SAFFIRE
476 5695
The Australian Guitar Quartet
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MICHAEL PRAETORIUS c. 1571-1621 arr. Gareth Koch
Four Dances from Terpsichore
I. La Volta
II. Courante I
III. Ballet
IV. Courante II
PHILLIP HOUGHTON
[9’09]
2’28
2’29
2’24
1’48
JOHN DOWLAND 1563-1626 arr. Gareth Koch
5 Fantasia
3’59
ANONYMOUS arr. Gareth Koch
6 Greensleeves
7 La Rotta
3’00
2’17
4’42
2’30
PHILLIP HOUGHTON b. 1954
0 Guinevere’s Dream
1’50
!
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2’23
0’26
PETER WARLOCK 1894-1930 arr. Slava Grigoryan
Capriol Suite
I. Basse-Danse
II. Pavane
III. Tordion
IV. Bransles
V. Pieds-en-l’air
VI. Mattachins
[9’25]
1’12
1’59
0’59
1’49
2’31
0’53
GERALD GARCIA b. 1949
LEONARD GRIGORYAN b. 1985 based on themes
by Hans Judenkünig c. 1450-1526
8 Faith (Christ ist erstanden)
9 Hope (Und wer er nit erstanden)
BENJAMIN BRITTEN 1913-1976 arr. Gareth Koch
The Courtly Dances from Gloriana
I. March
II. Coranto
III. Morris Dance
IV. Galliard
V. La Volta and March
^ Procession of the Golden Spirits
& Puck’s Galumphing, Again!
[7’33]
0’47
1’30
0’50
2’22
2’04
¢ Pavane: Belle qui tiens ma vie
3’14
ANONYMOUS arr. Gareth Koch
∞ La Rossignol
§ The Parlement
1’32
1’28
Total Playing Time
Saffire – The Australian Guitar Quartet
Leonard Grigoryan
Slava Grigoryan
Gareth Koch
Karin Schaupp
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54’13
consists of over 1000 chorale and song
arrangements based on Protestant hymns and
the Lutheran liturgy.
The word Renaissance literally means ‘rebirth’,
and refers to an era in which new forms of
thought emerged from the middle ages.
Beginning in 14th-century Italy, a huge cultural
transformation spread across Europe, affecting
philosophy, science, religion, the visual arts and,
somewhat belatedly, music.
Praetorius also had a strong desire to
systematically collect and record the musical
conventions of his time. He ambitiously planned
a series of eight collections of various musical
forms, named after the mythical Greek muses.
Although only one was ever published, this on
its own was no small achievement. Terpsichore
musarum aoniarum quinta (1612) consists of
312 mostly French instrumental dances,
in four, five and six parts, and is his only known
secular work.
The musical Renaissance ranges from around
1430 to 1600, though its principles overlap with
those of the early Baroque. This period saw a
move towards more secular music, a rise in
instrumental and ensemble playing, and the
favouring of more elaborate counterpoint and, in
the later years, homophonic textures.
There was much recycling and transformation of
musical material at this time, with composers
borrowing from one another, and elaborate and
personal ornamentation often meaning there
was no one definitive version of a piece. In the
same vein, many later composers have looked
to this period for inspiration, arranging or
borrowing material to suit their own musical
ends and transforming it into something
uniquely their own.
Although the contents of Terpsichore are often
assumed to be the compositions of Praetorius
himself, they were primarily arrangements and
harmonisations of existing melodies. It is fitting,
therefore, that the pieces have been
appropriated and adapted by others. Here,
Saffire member Gareth Koch takes four dances
and draws them into his own musical oeuvre –
with its influences as wide-ranging as J.S. Bach,
Steeleye Span, Pentangle, AC/DC and Benjamin
Britten – without taking the pieces too far from
their roots.
Michael Praetorius was an enormously prolific
German composer, music theorist and organist.
Although largely self-taught, he was the most
important and versatile composer of his
generation, and his works have continued to
provide inspiration to musicians over the
centuries. Devoutly religious, his output primarily
In this performance, the suite opens with La
Volta, a vivacious dance of Provençal origin in
which the couples moved in a scandalously
close embrace and executed energetic jumping
turns, giving the dance its name. This is followed
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by a driving, energetic Courante, a popular dance
in triple time. It features the rhythmic variation
known as hemiola – very common to this dance
form – in which the usual pattern of two triple
units is divided into three duple units. The
opening phrase of Courante II echoes the
previous courante’s descending motif. This dance
is statelier, with its sense of melancholy broken
by a ‘Tierce de Picardie’, another common
technique of the period, in which a minor-mode
melody finishes with a major cadence. Between
the two comes a light and pretty Ballet, in which
the melody is passed between the parts.
