Lukas Foss/Jan Williams-The Contemporary Composer in the USA (Turnabout 1972)

To paraphrase one of our regular visitors,who recently wrote this sentiment about a different composer:
"No amount of Lukas Foss is too much".

And with a nod to another of our visitors, who likes the phrase "Show me dangerous music", first seen at Wolf Fifth, where you may find another rendition of Paradigm has been posted recently-(see the "some worthwhile blogs and sites" sidebar).


Extended excerpts from the back cover (enclosed):


ELYTRES (French for wing-sheaths) is the first of three compositions (Fragments of Archlochos and For 24 Winds or the others) containing on every page more than is almost ever heard vertically at one time.In other words,when that page is played, a portion of it is likely to be omitted.During the same performance,that page will return,but now only that is played which has been left out before.New here is the concept of obtaining various combinations via omission. It paved the way for Baroque Variations and especially Geod, in which that which is not heard, is nevertheless played,only inaudibly.The instrumental forces of Elytres are 1-solo flute 2-two solo violins,3-distant violins and percussion,4-harp,vibraphone,piano keys, piano strings (played with triangly beaters a la mandolin) There are twelve phrases, which when played twice successively,constitute one complete performance.True to the above-mentioned principle of omission, an instrumental force which played the phrase the first time through will remain tacet when the phrase comes back later,and vice-versa. The choice can be made spontaneously, at the moment of performance,resulting in one of 15 different possibilities ranging from silence to everybody playing at once.Also, Elytres can begin with any of the twelve phrases,end with any of them.Repeat performances should use different starting points and make different omission choices. To repeat the identical version, is to violate the intent of the composition.

Why should one performance differ from the other? To this there are many answers. One of them is surely; for the pleasure of surprise.Not so much the listener's, who may hear the piece only once, but the performer's.His surprise will be two-fold: That his own performance,his own part can combine in so many different ways, creating ever new simultaneities, two- that for all these differences of detail the composition remains somehow mysteriously the same.

PARADIGM ("for my friends") is possibly the only existing score in which the percussionist doubles as conductor.He conducts with mallets in his hands or a flexaton or a musical saw or anything else he has to play with at the moment.He also shouts words which at times serve as cues for the other four performers.These are= an electric guitarist and any three other instrumentalists designated in the score as high,middle and low.(In this recording-oboe,viola and electric harpsichord.)
Thus choice is an integral part of the instrumentation.Choice is also at the core of the individual performance.In fact, there is not a single sound that is not subject to some spontaneous choice on the part of the player.

I-Session: There are three musical tasks for each player.The musicians also have syllables to shout or whisper, derived from the sentence "someone will be held responsible".

II-Reading: A poem results from 8x8 available word juxtapositions.The individual players have moments of note choice and moments of word choice.The poem, though ever changing,will alcways be something of a commentary on the music.

III-Recital: Each player has three pitch choices for every sonority.These sounds are cued by the percussionist who plays flexaton.

IV-Lecture: The words are taken from one of my recent lectures. In an extended middle section,the performers imitate the inflection and or rhythm of a phrase on their instruments.The imitation may anticipate,duplicate,or echo the spoken words.

These final words-"show me dangerous music!" -are followed by the only theatrical moment on the piece:the percussionist brings the other instrumentalists to a sudden and violent stop,but the one he singles out last is instructed not to obey-He will continue to play and shout syllables from "I" until the others have acknowledged the applause and left the stage.
In this performance,the conductor/percussionist aptly singled out the composer (on electric harpsichord) for the task.

NI BRUIT NI VITESSE can be seen all over France on traffic signs,mostly in hospital zones.
Though the work is for 2 pianists and 1 percussionist (playing inside the piano) only 1 pianist and 1 percussionist appear on this record.Mr.Williams and Mr.Foss recorded one part then added the other track while listening to the first with ear phones.

There are no electronic sounds or electronically changed sounds in the piece. Moreover,all percussion sounds are produced inside the piano with the help of large cowbells,small Japanese bowls,and tape covered triangle beaters.
There is a close interaction between pianist and percussionist;when the former depresses a key the respective damper will rise, indicating to the percussionist the location of the correct piano string.Thus,one man's performance makes the other man's possible.Canons are arrived at in the same manner.There is a "simple child-like tune" the pitches of which change with each performance.
Ni Bruit Ni Vitesse is a tone poem without a story,for two pianos that do not sound like pianos,but like sounds in nature,often rising barely beyond the threshold of audibility.


About his DREAM LESSON Jan Williams has this to say:

"In early 1970,Lukas Foss asked me to compose a work for the Festival of the Foundation Maeght which was to take place in July 1970 at the Maeght Gallery in St Paul de Vence,France
The performance area was to be a large,inflatable structure,with no supporting superstructure.Dream Lesson was written with this structure in mind.The interior of a grand piano is utilized as the primary source of sound,with one performer exploring the instrument with a variety of acoustical and electronic devices, ie electronic megaphones producing feedback.A non-angular montage of sustained masses of sound results.The form is open-ended and relatively free with only the basic shape being specified."

For this recording,the acoustical material was arranged in multi-layers,equally divided between the two stereo channels,with one additional layer which is "thrown" back and forth between the channels in a random pattern (much as the pendulum can be manipulated in the live performance situation)...


Side One:

a1-Lukas Foss: Elytres (6:12)

a2-Lukas Foss: Paradigm ("for my friends") (19:37)

Side a: Members of The New York Philomusica Chamber Ensemble, A.Robert Johnson,Director,
Lukas Foss Conducting.

Side Two:

b1-Lukas Foss: Ni Bruit Ni Vitesse (13:19)
Lukas Foss and Jan Williams,Performers
 
b2-Jan Williams: Dream Lesson (8:14)
Jan Williams,Percussion

 

























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