#rohan de saram

[lesser-known-composers]

Hans Werner Henze (1926-2012) : String quartet no. 1 (1947)

1. Allegro molto 0:00 2. Andantino 5:16 3. Lento, ma non troppo 13:13 4. Presto 15:17

played by the Arditti String Quartet :

(Irvine Arditti, Alexander Bălănescu, Levine Andrade & Rohan de Saram)

[dustedmagazine]

Morton Feldman – Patterns in a Chromatic Field (hat[now]ART)

Figuring out Morton Feldman can be a daunting pursuit for the lay listener at first blush. His formidable presence looms large in the pantheon of 20th century composers and as essayist Art Lange notes, much of Feldman’s explicatory writing regarding his work was wrought with outright and intentional ambiguity. He drew on a slew of comparative idioms in attempting to contextualize his output, most often painting and the works of contemporaries in the realm of Abstract Expressionism. Despite surface similarities (line, color, texture, etc.) presumptive parities between disciplines proved highly imperfect at best. Patterns in a Chromatic Field dates from 1981, relatively late in Feldman’s composerly career when the facets of his earlier work had largely fallen away in favor of long-form incrementalism and repetition. Minimalism and indeterminacy weren’t just musical paradigms, but extra-musical means of looking at and confronting the world as well.

Spread over two discs and artificially parsed for listener convenience, the nearly two-hour performance recorded over three days in 1993 rejoins another 2003 rendition released on the Tzadik label in presenting Feldman’s vision undiluted. Pianist Marianne Schroeder and cellist Rohan de Saram engage in a conversation of delicate gestures and careful demarcations that alternate between call and response and overlapping expression. De Saram’s switching between harmonics-laced arco and starkly-strummed pizzicato further varies the dynamics, but ardent repetition and underlying tension quickly become integral elements of the interplay. The effect is by turns mesmerizing, haunting and disconcerting and the temptation to reach for analogues beyond the overtly musical becomes increasingly understandable in an attempt to tether the organized sounds to larger meaning.

To these ears an immediately subjective comparison arrives from the realm of cinema, specifically Chantal Akerman’s Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles. In her 1975 film Akerman paints a visual and auditory portrait of a French widow in her domestic habitat with similar meticulousness, the repetitions and quotidian activities of her daily existence gaining a cumulative power as they subtly curdle around the edges to culminate in a denouement that is both striking and yet wholly of a piece with what has transpired prior. “Patterns…” unfolds in consonant fashion with each action and confluence building from underlying indeterminacy into an overarching structure that feels causal and almost determinist in its logic. The room within which the musicians operate also becomes palpable, their ministrations and lack thereof telegraphing indications of dimensions and spatial properties along with proximity between instruments. Whether Akerman and Feldman had any knowledge of the other is irrelevant, but the similarities between their two works almost feel almost preternatural in this regard.

Subjectivity of intent and purpose is perhaps what’s most intriguing and ultimately liberating about Feldman’s mature work. Interpretation is never fixed or absolute and instead mirrors the mutability of the music under scrutiny. The piece works just as well and arguably to a greater degree as an assemblage of present tense incidents as it does a larger aggregate whole, the semblance of static design only manifesting in the aftermath of memory. Events are concrete and in a sensory respect tangible, but their relationships tenaciously retain a remove from rigid reliability. Even the seemingly repeated patterns frequently contain minute and microtonal variations. Feldman was averse to attaching explicit meaning to his compositions, preferring instead to allow the subjective mind of the listener to freely attach significance. “Patterns…” is a musical experience that allows for this primacy of listener input in full.

Derek Taylor

[orka-m]

Trio Inguru with Rajesh Mehta, Rohan de Saram, and Suren de Saram at the Chahut Music Festival, Cevennes, France, August 2019

[elmartillosinmetre]

Hay un tiempo para destruir y un tiempo para crear.

