This CD has to be explored slowly
and methodically. There is far too much of interest to just play it from the
first track to the last. I would suggest that a good place to begin is with the
fine Harris Dance. Like much of Erik
Chisholm’s music this piece is based on one of the North Highland Airs from A
Collection of Highland Vocal Airs which were published by Patrick MacDonald
in 1784. It is a fine example of the
composer’s skill at absorbing the ethos of Highland music but not allowing it
to descend into pastiche or parody. This is an intricate and completely pianistic
work that transforms a simple tune into a virtuosic piece. It can be seen as a
key to understanding much of what Chisholm composed.
The Tango is very different to the general run of music on this disc.
It is a kind of Ravelian distortion of the dance that vacillates between the
dance-hall and the recital room. Much of the piece is straightforward, but
towards the middle of the work, the harmonic structure transcends the downright
popular. A wistful mood closes this lovely piece that would do well as an
encore.
Another candidate for an encore
is the ‘over the top’ Sonata Electra.
This piece has all the hallmarks of a latter-day Liszt or Thalberg. It is
certainly one of those works that is hardly subtle but is great fun. It is not
a long piece, lasting under five minutes but it is certainly seriously
demanding for the soloist. The sleeve notes remind the listener that Chisholm
‘might well have become a virtuoso pianist’ and certainly this piece would tax
the best of them.
The last of the miscellaneous
pieces is the Dance Bacchanal which
surely nods towards the more percussive works of Bartok or the complexities of
Sorabji. It is a confident and complex piece that is volcanic in its energy.
However there are a few moments when the tension eases, but they never last for
long. Chisholm had planned an orchestral version of this piece.
After listening to these short
pieces the listener could move on to a study of the two Sonatinas The Fifth
Sonatina opens with a short minuet that is based on a traditional love song
composed by Conrad Paumnan in the fifteenth-century. Yet even here, this music is subjected to the
twists and turns of Chisholm’s Scottish interests. The Berceuse is hardly a restful lullaby; certainly no child could
sleep through this strong, intense music based on an even earlier dance tune.
Yet the closing bars have a certain serenity denied to most of this Sonatina.
The last movement is The Jew’s Dance.
This is a whirling, circular piece that explores a number of artificial ‘scales
and modes.’
The Sixth Sonatina mines musical
material from Davison and Apel’s Historical
Anthology of Music. The first movement, a Basse Danse opens with an almost literal transcription of the sixteenth-century
tune, but almost immediately Chisholm works his magic and more complex harmonies
and contrapuntal constructions emerge. The Aria
is very slow and deliberate evoking the courtship dance of peacocks –at least
according to the sleeve notes. The final Burlesque
is exactly that. It most certainly pushes the music towards parody and gross
exaggeration. This is technically complex music is largely polytonal and quite
deliberately confuses key relationships.
In the previous volumes of
Chisholm’s music the listener was able to hear thirteen of the Piobaireachd
for solo piano. As I understand it, the present CD includes the remaining
numbers that are still extant. These are largely based on bagpipe tunes that are
reworked or even recreated by Chisholm. The particular interest in these pieces
lies in the fact that the composer has used the tune and some of its attributes
such as the drone as the basis for his own invention. His approach to this
music is less one of transformation or variation, than of commentary. One of
the principles of Piobaireachd is
that originally it was a set of variations. Chisholm understands this process
and does nothing to destroy the power of the original, yet the sum is greater
that the parts. I would rather listen to these piano pieces than the original
tunes for the bagpipe! For me there is so much of interest and variety of
expression and emotion. The present series of Piobaireachd have a number
of sources of inspiration including a Lament for King George, the Bells of
Perth, a Harp Tree, based on the Celtic Harp and a lovely title called Squinting
Patrick’s Flame of Wrath. I suggest
that these are listened to as a group of pieces. Interesting and technically
impressive as these pieces are, eight is quite sufficient for one sitting. The
programme notes are essential for understanding and appreciating these Piobaireachd.
