Stephen Goss has followed his disc, The Garden of Cosmic Speculation
(to be reviewed), with another disc of chamber music, in its
various guises, all linked by external influences on the type
and form of the music. Goss is a guitarist as well as teaching
composition at the University of Surrey so it is not surprising
that the guitar features heavily here.
The first item,
Frozen Music, gives its title to the disc itself. The
work is a seven movement one for classical guitar quartet
(guitar, violin, viola, cello). This is a slightly awkward
ensemble to write for as if the bowed instruments gang up
on the guitar, then they can easily drown it. But sensitively
written, this type of ensemble can reap many rewards. For
his new piece, Goss mainly uses textures which are transparent,
even though there are moments of drama and strength. The title
refers to Friedrich von Schelling’s quote, ‘Architecture
is music in space, as it were a frozen music’. Each movement
is based on a piece of architecture and the form of the movement
is dependent on the architecture. So that the opening movement,
The Menuhin Hall presents a fantasy of music associated
with Yehudi Menuhin; the work was commissioned by the Menuhin
School for performance in the Menuhin Hall. In Ronchamp
Chapel Goss constructs his music based on Le Corbusier’s
proportional relationships. The East Stand refers to
Arsenal Stadium at Highbury (the original one not the new
one) and is an exercise in dynamic high energy. Grand Central
Waltz refers to the moment in the film The Fisher King
when the entire concourse at Grand Central Station starts
waltzing. This is the first of a number of references to Terry
Gilliam films scattered about the disc. This is followed by
Walt Disney Concert Hall, Fallingwater and The
Gherkin. Each movement contains allusions to pieces which
reference the place in question, but apart from the rather
obvious waltz in the Grand Central movement, these
references are neatly embedded into Goss’s musical style.
You do not need to worry about the allusions and references
unless you want to.
All but two of
the movements on the disc are under five minutes long; essentially
Goss has presented us with groups of characteristic pieces.
Whereas in times past composers would distil a particular
emotion and atmosphere into a characteristic piece and remain
enigmatic about its origins, Goss is far more up-front about
his influences and the references which have gone into the
music. This need not worry us; Goss is too fine a composer
for him to serve up undigested fragments of other composers
in patchwork form. All these pieces are pure Goss, with other
composers subtly hinted at beneath the surface.
Uneasy dreams
is written for saxophone quartet. The three movements successfully
exploit the wonderful sub-aqueous timbre of the group. Each
movement is based on a moment from a Terry Gilliam film. I
must confess myself unfamiliar with the films, but I found
that there was much to enjoy on a purely musical basis. As
with the first piece on the disc, Goss has a nice ear for
instrumental timbre and creates an entirely characteristic
soundworld for the saxophones.
Dark Knights
and Holy Fools is also based on Terry Gilliam films, this
time there are five movements, each taken from a moment in
Time Bandits, Tideland, Brazil, The man Who Killed Don
Quixote and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. The
suite is written for guitar and percussion, another fascinating
mix of timbres and sounds, admirably realised by Craig Ogden
and Paul Tanner. The notes do not give much information about
how the various movements relate to the films, but each movement
is very short, just an essential distillation of a moment
or an emotion.
I must confess
myself rather less taken with the Under Milk Wood Songs.
These were written rather earlier than everything else on
the disc and are performed by Jenevora Williams accompanied
by the composer himself on guitar. Each song focuses on a
particular character from the play, featuring some of the
colourful female characters. Somehow Goss’s songs seem to
underplay Dylan Thomas’s characterful writing and the essence
of the characters is not quite caught. Goss accompanies the
voice very lightly, often simply interrupting or commenting
rather than actually accompanying.
The final piece
on the disc is a sonata for guitar written for the guitarist
Michael Partington who plays it on this disc. The first movement,
Pastorale, takes the structural proportions, harmonic
and tonal relationships from the first movement of Debussy’s
sonata for flute, viola and harp but over-writes them with
new thematic and textural material. My first question is,
why? The programme notes do not explain why Goss chose to
rework that particular movement and transmogrify it into a
piece for guitar. But if you listen to the piece you don’t
need to worry, Debussy disappears and you can simply appreciate
Goss’s fine textures and Partington’s lovely playing. The
second movement is a distillation of Scarlatti-like toccatas,
dazzlingly played. This is followed by a very romantic Adagio
Sostenuto, rather remarkably based on fragments of late
Beethoven piano sonatas. Given the source material the result
is extremely lush and romantic.
Whilst I liked
each individual movement of this sonata, I was not sure that
they added up to a complete work as a whole. Perhaps the rather
down-beat ending had something to do with it.
This is another fine
disc from Goss, full of lovely textures and sounds. Lovers of
architecture and of films by Terry Gilliam will find much to amuse
themselves, teasing out references. It is however possible to
take the disc at a purely musical value. Do buy it if you want
to hear some accessible but distinctively thought-provoking material.
Robert Hugill
Students from
the Yehudi Menuhin School (Tom Ellis (guitar); Tetsuumi Nagata (violin);
Oscar Perks (viola); Jonathan Bloxham (cello)) (1); Delta Saxophone
Quartet (Graeme Blevins, Pete Whyman, Tim Holmes, Chris Caldwell)
(2); Craig Ogden (guitar) (3); Paul Tanner (percussion) (3); Jenevora
Williams (voice) (4); Stephen Goss (guitar) (4); Michael Partington
(guitar) (5) 
