Baird Knechtel is of course well known to CVS members, but not all are aware of his activities as a composer.
He served as CVS's first President (1977–1993), became CVS's first Honorary Member in 1995 and was awarded the IVS Silver Alto Clef in 1997. In 1979, after 20 years of teaching music in Toronto-area schools, he joined Northview Heights Secondary School in North York as head of its music department. He retired from this position in January 2001.
Baird Knechtel's Romantique (1983) for viola and piano is in the tradition of a salon miniature. It uses conventional tonal language and offers many expressive opportunities for both the violist and pianist. Mr. Knechtel revisited this piece as a post-retirement project and has made a slight revision to what is reproduced here. The work awaits its premiere.
Also by Baird Knechtel are three duos for violin and viola: Duo de Funk, Manitou Rag and Tennis, all written in summer 1982. He describes these pieces as "fun and not too serious." The latter two were written when he was teaching at the Interprovincial Music Camp. All three are deposited at the National Library of Canada.
Baird Knechtel's current projects include recording J.S. Bach's suites for solo violin and solo cello on solo viola. He is also working on a recording of salon miniatures for viola and piano with pianist Greg Paskaruk. These works include little-known pieces by Russian and Ukrainian composers and a salon piece originally for viola and piano by Anton Rubenstein.
Readers can contact Baird Knechtel by phone at (416) 242-2131 or
by mail at 103 North Drive, Islington, Ontario M9A 4R5.
Andrew Ager, born in Ottawa in 1962, wrote Garden Shadows for SATB chamber choir and viola in 2000 at the invitation of the undersigned. The composer advises that the work can also be performed with one singer per vocal part (the soprano line has a divisi section). This fairly short, one-movement work sets text by the Fredericton - born poet, editor and journalist Bliss Carman (1861–1929). Its musical language is harmonically traditional, the vocal parts are eminently singable, and the viola part presents beautifully lyrical and idiomatic material with no particular technical challenges for the solo violist. The premiere performance was with Ottawa's Seventeen Voyces (Kevin Reeves, director) as part of a fund-raising concert on February 4, 2001, for the organ restoration fund of St. Matthew's Church in Ottawa.
Andrew Ager began piano studies as a child and soon showed an interest in making up songs and rhymes of his own. Encouraged by his grandfather, who had been a bandman and opera singer, he started studying music in his early teens, with a particular interest in composition and poetry. He studied organ while living in Nova Scotia and in 1986 was hired as the organist and choir director of St. Mary's Basilica in Halifax. He was also active as a composer of church music for use at the Basilica and at other churches in the Maritimes and was busy as a freelance composer and accompanist.
Among his more notable pieces from this time are The Nightingale (1991) for chamber choir and chamber orchestra to a text by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and Six Bagatelles (1993), composed as a commission for Dalhousie University.
In 1993 he moved to Toronto and quickly became occupied as a freelance player and commissioned composer. He was also assistant organist and interim music director at the Church of Saint Mary Magdalene, whose musical tradition was founded by Healey Willan. While there, Andrew Ager wrote music for the choir and undertook choral responsibilities at Trinity College. In 1998 he moved to rural Quebec for a year and a half, and devoted much of his time to writing new music and editing his earlier scores.
This was a fruitful period during which Andrew Ager had several works published and composed his first piece for large orchestra, The Solemn Land, based on the A.Y. Jackson painting held at the National Gallery of Canada. This work was premiered by the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony Orchestra and has been performed by other orchestras in Canada.
Andrew Ager is presently Composer-in-Residence at Timothy Eaton Memorial Church in Toronto, in which position he writes anthems, solos and arrangements for use in services. These include works in various styles, from solemn ceremonial music to children's music and spirituals.
He is also active as a commissioned composer and arranger. His current projects include To Dreams Return , a large choral work for the Toronto Chamber Choir and The Northern Suite for the Hannaford Street Silver Band. He has also been co-music director of the Mirvish - Soulpepper production of A Flea in Her Ear , and he will be the music director for Mixed Company's production of Swimming for Shore , which opens May 31, 2001.
As a point of interest, Andrew Ager is a distant relative of Milton Ager, who wrote the popular tunes "Ain't She Sweet" and "Happy Days Are Here Again."
Andrew Ager is an Associate of the Canadian Music Centre and can be contacted by e-mail at ager@sympatico.ca.
Ottawa composer Jan Jarvlepp, born in 1953, has added yet another work to his catalogue that features the viola with unusual instrumentation. Regular readers of CVS's newsletter will be aware of Dr. Jarvlepp's Encounter (1991), for viola and conga drums, and his Moonscape (1993), transcribed in 1995 for viola and electric guitar (see CVS newsletters No. 30, Fall 1992, pp. 5–7; and No. 35, Spring 1995, pp. 12–13). His latest work of particular interest to violists is Street Scene , scored for viola and electric guitar.
Street Scene was premiered (with the composer playing electric guitar) on February 11, 2001, in the National Gallery of Canada's Rideau Chapel, Ottawa, for broadcast on Radio-Canada. The composer's program note for this work is as follows:
Street Scene was composed in 2000 for violist Kevin James, and today we hear its first performance. I have proceeded a little differently in this composition than in my other works that combine diverse elements to form a new unity. Many of my previous compositions feature American pop rhythms fused with European forms to arrive at a rather homogenized hybrid result. However, here in Street Scene , I have allowed the viola to retain its European lyrical melodic identity and the electric guitar to retain its cool American "street smarts." So the two ingredients are like an oil and vinegar salad dressing where the components start separating as soon as possible. Imagine a recently arrived European immigrant being confronted by a local street gang armed with switchblades.
Street Scene , approximately seven minutes in length, is an exciting and often strongly lyrical work, with some rhythmic surprises and a challenging, continuous 16th-note solo for the viola. It has a fair amount of chromatic language, frequent changes in meter and many opportunities for the viola to assert a solo role.
Jan Jarvlepp has had a busy and productive year with new compositions, premieres and the release of two CDs. His Quintet 2000 for string quartet and celesta was premiered at the Ottawa Chamber Music Festival on August 1, 2000, at St. John's Anglican Church in Ottawa and was received by an enthusiastic capacity audience. His Concerto 2000 , a flute concerto written for soloist Pascale Margely, was premiered by the Hull Conservatory Orchestra conducted by Yves Léveillé at Église Saint-Benoît-Abbé in Hull on November 4, 2000. This work will also be performed by the Ottawa Symphony Orchestra directed by David Currie with Robert Cram as soloist on 28 January 2002. Jan Jarvlepp has also had performances of his compositions in 2000 by the Canadian Centennial Choir and at the Ottawa Fringe Festival.
The major recording label BIS released Jan Jarvlepp's symphonic work, Garbage Concerto (BIS CD-1052), on April 24, 2000. This recording features the Kroumata percussion ensemble, playing on instruments made from recycled objects, and the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Lan Shui. Further information is available at BIS's Web site at www.bis.se. In June 2000, Dr. Jarvlepp released his second CD of chamber music, "Flights of Fancy" (J&W CD 001), which includes his Trio No. 2 (1997) for piccolo, viola and cello. This CD is available from the composer and from Indie Pool on-line at www.indiepool.com/janjarvlepp.
Jan Jarvlepp is currently writing a multi-movement work for viola and strings. He is an Associate of the Canadian Music Centre and can be contacted by e-mail at jarvlepp@aol.com or through his Web site at www.janjarvlepp.com.
KJ