Press
What the Press has said
Contents
- A Fractured Landscape (in memoriam Edward Said) (2009)
- The Philosophy of Composition (in Memory of Don Maclennan) (2009)
- String Quartet No 3 (“Nofinishi”) (2009)
- Shoowa Panel (2007)
- Rural Arias (2007)
- Concerto for Piano and Orchestra (Rain Dancing) (2005-2006)
- Ringtones (2006)
- Ways of the Dance (2002-2003)
- Ways to put in the salt (2002)
- String Quartet No 1 (in Memory of William Burton) (2001)
- 38a Hill Street Blues (2000)
- French Suite (1994)
- The Ballad of Poui (1994)
- Kwela (1992)
- Quintet for Basset Clarinet (or Clarinet in A) and String Quartet (1990)
- Hindewhu (Whistle Duet) (1989-1990)
- Quartet for Flute and String Trio (1989; rev. 1999)
- The Seasons at Home (1987-1988)
- Let us run out of the rain (1986; arr. 1995)
- Self Delectative Songs (1986)
- Hommage à MDCLXXXV (1985; rev. 1994)
- Night Music (1977)
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A Fractured Landscape (in memoriam Edward Said) (2009)
South African Michael Blake’s A Fractured Landscape, in its first performance, underscored the tight, taut control this influential composer has previously shown. Angular, pulsing with energy and noisily exuberant at times, this challenging piece was approached by Gray in his cool, calm, objective manner that characterized all his performances, letting the music speak for itself and ensuring its voice was clear and unambiguous.
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The Philosophy of Composition (in Memory of Don Maclennan) (2009)
Perhaps fittingly, in terms of the literary material upon which the composition is inspired (Edgar Allan Poe’s 1846 essay The Philosophy of Composition), every note in the work seems to lead inexorably towards the sequence of notes that begins around the 8 minute mark — this beginning of the end is reached without superfluity, without a single note that could be described as inessential.
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String Quartet No 3 (“Nofinishi”) (2009)
At some point in one of the final pieces of the evening (Blake’s String Quartet No. 3 (Nofinishi) 2009) it suddenly felt as if I was listening simultaneously to each musician separately! It was an astonishing experience and I wondered if this was somehow intricately wound round, into and from the presence of Mantombi — she certainly responded with her arms and body! Four individuals bound together by an entangled weaving of musical notes contributing along a time-stream of precision and fluidity. And this was where the second ‘magic’ of the evening took on a zest all of its own!
’n Kort en stimulerende slot vir ’n interessante, uitdagende musikale ervaring.
A short, stimulating conclusion to an interesting, challenging musical experience.
String Quartet #3 is a crystalline example of what I have chosen to call the composer’s “spider’s strategem”. A composing system unique to Michael Blake which is heavily indebted to the intricately complex but always perfectly resolved structure of the web. Despite shifting patterns based on ancient uhadi bow music, and harmonies that bring mediaeval choral textures to mind, the futuristic sound progression of this quartet is irrevocably blakean: the end begins with the first note played.
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Shoowa Panel (2007)
Wonderlike inlewing het die ryk atmosfeer van die werk pragtig daargestel
Excellent delivery evoked the rich atmosphere of the work beautifully.
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Rural Arias (2007)
Blake has nothing to prove and plenty to say. His music has an expressive spontaneity, which conveys in quick patterns that life is pitiless and that nothing can be taken for granted. His Rural Arias is not a collection of folk songs but a magnificent, craggy lament for South Africa’s rural population, feeling the devastating effects of climate change, poverty and HIV/AIDS. As he searched out original methods for evoking truth, and in a bid to jolt the listener out of any complacency, Blake used a musical saw to produce a sonorous sadness which reverberated hauntingly.
