Christopher Bochmann: Complete Works for Guitar

Description

COMPOSER’S NOTE

I was born into a family of string players (cello and violin), so it was not an obvious move to begin writing for the guitar so early on. I was introduced to the instrument in a “baptism of fire” by my teacher, Nadia Boulanger, writing my Three Dances for three guitars. Almost immediately afterwards, in an attempt to understand the instrument better, I wrote my Sonatina for solo guitar; at the time, at the age of 17, I was still fascinated by 12-note technique, although it is probably not the compositional technique most suited to the guitar. During the decade of the 70s I revisited the guitar in two works with voice: Jubilus for Easter Day and Complainte de la Lune en Province. These no longer use 12-note technique, but are based of sets of intervals (often whole tones) that form the basis of the musical language. Sonata-Fantasia (1980) carries on the intervallic line of thought. By 1990, the year of Essay VII, my musical language had become more clearly defined, establishing sets of related intervals (that form what I call “families” of intervals) to form a musical language to which I have given the name of “isobematic”: that is, a language based on the equidistance of all available notes (usually semi-tones, but could be whole-tones or quarter-tones…) and their consequent equivalence. In this way, all sounds are relative; the music is a structure hanging in musical space. When I moved from the Escola Superior de Música in Lisbon to the University of Évora, and with the appearance of Dejan Ivanovich on the staff of the Music Department, I was encouraged to pay greater attention to the guitar again. I included one or more guitars in several ensemble pieces for the University students and then I embarked on a phase in which the guitar became very important, writing for solo, duo and quartet. The piece Angel in Red revisits a technique that I have used quite often over the years: that of juxtaposing music of different languages (and periods). The theoretical details of how musical language works have been at the forefront of a lot of musical discussion in the last century. However, if we can get over the stumbling block of language, musical expression has many parallels and compatibilities in different periods.

As has happened with so many composers, my music for guitar has been strongly influenced by the performers I have had the good fortune to meet and work with; particularly, Christopher Lyall and Dejan Ivanovich. I feel very fortunate to have this recording of my guitar music, performed by such brilliant players present in this recording project.

Jubilus for Easter Day (1973) for soprano & guitar trio

In 1973 I dedicated a short piece to Nadia Boulanger, based on the Jubilus in Gregorian chant; once again I used the three guitars that I had used for the Three Dances she had asked me to write six years earlier. The harmonic language is largely derived from the whole-tones of the beginning of the Gregorian chant, which is heard in a purer form towards the end of the piece.

Angel in Red (2022) for guitar

The latest of the pieces of this recording, Angel in Red (with its twin, Angel in Green for violin) is based on one of two paintings by artists of the school of Leonardo da Vinci, originally the side pieces of a triptych that had Leonardo’s Virgin on the Rocks as its centre. The angel in green is playing the rebec and the angel in red the lute. The music also quotes passages from motets by Gafurius, a contemporary (and perhaps friend) of Leonardo. The paintings are in the National Gallery, London.

Chorale Prelude (2010) for guitar duo

In 2012, I wrote a piece for altgitarren to be included in the Master´s degree recital of one of Dejan’s pupils. The piece is based on the Lutheran hymn Ein feste Burg, using many of the techniques that Bach used in his Chorale Preludes. There are three basic sections separated by refrains of three repeated chords; the first elaborates an intervallically augmented version of the Chorale melody; the second is a “harmonization” of the Chorale melody; the third is a more contrapuntal treatment of the material. Later, I transcribed the piece for two guitars – the version recorded here.

Sonatina (1968) for guitar

Having completed the Three Dances for three guitars, I wrote my Sonatina for solo guitar, in an attempt to understand the instrument better. There are three movements (fast – slow – fast). In listening back to this piece, I now hear what feels like a young composer´s expressiveness.

Three Dances (1968) for guitar trio

In 1968 I was studying in Paris. One day in my lesson, Nadia Boulanger said: “I am going to Monaco tomorrow; while I am away, I want to you to write two dances for two guitars – no, three dances for two guitars – no, three dances for three guitars, to be played in a concert next week.” With the help of some American guitarist-friends, I managed to familiarize myself with the instrument and wrote three dances: Waltz, Pavane and Sarabande. The Sarabande alternates a slow 3/2 bar with a fast 2/4 bar; later the two are superimposed.

