A S T R A C O N C E R T S 2 0 1 8

8 pm, Saturday 27 October LITHUANIAN HOUSE North Melbourne

FILMS, MUSICS

Arnold Schoenberg PRELUDE TO GENESIS Josef Haydn REPRESENTATION OF CHAOS Hanna Chetwin + Rohan Drape SALT Johanna Beyer THE MAIN DEEP Pauline Oliveros TUMBLING SONG Claudio Monteververdi MY HEART, WHEN I LOOK AT YOU Hanna Chetwin + James Rushford OPAQUING Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel ARIEL Mauricio Kagel - BOOK + HALLELUJAH John Hughes + Martin Friedel ALL THIS

YOU SAW Edward Elgar OWLS + THERE IS SWEET MUSIC HERE

Erkki Veltheim, Aviva Endean, Maria Moles, Rohan Drape, Kim Bastin, Joy Lee, Peter Dumsday, Stephen Falk The Astra Choir with solo voices

Erkki Veltheim violin, Aviva Endean clarinet /bass clarinet, Maria Moles drums, Rohan Drape organ, Stephen Falk percussion Kim Bastin, piano /organ, Joy Lee piano, Peter Dumsday organ

vocal soloists Catrina Seiffert, Leonie Thomson, Louisa Billeter Ben Owen, Lucien Fischer, Steven Hodgson

The Astra Choir soprano Catrina Seiffert, Leonie Thomson, Louisa Billeter, Maree Macmillan, Kate Sadler alto Emily Bennett, Anna Gifford, Katie Richardson, Florence Thomson, Beverley Bencina, Jane Cousens, Joy Lee, Joan Pollock, Aline Scott-Maxwell tenor Ben Owen, Phillip Villani, Richard Webb, Greg Deakin, Simon Johnson, Dylan Nicholson bass Karl Billeter, Peter Dumsday, Lucien Fischer, Steven Hodgson, Chris Smith, John Terrell, John Mark Williams

John McCaughey conductor

As with its electronic sound, it might be said that music discovered its filmic qualities long before the invention of the medium – in particular, in the 17th century of Monteverdi, with its montages and superimpositions of different kinds of expression, and its invention of dynamics as a resource of mobile imagery for the ears.

Tonight’s program itself forms a montage of varied choral pieces, among which are set three collaborative creations – films experienced as performative elements of a concert, live-playing as a process of encounters with the visual domain.

Before the beginning: (1874–1951) and Josef Haydn (1732– 1809), compose a not-yet-formed Creation. In each case, their solution is not to evoke a primæval, elemental state (such as the opening of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony) but a dense, advanced language that looks forward towards an unknown future music.

Schoenberg’s Prelude Op.44 was composed for the multi-composer oratorio Genesis Suite, Los Angeles 1945, which traced the Jewish narrative from Creation to . As the only movement without narrator, the Prelude represents the wordless state before the first sentence of the . The orchestral score has been arranged as a chamber version for this concert by Melbourne composer Allan Walker. The characteristic fluid syntax of Schoenberg’s advanced 12-tone music is combined with the retrospective form of fugue, here perhaps experienced in its original meaning of ‘flight’– the emergence of spatial dimensions in which the earth could be formed.

Haydn’s orchestral prelude to his oratorio itself became one of his most remarkable creations, which he titled the “representation of chaos” – a summoning forth of a time before time through ambiguous musical syntax that looks forward to Brahms and even 20th-century composers. Clytus Gottwald’s arrangement of the orchestral score for 12-part unaccompanied choir emphasizes these modernistic qualities. Gottwald chooses as text the German translation of Genesis by the Jewish philosopher and linguistic scholar Moses Mendelssohn (1729–86), first published in Hebrew transliteration, to stem the outrage of Christian traditionalists.

Elemental Nature is at the centre of the joint creation Salt, by film-maker Hanna Chetwin and composer Rohan Drape – commissioned under the VicArts grants of Creative Victoria – working with two parallel 16mm films and the characteristic sound of projectors. Hanna Chetwin has described the project:

[NOTES CONTINUED ON p.7… ] 2

PROGRAM

Arnold Schoenberg Prelude to the Genesis Suite Op.44 (1945) arranged by Allan Walker (2018) for piano 4-hands & ensemble

Josef Haydn Genesis, “The representation of chaos” (1798) arranged by Clytus Gottwald (2008) for 12-part choir, text by Moses Mendelssohn c.1780

Hanna Chetwin + Rohan Drape Salt (2018) – first performance two 16mm films, violin, drums, organ, electronics and choir

