Scott Bywater

Autumn/Winter

2008

London Mozart Players New CD

Programme Note by the Composer.

The Lion and the Deer, Sally Beamish

When Jila Peacock sent me her ‘shape poem’ calligraphies – Persian texts by Hafez, the 14th century metaphysical poet of Iran, they immediately suggested music. Each bird or animal, fashioned from Hafez’s texts, was accompanied by Jila’s own translation, and together we began to plan how these might form a musical work.

In 2006 I was asked by Leeds Lieder to write a song cycle for Mark Padmore and Roger Vignoles, and also by Portsmouth Grammar School to write a choral work for their annual Remembrance Day concert. These two offers seemed to link together, and I felt that both were ideal vehicles for Jila’s translations. Only one poem overlaps the two works, and this is the opening Hoopoe, which closes the Four Songs from Hafez cycle for Leeds, and, in a more developed version, opens and closes The Lion and the Deer. In Islamic mythology the hoopoe is the love messenger between Solomon and Sheba, the male and female aspects of the Divine countenance.

Like Jila Peacock’s ‘shape poems’, each of my settings reflects a bird or animal alluded to in the poem. The solo counter tenor part was written for Michael Chance, and the orchestration is founded on a small string orchestra, with trumpet, timpani, cello and harp soloists.

The first song, Hoopoe, is a solo for counter tenor, with the refrain ‘I will send you’, echoed by the choir. The trumpet, strong and lyrical, rides over the text, and the call of the bird is heard in glissando string solos.
The second, for choir, suggests the gentle footfall of a deer, with soft timpani beats, and steady, canonic choral writing. The colours are dark and pensive, using only the lower strings. The music is coloured by rustling bamboo chimes and rain stick. The harp writing is inspired by Classical Iranian setar music, with repeated notes and fast flourishes.
Falcon, the bird that can see the path to the Divine, is a double fanfare for counter tenor and trumpet. The choir provide wordless texture, and the strings long solo lines, using intervals typical of Persian chants.
Lion, the most optimistic of the movements, is the choral climax of the piece, with bright tonal colour and celebratory cymbals and gongs.
Horse, symbol of fidelity, is underpinned by wild and relentless timpani hooves, but contrasts with dreamy, measured vocal writing, and overlapping choral echoes. The central section features trumpet and harp, pausing for a moment before launching into the final gallop towards the end of the movement, and fading into the distance.

In the final song, which is a continuation/conclusion of the opening ‘Hoopoe’, the trumpet and timpani are silent. The former declamatory trumpet solos have become more gentle, reflective solo cello lines.

Through the six songs runs another strand. By placing the Hafez’ words in the context of Remembrance Day, I hoped to reflect an ultimate human goal – a theme of enduring love. I asked Claire Jepson, the Head of English at the school, if she would get the youngest pupils in the Senior School to think about war, and then express their reflections. This came to involve discussion of haikus. Several of the pupils experimented with this form and I have used extracts from this writing in counterpoint to the Hafez texts. Many of these lines, spoken by children, echo the same sentiment – that of the futility of conflict, and the desire for harmony amongst mankind. In the imagery of Hafez, the lion is Apollonian, or Mars, in contrast to the deer: Venus, or Love.

The Lion and the Deer was commissioned by The Portsmouth Grammar School for its Remembrance Sunday Concert in Portsmouth Cathedral on 11 November 2007, and first performed on that occasion by The Portsmouth Grammar School Chamber Choir (Chorus Master Andrew Cleary) and the London Mozart Players (Leader David Juritz) with soloist Michael Chance (counter tenor) under the LMP/PGS Associate Conductor Nicolae Moldoveanu.

SB 2007.

14th November,  2008

Scott performed one of the two timpani parts in this performance, where in the fouth movement 'Kahli's Dance' the timpani play the complete melodic theme of the movement.  The piece is scored for soprano, tenor and cello Soloists, organ, chorus, full orchestra including 2 timpanists with six drums each (Charles Fullbrook and Scott Bywater), pow wow drum (Glyn Matthews) and 2 gongs, tam tam and 3 temple bells (Geoff Boynton).  This was the London premier of the piece and the composer was present.  This performance received a standing ovation.  John Taveners Requiem was first performed in Liverpool earlier this year. 

Programme note by the composer

The essence of this Requiem is contained in the words “Our glory lies where we cease to exist”. That is, when one’s false self is extinguished, the true self shines forth, and we have, in a way, become one with God. But this realisation is beyond almost all human beings, which is why religion exists, and why the perennial truth of all the great religious traditions centres on this concept. The absolute freedom that results from this oneness can only belong to the being that, liberated from the conditions of manifested existence, has become absolutely one with its principal and its origin. The seventh movement of the Requiem is a musical expression of this, and the preceding movements a journey towards it.

