Instead of reproducing the Feature Article in its entirety here, we are presenting some outstanding (and enticing) excerpts from the article--
| Towards a vast series of operas, to use the term very loosely, R. Murray Schafer has directed his artistic energies for over thirty years. Patria, the Latin word for 'Homeland,' is a mythological tale of the travails of a
man and a woman crossing time and space in the created world of the human. Patria is a focus for Schafer's
creativity and perhaps might be considered a template for his life, imagination and beliefs. |
The Prologue: The Princess of the Stars
Setting: The work takes place at a wilderness lake (North American Wilderness) at dawn. The audience arrives earlier and the entire landscape is used as setting
Synopsis:The Princess falls to earth at dawn. The Wolf accidentally wounds her and she is dragged beneath the lake by the Three-Horned Enemy. So begins Wolf's search for the Princess (Ariadne) and enlightenment
A whole vast world of sound surrounds us, enfolds us and shapes us. The composer R. Murray Schafer,
who fell to earth in 1933 to the prosaic town of Sarnia, Ontario, Canada, has spent a lifetime listening to the
world around him.
Patria 1: Wolfman (originally The Characteristics Man)
Setting: Performed in a traditional theatre environment this stage work is set in a modern, unnamed country. The
audience are seated observers.
Synopsis: Wolf appears in his first incarnation as a refugee in a foreign land, understanding neither the language,
nor the customs. He is an outsider and his spirit is crushed, ending in a disastrous hostage taking.
Canada has always been a fringe country, an outpost of the British Empire deep into the twentieth century.
It is also a land of immigrants -- even now foreigners in their own land. Its cultural achievements have been
mostly secondary to its economic activities as a resource rich nation. When Schafer told a guidance
counselor in school that he wanted to be a painter, the teacher agreed that house-painting was a worthy
profession.
Patria 2: Requiems for the Party Girl
Setting: Performed in a traditional theatre environment this stage work is set in a lunatic asylum. The audience are
seated observers.
Synopsis: Ariadne is locked in the asylum with doctors and nurses intent on helping her, but unable to comprehend
her mind. Wolf appears in fantasy sequences until the uncertain ending.
Since he was not granted an education Schafer obtained one himself, mastering numerous languages
(including Arabic), studying philosophy, and a dozen other subjects with a relentlessness of effort that is
proof of the strongest character. He was especially careful to avoid the weakness of mind characteristic of
many autodidacts by very serious efforts of true scholarship. His research on Ezra Pound's music writings
and his book on E.T.A. Hofmann are both exemplary achievements.
Patria 3: The Greatest Show
Setting: A Carnival, this work is staged as a fair, outdoors and at night, with various ongoing attractions. The
audience attends mingling and experiencing the events of the play enacted around them.
Synopsis: A Magician compels Wolf and Ariadne to participate in a magic act. Ariadne is cut into pieces. In an
attempt to recreate her the magicians accidentally produce the Three-Horned Beast who destroys the fair grounds.
One could paraphrase Oscar Wilde and say that Canada, a vast underpopulated country, went from
primitivism to ennui without developing its own personality. Too close to the United States and too tied to
the Mother land, Canada has shunned its own artists. Faced with this neglectfulness, Schafer chose the only
path available to a man of integrity: honest, self-imposed isolation. Rather than sell out, in a market where
there were no buyers anyway, Schafer decided to follow his own path. Rather than attempt to manipulate
the system through hokum, salesman's puffing and catering to the lowest common denominator, Schafer
seems to have 'aimed' to fail in the music business by really trying. For this reason he is an astute critic of
the cultural scene and has written numerous articles detailing its failings and suggesting improvements.
Patria 4: The Black Theatre of Hermes Trismegistos
Setting: An underground chamber (preferably a mine).
Synopsis: The magical and mystical process of the Alchemical Great Work is enacted with Wolf and Ariadne
present as participants, subjects and symbols of the process.
Murray Schafer is a teacher of genius. He has written numerous books and invented many listening exercises
that tune the ear and increase its perceptive acuity. He is rightly compared with Zoltan Kodály and Carl Orff
as one of the most important music educators in the 20th century. Once he asked a class of students what
music was. Answers flowed, but after writing down 'notes,' 'staff,' 'instruments,' Schafer could restrain
himself no longer and asked "Why has nobody said 'Sound?'"
Patria 5: The Crown of Ariadne
Setting: By an ocean beach.
Synopsis: A retelling of the Labyrinth legend rich in symbolic intent.
What happens when a musician writes a novel? With the novel Wolftracks, which can be found -- only found -- in used bookstores (as Schafer has arranged for them to be placed there), the book reads on one page through to the end and then cycles back to the
beginning, reading the facing page -- back to the 'beginning' -- where the process repeats endlessly.
| Above is only a sampling of half the works considered in the article with comments on the composer and his output. There are also graphics: Plan of Labyrinth at Ely Cathedral and In Search of Zoroaster as well as score pages from Nature Sounds and Urban Sounds plus a Chronological Works List and CD List (selected). |
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An Interview with Sydney Hodkinson
by J. Anthony Allen
| Somewhere up in the mountains,
composer J. Anthony Allen got a chance to sit
down with Syd and talk about his experiences in
life, music, and career, as well as offer up some
warnings for the next generation.
|
Retired in 1999 from the Eastman School of
Music, Sydney Hodkinson maintains an active
career as a composer, conductor and educator. He
teaches in the Aspen Music Festival and School's
Composition program, conducts the Aspen
Contemporary Ensemble (ACE), and currently
holds the Almand Chair of Composition at
Stetson University in DeLand, Florida. In 2004,
Dr. Hodkinson celebrated his 70th birthday -- an
event honored by the Aspen Festival with many
performances. Somewhere up in the mountains,
composer J. Anthony Allen got a chance to sit
down with Syd and talk about his experiences in
life, music, and career, as well as offer up some
warnings for the next generation.
JA: You were a jazz player until you were 45
(clarinet and saxophone). When did you
begin writing chamber music?
SH: I had been writing music since I was about 7.
I started to write a symphony when I was 12; it
sounded like bad Grieg because I had been
playing the Watchman's Song, and Ase's Death,
etc. on the piano...fumbling through it. Plus, I had
my first experiences then with LARGE
manuscript paper and I wanted to fill up all the
staves. I had spent a nickel a sheet -- big bucks at
that time -- and I apparently did not want to waste
any paper by not filling in all the staves. It was
only when I was about 14 that my clarinet teacher
pointed out to me that my magnum opus had
some incredibly lousy scoring and that I might be
well-advised to go and get an orchestra score and
see how some other folks do it. I had arpeggios in
the bassoons, celli, violas, low clarinets, etc.
because I did not want to waste all that paper.
But I have been actually writing a long while, and
when jazz started to entice me (when I was fairly
young: 14 or 15), I then wrote things for my jazz
friends and got the beginnings of an education.
One example I can give you is writing a quarternote
and two eighths -- for a hi-hat -- and thinking
that was what I wanted (at a fast tempo). And so
the drummer put up his set and he goes [sings
literal quarter eighth-eighth rhythm].
