Paul
Carr’s Air for String Orchestra
It
is often not easy to evaluate whether a piece of music should
be classified as ‘light’ or otherwise. In fact, it can quite
difficult to define exactly what we mean by ‘otherwise’. For
example, are Mozart’s Divertimentos or Schubert’s Ländler
‘light’ or are they ‘art’ music? I guess that most critics would
be appalled at attaching such a ‘demeaning’ label to Wolfgang
or Franz. Yet I believe that much of their music is not designed
to be anything other than entertaining. These are not works
that are storming the gates of heaven! However, the man or woman
on the Clapham Routemaster would probably say - if they knew
about such things - that Eric Coates wrote ‘light’ music. And
so did Robert Farnon, Sidney Torch and Trevor Duncan. They would
almost certainly deny the honour to Elgar or to Vaughan Williams,
who they would imagine were perpetually serious. However, the
cognoscenti know that both of those composers wrote a deal of
music that does not challenge the listeners understanding –Mina,
Salut d’Amour, the English Folk Song Suite and
so forth. But they are enjoyable and minor masterpieces in their
own right.
Now
where does his leave Paul Carr’s fine Air for Strings?
It has been recently released on an album entitled ‘Light
Music Premieres – Volume 5’ by Dutton Epoch
(see review) – so a definition seems to have already been established – at
least in Dutton’s mind. I contend otherwise. Even on the least
attentive hearing of this work, it reveals a mood and a style
that approaches the depth of Samuel Barber’s ubiquitous Adagio
for Strings. And I am not exaggerating to make a point.
Paul Carr’s work is profound music that is quite capable
of deeply moving the listener and bringing a genuine tear
to the
eye. It is ‘art’ music at its best – and serious to boot. The
listener experiences the sense of deep loss and perhaps even
of tragedy. And for the record, let us just say that the emotional
and historical background of the piece was a separation, a
splitting
up from, a beloved partner.
The
Air for Strings was originally the slow-movement of a
Violin Concerto that Carr wrote back in the early ’nineties.
The composer told me that he was unhappy with the complete work
and subsequently withdrew it after its first performance in
Brighton. However, he considered that the slow movement had
a ‘sad and haunting theme’: he always believed that one day
he would re-use this music.
The
music was actually redrafted in Mallorca where the composer
now lives and works. He moved there in 2003 to concentrate on
composition and painting after a career as a successful stage
manager in the United Kingdom. One ‘lonely night’ in 2006 he
came across the manuscript of his Violin Concerto and
began to rework the slow movement as a piece for string orchestra.
The work was dedicated to his former partner, Cy.
The
composer has described the composition in the following terms:
- “The Air is a heartfelt love song in the form of a
long arching lament built around a simple and passionate theme
woven through the orchestra”. The music slowly builds “towards
a climactic statement about half way through involving the whole
orchestra. The music then subsides leaving the theme exposed
in a more relaxed setting before arriving at its conclusion
in quiet, calm suspension.”
Subsequently,
the work was rescored for full orchestra for a performance by
the Sussex Symphony Orchestra, a group with whom the composer
has a long-standing relationship. Carr told me that these two
versions of the piece were (by coincidence) given first performances
a week apart, with the Air for Strings being played in
Lewes by The Musicians of All Saints, and the Air for Orchestra
given the following weekend in Brighton by the SSO conducted
by Mark Andrew James.
Presently,
only the ‘string orchestra’ version is recorded, so the listener
cannot compare the two. However the full orchestra reworking
retained much of the original string writing but with added
solos for the woodwind, trumpets and horns, and the use of the
brass section as “a sonorous cushion in both [the] tranquil
and more powerful sections”.
Carr
admitted that “whilst the original version has an emotional
intensity particular to the strings, the orchestral version
adds a greater richness and depth of colour, utilising the variety
and power inherent in a full symphony orchestra”. This edition
for large orchestra was dedicated “in love to the composer’s
former partner Cy and to his dear friend Fran, on the occasion
of turning 40.”
It
is obvious that the 'full orchestra' adaptation must be “richer
in colour” and will make “a more impressive impact.” However,
I do agree with the composer that the string version “carries
an intensity and intimacy that is naturally inherent in the
make-up of a string orchestra”.
But
the story of the work’s metamorphoses is not yet complete. Not
being content with two incarnations of this piece, Carr devised
a version for Viola and Strings called Viola Air,
for Peter Sulski, who gave the first performance of this in
America.
All
three editions are published by Goodmusic Publishing. The original
‘string’ piece was recorded, as noted above, for Dutton by the
Royal Ballet Sinfonia and was conducted by Barry Wordsworth.
But the story continues. There is now a fourth manifestation
of the Air for chamber orchestra, which the composer
made for a concert by the Bath Philharmonic given in November
2008 in Bath Abbey. Interestingly, it was conducted by the composer’s
brother Gavin Carr. The Air was well received alongside
the chamber edition of Leonard Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms,
Aaron Copland's Quiet City, and Morten Lauridsen's exquisite
Lux Aeterna. Paul Carr told me that the orchestration
of this version was defined by what he knew was available
to him: strings, harp, percussion, timpani, solo wind and solo
brass. The composer was extremely satisfied with the acoustic
of Bath Abbey and felt that the piece worked well. It will be
recorded later this year on the new NAIM Label on a proposed CD of Carr’s music which
will also include his Requiem for an Angel and a setting
of a poem by e.e. cummings for choir and chamber orchestra
- i thank You God for most this amazing day.
Unfortunately
there appears to be few reviews of the Air - in any of
its four editions. Dutton Epoch in their publicity for their
CD release state, and I believe without too much exaggeration,
that Paul Carr's Air for Strings is “uniquely compelling,
an orchestral love-song, that bids fair to supplant Barber's
celebrated Adagio for Strings”. Well, hardly to 'supplant',
but possibly to complement...
In
the December 2008 issue of The Gramophone, Andrew Lamb suggested
that “…the real treasure from his pen… is the passionate Air
for Strings, which deserves wider currency" Peter Lloyd
Williams in the Bath Chronicle, following the premiere of the
chamber version wrote that "Paul Carr's Air allowed
each section of the orchestra a chance to be heard in a serenely
peaceful setting, skilfully building to a passionate climax,
before the final calm resolution."
John France
February
2009
