A
brief thumbnail sketch of the composer may be of interest to listeners who have
not come across his music before. David Dubery was born in Durban in South
Africa. In 1961 he came to live in the United Kingdom in his mother’s hometown
of Manchester. From a very young age Dubery composed music but studied formally
at the Northern School of Music in Manchester between 1963 and 1971. He studied
piano with Eileen Chadwick and Kendall Taylor. Dubery’s composition teacher was
Dorothy Pilling. Much of his musical activity has been in broadcasting and for
the stage where he has worked as a solo pianist, accompanist, vocal coach,
musical director and teacher of piano and voice. From a compositional point of view he is
quite definitely a miniaturist (however his Quarteto
Iberico is certainly no bagatelle) He is particularly interested in writing
for the voice and has written many songs over his career. Dubery has
contributed music for the theatre including an American-styled musical Love Line. His musical language is
immediately approachable but can also be challenging to the listener.
The
longest work on this new CD of music by Dubery is the fine above-mentioned Quarteto Iberico (Los fantasmas de
los tiempos pasados): ‘Ghosts of Times Past’ which was composed in 2005 and
reworked in 2013. This string quartet is conceived in four movements with
each having a ‘picture postcard’ title. Dubery
has noted that his interest in Spanish music began when he was still living in
South Africa and witnessed Antonio and his Dancers at the Alhambra Theatre in
Durban. It was not until some years
later that he visited the places that his youthful dreams had nurtured. The
four movements are entitled (in English) ‘The Dancer in the Square’, ‘In the Maria
Luisa Park, Seville’, ‘The Beggar Man in the Gothic Quarter’ (of Barcelona) and
‘Carnival’. The musical language of this work holds no terrors. In fact, it is
‘intentionally accessible, tonal and impressionistic.’ There are nods to a variety of composers that
Dubery has come to admire – de Falla, Granados, Albeniz, Piazzolla and Rodrigo.
The liner notes provide a detailed ‘programme’ for each movement which can give a literary and topographical
impulse to the listener’s experience of this Quartet. However, this is not
necessary: it is sufficient to note that this work is inspired by the sunshine,
occasional drama and edginess, and the charismatic characters of the Iberian Peninsula.
I tend to regard each of these movements as a kind of aide-memoire that the
composer has written for himself. If the listener wishes to share these
impressions good and well – if not, just enjoy this vibrant, well constructed,
sun-drenched score. It is one of the
most delightful ‘modern’ string quartets I have heard in a while.
The main proportion of this CD is devoted to a number of David Dubery’s
songs. Four complete cycles are included as well as the early ‘Full Fathom
Five’ from Shakespeare’s The Tempest. Interestingly, this lugubrious version won an
important composition prize in 1965. I guess that Holst and Britten are the
models, but it is a delight in in its own right.
It
is good to see the the song-cycle Observations
recorded here. These settings of Walter de la Mare’s Rhymes and Verses for Children include some poems which do not
appear to have been set before. The cycle was completed in 1979 but was later
revised. These songs are composed in a vibrant style that reflects the mood of
the text. Poems include ‘The Barber’s’, ‘The Old Sailor’ ‘Esmeralda’, ‘The
Window’, ‘Done For’ and ‘The Promenade 1880’.
They cover a wide range of experience and emotion, including ‘noise and
bustle’, shopping in the rain and the ‘question’ of hunting.
Dubery
has noted that these songs often ‘reveal musical theatre influences’ from a time
when he was writing for that medium. However, do not for one moment think that
these little works of art are in any way ‘Lloyd-Webberian’ – they are much
cleverer. Dubery has managed to balance innocence with subtlety in a very
successful ‘song cycle’ that deserves to be in the repertoire. They are
beautifully and imaginatively sung by Adrienne Murray.
The
poet Douglas Gibson has clearly caught David Dubery’s imagination. Gibson was
born in 1912 and wrote much of his best work whilst working in the Radcliffe
Infirmary, Oxford during the Second World War. He had been allocated this
position by the courts as he was a conscientious objector. Many of Gibson’s poems reflect a deep
interest in nature and a largely ‘pastoral’ interpretation of the landscape.
