The name of the remarkable research scientist Gerald Durrell is known to many thanks to his many talented books, where he describes his encounters with a variety of animals, birds, insects from Africa, South America, New Zealand and other countries.
Admiring by Durrell's travels and discoveries, composer Elena Sokolovski decided to dedicate her composition "Gerald Durrell and the World of Insects" to the scientist, created in 2010 and performed in Russia, Austria, and Israel.
The work is a program suite for clarinet (A), viola and piano, consisting of 5 parts – pieces with a prelude, several interludes-bundles and a postlude, going without a break. With the main composition of 3 instruments, the suite has options – separate numbers for solo piano and for sextet.
At the heart of the suite, uniting and holding it together, is the theme that depicts Durrell himself, walking through the forest and observing the life of forest insects. This theme, like the whole structure of the suite, was specially conceived by the author, by analogy with Mussorgsky's «Pictures at an Exhibition».
Indeed, Durrell's theme, cheerful, energetic, is reminiscent of the "Walk", which leads the scientist to the most diverse and very interesting scenes.
So he approached the forest lake, rainbow dragonflies fly over it in a swift flight. Their dance is full of fire, they appear here and there, and sometimes the voice of a cuckoo or the sound of a cone falling in the forest is woven into this dance…
The musical text of the first part of "Dragonflies" is very rich in various effects. So, in some places of this scherzo, the author, in special notes, indicates the method of playing: for the pianist – a light blow on the soundboard of the piano ("a bump fell"), for the violist – a colorful technique play sul ponticello, for a clarinetist – a special glissando. Musical "colorfulness" is enhanced by a variety of trills, wide jumps, winding passages.
The composer uses a special technique in the piano part: it is performed with only one right hand and only in one voice (that is, without chords and undertones), therefore, an ensemble of three monophonic instruments with different timbres is created.
Next, we see Durrell, who came to a forest clearing. How many flowers are there and how different they are! But what is it? Flowers are flying!… It turns out that they are butterflies! They flutter, they do not fly like swift dragonflies, their smooth, infinitely graceful quiet pirouettes evoke a feeling of peace and tenderness… They take off and land on flowers, either singly or in groups. What a play of colors!
Here the butterflies in a single motley cloud began to waltz, waltz, faster and faster… What a bright, beautiful melody is heard in this waltz, what ecstasy and joy of life fills the graceful movements of whirling butterflies, they soar higher, higher, straight to the sun .. .
But suddenly a light breeze comes up – and the butterflies, having described pirouettes, disappear. They seem to say goodbye to us, promising to return…
In this piece, the composer created a rich score. Despite the overall quiet sound, the parts of each instrument are quite virtuoso and even bizarre. For example, the most delicate frullato of the clarinet is heard as a light, almost weightless flutter. In the viola part, pizzicato and arco playing techniques change more than once, and the range covers more than three octaves. Trills, grace notes of clarinet and viola, whimsical rhythmic figures, "flexible" passages sound completely different than in the previous piece, thanks to the variety of the piano part.
After the monophonic sound of the piano in "Dragonflies", the author uses various piano techniques in «Butterflies». Polyphonic chords of a wide range are interspersed with refined patterns, the piano performs either a melody or elegant passages and polyphonic undertones, sometimes playing accompanying figurations or duplicating the clarinet and viola, and sometimes soloing.
The pattern of the piano part in this piece is very polyphonic and varied. It is the richness of the musical texture, combined with bright harmonic shifts and unexpected modulations, that evokes colorful associations in the listeners with the “multi-color” of the scene that fascinated Durrell and which he himself mentions in one of his books.
And now – a new impression: the scientist slowly walks through the night forest and observes an amazing picture – the appearance of "Fireflies". In different directions of the forest space there are luminous bluish, like fixed points, about which the composer himself writes in a note: "… This part should be completely frozen, as if it were made of glass and exists outside of time."
Barely audible small motifs, individual sounds or rehearsals on one sound draw a magical pattern – as if all around, now close, now far, some precious stones light up with a cold fire and beckon to themselves, beckon somewhere deep into the dark forest…
This piece is played in the same way as "Dragonflies" – the piano is now played with only one left hand and only in one voice. The piano plays a whimsical melody, while the clarinet and viola intersperse with separate sounds. The arising three-voice creates some kind of crystal-clear atmosphere, it is literally felt despite the fact that there is a silent night around…
This impression is enhanced by the pedaling of the piano: the pedal is held throughout the whole work, generating the unsteadiness and blurryness of night shadows, and separate sounds of pizzicato viola and rehearsal on the same sound of the clarinet pianissimo, and the space seems to move apart… This part is called "Fireflies".
