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movement spirals to its conclusion. silly, cartoon-like cadence figure “pops out” of the Jeffrey Grossman Sonata for Viola and Piano (1953) was originally cascading texture, in a slightly different rhythm each time. Consistently praised for his impressive and wide-ranging musicality in nearly every AMERICAN CLASSICS composed as a work for heckelphone and piano. Smith Piano Sonata (1954) is the most ambitious and style, Jeffrey Grossman has extensive experience as a keyboard performer, including later created versions for both tenor saxophone and viola. extended work on this recording. Smith writes: “The piano repertoire for the piano, harpsichord, and organ from every period of the classical The viola version is a full re-conception, adding chords sonata was written for my colleague at Chicago and long- repertoire. A native of Detroit, Michigan, he holds degrees in music from Harvard and textures (e.g., pizzicato and sul ponticello) that are not time professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University and Carnegie Mellon University, where he studied conducting with possible on the monophonic heckelphone. Smith writes: “I Jeanne Bamberger. Jeanne had been a student of Artur Grammy-award winning conductor Robert Page. He co-founded and currently had a heckelphone on loan in Chicago from 1954 to 1958 Schnabel, and we met in the classes of Roger Sessions in Photo: Katharine Dain serves as artistic director of the Cambridge Early Music Project, an organization LELAND SMITH when I was teaching at the University of Chicago. We had Berkeley in 1947. Jeanne gave the first performance of the which has presented numerous concerts in the Boston area. As a pianist, he has an excellent performing group there. With a pianist and Sonata at the University of Chicago in about 1956.” The studied with Louis Nagel and Lois Shapiro. Grossman is engaged in an ongoing violist we arranged a concert with this sonata (me on first movement of the sonata is a march and trio. The recording project that seeks to explore connections among diverse styles of keyboard Chamber Music heckelphone), Darius Milhaud’s second viola sonata, some opening section begins with a light march (with influences music from all eras and on numerous modern and historical keyboard instruments. piano works of Alexander Tcherepnin and the wonderful of Haydn and Hindemith) before devolving a section of The first CD in this project, There and Back released in September 2006, includes Trio for Heckelphone, Viola and Piano of Paul Hindemith. nearly crazed rhythmic declamation. The trio is in a flowing music by fourteen composers from four continents and four centuries. Sarah Darling, Violin and Viola We repeated this concert at other Midwestern colleges. My triple meter; the sense of beat placement is disrupted in Reunion/Retrouvailles, the next disc in the series, was released in March 2007. It sonata was also played at a U.S. embassy concert in 1964 nearly every bar by grace notes, countermelodies, and represents an even wider range of musical styles and composers, from Mozart to Jeffrey Grossman, Piano by a violist from the Paris opera and myself on piano.” The rhythmic offsets. The second movement is one of Smith’s Wuorinen, including several world première recordings and newly commissioned opening movement of the sonata employs both lyrical most impressive creations, an incredibly virtuosic and works. Grossman is also active as a music engraver and is a user of the SCORE music typography system, developed melodic passages and static “color” sections of cluster- extended rondo that is based upon the opening motive of by Leland Smith. More information about Grossman’s activities can be found on his website: www.jeffreygrossman.com based harmony. A fast, middle section tries to assert itself, the first movement’s march theme. The movement is a but is silenced with the opening material again. The second veritable catalogue of the rhythmic and textural techniques Sarah Darling movement is a light waltz, where the steady expectation of of Smith’s language and is a dizzyingly wild ride, nearly Sarah Darling is always ready to explore new musical terrain. An advocate of the basic waltz rhythm leaves Smith plenty of room for his threatening to “fall off the rails” in places. The short third contemporary music, she has been involved in the première of more than a hundred rhythmic transformations. The finale consists of two movement of the sonata is a slow, lyrical “coda” in two new works, including two concertos dedicated to her and a solo sonata played in vibrant sections surrounding a strangely textured middle parts. In the first part, a melody in the middle register of the Kennedy Center. After a Bachelor’s degree at Harvard and a year at the Juilliard one; mysterious colors in both piano and violin interact the piano is repeated four times (with faster rhythmic School, she spent four years studying in Amsterdam and Freiburg as a recipient of

