Listen & tracks
1 of 27 tracks have a preview · 11 works · 67:13
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Benny's GigMorton Gould 8 movements12:31
- 1 slow and nostalgic 2:15
- 2 brisk, with drive :36
- 3 very slow and hesitant 1:47
- 4 brisk :59
- 5 slowly 1:46
- 6 Calypso Serenade 1:53
- 7 lazily moving 1:15
- 8 jaunty 2:00
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9 Phyton le Mervilleus Serpent Guillaume de Machaut 2:54
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10 Famous Blue Raincoat Leonard Cohen 5:07
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11 Mille Regretz Josquin des Prez 1:50
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12 Hallelujah Leonard Cohen 4:53
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Blue JeansWilliam Thomas McKinley 4 movements11:56
- 13 Drone 2:56
- 14 Vamp 2:30
- 15 Tango 3:48
- 16 To Bird 2:42
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17 Browning Elway Bevin 3:20
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18 Sit Fast Christopher Tye 5:47
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19 A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square Eric Maschwitz 7:00
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20 Logic in Transit Khai-Wei Choong 4:49
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8 Airs autour du TangoGustavo Beytelmann 3 movements7:06
- 21 No. 4 3:08
- 22 No. 6 2:23
- 23 No. 8 1:35
The programme grew from a 2008 staff concert at Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University. Morton Gould’s Benny’s Gig opens with eight clarinet and double-bass duos written for Benny Goodman. Machaut and Josquin stand beside Cohen songs arranged by Jonathan Henderson and delivered in an art-song manner, so that texts of love, jealousy and betrayal speak across centuries.
William Thomas McKinley’s Blue Jeans, Renaissance consort pieces by Bevin and Tye, an improvised A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square, Choong’s Logic in Transit for bass clarinet and piano, and Beytelmann’s tango airs complete a journey that treats jazz, popular song and early polyphony as one continuous conversation.
In the artist’s words
This recording is a result of a concert organised as part of the staff concert series at Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University in April, 2008.
The original premise was to illustrate the cross fertilisation of folk/popular and jazz genres that occur in classical music and to play early music (14th–16th centuries) on modern instruments without regard for any “purist” concerns.
This approach was also used for the songs of Leonard Cohen where they were arranged by the very talented Jonathan Henderson for a chamber music ensemble. This was taken further by the songs being sung in a manner closer to art song or lieder. I also thought it would be interesting to juxtapose the Cohen songs with earlier songs by Machaut and Josquin in order to emphasise what they have in common as regards the concerns expressed in the texts (the pain of love, jealousy, and betrayal).
Mitchell Leigh’s improvisations between the old and the new serve brilliantly as a transition to each of the Cohen songs.
Also, I think early music from the 14th to 16th century can sound very effective on modern instruments which preserve and honour the music’s melodic and especially its rhythmic impact. This has long been a practice in the performance of J.S. Bach’s music which can now be heard on anything from a grand piano to a brass quintet.
A number of works show the importance of jazz influence in the 20th century. In Khai-Wei Choong’s Logic in Transit we hear a very unusual rendering of A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square by Eric Maschwitz and music by Manning Sherwin and Jack Strachey. This is preceded by John Stefulj and Pat Marchisella’s version of the song. Their imaginative improvisation will further enhance the listener’s appreciation of Choong’s version for bass clarinet and piano.
Finally, we close with a dance form: Gustavo Beytelmann’s Airs autour du Tango.
Artists
Floyd Williams
clarinet, bass clarinet
Floyd Williams is Senior Lecturer in Clarinet at the Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University, Brisbane. He has performed worldwide as principal and solo clarinettist and is a leading teacher of the instrument.
JANUS
ensemble
Josquin des Prez
composer
Josquin des Prez shaped Renaissance vocal polyphony into something keenly expressive: independent voices that imitate, answer and lock around the text. Masses, motets and chansons still sound alive in the throat.
Guillaume de Machaut
composer
Guillaume de Machaut's songs of courtly love sit at the heart of fourteenth-century French music: virelais, ballades and rondeaux where longing, grace and intricate rhyme meet the rhythmic daring of the ars nova.
Christopher Tye
composer
Christopher Tye (c. 1505–before 1573) was an English Renaissance composer and organist, noted for sacred choral music and chamber polyphony. Only a fraction of his output survives, among it masses, anthems and a celebrated series of In nomines.
Elway Bevin
composer
Gustavo Beytelmann
composer
Khai-Wei Choong
composer
Leonard Cohen
composer
Leonard Cohen wrote songs of love, loss, faith and betrayal in spare, hymn-like lines that singers keep returning to. On these recordings Hallelujah and Famous Blue Raincoat sit beside early music and theatre, treated as chamber and art-song repertoire.
Morton Gould
composer
Jonathan Henderson
composer
Eric Maschwitz
composer
William Thomas McKinley
composer
Manning Sherwin
composer
Jack Strachey
composer
Digital booklet
Digital booklet Notes, texts and credits — read online or download the PDF Download the PDFPerformers
- Floyd Williams · clarinet, bass clarinet · all except track 19
- JANUS · ensemble
- Mitchell Leigh · piano · tracks 10, 12–16, 20–23
- Pat Marchisella · double bass · tracks 1–12, 17–19
- Gregory Massingham · tenor · tracks 9–12
- Patricia Pollett · viola · tracks 9–12, 17 and 18
- John Stefulj · alto saxophone · track 19
Technical credits
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Producer
Floyd Williams
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Recording Engineer
David Spearritt
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Editing Engineer
David Spearritt
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Mastering Engineer
David Spearritt
Details
- List price
- $25.00 AUD
- Total playing time
- 67 minutes 13 seconds
- Release date
- 2010
- Categories
- Australian, Baroque, Classical, Jazz
- Musical work copyright
- © 2010 Move Records
- Sound recording copyright
- ℗ 2010 Move Records
- Catalogue
- MD 3337
- EAN
- 9314574333725
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