Toccata/Appello/Soundings

Barbara Kolb - Toccata/Appello/Soundings

LP released in 1986

Toccata

performed by Igor Kipnis - harpsichord

Parts 1 and 3 (tape) were produced by George Sponsaltz and recorded by Carson Taylor at Capitol-Angel Studios in New York City, 1973. Mixing and filtering by Maggi Payne. Part 2 was produced and recorded by Edward J. Foster in Redding, Connecticut, on May 29, 1986. Final mixing by Mikhail Liberman.
Two harpsichords were used for this recording: both are by Rutkowski & Robinette of Jersey City, New Jersey, USA. For Parts 1 and 3 a 1970 model was used; for the Scarletti Sonata and Part 2, a 1961 model was used.

Inspired by the Sonata in b minor (K. 87, L. 33) of Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757), Toccata was written in 1971 expressly for Igor Kipnis. What I found interesting about the material in this particular sonata was its homophonic nature, with harmonies so rich and chromatic that they seem to forecast the 19th century. My idea was to embellish these harmonies, thereby creating an entirely different character which emerges out of Scarlatti's harmonies. The result is rather like a jazz improvisation.
Toccata is constructed in three different speeds simultaneously (two parts are on tape and are manipulated electronically), thereby establishing no exact tempo which is discernible. Color and texture are the primary goals, also a movement toward and against tonal agreement. An aural confusion on the part of the listener will occur . . . a maze-like moving in and out from what he thinks he hears to what he wishes he had heard. Finally, as the continuous motion wears itself out, all voices coincide in tonal agreement and the dissension of contrapuntal involvement is resolved. The original Scarlatti sonata is heard first, preceding my interpretation. (Barbara Kolb)

Appello

performed by Jay Gottlieb - piano

recorded in Paris, France in June 1985

Appello was written during the summer of 1976 in response to a commission from Diane Walsh and the Washington Performing Arts Society. Appello, the Italian word for call, is in four sections, each of which embodies a specific type of call; calls which are reaching and enticing, rather than insistent or demanding. The four section titles reflect the quality and memory of these types of calls; the first, "Quietly, and with a cruel reverberation," is taken from the second movement of Toru Takemitsu's Pause Ininterrompue; the second, "A vague chimera that engulfs the breath," is from a poem by Robert Pinsky; the third, ". . . a perhaps hand (which comes carefully out of Nowhere)," is from E. E. Cummings; and the fourth, "And I remembered the cry of the peacocks," is from Wallace Stevens. Each call implies two kinds of distances: first, the distance that separates the identities of both the "caller" and "perceiver" . . .an almost mystic distance that is conscious and "sub-conscious", physical and "metaphysical"; secondly, the distance involved in the perception of sound; distance between silence and music. In many aspects Appello is similar in sound intent to two other of my recent works, Looking for Claudio and Soundings, each of which involved an aspect of searching. (Barbara Kolb)

Soundings

performed by Ensemble InterContemporain, Arturo Tamayo - conductor

recorded by Didier Arditti at L'Espace de Projection, IRCAM, Paris, France in July 1984

Soundings is a technique which makes it possible to ascertain the depth of water by measuring the interval of time between the sending of a signal and the return of its echo. Soundings begins at the surface, at the thin edge where the sea spans the earth and the horizon, descends through layers of sound, all of which remain present, whether or not they are actually heard, and suffers "a sea-change into something rich and strange."
The piece is divided into three sections (and incorporates pre-recorded material on tape). the first begins with a linear ostinato in the strings, from which further patterns evolve in successive layers. . . . In the second, or soloistic, section the original patterns are isolated and treated individually as though seen through a microscope. . . . The final section is characterized by an ascending linear movement which contrasts with the first section. (Barbara Kolb)

Tracklisting:

Side A

1. Toccata {7:21}

2. Appello {13:20}

Side B

1. Soundings {16:57}

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