So, that was the first and most memorable bit of
small notational smarts one gets just by dealing
with musical friends. I was very young. Very
ignorant [pause]. I have been writing a long, long
time.
JA: Do you ever still write jazz? Perhaps a
better question is, did you ever consider
yourself a jazz composer?
SH: Not really. Well, I considered myself a jazz
arranger for many years and did a lot of it. Is that
calling myself a jazz writer when I wrote original
tunes? I was accepted into the Eastman School of
Music based on dance-band charts, -- honest! I
guess I was a jazz writer. I admired the work of
Manny Albam, Gil Evans, Jerry Mulligan, and
Charlie Mingus greatly. I listened to their music
and tried to emulate that. But I don't know...then
I just went and wrote my own music. [laughs].
JA: We have heard a very eclectic array of
your music, stylistically, here at Aspen. Do
you think your jazz background helped shape
this?
SH: That is for others who look at the music to
say, not for me as a composer; that is for an
historian or a theorist. I guess the "jazz
ambience" is there, it is certainly a part of me. I
have fond memories of it still, and still know all
those old tunes. So it is baggage that one carries
through one's life. As I said, I admired greatly the
performers that played it. They had incredible
technique, and the competence and the beauty
that these fantastic jazz players exhibited mesmerized me. I memorized some Stan Getz
licks when I was a boy, Lee Konitz, names you
probably don't know -- they were magnificent
players. How much of that is a conscious thing? It
is sort of in one's blood stream. Are you
conscious of the blood flowing in your veins?
JA: I want to talk about teaching, because you
have taught at a lot of different places...
SH: But not for composition as long as many
people. Because my college jobs primarily were
not connected with composition teaching, except
peripherally. I had a student, for example, in the
late 50's at the University of Virginia who wanted
to study composition. But my jobs at these
schools have either been in the theory
departments or conducting departments
throughout the majority of my life, with only
minor exceptions. I spent 2 years in Dallas
teaching composition at Southern Methodist
University, and the University of Western Ontario,
where I taught in the early 90's. There were other
various times, but that was always either a one-to-
two
year, one-shot thing; then I would go back to
conducting or teaching orchestration or
counterpoint, etc. I felt a rapport with Bartok's
reasoning, a kinship with the master's piano
instruction: I thought God had given me X
amount of "juice" for that 24 hours to do
something creative, and I didn't want to share it
with people like yourself. I wanted that time
inviolate for me... removed... separate from the
rest of the job. It's the only way I found time to
compose. I didn't want to be confronted with
good young composers asking questions like
"why . . . do that, Dr.H?" I was too selfish. I felt
that my own creative hours could somehow be
stolen from me and I didn't have a lot of time -- I
had these other duties.
That changed only when I was in my 60's, and so
I have been teaching composition here [Aspen]
now for 7 years, and at Eastman since about 1994.
My composition teacher-hat is a relatively new
one; but it is not all that old, worn, and full of
holes either, and it is continuing now at Stetson.
JA: I found some things from your former
students who seem to speak very highly of
you. I want to read you this one quote that I
found:
Syd Hodkinson tells fantastic stories, seems to have
completely missed the politically correct revolution.
[He is] blunt, unconcerned with hurting anybody’s
feelings, ultimately concerned most of all with our
lives, our spirits; his voice in the lowest octave of the
piano, he cautions us on avoiding depression in the
hard years we have ahead of us, resonating
magnificently on the word "alone."
SH: Yeah, I think that is true. [laughs]. But that
line about "I don't care if I hurt your feelings?" I
think I do care if I hurt your feelings, but, perhaps
a situation warranted that your feelings should
have been hurt. I'll tell ya, I can be very simple
about this: I think this is serious business. And I
do not play around with any ineptitude of
students. My friend George Tsontakis says that
sometimes I scare the shit out of some students. I
do not intend to do that, but it is serious business
and I am serious about it. And I want them to try
and get their work as right as they are able,
depending on their own plans, and I think I can
help them do that, wherever they come from, or
where their heads are at. Taking a lesson in
"creative writing" is not an easy thing to do. I am trying to help a youngster grope his way through
very serious air. It is a voyage that is incredibly
lonely. Yes. And my students better find this out
pretty soon. It is easier when you are in school:
you have all your friends and colleagues around
you -- your peers -- to bounce off and go have
beers with; to talk the daily musical talk. Your
friends, I presume, are no different than mine
were at an early age. They like the same kind of
things -- i.e., classical music. You can go argue
about the performance of a Tchaikovsky 4, for
god's sake, in a neighborhood bar. I did. And
learned from it. But that "something," when you
are in the mix, the mélange, of all the excitement
of being turned on by each other's work, can be
of inestimable help when you are a youngster in
finding your own way through the creative fog.
But then you often find yourself upon graduation
-- as I did -- with a family to support and the
university was the best way I found to accomplish
that. Many young composers today are finding
other avenues besides college teaching to explore
for "the outside job;" I support that wholeheartedly.
But I went into an academic situation
and then . . . there is no one other creative
musicians around on my shoulder anymore! Nor a
good teacher -- of which I had a couple -- telling
you where to go, "go listen to this", and the
things that effective teachers do. You no longer
have the luxury of living amidst the commotion
and ruckus of getting into arguments with your
good friends. So you are by yourself; and you
better learn how to handle it. I do bring that up,
as your quote stated. Yes... the solitude of being a
decent composer is something that must be
addressed. Many music students do not possess
the nature to do it, and a lot of them quit by the
time they are 40.
JA: I wanted to ask you -- I found this piece,
unfortunately I wasn't able to locate a score,
but you have a piece titled One Man's Meat.
SH: [laughs]: The title intrigued you? I have two
pieces from that time -- one is called One Man's
Meat, and a brass quintet called Another Man's
Poison. One Man's Meat is a piece for double
bass and electronics, and was written [along with a
"famous" piece -- that Chris Rouse calls "The
utext of the 60s": The Dissolution of the Serial]
around the time of my doctoral dissertation in the
60s, at Michigan. They are personal 'relief' theatre
pieces occasioned by dealing with the stress of
doctoral studies and dissertations. One Man's
Meat is a piece for double bass and 2 large
speakers. The speakers take over the double bass
player. These are "jazz" pieces, by the way. The
work starts out -- uptown, Darmstadt kind of stuff,
and ends up in B-flat blues. And Another Man's
Poison for brass quintet does the same thing. My
first string quartet, which is for five players, is
another piece of this time (in the 60s); it is written
for guitar, harp, electric guitar, electric bass, and a
percussion player playing on the strings of the
piano. That is "String Quartet #1". It has never
seen light of day, alas, alas; but it was also one of
those "post-dissertation" pieces. It starts out as a
serious avant-garde new music thing, and ends up
with the drummer stepping back from the piano,
moving over to the drum set, and the electric
guitar and bass player take over, gently cooking
away.
JA: That's great! I brought up One Man's
Meat wondering how you feel about a place
for humor in our music.
SH: Amen! Yes, yes -- a thousand times yes. I
think we often are all too serious about this art we
love. One of my favorite "desert-island composers"
is still Haydn. He could really stick
his old tongue out at you. I have many pieces--
some of which you heard a couple of weeks ago --
that are of that ilk. Yes, a smile while we listen is a
fine thing; and I think there is much room for it.
