DEBUSSY, TAKEMITSU & ROUSSEL

SUNDAY 20 AUGUST 2023 | 1pm at Church of St. Teresa and St. Dorarca, Chapeltown with Catriona Ryan flute, Rose Redgrave viola, Geraldine

O’Doherty harp, Darragh Morgan violin, Seth Parker Woods cello & Robert Houlihan conductor

Programme

Claude Debussy Sonata for flute, viola (1862-1918) and harp (1915)

Claude Debussy’s Sonata for Flute, Viola, and Harp dates from the last years of his life. It was written in 1915 as part of a planned set of six sonatas for various instrumental combinations; Debussy’s final illness and death in 1918 prevented the completion of the project. Although Debussy used the familiar term “sonata” to describe the present work, there is very little that is traditional about, either its combination of instruments or the formal structure of the work itself.

The first movement is not in sonata form but features six themes whose repetitions are freely varied as the movement proceeds. Similarly, the second movement, marked Tempo di menuetto, is a minuet in tempo only, its vaguely dance-like character manipulating material heard in the earlier movement. The finale is, again, essentially freely structured though highly energetic, beginning with a persistent, motoric 16th-note figure passed between the harp and viola. An explicit restatement of material from the opening movement forms a brief respite from the action, before a return of the up-tempo music brings the sonata to its close.

© Jonathan Blumhofer Reproduced with permission

Toru Takemitsu And Then I Knew ‘Twas (1930-1996) Wind (1992)

Toru Takemitsu’s And Then I Knew ‘Twas Wind is a valedictory work, written in 1992, four years before its composer’s death. Its title is drawn from Emily Dickenson’s poem “Like Rain it sounded till it curved,” and, as Takemitsu wrote, “has as its subject the signs of the wind in the natural world and of the soul, or unconscious mind (or we could even call it ‘dream’), which continues to blow, like the wind, invisibly, through human consciousness.”

And Then I Knew ‘Twas Wind is written in one movement and shares its fragmentary melodic style with Debussy’s Sonata for Flute, Viola, and Harp. Most of its harmonic content is derived from a collection of six pitches that, though not tonal, strongly alludes to F major. Takemitsu’s aim to project the shifting quality of the wind led him to create a score that is highly gestural – that is, musical lines reflect the physical attributes of an object (in this case the wind), rising, falling, turning mid-phrase, etc.

© Jonathan Blumhofer, reproduced with permission.

Albert Roussel Serenade for flute, violin, viola, (1869-1937) cello and harp, Op. 30 (1926)

Albert Roussel developed an individual voice within the influences that you might expect of French ‘impressionism’ and neoClassicism, considering his background. He made an early career in the navy, reaching the Middle East, India and Asia. But when he was 29, he studied with Vincent D’Indy in the Schola Cantorum and he later taught the counterpoint class there. Like so many, with the outbreak of World War 1, even though he had been dropped from the naval reserve due to his health, he joined the Red Cross as an ambulance driver and then the army as an artillery lieutenant. After the war his music took a new direction and a more personal, sometimes austere style.

This wonderful three movement work has outer movements that almost feel like insistent dances, the first movement rather cheerful and the final presto more manic and very colourful. The middle movement explores all the sonic possibilities of this combination of instruments and here Roussel’s trademark expertise in counterpoint is celebrated.