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Concerto for Piano and Orchestra (Rain Dancing) (2005-2006)
Blake se Rain Dancing is stilisties deeglik ingebed in ‘n Afrika-minimalisme met al sy voor- en nadele… Die poliritmiese lae waarvan Blake in sy notas melding maak, hou die werk aardgebonde en maak die klavier eerder ‘n obligaat-instrument as ‘n solistiese teenspeler. Daar is met die ontgunning van klankkleure fassinerende elemente in die 22 minute: eksotiese melismes, vindingryke timbre-samevoegings, warlike gevorderde hantering van slagwerk, terwyl die orkestrale kleure soms die impressionistiese sfeer van ‘n eeu gelede binnedring…In dié concerto is daar weliswaar meer kontraswerking teen die einde, met uitgesproke liriese passasies gedra deur die solis — veral met uiters verfynde spel in die hoé register. Ook die slot woel himself aanvanklik moeisaam los, maar eindig tog verrassend.
Blake’s Rain Dancing is stylistically deeply embedded in an African minimalism… The polyrhythmic layers which Blake mentions in his programme notes, bind the work together and make the piano an obbligato rather than a solo player. With the exploiting of timbres there are fascinating elements in the 22 minute span: exotic melismas, ingenious colour combinations, extremely demanding use of percussion), while the orchestral colours sometimes inhabit the impressionist sphere of a century ago… In this concerto there is indeed more contrast towards the end, with expressive, lyrical passages for the soloist — especially with very refined playing in the high register. The conclusion also unwinds slowly at first, but nevertheless ends with a surprise.
“Michael Blake’s Piano Concerto enjoys the alternate title “Rain Dancing” and as the composer noted in his all too brief introduction to the world première at the Linder Auditorium last night “it hasn’t rained this much in Gauteng in October for years”. The comment might have been made in jest but it actually gives an acute insight into what Michael Blake really is. A shaman. His compositional practices derive in equal part from cinema editing and sculpture. He works with his computer timeline as a fine artist would, shaping and teasing form into wry, elfin sets of sound that skip away from balance and artfully elude perfection. There is a willful perversity in Blake’s approach to sound. It’s as if he knows exactly what we would like to hear a motif develop into and instead of feeding us what we want he conjures up possibilities that are maddeningly close to our own sense of resolution but never quite get there.
Blake is a carrot dangler and his sometimes fey, sometimes wistful melodies encourage us to hum, to whistle, and even occasionally, to jig - but never in a way that would actually release the tension that his compositions ever so gradually build towards…intriguingly the Rain Concerto’s most memorable sections occur when percussion and strings talk to each other and the climax of the work is a full on Joburg thunder storm. One expects the cavalry to charge, cannons blazing.
On the way to this zesty climax there’s a great deal of repetitive phrasing but it isn’t the kind of austere minimalism we know from Steve Reich or the agonizingly empty on and on-ness of Philip Glass; Michael Blake’s shamanism evokes the giddy swirling of the Baal Shem tov on Shabbas, tossing back the vodkas and merrily dancing his praises to Hashem. If you could imagine the most playful rigour or the most rigorous playfulness then you would be some way towards appreciating this shamanistic invocation by Michael Blake that demands to be described as drunken minimalism. Rain on!”
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Ringtones (2006)
A cellphone video of Hemmi is projected on an overhead screen. He is apparently wearing the same clothing as his alter ego on stage, and soundlessly playing the same piece. Watching Hemmi-in-life and Hemmi-on-screen simultaneously toys with our perception of time. Is this a visual from the recent past or the near future? As the ringtone ascends in volume, Hemmi pauses and, violin tucked under his chin, answers the phone. In Japanese he explains that he is playing a show and will call back later. During these many “interruptions” Hemmi plucks at the violin. Despite technical difficulties, this final work was a highlight. As the technicians struggled, Hemmi’s quick-thinking pulled off a humorous improvised ending.
There is incredible stuff happening in this country. Just one example, our most radical contemporary music composer Michael Blake is presenting his new composition “Ringtones” at the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown. It’s a 5-minute composition for violin that will be performed by the Japanese virtuoso Yasutaka Hemmi, who is flying out for the concert. This is a piece that invents a genre “thrash classical” that simply hasn’t been heard before. It brings to mind great hardcore bands like the Bad Brains, Spy Vs Spy era John Zorn, as well as the apocalyptic thrash improv of Killing Time (Fred Frith-Bill Laswell-John Maher). It’s utterly wild. It reflects Joburg – the urban environment, car jackings, the constant paranoia of our life here, but also the exuberance, the buzz of Jozi. It is the most ruthlessly virile urban African music I’ve yet heard. Utterly distinctive, utterly from here, but free of all simplistic “African” clichés - that curio shop mentality that pervades so much of the saccharine garbage pretending to be “music” in this country (Pops Mohammed etc).