Johanna Beyer The Main Deep (1937) 4-part choir, poem by James Stephens 1925

Pauline Oliveros Tumbling Song (1974) Sonic Meditation XIV

Claudio Monteverdi My heart, when I look at you (1603) 5-part choir, poem by Giovanni Battista Guarini c.1600

Hanna Chetwin + James Rushford Opaquing (2017) 3 films, electro-acoustic music

Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel Ariel (1846) 4-part choir, poem by Johann Wolfgang Goethe 1832

Mauricio Kagel Pieces from Choir-Book (1978) and Halleluja (1973) soloists, choir and keyboards texts from J.S. Bach, 371 Chorales

John Hughes + Martin Friedel All This You Saw (2018) – first performance film, piano, violin, clarinet, percussion, choir poem by Bertolt Brecht 1940

Edward Elgar Two Part-Songs Op.53 (1907)

Owls, 4-part choir, poem by Edward Elgar 1907

There is Sweet Music, 8-part double-choir. poem by Alfred Tennyson 1832

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Arnold Schoenberg, Prelude to the Genesis Suite Op.44 (1945) chamber arrangement by Allan Walker (2018)

Josef Haydn, Genesis: The Representation of Chaos (1798) orchestral prelude to The Creation, arranged by Clytus Gottwald for 12-part choir (2008)

So spricht Gott, der Ewige, Thus says God the eternal, der den Himmel erschaffen und ihn ausgespannt hat, who created the heavens, and stretched them out; der die Erde ausgedehnt hat mit ihren Sprösslingen, who spread forth the earth, and all that sprouts from it; der Atem gibt allen Geschöpfen auf ihr. who gives breath to the creatures upon it:

Ich, der Ewige, ich berufe dich zum Heil. I the eternal, I call you to salvation, Ich schütze dich und fasse deine Hand. I shield you and keep your hand, Ich setze dich zum Volk meines Bundes, I set you as people of my covenant, zum Licht von Nationen, as a light to the nations, um blinde Augen zu öffnen, to open blind eyes, um die Gefesselten aus dem Kerker herauszuführen, to bring out the shackled from the dungeon, die Bewohner der Finsternis aus dem Gefängnis. and the dwellers of darkness out of the prison house.

Licht! Es werde Licht! Light! Let there be light!

– Moses Mendelssohn, translation of First ca.1780

Hanna Chetwin + Rohan Drape, Salt (2018) two 16mm films, violin, drums, organ, electronics and choir first performance

Johanna Beyer, The Main Deep (1937) 4-part choir

The long-rolling Steady-pouring, Deep-trenched The wide-topped, Green billow; Unbroken, Green-glacid, Cold-flushing, Slow-sliding. On – on – on – Chill-rushing, Hush-hushing.

– James Stephens, A Poetry Recital 1925

Pauline Oliveros, Tumbling Song (1974) Sonic Meditation XIV

Claudio Monteverdi, Cor mio, mentre vi miro (1603)

Cor mio, mentre vi miro, My heart, when I look at you, visibilmente mi trasformo in voi, visibly I transform myself into you, e trasformato poi, and thus transformed in un solo sospir l'anima spiro. in a single sigh my spirit expires. O bellezza mortale, O mortal beauty, O bellezza vitale, O vital beauty, poiché sí tosto un core that in an instant a heart for you per te rinasce, e per te nato more. is given re-birth, and born for you, dies.

– Giovanni Battista Guarini (1538-1612)

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Hanna Chetwin + James Rushford, Opaquing (2017) 3 films, electronics

Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel, Ariel (1846)

Gab die liebende Natur, If loving Nature gave you, Gab der Geist euch Flügel, If Spirit gave you wings, Folget meiner leichten Spur, Follow on my easy trace Auf zum Rosenhügel! Up to the hill of roses!

– Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Faust Part II, 1832

Mauricio Kagel (with J.S. Bach) Chorales from Choir-Book (1978) with Solos and Choruses from Halleluja (1973) soloists, choir and keyboards

Ach wie flüchtig, ach wie nichtig, Ah, how fleeting, ah how empty ist der Menschen Leben; is the life of humans; wie ein Nebel bald entstehet… Like a mist that soon appears…

Durch Fall ist ganz verderbt By 's fall was made corrupt menschlich Natur und Wesen… human nature and beings…

O Traurigkeit, o Herzeleid, O sadness deep, O aching heart, Ist das nicht zu beklagen? … is this not cause for wailing? …

Ein’ feste Burg ist unser Gott, A solid fortress is our God, Ein gute Wehr und Waffen... A good defence and armour…

Den Vater dort oben… The father there above…

– texts from J.S. Bach, 371 Chorales

Martin Friedel + John Hughes, All This You Saw (2018) film, piano, violin, clarinet, percussion, choir first performance

On the suicide of the refugee W.B.

