IONISATION

PERCUSSION

MUSIC BY

VARESE

REICH

CHAVEZ

COWELL

HARRISON

CAGE

`

´

TETRAKTIS

ENSEMBLE

“(…) You can only understand music if you can repeat it singing, and you only love it if it’s with you when you go to sleep at night and when you wake up the next morning. Is this possible in a performance? (…) No, not even with several performances, but just in one way: the performer must devote himself to the composition and the composer. Presenting this should not just be an honour, but also a pleasure; presenting it to others, convincing them of its beauty, talking about it and struggling for it must be a real need for the performer, an overwhelming urge (…)”.Arnold Schoenberg

It may seem paradoxical to open the notes accompanying a new recording of works by New World composers (4 of them American: Cowell, Harrison, Cage and Reich; Chávez, who was Mexican; and Varèse, who was born in France but took American citizenship) with a quotation from Schoenberg’s famous essay “Why No Great American Music?”. Schoenberg was well known for his biting comments and polemical invective. However, in this case the evident tone of the title is considerably mitigated by the reflections that the author develops in the course of his disquisition: “In the few months I have spent here, I have completely changed my opinion on American music. (…) I have been able to recognize an extraordinary quantity of talent, inventive capacity and originality that in my opinion justify great optimism”. Schoenberg’s essay was published in June 1934, which largely coincides with the period in which the compositions included in this recording were written: Ionisation was composed in 1931, Pulse in 1939, The Song of Quetzalcoatl and Third Construction in 1941 and the Toccata by Chávez in 1942.

To appreciate the almost prophetic nature of this handful of compositions, it may be helpful to adopt as a point of reference Reich’s Music for Pieces of Wood, which was written in 1973. Clearly the works in this recording anticipate by a good thirty years the research devoted to traditional African music by the minimalist composers. The lulling melody that opens Reich’s Electric Counterpoint is unquestionably a

Percussion Music

Edgard Varèse 1883-19651. Ionisation (1931)

for thirteen percussions 6’00 (revision for 6 performers by

Georges van Gucht)

Steve Reich 19362. Music for Pieces of Wood

(1973) 11’39

Carlos Chávez 1899-1978 Toccata (1942)3. I. Allegro giusto 5’014. II. Largo 4’065. III. Allegro marziale, Vivo 3’36

Henry Cowell 1897-1965 6. Pulse (1939) 4’20

Lou Harrison 1917-2003 7. Song of Quetzalcoatl (1941) 7’00

John Cage 1912-19928. Third Construction (1941) 12’10

Recording: April 2015, Chiesa di San Vitale, Assisi (PG), ItalyProducer & Sound engineer: Luca Ricci, StudioMobileCover: Philippa Baile oiloften.co.ukp & © 2017 Brilliant Classics

Tetraktis PercussionLaura Mancini · Gianni Maestrucci · Leonardo Ramadori

Giacomo Bacchio · Giulio Calandri · Gianluca Saveri

transcription of a traditional song of the Banda Linda, a Central African tribe whose music was the focus of ethnomusicologist Sihma Arom’s book African Polyphony and Polyrhythm, published in 1985. The polymetric structure of Pulse or Third Construction, the use of eastern instruments, the focus on ethnic sound, and the oscillating rhythms that seem to imitate the freedom of improvisation all appear to be precursors of developments that gained recognition in the 1970s and 1980s.

These compositions had long disappeared from Italian concert programs, and it is thanks to Tetraktis that they have now been rescued from oblivion. In over twenty years of activity, the ensemble has made a name for itself in Italy and abroad as one of the most brilliant percussion groups to be heard anywhere. Playing a wide range of instruments, they have a remarkably diverse repertoire that embraces the “classical” universe (Bartók, Cherubini, Stravinsky), jazz and pop music, which they perform for ever-growing audiences, because “convincing them of its beauty, talking about it and struggling for it must be a real need for the performer, an overwhelming urge” (Schoenberg).

