Alto Saxophone Improvisations 1979

Anthony Braxton - Alto Saxophone Improvisations 1979

In the summer and fall of 1978 I had the opportunity to tour America and Europe performing solo music for the alto saxophone. The route of these performances included such diverse places as Boulder, Colorado; Austin, Texas; San Francisco as well as Vienna and Central Europe. The challenge of performing so many solo concerts in one period represented a new experience for me - normally my solo performances are few and far between (averaging at most one or two concerts every other month) and I was able to learn a great deal from this opportunity. The past couple of years have seen many changes reshape world creativity. Of those changes, certainly the dynamic acceleration of solo activity can be viewed as a major factor responsible for the expanded reality of present day creative music. The reality implications of this phenomenon are clear; for the emergence of solo activity increases the dynamic spectrum of individual participation - and this is true on many levels. The progressional continuance of this period has now seen the forming of a new kind of creative musician - whose activity transcends any one criterion and whose scope cannot be limited by superficial boundaries concerning whether or not a given participation is 'correct' or 'legitimate.' In actual terms we can now experience a spectrum of solo musics involving every kind of instrument - this is true whether we are focusing on the saxophone, guitar, trumpet, trombone, etc. I believe these changes represent a positive advancement for world creativity, and a signal as to what the future holds.
...
In 1967 as a means to explore improvisation and composition I moved to dissect the components of music methodology into several areas for alternative investigation. At the time I referred to my approach as 'conceptual grafting' - since the essence of this viewpoint involved isolating various factors as a means to build a music from particular parts, and this approach has underlined the route my work has since taken. By 'conceptual grafting' I meant that a given composition could be put together based on the integration of particular elements - as opposed to the nature of its harmonic or thematic reality. In fact, the reality of conceptual grafting would have nothing to do with conventional harmony nor would there necessarily be a theme in the way we have come to view this world. Instead this approach would move to clarify the dynamic implication of 'principal elements.' The best example to understand this approach would be to imagine painting a picture with only blue or with only green, or better still with mostly blue but with isolated touches of red and brown. The essence of conceptual grafting is this and nothing more - that is, an attempt to develop alternative considerations for participating in the creative process, based on the reality of its 'working ingredients.'
All of the compositions on this record - with the exception of the three pieces I have included from the traditional repertoire - can be viewed with respect to the nature of its use of conceptual grafting. For the dynamics of this principle do not move to solidify one kind of music but instead help to differentiate one procedure from another. Each composition on this record is built up from a separate mix of elements - which is to say, improvisation in this context is not simply about playing whatever seems to be appropriate for the moment but rather 'invention with respect to the nature of its ingredients and the added demands of its schematic.' What you have here is not a music designed for open improvisation rather the technique of conceptual grafting can be viewed as an elastic approach to composition. As such, the actual music on this record can be viewed as one example of a particular mix - with the understanding being that not only are other versions possible, but also other versions by different musicians. (Anthony Braxton)




Tracklisting:

SIDE ONE

1. GNG B-(RN) R {7:32}

2. RKRR (SMBA) W {6:23}

3. Red Top {6:16}

SIDE TWO

1. KSZMK PQ EGN {7:20}

2. SOVA NOUB V-(AO) {4:24}

3. 104degrees-KELVIN M-18 {6:18}

4. ATZ GG-NOWH KR {6:17}

SIDE THREE

1. JMK-730 CFN-7 {6:50}

2. Along Came Betty {7:58}

3. VHR G-(HWF) APQ {5:12}

SIDE FOUR

1. AOTH MBA H {6:06}

2. Giant Steps {6:16}

3. NMMN TOWR VK-N {7:03}

(1) (2)

Ping/Traces

Roger Reynolds - Ping/Traces

Ping (1968)

Roger Reynolds - piano

Karen Reynolds - flute

Paul Chihara - harmonium, bowed-cymbal and tam-tam

Alan Johnson - electronics

The conception of PING, evolved during a two-year germination period, includes three elements: the Beckett text on 160 slides designed by Karen Reynolds; a film; and combined instrumental, taped, and electronic sound. In live performance the three strands of events occur simultaneously but are not synchronized. As a recorded performance, PING is a self-sustained composition of instrumental improvization over taped and electronic music. The conditions circumscribing the improvised sound in the total intermedial context were used as a basis for creating an independent sound piece. The four performers, accustomed to improvising together under the intermedial conditions, had no trouble concentrating a higher event density within the music alone for this recording.