Northerne Dittye of the Lady Greene Sleeves”,
but was probably current in England for some
time before this. The melody has been used in
many different forms and given various lyrics,
from a gallows song to a Christmas carol, but it
is best known as a ballad of love betrayed. In
this arrangement by Koch, starting with simple
open fifths, the melody is quite slow, but the
piece is given momentum by the movement in
the inner parts.
Another anonymous piece, the driving, energetic
La Rotta (The Wheel), usually follows the
Lamento di Tristano, Tristan’s Lament, and is a
faster, condensed dance built from the
Lamento’s thematic material. Typical to the form,
each phrase is first given an open ending, before
being repeated with a closed ending. Koch’s
arrangement makes the most of the guitar’s
rhythmic and percussive capabilities.
John Dowland, a contemporary of Praetorius,
was a brilliant English lutenist and an innovative
composer who spent much of his career in
Europe. Most of his music was written for the
lute, and he is considered to be responsible for
the creation of the English lute song.
Saffire member Leonard Grigoryan based his
pieces Faith and Hope on themes by the
German lute virtuoso Hans Judenkünig, who
published one of the first manuals of lute
playing in 1523. Faith – Christ ist erstanden
(Christ is risen) begins with a simple,
homophonic statement of the melody. This
thematic material is then used as a springboard
for Grigoryan’s inventive and contemporary
style, with complex interweaving rhythmic
patterns. A series of beautiful chords brings the
piece back to its roots, though with rather more
dissonant harmonies.
Dowland also wrote around 100 lute solos,
including various ‘fantasias’. This was a term given
to abstract instrumental pieces that sprang solely
from the imagination of the composer. In
Dowland’s case they often featured intricate,
imitative counterpoint and changes of time
signature. The Fantasia in this recording starts
fugally, with both texture and tempo building until
it reaches a strident conclusion.
Greensleeves is one of the best-known
melodies from the Renaissance. It was first
registered in 1580 under the title “A new
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material, with this set of Courtly Dances at its
core. The pieces sound suitably Elizabethan,
subtly evoking the flavour of the period while
retaining Britten’s usual clarity of sound.
The percussive opening of Hope – Und wer er
nit erstanden (And if he had not risen) gradually
makes way for a vigorous, syncopated theme in
triple time. Again, there is a shift in style as
Grigoryan makes the material his own, featuring
fluidity of metre and harmony. The influence of
jazz guitarist Pat Metheny can be heard.
In the short opening March, with its strong yet
irregular rhythmic patterns, Koch makes use of
the guitar body to evoke a tabor. In the lilting
Coranto which follows, the almost continual
ostinato provides a strong sense of pulse. The
jaunty Morris Dance was scored by Britten for
flute and drum, the traditional instrumentation
for the dance. Here guitars take both parts, if
anything creating an even more macabre sound.
The far more stately Galliard follows, with its
alternating simple and embellished renditions of
the theme, and in the vigorous La Volta, Britten
makes much use of hemiolae to provide
rhythmic variety. This leads straight into another
playing of the opening March, which closes with
a strong allargando to mark the end of the suite.
Both Benjamin Britten and Peter Warlock were
part of another musical renaissance: that of
England in the 20th century. During the early
part of the century there was a renewed pride
in native music and a conscious desire to
create a national sound, which often involved
turning to the past for inspiration. Britten
arranged many folk tunes and was influenced
by Purcell and, to a lesser extent, Dowland,
while always retaining his own distinctive
sound. He was an industrious and versatile
composer who believed in writing music that
was accessible to all, and was also a
distinguished conductor and pianist. One of his
greatest achievements was the revival of
English opera.
Aged nine, Australian composer Phillip Houghton
found his first guitar far more useful as a cricket
bat, until a fast ball destroyed it. Six years later
he glued the remains back together, using one
piece of fishing line to play the riff from Wild
Thing. His early influences came from folk, rock
and jazz, and he only started formally studying
classical music at the age of 20. Houghton
toured extensively as a guitarist, but eventually
gave up his performing career to concentrate
on composition.