with a repeating harmonic pattern in the piano’s bass values each time) while a filigree surrounds it in the outer Wilson Photo: Susan the Beebe, Paine, and DAAD grants, before returning to her native Boston for a register. The coda of the movement draws quick references registers. In the second section, enigmatic gestures Master’s degree at NEC. Her major teachers include Kim Kashkashian, Wolfram to the previous two movements before disintegrating into accompany fragments of melody before dying away to Christ, Nobuko Imai, Karen Tuttle, James Dunham, and Scott Woolweaver. While the last bars of music, sounding nearly uncoordinated nothing. in Europe, she toured extensively as a member of the Amaryllis-Quartett, with before converging on a unison. Concert Piece for Violin and Piano (1951) is dedicated whom she won the Interlaken and Charles Hennen competitions. She has performed Six Bagatelles (1964) for piano is notable for being the to “Mr. and Mrs. Robert Goldberg.” Smith writes: “Robert in the Ravinia, Yellow Barn, Sarasota, Norfolk, Kronberg, Baden-Baden, Verbier, first work that Smith engraved with the initial version of Goldberg was an amateur violinist and classmate of mine Saito-Kinen, and Lucerne festivals, appearing with members of the Juilliard, his SCORE software in December of 1971. It is thus the at Berkeley in 1946–48. He later became a doctor, devoting Cleveland, Mendelssohn, New World, Ying, Orion, and Takacs quartets. She has first musical score to be typeset entirely on a computer. much of his time to the poor and homeless.” Cast in an performed with the Boston Symphony, Boston Philharmonic, Boston Modern C Smith writes: “These bagatelles were written in Paris in extended single movement, this work contains a large Orchestra Project, the Portland and Rhode Island Symphonies, and the Orchestra 1964 where I was using a studio in the Salle Pleyel which number of mood and texture shifts. Particularly notable is of Indian Hill, where she is principal viola. She is a member of the Rosetta Trio, M had purportedly been used by Stravinsky.” These musical the evocative ending, where the work spirals ever faster the Laurel Quartet, and Boston Hausmusik, and is the founder and director of the miniatures each contain various musical elements that are through a large number of harmonic permutations before Arcturus Chamber Ensemble. Passionate about historical performance practice of Y juxtaposed and usually repeated. Frequent use is made of suddenly changing gears and ending quietly in F. all eras, Sarah Darling is Concertmaster and Assistant Director of the Harvard Baroque Chamber Orchestra, and recently repetition with subtle rhythmic variation; a good example led a seminar on early music at the Pergolesi Conservatory in Italy. She is the winner of the NEC, Harvard Bach Society, of this occurs in the third Bagatelle where a somewhat Carson Cooman GBYSO, Arlington, Marlboro, and Freiburg Concerto Competitions. K

