October 31, 2018

  • Exploring the Music of Hayes Biggs

     

    When You Are Reminded By The Instruments
    Desiree Glazier-Nazro, percussion. Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra/Petr Vronsky;
    Elizabeth England, oboe/English horn. Rane Moore, clarinet/bass clarinet. Kevin Owen, horn. Julia Okrusko, violin. Peter Sulski, viola. Minghui Lin, cello. Tony D’Amico, contrabass/James Blachly;
    Curtis Macomber, violin. Christopher Oldfather, piano.;
    Andrew Steinberg, tenor saxophone.
    Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra/Joel Eric Suben;
    Eric Moe, piano.;
    C4: Choral Composer/Conductor Collective/Ben Arendsen;
    Florilegium Chamber Choir/JoAnn Rice
    Navona Records 6191
    Total Time:  60:52
    Recording:   ****/****
    Performance: ****/****

     

    The music of American composer Hayes Biggs is featured in this new Navona release.  Biggs teaches at the Manhattan School of Music where he has been since 1992.  His work covers a wide variety of orchestral and chamber combinations.  The pieces on this release explore these different combinations and music for choir across a 28-year span.

    The opening Pan-Fare (2007) is for orchestra and a series of percussion (steel pan, pedal bass drum, and tambourine).  With its somewhat jazzy syncopations and harmonies, the piece explodes with energy that has an almost improvisational quality.  The unique sounds and rhythmic complexity propel this brief work forward.  At times it feels like a mashup of Antheil and Stravinsky.

    Some of this can be heard in the earlier work, When You Are Reminded by the Instruments (1997).  This is work for contemporary chamber orchestra.  Here you can discover some of the seeds that would appear in the first work on the album.  The sort of angular, visceral rhythmic accents, intriguing timbral explorations of the instruments, and sense of drama all work to create a piece that feels like an extension of modernism.  The overall emotional flow of the piece is what is most striking as the motivic ideas are shifted across the piece.  Sometimes a longer lyrical line may add a little something to help move the listener along (a la Ives, perhaps).  It is a rather fascinating work that allows for exploration by each of the lines.

    There are three solo works on the album beginning with the most recent, Inquieto (2015).  This longer work for violin and piano is in two joined movements.  Here too are the angular and jazz-referenced lines and harmonies in the breezier opening which also has some blues-like turns in a more lyrical second section.  Clusters also appear more in this piece.  The violin is given a variety of technical responsibilities from double stops to altissimo harmonic playing.  More interesting is the way aspects of the piano’s arpeggiated chords and violin pizzicato create a rather fascinating sound.  It moves us into a more reflective section with ethereal writing.  Block chords move us back to the opening section with a more intense, almost angry insistence.  Yet, a sense of uneasy peace and tranquility does return suggesting the agitation has passed, for now.  This is followed by the amusingly-titled The Trill is Gone (2013) for tenor sax.  Here we get a chance to experience some of the wittiness of Biggs’ music with a piece that has a similar angular style that comes back to a trill as a unifying factor until that little wave is soon dispersed.  The exploration of the instrument’s register is one of the standout aspects of this brief work that features some tonguing percussive sounds and moments for lyrical as well as growling low register commentary.    A brief Fanfare for Brass and Percussion (1989) illustrates an early connection in Biggs’ music to Stravinsky and blends of polytonal modernism with touches of Hindemith.  The exploration of pianist Eric Moe is followed through a series of quotation, or suggestive musical ideas, of chant and hymnody.  Expressive writing and attention to performance details of articulation and phrasing abound in E.M. am Flugel (1992).

    The album concludes with two works for voices.  First is the Wedding Motet (1998) which continues this exploration of earlier musics in this work that blends Latin and English texts.  The phrasing cadences feel like modern expansions of Medieval/Renaissance style.  Then comes the more substantial Ochila Laeil (1999) which was one of his first setting in Hebrew.  The blend of horn and organ add an interesting supportive sound with the former leading and the choral harmonies emerging from the keyboard chords.  Again, the exploration of color here coupled with a dramatic narrative in the music keeps the listener rapt.

    Biggs’ music draws the listener in with its harmonic accessibility and streamlined voice writing that helps create clear textures.  There is always a great dramatic sense, often supported by a narrative r programmatic inspiration that adds some additional context.  Overall, there is good variety here to introduce his work to a broader audience.