Music for Flute and Piano

various artists compilation - Music for Flute and Piano

The unaccompanied flute presents a special challenge to the composers represented on this disk because in writing for it their proven means of assuring variety are not available. Extreme contrast in timbre, density, and dynamics has been normal in the work of younger Europeans ever since the "Klangfarbenmelodie" of Webern; their fascination with "beauty of sound for its own sake" has led to an increasing use of noises and special sounds, produced by percussion, electronic means, or conventional instruments. Heterogeneous groups have replaced the string quartet and solo works are usually assigned to instruments capable of a large range of unconventional sound, such as the percussion battery or (preparable) piano. Music for solo flute is an exception to the trend: three octave-fulls of twelve tones, a range of timbre more restricted than that of many other instruments, one or two associated noises (the rush of breath without pitch or the tapping of hole-covers against rims) are all there are to work with. Even a texture of wide staccato leaps will have a ribbon-like continuity on the flute because of its homogeneous tone-color and comparatively narrow dynamic range. The composer will be working in miniature, articulating subtle shades of attack and tone-color at the disposal of his flutist: angle and pressure of breath, varieties in tonguing, the choice of fundamentals with which to overblow tones in the upper registers.In trying to do more with the instrument he will be pitting himself against Theobald Boehm, whose formidable arrangement of rods and levers had subjected the venerable flute to the requirements of 19th Century music. Flexibility and individuality among pitches had been sacrificed to perfect intonation and agility. But there sometimes appear composers and players imaginative enough to make instruments the servants of styles for which their builders did not intend them (such as in the unaccompanied violin music of Bach or the bassoon phrases in "Sacre"). In the pieces of Berio and Maderna, to some extent, and particularly in the one by Evangelisti, Gazzelloni is able to break through the chromatic grid of precisely bored holes and their perfectly tuned partials to give us glissandos, airy organums, the glint of distant overtones flickering in the midst of notes spoken "falsely." Such sounds give the hearer a fresh sense of the mystery of the vibrating air column and he becomes conscious of the mechanics of venting and overblowing which had formerly been private concerns of the player. (David Behrman, from the liner notes)

Severino Gazzelloni - flute
Aloys Kontarsky - piano

Tracks A1, A3 and B2 are for solo flute.
Tracks A2, B1, and B3 are for flute and piano.

Tracklisting:

Side A

1. Franco Evangelisti - Proporzioni {4:40}

2. Niccolo Castiglioni - Gymel {4:32}

3. Luciano Berio - Sequenza {6:32}

Side B

1. Olivier Messiaen - Merles Noir {7:01}

2. Yoritsune Madsudaira - Somaksah {5:56}

3. Bruno Maderna - Honeyrêves {6:15}

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The New Music Volume 3

various artists compilation - The New Music Volume 3

LP released in 1968

Performers:

Rome Symphony Orchestra, Bruno Maderna - conductor

Severino Gazzelloni - flute

The term "modern music" no longer suffices to describe the latest expressions of recent avant-garde cmposers. Modern music still means the music that came after Debussy and Strauss. It is Stravinsky and Ravel, Hindemith and Falla; it is Bartok, Prokofieff, Britten and Malipiero. Modern music is the breakdown of tonality and traditional harmony and the development of the twelve-tone system used by the masters of the Viennese school - Schonberg, Berg and Webern - and the spreading of this method in every country since the war. Modern music is still Dallapiccola and Petrassi, and the ready listener has little by little grown accustomed to all these expressions - the more recent ones (those relating to the relinquishing of traditional tonality) with somewhat greater difficulty.

But the works of the latest generation, those composers who have come to the fore since Hiroshima, seem to cut away violently from this pattern, as difficult as its acceptance had proved to be. So, for them the term "new music."

The evolution which has led to today's baffling results is governed by an inner logic. Once the use of the twelve-tone "series" was firmly established, the desire quite naturally arose to extend this serialization process to the other "parameters" of music, that is, to subject its rhythmic, timbral and dynamic aspects to the same laws governing the disposition of the pitch of the notes.

"Structuring" (the organization of musical material) by means of total serialization of parameters was the first step the new music took beyond Webern. This extension of the serialization process to all parameters brought about a heightening of interest and investigation into the qualities and components of sound. The increased concern for this "tone color" and other hitherto unstructured aspects of sound and the diminishing interest in pitch as the primary structural element made it necessary to alter traditional listening habits. Where pitch distribution had been the primary expressive unit, now the other parameters took on equal or greater importance.