PING is the first break in the composer's commitment to fully defined, ornamental textures. The piece is without score, although the individual parts are detailed. The overall flow is divided into three sections, approximately 5, 10, and 7 minutes long, defined and confined by four types of limits within which the performers improvise. These limits consist of assigned pitch materials, dynamic shapes, rhythmic relations, and instrumental performance techniques.

Traces (1969)

Yuji Takahashi - piano

Karen Reynolds - flute

Lin Barron - cello

Alan Johnson - electronics

TRACES was written for the composer-pianist Yuji Takahashi. Scored for solo piano, with flute, cello, ring modulator, signal generator, and 6 independent channels of taped sound, this work is concerned not only with events but with their residues (traces).

The pianist makes a series of 9 statements in the form of 3 interrelated groups of 3 short movements. The flute and cello draw on events (traces, clues) in these statements, extending them simply, without development or elaboration. There is a quality of rather timeless dwelling on some of these interpiece extensions (vestigal sound-traces).

(Dictionary: trace. A mark or line left by anything that has passed; footprint, track, trail; a sign or evidence of some past thing; a vestige.)

(from the liner notes)

Tracklisting:

Side 1

1. Ping {21:55}

Side 2

1. Traces {23:19}

(1)

The Percussions (Of Strasbourg)

The Percussions (Of Strasbourg) - The Percussions (Of Strasbourg)

In 1961 six percussionists trained at the National Conservatory in Paris met again at Strasbourg, reunited by their employment with the Municipal Orchestra and the radio and television studios. The increasingly important role of the percussion instruments in the music of today soon prompted them to form a sextette, "The Percussion-Instrument Group of Strasbourg," a name later shortened for convenience to "The Strasbourg Percussions." A firm friendship quickly developed among the six musicians as they enthusiastically shared the difficulties of getting started. From the first they subjected themselves to a rigorous schedule and that austere discipline which characterizes all of their work. By these means they intend to do justice to the modern importance of percussion instruments by presenting, in contemporary musical language, a repertory conceived exclusively for these instruments, without any orchestral aid. Their golden rule is always to avoid demonstrations of purely formal virtuosity. They make use of all instruments in each percussion category - skins, woods, metal. To the classical instruments - tympani, drums, cymbals, accessories - are added those specially created by the Group (chromatic series of rattles, manuals of bells, cencerros) and those of oriental origin (Chinese gongs, Siamese gongs, Japanese mokubyos, Indian tabla-tarengs). Their range covers 140 instruments in all. The group performs both recital works in solo without conductor and concert works and music accompanying choreography. It is the only ensemble of its kind in the world.

Miloslav Kabelac was born in Prague in 1908. At twenty he entered the Conservatory there, where he studied composition, conducting and piano. Working with the Czechoslovak broadcasting organization from 1932 onward, he was able also to continue a career in composition which he had begun the year before by writing a Sinfonietta for orchestra. From then on his creative activity was oriented principally toward two poles of equal importance for him: on the one hand, a considerable number of works for large orchestra, as well as cantatas and oratorios; on the other hand, works of more modest dimensions in which the world of childhood and popular idiom are elements of prime importance. This inquiring spirit whose interests included exotic musical forms was bound to sieze eagerly upon the problems of composition for a percussion ensemble appropriately strengthened for a role different from its usual one of component in an orchestra. With these Eight Inventions Kabelac finally achieved the mastery of this complex instrumentation. Each Invention is worked out in a specific mood which is exactly limned by the choice of musical material and its organization. The initial purpose of the composer is to mold a musical content utilizing to the full - while avoiding conventional cliches - the potentialities of percussion, first of all in rhythmic development but also, conjointly, from the points of view of melody and timbre. Written for the Strasbourg Percussions, the Eight Inventions were first performed on 22 April 1965 at the Strasbourg Municipal Theatre, with dances choreographed by Manuel Parres. Since then the Group has included the Inventions in numerous concert programs.

