A Piccolo Report from the NFA Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina

Although this was not a piccolo-designated year for the U.S.A.’s annual convention, there was still much to delight the piccolo aficionado. In particular it was a convention full of exciting new repertoire for an instrument that has so rarely in its history enjoyed that, let alone held recognition for possessing a widely expressive vocabulary of colour and emotive possibilities. If one had experienced the piccolo offerings of Charlotte 2011 without any previous notions of the limiting biases so many musicians have imposed upon the instrument, there could be little question about the sincere and significant musicianship exhibited by both piccolo players and the repertoire they present to their audiences.

A “High-Frequency Piccolo Recital” began with three works—all twenty-first century Slovenian pieces, played by Matjaž Debeljak, piccoloist of the Slovenian National Opera, and British pianist Timothy Carey. Aldo Kumar’s Graffiti is a truly pleasant, accessible piece with a florid, adventurous piccolo writing over a rhythmic piano setting. My only disappointment with this work was the rather wistful, unsatisfactory ending of the third movement that did not seem to meet what expectations had been set up by the first two movements for its conclusion. Later I was to discover that there are actually five movements, but I presume in order to fit the strict programme length restrictions of the convention, something had to be omitted. (When I subsequently heard the complete composition on Debeljak’s newly released CD, I must say it reaffirmed my first notion of this being a terrific, programmable piece for the piccolo, without the sense of disappointment, now with its proper conclusion.)

Debeljak and Carey continued with Igor Krivokapic’s Ideas, another audience-accessible composition in four movements. The final movement, Pikobluz, is a short, entertaining romp that could well stand on its own as an excellent recital encore. Concluding his portion of the programme, Debeljak sailed through Peter Kopač’s challenging unaccompanied Sonatina, negotiating the extensive double-tongue passages with ease, energy and excitement. All three pieces are currently published--Krivokapic’s by Sloway Music and the other two by DSS (Društvo slovenskib skladateljev, the Society of Slovenian Composers). It is to be hoped that all of these publications will become easily available as they are fine contributions to the piccolo repertoire.

The second half of this recital was performed by Mary Ann Archer, who recently completed a quarter century with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. Other than David Loeb’s Reflections on Sephardic Melodies for solo piccolo, all her repertoire consisted of her own excellent transcriptions for piccolo and piano, ably played by Frank Archer. Borrowing from the violin and piano repertoire, the duo opened with J.S. Bach’s Sonata in E Minor, BWV 1023. Both the Adagio non tanto and Gigue worked remarkably well for the combination. Sadly the Allemanda was omitted, presumably because of time restrictions, for Archer’s lovely expressive playing in the Loeb gave every indication that her phrasing would have been lovely on this too. Of particular note was her interpretation of Loeb’s Beautiful daughter, why are you crying? in which her plaintive expression evoked such feeling of sad aloneness. Next followed Fritz Kreisler’s potboiler Tambourin Chinois into which new life was breathed through the replacing of the violin’s timbre with the piccolo. Closing the recital was perhaps the most interesting, and least well-known work, Ernesto Nazareth’s Brazilian Rags.

On a recital devoted entirely to the music of Cynthia Folio was a world premiere, commissioned and performed by Lois Bliss Herbine, piccolo. Philadelphia Portraits: A Spiritual Journey is a collection of five short movements, each celebrating an important figure identified through connection to this great city. The composer, Vincent Persichetti is the first musical depiction. Folio borrows a theme from Persichetti’s Parable XII, which in turn Persichetti had actually borrowed from his own earlier Christmas Hymn. It might not seem so unusual for a composer to choose to employ a theme from an earlier violin or piano composition to create a new work; we are certainly all familiar with Rachmaninoff’s Paganinni Variations or Piazzolla’s Four Seasons. Yet when the piccolo, an instrument that has had a reputation for lacking its own serious repertoire, has is own new composition based upon and established piece of its own repertoire, we are beginning to see the kind of positive development befitting the piccolo’s new emerging identity as soloist. It was not just this notion that made this performance so enjoyable but the new composition itself and the nuanced phrasing of Herbine and accompanist Matthew Bengtson. Other portraits include John Coltrane—complete with allusions to his improvisatory style, Marion Anderson—with a setting of “Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child, and Benjamin Franklin—through an exploration of the high, sustained, ringing tones of the piano with the piccolo in celebration of his creation of the glass harmonica. Betsy Ross, the final portrait, although a short and cute collection of short patriotic tunes neatly stitched together, seemed a little trite in comparison to the previous fare, and I began to wonder if the “spiritual journey” could properly include this display of nationalist fare. Nevertheless, this newly published work is another wonderful contribution to the piccolo repertoire.

