Tansman in Urban Beat

Posted on Oct 5, 2018

Class&Jazz Duo takes on Alexander Tansman’s Cinq Pieces at Urban Beat Event Center as part of the Camertone Chamber Series concert.

A rare gem of the piano and violin repertoire, Cinq Pieces is a sparkling set of miniatures that combine originality with firm connection to a traditional composition style.

Aleksander Tansman was born in Lodz, Poland to a Jewish family. After taking all three top prizes at the national composition competition Tansman has moved to Paris, France in 1919 apparently searching for new creative opportunities. In Poland, despite his success at the competition he had been criticized for his chromatic and sometimes polytonal writing. In France he met the leading artists of his time, including Maurice Ravel, and Igor Stravinsky. During his first American tour as a pianist in 1927, Tansman became acquainted with George Gershwin. After Hitler’s rise to power, and feeling endangered by his Jewish roots, Tansman fled to the United States, where he survived the Second World War in California. In 1946 Tansman returned to France, where he remained to the end of his life.

Tansman’s extensive list of works contains compositions for stage, pieces for orchestra, chamber music, and songs in several languages.

Tansman repeatedly expressed the conviction that his music is rooted in Polish culture. Throughout his career, Tansman composed more mazurkas, polonaises and obereks than almost any other composer after Chopin. The composer also cherished his Jewish heritage, expressing it in many works written throughout his career.

In general, Tansman’s music belongs to the realm of neoclassicism, enriched by influences of jazz, folk, and the music of the Far East. During the post-war years he displayed no interest in avant-garde experimentation and remained faithful to his unique brand of the neoclassical style. His music links intuition and spontaneity with a logical order of structure, virtuosity, and elegance. His individual style is characterized by clarity of form, lyrical expression, and the use of rich and varied instrumental colors.

Tansman summarized his stylistic views in one of his radio interviews: “I spent the first twenty years of my life in Poland. In regard to the importance of Slavic influence in my music, I can readily say that I followed the same path as Bartók or Manuel de Falla: folklore imaginé. I did not use popular themes per se. I used, however, their general melodic contour. Polish folklore is abundantly rich. I think that, along with Spanish folklore, it is the richest in possibilities. This folklore remained strongly present in my musical sensitivity but only as folklore imaginé. I have never used an actual Polish folk song in its original form, nor have I tried to reharmonize one. I find that modernizing a popular song spoils it. It must be preserved in its original harmonization. But Polish character is not solely expressed through folklore. There is something intangible in my music that reveals an aspect of my Polish origin”.