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W.A. Mathieu
As it turns out "Lakes and Streams" is a Trojan horse neglected; it was never received, never dragged in past the new age fortifications. The album was a commercial failure despite its bucolic liner notes and serene cover photograph. But the music inside is revolutionary - Mathieu vivifies the new age idiom. His piano pieces have strength and beauty because they are constructed using compositional techniques borrowed from classical music: themes are developed, ideas are examined in varying settings, structural elements relate to and enhance each other. His rhythms are not foundations upon which to scatter notes but are intrinsic to his musical ideas. But what makes Lakes and Streams revolutionary is Mathieu's expansion of the limited harmonic language of new age music. By manipulating scales Mathieu shifts harmonic perspective; a chord or note which has been serving one function in one key begins to serve a different function in another key. The music becomes richer and more enchanting as the listener perceives changes in the harmonic landscape. These modulations are not simply technical tricks or puzzles; harmonic movement is one of music's elemental features which, like melody, rhythm, tempo, volume, timbre and silence, can be combined in ways which can induce in us an ineffable pleasure. Leaving aside as an aberration, the appalling gaudiness of Tesh and Yanni, new age music, as piped into hot tub suites and found in audio sampler stands in souvenir shops, is, despite its well intentioned gentleness, generally insipid. From the acoustic type - often endless arpeggiated patterns of two or three best-loved chords - to the heroic type - identifiable by the lively, synthetic percussion and the tendency of all available instruments to play the same melody at the same time on a regular basis - new age music is harmonically tedious; it goes nowhere. Like it's ancestor folk music, it rarely leaves the safety of its tonal home. When it does move to a distant key it usually employs the harmonic gimmick of abruptly transposing material up a note or two without preparation. This is the same trick used by supper club arrangers to induce a sense of gathering excitement as befits the climax of a show tune. Jazz and classical music, unrestrained by clipped harmonic wings, generally explore the tonal skies more freely. Is new age music popular because the mediocre ear is satisfied with little harmonic movement? I doubt it. Even musically sophisticated listeners can be attracted to simple harmonic combinations when they are the expression of artistic ideas. Likewise, intricate and bold harmonic complexities can be unsatisfying when they are the messengers of pedestrian ideas. Perhaps new age music can appeal to every man because every man can play it. It does so often sound as if it were the result of movement patterns which best suited the performer's fingers rather than the expression of a composer's musical ideas. Detectable are rhythmic and melodic figures which can be transported intact from one spot on the keyboard or fretboard to another and which usually result in a sound segment containing an acceptable, if inadvertent, ratio of consonance to dissonance. The player is then free, undisturbed by compositional imperatives, to emote by varying the volume, mauling the sustain pedal, gambling with the hypnotic effects of repetition, and generally letting the mind wander while virtually random notes emanate from the player's motor memory in a magical, musical masquerade. This technique leaves the harmonic content of the music dependent upon a kinesiological rather than a musical selection process. I don't mean to belittle the pleasure that fiddling with an instrument can bring those of us who have neither the gifts nor the discipline to become musicians and composers but our willingness to limit our musical experience to the level of our doppelganger is worrisome. As superficial readers require a character with whom they can identify, superficial listeners demand unchallenging, predictable rhythmic, melodic and harmonic events which resonate with their learned musical inclinations. This restrictive self-obsession condemns the listener to an adventureless musical life; they continually re-explore the road more traveled. Perhaps new age music is not representative of a decline in American musical taste but simply a relaxation method healthier than alcohol or Valium - background music. Presumably if the music were of any real interest those hearing it wouldn't be able to relax as they soaked in a hot tub or were massaged with oils which, it could be said, act as insulators, protecting the recipient from the perception of the meaning behind the masseuse's touch just as new age background music protects us from any confrontation with unfamiliar musical ideas. "Lakes & Streams" , which consists of ten pieces three to five minutes in length, is much too interesting to be relegated to the relaxation bin. This is not to say that it is offensive to the ear - it does indeed contain "beautiful and subtle nuances" as advertised - but it is sets a very high standard for new age's minstrels. In his text on tonal harmony Mathieu warns that music theory is like a map. "....and good maps can save you centuries, soldiers, ships, and fortunes." Lakes