Michael Wittgraf: Manifold
Amanda DeBoer Bartlett, voice.
Jesse Langen, guitar; Michael Wittgraf, computer.
Ravello Records 7991
Total Time:  53:03
Recording:   ****/****
Performance: ****/****

Michael Wittgraf teaches at the University of Grand Forks—North Dakota.  He is a bassoonist there with the symphony, but also performs as a keyboardist, saxophonist, and bassist in rock bands, and also as a performer on computer technology.  The latter is a primary entry point to his work in electronic music, some of which appears here.  Overall though, this is a collection of modern music for guitar, and in particular music written for the featured soloist here, Jesse Langen.  The album is bookended by solo works that have a mathematical undercurrent.

The album takes its title from the opening work for solo guitar, Manifold (1995).  Despite the pitch set construction of the work, the piece itself is a quite accessible modern work for guitar.  It opens with a fast-paced pattern that will become a component of the transformation Wittgraf explores.  The instrument is explored both for its melodic as well as percussive qualities (with knocks on the body of the instrument adding an interesting rhythmic component).  Aspects of dynamics, decay, and registers also play a part in this work.  Even with this cerebral construction, the music communicates a great sense of dramatic flow that effectively branches off in different directions.  Later, Summer and a Half (1993) bring us back to more traditional contemporary guitar writing.  It does features some rather interesting combinations of faster-paced ideas with a lower line moving under them.  Wittgraf likes to take small rhythmic cells here and then repeat them in small segments.  These get transformed as well across the register of the instrument, but also rhythmically in elongated or shortened statements.

One area of electronic music that continues to fascinate composers is this sense of improvisation that seems contrary to the highly-ordered world of computers.  And yet, the techniques at ones disposal allow for rather intriguing performance opportunities that have been highlighted on many Ravello and Navona releases through Parma Recordings.  For this release, Wittgraf has included two Improvisations that use guitar, voice, and a computer (in this instance using a Kyma 7 sound design workstation).  Two explorations of this occur from studio takes.  The first has more vocalizations and sounds.  The second explores manipulation of words and the sounds (Sprechstimme).  Both are interesting explorations of sound in this case archived but very unlikely not to be repeated in concert given the nature of the music itself.  These are, then, the most avant-garde and experimental pieces on the album.

The final two works bring us back to pieces exploring mathematical “themes”.  First is Topographic Timepieces (2012).  Here the ideas of time are further transformed electronically in this work that adds computer manipulation.  As heard in the acoustic explorations of sound envelopes, this work takes that to an extreme.  In Pythagorean Triple (1997), we get a further example of Wittgraf’s exploration of mathematical manipulation in sound.  Here he takes serial concepts and then creates 3-, 4-, and 5-note harmonies that are   subsequently organized to thus create the concept that lends itself to the name of the work.

The album is an intriguing opportunity to see how electronic manipulation and application can be used in contemporary music for guitar.  The solo guitar pieces themselves are quite engaging as our the more experimental pieces in this interesting collection of music.

Birds of the Psalms
Cappella Clausura/Amelia LeClair
Navona Records 6176
Total Time:  51:50
Recording:   ****/****
Performance: ****/****

This beautiful new release of choral music features Capella Clausura.  Amelia LeClair founded the ensemble in 2004 with one of its goals to promote the work of women composers.  For this new release, LeClair has focused on music inspired by Biblical psalms.  The album takes its title from a new work by Patricia van Ness which opens the album.

Ness’s Birds of the Psalms is a collection of 10 psalm settings that have avian imagery and this idea of the divine depicted by a bird, or a bird protected by the divine.  Dove imagery is a common component of the ancient Biblical texts in both Jewish and Christian traditions.  Among them is this image of the sheltering bird which is a common theme in six of the texts used here.  Her music here takes its inspiration as well from ancient church modes and the more melismatic settings upon which harmonies themselves occur naturally across the linear presentation of the text.  This might make the words themselves more difficult to discern at times, but it creates a rather rich wash of sound.  There is some nice word painting along the way (for example on “quakes” in the Psalm 55 setting).  The music itself overall bears close resemblance to Morten Lauridsen’s style.  Each movement helps highlight different voices creating a nice variety.  The male vocal setting of Psalm 17 adds a deep, rich plea to the text that becomes more angelic once the female voices are then added (the female voices get a similar chance in the setting of Psalm 61).  In the following setting of Psalm 57, the Latin text adds a further ancient feel.  The vocal lines as well are written in a late Medieval quality with nice imitation occurring that can bring us to some quite stunning dissonances that add an extra emotional punch.  Things move along a bit more in the seventh movement’s setting of Psalm 148 with its creeping things.  It requires some fun effects as well which add some challenge to the music and a bit of necessary energy.

The program is filled out with beautiful renditions of Tchaikovsky’s setting of the Kiev Chant, “Svete Tihiy”, and two selections from Rachmaninov’s Vespers (“Blagoslovi, dushe moya” and “Blazhen muzh”).  These give us samples of the rich Eastern Orthodox church styles explored by these composers.  A couple of classic English anthems also appear.  First is Purcell’s brief “Hear My Prayer” followed by Weelke’s “When David Heard”.  The program closes with a setting by an Eastern Roman abbess, one of the first female medieval composers, Kassia (810-856) allowing us a window into the very beginnings of this choral tradition explored fittingly on this album.

The album was recorded at the groups May 2016 concerts in the Boston area.  Audience noise is quite minimized apart from applause at the end of the Ness and the final work.  The church settings lend a sense of the sort of rich sound that can be attained in these spaces, always hard to capture in a recording but Navona’s engineers have managed to give the listener a real sense of sitting in the midst of a cathedral to wallow in the gorgeous music presented here.