Douglas Knehans CDs and Program Notes

Douglas Knehans — CDs and Program Notes



Program notes—fractured traces	Program notes—ripple	Program notes—Boyd Panels

Program notes—rive	Program notes—night chains	Text

Program Notes:

Fractured Traces—New Music for Cello

spin
spin was conceived as an interactive piece of sorts. Although the electronic sounds are fixed and pre-recorded, unlike most pre-recorded electronic works the performer is allowed to set the tempo of each section from within a limited range of four different tempi. This is simply achieved through recording the electronics in a variety of tempi then assigning each tempo for each section a different index number on the compact disc. So, while a performer may like the slowest tempo for section one, a slightly faster tempo may feel better for a subsequent section. Just as one may program the order of tracks on a commercial compact disc, so too can the performer program the order of tracks on the accompanying disc to this work, each section having four representative tracks each of a different tempo.
The image of spinning discs was also a compositional impulse for the piece. A collection of discrete gestures recycles through work as it unfolds, each spinning its own web of relations both with itself and with its context. The performer completes this aspect of spinning relationships as s/he selects the tempo for each section and so puts an interpretive "spin" on the music. The work was written for and is dedicated to Madeleine Shapiro and was premiered by Jiří Hošek in Prague, Czech Republic.

night chains
night chains takes its title from the psycho-emotional and compositional narratives explored in the work.

On the psycho-emotional level, the work is concerned with the conflicted worlds of dreams and actions, thoughts and desire, past and present. How these aspects of existence impact upon and influence each other in linked sequences of differing proportion and fluid hierarchy has its ephemeral manifestation for me in dreams and dreaming. So on this level, night chains can be seen as the realization of this complex human experience of dreaming; the freely associative, but linked subjective worlds of thought, emotion and desire coupled with their ritual transformation through the competing but also freely associative realms of fear, frustration and denial. Aspects of this complex, dreamlike associative experience, then, are subject to a more fundamental distortion and transformation through the natural and systematic forces of erosion, destruction and ultimately death. The death of one state giving rise to the evolution of another. Certain states are more associated with "good" dreams; other, perhaps more with so called "night terrors".

On a compositional level then, I was concerned to explore the transformation of materials through a range of devices including thematic distortion, elaboration and systematic, incremental destruction; competing and complementary extension of ideas into "strata," and the elaboration and amplification of such strata through distortion and destructive techniques. Concomitantly, I drew on the evolutionary and elaborative devices commonly used in Western music to extend and create new, but related ideas. Therefore, the contrast and balance of destruction and generation were a primary technical concern and framework for a highly charged expression.

The electronics used in coloring such expression were only generically specified, leaving a wealth of expressive choices open to the performer, while also clearly calling for certain broadly defined sonic worlds to be explored.

night chains was completed in New York City in March, 1991 and is dedicated to Jeffrey Krieger.

une seule femme endormie
une seule femme endormie was written very quickly after a long period of consideration of the brooding text of Jouve’s poem. Formally the work is very free and responds dramatically to the emotional nuances of the text. The work unfolds from a fragment of the opening ‘cello line which recurs in varied forms throughout the work. The unusual aspect of the ‘cellist being called upon to hum and sing was a response to the dense ambiguity of time and space evoked by the poem. Beyond this, however, the vocal contributions of the instrumentalist lend an added depth to the vocal line itself, while at the same time projecting a sense of mystery and longing that is also inherent in Jouve’s moving poem.

UNE SEULE FEMME ENDORMIE
Par un temps humide et profond tu étais plus belle
Par une pluie désespérée tu étais plus chaude
Par un jour de désert tu me semblais plus humide
Quand les arbres sont dans l’aquarium du temps
Quand la mauvaise colère du monde est dans les coeurs
Quand le malheur est las de tonner sur les feuilles
Tu étais douce
Douce comme le dents de l’ivoire des morts
Et pure comme le caillot de sang
Qui sortait en riant des lèvres de ton âme.
Par un temps humide et profond le monde est plus noir
Par un jour de désert le coeur est plus humide.

