Sawer: "Swansong"; H&N; Sat, 16/2/19; 10:00pm

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

As part of R3's celebratory day devoted to Hector Berlioz, a re-broadcast of this work from 1989, originally broadcast on the "Between the Ears" series. Inspired by Euphonia, a mythic land invented by Berlioz in his Evenings in the Orchestra, David Sawer(b1961) created this 50-minute electro-acoustic work in collaboration with the BBC Radiophonic Workshop.

The programme ios completed by two orchestral works, performed by the SWRSO, conducted by Peter Rundell: Benedict Mason(b1954)'s Ricochet from 2018; and Swiss composer Hermann Meier(1906-2002)'s Stück für großes Orchester und Klavier vierhändig ("Piece for Large Orchestra and Piano, 4 hands") from 1965.

Tom Service presents,

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0002lr0

[Serial_Apologist]

As part of R3's celebratory day devoted to Hector Berlioz, a re-broadcast of this work from 1989, originally broadcast on the "Between the Ears" series. Inspired by Euphonia, a mythic land invented by Berlioz in his Evenings in the Orchestra, David Sawer(b1961) created this 50-minute electro-acoustic work in collaboration with the BBC Radiophonic Workshop.

The programme ios completed by two orchestral works, performed by the SWRSO, conducted by Peter Rundell: Benedict Mason(b1954)'s Ricochet from 2018; and Swiss composer Hermann Meier(1906-2002)'s Stück für großes Orchester und Klavier vierhändig ("Piece for Large Orchestra and Piano, 4 hands") from 1965.

Tom Service presents,

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0002lr0

V much looking forward to this. I've long been something of a fan of Benedict Mason - at lest the pre-"installations" works - (the latter don't come across particularly well on an auditory medium); and the little of Mr Sawer's work I've heard has been interesting to say the least.

[Richard Barrett]

As part of R3's celebratory day devoted to Hector Berlioz, a re-broadcast of this work from 1989, originally broadcast on the "Between the Ears" series. Inspired by Euphonia, a mythic land invented by Berlioz in his Evenings in the Orchestra, David Sawer(b1961) created this 50-minute electro-acoustic work in collaboration with the BBC Radiophonic Workshop.

The programme ios completed by two orchestral works, performed by the SWRSO, conducted by Peter Rundell: Benedict Mason(b1954)'s Ricochet from 2018; and Swiss composer Hermann Meier(1906-2002)'s Stück für großes Orchester und Klavier vierhändig ("Piece for Large Orchestra and Piano, 4 hands") from 1965.

Well, unlike S_A I can't stand most of what I've heard from Benedict Mason (which unfortunately is a lot) but I find Hermann Meier's work really fascinating. David Sawer's too actually.

[kea]

Out of curiosity what is your issue with Mason? (A few composers I knew at uni think the world of him; I haven't heard enough to form an opinion.)

(Also what's some good stuff to check out by Sawer?)

[Serial_Apologist]

Out of curiosity what is your issue with Mason? (A few composers I knew at uni think the world of him; I haven't heard enough to form an opinion.)

(Also what's some good stuff to check out by Sawer?)

Definitely hear the programme kea. The only other piece I've heard by Sawer was a movement from a Millennium thingy set of variations on Handel's "Fireworks", and that was enough to raise my curiosity.

[Richard Barrett]

Out of curiosity what is your issue with Mason?

It's hard to put into words, maybe it's that his music is full of "clever effects" and not much else.

The Meier piece is here by the way: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbKRfUiaCzA I came across it for the first time a few months ago and found it really very engaging indeed.

[edashtav]

It's hard to put into words, maybe it's that his music is full of "clever effects" and not much else.

The Meier piece is here by the way: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbKRfUiaCzA I came across it for the first time a few months ago and found it really very engaging indeed.

Yes, the Meier work was interesting, and I've been fascinated to followvup and discover that part of his corpus exists in twin forms: graphical, often employing colour and semi-traditional black and white notation. At the very least, his work reminds us of very early musical notation that often used colour as an extra dimension, an avenue that was ended by the advent of the printing press, uniformity of convention, and 'you can choose any colour as long as its black'. At the very least, Meier's use of graphics is a help, surely, when he's thinking of the 'composition' of a work, in the way a painter thinks of composition when creating his works, and I , for one, find it useful in getting to grips with the structure of his pieces. His work takes me back to Kandinsky and some of his thoughts on composition. When I was young, I appreeciated H.H. Stuckenschmidt's occasional use of graphics to unpack 20th century composition in his writings on contemporary music. I have used the image of a Lamb, inverted, retrograde, etc when discussing the structure of serial piece such as John Tavener's The Lamb with my amateur choir. Let's hear and see some more Meier... perfect pieces for BBC 4 , or must we rely on Youtube?

[kea]

It's hard to put into words, maybe it's that his music is full of "clever effects" and not much else.

The Meier piece is here by the way: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbKRfUiaCzA I came across it for the first time a few months ago and found it really very engaging indeed.

Thanks, that is indeed a very nice piece. I see from his website that the SWRSO concert is apparently supposed to have included HMV 68 instead, for orchestra, 2 Hammond organs four hands and 2 pianos four hands, which also sounds fascinating but evidently posed some logistical difficulties....

[Richard Barrett]

Yes, the Meier work was interesting, and I've been fascinated to followvup and discover that part of his corpus exists in twin forms: graphical, often employing colour and semi-traditional black and white notation. At the very least, his work reminds us of very early musical notation that often used colour as an extra dimension, an avenue that was ended by the advent of the printing press, uniformity of convention, and 'you can choose any colour as long as its black'.

Although that time itself is now drawing to a close with notation not necessarily having to be represented on paper any more... It's interesting to be able to see the structure of Meier's pieces so precisely embodied in his graphic works although of course to make the musical connection you have to "read" them from left to right and with pitch as the vertical dimension, which isn't the case with Kandinsky's paintings, which are much less constrained by that necessity.