Research - which for Kabelac is a supplementary means of enlarging a range of expression, a research which in fact is quite adventitious - in [Maurice] Ohana has deeper roots which have supported a period of investigation and creation extending over more than twenty years of assiduous work: researches into micro-intervals, into the modification of certain traditional instruments such as the guitar and even into as yet unexploited possibilities of the voice and of phonetics. Born in Casablanca in 1914 of a family of Andalusian origin, after a year of study under Alfredo Casella at the Academy of St. Cecelia in Rome he has for more than thirty years made Paris the principal locus of his activities. Thus he can be regarded as one of the most characteristic composers of the young French school. From his Andalusian heritage he has retained, throughout the marked evolution of his musical language, a deep fidelity to the essentials of an art which is a product of millenary civilizations occupying the Mediterranean shores of Europe and North Africa, an art of which the archetypes belong to the dawn of time and are part of the origins of human thought. From an already long list evidencing great creative vitality we may cite Llanto, on a text by Lorca, for reader, baritone, chorus and orchestra (1949-1950), Cantigas for chorus and eighteen instruments (1953), Guitar Concerto (1950), Synaxis for four percussion instruments, two pianos and large orchestra (1966), Signes for four percussion instruments, flute, piano and zither in 1/3-tones (1965), a chamber opera Syllabary for Phaedra (1967), etc. The Four Etudes, originally intended for four players, was written at the invitation of the North-German Radio. The formation of the Strasbourg Group offered the composer the occasion to rework these Etudes for six percussionists, and they were first performed in this version at the 1963 Strasbourg Festival, with choreography - again by Manuel Parres - which invited the musicians to take part with the dancers in evolutions upon the stage. (Michel Bernard, from the liner notes)

Tracklisting:

Side 1

1. 8 Inventions, Opus 45: Corale [composed by Miloslav Kabelac] {3:20}

2. 8 Inventions, Opus 45: Giubiloso [composed by Miloslav Kabelac] {1:44}

3. 8 Inventions, Opus 45: Recitativo [composed by Miloslav Kabelac] {2:36}

4. 8 Inventions, Opus 45: Scherzo [composed by Miloslav Kabelac] {1:50}

5. 8 Inventions, Opus 45: Lamentoso [composed by Miloslav Kabelac] {3:27}

6. 8 Inventions, Opus 45: Danza [composed by Miloslav Kabelac] {3:13}

7. 8 Inventions, Opus 45: Aria [composed by Miloslav Kabelac] {2:52}

8. 8 Inventions, Opus 45: Diabolico [composed by Miloslav Kabelac] {1:37}

Side 2

1. 4 Etudes Choreographiques: First Etude [composed by Maurice Ohana] {3:20}

2. 4 Etudes Choreographiques: Second Etude [composed by Maurice Ohana] {5:21}

3. 4 Etudes Choreographiques: Third Etude [composed by Maurice Ohana] {4:06}

4. 4 Etudes Choreographiques: Fourth Etude [composed by Maurice Ohana] {3:04}

(1)

Mantra

Karlheinz Stockhausen - Mantra

Alfons and Aloys Kontarsky - piano

The formal plan and skeleton of MANTRA for 2 pianists came into being between May 1st and June 20th 1970, in Osaka, Japan. Every morning I composed for ca. 3 hours in my hotel room, before driving at midday to the spherical auditorium at the World Exhibition where, together with 20 young singers and instrumentalists, I performed my music daily from 3:30 p.m. to ca. 9:00 p.m., for over 1 million listeners. Then, from July 10th to August 18th, I worked uninterrupted on the score in Kürten, and on October 18th at 8:30 p.m. the work was premiered by the pianists Aloys and Alfons Kontarsky at the "Donaueschinger Musiktage für Zeitgenössische Tonkunst", as a commission from the Südwestfunk Baden-Baden. The gramophone recording for Deutsche Grammophon took place from the 10th to the 13th June 1971 at Munich, in the recording studio at 22 Kreillerstrasse.

The work arises in its entirety from a 13-note sound-formula, the "Mantra". For the title-cover of the record, I have drawn this "Mantra" in colour. The colours show the structural relationships of the "Mantra" (upper voice) with its mirror image (lower voice); with its 4 limbs - separated by pauses; with its 13 different characteristics which are given by its 13 notes, and each of which determines a large cycle of the work: 1. regular repetition; 2. decay-accent; 3. "normal" note; 4. quick grace-note group around the central note etc.

