The Contemporary Contrabass

various artists compilation - The Contemporary Contrabass

Performers:

Bertram Turetzky - contrabass
Nancy Turetzky - flutes (side two, track 1)
Ronald George - percussion (side two, track 1)

The performer of today's new music isn't simply someone who picks up his instrument in the studio and plays through invariant material ("learn your Haydn sonatas and you're in the money"). The works presented on this record are the result of close and extensive collaboration at a variety of levels, from the interactions of the improvisation asked for in Pauline Oliveros' Outline to the intricate technical problems in engineering required by Ben Johnston's Casta Bertram. What you hear, therefore, is virtuosic at every level, in realization, performance, recording, and electronic treatment, collaboratively.
...
The recent spate of recordings of the music of John Cage seems to have largely ignored his instrumental compositions. One of the major contemporary string works, 26'1.1499" for a String Player, written in 1955, is one of these; it is to be hoped that this premiere recording of the work will bring it the attention it deserves from string players. Cage's notes on the work are important:

26'1.1499" for a String Player is graphed like 59 1/2" for a String Player . . . but in actual time, the amount of space equalling a second being given at the top of the pages. The compositional means were complex involving both chance operations and observations of the imperfections in the paper upon which the piece was written. . . . The rhythmic structure is 3, 7, 2, 5, 11. This piece may be segmented at structural points indicated by dotted lines and the segments superimposed in any way to make duets, trios, quartets, etc

...
Pauline Oliveros, for many years one of the moving forces in the San Francisco Tape Center, is also most prominently represented on recordings by electronic music, to the unfortunate neglect of her instrumental compositions. Miss Oliveros' years of work with improvisation, both as performer and as teacher, are reflected in Outline, which, in her words, "presents performers with an opportunity to improvise in several ways: to choose pitches according to the given contour, to make rhythms in the spaces provided, and to improvise without directions within a given time length. The written material provides the influence for the style of improvisation." The work was written in 1963 for Mr. Turetzky and his wife Nancy, and premiered in May of that year by the Turetzkys at Yale University. Miss Oliveros, a colleague of Mr. Turetzky's on the UCSD music faculty, worked with the performers and the engineer to assure the authoritative quality of this recording.
...
Casta Bertram [by Ben Johnston] is a realization of Casta* (the first of 4 Do-It-Yourself Pieces [1969]; the other three are Recipe for a*; Conference, A Telephone Happening; and Knocking Piece II). The score for Casta* as provided below also requires a circuit schematic which may be devised by the performer working with his own engineer or may be obtained from the composer in the version used for the premiere.
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Choose 4 stage locations: (1) to record; (2) (elevated) to type, with voice mike and contact mike for typewriter; (3) (spotlighted) to perform live against tape loops recorded earlier in performance; and (4) to record (technician with 3 tape recorders, minimum 3 loudspeakers, 3 tape loops, mixers, 3 mikes as described, earphones for technician and performer). Prepare sound and score components: (1) 4 segments, 45 seconds each, of vocal and instrumental noises, at leadt 1/3 vocal, many scatological; (2) a list of these noises clearly identifying each; (3) 25 standard repertory excerpts, from very brief to a phrase or two in length, many virtuosic.

Sequence of events: (1) Record segment 1 on loop 1. (2) Record segment 2 mixed with segment 1 on loop 2. (3) Record segment 3 mixed with mixtures of segments 1 and 2 on loop 2. (4) Record segment 4 mixed with mixture of segments 1, 2, and 3 on loop 1. (During above sequence, repeat last sound of each segment until next is set to record.) (5) After segment 4, go to typewriter while repeating final sound. (6) Type on file cards 25 of the sounds listed, while humming, whistling, and otherwise travestying your repertory excerpts. (During [6], technician records 45 seconds of it on loop 2. He also takes out one second of loop 3 and splices it into loop 1.) (7) Go to spotlight area, shuffling file cards, while technician begins to play back loops. (8) Perform repertory excerpts one by one. After each, perform noise on top file card, throwing card into audience. After excerpt 24 throw away score of excerpts also. (During [7] and [8], technician begins loops one by one, building volume until last 45 seconds drowns out performer.) (9) Technician escorts performer, still playing excerpt 25, from stage. On first bow he turns off sound. Duration: 10 minutes maximum. *Substitute one of your names here.

(Barney Childs)



Tracklisting:

Side One

1. John Cage - 26'1.1499 for a String Player {16:05}

Side Two

1. Pauline Oliveros - Outline {14:02}

2. Ben Johnston - Casta Bertram {10:34}


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