Performing the world premiere of Jean-Michel Damase’s NFA commission was the legendary Jean-Louis Beaumadier. Damase, whose renown for composing chamber music for winds in the French tradition, did not disappoint with his new, one through-composed movement, simply titled, For Piccolo. Amidst the highly melodic lines there is a considerable amount of florid technical display involved in this piece. (The just-released Billaudot publication lists this work at level 8; with level 1 as the least challenging repertoire in the French grading system employed here, and level 9 as the indicator of the most difficult repertoire.) However, Beaumadier’s effortless management of all the technical passages in this premiere seemed to make the listeners far less aware of Damase’s actual demands upon the player. Instead, our focus was diverted by the expression of sweeping phrases, loaded with the emotion that the numerous wide interval leaps can bestow. Beaumadier also led a masterclass in which Jilene VanOpdorp and Jessica Patchett performed the first and second movements of the Vivaldi Concerto in C, respectively and Krystle Jones played the first movement of the Liebermann Concerto for Piccolo.

A “Quick Picc Pic” : These high-note flyers gathered momentarily for a photo-opp following an all Jean-Michel Damase recital that included Christine Beard in the Trio pour flute, hautbois et piano (1962), Elizabeth Buck in the Sonata for Flute and Harp (1964) and the world premiere of the NFA commissioned piece, For piccolo (2001) performed by Jean-Louis Beaumadier.

front l.-r.: Lois Herbine, Matjaz Debeljak, Zart Dombourian-Eby,

2nd row: Walfrid Kujala, Carl Hall, Christine Erlander Beard, Nan Raphael, Jean-Louis Beaumadier

As always, the frustration of these enormous American flute gatherings is that there is so much activity scheduled concurrently that inevitably one is heartbroken about missing events in order to attend one’s first obligations. Other piccolo performances that I was unable to hear included those by Erinn Frechette offering Musgrave’s Piccolo Play and Benshoof’s Spindrift, Leonard Garrison playing Loeb’s Scenes from the Japanese Countryside and Lois Herbine, on another concert, presenting the world premiere of Daniel Dorff’s Tweet for solo piccolo.

Amongst the many flute choirs that continue to claim a strong following at the NFA events, are many opportunities to listen to some excellent piccolo playing. There are significant challenges in aiming to blend with subtlety while playing, usually solo, in a tessitura a full octave above the next highest voices, which are almost always multiple. Mention of these specific qualities generally receives scant attention, as the product of the whole is the focus. However, I feel, two particular convention notes regarding the piccolo must be made that came from the flute choir sector.

First I must mention a beautiful new work for solo piccolo and flute ensemble that received its NFA premiere at the hands of the Woodbridge Flute Choir. Composed by Russell Nadel, Butterfly is a musical depiction of the journey of the insect in which the piccolo is the protagonist. The solo performer, Tara Nadel, played with a sweet expressiveness that was both touching and memorable. Certainly a fine flute choir like the Woodbridge group, can provide an excellent accompaniment for piccolo soloists, whether they are guest artists or featured performers from within the ensemble. Sadly, the ensemble’s music director, Debbie Gilbert, informed me that this piece is yet to be published, for it is an excellent programmatic piece for the piccolo without being in a typical concerto format.

An NFA first, I believe, was the performance of Melvin Lauf’s Petrushka’s Ghost, an engaging composition for an ensemble of eight piccolos. As could be expected, when the Mercer University Flute Choir appeared to be leaving the stage after performing just two short selections, without completing their programme the audience at first seemed confused. However, when it was perceived that members of the ensemble were simply regrouping as an ensemble of eight piccolos, there was more than one gasp of incredulity. As director Kelly Via led the brief tuning check, there was also an audible buzz about the room; clearly some listeners were anticipating what pain such a collection of instruments might be about to inflict. Was this the moment to make a quick exit from the concert? Yet soon the room was soon filled with the glorious swirling harmonies of chords all offered by a very musical and well-tuned ensemble of piccolos. As Petrouska’s Ghost unfolded it was evident that some very hard-wired beliefs about the piccolo were shattered. Mel Lauf’s piece is loaded with shimmering textures and explorations of colour that those who are quite at the ready to relate the old piccolo jokes about how to tune just two piccolos, could never have imagined. It was wonderful to know that the room was filled to capacity and that there had been, at least in the duration of that performance, an attitudinal sea-change for the piccolo’s very identity.

Nancy Nourse is a Canadian educator, composer/arranger and flutist. She has published articles in the Journal of Aesthetic Education, Journal of Curriculum Studies, Canadian Music Educators Journal, Flutist Quarterly and Flute Focus. Special Interests include aesthetics, feminist issues, the flute in liturgy, learning styles, flute choirs and the history of the piccolo. She is currently a doctoral candidate in music education at The University of Western Ontario and the piccolo player in Orchestra Toronto.