Ionisation“Ionisation represents (…) the mystery of the skies of America”Edgard Varèse

Edgard Varèse (Paris 1883 – New York 1965) considered the percussion his first instrument. In 1892 he moved to Turin, where he studied harmony and counterpoint with Giovanni Bolzoni, director of the Teatro Regio, who for a short period signed the budding composer up as percussionist in the Orchestra of the Opera House. Varèse’s predilection for the varied family of percussion instruments accompanied him throughout his life, as a brief overview of the ensembles of his most famous compositions reveals: 13 percussionists in Amériques (1921), 9 in Hyperprism (1923), 6 in Arcana (1927). In an interview with Charles Charbonnier published in 1955, Varèse declared that “in terms of sound, the percussion have greater vitality than

other instruments. Moreover, they also comprise a variety that other instruments lack. (…) We live in percutant (striking) times. (…) The vibration of the strings is no longer part of my time”.

Composed in Paris between 1929 and 1931, Ionisation was premiered at the Carnegie Hall in New York on 6 March 1933, conducted by Nicolas Slonimsky in the original version, which called for 13 players and around 40 percussion instruments. For the present recording, the members of Tetraktis play the arrangement by G. van Gucht for 6 percussionists.

For the title, Varèse is said to have been inspired by A. A. Eddington’s book Stars and Atoms (1926), in which the English astrophysicist describes the process of ionisation, or the generation of electrically charged molecules or atoms. Varèse applied this to the letter for the timbre and sound of Ionisation, which begins with the gloomy peal of the gong and tam tam, traversed by the quiver of the side drum and the suspended cymbals that act as the background for the rhythmic micro-cell (rolling, 2 bass drums) that give rise to all the ensuing figures.

Varèse’s skill in melding the range of timbre into a single sound striated with shimmering detail is simply astounding. He achieves a dialectic relationship between echoing sound, tremolo, rhythmic figures grafted onto irregular rhythms and dance-like fragments, combining them with remarkable cohesion and balance.

Music for Pieces of WoodAs mentioned in the introduction, Steve Reich (New York 1936) has focused his work in ethnomusicology on traditional African music. Written following a period of fieldwork in Ghana, Music for Pieces of Wood resounds with amazement at the discovery of the country’s musical heritage. Having studied composition with Berio and Milhaud, Reich began composing works of his own, largely relating to the human voice and the repetitive nature of rhythmical elements perceived as the raw material for fruitful development.

Music for Pieces of Wood was composed for five pairs of claves, which are

recapitulation has been abolished, and the constructive elements are extremely concentrated through to the last section, heralded by a military drum roll in which the other drums then take part. The musical discourse breaks with the murmuring of a suspended cry that prepares the way for the solemn, mysterious ritual of the second movement, entrusted to the diaphanous voice of the Glockenspiel and tubular bells that are joined by the xylophone to evoke a night sky pitted with dim lights.

The third movement is like a study of hemiolia, with the initial drum motif turning into an ostinato in three time on four beats, articulated over fragments of reiterated melody and rhythm. Like a sort of infinite mirror reflection, it reproduces the ternary meter of the whole piece, starting with the martial first section already mentioned. This is followed by a new section based on an articulation in fourths (Vivo) that develops above a heady semiquaver ostinato and concludes with the return to the initial Allegro marziale, which gradually dies down on the deep, soft rolling of the drum.

PulseHenry Cowell (Menlo Park, California, 1897 – Shady, New York, 1965) was a tireless cultural activist, composer and music critic, as well as being an acclaimed teacher whose pupils included Gershwin, Harrison (who described him as “the mentor of mentors”) and Cage, who declared Cowell to be “the open-sesame of new music in America”. Born in 1897 in California, from childhood he was surrounded by a multitude of musical influences, from Gregorian chant to Eastern music, to the extent that he claimed to have been familiar with Chinese opera before he got to know Italian opera.

In the early 1930s Cowell spent time in Berlin, where he studied the musical traditions of non-Western civilizations. This experience led him to start using alternative modal structures and exotic instruments to achieve an “ecumenical language” that represented a new expressive mode for those years: for example Animal Magic, which is based on a three-note motif of Eskimo origins.

Pulse, which envisaged six players, was composed in 1939 in San Quentin State

wooden instruments around 20 cms long that can be made from ebony, jacaranda or rosewood to produce an intense, acute sound. Of Cuban origins, the instrument gets its name from the Spanish term clave, meaning key, which in Latin American music can mean the rhythmic base for the entire percussion group.

“Music for Pieces of Wood grows out of the same roots at Clapping Music: a desire to make music with the simplest possible instruments. The claves (…) used here were selected for their particular pitches (A, B, C#, D# and D# an octave above), and for their resonant timbre. This piece is one of the loudest I have ever composed, but uses no amplification whatsoever. The rhythmic structure is based entirely on the process of rhythmic “buildups” or the substitution of beats for rests, and is in three sections of decreasing pattern length: 6/4, 4, 3/4” (Reich).

