Category: Listening Log

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Listening Log

Listening: North Atlantic Drift (in Concert)

Band: North Atlantic Drift (with Aerialists)
Location: Toronto: Tranzac Club, Main Call
Date: 2022-04-23

North Atlantic Drift is a traditional folk (or “trad”) Celtic band, drawing on Eastern Canadian, Scottish and Irish music traditions. The band has three players, playing primarily guitar or mandoline, fiddle and bagpipes, and plays improvisations on both folk melodies, as well as some pieces written by the members.

As I have been thinking about improvisation through my partimento studies, I was very interested to see if I could understand how the improvisation was done, in terms of the basic structure of the pieces, and how much the musicians relied on the reactions of the other players.

For many of the pieces, a single player would begin by laying down the melody, which (I believe) is often well-known by other trad players. This might be repeated a few times before the other musicians joined in, and as far as I could tell, it would usually be repeated with a variety of embellishments, but would rarely break the form (for example, I do not recall any times where a player’s solo would radically break from the theme). It seems similar to the way Jazz standards might be played, but without as rich a harmonic structure.

In therms of timing, I noticed that the fiddle player seemed to lead and after the piece had been played through, he would signal with a nod that they were ready to come to a close. Throughout, rhythm was kept by each player strongly (and at times) audibly stamping their feet.

I do find that folk music is more accessible than some other forms of popular music, in that it doesn’t seem was necessary to have had prior experience hearing the music to be able to enjoy it in a live setting. The repetition and simplicity of structure makes each piece quite familiar by the time it is at an end. (And the manner of introduction of the melody for each piece does allow the listener to become familiar with it before more complex variations are developed.)

The piper played both Uilleann pipes, and Scottish border pipes. In contrast to the more familiar Highland bagpipes, both of these used a bellows controlled by the elbow to draw in air and were held on a lap. Neither produces the volume of highland pipes, and had both fewer and shorter drones. (Uilleann pipes additionally have a device controlled by the bellows arm that allows dynamic starting or stopping some of the drones from sounding while playing.)

As a follow-up, I would like to understand better how the bagpipe works, especially with respect to the choice of keys for other players. If the drones are fixed, does that not limit to keys featuring the drone note as tonic (or perhaps dominant)? Perhaps the piper can only play with the chanter if the drones are not suitable for the key? There is some additional capabilities of the Uilleann pipes to play chords, as well, I believe.

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Composition Listening Log

Listening: Boris Blacher, Variations on a theme of Paganini

Composer: Boris Blacher
Piece: Variations on a theme of Paganini, Op. 26 (1947)
Performer: Vienna Philharmonic, Sir Georg Solti (conductor)
Where: Apple Music, Streamed

This piece was referenced in a composition assignment related to the concept of variable meter. I am not familiar with Blacher, and so chose the recording of a conductor I was familiar with in the available recordings.

First impressions

The work seems reminiscent of a film score. Not to the same extent as Holst’s The Planets, but it does have a very episodic feel. Perhaps that is in the nature of the idea of variations, but the orchestration does seem a bit quite abrupt. (I am unable to easily hear the Paganini theme, played first on the solo violin, recurring through the variations, so I might be presuming a bit too much here.)

It is difficult for me to listen to this without hearing film cues, or animates Disney characters scampering through the forest when the flutes or piccolos play in the upper register. On my second listen to this piece, from the other room, my girlfriend shouted “Run, Bambi, run!” partway through. I may have to retrain my ear to be able to appreciate music of this sort better.

Going in to the piece, the assignment had mentioned the concept of variable meter. I did not read into that first, to see if there is anything I would pick up on a naive listen. And I did not pick up on anything notable that might relate.

At this point I lack the vocabulary to describe or classify the aspect of the music that makes it like a soundtrack. But it does seem as though the higher woodwinds and violins are representing some character in short phrases, and that’s what sounds like film cues.

