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How should we interpret the term ‘study’ in the title Vaughan Williams
gave his collection
Six Studies in English Folksong
(1926)?
From the point of view of a composer whose aim is to work with traditional song.
The important thing in the title is ‘English Folksong’. These six miniatures are
absolutely irresistible, and offer a magnificent example of love music. Folk songs
like L
ovely on theWater, Spurn Point, Young Henry the Poacher
and so on are the purest
expression of the British spirit. I can imagine the early twentieth century in London,
when this music must have come as a breath of fresh air in a programme featuring
much denser works – as they do here.
I got enormouspleasure fromplaying thesepieces,wherebehind theveryRomantic
and romanced dimension of the music one can feel a very ancient tradition in the
background; the omnipresence of the folk song, of the vocal music of the people.
A distant past, the human voice, take us logically to Henry Purcell’s
famous
Music for a while
. Why did you choose the arrangement of it by
Michael Tippett?
This is another piece that couldn’t be absent from my programme. A variety of
solutions were available to me, because
Music for a while
has been arranged several
times. I was attracted by the richness of Tippett’s realisation and its greater sweep.
Thomas Hoppe’s approach to it was also a major stimulus for me, as of course was
the beauty of the text set by Purcell, a real declaration of love to music.
ADRIEN LA MARCA
ENGLISH DELIGHT
Another gem, and a much more recent one, since it dates from 1993, is
Jonathan Harvey’s
Chant
for solo viola.
I was anxious to pay tribute to this composer, who died in 2012, with a short piece
that fits very well into the programme. You can compare
Chant
to a liturgical
incantation; sometimes there’s the insistent articulation of a ritual, with an
almost animal dimension. It’s an improvisation, written in
scordatura:
the A string
is lowered by a quartertone and sounds in an ‘out-of-tune’ way that, alongwith the
harmonics, inmy view gives it all its beauty; the D string isn’t modified, while the G
stringbecomes F sharpand theC string is tuned toC sharp.This is a very incantatory
piece (Harvey marks it ‘With ceremony’), situated somewhere between earth and
heaven, which produces the sentiment that one is invoking the spirits. One might
link its religious profundity with the Dowland and Purcell pieces I’ve selected, but
alsowith certainmoments in the Clarke Sonata and, of course, Britten’s
Lachrymae
.
You get a strong sensation of freedom when playing this music. Indeed, this
notion of freedom is very much applicable to the English repertory in general. You
feel at liberty, and that liberty pervades everything, the sound, the phrasing, and
produces a very immediate result. I could have chosen other contemporary pieces,
but having played
Chant
in concert I knowwhat a deep impression it makes on the
listener.