Pierre Jean Jouve

A LONE WOMAN ASLEEP
When there came days sunk deep in damp your beauty seemed increased
And ever warmer grew your glow when rain fell in despair
And when days came that were like deserts you
Grew moister than the trees in the aquarium of time
And when the ugly anger of the world raged in our hearts
And sadness lisped exhausted through the leaves
You became as sweet as death
Sweet as teeth in the ivory skull-box of the dead
And pure as the skein of blood
Your laughter made to trickle down from your soul’s parted lips.
When there come days deep-sunk and damp the world grows still more dark
When days like deserts come, the heart is drenched with tears.

[David Gascoyne]

night canticle
night canticle is the second of a projected three movement work for solo electronic 'cello of which night chains constitutes the first. Although each work is to a certain extent self-contained, my approach to night canticle was heavily influenced by viewing it in the context of being preceded by the aggressive, dark world of night chains. Resultantly, night canticle is rather more delicate and meditative in nature though certainly not devoid of some more lively sections. Formally the work recycles a proportional division of a basic nine bar cell, oscillating from a very still texture to a quite agitated one. The opposition of these textural polarities was intensified through the use of the technological extensions to the basic electronic 'cello. In this work the electronic 'cello is joined by a synthesizer and effects processor all under the control of the performer through the addition of a computer running Max software.

soar
soar was written in response to a long-held desire to write a work that would capitalise on Christian Wojtowicz’s cello sound, style and technique. Most of all I sought to write for his ability to translucently and constantly evolve new and unique colorations and inflections of expressive, carefully molded musical line.

With this as a background, I set out to write a cello and piano work that I could not help thinking of as a short score for a cello concerto. This led to thinking of the work as a deeply hybridised, even consciously contradictory amalgam of sources: chamber music for cello and piano, yet big and dramatic music suited to a concerto; a chromatic, ‘roving’ harmonic structure that is yet rooted in firm centres around E; a thorny, expressive language that is florid and exhibitionistic yet one that is also lyrical, passionate and intimately, inwardly emotional.

From this powerful set of contradictory impulses the work took shape. Over the initial few measures the piano unfolds a bass line that captures the harmonic ‘contradictions’ of the work: a firm centre of E, extended and elaborated through progression to the minor third above via progressive chromatic unfolding. Insistent accented sixths articulate implicit rhythms that are overtly taken up as the work unfolds. The cello enters boldly and dramatically: unfolding triplet sixteenths that form an important basis for the fast sections of the work. These three fast sections are separated by two slow, expressive and exposed sections of related thematic character thus forming the loosely knit five-part ‘rondo’ type structure of the work.

The style of argument used in elaborating materials in soar is very distinctly similar to that of all of my recent works: a reliance on traditional motivic and thematic development of ideas, balanced with an approach to repetition of ideas that allows the musician and audience to re-engage with the traditionally formative elements of music.

But beyond all of this, soar is about the human spirit and our lifelong dance with life’s challenges and even demons. From its searching and worried opening measures to the bright climactic final moments of the piece the work seems to constantly betray its concerto-like drama of contrasts. The work seeks to capture some of the breath and texture of life: struggle and triumph, defeat and redemption, nobility and loss.

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ripple when referring to sound is defined as ‘to go on or proceed with an effect like that of water flowing in ripples.’

In this work I have interpreted this meaning very literally in that the opening grid of full orchestral stabs sets up a rhythmic framework from which a hocketed treatment arises of winds and strings supported by the brass and percussion. A secondary ripple is set in place with the more playful ideas in the woodwinds starting in bar 6 of the work. This material ‘ripples’ through the work in various guises: set contrapuntally in a very slow form in the middle section of the work as well as providing expressive focus when set for strings only about three quarters of the way through the piece. Of course the fast sections are always punctuated by this material set in its original scherzando form and serving to contrast the bold muscularity of the full orchestral hits punctuating the piece.

In a formal sense the work is cast in a type of 5 part form with the original opening ‘A’ section appearing three times in varied form. The scherzando material forms the basis of the two contrasting ‘B’ sections: first, the slow expressive section where it is set in canon with itself and a second time for strings only where it is set in an intensified, more keenly expressive manner. Thus the work has a fairly traditional ABA’B’A” form with the materials all drawn from the opening ten or so measures.

