EDDIE MCGUIRE
MUSIC FOR FLUTE, GUITAR AND PIANO
NANCY RUFFER ABIGAIL JAMES DOMINIC SAUNDERS ••
Eddie McGuire – Music for Flute, Guitar and Piano
Nancy Ruffer flute and piccolo
Abigail James guitar
Dominic Saunders piano
1. Harbour of Harmonies [8:08] piano
2. Fountain of Tears [6:06]
flute & guitar
3. Prelude 13 [5:21] piccolo
4. Dark Cloud [12:40]
eight guitars
5. Caprice[2:16]
flute & piano
6. Celtic Knotwork[4:36]
four flutes
7. Resistance Movement[5:30]
flute, guitar & piano ensemble
8. Amazonia[10:19] guitar
Dancing Memories: flute
9. Mrs de Ruyg's Delight[1:30]
10. Waltz[2:16]
11. Hornpipe[1:44]
At the time of writing, the Glasgow-born and based Eddie McGuire has been composing music for some forty years. His prolific output covers a broad array of musical genres and instrumentation, from the smallest miniature for solo piccolo to the much larger-scale ballet Peter Pan written for Scottish Ballet, and Calgacus for the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, among many others. This recording, however, focuses on a selection of Eddie’s chamber and instrumental works for three of his own instruments – flute, guitar and piano –each of which he has returned to at various points as a composer.
fashion also begins with this work, influenced by American composer Terry Riley’s mixing of tonal phrases and encouragement from Lidholm to accumulate texture through the building of colour. Written around the time of other works for multiples of the same instrument by composers such as Steve Reich – although before Reich’s own Six Pianos (1973) – and Philip Glass, Eddie’s work is more individual, choosing to focus on the texture and colour aspects by accumulating a developing and larger variety of musical ideas, with less emphasis on sheer repetition.
Recorded in the presence of the composer in the Reid Concert Hall, The University of Edinburgh, on 19 and 20 June 2005
12. Twelve White-note Pieces[12:54]
six pianos
Total playing time[73:22]
All first recordings except Dark Cloud and Amazonia
Recorded with 24-bit stereo technology
Producers: Paul Baxter & Adam Binks
24-Bit digital editing: Adam Binks
24-Bit digital mastering: Paul Baxter & Eddie McGuire
Design: Margareta Jönsson
Photography:
© 2006 Delphian Records Ltd
Cover image: Resistance
Landscape, Eddie McGuire
December 1968
Photograph editing: Thanks to Dr Raymond Parks
One of Eddie’s earliest catalogued works, Twelve White-note Pieces is found here in a new arrangement by the composer – made especially for this recording – for six pianos. Composed in early 1971, while a student of Ingvar Lidholm at the State Academy of music in Stockholm, it represents a landmark in Eddie’s output. It signifies a breakthrough at the point at which he was turning away from the complexity of serial music influence and reassessing the direction of his stylistic development, embracing tonality with a return to simpler melodies and rhythms. It was at this time that Eddie started considering his Scottish roots, beginning to successfully incorporate folk music into his compositions. Predilection for combining multiples of one instrument in a minimalist
In its first concert performance by Ian Robertson in 1974, only one of the pianos was heard live, while the remaining three parts played by the same pianist were heard on tape recordings. For this version, the six piano parts are also performed by one player, each recording being layered in a multitracked arrangement. As a student of James Iliff at the Royal Academy of Music in the late 1960s, Eddie was exposed to a number of experimental and pioneering practices, including musique concrète, and the use of taped recordings as part of live performance inevitably stems from influences gained during these formative years. The work itself, however, was composed with a number of performance options in mind: in the combined live and taped version, used at
Eddie McGuire: Music for Flute, Guitar and Pianothe premiere; as a selection of twelve solo miniatures for piano; or the unlikely possibility of a full performance, with a number of live pianos and pianists.