[kovalcharacters]

17) AMM - brytyjska grupa wolnej improwizacji, która została założona w Londynie w Anglii w 1965 roku. Grupa początkowo składała się z Keitha Rowe'a na gitarze, Lou Gare’a na saksofonie i Eddie Prévosta na perkusji. Trzej mężczyźni byli zainteresowani odkrywaniem muzyki poza granicami konwencjonalnego jazzu, podobnie jak free jazz i free improvisation. AMM nigdy nie był popularny, ale miał wpływ na muzykę improwizowaną. Większość ich albumów została wydana przez Matchless Recordings, którą prowadził Eddie Prévost. W wywiadzie z 2001 roku Keith Rowe został zapytany, czy „AMM” jest skrótem. Odpowiedział: „Litery AMM oznaczają coś, ale jak zapewne wiesz, jest to tajemnica!”.                                                        Członkowie:

1. Eddie Prévost – percussion (1965–present)

2. John Tilbury – piano (1980–present)

3. Keith Rowe – guitar (1965–72, 1975–2004)

4. Lou Gare – saxophone (1965–76 i czasami później do ok. 1992)

5. Cornelius Cardew – piano, cello (1966–73)

6. Lawrence Sheaff – accordion, cello (1966–67)

7. Christopher Hobbs – percussion (1968–71)

8. Rohan de Saram – cello (ok. 1986–94)                                                       Dyskografia (wybór):

a. „AMMMusic 1966“ (ReR Megacorp/Matchless, 1966)

b. „The Crypt – 12th June 1968“ (Matchless, 1968)

c. „AMM at the Roundhouse“ (Incus Single/Matchless CD 1972)

d. „It had been an ordinary enough day in Pueblo, Colorado“ (JAPO 1979)

e. „Generative Themes“ (Matchless, 1983)

f. „Combine + Laminates + Treatise ’84“ (Matchless, 1984)

g. „The Inexhaustible Document“ (Matchless, 1987)

h. „The nameless uncarved block“ (Matchless, 1990)

i. „Newfoundland“ (Matchless, 1992)

j. „Live in Allentown USA“ (Matchless, 1994)

k. „Before driving to the chapel we took coffee with Rick and Jennifer Reed“ (Matchless, 1996)

l. „Tunes without Measure or End“ (Matchless, 2000)

ł. „Fine“ (Matchless, 2001)

m. AMM/MEV: „Apogee“ (Matchless, 2004)

n. „Norwich“ (Matchless, 2005)

o. AMM z John’em Butcher’em „Trinity“ (Matchless, 2009)

p. „Uncovered Correspondence – A Postcard From Jasło“ (Matchless, 2010)

r. „Sounding Music“ (Matchless, 2010, z Christianem Wolffem i John’em Butcher’em)

s. „Two London Concerts“ (Matchless, 2012)

t. „Place Sub. V.“ (Matchless, 2014)

[listentotheland]

J.S.Bach Suite No. VI for Cello Rohan de Saram, Cellist Recorded at Harrison House To purchase a copy go to louharrisonhouse.org/shop CD also includes Zoltan Kodaly: Sonata for Cello, Op.8 Please consider supporting Harrison House Music, Arts & Ecology programs. Donations in any amount are appreciated. https://ift.tt/2Yi5D2t

[oneyear-sixteenstrings-blog]

Xenakis: ST/4

Arditti Quartet

Irvine Arditti, first violin David Alberman, second violin Garth Knox, viola Rohan de Saram, cello

Naive MO782137 Recording date: 1991 Duration: [11:11]

When I first listened to the Xenakis quartets in 2011, I thought Tetras, his second quartet, was the big prize. But now I'm returning to ST/4 which was the composer's first foray into the genre. The piece's title in full is ST/4-1, 080262, shorthand for 'the first piece of stochastic music for four instruments, using calculations made by computer on 8 February 1962'. Here the composer is only partially in control. He chooses or develops an algorithm that weighs the possibilities of random events and links those to musical parameters.  Algorithmic music differs from aleatoric music, which is created by chance-driven processes (like throwing dice or I Ching stalks) without adhering to a strict mathematical logic.

The algorithmic basis of many of Xenakis’ pieces turns them, in his own words, into “a form of composition which is not the object in itself, but an idea in itself, that is to say, the beginnings of a family of compositions”.

