3rd part - Special edition - Abel Carlevaro Centenary (1916-2001)... Cronomias I, Estudios 2 e 5

Events to celebrate the Centenary of Abel Carlevaro are contributing to the reference of his work also as a composer (see below in More).

Comparing his production, the Preludios Americanos are the most known and presented, while works such as Cronomias I and Estudios homenaje a H. Villa-Lobos have less insertion in the concert repertoire. Now, follows my vision of Cronomias (partly addressed here: http://musicacontemporaneaparaviolao.blogspot.com.br/2016/07/especial-centenario-de-abel-carlevaro_28.html ) and Studies 2 and 5.

Cronomias I (1971) brings in its title an idea of ​​observing the Time (Cronos). It is dedicated to the great Argentine guitarist Miguel Angel Girollet (1947-1996). It is a sonata in three movements, Poco libero, Intermezzo and Finale, starting from a twelve-tone series in subsequent themes that are remembered in the three movements, like flashes.

In the first movement the series is presented (with a note of indeterminate tone, percussive effect in the bridge – very creative); transpositions are made and the series reappears sometimes, transmuted into new ordinations, fixing itself on a motif of 4 notes in the same interval relation, and reappearances. This is important to note because in Intermezzo this presentation in 4 notes will be resumed; thematic links form a sonata, both historically and morphologically speaking.

There are significant changes in pulse, which should be highlighted, especially because of the attention that Carlevaro gave to this, from the title to his precise annotation of tempo (♩ =). Some fixed positions (chords) and left hand fingering patterns are presented here and then re-exposed in other sections.

Intermezzo, the second movement, is the most experimental; Carlevaro chooses the slow movement of the sonata as the most discursive; sonorities and many timbre possibilities are guided by a table of indications, demonstrating then the richness of the guitar in this area, optimized by the work of a composer engaged in the music of his time. The generative cell (after the Introduction) is already glimpsed in the first movement, it starts from the initial intervals of the series, the 4 notes that are fixed as motif, symmetrically.

The third movement has a danceable character, whose rhythmic configuration also arises from the first movement, now more present hemiolas. The treatment given to the series continues to vary, including in a work on the bass notes, but is more wrapped in a left hand fingering pattern that walks the guitar fingerboard by symmetrical movements – musical ideas from standards that are linked to the technique of Carlevaro.

Some ideas of the second movement are reworked, like the appoggiatura, now metrically arranged in a quintuplet, and the glissando. In addition, a kind of fingering with the first and sixth strings (octaves), already appeared in the second movement, providing the series of 12 tones. Before Primo tempo, Carlevaro presents two microcadenzas of 12 tones (one of them in timbre of pizzicato) and tempo libero reposed in fermatas. At the end, the idea that introduces Intermezzo is reworked symmetrically.

Cronomias I is a finely-crafted work that successfully achieves the possibilities of serial essence, with the creative drift that Poetics imposes – it is not so much a matter of composing in strict Dodecaphonism, for here Timbre is very active. The idea of ​​Theme and Variations and diferencias, as well as implicit polyphony and a motif ­­– such as the pioneering of motiv B A C H, of magic squares, palindromes... historically are in the germ of Dodecaphonism and can be felt in this sonata. In addition, it is inherent the use of the Carlevarian technique in the conformation of such variants that develop the initial themes. Moreover, the Latin American mark is present in the rhythm as well as its place in Contemporary Music.

Estudio 2 (c.1970) is a study towards the transversal movement, within the technical conceptions of the school of Carlevaro. It is part of the series of Cinco Estudios homenaje a Villa-Lobos and is dedicated to the Brazilian guitarist Marcos Alan (in part addressed here: http://musicacontemporaneaparaviolao.blogspot.com.br/2016/09/parte-1-musica-contemporanea-para_18.html ).

This work has a rhythm of Afro origin, which is very widespread in Latin American countries; knowing the strength of the Candombe in Uruguay, it is relevant that such information be related to the work (as Tamborilles). This is an atonal material, increased by the formula of fingers 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 for the transversal movement.

The piece follows an A B A form; time measure alternates between ²₄ and ³₄, the first section being a sixteenth-note ostinato and the rhythm 3 3 2. The contrast appears in the second section, Poco meno, with change of rhythm line, now presented by another conformation that will be repeated during this section; the dotted note and the syncopation are suggesting another possibility of Latin American rhythm.

Estudio 5 (c.1970) integrates the series in tribute to Villa-Lobos and is dedicated to the renowned Argentine guitarist Irma Costanzo (1937). The technical intent is the Repeated Chords – as Villa-Lobos did in the 1920s Studies 4, 6 and 12 and part A of Study 10.

This study by Carlevaro has 4 fixed chord patterns to perform the melody by parallelism:
- open strings chords;
- chords in a symmetrically fixed position in strings (6) (5) (4) (3) and (5) (4) (3) (2);
- barre chords, also worked alternately on the strings;
- chords in another drawing on the strings (4) (3) (2) (1)

As in several works throughout Villalobian output, such as Étude 4, 10..., Prelude 1 (1940), in addition to the Concerto (1951), this Estudio 5 by Carlevaro alternates open strings with fixed chords, strengthening the idea of ​​patterns and fingering linked to the material possibilities of the guitar to create the music.

The piece follows an A B Coda form, whose first section introduces the idea of melody of chords with accents, that are indicated by the composer and which repose in chords (suave), developing for melodic sentences and still supported by accents. The alternation with open strings appears simultaneously to the fixed chords.

In the second musical idea, there is a clear rhythm of the 3 3 2 type in the bass notes (il basso in relievo) that reveals the melody with an ostinato in accompaniment of repeated chords on strings (3) (2) (1). This moment resumes the rhythm of African and Latin American matrix, maybe remembering the Uruguayan Candombe, as well as flashes of sonorities of Villa-Lobos, the honoured, from p to suave.

Following (a tempo), there is an alternation between fixed chords and open strings and a melodic design that supports the delineation of the 4 fingers of right hand, moving through the six strings.

Part A is reexposed, and Coda has a stronger reference to Étude 10 by Villa-Lobos, modulating the theme, and the final chords in rasgueos (kind of strumming) reinforces the idea of ​​Latinity and the memory of Villa-Lobos, from the final, so close to Études 10 and 12.

Like Heitor Villa-Lobos, Abel Carlevaro brings together ancestry and open sonorities towards the New in these studies and in Cronomias I. Recognized as a great educator and interpreter, it is hoped that this year of his Centenary now provides his well-deserved diffusion as a composer.

More:

2016 - Emisora del Sur - Radio program called En la Tarde del Sur
Especial Centenario de Abel Carlevaro, by Numa Moraes & Alfredo Escande
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YicmkYp1UI

December 3rd, 3:00 pm - Event at Departamento de Música da Universidade de São Paulo, by PhD. Edelton Gloeden.

October 3rd-8th - Event at Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso do Sul - Campo Grande, by PhD. Marcelo Fernandes:

https://www.ufms.br/iii-festival-internacional-de-violao-de-campo-grande-sera-na-proxima-semana/

Reading:
Thesis by PhD. Celso Delneri

  http://www.teses.usp.br/teses/disponiveis/27/27158/tde-13112015-101451/pt-br.php

Scores by Barry Editorial, from Argentina.