Cello
SKU:
HL.14028929
Composed
by David Blake. Music
Sales America. Classical.
Book [Softcover]. Music
Sales #NOV120425.
Published by Music Sales
(HL.14028929).
Written for
Moray Welsh whilst still
an undergraduate at York
University. This piece
was completed in
mid-September. Inspired
by Hermann Hesse's
Steppenwolf. A solo
'cello seemed an
appropriate medium for
music which might explore
the character of Harry
Haller, with his desire
for bourgeois comfort and
his strong misanthropic
and suicidal tendencies.
The opening theme
attempts to express this
- melancholy, nostalgic,
a bit Biedermeyer (cf.
Brahms Intermezzi). The
basic theme of the book,
at its simplest, is that
every human personality
consists of hundred of
different personalities -
within every man there
lurks a wolf. Accordingly
the tendency of my piece
is for all its musical
material to become
distorted, either by
thematic transformation
or by changes of timbre.
There are three movements
played without a break.
The first is a character
portrait of the
Steppenwolf. The second
is concerned in the most
general sort of way with
the dance elements in the
novel - Harry's being
taught to dance and
appreciate low 'popular'
music - a tango is
recapitulated in a waltz
and 'Yearning', a popular
song of the time (1927)
is hinted at. The third
movement concerns the
Masked Ball and the Magic
Theatre. Mozart is one of
Hesse's great loves and
he is repeatedly
mentioned in the book.
Inevitably some Mozart
quotes have been worked
in, the most significant
being a reference to The
Magic Flute 'fire and
water' flute theme in the
middle of the second
movement. Long before I
finished the piece, I was
disenchanted with the
work of Hesse. Much of
Steppenwolf I now find
rather embarrassing and
the claims currently made
for Hesse's greatness
seem to me exaggerated.
Since my piece is in no
important sense
programmatically
specific, this change of
heart doesn't really
matter. ~ David
Blake.