There is nothing except continual series of this "Mantra" and superimpositions of it over itself, in 12 forms of expansion and 13 x 12 transpositions. That is, in each of the 13 large cycles - in each of which a note from the "Mantra" is itself the central note around which the expanded forms arise - another of the 13 mantric characteristics predominates.
MANTRA, therefore, is not a variation form. The "Mantra" is not varied; not a single note is added, nothing is "accompanied", ornamented etc. The "Mantra" always stays itself, and appears in its twelvefoldness, with its 13 characteristics.
The fast passage before the end is a compression of the whole work into the shortest space of time; all expansions and transpositions are gathered extremely fast into 4 layers.
So-called "ring-modulation", which I have employed as a technical process, makes possible a new system of harmonic relationships. To this end, each of the pianists has an apparatus on his left hand side into which a microphone amplifier, a compressor, a filter, a ring-modulator, a scaled sine-wave generator, and a volume control have been built. The piano sound is amplified by 2 microphones, and ring-modulated by a sine wave. At some distance behind each piano stand loudspeakers which reproduce the modulated sound simultaneously with the played sound. The modulated sound should be somewhat louder than the original sound.
In each of the 13 large cycles of the work, each pianist introduces a sine tone, corresponding each time to the central note around which all the "Mantra"-transformations are centred. The 1st pianist presents the "upper" 13 notes of the "Mantra" in succession, and the 2nd pianist the "lower" 13 notes, that is, the "Mantra"- mirror.
Each 1st and 13th note of each recurrence of the "Mantra" are thus identical to the "mirroring" sine tone; hence they sound completely "consonant", and thus completely "natural"-like notes; and depending on the intervallic remoteness of the remaining "Mantra" notes from the "mirror note" of the ring modulation, the modulated sound sounds more or less "dissonant", and its spectrum more or less unlike the piano (minor seconds, and similarly minor ninths and major sevenths, produce the most "dissonant" modulator-sounds, octaves and fifths the most "consonant"). Hence one perceives a continual "respiration" from consonant to dissonant to consonant modulator-sounds, resulting from the precisely tuned relationships between the modulating sine tones and the modulated piano notes.
Naturally, the unified construction of MANTRA is a musical miniature of the unified macrostructure of the cosmos, just as it is a magnification into the acoustic time-field of the unified micro-structure of the harmonic vibrations in notes themselves. (Karlheinz Stockhausen, Kürten, September 15th, 1971)


Tracklisting:

Side 1

1. Mantra (1. Teil) {34:56}

Side 2

1. Mantra (2. Teil) {29:40}

(1)

Viola Today

Karen Phillips - Viola Today

Viola (English), alto (French), Bratsche (German). Three names for an entity treated as a non-entity. The whims of tradition want to reduce its role to part filling; its tone has been described nasal, its technique awkward, and its players have been pushed aside as frustrated violinists.

No wonder we did not find ourselves in a treasure trove when selecting the compositions for this album. ( I can hear the outcry of countless composers whose viola pieces have been gathering dust on the shelves.) We were not trying, to be sure, to discover as many pieces as possible. A wide choice was not what we needed. The title "Viola Today" does not, therefore, have a representative meaning. It reflects only the few slices we picked from viola's life today. We would, however, like to see this record function as a manifesto for Viola's Lib and serve as a banner for all the other oppressed minorities; the Heckelphone, the Flexatone, the contrabss clarinet. . . (from the liner notes by Ilhan Mimaroglu)

The recordings of the viola version of John Cage's "Dream", "Viola" and "Spillihpnerak" on this album are premiere recordings.

Tracklisting:

Side One

1. Dream [composed by John Cage] {6:54}

2. Sequenza VI [composed by Luciano Berio] {12:05}

Side Two

1. Viola (open-form version) [composed by Bruno Maderna] {6:17}

2. Viola (Closed-form version) [composed by Bruno Maderna] {7:11}

3. Spillihpnerak [composed by David Bedford] {8:59}

(1)

New Music in Quarter-Tones

various artists compilation - New Music in Quarter-Tones

George C. Pappastavrou and Stuart Warren Lanning - pianos

CHARLES IVES - THREE QUARTER-TONE PIECES (for two pianos)

Of the three short pieces that I've composed with the use of quarter-tones, the first and last were originally intended for a quarter-tone piano, two keyboards, and for one player. (Charles Ives)

TEO MACERO - ONE-THREE QUARTERS (for chamber ensemble and two pianos)

Chamber Ensemble from the Syracuse University School of Music: Helen McGill - ondes martenot; Elizabeth Szlek - piccolo and flute; Virginia Moore - violin; Christie Blanche - cello; Ronald Ranallo - trombone; Alfred Balestra - tuba

