JGPurdy

Purdy once referred to his style, half jokingly, half seriously, as Romanticism as imagined by the Surrealist painter Salvador Dali. The Four Elements spins off from the ancient and remarkably wide-spread idea that the phenomenal world is composed of combinations of four basic elements; Fire, Air, Water and Earth. This conceptual model is found in the pre-Socratic philosophers of Ancient Greece but also in the Vedic traditions of India and in Chinese thought. The work is in four movements, each corresponding to one of the four elements. It is scored for String Quartet, Alto Flute, Oboe, French Horn, Contrabass Trombone, Grand Piano, Amplified Harp and Marimba. It is tuned to the Pythagorean temperament. Four Elements is not a PolyStrophic work, rather it has much more of an improvisational, stream-of-consciousness feel. In keeping with that idea, the modes and harmonies are extremely free. The work is a form of “improvised notation” rather than insstrumental improvisation. Purdy essentially let his imagination run wild, working only within a very broadly impressionistic sense of the subject matter. It features some of his most pointillistic writing combined with highly lyrical and even sweet passages. Fire - Conflagrazione, brace e fascino (Conflagration, embers and fascination) • Symbol of love, desire, anger, power, assertiveness, and energy. Fire is considered to be the first element to be created on earth. Fire is predominantly associated with the sun, and is a warm and dry element. It gives off light, which protects all living creatures from the shadows of night. Fire is transformative, and when merged with other elements, it can change and grow. For instance, when fire encounters air, it grows bigger, and burns brighter. The movement opens with a depiction of conflagration, the angry, assertive and dangerous aspect of fire, alternating with the element’s association with love, desire and fire’s perennial fascination. II Air - Brezze, raffiche e vortici (Breezes, gusts and eddies) • Symbol of knowledge, perception, communication, creativity, and strategy. Air is the element of life itself as all living creatures, both plants and animals, require air to live and thrive. Air is warm, moist, and provides the mind and body with energy. The air element can be found all around us, but its most visible manifestation is through breezes or winds. This movement depicts the gentle, amorphous and delicate aspect of air, with brief references to its force and expansiveness. III – Water Ruscelli balbettanti, piscine e profondità oceaniche (Babbling brooks, pools and profound oceans) • Symbol of rebirth, healing, fertility, change, dreaming, clarity, intuition. Water is the most soothing and calming of the four elements. It’s cool and wet nature allows it to appease the mind and body. The water element can be found in oceans, seas, lakes, rivers, and springs. Life on earth would not be possible without water, and every living creature from the smallest microorganism to the largest mammal depends on it. The flowing and transformative nature of water makes it a cleanser and purifier. This movement evinces a changeability similar to the previous movement but with a greater density and solidity, in keeping with the heavier, literally fluid, nature of water, as opposed to the gaseous nature of air. The primary allusions are to quick running streams, still sparkling pools and the chthonic depths of the ocean. IV – Earth - Maestoso, austero, ma sereno (Majestic, austere, yet serene) • Symbol of stability, nourishment, security, fertility, health, and home. Earth is the most materially grounded element. It’s cool and dry nature, provides a comfortable living space for all plants and animals. The earth element can be found in fields, hills, mountains, and plains and is home to all living beings. Survival would be impossible without earth. Earth is a rich and fertile element providing energy and sustenance to all living creatures. This movement, the shortest in the work, begins with an evocation of both the force and solidity of earth, particularly in the form of mountains, and also the life sustaining beauty of it. The movement concludes with a “jump shot”, to use a term from film, depicting an ancient pagan, ritualistic dance, imagined as being performed at midsummer in the shadow of Stonehenge. Cover art by Artus Wolffort, The Four Elements, before 1641 Artus Wolffort, Artus Wolffaert or Artus Wolffaerts[1] (1581–1641) was a Flemish painter known mainly for his history paintings depicting religious and mythological scenes. Closing title: Seventeenth century alchemical emblem showing the four Classical elements in the corners of the image, alongside the tria prima on the central triangle.