I hear that you have raised your hand against yourself Forestalling the butcher. Eight years banished, watching the enemy’s rise At the last, driven to an uncrossable border You crossed what is called a crossable one.

Empires topple. Gang leaders Strut about like statesmen. The peoples You see no more among the armaments.

So the future lies in darkness and the good forces Are weak. All this you saw When you destroyed that torturable body.

– Bertolt Brecht 1940

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Edward Elgar, Two Part-songs Op.53 (1907) 4-part and 8-part choir

Owls

What is that? ... Nothing; The leaves must fall, and falling, rustle; That is all: They are dead As they fall, - Dead at the foot of the tree; All that can be is said. What is it? ... Nothing.

What is that? ... Nothing; A wild thing hurt but mourns iin the night, And it cries In its dread, Till it lies Dead at the foot of the tree; All that can be is said. What is it? ... Nothing.

What is that? ... Ah! A marching slow of unseen feet, That is all: But a bier, spread With a pall, Is now at the foot of the tree; All that could be is said. Is it ... what? ... Nothing.

– Edward Elgar 1907

There is sweet music

There is sweet music here that softer falls Than petals from blown roses on the grass, Or night-dews on still waters between walls Of shadowy granite, in a gleaming pass; Music that gentlier on the spirit lies, Than tir'd eyelids upon tir'd eyes; Music that brings sweet sleep down from the blissful skies. Here are cool mosses deep, And thro' the moss the ivies creep, And in the stream the long-leaved flowers weep, And from the craggy ledge the poppy hangs in sleep.

– Alfred Tennyson 1832

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[… NOTES continued from p.2]

“Salt is an expanded 16mm film which combines footage of a vast pink salt lake, Lake Tyrell in the Mallee region in Northern Victoria, with footage of home-grown salt crystals and other natural forms (such as dead coral and seeds). These were filmed in close-up and re-photographed and printed to emphasise the warm tones and varied crystal structures and textures.”

Rohan Drape’s live soundtrack – electronics, violin, drums and choir – follows a previous work for Astra (The Lepidopters, with Slave Pianos), in taking inspiration from the radical land artist Robert Smithson (1938-73) and his ideas of crystalline geometry. Drape writes of his working process:

“A catalogue of crystal lattice structures is consulted and musical materials are organised according to the geometries described. – The frameworks have broken through the surfaces, so to speak, and have become paintings…The labyrinths of non-objective abstractions…(Robert Smithson)."

Johanna Beyer (1888–1944) a migrant from Germany to the USA in 1924, became a student and close associate of the progressive figures of American music, Henry Cowell and Ruth Crawford, but her own output of original choral and chamber pieces was largely overlooked. Rediscovered in the New York Public Library, they were first performed and recorded by the Astra Choir and associated players a half-century after her death. The Main Deep matches the poetic ocean-scape of Irish poet-performer James Stephens with a restless heterogeneity of sound, blurred harmonic contours and Beyer’s characteristic sliding pitches, a technique not used by other composers till some decades later.

The continuously downward shapes of Tumbling Song by Pauline Oliveros (1932–2016) are part of her series of Sonic Meditations, intended not as concert compositions but “recipes for listening” for audience and performers alike. Song itself as a contoured entity enters a “tumbling” state.

With his 4th Book of Madrigals of 1603, Claudio Monteverdi (1567–1643) opened a new era of theatrical expression in music’s interaction with words. In Guarini’s epigrammatic poem Cor mio, a mysterious transformation occurs through an act of looking. Monteverdi’s reading condenses it further still, even while extending it, into individual verbal particles at play with each other.

The second film composition of Hanna Chetwin employs three parallel films, and arises from physical manipulation of the medium itself. The title’s coined notion of “opaquing” carries into the electronic sound track of James Rushford. Hanna Chetwin describes her procedure:

“I often leave accidental fingerprints on my films. These leave behind incidental artefacts – brief flashes of white or black that record my tactile engagement with the film during the printing and editing process. This film extends and magnifies those accidents into something more purposeful. Using black ink and clear film I catalogued details and textures of my thumbs, hands and fingerprints; run through the projector, the rapid succession of prints become rhythmic, animated and abstracted.”

From the transfigured world of Goethe’s Faust Part II, Ariel’s 4-line verse is stated three times in varied shapes, as if in flight, through the chorus of Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel (1805–47) – grand-daughter of Moses Mendelssohn, whose words were used in the Haydn arrangement.

