I. To the Little House (0:00)
II. Interlude: Vein of Shame (7:28)
III. Kindertotenmusik (10:31)

PROGRAM NOTES

Gretel is in three movements, the first of which is given the subtitle “To the Little House.” The name “Gretel” in the title, of course, refers to the little sister in Hansel and Gretel. As the absence of her brother’s name in the title suggests, however, this work is far from being a retelling of the classic fairy tale.

It is well known that fairy tales are often tinged with dark—even gruesome—undertones. Hansel and Gretel is not an exception: it features heartless parents, attempts at cannibalism and a virtual auto-da-fé. But this 19th century fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm may have an even grimmer undertone.

The original 1812 version of Hansel and Gretel concludes as follows:

Der Vater freute sich als er sie wieder sah, er hatte keinen vergnügten Tag gehabt, seit seine Kinder fort waren, und ward nun ein reicher Mann. Die Mutter aber war gestorben.

The cause of the mother’s death is not mentioned in the story, prompting some commentators to propose that she and the witch are (metaphorically?) the same person—with the implication that Gretel may have committed (metaphorical?) matricide when she pushed the witch into the fiery oven.

The second movement, an interlude entitled “Vein of Shame,” begins and ends with the playback of recordings from the 1993 trial of the Menendez Brothers, who brutally murdered their parents a few years earlier. During the nationally-televised first trial, the brothers’ lawyers introduced the so-called battered-child syndrome as a defense: Lyle and Erik Menendez committed the murders as a result of years of sexual and emotional abuse by their parents. (The “abuse excuse” was not allowed in the retrial and the brothers were subsequently found guilty.)

The third movement, entitled “Kindertotenmusik,” alludes to, and includes quotations from, Gustav Mahler’s 1904 song cycle Kindertotenlieder. The quotes are from the last song “In diesem Wetter!” (“In this weather!”) and are limited to the music roughly corresponding to Mahler’s setting of the following line:

Sie ruh’n als wie in der Mutter Haus, 
(They’re at peace as if in their mother’s house,)

In this song, a father berates himself for having allowed his children out in a storm and then tries to take solace in the belief that they are resting peacefully as if in their mother’s house. Now, doesn’t this sound very much like something that could have gone through the mind of Hansel and Gretel’s father?

If we can make a connection between Kindertotenlieder and Hansel and Gretel in this manner, then maybe we can also add the Menendez Brothers’ case to the mix by imagining Hansel and Gretel making a journey to the witch-mother’s house to avenge themselves for the abuse they had sustained in the past. (Incidentally, while the German word “Kindertotenlieder” is often translated as “Songs on the Death of Children,” the German expression is quite ambiguous in that it can denote anything relating to children and death.)

By pulling these three seemingly disparate threads together, Gretel attempts to give you a glimpse of how one’s childlike innocence gets destroyed, leaving a deep, indelible scar in the individual’s psyche.


PERFORMED BY:

Argento Chamber Ensemble
Conductor - Michel Galante
Flutes - Isabel Gleicher
Oboes - Lillian Copeland
Clarinets - Carol McGonnell
Trumpet - Brad Siroky
Trombone - Jennifer Baker
Percussion - Sean Statser
Piano - Mun-Tzung Chung
Violin - Doori Na
Viola - William Hakim
Cello - Madeline Fayette
Bass - Tristan Kasten-Krause
(Hansel & Gretel recitation: Courtesy of Grace Accidental)

Gretel for Ensemble (Fl., Ob., Cl., Trp., Tbn., Perc., Pf., Vn., Va., Vc., Cb.) (2019-20)

Try tone pivot

Premiere performance of piece in collaboration with Nunatsiavut Inuk Artist and Activist Delilah Saunders.

Performed by:

Dylan Maddix, conductor
Anita Krause, mezzo-soprano
Anne Thompson, flute
Marie Johnson, clarinet
Erika Raum, violin
Adrian Wright, cello

Commissioned by Western University's School of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies and premiered during the school's International Week Canada 150 Art Installation and Music Premiere.

Text:
In prison, we were ten again.
I climbed onto her bunk while she put on her face.
A MacGyver beauty queen, trading in our sister' makeup for an old copy of the Globe and
Mail to add colour to her high cheekbones.
Another murdered Indigenous sister's story worn on her already worn-down face.
Vicious I entered her territory, she pulled my hair and laid into me.
I no longer saw my sister's face, but a system.
Possessing our women, men and children.
The sick, twisted wolf growled, "I'm here, I have you where I want you, you're still in my chains, you so-called warrior woman"
Foster homes chewed her up as a child, spit her out at 18, just to lick her back up.
I reminded her that she came from there.
"Look where you came from, my girl"
My home was her only save haven.
I reminded her that she came from there, too.
I reminded her that she may have been beaten into survival mode,
but she had that love within her too.
I reminded her how one arrow, when bent, will snap and break.
But together, the way we were in that moment, the same way we were when we were kids, we are strong, unbending, unbreaking.
One stalk of corn cannot withstand the elements, it cannot stand alone,
but corn in rows, side by side,
They weather storms together,
They move together,
allowing each other to grow.
Together we are strong, unbending, unbreaking.
-Delilah Saunders (2017)


Read more about Delilah's work, the piece and future collaborations here: http://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/delilah-loretta-saunders-chamber-opera-andrew-noseworthy-mmiwg-1.4414857

One Stalk, One Arrow, No Stalk, No Arrow.