As the title suggests, Twelve White-note Pieces is formed of twelve substantially diverse and short pieces performed simultaneously and in a different order by each piano. The six piano parts contain a varying number and combination of the twelve pieces, with no one pianist playing all twelve. Whilst supposedly scored only for the ‘white-notes’ of the piano, number seven of the twelve pieces contains a key signature and a small number of black notes (F sharps), which would, of course, never noticeably permeate the density of the resultant texture. The inclusion of black notes within the work gently indicates Eddie’s prepossessing sense of humour, being there ‘to emphasise C major’. The overall effect is captivating and extraordinarily satisfying, various nuances merging with rhythmic and melodic snippets heard at different times, though never in an overlycomplex manner. The contrast among the pieces, some to be played freely and others more strictly, makes for a constantly unpredictable melange of sound worlds, evocative of several diverse styles, which provides a fascinating musical journey through this work.
There is a gap of some sixteen years before the composition of the next work from this repertoire selection, Amazonia for solo guitar. The guitar was in fact the first instrument to enthral Eddie, in particular when his mother purchased one for him from a pawn shop in 1957 for the sum of £3 – he still uses the same guitar today, choosing sometimes to compose music on it for other instruments. Written in 1987 in celebration of the centenary of the birth of Heitor Villa-Lobos, Amazonia was first performed in the same year by Phillip Thorne at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music in Glasgow – Phillip has enthusiastically encouraged and commissioned Eddie to write several works for the guitar. Amazonia forms part of a substantial body of compositions for the guitar that includes solos, duos, works with other instruments and a concerto.
By now Eddie was heavily involved in making folk music; following his return to Glasgow in the early 1970s, he began playing flute and clarsach in the Whistlebinkies folk group from 1973. Eddie himself notes how ‘their sound of bagpipes, fiddles and harps has had a lasting effect on my tastes’. However, his deep interest and affinity with folk music stretches far beyond that found in Scotland, incorporating Chinese, Irish and South American influences among others – while Eddie still plays regularly with the Whistlebinkies, he also currently performs
bamboo flute in the Chinese folk group, Harmony. Amazonia, which is an evocative response to the destruction of rainforests, is inspired by the folk dance styles of VillaLobos’s native country of Brazil. The guitar music of Villa-Lobos is not a particularly penetrating influence; however, it is based on a six-note row taken from his Choros II for Flute and Clarinet and uses one or two of his characteristic motifs and harmonic qualities.
There is a strong improvisatory and creative quality to Amazonia, which, following in the steps of Villa-Lobos himself and the much earlier Mauro Giuliani, pushes the boundaries of innovation within guitar technique and writing, while being persistently fresh and imaginative. A whole range of emotions are conjured up in a work full of depth – an emotive statement on the troubles of the rainforests, combined with a profound musical appeal for some resolution to a continuing man-made disaster. Amazonia invokes imagery of the enormity of this subject, with aspects of tension and uncertainty. The freesounding opening section, which makes use of minimalist elements, is followed by a central section summoning an ambience firmly reminiscent of South American traditional music; in an arch-like structure the work concludes with a return to the contemplative atmosphere of the opening.
Composed in 1990, Celtic Knotwork (heard here in a version for four flutes and recorded by one player) started out as a recorder trio and exists in trio and quartet versions for clarinets, flutes or voices. It was the first in a series of works by Eddie that portray musically the ancient art-form of knotwork within various world cultures. The four flutes begin similarly, based around one note in a mood reminiscent of early chant, which is of the same period as the beginning of the art-form itself. The flutes gradually become entwined together in increasingly intricate lines, each one different but collectively functioning in unison. Vivid Scottish attributes are found throughout Celtic Knotwork in the Scotch-snap grace notes that spread through the work and the jig-like dance qualities that emerge. Before a return to the opening, the piece climaxes with a distinctive flooding wash of sound, representative of Eddie’s musical style.
