VOLUME 25, NUMBER 5 MAY, 1995
The Composer, The Musicolo Conference Review gist, and the Culture Wars . FRESH AIR IN REGION VIII Glenn Watkins CI members from Texas, Illinois, Indiana, [Glenn Watkins, Professor of Musicology at the University of SWashington , Hawaii and California came to Michigan, was the invited keynote speaker at the 28th Na the University of the Pacific in Stockton, tional Conference, which was held at the University of Iowa . California to explore connections between world April 5-8, 1995. The editors received permission to reprint music and contemporary composition at the recent his speech in its entirety] 1995 Region VIII Annual ConferenceMusic, World and New. The conference was coordinated by UOP ·T he keynote speech is an improbable species, composer Curt Veeneman, who directs the innova · typically sandwiched somewhere between the tive new music concert series at UOP,Pacific Mar main course and dessert-or as today bet\Yeen ket: Fresh Music from Around the World Many dessert and the first afternoon session. And.for a group ev(:nts at the two day conference were designed to of composers and theorists to have to listen to one of . involve participants in intriguing aspects of indig these sermons delivered by a musicologist is asking for enous music through meaningful activities. · an unusual degree of forbearance. A music theory col league of mine once told me somewhat pointedly that Several lecture-demonstrations introduced the com he was not a musicologist because he could not imag posers to musical ideas and instruments from non ine spending his lifetime-contemplating the laundry lists western cultures. Jay Stebley and Clark Welsh, of the Duke of Ferrara. With that in mind, let me assure assisted by members ofTaraf (San Francisco), dem you of my considerably less arcane intentions by lay onstrated a large array of instruments from the ing out my fundamental thesis at the very beginning. Balkans, including the cimpoi (Romanian bagpipe) Namely, I would like to submit'that the composer's pe and cimbalom. John Kaizan Neptune (Japan) and rennial search for a contemporary identity is similar to Shirley KazuyoMuramoto (Oakland) demonstrated that of the musicologist. And I do not mean just when the shakuhachi and koto and discussed concepts of the musicologist concerns himself with 20th-century Japanese music. John Bergamo (Cal Arts) de music. I mean to suggest that those issues currently scribed his elegant means of understanding and widely discussed under the rubric of the Culture polyrhythm through the use of Indian drum syl Wars have a direct bearing upon the kind of music that lables. you compose and the topics that musicologists and theo rists write about. It is my hope that by establishing a A highlight of the conference was the gamelan dialogue about many of these issues that music of our workshop conducted by Robert Kyr (University of ti.me might take on an increasing sense of relevance in Oregon). Conference participants had the delightful an age when the Museum Exhibition and the Poetry . experience of being personally guided through the Reading have both tended to outdraw the Contempo construction of a composition for Balinese gamelan rary Music Concert which continues to be considered and performing the composition themselves! commercial poison. A panel discussion regarding the interplay of new All ages have an urge to declare a fresh vantage point, and indigenous music featured I Made Arnawa, to assert a claim to "newness" that can help separate faculty of STSI Denpasar (the National Arts Acad them fr~m the immediate past. The current epidemi ~ to emy in Bali) and Guest Artistic Director of Gamel an define a Postmodern moment is only the most recent Sekar Jaya, John Bergamo, professor, California example. Philipe de Vi try announced an Ars Nova in . Institute of the Arts and member of Bracha, Robert the 14th century; Caccini aNuove Musiche in the early . Kyr, Professor, University of Oregon and Director 17th. But the 20th century has outbid them all: Neo- of Pacific Rim Gamelan, Greg Steinke, SCI Chair Classicism and Neue Sachlichkeit have been followed and Director of the Ball Stat~ University School of by the New Simplicity, the New Romanticism-arid Music, and Wayne Vitale, Director of Gamelan now a New Complexity that paradoxically flourishes Sekar Jaya (and translator for I Made Arnawa), with in tandem with a New Age music. The meaning of such Curt Veeneman as moderator. Two interesting terms, however, is rarely made clear. What does "New papers, appropriate to the theme of the conference, Age" really mean, for example? Elisabeth Leguin has were presented as well : "Native American and answered the question thus: Eastern European Influences on a Composition Pro cess" by Greg Steinke and "One Composer's Debt "[New Age is] Anything, it seems, from recordings of interstellar static, to humpback whales discreetly continued on pg. 11 accompanied by synthesizers, to "sci also helps to define it at a ·ery hllilda:Jrn Members' Activities Column entifically formulated, p~ychoacoustic" level. What we rec cle is t as Please send information on your activities simulations of sound environments what we confect ane ~ ; indeed. er is (for performances, include title of work, (oceans, heartbeats), to sub!iminal mes frequently the same as the former in · guise. date(s), performers, location and ifpremiere) sages musically embedded, to "sooth * * * to the following address: ing meditations" for piano or Celtic n the summer of 199 · - Brody harp, to lush, tumescent orchestral fan I wrote a provocative arti le entitled SCI Newsletter tasies, to lightweight jazz and world Pluralism, Difference, and the Crisis of University of Iowa music, to unadulterated field recordings Composers in the Academy-an article re School.of Music of Zuni tribal chants, to Michael Nyman, printed in the l2/94SCI Newsletter. He be Iowa City, IA 52242· to Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings, gan by declaring that the title of University or to the latest entry, Gregorian chant..." Composer, "once glorious," now seemed [email protected] "quaint" and that "promises of institutional What constitutes ."new anything" becomes patronage and prestige" had long ince particularly difficult to determine with such evaporated. He further lamented the plight Look at our record! loosely applied terms. And this is especially of the composer by suggesting that young true at a time when scrutiny for the mark Ph.D.s in theory were more likel to find · •3997 member compositions performed ings of continuity with a previous age is sel jobs in the academic market place than com •1305 member composers performed dom encouraged. In our present Postmodern posers. "The emergence of the profes ional •274 member composers performed in climate that has proclaimed the arrival of an . hybrid, 'composer-theorist', he wro e 'sug 1993-94 alone age also frequently characterized as Post . gests that composition on i ov,rn has insuf •661 concerts sponsored in 118 different cities History-wherein all sense of history is ficient status to garner respect in the aca •84 member composers publi.shed in the muted or totally set aside-it is, of course, demic community." SCI Journal of Music Scores easier to assert claims of novelty. Where •64 member compositions recorded on amnesia reigns, anything can seem fresh and I believe the issue can be tated somewhat LPs and CDs new. At the same time the category of the less dramatically, for the mar etability of masterpiece, which is rooted in the act of theory Ph.D.s is surely duel o a lack of comparative evaluation, also disappears. respect for composers than to o viously Why Not Go Online greater need for theory teachers o taff the In such a climate some argue that the prac courses that form the typi aJ core curricu- - with SCION? tice of writing history approaches the prac lum. It should also be added that die asser tice of musical composition. To an extent tion that .the professional hybrid, composer Membership in SCI includes regular informa this has a.lways been so, however, and theorist, has only recentl emeiged. is his tion through SCION. Please register with us Nietzsche was not the first to insist that the torically faulty. In the early , ears ofAme ri by sending the message
