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Suite, Preludio and Fuga were composed by a teenage Brouwer. While the three Suite movements already show a freshness of invention and harmonic agility that announce the composer's genius, the Preludio and Fuga reveal a positive eruption of those Cuban folk elements (rhythmic and thematic) that were to become the hallmark of his mature style. Canticum was born with a didactic intent: that of offering students a sampling of the compositional clichés of the avant-garde in a technically approachable context. The result is a work that simply revolutionized the guitar idiom, not to mention Brouwer's compositional approach. In this respect, there is something prophetic about the subtitle of the work's first part: Eclosion, which means both the budding of a flower and the sudden apparition of a novelty. In Parabola the atomized language and aleatoric approaches of the European avant-gardes blend perfectly with Cuban folklore (the theme used in the bass of the Prologue is a ritual Yoruba song known as cabio eh); indeed the emotional impact is fuelled precisely by the dialogue/contrast of the various linguistic components. Here again, the title of the work is strongly evocative, taking on both the word's geometric meaning and the idea of an allegorical representation bearing a message.
Tarantos, which gives the title to the CD and in turn takes it from one of the genres of the flamenco style, is in fact an evocation/manipulation of the Andalusian world and uses the typical gestures of that instrumental idiom: the rasgueado chords, tremolo, tapping on the soundboard, directional scales, etc. These are elaborated in the form of cells and micro-structures divided into two classes (Enunciados and Falsetas), which can be alternated at the player's wish, provided that no repetitions are made and the work closes with the fragment intended by the composer. However, this modular freedom and resulting improvisation pivots round a note (F sharp) that appears as the close of each module and acts as a reference to the pseudo-home-key. Decameron negro is inspired by the set of short stories collected by the ethnologist Frobenius during his fundamental research on African culture. It is programme music, and the titles of its three ballads (The warrior's harp; The lovers' flight in the valley of echoes; the ballad of the loving maiden) condense the epic story of a warrior-hero whose devotion to music clashes with the rigid tribal laws of his people. Exiled and forced to abandon his beloved, he is finally recalled by the tribe, then in peril, and agrees to fight and win the last battle in exchange for the freedom to become a musician and live with his woman. The work is strongly marked by the number three, which dominates the whole formal aspect: three are the ballads making up the work; three are the different ternary forms used (rondo-sonata of AB AC AB AC A, varied rondo of AB A'C A", and straight rondo of ABACA); and three are the thematic ideas used in each. Compared to Brouwer's works of the Seventies, the style of Decameron is less complex and more overtly communicative, inaugurating that search for a 'new simplicity' which he shared with many non-European composers.
Hika (threnody, funerary chant) carries the same title as a work by Takemitsu and it is in fact a tribute to the memory of that composer, who was among the closest to Brouwer in artistic ideals and long companionship. Here the formal structure is determined by the elaboration of motivic materials that are completely derived from the instrument's particular tuning (E-G-D-G-Bb-E) and that oscillate between G minor and the Lydian mode. In this elegiac atmosphere the inclusion of a thematic fragment particularly dear to the composer (the Bulgarian folk song used in both the third of the Tres apuntes and the Concierto de Volos) projects what appear to be prismatic refractions of a strong nostalgic feeling. In Paisaje cubano con tristeza, which carries the motto "to the embargo against Cuba, to war and unnatural death" and is the fifth of a series dedicated to Cuban landscapes, the distinctive feature is its use of harmonics and the interval of an ascending minor second, with the basic cell elaborated through the alternation of moments of expansion and contraction. Hoja de album is subtitled "The Raindrop", a clear reference to the famous Chopin Prelude. It presents and transforms two formants: the first, an ascending succession of rapid notes, that reduces itself to a de-contextualized decorative element; the second, a repeated element like a kind of ostinato, consists solely of a single extended note followed by its harmonics (with a clear allusion to the subtitle). An idea is a passacaglia written for the 75th birthday of his friend Eli Kassner: as in the Baroque dance of that name, it has a four-bar chord sequence repeated three times in broken chords, over which is interwoven a simple and sweet Elizabethan theme that is first exposed and then varied with embellishments in the 'Chopin style'.
Copyright © Paolo Paolini
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