In memoriam Mátyás Seiber
Some 52 years ago I embarked on a sequence of composition lessons with Mátyás Seiber, then one of the two outstanding teachers of composition in Britain. Two-and-a half years later, in September 1960, he lost his life in a motor accident in South Africa.
This piece, written in his memory, incorporates all the main techniques I learnt from him, chiefly through analysis of classical sonatas and Bach’s Two-part Inventions, but applies them in a way which reflects our animated conversations, in which I argued for a converse, more diverse approach.
So Converse is a two-part invention in one-movement sonata form, with exposition of two closely-related subjects – the second being highly unstable – a development, often through conversion by inversion, embracing a volatile Scherzo followed by an unorthodox Passacaglia, and finally a calm recapitulation and close.
If there seem to be echoes of a jazz or blues idiom, this is possibly a reflection of the fact that before coming to England, Seiber taught Europe’s first ever jazz classes at the Hoch-Conservatorium in Frankfurt.