ToccataCarlos Chávez (Mexico City 1899 – 1978) is largely remembered today for certain compositions in which he reveals his admiration for pre-Hispanic culture. Rather as Diego Rivera intended with his famous murals, the aim of Chávez was to elevate the music of the Mexican oral tradition to the dignity of “classical culture”. In his efforts to exalt his country’s musical tradition, Chávez found support in Paul Dukas, whom he met in Paris in 1923. Dukas encouraged him to study the Siete canciones populares aspañolas by Falla, which he felt could provide a model for handling Mexican folk music. As with Bartók, or Stravinsky during the Russian period, it was a question of seeking inspiration in folk music to overcome the expressive block that was throttling Western classical music.

Conceived for six players, the structure of the Toccata abides by the three-part subdivision of the Classical sonata in its pre-Beethoven form: a fast first movement – Allegro giusto; a slow second movement – Largo; and a fast third movement Allegro un poco marziale. However, it overturns the established model, sabotaging it from within.

The first movement consists of a sort of rhapsodic accumulation of ingredients that are exposed, developed and discarded by the different drums. The classic western

Third Construction“He’s not a musician, but a brilliant inventor”, said his teacher Arnold Schoenberg. “After Cage, we are all Cagean” (Bruno Maderna). Just a few days after his death, Sylvano Bussotti declared: “John Cage’s legacy to artists is his Art of Life. No one has ever said so much. And no one will say it again”. John Cage (Los Angeles 1912 – New York 1992) was one of the most revolutionary composers of the 20th century. During the course of his life, apart from composition, he was also involved in a wide range of activities that comprised holding conferences, playing the piano, and furthering his expertise in fungi and tarot cards. He can thus be considered “an eccentric, a pioneer, an inventor, a discoverer of distant worlds. He was unfailingly inventive, and could travel in his mind throughout Europe and the East, touching on Zen and the most avant-garde art”.

Third Construction was premiered in San Francisco on 14 May 1941. Written for four players involved in a real tour de force as an ensemble, the work has in time become a classic item in the percussion repertoire. The strict and serried musical structure is based on a rhythmic grid of 24 times applied to different “melodic” figurations (as with the talea and color of the isorhythmic motets). This rhythmic framework is applied by rotation to all the melodic figurations in the following order: player 4 (8, 2, 4, 5, 3, 2); player 1 (2, 8, 2, 4, 5, 3); player 3 (3, 2, 8, 2, 4, 5); player 2 (5, 3, 2, 8, 2, 4).

Such polyrhythm derives from the music of the oral tradition of the Ivory Coast, studied in America in those years by Arthur Morris Jones, whose book Studies in African Music still stands as a pioneering achievement in ethnomusicology dedicated to African traditional culture.© Clemens Mense WolkenTranslation by Kate Singleton

Prison, where Cowell found himself serving a 4-year sentence for “immoral” behaviour. Dedicated to John Cage and his percussion group, the piece is built around an incessant micro-variation of 7/8 time that is divided into decreasing metric elements: 2+2+3,2+3+2, 3+4, etc. These fragments give rise to a kaleidoscope of small melodic cells, of figures that develop in hoquetus, as if budding one from another. The range of timbre evolves through serried dialogue between high percussion instruments of indeterminate sound (brake drums, horse shoes), Western instruments (drum skins) and Oriental instruments (gong, tam tam).

Song of QuezalcoatlBorn in 1917 in Oregon, while still a boy Lou Harrison (Portland 1917 – Lafayette 2003) moved with his family to California, and ultimately to San Francisco where he studied with Cowell and composed a great number of pieces for percussion instruments. In the course of time, he added many instruments to the genre, including brake cylinders, metal pipes, refuse bins, and so on. It was thanks to Cowell that Harrison became familiar with the traditional culture of the American Indians and the pre-Columbian peoples of Central America. It thus becomes clear that the link connecting all the composers in this recording is their interest in ethnomusicology and the rediscovery of the cultures of the oral tradition.