This was my first attempt at quarter-tone composition, and while it's a serious piece, I tried to get as much fun into it as possible. I think music should always be entertaining, and I think that this piece has a great deal of humor besides being a serious attempt to use quarter-tone pianos with instruments. As far as its form goes, it's like a Schubert song - through-composed. As far as the style goes, it has elements of jazz, reminiscent of early Stravinsky and Milhaud. I tried to make of it a "sound" piece - to take advantage of the hundreds of instrumental sound combinations that would give it as much textural variety as possible. I poked a little fun at myself in it and also, I think, at the century we live in. Some of it is stark, some elements of confusion have been deliberately written in, and I think it does build, as the New York Times wrote, "to lovely pandemonium." (Teo Macero)

CALVIN HAMPTON - TRIPLE PLAY (for ondes martenot and two pianos)

Helen McGill - ondes martenot

The initial procedures in Triple Play are academic: a short melodic motif and its intervallic inversion, variously juxtaposed with a short rhythm pattern and its durational opposite. The controlled durations graduate to a rhythmic quotation from a novelty song entitled "I'm in Love With Tootsie Oodles." Simultaneously, the melodic motif, having undergone intervallic expansion, acquires frivolous adornments during the course of two "variations." All elements are homogenized at the conclusion.

In an effort to draw a blush from composer Lee Erwin, who wrote "Tootsie Oodles" for the Arthur Godfrey show, I performed his song at a party - in strict canon. Lee matched my stunt by playing the canon back to me at a New York film festival, during his accompaniment of a Gloria Swanson silent epic. Rendering it once more in this piece makes a triple play. (Calvin Hampton)

DONALD LYBBERT - LINES FOR THE FALLEN (for soprano and two pianos)

Phyllis Bryn-Julson - soprano

With the micro-tones fixed by the tuning of the two pianos and with a singer able to make quarter-tone differentiations, I felt the medium employed for this piece a valid and exciting one. The pitch organization of the work is serially oriented, although the brief section in the pianos following the second line of the text is partially aleatoric. There are five different approximate durational values employed, but no meters. At only certain points are vertical simultaneities indicated in the score. This provides the performers with a certain temporal freedom, though it requires total-score concentration in performance. Structurally, the music proceeds additively with some cross-references brought about by the text. (Donald Lybbert)

CALVIN HAMPTON - CATCH-UP (for tape recorder and two pianos)

A compositional "quickie" Catch-Up has four simple ideas: A, B, C and D, each five measures long. There are two versions of each idea - a first set to be pre-recorded, and a second set ot be played live against the recording. Adding to the live set a section E, also five measures long but mostly rests, both sets are then organized into repeat groups. Because twenty is the smallest number into which both the repeat groups of fours and fives are divisible, it requires a passage through twenty sections each before the two sets resolve their asymmetry and catch up with each other. (Calvin Hampton)

Tracklisting:

Side 1

1. Charles Ives - Three Quarter-Tone Pieces: Largo {3:44}

2. Charles Ives - Three Quarter-Tone Pieces: Allegro {2:50}

3. Charles Ives - Three Quarter-Tone Pieces: Chorale {3:56}

4. Teo Macero - One-Three Quarters {5:40}

Side 2

1. Calvin Hampton - Triple Play {7:19}

2. Donald Lybbert - Lines for the Fallen {7:48}

3. Calvin Hampton - Catch-Up {3:10}

(1)

Stockhausen-Berio

Marie-Francoise Bucquet - Stockhausen-Berio

Liner notes by Marie-Francoise Bucquet:

KARLHEINZ STOCKHAUSEN (born 1928)

Klavierstück IX (1954): If I tried to persuade someone that music is time experienced through sound I would choose Stockhausen's "Klavierstück IX" as an example. Because the opening chord is played 140 times, because this chord is drenched by its own echo and produces its own halo of sound, because the phenomenon of repetition is no longer relevant here and metrical units have ceased to exist, we are at once compelled to alter our whole way of listening. Technique and interpretation count no longer; one must let oneself become impregnated by this music, feel certain sounds almost viscerally, actively experience silence, sense the flow of time, and ultimately, even fall in love with sound . . . which is, I believe, what Stockhausen expects of his interpreter.