Page2 o XXV:5 Now in the mid 1990s at my own institution cultural custodianship and critique that are tempts to shut out any number of voices, as , the cycle is coming full circle once again: familiar to the musicologist. many of today's multiculturalists begin by the separate doctorates in Theory and Com requesting a celebration of difference only position are being supplemented by a Almost forty years ago, when I was a young to conclude with the denouncement otWest Theory-Composition degree, and the pro assistant professor at Chapel Hill, I taught ern culture as elitist. gram is already attracting some highly tal 16th-century counterpoint using Knud ented students. It is of no little interest that Jeppesen 's text in a translation from the As a consequence there have been numer a plea for closer collaboration between the Danish made by my then chairman, Glen ous visible shifts in c.urricular offerings: disciplines of music theory and musicology Haydon, who was also a musicologist. At world and popular music courses have pro was mounted almost simultaneously, and my Michigan over the past several decades the liferated while Medieval and Renaissance colleague Kevin Korsyn, a professor of course in 16th-century counterpoint, taught studies, still vigorously pursued by a hand theory, recently delivered a position paper by a composer (Leslie Bassett), a theorist ful of able scholars and typically honored in before the combined faculty and graduate (Elwood Derr), a musicologist (David the annual prize lists as if by way of com student body of the musicology and theory Crawford), was recently and shockingly pensation, have become increasingly departments in which he outlined a concrete dropped altogether from the curriculum for marginalized, if not totally muted. Paradoxi course of action. No call for the dissolution a number of years, and reintroduced only cally, however, popular music has recently of our separate disciplines, this very year by William purloined various Medieval repertories from such wisdom only acknowl Bolcolm, who straightaway Gregorian Chant to Hildegard von Bingen, edges how much we have to resurrected Fux. and our earliest preserved sources ofWest offer each other and how ern music have suddenly become the object little of it typically gets com One thing seems clear: com of a new embrace that now serves both New municated. Whether or not posers, theorists and musi Age sensibilities and feminist agendas. such proposals signal a cologists alike have tradi trend, it surely confirms that tionally shown both an inter Sometimes these agendas work at cross-pur the metamorphosis of power est and a capacity to step poses, however. Susan McClary, currently and fashion in the academic across disciplinary bound one of the most articulate voices in our field, marketplace changes too aries and seemingly intrac not only promotes feminist and popular rapidly and in configurations table curricular guidelines. agendas but also speaks with enthusiasm that are too variegated for And in the. light of past prac about Baroque and Romantic repertoires. anyone to be able to speak tice and current develop With the 20th century, however, she has a with certainty concerning ments, one can understand problem. In an article of 1989, entitled Ter the status of separateness of Brody's prediction that the minal Prestige, 1 she demeans the Modern disciplines. And economic factors can be time may not be far distant when theorists ist movement as misogynistic and as powerful in their formulation as aesthetic and composers will "give way to new kinds homophobic, cites statements by Sessions or intellectual fashion. of music academics-those bearing ideas and Babbitt from the 1950s as though they currently emerging in the fields of cultural reflected the ideals of the academy today, Indeed, the disciplinary lines of demarca studies, anthropology, and and decries the latter's continuing devotion tion have always been more in a state of flux ethnomusicology." Far from being a call for to Difficult Music (capital "D.M.") and its than we are wont to remember For from the dissolution of professionalism inherent stubborn refusal to embrace· popular and time to time composers have even been en in our separate endeavors as composers, Postmodernist expressions-a judgment that gaged in what today we would call musico theorists, and musicologists, such prophecy would surely ring strange to anyone attend logical activity. Brahms, for example, made merely takes note of the fact that the cur ing the present conference. Her remarks are editions of Couperin and Handel; Debussy ri culum is undergoing a sea change reflec rather typical, however, of a persistent kind edited Rameau; Webern deciphered and ti ve of the cultural politics of the nation at of reportage from the time of Henry published the intricate canons of Heinrich large. Pleasant's book, The Agony of Modern Mu Isaac. And other composers, such as sic of 1950, that has actively chastised the Tchaikovsky, Bartok, and Vaughan Will If today's Culture Wars seem more virulent contemporary music scene and praised it iams, engaged in tune collecting and edit than in the past, it must be due in some laige only to the extent that it incorporated overtly ing or ethnomusicological field work. In ad measure not only to their currency but also popular expressions. Most often, however, dition, any number of the most important to the sheer bulk of contemporary critique "popular" is defined as music with a strong composerly minds from Rameau, Berl ioz, and the swiftness with which the issues are beat, and the widespread if unwitting accep Schumann, Wagner, Schoenberg and communicated. Furthermore, the current tance of expressionistic and electronic vo Stravinsky to Boulez, Stockhausen, Babbitt ele ation of the idea of cultural diversity to cabularies-nurtured continuously over the Copland, and Rochberg have left behind the status of a credo both within and with past three and a half decades in the acad sizeable tracts outlining their views on out the academy has brought with it a new emy and widely popularized via television theory, history, and aesthetics. In a word, monolithic voice attendant to all crusades. and the cinema-remains strangely unac the composer, in the act of clarifying his own For what began as a search for difference knowledged. perspectives, frequently engages in acts of has ended, somewhat predictably, with at-
The SCI Newsletter XXV:5 Page 3 Most recently Martha Bayles, in her book that art worthy of support should be recog And the art historian Robert Rosenblum has Hole in Our Soul, has pursued this general nizable through its ability to "elevate the reviewed for us how Cubism's alliance with thesis by defending the original spirit of public mind by bringing it into contact with Pop culture constantly invoked "a juggling Afro-American music "against the anarchis beauty and even ameliorate social patholo act between, on the one hand, an arcane vi tic, nihilistic impulses of the European gies."3 The progressivists, however, hold sual language that was legible only to an elite avant-garde" which, she argues, "were that it is impossible to develop a consensus group of artists and their audience and, on grafted onto rock in the late 1960s."2 It about the value of art, and that art "is a state the other; a profµsion of popular reference seems that the avant-garde is to .blame for ment of being. To express oneself is to de that, while often obscure to us, could be everything? despite what we know to be the clare one's existence."4 Frank Zappa and understood by any resident of Paris on the perennially porous nature of all art. Today others have echoed this ~entiment by stat eve of WWl."5 Similarly, in approaching the very notion of an avant-garde is dormant, ing that personal expression must not be Philip Glass's recent Low Symphony, for however, and so we have to blame an his censored in the land of the free, and they example, I have had to receive guidance torical avant-garde which in the field of have forwarded the opinion that elevated as from my students in the music of David music is defined largely in terms of Europe pirations have nothing to do with value. Bowie, whose music was largely unfamil from the first half of the century. Such a iar to me but was known ·to them from their view only perpetuates a perspective that has Whatever the truth, one does not need to be growing up years. I am obliged to report, been endemic to American history from its a cultural historian to realize that popular however, t~at thankful as I was for the tute inception-namely, the perspective of a culture periodically searches for inteliectual lage and for the ciarification of the connec fledgling nation that periodicaliy, if some upgrading and emotional enrichment in a tions, I still felt like a Parisian listening to what unsuccessfully, sought to severe its ties measure that is matched by elite ·culture's thepremiere of Petrushka. with the culture it had left behind and, in so own attraction to vernacular expression. doing, to proclaim the prospect of cultural Indeed, is there a composer here today, re In numerous quarters, however, the argu revelation independent of Europe. At the