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Concert Review
Honolulu Symphony, October 2005
by Jerré Tanner
The Honolulu Symphony on its October 14 and
16, 2005 concert series "East Meets West" gave
the premiere of the revised version of the
Hardware Concerto by Kenji Bunch (photo below)
with the Ahn Trio to the great delight of the
audiences.
Four years ago Music Director Samuel Wong and
general manager Stephen Bloom inaugurated the
"East Meets West" concept to reflect the unique
ethnic blend of people in the State of Hawaii. Not
only has the Symphony hosted composers,
performers and conductors from Asia but has
also featured Asian Americans as well. Now, as
both Wong and Bloom have moved on to other
venues and the Symphony Board is on a year-long
search for their replacements, commitment to the
series thankfully continues.
Kenji Bunch, born in Portland Oregon and
educated at Julliard, is the very embodiment of
the "East Meets West" spirit (Japanese-American
mother, Euro-American father). Bunch is an
outstanding violist, he is the recipient of the
Lillian Fuchs Prize for Viola, and at only 32 a
young composer worth watching. In a pre-concert
interview, as a composer, he stated he is what he
hears. His musical tastes are eclectic, he plays
fiddle in the bluegrass band Citigrass NYC.
Attendees at the Honolulu Symphony concerts
certainly heard something of the range of his aural
experiences.
The Hardware Concerto was written for the
Ahn Trio, three charming sisters and classmates of Bunch at Juilliard, and given its premiere with
the Louisville (Kentucky) Symphony. After this first round of performances Bunch made a
number of adjustments and revisions to the score.
On Sunday he emphasized, "I like what I hear,"
and declared "the score needed no further
revision." Thus these Honolulu performances, the
work's second, were a kind of premiere of the
definitive version.
The Hardware Concerto is in three movements,
the outer movements being highly rhythmical and
the central movement a quietly lyrical meditation.
As Bunch categorized them, the first movement is
Hip-Hop with a patina of Bollywood, the second
nocturne-like, and the third Funk. Taken as a
whole, the piece seemed imagistic of the mating
rituals of our urban young. The strikingly
rhythmic outer movements presented a sound at
once familiar yet parlayed into a unique orchestral
sonority, accomplished with superb musical wit.
Punctuated with brass and percussion, the first
movement conjured up the brightly colored
costumes and swirling motion characteristic of
Indian film musicals, the last movement the dark
dance clubs that attract youth in droves.
But it is the central, lyrical movement that really
gives the whole work its real dimension. Quietly
meditative, moon-drenched groves of muted
strings set off the quiet solo and ensemble
reflections of the Ahn trio. Violinist Angella Ahn
and her twin sisters Lucia (electronic
keyboard/piano) and Maria (cello) wove spiderweb
tapestries of utter enchantment that rose to a
slow, inexorable climax and fell back again into
quite. It was an effect of utter enchantment. One
was not so much reminded of Central Park as the
broad, star-filled skies and moonlight-on-loftysnows
of Bunch's northwestern birth city. Here,
too, Maria Ahn came into her own, matching
sister Angella's high-flying lines with her own
deeper, darker flights. Supporting and uniting the
two were the undulating murmurs of Lucia's
piano, the perfect sonic companion.
In contrast, Lucia played an electronic keyboard
in the two outer movements, giving just the right
punch and grunge to the symphonic sound. Both
Angella's violin and Maria's cello were amplified
to carry above the general heavy orchestration.
Angella so aptly put it, "Every violinist's dream:
to be plugged." Unfortunately, Maria's cello did
not fare so well since her instrument's darker tone
and lack to percussive attack did not cut through
the rich mix of orchestral overtones. The fault is
perhaps purely electronic and might be easily
corrected.
Samuel Wong, appearing as guest conductor with
the orchestra he led for nine years, directed the
Ahn Trio and the Honolulu Symphony through a
smooth-as-silk performance. It was as though
they had played this music for decades rather than
mere days. It would be hard to imagine a more
sympathetic performance, and the audience
rewarded the performers with a standing ovation
and repeated curtain calls.
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Return to Index.
"Three Questions Before the First Night"
Michael Gandolfi speaks to Carson Cooman
about his work Plain Song, Fantastic Dances
Composer Michael Gandolfi (b. 1956) has been
an active presence in the Boston Massachusetts,
USA area for a number of years and has been
recently gaining increasing national attention for
his works. He is a faculty member at the New
England Conservatory and has been awarded
many grants and commissions. Other recent
projects include a saxophone concerto for
Kenneth Radnovsky and the Boston Modern 8
Orchestra Project, a piano concerto for the
London Sinfonietta, and a recently premiered
orchestral work for the Tanglewood Music Center,
where he also teaches.
Gandolfi's latest work, Plain Song, Fantastic
Dances, was commissioned by the St. Botolph
Club of Boston and will be premiered on October
23, 2005 by the Boston Symphony Chamber
Players at Jordan Hall, Boston, Massachusetts,
USA. The work is scored for clarinet, horn,
bassoon, violin, viola, cello, and contrabass -- in
three movements, provisionally titled: 1) St.
Botolph's Fantasia, 2) Tango Blue, and 3) Quick
Step.
CC: The notes for your new work say that, because of the
commission from the St. Botolph Club of Boston (and
because St. Botolph himself lived during the reign of Pope
Gregory), you used a Gregorian chant and a derived 13th
century organum as source material for the piece. Do you
often use source material of this sort for your work, and
how do you find it structures your creative process?
MG: This is the first time that I've used
Gregorian chant as source material for a piece.
I've occasionally used other types of source
material when I’ve felt that it was warranted by
the commission or the circumstances relating to
the conception of a given piece, but it is not a
common practice of mine. In this case, the
source material was chosen specifically to connect
the piece to St. Botolph, via the music collected
by Pope Gregory the Great, which I felt was an
appropriate way to celebrate the St. Botolph
Club's 125th anniversary, since they had
commissioned the work. To be honest, I really
didn't know much about the history of St.
Botolph or the club before the project. During
this research process, I learned that the followers
of St. Botolph had named an English city in his
honor, "Botolphston" which over the centuries
linguistically morphed into "Boston." So, when
the English settlers came to America and named
this city 'Boston,' they were actually honoring St.
Botolph by giving his metamorphosed name a
prominent place in the New World. Thus, the
connections all seemed very appropriate and
compelling.
Regarding using external source materials in
general, however, I recently was commissioned to
write a tango for wind ensemble. I did much
research ahead of that composition because I
knew very little about tango. The ensuing
composition Vientos y Tangos, has been quite
successful and I am pleased with having been
given that "assignment."
In 1996 I received a commission from the Boston
Musica Viva to compose a chamber piece,
Grooved Surfaces, in which I had been
specifically asked to involve world music
influences. I initially refused the commission,
stating that other composers were far more
qualified to write such a piece. But Richard
Pittman, the director of Boston Musica Viva,
insisted that I compose the piece and so
eventually I acquiesced to his wishes. I'm pleased
that Mr. Pittman was persistent.
