AN UNSUNG MODERNIST
An Introduction to the music of Denis ApIvor
Recently I met the
composer
Denis ApIvor at his home in Saltdean.
Earlier in the year I had played the violin part in a performance of his
Violin Sonata and so together with my
accompanist on that occasion, Yeu Meng Chan, I drove down to the south
coast in
order that Denis might hear the work as he had been unable to attend the
concert in person. Before we played the
Sonata we were treated to some of the composer’s musical reminiscences
which
stretch back to the 1920’s. He
frequently spoke of people who had meant the most to him throughout his
career
particularly Constant Lambert, Warlock, Edward Clark, (who was
responsible for
putting on the concert that featured the Violin
Sonata’s first performance at the Wigmore Hall in 1947), William Glock
and others. It was quickly clear that the other arts have
played an important part in his life. He
mentioned the importance to himself of Dylan Thomas and Paul Klee. The
fact that he knew many of these artists
personally gave his reminiscences all the more force. A few weeks later
Denis sent me a tape
consisting of extracts of his works.
Although they are in the main old recordings presumably from broadcasts
enough of the music shines through to give an impression of an
individual
composing voice. As I listened, I was
struck by the music’s originality, vitality and it’s often exploratory
nature,
a nature which nevertheless arises from the source of inspiration, which
is
often literary or painterly. Rather than
embark on a survey of his entire output, a task which would require a
book in
itself, I have set down a few brief notes that represent my reactions to
the
wide variety of music on the tape, in the hope that other performers
might be
inspired to programme them in concerts or recording projects. The very
fact that ApIvor has written for a
wide range of different instrumental and vocal groupings should allow
all sorts
of performers to find something to play from his work list.
1. Clarinet Quintet (2 excerpts) op.
60.
These short excerpts show the
composer writing in a style influenced in part by the work of Webern.
2. Harp-Piano Piano-Harp, op.41
This is clearly a remarkable
work of contemporary keyboard music. The
excerpt presented is in the manner of a moto perpetuo.
3. Orgelberg, op.50
Part of an organ work
inspired by Paul Klee. Highly dramatic
chordal writing is much to the fore in the extract. Denis became a practitioner on the organ
during his time at Hereford Cathedral and this is clear from the idiomatic
writing for the instrument.
4. El Silencio Ondulado, op.51
This is a wonderful hushed
and shimmering work featuring a solo guitar supported by the extraordinary
sound of flutes, percussion and strings.
The composer has written much for the guitar and these pieces taken
together with those by Reginald Smith Brindle form a major contribution to 20th
century guitar writing.
5. Concertante for Horn and Piano, op.71
A slow excerpt of quiet and
richly expressive music. Given the relatively small amount of music for this
combination of instruments it ought to be in every horn players repertoire.
6. Overtones, op.33
Here are three pieces from a
cycle of 12 based on paintings by Klee. Twitter Machine is utterly amazing music.
High pitched instruments flit and flutter through space without
pause. It might bare interesting
comparison with Searle’s most ‘advanced’ work; his 4th Symphony as well as Maxwell Davies’s take on the same painting from his Five Klee Pictures, the
first version of which dates from the same year as ApIvor’s work, 1962. Sun and
Moon Flowers also present wonderful
textures of sound. Uncomposed Objects in Space brings lower brass to the fore and
features a prominent piano part. If the
whole cycle of 12 pieces is as good as these selections the whole work ought to
be commercially recorded as a matter of great urgency as it could emerge as a
classic of British modernism.
7. Psycho-Pieces, op.55 for
clarinet and piano
A gentle piano part of rolled
chords supports a melancholy clarinet melody.
8. Crystals, op.39
This is again very original
in style. The composer finds some
fantastic sonorities with guitar and Hammond
organ featured with extensive percussion.
The excerpt is another moto perpetuo.
I was sometimes put in mind of Boulez’s later orchestrations of his
early piano pieces, Notations,
although ApIvor uses chamber forces as opposed to the large orchestra deployed
by the Frenchman.
9. Harp-Piano Piano-Harp (2nd excerpt)
This features lovely
interplay between piano and harp sounds.
Denis also uses a piano with its action removed so that it is played in
a harp or cimbalom-like manner. The
sounds conjured are almost akin to electronic music which makes it all the more
remarkable that the composer was able to hear and notate these sounds exactly.
10. Mutations, op.34 for cello
and piano
Here, lyrical episodes are
followed by fragmented and playful music of a joyful nature.
11. Cello Concerto, op.64
I think this is an excerpt of
the slow movement of this powerful work.
