Q&A with Adrián Demoč and Miroslav Beinhauer about Piano“I like this idea (of piano versions) because it represents my music in a more “naked”, different way. It’s as if we have versions of the same artwork painted in colours but also drawn by pencil.” - Adrián Demoč
Yuko Zama (YZ): The title of this album is "Piano". Adrián, can you tell me why you chose this title for the album?
Adrián Demoč (AD): I have decided to call it simply "Piano" because of several reasons. I like that the word piano already implies a tendency toward "quiet(ness)", both in terms of dynamics and timbre. There is now just one instrument instead of various instruments using different "colours". Or, to put it another way, the listener can focus on different “shades of colour” within the same instrumental timbre. And finally, all three pieces also exist as pieces for different or open instrumentation. Similar to, let's say, The Musical Offering by J.S. Bach. YZ: Can you tell us more about that? AD: My compositions Ma fin est mon commencement and Gebrechlichkeit were conceived and composed from the beginning simultaneously as pieces for (1) specific instrumentation, (2) open instrumentation with a similar quality of timbre and register, and (3) "monochromatic polyphonic" instrument, preferably the piano. All "voices" fit into the range of the pianist’s hand. I've always dreamed that they could also be performed and given life as piano pieces, which has fortunately happened: The piano version of Ma fin est mon commencement was premiered by Jonathan Powell in 2021 and is dedicated to him. Gebrechlichkeit was recorded last November by Miroslav Beinhauer, soon after its ensemble premiere by Prague Quiet Music Collective (it hasn’t been performed publicly as a piano piece yet). So these pieces are not really “piano works” but they are also not "piano transcriptions", as these terms are not accurate in this case. A Luca Marenzio II, Gebrechlichkeit (excerpts)
AD: The case of A Luca Marenzio II is a bit more specific. The original piece is “based” on a scale of natural harmonics of the cello strings with their deviations from the tempered tuning within the range of two octaves, from g to g’’. This scale forms the inner voice which is accompanied by the "well-tuned" outer voices in a homophonic texture. The piece exists in various instrumental formations. But then I felt that the piece could also work well in a tempered tuning if a beautiful soft timbre and overall focus could be achieved. The piano version of this piece is dedicated to Dante Boon, who made its first performance during his “weekly concert series” in 2020. Dante played it very beautifully. So I’ve decided to let this piece exist and have called this ‘tempered version’ A Luca Marenzio II.
Then, a few months ago, the piece was performed again by Miroslav Beinhauer. I was amazed when I heard Miroslav perform this piece at a concert in Prague. He managed to create a slightly different timbre for each voice. It was mesmerizing. YZ: You have written multiple instrumental versions of these three pieces. What did you aim to achieve with the solo piano version of these pieces?
AD: As I said, I composed Ma fin est mon commencement and Gebrechlichkeit simultaneously in different versions at the same time, because I felt that the music could exist in different timbres or constellations. The decision to try it with A Luca Marenzio, without the natural non-tempered pitches of the inner voice, came later. But after having some experience with hearing how they sound on the piano, I am very happy with it. It represents my music in a more "naked", different way. It’s as if we have versions of the same artwork painted in colours but also drawn by pencil (a similar metaphor was used by Petr Bakla, who wrote a beautiful article about Cage’s Music of Changes). Solo piano offers a different sensation from the compositions, all this in a more concise way, as the sensibility of pencil drawing can do. And Miroslav’s playing is simply extraordinary and a pure joy to listen to! I am very happy that such a great and enthusiastic pianist has started to play my music. This gives me a reason and a need to possibly write a piece(s) for (solo) piano in the future, after many years. YZ: That sounds great, and I look forward to hearing your new piano pieces in the future. Is there anything that these pieces have in common with each other?
AD: The first two pieces somehow work with the allusion to the music of the past in their titles, although there are no stylistic quotations or anything like that. A Luca Marenzio (I&II) looks to the Renaissance while Ma fin est mon commencement pays a homage to Guillaume de Machaut (and could technically also be linked to Henry Purcell and his “Fantasia upon one note”). All this was not planned beforehand. YZ: And how about Gebrechlichkeit? AD: The title Gebrechlichkeit is a German word meaning "frailty" and I like the sound of the German word with that meaning. It was like a questioning of 'being fragile', especially since it was written for 'a quiet music collective' and the whole 'fragile context', so it was my personal question - what does it mean to be quiet and fragile? And I thought that the sound of the word and the meaning fit the piece well. YZ: Who do you think has drastically influenced you musically since you were young? (Any genres, composers/performers names are welcome!)
