Harvard University Department of M usic

MUSICn e w s l e t t e r Vol. 11, No. 1/Summer 2011 Celebrating 40 Years of Jazz at Harvard he late sixties had been a quiet time for “Tjazz,” Director of Bands Tom Everett Music Building once wrote. “John Coltrane was dead; Miles Davis was venturing in an entirely new direction;

North Yard the most discussed jazz was the controversial Olson. Mark by Photo political or avant-garde; masters such as Duke Cambridge, MA 02138 Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, and Thelonious 617-495-2791 Monk were alive but often forgotten; and the turbulent social milieu of the times left tradi- tional jazz sounding esoteric and bland to young www.music.fas.harvard.edu ears.” But that was forty years ago, and jazz at INSIDE Harvard has since morphed into a respected, sophisticated, musical force that students can’t Director of Bands Tom Everett with jazz pianist Eddie Palmieri. 3 Faculty News seem to get enough of. Everett, hired in 1971 4 Johnson appointed Director of as Director of the Band (singular, as in marching focusing on reinforcing the impact and focus of the band), now oversees two jazz bands, a marching beat. Listeners, especially students, were intrigued with Dance band that plays 65 performances a year, and a wind the sophistication of it as jazz started to make its way 5 Composers receive American ensemble, and prepares ceremonial music for official out of the musical back alleys and into the mainstream. Academy of Music Awards Harvard events. “Today, the music is more visibly respected and “During the late sixties, students had little appreciated,” says Everett. “Most colleges now offer 6 Library News exposure to traditional jazz,” explains Everett. “But jazz courses and opportunities to perform jazz on 7 Solti Archive Comes to Harvard then, popular rock bands started to incorporate more campus. The National Endowment for the Arts has jazz elements: Chicago, Blood, Sweat & Tears, Jimi presented Jazz Master awards yearly, and the Lincoln 7 Alumni News Hendrix, even the Grateful Dead. By the early sev- Center for Performing Arts has an entire venue—Rose 9 Graduate Student News enties, many influential groups were breaking down Auditorium—dedicated to the presentation, discus- some of the barriers between jazz and rock. Weather sion, and performance of jazz. Wynton Marsalis, one 11 Analyzing the Structure of Report, Tony Williams Lifetime, Miles Davis—these of the signature phenomena of the last thirty years, Hollywood Film Music were musicians out of the jazz tradition who were has served as a visible focal point for the ‘resurgence’ 10 Operas of reconnecting with young listeners.” of jazz. Music in the seventies continued to expand “When I first came to Harvard in 1971, jazz 11 Crumb's Black Angels timbres—through the use of electronics—while wasn’t considered a serious or worthy music! Now, 12 Calendar of Events “We have remarkable students. I have an obligation to give them exposure to significant American music. An educated person should know about the contributions and impact of this music.” Photo by Mark Olson. Mark by Photo Photo by Mark Olson Olson Mark by Photo Trumpet soloist Brian Lynch.

Department Chair Alexander Rehding Director of Administration Nancy Shafman Newsletter Editor Lesley Bannatyne [email protected] Don Braden '85 leading the Jazz Band during the 40th Anniversary of Jazz at Harvard Concert, Sanders Theatre. Everett, continued there are scholars who specialize in jazz history and the impact of African-American musical performance on our culture.” Photo by Mark Olson. Mark by Photo Along Came the Band It was 1972. Everett rounded up a few willing students to make up Harvard’s very first jazz ensemble, and together they worked up ten charts and played their inaugural gig, a disastrous dance at Adams House. Over the next decade the band fine- tuned its focus on historic jazz repertoire, listening skills, and personal musical creativity. To this day, say band alums, there are three composers that all jazz band students have performed no matter what: Mingus, El- lington, and Monk. “It was my intention to ex- Left to right: jazz artists Benny Golson (saxophone), Brian Lynch (trumpet), Eddie Palmieri (piano) and Cecil McBee (bass) rehearse on pose the students to music that stage at Sanders Theatre. represented the contributions of a significant artist that summed up a particular of student musicians. Many remember their would benefit from meeting and working with approach or that had extended the tradition,” time with Everett as formative and count him the very best jazz artists, Everett convinced his says Everett. “Most of Mingus’, Ellington’s, and as an important mentor years after they’ve left hero, trombonist Carl Fontana, to come to Monk’s music have that depth of contact and Cambridge. Some come back to campus to campus. The two had never met, and Everett historical perspective. Most of the music we play play in the alumni band, and a few come back had no budget to bring him. But Fontana came, represents jazz composers who have developed as jazz artists with professional careers, such as and since then, Everett has brought well over their own individual sound. We commissioned saxophonists Joshua Redman ’91, Fred Ho ’79, 150 musicians to Harvard and, with the Office new pieces from musicians such as swing trum- and Don Braden ’85. Everett thrives on the for the Arts at Harvard, has developed what is pet player Buck Clayton. The chart might be challenge of making music with students of all known as the Jazz Masters Program. too hard for us, but this guy played and wrote levels of skill and experiences. “There arethree priorities I consider when for the Basie Band in the late 30’s, worked with “There’s a wide variety of talent and I invite an artist to campus: One, that they’ve Billie Holiday, and brings part of that history to experience in any ensemble. I think of it as a developed their own unique voice—a sound. the music he writes. community—everyone participates; there are Two, the artist is not necessarily known by the “I’ve always liked to get the band interested no observers. The question is how do you chal- public and deserves wider recognition. How in trying something new and different. When lenge one player without losing another? With many people know the name Andrew Hill? they tell me they’ve never played anything like it, the experienced, sophisticated players, I attempt He’s one of the most individual composers/ my reaction is, ‘Great! Wait till you try it!’ Jazz is to program a piece that features them, but is voices in jazz. The third criteria I consider is that about the new. It’s in the moment. Thelonious accessible to everyone else in the ensemble. I the artist has left a collection of works, classic Monk said, ‘In jazz there are two kind of wrong love that challenge—of choosing literature that performances, or influence on other musicians, notes. The regular kind and the kind that don’t challenges and includes every student.” whether they know it or not. sound too good.’ If you think of every note as an “One of the goals is to create an envi- opportunity to explore, of course there are notes Jazz Masters ronment where both students and audiences that are not correct, but you don’t stop there. Trained as a symphonic trombonist, Everett experience the connections that permeate jazz, Explore it. Even if you don’t like the results, it’s played with the Bolshoi Ballet, Boston Pops, to stimulate a curiosity about the music and a opened up a new area. Jazz integrates practice, but also the jazz bands of Clark Terry, Dizzy desire to investigate it on their own.” process, and performance all at once. Gillespie, and Ray Charles, among others. It Four decades of directing the jazz bands has was the jazz masters he couldn’t get enough of. On Teaching given Everett the chance to work with hundreds Convinced that his fledglingHarvard jazz band “Leon Kirchner (Walter Bigelow Rosen Profes-

