David Johnson 12 Preludes & Fugues for solo piano

Dr David Charles Johnson is better known for his contribution to the history of Scottish music, especially that of the 18th century. Born in Edinburgh on 27 October 1942, he came from a musical family. His mother was Director of the Holst Singers of Edinburgh and organist at the historic Rosslyn Chapel, whilst his father was a civil servant and organist at St Columba-by-the-Castle.

Johnson’s thesis, finished in 1972, was Music and Society in Lowland Scotland in the 18th Century which “explores the links between folk and classical music.” Other publications include Scottish Fiddle Music of the 18th Century (1984) and Chamber Music of 18th Century Scotland (2000). His catalogue includes five operas, Thomas the Rhymer, The Cow, the Witch and the Schoolmaster, Building the City, Sorry, False Alarm, and All there was between them. There are pieces for orchestra, trumpet, recorder, and vocal music.

The liner notes explain that his original style was based on Hindemith and Webern, but as he got older, he “wanted to write about ordinary human things,” and that “it was clear that extreme atonality and head case construction wouldn’t work for that.”  His music thereafter incorporated folk idioms, such as the scales and modes used in folksongs, as well as more modernist techniques. Recorderist John Turner (The Guardian, 7 May 2009) suggested that Johnson’s compositions are “tonal, concise, and quirky - earthy even. There is often a distinct Scottish flavour, and a hint of pop, and his works are imbued with a concern that his music should be enjoyable for performers and listeners, and socially relevant.”

As well as his musicology and composing, Johnson was a ‘cellist, recorderist, ensemble manager, and concert promoter. He died on 30 March 2009.

My strategy for listening to this disc was simple. I took the P&F’s one at a time, reading the analysis printed in the liner notes then listening. There is a huge danger with a CD like this that concentrated listening eventually gives way to background Muzak. Johnson insisted on a pause at the end of Fugue 6 in the event of a concert performance of the full set. I am beholden to Christopher Guild’s detailed analytical liner notes in my preparation of this review.

Some general points will suffice. The 12 Preludes and Fugues were composed in the early to mid-1990s, over a three-year period. A few were written in a matter of days, others over an extended period. The complete set is based on a 4-note motif devised by Aberdonian composer Shaun Dillon (1944-2018): B-H-E-A with the B being German notation for B flat and H being for B natural. This is the nearest that one can get in musical notation to spelling the Scots Gaelic word Beatha or Bheatha – meaning “‘life,’ or as Johnson elaborated, “welcome, livelihood, food – a positive concept to do with day-to-day survival.” Think of the Gaelic for whisky – “uisge-beatha” (Water of Life!). This motif is worked up into a 12-note row. Guild writes: “12 Preludes & Fugues is almost like a set of variations, albeit one without the theme being given its own ‘statement movement’ at the start. Each Prelude and Fugue is a quite different exploration on the ‘B-H-E-A’ motif: sometimes the music is in a more pianistically Romantic mode, at other times very jazzy, sometimes neoclassical.” Stylistic pointers would include Prokofiev, Stravinsky, Scottish folk music, jazz and of course, J.S. Bach.

Several of the pieces have musical, place, or literary allusions. Examples of this include the Northumberland folksong Bobby Shaftoe (Prelude 5), a transcription of Johnson’s 1974 setting of Scottish poet and political agitator Hugh MacDiarmid’s O Jesu parvule (Prelude 6), and “an affectionate parody of a 17th-century psalm tune, with some deliberately wrong-sounding blue harmonies” (Prelude 8). Then there is bell like sounds that Johnson describes as “a peaceful Sunday afternoon, in a village in a deep valley with mountains… Somewhere in the Alps?” (Prelude 10). The Jacobite song Johnny Cope is “set” in the Fugue 11. Most unusual of all, an evocation of London Bridge Station, replete with sounds of rumbling train wheels. (Fugue 10).

The 12 Preludes and Fugues were dedicated to the pianist and composer Ronald Stevenson (1928-2015). They were premiered by Peter Evans in the University of Edinburgh’s Reid Concert Hall.

Pianist Christopher Guild specialises in the performance of Scottish classical music. His recordings include albums of music by Ronald Stevenson, Francis George Scott, William Beattie Moonie, William Wordsworth, Ronald Center, and Bernard van Dieren. This present disc is his first for the Divine Art label.

This is a splendid piece of musical archaeology. It may not be everyone’s cup of tea – I guess that preludes and fugues might be an acquired taste. But David Johnson’s work is creative, interesting, and satisfying. Christopher Guild has made another major contribution to Scottish classical music.

Track Listing:
David Johnson (1942-2009)
Prelude and Fugue No.1 in B flat
Prelude and Fugue No.2 in B
Prelude and Fugue No.3 in E
Prelude and Fugue No.4 in A
Prelude and Fugue No.5 in F sharp
Prelude and Fugue No.6 in G
Prelude and Fugue No.7 in C
Prelude and Fugue No.8 in F
Prelude and Fugue No.9 in D
Prelude and Fugue No.10 in E flat
Prelude No.11 in A flat and Fugue No.11 in G sharp
Prelude No.12 in D flat and Fugue No.12 in C sharp
Christopher Guild (piano)
rec. 24 August 2023, The Old Granary Studio, Beccles, Suffolk
Divine Art DDX 21124