Maya Fridman & Marion von Tilzer: Ten Songs of Change
TRPTK

Like others before them, Marion von Tilzer (b. 1968) and Maya Fridman (b. 1989) benefit from the deluxe presentation given their project by Dutch imprint TRPTK. With a CD and booklet snugly housed within a vertical-format, three-panel package and with calligraphy by Loi Che Rakhorst complementing poetry verses, Ten Songs of Change makes a powerful impression on presentation grounds alone, even before a single note is heard. The company's awareness of design's impact and value is evident in every one of its products, this one included.

In merging music with singing and spoken word, Ten Songs of Change is as striking on musical and conceptual terms. Written by von Tilzer, the tapestry is performed by her on piano, Fridman on cello (and, on the last track, vocals), and Lei Qiu, who recites poetry author Lulu Wang selected for the project. The collaboration was initiated by Fridman, who pitched the idea to Wang and von Tilzer of exploring the I Ching through poetry and music. Hailing from Austria, von Tilzer brings a varied background to Ten Songs of Change, with compositions for dance performances, films, and television documentaries some of the projects with which she's been involved. Born in Moscow and now residing in The Netherlands, Fridman shows herself to be an equally critical part of the project, especially when room for improvisation is part of the work's design.

Structurally, a prologue and epilogue frame eight parts grounded in the eight tigrams that form the basis for the I Ching—Heaven, Lake, Fire, Thunder, Winds, Water, Mountain, and Earth—and that are presented in a cyclic design spanning a twenty-four-hour day. Consistent with that, Ten Songs of Change begins at dusk with a woman from the Mosuo tribe singing a love song and ends at nighttime with Fridman singing a lullaby set to the words of Chinese poet Li Shangyin (813-58) while also playing cello. For the inner parts, von Tilzer drew for inspiration from the emotional aspects associated with the tigrams, and Wang selected poetry from the Tang and Song Dynasty for the spoken texts judiciously positioned within the work.

In notes included with the release, the composer contends that the I Ching resonates beyond the intellectual plane and, like poetry, registers at a deeper level of feeling and spirit; not surprisingly, the material she created for Ten Songs of Change was created to connect with the listener in a similar way. In her sensitive voicing of vocal-like melodies, Fridman's cello casts a deep spell in the “Prologue,” which carries over into the elegiac “Water-Kan” when von Tilzer's graceful piano partners with vibrato-rich expressions by the cellist.

Moods change from one part to the next. Whereas “Mountain-K'en” is delicate and meditative, for example, “Thunder-Chen” exudes anxiety and urgency. A more aggressive approach animates “Fire-Li” (in its first half) in contrast to the hush with which “Wind-Sun” is delivered. The peaceful stillness of “Earth-K'un” is intended to convey, in von Tilzer's words, “the timeless space that is never born and never dies, the formless energy that nature, we, and all life are part of.” Fridman's exceptional cello playing consistently distinguishes the recording, never more so than during its closing parts “Heaven-Chien” and “Epilogue.”

September 2021