Lunchbreak Concert Series 2015-2016 in association with Sound
ENSEMBLE THING
Eve Kennedy: Violin | Alex South: Clarinets | Pedro Alves: Trombone | Lizy Stirrat: Accordion | Emily Walker: Cello
Conductor: Tom Butler
Aberdeen Arts Centre & Theatre
Saturday, 24 October 2015
Saturday’s performance of a new commission by sound was something quite unusual. Who was the composer of You Can’t Get There From Here, receiving its World Premiere performance from Ensemble Thing? Well, no fewer than six composers were involved: Sonia Allori, Colin Broom, John De Simone, Drew Hammond, Francis Macdonald and Oliver Searle. In some ways, this was not entirely unique in music. Look on the internet for the details of film scores and you will find several orchestrators, perhaps a couple of arrangers and someone referred to as a score preparer or an editor, all involved in the final result. The difference there is that with film music the all powerful producer will say to them, “Here’s your money, we need this by next Monday – get on with it or you’re fired!”
Today’s work was rather different in that our six composers had a considerable degree of freedom. They had to work out by themselves how to get on with one another. Musicians in general, and composers in particular are not generally thought to have little ego or self regard but at the post concert discussion, when all six composers were onstage along with the conductor, they all seemed remarkably sanguine and friendly together.
The project began with a New Music Time Out Residency at Cove Park in Helensburgh in October of 2012. Each of the six composers was to write an initial fragment of music to be passed round the group. The others were then to add to, take away or edit what they had received before passing his or her work on. The originator of the original fragments would then produce the final piece. There were, in all, six movements and only five of the composers would be involved in the production of each movement. As the conductor Tom Butler explained, each composer left out of any particular movement would then hear what the music sounded like without their input.
This seemed a very complex system. Did it work? Did it produce something worth listening to? I did not think it would, but I was wrong. The end result sounded well polished – but then, perhaps that was in great measure the result of the superb musicianship of Ensemble Thing.
Although each of the six movements was strongly individual, I felt they fitted together rather well. I was frequently reminded of some of the music of Kurt Weill but I suspect this was down to the interesting line-up of instruments, in particular the inclusion of accordion player Lizy Stirrat. Along with her, there was violin, bass or B flat clarinet, trombone, and cello. It was astonishing how many sound textures could be drawn from such a small group of instruments but the huge variety of instrumental colour was one of the most attractive elements of the whole work.
The opening movement was marked by a recurrence of stabbing chords, repeated notes on the trombone and smoothly undulating music from the rest of the ensemble – quite an exciting piece really.
The second movement was quite fragmentary to begin with but soon wove itself together. High notes on violin were responded to by the rest of the ensemble and there was an element of electronic recording involved.
The third movement had more obvious electronic content, like a radio tuned to a foreign station where you could not quite make out the words. The instrumental background was light and gentle but finally took over and expanded in a crescendo. There was also a thunder storm involved which faded away into gentle instrumental playing – memories of Beethoven Pastoral Symphony perhaps?
The fourth movement began with an aggressive low pedal note on trombone then music that sounded almost birdlike in its rhythmic impetus followed on.
The fifth movement was softer, gentler overall and smooth flowing. It used the Bb clarinet rather than the bass instrument. There was just a moment of rhythmic excitement before the music became peaceful once more.
The sixth and final movement opened with the accordion followed by very fragile violin and cello. Once more quiet and gentle overall, “transparent” was the word that for me best describes this movement.
I enjoyed this performance. It had fascination, loads of instrumental colour and considering that it was the work in each movement of five different composers, every movement had its own powerful personality – and of course there was the brilliant playing of Ensemble Thing to enjoy.
