Soli IV

Soli IV is a brass trio witten in 1967, the last of a series of four works by Mexican composer Carlos Chávez, each featuring a succession of solos.

Carlos Chávez in 1937

In contrast to the more traditional character of most of Chávez's large-ensemble work, the Solis belong to the more "experimental", high-modernist strand of his compositional output, which features an abstract, atonal musical language based on the principle of non-repetition (Parker 1994, 179; Parker 1998, 11). In the composer's own words, the objective is one of "constant rebirth, of true derivation: a stream that never comes back to its source; a stream of eternal development, like a spiral, always linked to, and continuing, its original source, but always searching for new and unlimited spaces" (Chávez 1961, 84).

History

Soli IV was commissioned by Mario di Bonaventura for the Hopkins Center Congregation for the Arts at Dartmouth College, in Hanover, New Hampshire. It was premiered in the Spaulding Auditorium of the Hopkins Center on 9 August 1967 by Robert Pierce, horn, Dominick de Gangi, trumpet, and Dean Werner, trombone (Chávez 1972).

Analysis

Soli IV "has about it a rather special kind of 'atonality' (since the more 'tonal' intervals, such as fifths, fourths, major-thirds, minor-sevenths, and octaves, are seldom, or never used). Otherwise, melody and melodic counterpoint, proceed freely, each 'antecedent' producing a 'consequent' that in turn becomes the antecedent for a new consequent. It is music that continually evolves from itself. In this sense, the entire piece constitutes a single, long, main 'theme'" (Chávez 1972).

In Soli IV, the foreground is taken first by the horn, then the trumpet, and finally the trombone (von der Schmidt 2004, 14). The instrumental solos, however, are often submerged in the ensemble interaction. Sections are created by tempo changes and subtle alterations of texture and style, and each section is introduced by either the trumpet or the trombone. Within a prevailing chromatic field, Chávez concentrates locally on smaller note groupings, primarily of four- or five-note chromatic sets. A slightly larger set of seven notes, E, E♭, D, C♯, G, G♯ F♯ in the trombone opens the work lyrically and at a moderate pace. Six more sections follow (beginning at b. 30, 43, 85, 92, 103, and 112). The evolving contrapuntal interplay is punctuated by vertical harmonies, almost always of the (0,1,2) chromatic trichord, sometimes preceded by an (0,1,3) trichord to form a cadence. The final cadence is also to a (0,1,2) trichord: trumpet and trombone on F₅ and E♭₅ over E₄ in the horn (Bauer 2015, 174–75).

Discography

• Chávez Conducted by Carlos Chávez: Soli I, Soli II, Soli IV. Ruben Islas, flute; Sally Van Den Berg, oboe; Anastasio Flores, clarinet; Louis Salomons, bassoon; Felipe Leon, trumpet; Vicente Zarzo, horn; Clemente Sanabria, trombone; Carlos Chávez, cond. LP recording, 1 disc: 12 in., 33⅓rpm, stereo. Odyssey Y 31534. New York: Columbia Records, 1972.
• Carlos Chávez: Complete Chamber Music Vol. 2. Energía, Soli I, Soli II, Soli IV, Sonata for Four Horns. Southwest Chamber Music. CD recording, 1 disc: digital, 12 cm, stereo. Cambria CD8851. Lomita, CA: Cambria Master Recordings, 2004.

References

• Bauer, Amy. 2015. "Non-Repetition and Personal Style in the Inventions and Solis". In Carlos Chávez and His World, edited by Leonora Saavedra, 165–77. Princeton: Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-16947-7 (cloth); ISBN 978-0-691-16948-4 (pbk).
• Chávez, Carlos. 1961. Musical Thought. The Charles Eliot Norton Lectures, 1958–1959. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Spanish translation, as El pensamiento musical. Sección de obras de arte. México: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1979. ISBN 968-16-0082-7.
• Chávez, Carlos. 1972. Untitled liner notes to Chávez Conducted by Carlos Chávez: Soli I, Soli II, Soli IV. LP recording. Odyssey Y31534. New York: Columbia Records.
• Parker, Robert L. 1983. Carlos Chávez: Mexico's Modern-Day Orpheus. Boston: Twayne Publishers.
• Parker, Robert L. 1994. "Carlos Chávez's Orchestral Tribute to the Discovery of San Francisco Bay". Latin American Music Review / Revista de Música Latinoamericana 15, no. 2 (Autumn–Winter): 177–88.
• Parker, Robert L. 1998. "A Life's Work". In Robert L. Parker, Carlos Chávez: A Guide to Research, 3–18. Garland Composer Research Manuals 46; Garland Reference Library of the Humanities 1925. New York and London: Garland Publishing, Inc. ISBN 0-8153-2087-6. Reprinted, New York: Routledge, 2013. ISBN 978-1-13559486-2.
• [Saavedra, Leonora]. 2015. "Chronology". Bard Festival 2015: Carlos Chávez and His World: August 7–9 and 13–16, 2015, programme book, 7–11. Annandale-on-Hudson: Bard Publications Office.
• von der Schmidt, Jeff. 2004. "'Triumph through Integrity': The Human Abstractions of Carlos Chávez". Booklet accompanying Carlos Chávez: Complete Chamber Music Vol. 2. CD recording, 1 disc. Cambria CD8851, pp. 1–17.