NEW ORFORD STRING QUARTET

Here we have two pieces for string quartet, separated in time by more than 180 years, each with its own style and language, conjoined, grafted onto each other. Why, you ask, would one do this? If one takes a closer look, one begins to see many shared elements, symbols and signs that amplify each other when presented side-by-side. Originally, the conception of presenting the pieces together on the same program in a traditional fashion seemed interesting enough, but after digging into the narrative lines of the two works, it seemed they shared a parallel process.

Franz Joseph Haydn’s The Seven Last Words of Our Savior on the Cross was published in 1787. Haydn himself said this about the genesis of the work:

“Some fifteen years ago I was requested by a canon of Cádiz to compose instrumental music on the seven last words of Our Savior on the Cross. It was customary at the Cathedral of Cádiz to produce an oratorio every year during Lent, the effect of the performance being not a little enhanced by the following circumstances. The walls, windows, and pillars of the church were hung with black cloth, and only one large lamp hanging from the center of the roof broke the solemn darkness. At midday, the doors were closed and the ceremony began. After a short service the bishop ascended the pulpit, pronounced the first of the seven words (or sentences) and

delivered a discourse thereon. This ended, he left the pulpit and fell to his knees before the altar. The interval was filled by music. The bishop then in like manner pronounced the second word, then the third, and so on, the orchestra following on the conclusion of each discourse. My composition was subject to these conditions, and it was no easy task to compose seven adagios lasting ten minutes each, and to succeed one another without fatiguing the listeners; indeed, I found it quite impossible to confine myself to the appointed limits.”

As one can see from this statement, Haydn’s work, as intended by the composer, incorporates ritualistic, theatrical and speaking elements. George Crumb’s work invokes a sense of ritual through the use of spoken chanting and theatricality with the use of tam-tams and other gestures not normal to the medium of the string quartet.

George Crumb’s Black Angels, Thirteen Images from the Dark Land was composed over the course of a year and is dated “Friday the Thirteenth, March 1970 (in tempore belli)”. The war he is referring to is of course the Vietnam War.

In the Haydn, we have Seven words. Seven is a symbolic number, there are seven days in the week, seven colours in the rainbow, we have “lucky seven”, seven is the number of spiritual perfection, it is the number of days in which creation

was completed. Seven is also the number of words spoken by Christ before his death, mirroring creation, an “anti-creation” or rebirth, representing a kind of eternal looping, palindromic, seven days for creation followed by seven words leading to death and rebirth.

In the Crumb, the number Thirteen figures large. Thirteen is an unlucky number, a number of bad omen, Judas was the thirteenth person to sit at the table at the last supper and thus thirteen guests at a table is considered unlucky, a year with thirteen full moons is considered a bad omen, we sometimes omit the thirteenth floor from our accounting in tall buildings, we even have a phobia, triskadekaphobia, named after an irrational fear of all things “thirteen”.

Both works share the number Three. In the Haydn, the work has a dramatic introductory movement, followed by a movement for each “word”, with a final movement which depicts the rolling back of the tomb, an element of divine intervention. In effect, we have a religious “triptych”, with the main central panel including a scene for each of the seven “words”. This tripartite division, a symbolic Trinity, if you will, is found in the Crumb as well, which is divided into three sections headed “Departure”, “Absence”, and “Return”. These sections and their titles echo the palindromic construction of the Seven days of creation, of the Seven words of death and of the rebirth or “Return”, mentioned above.

Thus, both works share a classic Darkness to Light, Victory through Struggle, Despair to Redemption paradigm. Both follow a journey of the individual soul.

A short travel guide to help with the journey. Note that the movements of the Crumb flow directly from one to the next without pause:

HAYDN: INTRODUCTION

(A dramatic, scene setting movement. Serious, bringing the listener into the appropriate emotional space.)

CRUMB: I: DEPARTURE

(representing the fall from Grace)

Threnody I: Night of the Electric Insects (Tutti)A Lament for all four instruments. Jarring, dissonant, clusters of half-steps with tri-tone spans (the Devil’s interval), evoking Evil and unease. However, many of the repetitions are in groups of seven, a “good” number.

Sounds of Bones and Flutes (Trio)A trio with three musical elements. This movement is meant to invoke Good. One element is meant to sound like “Tibetan prayer stones”. The first violin has a melodic

figure which is thirteen notes in duration, with the central portion having seven notes of the same rhythmic value. This melodic outline of this melody is referenced later in “God Music”.

Lost Bells (Duo)Note the use of different numbers of instruments through the work. Bells figure large in Christian symbolism, church bells calling the faithful. Once again, Good is prominent. The cello melody, however, has thirteen notes. The harmonics prepare us for the later more ethereal use of the crystal goblets.

Devil Music (Solo: cadenza accompagnata)A solo for the first violin, vox diavolo, the accompagnata plays the dies irae, the “day of wrath”, with a crushed, distorted sound intended to sound a full octave lower, bordering on pure noise. The cellist strikes a tam-tam, and plays it with a bass bow.