And ahead of Durrell is waiting for a new picture: traveling the world, he finds himself in Japan. Unusual plants, aromas, flowers and a singing choir of cicadas sound around! There are many of them, they fly, sit on the branches and trunks of trees and sing their bizarre and varied songs. The most interesting thing is that the author's music has this national Japanese flavor – the melodies of the piece are pentatonic, they reflect the characteristic spirit of the peoples of the Far East.
The author gave a very original presentation to the music of the play. This whole number of the suite is performed only by the solo piano, while the clarinet and viola play a completely different role, reflected in the author's remarks. So, in the part of the clarinet it is indicated: “Quick pronunciation in a whisper of the syllable“ tak-tak-tak". A similar indication applies to the violist: "Quiet and quick clicking of the tongue, alternately stretching and tightening the lips." These sounds are quite similar to those made by the cicadas themselves. At the same time, the clarinet and viola, as instruments, do not take any part in this piece. By the way, it should be noted that the composer specifically studied the sounds made by cicadas, and reflected in his music two different timbres of sound.
The piano part of the piece is unusually elegant; it is presented only in the middle and high registers of the instrument. It is filled with small pentatonic motifs, going in a whimsical rhythm, and numerous trills.
Colorful harmonies, juxtaposition of distant tonalities, shifts in the introductions of motifs, light melodic dashes – all this gives this small piece called "Japanese Cicadas" a gentle grace and evokes associations with the finest and most fragile porcelain!
And again Durrell is in the forest. Something is heard ahead, either noise, or some kind of dancing.… But who can dance in the forest? Durrell quickly approaches the clearing and already on the approach he hears the familiar sounds of… rock'n'roll! And something unimaginable is happening in the clearing – a lot of green grasshoppers are dancing rock'n'roll in delight! This part is called "Rock-n-roll of Grasshoppers". They jump, have fun, jump high. The atmosphere here is so groovy that the scientist himself begins to dance.
To create such a scene, the author introduced a number of instructions for the performers: “buzz loudly” (for the pianist and violist), “extremely piercing sound production” – for the clarinet, “extremely primitive, slightly false sound production, completely devoid of vibrato” – for the violist. There are even instructions such as "hysterically shrill cackling" for a clarinetist in a very high register and screams «Hop! Hop!» for all three musicians.
With an increasing tempo to extreme Prestissimo and dynamics ff, a scene of unrestrained fun is drawn, which is sometimes interrupted by a quiet and slow sound: as if the raging forest youth are asked to calm down, persuaded to calm down – but no! It is impossible to calm down, and by the end of the piece, the piano beats clusters on the keys, turning into a percussion instrument. And even the theme of rock'n'roll is drowning in the general whirlwind of frantic movement. This movement goes straight into the final postlude – Durrell's theme.
This postlude, together with the prelude and interludes, constitutes a system of refrains that intersperse almost all the main parts of the general rondo musical form in which this program suite is written. But the refrains vary each time and once a refrain is skipped (between "Butterflies" and "Fireflies"). The refrains differ both in scale (from 8 to 49 measures) and in the tonality and timbre of the instruments playing the Durrell theme.
The prelude, from which the suite begins, is the most extensive in size: the author not only presents the audience with the image of a scientist, but also draws pictures of the forest, lake, garden, meadows, against which scenes of the hidden life of nature are played out. Durrell's steps are either loud and confident, or cautious, sneaking, as if indicating the features of the events observed by the scientist.
The interludes link the plays into a cycle and prepare the figurative character of Darrell's encounter with such different beings. So, a short interlude before "Butterflies" – Andante delicatissimo – sets the listeners in advance to the perception of something tender, graceful and languidly beautiful, airy, that they will now hear. And a small connection before the piece "Japanese Cicadas" with pizzicato viola, clarinet trills and light piano chords gives rise to a feeling of some amazing fragility – “if only not to break”…
The interlude that precedes the last part of the suite, on the contrary, is imbued with a resolute character, Durrell's confident and then cautious steps are heard approaching the clearing, where he watches the grasshoppers dance.
The whole suite is completed by the postlude, which retains the joyful mood of the previous dance, but at the same time it sounds very majestic and festive. The grand piano leads the main theme of Durrell with wide chords, two other instruments duplicate, reinforce this theme, sonorities appear in the piano part, reminiscent of bell ringing and associated, according to the author's intention, with Mussorgsky's «Bogatyr Gates».
In the solemn sound of postlude, the composer put a sense of pride and joy to be a scientist, researcher, to be friends with the vast and rich world, to love and appreciate all living things that inhabit this world. Durrell has seen a lot of interesting things and made many discoveries, brilliantly displaying his impressions in fascinating books that readers love so much.
We wish the composer Elena Sokolovski to create new bright, talented works that equally expressively reflect the diversity of the surrounding world.
Marina Skrebkova-Filatova
doctor of arts