Ned Rorem/Leon Kirchner-DAY MUSIC/SONATA CONCERTANTE (Desto) 1973

Ned Rorem/Leon Kirchner-Day Music/Sonata Concertante (Played by Jaime and Ruth Laredo) (Desto) 1973
From the back cover notes (enclosed):

Day Music (1971) is only my third work to feature solo violin (the others are an early Sonata, 1948, and Water Music in 1966), for I feel less at home with it than with the other strings. As chance would have it, the night I finished Day Music I received another commission for a violin & Piano piece. I eventually composed it on a similar pattern, and, naturally, called it Night Music.

Night Music and Day Music are complementary only in their names; actually one goes on where the other leaves off. Though each is an autonomous set of eight etudes, the sixteen pieces may be played together in sequence (a 50 minute proposition), or separately, according to a program's need.
As in classical sonatas, the piano should be no less evident than the violin. These are duets of unified contrast, like grand opera duets.

The titles of Day Music's eight sections are:

Wedges and Doubles (referring to the expanding opening violin figure, and to the variations thereon)
Pearls
Extreme Leisure (subtitled "The Gallows Revisited" which, like Ravel's Le Gibet, exploits an endlessly reiterated note)
Bats (they would be appropriate for Night Music too, wouldn't they?)
Billet Doux
Another Ground (actually an ostinato)
Yellows (...are flashes of sharp hurting light)
A Game of Chess Four Centuries Ago (so called because the two instruments play against each other: the piano introspective and careful, the violin impulsive and nervous. They are affectionate rivals whose game ultimately resolves into thin air.)
-Ned Rorem

Leon Kirchner's Sonata Concertante For Violin and Piano, commissioned by the Fromm Foundation, was first performed by Tossy Spivakovsky, violinist, with the composer at the piano on November 30, 1952, at Carnegie Hall.
The work is in one movement with all the material closely interrelated, in fact, the end is almost identical to the opening. It is in four principal sections: a rapid ALLECRO and PRESTO, then an ADAGIO molto, in which a variant of the lyrical melody from the first is played quietly by the muted violin, a section follows called GRAZIOSO which leads into a MARCATO finale of strong rhythmic impact.

Kirchner uses some 12-tone devices, but never strictly- the harmonic texture remains tonal despite all the apparent dissonance and atonality. The principal tonalities are D and E with the latter emphasized several times in a passage of rising triads, and, at the close, which is in D, the note E is significantly added.
-author uncredited

Side R:

Ned Rorem-Day Music (1971)

a1- Wedges and Doubles (3:59)
a2- Pearls (1:39)
a3- Extreme Leisure (subtitled "The Gallows Revisited") (4:50)
a4- Bats (1:44)
a5- Billet Doux (:56)
a6- Another Ground (3:08)
a7- Yellows (1:03)
a8- A Game of Chess Four Centuries Ago (7:22)

Side K:

b1- Leon Kirchner-Sonata Concertante (ca.1952) (19:49)

Jaime Laredo-Violin
Ruth Laredo-Piano






















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The Avant Garde String Quartet in the USA

various artists compilation - The Avant Garde String Quartet in the USA

I'm going to be taking the next few days off for the Memorial Day three-day weekend holiday as I'll be spending some time with relatives. Also, I apologize that there will not be a nature/environmental sounds post this upcoming Sunday.

Meanwhile, here is this 3-LP set of interesting string quartet pieces by notable and interesting composers. This should keep everybody busy for a while as there is over 2 hours of music to digest.

Performed by The Concord String Quartet

Mark Sokol - violin

Andrew Jennings - violin

John Kochanowski - viola

Norman Fischer - violincello

released in 1973

From the liner notes by Lejaren Hiller:

The present album is the third part of a projected three volume survey of the development of the American string quartet from its beginnings in colonial times. The first album, "The Early American String Quartet," already released as Vox Box SVBX-5301, contains performances by the Kohon String Quartet of works ranging historically from a string quartet attributed to Benjamin Franklin to works by early 20th-century composers like George Chadwick and Charles Griffes. A projected second album is planned to fill the gap between that set and the present one, which is a survey of the period since the end of World War II.

There is no doubt that writing string quartets appeals to composers today just as in the past. The number of such compositions written during the past twenty-five years by recognized composers both here and abroad is by no means small despite the fact that the contemporary composer often finds it difficult to persuade established performance groups to extend their repertoires beyond the "classics" - especially if his work is technically or stylistically innovative. The Concord String Quartet, here making its recording debut, is a happy exception among these performance groups because it is currently engaged not only in learning a substantial number of works composed in America since World War II but is commissioning new works as well. The performances of the compositions recorded here, all of which have been worked out with the composers, are a first realization of this commitment.

One of the striking characteristics of the contemporary American string quartet literature is its enormous variety, a feature that will be immediately obvious upon listening to the music in this album. There is not a quartet included here that does not exhibit a strong and independent musical profile. Stylistic heterogeniety and healthy eclecticism have always been characteristic traits of the best American Music and the literature here demonstrates that this continues to be so. The particular quartets recorded here provide a distinguished cross-section of what has been written during the past two decades. It goes without saying that this group of works by no means exhausts the list of first-rate compositions for the medium.

Tracklisting:

Side 1

1. Stefan Wolpe - String Quartet: I. 92 {8:10}

2. Stefan Wolpe - String Quartet: II. 144 {8:54}

3. Earle Brown - String Quartet {11:29}

Side 2

1. John Cage - String Quartet in Four Parts: I. Quietly Flowing Along {4:33}

2. John Cage - String Quartet in Four Parts: II. Slowly Rocking {4:56}

3. John Cage - String Quartet in Four Parts: III. Nearly Stationary {10:17}

4. John Cage - String Quartet in Four Parts: IV. Quodlibet {1:19}

Side 3

1. George Crumb - Black Angels (Images II) for Electric String Quartet {22:10}

Side 4

1. Lejaren Hiller - String Quartet No. 5 (In Quarter Tones): I. Theme I {1:13}

2. Lejaren Hiller - String Quartet No. 5 (In Quarter Tones): II. Variations {5:23}

3. Lejaren Hiller - String Quartet No. 5 (In Quarter Tones): III. Theme II {1:16}

4. Lejaren Hiller - String Quartet No. 5 (In Quarter Tones): IV. Variations {7:49}

5. Lejaren Hiller - String Quartet No. 5 (In Quarter Tones): V. Theme III {1:18}

6. Lejaren Hiller - String Quartet No. 5 (In Quarter Tones): VI. Variations {7:56}

7. Lejaren Hiller - String Quartet No. 5 (In Quarter Tones): VII. Theme IV {1:09}

Side 5

1. Leon Kirchner - Quartet No. 3 for String Quartet and Electronic Tape {17:37}

2. Christian Wolff - Summer {4:30}

Side 6

1. Jacob Druckman - String Quartet No. 2 {18:14}

2. Morton Feldman - Structures for String Quartet {5:52}

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