Written in 1991, Dark Cloud continues his fondness for writing works for a number of the same instrument in an unsynchronised arrangement. This work was composed as ‘a reply to [the Cuban composer] Léo Brouwer’s Blue Sky and Smile’ for large guitar ensemble. Once again, in this version for eight guitars, it has been recorded by one player in a layered multi-track arrangement. The inspiration for this work is summed up by Eddie:
My music refers to a memory of early childhood; once, when I was about three years old, I was out walking with my mother along a country road north of Glasgow when a massive dark cloud reared up over the hills on the horizon ahead –and I started to cry. The sky clears, the sun breaks through and the music dances to a mother’s reassurance. Just a memory of the “dark cloud” remains.
Each of the described emotions surfaces and grows from the previous texture providing a steady realisation. The gentle, calm and assured opening is interrupted by the increasing violence of the ‘dark cloud’, each player in turn adopting the unsettled and disturbing motif. A slip-jig emerges gradually from the ‘dark cloud’ as the mother’s reassurance is heard before the opening calm is restored, with just a hint of the ‘dark cloud’ memory.
For Eddie, an obvious and natural combination of instruments is that of guitar and flute, and he has written a substantial number of works for this pairing dating from Three Traditional Pieces, composed in 1980. Fountain of Tears was commissioned by Rob MacKillop in 1992 for the Lorca Duo and commemorates the poet playwright Federico Garcia Lorca, who was murdered by fascists in 1936 at the beginning of the Spanish civil war. Eddie explains the significance of Lorca’s death
within the work: ‘The piece takes us on a poignant journey back to the very place where the poet died – Fuente Grande in north-east Granada’. The title of the work is derived from the Arabic name for the pool and its natural fountain, ‘Ain-ad-damar’, the literal translation being ‘spring of tears’. Eddie’s gift for intense lyricism is one of the most noticeable aspects of this work. An improvisatory quality is a constant feature in Fountain of Tears; the calm and rhapsodic flute part is complemented by imaginative guitar writing, with a sinister element occasionally introduced in the lower range of the guitar.
In 1976, Eddie embarked upon an ambitious and long-lasting endeavour to write a prelude for every instrument, ‘working with a performer in order to learn about the idiomatic soul of each instrument’. This continuous series of solo works, each for a different instrument, is still in progress and at the time of writing numbers 22, the first being for cello and the most recent for trumpet. Prelude 13 is for solo piccolo and was composed in 1994 for Danielle Eden. The light and agile characteristics of this instrument are explored in a favourite form of Eddie’s, ‘of organic growth, flowering and decay’. From a gentle start, flourishes are juxtaposed with longer notes and pauses, which develop towards ‘a dance with a distinctive Scottish, strathspey-like flavour’, which grows fainter towards the close.
Eddie’s versatility as a composer is demonstratedby Caprice (1999) for flute and piano. Commissioned by the publisher Faber for their ‘Unbeaten Tracks’ series – along with composers such as Fraser Trainer, David Matthews and Carl Davis – it is intended for a player of a specific standard, in fact ideal for the young flautist. In the published version there is a brief profile of Eddie that gives a little more insight into the composer and the work: John Cage is recorded as the individual he finds musically most inspiring, while Syrinx for solo flute by Claude Debussy was the musical work that inspired him when he was 13 years old, and Music for 18 Musicians by Steve Reich when he was 30. He also states that Caprice is about ‘Capturing that elusive mood that’s happy and playful; but pausing for a moment, letting memories flood in’.
In 2000, Invergordon Arts Society commissioned Eddie to compose a work for solo piano in celebration of the Millennium. The resultant work, Harbour of Harmonies, is inspired by various aspects of Marinell Ash’s book, This Noble Harbour, about the town of Invergordon and events such as the Invergordon Mutiny. In discussing the work, Eddie stated ‘I hadn’t known […] that there was singing that took place as the people from the shore joined the mutiny sailors singing from the water’. He goes on to say how a stillness of the waters in the natural
harbour, being a result of the deep water, inspired the piece. The title for the work was decided upon by Eddie after much thought: ‘it’s all based on the deep water and the people who had to work in harmony to make [the town] what it is – and the ship to shore singing’. Tranquillity and peace are the overriding characteristics of Harbour of Harmonies, which contains several episodes which pertain to the ‘nostalgic memories and stress of shattering changes and disappointments in the lives of the people of Invergordon over the years’.