For this piece I thought it would be appropriate
to investigate West African music; I have an
extensive background as a jazz guitarist and the
link between West African music and American
jazz is obviously strong.
I gathered recordings of Ghanaian music, and
transcribed several drum ensemble pieces from
them. In the process of doing those
transcriptions, I found several rhythms and
rhythmical techniques that I knew would serve
well as the basis of a piece. The pitch material
was my own, and unrelated to Ghanaian music,
but the rhythms and rhythmical structures came
from these transcriptions.
Thus, sometimes in these rare circumstances,
where the commission specifically warrants it, I
will go ahead and try to find external source
material to generate a piece. In the case of Plain
Song, Fantastic Dances, I hadn't been
specifically asked to connect to St. Botolph. But I
thought it might be interesting to do so -- and I
found a way that was satisfying and fruitful.
CC: You're known for blending influences from popular
and jazz music (and your own background in that area)
with classical elements in your compositions. Does that
figure at all into this new piece?
MG: Yes, it does. It's become such a part of my
writing that I don't consciously make such
choices anymore.
In this case, the second movement, (Tango Blue)
has a groove quality that relates to my pop music
roots. I wasn't thinking about writing a "tango"
specifically, but I was preoccupied with writing a
generally "bluesy" movement. The melodic lines
unfold in this bluesy atmosphere. There is an
underlying rhythm which has a tangential
connection to a tango. This is not the
Argentinean "nuevo tango" exemplified in Astor
Piazzolla's music, but a more "filtered" tango,
such as that found in Stravinsky's tangos, among
others. Most importantly, the movement has a
dance quality that I connect in an abstract way to
the tango.
The last movement is fast and is scherzo-like at
the outset, but soon breaks away from the
lightness that one associates with a scherzo. The
melodic profile in the expository section has folklike
elements that one might hear as having traces
of traditional Irish folk music.
I didn't set out to do that initially, but as I was
writing, I felt the influence of these folk elements
emerging and I simply welcomed the serendipity
and spontaneity of the moment.
CC: Many of your recent compositional commissions have
been orchestral pieces. Coming out of a period of so much
orchestral work, do you find that your approach to chamber
music is influenced by that?
MG: Interesting that you should ask that, as one
little fear I perhaps have about this new piece is
that it might be rather "orchestral" in its overall
conception. Overall, it is definitely a piece of
chamber music, and I don't worry that it won't
succeed in performance as such. But once I
finished the score, I found myself going back over
it and thinking "Was I hearing an orchestral piece
here and there?"
Chamber music exists in a conversational and
intimate world. It's more personal and the
instruments have more individual roles than they
otherwise do in an orchestral piece. They
typically don't combine into larger forces with the
colorful and weighty sonorities that are typical in
an orchestral piece.
But in this piece, there are instances, particularly
in the first movement (and the very ending, where
the first movement's material returns) which do
feel orchestral in conception. I could easily
imagine writing that "same" music for orchestra,
in fact.
By contrast, the second movement is certainly
more chamber-like than the first. The winds have
those interlocking bluesy lines that I alluded to
earlier and they coexist with the strings in an
intimate chamber texture. The last movement as
well is a pure piece of chamber music perhaps
owing to its overall contrapuntal design.
But having said all of this, after finishing the
entire work, I found myself wondering about how
much the piece had been influenced by my recent
orchestral works.
While I do think the piece succeeds as a true
chamber piece, I must add that in writing a piece
in the 7-14 instrument range, one begins to cross
into a gray area that straddles the worlds of
orchestral music and chamber music. This is
never the case when writing a trio, a quartet, a
quintet or even a sextet.
With seven or more instruments however, it's
easy to find oneself, from time to time, thinking at
some level in orchestral terms.
Return to Index.
An Interview with Dr. Albert Hurwit:
Composer & Radiologist
by Carson Cooman
American composer Albert Hurwit (b. 1931)
graduated from Harvard University and Tufts
Medical School. He trained and practiced as a
radiologist for thirty years. He retired from his
medical practice in 1986 in order to devote all of
his energies to music composition.
His first large-scale work, Symphony No. 1,
"Remembrance," has been recorded by the
Bulgarian National Radio Orchestra under the
direction of Michael Lankester and released on
the MSR Classics label.
Hurwit's symphony is an extended, neo-romantic
composition that traces, across its four
movements (Origins, Separation, Remembrance,
and Arrival) the journey of his ancestors across
Europe & Russia, their separation, and eventual
arrival in the United States.
For more information about Hurwit, or to find
out more about the recording, visit his website at:
www.alberthurwit.com
CC: Why did you decide to start pursuing composition?
AH: Music just started to bubble out of my soul.
At night it would keep me up, and I'd have all
these musical feelings going through me. It was a
pragmatic decision. I was a physician at that time
and had my own practice. When the last of my
three children became self-sufficient, I realized
that if I were going to "make a break", this was
the time to do it. I was 55 years old and knew
that there was a lot of learning ahead of me. If I
put if off for too long, I was concerned that either
intellectual status or time itself would preclude me
going into composing seriously.
I started to compose part time while still working
as a radiologist, but I was too compulsive. I felt I
wasn't doing justice either to my medical practice
or composition. So at that point, I thought I'd
give a six month trial to being a composer
exclusively. After six months, it became clear that,
as much as I missed medicine (and I still do --
every day), composition was what was really more
fulfilling for me.
CC: Were you doing any writing during the years that you
were practicing radiology?
AH: Yes, in a way I've been composing since I
was about 13 or 14. It was, however, in a very
crude and Neanderthal manner. I took piano
lessons for three years as a child but was a poor
student. I had a pretty good ear and bluffed my
way through as best I could. But to the present
time, I really only read music probably as well as a
second year piano student. I would often use a
number or graphic system to reproduce what I
had created musically. Then, I started to use
stenographic tape recorders and other media to
record the music.
CC: Your first symphony is a very autobiographical work,
tracing your own family's ethnic and life history. Did you
feel it was particularly important to be able to document
these things musically in this way?
AH: Like with many things in my life, this came
about by serendipity. I started to compose
seriously in 1986 and at that point I really didn't
know how to go about doing it. So I had no real
thoughts then of a "symphony" or family history
or such. I went to the head of composition at the
Hartt School, Robert Carl, and he said that he
thought I had some talent and should pursue
studies -- but that it would take years of
undergraduate and graduate training to learn the
various musical skills. I felt I had been through
that already as a physician, and that once was
enough for one lifetime!
In those years, however, synthesizers and
computer software programs started to become
more common. So I bought the equipment,
hooked it all up, and taught myself how to use it.
Thus, I was able to record and print out my
compositions and ideas in that form.
In 1997, I was driving in the car and the executive
director of the Hartt Symphony Orchestra was on
the radio saying that she wanted to get Hartford
people more involved in the orchestra's activities.
I saw that in their upcoming season they had
cabaret singer Shirley Cook performing. I had
written a cabaret piece, and so I called up the
executive director and asked if she might want to
see it. She told me to come by, and I played it for
her. She thought it was terrific and wanted to
immediately submit it to Shirley Cook.
While I was there, I said that I had also composed
this five minute "Adagio" for orchestra. She said
that the conductor, Michael Lankester, received
hundreds of scores a year, and since I had no
training or experience, it was unlikely that
anything would come of that piece.
