I ran across an interesting clip on YouTube I want to share with you. Initially it was because it was the very unusual case of a classical guitarist playing a transcription of a piece by Olivier Messiaen. But while watching and listening I realized first, that I didn't really think the transcription worked that well--replacing a singing cello line with a guitar tremolo doesn't quite work--and what I really found interesting was the room where the recording took place.
Realize for a moment the profound differences between a visual artist's studio and a musician's studio. Here is a typical artist's studio:
There is a profusion of materials and workspaces and tools. Compare that with the lovely space where guitarist Edith Pageaud is recording;
(Even though I don't think this transcription quite works, her other recordings are very fine. Have a listen to her Scarlatti, for example.)
I'm reminded of the cover of a Gustav Leonhardt album from years ago. He is seated at a harpsichord in an austere white room containing only bookshelves. An ideal musician's studio is a lot like a monk's cell but with a musical instrument and possibly a chair.
Doesn't this tell us something about the nature of the musical art form versus painting and sculpture? Music is essentially ethereal, evanescent while the visual arts are material. Yes, of course, musical instruments and concert halls, not to mention musicians themselves, are material, but the music itself is nothing more than pressure waves in the air. Invisible and instantly evaporating.
4 comments:
If it were me transcribing or arranging a movement from Quartet for the End of Time there's no question I'd go with IV. The Intermede is, to my ears and hands, the only movement in the entire Quartet that makes sense arranging for a solo guitar.
To go by Youtube search results the consensus among guitarists is that O sacrum convivium is the piece that adapts most readily to the guitar. It sure doesn't sound like the choral work it was originally intended to be but I think it still basically works.
Didn't Sor write somewhere that when he heard guitarists arranging or transcribing works to the instrument that he thought couldn't work that he said the music was "sacrificed TO the guitar"? :) This was the guitarist composer who actually transcribed (by his own account) the closing double fugue from Haydn's Creation oratorio. So he clearly wasn't at a loss for understanding which choral works could be transcribed for the instrument.
I badly need a music room and often plan exactly how it will be. I plan to build it as a stand-alone structure in my back yard. My lot is pretty steep so it will be above my house, and much of the environment is woods, so it will have a lot of window space in those directions. I also plan for it to be a realization of my architectural fancy, with most corners not square, and an alcove with soaring ceiling pointed towards "sunrise" as modified by the hill. Much of the adjacent land will have a labyrinth I'm also planning, different from all I've visited because my terrain is very uneven, so the level uniformity of other labyrinths will not be repeated here.
Inside the room will be huge window spaces in the directions of wild land, and windows high enough in the direction of civilization that no human artifacts will be visible, only the high forested hill and sky towering above the hidden house and road.
The stark interior surfaces will be wood and glass, especially resonant due to the ceiling reaching for maximum height towards southeast. Mostly empty except for a few chairs for consort players, and a table so I'll have study space for arranging and composing.
Being of modest means, I've been collecting scrap materials from construction sites where I work, such as concrete blocks so I can build it above grade for dryness and, on blocks, qualifying as a temporary structure not requiring a building permit.
I can't wait to retire so I can grow as a musician in that space and work on building the labyrinth and its gardens.
Will, I am deeply jealous of your planned music room! It sounds fantastic. I will have a music studio when I get the second floor of my house built and it will have fantastic views of the Picachos: low mountains or high hills depending on your perspective. Let's share photos when we get them built.
Wenatchee, I love that phrase "sacrificed TO the guitar."
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