Klarinet Archive - Posting 000067.txt from 2008/05

From: Simon Aldrich <simonaldrich@-----.ca>
Subj: [kl] re:Gnarly Buttons
Date: Mon, 12 May 2008 00:43:26 -0400

Dan Leeson wrote:
"Yesterday, Apr. 12, the Classical TV network showed a performance of =20=

the
beginning of John Adams Gnarly Buttons, with a small and eclectic =20
orchestra
accompanying the soloist, Andre Trouttel.
While I was not favorably inclined to the piece, it is clearly a =20
heavy piece
of work for the clarinetist."

I have played Gnarly Buttons a number of times, most recently a few =20
months ago on the west coast with the Victoria Symphony (in Victoria, =20=

BC).
Gnarly Buttons is Adams' most personal and autobiographical work.
One could even say it is his most cathartic work because it is a =20
memorial tribute to his father, who he lost to Altzeimers. It is a =20
tribute using his father's favourite instrument, the clarinet.
Adams was taught the clarinet by his father and they played in =20
marching bands and community orchestras together. He grew up with the =20=

music of Benny Goodman, Mozart, and Weber always playing on the =20
family's stereo.
The underlying influences in the work are two polar extremes in =20
Adams' life with the clarinet: the music he absorbed while growing up =20=

- Goodman, Mozart, marching bands etc. on one end--and on the other =20
end, the experience of watching his father's disintegrating =20
relationship to the instrument he loved, as brought on by Alzheimer's =20=

disease.
And this extreme is depicted in the slow third movement, the =20
emotional centerpiece of the concerto.
As the Alzheimer's progressed, his father became more and more =20
obsessed that someone was trying to break into his house to steal the =20=

instrument.
When his wife found the instrument disassembled and hidden on =20
different levels in the laundry basket she realised she had to send =20
the instrument back to John.
As he wrote the third movement he was mourning his father's recent =20
death and would take out the instrument and handle it during the =20
movement's composition.
Adams recounts, " It was the end of my father=92s life with the =20
instrument. The horns were sent to me in California where they grew =20
dusty and stiff, sitting in a closet. But I brought them out again =20
when I began to compose Gnarly Buttons, and the intimate history they =20=

embodied, stretching from Benny Goodman through Mozart, the marching =20
band, the State Hospital to my father=92s final illness, became deeply =20=

embedded in the piece".
The pain and confusion of his father's dementia is portrayed in a =20
searing duet between the bassoon and the English horn in the middle =20
of the third movement, before giving way to a brief peaceful elegy.
The piece is a curious m=E9lange when heard in the abstract, but =20
becomes acutely poignant when one is aware of the psychological and =20
sentimental factors behind the musical events.

------------------------------------------------------------
Simon Aldrich

Clarinet Faculty - McGill University
Principal Clarinet - Orchestre M=E9tropolitain de Montr=E9al
Clarinet - Nouvel Ensemble Moderne
Artistic Director - London Chamber Music Festival

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