Ricardo Odriozola – No Dust Suffered Here. String Trio No. 2 (2006)
(b. Bilbao, 28 September 1965)
I Git garlick Drakul can’t afford a Ford
II Alkalines: a Suitable Ode
III Gregor Samsa in Hollywood
IV This is my party
V Bralcalore
VI The Return of Gregor Samsa in Hollywood
VII Leave me alone!
VIII Catch me if you can!
Ricardo Odriozola started studying the violin at the age of 9 and graduated from the Bilbao conservatoire in 1982. He then spent a year as exchange student in Arlington (near Boston) finishing his high school and serving as concertmaster of the Greater Boston Youth Symphony orchestra. In 1987 he obtained a bachelor degree in performance from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester (NY). That same year he moved to Bergen (Norway) and began teaching at the Bergen Music Conservatoire (now Grieg Academy), where he is now associate professor of violin and chamber music.
Ricardo Odriozola began writing music at the age of 10. The earliest composition he recognizes (a piano sextet) dates from 1984. Since then he has written more than 40 works (chamber music, solo, songs and orchestral music) and arranged a great deal of music by other composers. Several of his works appear on CD. In January 2015 he released his first CD dedicated exclusively to his music: “Views from my Horse” (www.amethyst-records.com).
Although he has never taken lessons in composition, Ricardo Odriozola has received guidance and inspiration from many prominent composers, particularly (but not only) from Western Norway, and has built his craft by reading hundreds of scores and listening to concerts and recordings. Ricardo Odriozola’s music is, however, primarily informed by his wide experience as a performer. He always strives to produce scores that are performer-friendly and music that can communicate directly with the listener without the aid of intellectual filters.
No Dust Suffered Here
This is my second string trio, for the somewhat unusual combination of two violins and cello. It was written during eleven days at the end of June and beginning of July 2006.
A violinist friend of mine had, some months before, found herself in a Christmas job as a circus musician, together with another violinist and a cellist, and had bemoaned the fact that they had no decent music to play. With the school year well over, and knowing that the intrepid trio would repeat the engagement the following Christmas, I armed myself with great confidence, believing I could, indeed, concoct some “decent music” for them, and produced this piece at rather high speed.
As is often the case (at least for me) when writing quickly, fragments of other musics crept up and paid me a visit while working on “No dust...”. In this case the flying excerpts came from the less popular recesses of the popular end of the music spectrum.
I have always been fond of larger pieces divided in small sections or movements (“Pictures at an Exhibition” being the earliest blueprint from my childhood). In this work I set out to produce a collection of character pieces that would, hopefully, make up a satisfying whole.
The titles of the movements are, for the most part, blatantly silly. I make no excuse for this, except for the fact that I was in a pretty silly mood at the time.
Git garlick Drakul can’t afford a Ford (in my defence: for this title I got some help from my, at the time, 13 year old daughter) is an energetic and self-assured opener. It includes a well hidden quotation form “A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers” by Van der Graaf Generator.
Alkalines: a suitable ode (which earlier sported a much dafter title) is conceived as a folk ballad. The opening motif can be traced back to Robin Williamson’s “Music for the Mabinogi”.
Gregor Samsa in Hollywood. Well, I always wanted to write a piece with that title, and I finally grabbed my chance. This one takes the price for general inanity.
This is my party depicts a scene where two young sisters, observed from a distance by their stoical mother, endeavour to plan the perfect party together. At first everything unfolds in an orderly manner, only to gradually deteriorate into a chaotic muddle of vociferous disagreement and hair pulling... at which point the mother gets enough and intervenes forcefully (one feels, perhaps, not for the first time). After this the sisters retreat sheepishly and sulk. To my mind this movement has something of a Ionesco vibe to it. A funny tune from “Ruins” by Fred Frith is insinuated several times, making only one full appearance.
Bralcalore is a barcarolle that turned out somewhat weird.
Mr. Samsa makes a flying visit for the embryonic sixth movement (perhaps he had forgotten something in the third one).
Leave me alone! purports to capture the feeling of numbness one sometimes experiences when human contact seems the last thing one desires. Not quite depressed, but looking in from depression’s outer fringes.
Catch me if you can! (a very apt title for a canon) is the 4/4 impish counterpart to Git Garlick Drakul’s confident 3/4 gait. For the lovers of trivia, the first two measures of the theme came to me while I was making supper and listening to Steve Hillage’s album “Fish Rising” (to be exact, the section called Meditation of the snake).
The title of the piece is a word play involving three languages, with a rather convoluted saga for a background, best left unexplained.
No Dust Suffered Here received its first performance in Bergen on March 10th 2007, with the composer and Olga Wojciechowska on violins and Sebastian Dörfler on cello.
A recording of the work can be downloaded from here: https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/ricardoodriozola2
Ricardo Odriozola - August 20th 2018