and Streams demonstrates that the use of this map, when in the service of artistic ideas, enables new age music to become both interesting and emotionally enticing. Several examples: The first piece, Source Water Song, begins with a slow whole step trill soon joined by a false theme which slips away as the true theme enters. The trill spreads and becomes a simple accompaniment. The true theme is Prokoviev-like with an apparently straightforward tonal progression but soon the bottom starts to drop out. We slide away from our tonal home and the simple accompaniment becomes a rhythmic series of syncopated waves; the melody becomes unpredictable. The original theme does return but it is clear that Mathieu's music is not going to let us lead it. The dissonant theme of Sweet-Talking Brooks is surprisingly pleasant. As the piece develops, the listener is led through harmonic passageways to unanticipated tonal areas. Mathieu playfully demonstrates his ability to disorient us by allowing the theme to reappear suddenly from behind seemingly unrelated harmonic doorways. Despite its jaunty, heel scraping opening A River Walk becomes a piece with a serious intent: it moves backwards. At first it sounds like jazz and the introduction of large, open jazz chords and a snappy rhythm lull us into thinking we know where we are headed but Mathieu moves gradually towards an examination of the melody in various, non-jazz harmonic and rhythmic settings. He demonstrates how the new age trick of repetition with micro-adjustments, when handled skillfully, can be used to shake out the affectations of the melody as we had first heard it and leave it in its quivering, germinal state. Honeysuckle Cove is another study in how dissonance can be pretty and, in particular, how the dissonant intervals of the major seventh and the major second can drive one towards the home tonal area or lead one into other harmonic space. The final piece, Dark Water Bright Stars breaks a new age tradition; it challenges the listener and is very poor background music. It has a somewhat Middle Eastern flavor but modal shifts make the harmonic floor seem unsteady. Mathieu does not permit hypnotic patterns to persist; dissonant darts arouse them. The whole-step trill from Source Water Song reappears but with apparent harmonic incongruity, like the intrusion of a phrase from an adjoining but unrelated conversation. The melody is difficult to restrain and jumps octaves. Mathieu's determined but selective use of the sustain pedal draws together seemingly disparate notes - a hidden lesson for the aspiring new age pianist. Mathieu, who reports that the lake/stream imagery and the evocative titles were attached to his compositions at the request of the recording company well after their composition, no longer writes new age music. Although he is quick to confess that his motivation for entering the new age field was financial, he seems nevertheless to feel vindicated in a way by his work's relative commercial failure. Still, he has left valuable treasures buried in the new age desert. Besides Lakes and Streams there is wonderful music to be found in his ostensibly new age recordings, Listening To Evening (1985), Available Light (1987), and Piano Celebration (1990). His recent years have been devoted to the composition of chamber music and to the completion of his monumental text, Harmonic Experience; Tonal Harmony From Its Natural Origins To Its Modern Expression (1997), in which students are first directed in vocal exercises which explore the physical and emotional qualities of harmony and are then guided in a detailed but practical understanding of harmonic relationships. Mathieu's new age music is sometimes sparse, sometimes thick with notes but there are no purposeless sounds or silences. The best of his efforts are tremendously seductive. The integrity of his compositional technique gives them a satisfying completeness. His simultaneous combination of differing rhythmic patterns produces intriguing additive meters. His music is accessible; it is pleasing. But his most dramatic contribution to new age music, and, by inference, to other harmonically simplistic idioms, is his elegant manipulation of tonal relationships through which he reveals an unexplored avenue for artistic expression, an avenue which remains neglected. Review by Dean Farwood information: |
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Recently,
while searching music sites on the Internet, I was dismayed
to discover a new age CD released in 1992 called Lakes &
Streams composed and performed by W.A. Mathieu. Subtitled
"Serene Musical Images of Water and Earth", it was produced
by The Relaxation Company as part of "The Art of Relaxation
Series. I knew of Mathieu as an arranger for Stan Kenton and
Duke Ellington, as a keyboard harmony instructor at the San
Francisco Conservatory of Music, a composer, a private
teacher of music theory and composition and author of a
recently published text on harmonic theory. How could he
have descended into the bland world of new age music? From
the disc jacket: Images of lakes and streams are painted
with the resonant tones of a grand piano. The natural beauty
is reflected in melodies which are harmonious and simple,
containing beautiful and subtle nuances.....Delightful
melodies splash,gurgle and spray in joyful spontaneity" Oh
brother!