The state of flight persists through the Mauricio Kagel choral montage, opening with the chorale “Ah how fleeting”, and on into the refugee image of the succeeding work by John Hughes and Martin Friedel. Mauricio Kagel (1931–2008) an Argentinian who lived and worked mostly in Germany, applied composing processes to an unparalleled variety of other artistic domains, including film, theatre, sculpture, stage-lighting and instrument invention. His unique expressive world constantly hovers between incompatibilities – serious and sardonic, transcendent and secular, historical and constructive. His seminal choral work Hallelujah is a large compendium of vocal and choral pieces, open as to their selection and combination, and extending to many states of wordless exaltation, animal sounds, laughing and weeping, and more. Kagel’s own film of Hallelujah overlays it with the organ piece Phantasie with obbligato. Tonight’s performance combines it with a selection of chorales from his later Choir-Book – another compendium work of over 50 Lutheran chorales for voices with piano and organ, transformed to a strange state by chord-to-chord transpositions from the harmonizations of J.S. Bach in his 371 Chorales. Kagel suggests that the Bach originals might also be heard in a concert rendition. 7

The second premiered piece created for this concert, All This You Saw by film-maker John Hughes and composer Martin Friedel, enters the historical-social domain with its focus on the philosopher-critic Walter Benjamin (1892–1940), whose thought was influential on the first significant book about music and film, by Theodor Adorno and Hanns Eisler. Through his years of flight from the Nazis, Benjamin carried with him his Paul Klee monoprint “New Angel”, which he interpreted as the ‘angel of history’, its face turned to the accumulating disasters of the past while being propelled irresistibly backwards into the future. Benjamin commited suicide in flight on the Spanish border, leading to the Brecht poem which forms the choral material and the title. John Hughes writes about this new collaborative piece:

“Martin Friedel and I (with editor Uri Mizrahi) form a long-standing team in film and music, including One Way Street (1992) a film on the philosopher Walter Benjamin. This new work All This You Saw for film, choir and ensemble, relates to a 1940 poem of Bertolt Brecht: ‘On The suicide of the refugee WB.’ All This You Saw evokes themes and ideas we associate with Benjamin: a philosophy of history, the refugee, remembrance. Friedel has previously created works for choir and piano with ASTRA, drawing on Benjamin's texts; this project offers an opportunity to extend these variations. Imagistically Christian Boltanski's book Kaddish (1998) is another reference point. Both sound and image have their seeds in One Way Street (1992); Friedel’s music here drawing on specific notes from his composition for the earlier film, while the image references discrete fragments - the refugee in transit, the Klee painting Angelus Novus and Portbou the Spanish border town where Benjamin died in September 1940.”

The two part-songs by Edward Elgar (1857–1934), composed on a New Year visit to Rome in 1907, are technically adventurous in their tonalities.

The eponymous ‘owls’ of the first song remain unseen in the composer’s shadowy 3-stanza poem, but are a presence in the nocturnal phrases and harmonies, within which the key of the central stanza rises imperceptibly a semitone higher, before resettling by another route.

There is Sweet Music also employs two keys a semitone apart, but now superimposed throughout the song. The tenor-bass chorus is notated with the key-signature of G major, the soprano-alto chorus with that of A-flat major, a semitone higher. A chromatic richness ensues in the combinations of the two halves of the choir, concluding with something resembling cross-fadings between the two regions. Although it is the lower key of G which establishes primacy at the outset, the higher key in the female voices is perhaps the real instrument of the acoustic image – that of music “gentlier falling” than words, settling on the many natural objects in Tennyson’s poem in a way that transcends their visual profusion. – JMcC

AVAILABLE AT THIS CONCERT 2018 CD Release, New World Records, New York:

THE ASTRA CHOIR “ We, like Salangan Swallows…” A choral Gallery of Morton Feldman and Contemporaries Morton Feldman, Will Ogdon, Earle Brown, Pauline Oliveros, Warren Burt, Robert Carl

Concert Manager: Margaret Lloyd Astra Manager: Gabrielle Baker Recording Engineer and Sound: Michael Hewes Front of House: George Baker-Holland

Thanks to: Viva Alekna and the Lithuanian Club in Melbourne; Artist Film Workshop for projectors.

Astra Concerts receive support in 2018 from: Private donors; The Robert Salzer Foundation; The William Angliss Trust; Diana Gibson.

 ASTRA CHAMBER MUSIC SOCIETY President: John Terrell Manager: Gabrielle Baker Musical Director: John McCaughey PO Box 365, North Melbourne, Victoria 3051, Australia ABN 41 255 197 577 Tel: +61 (3) 9326 5424 email: [email protected] web: www.astramusic.org.au

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