Since Guido of Arrezzo laid the basis for musical notation in the 11th Century, music aficionados have challenged each other with the question: Who is the best composer of all time? Although the answer is normally someone like Bach, Mozart or Schönberg, the composer Shane Fage has offered the most original answer: The writer Charles Dickens. “Your first job is that of the story teller. Owing to the power of Dickens’ language, one could see the room, smell the stale cigar in the ashtray, feel the warmth of the fire, everything.......And that is why Dickens is the best composer I have ever heard.”
Telling stories as the basis for music. An art form from long before Guido of Arrezzo, and one that is effective in all genres. The story behind El Cant dels Ocells (Song of the Birds) is the birth of Christ, until the legendary cellist Pau Casals transformed it into the epitome of the Catalonian soul, “The birds in this piece sing “Peace, Peace, Peace!” And the music is a music that Bach and Beethoven and all the greats would have loved and admired. It is so beautiful, and it is also the soul of my country, Catalonia.” If you compare Schubert’s Adagio, Fauré’s Nocturne and the fourth Prelude of Scriabin with the ancient traditional Catalonian folksong, it is apparent that both Fage and Casals are right. For centuries the craftmanship of composers has been defined by the ability to base music on a simple but very effective melody.
A craft that is being carried on by Folkert Buis. In his “The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea” the requisite beautiful melody is constantly interrupted by cold dissonance and the violence of blows on the piano. In the middle of the piece it seems that peace and quiet have triumphed, but it quickly becomes apparent that this is no more than the eye of the storm.
That the craft is genre-free is obvious in Kirkland’s Dienda. Even in improvised music simplicity is often the trump card, but sometimes a masterwork can be brought to a higher plain by Jazz musicians. uch as Branford Marsalis’ version on his album Royal Garden Blues. His brilliant phrasing of this melody is only surpassed by the story that he brings to it with his own improvisation.
The final composition by Paquito D'Rivera, a musician who has based his carrer on a perfect mix of musical tradition and enjoyment of performance. Ultimately it is all about emotion.