Sonata-Fantasia (1980) for guitar

This piece was written in 1980 thinking of the guitarist Julian Byzantine who had performed Complainte for tenor and guitar in 1974. The title was chosen partly to reflect the relative weight of the work (Sonata) and partly its freedom of invention (Fantasia). This fantasy-type of writing was inspired by Laurence Sterne´s literary masterpiece Tristram Shandy (1759-67). He writes (vol. I, ch. XXII):

“Digressions, incontestably, are the sun-shine;——they are the life, the soul of reading;—take them out of this book for instance,–you might as well take the book along with them;— one cold eternal winter would reign in every page of it; restore them to the writer;—–he steps forth like a bridegroom,—bids All hail; brings in variety, and forbids the appetite to fail.“

The idea that art should live through fantasy but that fantasy in turn depends on the existence of structure may not be wholly new but is put forward here by Sterne with an irresistible elegance. This was what I tried to capture in the Sonata-Fantasia. And so I developed a form that, with variations, I have used in several pieces since then: there is a fixed (and recognizable) starting-point from which the music proliferates following a “logical” musical discourse but reaching a point that has little or nothing to do with the original starting-point; at that stage, there is nothing to do but to jump back to it again – and start the process all over again.

Four Fancies (2016) for guitar duo

The work was written in 2016 for the Duo Kontaxakis—Ivanovich. The title Fantasia has been used by composers of most periods from the renaissance to the present. The word Fancy was one of various English translations of the Italian term, found especially in renaissance repertoire. This vague reference to the renaissance also suggests the intimacy of the lute, an important “ancestor” to the guitar. Each of the Fancies loosely reflects the formal treatment of a different musical period. The first Fancy (Chords) is based on the form as used by C.P.E Bach, with strong contrasts: chordal writing, juxtaposed with elaborate toccata-like writing, and moments of unexpected interruption. The second Fancy (Canons) is more closely based on a renaissance model: it is contrapuntal throughout, with different canons, in which one leads (Dux) and the other follows (Comes); from time to time the roles are inverted. The third Fancy (Quotations) is not unlike the Romantic form of a fantasy based on the themes of another work (as in Liszt’s opera fantasy Réminiscences de Don Juan). In this case, the work that is used as a base is Fernando Sor’s Les Deux Amis Op.41. Moments from the works appear from time to time, only to be dismantled to return to the main musical style. This contrast of musical language produces an element of parody, often inviting an amused smile. The fourth Fancy is called Kapellmeister Kreisler, a character created by the Romantic author E.T.A. Hoffmann. Kapellmeister Kreisler is known for self-mindedness and rather unpredictable behaviour. Schumann’s Kreisleriana are inspired by the same figure.

These Four Fancies are separated by five passages whose similarity suggests a sort of refrain. But each refrain has a different duration: in this way the balance of the work is finely gauged. There is a slight gap before the last two sections (Refrain V and Fancy IV), reflecting the greater weight of the last Fancy.

Essay VII (1990) for guitar

This work is one of a series of 21 pieces for different solo instruments written between 1980 and 2021 – superficially not unlike Berio’s Sequenzas. The pieces are not intended to be virtuoso works although this often ends up by being the case. The initial premise is to use the characteristics of the instrument to form a starting-point for the musical material. In this case, the principal intervals are derived from the tuning of the guitar: so perfect fourths (interval 5) and major thirds (interval 4) are important, as are major sixths (interval 9 or 5+4) and major ninths (interval 14 or 9+5) and so on. The work has four basic sections. In the first section (Preamble) various intervals and other characteristics are prepared. The second section is a Text – that is, a short strict passage that presents a sort of strict musical “sentence”. The third section – the longest – is a series of Commentaries on various elements of the Text; these Commentaries may be performed in any order. The final section is an Epilogue, which is a free conclusion.

Complainte de la Lune en Province (1974) for tenor & guitar

In 1974, I entered the Stroud Festival Composition Competition and won it with my piece Complainte de la Lune en Province, to a poem by the French symbolist poet, Jules Laforgue:

Ah! la belle pleine Lune, Ah! beautiful full Moon,

Grosse comme une fortune! As lavish as a fortune!

La retraite sonne au loin, The knell tolls in the distance,

Un passant, monsieur l’adjoint; A passer-by, the deputy mayor;

Un clavecin joue en face, A harpsichord is playing over the road,

Un chat traverse la place: A cat walks across the square:

La province qui s’endort ! The countryside is falling asleep!

Plaquant un dernier accord, Striking a final chord,

Le piano clôt sa fenêtre. The piano closes its window.

Quelle heure peut-il bien être? What time could it be?

Calme Lune, quel exil ! Oh Calm Moon, what exile!

Faut-il dire: ainsi soit-il? Should one say: so be it?

Lune, ô dilettante Lune, Oh Moon, oh fickle Moon,

À tous les climats commune, The same in all climates,

Tu vis hier le Missouri, Yesterday you saw the Missouri,

Et les remparts de Paris, And the ramparts of Paris,

Les fiords bleus de la Norvège, The blue fjords of Norway,

Les pôles, les mers, que sais-je? Poles, Seas, and who knows what else?

