© Eugenie Brinkema EVAN JOHNSON (*1980) 1 hyphen (2002) 01:51 1 Peter Neville, crotales 2 – 3 ELISION: Carl Rosman, bass clarinet Richard Haynes, bass clarinet 4 Graeme Jennings, violin Apostrophe 1 (All communication is a form of complaint) 5 Mieko Kanno, violin (2007 – 2008) EXAUDI: Juliet Fraser, soprano Amanda Morrison, soprano 2 I. 19:59 Christopher Field, countertenor Tom Williams, countertenor 3 II. 03:25 Stephen Jeffes, tenor Jonathan Bungard, tenor James Weeks, conductor 6 Mabel Kwan, toy pianos 4 clutch (2005) 01:32 5 Colophons (“That other that ich not whenne”) reflecting pool / monument (2006) 08:11 6 Positioning in Radiography (2007) 13:14 TT 48:16 2 3 A paradox lies at the heart of Evan Most of the notes in these two pieces on either side, which give it its function At first glance, Johnson appears tied to Johnson’s music. When composing he of- move at high speed, and long pauses are and meaning. Those words constitute a a heavy, European tradition of rich nota- ten begins with a structure of durational used to extend the music’s duration be- sort of white or negative space, whose tional determination, formal complexity containers, proportionally related. He then yond just a few seconds. In clutch these presence and influence can be inferred and hierarchy. His scores – almost always follows this by trying to squeeze in ma- pauses comprise two sustained notes of even if the words themselves are not spo- hand-engraved, in a beautiful, precise and terials that are too large for those spac- around 30 seconds’ duration each – played ken. It is an image articulated spectacular- idiosyncratic calligraphic style – are full of es. Rather like trying to stuff feathers in- with “the slowest possible bowstroke”, and ly in a favourite artwork of Johnson’s, the Dürer-like detail (and a similar appreciation to a bag, bits keep bursting out and onto “assolutamente senza espr. e movimen- pen and ink drawing Der Hafen von Ant- for fine penmanship). Articulations, rhythms, the floor: grace notes, ornaments and oth- to” – that interject between two passag- werpen beim Scheldetor (1520) by Albrecht phrasing and pitch inflection are all metic- er fleeting, incidental sounds. His rational es marked “frantico, incontrollabile”. In hy- Dürer. Dürer’s picture inverts the normal ulously specified. Yet direct experience, as structures are overtaken by an irrational, phen, four pauses of different lengths (plus rules of Renaissance perspective by be- player or listener, reveals something light- self-defeating chaos that obscures almost a fifth after the double bar implied by the coming more detailed the closer one gets er, more intangible, more unpredictable. Ir- everything, and leaves barely anything be- instruction l.v. al niente) follow short bursts to its vanishing point. At its centre, where rationality and impossibility begin to seep in. hind. The music is erased to the point of in- of notes that are played on the crotales the outlines of buildings and ships collide, Like water held between two panes of audibility; a lot of it is intended to appear as with either hammers, knuckles or finger- it reaches a state of almost self-negat- glass, the music’s structure – based on if overheard, rather than directly listened to. nails. While the pauses in clutch are static ing intricacy, the profusion of lines leading those skeletons of proportional durations – Large amounts of compositional and per- (although unstable because of the extreme to less, not more, definition. But outwards breaks up under pressure. The surface ten- formance energy are directed at outcomes dynamic level and slow bow speed), those from this point the picture tends towards sion is broken and drops turn into droplets. that barely take place in public at all. 1 in hyphen take on a character of their own white space, and indeed more than half Continuity is replaced by fragmentation. as the reverberations of the crotales bloom of the page is completely white, including Consider Colophons (“That other that ich The two earliest pieces on this recording, and decay at different rates, filling the paus- the large expanse of dockside pavement not whenne” ), reflecting pool / monument, clutch for violin and hyphen for crotales, es with subtly changing harmonic environ - on which we are standing. Johnson’s mu- for six voices and violin, written for EXAUDI. were both premiered by the New York Min- ments. Do the notes lie between the paus- sic can be understood in large part in re- It begins with a densely weaving vocal po- iaturist Ensemble, a group who between es, or do the pauses lie between the notes? sponse to this picture – and it directly in- lyphony (reminiscent of the fourteenth-cen- 2004 and 2010 commissioned works of The title, hyphen – a punctuation mark that spired