William Blank (*1957)
infotext:
WORKS BY WILLIAM BLANK
It is in the nature of the new that it more or less eludes established categories. However, they are a good starting point if you want to approach something new. So it makes sense to consider the works by the Swiss composer William Blank, which were recorded here for the first time between 2008 and 2019, from a chamber music perspective. Although there is no generally binding definition of chamber music, certain constants can be identified that have been valid from the Renaissance to the present day: intimacy, privacy, lively interaction of solo instruments, concentrated harmony, etc. All of this is so universal that it is also found somewhere applies to the four works on this CD. But what are their special features?
Although the formations with four to eight participants are conceived as soloist ensembles, they reveal the compositional claim of surpassing oneself in terms of sound. This music exudes an almost orchestral generosity. The instrumental and spatial configurations are also too unconventional to be located in the vicinity of the supreme chamber music discipline of the string quartet, which William Blank also used. Instead of looking for tonal uniformity, the composer always emphasizes the individuality of the individual instruments. The solo egos can fully unfold, and yet the broad arches remain intact. The expressive tension of the music results from this supposed contradiction.
The compositional approach is completely different in each work, despite recurring basic features: In Refrain II, Blank takes up a completely Boulezian instrumentation, reconfigures it and distances himself from the "model", while remaining true to his own way of writing. (The best way to pay tribute to a "predecessor" is to do it differently.) In Flow, a quintet piece, Blank explores the rich potential of a simple movement figure. Chamber music intimacy is most likely to come up in the second part of OPHRYS. The sound of the flute, the composer reveals, reminds him of an opening orchid, which, despite its delicate structure, characterizes the room with its strong presence and visual intensity. (a)round owes its layout to the circular roof space of a silo tower on the banks of the Rhine in Basel, in which the premiere took place.
Chamber music has long ceased to be intended only for the bourgeois living room, and chamber music has blossomed into the definitive experimental genre of contemporary classical music. She is, one can rightly claim, the focus of the biography of William Blank, who began his career as a percussionist and, in addition to his orchestral work, played in various original formations. In a way, chamber music is at the heart of his decades of teaching at the Lausanne Music Academy. And when he contributes something compositionally to this genre, it is mostly for long-time musician friends. For him, chamber music not only has an aesthetic dimension, but also testifies to an ethical claim. It is the constant effort to give form to human interaction.
John Knapp
Flow
for oboe, trumpet, harp, violin and cello (2008)
Dedicated to Jan Vogler
Commissioned by the Moritzburg Festival, supported by the Dresden Music Festival
The work owes its title to the fact that the numerous musical episodes flow into one another without interruption and are articulated smoothly and fluently. The five extremely independent voices are treated extremely flexibly; they 'flow' rather than collide, like lines coming together and diverging before culminating in rich polyphony in the final part of the work. The formal idea underlying the composition is more that of a continuous metamorphosis - in terms of textures, timbres and density of expression - than that of a concertante discourse. Some voices, however, stand out more than others or present themselves as cadenzas with brief solos that serve as transitions between sections.
OPHRYS
for flute and small ensemble (2019)
Dedicated to Boris Previšić
Commissioned by the pre-art soloists, supported by the Fondation SUISA
OPHRYS is designed as a small concerto and consists of two movements that merge into one another. While the first - rather violent in character - is intended for the alto flute, which is technically pushed to its extreme limits, the second - alternately dreamy and somber in character - is dedicated to the piccolo and the normal flute. Within the ensemble, the saxophone, accordion and double bass are treated together as a kind of ripieno, while the solo flute enters into a dialogue with the oboe or cello that could be described as a concertino. This structure occasionally evokes the baroque principle of the dialectic of the concerto grosso. However, the contrasts are not very pronounced, and the boundary between solo instrument and ensemble remains permeable. "Ophrys" is the umbrella term for several wild orchid species.
