From the bells, bells, bells, bells...

When composer-conductor Oliver Knussen wrote a piece in memory of his friend and fellow composer Toru Takemitsu he called it Prayer Bell Sketch. Why? 

Well, concentrating on the 'Bell' bit, the music of Toru Takemitsu is saturated in bell-sounds. Stylistically his art's most obvious Western roots lie in Debussy, Ravel and Messiaen. Those composers shared his love of bell-sounds and each produced works which celebrate their magical properties. An especially beautiful example by Debussy is Cloches à travers les feuilles from his second book of Images for piano and from Ravel's Miroirs there's the captivating La Vallée de Cloches. Messiaen's Noël from Vingt Regards is but one magnificent example from that composer's output. 

Literal bells are regular players in Takemitsu's orchestral works, such as in From me flows what you call time (closing section), but they are also evoked - as in the above examples from the French masters - in works for solo piano, such as the lovely Rain Tree Sketch II. Now, this piece isn't primarily about evoking bells (unlike the other pieces linked to) but the chords are placed in such a way and packed with harmony in such a way as to suggest bells sounding in a sodden (temple?) garden. 

When Oliver Knussen composed his Prayer Bell Sketch in loving memory of Toru Takemitsu, he picked up on his friend's love of bells - as well, of course, on the use of the word 'Sketch' and the ritualistic, meditative character of the Japanese composer's music implied by 'Prayer'. He took one of Takemitsu's favourite chords and made a collage of bell-sounds from it. The sonorities Knussen draws from the piano are easy to recognise as being in a direct line of descent from Debussy and Ravel through Messiaen and onto Takemitsu. The act of homage to a friend, suitably dreamy and sad, also pays tribute to the composers whose music meant so much to that friend - which is a lovely touch. 

At a slight tangent, I think this is as good a place as any to recommend a particularly magical piece by Edvard Grieg called Bell Ringing from his Lyric Pieces for piano, Op.54. This is a remarkable piece, composed some 16 years before Debussy's Images II and yet a perfect piece of musical impressionism avant la lettre, strikingly advanced for its time. The hidden greatness of Grieg is a theme I intend to return to. 

Chasing Syrinx

Flautists seems to be very fond of Claude Debussy's Syrinx. 

It was historically important as it brought solo flute music back from the dead. There don't seem to have been any important works for solo flute since the days of the Bach Family. Since Syrinx, however, solo flute works have become much more common. So flautists can be grateful to Debussy for that. 

However, they're doubtless really fond of it because it's such a beguiling piece, short but full of dreams and sensuality and beauty. It's all melody, spinning out from the phrase heard at the start. Whether it depicts the nymph Syrinx being chased by the god Pan or the lament of Pan, it has a wonderfully exotic sound, thanks to its use of chromaticism and the whole tone scale as well as to its use of arabesques and incantatory repetition. Its phrases tend to fall at the end, like tears or sighs, culminating in the final diminuendo on a descending whole tone scale. This weight of expression expressed with French delicacy is another reason flautists love Syrinx. It's phrase structuring sounds so spontaneous, improvisatory even, but Debussy builds it in a long arc towards the climax and the closing dying away. It lasts less than three minutes, but packs a punch well above its weight. 

Flautists tend to want to stamp their own individual responses on their performances of Syrinx. It's one of those works that needs to be heard performed by a range of performers. If you click on the following links you'll hear what I mean. No performance sounds alike.

Jean-Pierre Rampal 

James Galway

Marcel Moyse

Jane Rutter

Emmanuel Pahud

Irina Stachinskaya 

Another famous classic of the 20th Century solo flute repetoire is Edgar Varèse's Density 21.5 (written for the platinum flute, the title refers to the specific gravity of the element). It lasts not much longer than the Debussy (around four minutes) and also packs a punch beyond its weight. Though Varèse seems to have sought to consciously distance himself from Debussy's Syrinx, it was his model and, whatever his intentions, it seems clear to me that Density 21.5 has much in common with Syrinx. You feel it straight away, in the quiet, mysterious opening, where a chromatic melodic cell is spun out into melody, with the same air of (illusory) spontaneity. It's a beautiful opening. Later though, Varèse veers towards atonality, making much of the tritone (the devil in music) and taking chromaticism much further than Debussy. Moreover, the intervals in his melodic lines are prone to much wider leaps, generally (but not always) upwards, for, whereas the phrase in the Debussy piece tended to fall, those of Density 21.5 tend to rise, aspire, soar.  Like the Debussy though, it has a definite overall shape - crudely put, a journey from darkness to light. I'm very fond of the piece, though when I first heard it (many years ago) I didn't get it. Tastes can change.

There are a number of performances of Density 21.5 on YouTube. They are all individual, of course, but this composer leaves them much  less space for expressive license:

Lawrence Beauregard

Jonathan Brahms

Laura Pou

Egbert Jan Louwerse

Finally, if you enjoy Syrinx and Density 21.5, it's likely you'll warm to Air by everyone's favourite Japanese classical composer, the late Toru Takemitsu. Takemitsu composed many quiet, reflective works reflecting his country's landscapes and gardens, drawing on the music of Debussy and Messiaen above all, though not without a little serial input, to express his deeply poetic worldview. The results can be very attractive. Air is a solo work flute that clearly owes something to Syrinx and I suspect also to Density 21.5. Chromaticism, touches of the whole tone scale, modal writing (after the manner of Messiaen), all inform his melodic writing, with little melodic hooks drawing the listener in. You can listen to it here. I hope you do!