gardless 'of his orientation, who has not ment has been taken a step further Attempts same time, the increasing emphasis which flirted, however fleetingly, with cross-over in the name of multiculturalism (spelled America placed upon local culture was a in some dimension or other, whether through "cultural relativism") are now regularly direct mirror of the neo-nationalist aspira fusion or juxtaposition? made to neutralize the diverse values that tions fostered amongst most European com different groups of people typically attribute munities in the 19th century. I recently heard a fascinating arrangement to a given piece of music in the service of of Gershwin's Let's Call the Whole Thing erasing all notions of "value." It seems that In the current climate of the Culture Wars, Off by o.ne of the prominent organizers of once this notion is secured, however, the old popular and folk musics, both local and ex this very conference, and its first perfor value theory can be reintroduced, and ex otic, are once again ascendant, and large mance took piace only last year (April 1, pressed preferences for classically oriented segments of the musicological, t11eoretical, 1994) in the very auditorium where we are Western music, for example, can be dubbed and composerly worlds are scrambling to assembled (Clapp Recital Hall, University "elitist." As Roger Kimball has recently take note of its p~esence, particularly for of Iowa). Beyond the skill and the atten voiced: markings of cultural criss-cross, and even dant humor in the juxtaposition-obviously more especially its commercial power If triggered by the possibility of misreading the Few charges are thought to be more the results prove to be as rich for our time title as Let's Call the Whole Thing Orff damning today than the charge of elit as they were for European composers in the there is a clear call to a more broadly in ism. As an epithet, 'elitist' ranks just first half of this century, we will be very formed, some would say "elitist" audience. below 'racist' and perhaps just a hair lucky indeed. From the gamelans and For openers, one has to be "in the know" in above 'sexist' in virulence. It is a con habaneras of Debussy and R·avel, the rags order to appreciate the citation of. Orff's versation stopper, a career wrecker, an and tangos of Satie and Stravinsky, to the Camina Burana: musical professionals will ' ideological Molotov cocktail. Profes Bulgarian dances of Baitok and the "Art of get it at once; lay concert audiences will sors, politicians, artists, cultural custo the Everyday" of Cocteau and his follow connect in smaller numbers; and the vast dians of all varieties all shy away from ers, to any number of composers in atten majority will only recognize a momentary the dread word as from the plague.6 dance here today, the cross-over aesthetic detour from the Gershwin original. Great has been a commonplace in every decade in fun for us; a misfire for many. In such a climate the guidelines are so con the twentieth century. In the meantime, we fusing t~at, if taken literally, they could vir hang on to the words "global" and "popu But that there are invariably multiple re tually shut off creative activity altogether lar" as though they provided a new perspec sponses to any work is fundamental to the On the one hand it is stated that worldliness tive, only rarely glimpsed before. very notion of what musicologists call Re and global perspectives are "in" and must ception History. The citation of a host of be pursued. But in a climate where a Numerous conservative art and cultural his Russian folktunes in Stravinsky's Petrushka, composer's appropriation of a culture not his torians such as Hilton Kramer and George for example, virtually insured that the work own can be readily read as exploitation, good F. Will have posited the belief, however, that would have a decidedly different impact or neutral intentions are. all too frequent! "artistic achievement is measured by the upon Russian audiences than the Parisian recolored evil, and light-hearted infatuation extent to which it reflects the sublime" and one that heard the premiere performance. or flirtation can be interpreted as misogyny.
Page4 The SCI Newsletter XXV:5 ,
Today's deconstructionists also frequently for his completed work is clear acknowledg Boundaries which are traditionally set up make a mishmash out of such transferences. ment of this fact. We were reminded by between the academic musical disciplines For example, they might well ask the ques Penderecki on a visit toAnnArbor only las t in an American university (composition, tion: "Can you fail to hear the underlying month that the original title of his Threnody theory, music history, ethnomusicology) horror of Nazi rallies that has often been said for the Victims of Hiroshima was 8' 37" and have always been somewhat artificial, bear to be encoded in Orff's Carmina Burana?" that its familiar title came somewhat later ing little or no relation to the linkage that To the extent that such an association is un One can only imagine the potential recep binds them both practically and philosophi avoidable, underscored by the fact that al tion of the work had the original title been cally. Yet, despite current calls for interdis ready in the 13th-century "a Christmas play retained-and no doubt as a consequence the ciplinary collusion in the fashion of the day, from the Carmina Burana had reconfigured delayed launching of a composer's career. the practical reality remains that it is diffi the Jews as allies of the Devil,'17 it could be cult to develop such programs t~ at will at argued that it is unthinkable to place such However, the composer's introduction of a the same time satisfy the needs of students music, as we heard only a few moments ago, particular cultural perspective exposes the who find their own fields increasingly in in the company of George Gershwin, a Tin paradox that orthodoxy is not possible given tricate and diversified. For with good rea Pan Alley Russian-Jew. Alas, such a the diversity of the human condition. How son students today have a need to be certi deconstruction misconstrues and twists an do we train young musicians-performers, fied as specialists upon graduation. The twin originally straight-forward verbal pun on the composers, music educators and historians values of Specialty and Interdisciplinary phrase "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off' into alike-to be aware of music's multiple typically collide. The hope that later in their a shamefully skewed sermon, a critically subtexts and to speak of the importance they professional careers students may find time distorted and callous commentary on one of carry for all of us? A modest beginning to to explore the riches of art and music his the nightmares of recent world history. ward this end can be seen in the emphasis tory, literature, and the world of ideas fre now being placed on the notion that no single quently proves to be a chimera or pipe I am sorry to have to report that such "po stylistic repertoire can guarantee a reason dream. litically correct" adjudications have become able curriculum in the training of the young increasingly familiar in the fi eld of musi musician. Increasingly it has come to be held However, in recent years at my own institu cology. And I would add that it is also re that basic undergraduate instruction in har tion we have frequently advised our gradu flective of a kind of musicology that, in at monic chord progressions based solely on ate students that, if they are historical musi tending to social and political issues, often the Bach chorales, for example, is no more cologists, they had better have a minor in strays so far from the music that the argu responsible to the future professional needs ethnomusicology or American popular mu ments could be made by a sociologist or of young musicians than one based solely sic. Such advice is a clear sign of the re anthropologist without any musical training upon examples taken from jazz repertoires. alignment that has taken place in the field whatsoever. It is also a mirror of this very Both probably make their strongest case of musicology at many institutions. How mentality that has members of the when presented in tandem. do you advise young composers today? I Swarthmore College Choir refusing to par can only report that in recent years I have ticipate in a performance of Bach's St. John Edward Said has suggested that all exclu been privileged to witness a steady stream Passion later this very month (April 1995), sionary calls to the parochial ultimately bdng of composers populate both my survey saying that it "smacks of anti-Semitism with spiritual shock and loss of power, and that courses and graduate seminars in topics