Originally posted by Beef Oven!
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[FONT=Comic Sans MS][I][B]Numquam Satis![/B][/I][/FONT] -
Your spoiler was the thing that led me to try to listen to it - I made it through 14 minutes this time before the phone rang . it struck me that it might have made a good sound track for a dystopian post nuclear war early 1980s sci fi film but I found it rather unremitting like listening to music full of shards of glassOriginally posted by ferneyhoughgeliebte View PostComment
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I wish people would not quote from BO's abusive tirades . Please let the many of us who have him on ignore remain free of them .Originally posted by ferneyhoughgeliebte View PostComment
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Personally I've never understood why MF's work is given so little attention in comparison with many other British composers of his generation. When I first came across it in 1979 I was completely transfixed not just by the music but by the thought that there should be a composer from the UK doing such things, for example the sheer extremes of something like "Midsummer Morn" from English Country-Tunes which seemed to cut through the middle-of-the-roadness of so much British music of the time - and still does.
Self-indulgent reminiscence: I saw a lot of Michael in the early 80s, and heard ECT many times, often turning pages, and several times at concerts at the British Music Information Centre, then in Stratford Place off Oxford Street, which at the time was managed by one Roger Wright, a loyal supporter of Finnissy's music as well as that of a younger generation of composers for whom Finnissy and his work were a central inspiration, like James Dillon, Chris Dench, James Clarke, Richard Emsley and myself. Roger Wright indeed was the prime mover behind my first proper commission, for the New Macnaghten Concerts series, which was written for the Suoraan ensemble then directed by Emsley and Clarke (with Finnissy on piano), which a couple of years later morphed into Ensemble Exposé, formed by Michael, Roger Redgate and me, which RR is still directing. I mention this by way of underlining in passing what an important encouraging and enabling role RW played in the development of new and radical strands in British composition at that time. Subsequently Michael Finnissy has been an inspiration to several successive generations of composers for whom, as with me, he forms a radiant example of a fearsome intellect knowledgeable on many artistic disciplines, who yet wears it all lightly and writes music which expresses itself forcefully, directly, without pretentiousness (pace Barbirollians). And not only composers but pianists like Jonathan Powell, Ian Pace and numerous others. His oeuvre comprises several hundred works from miniatures to massive piano cycles, not excluding orchestral music, music theatre and chamber music for every combination of instruments you can think of and quite a few that you couldn't.
And yet there is no big Finnissy @ 70 celebration this year, unless HCMF comes up with something, which I guess is possible. I find this shameful.Comment
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Just listened,many thanks for this ferney,very useful for getting an understanding of this work.Originally posted by ferneyhoughgeliebte View PostMichael Finnissy's 70th birthday is celebrated at this year's Proms by ... err, nothing, actually, not even a replay of his pretty damn impressive orchestral piece Red Earth. So this performance of Above Earth's Shadow will have to do for now.
I've had difficulties with Finnissy's Music in the past: unreserved enthusiasm for English Country Tunes, but much else I find elusive - in the (non)sense that whilst I think I get what he's doing, there often seems to be a veil between what I feel I ought to be experiencing and what I actually feel from the Music itself. But enough of my problems - Above Earth's Shadow is a fine and impressive piece, which interested Forumistas so inclined might wish to "prepare" themselves for from this earlier broadcast performance (as I assume from Robert Warby's concluding remarks) from Ensemble Exposé (whose appearance at this year's Proms I shall miss on the grounds that they aren't appearing) conducted by Roger Redgate with Mieko Kanno the superb violin solo:
It's a 20minute piece, scored for a septet of solo violin, flute(/piccolo), clarinet, violin, viola, 'cello and Double Bass, with which Finnissy frequently creates the illusion of a much larger ensemble. I don't have access to a score, so the following comments are based just upon listening a couple of times to the youTube recording.
The work seems to contrast "still" material with that which is more active and unsettled. This is reflected even in the contrast between sustained notes and notes equally long in duration, but given "movement" by tremolandos and trills. Most of the work lies in a high register (the 'cello and Bass often using harmonics), and there is more quiet Music than loud - but Finnissy balances the "predictability" of these features with rare but perfectly timed moments of contrast.
0:00 - 0:50 - a burst of sounds starts (in both senses of the word) the piece. A piccolo presents a sort of "cantus firmus" of sustained pitches, around which the three higher strings of the ensemble "buzz" in harmonics and sul ponticello tremolandi.
0:50 - 1:40 - the "cantus firmus" is joined/taken over by the Clarinet, playing fluttertongue to connect the sustained notes of the piccolo with the tremolando of the strings. The 'cello (I think - it may be the Bass) presents the first low sounds, and commences a rising scale (trem and sul pont) in a "straight line". The ensemble strings continue their opening material, but now pianissimo and very much in the background.
