Joaquim Homs (1906-2003)
Piano Music • 3
This is the third and last volume of the complete works
for piano of Joaquim Homs recorded by Jordi Masó. Far
from being a mere complement to the previous
volumes, it almost stands apart as the most interesting
of the set for various reasons. We find here both delightful
miniatures as well as works of a more substantial formal
construction; pages both from his early and mature
works; transcriptions of works originally written for
other instruments and works written originally for the
piano; music for two and four hands; flashes of warmth,
and elements of deep bitterness; popular flavour and
academic rigour; clear, contained expressionism and
tentative echos of neoclassicism; works already
published and revisions of unpublished manuscripts;
pieces which have won awards and others which have
been awaiting their first performance. In short, an apt
selection which makes this edition one of the most
representative to date, not only of the pianistic output of
this Catalan composer, but of the whole of his work.
Since the notes written for previous volumes have
already outlined the inherent characteristics of Homs’
piano works, we shall here limit ourselves to making a
contextual reference which serves as a framework for
the works to be found on this recording.
Originally written for cobla (small wind and
percussion band for performing the music of sardanes,
the traditional dance of Catalunya), the Three Sardanes
(1951) for four hands starts us off in a tremendously
evocative way, as a consequence of the Catalan roots of
the composer. Without any reference to any theme
belonging to the popular songbook, we can nevertheless
recognise the characteristic rhythm of the sardana and
the essence of this traditional Catalan dance. Their
inspired melodies stay clearly in our memory from the
first listening and, while still contained within a
markedly tonal mould, the occasional dissonances
indicate the tendency of the composer to free himself
from the rigidity of this harmonic system. The late first
performance of the three pieces, in 1998, was to be a
recurring factor throughout Homs’ life, even to the
point where, on many occasions it never took place at
all. The Andante for piano four hands (1940) is a
reduction of a previous work (the Andante from the
Wind Quintet No. 1), but on this occasion the noticeable
predominant feature is the discipline of serialism. The
technique, however, is always used in a free, flexible
and totally personal way. Thus, as is usual with the
composer, the metrics of the first bars set out the kind of
articulation and pattern of intervals that are to later arise
throughout the whole piece.
The first complete work that Homs himself catalogued
is the Nou apunts per a piano (Nine sketches for piano)
(1925-26). They are nine brief pieces inspired by the
texts of Sebastià Sànchez-Juan (the first six and the
ninth), Joan Salvat-Papasseit (the seventh) and
Rabindranath Tagore (the eighth). The poems appear
under the musical lines even though it is a work for
piano solo. They act as inspiration to the performer and
are never intended to be sung or recited. This brief cycle
is especially representative because it is pivotal in
Homs’ development as the only student of Robert
Gerhard (a direct pupil of Schoenberg) and the spring
from which he would drink directly of the teachings of
the Vienna School. These Sketches clearly show Homs
as a composer who was ahead of his time.
Far from the classical-romantic tradition, Homs
wrote the Piano Sonata No. 2 (1955) with the good fortune
of having it first performed in Ulm (Germany) a few
months after it was performed in Barcelona by Jaume
Padrós. Thus the composer’s presence is noted once
more outside his home borders, a presence which was
not limited to the three occasions when he was selected
to represent Spain at the festivals organized by the
ISCM (International Society of Contemporary Music)
in Paris (1937), Warsaw (1939) and Stockholm (1956).
This second (and last) Sonata consists of three
movements in which the musical plot is based on the
continuous rotation of a series of twelve different notes.
Their corresponding mirrors and retrogressions appear
both vertically and horizontally. The name Derivations
rather than Variations in the second movement, was
well chosen, as is seen in the correspondence between
Homs and his teacher and friend Gerhard, who wrote
that “it describes much more adequately the mental
attitude of the serial technique” instead of the term
which arose in Classicism “which to a certain extent
inevitably implies repetition”.
The Toccata (1948) has been justifiably rescued
from oblivion. A manuscript written on lined paper
which has deteriorated with the passage of time, and
even difficult to read, does not hide an admiration for
Bach, so characteristic of a large part of expressionist
music. This composition, so delightfully unlike the rest
of his piano output, is based on a contrapuntal figure
which clearly shows the mastery, applied in his own
language, of an instrument he had taught himself,
alongside his academic title as cello teacher.
The Diptych II (1994) was commissioned for the
Tenth Piano Competition of the town of Berga
(Barcelona) as a test piece. This occasion kept Homs
active, (he was already finding it somewhat difficult to
compose because of serious problems with his sight)
and, above all, its first performance was assured. For the
same reason, Record del Mar (Memory of the Sea)
(1995) also managed to come before the public, as the
fruit of another commitment: an undertaking with
Cecilia Colien for a personal project which she herself
financed. It consisted of an album for piano of
contemporary Spanish and Portuguese pieces. In fact,
this piece was to be among the last of the pages that
Homs wrote, the first of his final bursts of creative
activity. Homs had the habit of not throwing away any
document, regardless of its importance. Because of this
fact, the Vals de suburbi (Suburban Waltz) (1931) was
found among the rough drafts of his personal file. This
small copy, barely a page long, turns out to be a piece of
charming curiosity.
The present recording ends with nothing less than
an corner-stone in his life and his compositional career:
Presències (Presences) (1967). Written in memory of
his wife, the painter Pietat Fornesa, it distils a bitter and
deep pain for the death of a being who was dearly loved.
Designed to be played without a break, the seven pieces
are of a highly intimate nature, evoking the unforgettable
moods of moments spent together. Although they do not
set out to be descriptive, nor do they have any title,
Homs does indicate, in order to orientate the listener,
that the first two pieces evoke moments spent together
beside the sea and the mountains, these being
landscapes from early periods in his life which made a
deep impression on him. The third simply refers to a
dream. The fourth presages the imminence of death. In
the fifth anguish, tenderness and desperation are
expressed in turn. The sixth recollects a final dream and
the seventh refers to the contemplation of death.
Musically, movements I, IV, and VII are based on
the same series of twelve notes, but presented in a very
free and personal way (for example, the sequence is not
fully announced until after the first bars have been
played). Number II – V and III – VI are built on another
two, interrelated by various common elements,
alternating agitated passages with brief motivic cells,
until they reach a mournful low note which appears to
presage the dissolution of the rhythm and the melody.
All of them are of a very simple structure and their unity
stems much more from the nature of the dominant
emotive climate than from the serial relationships
mentioned. The seven movements each last
approximately three minutes, the last four being
intimately linked with the final presence of death. The
unexaggerated expressionism of the composer adapts
perfectly to the distilled atmosphere of this masterpiece
of the twentieth century, which plunged the composer
into an aesthetic period of a more desolate and
introspective nature. Described by the composer Ramón
Barce as schematic, profound and beautiful, Presències
won the Premi Ciudad de Barcelona of 1968 (Barcelona
City Prize) in its orchestral version.
The whole programme here recorded offers a
valuable introduction into the personal universe of
Joaquim Homs.
Ignacio José Valdés Huerta
(translated by Paul Jutsum)