Gloriana (1953) was commissioned for the
coronation of Elizabeth II, with a libretto by
William Plomer about the personal relationship
between the first Elizabeth and the Earl of Essex.
This was perhaps an ill-conceived theme for the
occasion, however, and the opera was not well
received. Shortly afterwards, Britten created a far
more popular orchestral suite from the opera’s
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interest in Elizabethan and Jacobean music, and
contributed a great deal to its rediscovery,
working tirelessly as an editor and transcriber.
His compositional style was also influenced by
Delius, Bartók and the Anglo-Dutch composer
Bernard van Dieren, as well as the sounds of
folk-song.
The three works featured on this album are all
taken from Lost Book of Dreams, five pieces
written for piano in 1976 and arranged by the
composer for guitar quartet in 2002. The set was
directly inspired by Britten’s Courtly Dances from
‘Gloriana’ and share with that suite a certain
understated simplicity in their evocation of the
Renaissance ideal.
The Capriol Suite was written for piano duet
and string orchestra in 1926, and arranged for
full orchestra two years later. It has been given
many other incarnations since then, including
this arrangement by Slava Grigoryan. The suite is
loosely based on melodies from Thoinot
Arbeau’s Orchésographie of 1589, a dance
manual presented as a conversation between
Arbeau and the fictional lawyer and dance
student, Monsieur Capriol.
All the pieces draw on mythical or fictional
characters for their inspiration. Guinevere’s
Dream is a beautifully sonorous work that
evokes stillness and sleep. Similarly, Procession
of the Golden Spirits has very little rhythmic
variation until the final few phrases, instead
drawing the listener’s attention to the
increasingly piercing harmonies. Finally, the brisk
and surprisingly abrupt Puck’s Galumphing,
Again! evokes Renaissance dance music, with a
suitable sense of mischief.
The emphatic and stately Basse-Dance opens
the suite, with its strong triple-metre and rather
sudden ending. This leads to the quiet Pavane, a
grave, ceremonial dance, based on Arbeau’s
four-part arrangement of an old French song,
Belle qui tiens ma vie, or ‘Fair one who holds my
heart’. A brisk, energetic Tordion follows, in
which the guitars emulate the pizzicato strings
of the original scoring as the piece fades away
into stillness. The fourth piece, Bransles, is a
rustic peasant dance – the name comes from
the old French meaning ‘to shake’, due to its
characteristic sideways step. The dance was
known as a ‘brawl’ in English and the music,
Peter Warlock, the English composer, editor and
writer on music, was born Philip Arnold
Heseltine, his pseudonym reflecting his interest
in mysticism and the occult. Warlock had a
rather chaotic and frustrating career. His
attempts at academic studies were unsuccessful
and he was never able to settle into one
permanent job or role. Prone to depression, at
the age of 36 he was found dead of gas
poisoning in his Chelsea flat.
A miniaturist, Warlock mainly wrote solo songs
with piano accompaniment. He had a life-long
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accordingly, becomes increasingly bumptious
and brash. The delicate Pieds-en-l’air (‘Feet in the
air’) is the most sentimental piece in the suite,
with harmonies more reminiscent of Warlock’s
than Arbeau’s era. Finally, the vivacious
Mattachins, a showy sword dance for men,
rounds off the suite, with the music becoming
suprisingly outrageous and dissonant.
Saffire – The Australian Guitar Quartet
Saffire have been delighting audiences with their
unique style of music-making since bursting
onto the music scene in 2002. The quartet’s
performances are characterised by joy,
spontaneity and group virtuosity.
Their relaxed and informal onstage presence,
combined with a commitment to excellence,
creates a powerful and heady brew. One of the
trademarks of this unusual quartet is its refusal
to recognise traditional musical boundaries. This
is reflected in a repertoire which ranges from
Renaissance, Rock, Flamenco, Celtic and Jazz to
original compositions. Saffire perform on a
colourful selection of instruments which include
dobro, steel-string, eight-string, flamenco,
classical, octave and baritone guitars.
Hong Kong-born Gerald Garcia, now living in the
UK, is an established guitarist, a composer,
arranger, conductor and educator. This eloquent
Pavane is subtitled, like Warlock’s, with the name
of the old French song Belle qui tiens ma vie. It
comes from a set entitled Mediaeval Madness,
and was originally written for guitar and piccolo.
