A Glass House: Everybody should have a little Haydn in their lives

“A Glass House” – for alto flute, bass clarinet, violin, cello, percussion and piano is finally finished!!! It gives me great pleasure to write those words. And I just discovered that I finished it on Haydn’s birthday – March 31st.

The piece has been very long in the making. I can’t even remember how many beginnings, middles and endings I had to try – something that has never happened to me before. In the end it became quite an epic of a struggle, at the same time giving me immense satisfaction with each step I was taking towards finishing it.

Two names are important in the story of this piece:  Tomas Tranströmer and Joseph Haydn. The first – for the direct inspiration for “A Glass House” and the second – for inspiring both Mr. Tranströmer and me with his music.

Here is Tomas Tranströmer’s result – an amazing poem, managing to convey in only a few lines what Music could mean and do to you, for you, because of you:

Allegro

I play Haydn after a black day

and feel a simple warmth in my hands.

The keys are willing. Soft hammers strike.

The resonance is lively, calm and green.

The sound says that freedom exists

and someone pays no tax to Caesar.

I shove down my hands in my Haydnpockets

and imitate a person looking calmly at the world.

I hoist my Haydnflag – it means:

“We never give up. But want peace. “

The Music is a glass house on the slope

where the stones fly, the stones roll.

And the stones roll right through

but each glass pane remains intact.

And here is my “found object”, Adagio e Cantabile from a Haydn piano sonata (here performed by my favourite Mr. Richter):

Richter – Haydn, Adagio e Cantabile

The result has been a long, long labour of Love, frustration and now – pride. Yes, I could be proud of the piece even before I have just one note of it played. I ended up “quoting” either elements of the Haydn’s Adagio or whole sections. Curious?

It is scheduled to be read and recorded very, very soon, so – stay tuned for a recording.