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Ways of the Dance (2002-2003)
Daneben präsentierten die Musiker in beachtlicher rhythmischer und dynamischer Feinabstimmung die von rhythmischer Spannung geprägten “Ways of the Dance” (Urauffuhrung!). Die zyklische Komposition lebt unter anderem davon, das die drei wuchtigen Eingangs akkorde geringfügig verschoben und aus dem korrekten rhythmischen Gleichmass gebracht werden — raffinierte Nutzung eines minimalen Mittels mit maximalem Effekt!
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Ways to put in the salt (2002)
And it also included a new Michael Blake piece based on the music of Xhosa composer and master bow player Mrs Nofinishi Dywili, who died recently. Michael Blake’s Ways to Put in the Salt was almost a Well-Tempered Klavier for the uhadi. It explored the forms of improvisation and ornament that traditional Xhosa players use to spice up their themes, but applied to a theme that was brutally modern in its simplicity. Tilbury — and the audience — had fun with its wit and engagement. But there was fragility and dignity in the interpretation too, instantly recognisable to anyone who had heard Dywili perform.
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String Quartet No 1 (in Memory of William Burton) (2001)
The second movement, with its long, mournful strains reminiscent of Arvo Pärt, revealed the first signs of emotion creeping in, and I found this section wonderfully moving. The piece was an elegy for Blake's friend, the violinist William Burton, and one sensed his grappling with the difficulties of trying to codify feelings of loss and nostalgia…Music seems superior to literature in being able to induce and represent feelings which cannot be portrayed in terms of rational configurations… But the beauty of music is that it represents only itself. In the moment of performance there is nothing behind it; it simply embodies that moment.
Like his players, Blake also paints with silence. He's a very visual composer; the spiky, rhythmic first movement unrolled like a graphic line drawn by Paul Klee, enfolding pockets of texture written with a miniaturist's care for detail. The slow second movement was simply beautiful: filled with the sounds of living breath, and breath halted, and the breath of those icy stars outside.
“The first movement is like a string of beads laced together, and although none of the beads is identical, repetition plays a large part in the unfolding of the music...Blake presents his material without abandoning its subjective origin or degenerating into arbitrary sequences. It is a delicate equilibrium of relationships (note to note, fragment to fragment) which grips the imagination.
The second movement is an interesting experiment between stasis and dynamics (in terms of movement). The ascending scale, initiated by the first violin and recurring repeatedly, is inevitably coupled to the chronological passage of time. Paradoxically this illusion is dependent on a context of musical stasis. Ultimately the music unfolds in empirical time, but the internal tension of stasis and movement imitates, as it were, the process that takes place between the frozen time of the composed work and the chronological time of the performance. Blake's "non-formal music" is an exciting aesthetic premise and an important addition to our indigenous music.”
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38a Hill Street Blues (2000)
Die program is geopen met “38A Hill Street Blues” met Max (Magda) de Vries (marimba) en Frank Mallows (vibrafoon). Die werk is oorspronklik vir klavier geskryf, maar in 2003 getranskribeer vir marimba en vibrafoon. Die kleur wat dié twee instrumente verleen, en die twee spelers se uitstekende spel, het die werk laat leef.
The programme opened with “38A Hill Street Blues” with Max (Magda) de Vries (marimba) and Frank Mallows (vibraphone). The work was originally written for piano, but transcribed for marimba and vibraphone in 2003. The colour that these two instruments contribute, and the two players outstanding performance, gave the work life.
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French Suite (1994)
Michael Blakes “French Suite”, zwei erstmals in Deutschland aufgeführte Tänze des in England lebenden Südafrikaners, setzt griffige afrikanische Rhythmusstrukturen und unstete Melodien zu einr leisen, wie meditativen Musik zusammen.