The work was written at the Bundanon Artists Centre near the Shoalhaven river on the south coast of New South Wales in late 2002.

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My Boyd Panels was written during my residency at the Bundanon Artists Centre on the Shoalhaven River, a property left to the Australian Government by the renown, late Australian artist Arthur Boyd.

While at this very special part of Australia I wrote a great deal of music over a two week period – a new orchestral work, a new clarinet, violin and piano trio, some songs and these five short piano pieces. These pieces were inspired by the dense natural magnetism of Bundanon itself and its superb setting which Boyd appreciated for its unspoiled, meditative landscape and dramatic outcroppings of hill and rock. The most famous of these – Pulpit Rock – Boyd immortalized in canvas after canvas to the point where it is now an iconic feature of Bundanon and the Shoalhaven area. The other natural feature of the landscape is the spectacular, winding and moody Shoalhaven River.

Boyd’s intuitive synthesis of these strong features of the landscape (bold harshness contrasting lyrical fragility) with aspects of his own obsessions with classical studies (mythology, classical form, etc.), religious mysticism, musings on the delicacy of life and the inevitability of death, presented a powerful mixture of influences and inspiration for these short works for piano.

Two of the works are based on the strong, almost otherworldly force, of the landscape and light of the area itself. Meditation at Pulpit Rock begins the work with a muscular yet not loud series of chords that form a type of chorale, the harmonic richness and colouring of which is reflective of the force of light on the variegated forms of Pulpit Rock, itself a magnificent copper-red rock outcropping. Shoalhaven Light – Late Afternoon is also a response to the impressive awesomeness of late afternoon sunlight on this special landscape.

The three other works in the set are all reflections on paintings of Boyd’s which are everywhere at Bundanon. Crucifixion and Rose is a stark, bizarre panel imbued with naturalism, Christian mysticism and grace with its depiction of Jesus on a Crucifix that is planted directly into the river like many of the dead trees still upstanding in the Shoalhaven riverbed. Floating beside is a large rose with a prominent thorn. In the background are the rocky, dry hills of the Shoalhaven.

The Magic Fish again alludes to the famous parable of the loaves and fishes and is a painting of enormous energy and movement with a large fish spewing a near perfect arc of water as it is wrestled, wriggling, to the rocks.

Black River, which concludes the set, is based on the famous painting Flame Trees, Horse’s Skull, Black River. In this work a flame tree seems to grow directly out of a horses skull, which is wrapped in barbed wire with Pulpit Rock as the backdrop and Black River horizontally bisecting the picture directly in the middle. To the side, in the background, a woman in a dark dress carries a naked infant in her arms as she walks towards the skull. Again, the crucifixion theme imbedded in this bizarre and wonderfully stark painting alludes to Boyd’s other central themes: the fragility of life and inevitability of death. Yet within this message lies also the hope of rebirth and regeneration represented by the dualistic meaning of the impossibly blood-red/fire-red blooms of the flame tree and the infant being carried to the centre, to the ‘now’ of the painting. I love this painting for its simplicity, power, subtlety, drama and classical balance. I have sought to bring these qualities out in my five short works in homage to Boyd, his artistic vision, and this magical part of Australia.

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rive literally means a ripping or tearing apart. When the Verdehr Trio visited Tasmania in 2001 they were taken with the severity of such primal ripping and tearing as expressed in the feeding habits of the Tasmanian Devil. We had toyed with the idea of a piece about this and what it distilled to in my mind was a structural approach to musical material which was based on such muscular dismemberment of materials. In my approach to this work the whole of it is formed from a dramatic disaggregation of the materials unfolded in the opening 10 or so measures. All of this material is recycled, recombined, reharmonised, and variously reconfigured such that it morphs from one idea to the next while always relating back to the central initial ideas. This holds true also of the broader formal harmonic structure, which reflects the same harmonic underpinnings of the initial closural arc of the first large phrase group. This work represents somewhat of a departure from previous works of mine in its immediacy of expression and clarity, even its traditionalism in many ways. rive was written over a period of nine days at the Arthur Boyd property Bundanon, now the Bundanon Artists Centre on the Shoalhaven river in New South Wales. It is dedicated with affection to the Verdehr Trio.

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