Tom Neill : Composer for In and Out of Chekhov's Shorts

---

What a joy to compose music to accompany one of the world's great writers. Inspired by the tales and the prevailing musical fashion of thetime, we chose the Romantic era as our springboard, and Anton Chekhov's wonderful poetic passages describing ‘the heat and sea air’ and ‘how strangely the sea was lit’ proved immediately inspirational.

I composed these pieces in a new way for me, by having the script read back and improvising extended melody lines that complemented the mood and action of the story. Sometimes I could hear already the harmony in the tune, other times this came later. I developed the ideas in toa style often played high in the piano’s register, giving space for the spoken performance to come through. Susan Relph, an artist friend, invited me in to her next-door studio, to compose during one of her portrait sittings. The careful stillness of her portrait practice and the air of relaxed focus, allowed me also to work with subtlety and detail. A creative afternoon for all involved.

Keen to include the riches of Russia's musical heritage, I hope our interlinked stories and motifs will, for example, remind you of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition. I was thrilled to discover Leokadiya Aleksandrovna Kashperova (1872-1940), pupil of Rubenstein, tutor to Stravinsky, and Russia’s earliest-known female composer of international stature. She graduated from St Petersburg Conservatoire in 1895, and composed for orchestra, choir, chamber ensembles, piano solos, and was celebrated at home and on concert tours in Berlin and London.

In our central story The Lady with the Little Dog, we use two excerpts from her piano suite In The Midst of Nature, the first, entitled Two Roses, to represent Anna and Gurov's blossoming romance and the second, Two Autumn Leaves which we use as a reminiscence. Her music has an open beauty and ease that complements the action in a serenely untroubled way, a quality Kashperova scholar Dr Graham Griffiths better describes as 'unpretentious refinement'.

I’ve also included Vasily Ivanovich Agapkin's song Farewell of Slavianka. Originally a First World War mobilisation song, it has thankfully been repurposed several times and its lyrics re-written accordingly. We follow the tradition and give the tune words inspired by Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin's famous poem It's Time, My Friends: It's time, my friends, it is time Now peace is craved by our hearts. You will also hear excerpts from Ah Kindly Star, a little known song by Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka (d.1857) and a classical rhapsody Berceuse Estonienne by internationally-based Ella Georgiyevna Adayevskaya (d.1926).

Kalinka, Russia’s most famous traditional folk song, is re-imagined as a drinking song, furnishing our story of revelry and curiosity The Chemist's Wife. Its lyrics 'Little red berry, mine' fit the wine glass well and the outrageous extremities of its tempo and dynamics will remind you of some of the worst excesses of your closest friends!

Following the lead of Chekhov, who sent over 2,200 books to the Siberian penal colonies after an investigative journey there, and Pushkin, whose influence on the population was considered so great that the Tsar personally vetted all his work, I hope our musical choices clearly present the best side of Russian society, the compassion of its artists.