James Harley provides an interesting perspective on the emergence of ST/4: "In 1962, having succeeded in obtaining access to the computing facilities at IBM-France, Xenakis ran several trials of his algorithm, producing enough data to create a family of works for different ensembles. Each piece is based upon identical principles, with the various constraining factors being adjusted to fit the particularities of each compositional situation (number of instruments, ranges, etc.). The one exception, interestingly, is ST/4, which derives from the same data as ST/10. The basis for the quartet is the adaptation of the string parts of the larger ensemble, into which additional material from other instruments has been added." 

Harley points out that ST/4 is more than a simple transcription as Xenakis made many changes to accommodate new material into the existing string parts. One might perhaps see ST/4 then as a projection of ST/10 in a lower-dimensional space which inevitably led to loss of information and required adjustments to fit key musical material in the new setting. In doing so, Xenakis shows himself a resourceful composer. Some of the percussion material of the original work was adapted as drumming on the bodies of the string instruments. Harley: "Surely, however, the most incredible adaptation of them all comes in his treatment of a descending chromatic scale in the harp (mm. 222-248). In the translation of the computer data into musical notation, this material was in itself an adaptation of the glissando parameter to the distinct features of the harp. In transcribing it for strings, Xenakis opted to preserve the plucked-string character, trading off from instrument to instrument as the scale falls lower and lower. The range of the harp reaches an octave lower than the cello, and this particular gesture continues to the harp's lowest note. Undaunted, the composer requires the cellist to lower the C string with the tuning peg, retuning for each new note, until it is tuned an octave lower than normal. As anyone with even a rudimentary knowledge of string instruments would know, it is treacherously difficult to tune a string onstage in the midst of a demanding performance. As a dramatic gesture, therefore, this manouevre (sic) completely upstages whatever else might be going on around it. Xenakis, however, treats it here as if it were a perfectly ordinary thing for the cellist to do." He concludes: "This audacity highlights an essential characteristic of Xenakis' music. In asking for the impossible from the cellist here, and indeed from the whole quartet in trying to emulate the rhythmic and textural density of an ensemble more than twice its size, Xenakis succeeds in creating a thrillingly intense musical experience for performers and listeners alike. Irvine Arditti, who has played in both versions of the piece, maintains that the quartet is the more successful of the two, simply because of the element of 'risk' that the performers must undergo and communicate in performance."

In an obituary Arditti reflected on his experience of playing the music of Xenakis. In the early 1970s he sought the composer's advice to prepare for the British premier of Mikka: "I had been pondering the very fast glissandi (covering more than three octaves), and told him this was impossible to play. His reply was that I might find it so now, but that in the future I would find a way to do it. Well, Mikka, never got easier, but my understanding of the way to perform Xenakis' music transcended the normal confines of traditional string playing. I was eventually able to understand and give an impression of what he intended. (...) It is still impossible to play the extremely wide, quick glissandi near the beginning, as the distance covered is just too far. A three-octave glissando in an eighth of a second is physically not possible. As an interpreter, one has to make decisions about limitations such as these and almost invent new ways of thinking. (...) Graphic representations of the music may help a string player to understand better the kind of sound Xenakis is aiming for. (...) Xenakis is not a traditional 'musician's composer', in that he comes from a completely other world. This other world has been fascinating for me, and I consider him to be at the forefront of expanding string sonorities in the second part of the twentieth century. Perhaps because of the origins, he is less inclined to be specific about exactly how to execute his music, preferring to leave it to the players to find a way."

So, what are my listening impressions? ST/4 strikes me as a busy piece, an explosive sequence of hard-edged pizzicati, tremolos, glissandi and percussive effects. While textures occasionally loosen up, I hesitate to second Arnold Whittal's description of the piece as revolving around "an extreme contrast between constantly changing durations, dynamics and dynamic patterns, and a far simpler texture which includes a descending chromatic scale with regular note values and a uniform dynamic level." The contrast is there, but it doesn't strike me as providing a reliable ground plan of the piece.

