Claude Marc Bourget: Making Beautiful Music With Just Two Hands

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Pianist Claude Marc Bourget can orchestrate energizing symphonies with the nimble movements of his ten fingers across the keys of a grand piano.  The protégé of such arduous musicians as Chopin, Debussy, Stravinsky, Paul Bley, and Keith Jarrett, Bourget has a heart that is true to his passionate nature and a mind that exhibits a boundless imagination. 

 

Born in Montreal, Bourget began playing the piano in 1974-75 and recalls, “I started playing the piano alone, self-taught, around age 18, after futile years of guitar and bass, but during which I had begun to compose on paper. Between 18 and 20 years old, I played between 8 to 12 hours a day on a piano funded by my mother, out of her very small widow’s savings. At 21 years old, I was on stage.  But a certain technique explains it: I'm only going in the sense of my nature, in the sense of my body. I stimulate and I train them, but I never force them. I only grow in my own way.  I fly with the wind.“

 

He purports, “For me, playing the piano is black and white photography applied to music. It is the orchestra in equation. Everything is there, but at the principle level, behind the image, like roots under the flowers. I love black and white in photography. The piano with its black and white keys immediately gives the sign of its economy. In that sense, only the string quartet would approach it. The jazz trio too, belongs to this pure world. Other trinity, other mystery,” he observes.

 

In 1982, Bourget became known throughout Canada after his appearance at Musak Noise Sound Festival at Montreal’s Vehicle Art Gallery, where a number of solo artists performed a concert of improvised music.  Bourget reflects about his work as a solo artist, “The piano is the black and white of music, in photography, but piano solo is pure pencil sketch. Klee’s, Picasso’s, Leonardo’s studies, which have a heavy dose of improvisation, in other words of crude birth, are for me more informative then their final canvases. Solo piano, is the Study, the sketch for itself. I never managed to produce a sketch with others, except in an inharmonic music context. Harmonically, I only draw well alone, at least for now.”

 

After a tour in France with the Ensemble de Musique Improvise de Montreal (E.M.I.M.), Bourget put a halt to playing concerts.  He tells, “I left the scene around 1984. From that moment, in parallel with literature, I played by myself in a sort of personal education. Then I returned to music, publicly, in November 2006. So I chose, not the concert, but the disc.”

 

2006 marked Bourget’s return to making music with his recording Second Time from Ruby Flower Records, followed by his new CD, Musiques de Ballet from Audience Records.   He explains the shift in music labels, “Audience is Claude Lepine, who also directs in Quebec, SRI Canada, a very large distributor, which distributed, very well indeed, Second Time in Canada. Claude became a friend. He invited me to Audience. The idea of working in my own country, with him, pleased me. With Second Time and Ruby Flower label, headed by Ana Isabel Ordonez, an extraordinary woman, I was in New York, certainly, with what it represents, which makes me happy.  But I would like to represent something in my own country and to directly honor the country of Oscar Peterson and Paul Bley, whom I humbly hail.”

 

He goes on to discuss how his two solo efforts which represent different facets of his talent, “This second CD belongs to the same recording residence at Domaine Forget.  At that time, I had two bodies of work in mind: Second Time, in my sense more ‘powerful,’ more German, if we refer to classical music’s scheme, and Musiques de ballet, more French, hence the title, more broadly impressionistic with a more refined spirit I would say, less overcharge, more lyricism, more feminine perhaps. As if the iron and the velvet followed each other, so to speak. I thought of putting both together in a double CD, but it would have been asking a lot to my audience after years of silence. I preferred to slow down the ear breathing, if you allow me the expression. Then, you will notice that in Musiques de ballet, the piano sound is more refined. This is a post-production decision. We simply did not touch anything.”

 

Musiques de Ballet was recorded at the Francoys-Bernier Concert Hall in Canada, though it is not a live album.  Bourget clarifies, “It was not a concert, but a concert hall recording. The Francoys-Bernier Hall has extreme qualities. It is an instrument in itself, with an adjustable acoustic response and configuration. That's why I've chosen it. There is also a superb Hamburg Steinway. It forms a perfect couple.  Imagine this piano in this sophisticated hall, but completely empty for the occasion, all yours for several days.  You are left completely free and alone in a remote area, near one of the largest rivers in the world, far north, when students and teachers have gone back to the noisy cities, further south. In a corner, there is a second Steinway, the one that belonged to Glen Gould. You go out for 5 minutes and you see boats off the river, seemingly flying like spaceships on the silvery mist. Then you go back to conversing with your piano, one to one. So everything is in place for the metaphysics of solo, if you are able to. I confess to prefer this to the Saturday night concert.”