Research

The assignment referred to this piece as his “second Paganini Variations”, and I presumed the first was the work by Brahms. I was surprised to find that Wikipedia lists 18 different classical piece that are based on a Paganini theme [add reference]. Listening to Brahms’s work for solo piano, the variations do make the theme more immediately recognizable as it repeats.

I looked into the the film-like nature of this piece, and it might be that I am thinking of tone poems, or symphonic poems (or perhaps more broadly, program music).[add link to Britannica article] I need to look further into this idea, but I think I will need to be able to better articulate this aspect in future listening logs.

The Grove entry on Blacher describes the concept of variable meters, noting that they date from 1950, three years after this piece was written. He also used

…alternating time signatures which, under Stravinsky’s influence, had become a general principle in Blacher’s work shortly after 1940, were now systematized, their succession being determined by rows that are also subject to retrograde operations. These so called ‘variable metres’, which Blacher introduced in Ornamente for piano (1950), created a great deal of interest at the time and were taken up by other composers, among them Hartmann. But Blacher, by nature anti-orthodox, never used the principle as his sole means of durational organization.

References

https://music.apple.com/ca/album/variations-on-a-theme-of-paganini-op-26/1452306109?i=1452306592

https://music.apple.com/ca/album/variations-on-a-theme-by-paganini-op-35-book-1-variation-11/708362537?i=708362550

Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopaedia. “symphonic poem.” Encyclopedia Britannica, February 18, 2011. https://www.britannica.com/art/symphonic-poem.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Variations_on_a_Theme_of_Paganini_(disambiguation)

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Listening Log

Listening: John Luther Adams, Earth and the Great Weather

Composer: John Luther Adams
Piece: Earth and the Great Weather (1994)
Performer: John Luther Adams Ensemble
Where: Apple Music, Streamed
Score: ISSUU

I have been procrastinating for a week, avoiding working on my percussion composition assignment. Each time I have really attempted it, some sort of technology barrier has blocked my progress, or distracted me from even writing a few lines of music. Having only notated piano and keyboard instruments, my head swims with the technical issues of notating them in Dorico, and my sample libraries for percussion instruments seem quite limited. (Are there really only two temple block sounds? I thought five were standard. Not that I really thought that much about it before.)

I have been looking for pieces featuring, or even better, consisting entirely of untuned percussion. I have listened to Steve Reich’s Music for Pieces of Wood several times, but haven’t found much out there. Today I watched a performance of the piece “Drums of Winter” from Earth and the Great Weather, performed by Clocks in Motion. I have seen John Luther Adams’s name a number of times, in reference to minimalist composers, and was unsure if it was the full name of the John Adams who wrote Shaker Loops, and though I would give the full work a listen.

Several of the pieces are somewhat ambient, and a typical example, “The Circle of Sun and Moon” has Native American stating significant events and near simultaneous English translation (e.g., “the time when the caribou have their young”). The accompaniment is some fairly high-pitched strings, and the effect is somewhat unsettling, reminiscent of some works of György Ligeti. The instrumentation at time seems like a bellows-based instrument, like a slightly out-of-tune accordion, but it seems that this is more likely obtained by having emphasis on drawing back bows on the off-beats. (There are no exotic instruments listed in the players.) There isn’t a strong sense of melody here, more an ambient texture that slowly moves through the pieces.

Throughout are recordings or simulations of weather, including rain and thunder. While the first sounded like recordings, in the piece “Deep and Distant Thunder”, it is clear that at least some of the “natural” sounds are percussion instruments.

Several of the pieces are written for untuned percussion, including “Drums of Winter”, “Deep and Distant Thunder” and “Drums of Fire, Drums of Stone”. I struggle with how to think of these pieces. They are powerful, certainly, but are they engaging? In the last of these, it feels like there is some phasing or polyrhythmic effect, but it’s hard for me to tease out what’s going on. The piece does move from a very strong regular beat, to more and more chaotic sounds as the beats line up less. (I am really not sure if that’s what is happening here, or if I have been thinking too much of Steve Reich lately.)