What happened was that Wally Harper, Cook's
arranger, got the cabaret piece and thought it was
too unconventional for her. But, a few weeks
later, Michael Lankester called me and said he had
the heard the synthesized version of my Adagio
and wanted to perform it with the orchestra!
On the basis of that short piece, Lankester and
other professionals thought I should compose a
longer work. I had some beginnings of
symphonies and things I was working on. So I
prolonged one of those into a first movement of a
potential new piece. In 2000, Lankester was
leaving the Hartford Symphony, and I asked him
to come over to my house and review what I had
done. I asked him to listen and be totally and
completely honest with me.
After hearing it, he told me that I had this massive
symphony in me that needed to come out. He
offered to help me in realizing the piece.
CC: Now that your symphony is completed and recorded,
do you have plans or projects for other compositions?
AH: There are several and that's probably the
problem. If I had only one, I'd be going full force
on that, but I keep fiddling around with different
things. I keep thinking about everything from
another symphony to setting the poem "Annabel
Lee" by Edgar Allen Poe. That is probably what
I'll do next since I’ve done most of it already for
piano and tenor.
I do have more symphonic music, but I don't
plan try another symphony of quite that length
(59 minutes), because it’s such an impractical
thing to write such a huge piece and then get it
performed or recorded.
CC: Do you have other compositions from before the
symphony?
AH: Yes, I have hours and hours of music on my
computer. Some are completed pieces and some
are possibilities or ideas for things -- ranging from
a few seconds to 10 or 15 minutes.
CC: Have there been any influences in your musical work
from your work in medicine?
AH: I'd say it's emotional. There is nothing really
of a technical nature that inspired me.
But certainly, as with any physician, I have many
"inspirational" stories of all kinds: of faith and
trust and angst and horror. These stores are a
part of me and, at some level, are also a part of
the music.
Perhaps the only specific connection is that at
times a physician has to put on the blinders and
focus all energies on the critical task at hand.
When I compose I also do that but also allow my
subjective feelings become the primary part of the
inspirational process.
Return to Index.
"Three Questions Before the First Night"
Peter Lieberson speaks to Carson Cooman
about his work Neruda Songs
(photo by Lorraine Hunt Lieberson)
American composer Peter Lieberson (b. 1946)
first became widely known when his extended
Piano Concerto was premiered by the Peter
Serkin and the Boston Symphony in 1983. Since
then, he has composed a series of concerti,
orchestral works, operas, and chamber music that
are widely played and enjoyed by performers and
audiences alike.
The son of the former president of Columbia
Records (Goddard Lieberson) and ballerina Vera
Zorina, Lieberson studied at Columbia and
Brandeis Universities and taught at Harvard
University. Since 1994, he has devoted himself
exclusively to composition.
Lieberson's music and its subject matter is often
influenced by Buddhist philosophy. He even
served for a period as the international director of
Shambhala Training in Halifax, Nova Scotia,
Canada. He received special acclaim for his
operas, Ashoka's Dream and King Gesar, both
on subjects of ancient "enlightened" rulers. He
has collaborated frequently with pianist Peter
Serkin, composing three concerti for him, as well
as numerous solo and chamber works.
Lieberson is currently completing a cantata for the
New York Philharmonic and Chorus (with
soloists Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, mezzo-soprano
and Gerald Finlay, baritone). Entitled The
World In Flower, it will be premiered in May
2006 and completes his cycle of "enlightened
ruler" pieces. The work is inspired by Emperor
Shotoku Taishi who first brought Buddhism to
Japan.
Lieberson's latest completed large-scale work,
Neruda Songs for voice and orchestra was
jointly commissioned by the Los Angeles
Philharmonic (who gave the first performances in
May of 2005) and the Boston Symphony
Orchestra. The Boston Symphony will thus give
the second set of "world premiere" performances
on November 25 & 26, 2005, under its music
director James Levine, in Boston, Massachusetts,
USA. Lieberson's wife, American mezzo-soprano
Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, will be the soloist.
CC: This new work is the second large song-cycle you've
written for your wife, Lorraine Hunt Lieberson --
following the Rilke Songs (1997-2001). What was it
like to write for someone who you know so very well?
PL: First of all, those two works were quite
different cycles to compose. I was just getting to
know Lorraine when I began the first of the five
Rilke settings in 1997. I worked on them over a
period of five years, and during that time, I
became more and more familiar with Lorraine's
voice. Thus, my understanding of how she
sounded in specific registers became more and
more clear. I really wrote this piece specifically
for Lorraine's voice rather than for the mezzosoprano
voice as a kind of defined instrument.
Having the privilege of living with Lorraine and
hearing her rehearse and perform many kinds of
vocal music, I began to really appreciate what her
individual voice was capable of doing.
CC: CC: How did you choose the poems of Neruda that you
wished to set, and how does it feel as an American
composer to approach the Spanish language poetry of
Neruda?
PL: Setting German in the Rilke Songs was very
different from setting Spanish. I was brought up
with Rilke because my mother was a German
speaker, and Lorraine is a Spanish speaker -- but I
myself do not speak either language.
Considering Rilke's complex use of the German
language, I originally thought about setting a
translation in English. However, with all due
respect to the many great translators who have
worked on it, there is no translation that truly
captures Rilke. And of special significance to me,
working with the original German suggested
certain kinds of melodic lines that the English did
not.
It was similar with the Spanish of Pablo Neruda.
I spent about a year while I was doing other
projects choosing the texts, because there are a
hundred love sonnets of Neruda. I wanted to
create a dramatic arc in the setting of the poems.
I finally narrowed it down to five. I had originally
thought about using as many as eight. I wanted in
the cycle to create a mirror of the very different
faces of love that are present in all of us and that
are also present in the Neruda love sonnets.
The last poem is very much about the nature of
loss and separation from one’s beloved because
sickness or death inevitably comes and one will be
parted from one’s beloved. So, it’s a very
bittersweet ending.
CC: CC: You've had a long and fruitful relationship with the
Boston Symphony, who have commissioned a number of
large works from you over the years -- Drala, the first two
piano concertos, and now the Neruda Songs. What
has it been like working with this orchestra all the various
occasions over the years, and have you noticed changes in
yourself or the orchestra over this time?
PL: I'm probably able to comment more on
changes in myself than changes in the orchestra,
although the orchestra certainly has changed.
There are many people who are the same, but it
has changed in overall character and many of the
players are different. Most significantly of course,
the conductor has recently changed. The first
three commissions were under the direction of
Seiji Ozawa. This new work will be presented
under James Levine, the orchestra's new music
director.
I would say that the period between composing
the First Piano Concerto (1981-1983) and Drala
(1986) was a time of really learning about the
orchestra in general and the BSO in particular.
My first piano concerto was actually my first piece
for orchestra. I learned a tremendous amount in
the context of having that work performed by the
BSO. To then go back and write another piece
for the same orchestra a few years later, I really
felt as though I knew the sound of the orchestra
and the sound of individual players.
