Following the successful Eastern Preludes collection by the composer Christopher Norton, the Pacific Preludes are now set to be released on April 4. Piano Street’s Patrick Jovell talked to Christopher Norton, who gives us an exclusive glimpse into his compositional world. He is also generously offering Piano Street Gold members the score to Prelude no. 7 “Now is the Hour” as well as an instructive manual for how to practice the piece.
These collections allow us to explore the rich musical landscape of the East as each Prelude weaves together native themes from countries in this specific part of the world. The creator of the Micro Jazz series demonstrates an interesting fusion of Eastern and Western culture and styles and suits ideally intermediate to advanced-level pianists. The fourteen pieces are perfect for the concert platform, as well as providing excellent teaching material. An accompanying CD puts each Prelude on the map with a fine demonstration performances by British pianist Iain Farrington.
Christopher Norton은 뉴질랜드에서 태어났으며 영국 피아니스트이자 작곡가입니다.
Norton은 1977년 뉴질랜드 정부 장학금으로 영국으로 이주하여 자유롭게 활동하는 작곡가, 편곡자 및 피아니스트 입니다.
그는 1983년 합창, 피아노와 타악기가 들어간 캐롤 재즈, 즉흥적인 크리스마스 음악, Sing'n'Swing이 포함된
Boosey & Hawkes를 런던에서 Universal Edition과 함께 최초로 출판하게 됩니다.
그리고 피아노, 앙상블 북, 백킹 트랙 및 미디 파일 백킹이 포함된 주요 악기의 음악을 포함하여 30년 이상 확장된 교육용 음악 시리즈인 Microjazz 시리즈를 출판합니다.
2017년 현재까지 Boosey & Hawkes에서 가장 많이 팔린 음악 시리즈로 꼽히는데, 그 당시 판매량은 백만회를 돌파했습니다.
Boosey & Hawkes는 "지금까지 발표된 가장 널리 사용되는 교육 시리즈 중 하나 입니다."
Boosey & Hawkes와 Norton의 다른 출판물은 팝, 라틴 재즈 스타일, 락, 컨트리, 라틴 재즈 전주곡의 시리즈, 그리고 크리스토퍼 노튼 콘서트 컬렉션들의 필수 가이드이다.
최근에 출판된 다른 작품으로는
CD-ROM, 팝스타가 되고 싶다 , 전자 키보드 및 기타 튜터, Boosey & Hawkes' Buy A Band 음반이 있습니다.
2006 년에 Norton은 Dublin의 Royal Irish Music Academy에서 Microjazz 워크숍을 개최했습니다.
또한 호주와 뉴질랜드, 캐나다, 미국, 네덜란드, 스페인, 독일, 말레이시아, 싱가포르에서도 워크샵을 개최했다. 2007년, Frederick Harris Music은 인기있는 스타일의 180가지 새롭고 독창적인 피아노 작품 모음인
Christopher Norton Connections for Piano를 출판했습니다.
이 시리즈는 "소리 나는 교육용 보충 교재 또는 고전 피아노 문학 연구 대안을 찾는 학생과 교사에게 이상적입니다."
- Christopher, we all know you as the creator of the Microjazz series which is one of the most widely used educational series ever published but your production as a composer is vast and diverse. Which was your idea and inspiration when you started creating Preludes collections for piano?
- I wrote the original Microjazz books back in 1981 – the brief I was given was “graded pieces in popular styles” In difficulty terms, none of the pieces in the original series were easier than Grade 1 or harder than Grade 5. This is one of the reasons the series became popular so quickly, the other reason being that there was a range of styles that students found very appealing. I was originally quite a “serious” pianist, playing repertoire that included the Barber Sonata, the Prokofiev 1st concerto and lots of classical repertoire. So it came quite naturally to me to write more challenging piano music and a request to write longer, more complex pieces in rock and Latin styles was, as they say, pushing an open door. The Rock Preludes and Latin Preludes, both written in the late 80s/early 90s, are still popular with students looking for more challenging fare that is also in a contemporary popular style.
- In 2015 the collection Eastern Preludes was published and contains pieces which weaves together native themes from countries including China, India, Japan, Korea, and Thailand with characteristically innovative popular music styles. For many a performer and teacher these materials can work as performance pieces or as an excellent introduction to works by the Impressionists. I know Debussy is your favorite composer but how do you think as a composer when combining modern modes with a basically impressionistic soundscape?
- I love Debussy because he liked to set up an atmosphere using complex textures with often quite simple melodic material. Taking existing tunes and weaving a tapestry of sound around them is something I particularly like to do. There are a number of pieces in Pacific Preludes where a melody is passed between the hands while other figuration happens above or below. The tunes I found are in a variety of modes, so there is an interesting harmonic palette in the Pacific Preludes, with very jazzy passages, passages that are pure texture and highly rhythmic and exciting pieces as well.
- Talking about the “serious” Christopher Norton, I just heard performances with Yuja Wang in Bartóks 3rd concerto and Peter Jablonski in the Stravinsky concerto and these composers’ battle between modernity and tradition. How would you distinguish art music in this context and how does this reflect your own composition work?
- I have spent most of my working life involved with educational music, in which modernity plays a less significant role than in some other fields! However, I have discovered that if I let my ear be the guide I can get away with delving into slightly more esoteric realms, including bi-tonality, aleatoric elements and free improvisation. I have recently written a Piano Sonata and it has a lot of time signature changes and quick contrasting of highly varied stylistic elements. Other large-scale pieces allow me to be slightly more experimental. At the moment I’m digitising the score of a Piano Concerto, written when I was 23, which includes elements of Bartok and Stravinsky.
- Now we are eagerly waiting for a new collection of Preludes, soon to be released and named Pacific Preludes. What can you tell us about these works?
- The Pacific Preludes use tunes culled from a variety of countries that border the Pacific. My starting point was my own origins – 2 tunes from New Zealand, Pokarekare Ana and Now is the Hour. I then added Waltzing Matilda from Australia and from then on it was a matter of finding appealing melodies from Central and South America, from the USA and Russia (topical!) and from China, Vietnam and the Philippines. There is a nice mixture of ballads, extrovert rhythmic pieces and rockers, as well as a ragtime piece (Waltzing Matilda) The pieces are challenging, but very pianistic.
- The Preludes in the Eastern collection as well as in the Pacific collection was recorded by British (and Hyperion artist) pianist Iain Farrington. Has this been a collaboration which has blended your composition process or raised interpretational or textual questions or considerations?
- Iain Farringdon is a fabulous pianist and musician and he played the pieces beautifully from the word go. I had one or two suggestions in terms of articulation and some slightly unusual pedal effects, but broadly speaking what you hear on the recordings of both Eastern Preludes and Pacific Preludes have been, as American politicians like to say, been approved by the composer.