Klavierstück XI (1956): First performed on July 28, 1957, Stockhausen's "Piano Piece XI" shares with Boulez's Third Piano Sonata the historical responsibility of being a musical prototype; one which has been taken up by many composers, and has entered the vocabulary of new music under the name of "multiple form."Taking the example of "Piano Piece XI," Stockhausen himself clarifies his intention as "not just to determine one possible solution for all the moments which occur in the unfolding of a whole, but to propose a number of equally acceptable solutions and to integrate the performer's decision regarding the version of his choice." Let me immediately point out that there are several million possibilities in the performance of this piece. By giving the performer the dangerous weapon of choice, chance is introduced in music. According to his ambitions, his imagination, or his courage the pianist can become either what Stockhausen calls a "co-creator" or else a mere pointsman. Personally I don't see how one can possibly play this piece without being totally involved. Before each performance I feel I am about to embark on an adventure, and my curiosity is not yet satisfied. The most fascinating thing about this work is that its outline changes completely with each performer.

LUCIANO BERIO (born 1925)

Cinque Variazioni (1952-53): This work was revised by Berio in 1966 ... and is recorded here for the first time. The Variations, dedicated to Luigi Dallapiccola and akin to his Quaderno Musicale di Anna Libera, belong to a period during which Berio used the strictest and most disciplined technique of composition. Yet, their spontaneity, instinctive lyricism and subtle sound effects break through the rigid frame. The last variation, extensively altered, in the new version, has a density of expression which reminds us of some of Beethoven's adagios.

Berio still uses here the variation form, but his very use of a traditional form proves how the craftsman within him has complete command over his material. This music is meant above all for the ear which can easily follow its overall design.

Sequenza IV for piano (1966): With the seven sequenze for instrument or solo voice, Berio makes a premeditated incursion into the realm of virtuosity. Sequenze I (for flute), II (for harp), III (for solo voice), IV (for piano), V (for trombone), VI (for viola), and VII (for oboe), were written over a period of eleven years: it is therefore obvious that they illustrate the successive stages of Berio's systematic research in the instrumental field.

Berio has said that the sequenze "can be considered as dramatic essays whose action resides in the relation between the soloist and his own instrument."

Himself a pianist, he exploits here the instrument's potential in a masterly way. Memories of Chopin, Liszt, Scarlatti, and Debussy occur, not at a stylistic level, but rather in a sort of digital genesis. The key structural element in this score is the extensive use of the third petal. Depressed immediately after the chosen note or chord, it isolates and prolongs the sound for a time which is precisely determined by the composer. Berio defines the role of the third pedal by explaining that in "Sequenza IV" "two discourses are superimposed, overlap, and sometimes interpenetrate: a real one (entrusted to the keyboard) and a virtual one (entrusted to the pedal)."

Tracklisting:

1. Klavierstück IX {9:18}

2. Klavierstück XI {14:24}

Side 2

1. Cinque Variazioni {9:06}

2. Sequenza IV {11:35}

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Distant Hills

Oregon - Distant Hills

Released in 1973. Follow up to Music of Another Present Era. [refer to previous post]

Paul McCandless - oboe, English horn

Glen Moore - bass, violin, flute, piano

Ralph Towner - guitar, trumpet, mellophone, piano

Collin Walcott - sitar, tabla, drums, tamboura, clarinet, congas

Tracklisting:

Side One

1. Aurora {7:39}

2. Dark Spirit {5:45}

3. Mi Chinita Suite {6:53}

Side Two

1. Distant Hills {6:30}

2. Canyon Song {4:57}

3. Song for a Friend {5:12}

4. Confession {6:18}

(1) (2)  [links may be back soon]

Music of Another Present Era

Oregon - Music of Another Present Era

From the liner notes:

The personnel of Oregon is Paul McCandless, Glen Moore, Ralph Towner, and Collin Walcott. Paul McCandless, who plays here oboe and English horn, was an oboe major at Duquesne University and the Manhattan School of Music. He has received various awards and appeared publicly with different symphonic organizations, and played at colleges and festivals with the Winter consort, as well as recording with them and others. Glen Moore, who here plays bass, electric bass, and flute, and on "Land of Heart's Desire," "Naiads" and "At the Hawk's Well," plays piano, was a history major at the University of Oregon, and studied music with various celebrated bass, piano and flute players. He has played and recorded with many well known jazz groups. Ralph Towner, who here plays classical guitar, 12 string suitar and mellophone, and on "North Star" and "Touchstone," plays piano, was a theory and composition major at the University of Oregon, and studied guitar with Karl Scheit in Vienna. He has given numerous lute and guitar recitals in the United States and Europe, appeared at Woodstock and other festivals, has recorded with various prominent groups, and is a noted composer. Among his works are several solos and duets for classical guitar and an orchestral concerto as well as music for films and modern dance. Collin Walcott here plays the sitar, tabla, mridangam, violin, esraj, and percussion, and on "Sail," rhythm guitar. He studied percussion at Indiana University and ethnomusicology at U.C.L.A., was a disciple and sitar student of Pandit Ravi Shankar, and a disciple and tabla student of Ustad Alla Rakha. He has appeared with various symphonies, The Society of Contemporary Music in New York, has recorded with many famous musicians, has supervised a number of recordings, and has been involved with the sound tracks of various feature films.