1:40 - 3:25 - the prominent "foreground" clarinet is suddenly receded, as the solo violin first (?I think - I don't think it's been playing so far, and certainly not in a "soloistic" manner) appears, continuing the sustained notes of the "cantus firmus" in tremolandi, the clarinet now "shadowing" the solo violin. The mood is calmer than at the opening, with the strings now playing a microtonal harmonization of the sustained notes, quasi-Chorlae-like(ish). [A curious use of the clarinet and flute - ?again, I think? - occurs around 3:25; the way Finnissy mingles these with the other instruments; I would have sworn if I hadn't known the instrumentation that some muted brass had been used at this point.]
3:25 - 4:35 - Sudden loud (in context, probably mf in reality) pizzicati attempt to interrupt the flow of the Music - this becomes more assertive for a while, whilst the solo violin and Flute and Clarinet (who often work as a timbral trio in the work) continue the soft, sustained note "cantus firmus".
4:35 - 6:45 - the texture/instrumentation is reduced simply to a melody presented by the solo violin, "accompanied" by sustained note trills from the Clarinet. At 5:25, the violin melody introduces a "Scotch snap"-like rhythm that is featured throughout the rest of the piece, creating more dance-like idea to complement the song-like mood that has been such a predominant feature hitherto.
6:45 - 9:25 - the violin solo continues, and the ensemble strings join the clarinet with another microtonal "chorale" harmonization of the sustained notes. The "mood" here is beguiling - I've written "serene? Eerie 'relaxed anxiety'" . The woodwinds are blended into the timbral texture from 8:15.
9:25 - a brief, "impatient" burst (lasting about 20 seconds) interrupts the mood: solo piccolo reminds us of the very start of the piece, even if the material it plays now is very different from then - Finnissy using specific instrumental timbre as a structural "marker", and with the pizzicato strings at this point (and the "scratch" bowing from the low 'cello recollecting the "straight line" ascending scale from earlier. Then this "burst" vanishes and the "melody and chorale" material continues.
11:45 - 12:30 - the 'cello's recollection of the scale isn't lost; it now returns to this material, pppp but now "matured" by what's happened since - the rising line (no longer a simple straight line) played sul pont and shared with the Bass.
12:30 - 14:15 - a general diminuendo, piccolo and clarinet share a sustained note descending "scale" to complement and answer the lower strings' ascending. The solo violin melody (which has been played for the past eight minutes or so) is now fragmented into stutterings of three or four notes, separated by long gaps, during which the other instrumental lines are heard, gradually ignoring what the violin is trying to continue; they have moved away from the violin solo material, the violin tries to preserve its predominance.
14:15 - 15:50 - a general crescendo in response to the preceding diminuendo. The matr=erial has its origins in the string material of the very opening, but here it is less "antsy" and aggressive.
15:50 - the strings reach their mid-register, sounding "low" in the context of how they are used throughout most of the rest of the piece. At 17:00, the "rising/descending" scale have evolved into cascades of rapidly rising and quickly falling "fountains" of sound
17:30 - by this point, the Music has split into three strands; the solo violin has dance-like figurations, the woodwind pair play with the sustained note scalic idea, and the ensemble strings are using the tremolandi and trill material.
19:30 - a final (?"cadential"?) flourish to conclude the work with a reference to its opening.
It'll be fascinating to hear an alternative performance tomorrow night.
I must confess that at some points I wouldn't have known what instruments I was hearing without your guide
I just don't like the music though.
Now Finnissy's 2nd Quartet I 'got' straight away,what am amazing piece that is.
Any suggestions for further listening to this neglected Brit would be welcome.Comment
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So do I (similar ignoring of Ferneyhough's 70th a couple of years ago). However, in this month's Tempo, Finnissy mentions that he "will be in Huddersfield" this year; so it looks as if Graham Mckenzie will be making his annual "I don't do anniversaries, but ... " comments in the Festival brochure.Originally posted by Richard Barrett View Post[FONT=Comic Sans MS][I][B]Numquam Satis![/B][/I][/FONT]Comment
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Smoothly gliding over the fact that I got the instrumental groupings somewhat wrong in my "spoiler" (I blame the youTube sound) - I thought the two John Wall works were impressive; gentle, beguiling and had me completely transfixed. (I missed any comments that were made about the title "Cphon" - Googling takes me only to children's cancer sites.) I liked the Hannes Dufek piece, too - but less impressed with the Mannion/Francois collaboration: I didn't get any sense of "line"/"narrative" as I did with Wall - nor did it convince in a "lineless"/non-narrative sequence of sound events, either.
Still - Londoners are so lucky to have Café Oto presenting such lifeful events so regularly: and attracting groups of younger audiences, too.[FONT=Comic Sans MS][I][B]Numquam Satis![/B][/I][/FONT]Comment
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