w18565
| Title | Summer Still! |
| Contributors |
Derek Ball (composer) David Patrick Barry (author) |
| Composition date | 2010 |
| Duration (mins) | 45 |
| Category | opera theatre |
| Instrumentation | T Bar B / 2232 2110 Tp Per Str |
| Commissioned by | |
| Key signature | |
| First line | |
| First performed | |
| Notes | To Ethel Ball 1916 - 2007 |
| Programme Note | This historical drama focuses on the chance meeting in post-war Austria of two very different men, the composer Webern (innocent and other-wordly) and U.S. Army-cook Ray Bell (anxiety-ridden and impulsive). Webern's death is the shocking outcome. In the background but heavily implicated in the tragedy is the compser's cynical son-in-law, the third character in the drama. Avant-garde composer Anton Webern's music had been banned by the Nazis before the war, in his native Austria and elsewhere. This added to the miseries endured by the family im Vienna throughout the war. Webern's son Peter died in a troop-trai bombed by the Allies early in 1945. The family fled west ahead of the Russian occupation of Vienna, and took up residence in the village of Mittersill, which found itself in the U.S.-occupied zone. The defeat of the Nazis and growing recognition as a composer of genius bore the promise for Webern of fulfilment at last. This was not to be. Webern's son-in-law Benno Mattel was involved in the black market. On the evening of 15th September 1945 Webern and his wife visited their daughter in the family home. Their visit coincided with a 'sting' operation in which two U.S. army personnel planned to arrest Mattel in the act of purchasing army provisions. One of the two was army-cook Bell, who was probably alcohol-dependent. In the course of the evening Webern went onto the veranda to smoke a cigar. Shortly afterwards he was shot and fatally wounded by Bell. The detail of what happened was never established with certainty. With regard to the central character in the drama, it is noteworthy that Webern's inner life was dominated by three figures. He held Goethe's discovery that all plants, however contrasting, were built on the same model with regard to their reproductive parts [libretto, page 12]. He idolised his teacher Schenberg ["haughty master', p12], who pioneered the 12-note method of composition, consisting of a series of rows of notes each representing all twelve tones arranged in a particular order [pp12 & 13]. Webern saw the use of this strict technique to create musical forms as analogous to Nature's design of plants, and was thrilled by the insight. But perhaps most important of all to Webern was his wife (pet-name 'Minna'), who was something of a mother-figure to the composer [pp7 & 13]. (Webern's mother had died at an early stage in his career as a composer). The score, not surprisingly, shows the influence of Weber's extraordinary sound-world. The music, dealing with events which arguably shaped the course of the history of music, uses a varied palette of serial techniques. The range of 12-tone methods employed is not limited to melody/accompaniment and canon, but also includes progressive variation, permutation, layering, pairing, trope, etc. (the list is by no means exhaustive). Interested readers are referredd to the composer's 'Notes'(available on request). Webern's transcendent vision of the world, evoked before his blinkered companions, provides as happy an ending as could be hoped for. |
This work is associated with the following collection items:
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