Refrain II
for amplified harp, piano and two percussionists (2015)
Homage to Pierre Boulez
Commissioned by the Collegium Novum Zurich, supported by the Swiss cultural foundation Pro Helvetia
In this piece I make reference to Pierre Boulez' sur Incises, a mammoth work for nine instrumentalists (three pianos, three harps and three percussion parts). The sonic definition of this unique instrumental combination seems to be fixed once and for all by Boulez's genius writing - in particular by the way he deals with the phenomenon of resonances, as well as by the phenomenal and almost unsurpassable virtuosity, which is not least due to the precisely structured timbres project an enormous, even energy. A closer look reveals that Boulez's point of view is dominated by a hierarchy that places the three pianos as equals as the main protagonists, followed by the percussion instruments, which act as links, and finally the harps, whose role it is , to enrich the timbres and, through their vertical function of chordal playing, to make the textures more alive and to enrich them surprisingly again and again.
In my composition, I chose the exact inversion of this hierarchy and positioned the harp in the middle of the ensemble. The piano acts as a link and the percussion instruments as natural amplifiers of the complex harmonies that emerge from their combined resonances. Similar to sur Incises, which is based on elements of Incises for piano, Refrain II takes material from my piece Refrain for harp, but condenses it and passes it through the percussion filter, which is consequently treated as a 'distorting resonator'. To the tempered tonal material of piano, harp, vibraphone and marimba I add numerous sounds that are more or less far from a clear pitch and have a broad acoustic spectrum: eight Japanese temple blocks, two low Bali gongs, one Thai gong, two Octaves of crotales, a set of bells, three low cowbells, a plate bell and a tam-tam.
The idea of the »refrain« is to be understood here in a broader sense, in the manner of a ritual in which the motivic elements are only recognizable in the recurring instrumental gestures that constantly interact between the four instruments. Finally, the note B flat (like "boulez") plays a significant role in the work.
(a)round
for alto saxophone and 7 instruments (2017)
»Music in the Silo Tower«
Commissioned by the Collegium Novum Zurich, supported by the Fondation Nicati-de Luze
Writing sounds and imagining them in space sometimes means dealing with a place that is actually not a concert hall at all: a misused place that is otherwise used for other purposes and therefore offers the imagination acoustic spaces and spatial conditions that are still untouched. The work, originally composed for such a special place - the circular silo tower in Basel - is therefore based on an arrangement in two concentric circles: the audience is arranged around the first circle, which is formed by six wind instruments and the double bass and in the middle of which is the saxophone is located. The saxophone changes direction throughout the five sections of the piece, continually engaging in dialogue with some of the other instruments in the ensemble: Calm (with the flute), Moderate (with the trumpet), Immobile (with the horn), Lively (with the clarinet) and Moderate / Lively / Calm (with all the instruments and finally, more hidden, with the oboe).
Depending on where you sit, you can engage with the sounds in different ways; this in a constantly changing tonal balance, which is characterized by the dynamic and tonal possibilities of the saxophone and by frequently occurring polyphonies that fill the acoustic space in a concise and penetrating way.
William Blank
Translation from French: Matthias Arter
program:
[01] Flow (2008) for oboe, trumpet, harp, violin and cello 22:30
[02] OPHRYS (2019) for flute and small ensemble 16:15
Boris Previšić, solo flute
[03] Refrain II (2015) for amplified harp, piano and two percussionists 19:19
[04] (a)round (2017) for alto saxophone and 7 instruments 16:12
Sascha Armbruster, solo saxophone
Total playing time: 74:16
Collegium Novum Zurich [01, 03, 04]
Susanne Peters, flute
Matthias Arter, oboe
Ernesto Molinari, clarinet
Sascha Armbruster, saxophone
Olivier Darbellay, horn
Jens Bracher, trumpet
Stephen Menotti, trombone
Manon Pierrehumbert, harp
Gilles Grimaître, piano
Brian Archinal and Julien Mégroz, drums
Rachel Cunz, violin
Martina Schucan, cello
Aleksander Gabrys, double bass
pre-art soloists [02]
Boris Previšić, flute
Matthias Arter, oboe
Sascha Armbruster, saxophone
Vladimir Blagojević, accordion
Karolina Ohman, cello
Aleksander Gabrys, double bass
William Blank Conductor
first recordings