Red Garuda (the second piano concerto; 1999)
came quite a bit later. By that point, I certainly
had a sense of what the orchestra's sound was,
but it was less significant to my writing. By that
point, I had changed my whole style of
orchestration so that it was paired down and
much more exposed. I felt I had learned how to
get the same effects as before without using the
entire orchestra all the time as I had done in
earlier pieces such as the first piano concerto.
Return to Index.
An Interview with Dr. Franklin Ashdown:
Composer & Internist
by Carson Cooman
American composer Franklin D. Ashdown (b.
1942) has, for over three decades, pursued parallel
careers as both a medical doctor (internist) and a
composer. He is also an organist, having studied
with Judson Maynard and James Drake, and
coached with Fred Tulan and Leonard Raver.
As a composer, he has focused primarily on
choral and organ music, with numerous published
compositions that are frequently performed and
recorded. His works have been heard in venues
ranging from the Mormon Tabernacle in Salt
Lake City, Utah to St. Paul’s Cathedral in London,
England. His works are published by the leading
publishers in sacred music today including H.W.
Gray, Sacred Music Press, MorningStar Music
Publishers, Wayne Leupold Editions, Harold
Flammer, Augsburg-Fortress, Concordia, and
others.
As a doctor, he earned his M.D. from University
of Texas Southwestern Medical School at Dallas.
He has had a private practice in internal medicine
in Alamogordo, New Mexico since 1971.
CC: When you were growing up, did you always intend to
have a dual career with music and medicine together?
FA: No. I really had very little idea of what a
musician's life was all about, because I had no role
models among professional musicians. I loved
music very much, but I really had no notion of
doing it professionally.
I was "programmed" to be a doctor from the time
I was about five years old. Both sides of my
family really encouraged me to go into medicine.
My father was a university professor and my
mother was a nutritionist, so both of them came
from the world of biological sciences.
Thus, with that background, I had never really
considered going into any other profession from
the time I was a little child until the time I was in
college.
CC: Did you study composition formally with anybody?
FA: I never took any formal composition lessons.
I had an excellent piano teacher all through high
school who gave me a good background in theory
and harmony. But not until after I had already
written a number of things, I seek any
composition coaching.
CC: Did you start composing fairly early on?
The first thing I ever wrote was a fight song for
my high school when I was as senior. However,
I didn't write anything else until I was 29 -- when I
wrote out an organ piece.
When I was in college, I took my first studied
organ. I had an excellent background in piano
but had become very intrigued with the organ.
Thus, undergraduate years included many organ
lessons.
When I got into medical school, I spent a lot of
my weekends learning organ literature as kind of
respite from medicine studies. When I finished
medical school in Dallas, I moved up to Salt Lake
City. During my residency there, I resumed
taking private organ lessons.
In Salt Lake, I had an organ teacher who heard
me improvise and encouraged me to start scoring
things out and actually begin composing seriously.
I started doing that, and became quickly hooked
on it. I haven't stopped since then.
CC: Do you improvise frequently?
FA: I improvise organ preludes quite a bit in
church. When I sit down to compose --
particularly if it's free-style piece -- I often begin
by improvising some musical threads with which
to work.
CC: Have there been any influences in your musical work
from your work in medicine?
FA: I can’t really say that my medical work has
specifically influenced my composing or the
choices of music that I like.
But the medical specialty that I went into does
have a connection in music, I think. I'm a
specialist in internal medicine, which is mostly a
diagnostic discipline. It involves sitting back and
thinking and listening carefully to the patients.
So, it very much involves critical listening skills.
We internists listen to patients describe their
symptoms and their pains. Then, after listening
carefully, one draws all the threads together to
make a diagnosis.
In musical composition, many of the same
intellectual skills are brought together -- critical
listening to draw various strands of melody,
harmony, and rhythm together into a coherent
work.
Perhaps it's a function of my personality that I
am drawn to "cognitive" work in medicine and to
composing as my preferred form of musical
expression.
As a more specific connection, a recent organ
piece, Scenes from the Life of a Doctor, is
inspired specifically by images connected to my
medical practice. It was written for Wayne
Leupold Edition's "organ demonstrator" series, in
which each piece has a movement connected to
each family of organ sounds, and also inspired by
a different medical image. For example, The first
vignette, "The Birth of Billy Taggart," describes in
musical imagery my first delivery as a junior
medical student. The piece begins somewhat
nervously, but ends with the sunny delight that
such an experience evokes. Another vignette,
"Dysrhythmia," recalls a a patient critically
afflicted with an erratic heart rhythm and utilizes
low-pitched pedal sounds to suggest the heart
tones a doctor typically hears.
CC: Do many of your patients know that you are also a
composer?
FA: A few of them do. I would say the vast
majority just know that I'm involved with playing
the organ and directing choirs. They don't know
much about my compositional activities.
CC: Have you found or encountered many other medical
professionals who are also practicing musicians or
composers themselves?
FA: At the American Guild of Organists
conventions, I've encountered a few of them. I
haven't really met any here in New Mexico.
For example, the organist and composer George
Baker started out as primarily a musician, and
earned his doctorate in organ. Then, he went to
the medical school (the same one I did!) and
eventually became a dermatologist. He's now
recently retired from his medical practice and has
returned to being a concert organist and full-time
musician.
I'm also aware of opthamalogist in New York
City, Hampson Sisler, who composes both for
organ and other instrumentations.
CC: What are your current/upcoming projects?
FA: I'm currently writing a lot of choral music.
Some use texts from the psalms and others
various old texts that I find very appealing.
I've also very recently written a free-style organ
piece entitled Fantasia Navidenia Antigua. It is
toccata-like work based upon the idea of an old
Spanish Christmas fantasy. It incorporates some
small quotations from "Riu, riu, chiu" -- the
familiar Spanish folk carol.
CC: What was your first publication as a composer?
My first publication was a piece called
Funambulistasia. A "funambulist" is a tightrope
walker. The piece was written for the noted
organist Leonard Raver, who at one time planned
to do a Broadway production involving the organ.
He even thought the live show might actually
involve an actual a tight-rope walker! The
resulting piece is very dramatic -- quite atonal, and
almost aleatoric, and wild.
CC: It's interesting that your first publication was for such
an "avant-garde" style organ work, since you are best
known for your many compositions in a more conservative
contemporary musical idiom.
The reason why I wrote the piece that way is
because I had just been to the Hartt School of
Music Organ Festival in 1974 ([a summer festival
of new avant-garde organ music each summer in
the 1970's]). I had thus been saturated with that
sort of avant-garde organ music and wanted to
compose that kind of piece.
In the years that followed, I decided that I prefer
to write more traditionally.
CC: When did your relationship begin with the noted
organ publisher H. W. Gray?
I wrote a piece called Elegy and it was premiered
in the 1985 Regional AGO convention at the
Mormon Tabernacle in Salt Lake City. H. W.
Gray published that piece in 1986, which was my
first publication with them.
Since then, they've published about one piece a
year of mine, and I've had a very nice relationship
with them.
CC: You've mentioned to me that you plan to retire from
medicine in a few years. What are your plans at that
point?
FA: I plan to retire from my medical practice in
2007. I will then devote my time entirely to
composition.
