Water Spirit Song (2003)
Water Spirit Song began as one movement of a larger musical theater work, Koto Dreaming (2003). Koto Dreaming was commissioned by David Walker for the 2003 Asian Music and Dance Festival at the Sydney Opera House and featured the Japanese Butoh dancer Yumi Umiumare and.
Koto Dreaming is dedicated to the koto player Satsuki Odamura, who has recorded the suite for Orpheus Music. The original dance was accompanied by an ensemble of Asian and European instruments including shakuhachi, cor anglais, koto, darbukka and cello.
Water Spirit Song is performed twice in the original work: by the cello (accompanied by a recorded waterfall) and later, offstage, by the cor anglais.11
Edwards has rearranged Water Spirit Song for English horn, cello, flute, and bassoon. Alexandre Oguey, who performed the original theater performance, then premiered the solo English horn edition.12 Oguey has been described as playing with “great sensitivity”.13 His English horn playing is even and clear. These qualities help to establish the placid atmosphere that Edwards requires in his Water Spirit Song.
Water Spirit Song is marked Calmo with the quarter note at 50-60 (flessibile) per minute. This is all intended to establish an environment of calm contemplation. The music is built on short phrases that are intended to allow a moments repose between. These short phrases are then strung together through either repetition, as in the first longer phrase, or through reiterations of a single note. This piece, as many of Edwards’ other sacred works, is in ternary form.
Example 21. Water Spirit Song, mms. 1-14.
The harmony of Water Spirit Song exemplifies the problem with applying traditional Western classical harmony upon a work that is highly influenced by non-Western classical traditions. The instrumentation for the original theatrical version is shakuhachi, cor anglais, koto, darbukka and cello, and the overriding tonality is predominantly modal, mixolydian and dorian. The larger A section is centered around an A minor mode and the larger B section is focused about a D minor mode. While these two sections could relate to one another in a traditional tonic and dominant relationship, the importance is placed on the A minor mode reversing the normal V-I relationship, producing an overarching V-I-V progression. This is a clear demonstration, through harmony, that the ideals of Western classical analysis do not apply to this particular work.
The A and B sections are different in tonality and structure. The A section is comprised of several short phrases, two measures or less, to build a larger phrasal structure through repetition. The B section is comprised of longer phrases that demonstrate a difference to the A section and provide forward motion.
Water Spirit Song utilizes five icons, 1, 4, 6, 10, and 15, listed below. All of the icons except for icon 15 are used in both the A and B sections. This is a marked change from the other pieces works that have been discussed thus far.
Table 11. Icon usage in Water Spirit Song.
Icon #1: falling semitone, mms. 1, 3, 5, 6, 36, 39, 42
Icon #4: falling minor third, mms. 8, 34, 37
Icon #6: rising melodic minor seventh, mms. 1, 5, 8, 10, 18, 23, 33, 39
Icon #10: augmented fourths and fifths, mms. 3, 21, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47
Icon #15: melodic motive of falling semitone and falling
major third, m. 25
This work provides a number of challenges to the performer. First, a large portion of the work is in the third octave on the English horn. This can cause issues for players to produce a full tone and even intonation. The third octave tends to sag in pitch and the tone can be thin. These issues can be overcome by maintaining an open embouchure, producing a faster air speed, and not biting the reed. Also, the performer should work to utilize alternate fingerings for the third octave that will facilitate response and intonation. Another issue to address is the dynamic contrast required to effectively create the mood. The pianos and pianissimos can be perceived as softer by the effective use of silences between phrases, exemplified in measures one through seven.
Example 22. Water Spirit Song, mms. 36-41.
While this piece is clearly in Edwards’ sacred idiom,
with respect to mood and pacing, it is leaning toward his mantra series. The mantra series, as Edwards states, produces a “feel that the ethos of this piece and of others like it will dominate my music over the next decade as I move away from galvanised insect dances and seek a calmly ecstatic music.”14
11 Ross Edwards, Water Spirit Song (London: Ricordi, 2003).
12 Alexandre Ogeuy was born in Neuchâtel, Switzerland, and received his undergraduate and postgraduate degrees from the Zürich Conservatorium studying with Maurice Bourgue and Emanuel Abbühl. While he has won several solo and chamber music competitions on oboe, including the Martigny International Chamber Music Competition, his contribution to Ross Edwards’ music has been through his English horn playing. After performing as the Associate Principal Oboe in the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra from 1990-97, he won the English horn chair in the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, where he currently plays.
13 Brett Oliver “Legend by the Sea with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra”, February 11, 2013, http://bachtrack.com/review-sydney-symphony-orchestra-ashkenazy-sibelius-faure-debussy, October 8, 2014.
14 Philip Cooney, “Ross Edwards: I still wake up excited about the score I’m working on,” Resonate Magazine (December 18, 2013), http://www.australianmusiccentre.com.au/article/ross-edwards-i-still-wake-up-excited-about-the-score-i-m-working-on (accessed January 21, 2015).