Transience: Contemporary Modal Music

"[Racheal Cogan's] sound exudes joy as effectively as it realises a deep sadness"

John Shand, Sydney Morning Herald Sun, July 28, 2006 "Tony Lewis [is] one of Sydney's most versatile and accomplished exponents of non-Western percussion"

Sydney Morning Herald, Metro, April 23, 1999.

OM602 Racheal Cogan & Tony Lewis Transience: Contemporary Modal Music.

We live in interesting times - not only as human beings and musicians, but also specifically as recorder players. The early music revival in the last half of the last century has succeeded with effects similar to that of other revolutionary cultural movements. We can assess that success by noting the presence of formerly segregated Baroque and Renaissance repertory in mainstream concerts, radio programming, and new media (e.g., webcasting). Medieval music is nudging into those areas as well.

Yet a part of the appeal of the recorder and other early instruments lies in their very "outsider" status in relation to the mainstream of European classical music repertory. Remember, the early music revival occurred in the revolutionary times of the late 1960s and 1970s. So, what's happened to the countercultural energies present in recorder playing, now that formerly outré repertory has been welcomed by the mainstream?

One response has been participation in experimental music, exemplified by Pete Rose, Susanna Borsch, Kees Boeke, and Rara Avis (Terri Hron and Robbert van Hulzen). This has been my avenue of engagement as well, via solo work and Three Trapped Tigers (with David Barnett). However, going experimental is certainly not the only option. The three CDs reviewed here demonstrate three distinct approaches to repertory outside of the mainstream, with audible roots in the soundscape of modal music.

Closest to the familiar early music repertory is Da Camera's A Celtic Celebration. In fact, this CD is a ceilidh, a social occasion for music-making and dancing. Emma Murphy and friends perform 24 tracks with tunes by Turlough Carolan (1670-1738) forming the core. The other works on the disc are by more and less well-known Irish, Scottish and English musicians of the 17th and 18th centuries: John Blow, John Playford, William Byrd, Solomon Eccles, David Mell, John Oswald and Thomas Tollet, and from the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book.

Keeping with the social nature of this Celtic tradition (in which pieces become essentially community property), the ensemble arranges many of the works. Though we tend to regard published music from the British Isles of this time as music for "professionals," in fact this was social music for performance by lovers of the music (a.k.a. "amateurs"). This is certainly very social music.

The members of Da Camera, all active in the London early music scene, play with stylish ornamentation and musicianly virtuosity such that the informal, social nature of these pieces comes to the fore. A great part of the pleasure in listening to this disc is that the instruments sound like themselves - Murphy is not imitating the penny whistle in her recorder playing, nor is Susanna Pell imitating a fiddle with her viol.

To my ears, the most successful tracks are those from the wonderful body of divisions upon popular tunes and chord change patterns. The playing on this disc happily bridges the traditional folk aspects of the Celtic sound and the closely related art-music-tinged popular music of 17th- and 18th-century London.

New York-based recorder players Nina Stern and Daphna Mor take on a different (and less familiar to most American ears) modal repertory with their aptly titled project, East of the River. If the river is the mainstream European repertory, the East to which they turn is Eastern Europe and related cultures.

The 10 tracks on this disc cover music from Bulgaria, Armenia, Macedonia and Italy. Seven of the pieces are traditional, with one from Medieval Armenia (Oor Yés Mayr Im), one from Medieval Italy (the familiar 14th-century Lamento di Tristano), and To the River by Armenian duduk (cylindrical double-reed instrument) virtuoso Djivan Gasparyan.

Recorder playing in this CD is fullbodied and vigorous - a fine example for us all. However, the disc works not only for that model, but also for the wonderful band of accordion, bass, oud and percussion joining the recorders. Uri Sharlin plays accordion in the tradition of reed organs, enriching and filling out the sound to near chamber orchestra dimensions. Percussionists Tomer Tzur and Daniel Freedman drive the motion most effectively - timbrally and through the beats. Omer Avital (bass and oud) is especially effective in Lamento di Tristano.

While we encounter a significant range of expression in the Major and minor tonalities of classical European music, the larger sound-world of modality opens a much greater range of finesse and subtlety. The general sound of modal music beyond tonality is recognizable from the Celtic tradition.

When we dive into Eastern European musics, we meet not only less familiar modes but a marvelous panoply of time signatures beyond duple or triple. Pieces on East of the River employ various groupings of five, seven, nine, etc., yielding a deeply enjoyable asymmetry and entrancing quality. Stern, Mor and company take a direction well worth exploring.

Orpheus Music's 2004 CD Beyond the Fields by Nardoo (Zana Clarke, recorder, and Peter Biffin, various instruments; reviewed in the November 2005 AR) showed how to use the recorder in a genuinely world-music context. Collaborators Racheal Cogan, recorders, and Tony Lewis, percussion, continue that exploration. Transience: contemporary modal music results from Cogan's travels in Greece, Macedonia and Turkey (chronicled in her November 2002 AR article).

Not surprisingly, the sound has a great deal in common with East of the River, with the important difference being texture. Both discs are rooted in excellent percussion work, but in the case of Transcience, the only instruments heard are recorders and percussion. This provides a satisfying, intimate sound.

Cogan composed five of the pieces; world string instrumentalist Ross Daly composed two, and two are from traditional repertories of Turkey and Macedonia. Cogan's compositional work gained impetus from instrument maker Fardin Karamkhani. In the thoughtfully written notes for the disc, Karamkhani is credited with saying that "...to learn other people's music is one thing, but to make your own is, in the end, the only real thing to do." The strength of her creations on Transcience make me glad for Cogan's compositional work, but I believe the statement also points us to the necessity of integrating any music we play in such a way that it becomes our own. This is a core value of much of the repertory on all three reviewed discs.

The ways in which Cogan and Lewis make the music their own provides a striking contrast to East of the River's approach. They share Eastern European modalities, rhythmic structures, and timbrally-focused percussion.

The divergence comes in the use of extended performance techniques by Cogan on three pieces in particular. On For Fardin, she plays two Ganassi recorders simultaneously. (See a video of this at , with links to more of her work.) Her technique with two recorders opens new possibilities - thanks to the Ganassi instruments' open fingerings for "d" and "g", and holding the recorders in one's lap. In Absence, Cogan sings while playing, over a rhythm texture of udu (Nigerian clay pot drum) and llama (rattles of llama's toenails).

The piece that especially grabbed my attention was Nanourisma, a lullaby based on a Greek tune. In this Cogan adeptly sings and plays simultaneously while accompanied by Lewis on Chinese and Korean gongs, Indonesian cow bells and Nepalese temple bowl - a wonderful contrast to the actively dance-like feel of the other pieces. With Nanourisma's earcleansing effect, I found myself refreshed and delighted by the final piece Absence.

I happily continue to play recorder in the outside territory of experimental music, and it is exciting to hear strong, engaging work in other areas outside the mainstream. Recorder players Emma Murphy, Nina Stern, Daphna Mor and Racheal Cogan point to musical borderlands deserving much more exploration.

Tom Bickley, American Recorder, September 2008.