BY LEWIS INGHAM
Erik Griswold’s latest release Hollows Out of Time is an album unafraid of stylistic and sonic possibilities.
The intriguing combination of prepared piano, played by the composer; and string quartet, provided by Camerata, journeys through ever-changing colours and moods in response to the architecture of Bruce Wolfe’s Lagavulin, a new chamber music venue in Harrigans Lane, Northern New South Wales.
We chat with Erik about the composition process behind Hollows out of time in anticipation of its featured performance at the Tyalgum Music Festival on September 8.
Hollows Out of Time was commissioned specifically for the launch of Lagavulin, a chamber music venue near the Piano Mill in Northern NSW. Did the site-specific nature of the commission influence your approach to writing this suite of pieces and the decision to use prepared piano and string quartet as the instrumentation?
I’ve spent quite a bit of time up at Harrigans Lane – the site of Lagavulin and the Piano Mill – over the past 10 years.
Vanessa Tomlinson and I (Clocked Out) hold a big event there every Easter, and we do smaller events throughout the year. It’s a home away from home for me and my family, really.
One of the main goals I had in creating this piece was to explore or ‘sound’ the architecture of Bruce Wolfe’s beautiful new building Lagavulin, so the idea of pairing the intimate and percussive quality of prepared piano with the warmth and sustain of the string quartet seemed to offer a lot of possibilities.
I worked on some of the prepared piano material at the site, and I was definitely responding not just to the architecture, but also to the environment of the place – its soundscape and sweeping views, the clouds and fog rolling in, the birdsong and forest.
What influenced the decision to compose a suite of pieces for Hollows rather than a longer-duration work?
In my work, I tend to alternate between single-idea, long-form works like Ecstatic Descent, and suites such as Hollows. Since I wanted to test out the acoustics of the Lagavulin, it made sense to me to put forward lots of contrasting sounds, colours and moods.
The prepared piano is often the opening sound heard in these collections of pieces, and provides a foundation for many of the woven layers of sound. Was the piano the staring point for you in developing the initial ideas for each of these pieces? Is piano often a driving force in your compositional process?
Well spotted! Yes, the prepared piano was composed first.
I started by creating the preparations and the basic musical structures at the piano, which I recorded. Then I listened back very closely, paying attention to the unusual harmonics, resonances, incidental squeaks and buzzes that coloured the material. These became the starting point for the string parts – squeaky keys became artificial harmonics; buzzing tones became battuto ricochet, etc. From there I started to hear new lines and textural layers, and the quartet came to life.
I’m a very hands-on, tactile composer. I like to workshop ideas, and often use improvisation as part of my creative process. But each piece or series of pieces is a new world, and I believe in using the right tool for the job, whether it’s composing with pencil and paper, improvising at the piano, or using software.
The prepared piano utilises a lot of muted timbres as well as some gong-like tones. What materials were you using to prepare the piano, and what was your mindset as you set about influencing the timbre of the instrument?
The main materials you hear are thin rubber strips, bits of paper and cardboard, brass bolts and screws of various sizes. When I prepare the piano, I’m thinking a lot about the tuning – I use the preparations to change some of the pitches – and as I work on the preparations, the piano starts to take on a particular harmonic colour that shapes the language of the composition.
I’m also thinking about the distribution of the materials across the keyboard from left to right, so that if I have a variety of materials arranged close together – within an octave, say – it creates the possibility for some really unexpected patterns and cross-rhythms.
You’ve explored a variety of different music styles within your own voice in this suite of works. Stylistically, I’m quite drawn to Blues Intrusion. What particular elements of the blues did you seek to blend within your own style in this piece? Are there some key ideals you seek to achieve when exploring a cross-pollination of your own style with other genres?
I’ve loved the blues for so long that I think this is more a case of taking what I’ve internalised from years of listening to and imitating the greats – like Mississippi John Hurt, Bessie Smith, John Lee Hooker, Thelonious Monk, and so many more – and then allowing that to come into this very concise, miniature song form.
I think it’s a question of giving myself permission to let that influence into the work – like, am I really going to go there? Okay yes, then I better really go there!
Of course, we can talk about use of blues scale, or blue notes and so on, but it’s really the particular vocabulary, motifs, and inflection that will capture the style. In other words: it’s not about the scale, it’s how you use it.
You’re right that I’m drawn to this idea of cross-pollination. I guess I feel that when you put unexpected things together, there is the potential to discover something new, or perhaps to find a kind of ‘unexpected beauty’.
There’s quite an organic blend between the sounds of the strings and the prepared piano in each of the pieces. Did the composition process for Hollows Out of Time involve working directly with Camerata String Quartet, or other string players, to develop this blend?
In this case, I came to the quartet with a complete draft of the piece, but with some flexible ideas about sound. Then, over about a week and a half, I worked together with Brendan Joyce, Jason Tong, Anna Colville, and Katherine Philp of Camerata to try to hone in on the right techniques and methods to capture the energy, mood, and stylistic references in each movement.
We added elements such as circular bowing (Humid Hours), pressure bowing (Another Stone in the Wall), sul ponticello pizzicato (Relativity Trane), as well as many types of vibrato, phrasing and tone, to try to create as much colour as possible.
Hollows Out of Time will be performed on September 8 at the Tyalgum Music Festival in Northern New South Wales. What can audiences expect from this festival and your concert as part of the closing gala?
Tylagum is a unique festival in a stunning location. Co-artistic directors Anna McMichael and Vanessa Tomlinson have done a miraculous job striking a balance of top-notch classical performance, world music, innovative new works, and site-specific projects.
I’m delighted to be sharing a concert not only with Camerata, but also with the brilliant Tibetan musician Tenzin Choegyal. Other highlights this year include the Viney-Grinberg Piano Duo, soprano Greta Bradman, Tinalley String Quartet, and a Roving Opera by Alice Chance.
This commission, and your upcoming performance at the Tyalgum Music Festival, are both geared towards bringing contemporary music to rural Australia. How important is it that contemporary art isn’t just centralised to major cities?
I’ve had some of my most rewarding experiences as a musician performing work for regional audiences. I find that when you get outside the major urban centres, people are really curious and engaged with new work. For example, when performing for Clocked Out with guest artists at Lagavulin – like Cat Hope, Jim Denley and others – it’s common to have really lively post-concert discussions about the work.
Of course, it can be difficult to make the economics of regional touring work, but there is definitely a pay-off in terms of community building and creative satisfaction.
Find Hollows Out of Time on Bandcamp. The music will be performed at the Tyalgum Music Festival on September 8. Check out the full program on the website.
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