The new music, like all other forms of contemporary art, may or may not be liked, but its consistency cannot be questioned. There is an inner logic which has determined the various phases described above and which is already creating others in more and more rapid succession, and they must not be taken as gratuitous and unrestrained expressions of individual extravagance. (from the liner notes)

Tracklisting:

Side 1

1. Luigi Nono - Y su sangre ya viene cantado {15:57}

2. Kazuo Fukushima - Hi-kyo {9:19}

Side 2

1. Luciano Berio - Serenade I {10:22}

2. Hans Ulrich Lehmann - Quanti {10:50}

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works by Nono, Maderna and Berio

Nono/Maderna/Berio - works by Nono, Maderna and Berio

Polifonica-Monodia-Ritmica (1951) by Luigi Nono

Performed by the English Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Bruno Maderna

Richard Adeney - flute; Thea King - clarinet; Stephen Trier - bass clarinet; Robert Burns - saxophone; John Burden - French horn; Susan Bradshaw - piano; Charles Fletcher - percussion; Allan Fry - percussion; Reginald Flower - percussion

recorded in London

Serenata #2 (1954) by Bruno Maderna

Performed by the English Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Bruno Maderna

Richard Adeney - flute and piccolo; Thea King - clarinet; Wilfred Hambleton - bass clarinet; John Burden - French horn; Philip Jones - trumpet; Susan Bradshaw - piano; Osian Ellis - harp; Charles Fletcher - percussion; James Holland - percussion; Emanuel Hurwitz - violin; Cecil Aronowitz - viola; Adrian Beers - double bass

recorded in London

Differences (1958-1960) by Luciano Berio

conducted by Luciano Berio

uses multi-channel tape

Performers: Jacques Castagner - flute; Walter Lewis - clarinet; Francis Pierre - harp; Walter Trampler - viola; Seymour Barab - cello

recorded in New York City

Tracklisting:

Side 1

1. Luigi Nono - Polifonica-Monodia-Ritmica {10:08}

2. Bruno Maderna - Serenata #2 {11:21}

Side 2

1. Luciano Berio - Differences {13:49}

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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}

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Electronic Music/Musique Concrete

various artists compilation - Electronic Music/Musique Concrete: A Panorama of Experimental Music, Volume 1

Recorded under the supervision of Pierre Henry, in collaboration with the sound laboratories of the West German Radio, Italian Radio, French Radio and Television, and Studio Apsome in Paris.

The liner notes say:

Electronic music and musique concrete offer incredible possibilities to composers of imagination and vision. The works of eleven such composers are represented on these two discs and the rich diversity in approach and achievement testifies to the full blown presence of a new and vital art form.

In our century, one of a composer's principal functions has been to explore his environment and translate his discoveries into meaningful sonic symbols. Viewed from this angle, the development of electronic music and musique concrete over the past twenty years has followed a course of inevitability; creative artists are interpreting our contemporary life with sounds uniquely expressive of man's flight into technology and space.

In this album the listener will encounter some fascinating music that gives exciting artistic expression to the moods and tenors of today.

Note: There is a fragment of the first LP that has been broken. That means only the first tracks on each side of this LP are unplayable. All other tracks play okay. Apologies in advance for those missing tracks, but the music on this compilation is essential electronic music which makes this still worthy of posting.

UPDATE: Check the comments for the missing tracks. Thanks hamor.
ANOTHER UPDATE: The missing tracks provided by hamor are provided in the files.

Tracklisting:

Side 1

1. Luciano Berio - Momenti {7:06}

2. Luciano Berio - Omaggio a Joyce {6:16}

3. Bruno Maderna - Continuo {8:03}

Side 2

1. Luc Ferrari - Visage V {10:37}

2. Iannis Xenakis - Orient-Occident {10:38}

3. Francois Dufrene and Jean Baronnet - U 47 {3:28}

Side 3

1. Mauricio Kagel - Transition I {12:55}

2. Herbert Eimert - Selection I {9:45}

Side 4

1. Pierre Henry - Entité {5:40}

2. György Ligeti - Artikulation {3:45}

3. André Boucourechliev - Texte I {6:12}

4. Henri Pousseur - Scambi {6:16}

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