CFAMC Listening Page #5

First issued March, 2005

A monthly musical offering by a composer member of the Christian Fellowship of Art Music Composers.
Both your listening and comments are encouraged.

Mark Chambers

“das, das in mir liegt”

Trio for Violin, ’Cello, and Piano
Recording not currently available

Performed by:
Seghei Tanas, violin
Craig Hultgren, ’cello
Adam Bowles, piano

Program Notes

With the title of this work, translated that which lies within me, I found myself looking back at the expressionists particularly Schoenberg and his introspective, psychological perspective. One thing about the expressionists that has always left an impression on me was the lack of resolution or answer to the darkness of their own lives as well as others. In looking to Schoenberg, painters such as Kokoschka, and others there is a real and serious introspection into the dark side of human nature but it always comes up empty either as to cause or resolution. In approaching this topic from a perspective informed by Christian theism I was taken immediately to St. Paul’s passage in Romans where he declares “...For what I will to do, that I do not practice, but what I hate, that I do.” (Romans 7:15). In light of this passage and others, it is understood then that that which lies within us is not merely a psychological aspect of the human condition to be understood in terms of a medical condition but is instead spiritually rooted in man’s soul. It is a condition to which none of us have escaped but is one we actually joyfully participate in at times and mourn over at others. It is a condition that I have very pointedly come to understand in my life as I can assuredly echo Paul’s sentiment in I Timothy 1:15 that I am the “chief of sinners.”

In consideration of the title of this work I was concerned with the nature of sin and how it grows and evolves and changes its character over time and how such an idea could be expressed musically. The work starts with a single point of articulation that is a simultaneous unity and yet is comprised of various shadings and perspectives. The violin pizzicatos a single pitch, D above middle C, while the cello articulates the same pitch with the bow. Viewed in a metaphorical sense the juxtaposition of the bowed/plucked entrances as well as the long/short decays help illuminate the multi-faceted nature of sin. Sin is not one aspect of our lives that can be compartmentalized but instead influences our every thought, motive, and desire with various permutations of itself. It is the influence and evolution of this and other opening material that informs the musical structure at both the micro and macro level.

Therefore, in this opening section the materials upon which this piece is built are introduced. Elements such as motivic blocks, rhythmic/time point concepts, and various pitch collections all grow and evolve as the musical context demands. Each instrument is melodically independent from each other yet at the same time dependant on the other in order to build a coherent musical structure as related to issues of timing, pitch collections, and various other elements. Emerging from the point of singularity the work rises and falls based upon the various permutations of only a few building blocks. The work closes with a dramatic and raucous ending, quite opposite of its seemingly tame and innocuous beginning.

I do intend to write other works that show the other side (Rom. 8:2) but I am not there yet ( I am currently working on a trio, then will start a song cycle with the Pierrot instrumentation with added percussion, computer and singer, and a series of piano studies on rhythmic transformation, and an orchestral work I plan to title “Post tenebrae lux” {After darkness light}). My current trio is a work for flute, piano, and Max/MSP. It is to be titled “...glass darkly...”. The music is more suggestive than this last work; I think much more like Messiaen and his Trinitarian allusions. The harmonic material is based off the spectra of a succession of ring-modulated dyads. (These calculations are performed in the IRCAM program Open Music.) The computer will play sound files (both instrumental samples and CSoundgenerated samples as well as perform real-time functions) which harmonically are based on 1/8th tones, while the flute will play primarily in 1/4th tones and the piano will play 1/2 tones. Thereby each layer is an incomplete reflection of the other. There is also a Trinitarian influence based upon the choice of three instruments. It is not that each member of the Trinity though is a incomplete reflection of the other rather it is our perception of them that is veiled and incomplete. I hope to have it completed by the end of spring.

Composer Biography

Mark Chambers was born in Greenville, SC, in 1969, where he began musical training studying the trumpet and then voice and music theory at a high school arts program. He attended Anderson College and earned an AFA in vocal performance and subsequently completed his BM in music theory and composition at Samford University. He went on to study with Michael Kurek at the Blair School of Music of Vanderbilt University and Kenneth Jacobs at the University of Tennessee where he earned the MM in composition. Presently Director of Worship and the Arts at Westminster Reformed Presbybterian Church in Suffolk, Virginia, he is pursuing a DMA (ABD) at the University of Alabama where he has studied composition with Craig First, Tristan Murail, David Durant and additional studies with Harrison Birtwistle. His music has been performed and broadcast across the U.S. and Europe including SEAMUS 2003, MAXIS II University of Leeds (UK), Pulsefield Soundscape: International Exhibition of Sound and Art, and others. He was selected as a finalist in the Auros competition, the 1st Annual Concurso Minaturas, Spain and other awards include the Victor Herbert / ASCAP award and the College Music Society Student Composition Award (Southern Division). He sits on the board of directors of the Christian Fellowship of Art Music Composers and was composer-in residence for the International Chamber Seminar, 2003 in Telfes, Austria.

- - -  SOLI DEO GLORIA!  - - -

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