AD: Thinking about this question a following passage from Borges’ book The Craft of Verse immediately comes to my mind: “I think of myself as being essentially a reader. As you are aware, I have ventured into writing; but I think that what I have read is far more important than what I have written. For one reads what one likes—yet one writes not what one would like to write, but what one is able to write.” I’ve been in love with music since early childhood, as far as I remember. But I can’t really tell which ones were/are decisive for me as a composer, although I can be in love with them as a listener. I grew up listening to mostly alternative, metal or traditional music and it surely had some influence on my later development. Thinking about it today, there are still remnants of it: it’s hard to specify, but maybe the feeling for a certain timbre or directness of expression comes from there. There’s also maybe a preference for a kind of slowness and melancholy that I found so appealing already as a kid in music as diverse as metal, Dead Can Dance or traditional Slovak music for fujara. Perhaps because of this preference for slowness or meditative quality, my first discoveries in the classical/contemporary field were pieces by Ligeti (mostly Lontano), Messiaen, late Feldman, or Pärt. On the other hand, how fascinating were encounters with music that successfully avoided this melancholy and slowness without sounding “naïve”. Or that had a similar “drive” to the one I loved in some metal music! Some examples: Stravinsky, Lutosławski, Kilar’s Krzeszany or “Torture Garden” by Naked City. Or composers such as Alvin Lucier, Steve Reich, Peter Ablinger, John Cage or James Tenney whose approach and way of thinking I find fascinating and inspiring. Besides the “classics” whose music I still re-discover and listen to (Debussy, Stravinsky, Ligeti, Feldman, Górecki, late Grisey), I highly regard the music of Tomasz Sikorski, Avet Terterjan, Bronius Kutavičius, from more recent generations of composers Jürg Frey, Cassandra Miller, Pawel Szymański, Rytis Mažulis, Pavel Zemek, Peter Graham and many more. I also listen to a lot of “early music” (ensembles Ferrara Mala Punica, Huelgas, Graindelavoix etc.) and traditional music from all over the world. And often I listen to music I don’t particularly like for longer periods. The reason is simple: to push myself from my comfort zone, to question my musical taste and give a different task to my ears. Sometimes I end up with new discoveries (Lachenmann, a few pieces by Enno Poppe etc.) I´ve been very lucky to study with great composers and human beings (Igor Dibák, Martin Smolka, František Emmert, Doina Rotaru, Osvaldas Balakauskas) who surely had impact on my music and way of thinking. And I would mention Martin Smolka separately, as I continue learning from him till these days, as we often and intensely exchange and discuss a lot of musical and aesthetical questions and whose generous support and dedication has been decisive for me. And there’s an important aspect of one’s own writing itself which is inspiring and surprising. Composing simply goes its own direction, you sometimes build up from previous sonic experience (performances, experimenting with musicians, searching for specific timbres etc) but also from the process of writing itself. So it is the music which takes its direction as a result of regular concentration and work, of a struggle to listen to the “emerging music itself”. When I’m writing, I try my best to keep a “beginner’s mind” (I'm referring to a book “Zen mind, Beginner’s mind” that I like a lot) when composing music. But of course, whether I want to or not, I have built on the previous experiences. So going back to Borges, and to finish this long answer, he said that “creation is a mix of memory and oblivion”, and I completely agree. YZ: Besides the field of music, are there any other major influences on you?
AD: I think probably a lot of literature has had an impact on my way of thinking, which is quite difficult to prove, as music works with different means. I would mention Italo Calvino and Julio Cortázar whose style of writing and way of thinking were really important for me during formative years. Calvino’s immersion within one particular topic and his way of searching for the overall form within these limits, like in “Invisible Cities”, was a huge discovery. And I also love the way he presented each of his later books in prefaces. And Cortázar due to his fantasy and great formal ideas. There were some movies which made a huge impact on my music. I would name at least Béla Tarr’s The Turin Horse after which I started to write longer pieces, so that was a really significant experience. YZ: What inspires (or motivates, triggers) you to compose a new piece? AD: When talking about starting a new piece from its very beginning, often it might be the composing process itself which I find inspiring. To find out new shades, improvement of something which intrigued me in a previous piece(s), the musical problems asking for another kind of solution or development. Or, as it often happens, it is the contrary - to try something different, explore new territories in the opposite direction. Or simply to try to get out of something which I might feel as a “comfort zone”. I used to write “what to do lists” when I was starting a new piece, although I almost don’t do it anymore. But whether I start with lists or without them, once I have discovered something that starts to move me (or creates some other kind of interest) and demands concentration, everything falls away. I prefer to follow the musical discourse rather than impose my “visions” or “to-do-lists” or whatever (which, in my personal experience with my own music, usually sounds forced and artificial). So there’s a lot of room for unexpected discoveries that inspire and motivate me to keep composing. And sometimes the reason or motivation for the starting point might be much more prosaic but for me beautiful at the same time: a great musician(s) and a possibility of a nice concert event or unexpected instrumentation. An opportunity to try something new. YZ: How did you feel when you heard this recording of Miroslav's performance of these pieces? AD: As I’ve mentioned already, I was really impressed by the playing and enthusiasm of Miroslav Beinhauer. He first contacted me to say that he knew my music and was interested in playing something. He then performed Ma fin est mon commencement at a live concert and sent me a recording, which was beautiful. Shortly after that he performed A Luca Marenzio II at a concert of the Prague Quiet Music Collective in Prague where I was present (you could almost cut the silence while he was playing, it was an amazing experience). And a few weeks after the concert he surprised me again - he sent me studio recordings of three of my pieces, which you can listen to on this album and make your own opinion. YZ: Miroslav, what particularly fascinates you about Adrián Demoč's piano works?