Released in 1972.

Tracklisting:

Side One

1. North Star {5:49}

2. The Rough Places Plain {3:09}

3. Sail {4:29}

4. At the Hawk's Well {3:11}

5. Children of God {1:04}

6. Opening {5:26}

7. Naiads {1:51}

Side Two

1. Shard/Spring is Really Coming {3:21}

2. Bell Spirit {0:40}

3. Baku the Dream Eater {4:20}

4. The Silence of a Candle {1:39}

5. Land of Heart's Desire {3:15}

6. The Swan {3:46}

7. Touchstone {5:46}

(1) (2)  [links may be back soon]

The Contemporary Composer in the USA

various artists compilation - The Contemporary Composer in the USA

Morton Subotnick - Laminations

performed by the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, Lukas Foss - conductor

Lamination is the participation of an orchestral body in what was to become Subotnick's prime medium, electronic music in which he succeeded in recreating a kind of orchestral texture over which he had complete control, though he exerted it only in carefully and exactly measured quantities. He composed three major works of this nature for Don Buchla's synthesizer equipment alone, Silver Apples of the Moon (1967), The Wild Bull (1968) and Touch (1969) and, most recently, one including visual performance, Sidewinder (1970). All of these pieces have undeniable instrumental qualities about them. When I heard some of the material in preparation for The Wild Bull a few years ago I remarked, "Hey, some of that sounds like the Berlioz Requiem." He laughed appreciatively. Lamination is important historically in this regard for the structure of the orchestral part imitates in timbre and texture those sounds that are created electronically. Indeed, many of them are electronic sounds that have been directly translated through orchestration. In perspective, one can see the orchestra slowly being dissolved in the impending spectre of flexibility in making electronic "Klangfarbenmusik". The listener should find it easy to hear the main structural principles of layering (as the title suggests), between the electronic and orchestral parts. (David Rosenboom)

John Eaton - Concert Piece for Synket & Symphony Orchestra

Performed by the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Donald Johanos - conductor

In an article for the Electronic Music Review, Joel Chadabe suggests that the instrument should be reviewed as well as the composition in order to understand the total design. He goes on to say, "The Syn-Ket is a performable and portable electronic sound system designed and built by Paul Ketoff in Rome, Italy, for the American Academy in Rome. Basically, it consists of three sound systems (Eaton calls them 'combiners') racked one above the other ... The Syn-Ket is performed by pushing buttons, turning dials, playing keyboards, depressing a volume pedal, and every now and then patching."

For the orchestration of the Concert Piece Eaton has divided the orchestra into two sections, tuned a quarter-tone apart in pitch, which, the composer says, "allows me to bathe rejuvenesscently in the ancient but still pure springs of microtonal melody". This tuning of the orchestra two sections (to quote Chadabe again) "permits a meeting on common ground with the tuning of the Syn-Ket, which is, of course, not played diatonically. With the quarter-tone tuning of clusters occassional legato phrases in the woodwinds and brass, strong shifts of register, and very sophisticated timbre changes, the orchestra enters the Syn-Ket sound world which leaves Eaton free to mingle without fear of offending".

William Bergsma - Violin Concerto

Performed by Edward Statkiewicz on violin and the Polish Radio and Television Orchestra, Zdzislav Szostak - conductor

William Bergsma's music is difficult to pidgeonhole. Strictly speaking, he does not follow the trends set by any of the early twentieth-century giants, such as Schoenberg, Bartok, Stravinsky or Hindemith, nor has he been felt as a force in the avant garde. All of his work has been devoted to a furtherance of the traditional musical media. One can see in it strong emphasis on linearity. He is a lyricist and a contrapuntalist. His structures are Beethovenian in their economy of means and he shows marked interest in integrating contrasting timbres.

