Mazurka - Researching Chopin

The project can be seen as a sequel to my dual Chopin Mazurka project:

"Mazurka - remaking Chopin" (2010, with Gjertruds Gypsy Orchestra)

"Mazurka - researching Chopin" (2013, solo on square piano)

Both in the Chopin and the Schubert project, I am exploring the classical material and stretching its boundaries by trying new combinations of instruments, seeing it in the light of other musical styles, playing the original versions on period piano and trying to learn from that.

In order to understand Franz Schubert's music, I find it very relevant to approach the Dances. The Dances are short - many of them just 16 bars and less than one minute in duration. Within them, in an embryo form, we find ideas that are further elaborated in the Lieder, Sonatas and Symphonies. Another interesting point is that through the Dances, Schubert's link to popular music becomes clear.

INTERPRETATION AND RE-COMPOSITION

Normally, as a composer, I write in my own style. As an interpreter (organ and piano), I perform in some other composer's style. But, I also feel a need to cross these borders and navigate within music as a wide, open field.

Re-composition is also a kind of interpretation: in one style, finding traces of another one - in old music, seeing possibilities of new music - in one instrument, hearing the hint of a different instrument. Bringing out these elements and giving them space is interpretation, in an extended but valid sense.

In a way, we go back to the composer's moment of writing the piece, when there is an urge to create and there are still open ends, before the music is defined by conventions.

As a performing composer, inclined to creating new music, I am continuously working to understand my own position in relation to old music. I advocate multiple readings of music, which can lead to multiple interpretations, also to re-composition.

PREPARATIONS

The first step of the Schubert Moment project was to study the dances on the piano, in order to acquire a deeper knowledge of the material. The next step was to make demo recordings of a selection of dances on a period instrument. This was done on Oct.12, 2012, following a CD recording session of Chopin Mazurkas, on the Collard & Collard square piano of Ulefos Hovedgaard in Telemark.

Next, I was invited by Håkon Austbø to his project "The Reflective Musician", to participate with my Schubert project in its current phase. The first stage of the collaboration was a presentation and conversation at the Norwegian Academy of Music (NMH) on Sept.18, 2013.

My presentation started at some distance from the topics of interpretation and performance practice - by focusing on how Schubert's music is used in movies. I showed excerpts from 2 films, "Barry Lyndon" by Stanley Kubrick (music: Andante con moto from Trio in E flat major, D 929) and "Waltz with Bashir" by Ari Folman (music: Andantino from Sonata in A major D 959)

Both musical examples use the pedal point in an inner voice, that together with an ostinato creates Schubert's characteristical static feeling - and the expectation of a harmonic turn that I described as "waiting for the Schubert moment".

From here we proceeded to a selection of Schubert dances, commenting on specific "Schubert features" that I nicknamed as:

The Horizon - The instrument - The scream - Footsteps and dance steps - The mirror and the glance - The annoying, insisting - The rhytmical person - The circle - The short chain - The speaking voice - Possible escapes - Leaps - Cordiality.

To be invited to present the project at this early stage was most useful. By that time, all I had done was the solo demo recordings. I had actually not very much of an idea about how my re-compositions were going to take shape, not even which kind of ensemble to work with. To reflect around specific features of the material together with Håkon Austbø and the audience at NMH was a very good start.

THE PROCESS - A WORK IN PROGRESS

I collaborated with Jan Martin Smørdal, who was my producer for "Mazurka - remaking Chopin", on the selection of musicians for the Schubert Moment. We followed these criteria: - string instruments should dominate, especially plucked strings. A maximum of variation should exist within this. Some of the musicians should have folk music competence, some improvisation competence, some historical instrument competence.

Chosen musicians:

Anders Erik Røine (langeleik, jewish harp, mandola, fiddle)

Reidar Edvardsen (guitar, mandoline)

Inga Grytås Byrkjeland (cello, bass gamba)

Øyvind Skarbø (percussion)

Nils Henrik Asheim (piano)

The configuration of instruments would change from one dance to another. Every dance should have its own "sound".

Through 4 workshops in spring 2015 the material was tried out and rehearsed. Soundfiles of the demo recordings were made available for the musicians. Then, recordings from the rehearsals were edited and used as memory aid and guidelines.

I had fruitful discussions with the musicians on which dance would suit which instrument.