Miroslav Beinhauer (MB): I knew Adrián's music before, however these three pieces are the only pieces by Adrián I have ever played. I really love the simplicity and the unique and static, yet alive atmosphere of his music. I like minimalism music in general and his approach to minimalism is something that excites me. The more you listen to his music, the more you like it. YZ: What was your experience of playing these piano pieces by Adrián? MB: From my experience, I prefer listening to some music than playing it. It is different with these Adrián's piano pieces. I liked the ensemble versions of them, however I enjoyed it a lot when I was playing or when I was recording them. As soon as I play the first chords from the pieces, I'm promptly in, there's no introduction or some other kind of preparation. Playing his music is like meditating but being above the music and "controlling" the meditation at the same time. And it happens immediately, I don't need time to adjust, to get used to it. And last, but not least, silence and pauses are such important elements in Adrians music! YZ: Why did you choose "piano" as your instrument? What does "piano" mean to you, either as a musician or in your life? MB: I started playing the piano when I was three years old - I don't remember that very well :). My parents told me that we had a small electric keyboard at home and I started to play melodies and songs by myself and I liked it so then I started to attend a music school. I was taught as a classical pianist, but around the age of 20 I realized that "old classical music" was too predictable, a little bit too boring for me, there was Beethoven and Chopin all around at the music schools and I didn't want to repeat only old music again and again. Contemporary music and cooperation with living composers was a new exciting way to feel more comfortable and passionate about playing music. It also makes more sense, playing something that was written for these days, for today's instruments, for today's society. It's more "important". And of course, since I have played the piano my whole life, I can now hardly imagine that piano is not part of my life anymore. YZ: That is very interesting. In terms of living composers, besides Adrián's works, whose works do you find particularly fascinating? (Or whose compositions you like to play and/or would like to play in the future?) MB: I have to admit that in general it changes a lot as the time goes. When I was a student, I liked Chopin and Liszt. Then I discovered Arnold Schönberg, Carl Vine and his sonatas or Erkki-Sven Tüür and other Baltic composers, during my studies with Daan Vandewalle in Belgium I started to love John Adams (and minimalism music in general), György Ligeti or Julius Eastman. Lately I found highly interesting music by Petr Bakla, Klaus Lang, Bernhard Lang. I especially enjoyed playing piano concertos by Esa-Pekka Salonen, Santa Ratniece or Monadologie XXXIV “Loops for Ludvik” by Bernhard Lang. It’s always a pleasure to play Petr Bakla’s No. 4 for piano or Phrygian Gates by John Adams. However, it is really hard to highlight only a few pieces that I find fascinating. I usually like pieces very much which I am working on. Right now, I don’t have in my mind “dream compositions” that I would love to play in the future. Liking the piece more and more comes with digging deeper into the piece. Then, after the concert or recording session, some pieces just disappear and some pieces stay in my mind with the greatest emotion forever. YZ: What are you trying to achieve by playing the piano? MB: That is a difficult question... The older I am, the more I'm trying to find the truth, the right interpretation of music. However, then I listen to other interpretations of the same piece and it feels right, too. I always like to talk with composers about their music and get as much information as possible - this is really crucial. (Interview conducted in September-February 2024)
Piano is an album of three pieces, 'A Luca Marenzio ll', 'Ma fin est mon commencement', and 'Gebrechlichkeit', written by Slovak composer Adrián Demoč between 2018 and 2023. The three pieces were performed and recorded by Czech pianist Miroslav Beinhauer in the studio of Czech Radio Ostrava in the winter of 2023.
*CD and digital album are available here on the elsewhere site and Bandcamp (CD release: April 5, 2024) |