Lune heureuse ! ainsi tu vois, Oh Happy Moon! so you see,

À cette heure, le convoi At this hour, the cortège

De son voyage de noce! Of their honeymoon trip!

Ils sont partis pour l’Écosse. They have gone to Scotland.

Quel panneau, si, cet hiver, What a joke, if, this winter,

Elle eût pris au mot mes vers! She had taken my verses at their word!

Lune, vagabonde Lune, Oh Moon, vagabond Moon,

Faisons cause et mœurs communes? Shall we find a common cause or habits?

Ô riches nuits ! je me meurs, Oh rich nights! I die

La province dans le cœur! With the country in my heart!

Et la lune a, bonne vieille, And the moon, good old lady,

Du coton dans les oreilles. Has put cottonwool in her ears.

It was first performed by Martyn Hill and Julian Byzantine at the Stroud Festival in 1974.

Diastrophon (2012) for guitar

In 2012, I wrote the piece Diastrophon to be included in Dejan Ivanovich’s doctoral thesis. The thesis was about the performer´s role as collaborator in the creation of a new work; with this in mind, I purposely wrote a number of things that I strongly suspected to be inconvenient or even impossible, in order to see what sorts of “solutions” would be suggested by the player. Here again, the fantasia form of Sonata-Fantasia is present, with a greater development at the end. The form is strophic (A-B-C; A-B-C-D; A-B-C-D-E-F-G; A) although the variety in the duration of each section largely hides the strophes. The final section is the longest, creating a stability at the end of the piece.

Furthermore (2016) for guitar quartet

In the same year as the Four Fancies, I wrote the quartet Furthermore. This piece begins with what could be the final moments of an imaginary work, culminating in the “cadential” gesture of a general convergence on F# (in Bar 15). From then on, the piece presents a number of afterthoughts in the form of commentaries or proliferations of the initial material. Each guitarist has a chance to have his say – in places in the form of a momentary solo – but usually creating a sort of conversation between the four players.

PRODUCER’S NOTE

Christopher Bochmann’s music for guitar has been my constant company for more than 25 years. As a concert guitarist, firstly I discovered his Essay VII (1990) for solo guitar as well as Three Dances for three guitars (1968) and felt an instant connection with its music language, style and scope of interpretative tools found in these pieces. At the time, it seemed to me that the composer — who I still haven’t met — knew what he was doing and was very creative and precise in his music intention. On the other hand, there was something else in it which I sensed but could only understand it after the collaborative process with him on the creation of Diastrophon (2012) for solo guitar as part of my PhD project. There was an emotional depth hidden inside the music which was perfectly balanced with the rational side of compositional writing, something which is possible to detect, for example, in Johann S. Bach’s works. Curiously, as many Bach’s contemporaries thought that his music is cold and rational, it was the same impression I got from different musicians regarding Christopher Bochmann’s music for guitar. Some of them even considered it impossible to play. That fact can maybe explain why this phonographic project represents a premiere professional recording of every single piece from Christopher Bochmann’s opus for guitar.

As a composer who dedicated more than 50 years of his life writing music for guitar, Christopher Bochmann leads us through various phases of his creative musical output. From his compositional work inspired by time spent in Paris with Nadia Boulanger — to whom we can thank for the aforementioned Three Dances — we also discover Sonatina for solo guitar (1968), Jubilus for Easter Day for soprano and three guitars (1973) and Complainte de la Lune en Province for tenor and guitar (1974). This latter piece is particularly striking due to the poem by J. Laforgue whose emotional, melancholic mood as well as everyday reality are pitch perfectly depicted by Christopher Bochmann’s music. Sonata-Fantasia for solo guitar (1980) represents probably the most idiomatic work in his guitar repertory, a true study of guitar nature, experimental in many ways (tuning as part of music interpretation), while Essay VII (1990) — also for solo guitar — tries to move the technical barriers to brand new levels of guitar understanding. According to Christopher Bochmann, Diastrophon (2012) was an experiment of writing for guitar without boundaries connected to the instrument’s technique, which resulted in one of the most demanding works I ever played in my professional music career. The two contrasting pieces from 2016, Four Fancies for two guitars and Furthermore for guitar quartet seem to be inspired by different epochs and styles. While Four Fancies represent a journey about the metamorphosis of the form of fantasia through the centuries which, in one stage, brings the idea of quotations, Furthermore leaves an impression of dizziness from rock’n’roll, jazz or heavy metal influence with its concept of micropolyphony and the use of motorics. It’s important to mention that Chorale Prelude: Ein feste Burg (2010) was originally written for altgitarren (dedicated to John Fletcher) and its transcription was inspired by the result of the aforementioned Four Fancies on two guitars. Finally, Angel in Red for solo guitar (2022) brings the duality of contemporary and ancient through a dialogue based on the series of quotations of renaissance choral music.

Dejan Ivanovich