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PANIC - The Dithyramb Dissected
Where it all started…
The Concert used on the CD, (thanks to Casa da Musica), complete with the score, (thanks to Tom)
Poetry and Influences ( Some Dubious)
The Poem the H.B. used as the initial inspiration for the work.
At the beginning of the 20th century, many composers turned to the folk music of their countries in a search for a national cultural identity. In Britain the folk music was inextricably linked with the pre-Christian, or pagan past, which gave rise to quite a few pieces in which Pan appears, like this…
or this…
…and perhaps this takes us too far afield, but isn’t it interesting to see the Saxophone turn up in the role of one of Job’s comforters in Vaughan William’s “Job - A Masque for Dancing”?
Some background to the great God Pan. Contains a discussion of Occult matters.
Arthur Machen’s masterpiece “The Great God Pan” , that H.B. specifically told Gav he’d never heard of, let alone read.
…from there it’s just a short step to The Fall’s Leave the Capitol, with many Pan references. I’d put money on Birtwistle being completely unaware of this.
The Dionysian Saxophone, a Short Study
Paul Gonsalves’s 27 choruses of Crescendo and Diminuendo in Blue at the 1956 Newport Jazz Festival are a good example of Dionysian energy embracing an entire crowd. Even with the sound quality and lack of image, it’s still quite easy to hear how the audience is gradually moved out of itself into an ecstatic state.
Newport again, but a very different Saxophonist. Out of all of Coltrane’s outpourings, this is one of the closest to the Birtwistle, I think. It’s not difficult to imagine Trane as the Great God Pan
…Or maybe this. This is certainly the acid test for me to see if a piece of Contemporary Classical music is any good.
Then again, it’s not just Coltrane. One of the most shamefully overlooked players in this field was Sun Ra’s tenor player John Gilmore. Listen to how this solo builds into an ecstatic explosion…
Other Notable mentions should include…
…and also this. Is this why Birtwistle wrote for the alto instead of the far more expressive tenor saxophone?
Night’s Black Bird (2002)
Albrecht Dürer’s Engraving featuring something that looks suspiciously like the Casa da Musica on it’s side…..everything is connected.
Flow, my tears, fall from your springs! Exiled for ever, let me mourn; Where night's black bird her sad infamy sings, There let me live forlorn. Down vain lights, shine you no more! No nights are dark enough for those That in despair their last fortunes deplore. Light doth but shame disclose. Never may my woes be relieved, Since pity is fled; And tears and sighs and groans my weary days, my weary days Of all joys have deprived. From the highest spire of contentment My fortune is thrown; And fear and grief and pain for my deserts, for my deserts Are my hopes, since hope is gone. Hark! you shadows that in darkness dwell, Learn to contemn light Happy, happy they that in hell Feel not the world's despite.
Why Ken Ueno?
Tom and Ken were once in a band together with Jon Whitney called Blood Money
Birtwistle - A Round of Drinks with Ken Ueno