Today, the different religious traditions are often in conflict with each other, but inwardly every religion is the doctrine of the self and its earthly manifestations. That is to say there is only ONE BEING: minerals, animals, plants and human beings are all part of that self. This is the meaning of Advaita Vedanta expounded in the Upanishads “Ēkam evādvitīyam” (the ONE without a second) which is sung in movements three and five. The purpose of our existence in this world is precisely to understand the true nature of what we are.

This work, which contains sections from the Roman Catholic Requiem Mass, lines from the Koran and Sufi texts, and Hindu words from the Upanishads and other sources, was written for performance in a vast cruciform space. The cross, an intersection of two dimensions, thus represents the intersection of the temporal with the eternal. The work is in 7 movements, and the musical construction, like the spatial requirement, is geometric and symetrical. The first three movements mirror the last three in that they have the same duration, and material in common. The fourth movement, Kali’s Dance, is at the centre, and it is based on an Indian Mohara (or rhythmic pattern) which “dances” throughout.

The solo cello should sit at the centre of the cathedral. In the far East End are the choir and brass, while in the far West End are the strings, solo treble and solo tenor. In the North and South are the Tibetan temple bowls, gongs and tam-tam, and two sets of timpani with the pow-wow drum. The audience should sit within these forces.

The solo cello symbolises the Primordial Light which, we are told, appears at death and journeys with us towards the state of oneness, or Paradise. The cello travels towards that oneness through the extinction and total annihilation of the false self (or Ego), which is represented symbolically by the central fourth
movement, Kali’s Dance/Dies Irae. This ferocious “cosmic dance” juxtaposes an almost Tantric adoration and extinction in the fiercely beautiful Goddess Kali (whom Ramakrishna “saw” manifest as The Supreme Being), with the Judgement of Christ in the Dies Irae. Then, after a serene and then ecstatic Interlude, harking back to the second movement, the seventh and final movement pulsates with settings of Ahām Āsmi, Ehyēh Ashēr Ehyēh, Eghō imī O ON, and An al Haqq in Sanskrit, Hebrew, Greek and Arabic respectively: “I am that – I am God”.
J.T. 2008

Opening this concert was The Funeral Music for Queen Mary by Henry Purcell.  Led by Glyn Matthews,  Charles Fullbrook,  Scott Bywater and Geoff Boynton played calf headed rope tension tenor drums in the solomn funeral march that starts and finishes the piece.  The music is scored for 2 trumpets and 2 trombones, organ, drums and chorus.

Programme note by Anthony Burton 2008

On 5 March 1695, the funeral of the much-loved Queen Mary, consort fo William III took place in Westminster Abbey.  As organist of the Abbey and a court composer, Henry Purcell provided some of the music.  He wrote one of the slow marches for the funeral procession from Whitehall Palace to Westminster:  it was played by four "flat trumpets" (slide trumpets and tombones) with drums (reported by eye-witnesses, though no written part has survived and the players may simply have used standard patterns).  He wrote a solomn instrumental Canzona for the same instruments (possibly including the drums) to accompany the burial itself.  And he composed a simple, heartfelt setting of one of the Funeral Sentances of the Anglican Burial Service, "Thou knowest, Lord", which, sung to the accompaniment of the brass instruments and organ,  drew tears from the congregation.  Later the same year it was perfomed again in the Abbey at Purcell's own funeral.

A.B. 2008

Messiaen - Trois Petites Liturgies de la Presence Divine

Poulenc - Organ Concerto

Elgar - Serenade for Strings

Faure - Tantum Ergo

London Mozart Players, Leader David Juritz

Conductor, Andrew Cantrill

Peter Wright, Organ

Matthew Schellhorn, Piano

Nathalie Forget, Ondes Martenot

Parish Church, Croydon, 15 November 2008

Scott played the solo vibraphone in Messiaens exciting chamber work for small orchestra and chorus.  His percussion colleagues were Glyn Matthews, Tommy Foster and Adam Clifford.  This a beautifully spiritual  work and one of Messiaen's most accessible.

In rehearsal, Trois Liturgies - Nathalie and Onde componets in foreground

In rehearsal, Trois Liturgies. Foreground, Onde components

Programme note by Andrew Shenton

Olivier Messiaen
“Trois Petites Liturgies de la Présence divine”

OLIVIER MESSIAEN was born in Avignon, France, on December 10, 1908, and died in Paris on April 28, 1992. He composed “Trois Petites Liturgies de la Présence divine” in Paris between November 15, 1943, and March 15,1944. They were commissioned by Denise Tual for the Concerts de la Pléiade in Paris. Roger Désormière conducted the premiere on April 21, 1945, in Paris, with the Chorale Yvonne Gouvern, Yvonne Loriod (piano), Ginette Martenot (ondes Martenot), and the Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire.

