september 2022 :: Amsterdam, the materializing of projects, more recordings
2022 has been a year of resumption: a lack of deadlines and commitments (though not an unproductive one; see below!) has suddenly transformed into a flurry of activity and new plans, while the flow of new recording projects continues.
The first half of the year saw me doing something I hadn’t done in a long time, because circumstances allowed and demanded it: I wrote a piece not because anyone asked for it or because it was due (they hadn’t, and it wasn’t), but because I had wanted to for a long time, the opportunity had not presented itself, and now there was nothing stopping me. The result was Del maravigliarsi, a twelve-or-so minute piece for soprano and piano on a text that had fascinated me for years: a list from Leonardo da Vinci’s notebooks of anatomical topics he intended to investigate, ranging from the movements of the eyes to the facial expression of wonder. (The complete text is available by clicking on the link to the piece above.)
This piece had no home, but I was gratified at the immediate expression of interest from several corners, which resulted in a scheduled premiere at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival by Ben Smith (who is quickly becoming one of my favorite pianists and most trusted interpreters) and Patricia Auchterlonie. To accompany this premiere on a mini-portrait concert I made another piece along the lines of something I had wanted to do for a long time: a transcription, sort of, of a piece from the fourteenth- and fifteenth-century repertoire that has meant so much to me throughout my musical life. Medee fu en amer veritable / Ma dame n’a pas ainsy fait a moy is a mismatched pair of approaches to the famous (though anonymous) ars subtilior chanson Medee fu: a “complete” transcription (a run through the entire Aabc sectional form, with most of the notes and rhythms intact) and, as a distant echo to be performed later on the program, another, more “imrpessionistic” transcription of just the last section, a haunting refrain that is for my money one of the most beautiful passages in the music of its era.
Meanwhile, I’ve begun work on a large piece for violist Marco Fusi, the circumstances for the premiere of which are not completely settled yet but should be soon: a circa forty-minute book of pieces, canons, for solo viola d’amore. Following that will be a duo for guitar and saxophone for Salim Javaid and Mauricio Galeano, and beyond that there are an array of projects in development.
Also in development are another pair of portrait discs: one to be released in November on the beloved and unique British label Another Timbre, including the complete L’art de toucher le clavecin cycle as well as Plan and section of the same reservoir and thaes ofereode, thisses swa maeg and featuring recordings made over the past five years or so by the all-star cast of Sarah Saviet, Susanne Peters, Rie Watanabe, Richard Craig, Trio Accanto, Severine Ballon and Juliet Fraser. Late next year comes my complete works for solo clarinet and for solo voice, all done by my dear friend and long-time collaborator Carl Rosman for HCR. And in between will be other releases of individual works — stay tuned.
Speaking of recordings: it has also been my great privilege to continue one of my favorite non-compositional musical activities, writing about music I love by composers I admire. In recent months two discs have been released on the Kairos label with booklet essays I have written: one with music by Andrew Greenwald, the other Einar Torfi Einarsson. These composers are both brilliant and brilliantly original voices, contemporaries of mine, whose music deserves the wider audience these recordings will hopefully give them. Early next year will also see the release of another Kairos disc I have written the note for, this one with music of my old friend Aaron Cassidy.
A busy year indeed, as it turns out, after a somewhat fallow period, and the next years do not seem likely to be any less so. For now, I intend to immerse myself in these viola d’amore canons and, simultaneously, all the considerable advantages that family life in Amsterdam has to offer.