its tale of Jewish demands for Jesus' cruci in the arts it is only ranging from Gesualdo and Monteverdi to fixion."8 Similar calls were recently made Stravinsky, Berg, "The Year 1992," and in by one ofAmerica's most eminent musicolo by linking works to each other [that] we the current semester a seminar entitled gists who called for the deletion for all time bring them out of the neglect and "Highbrow/Lowbrow in 20th-Century Mu of the word "Jews" in a setting of Victimae secondariness to which for all ki nds of sic and Culture." I have also noted with Pascali by the 15th-century Busnois because political and ideological reasons they had ihterest that the composers' curiosity as well of its potentially anti-Semitic reference? We previou ly been condemned ... Worldli as his verbal skills in making a critique fre are now going at music history with an ness i therefore the restoration to such quently match that of the musicology ma eraser. \ ork and interpretations of their place jors. * * * in a global setting, a restoration that can omposers, understandably enough, on! be accomplished by an appreciation Interest in such topics by the composer C have a way of dismissing such ap not of some tiny, defensively constituted should not be surprising in light of the cu 1~ praisals as totally irrelevant to their corner of the world, but of the large, rent debates surrounding the canon, past and primary concerns. Yet such issues are by many-windowed house of human culture present, the function of cultivated and ver and large not of the musicologists' making as whole. 10 nacular repertoires, and the relevance that and typically mirror societal aspirations at such issues have for the composer who is large, including those of performers and Such a perspecti ve encourages us all to f01go curious about recent pronouncements con composers. For extra-musical associations isolationism in the telling of our stories and cerning the demise of concert-hall music, typically affect the way a piece of music is to attempt to elevate the provincial to a more and now the Postmodern aesthetic. Has the received, and the composer's persistent anxi universal plateau that discourages the notion latter finall y succumbed to kitsch, banalite, ety in attempting to find just the right title of parochial cultural revelation. Disneyland culture? Or, indeed, does Elvis
The SCI Newsletter XXV:5 Page 5 still live? Ultimately, the composers, the there simply as a correction, as a fortuitous popular best-sellers such as Thomas Moore's theorists, and the musicologists will answer coincidence, or should we explore possible Soul Mates-:--all of which speak to today's the question in tandem and not through a connections and continuities between ear need for spiritual nourishment in a modern reading of the morning newspaper Their lier exotic musical practices and later devel urban society that has lost its moorings. collective perspective, however it finally opments by theAmerican minimalists? Yet Does the spotlight being placed upon these emerges, must be formulated from the wid even assuming the connections are not false, early repertoires suggest that studies in Me est possible exposure to all musics of all why should we be interested in verifying dieval and Renaissance music may momen cultures from all periods. Yet this also im them? As emblems of cultural diversity and tarily be expected to be reclaimed from their plies that, in our rush to promote contempo richness in the American music landscape? recent marginalization in the curriculum? rary popular music and an awareness of As a reinforcement of the national motto e world cultures, a grounding in the Western pluribus unum? Or as arbiters of Western If this happens, it should come as no sur canon cannot be set aside without risk of self-effacement and calls for brotherhood prise in light of numerous recent and recur unconscionable impoverishment. As al that currently so readily praise the non rent pronouncements that Medievalism is the ways, the desire for an enriched perspective Eurocentric Other? Obviously, the reasons predominant emerging fashion for the 1990s. places a burden upon the curriculum and behind the search for signs of continuity are Correspondingly, such a turn of events ultimately upon the graduate student who is both vigorous and varied. would have to be attributed in some consid expected to be in charge of an accumulating erable measure to the ongoing work of the tradition. In a similar vein I would like to play one musicologists over the past century who final example for you [Schnittke, Concerto have made the sources so readily available, I once heard Nadia Boulanger give advice for Chorus] . Once again the same class of as well as to the collective example of com to young composers in the form of a maxim students waivered between designating the posers and performing groups such as that I believe can serve all musicians well composer as a latter-day Gesualdo or some Enigma, Anonymous IV, Davies, regardless of their endeavor I have quoted hyper-Rachmaninov. When told, however, Gubaidulina and numerous others. Recog it many times over the years, and I believe that the work was composed in 1972 by nition of this symbiotic relationship between it is worth repeating yet once again. She Alfred Schnittke and that it was composed history and contemporary practice of neces said, "Take the music you love the most and to a 15th-century Russian religious text, their sity encourages the music historian to en commit it to memory. Then when you go to minds ran to Gorecki, Arvo Part, and other large his previously recondite arguments compose, do not strain to avoid the obvi figures who have helped to define the New tuned principally to Early Music aficiona ous." What would seem to be an invitation Spiritualism--emphasizing, of course, the dos and to attempt to provide a new sense to pursue a career as a mediocre copycat is word "New." And while recalling the mag of current relevance for these earlier reper in point of fact a dictum that states the nificent exploration of the lower bass regis toires. Invariably, it is in such acts of reap inescapability of tradition in all its diversity. ters in Schnittke's piece, their historical and praisal that the historian and the composer And attempts to escape from it are as dan ethnic sense quickly recalledBoris Godunov experience a kind of epiphany in coming to gerous and as meaningless as a trick by and the great Russian basso profundo tradi terms with the essence of what it was that Houdini. tion. they sought to express in the first place.
For how can we make Yet, regardless sense of any music of our ongoing without taking note of "Take the music you love the most and commit it search for con the accumulating tra to memory. Then when you go to compose, do tinuity and rel dition within the cul evance, there tural context of the not strain to avoid the obvious. " N_adia Boulanger can be little composer and his age? guarantee in I would like you to lis- advance that ten to the following example and ask your Yes, what we know about a piece does af any new piece of music will give us plea self what you hear [McPhee, Tabu fect how we hear it at both the most telling sure. I am traveling to Vienna next month Tabuhan]. Without forewarning, one of my and the most superficial levels. And knowl to hear the premiere of Schnittke's new op classes composed principally of graduate edge that the last piece was written by a era Gesualdo, and despite my professional students has, in a blind .testing, typically Soviet composer prior to his removal to involvement with Gesualdo and the contem guessed the composer of this piece as John Germany takes priority over all theories at porary music scene over the past 40 years, I Adams and the date as around 1980-85. tendant to a study of the text. Notice of the cannot predict my initial reaction to the When I notified them that it was written in general cultural background enhances recep work. Indeed, I harbor a certain anxiety. For 1936 by a Canadian, Colin McPhee, who in tion of the work and directs the mind which it is no doubt reasonable to expect that I will the 1920s and 30s took up an extended resi in turn tunes the ear. Listening to Schnittke's experience some collision of personal inter dence in Bali, the perspective readily shifted work in 1995, it can hardly be heard inde ests in the confrontation of two protago to include influences of the gamelans of pendent of a New Spiritualism reflected in nists-one old, one new- both of whom I J Southeast Asia, which the composer stud the current vogue for a series of chant CDs admire and respond to for quite different ied assiduously. But should the story end that have recently flooded the market, or the reasons.