THE SCORE OF “TROIS PETITES LITURGIES” calls for piano solo, ondes Martenot, celesta, vibraphone, maracas, Chinese cymbal, tam-tam, thirty-six women’s voices, and strings (eight each of first and second violins, six violas, six cellos, and four double basses).

During the Second World War, after he was released from a prison camp in Silesia, Messiaen’s next major orchestral work was the Three Short Liturgies of the Divine Presence. Messiaen wrote the text for the Liturgies himself at the same time as the music and declared that it had no literary pretensions, despite the obvious influence of writers such as Paul Éluard and Pierre Reverdy. He wanted to express theological truths about God and composed three movements each dedicated to an aspect of the presence—God present in us, present in himself, and present in all things. Messiaen was clear that these inexpressible ideas were not directly expressed in the music but that they remain “on the level of a dazzlement of colors.”  The following description of each movement is based on Messiaen’s own program for the work found in the preface to the score.

ANTHEM OF THE INTERIOR CONVERSATION (GOD PRESENT IN US…)
A-B-A form. In the first and third sections the piano, and later the celesta, play stylized birdsongs including the nightingale, finch, garden warbler, and skylark. In the faster central section there is a rhythmic canon between the vibraphone and piano (right hand) and the plucked strings, maracas, and piano (left hand). Over this is a “choral salmody,” a violin solo, and finally a solo from ondes Martenot using an oriental clarinet timbre. The words “Do not awaken me: it is the time of the bird!” are taken from the Song of Songs. The A section ends with the hushed chorus singing slowly and tenderly “my love, my God,” ending on an iridescent A major chord.
SEQUENCE OF THE WORD, DIVINE HYMN (GOD PRESENT IN HIMSELF…)
Strophic form with variations. Marked “fast, with great joy,” the piano dominates in this shorter movement playing chord clusters, bursting runs, bell effects, and low percussive sounds. The ondes Martenot soars fortissimo above the chorus near the end of the piece, along with trilled chords in the strings whose “powdering” effect Messiaen used to support the “Balinese gamelan” sonority and the articulations of the celesta, vibraphone, and piano. Words of Saint Paul and Saint John are quoted in Messiaen’s text, which refers largely to Jesus (who in this movement represents God present in himself).
PSALMODY OF UBIQUITY THROUGH LOVE (GOD PRESENT IN ALL THINGS…)
A-B-A form. This is the longest movement. It starts with an energetic cadenza-like burst from the piano over chanted text from the chorus. This alternates with tender passages from the choir accompanied by the ondes Martenot. The piano is absent from the slow middle section, which Messiaen described as “simply an act of love and reverence.” In the recapitulation the piano has runs in contrary motion, in a closed fan-shape, while the ondes recalls  theme from the first movement. The chorus chants again over the violent superimposition of interlaced polymodal colors underlined by the deep and prolonged resonance of the tam-tam. In the first and third sections the text speaks of planets, birds, and flowers, and of different kinds of time—the very long time of stars, the medium time of man, and the short time of insects. The text includes quotations from the Song of Songs and the Book of Revelation, and includes toward the end what Messiaen believed to be the key phrase of the entire work: “You are near, You are far, You are the light and the darkness, You are so complex and so simple, You are infinitely simple.”

Messiaen described the music of the Liturgies as “above all a music of colors” and described the “modes” he used in very specific terms, noting that their juxtapositions and superimpositions produce “blues, reds, blues streaked with reds, mauves and grays speckled with orange, blues studded with green and ringed with gold, purple, hyacinth, violet, and the gleam of precious stones: ruby, sapphire, emerald, amethyst—all of this in folds, in waves, in swirls, in spirals, in intermingled motions.”

According to Messiaen, the work met with an “enormous and immediate success,” and Messiaen noted that the audience at the premiere was an especially brilliant and cultivated one, including Honegger, Auric, Poulenc, and Boulez. Jean Cocteau described the Liturgies as a work of genius and Poulenc declared the premiere to be the “event of the winter.” In fact, because of the novelty of the music, the placement of a “liturgy” in the concert hall, and the extraordinary text, the Liturgies became part of a controversy known as “The Messiaen Affair” which raged in the French press for a couple of years. According to Messiaen’s biographers Peter Hill and Nigel Simeone, there were two main issues—first, the quality and relevance of Messiaen’s commentaries (which many found unwelcome and distracting), and second, the music itself and in particular whether such unusual sounds were appropriate for “religious” themes. Many admired the new language and new sonorities of Messiaen’s music, others were not so kind. Claude Rostand, critic of Le Carrefour, described the Liturgies as a “work of tinsel, false magnificence and pseudo-mysticism, this work with dirty nails and clammy hands, with bloated complexion and unhealthy flab, replete with noxious matter, looking about anxiously like an angel wearing lipstick.”

