*** DEBUG START ***
*** DEBUG END ***

Cambridge residency launched

by
02 June 2017

Roderic Dunnett hears what Michael Finnissy brings to evensong

Ben Britton

Composer: Michael Finnissy

Composer: Michael Finnissy

APPOINTING “composers in res­idence” or “in association” is a cus­tom that doesn’t date back far in the UK. The Scottish Chamber Orches­tra was among the first into the field in the 1980s, when its general man­ager, Ian Ritchie, made arrange­ments with Sir Peter Maxwell Davies which led to ten “Strathclyde con­certos”, and then with Sir James MacMillan. The BBC Philharmonic and other orchestras followed suit.

Universities and colleges are now trying out the idea. At St John’s College, Cambridge, the Master and Fellows have commissioned Michael Finnissy, Professor of Music at Southampton University, to com­pose four anthems that take their lead from sacred works by 16th-­century composers.

The first, Dum transisset sabba­tum, drawing on the Henrician composer John Taverner — who, it is believed, was in later life an un­­remitting agent of Thomas Crom­well in the dissolution of the monas­teries — was heard in the college’s chapel last month, sung by its cele­brated choir.

Just into his seventies, Finnissy has been viewed as one of the fear­some intellectuals among com­posers, determined, like Schoenberg, to go his own way; unafraid of “anguished dissonances”, like his composer friends Brian Ferney­hough or James Dillon; and em­­bracing complexity at the expense of popularity.

In a perceptive article, The Daily Telegraph’s Ivan Hewett, then pre­senter of Radio 3’s Music Matters, observed: “Finnissy is one of those awkward English visionaries, like Blake or Bunyan, whose rough edges are a measure of their burning convictions.”

So, alongside the awkwardness, occasional tetchiness and gloom, the needling the Establishment, the asking of awkward questions, the rhythmic demands, as well as the nihilistic feel, the uncomfortable severity, the scatological and sexual (Six Sexy Minuets, Un chant d’amour pour Jean Genet, That ain’t shit), and the love of things Austra­lian (reflected in several works), Finnissy, though “a doubtful and hesitant worshipper”, has yielded up pieces that reveal a different side to his musical personality.

He is capable of affirmation, tri­umphant simplicity of effect, and of drawing out a single thread — an elegant, sometimes keening, melodic line — which rises contradictorily out of his “complex mosaic” of densely packed “clots” of music. This gives his works an expressive character entirely his own.

Despite “the thickets and tangles of notes”, as The Guardian’s Andrew Clements has written, “the gnarled and the lyrical” coexist. Finnissy’s sacred works, such as the Seven Sacred Motets of 1991, his Kyrie “Western Winde” (whose title brings to mind the Masses on that cantus firmus by Shepherd, Tav­erner, and Tye), his Palm Sunday for two choirs and two trombones (surely a Venetian allusion), or his two settings of the Evening Can­ticles from 2006-07, exemplify this lyrical vision. It is not without allu­sion, but without the “perverse tu­­mult” of distorted parody.

Ironically, the work that came across as complex on this occasion in St John’s was William Walton’s demanding Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis: sometimes in high tessitura, it enabled the boys to shine, and this rendition exemplified Andrew Nethsingha’s achievement since he has taken over the baton from a line of distinguished prede­cessors. The Walton was simply stunning: not, perhaps, still the fra­gile Continental sound cultivated by George Guest, but a miracle of de­­livery and spiritual intensity. It gave a taste of what to expect in their approach to the new work.

Finnissy’s setting was, in fact, a model of non-complexity, and sen­sitive to his specific performers: Ivan Hewett writes of his ability to produce “simple and beautiful effects — the opposite of his seem­ing positive glee in being rough-edged and ungainly”. So it was with this commission, which also es­­chews his “preoccupation with microtonality and atonality as well as tonality”. From early in the Mag­nificat, one could hear dancing echoes of the French composer Pérotin (1160-1230), two genera­tions before Machaut. The sense of onward flow in Finnissy’s motet is as strong as it is in Taverner’s.

How far, if at all, Finnissy has relied on quotation, on re-using or refabricating the material of the original, derived his solo lines from those of the 16th century, or invoked structural elements in parallel with Taverner’s treatment of the same poignant text, it was difficult to say on one hearing.

The plainsong, or plainsong-like, line of the boys’ part, and the lyrical feel of the work’s unfolding — apt for the story of the two Marys going to the tomb to anoint Jesus’s body — evoke feelings of mystery and tenderness. The altos are briefly given prominence, and sang fab­ulously. A telling two-part section for the same upper voices, later yielding to alto and tenor, again acquired a strong sense of Taver­ner’s music, in which reduced textures can be compelling.

A slow Alleluia leads to a long, slightly unnerving pause. The altos built on the plainsong ambience, and, when all voices were massed together, the full choir sound was thrilling. One might compare the odd moment of ingenuity here to MacMillan, whose motets reflect the Scottish composer’s gift for drawing on the history of full-blown Mod­ernism while marrying it with a tonal or modal character.

Finnissy has often used modalism to conjure some of his brilliant and telling effects. A beautiful contrast is achieved by uniting forcefully the three lower voices under a floating, independent line for the boys. Tenors and basses introduce a subtly counterpointed Gloria; and, what was as impressive as anything, Nethsingha produced from his choir a memorable diminuendo, as ex­­pressive as it was impressive, from fortissimo to pianissimo, as they united on what sounded like a retrospectively allusive conclusion.

Browse Church and Charity jobs on the Church Times jobsite

Church Times Bookshop

Save money on books reviewed or featured in the Church Times. To get your reader discount:

> Click on the “Church Times Bookshop” link at the end of the review.

> Call 0845 017 6965 (Mon-Fri, 9.30am-5pm).

The reader discount is valid for two months after the review publication date. E&OE

Forthcoming Events

Women Mystics: Female Theologians through Christian History

13 January - 19 May 2025

An online evening lecture series, run jointly by Sarum College and The Church Times

tickets available

 

Festival of Faith and Literature

28 February - 2 March 2025

tickets available

 

Visit our Events page for upcoming and past events 

The Church Times Archive

Read reports from issues stretching back to 1863, search for your parish or see if any of the clergy you know get a mention.

FREE for Church Times subscribers.

Explore the archive

Welcome to the Church Times

 

To explore the Church Times website fully, please sign in or subscribe.

Non-subscribers can read four articles for free each month. (You will need to register.)