Page 6 The SCI Newsletter XXV:5 Many years ago, however, and without any Endnotes fortable with or don't agree with. The more thought of guarantees I made a personal con multicultural our society becomes, the more tract to keep listening to the music that the 1Susan McClary, Terminal Prestige, Cultural frightened they become; the more the cur collective body assembled here today has Critique (Spring 1989): 57-81 rent economic stress takes its toll, the more written and will continue to write. For this desperate they become. As a result, they there is no substitute, just as there can be no 2Martha Bayles, Hole in four Soul (New scapegoat easy targets. substitute for a voracious appetite for read York, 1994). Publisher's pre-release copy ing on the part of the composer. With musi from The Free Press. DKG: Like the arts ... cians of all stripes, reading and listening re main cardinal to the creative act. For the 3James Hunter, Culture Wars: The Struggle FR: which are very easy, and very visible. music historian, listening provides the nec to Define America (New York, 1991): 238. In many ways, the pop songs are written in essary check for his critical inquiry and in order to shock, and so people put little rules terpretation; for the composer, reading 4Hunter 1991: 239. on the record covers. They don't try to string should lay the foundation for further dia them up in public, although that kind of cen logue with one's colleagues-both inside 5Varnedoe and Gopnik, ed. ModernArtand sorship in principal is the same thing. Even and outside the music profession-and po Popular Culture: Readings in High and Low ugly thoughts, which we may not agree with, tentially suggest unsuspected perspectives. Art (New York, 1990): 119. have a place-yet none of us are allowedto If the professed need for such external en think anymore. It is something we all for gagement sounds Utopian, we would do well 6Roger Kimball, reciew ofWilliamA. Henry get. The point is that we want people who to remember the impact of interdisciplinary 3d, In Defense of Elitism, in The New York are thinking people, who can make up their confrontation throughout history and recall Times Book Review, October 16:30. mind after having been exposed to things. that the most significant turning points have The arts challenge, and the one thing that frequently come at moments when such col 7See Margot Fassler, Anti-Jewish Themes in we know is that the arts provoke. lusion was especially evident. Over the Medieval Prophets' Plays, Abstracts of Pa years I have found that young composers in pers read at the American Musicological DKG: The arts provoke thinking. particular are interested in discussing, be Society, Sixtieth Annual Meeting, October yond such patently utilitarian matters as 27-30, 1994: 26. FR: The arts provoke anger, feelings. Many structure and syntax, those more broadly people don't approach the arts on the level constituted issues surrounding their musi- x"Piece by Bach Stirs Debate in a Chorus," of thinking, but on an emotional level. And ~ cal models and the grand tradition, and that The New York Times, February 22, 1995. so you have to imagine what the NEA would a close reading of music history in society have done if they had paid for the Sistine can provide an essential palliative to their 9Richard Taruskin, The New York Times, Chapel painting and found the head of the contemporary anxieties. August 15, 1994. NEA painted in hell. The culture wars are a combination, in part, of book censorship, "Times are changing," we are wont to say, 10Edward Said, The Politics of Knowledg ~ , religious fundamentalism and economic which is typically just another way of stat Raritan, 11 (Summer 1991): 28. stress, and will lead to teaching people not ing that we are about to retread some former how to think but what to think-not asking path that has been only temporarily out of them the provoking questions but giving view. It is even possible that today we are them dogma. These are scary events in a merely witnessing a replay of Erik Satie's The Culture Wars country where we ask our people to vote dream of a new synthesis just a hundred an interview with David Gompper and Frances (which they don't do as much as they years ago, when the cabaret, the circus, and Richard, ASCAP should), to think, to read, to learn, and to the cinema, ragtime, tango and the Medi question. eval ruminations of the Rosecrucians all DKG: How would you define these cultuw conspired to proclaim the ascension of an wars? DKG: I think many of us try to fight this Art of the Everyday and an attendant non through education, but I know I find seem sectarian spiritualism, only to be quickly FR: There are people who have been ingly impenetrable barriers. joined by a nascent Neoclassicism that sent abruptly catapulted to power, and who are the composers scrambling to review and re representative of a grass-roots movement FR: The culture war goes down to basic claim the music of Bach and Beethoven. If that is very anti-intellectual and cautious rudimentary education, and the artist is just this is so, then I am obliged to admit that the about its acceptance of ideas not prescribed; the lightening rod for it. It is still amazing historian today may simply be retelling the they are in control, little by little, and are so to me to meet people who have gone through same old story with a new cast of charac fearful. Either they are motivated by purely a school system and can't read, to meet ters. I would only add in conclusion, how- religious purist motives or other causes, but young people who have gotten a college 0 ever, that it is some cast, and that it is re they feel they are being contaminated by degree and there is no evidence of their edu plete with any number of characters! Some things, and they want to censor, remove, and cation when you deal with them. The es of them are even my friends. Thank you purge ideas, thoughts, principals, and the sence of teaching is that you look at what rights of certain people that they are not com- and Good Luck. cont. on pg. 11
Th e SCI Newsletter XXV:5 Page 7 Competitions, Grants and Calls_,.,._.. ______
The following listings are condensed and may not electroacoustiques du Quebec (A.CREQ), is CONTACT: GALA V Festival Anthem ~ have complete information. You're encouraged aimed at electroacoustic composers and in Competition, 1222 South Dale Mabry, Suite ---" to contact the sponsoring organizations directly dependent video artists who are searching 602, Tampa, FL 33629. Tel: 813-837-4485. for submission guidelines, particularly if anony for new links between images and sound. mous submission is required. All audio and video artists are invited to TWO WORKSHOPS IN ELEC submit a miniature audio and/or video work. TRONIC AND COMPUTER MUSIC TIMARA DEPARTMENT, TACOMA SYMPHONY Category: 2 categories: Audio (solo tape); Video (sound-image) Prizes: AUDIO - jury CONSERVATORY OF MUSIC, OBERLIN COLLEGE DEADLINE: June 1, 1995 prize: $500; concert public prize: $250; Societe Radio-Canada radio public prize. Gary Lee Nelson, Director; The Tacoma Symphony is seeking orchestra The works of the finalists in the audio cat July 16-22 & July 23-29 scores from Washington State Composers. egory will be put out on CD. VIDEO- 2jury Works need to have been performed at least prizes; 1 concert public prize. The ten audio The Conservatory of Music at Oberlin Col- once. Instrumentation: 2-2-2-2 4-3-3-1 and video works in nomination will be per lege invites you to participate in the 1995 Timp+3, Piano, Harp, Strings. formed during the gala evening which will close the competition. Maximum of2 works workshops in electronic and computer mu- sic. People from other colleges, profession- CONTACT: TacomaSymphony,P.O.Box per category. Duration between 2 and 3 als, teachers, and hobbyists are invited. Daily 19, Tacoma, WA 98401. minutes. lectures and demonstrations will introduce you to each topic. Supervised laboratories WIND SYMPHONY COMPOSITION CONTACT: ACREQ, 4001 Berri No. 202, will guide you through hands-on experience CONTEST Montreal, Quebec, CANADA H2L 4H2. Tel: Lynda Clouette 514-849-9534, Fax: with new technology. Listening and discus- sion sessions will expand your familiarity DEADLINE: August 15, 1995 514-849-0323, E-mail: [email protected] with the literature of electronic music. Spe- cial attention will be given to the esthetic A work for Wind Symphony employing the issues raised by this new way of making following instrumentation: Picc. (optional), NACUSA SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL music. The program provides continuity r-'\ 2flutes, 2oboes,Ebclar., 3Bbclar.,BbBass YOUNG COMPOSERS' with minimal overlap or repetition in the two clar., 2 bassoons, 2 alto sax., ten. sax., Eb COMPETITION weeks. Former students have benefited most bari. sax., 3 trumpets, 4 horns, 3 trombones, by attending both weeks. If you enroll for euph., tuba, string bass (optional), timp., 3 DEADLINE: October 30, 1995 only one week it must be the first week. In percussion, piano (optional). Soloists are the second workshop we build on the skills not to be used except in the context of the Entrants must be members of Nacusa; tb.e you acquire in the first. The workshops are work. No electronic tape. 5 to 10 minutes competition is open to members between the Macintosh-based and the topics to be cov- duration. Level appropriate for college or ages of 18 and 30. Compositions should not ered include: high school wind ensembles. Performance exceed 15 minutes or require more than five players. There are detailed rules; composers •sequencing (Vision, MusicShop, Performer) of five finalists' scores will be by the Sioux •music printing (Finale) falls Wind Symphony on Oct. 28, 1995. 1st are encouraged to contact the organizers for complete instructions. •synthesizer programming (Galaxy) prize $1000, 2nd prize $500. Entry fee is •sampling (Sound Designer, Alchemy, $15. Finalists are required to be present. 'furboSynth) CONTACT: The National Association.of •alternate MIDI controllers CONTACT: Dr.MarkLewisLandry,Wind Composers, P.O. Box 49652, Barrington •algorithmic composition (M, MAX) Symphony Composition Contest, Music Station, Los Angeles, California 90049 Department, University ofSioux Falls, 1101 CONTACT: If you want a more detailed W. 22nd Street, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, GALA V FESTIVAL ANTHEM description via email, send a message to: 57105. Tel: 605-331-6628 COMPETITION, 1996 [email protected], or have a look at the TIMARA WWW page under STH ACREQ INTERNATIONAL The Gay and Lesbian Association of Cho Summer Workshop http://www.oberlin.edu/ ELECTRO-VIDEO CLIP ruses Festival V Committee announces a - timara/timara. html COMPETITION competition for a festival anthem to be per formed at the 1996 festival in Tampa, FL. Ifyou want a brochure and registration forms, DEADLINE: October 13, 1995 The committee seeks an uplifti ng, 3-4 minute include your snail mail address or write anthem, for SATB chorus, that speaks to the directly to: Office of Outreach Programs , ~ This competition, organized by the Associa gay and lesbian experience. Prize: $ l ,000. Conservatory of Music, Oberlin College, tion pour la creation et la recherche Oberlin, OH 44074. Tel: 216-775-8044
Page 8 The SCI Newsletter XXV:5 Positions and -~ Responses------'----~--
- [The following letters are responses to the article by SCI are fantastic but additional Also, I wish to second vociferously Duane which appeared in the January issue of the news considerations need to be given to Heller's suggestion that each conference letter] · ways of assisting student compos include a program of music for/performed ers in attending the conferences. by young people. After all, we all have an And then there was this sage observation of interest in cultivating an audience for our founding SCI (ASUC) member, Barney I addition, I feel it is extremely important for own futures, and since the public sector is Childs, made some years ago concerning student composers to attend these confer more and more abrogating this responsibil conferences: "What if we put on a confer ences and hear the music, as well as ex ity, it's up to us to take up some of the slack. ence, and NOBODY came?" change ideas with their peers and experi enced professional composers. SCI can help Joanne Forman Warner Hutchison student composers in attending these con Ranchos de Taos, New Mexico [email protected] ferences, regional or national, by initiatives as the one offered by the New England SCI Committee on Women I have been following with great interest the Regional Festival in 1992. and Minorities responses to Gerald Warfield's article "Pro fessional Misconduct or Just bad Manners?" Eugenio Manuel Rodrigues is looking for interesting papers or pan So far the discussion has centered around Durham, North Carolina els to be presented at the next national issues facing professional composers, which meeting of the SCI at Florida Interna in a way reflects the title of the article. Regarding the expense of attending confer tional University during the February However, no one has touched on the issues ences: one cost, at least, could be alleviated 22-24, 1996. Submissions should be that student composer members are pre by asking colleges, faculty, students and directly related to the committee's con sented with, in order for their works to be other interested parties to accommodate at cerns and be no longer that fifteen min performed at the attendance required SCI tendees. Since hotel rooms are upwards of utes. Send all such proposals to Marshall events. Below is an extract from a letter I $80 a night nowadays, this would save ex Bialosky, 84 Cresta Verde Drive, Roll wrote to Membership Chairman David Vayo pense. ing Hills Estates, CA 90274. Tel: 310- in July of 1992: 541-8213.
