is far more probable that a simple typo has occurred, then has been repeated passim: for Comp. 174, read rather Comp. 147. (This is another work hitherto unknown to me; that is, the original version from 1989 was something I had never heard until this weekend. It did, however, seem on the face of it far more likely to have been the kind of work one would use for extensive collaging in a live performance, it being an opus number I knew I had already seen on various different albums - always as a secondary or tertiary territory. For further details, see below.)
The second of my Leo Records acquisitions is a very different beast. Comp. 169 - which by one of those happy serendipities is another work much used as a secondary or tertiary territory in performances of other pieces - is dedicated to George Lewis and is designed somewhat in the tradition of B's legendary Comp. 82 (For Four Orchestras), although the notes make it clear(ish) that for this comparison to be fully realised, it would be necessary to experience "a fully engaged" example of the work - either work - and regrettably this had*** never been possible (owing to budgetary problems - or as B. puts it "It's a C word thang (coins)"#).
The notes are... not especially easy to understand, so it would be rather challenging to try to summarise them here. The piece did however represent a new direction of sorts, being a Tri-Centric work - and (apparently) the first of its type. The term Tri-Centric is itself rather confusing, as it has meanings for B. on multiple levels; in a relatively simple sense, one of the things it means here is that the orchestra for this performance was divided into three sections, each of which was responsive to one of three area conductors: James Fei, Chris Jonas and Jackson Moore. The entire orchestra is ultimately under the direction of one quadrant conductor, in this case B. himself. So what we have here is four reed players guiding a medium-sized## string orchestra.
As the full title of the album indicates, three secondary territories are worked into the overall music here: all three of these are "Ghost Trance structures" as B. describes them in his notes. (Comp. 186 is one of the very earliest GTM compositions, one of two such works debuted in Istanbul in 1996; a shorter version of the same piece appears on the Cygnus Ensemble's Broken Consort album###. Comp. 214 comprises disc two of the fourth Yoshi's ninetet set. Comp. 206 on the other hand may not have been officially recorded, other than here.) The complex tensions worked into the fabric of the music as a result of this choice are a key part of what makes this album interesting; I will admit to having been won over gradually. Early on, it sounds bizarrely as if somewhere between a third and half of the string players are out of tune^, although this is probably a designed dissonance, and my attention was only really seized by the reeds (B. himself sticks out a mile of course). But as the lengthy piece develops and grows, it does also manage to hold my attention more. The incorporation of the three GTM themes - and the consequent rhythmic and melodic tension - definitely has a lot to do with that. The principal characteristics of Comp. 169 itself, as far as they can be inferred from this performance, seem to be that it deals in repeated attacks of a single note, initially held, then played staccato with increasing rapidity before moving on to the next such note^^.
It's probably fair to say that neither of these albums will feature high on the "personal favourites" list of many friendly experiencers; Composition No 174 especially seems destined to remain a charming oddity, a one-off interpretation of a piece which will very probably never be played again by anybody. Composition N. 169 + (186 + 206 + 214) is somewhat more significant, as representative of a key step in B's continuing development as a visionary composer and conductor of large ensembles. They are both welcome additions to the burgeoning collection, even if the main thing I seem to have achieved here is to rule out Comp. 174 from inclusion in the 2013 event...
***
Comp. 147 "... allows for creative exchanges between three solo clarinets and chamber orchestra" - this is from B's notes to the Hat release 2 Compositions (Ensemble) 1989/1991^^^ (which premiered this particular work, played by the Ensemble Modern on 23rd October 1989; the album's other piece, Comp. 151, was played by a completely different (but - as it happens - also German) orchestra sixteen months later). Now, doesn't that already sound like a much likelier choice for the primary territory being explored under Dahinden's scrutiny in 2013..? Admittedly the Ensemble Montaigne only contained one clarinettist, but there are three woodwind players (actually four, including the flautist). Before I had even looked into the specifics of when and where the piece was first unveiled - I only knew that I didn't have it (yet...) - I was already angling towards this being a far better candidate than its typographical near-doppelganger, Comp. 174.
Here's why: in the few years immediately following Comp. 147 being recorded in Frankfurt, the piece was used again and again in collage contexts, especially in performances given by the reconvened "Forces" quartet.
