Pianist Marisa Gupta on Brett Dean’s Seven Signals and Working with the Composer
Brett Dean, Photo credit: Pawel Kopczynski
In 2019, I had the fortune of working with Brett Dean for the first time on his piece Recollections in an ensemble led by the violinist Anthony Marwood, who himself has a long association with the composer. The experience was enchanting. Most striking to me was how, with great concision, Dean conveys an enormous range of colour, imagination, wit, and extremes of expression surrounding the fickle, misleading nature of memory.
Brett Dean Recollections - Anthony Marwood (violin), Marisa Gupta (piano), Rosemary Nelis (viola), John Meyerscough (cello), Pete Walsh (bass) , Steve Stirling (horn), Barrett Ham (clarinet), and Sam Um (percussion)
As musical life re-emerges, one of the highlights is continuing my journey with Dean’s music and working with him again - this time for Sunset ChamberFest. In contrast to the plethora of misunderstandings that can arise through verbal communication, Seven Signals (piano trio + clarinet) is about the power of non-verbal communication. The ‘signals without language’ that Dean depicts range from physical impulses, to maritime encoding systems, as well as one of the most powerful forms of non-verbal communication - dance. Aptly, the work is dedicated to the great choreographer Jiří Kylián, artistic director of the NDT in Holland.
left, Jiří Kylián; photo credits, clockwise from left: Serge Ligtenberg; Kenny Johnson; Brett Pruitt & East Market Studios
While we often think of music in relation to sound, a harmony teacher once mentioned that music is most effective at conveying motion. This concept has stuck with me since. Besides having a clearer understanding of the sound world in Brett Dean’s music, much of what I have gained from working with the composer relates to the sense of motion. I have a better sense of the physical impulse and gestural component of his music – elements that are difficult to explicitly notate. The fourth movement of Seven Signals, ‘Body Language’ is a Pas de deux. Its relation to the sensuality of Kylián’s choreography, and the inner intensity of a climax only to mf came to life after working with the composer in a way I had not understood through the notation alone. As a pianist, my traditional role in chamber music is often akin to a conductor - defining the overall musical shape and texture. In both Recollections and Seven Signals, I’ve had to learn to become part of the inner texture of the sound. In movements such as ‘Impulse Study’, ‘Semaphore’ and ‘Tallying’, my role, though integral, is often to punctuate and support gestures rather dominate them. The extremes of expression and overall physicality of Dean’s music have vividly come to life in working with him. The collaboration has helped me attach meaning to the (at first glance) seemingly random notes dotted throughout the piano part.
Whether depicting the ambiguous and ineffable nature of non-verbal communication, an understated yet intense erotic impulse, the desperation of the repeated distress signals from the Titanic, the cries of the imprisoned, or a shiver-inducing apparition of Nearer My God to Thee (allegedly the last music the Titanic’s orchestra played on board the sinking ship) over the distant SOS signal - the movements of Seven Signals are a series of tableaux. The artist’s tools and canvas are sound, the body, and time, evoking our valiant and fallible efforts at conveying the human condition.
Brett Dean’s Seven Signals - Geneva Lewis (violin), Marisa Gupta (piano), Yoshi Masuda (cello), and Sérgio Coelho (clarinet) for 2021 Sunset ChamberFest