Change has been good for Juno-nominated composer T. Patrick Carrabré (b. 1958). His different roles as an administrator, educator, composer, and radio personality have kept him in tune with musical trends in Canada and abroad. For this concert in honour of Canada’s 150th birthday, I interviewed Dr. Carrabré to talk about his career, Canadian music, and changes over the course of his lifetime. Carrabré’s career can be divided into two broad stylistic periods that roughly coincide with a modern and postmodern perspective:
"I do consider myself to have two periods, both from technical and aesthetic viewpoints. When I was young, I was very interested in the notes, the musical language itself. I was interested in trying to come up with a technical analogue for what tonality could do in terms of structuring music."

Carrabré initially became an aficionado of “twelve-tone tonality,” a technique developed by composer and theorist George Perle. When Carrabré became WSO Composer-in-Residence around 2001, his style became more postmodern with influences from popular and world musics. He recalls the specific moment that his old style “broke” while writing his second piano trio: "Somewhere in the middle of the first movement I just didn’t hear it anymore. I wanted a chord and I couldn’t figure out in my brain how to get it where I wanted it. A lot of things have not changed about how I write now, it’s just not as stringently technical. I still think I write very rigorous music, just not in the same way. It’s not as mathematically-oriented as my first period. There was a certain letting go of the obsessive nature of some of my earlier music. As a result, I can express a broader range of feelings because my language is more free and flexible."

Through his long association with the WSO, the Winnipeg New Music Festival, and arts councils across the country, Carrabré has programmed, reviewed, and spoken with many established and emerging composers working in Canada today. When asked about the changes he has witnessed in the Canadian scene, and specifically how it has been impacted by new media, he responded: "We’re at an interesting time historically, partly because of changes with media, and how people access music… When I worked with the New Music Festival, many people I talked to were concerned that Canada had no shared repertoire. At that time, it was hard for composers to know what was happening across the country. There was never a unified style of Canadian music because we were all so diverse and dispersed across the country. There is so much more new music now than there was back then. Canada’s composition programs are producing more young composers, more of them are getting doctorates, more are becoming professional. It can be a lot of music to catch up on! But the great thing about Canada is that there is no one voice. We are a country of many voices, and that’s the beautiful thing about us, we are not cliquish. We respect each other’s music, we are interested in what others are doing."

Magnificat
Carrabré has always admired the Magnificat, the biblical text spoken by Mary when she visits her cousin Elizabeth (who is pregnant with John the Baptist). He wrote his first Magnificat in his undergraduate days and revisited the text in 1994 in a more technical, dissonant, and rigorous style. He sought to be more lyrical while maintaining the twelve-tone tonality that grounds his early work. Written for string quintet and chamber choir, Magnificat’s texture is sparse, yet complex and evocative. After a short string introduction, a soprano voice emerges to announce the Mag-ni-fi-cat text. The choir takes up the line in unison before splitting into a complex divisi polychord. The dissonant harmonies are coupled with melodic and quasi-lyrical vocal lines, showing Carrabré’s concern with creating emotional content even in his technically-oriented first period. Magnificat captures this beautifully, creating a musical event as affective as it is technical. Today the work is performed by BU’s Chorale chamber choir, who have been working closely with the composer in developing their interpretation.

Firebrand
Firebrand was commissioned by the Manitoba Arts Council for the Gryphon Trio. The title refers to BU violin professor Francis Chaplin, who originally commissioned the work but died tragically before its completion. Carrabré notes, "A firebrand, someone with so much talent breaking the trail… Francis was like that in his early years when he was a young violinist in Canada. I wanted to write something that was super virtuosic and rhythmically challenging. The Gryphon Trio was fantastic at capturing it." A piano trio in three movements, Firebrand features twelve-tone tonality in a dizzyingly virtuosic and fiercely-paced work. The first movement employs loud scattered rhythmic figures contrasting with a reposed middle section with soft pizzicato string figures. The first-section material returns to solidify an ABA’ structure, common in classical sonata form. Carrabré often referred to classical structures and modes in his earlier work to show a philosophical link to the great works of the past, rather than providing a clean cultural break. The second movement opens boldly with a pair of clashing open fifths in the piano that resolve to an A-flat major chord that rings, unimpeded, for four measures. The effect of this surprising “resolution”—the insistence of the open fifths in a dissonant context—is radically evocative, like a call to action, a firebrand. The third movement is built on a series of quick rhythmic figures and a section of rising string glissandi. Listen for the return of an altered theme from the first movement. This indicates an ABA structure at several different levels in the piece. The movement ends on a surprising C major chord, perhaps indicating the firebrand’s ideological triumph over oppressive forces.

