Notes and Editorial Reviews
BOYKAN
Second Chances
1,7.
Song Lines.
2,3,4,6
Motet.
1,3,5,6
String Quartet No. 3
8
•
1
Pamela Dellal (mez);
2
Sarah Brady (fl);
3
Mark Margolies (cl);
4
Heidi Braun-Hill (vn);
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class="SUPER12">5
Mary Ruth Ray (va);
6
Rafael Popper-Keizer (vc);
7
Donald Berman (pn);
8
Lydian Str Qrt
•
ALBANY TROY 1196 (61:07
Text and Translation)
Martin Boykan (who was born in 1931) has an impressive roster of composition teachers, having studied with Copland, Piston, and Hindemith. He also studied piano with Eduard Steuermann. In the 50s he was a founding member of the Brandeis Ensemble, whose repertoire was divided between the contemporary and the less so.
This CD joins a small number of discs of his music, presenting three fairly recent works and the earlier third string quartet (from 1984). The song cycle
Second Chances
dates from 2005 and sets a number of poems by Mary Oliver, arranged by the composer into a sequence that reflects the passing year “not as a literal description of the seasons, but as a spiritual metaphor.” The texts are well suited to setting: both sparse in words and yet vivid, imaginative, and highly pictorial. They clearly inspired the composer to word-painting for which the same adjectives seem appropriate. The performance would seem to be remarkably attentive; certainly one often feels that every note, every accent counts. In his fascinating book,
Silence and Slow Time: Studies in Musical Narrative
(2004), bits of which I have been enjoying thanks to Google Books, Boykan writes, “In an essay dating from 1912, Schoenberg complains about the critic who dismisses a composition because it ‘does not do justice to the words of the poet.’ … People who dislike a song almost never point to a problem with harmony and counterpoint, with pacing or formal balance; the complaint is always directed at text setting.” Boykan’s text-setting in
Second Chances
seems to be at the highest level. Where I part company with him—where I find myself admiring his songs rather than enjoying them—is the more or less formal serial process that seems to be involved in their composition and which, inevitably, results in an ungrateful vocal line. Without a score and, frankly, some help (none being available in the CD booklet or on the Internet that I could find), my description of the composition has to be provisional. And the final movement of the work, a reprise of the opening lines following a limpid, pellucid piano solo,
is
a delight.
The other vocal work on this disc, titled simply Motet, originally for mezzo-soprano accompanied by a consort of viols (2001), is here presented in its 2005 revision for mezzo, clarinet, viola, and cello. In two parts, the motet sets lines from the
Song of Songs
in an amalgamation of the Renaissance with the synagogue. It starts with a powerful solo for cello before the viola and then the mezzo steal in. Again the text setting is of a high order, the instrumental trio lending the work a Schoenbergian flavor.
Song Lines
(2001), for flute, clarinet, violin, and cello, feels like a companion piece to the Motet, its forces deliberately those of
Pierrot lunaire, sans
piano, percussion, and conductor. If the Motet could be heard as languorous, the moods of
Song Lines
(named after Bruce Chatwin’s novel) are more varied. Running under nine minutes in a single movement, Boykan’s music is, even without the human voice, intensely lyrical and expressive.
The earlier string quartet is a more muscular work, consisting of two movements that precede a longer finale of a theme and variations. As with the other works on the disc, the quartet shows its lineage, the Second Viennese School and Beethoven particularly. Running at around 17 minutes, the quartet has a real sense of scale; one has the clear impression of a master entirely at ease with his chosen tools. All the works on this disc show a similar integrity and intensity, the musical language cerebral but able to express emotion and imagery. Boykan says he remains “impressed by Cynthia Ozick’s warning that ‘less is less’” while turning in works that make the most of modest material. The performances sound committed and expert (I particularly like Donald Berman’s piano in
Second Chances
), and the sound is fine.
FANFARE: Jeremy Marchant
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Works on This Recording
1.
Second Chances by Martin Boykan
Performer:
Donald Berman (Piano),
Pamela Dellal (Mezzo Soprano)
Period: 21st Century
Written: USA
2.
Song Lines by Martin Boykan
Performer:
Rafael Popper-Keizer (Cello),
Mark Margolies (Clarinet),
Heidi Braun-hill (Violin),
Sarah Brady (Flute)
Period: 21st Century
Written: USA
3.
Motet by Martin Boykan
Performer:
Rafael Popper-Keizer (Cello),
Mary Ray (Viola),
Pamela Dellal (Mezzo Soprano),
Mark Margolies (Clarinet)
Period: 21st Century
Written: USA
4.
Quartet for Strings no 3 by Martin Boykan
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Lydian String Quartet
Period: 21st Century
Written: USA
Sound Samples
Second Chances: No. 1. Prologue: Lingering in Happiness
Second Chances: No. 2. The Loon on Oak-Head Pond
Second Chances: No. 3. Last Days
Second Chances: No. 4. Wolf Moon
Second Chances: No. 5. Crossing the Swamp
Second Chances: No. 6. Morning in a New Land
Second Chances: No. 7. Epilogue: After Rain
String Quartet No. 3: I. Teneramente, tempo flessibile
String Quartet No. 3: II. Scherzando
String Quartet No. 3: III. Tema con variazioni
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