Denis played us the first movement during our afternoon visit. The language is less radical than some of the
earlier pieces on the sampler. This
allows the cello to explore a rich vein of lyricism to which the orchestra
responds with a web of beautiful lines and chords. I have yet to hear the finale but on the
strength of the first two movements it would be another candidate for urgent
performance and recording.
12. Two Songs
The first of these is a
dramatic setting of Cancion de Jinete to
words by Lorca. It forms part of a cycle
of songs entitled Six Songs of Garcia
Lorca, op.8a. The translation into
English is the composer’s own, indeed he has translated the complete verse of
Lorca in 7 volumes. There are many
Spanish inflexions in the melody and the piano has figures redolent of flamenco
style. Indeed the cycle was later
arranged for voice and guitar. The
second song, If Thou Wilt Ease Thy Heart
of Love, is from a different cycle of Four
Poems of Thomas Lovell Beddoes, op.24.
This is a very beautiful song with heart-rending melodies and
harmonies. Both these songs are
performed by the wonderful tenor, Wilfred Brown with Wilfred Parry at the piano
in performances that are so sensitive that a company like Symposium might be
persuaded to issue them as part of their archive recordings series.
14. Ballet; Corporal Jan, op.42
Two excerpts are played here;
the first is Corporal Jan’s Dream
which is nervous and full of hushed expectation, the second is Appearance of the Triple Goddess
15. Act 3 of Yerma, op.28
This opera was
performed at
Sadlers Wells and later broadcast on the
Third Programme largely due to the efforts of Arthur Bliss and William
Glock,
among others. It sounds very powerful
indeed, with some fine writing for full chorus, taking the part of
revellers, buskers and dancers. There is a feeling of menace and
unbridled
emotion which is channelled into the interplay between the old woman and
Yerma. The old woman’s taunting is chillingly
handled and Yerma is propelled into the hysterical accidental killing of
her
own husband. Her subsequent lament is
very moving. Perhaps the BBC recording
still exists. The opera deserves a new
one in any case, with the full benefits of modern recording that that
would
afford. On the evidence of the 3rd
act, this is an important 20th century opera. Written as it was in the mid 1950’s, it also
represents a remarkably advanced musical language for British music of it’s
time, which reflects Denis’s cosmopolitan outlook and his rejection of insular
attitudes, attitudes that have no doubt played their part in his music’s
comparative neglect.
This brief survey of
Denis
ApIvor’s work only scratches the surface of his musical personality. He
has 101 opuses to his credit. Many large scale works still await
performance and recording. Even before
his adoption, in 1960, of serial techniques following his study of
Webern’s
music, Denis clearly possessed a radical idiom and a determination to
explore
new sounds and this is borne out by earlier works such as Yerma and by
the somewhat Bartokian Violin Sonata which myself and Yeu Meng so
enjoyed performing. He regards his assimilation of serial
technique as a sort of ‘graduation’ and it was simply baffling to him
that
music written in this way could be rejected out of hand by critics as if
it
were a matter of dogma alone. Much of
the most recent music does not use the serial method. What shines
through any technical considerations
however, is the extraordinary ear the composer possesses, as shown by
works
such as Overtones. Whereas there were aspects of the musical
establishment during the middle decades of the last century that were
distrustful of foreign influence, especially if it smacked of modernism,
(for
example; the suggestion that Britten should not study with Alban Berg
despite
the encouragement of Frank Bridge), Denis sought to embrace these
influences
and assimilate them into a new and original style of his own. In this
he shares qualities with other
British composers like Smith Brindle, Searle, Gerhard and Lutyens. It
is commonly suggested that the generation
born in the 1930’s, and including such composers as Maxwell Davies and
Birtwistle, was the first to make a rapprochement with modernism in
music. Searle, ApIvor and others could all too
carelessly be dismissed as ‘transitional figures’, a notion which I
think
mistaken. What composer ever thinks to
him or herself, ‘I am a transitional figure’?
Hindsight can sometimes distort our historical perspective. That a
genuine current of modernist figures
existed before the 1960’s is borne out by Denis’s music and those of
similar
mind. Indeed the current goes further
back than one might assume. The late
works of Bridge or the early works of Bush and Darnton are a cases in
point, as
are the songs of Van Dieren and Warlock
– significantly two of Denis’s favourite composers.
As far as I am aware there
are no commercially available recordings of Denis’s music, a situation which
should surly be remedied. He is
unfortunate in that the perception of current received thought places him ‘in
between’ the Tippett/Britten generation and the Maxwell Davies/Birtwistle
generation. If ApIvor is allowed to fall
through this imaginary gap, we as performers and listeners might condemn
ourselves as having been too lazy to explore his music, whose fascinating
sounds await us if we take the trouble.
David
Hackbridge Johnson 2004