In particular, I'd like to write more works outside
the choral and organ world. I've written a few
pieces of that sort in the past (an orchestral
triptych and an organ concerto), but I want to
explore many of the other musical forms.
Member News
Members of the Living Music Foundation are
encouraged to send news of their activities to the
editor for inclusion in this section of the journal.
Daniel Adams is the author of "Rhythm and
Timbre as Interdependent Structural Elements in
Askell Masson's Compositions for Solo Snare
Drum", an article published in the Summer 2005
(Vol.LIII, No.4) issue of the Journal of the National
Association of College Wind and Percussion Instructors.
Adams's composition entitled Dissolve for
percussion ensemble was performed at the
national conference of Society of Composers, Inc.
held at the University of North Carolina,
Greensboro on October 14. The work was
performed by the UNCG Percussion Ensemble
conducted by Nathan Daughtrey.
Reverberations for timpani solo was performed
on February 26 by Eric Miculka at the Society of
Composers Region VI Conference, hosted by the
University of Texas at San Antonio. Reverberations
was also performed at the University of South
Florida on March 5 by Matt Dickson on his
graduate recital. Between for flute and marimba
was performed on March 12 by Valerie Watts,
flute and Lance Drege, marimba at the College
usic Society South Central Regional Chapter
Meeting , hosted by the University of Oklahoma,
Norman. Resonant Canvass for multiple
percussion solo was premiered by percussionist
Brian Vogel at Rice University on April 24 as part
of his doctoral recital. Equilateral for triangle
trio was premiered by the California State
University at Long Beach Percussion Ensemble
on April 26 under the direction of David Gerhart.
Between Stillness and Motion for piano solo
was premiered by pianist Jeri-Mae Astolfi at the
University of Central Arkansas at Conway on
April 22. Ms. Astolfi also performed the piece at
the Russell Fine Arts center on the Campus of
Henderson State University (Arkadelphia,
Arkansas) on April 29.
Three CDs of the music of composer Beth
Anderson have been released within the past two
years -- "Peachy Keen --O" on the Pogus label,
"Swales and Angels" on New World Records, and
most recently, "Quilt Music" on Albany Records.
Her work continues to receive many
performances around the world each year.
A number of new works by Barton Cummings
were premiered this past concert season, including
Three Episodes for Contrabass Saxophone
and Band by Jay C. Easton and the University of
Washington-Seattle Wind Ensemble, under the
direction of Timothy Saltzman. A number of his
works were published this year by Wiltshire Music
Company, JPM Music Publishers, and Solid Brass
Music Company. Cummings was honored by the
International Tuba-Euphonium Association with
an in-depth interview and cover story in the
Winter issue of the ITEA Journal. The interview
was conducted by Mark Nelson and covers more
than 40 years of Cummings’ musical activities.
The winners of the 2005 Hultgren Solo Cello
Works Biennial competition (directed by member
Craig Hultgren) for composers are Nickitas J.
Demos and Michael Angell. Demos' Tonoi IV
for solo electric cello won both the $1,000
Birmingham Prize and the $1,000 Atlanta
Prize. Angell’s Sonata for Cello and Tape won
the $500 Tuscaloosa Prize.
Cellist Craig
Hultgren presented the same program of seven
cello works on August 28th at the University of
Alabama at Birmingham, September 13th at
Georgia State University and September 20th at
the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. These
seven pieces were finalists selected from 115
submissions from 27 different countries. The
Biennial was open to submission by living
composers of solo cello music or cello and
electronics. The audience in attendance at the
each concert voted to select the winners.
This was the fourth set of Solo Cello Works
Biennial concerts which are organized every two
years. A review panel from the Birmingham Art
Music Alliance choose this year's finalists last
May. The panel's criteria for selection were
innovative writing, instrumental playability, and
compositional craft. The seven finalists for the
2005 Biennial were:
Break-Out a miniature for solo cello by Katy
Abbott (Northcote, Australia)
Sonata for Cello & Tape by Michael Angell
(Birmingham, Alabama)
Tonoi IV for solo electric cello by Nickitas J.
Demos (Atlanta, Georgia)
Più mesto for 2-bow cello by Carlo Forlivesi
(Imola, Italy)
Voices from the Gorge for cello & tape with backprojected
images by Stephen Gard (Thirlmere,
Australia)
Stigmata for solo violoncello by Vincent Chee-
Yung Ho (Calgary, Canada)
Everything is Permitted for solo cello by Robert
Percy (Twickenham, United Kingdom)
Nickitas J. Demos, founder and Artistic Director
of the neoPhonia New Music Ensemble, is
Associate Professor of Music at Georgia State
University. He holds degrees in music from the
Cleveland Institute of Music, Indiana University
and the University North Carolina. He has
received performances by many major orchestras
including the Cleveland Orchestra, the
Philadelphia Orchestra, the Nashville Chamber
Orchestra and the Orchestra of St.
Luke’s. North/South Consonance, Thámyris, the
Rialto Brass Quintet and the Converse College
Brass Quintet have performed his chamber music
works. Tonoi IV is part of a series of works for
solo performers. The piece is abstract in nature,
having no particular programmatic idea. The
piece is typical of the previous works in the series
in that the harmonic and melodic material
presented at the beginning are used and
developed throughout. Because of the electric
nature of the instrument, effects processing plays
a critical role in the composition. The piece was
written for Hultgren.
Michael Angell is Associate Professor of Music
Technology and Associate Chair at the University
of Alabama at Birmingham where he is founder
and director of the the Computer Music
Ensemble. An energetic organizer, he was a
founding member and initial president of the
Birmingham Art Music Alliance. He has received
awards from the International Trumpet Guild,
ASCAP and the Alabama State Council on the
Arts. The Sonata for Cello and Tape was
written for Hultgren. It combines computer
generated and manipulated sounds with live cello
performance. The work is in a cyclic form
containing five continuous movements of
different moods. The fourth movement is for
cello alone. The two short interludes are for
computer-generated sounds alone. The third
movement introduces a video montage and
contains a soundscape over which the soloist
freely improvises gestures. Descriptive titles
given for the separate movements are strictly the
composer’s personal images. The work is not
intended to be programmatic.
Jeffrey Hoover's work Sacred Stones was
performed by Ronald L. Caravan, alto axophone
and Sar Shalom Strong, piano at Syracuse
University on February 20. The work includes
various extended performance techniques,
including multiphonics, altered tone color
fingerings, and quartertones. Sacred Stones was
written for Ronald L. Caravan. This concert was
a part of the Syracuse University Year of the
American Composer Series Concert, and included
works by three regional New York composers as
well a new work by Ronald L. Caravan. Duo
Ahlert & Schwab (Daniel Ahlert and Brigit
Schwab) performed American Tango, for
mandolin and guitar, in Meingetten, Germany on
February 25.