In a trend we see with Les Mirages de la Chair and Kaleidoscopic Aphorisms, the First String Quartet, "In signo di Gratitudine per le Passioni" (In Gratitude for the Passions), Purdy continued with his foray into the High Modern style. While we still hear traces of his Late Romantic aesthetics and rhetoric, the First Quartet has more in common with the work of Bartok or Elliott Carter than with the Romantics. The linear writing is based on Interval Repertoire where each instrument's line is built out of a unique set of intervals. Thus, the first violin plays only perfect fourths and minor sixths, the second violin only Tritones and minor Sevenths, the Viola only Major Thirds, Major Sixths and Major Sevenths and the Cello, Minor Thirds and Perfect Fifths. The mode centers on the three transpositions of the Hungarian Octatonic and related variants. The Harmony is weighted toward the All Interval Tetrachord, although a variety of seventh and ninth chords and occasional quartal and secondal harmonies appear. Purdy also makes use of an unconventional tuning system. Instead of the more typical Equitempered scale used in Western Music, he uses Werckmeister's 1691 temperament. This gives the music a subtly sad, yet passionate sound. Purdy had long wanted to write a string quartet, since the late nineties, and had struggled repeatedly with it's technical challenges, notably the small ensemble and the relative lack of contrast in timbre. Many previous attempts he judged inadequate. Building upon that experience and further study he finally made a series of breakthroughs that led to the First Quartet.

[Ed. Note: Due to technical limitations in translating large orchestral scores to YouTube standards, this work is presented in audio only. The appropriate vendor has been apprised and the score is available in PDF format upon request.] With the Third Symphony, Purdy returned to his Neo-Romantic roots, albeit as seen through the lens of 20th C. Harmony and rhythm. Purdy dedicated “Symphony No.3 – Threnody for an Everyman to his departed friend Neil Arthur Haller, July 5th 1955 – July 16th 2022. Neil was a very close friend and confidante of Purdy’s and his sudden passing was a source of great distress to him. The title “Threnody for an Everyman” derives from the Threnody, an ode or elegy to the deceased and the idea of the Everyman, which Neil was. Everyman, an English morality play of the 15th century, probably a version of a Dutch play, Elckerlyc. It achieves a beautiful, simple solemnity in treating allegorically the theme of death and the fate of the human soul—of Everyman’s soul as he tries to justify his time on earth. Though morality plays on the whole failed to achieve the vigorous realism of the Middle Ages’ scriptural drama, this short play (about 900 lines) is more than an allegorical sermon because vivid characterization gives it dramatic energy. It is generally regarded as the finest of the morality plays. Synopsis The Messenger begins by explaining the message of the play: that mortal life is transitory and that sin, which initially seems sweet, eventually causes only suffering. Fellowship, Jollity, Strength, Pleasure, and Beauty cannot survive Death. God then appears and laments that mankind, beguiled by sin and loving only wealth, neglects his worship and the sacrifice he made for them. He decides to have a “reckoning” to call people to account for the way they have been living and orders Death to summon Everyman to him for judgment. All the characters of the play have analogs, “leitmotifs” in the work. The work continues Purdy’s interest in non-standard tuning using the Werkmeister 1691 temperament. The cover art is Albrecht Durer's (May 21, 1471, April 6, 1528) "Ritter, Tod und Teufel" (Knight, Death and Devil), a different perspective on the same theme. An armoured knight, accompanied by his dog, rides through a narrow gorge flanked by a goat-headed devil and the figure of death riding a pale horse. Death's rotting corpse holds an hourglass, a reminder of the shortness of life. The rider moves through the scene looking away from the creatures lurking around him, and appears almost contemptuous of the threats, and is thus often seen as symbol of courage; the knight's armour, the horse which towers in size over the beasts, the oak leaves and the fortress on the mountaintop are symbolic of the resilience of faith, while the knight's plight may represent Christians' earthly journey towards the Kingdom of Heaven.

Contemporary classical for String Quartet, Flute, Oboe, French Horn and Trombone.

Classical music.

Music for chamber Orchestra.

An explanation of the PolyStrophic method of composition.

A collection of brief musical pieces.