David Burge - David Burge Plays New Piano Music
LP released in 1966
For this recording, Mr. Burge has selected four works by younger American composers and a piece of his own composition. The resulting program is a combination of fearsome technical difficulty and interpretational range, boldly setting forth the gamut of piano writing by some of the country's most significant new composers. We at ADVANCE feel this recording to be, in its combination of important premieres and superb musicianship, a major contribution to recorded piano literature. (from the liner notes)
Eclipse II (1966) composed by David Burge
Eclipse II was written as a recital piece and as a part of my most recent work for musical theatre (unnamed at this writing) in which it serves as an Interval between two of the fourteen scenes while three or four members of the cast and audience take a quick cigarette break around the footlights.
The title may derive from the fact that the work makes a complete cycle, as is true of the celestial phenomenon; the material (the set) heard at the beginning is gradually but regularly shifted until it is completely transformed (obscured?) after which continued shifting leads it back to the original at the close of the composition. (That this analogy did not occur to me until several weeks after the piece was completed does not severely detract from its merits, but may give some indication to the listener as to the advisability of following a precise astronomical program.) (David Burge)
Five Pieces for Piano (1962) composed by George Crumb
The Five Pieces for Piano were composed in 1962 at the request of David Burge. The work requires a considerably enlarged technique of tone production, for in addition to conventional keyboard sounds, the composer has exploited various sounds produced immediately on contact with the string - e.g., pizzicato, martellato, glissando, etc. The integration of all these resources points toward a broader concept of piano idiom. Structurally speaking, the Five Pieces derive from a single 3-note cell, first presented as a chord.
Rhythm, dynamics, and timbre are all freely organized. The work as a whole is in the form of an arch, of which the third piece (Notturno) forms the centerpiece.
I. Quasi improvvisato
II. Ruvido, con molto energia; Prestissimo; Ruvido
III. Nocturno (sempre pizzicato)
IV. Ruvido, con molto energia; Prestissimo; Ruvido
V. Senza misura; Solenne; Tempo del primo pezzo
Cocktail Music (1962) composed by Salvatore Martirano
Notes by Ed London: It would be out of place in so short a space to divulge the recipe of the virtuoistic Cocktail Music for Piano. If perhaps it might whet the imagination to contemplate the intricacy of said concoction, let it here suffice to wit: the imagination of the composer worked overtime to coordinate the multitudinous cerebrative constructs - all the while a baser metabolic process demanded a slaking of its thirst (a thirst moreover that decries symmetry and arid regularity).
What are the "external" influences on the work - Crystal Gazing, Art Tatum, Domenico Scarlatti, The Joy of Cooking? Preposterous??? Read Rose Rombauer's written direction therein:
The cocktail is probably an American invention and most certainly a typically American kind of drink. Whatever mixtures you put together - and part of the fascination of cocktail mixing is the degree of inventiveness it seems to encourage - hold fast to a few general principles.
Piano Variations (1963) composed by Charles Wuorinen
I finished my Piano Variations on 25 November 1963. They were originally part of a larger cycle of pieces - other two surviving instances of which are my Flute Variations and Flute Concerto, both written for Harvey Sollberger - which were to be united by common set material and related procedures. It soon became apparent both that the individual works were totally self-sufficient and that the contemplated project was too large. I therefore abandoned it; the Piano Variations have enjoyed an independent life since then.
Regarding the relevant structural characteristics of the Variations; the work cannot be considered 'twelve-tone' in spite of the fact that the dozen-odd self-contained and fully composed fragments which provide the 'subject' for variation-operations are strictly so (but only in the conventional pitch-sense). Rather, each variation consists of a re-ordering of them as well. Beyond this simple procedure, there are other controlling influences: for example the fact that as the piece progresses, criteria of differentiation among (but not necessarily within) the fragments are gradually minimized, until near the end they form a homogenous larger structure. (Charles Wuorinen)
Twelve Bagatelles (1952) composed by George Rochberg
The Bagatelles were my first 12-tone music, composed between June and August 1952. The first eight came in one burst - within the space of a week. I broke off work to take a trip to Tanglewood, where I played what I had just written for Luigi Dallapiccola, teaching there that summer. Dallapiccola's enthusiastic response confirmed my own feelings about what I was doing, so much so that when I returned home I was able to complete the remaining four pieces in fairly short order. In January 1953 I gave the Bagatelles their first public performance at the MacMillan Theater, Columbia University.
The pieces seem to have survived both changes in my own way of working over the years as well as changes in the musical atmosphere of the '50s and '60s. This being the case, the fact of their survival could hardly be attributed, it seems to me, to their being 12-tone per se. While it is surely not a composer's business to concern himself with such matters, I can only guess that whatever value the Bagatelles have is a purely musical one, perhaps most of all because the spontaneity of their emergence gave them a sense of entirety - depsite their individual brevity. (George Rochberg)
Tracklisting: Side 1
1. Eclipse II {2:55}
2. Five Pieces for Piano {7:57}
3. Cocktail Music {4:44}
Side 2
1. Piano Variations {7:52}
2. Twelve Bagatelles {12:12}
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