The Project.

The creation of this album was a project conceptualised, recorded and produced remotely, while in quarantine, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Without access to a recording studio, or professional recording equipment, I turned my living room (in Tucson, Arizona) into one instead! I was able to collaborate with two brilliant recording engineers, located in Montreal and Barcelona, who, after sending many pictures and recording samples back and forth over email, advised me on how to set up my space; where to hang blankets up over windows, how best to place and angle my little microphone and where I should stand in the room.

Aside from the challenges that you would expect in recording from home - the noises from my house, the sounds of cars and sirens outside and the battle with my neighbour to keep her music turned down - perhaps the most difficult aspect of all was not having my engineers present. Keeping track of take numbers and holding perspective on my own playing, while always trying my best to play as perfectly as possible, was more difficult than I could have predicted! On the plus side, recording from home meant I had no time constraints and could easily go back in for repeats as needed.

I like to think of this album as a product of the time in which it was created, and for this reason it holds special meaning for me. In this uncertain time for musicians, when it is very easy to feel disheartned and lost, it is wonderful to know that you don't need fancy studios and equipment to make something of value, that even with the most simple of set-ups, and some interesting music to hand, everything is possible. I hope that, in time to come, I will be able to listen to this CD and remember what a strange and unprecedented time this was, when I had this mad idea to record an album in my living room. But until then, the music must not stop, and I hope you enjoy these beautiful portraits.

Because of the special nature of this album, as well as the licensing laws involved, it will not be available to stream online. I intend to order a limited number of CDs to sell, after which I am not sure it will be available again. If you would like to support me by purchasing this CD, please don’t hesitate to visit my Shop page. If you are interested in purchasing the CD but it is not yet available in your country, please let me know as this will inform my decisions regarding obtaining licenses!

 Virgil Thomson.

Virgil Thomson (1896-1989) was a prominent American composer and music critic, living and working throughout his life in New York and Paris.  Born in Kansas City, Missouri, his music holds many influences from his American roots, including that of church music, blues and country folk-tunes, which were among his first musical encounters at a young age.  After a short time in the army, Thomson enrolled as a student at Harvard, where he became fascinated with French music, particularly that of Satie.  In 1921 he was awarded a fellowship to travel to Paris, where he studied with Nadia Boulanger and came into contact with many composers and artists, including Stravinsky and Stein, who were a huge source of inspiration for him.  His friendship with Stein proved to be one of the most important collaborations of his life, and together they composed two operas, the second of which, ‘The Mother Of Us All’, is perhaps most well-known and continues to be performed widely.

Thomson lived mostly in Paris until 1941, when he returned to New York and took up position as chief music critic for the New York Herald Tribune.  Thomson continued to compose in his beloved musical portrait genre, which he had begun in Paris, for the rest of his life, as well as composing scores for film and ballet and music for theatre.  He was a recipient of numerous awards, including the Pulitzer Prize for Music for his film score, Louisiana Story, in 1948.

Biographical notes drawn from virgilthomson.org

Eight Portraits for Violin Alone.

Virgil Thomson's Portraits for Violin Alone are unique and imaginative pieces of music. Although short in length, they pack a punch with colourful characters, technical brilliance and musicality.

Heavily inspired by the literary ‘word portraits’ of his dear friend, Gertrude Stein, and, indeed, all of the artists’ portraits that were being created amongst his painter friends in 1920s Paris, Thomson set out to explore this genre in his own musical world.  While composers such as Couperin and Schumann had previously toyed with the idea of a musical portrait, it was Thomson who really dove into this style of composition, producing over 150 portraits for a wide range of instruments, most notably for solo piano, that span his entire musical career. 

Early on in his life, Thomson became intrigued with a concept that he referred to as ‘the discipline of spontaneity’, whereby he practiced the feeling of absolute freedom within his composing, and applied it to his creation of these portraits.  He felt that when a composer did not know exactly what he was doing or where he was going, he could then produce a style of writing that was fresh and unbounded by strict compositional rules that had long dictated the work of composers.

Thomson based each portrait he wrote on a friend, colleague or acquaintance that he had met while living in Paris and the USA.  His catalog of musical portraits, therefore, reads like an index of his contact list throughout his life!  He composed each one either from memory or, as became more common as he grew older, with the person sitting in front of him while he wrote, much like as a sitter poses for an artist who is painting them.  Composing directly onto manuscript paper, and with no piano to aid him, each portrait has a fresh and improvised feeling that captured the personality of the sitter and Thomson’s own mood in the moment of writing.  It would take about an hour to compose the portrait, or until Thomson would reach the end of the manuscript, at which point the session would be finished, with only some minor revisions made the following day.  Some have argued, in this fever of spontaneous composing, how accurate the musical depiction of the person can be, but Thomson clearly held a deep love of this style of work and often remarked that he was pleased with his outcome.

With the exception of the last one, which was composed in Connecticut in 1940, these Portraits for solo violin were written in Paris in 1928.  Thomson was a devout admirer of the music of Erik Satie, and this influence can often be heard throughout this music.  Thomson was also said to be a ‘no-nonsense’, direct and opinionated person, once having remarked, “play it straight or play it plain”!  There is an echo of this sentiment too in his music, which affords sparse musical instruction and often leads in unpredictable and surprising directions.

I have found working on these pieces to be a very rewarding and gratifying experience.  From a violinistic point of view, they offer several technical challenges, and I feel that there are many moments where one may take their own personal artistic liberties, even while respecting Thomson’s wish for simplicity.  I hope you enjoy listening!