Danse Macabre (Duo)An ironic, grotesque presentation of the dies irae, plucked and accompanied by maracas, as if dancing. This movement ends with chanting of the numbers one to seven in Hungarian.

HAYDN: SONATAS I - III

(These three sonatas relate most closely to Crumb’s I: Departure.The Words represented are generally described as the Words of Forgiveness, Comfort, and Relationship, the first stages of Christ’s “Departure”.)

I. (“Pater, dimitte illis; quia nesciunt, quid faciunt”)And they took Jesus, and led him away. And, bearing his cross, he went to a place called the place of skulls, which in Aramaic is called Golgotha, where they crucified him / and the criminals, one on the right hand, and one on the left. Then Jesus said: “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.”

II. (“Hodie mecum eris in paradise”)One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, “Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!” But the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God, seeing you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong.” And Jesus said to him, “Verily; I say unto you today you will be with me in paradise.”

III. (“Mulier, ecce filius tuus”)But standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary, the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother, and the disciple

whom he loved standing near, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold your son!”

CRUMB: II: ABSENCE

(representing spiritual annihilation)

Pavane Lachrymae (Der Tod und Das Mädchen) (Solo obbligato: Insect Sounds) (Trio)A trio. Crumb quotes Franz Schubert’s song “Death and the Maiden”, asking it to be played as follows: “grave, solemn; like a consort of viols a fragile echo of ancient music.” The insect sounds keep us from feeling any real comfort here.

Threnody II: Black Angels (Tutti)Once again, all four instruments play. This is the seventh movement of thirteen, the geographical Center of the work. The music strongly recalls Threnody I, and the players call out the number thirteen in Japanese, Russian and Swahili. The movement ends with the shouting of the numbers one through thirteen in German amongst tutti tremolos.

Sarabanda de la Muerte Oscura (Solo obbligato: Insect Sounds) (Trio)This is a reinterpretive ‘pastiche’ of a Renaissance Sarabande, with strong musical links to the sixth movement, Pavane Lachrymae. In effect, these two movements are palindromic clones of each other. Once again, the insect sounds appear.

Lost Bells (Echo) (Duo alternativo: Sounds of Bones and Flutes)The mirror of the fifth movement, Danse Macabre. The title suggests that religion has been lost along with its bells. There are pauses of three seconds, counting in French to seven, and a pause of thirteen seconds before the beginning of the next movement.

HAYDN: SONATAS IV - VI

(These three sonatas relate most closely to Crumb’s II: Absence. The Words are generally described as the Words of Abandonment, Need (or Distress), and Accomplishment (or Triumph, Achievement, Fulfillment.)

IV. (“Deus meus, Deus meus, utquid dereliquisti me?”)Now, from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Eli Eli lama sabachthani”, which renders: “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”

V. (“Sitio”)After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said, in fulfillment of the scripture, “I thirst.”

VI. (“Consumatum est!”)A bowl full of vinegar stood there; so they put a sponge full of the vinegar on hyssop and held it to his mouth. When Jesus had received the vinegar, he said, “It is finished.”

CRUMB: III: RETURN

(representing redemption)

God Music (Solo: aria accompagnata)This is the longest movement of the work, the direct opposite of the fourth movement, Devil Music. Crumb achieves a luminous, magical effect with the use of bowed crystal goblets to accompany the cello, which is meant to represent the voice of God. The top line of the Goblets recalls the dies irae theme.

Ancient Voices (Duo)This short movement links closely with the next movement. Everything is reduced to bare bones here, and even the insect sounds lack body and energy.

Ancient Voices (Echo) (Trio)The “echo” of the previous movement. It winds down even further, to a simple high cello note. Is this the faraway “echo” of the voice of God, perhaps? This high note signals the beginning of the final, thirteenth movement.

Threnody III: Night of the Electric Insects (Tutti)The high cello note, “disembodied, incorporeal”, descends with a fluttering trill, “gossamer, wafting” in a reminiscence of Threnody II. The Electric Insects explode onto the scene, giving way to a distant, disembodied quotation of the Sarabanda de la Muerte Oscura. The goblets reappear, seven lonely notes. The music evaporates, dwindles, dies. The piece closes with whispers of the number seven in Japanese, with the final whisper, again in Japanese, “jusan”, or “thirteen”.

HAYDN: SONATA VII AND EARTHQUAKE

(These two movements correspond to Crumb’s III. Return. The Word is associated with Reunion)

VII. (”In manus tuas, Domine, commendo Spiritum meum”)And there was darkness over the whole land, and the sun’s light failed. The curtain of the temple was torn in two, and Jesus, crying with a loud voice, said, “Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit!”

EarthquakeThe power of God and his Creation is evoked, closing the work.

© 2018 Brian Manker