When I received my 1992 SCI membership dues notice, I hesi Region VII tated whether to join again or not Call for Scores because of my opposition to some of the organization's policies on -issues pertaining to student com 1995" Meeting posers. Let me explain: For both California State University-Stanislaus the SCI National Conference in Turlock, California Tuscaloosa, and the New England November 3-5, 1995 Regional Festival at Bates College, works of mine were chosen to be Deadline: September 1, 1995 performed. In both of those cases, composers had to attend in order Available forces include: orchestra, symphonic wind ensemble, chamber singers, brass that their works be performed. A quintet, woodwind quintet, percussion ensemble, any solo instrument from the above a graduate student I want to point collection, plus cello, piano and soprano soloists. out that it is financially very diffi cult to come up with the money Mu ic scores or proposals for group improvisational activ1ty or any other non neces·sary to attend these confer- con entional approaches should be sent to Dr. Deborah Kavasch, Music Department, ence, expenses totaling an ' here California State University-Stanislaus, Turlock, CA 95380. Tel: 209-634-5644. between $400 to $700, with tra el costs being the major expense. Proposals for papers, panels, or any other similar activity should be sent to Marshall Bialosky, 84 Cresta Verde Drive, Rolling Hills Estates, CA 90274. Tel: 310-541-8213. I would like to commend the New England Regional Festival Coordi Composers whose works are selected are expected to be present at the actual conference. nator for making an attempt to as Failure to appear may result in your work being cancelled. Preference will be shown sist student composers by provid toward Region VII members, but other SCI members are eligible to submit their work. ing campus dormitory housing. I think that the opportunities created
The SCI Newsletter XXV:5 Page 9 •
Mary Jeanne van Appledorn's Les The Relfiche Ensemble premiered Paul performed by members of the Wayne State Hammes Vides(acappellachorus), which is Epstein's Solstice Canons in a version for University Symphonic Band 2126/94 witH T.S.Eliot's The Hollow Men and translated flute, English horn and bassoon at the Phila the composer conducting. Recent publica from the French by Pierre Leyris, was pre delphia Arts Bank, 2/10-11 . The Settlement tions include Concerto forGuitarandStrings miered at Texas Tech University and Temple Music School Contemporary Players gave and Fantasy for Flute and Guitarby Acoma University. Her Cycles ofMoons and Tides two performances ofVariations for Wind N ambe Editions of Toronto, Canada. Lentini (concert band) was commissioned by The Quintet at West Chester University 2/22, was recently promoted to Associate Profes University of Central Arkansas on the occa and at the PNC Bank-Presser Recital Hall, sor (with tenure) at Wayne State University. sion of the 50th annicersary of Tau Beta Philadelphia, on 3/6. The latter was the Sigma, 1995. Two other premieres include Philadelphia premiere. Palindrome Varia Alexandros Kalogeras received several Reeds Afire (cl, bn) at the MTNA Confer tions for synthesizer provided the musical performances in 1995, including his Canto ence 3/27 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, accompaniment to the solo dance Weavings, (cl) 1114 at Saint Xavier University (Chi and Postcards to John (gui) at Christ & St. choreographed and performed by Hellmut cago) during the Second National Sympo Stephens Church in NYC on 3/5 as part of Gottschild at The Painted Bride Art Cen!er, sium of the National Association of College the North/South Consonance Series. Philadelphia, on 2/23-25. Wind and Percussion Instructors and again 2/26 in Athens, Greece; Proimion Beta (bn) David Brackett'sDylan Thomas Songs were David Heuser won a First Music 12 New 2/16 at Boston University; Cassandra premiered by soprano Teresa Schondorf and York Youth Symphony commission for (monodrama for S, cl, vc, perc, pn) 2/27 at pianist Monica Vanderveen at Binghamton 1995, and the new work for orchestra will be the Goethe Institute in Athens, Greece and University, where Brackett is composer-in premiered 2/18/96 in Carnegie Hall. again with the Manufacture Ensemble, To residence. In this recital devoted entirely to Skallagrimsson (pn, tape) was performed by kyo, Japan; Seven Visions in the Shades of Brackett's compositions, Organology was Jim Lowe at the SEAMUS National Confer Azure (gui) in Volos, Greece and again 5/30 also premiered by Jonathan Biggers, Fan ence 3/24/95 in Ithaca, and will be done at Carnegie Hall, NYC; Proimion (fl) 3/29 at tasy for Guitar was performed by Alison again in May at Rochester's Town Hall. Tufts University New Music Festival, Bert, and Duo for Viola and Piano was Dragons (wind ensemble) was performed Medford, MA and again 4/4 at TCU (Texas). performed by Roberta Crawford, viola, and by the Colorado Wind Ensemble 4/30/95, Michael Salmirs, piano. Fantasy was also and later this spring Chaoborus (14 players) Anthony Lis was on a panel discussing ~ recently performed by the Syracuse Society will be heard at the University of Louisville. Teaching Music Theory and Composition at for New Music 7/10+12/94, and the Duo Other recent activities include Ocean (fl, cl, the Minnesota Music Education was performed by the Cornell Contempo vn, vc, pn, perc) at West Virginia University Association's Mid-Winter Clinic in Minne rary Chamber Players 10/29 and by Chiron by John Beall and ComTemChaMu; the apolis. Also, his review of Bill Malone's New Music 11/19. premiere of Ceremony (2 fl, 2 tpt, 2 trbn, 4 book Singing Cowboys and Musical Moun perc ), an interactive piece involving dancers taineers: Southern Culture and the Roots of Klaus Cornell's Der Weinstock - A Cycle (commissioned by Linda Lamkin) at Indi Country Music appeared in the March 1995 for Cello and String Orchestra, premiered ana University last 4/1/95; and a perfor issue of Notes. 1014194 at Mannheim (Germany), received mance of The Old Voice of the Sea (cl) by its U.S. premiere 3/20/95 at Fresno, Califor Richard Hornsby at the University of New Ursula Mamlok's 1995 performances in nia. Soloist was Michael Flaksman, and Brunswick, Canada on 3/1195. clude Der Andreas Garten (S, fl, hp) 2/23 at Jack Fortner conducted the CSFU Orches Ursinus College, PA and 2/24 at Philadel- tra. Cornell's Opera-Parable The Life Wan Christopher Hopkins' Arched Interiors phia Ethical Society; 3/5 on an American dering will receive its Swiss premiere 5/14 (bowed pn and tape) was performed by Women Composers Concert; in April at at the Ettiswill Music Festival. The work Margaret Leng Tan 3/9 in NYC and will be Northwestern University and next Novem- was performed in Salzburg 10/94. done again 6/26 in Honolulu. His Quartet ber in Philadelphia by the Network for New for Piano and Strings was performed by the Music. Her Constellations (arch) was per Nancy Bloomer Deussen's recent perfor Society for New Music in Syracuse, 2/19. formed 2/24 by the Manhattan School of mances includeMusings: Circa I 940(pn) 31 Music, Five