Harrison,Weber,Foss,Dahl-CHAMBER MUSIC BY (1976 New World Records)

Harrison, Weber, Foss, Dahl- CHAMBER MUSIC OF: New World Records 1976

Today is the 9th anniversary of the passing away of Lou Harrison. He was 85 years,8 months old.

Excerpted from the extensive gatefold notes (enclosed):

Lou Harrison was born in Portland, Oregon, on May 14, 1917. He studied with Henry Cowell and with Schoenberg, and has earned his living by teaching (at Mills College 1937-40), copying music, writing (critic for the New York Herald Tribune 1945-48), and performing. At various times he has been associated with Charles Ives (some of whose music he edited for publication), Harry Partch, and John Cage, and his free, open approach to composition shows their influence.
Harrison's interest in Asian music and his use of exotic tunings, unusual instruments, and medieval compositional techniques suggest the range of his mind, which has extended to designing and constructing new instruments, inventing musical systems, writing plays, and constructing mobiles.(...)
The present Suite For Cello and Harp is an excellent example of Harrison's economy.
The Suite was assembled especially for the performers on this recording, Seymour Barab and Lucile Lawrence, and performed by them at New York's Town Hall in the fall of 1949.

Ben Weber, born in St.Louis on July 23, 1916, first studied medicine at the University of Illinois, then turned to music at DePauw University. He had little formal training in composition, but was encouraged by the pianist Artur Schnabel (who also composed in a twelve-tone idiom) and then by Schoenberg.
Weber's synthesis of twelve-tone techniques with traditional thematic and structural elements produced a distinctive style that brought him wide recognition.
The Sonata de Camera was completed on October 25, 1950, and is dedicated to the violinist Anahid Ajemian. (Also hear him in the Harrison / Cowell post of January 4 )
The first movement is a Saraband, the second a modified Passacaglia, and the Finale a rondo; all three are based on a single tone row.

Lukas Foss: The Capriccio for cello and piano was commissioned by the Koussevitzky Music Foundation in 1945 and was published in 1946. The piece offers an appealing blend of European balance and craftsmanship with American enthusiasm and unpredictability. Its single lyrical movement is comfortingly Classical in structure, but the melodies are neither completely symmetrical nor completely predictable. The unabashedly tradition accompaniment figures are frequently cross-accented or otherwise short-circuited to amusing effect- and, indeed, mush of the Capriccio's high spirits consist of unexpected twists on familiar routines.
In the 1950's Foss became interested in improvisational techniques, and in recent years he has he has presented works employing these and other ideas of confrontation and game structure.

Ingolf Dahl was born in Hamburg, of Swedish parents on June 9, 1912, emigrating to the United States in 1935. Dahl was conductor of the Monday Evening Concerts in Los Angeles, one of the nation's leading contemporary-music series...He was close to Igor Stravinsky (whose works in the teens are heard as an influence here, especially in the rhythms and orchestration).
Dahl's catalogue comprises music for a wide variety of instruments and combinations. His early music, in line with his European training, is marked by complex, dissonant polyphony. In America the textures became more open, the rhythms broader, the emphasis harmonic rather than contrapuntal.
The Concertino a Tre (1946) is one of the most attractive and elegant examples of Neoclassicism.
Dahl elicits from the clarinet, violin, and cello a fullness of texture that is little short of astonishing. Although the idiom is firmly based in traditional harmony, the chords are refreshed by added notes, and the rhythms have a neobaroque drive (the neoclassic style was in fact "neo-eighteenth-century", drawing its inspiration as much from Bach as from Haydn and Mozart).
The work's three major divisions are paced along traditional lines- fast, slow, fast- and the development techniques are those of the classical period. The slow movement resembles an extended song. In the finale a lyrical cello threnody is set off by jagged accompaniment figures, and then the movement bounces into successive jig, jazz, and gallop rhythms.





















Side One:

1- Lou Harrison- Suite For Cello And Harp (ca 1946)

a- Chorale
b- Pastorale
c- Interlude
d- Aria
e- Chorale
Seymour Barab- Cello, Lucile Lawrence- Harp
recorded in 1951 (Originally issued on Columbia 3 ML-4491)
2- Ben Weber- Sonata Da Camera

a- Lento, con gran eleganza
b- Moderato
c- Allegro con spirito
Alexander Schneider- Violin, Mieczyslaw Horszowski- Piano
recorded in 1954 for Epic Records, but never released.

Side Two:

3- Lukas Foss- Capriccio For Cello And Piano
Gregor Piatagorsky- Cello. Lukas Foss- Piano
Recorded in 1958. (Originally issued on RCA LSC 2293)4- Ingolf Dahl- Concertino A Tre
Mitchell Lurie- Clarinet, Eudice Shapiro- Violin, Victor Gottlieb- Cello
Recorded in 1950 (Originally issued on Columbia 3 ML-4493)
file repaired

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