Probably his most extensive work is his opera, The Wife of Martin Guerre. In it one senses a typical Bergsma concern, extreme attention to the balance between voice and orchestra, which manifests itself as well in the Violin Concerto (1965) in the careful relation he makes between the orchestral and solo lines.

Bergsma's caution against overextending himself with dramatic force shows in the reserved manner in which he treats anything virtuosic. He is never flashy, but always concerned with precise relations between individual sounds. One arresting technique is his manner of treating the temporal spacing of harmonic elements. It provides pointed references in time, very cyclic, though in a style that is not primarily rhythmic in its emphasis. This, along with constant lyric and contrapuntal variations provides deep structural strength in a music poetic in impact. (David Rosenboom)

Tracklisting:

Side 1

1. Morton Subotnick - Laminations {10:23}

2. John Eaton - Concert Piece for Synket & Symphony Orchestra {13:27}

Side 2

1. William Bergsma - Violin Concerto: Moderato pesante {6:45}

2. William Bergsma - Violin Concerto: Poco adagio {9:10}

3. William Bergsma - Violin Concerto: Allegro ostinato {6:20}

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Medea/Syrmos/Polytope

Iannis Xenakis - Medea/Syrmos/Polytope

released on LP


Performed by Ars Nova Ensemble of Radio O.R.T.F.
Marius Constant - conductor

Medea for male chorus, galets and orchestra (1967)

Composition of orchestra: E-flat clarinet, contra-bassoon, trombone, cello and percussion

Suite taken from the music for "La Medee de Seneque at the Theatre de France, 1967

Syrmos for 18 strings (1959)

Orchestral composition: 6.6.0.4.2

The work is based on stochastic transformation of 8 basic textures.

a) horizontal parallel networks

b) ascendant parallel networks (glissandi)

c) descendant parallel networks (glissandi)

d) crossed parallel networks (ascendant and descendant)

e) clouds of pizzicati

f) atmosphere of frappes collegno with short glissandi col legno

g) configurations of glissandi traited in regulated left surfaces

h) geometric configurations of ascending and descending glissandi

The mathematical structure of this work is the same as that of "Analogique A" and "Analogique B" that is founded on Markovien stochastic processes.

Cf. "Formal Music," Chapter II, editor Richard Masse, 7 place St. Sulpice, Paris 6

Polytope (Le Polytope de Montreal)

Light and sound spectacle at the Franch Pavillion of Expo 67

Composition of orchestra: 4 orchestras placed equidistantly from the center of a circle. Each orchestra is comprised of a piccolo, an E-flat clarinet, a contra-bass clarinet, contra-bassoon, trumpet, tenor trombone, percussion instruments, 6 violins and 4 cellos.

"I have proposed a transparent architectural structure of steel cable which would surround an empty space and which would support the points of light. These are regulated forms. There is a limited number of cables, considering the space and various floors. These forms are changing in all points of view and obey the laws of mathematical progression which answer from one side to the other.

I have used all my knowledge of musical composition here for the lighting: the calculus of probability, logical structures and structures of groups. There are 1200 independent circuits (or lights) which function through a tableau of photoelectric cells where they are all reproduced. On this tableau, the film is projected allowing the rays of the projector to activate only those cells which are absolutely necessary. There are 800 white tubes of xenon and 400 colored ones, some warm colors, some cold colors.

The light composition plays with the theory of ensembles. Vertical and horizontal slices, for example. Differentiation on superimposed material.

The music is entirely independent of the light show. I wished to establish a contrast. The light in my spectacle is a multitude of points, with stops, departures, etc. The music is a continuum, with glissandi. The sound changes, but does not stop. It is instrumental music. Using the classical instruments of an orchestra. A music without electronic transformation. (Iannis Xenakis)

Tracklisting:

Side I

1. Medea {24:12}

Side II

1. Syrmos {11:25}

2. Polytope {6:10}

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Mountain Retreat

The Relaxation Collection: Mountain Retreat

This is where I have been for the past two weeks. (Not really. I wish).

Close your eyes... Relax
You are now alone but for the gentle sounds of the birds and insects.
Smell the flowers and the clean fresh air. . .
Close your eyes and re-awaken in your Mountain Retreat.

Tracklisting:

1. Mountain Retreat {28:04}

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