The Cameos are superb. After the
complexities of some of Chisholm’s more acerbic and harmonically challenging
pieces, these come as a definite moment of relaxation. The fourth volume
presented eight of these Cameos and here
we have a further twelve: there are five still to come in a future release.
These pieces are defined as “a series of early brief studies of impressive
variety”. The titles of these Cameos
seem to be like thoughts that flitted across the composer’s mind or were
reactions to a poem or page of literature. For example, one of them is called Cargoes and is a robust but extremely
short meditation on one aspect of Masefield’s great poem – the “jewels in a
stately Spanish galleon". The
Wagoner is even shorter and alludes to Edmund Blunden’s poem of the same
title and specifically to the line “On a dulled earth the night droops down”.
John Purser notes that the last Cameo
is called The Rainbow, based on some
lines from Walter de la Mare’s poem. He suggests that these words may well sum
up the entire series:-
“In bright-ringed solitude
The showery foliage shone
One lovely moment
And the bow was gone.”
This piece is not only
convincingly evocative of these words, it is downright ravishing: it is a pity
it lasts less than one minute.
Perhaps the most important work
on this CD is the Sonatine Ecossaise.
In spite of its diminutive title this is a major work. It is not an
exaggeration to suggest that it holds its own against those Sonatinas by John
Ireland and Maurice Ravel. However, it is essential to recall that Chisholm wrote
this work from his own point of view: he effectively creates a new form.
Typically a Sonatina would follow, at least loosely’ the classical model.
However Chisholm has abolished this form: he has not attempted to write any
movement in abbreviated Sonata form. Chisholm utilises the concept of ‘building
up a set’ of contrasting tunes which are not subject to development. It is more
difficult to achieve this than may at first appear. It is not a medley of songs
such as we used to hear at the end of the pier – A Selection from The Gondoliers. It is a careful balancing act
designed to present a number of melodies that both contrast and complement each
other. Repetition is allowed, although always with decoration. Yet this is not
classical or baroque ornamentation but is what Chisholm has referred to a
‘cuttings’. The composer wrote, in
connection with Indian music that “Grace [notes?] is not just some additions to
a melody...but is an integral and inseparable part of the whole”. This is a
good definition of the musical theory behind this work. However, the order of
the tunes and the repetitions (although often changed) of each tune give
cohesion. The Sonatine Ecossaise is
in three movements. The work was originally composed in 1929 but was revised in
1951. Please listen to this work as a separate entity. It well deserves and
rewards study and attention.
It is impossible to fault this fifth volume of an
ongoing series of Erik Chisholm’s piano music. In my review of the first four
discs I noted the huge commitment made by the pianist Murray McLachlan. It is
always a momentous task to record a cycle of piano works. It is even more
onerous when the works are typically not in the public domain. This has to be
definitive. It is unlikely that there will be a subsequent recording of the
‘complete’ works for many years, if ever. Fortunately McLachlan has risen to
the challenge. He is ably assisted by the fine acoustic of the Whiteley Hall at
that great Mancunian institution, Chetham’s School of Music. Apart from one of
two clicks during the Harris Dance, I
have found the recording to be excellent. John Purser’s programme notes are
superb and are both helpful and informative. I look forward to reading John Purser’s
book which arrived a couple of days ago on my desk for review. The presentation
of the CD is rather good, with a nice photograph of ‘pleasure boats on Loch
Lomond’. It is altogether a fine
production and essential for anyone
who is an enthusiast of British piano music. In fact, I believe that Erik
Chisholm is so important that his music ought to have International status rather than just a local interest. I repeat my
assertion that this series of CDs showcase one of the most important “musical discoveries
and revelations of the Twenty-First Century”.
Track Listings:
Erik CHISHOLM (1904-1965) Music for Piano - Volume 5 Piobaireachd for solo piano (undated)Sonatina No.5 (undated) Sonatina No.6 (1946) Cameos (1926) Sonatina Ecossaise (1929 rev. 1951) Harris Dance (undated) Tango (1926) Sonata Electra (undated) Dance Bacchanal (1924)Murray McLachlan (piano) DIVINE ART DIVERSIONS DDV 24140
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