La Mystère Tisné

"I want you to play my music.  I hear something in your playing that makes me think that you would play my music well".  Here we were in the Municipal Library of Beauvais.  I had just done another performance of "Variations et Thème" by Alexandre Rudajev for saxophone and cello ensemble.  Antoine Tisné was there because it was the première of "Endic's Events" for cello ensemble.  The concert was over and here I was talking to the composer.  He was a small man, rather simian, not very attractive.  But he wanted me to play his music...and that was a problem.

You see, when I was at the Paris Conservatory, everyone told me that I played Tisné's music horribly. "Espaces Irradiées" was a frequently imposed piece....I was to find out later that it was this way for good reason:  it was a commission of the Gap Saxophone Competition. Serge Bichon himself commissioned the piece. And he gave a list of things for Tisné to include which were technically almost impossible on the saxophone. The piece was meant to be unplayable.  Antoine told me later about being on the jury of this competition, with Marcel Mule as president....and watching Mule jump out of his seat over and over again, every time there was a harmony that was a bit dissonant. 

The first time I passed my Prize exam (the first of three times....except that I didn't care, because I knew that I was going to stay....so one time or three wasn't a problem....), "Espaces Irradiées" was the required contemporary work. Before the exam, I did a recital with my pianist, the late John Gaffney.  The whole piece wasn't imposed:  only the second and fourth movements.  So that's all that we played.  I think that probably the majority of saxophonists have never played the first and third movements. 

Later, when I got to know Antoine very well, he told me that this was the worst possible thing that could happen to his music, because there was a hidden program.  Antoine always started by writing out his pieces in French. This piece was no exception:  the World has been destroyed by a nuclear explosion.  The humans who survive realize where they are living.  They do a ritual to bring life back to Earth.  And in the fourth movement, life returns.   If you don't have the whole progression of musical events, the piece makes no sense.  A+B+C+D = ?  You have to have all four movements or there is no meaning.  And the meaning is the whole point...

So, here I was working on the fourth movement (which is the most difficult technically) with John.  And we come to a fermata. And John rolls the chord and says "YOU CAN'T FOOL ME!  This isn't about Boulez!  This isn't ground zero!  This is BERG!  This is normal music!".  And so there I was, between the whole Paris Conservatory idea about this being "objective, non-emotional music" and John, who was a great musical mind telling me "Don't be fooled".  So, what did I do??? 

I chose to follow what I thought to be the truth.  And so I played the piece as if it had an emotional significance;  and so, I didn't even have a second prize.  I had nothing at all.  Even Deffayet said that I should have had a "Second Prize" at least....which is when I hated him the most, since I'd rather have nothing than a second prize...and he knew exactly what he was doing.

So here I was with Tisné saying that "I want you to play my music".  And I responded with "But, everyone says that I play your music horribly".  To which he answered "Everyone must be wrong:  I want you to play my music". ...to be continued.