Dancing Memories, a three-movement work for solo flute, was written in 2001 for Benjamin MacDougall, who premiered it at the Carlisle International Summer Festival in 2003. The work is dedicated to the retired dance teacher Sarah de Ruyg, the three separate studies invoking recollections of ‘nostalgia of dance classes and solitary rehearsal – but always with a light-hearted wit’. The three movements – Mrs de Ruyg’s Delight, Waltz and Hornpipe – each have their own personality evoking the different aspects of dance: the opening movement brings to mind the graceful side of dance; the Waltz perhaps suggests the technical aspects; and the Hornpipe sprightly, elated and satisfying qualities.
The most recent work among this repertoire, Resistance Movement, is for the rarely-used combination of flute, guitar and piano, and was composed as a gesture for the players in this recording, in order to unite the three instruments. The title of the work is something of a pun on ‘pièce de resistance’, and the energetic and vigorous moments of the work were written partly to balance with the reflective aspects of the remainder of the repertoire presented here. Eddie describes how the ‘impetus for its angry energy stems from my reading of Manda Scott’s Boudica novels and support for legitimate resistance to occupation and exploitation in the present’. In three main sections, Resistance Movement is continually active and evolving; despite the unusual combination of instruments each complements the other, all three bringing their own individual and stylistic personalities into this amalgamation.
© 2006 Adam Binks
Adam Binks is currently a PhD student at the University of Edinburgh. The subject of his thesis is the music of Kenneth Leighton.
Eddie McGuire: Music for Flute, Guitar and Piano
Eddie McGuire
In 2003, Eddie McGuire was the recipient of a British Composer Award and, in 2004, a Creative Scotland Award. Born in Glasgow in 1948, he studied composition with James Iliff at the Royal Academy of Music, London 1966-70, and with the Swedish composer Ingvar Lidholm in Stockholm. McGuire’s works are regularly broadcast and performed all over the world.
Eddie has been featured composer at the Bath International Guitar Festival, the Scottish International Flute Summer School, the International Viola Festival, and the Edinburgh International Harp Festival. Commissions have come from the Cheltenham Festival, Park Lane Young Artists’ Series, New Music Group of Scotland, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, the St Magnus Festival, and the Edinburgh International Festival. In recent years he has produced several large-scale works to critical acclaim: A Glasgow Symphony, Cake Talk – a new opera in 1996 for the RSNO Junior Chorus, The Loving of Etain for Paragon Opera (both with the librettist Marianne Carey), and the three-act ballet Peter Pan, which has been performed over 120 times by Scottish Ballet and Hong Kong Ballet. He has also written concertos for guitar, trombone, viola, violin and – most recently – double bass, which
has been broadcast by the BBC SSO with soloist Anthony Alcock. Eddie’s symphonic poem featuring bagpipes, Calgacus, was recorded by the BBC SSO during the 1997 BBC Proms, and featured on the front cover disc of BBC Music Magazine, entitled The Very Best of the BBC Orchestras.
Eddie also plays flute with, and writes for, the traditional music ensemble The Whistlebinkies, and has appeared on several recordings with them on the Greentrax label. Among his interests as a political activist, he has been the Chair of the Scottish region of the Musicians Union since 2003.
Abigail James has a passion for contemporary music and has commissioned new works from Michael Zev Gordon, Andrew Keeling and Pete Wyer, amongst others. She has performed in the UK’s major venues: St Martin-inthe-Fields, St John’s Smith Square, the Barbican, the Purcell Room, Conway Hall, the Royal Opera House, Queen Elizabeth Hall, the Royal Festival Hall as well as in Tate Britain’s Late at Tate series.
Abigail has played with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the New Music Players, Reservoir, was a leading member of the London Guitar Trio and enjoys a regular duo with flautist Rowland Sutherland.