Its modal strains, phrasing and elaboration of the
melody evoke the Renaissance era, while making
full use of the guitar’s sonorities and range to
convey mood.
Saffire’s self-titled debut album soared to
number one in the Australian Classical Music
charts within days of its release in 2003. Later
that year the group won an ARIA (Australian
Record Industry Association) Award for Best
Classical Album.
La Rossignol is an anonymous work from the
16th century, here arranged by Koch. Originally
for lute duet, it has a rippling, contrapuntal
texture. The title translates as ‘The Nightingale’,
whose call can be heard towards the end of the
piece. Another anonymous work arranged by
Koch is The Parlement, a lute piece from
Elizabethan England. Brisk and energetic, it
features much repetition of phrases, allowing the
melody to be embellished, and provides a
suitably virtuosic finale.
Since then, Saffire has become one of the
runaway success stories of the Australian music
scene. Their second album, Nostalgica,
consolidated a reputation for innovation, originality
and strong artistic direction. Saffire has toured
extensively throughout the world. In a single
season in 2005 the group toured Europe and the
USA, and recently performed at the World Expo in
Japan and the Hong Kong Arts Festival.
Camilla Gregg
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Leonard Grigoryan
Leonard Grigoryan has always dedicated himself
to both the classical and jazz genres and is also
an active arranger and composer. He became a
member of Saffire in 2005.
Leonard Grigoryan was born in 1985 and began
studying the guitar with his father at the age of
four. He started performing publicly at the age of
eight. Having always played with his brother Slava,
it was inevitable that they should come together
as a duo; in 1999 they began performing regularly
together and have since toured the country
many times.
Slava Grigoryan
‘A remarkable recital... What comes across here
is guitar playing of uncommon originality and
authority’ (New York Times). Slava Grigoryan was
born in 1976. After studying guitar with his
father, he embarked on a career in music at the
age of 18. Since 1995 he has released six solo
albums, two albums with his brother Leonard
and many other collaborative recordings for Sony
Classical and ABC Classics. His first album for
ABC Classics, Sonatas and Fantasies, was
released in March 2002 and was named Best
Classical Album at that year’s ARIA Awards.
Slava Grigoryan is a founding member of Saffire.
In 2001, Leonard Grigoryan was the guest artist
on Slava’s ARIA award-winning album Sonatas and
Fantasies. The following year they released their
first duo album, Play, also nominated for an ARIA.
Leonard Grigoryan has appeared at many
festivals including the Darwin International
Guitar Festival, Iserlohn International Guitar
Festival, Hong Kong Arts Festival, Melbourne
Festival, Brisbane Festival, WOMADelaide,
Huntington Festival and the Frankston Guitar
Festival. He regularly tours nationally for Musica
Viva Australia and has performed in Africa,
Europe, America and Asia. In March 2006 he
made his debut at London’s Wigmore Hall,
appearing with his brother Slava.
As a soloist he regularly performs on all
continents. Many of these appearances have
been at major international festivals such as the
Brighton Festival, City of London Festival,
Dresden Musikfestspiel, Newbury Festival, GFA
Festival, Hong Kong Arts Festival, the Sydney,
Melbourne, Perth and Brisbane Festivals and
WOMAD festivals in Australia, England, South
Africa and the USA.
He has been a soloist with the Melbourne
Symphony Orchestra, The Queensland
Orchestra, the Academy of Melbourne, and the
Melbourne Musicians chamber orchestra. He
has collaborated with artists such as Luke
Howard, Ben Robertson, Darryn Farrugia, Fiona
Burnett, Chris Hale, Andrew Gander, Al Slavik,
Joseph Tawadros, Jane Rutter and Jeremy Alsop.
He has appeared with many of the world’s
leading orchestras, including the London
Philharmonic, BBC Concert Orchestra, Northern
Sinfonia, Royal Scottish National Orchestra,
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contemporary ensembles, theatres and flamenco
dance companies. On reviewing his 2000 CD
Journey to the Otherworld (recently re-released on
ABC Classics as The Fragrance of Paradise),
Britain’s Classical Guitar Magazine stated: “This is
possibly the best CD I have ever reviewed.”
Israel Symphony Orchestra, Dresden Radio
Orchestra, Hallé Orchestra, New Zealand
Symphony Orchestra, numerous tours with the
Australian Chamber Orchestra and all of the
major Australian symphony orchestras.