In the preface to the score of the Liturgies, Messiaen himself addressed the question of how to listen to his complex music using the analogy of a stained glass window: “It teaches, by image, by symbol, by the figures that people it—but above all it strikes the eye by the thousands of flecks of color, which finally resolve themselves into a single, very simple color, so that one who contemplates says only ‘That window is blue,’ or ‘That window is violet.’ That is what I intended.”

For Messiaen, the institutional church was both important and necessary, but his own ministry as a layman allowed him to bring the liturgy into the concert hall and present it to everyone, thereby engaging in a fundamental kind of evangelization. When asked about the ecumenical elements of his music by the organist Almut Rößler he replied, “That’s a serious, weighty question. I’m a Christian, and I think that in the present age of ecumenism we shouldn’t attach too much importance to religious differences. Everyone—Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant Christians, Israelites, even Buddhists—is seeking God, finding God. My work is addressed to all who believe—and also to all
others.” Messiaen thus moves his theology away from a Christo-centric foundation and toward a position where it has common ground with other major religions in its pursuit of God. The last sentence of this quotation is crucial—not only does Messiaen write for those who believe (that is, anyone who ascribes to a Theo-centric religion), but for everyone else too. This is an extraordinary acknowledgment of the omnipresent grandeur and relevance of God, combined with a desire to describe God in terms that might be understood by all, albeit through the prism ofCatholic doctrine. The angel of the Liturgies might be wearing lipstick, but she’s trying to speak of truth.

Programme note by Andrew Shenton
ANDREW SHENTON IS ON THE FACULTY OF BOSTON UNIVERSITY AND DIRECTOR OF THE BOSTON UNIVERSITY
MESSIAEN PROJECT.

Rite of Spring, Stravinsky

Les Presages, Tchaikovsky (Symphony No. 5)

Austrailian Ballet

Sadlers Wells Theatre, 7 - 11 October 20

Scott played principal timpani in these performances and was joined by Glyn Mathews and Matthew Turner covering all the percussion parts.  The Rite requires two timpanists and four percussion players but due to space restrictions Glyn and Matthew expertly covered all the parts themselves. 

The Australian Ballet joins forces with Bangarra Dance Theatre to present the UK premiere of two works at Sadler’s Wells.

For over four decades, The Australian Ballet has been the defining face of ballet in Australia, renowned for its dynamic mix of classical and contemporary dance. Now the company visits Sadler's Wells for the first time ever in the theatre's history.

"Extraordinarily powerful"

THE GUARDIAN, Oct '08

"The performances from both troupes are outstanding"

THE TIMES, Oct '08

"A vital retelling and is beautifully staged and danced with passion, defiance and energy"

METRO, Oct '08

Here the company presents two contrasting works - Rites, a groundbreaking collaboration with Bangarra Dance Theatre, who thrilled audiences at Sadler’s Wells in 2006 with their remarkable fusion of contemporary dance and Aboriginal culture, and The Australian Ballet’s critically acclaimed Les Présages.

Rites, set to Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring and choreographed by Bangarra’s Artistic Director Stephen Page, is a visually stunning production which pairs dancers from The Australian Ballet and Bangarra Dance Theatre in an electrifying meeting of indigenous Australian culture and contemporary Western dance.

"Rites is both daring and inspiring"

THE STAGE

"Rites is a story of Creation, referring directly to spirits that in Aboriginal beliefs have inhabited the landscape of Australia since the beginning of time… a fascinating and successful experiment"

NEW YORK TIMES

Set to Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony, Leonide Massine’s Les Présages provoked both shock and delight at its Paris debut in 1933. This production by The Australian Ballet is performed for the first time in the UK.

Rite of Spring

Rite of Spring

Rite of Spring

Les Presages

Les Presages

Les Presages

Spring/Summer

2008

Hamlet

Northern Ballet Theatre

Sadlers Wells Theatre, 22- 26 April 2008

Scott played principal timpani and 2nd percussion in this technically very challenging score by Philip Feeney.  John Melbourne played principal percussion.  Northern Ballet Theatre's principal timpanist is Ian Hood.

In the early 1940s, a young man arrives home from the front. But his home is no longer his own. His father is dead, his mother has married his uncle and the enemy occupies his city.

In a powerful new ballet by David Nixon, with a new score by Philip Feeney, Hamlet’s mind unravels against a backdrop of one of the most terrifying periods of the 20th century. As his world descends into chaos, he no longer knows who he can trust and the boundaries between real and imaginary become blurred in his mind.

"Contains some of the most powerfully imagined choreography Nixon has created."

THE GUARDIAN

Renowned for its distinctive blend of ballet and theatre and with a strong reputation for telling stories through dance, Northern Ballet Theatre is ideally placed to bring the emotional impact of Shakespeare’s tragedy to life.

"A high-octane production"

THE TELEGRAPH

Hamlet

Hamlet