On the whole, it feels earnest, and a bit too romantically or stereotypically associating Native voices and natural sounds. I don’t imagine coming back to it, except to understand better the accompaniment of “The Circle and the Moon”. On the other hard, I would like to explore more of Adams’ work, especially to see if his later work is slightly less experimental.

References

John Luther Adams, Earth and the Great Weather (1994), John Luther Adams Ensemble, Apple Music, Streamed

“Drums of Winter” by John Luther Adams performed by Clocks in Motion Percussion, YouTube

https://www.wisemusicclassical.com/work/57068/Earth-and-the-Great-Weather–John-Luther-Adams/

Categories
Listening Log

Listening: Johann Sebastian Bach, Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme, BWV 140 (I)

Composer: Johann Sebastian Bach
Piece: Canata, BWV 140: I. “Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme”
Performer: Münchner Bach-Orchester, Karl Richter
Where: Apple Music, Streamed
Score: IMSLP Score

The opening bars have a compelling call and response. The strings begin with three beats of a repeated dotted-eighth note/sixteenth note pattern  which is imitated in the woodwinds. This is repeated multiple times in the piece, and the first violin and oboe alternate call and response with another distinctive rhythmic motif throughout.

There are two aspects that I find drawn to in the piece: First, the opening motif is rhythm only, and that rhythm is quite simple. Second, the contrast between the timbre of the strings and the woodwinds is quite intense, as the staccato sound of the oboe sounds quite raw and unpolished in contrast to the violin.

The textural contrast here is something I would like to experiment with, as my past piano composition has been quite uniform with respect to voicing. Also, the piece does demonstrate how compelling repetition of simple motifs can be.

Categories
Listening Log

Listening: Gustav Holst, The Planets

Composer: Gustav Holst
Piece: The Planets
Performer: L’Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, Charles Dutoit
Where: Apple Music, Streamed
Score: IMSLP Score

As the course (and first assignment) requires scoring for multiple instruments, I decided that I needed to get in the habit of reading orchestral scores. Holst was recommended by a number of YouTube videos on composition (for example, Ryan Leach’s 10 ESSENTIAL Orchestral Scores You Need To Study), so that’s where I chose to begin.

From the opening strains of the first movement, “Mars, the Bringer of War”, the music evokes a sense of deja vu, as I was reminded over and over again of the film scores that have been influenced by it.

It is impossible for me not to hear fragments of film soundtracks, as the piece evokes John Williams’ Star Wars, Howard Shore’s The Lord of Rings, and even perhaps Bernard Herrmann’s Vertigo. I have no specific knowledge that any of these composers directly borrowed from Holst, but the style of this work is very similar to the language of the modern film soundtrack, especially of blockbuster and modern action-adventure films.

Indeed, for me the piece sounds so much like a film soundtrack, it is hard to separate it from its later influences, which unfortunately reduces its power. I was both fascinated and distracted by the number of motives that have been borrowed or paraphrased in film. It reminded me of reading a work of Shakespeare for the first time and noting all of the then original turns of phrase that have become cliché in our current language.

While not unique to The Planets, I am always reminded how simple motives can be, and yet be memorable. Thinking back on what has remained with me in the piece was some of the simple flute or woodwind motives, contrasted with rhythmic and explosive brass parts. Isn’t afraid to be simple at times, and repetitive (especially those rhythmic ostinatos).

I am left overall with the feeling that I would go back to this pieces if I was composing for a film, but at this point I am unable to separate it from that sensation. I may come back to it when and if I get deeper into orchestration, but not likely for pleasure.

(Also, as I noted above, this was the first time I tried to follow an orchestral piece with a score in front of me. That was quite challenging, and I tried twice, once with the IMSLP score linked above, and then with the Dover reprint as a hard copy. It’s much easier for me to follow on paper, but it wasn’t easy, and challenging to anchor when I lost my place. I tried various techniques to reorient myself during, such as looking for percussion tremolos to end, or tracking specific instruments, but it’s a lot of information to sift through, especially as my audiation skills are under-developed.)