Robert Blocker, Dean of the Yale School of Music from 1995 to 2023, is an internationally acclaimed concert pianist. He asked his faculty friends and colleagues for contemporary character pieces and was rewarded with an outstanding collection of works by the leading composers of today, many of whom have Yale connections.
Robert Blocker (photo by Matthew Fried)
A character piece is a musical composition that expresses a specific mood or a non-musical idea. Some of the most famous collections of these are Schumann’s Carnaval or Debussy’s Préludes. In the 19th century, nocturnes and intermezzi, such as those by Chopin or Brahms, are also considered character pieces. The name itself dates back to 1725 when Marin Marai included them in his fifth book of viola da gamba music. His character pieces have literary or descriptive titles, such as La Petite Badinage rather than dance titles such as courante.
Some of the music, such as by Ezra Laderman (1924–2015), is a homage to Blocker (celebrating his first decade as Dean), and others are tributes to the man himself, as in Hong Kong composer Warren Lee’s Three Novelettes captures Blocker as an artist, an administrator, and a human being. Martin Bresnick (b. 1946) chose an etching by Goya as his point of inspiration. The etching, ¡Extraña devoción!, part of the Desastres de la Guerra series from 1810–1815, shows people kneeling on the roadside to pray while a donkey pulls a glass-sided bier.
Goya: Desastres de la Guerra: ¡Extraña devoción!, 1810–1815 (Fundación Goya en Aragon)
Bresnick sees the donkey as being mute but having a knowing expression that reveals ‘both the sincerity and futility of the people’s unquestioning faith’.
Joseph Schwanter (b. 1943) played with the idea of perpetual motion and palindrome for his Palindrome’s Dance. A palindrome, a word (Otto) or a phrase (A Man, A Plan, A Canal – Panama) that reads the same from front or back. In his music, Schwanter has done the same, ordering the music in 4 sections which reverse at the midpoint.
Joseph Schwantner: Palidrome’s Dance
The other composers, including David Lang, Paul Reale, Aaron Jay Kernis, and Christopher Theofanidis, all contribute wonderful character pieces to this collection. For 6 of the 10 pieces, this is their premiere recording, and Blocker does a wonderfully authoritative job in performance.
As a collection, it’s unique. Character pieces are really works of an earlier time, and composers today are rarely asked for pieces of such wide-ranging possibility. For Blocker to be the inspiration, the dedicatee of most of the pieces, and the performer makes this collection very personal.
Robert Blocker: Contemporary Character Pieces for Piano
Nimbus NI 6453
Release Date: 1st November 2024
Official Website
For more of the best in classical music, sign up for our E-Newsletter