American Tango was also
performed by Duo Ahlert & Schwab at Illinois
Central College, East Peoria on April 29, as part
of their United States tour. Kenneth Martinson,
viola and Christopher Taylor, piano, performed
Latin Steps at Illinois Central College, East
Peoria, on March 18, for the ICC Subscription
Series, and also at Western Illinois University
on March 25. The Journal of the American
Viola Society published a review, written by
Kenneth Martinson, of Latin Steps and
Evocation (viola and piano) in their Fall, 2003
issue. Spirit of Light, for solo clarinet, was
performed on a CUBE concert at the Lutheran
Theological Seminary in Chicago on February
13. The work, inspired by Gregorian chants,
was performed by Christie Vohs, clarinetist for
CUBE. Five Mysteries for clarinet and CD was
performed by Michael Dean at Southeastern
Missouri State University on February 17. The
clarinet version was created for Michael Dean.
The work is also available for soprano
saxophone, CD and paintings.
Joseph Pehrson's composition Trump-it! for
trumpet and piano was performed at the
Philharmonic Hall in Trenton, Italy on May 19,
2005. Pehrson's work Bass Desires was
performed by on the Tonmeister Summer
Concerts on June 16, 2005, sponsored by New
York University's Composition Department and
Dinu Ghezzo.
Volume VII of Margaret Vardell Sandresky's
complete organ works has been published by
Wayne Leupold Editions, Inc. Her organ
concerto Dialogues for Organ and Strings,
Christmas Variations on "Lo, How a Rose
E're Blooming" for organ and band , and
Fantasia for Organ and Brass Quintet will be
published by E. C. Schimer. Sandresky was
named Composer of the Year by the American
Guild of Organists in 2004. She is currently
working on two new projects: a volume of
moderately difficult organ music for the liturgical
year and a large work for the 18th century organ
which has just been restored in Old Salem, North
Carolina.
Two recent releases from
Living Artist Recordings
Vol. 10: Semantemes
featuring music by Jeremy Beck, Carson Cooman,
Dorothy Hindman, Ed Robertson, and Erich Stem
order from dwightwinenger.net/discpage.htm
Vol. 11: A Still Subtler Spirit
music of Monroe Golden
order from dwightwinenger.net/discpage.htm
or from CDemusic.org or Amazon.com
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(make checks out to Living Music Foundation)
Charles Norman Mason
Living Music
P. O. Box 2264
Birmingham, AL 35201
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online edition
INDEX:
- Late-breaking news that arrived between issues.
Hard-copy synopses:
- Latest issue: "R. Murray Schafer" by Gordon Rumson,
R. Murray Schafer issue of Living Music... (Vol.20 #2:, Fall 2005)
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From here on occasional links may result in your jumping to "the edge of the internet." Deleted pages may be obtained by the incurably curious by request of the webmaster.
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- a Special reprint of
"Style is no longer an issue" by Gavin Thomas.
(Fall, 1995, issue of Living Music...and selected short subjects)
- Vol. 20 #1, spring 2005, "The Creative Experience of a Nigerian Composer" by Godwin Sadoh, Joshua Uzoigwe issue of LMJ...
- Vol. 19 #2, spring/summer 2004, "George Walker's Visit to Miles College" by Phillip Ratliff.
- Vol.19 #1, fall/winter 2003, "Getting High" by Greg D'Alessio, Pop/Corn issue of Living Music...
- Volume 18, Number 2: Beyond Words, spring 2003, Edwin C. Robertson issue of Living Music... "Text setting"
- Volume 18, Number 1, fall, 2002, David Del Tredici issue of Living Music... "One Composer's Way"
- Volume17, Number 4, spring, 2002, Lukas Foss issue of Living Music... "Music of a Chameleon" by Phillip Ratliff
- Volume 17, Number 3b, fall, 2001, "No New Format" by Rusty Banks
- Volume 17, Number 3, spring, 1999, Aaron Rabushka issue of Living Music...
- Volume 17, Number 2, winter, 1999, Rodney Oakes issue of Living Music...
- Volume 17, Number 1, fall, 1999, Paul Rudy issue of Living Music...
- Volume 16, Number 4, summer, 1999, Ben Johnston issue of Living Music...
- Volume 16, Number 3, spring, 1999, Pat Long issue of Living Music...
- Volume 16, Number 2, winter, 1998, Charles Norman Mason issue of Living Music...
- Volume 16, Number 1, fall, 1998, Modern Opera issue of Living Music...
- Volume 15, Number 4, summer, 1998, Mickie D. Willis issue of Living Music...
- Volume 15, Number 3, spring, 1998, Rusty and Christy Banks issue of Living Music...
- Volume 15, Number 2, winter, 1997, Haubenstock-Ramati issue of Living Music...
- Volume 15, Number 1, fall, 1997, LaDONNA SMITH issue of Living Music...
- Volume 14, Number 4, summer, 1997, Pauline Oliveros issue of Living Music...
- Volume 14,Number 3, spring, 1997, P.Q. Phan issue of Living Music...
- Volume 14,Number 2, winter, 1996, Dorothy Hindman issue of Living Music...
- Volume 14, Number 1, fall, 1996, Computer Research In Music issue of Living Music...
- Volume 13, Number 4, summer, 1996, Craig Hultgren issue of Living Music...
Back issues are available at reasonable cost back to Vol. 1, #1, fall 1983.
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LIVING MUSIC
Volume 20, No.2
copyright 2005
Charles Norman Mason
(Executive Director) cmason@bsc.edu
ISSN: 8775-092X
P.O. Box 549033, Birmingham, AL 35254
http:dwightwinenger.net/
Editor: Carson Cooman
Submission Guidelines:
Living Music is seeking lucid prose on topics pertaining to contemporary music. Articles should range in lenght from 1000 to 2000 words. LM is also seeking reviews of concerts, scores, and recordings and commentaries on competitions, recording opportunities, and residencies. To send submissions or for information contact Carson Cooman: 386 Oakdale Drive, Rochester, NY 14618-1131; carson @carsoncooman.com
Living Music is published twice yearly by Living Music Foundation, Inc.
Living Artist Recordings is owned by Living Music Foundation. Inquiries regarding LMF recording series should
be sent to Charles Mason (cmason@bsc.edu).
Executive Director Charles Norman Mason
Founder and Webmaster Dwight Winenger
** Vice-President of Programs Robert Voisey
Board of Directors
| George Crumb
Greg D'Alessio
David Del Tredici
Orlando J. Garcia
Dorothy Hindman
Syd Hodkinson |
Craig Hultgren
Ladislav Kubik
Dennis Kam
Hye Kyung Lee
David Liptak
Tom Lopez | |
Pauline Oliveros
Bruce Reiprich
Andrew Rindfleisch
Gregg Smith
Augusta Read Thomas
David Vayo
Olly Wilson
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New Releases from Living Artist Recordings
Volume 6 Like Shining The Gregg Smith Singers
Volume 7 All About Time dennis KAM (Bergonzi String Quartet, Margaret Donaghue Flavin, Alan Ngim, Amy Tarantino)
Volume 10 Semantemes (works by Jeremy Beck, Carson Cooman, Dorothy Hindman, Edward Robertson, Erich Stem)
Volume 11 A Still Subtler Spirit (works of Monroe Golden)
All volumes of Living Artist Recordings are available on Amazon.com, CDemusic, and Living Music Foundation.
To request information about inclusion on future LAR recordings write cmason@bsc.edu.
Note:
Members receive the hard copy issue of this information weeks before we are able to get it revised and uploaded. Sorry if you got any of this information too late.
05/18/06