 

The 27 tracks of Musiques de Ballet blazes through a gamut of melodic figures, impressions, and harmonic patterns as Bourget’s left and right hands work meticulously to sculpt majestic panoplies.  The first 14-tracks are part of the “Reford Gardens Suite,” which Bourget expresses, “I did not have ‘The Gardens’ in mind, at the moment of playing the music. But on the path of development, in the compositional effort rising from the recorded material, I first found dance images that often live within me, these years, when I play. I then searched the strongest sensory phenomenon known by me at this time of my life. Then I made the connection between the two. The ballet and Reford Gardens, the most beautiful northern gardens, I must say that in the summer, I live close to these magnificent gardens and I had the opportunity to talk with Alexander Reford, the brave heir of this magnificent estate, which, incidentally, is a jazz fan and musician in his spare time. Each title of the piece corresponds to a real location in the Gardens.”

 

The suite is followed by a charming piece entitled “Espana Mistica,” which  Bourget confesses, “I never had any idea of ‘Espana Mistica’ before playing this piece. And I never played something similar. It was released in a single gesture. Furthermore, no cuts, no editing was made on this piece. It is on the disk exactly as I played it and I played it once in my life. The title came after, but it seems obvious. I see it as a mnemonic apparition of the eternal Spain.”

 

From “Espana Mistica,” the listener enters the 7-tracks of “Sept Entrees de Ballet,” which produces an engaging dialogue between three figures – home (man), femme (woman), and enfant (child).   Bourget notes about the compositions, “The form ‘Entrée de ballet’ is a conventional scene of ballet music.  An ‘Entry’ carries its indication, man or woman, or both. I added the child, who is the rebirth, so to speak, of the couple. Who said that the son is the secret thoughts of the father? I visualized the last part for a lone child, a child dancing on an imprecise ritornello and leaving the scene his back to the public, without a bow. There is also in this suite, as you say, a Trinity, baring its strength and its mystery. These ‘ Entrées de ballet’ were the first pieces consciously associated with dance.  Basically, they led the rest.”

 

The recording then launches into the 3 tracks of “Passacaglia Etranges et Tragiques,” which he establishes, “One of the attributes of a passacaglia, which is an ancient folk dance, is its stubborn rhythm. These three pieces are variations on a single stubbornness, an exchange left hand-right hand, as an exchange of feet. But the traditional passacaglias are often a bit light.  Mine are different and even strange to my own ears, with a touch of tragedy.”

 

The album closes with the two tracks “Naissance d’un Cygnet” and “Pas de Deux” which Bourget provides, “’Naissance d'un cygnet,’ [meaning] Birth of a swan of course, opposes the famous Dying Swan by Camille Saint-Saens, choreographed by Fokine. She opposes it or she responds to it, as birth answers death, that of swans, that of men, that of things. This is the last piece played in the session after about fourteen hours of piano solo in two days. I was physically exhausted, resulting in a more denuded music, drawing its resources elsewhere then the strengths of the body. “

 

He adds, “’Pas de deux’ is the closest piece of jazz as jazz, I think. Then it contains two mirroring motifs. It is a final wink, an admitted dichotomy for my detractors.  The classical world says I'm doing jazz music. The jazz world says I'm doing classical music. I reply that I make synthesis music, and that we are at the Age of Synthesis. Not by choice, by the way, but by necessity.”

 

Bourget assesses, “I think that my Musiques de Ballet is the best of me in this path. But other pathways are emerging.”

 

He reveals that a tour has proven to be difficult to assemble. “A few inquiries with some concert hall owners discouraged me.  I do not have the patience, neither the age, to convert them, or to wait in line. If I am called for an indoor concert or festival, I will see.  For now, I prefer my kingdom, which is my studio. I have important projects that combine improvisation and writing. This will be my third or fourth CD, unplayable in concert. Otherwise, I prepare very personal interpretations of Bach, Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert. We will see the possibilities. I do not worry about it much.”

 

Interpreting the works of masters is a favorite pastime activity for Claude Marc Bourget who has been influenced over the years by many great artists.  He mentions, “Miles Davis taught me jazz, the moment of the note, the beauty of the note. Jarrett made me understand the touch, the fertile ocean’s waves awakening in hands that have sails. Stravinsky, upon whom we must know that he improvised his initial motives, thought me the transmissible drawing, the value of the new, but communicable form, although I am often a bad student. Horowitz, moreover, taught me that music, always, even classical (but jazz forgets it too), re-improvises itself. The rest, I think, I guessed it. I should add that the piano, if you listen to it and look at it well, its form, its keyboard, its history -- every century, every country is enrolled in its resonances gives a lesson to the pianist.”

 

Similarly to his musical influences, Bourget enjoys the recognition that he has received for his body of work.  He claims, “America is largely responsible for this recognition. This is normal. Although I am of French blood, born in Montreal, my land is physically American, and I think it is audible and shares itself in my music and in my thoughts. I have lots of European influences, but they are Americanized. One always belongs to his continent.”

 

He muses, “I think that in three and a half years since my "return", the path is amazing. I have an incredible opportunity to be heard and followed with attention. I understand this as a confirmation of my decisions and an invitation to continue the adventure. But what else could I do?”

 

Like his predecessors, Claude Marc Bourget is not trapped into becoming a period pianist but a musician whose improvisations will be relevant for centuries to come.  His synthesis of jazz and classical music structures is inspiring and positions him to become a source of motivation for aspiring musicians to come.