It was heavily featured in the first part of the June 2nd, 1991 quartet concert released as the third and fourth discs of Willisau (Quartet) 1991, the box set (of which only the studio half has so far been reissued (this being something I finally picked up late last year)); #147 is collaged into the first, second and fifth primary territories. The following year it was again much used as a secondary collage territory, worked into three of the four pieces~ played by the quartet at Victoriaville in 1992; it was not used at Yoshi's in Oakland in 1993 (or not on any of the pieces captured on the official recording, at least~~)...
... but does find its way into the closing number of the July 19th Santa Cruz concert. It's safe to say this was a popular choice for supplementary material, with this extraordinary group. (Actually, the only example I found so far of the piece being used in any other context besides performances by this band was also the latest: it next turns up in 1995, again collaged into a duo reading of Comp. 168 - yes, that one again - with Joe Fonda.)
As you can see, the more one looks into this, the more likely it seems that Comp. 147 was the primary 2013 territory. Still, the proof of the pudding is in the eating, as they say; I don't have the original Hat album, as I say, but unlike Comp. 174, this one was easy enough to find on Youtube... I listened to the piece in its entirety over the weekend, giving it only partial attention; when I came to do a comparison with the 2013 recording, I only had to get thirty seconds in before I'd concluded that yes, this is surely the correct answer. I'll go into some more detail on that when I finally work my way round to writing about the 2013 album itself, hopefully in the next couple of months; for now, I'm leaving it there.
* Funny story about that: the same person actually had a whole clutch of B's albums for sale, all of them on Leo. Hands up if you can guess what's coming next... yes, these were all the same CDs which used to get listed on the Leo Records xmas sale year after year, and of course I already had the majority of them for that reason. (The seller dangled the offer of free postage if I bought three CDs from him, but the only other one I didn't have already was the second volume of Knitting Factory standards by the piano quartet - that is, a quartet with B. playing piano, Marty Ehrlich on reeds - and a quick revisit to vol. 1, which I do already have, persuaded me that one is really all I need of these. I mentioned again recently that standards generally aren't my thing, even when B. is playing them - of course there are exceptions to this, it depends what one means by "standards" - so collections of standards where B. isn't even playing reeds are quite some way down my list of priorities. No offence...) - I have since discovered at least one other seller doing the exact same thing, but asking rather higher prices for all of the same items. Good luck with that.
** This may or may not reflect the original intentions as regards the composed work. The nature of the written text is such that it makes sense to have it delivered as a form of public address rather than as live dialogue, and the liner notes (as well as the subtitle of the album itself) do very much imply that this is the effect B. had in mind all along - but without the composition notes and/or the score for perusal, how are we to know for sure?
*** Still hasn't, as far as I know...
# All text in inverted commas here is quoted from B's liner notes to CD LR 320 / 321.
## This is referred to as the Slovenia Radio Orchestra, also (in B's notes) as the Slovenia String Orchestra; but either way, we're not given a list of players and or even a precise breakdown of the instrumentation. When I say "medium-sized" I am going purely by the sound of the recording: clearly the ensemble is large enough to be divided into three sections, but it doesn't sound like a full symphony-orchestra string section, put it that way.
### This curiosity from 2000 features works by eight different contemporary composers; needless to say, I've only ever heard the piece by B.
^ I wasn't imagining this: the same effect is replicated in the second half of the performance. It's really quite noticeable in the upper registers especially. We'll discard the idea that the players were not professional enough to tune their fiddles, or that nobody else noticed; it has to be something which was coded into the performance, but apparently this level of detail went beyond the remit of the notes, which (as is usually the case with B's own liner notes) concentrate on the nature of the composition itself, rather than the individual interpretation thereof. If I ever run into one of the three area conductors, I'll be sure to ask..!
^^ In the maestro's own words: "Composition n. 169 is an "identity prototype" continuum that demonstrates staccato line (logic) distribution strategies with intervallic (focused) sub-plane manipulations (interjection) strategies". So now you know ;-)
^^^ Unusually, this album is yet to see any kind of reissue at all: it's the original version or nothing.
~ Here, the live material consists principally of the same "C-class" compositions which were debuted in the studio at Willisau the year before - the ringer being Comp. 148, itself collaged extensively, whilst Comp. 161 is interpreted on its own. (When I say "four" pieces I mean four of B's; Coltrane's "Impressions" is an encore, a rare example of this band playing a standard.)
~~ This was a short residency; the eventual double CD incorporates material from three different nights. Clearly this was heavily whittled down, especially so considering that only one piece was chosen from July 13th...
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