Klarinet Archive - Posting 001094.txt from 2000/10

From: Clarguy3@-----.com
Subj: Re: [kl] D'Indy Trio
Date: Sat, 21 Oct 2000 09:02:56 -0400

Michael Bryant was kind enough to give you the notes from three of the four
recordings. In the interest of being comprehensive, here are the notes from
the fourth (Roger Drinkall, Dian Baker, Charles West, on Klavier 11088,
recorded 1996):

Vincent D'Indy, unlike Brahms, does not seem to have had one particular
clarinetist in mind when he created his Trio. In fact, so many different
aspects of art and society fascinated D'Indy that it is often impossible to
trace any one significant point of departure for his works. He was both a
devotee of Wagener and German music in general as well as a fierce supporter
of French nationalism in composition. But his interests outside of music
seem to have taken a larger part of his attention during 1887 when he was
composing this Trio, op. 29. The person who was the key ingredient in
D'Indy's artistic and intellectual life during this timewas not a musician
but his friend Octave Maus, who made his living in Brussles as a lawyer but
who spent much of his time organizing art exhibitions and lectures during his
cultural society, the Circle XX.

Maus was particularly fond of ground breaking visual artists among the
Impressionist and Post-Impressionist painters, whom he considered true
revolutionaries. D'Indy took an immediate interest in this group and began
to develop a musical series in which he would often perform and even premier
his own works. Maus and D'Indy shared an admiration for Wagner, and both
also wanted to promote the progressive composers of France, such as Franck,
Faure, and later Debussy and Ravel.

One of these gatherings in 1888 was the site for the premier of D'Indy's
Trio, which he had composed int he previous year. For a work written during
the period when D'Indy was still under the spell of Wagner, the Trio is all
French in that the German qualities are all seen through the style of Franck,
D'Indy's mentor. The older composer would continue to inspire D'Indy and
remain one of his influences throughout his life. Ther is, in fact, little
in the Trio that could be thought of as a direct link to Wagner. D'Indy,
like most composers in France at the time, was looking for a language that
would sound French, while incorporating some of the innovations of German
composers. This trio, like many of his works, has a lightness in scoring,
counterpoint, and harmony that could never be mistaken for Wagner's style.

--notes by Grayson Wagstaff

In a message dated 10/21/00 5:16:11 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
michael@-----.uk writes:

<<
There are four recordings of the Trio, three of which are of
American origin - as is the edition.

Here are some excepts from their notes: Please don't copy
verbatim.... I have enjoyed reading about this work again
and had forgotten that d'Indy played the clarinet.

Beware the lack of acute and grave accents (etc) in what follows:
----------------------------
Pascal Moragues' CD (1989) has good notes in English

D'Indy's Trio in B flat op.29 is a youthful work (1887);
it followed the superb 'Symphonie sur un chant montagnard francais'.
According to the musicologist Leon Vallas, d'Indy, a pianist and
organist, also played the clarinet a little. The form adopted is highly
typical of the cyclic experiments French musicians were making
at the time, in the wake of Franck: the famous Violin Sonata dates
from 1885, the second Piano (Quartet by Faure from 1885-86 and
the Debussy Quartet from 1893. These works, together with many
others, indeed resort to the principle of a main theme which appears
in various rhythmical and harmonic guises, sometimes hardly
recognisable, in the course of the different movements.

In his Trio d'Indy exposes the theme-generator straight away it is
reminiscent of Franck and ends with a charming 'modal echappee'.
Moreover this first movement is not absolutely orthodox in form with
its very moderate introduction and coda, its three themes, momentary
use of 7/8 time and title, Ouverture, rather modest for a movement of
such length and complexity (sometimes excessive in certain developments).

The Divertissement which follows shows on the other hand a remarkable
lightness of touch. In E flat the main thematic element is none other than
the theme-generator of the work, totally transformed in spirit by a very
lively tempo staccato playing on the clarinet and pizzicato on the cello.
Two moderate 'Intermedes', are introduced, like the 'trios', of the
classical minuet style; the first is in the sub-dominant of A flat
and the second in the tonic minor (E flat), presenting an
admirable meditation for the cello, mournful, free and
unfathomable like a folksong.

The slow movement, Chant elegiaque, in D flat, is quite short. It develops
a long, soft, almost sentimental melody for the clarinet, supported by
peaceful chords derived from the first four notes of the theme-generator.

