EDITION WILHELM HANSEN WH33671
Per Nørgård
TOCCATA - “LIBRA”
for any melodic solo instrument (1973/2013)
Per Nørgård
TOCCATA - “LIBRA”
Version for any melodic solo instrument (1973/2013)
arranged by Per Nørgård and Ivan Hansen
Duration: c. 7-11 min.
Copyright © 2023 Edition Wilhelm Hansen A/S, Copenhagen
Music engraving in Sibelius
Publisher´s editor Katrine Gregersen Dal
Edition Wilhelm Hansen, A/S
Bornholmsgade 1A 1266 København K
Denmark
www.wisemusicclassical.com
TOCCATA-"LIBRA"
PERFORMANCE NOTES
In the introductory part A, the repeated "accent tones" are played tenuto-accented, but not extremely accented (unlike in part B, where this might make a point). The (short) part A may have a somewhat neutral and even a slightly staccato touch. Note some tone differences in the notation of part A and part B, due to the non-repeated and the repeated tone sequences, respectively (eg bars 13, 17, 19, 25, 27-28, 30, 31, 32).
In B, the repeated accent tone (of each bar) is played gradually crescending or decrescending (possibly both) by preference - organic, free, imaginative. The emphasis or accent - the musician's sense of the new downbeat - will probably be experienced ‘as a shift’ in relation to what is notated in these continued gradual and overlapping processes, which is a point in this so-called “Waves technique” by Nørgård. A correct notation - with a inserted 2/16 bar, a 3/16 bar, a 5/16 bar, etc. between two repeated bars - would be possible, but misplaced and completely against the spirit of the music. The extra notated “upward-pointing stems” in each bar suggest each new figure, as a visual aid.
If you seem to lose the rhythmic-metric balance along the way in the intricate transition between two repeated bars, it is advisable to immerse yourself in this slightly dizzying “shift process” until you are ready to shift. Just take your time!
Finally: the composer requests to avoid repetitions in predictable, mechanical ´blocks´ (4-, 8-, 16-repetitions). Furthermore, dynamic developments (crescending, decrescending) might also take place over several bars, beyond the internal development in each bar. Part B can be played twice if desired (second time different than first time).
ABOUT THE WORK
"Toccata - Libra" is based on a central work by Nørgård from 1973, "Libra", in which the composer was inspired by the possibilities of three ´fractal principles´ that have occupied him since the 1960s: his own melody-developing infinity series, rhythms based on the proportions of The Golden Ratio and harmony based on the natural overtone series of each chosen note.
In works from "Voyage into the Golden Screen" (1968) to "Symphony No. 2" (1970), "Canon" (1971), the opera "Gilgamesh" (1972), "Turn" and "Spell" (1973) Nørgård focuses, as in "Libra", on these harmoniously interacting principles.
These ´open hierarchical´ melodies, rhythms and harmonies became for Nørgård a passable path into a personal ´new music with a human face´, as has been said. This can be heard in works, in addition to those mentioned, like “3. Symphony ”(1972-75), a series of chamber, percussion and choral works until the final version of the opera “Siddharta” in 1984, where inspirations from texts and drawings by the schizophrenic Swiss artist Adolf Wölfli (1864-1930) led Nørgård's expressions and techniques towards conflicts and crisis compared to the more balanced worlds in e.g. "Toccata - Libra".
The short Toccata for solo guitar in the ten-movement "Libra" (for tenor, guitar, choir, two vibraphones) contains – in a nutshell - this new music by Nørgård after 1968, with threads to both the baroque prelude, romantic arpeggios, modern perpetuum mobile and touches of a Beatles song and Balinese gamelan – an inclusive postmodern weaving.
The tone material: in "Toccata - Libra" tone no. 9-16 in a diatonic infinity series starting with the notes G# -A# are used (: G# -A# - F# - BA# - G# - E# - C# - F# - C - G# -A # - B - F# - D# - D# (etc.); (the tones underlined are the basic tones, the Cantus Firmus of the piece). Each note thus forms a small musical fountain via some of its overtones; the rhythmic accents are freely waving and rotating and (in the B-part) shaped by the musician's musicality and imagination, like in the works "Waves" (1969) for solo percussion and in "Turn" (for keyboard instrument ad lib.).
The Toccata movement from "Libra" (movement VIII) has always, in all its simplicity, fascinated me, and when I asked Nørgård around 2012 what the score information after the movement actually meant ("rep. con variazioni ad lib.") the answer was: ´you could for instance start again from the top and repeat each four-tone group ad libitum times, with gradually changing accents, waving and rotating´. This corresponded to the principles and possibilities also mentioned in the preface to the longer work "Downstream and Upstream - for percussion and melody instruments ad lib." (1981), this also not (yet) realised then, as these expansive possibilities after all require a certain insight into Nørgårds ideas and practice. "Toccata - Libra" was thus suitable to begin with, in order to - in a simple way - notate
such a free, quasi-improvised work by Nørgård. The undersigned and the composer found an acceptable, simple notation of a new, extended version of the piece ("Toccata – Libra", 2013), which despite a strict notation at the same time makes room for the musician’s imagination and freedom, also in terms of dynamics and of the duration of the work. The score was included in "Per Nørgård: The Organ Book" (2015) - encouraged by organist Jens E Christensen.
Since "The Organ Book" - and the subsequent CD recording of the same, by Jens E. Christensen in 2017 - several musicians have asked about the possibility of a new, authorised score of a "version for (any) melodic solo instrument". Since it is obvious that the piece should not only be performed by guitar or on organ, this is a slightly adjusted version that can be performed on any (suitable) melodic instrument, from string instruments (snapped, bowed or hammered) to tuned percussion instruments, various electronic instruments and (suited) wind instruments. - Ivan Hansen 2021
PROGRAMME NOTE
About "Toccata - Libra" (1973/2013): In "Toccata - Libra" there is – like in the piano work "Turn" and the trio "Spell" from the same year (1973) - a constant turning of a musical figure, the re-turning of which is accompanied by a small change, the result being a quite new figure. Thus small groups of notes are turned by means of gradual alterations in the accents – until a new melodic pattern has emerged.
The fact that associations to baroque, classical or romantic styles emerge along the way must be regarded as an accompanying phenomenon to a music that has sprung entirely from a synthesis of the melodic infinity series, overtone and undertone harmonics and golden-mean rhythms that fascinated me in the 1970s.´
The title “Libra” refers to the seventh sign in the zodiac. (Per Nørgård)