Intermezzi (gui) in Chicago by 8/95 at San Jose City College, 3/12 at Fort Orchestra Hall Suite (bn, vn, va, vc) by Paul Bowman, Four German Songs (S, pn) nightly Music Club (Palo Alto), 3/17 at James Lentini was premiered 3/22/95 at 3/26 at the Kosciuszko Foundation (NY), NACUSA San Francisco Bay Concert and Wayne State University by members of the Wild Flowers and From my Garden (vn) 3/ 4/1&2 on Mu Phi Epsilon Concert in Palo Detroit Symphony Orchestra. His 14 at the Frick Fine Arts Building, Pitts Alto. Her Trio for Violin, Clarinet and Dreams cape (c hamberorch) was performed burgh, and From my Garden ( va) 5/8 and 51 Piano was performed 311 2 at NACUSA at 7 /94 at the Composer/Conductor Institute of 19 with Mimi Dye in San Francisco. UC Riverside and Fortni ghtly Music Club. the University of South Carolina and again Mamlok's Polarities (fl, vn, vc, pn) will b This work was released 2/95 on ERM6662 by the Wayne State University Symphor.y premiered 5/21 by Ross Bauer, Director, J (Editions de la Rue Margot). Orchestra 10/1 9/94. Music for Brass was University of California at Davis, and will
Page JO The SCI Newsletter XXV:5 also appear on the Washington Square Con Region VIII conference update, cont. Fran Richard interview, cont. from pg. 7 temporary Music Society's 1995-96 concert to Asian Music" by Neil McKay. state the students are at, and you try to in season. Commissions include a work for the still in them a sense of questioning that will American Guild of Organists in November, At the core of the conference were four last them the rest of their lives. Fromm Foundation awarded 11/94 and a concerts presented by 18 ensembles and 'Solomon Guggenheim Foundation Fellow soloists - more than 150 musicians - featur People who create timely work usually make ship for 1995. ing both traditional, indigenous 111:usic and their point with people, and those who go recent works by SCI composers. In addition and applaud when they wear an evening Ada Belle Marcus' Sonata for Strings was to the above-mentioned performers of indig gown the next night don't realize that the performed at the Chicago Cultural Center, 4/ enous music were heard the Los Angeles comment of that particular night was just as 9195 as part of the Chicago Chamber Or based trioBracha, the Pacific Rim Gamelan timely as in their own time. They have lost chestra Concert Series. (Eugene, Oregon) andGamelanSekar Jaya the 1 historical meaning, and so it is not as (San Francisco). Other performers included disco.ncerting to them. But if the artist is Doug Michael's Velvet was performed 3/95 the California State University, Sacra not saved, then one must ask oneself where at the Fourth Annual Electro-Acoustic Mu mento, Percussion Group, the California the future is, the activity in this country, be sic Festival at the University of Florida in State University, Hayward, New Music cause it is not only to enshrine the past. You Gainesville. Ensemble, Deborah Kavasch (CSU can buy a painting and hang it up and look Stanislaus), the Stern-Andrist Duo, · the at it unt_il you like it. David Moore performed his work for clari Pacific Arts Woodwind Quintet, the UOP net and tape, La Nave del Deleite, in a faculty Percussion Ensemble, the Pacific Singers, DKG: But you can't do that with music. recital at SUNY Cortland 3/7/95. David the UOP Symphonic Wind Ensemble, and would be happy to consider member compo the members of the UOP Symphony Or FR: And there is our problem. We need to sitions for future performances and he is also chestra. hear a work often, and to become familiar interested in moderately difficult pieces for with it, and to have it played well and with the student woodwind chamber group (2 fl 2 Wo~ks by the following composers were love by the musicians. You can't have these cl, b cl and/or sax). performed: Charles Argersinger, I Made tenuous performance_s, measure by measure, Arnawa/Wayne Vitale, Doug Boyce, Steve holding on to each bar line like it was a life IrvingRobbin'sSonataNo. 2for Piano was Ettinger, Michael Hannan, Jim Hearon, raft (like I hear most performances). In or premiered by pianist Hiroko Ohki in Tokyo's Reed Holmes, Robert Hutchinson, Rob der for contemporary music to become part rviunicipal Hall 4/13/95. ert Kyr, Tzyz-Sheng Lee, Neil McKay, of the repertory, it must be played well and John Mickel, James Miley, John Kaizan over a period of time. · n is Pierre Monteux Steven L. Rosenhaus, who just completed Neptune, David Philipson, Eugenio who said that he thinks it takes about 49 his Ph.D. in Music Composition at NYU, Manuel Rodrigues, Martin Rokeach, An years, measured from thetime he conducted had the premiere of his Breathless (2 cl, bn) drew Sauerwein, Tadao Sawai, Gerald the first perfonnance of theRite in 1913 until by the DeVienne Trio at Trinity Church at M. Shapiro, Robert T. Smith, Greg 49 years later, when the sound was still as St. Paul's, New York City on 3/16/95. His Steinke, David Vayo, Curt Veeneman, deafening frorri the audience. Instead of cat Kol Nidre Prelude(va, vc) has been released Thomas Walter, Reynold Weidenaar, calls and fruit being thrown, it was applause. on Capstone CD #CPS 8616. He has also Byron K. Yasui, and Davide Zannoni. So ittakes time, for 'the ears to adjust and been commissioned to write a Trumpet So for the aesthetic to adjust, and to hear into nata, which will be premiered 5/11/95 at Perhaps the best summary of the events was things, and to be comfortable.' NYU. proffered by participant Marty Rokeach, associate professor of music at St. Mary's Art,ists, and particularly composers; need an Cherilee Wadsworth premiered two new College in Morago, California, who wrote infrastructure which is being torn down. We works during a holiday concert series per that it was "the best SCI conference I have need the re-creators in their insti'tutions in formed in Naples, Italy: a third stream ever attended ... [the] innovative concept of order to make the performances of new arrangement for wind ensembleAngels Who Music, World andNewwas a breath of fresh works possible. With the help of monies Have Heard Take Five, and 0 Holy Night, a air! Every workshop, without exception, from private and quasi-public sources and double concerto in a reggae style. Soloists was stimulating, interesting, and (dare I say as well as the government in all its arms and were MU2 David Johnson, s sax, and MU3 it?) fun." branches, we had finally built something Cherilee Wadsworth, mezzo-sop. Sixth Fleet which resembled a country that is interested and CINCSOUTH Bands were combined Thanks to all who participated for helping to and willing to support cultural activity on a for the series, co-directed by Lt. Ralph Ingram make the conference a great success. national level. We are now watching a dis and Lt. Donald H. Keller, Jr. mantling of this infrastructure. Interesting SCI Welcomes - Curt Veeneman enough, there are those who feel uncon New Members cerned, because they think the primary in Ronald Roseman (NY) * * * stitutions will be saved. The dismantling comes first to the core of the artistic com Martin Schwark (Ml) munity, which is the artist.