Clear Lake at Dusk
One of the newer pieces on the program, Clear Lake was composed in 2015 for the Clear Lake Music Festival. Written for violin, clarinet, cello, and piano, it is a tranquil, reflective meditation on natural scenery familiar to many Brandonites. This piece showcases Carrabré’s more recent interest in slowing down harmonic motion. He states, "A lot of the idea behind Clear Lake is to have a long line melody, and long slow chord progressions that don’t change fast. You can get a lot of emotional content from that." Combining cello and clarinet in a post-tonal style is reminiscent of Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time. The full emotive range of the piano is used throughout the piece, especially around 4:00 when the other instruments drop out. At this point, the piano starts a beautiful cyclic chord progression that lasts over 50 measures. This piece foregrounds the mood of dusk; musically, the last reaches of sunlight are heard, along with the impending darkness. After the last repeat of the piano’s chord cycle, we hear the moment when the sun sets, which is represented by a repeat of some of the opening material, but in more serene repose. Clear Lake has no triumphant final chord as in Firebrand. The last six measures simply wind down and sputter into nothingness as the night takes hold over Riding Mountain National Park.

Orpheus 2
The Greek myth of Orpheus (who could charm all living things with his music) has haunted Carrabré since his days as an undergraduate. In one of the most popular tales about Orpheus, his wife Euridice is killed on their wedding day. Orpheus travels to the Underworld to convince the gods to return her to him. Softened by Orpheus’s beautiful singing, the gods agree on one condition: that Orpheus walk in front of Euridice and not look back until they both reach the upper world. Tragically, Orpheus does look back. Carrabré points out that, "Orpheus is such a fascinating character, mythologically. There’s such conflict between good and bad choices, and such musicality in everyday life." Orpheus 2 is the second of Carrabré’s Orpheus pieces and is based on a text by Margaret Atwood that begins with the striking line “whether he will go in singing.” Atwood puts a more contemporary spin on the story of Orpheus. Carrabré notes, "For this piece, I wanted to explore that whole connection of how music fits into society. There’s reference to a Chilean singer from Pinochet times who was tortured and killed. While imprisoned, he would protest by singing." Carrabré’s preoccupation with the place of music in society is made evident in Orpheus 2. While it is a solo piano composition, the pianist must sing or speak the text at certain points. A prominent audio track with samples derived from the voice of the composer himself is also featured. The audience is even asked to hum along.

Crazy
Crazy is a song cycle for soprano and chamber ensemble. Each movement is based on musical quotes from composers such as Schumann, Gesualdo, and Grainger, but their music is mutilated in some way. Two primary ideas influenced this piece. First, the postmodern notion that chronological stylistic development of music has ceased, freeing the 21st c. composer to draw freely from all times and places to construct their own artistic vision. Second, this piece is a commentary on the idea of the tortured creative genius so prevalent in the historiography of the classical canon. According to Carrabré, "The Romantic image of the composer is of this weird, broken, bizarre character. I think that, for anybody who dares to write music, there is the possibility of crossing over into those truly dark places, and some don’t come back. As musicians, we have to recognize and be sympathetic to that, but not necessarily believe it’s the only way to be creative. On the other hand, sometimes you need to give up a part of yourself to be creative. This piece is about walking that fine line on the edge of being creative but not falling into the dark pit." Crazy is very interactive. The soprano is required to whistle and play bass guitar, harmonica, and glockenspiel. It also features an electronic track organized into several audio cues, allowing the performer more creative freedom.