To rehearse with one of the musicians not reading music, depending on learning everything by memory, was a very useful and interesting experience.

A score was written, more and more complete through the workshop period. The last version was printed on April 8, 6 days before the concert.

At the concert April 14, 2015, a 30 minutes programme was performed as a part of The Reflective Musician Festival.

EVALUATION AND CONTINUATION

The feedback from the audience of the concert was very good. Some commented that this was a surprisingly meditative and even impressionistic version of Schubert. This can partly be explained by the distance between public and musicians in the Lindeman Hall. The project was rehearsed in a small studio, and not really adapted to a large stage. Much of the detail work deserves to be audible to the public, with a clear "presence", instead of being blurred in a cloud of sound.

Myself I am satisfied with all the basic ideas, but I think there is a lot of work to do in making them sound more precise. There is a looseness about the whole playing style that I actually aim for, but this has to be counterweighed by some very precise elements.

The element of dance is probably the element that really needs to be worked on. The rhytmical side of ensemble playing, when it comes to uneven 3/4 meter, rubato, feeling and groove and plain synchronicity - needs a lot of work.

Obviously this is a challenge that is likely to appear when one gathers a heterogeneous group like this, with musicians of different genres. I feel the ensemble never got to the point where all five of us felt a common energy.

I look forward to continue working on the project. The final programme should be approximately 60 minutes.

There is an idea that the ensemble should be slightly changed and expanded. I think the foremost aim is an album recording. A live project is second priority. The timeframe is not decided, and the financial frame is also not in place.

THE ARTISTIC METHOD

Further in this report, I will use the term "translation" instead of re-composition. A translator has to convey a message, but in this some subjective choices have to be made. First I try to submerge in the original composition, analyzing it using my stylistical knowledge of Schubert. Then, i make my subjective choice about the "main message" of each dance.

Often this will be a feature that I miss in solo piano renderings. I can go so far as to think that Schubert wanted something more than what he wrote. Maybe this is an illusion, but for me, a productive one at least. Any work of art has this intentional side that is not entirely congruent with the resulting manifestation.

Hence the need to explore that potential - by orchestrating the music for an ensemble, using various compositional tools to bring out the message. Some times these chosen features will point out of Schubert's style but still carry some "Schubert Vision". I'm not too afraid of losing the structure of the original Schubert composition on my way, as long as this vision is there.

My main technique, after having analyzed a piece, is to deconstruct it and treating some of the main elements independently. The best explanation on this is seen below, where I go through every piece with colors showing the material and how it is translated.

To mention some techniques:

- Time/layer manipulations: time stretching, overlapping of harmonies, looping, fragmentation, densification etc.

- Motivic characters: choosing instruments and playing techniques that highlight the chosen "main message" of each piece. Typically a solo instrument will define the character: a jewish harp, a guitar, a langeleik, a fiddle, a bass gamba.

- General characters: there are some common colors I want to represent the whole project, like the plucked strings, certain use of high-pitched "disturbing" elements, rotating wheel elements and finally some kind of patina, weariness, sometimes verging on dirtyness and noise.

- Cherishing Schubert - the cordiality, sweetness, warmth (Herzlichkeit), by instrumentation and elaboration of the harmonic arrangement.

- Looking for different musicianships: By including musicians with folk music and free-improvisation background as well as classical musicians, I like to explore how different grasps on phrasing, timing etc, can contribute to the music. The dance band way of playing is a feature that could be interesting to explore in the next version of the project.

- Exaggeration (which I believe applies to all the categories)

DISCLAIMER

The demo recordings by myself on square piano and Graff piano are made for the project, relatively quickly, and not meant to meet the artistic quality level of a commercial release.

The score: There are changes made in the last rehearsals that are not written out.

Open fields in the score: These are often filled with improvisation, especially in the percussion part, where little is written.

The ensemble sound examples: These are from the concert recording that also is enclosed as video [from April 14, NMH]. Because of the large stage and the acoustics, the ensemble did not have the best listening situation, and the performance is therefore not optimal.

The numbering of the dances: Schubert published them in collections called Deutsche Tänze, Valses Sentimentales, Walzer etc. In this project they are just referred to by their Deutsch-Verzeichnis numbers - and by nicknames we gave them ourselves for practical use during rehearsing.