MUSIK FABRIK
East Wind, West Wind
Baku, from March 11 to 17, 1999
Report
This project was begun over a year ago after the first voyage of Paul Wehage to Baku in January 1998 and was finally realized this year. A date change had to take place to accommodate both some administrative problems, as well as the untimely death of Antoine Tisné in July 1998, who was to accompany the group.
The preparation for this musical exchange between France and Azerbaijan took place due to the determination of Mr. Jean-Pierre Guinut, the French Ambassador to Baku and of the generous support of the French Sponsors, the French Instrument Maker Henri SELMER et CIE and the company Parfums de France in Baku. An initial voyage took place between March 28-30th 1999 permitted Jean-Thierry Boisseau to meet with our partners in Baku in order to organize the three workshops, with the help of the Academy of Music, the Rector Farkhad Badalbeyli and the professors of the composition, wind and organ classes and the Cultural service of the French Embassy in the person of Gérard Néraud and Luc Véry.
Upon our arrival March 11th, we were able to note the usefulness of this initial preparatory voyage, especially in terms of the conformity of the project with what we initially had imagined, even above our initial expectations.
Statistics
The Organ Workshop
Françoise Levéchin Gangloff had the entire organ class of the State Academy of Music with fifteen women and one man. During the eight hours of classes per day, each of the students as well as the Organ Professor Madame Yakubowa were initiated in the theory and practice of ornamentation of French music in the 17th and 18th centuries, as well as the registration practices for the music of that time as well as for the music of Vierne and Messiaen. The students also worked on the new works composed by the composers in that workshop.
Françoise Levéchin-Gangloff and Farkhad Badalbeyli, Rector of the Academy of Music
The Composition Workshop.
Joseph-François Kremer who had planned to work with five young composers, was completely overtaken with the demand and had to multiply his sessions because of the great interest. He worked with fifteen different composers including several professors at the Academy of Music.
Four works for Organ and winds were composed during this week and were premièred at the German Church in Baku during the final concert.
The Woodwind Workshop
Paul Wehage worked essentially with a wind quintet, but the amount of wind players who worked with him were greatly increased by the number of older musicians who wanted information about Modern French Music for Winds. More than twenty people worked with Paul Wehage, including the vice rector of the Baku State Academy of Music, Mr. Babaiev. .
This workshop was mainly an introduction to contemporary French music for winds, but also allowed the participants to prepare the works especially written for the project.
There were approximately fifty musicians who participated in these workshops.
The final concert sponsored by the French Embassy permitted an audience of 400 people to hear works seldom heard in this part of the world, as well as to hear the first performances of new works by four young Azeri composers and a new work by Joseph-François Kremer inspired by the music of Azerbaijan
A Festive Evening at the State Academy of Music in Baku.
Music Publishing
Since Musik Fabrik also has an activity as a music publisher, we gave publishing contracts to several young composers whose works were premièred during our stay, but also to composers of the previous generation. In total, ten works were selected for which we will assure a worldwide distribution. The first of these works are the Cello Sonata of Vafa Dadachova, the work "Miniature Fuga" for four instruments and Organ, written especially for the workshop, by Rasim Ibrahimov , "Symbolic Triangular Silence" for Bass Clarinet (doubling Clarinet in Bb), Guitar and Piano by Elmir Mirzoev and Five Pieces for Wind Quintet, also written especially for the project by Jalal Abassov. Other works will follow shortly and we hope that these composers will also submitt other works for publication so that more of their work will become known outside of Azerbaidjan. A complete list of works by these composers published by Musik Fabrik is available at the bottom of this page.
Promotion of French Instrument Makers
An important part of the project was to initiate an awareness of the quality of French Instrument making through a systematic promotion of the Selmer Company as a representative of that tradition. As part of the promotion of a particularly dynamic company who accepted to finance a large portion of this project, the image of the French Instrument building industry as a whole benefits from this participation.
We had imagined inviting an organ builder to instruct the organist on the nature of organ building, to teach them especially the basics of organ tuning and also to do some repair work on the three instrument which are currently in Baku.
