So I was thinking of the piece I was talking about in my last blog entry, and thinking just in general about how much I appreciate the lack of light pollution in Dartington. I mean, you can see the milky way. That's pretty impressive, and I do appreciate it. I was thinking of this other composer, David Bedford, and his piece Star Clusters, Nebulae and places in Devon. It's quite easy to be inspired by this place, not only when you have a beautiful clear night sky, but when your surroundings on the ground are equally pleasant.
While I haven't been able to get a recording of this piece, I do have in my possession a copy of Star's End, a piece that he wrote in 1974. I contacted Mr Bedford via email last year when I came across this piece, as the CD sleeve didn't have much information surrounding the ideas behind the music. He wrote:
"The title is actually taken from a novel by science fiction writer Isaac Asimov. The piece itself is to do with the idea of 'entropy' which is the idea that everything rus out of energy and becomes the same, so that at the end of the universe everything will be the same average temperature and everything will be smooth. So the piece starts really jaggedly and gets more and more quiet and peaceful towards the end."
I have to say, I'm a little disappointed that I have to quote a well established composer as describing a piece of music as "jaggedly". Did I get him on a bad day or something? Nonetheless it was nice of him to reply to my enthusastic email, but just a pity that he didn't have much else to say about this piece.
While I haven't been able to get a recording of this piece, I do have in my possession a copy of Star's End, a piece that he wrote in 1974. I contacted Mr Bedford via email last year when I came across this piece, as the CD sleeve didn't have much information surrounding the ideas behind the music. He wrote:
"The title is actually taken from a novel by science fiction writer Isaac Asimov. The piece itself is to do with the idea of 'entropy' which is the idea that everything rus out of energy and becomes the same, so that at the end of the universe everything will be the same average temperature and everything will be smooth. So the piece starts really jaggedly and gets more and more quiet and peaceful towards the end."
I have to say, I'm a little disappointed that I have to quote a well established composer as describing a piece of music as "jaggedly". Did I get him on a bad day or something? Nonetheless it was nice of him to reply to my enthusastic email, but just a pity that he didn't have much else to say about this piece.
Star's End (for large orchestra and guitars) is in two parts and part one opens with a rising string glissando which crescendos into a 4 quaver motif played brashly on all parts. The string glissandi then continue to rise and fall, creating a somewhat placid setting until at 1'07 an unexpected (well I didn't expect it) electric guitar arpeggio is suddenly featuered which, hald a minute later, reappears inverted. An autonomous sounding oboe also stands out over this anticipating environment. The electric guitar is featured before a timpani beat then brings the woodwind and strings into a fluent and rapidly repeating melody which then changes harmony after another timpani roll. These changes continue with a repeated note on guitar. This cluent and fluttering atmosphere continues between strings and woodwind, while lower strings and brass often provide and underlying pedal note, contrasted with crescendo/diminuendo dynamics. Bedford mangages to maintain this atmosphere for quite sometime, gradually increasing the unison crescendo notes.
This section is somewhat striking of Paul McCartney's Standing Stone, with the pedal notes and random interjections from unecpected instruments. Small crescendos and timpani rolls prepare the listenere for something new but the music just seems to digress to a repeated atmosphere with extra input from guitar. From 15 minutes there is a straightforward thumping which is in unision with guitar while strings/brass play a rising and falling theme over what seems like improvisatory guitar playing. This reiteration of theme-crescendo-theme-crescendo quietly dies out into part two.
Part two opens with a very disjointed character before the strings decend into tonal anarchy (oxymoron?) with a rapid and somwhat syncopated rhythmic gesture which encompasses the middle to higher registers. The orchestration builds up and the very odd and out of place electric guitar playing enters. I just can't help shaking off the peculiar and ill-fitting role the guitar plays in this piece, and these anomalous and scale-like interjections continue over an unchanging orchestral atmosphere for a further two minutes before a conventional increasing rhythms throws the pieces back into momentary calm. As well as the somewhat jazz/rock input from the guitar there is also the occasional sound of a drum kit before it creates a modest crescendo marking the rise of a new atmosphere.
In this more mellow section the strings and brass maintain a pedal note as various instruments take their turn to play a faltering theme. The electric guitar plays a melodic riff accompanied by quiet and rapid tremolos on the strings. The rare descending guitar theme persists, sometimes inverted. The timpani signifies another orchestral change before the woodwind descends into a fragmented and crumbling theme which is then imitated by the entire orchestra and eventually the guitar. This gives a real sense of meltdown or total breakdown of something which originally seemed fairly solid and quite together (perhaps the idea of entropy is finally taking hold?). The upper strings then play a slurred ostinato over quiet glissandi on the lower strings, before playing tremolo scales to the higher registers.
The sound of consonant brass signifies a new atmosphere, as a shockingly fervent guitar enters. Upper strings maintain a pedal note while some previously featured themes (perhaps Bedford is treating this like a recapitulation?) before eventually fading out.
To be honest, I'm not completely sold that entropy is being portrayed in this music (each to their own, I know). Entropy is essentially the measure of the dispersion of chaos within a closed system. Within the Universe, the rate of entropy never becomes negative and energy cannot be used or composed without expanding existing energy. Eventually, the Universe may reach a state where all energy is dispersed evenly, cooling to a temperature of absolute zero and no longer being able to sustain life. I suppose this can be applied to Star's End if you point it out. The constant build up and renewal of themes can all be representative of renewable energy - energey produced from energy. It certainly does start 'jaggedly' as David Bedford puts it, and transforms into a drawn out but eventual smooth ending. The chaotic rhythms experiences at the berinning of the piece do point ssomewhat in the direction of the chaotic universe. Bedford is often described as an avant-garde composer and while this piece is (ever so) slightly on the unconventional side, it doesn't seem unconventional within the realm of avant-garde. The electric guitar playing (by Mike Oldfield) is just what makes this piece so bizarre and sordidly eccentric. At no point does it ever appear to fit in; not onlybecause of its timbre but also because of the differing harmonies and over simplistic rhythms. It would be interesting to hear this piece with guitar and drum omitted. Star's End is more often tonal than atonal, and quite often bitonal.
I don't like it very much.