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Leland Smith (b. 1925) Association and the International Society for the benchmark by which professional engravers judge Four Etudes (1952) for piano were written for Darlene Chamber Music Contemporary Music. I also worked for the Mercury music typography. Mahnke. Smith writes: “Darlene Mahnke was a piano Music Publishing Company. In the fall of 1950 I was Smith’s compositions employ a delightfully personal student at Mills College when I taught there in 1951–52. I Sonatina for Violin and Piano (1952–53) 3:26 Sonata for Viola and Piano (1953) 9:44 engaged as a bassoonist with the San Francisco Opera musical style, combining elaborations of traditional forms remember her impressive senior recital which featured 1 I. = c. 96 (Scherzando comodo) 0:57 $ I. = c. 58–62 2:56 Orchestra. In the years up to the mid-sixties I also with a harmonic language integrating both extended Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition. She also conducted played in the San Francisco Symphony, the orchestras tonality and atonality. One of the most immediately the orchestra for the Mills College Centennial celebration 2 II. = c. 52 1:25 % II. = c. 48 2:33 of the New York City Ballet and the Chicago Lyric noticeable style elements is a witty sense of musical humor. for which I wrote the music.” Unlike some etudes which 3 III. = c. 120 1:04 ^ III. = c. 104–116 4:08 Opera, and the Chicago Symphony. My teaching career The use of humor within a serious musical language is a focus on a single musical element, each one of these pieces, Four Etudes (1952) for piano 3:16 Six Bagatelles (1964) for piano 5:17 covered 42 years and included public school music, one rare attribute but has occurred from time to time throughout while only a page long, explores the integration of at least 4 I. = c. 60 (Con osservanza) 0:53 & I. = c. 46 1:12 year at Mills College, six years at the University of music history in the catalogues of composers such as Josef two different textures. 5 II. = c. 63 (Senza rubato) 0:57 * II. Fast 0:35 Chicago, and 34 years at Stanford, where I served as Haydn and György Ligeti. Suite for Solo Viola (1948) is dedicated to Herman major advisor for 41 students receiving music Throughout all of the compositions on this recording, Gordon. Smith writes: “Herman Gordon was the night 6 III. = c. 72 (Ballabile) 0:45 ( III. = c. 108–116 0:37 doctorates in composition, computer music and Smith plays subtle musical games with pitch and rhythm. clerk in the Union Square Hotel in New York City, where my 7 IV. = c. 116 (Deciso) 0:36 ) IV. = c. 72 0:33 musicology. I also have taught at Colgate University He sets up expectations based on familiar gestures and wife and I stayed on our way to Paris in 1948. At midnight ¡ V. = c. 60 1:09 and served as Visiting Distinguished Professor at the then quickly “destroys” them. Examples abound, such as we found him industriously practicing the viola with a mute Suite for Solo Viola (1948) 7:43 8 I. = c. 112–120 2:30 ™ VI. Poco scherzando: = c. 84 0:55 University of California at Davis. My compositions the many places in piano parts where Smith creates on. He was a rather good performer but could not get work 9 II. = c. 42 1:29 Piano Sonata (1954) 14:47 have been performed by the San Francisco Symphony, “intentional cracks” — a single voice line will suddenly as he was blacklisted by the union — I think for communist 0 III. = c. 72–80 1:16 £ I. = c. 80–82 (March) – (Trio) – (March) 5:09 the Orchestra of America (Carnegie Hall), and the gain an added minor second for a moment; at first, it affiliations. The opening of the suite I later used in the first Singapore Symphony. Also my works have been sounds like a mistake, but the purpose is quickly revealed movement of my Concerto for Orchestra which was ! IV. = c. 48–56 – = c. 76 (Energico) 2:19 ¢ II. Fast: = c. 120–126 (Rondo) 7:08 presented in Athens, Belgrade, Paris, London, Chicago, as Smith uses the textural change as a springboard for performed by the Orchestra of America in Carnegie Hall Intermezzo and Capriccio (1952) for piano 5:57 ∞ III. = c. 40 (Coda) 2:19 Taipei, etc. I have lectured on various musical topics in further musical development. Likewise, Smith frequently in the 1960s.” The opening movement alternates between @ I. Intermezzo: = c. 84 (Moderato) 2:59 § Concert Piece for Violin and Piano (1951) 7:57 over ten different countries in America, Europe and disrupts expected rhythmic pulses. An excellent example long-lined slow, melodic music and fast music based # II. Capriccio: = c. 126 (Con brio) 2:57 Asia. of this can be found in the first movement of the Piano around repeated chords. The second movement presents In the 1960s I began working with computer- Sonata, where it almost sounds as though the pianist is three extended “phrases”, each of which is a variation on generated sound and assisted John Chowning in the adding violently inconsistent “lurches” to the texture, the one that preceded it. The third movement begins with The story of American composer Leland Clayton Smith is studying counterpoint, orchestration, and composition founding of the Stanford Center for Computer Research compositions since 1971, he assembled a distinguished skewing the listener’s sense of expectation in what a tonal “shanty” in 6/8 time. The simple tonal and rhythmic one of versatility and excellence. In a musical career that with Darius Milhaud – who magically appeared in my in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA). I served as a body of music in many forms, including an opera (on a otherwise seems like familiar patterns. Everything in patterns quickly break down into a scherzo-like has spanned over seventy years, Smith’s work as a Oakland neighborhood in 1941. During the war years musical programming consultant for the establishment libretto by E. E. Cummings), orchestral works, choral and Smith’s music is very scrupulously notated; all of these development. The final movement begins with a very still composer, performer, teacher, and computer software I served for two and a half years in the Navy, regularly of the IRCAM center in Paris. In 1970 I turned my vocal music, and numerous chamber and solo pieces. Most effects are not left up to chance but are rather executed passage featuring the bowing of double stops while also developer has reached consistently high levels of performing on six different instruments as a member of attention to computerized music typography, producing of Smith’s music falls into this final category, drawing upon precisely by the performers. plucking additional notes. The fast section that follows has achievement and recognition. the 13th Naval District Admiral’s Band based in the first completely computer-produced edition of his extensive experience as a chamber musician. He is a The end result of these techniques is a sound world of the character of a folk dance. Smith presents a biographical sketch of himself in his Bremerton, Washington. After the war I spent two and music in 1971. In 1979 I published the first book on self-described “miniaturist”, usually creating his works from immense character, contrast, and color. Smith’s music Intermezzo and Capriccio (1952) for piano is dedicated own words: a half years at the University of California in Berkeley music ever produced completely by the computer. The the compilation of short movements. seduces with its elegant development of textures and to Rosalyn Frantz. Smith writes: “Roslyn Frantz was also studying with Roger Sessions. In that time I received the outgrowth of this work, the SCORE music typography Despite Smith’s considerable success in the fields of harmonies, its imaginative use of familiar structures such a piano student at Mills in that year. She was a remarkable I was born 6 August 1925 in Oakland, California. I A.B. degree with Highest Honors in Music, was elected system, is now being used by many of the world’s composition, performance, and education, it is his work as sonata form (with audible transpositions and natural talent who seemed to be able to play anything. She began serious study of music at the age of eleven, to Phi Beta Kappa, and received the M.A. in leading publishers. in computer music that has made an indelible impression recapitulations), and its sparkling wit and humor. played these pieces on her senior recital.” The Intermezzo concentrating on the piano and woodwinds, but also composition. During that same time I became an on the musical landscape of the twentieth century. His Sonatina for Violin and Piano (1952–53) is dedicated is basically lyrical, with some jagged interruptions. The learning the rudiments of brass and string instruments. assistant to Darius Milhaud in his teaching at Mills Throughout his teaching career, Smith taught a number SCORE music typography system was not only the first to violinist Anne Kish. Smith writes: “Anne Kish was an Capriccio is virtuosic and brilliant, heavily using the I joined the Musicians’ Union at the age of seventeen College. In 1948 I began a year’s study at the Paris of noted composers including William Bolcom, Richard system of its kind, but set the standard for professional excellent violinist whom I first met at Mills College in piercingly bright uppermost register of the piano. Smith (playing tenor sax in dubious San Francisco nightclubs) Conservatory, which included classes of Olivier Swift, David Lang, Kui Dong, and Dexter Morrill. Smith’s computer music engraving. Though its dominance in the 1946. We played in very many concerts together over a performs many rhythmic transformations on his basic and am now a life member. I began composing at age Messiaen and woodwind performance and conducting. own output as a composer dates primarily from the years field has lessened with its age and the new and further period of over twenty years.” The sonatina is cast in three material, which is derived from the opening jagged eleven and, after brief music theory studies in the In 1950 I returned to New York where I began 1940–70, ending when he began intense work in the updates to subsequently released computer software very brief movements: a vibrant opening, a lyrical rhythmic figure. A quiet, chorale-like middle section Oakland Public Schools, I began, at the age of fifteen, playing in concerts of the National Orchestral computer music field. Though Smith has completed no new programs, the output from SCORE continues to remain interlude, and a bouncy finale. presents a hint of a more romantic texture before the 2 8.559351 3 8.559351 4 8.559351 559351bk Smith:557541bk Kelemen 3+3 11/10/08 9:30 PM Page 2