There is no discernible musical process, no way of anticipating what the composer's (or algorithm's) next move will be. You have to listen to it 'in the moment' and deliver yourself to what sounds like an aural picture of Blitzkrieg, with dive bombers, welcomed by ricocheting gunfire, screaming towards their hapless targets. Perhaps it is the sheer energy radiated by the piece that keeps us glued to our seats. The quartet's kinship with the original ST/10 version is unmistakable, but the latter strikes me as mellower and even more conventionally symphonic due to the differentiation of timbres and the more expansive soundstage. Also it strikes me that many individual phrases allotted to instruments found in the symphonic orchestra (clarinet, horn) resonate with my large database of remembered fragments from other modernistic pieces. This creates a hazy simile of an imagined and aborted musical process that in reality isn't there. Returning to the quartet one is struck by the ferocious energy that the members of the Arditti Quartet bring to bear on this piece.

I've also been reflecting about what it tells about me as a listener that I can sit through this piece coolheadedly and even with considerable pleasure. Am I genuinely making sense of this music, or is it just that my long listening experience makes me more or less imperturbable and slightly blasé? At one point I did a lot of travelling, and after a while, I was surprised that I didn't even feel even a tinge of dépaysement when touching down in remote countries such as Mongolia or Gabon. Was it sheer globetrotting experience or did I simply resort to shutting out the foreign elements to keep my composure and focus on the job? To this day I am not able to answer that question.

Sources:

Irvine Arditti (2002) ‘Reflections on performing the string music of Iannis Xenakis’, Contemporary Music Review, 21:2-3, 85-89, DOI: 10.1080/07494460216665. James Harley (1998) ‘The String Quartets of Iannis Xenakis’, Tempo, New Series, No. 203, pp. 2-10. Arnold Whittal (1999) Musical Composition in the Twentieth Century, Oxford University Press, pp. 292-294.

[talk-ischeap]

Bombay Bicycle Club - To The Bone (Watch, Listen, Tell Session)

BBC give a marvellous performance of "To The Bone", which was left out from "So Long, See You Tomorrow", but will see a release on Record Store Day. the video also features Suren's dad Rohan on cello. charming.

[lesser-known-composers]

Emanuel Moor (1863-1931) Suite für zwei Violoncelli op. 95 (1910)

Rohan de Saram, Karolina Öhman Violoncello Giacinto Scelsi Festival 2019 Gare du Nord Basel, 11.01.2019

[theweaveconcept-blog]

ORKA-M Animation Film Production

ORKA-M introduces its near-future plans to enter the animation film production sector with a short experimental animation film entitled "Galactic Dance (2008)" based on the graphical elements from Mehta’s music-artwork “imap 2 (2002)”. ORKA-M animation films have the unique attribute that music is the innovative engine powering the films and even the animation graphics are derived from music.  This particular film was created with the animator/artist Louise Egan in Cork, Ireland in 2005 during Mehta’s Irish Arts Council artist-in-residency. The music is eerily prophetic of the Asian tsunami as it is the recorded material from an improvisation entitled “the four elements” live in concert on Dec. 22, 2004 at the seaside Galle Face hotel, Colombo, Sri Lanka, four days before the devastating Tsunami hit and during which Mehta was still in the vicinity. [flashvideo file=media/imap2animation.flv /] The concert was initiated by Mehta in honor of Cellist Rohan de Saram’s receiving an honorary doctorate in his country and included De Saram on cello, Mehta on Hybrid trumpets, and Sri Lankan percussion maestro Piyasara Shilpadhipathi.

[orka-m]

Trio Inguru with Rajesh Mehta, Rohan de Saram, and Suren de Saram and performance of Stockhausen’s Aus den sieben Tagen at the Chahut Music Festival, Cevennes France August 2019

[orka-m]

Joachim Steinheuer Conversations with Rohan de Saram

http://www.wolke-verlag.de/de-saram.html

Please check out this book of my dear friend and musical colleague, the great Sri Lankan cellist Rohan De Saram! There are photos and reflections of our work together in the book.