Kammarensemblen conducted by Bengt Tommy Andersson.
I - Assez lent (𝅘𝅥 = 63-6) - Lourd et sauvage (𝅘𝅥 = 56) - Tempo I - Très scandé - Tempo I. Assez lent - (attacca): 0:00
II - Très vif et nerveux (𝅘𝅥 = 132) - (attacca): 2:27
III - Grave (𝅘𝅥 = 58) - Animé et jubilatoire (𝅘𝅥 = 100) - Subitement très vif et nerveux (𝅘𝅥 = 132) - Mouvement initial. Animé et jubilatoire (𝅘𝅥 = 100): 4:20
Varèse's "Octandre" was composed in 1923, being premiered in New York on January 13 of 1924, performed at the Vanderbilt Theater and conducted by E. Robert Schmitz, to whom the piece is also dedicated. It was revised and edited in 1980 by composer and Varèse pupil Chou Wen-chung. Schmitz had founded the Franco-American Music Society in New York, which incorporated as Pro Musica from 1923-36. It was dedicated to the promotion and performance of contemporary classical music.
In 1923, crucial points were marked in the development of Western music: Schoenberg's Op. 25 presented the beginnings of his 12-tone theory; Stravinsky's Octet launched his neoclassicist phase; Milhaud's "La creation du monde" integrated French "new simplicity" with American jazz. Despite the distinction of these various currents, they each concerned either a desire to innovate structure or revolutionize style. On the other hand, Varèse attempted a revolution not of style or structure, but of pure sound. "I refuse to submit myself only to sounds that have already been heard," Varèse had complained a few years earlier. "What I am looking for are new technical mediums that lend themselves to every expression of thought and can keep up with thought."
The title of "Octandre" refers to its scoring for an octet of flute, clarinet, oboe, bassoon, horn, trumpet, trombone and double bass ("octandrous" refers to a flower having eight stamens). It is, along with "Densité 21.5", the only work by Varèse which does not use percussion. It is also the only one that is divided into three continuous movements. However, it is no less typical of the style and technique of the composer, deliberately on the margins of tradition, a fierce enemy of development and for whom timbre, the primordial parameter of the composition, asserts itself as a structural element. Each movement begins with a solo instrument and is in three parts with the last part being a tutti development of the opening.
The first movement is launched by a chant-like oboe phrase (reminiscent of the bassoon melody that opens Stravinsky’s "Sacre du printemps"), employing the minor second and its inversion, the major seventh. The clarinet responds with a chattering bundle of repeated notes, succeeded by “pumping” sounds in the brass. The movement ends “with the feeling of the beginning (a little anxious),” the composer notes in the score. The second movement begins as a wind-blown scherzo featuring the piccolo’s repeated notes, which are pushed aside by the brass. The final chord is a fierce crescendo, which winds down to the solo double bass leading into the finale, which begins “grave” but blossoms into an energetic fugue with the successive entries of oboe, bassoon, and clarinet. Octandre ends with what can perhaps be best described as a screech.
For a more technical analysis of the piece (in Spanish): tinyurl.com/2d2dwhbw
Picture: "Studio Interior" (1923) by the Finnish painter Alvar Cawén.
Source: tinyurl.com/29l79ojv
To check the score: tinyurl.com/2ag4ncym
4 июл 2024