Granitic, adj.
1. Unyielding endurance; steadfastness: a will of granite. 
2. Showing unfeeling resistance to tender feelings.

Winning piece of the 2017 Toronto Emerging Composer Award. Thanks to the Canadian Music Centre and Roger D. Moore for making the creation and presentation of this piece possible. 

Recorded by Caution Tape Sound Collective Ensemble, March 29 2018 at Revolution Recording in Toronto, ON.
Paul Talbott, Recording engineer

Katherine Watson, flute
Anthony Thompson, clarinet
Lisa Hartl, trumpet
Adrian Irvine, violin
Emilie Gelinas-Noble, viola
Amahl Arulanandam, cello
Andrew Noseworthy, electric guitar
Phil Albert, electric bass
Stephanie Chua, synthesizer
Evan Bowen, drumkit/pecussion
Pratik Gandhi, conductor

Granitic (dectet)

This work was created for “…float…” event commissioned by Choral Canada through the Canada Council for the Arts to celebrate Canada’s Sesquicentennial. The original configuration was specifically scored for the unique consortium of choirs: Oakville Choir for Children & Youth: Raise Her Voice, Elektra Women's Choir, Ullugiagâtsuk, Choeur de chambre du Québec, and Newman Sound Men’s Choir. The score has been reconfigured to its present version for a single large choir.  
The work is a setting of text from Da Vinci’s treatise “On Water”, featuring the titles of each of the 15 chapters. 

This work is inspired by the following quote:

By the ancients man has been called the world in miniature; and certainly this name is well bestowed, because, inasmuch as man is composed of earth, water, air and fire, his body resembles that of the earth; and as man has in him bones the supports and framework of his flesh, the world has its rocks the supports of the earth; as man has in him a pool of blood in which the lungs rise and fall in breathing, so the body of the earth has its ocean tide which likewise rises and falls every six hours, as if the world breathed; as in that pool of blood veins have their origin, which ramify all over the human body, so likewise the ocean sea fills the body of the earth with infinite springs of water. The body of the earth lacks sinews and this is, because the sinews are made expressly for movements and, the world being perpetually stable, no movement takes place, and no movement taking place, muscles are not necessary. –But in all other points they are much alike.
—Leonardo da Vinci, from the Codex Leicester in: The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci, vol. ii, p. 179 (Jean Paul Richter ed. 1883)

On The Surface Of Water

Recorded by Andres Vial at Chromatic Audio
Andre White Drums
Adrian Vedady Bass
Mike Rud Guitar
Charles Faubert, photo

Mike Rud Getting Sentimental Over You Chromatic Audio Jan 2016

Original song by Bill Brennan and Andrea Koziol from their new recording.

2. Couldn't It Be

Commissioned in 2017, this version of Hypernova is for pre-recorded flute tracks plus one live flute. Live concert recording.

Andrew Staniland - Hypernova

Reflecting on the tragic events of April 19.  Feeling for all of Nova Scotia right now, especially the families of the victims.

for Nova Scotia

Electronica B • Minor Crush

for Microtonals Accordions ©Xamp
Electric Guitar, Amplified Harpsichord, 
Piano, 3 Percussions, 3 doublebass,
& Wind Ensemble (with NO electronics)

For my beloved friends <3
Tribute to Mark Fell

Conducted by Julien Leroy
With Duo Xamp (F.Vicens & J.-E.Sotty)
R.Reber (Guit.), P.Hattat-Colin (Pno.),C.-U.Kim(Clav.),
& Musicians from the CNSMDP Orchestra
Live Recording by Jean Marc Lyzwa 18th September 2020
Paris CNSMDP
Edit & Mix Samir Amarouch
Master Charles D. Wajnberg

Electronica B • Minor Crush , for 21 musicians | 2020 • J. Leroy

Composed for stereo fixed medium. Wear a pair of headphones for the optimal listening experience.

Interbeing (2020)

Composer of contemporary classical music for stage and screen.

On The Surface Of Water

Andrew Staniland 1

Recent comments

Bill Brennan

Related tracks