DESCRIPTION:
Jennifer Langridge - cello
Benjamin Powell - Piano

I. Traditor Autem
II. Nequaquam Morte Moriemini
III. Rerum Sapientia Custos
IV. Amplexus Placide Tumulum
V. In Immortalitatem Litium
VI. Saevit In Umbram

The Sonata for ‘cello and piano is the direct outcome of encountering the ‘pievi’ – early medieval rural churches – of Tuscany. In particular, it was inspired by the elusive and enigmatic nature of the imagery of their stone carvings.

I have concentrated on just one image, that of the snake, which in Jewish and Christian tradition is a symbol of temptation and betrayal, and of sinfulness in general. However, in the pieve, older significances, which can be traced back to Estruscan times, can be discerned, and these meanings, quite contrary to the usual readings, are now beginning to be fathomed, helping us to understand for instance why the pieve of San Vito, Corsignano, has no stone carving apart from decorative elements, and that of small, extended snakes.

I took as a basis for the whole work the Gregorian chant proper to Maundy Thursday, ‘Traditor autem dedit eis signum’, concerning the betrayal of Christ by Judas. We therefore start from a conventional Jewish-Christian standpoint, but the meaning of the plainsong is made to modify as the movements progress, with systematic changes of contour by intervallic expansion and the contraction, by magic square workings in both the melodic and rhythmic fields, and other, related transformation processes, not least, on the harmonic plane.

There are six movements, played with only the briefest of pauses between them.


I. TRADITOR AUTEM
Gregorian chant proper to Maundy Thursday concerning the betrayal of Christ by Judas

The first movement is very short. First, the plainsong is uncoiled sinuously by the solo ‘cello: next, the piano (alone) extracts the pivotal notes out of this melody, then turns the resultant seven-pitch figure upside down at a distance of the diminished fifth (this interval was considered to be “diabolus in musica” – the devil in music – by some medieval theologians with musical preoccupations). Finally, we hear, on ‘cello harmonics, a combination and reduction of the piano’s fourteen-note figure into a nine-note melodic outline, and all is prepared for exploration.

II. NEQUAQUAM MORTE MORIEMINI
“Ye shall not surely die” – words of the Serpent to Eve, Genesis III

The second movement, ‘moderato’, is concerned still with the pervading traditional serpentine symbolism, exploited against a background of musical imagery borrowed from Schumann and Brahms.

III. RERUM SAPIENTIA CUSTOS
(The serpent as) guardian of knowledge

A serpentine discourse on the snake as font of magical knowledge, particularly a knowledge imparted by snakes to humans of the language of birds – there are several mysterious carvings in the pievi of serpents whispering into willing human ears, which are certainly not those of Eve. This archetypal image can be traced back to ancient Greece.1

IV AMPLEXUS PLACIDE TUMULUM
(The serpent) “gently wound round the tomb”. In Vergil’s Aeneid, book V, during Anchises’ funeral rites a gold and azure serpent moves from Anchises’ tomb, partakes of the ritual food placed about, then returns to the tomb.

This is an “adagio”, touching upon the chthonic/underworld associations of serpent lore, with the snake as arbiter between the living and the dead.



V IN IMMORTALITATEM LITIUM
of never-ending strife

The fifth, very brief movement starts out as a military march. There are only three sections of just a few measures each of quasi-military bravado – each followed by a short slow passage, reflecting upon any hollowness the “alla Marcia militare” might suggest: which snake said what into whose ear, when?

VI SAEVIT IN UMBRAM
(The serpent) rages against the shadows
Here, I imagine the serpent in his Dionysiac incarnation, fighting shades, to be torn by them to pieces, and entombed, in preparation for resurrection in a serpent engendered – or even uroborus (serpent eating its own tail) engendered-eternal cycle of ritual death and rebirth.

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1. For an intriguing account of the line of descent from Etruscan symbolism to that of the early medieval period, as found in the Tuscan pievi, I recommend Silvio Bernandini’s short book ‘Il Serpente e la Sirena’, published by Editrice DonChisciotte SAS, to which I am heavily indebted in this Sonata. This is also available in an English translation by Kate Singleton, from the same publisher, under the title, “The Serpent and the Siren”