The
opening song-cycle presents three of Gibson’s poems: ‘Swans in Flight’, ‘Lizard’
and ‘A Memory’. The first and last songs feature a beautifully written flute
obligato. One of the characteristics of Dubery’s vocal music is his ability to
indulge in some subtle word-painting. In the first song we hear undulating
music which depicts the swans in flight. There is a clever musical reference to
the Lizard’s darting tongue in the second.
The final song is (as the composer suggests) ‘Schubertian’: the
accompaniment conjures up the ‘rhythm of the rails’ as the singer recalls a
memory as seen from a carriage window. At the end of this song, the mood
changes to an almost Constant Lambert-ian blues riff. Altogether a superb set
of songs.
The
second song-cycle featuring Douglas Gibson’s poems is the Housman-sounding Time will not Wait. These settings date
from 1982. Dubery suggests that this
work is conceived as a ‘sonata for voice and piano in three movements.’ These songs major on the passing of time in a
passive landscape where little appears to happen. There is a sense of stasis here
that leads the listener into the poet’s dream-world. Only occasionally does passion break forth –
‘the way the clouds are blown… [clouds] that now slide down the wooded hill’ or
the dramatic opening and closing of the eponymous song.
Four
other songs are included on this CD. They are grouped here as ‘Nightsongs’: they
are all meditations on evenings during the year and also have a flute obligato.
‘One Night in December’ is an exquisite version of the beloved carol ‘Away in a
Manger’. The second and third songs are further settings of Douglas Gibson. ‘The
Evening in April’ is an enchanting number that perfectly balances flute, singer
and soloist. It is dedicated to the author/composer Anthony Hopkins. ‘June Evening’ is a lugubrious number that
explores the beauty of creation in the countryside: ‘there is genius here/In
the delicate hand/That traced these exquisite pastels across the sky…’ The
flute takes on the persona of birds in flight. The final song in this ad-hoc
group is Thomas Hardy’s ‘An August Midnight’. It is dedicated to the composer
Peter Hope. The song imagines the great poet and novelist at his desk and the various
insects that are attracted to his desk lamp. ‘A Longlegs, a moth, and a
Dumbledore (bumble bee)… While ‘mid my page there idly stands/A sleepy fly, that
rubs its hands.’
But the thought provoking element of this poem is the realisation that ‘God’s
humblest, they!...They know Earth-Secrets that know not I.’ It is an idiomatic
setting of what is one of my favourite Hardy poems.
The
performance by the singers James Gilchirst and Adrienne Murray are superb. The
composer is a remarkably sympathetic pianist and the flautist Michael Cox
brings a magic to the two song cycles that include an obligato. Finally the Cavaleri Quartet gives a
well-balanced and convincing performance of David Dubery’s Iberian adventures. The liner notes by the composer are detailed
and include valuable biographies of all the participants.
This
is a worthy disc of attractive music that demands to be explored slowly. There
is nothing here that is particularly challenging or difficult to grasp on a
first hearing. Each song is a perfect example of the composer’s art. The
advertising for this CD suggests that the composer is one of the ‘leading
exponents of the new lyrical post-modern music in Britain.’ David Dubery writes
music that is in the trajectory of all that is best in English song – Ireland,
Britten and Finzi. Yet there is an individual element that ensures that his
music is never parody or pastiche.
TrackListing:
David Dubery (b. 1948)
David Dubery (b. 1948)
Three
Songs for voice, flute and piano to poems by Douglas Gibson (2012) [6:53]
‘Full
Fathom Five’ for alto voice and piano (Shakespeare) (1965) [4:26]
Time will not wait: Three songs
for tenor voice and piano to poems by Douglas Gibson (1981/2) [9:44]
Night Songs: for voice,
flute and piano (2010-13) [14:53]
Observations: Six songs for
voice and piano to poems by Walter de la Mare (1979) [12:32]
Quarteto Iberico (Ghost of times
past) for string quartet (2005, rev.2013) [22:46]
James
Gilchrist (tenor) Adrienne Murray (mezzo-soprano) Michael Cox (flute) David
Dubery (piano) Cavaleri Quartet: Martyn Jackson (violin) Ciaran McCabe (violin)
Ann Beilby (viola) Rowena Calvert (cello)
Carole
Nash Recital Hall, Chetham’s School of Music, Manchester 6 September 2013 (all
vocal tracks) 12 September 2013 (Quartet)
Metier
MSV 28548 [71:13]
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