Financial Report
We would like to point out in passing that this project, which comprised the preparation of the project, the travel and lodging expenses as well as artistic expenses for five people during the workshop, had a total cost of only 8.068 euros
Artistic and Humanitarian Report
Our project had as a guiding principal that of parity and exchange. We had expressed our wish from the beginning that any notion of "Masterclass" be seen as a workshop. We are happy to note that even if it was necessary at times to give technical and interpretive information about the repertoire or compositional procedure, that this information was always asked for by another participant and never given in the professorial manner. This created friendly ties without any notion of hierarchy between the French and Azeri participants. The exchanges were therefore done in a horizontal manner and not in a vertical manner.
It is true that the French musicians who were part of this project were able to adapt themselves particularly well to this situation, having decided to put aside any notion of pedagogy in favor of simple communication. Sharing and receiving various cultural elements were not only done in the musical element, but also in all aspects of the cultural life of the participants.
The French and Azeri musicians in the Organ loft, just after the Final concert
Perspectives
This operation created very strong ties, a sense of curiosity as well as the desire to prolong the various actions that we began here.
It is therefore necessary to imagine the next step in this project.
1) Organ
The organ students have only begun to understand the particular stylistic problems of Baroque music. This initiation which was made at their request should be developed. The study of Early music can only be completely assimilated by a long period of guidance. The problem is similar for organ registration, whatever the repertoire. The absence of documentation, the lack of recordings and other information had created a situation where the performances of works for this instrument can only be approximate, in absence of performance practice.
2 ) composition
The young azeri school of composition has received a solid base on which to grow. However, this study was given by professors who were themselves products of the Russian and Soviet schools. The younger composers did not have access to Western music other than that which their professors wanted them to see. There was a tendency by those who knew about western musical styles and who had access to certain scores to jealously guard this information for their own use. The meetings with Joseph-François Kremer took on a dramatic note for certain of those older composers, because in the course of a session the information which had been kept hidden was given to all.
The students have few scores and recordings of Western music at their disposition. It was however clearly proved that they were able to assimilate rapidly the new compositional procedures and to put them into effect without losing their typical style, the four works premièred at the end of the proving this quite clearly.
The exchange of information should continue at all levels.
3) Wind instruments
The Wind Instrumentalists have discovered for their part a repertoire which was unknown and went from the Baroque period to contemporary works. The most important experience which come out of the workshop was a realization that the musicians were able to quickly put together new works, something which seemed impossible to them at the beginning and which will allow them to become competitive with their Western colleagues.
This is a long-term consideration because, although the Azeri Pianists who have been trained in the Russian School are clearly quite capable of achieving international status, the same cannot be said for the schools of wind and string playing in Azerbaijan.
4) Information in the form of recordings and printed music
The most important problem for young Azeri musicians is that of information and communication. Few have audio or audiovisual material for their personal use. They have little printed music and are therefore cut off from the majority of the most important works in the Western musical tradition. It would seem necessary that there be a Media center which would be equipped and furnished with a collection of CDs
5) Promotion of Azeri Music
On the other hand, the best way to promote Azeri music would be the distribution of audiovisual materials which would be the means of allowing Azeri artists to present concerts in other parts of the world. We would like to return to Baku at some time in the future to finish the recordings which were begun during this initial project.
The recordings which were initially produced during the first project will be made available through the website of our partner, Ampcast.com at http://www.ampcast.com/musikfabrik The recordings will be available for purchase through the world and also will be available for streaming for promotional purposes.
The French Embassy in Baku, March 16, 1999 at the Ambassador's reception after the concert.
From left to right:
J-T Boisseau, Musik Fabrik, Mr. J-P Guinut, French Ambassador, Paul Wehage, saxophonist Françoise Levéchin , organist and J-F Kremer, composer
Composers who are part of the Baku Project
| Five Pieces for Wind Quintet (Fl/Ob/Cl/Bsn/Hn)/Cinq Pièces pour Quintet à Vent 24€99 |
| Sonate pour Violoncelle et Piano/Sonata for Violoncello and Piano 15€.00 |
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