The SCI Newsletter XXV:5 Page 11 CALL FOR SCORES AND CALL FOR SCORES PAPERS FOR THE 1995 Region V Conference REGION IV ANNUAL Ohio University, Athens, OH - October 20-21, 1995 MEETING Host: Mark Phillips
The 1994 Region IV Annual Meeting Composers may submit up to three scores. Student composers are encouraged to will be held November 24 at Stetson submit works! ·University in DeLand, Florida. Karel Husa will be the Guest Composer. •solo & chamber works for all orchestral instruments (except harp), Available instruments and ensembles •piano, harpsichord, & voice include: clarinet, clarinet choir, flute •orchestra, wind symphony, percussion ensemble, jazz band •like instrument ensembles for saxophone, trombone, trumpet, tuba choir, saxophone, trumpet, trombone, •mixed choir, men's choir, women's choir trombone ensemble, violin, cello, pi •works using electronic media are strongly encouraged ano, organ, percussion ensemble, •works suitable for performance by undergraduate music students encouraged choir, voice, MIDI ensemble (Zeta •composers who wish to supply their own performers are encour;i.ged to do so Cello, Zeta Violin, MalletKat, Wind Controller, MIDI Guitar), and Tres Composers are also encouraged to submit proposals for papers, panel discussions, Vientos(flute, oboe, clarinet). Electro and/or demonstrations. acoustic works are welcomed (DAT f01mat preferred). Composers are en Approximately 4-5 chamber music concerts will be presented on Friday and Saturday couraged to bring their own perform plus one large ensembles concert on Friday night. Approximately 3-4 paper sessions will ers where applicable. SCI student be presented as well. members are encouraged to submit scores for a special concert featuring Scores Submission Deadline: June 1, 1995 the music of student members. Papers Papers Submission Deadline: August 1, 1995 dealing with all aspects of Twentieth Century music composition are also To be considered, composers should submit the following: solicited. 1. Scores with approximate timings and date of composition clearly indicated. 2. Tape recording, if available. (cassette format preferred) Deadline for submission of all materi 3. Biographical information 4. Stamped self -addressed postcard for acknowledgement of receipt of materials als is June 1, 1995. Send all materials 5. Self-addressed mailing envelope for return of scores to: Dr. Kari Henrik Juusela, Stetson 6. Information sheet (8.5 x 11 please) with your name, address, phone University, School ofMusic, DeLand, number(s), e-mail address (if possible), title(s) of work(s), with Florida 32720. instrumentation and duration eMUSICITMJ Launched 7. Performance materials for works requi; ing six or fewer performers eMUSIC - a new compact disc sales pro All composers programmed will .be expected to attend the conference and be members gram of Electronic Music Foundation (EMF) of SCI by the date of the conference. began operations in April, 1995. Send submissions to: Through eMUSIC, serious music lovers will Mark Phillips, coordinator now have access to any and all compact discs SCI Region V Conference of experimental, exceptional, and/or elec School of Music tronic music-including hard-to-find CDs, Ohio University and discs published by small companies or Athens, OH 45701 independent composers. The recordings are being marketed via international computer e-mail: [email protected] networks and direct mail. Tel: 614-593-4244 or 1629 Fax: 614-593-1429 Joel Chadabe, President of EMF, said: "Our goal is to find and contact everyone in the disseminate information and materials re (518) 434-4110 (voice), via fax to: (518) world who has an interest in experimental lated to the history and current development 434-0308, via email to: [email protected]. Or and electronic music, and to make CDs of electronic music. write to: Electronic Music Foundation, 116 available to them through mailed and elec North Lake Aven_ue,. Albany NY 12206 tronic catalogs." For more information about eMUSIC and USA. its catalog of musical offerings, contact Elec EMF was launched in September 1994 to tronic Music Foundation via telephone at
Page 12 The SCI Newsletter XXV:5 - 1
Action Alert
Contact members of congress to stop music licensing bill H.R. 789 /
Music creators around the country are mobi ing music to enhance ambience in their had a successful opening [on Broadway], he lizing to stop H.R. 789, a music licensing bill business and establishment, are asking for went to the Luchow Restaurant. Herbert, a introduced in the U.S. Congress. This dan exemption and demanding a list of works big guy who loved to entertain his guests, gerous bill is similar to the legislation which they can play (restaurants would like to ordered lavishly and piled up a big bill. But was defeated in Congress this past year It is know which songs and artists are repre when he was presented with the bill, he told vital that composers contact their Congres sented by each agency so they can shop them that he is very happy to pay for what sional Representatives and Senators, who will for the least expensive package. ASCAP he used, but that all night long, there was a be very important in stopping this serious alone has over 12 million works). It is not group of musicians in the corner playing his legislative threat to songwriters, composers unusual in our experience that when people music, entertaining all the other guests. Don't and music publishers. can't get things through the courts, they they think the restaurant should pay him for then instigate legislation through represen the use of his music the whole night? That is The bill would wreak havoc on the incomes tatives on whom they exert tremendous in the folklore. Here we go again with the idea of songwriters and music publishers by al fluence. The commercial establishments of commercial establishments enhancing lowing the owners of bars, taverns, restau don't want to pay for music, and it goes to their business-they pay for linens and flow rants and other commercial establishments the hide of the rap of education and under ers, food and decor-and being allowed to to use copyrighted music broadcast over ra standing about intellectual property in this receive it without compensation." dio and television without compensating the country. The idea is that if you play the creators of the music. And, like bills intro radio or TV in your establishment with The 1976 revision of the copyright law pro duced concurrently in seventeen state legis speakers and enhance the ambience that vided an exemption for the not-for-profit latures, it would make it impossible for AS way (with canned or otherwise produced world, allowing performances in colleges and CAP or BMI to effectively represent its mem works), it is still considered the music of universities, for instance, or in classroom or bers and their music. Enactment of this leg someone being performed to enhance the private studio teaching for free. And in some islation could result in at least a 20% loss in commercial establishment. Without pen communities the college auditorium is the ·ncome for every songwriter, composer and alties, the law is rendered useless. If there primary concert hall. The not-for-profit usic publisher in America. are no consequences for breaking the law, · world came under the umbrella of the copy there is no reason to obey it. right law, and here these guys want to creep In an interview with Frances Richard, Di out. And they are commercial and we're all rector, Symphonic and Concert Department, In 1914, Victor Herbert (as one of the pri along responsible for licensing fees." ASCAP (2/19/95), she describes how this bill mary instigators for ASCAP's founding), is extremely dangerous "because it totally was aware that there was a copyright la~ [Other concerns were discussed between Frances undermines the concept of copyright protec in the United States but no practical means Richard and David Gompper, and these will be tion as we know it. Commercial venues, us- to enforce it. One evening after having printed in the next issue.]
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Activities (for performances, include title of work, date(s), performers, location and if premiere):
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