This Week in Classical Music: May 10, 2021. Robert Ehle on his music. This week’s entry is rather unusual: we provided this space to Robert Ehle, composer and Emeritus Professor of Music and Composition, Electronic Music and Acoustics at the University of Northern Colorado. He’s discussing his piece called Petroglyphic Duo for violin and cello; you can listen to it here. And with this, we turn it over to Robert Ehle:
My Petroglyphic Duo for Violin and Cello, Opus 118, is one of a group of compositions that use the word Petroglyphic in their title. This word is supposed to carry the meaning of ageless or timeless, as opposed to modern, Classical, Neoclassical or contemporary. The meaning comes from my long study of world cultures and anthropology and is supposed to mean a kind of music that could have existed in some time or place in the distant past or in another part of the world. Compositions that utilize this word, in addition to the Duo, include a Petroglyphic Duo for Oboe and Trumpet and twelve single-movement Petroglyphic Piano Sonatas.
I have collected folksongs and studied performance practices in a dozen African countries including Lizuli Village, Botswana, a favorite destination of Overseas Adventure Travel (OAT) with whom I occasionally travel. My wife and I have traveled to more than 60 countries. We have also traveled to famous paleolithic cultural sites including the Cro Magnon sites along the Dordogne River in southwestern France and Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania where Australopithicus lived six million years ago. When you see the petroglyphic images and the cave paintings you get a pretty clear idea that something cultural was going on in these places and that it would have included music, both vocal and instrumental, employing hand made instruments. I play the Duduk, purchased in Uzbekistan, and the Zurna, purchased in Istanbul.
The Petriglyphic Duo is in three movements. The first movement opens with a section built from portamenti, such as might be found on the stick fiddle or the didgeridoo in Australia. Then the Allegro section that follows has the big theme that is an audience favorite.
The second movement opens with a 4-voice chorale, played by the use of double stops on both instruments. Then follows a folk song, Down by the Susquehanna, from the region of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where I come from. The movement ends with a repeat of the chorale.
The third movement is a four-quadrant double canon. It is a strict canon throughout and is in four sections. The first section features the original form of the canon, the second section features the retrograde inversion form of the canon, the third section features the inversion form of the canon and the last section features the retrograde form of the canon. Thus, the movement is like the four quadrants of a circle and ends where it began. The word Canon means rule, and this piece follows two strict rules throughout. <continue reading here>
The recording was made by my son, Robert Todd Ehle, violin, and Charles DuChateau, cello. Todd is currently professor of violin and orchestra at Delmar College in Corpus Christi, Texas and Charles conducts Broadway shows on the road, all over the world. Todd is also Youtube's ProfessorV where he teaches violin.
While some object to mp3s, I like the sound of my mp3 recordings. I like the density of the sound and I also like added echo and reverberation, as if the performance was taking place in a canyon or cave. I like to imagine that this is music being made by Homo Habilis or Homo Erectus, one and a half million years ago. I have no doubt that they made music, and that it was similar to some of the music we hear today in remote parts of the globe. Instruments such as the pit xylophone or the mouthbow are very old and could have existed in ancient cultures. When you hear the Mbira being played in Africa it is clear evidence that sophisticated music could exist before tuning theories or scales. I have a four-string instrument, purchased in Zimbabwe, that can be tuned to any pitches, like the Mbira. The sophistication comes not from the specific pitches but from their ordering. As in change ringing on English church bells, the ordering of the pitches creates interesting structures. The sound of these instruments being played is a part of the sound environment in sub-Saharan Africa.
Robert Ehle, May 2021
This Week in Classical Music: May 10, 2021. Robert Ehle on his music. This week’s entry is rather unusual: we provided this space to Robert Ehle, composer and Emeritus Professor of Music and Composition, Electronic Music and Acoustics at the University of Northern Colorado. He’s discussing his piece called Petroglyphic Duo for violin and cello; you can listen to it here. And with this, we turn it over to Robert Ehle:
I have collected folksongs and studied performance practices in a dozen African countries including Lizuli Village, Botswana, a favorite destination of Overseas Adventure Travel (OAT) with whom I occasionally travel. My wife and I have traveled to more than 60 countries. We have also traveled to famous paleolithic cultural sites including the Cro Magnon sites along the Dordogne River in southwestern France and Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania where Australopithicus lived six million years ago. When you see the petroglyphic images and the cave paintings you get a pretty clear idea that something cultural was going on in these places and that it would have included music, both vocal and instrumental, employing hand made instruments. I play the Duduk, purchased in Uzbekistan, and the Zurna, purchased in Istanbul.
The Petriglyphic Duo is in three movements. The first movement opens with a section built from portamenti, such as might be found on the stick fiddle or the didgeridoo in Australia. Then the Allegro section that follows has the big theme that is an audience favorite.
The second movement opens with a 4-voice chorale, played by the use of double stops on both instruments. Then follows a folk song, Down by the Susquehanna, from the region of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where I come from. The movement ends with a repeat of the chorale.
The third movement is a four-quadrant double canon. It is a strict canon throughout and is in four sections. The first section features the original form of the canon, the second section features the retrograde inversion form of the canon, the third section features the inversion form of the canon and the last section features the retrograde form of the canon. Thus, the movement is like the four quadrants of a circle and ends where it began. The word Canon means rule, and this piece follows two strict rules throughout. <continue reading here>
The recording was made by my son, Robert Todd Ehle, violin, and Charles DuChateau, cello. Todd is currently professor of violin and orchestra at Delmar College in Corpus Christi, Texas and Charles conducts Broadway shows on the road, all over the world. Todd is also Youtube's ProfessorV where he teaches violin.
While some object to mp3s, I like the sound of my mp3 recordings. I like the density of the sound and I also like added echo and reverberation, as if the performance was taking place in a canyon or cave. I like to imagine that this is music being made by Homo Habilis or Homo Erectus, one and a half million years ago. I have no doubt that they made music, and that it was similar to some of the music we hear today in remote parts of the globe. Instruments such as the pit xylophone or the mouthbow are very old and could have existed in ancient cultures. When you hear the Mbira being played in Africa it is clear evidence that sophisticated music could exist before tuning theories or scales. I have a four-string instrument, purchased in Zimbabwe, that can be tuned to any pitches, like the Mbira. The sophistication comes not from the specific pitches but from their ordering. As in change ringing on English church bells, the ordering of the pitches creates interesting structures. The sound of these instruments being played is a part of the sound environment in sub-Saharan Africa.