Bob Bauer’s tears in the fragile web of memory

Atlantic composer Bob Bauer is looking forward to the recorded performance of his new work Tears in the fragile web of memory, premiering on Saturday, November 28 at 7:30 p.m. on YouTube and Facebook. This online event is free but donations are welcome to presenter Musique Royale. This virtual concert from St. John’s Anglican Church in Lunenburg features Conundrum duo Jack Chen (flute) and Ellen Gibling (harp). Conundrum balances classic repertoire with challenging and innovative recent compositions, in particular, new works by Canadian composers. Other works on the concert include Mendelssohn’s On Wings of Song, Elgar’s Salut D’Amour and Jean Cras’s Suite for Flute and Harp (1927).

A retired CBC Radio producer, Bob is a long-time CMC Associate Composer and former Atlantic Regional Council Member. He’s a busy conductor and Grandpa when not composing or playing guitar, and has been actively involved with many new music organizations in the region.

Bob has dedicated the piece, which he wrote in 2018, to his mother Magdolna Bodolovsky/Bauer and to his late colleague, Paul Cram. He was able to attend rehearsal with Ellen and Jack in Halifax, and then the concert taping in Lunenburg.

About the new work, Bob says: “Tears in the fragile web of memory is one of two pieces funded by a creation grant from Arts Nova Scotia. My plan was to write two new works for young Halifax based musicians whose work I admire. Soprano Maureen Batt is one of these young artists and the other is harpist Ellen Gibling. In Ellen’s case I chose to write for her and her musical partner, flutist Jack Chen.

This piece is very personal to me. It is about memory loss and is dedicated to my mother Magdolna Bodolovsky/Bauer and to a dear former colleague Paul Cram. Both suffered from memory loss in the final stages of life. The idea of losing one’s memories has disturbed me for a long time. My hope is that in whatever life comes next, these precious lost memories will be restored.

In order to convey loss of memory in music, I have used sonata form, in this case ‘abacaba’. Every time that the initial ‘a’ theme returns it is more and more distorted and confused until it finally breaks down to nothing but disjointed fragments. In the final moments of the work one can hear each of the musicians trying to help the other remember what the theme should sound like, but to no avail. Then at the very end, there is one final breath.”