The last movement is built on a capering piano motif that seems to have
escaped from some sprightly operetta overture. The composer has
cleverly devised a series of different melodic and harmonic versions of it.
The motif and its variants alternate with episodes in turn brilliant or
lyrical, pride of place being given to the cello meditation from the
Divertissement (second 'Intermede'); here and there the arrangement
of the melodic lines in thirds, so dear to Brahms, can be noticed
(his clarinet Trio was written four years after the d'Indy work).
The theme-generator appears naturally, over the motif of the finale
(letter J in the score), then alone, on the cello, relaxed and lyrical,
bathed in the soft, iridescent light of spread chords
on the piano: a brief reminder of the beginning of Faure's Trio.

The piano part, extremely difficult, draws attention to the fact that d'Indy
studied very early in life under two famous masters: Antoine Marmontel
and Louis Diemer; his keyboard ability enabled him to frequently
perform his Trio in public and it remained one of his favorite works.
He gave the first performance of it on 7th January 1888 at the Societe
Nationale de Musique, together with the clarinetist Delsart and cellist
Jules Griset. The performance was repeated in Brussels on 7th February
of the same year organized by the XX, an artistic association which
simultaneously presented exhibitions and concerts of .'modern' music,
inspired by Octave Maus to whom we owe the revelation of the works
by Franck, Debussy or Faure. In token of his gratitude, both enthusiastic
and clairvoyant, d'Indy dedicated his Clarinet Trio to him; it is certainly
one of his finest chamber works.
---------------------------------
John Russo LP (undated)

d'Indy's style rests on Bach and Beethoven; however his deep study of
Gregorian Chant and the early contrapuntal style add an element of severity
and not rarely of complexity, that render approach somewhat difficult. This
trio, although monumental, is not quite so complex as his later music. It
was composed in 1888 a few years latter completing studies with Cesar
Franck, and like Franck's popular d minor symphony is in cyclical style.
The trio opens with a soaring romantic theme repeated five times with
various episodes between each repetition. The second theme is an antipode in
its relationship to the first. It is static melodically but harmonically it
contains some very interesting colors. It is.a shorter theme and is repeated
four times with episodes between based on the theme itself. Later a regular
development, the first theme is used as a transition into the
recapitulation. This practice, in the latter eighteenth century, was known
as "false recapitulation." The recapitulation is regular, and a short coda
ends the movement.

The Dlvertlssement is a scintillating piece of music full of all sorts of
harmonic and rhythmic surprises, such as different time signatures for the
two hands at the piano and/or the cello and clarinet. More importantly to be
noted Is the cyclical procedure mentioned earlier. The theme of the second
movement is a notational duplication (only) of the first theme of the first
movement. This melodic agreement results in a subtle but effective form of
unification. The overall form of the movement is ABACA with the final A
dividing up ACA.

In the third movement, Chant Elegiaque, one finds the clarinet and the cello
weaving a beautiful melody under which the piano is playing solemn half note
chords. The melody of these chords employs the tirst four notes of the main
theme in the first movement. This device In the piano part runs through the
whole movement; a fact that dispels any thought that d'Indy may have used it
accidentally. The movement consists of a melody repeated and altered four
times, followed by a small coda derived from the permutation of a motive
found in the "C" section of the second movement.

The final movement unifies Itself and itself with the rest of the
composition by using various cyclical and repetitive devices. The first and
second themes, although completely different in character, are composed of
the exact same notes. In the development section, the main theme from
movement one is heard in its entirety, however, it is augmented by changing
the time signature from four-four to six-four. At the end of the same
section, snatches of the motive from the end of movement three (derived from
movement two) are heard. Finally, after a regular recapitulation, the coda
contains a further augmentation of the main theme from movement one.
------------------------------------
John Gates' LP (1977)