Her interest in innovative artistic collaboration has taken her throughout the world: recently on tour in Japan with Hartland Chamber Opera and Japanese puppet group Saruhachi-Za in a production of The She-Fox of Shinoda, a Japanese folk tale set to music by British composer Colin Hodgetts. She has also performed with contemporary dance group Snag Project at the Clore Studio of the Royal Opera House, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Cardiff’s The Blue Room and in Swindon’s Taking Risks festival.
Abigail’s performances have been broadcast on BBC Radio 3, and she has appeared on a recording of John Lambert’s music (NMC D026), and has a forthcoming solo recording of modern guitar works – Equinox (RVRCD68).
Nancy Ruffer was born in Detroit and received a Master of Music degree from the University of Michigan. She was awarded a Fulbright-Hays Scholarship for post-graduate study at The Royal Academy of Music in London, where she has remained working as a free-lance flautist specializing in contemporary music. Principal flute in the contemporary music ensembles Matrix, Music Projects/London, The Almeida Opera Ensemble, and Double Image, Nancy also performs in ensembles for productions at The National Theatre.
Nancy was awarded the Kranichsteiner Prize for Performance at Darmstadt in 1984 and was recently appointed an Associate of The Royal Academy of Music. Recent recording appearances have comprised works by Justin Connolly (MSV CD92046), Richard Emsley (MSV CD92044), and Sadie Harrison (MSV CD92053). Nancy has recorded a solo disc of contemporary solo flute works entitled Multiplicities (MSV CD92063), and a further disc with the pianist Helen Crayford, British Fantasies, American Dreams (GMCD 7230), in which she performs twentieth-century British and American works for flute and piano.
Abigail James Nancy RufferDominic Saunders read music
initially at York University, winning the Wilfrid Mellers Prize and graduating with first-class honours. He then attended the Royal Academy of Music in London, with the Lloyds Bank Scholarship, where he won numerous prizes. Since then he has gained increasing recognition for his work as soloist, accompanist and ensemble player in a wide range of styles, playing at the Proms and all the main London venues, all over the UK and Europe, and in the USA and the Caribbean. His first appearance at the Carnegie Hall in New York was in 2002.
Dominic was a founder member of Jane's Minstrels, the ensemble set up by the soprano Jane Manning, with whom he has had a particularly close working relationship. He is also the pianist with Icebreaker and Lontano and has played with other ensembles such as the London Sinfonetta and Endymion. Contemporary music is a special priority and he has premiered the works of numerous composers.
Commercial recordings have included two critically acclaimed discs of music by George Enescu – one with violinist Anne Solomon (OCD 690) and the other with the Solomon Ensemble (NAXOS 8.557159).
New Music on Delphian
Songs From the Exotic
Polly May, mezzo-soprano, Lucy Walker, piano (DCD34002)
*world premiere recordings
This debut from rising star Polly May includes premiere recordings of the original versions of Judith Weir’s Songs from the Exotic and Luciano Berio’s Quattro canzoni popolari.
‘The musky, warm mezzo-soprano of Polly May, and the robust pianoplaying of Lucy Walker... are well-suited to this earthy repertoire... much to enjoy in this fresh and courageous venture.’
– BBC Music Magazine, March 2002
A'e Gowden Lyric: Songs by Ronald Stevenson
Susan Hamilton, soprano, John Cameron, piano, (DCD34006)
*world premiere recordings
The lyric Scots poetry of Hugh MacDiarmid, Sorley MacLean, and William Soutar and Robert Louis Stevenson's A Child's Garden of Verses are featured in this premiere recording of songs by Borders composer Ronald Stevenson. Susan Hamilton’s clarion soprano voice is the perfect instrument for this introspective recital, which is, in the words of MacDiarmid, ‘sharp and sweet and breaks the heart’.
‘As for Hamilton, her performances are so good that praise is almost an impertinence. The recording is beautifully balanced and clear as a bell. Anyone interested in the composer, the poets, the singer, in twentieth-century British song generally, should buy this disc.’
– International Record Review, June 2003
Dominic Saunders