“Between the end of the 1930s and the early years of the 1940s (…) I was in love with Mexico. More or less at the same time I came into possession of a little book with coloured reproductions of the Mexican codices, and I immediately knew I wanted to write something about the cultural hero Quetzalcoatl, who featured in the book (…)”. Quetzalcoatl, which means “feathered serpent”, is a Toltec deity worshiped by the Aztecs, and – under other names – by other Central American civilizations.

Composed in 1941, the piece makes highly inventive use of timbre: instruments of Mexican origin create a dialogue with the penetrating notes of metal instruments of indeterminate sound, including Harrison’s trademark “trash instruments” (brake drums, etc.). With hindsight, it comes across as a sort of “musical ecology” ante litteram in which industrial waste is recycled to create sound, and hence also music.

Tetraktis is also involved in music education as the only Italian percussion ensemble able to propose workshops for schools, family concerts and concert clinics for audiences of different ages. Their highly successful educational programs are requested by important Italian and European associations every year.

With a concert history of over 300 appearances, Tetraktis has toured the U.S.A. twice, and also brought its infectious playing to major concert seasons and festivals in Germany, Turkey, Nigeria, Sweden as well as all over Italy: Lingotto Musica (Turin), Amici della Musica di Firenze (Florence), Amici della Musica di Perugia, Amici della Musica di Siracusa e Trapani, Amici della Musica di Torino, Società dei Concerti di Trieste, Unione Musicale di Torino, “Musica Insieme” Bologna, Filarmonica Laudamo di Messina, Famiglia Musicale Reggiana (Reggio Emilia), Filarmonica Umbra, Gioventù Musicale d’Italia di Modena, Bergamo, Biella, Chiavari, Festival dei due Mondi (Spoleto), Aosta Classica, Salone della Musica di Torino, Estate Musicale a Portogruaro, Incontri Musicali della Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna (Roma), Goethe Institut Roma, Ferrara Musica, Società del Quartetto Milano, Filarmonica Romana, Ravello Festival, Stresa Festival, Scarlatti Napoli.

The Ensemble is regularly involved in live performances in radio broadcasts by Radio Rai Tre.

The 4 members of the ensemble are virtuoso players who invest Tetraktis with their individual character and experience. They have regularly featured as orchestral percussionists in orchestras such as La Scala (Milan), RAI National Orchestra (Turin), Teatro Regio (Turin) – Teatro San Carlo (Naples) Teatro Comunale (Florence), Accademia di Santa Cecilia (Rome), Teatro dell’Opera (Rome), Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Luzern Festival Orchestra, under the batons of conductors such as C. Abbado, R. Muti, G. Sinopoli, L. Maazel, D.Harding, G. Prêtre, D. Oren, M. Rostropovic, G. Kuhn, P. Boulez, A. Pappano, Y. Temirkanov.

Formed in 1993, Tetraktis has been acknowledged as one of the most brilliant, innovative and forward-looking Italian percussion ensembles by critics and audiences of all different ages and backgrounds. Its distinctive hallmarks are innovation and diversity of programs, insatiable curiosity, virtuosity, infectious passion and fun, plus a substantial history of collaboration and commissions.

Tetraktis’s commitment to new music has brought a breath of fresh air to Italian musical life, making a substantial contribution to the repertoire for percussion ensembles by commissioning and championing new works by composers such as Giovanni Sollima, Carlo Boccadoro, Paolo Ugoletti, Thomas Briccetti, Tonino Battista, Carlo Crivelli, Alessandro Annunziata, Davide Zannoni and Riccardo Panfili. Tetraktis is involved in the whole spectrum of today’s music - from Jazz to Pop and Rock, from Dance to Opera. It often performs as a guest ensemble, hosting in its programs artists such as Alessandro Carbonare, Alessio Allegrini, David Brutti, Stefano “Cocco” Cantini, Roberto Laneri, Micrologus Ensemble, Ramberto Ciammarughi, DJ Ralf, Lorenzo Jovanotti, the video-artist Philipp Geist, as well as dance/theatre companies and directors: Moto Armonico, ATMO, Bruno De Franceschi, Maurizio Smith, Kataklò among many others. Such activities have resulted in several recordings: Millennium Bug (Rara 1999), Drama (self-produced 2008), Liaisons Dangereuses (Giotto Music 2007), Piazzarama (Giotto Music 2009), Invenzioni (Decca 2013).

Thanks for the precious collaboration to Marco Gatti, Giulio Calandri and Giacomo Bacchio.