D'indy: Trio in Bb Major, O P. 29 Vincent d'fndy was a multi-faceted
musician. Composer, teacher, researcher, nobleman who would
involve himself with music in whatever capacity that he could,
d'Indy has a long list of impressive credentials which include:
director of the Societe Nationale de Musique
(an organization founded for the promotion of French music);
Professor at the Paris Conservatory; founder of the Schola Cantorum
(a society intended for the reformation of Catholic liturgical music);
biographer of Beethoven and Franck; and, finally, author of the
influential 'Cause de Composition musicale', a monumental work that
is in effect a. manual of composition and a music history in one.
D'Indy's Trio in B-Flat Major, Opus 29, for clarinet; cello and piano, was
composed in 1887 and first performed in Paris at the Societe Nationale on
7 January 1888. Dedicated to Octave Maus, a friend of d'Indy's and the
director of an artistic association in Brussels called. Les Vingt, the Trio
was a particular favorite of its composer, who not only used it for
illustration in his composition classes but also contlnued to perform it in
public (playing the piano part) throughout his long lifetime.
The composition of the Trio occurred at a significant turning point in
d'Indy's career. Until about that time d'Indy had been a firm advocate of
German music, his sojourns in Germany and consequent exposure to
the musical currents there having left a strong impression on him,
prompting his enthusiasm for Wagner in particular. A number of factors,
however, caused d'Indy to turn towards French models, and;in 1886,
the year before the composition of the Trio, Opus 29, the
composer took a definitive nationalistic stance with his Symphony on a
French Mountain Air for piano and orchestra. This, d'Indy's most famous
work, uses a French folk tune throughout, adopting in so doing the cyclic
techniques of d'Indy's teacher Cesar Franck, the Trio Opus 29, once again
uses the cyclic principle, and although there is no overt use of folk song
here, there is an attempt to maintain a nationalistic idiom. Perhaps even
the choice of clarinet was meant to appeal to the French predilection for
blending together new heterogeneous colors into traditional media, (Witness
both Franck's and d'Indy's so-called symphonies with prominent piano parts
and Saint-Saens' symphony with organ.)
In using the clarinet instead of the violin as a partner in the piano trio,
d'Indy had few precedents. Beethoven's Opus 11 is the
most famous work in this category; it.was followed by the similarly disposed
trios of F. Ries (before 1838), F. Skraup (1846), F. Huenten (1851), and E.
Hartmann (1870). Then, soon after d'Indy's Trio of 1887, Brahms enriched.
this repertory with his Opus 114 in 1892. Doubtless d'Indy chose the
clarinet with deliberation. Ever since reading Berlioz's Traite
d'instrumentation as a sixteen year old, d'Indy considered the exploration
of tone color one of the most exciting aspects of composition. Moreover,
that he himself played the clarinet and was partial to it certainly equipped
him to write effectively for the instrument. A few passages do in fact seem
specially written for the clarinet, for example, the jocose theme at the
beginning of the second movement. Then, too, d'Indy takes advantage of the
clarinet's extended lower range by having this instrument cross below the
cello part on occasion and play in its low chalumeau register.
The result is a muted, mellow sound which has a distinctively French
quality.
As an exponent of Franckism it was natural for d'Indy to use cyclic
technique, the technique which, as he himself put it in his Cours de
composition, "subordinates the structure to certain themes which reappear in
various forms in each movement, acting as regulators and making for unity."
The Trio involves several recurring ideas, but it is the very first theme,
and in particular its first four notes, that permeates the entire
composition, being present in each movement, Although this procedure
naturally delimits thematic material, the Trio attains a vitality and
freshness as a result of the many remarkable transformations to which
recurring ideas are subject, Even within the opening section of the first
movement (Ouverture) this is apparent. Above the subdued broken octaves of
the piano, the Principal Subject (hereafter called PS) makes a tentative
initial entry. Successive repetitions of the PS become increasingly more
urgent, until the music climaxes with a presentation of the theme by the
clarinet and then the cello, both singing out in their upper registers, with
the piano providing in the background an agitated whirlpool of harmonies.
The Divertissement, in Scherzo -Trio form, is a sheer delight. In the
Scherzo (lntermede !, in d'indy's terminology) the PS undergoes a
fascinating metamorphosis in which it becomes, as a result of rhythmic
alternation, a rollicking tune. The Trio (Intermede II) affords a spell
of relaxation, with the cello solo presenting a lilting theme that will
subsequently reappear in the Finale. There follows a return of the
boisterous Scherzo in all its glory, and at the very end, a fleeting
reference to the theme of the Trio, this time performed by the clarinet,
who was denied the opportunity to present it before.
For the lovely Chant EIegiaque d'Indy uses an age old device, the ostinato,
his choice here perhaps having inspired his successor Maurice Ravel, who
employed the same technique in the corresponding movement of his solo piano
trio of 1914. D'Indy bases both the ostinato itself (piano part) as well as
the melody above it on the PS, transforming the melody, however, through the
insertion of additional notes and through the adoption of a rhythm that
comes from the second subject of the Ouverture. The movement as a whole has
a terraced effect. A long clarinet solo is followed by a more intense cello
solo; then, as both instruments join together, the music becomes
increasingly more assertive, with the chords of the piano thickening and the
two other instruments swelling to a fuller sound.
The Finale recalls and further develops several ideas from previous
movements. A rondo, it features the cello's theme from the second movement
as the refrain. Having played the lead part in the three earlier movements,
the PS is now content to be cast in a subordinate role as one of the
episodes, although even in this capacity it draws some attention. Efforts
are made to-expose all of the main ideas in this concluding peroration.
------------------

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