One would have loved to know what inspired him to call it French. There was certainly enough clarity in the writing to suggest Bach, who wrote half a dozen French Suites for the harpsichord. But Blake’s work also let one’s thoughts go out to West Africa… In it one finds a lot of rhythmic patterns which are developed all the time. This initially gives the work a more playful character before an aggressiveness sets in… Nearer to the end, it developed a dance-like character.
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The Ballad of Poui (1994)
The five extracts performed gave only an impression of the charm to be expected from the whole.
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Kwela (1992)
Komponisten wie Kevin Volans oder auch Michael Blake, dessen Komposition “Kwela” den Abend eröffnete, hielten überhaupt nichts von der Rassentrennung. Blakes Stück übersetzt den populären Tanz aus den schwarzen Townships der fünfziger Jahre in die Klangfarben des Streichorchesters.
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Quintet for Basset Clarinet (or Clarinet in A) and String Quartet (1990)
It was an easy-going piece, based largely on African musical sources, its minimalist gestures reminding me strongly of the Stravinsky of around 1914.
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Hindewhu (Whistle Duet) (1989-1990)
Michael Blake's tight minimalist duet Hindewhu exploited the fruity resonance of the early nineteenth-century clarinet through a witty manipulation of simple pentatonic cells.
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Quartet for Flute and String Trio (1989; rev. 1999)
Coming closer to home, I especially enjoyed Michael Blake's Quartet for Flute and Strings. This highly evocative work had a real African feel, conjuring up the jungle sounds of insects and birds on the flute with a tropical hum from the violin, viola and cello. It required from flautist Helen Vosloo an intentionally breathy tone in the lower register using lots of vibrato - resembling the sound produced by an African wooden pipe - with occasional leaps into the brighter, purer top register. I also enjoyed watching the composer (seated immediately in front of me) watching his work being brought to life.
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The Seasons at Home (1987-1988)
For different reasons, both Morton Feldman’s Bass Clarinet and Percussion (1981) and Michael Blake’s The Seasons (1988) have an aural simplicity. The Seasons is inspired through changes in the African calendar year and makes use of traditional music. However, the instrumentation of two clarinets, viola, cello, guitar and percussion, and the nature of the music’s attractive textures, give the work a distinctly European flavour.
Michael Blake’s divertimento on African traditional music, The Seasons, made an unpretentious and brightly-heard finish to the evening.
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Let us run out of the rain (1986; arr. 1995)
Melodic strands on marimba and vibraphone coalesced and separated in a beautifully intricate way. It reminded one of an exquisite piece of Brussels lace.
Michael Blake's composition Let us run out of the rain persists in the memory, captivating above all with its playfulness and simplicity, with the infusion of a poetic sense characterized by clarity of ideas and delight in the creation of music.
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Self Delectative Songs (1986)
Michael Blake’s Self Delectative Songs fell gently and pleasingly on the ear.
Coolly effective translations of Southern African folk music.
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Hommage à MDCLXXXV (1985; rev. 1994)
A short piece with aspirations of epic, it starts out as an engaging pastiche-cum-homage to the giants born in 1685 but then develops into less tonally certain areas.
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Night Music (1977)
Hierdie komposisie het ‘n sterk indruk agtergelaat. Dit is effektief vir die instrumente geskryf, maak suksesvol gebruik van die klanke van avant garde-musiek, is vormtegnies goed georganiseerd en druk die atmosfeer van die maanlig en die nagtelike dans voortreflik uit. Michael Blake is ‘n musicus met talent en inisiatief en met die potentiaal om tot ‘n vooraanstaande komponis in die Suid-Afrikaanse musieklewe to ontwikkel.
This composition left a strong impression. It is effectively written for the instruments, uses the sounds of avant-garde music successfully, is formally well-organised and expresses the atmosphere of the moonlight and the nocturnal dance exquisitely. Michael Blake is a musician with talent and initiative and the potential to become a prominent composer in South Africa’s musical life.
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