A Distant Wind | CD by Frank Wallace on Gyre

Download A Distant Wind CD notes.

Many distant winds

portrait by Daniela Spector

In this age of retreat, anti-immigration and denial of our oneness, I dedicate this CD to the good that comes from afar: spices from Zanzibar, yoga from India, pizza from Italy, French fries, rosewood from Brazil, tomatoes and potatoes from Peru, corn from the Maya, the blues from Africa, hummus from the Middle East, poetry from Persia, stories from Nordic lands, sculpture and democracy from Greece. The music on this CD is inspired by a song from 16th century England (Nocturnal), friendship in the Faroes (A Distant Wind), friendship and history in Basel, choral singing in my young adult days in Boston (Amanda), the first cellist of the Boston Symphony in the 1950’s who loved a troubadour song from 12th century Provence and has a loving son in New Jersey. OK, New Jersey isn’t so far, but you get my point. All modern life takes treasures from all over the world to get through a day – any day, every day.

My influences

The I Ching says, “In the words and deeds of the past there lies hidden a treasure that men may use to strengthen and elevate their own characters.” My musical roots are as American as apple pie. In other words I am a polyglot of music – a melting pot of styles. Even as a teenager I listened to Jobim and Getz, Buddy Rich and Wes Montgomery, Los Romeros, Segovia and Bream, Bach and  flamenco, the Beatles, the Stones and West Side Story and South Pacific. True, Machaut and Schoenberg came a little later, but not much. My music has been likened to Britten and Takemitsu – both had their roots in many pies as well. Takemitsu the Beatles, Britten ancient song and dance of the British Isles. As a composer I love the riches given to me in this incredible age we live in where time and place have become so fluid. In the practice of Qigong, it is said there are three forms of Q,or universal energy: Jing, Qi and Shen. They can be seen as equivalent to the energy of past present and future and it is believed they are all present at once. That is how I feel about the music on this CD.

Medieval music

portrait by Nancy Knowles
Frank Wallace with Miso & Joel van Lennep lute

The first two pieces on A Distant Wind CD hearken back to medieval times with the use of parallel fourths and fifths, both raw and adorned. These open harmonies were the harbinger of polyphony about a thousand years ago. I performed this music in the 1970’s and 80’s with Trio LiveOak. We roamed the Pyrenees searching for Romanesque architecture in which to sing these songs. We toured Europe looking for perfect acoustics and basked in the warm glow of vibration. In the Middle Ages beautiful resonances were achieved by very simple harmonic means with two or three voices and the same approach is vibrant on the guitar. I enjoy working in this archaic style and have done so throughout my compositional career: Cunctipotens Genitor 1997; Nuevas Cantigas 2001; and more recently in Fünf Kleine Stücke, written while visiting Basel Switzerland in spring 2017, and A Distant Wind in 2018. My Christmas CD JOY also features sounds from many lands and times.

The compositional process

Photo by Nancy Knowles
Frank Wallace composing Fünf Kleine Stücke
in Basel, Switzerland in 2017

While I do use the simple methods of the past in some thematic material, I also take advantage of my medium, the classical guitar. I ornament and expand the textures and harmonies in many ways inspired by what is possible on the guitar. I use some random or chance methods to generate new harmonies and note groups. Sometimes these more modern methods allow for greater exploration of harmonies and textures and even suggest larger forms. Timid Nightingale started with a modal troubadour song by Bernart de Ventadorn to which I added pitch groups generated by the name of the dedicatee, famed cellist Samuel Mayes. In brief, the notes D#, E, F became a rich source of motivic material that spurned three more movements after being intertwined with the troubadour song in the first movement. This, my Sonata #3, was commissioned by good friend, guitarist and fellow early music enthusiast Joseph Mayes.

Distant winds blow through our lives more than we can imagine. Thoughts, memories, dreams inspired by parents, grandparents and beyond. Religious tales and beliefs chained to time influence our decisions. Old books, a song we heard as a child, an ancient tree under which we might dawdle, dream or desire our first kiss. An argument from decades ago, a lost friendship or a new friend from distant lands.

Thanks for A Distant Wind

This CD is a celebration of connections to time, people and place. It is dedicated to many people who have changed and moved my life: Nancy Knowles, my adoring wife and my sons Gus and Adam, who have stayed by my side through great hardship; John Fleagle, an old friend who went down many distant paths with me for a time and whose musical gifts still blow through my life and music; Aaron Green who built my exquisite guitar; all those who have inspired my compositions, too mny to name here; my parents who supported my musical education and loved listening to me play late at night as the went to sleep.

I conclude with a short recent poem that ponders the question where did I get my musical talent, my gifts? I never met my paternal grandfather, a poet, and my mother’s Dad was distant after I was five years old and died soon after we moved from Texas to California. He played piano by ear, but I recall nothing of it, and so I wonder still…

My grandfather’s piano
My grandfather’s piano
It calls me
It beckons me
Its mystery
surrounds me
Its keys
tickle my memory.

My source
my soul
moves
my pen
resounds
again.

Copyright ©2019 Frank A. Wallace
Cover photography and design by Nancy Knowles
All rights reserved.