He also regularly collaborates with musicians
outside of the classical genre. In the last decade
some of these have included Leo Kottke, Paco
Peña, Trilok Gurtu, Ralph Towner, Wolfgang
Muthspiel and Al Slavik.
In 2006 Gareth Koch formed a duo with cellist
Trish O’Brien, a collaboration which has resulted
in the development of exciting new repertoire
for this unusual combination.
Gareth Koch
Gareth Koch is a founding member of Saffire.
Born in Milan in 1962, Gareth Koch began
learning flamenco guitar at age twelve in Spain.
Upon returning to Australia in 1976 he began a
tumultuous love affair with rock and roll –
an encounter from which he has never
fully recovered.
Karin Schaupp
Karin Schaupp performs widely on the
international stage as a recitalist, concerto
soloist and festival guest. While still in her teens
she won prizes at international competitions in
Italy and Spain, where she was also awarded
the special competition prize for the Best
Interpretation of Spanish Music. Taught almost
exclusively by her guitarist mother, Isolde
Schaupp, she completed her tertiary music
studies at The University of Queensland with
First Class Honours, a Masters degree and a
University Gold Medal. In 2002, Karin Schaupp
was awarded the Music Council of Australia
Freedman Fellowship in recognition of her
achievements.
He completed his undergraduate study in
classical guitar at the Sydney Conservatorium of
Music before winning postgraduate scholarships
to both the Royal Madrid Conservatorium and
the Academy of Music in Vienna. He holds a
PhD in Music and his thesis explored the nature
of creativity and the workings of the
unconscious mind during the act of creation.
Gareth Koch has performed extensively
throughout the world in a career encompassing
flamenco, classical and world music styles. He
has enjoyed an immensely varied career, having
collaborated with some of Europe’s finest
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Orchestral engagements have included
appearances with the London Philharmonic
Orchestra, Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra,
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Springfield Symphony Orchestra (USA),
Melbourne and Tasmanian Symphony Orchestras
and The Queensland Orchestra. Karin Schaupp
has appeared live on television in Germany,
Canada, the USA, Asia and Australia, and is also
heard regularly on the radio.
Executive Producers Robert Patterson, Lyle Chan
Recording Producer Isolde Schaupp
Associate Producer Karin Schaupp
Recording Engineer Dave Neil
Editing Isolde Schaupp
Mastering Dave Neil
Editorial and Production Manager Hilary Shrubb
Publications Editor Natalie Shea
Booklet Design Imagecorp Pty Ltd
Cover and Booklet Photos Monty Coles
Make-Up Mary Peda
Hair Kathryn Driscoll
Karin Schaupp is a founding member of Saffire.
Other collaborative projects include a partnership
with virtuoso recorder player Genevieve Lacey,
and most recently a theatre project with Australia’s
best-known playright, David Williamson.
Karin Schaupp has released four solo albums;
her first release with ABC Classics was Dreams,
in 2004. Orchestral releases include the world
premiere recording of Ross Edwards’ Concerto
for Guitar and Strings and Peter Sculthorpe’s
Nourlangie for guitar and orchestra, both with
the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra and
available on ABC Classics.
Recorded 15-22 May 2006 in Grevillea
Studios, Brisbane.
For Saffire
Australasian Management:
Patrick Togher Artists’ Management
www.patricktogher.com
International Management:
Reuben Zylberszpic
Phone: +61 3 9525 4559
E-mail: [email protected]
Guitars
Slava Grigoryan: Standard classical guitar by Simon
Marty; baritone guitar by Graham Caldersmith. Slava
uses D’Addario J46 strings.
Saffire would like to thank Isolde Schaupp, Lotte
Reinke, Dave Neil and everyone at Grevillea Studios.
Karin Schaupp: Standard classical guitar by Simon
Marty; octave guitar by Graham Caldersmith.
2006 Saffire.
© 2006 Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Distributed
in Australia and New Zealand by Universal Music Group,
under exclusive licence. Made in Australia. All rights of the
owner of copyright reserved. Any copying, renting, lending,
diffusion, public performance or broadcast of this record
without the authority of the copyright owner is prohibited.
Leonard Grigoryan: Standard classical guitar by
Simon Marty; National Resophonic guitar (Dobro);
steel string guitar by Jim Williams.
Gareth Koch: Eight-string classical guitar by Simon
Marty; National Resophonic guitar (Dobro).
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