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CMYK NAXOS Playing Leland Time: SMITH 58:57 (b. 1925) Disc Made in Canada. Printed & Assembled USA. ൿ broadcasting and copying of this compact disc prohibited. translations reserved. Unauthorised public performance, All rights in this sound recording, artwork, texts and 8.559351

& Chamber Music AMERICAN CLASSICS Ꭿ

2008 Naxos Rights International Ltd. 2008 Naxos Rights International 1–3 Sonatina for Violin and Piano Best known as the developer of SCORE, (1952–53) 3:26 the first music notation software LELAND SMITH: 4–7 Four Etudes (1952) 3:16 program, Leland Smith created a body 8–! Suite for Solo Viola (1948) 7:43 of musical compositions before turning his focus to computers. A student of @–# Intermezzo and Capriccio (1952) 5:57 Milhaud, Messiaen and Sessions, Smith $–^ Sonata for Viola and Piano (1953) 9:44 was active for many years as a woodwind and keyboard performer and & ™ (1964) – Six Bagatelles 5:17 served, until his retirement, as a faculty £–∞ Piano Sonata (1954) 14:47 member at Mills College, the University § Concert Piece for Violin and of Chicago, and finally Stanford

Chamber Music Piano (1951) 7:57 University. The score to his Six

Bagatelles (1964) for piano was the first Chamber Music Jeffrey Grossman, Piano 1–7, 12–26 completely computer-produced edition 1–3, 26 8–11, 14–16 of music when published in 1971. Sarah Darling, Violin , Viola Focusing on Smith’s chamber music for Full track details will be found on page 2 of the booklet piano, violin, and viola, this recording presents an introduction to his ALL WORLD PREMIÈRE RECORDINGS compelling sound world, full of great character, contrast, and color. Smith’s Recorded at Futura Productions, Roslindale, Massachusetts, music seduces with its elegant develop- 5–6 November 2007 Producer & Project Co-ordinator: Carson Cooman ment of textures and harmonies, its imaginative use of familiar structures, LELAND SMITH: DDD Session Engineer: John Weston Editing & Mastering: Overtone Audio and its sparkling wit and humor. C Booklet Notes: Carson Cooman Publisher: San Andreas Press (Palo Alto, California) www.naxos.com M

Piano: Steinway CD327 ‘Hamburg’ model 8.559351 8.559351 Violin: Douglas Cox, Brattleboro, Vermont, 1999; copy of Y Giovanni Grancino, 1723 Viola: William Whedbee, Chicago, Illinois, 1987 Cover image © Amygdalaimagery / Dreamstime.com K American flag, folk artist, 1880s NAXOS