his 2014 string quartet inscribed, in tury ars subtilior ), accompanied by a low just 100 notes or fewer. clutch uses ex- can both join and separate – points to both the center: “1520, Antorff”. The works on actly 100, an arbitrary restriction that the the work itself and to its components. the present recording, written before this 1 “MEC MusicTalk: Evan Johnson and composer found inspirational, even a relief: quartet, reflect alternative responses to the Daryl Buckley”, Youtube, https://www.you- “the a priori fact of 100-ness meant that a A hyphen sits between. A hyphen is small. Its dialectic of compression and emptiness re- tube.com/watch?v=c2mOMbdJkI4. good deal of my work was done for me”, he use implies the presence of two more sub- vealed by Dürer. 2 Programme note to clutch, http://www. writes. 2 stantial items – words, or parts of words – evanjohnson.info/solo-instrument-voice/ 4 5 violin drone that occasionally breaks out in- other private memorial. Afterwards, things potential inaudibility” as the score ex- are not about physical breakdown but use to a brief refrain of its own. And then in the must continue as they were. Yet something plains. In live performance they play with this as a means to access highly refined middle of the piece the webs of vocal writ- has happened, and the voices’ recapitula- their backs to the audience, making their musical spaces. ing stop suddenly, leaving only the single, tion soon departs from its model. Small vari- sounds even more obscure. The full 25 min- scratching violin tone. It hangs there, pre- ations – the different ornamentation of the utes of the work take place against a con- I once told Johnson about an experience cariously, for what – 30 seconds? a minute? first alto’s low C, a reduction of the two ten- tinual insecurity of tone, embouchure and I had had on a beach, as the fog rolled in two minutes? Too long. Time stops. And ors’ entry to the notes F–A#–F# – lead to breath; the extreme dynamic acts as an ap- from the North Sea. The sheer density of then the voices start again, as though noth- greater ones, until the two halves of the erture through which everything else must the mist merged everything – sand, sea, air – ing had happened. At first they even appear piece can no longer be laid over each oth- be squeezed. This quality of strain – “with- into an infinitely shaded pale grey/brown. to be singing the same music as before. er. Has the container changed, or have its in a context of lyricism and grace” as the Hardly anything was visible beyond 20 me- contents? The violin’s pause (sinking in – a composer describes it 4 – is shared by ma- tres; the edges of the town looked like they Colophons is related to Dehiscences, Lullay pool; projecting out – a monument) has do- ny of his pieces. In Positioning in Radiogra- had been rubbed out. Objects could on- (“Thou nost whider it whil turne” ) (2005) for ne something to the music. Like the hyphen, phy for three toy pianos the finely detailed ly be seen if they were held close up. At a piano and cassette, a work that is dedicated it has changed its surrounding context. filigree of the notation, packed with grace distance they dissolved into the surround- to the memory of Johnson’s father. The ti- notes and ornamental flourishes, is lost in ing atmosphere. His reply was characteris- tles of both pieces refer to a Middle English There is a “between” quality also to Apos- the essential clumsiness of the instruments tic: “On the rare occasions I’ve found myself lament (although Johnson notes ironically trophe 1 (All communication is a form of themselves. (Its title refers to a medical more or less enveloped in fog”, he emailed that in the case of Colophons “this has noth- complaint ). In classical rhetoric, an apostro- textbook of 1939, a favourite of the painter me, “I’ve always wanted to be more envel- ing to do with the piece at hand”, 3 but simply phe is a moment when a speaker breaks off Francis Bacon, that describes the various oped in fog.” points to its companion for piano), and both from their audience to address a third par- ways in which a body may be bent and con- works build on a dialogue between a ten- ty, often God, love, death, etc. Its rhetori- torted against a glass for the purposes of Tim Rutherford-Johnson, 2019 tative lyricism and submersive static. (The cal character comes not only from the di- x-ray imaging.) Even in the 90-second hy- words of Colophons, two lines from Chau- rect address but also from its surroundings: phen the performer is forced to play against cer’s The Pardoner’s Tale, relate to frailty it is a “turning away” (Gk: apostrophé ) from the pain of striking the crotales with their and old age.) In Dehiscences the white noise something else that is ongoing: an insertion knuckles.