2 Everett, continued sor of Music at Harvard) was a great influence Faculty News on me. I attended one of his composition classes. When students presented their work, Leon wouldn’t criticize. He would ask them to study a Rehding Appointed Chair specific section of a specific work by Mozart. The students would gain insight into the problem Fanny Peabody Professor of Music Alexander themselves, and they learned something about Rehding has been appointed chair of the De- Mozart’s music. This was inspiring. I attempt to partment of Music through 2014. His research do the same; set up an environment and present interests are located at the intersection between materials and challenges so that the students can theory and history, and cover a wide spectrum discover something new. from Ancient Greek music to the Eurovision “I remember when Max Roach was artist- Song Contest. He is interested in the history in-residence—he was close to 80. He didn’t say of music theory, paleo- and neo-Riemannian an awful lot but when he sat at the drums he theory, music-aesthetic questions, and issues came alive. He was telling the kids that jazz is of sound and media. Rehding’s work has been about movement. He said, ‘If you’re not mov- honored with several awards, including Gug- ing, something’s not happening. If you’re having genheim, Humboldt, and Cabot Fellowships. trouble learning a style, dance to it.’ The kids Rehding succeeds Professor Anne C. Shref- were chuckling. Then Max starts to walk out of fler, who served as Department chair since 2008. the room and Claire Millardi (long-time Dance Director at Harvard and Radcliffe) comes in, and they almost bump into each other. She looks Richard Beaudoin completed his post Galbraith’s setting of Shakespeare’s sonnet 116 up, recognizes him, and improvises a little dance as lecturer and joined the Music Department with the Providence Singers. step. Max Roach dances in reply. She dances, faculty as Preceptor. His 30-minute song Gardner Cowles Associate Professor he dances. It’s as if they’re talking: ‘It’s you, isn’t cycle, Nach-Fragen, was performed by German Suzannah Clark gave a public lecture at it?’ ‘You know my music?’ ‘I do.’ ‘Nice to know soprano Annette Dasch to excellent reviews in the National Humanities Center in North you.’ Sometimes words can’t convey everything.” Hamburg, Linz, Ljubljana, and at the SWR Carolina titled “Why did Schubert’s Harmony Festspiele in Schwetzingen. The final perfor- Puzzle His Contemporaries?” She also gave a What’s Next? mance was broadcast on Südwestrundfunk colloquium at UNC Chapel Hill on “Weber’s “There’s so much music I love, and there’s so 2. In May, the Kreutzer Quartet made studio Rest.” much more to discover! The music of Ives, recordings in London of two recent string Chaya Czernowin was awarded a 2011 Ruggles, Brant, Partch, Nancarrow, Copland, quartets, The Artist and his Model II—la durée Guggenheim Award in Creative Arts, Music the early American mavericks—there’s an ad- sans contacts s’affaiblit and Étude d’un prélude Composition. She is one of approximately 220 venturous openness there. I’m amazed at what X—Second String Quartet. The second quartet Fellows selected from 4,000 applicants from they were able to achieve in their time. I’d be will be given its American premiere at Sanders the United States and Canada. content to spend the rest of my life digging Theater this fall. Beaudoin’s latest scholarly Morton B. Knafel Professor of Music into the connections in American music. I’ve paper, “A Musical Photograph?”, written with Thomas F. Kelly was inducted into the been fortunate to work with students and with Andrew Kania of Trinity University, will ap- American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Kelly many significant artists over the years, who have pear in a forthcoming volume of The Journal joins fellow 2011 music field electees Dave shaped my priorities as a musician and teacher. of Aesthetics and Art Criticism. Brubeck, Leonard Cohen, Paul Simon, and Director of Choral Activities Andrew Bob Dylan. Tom Everett founded the jazz band program Clark led the Harvard-Radcliffe Colle- MacArthur “Genius” award recipient Liz at Harvard University in 1971. He has served gium Musicum in nine concerts throughout Lerman will offer a course, ”From Mind and on the faculties of the New England Conserva- Germany and Austria during a three-week Body to Campus and Community” as part of tory, Brown University, and the International tour in May and June. The Collegium col- the Music Department’s fall offferings. Trombone Workshop. He is the recipient of laborated with European university choirs William Powell Mason Professor Carol the 2008 Luise Vosgerchian Teaching Award, and performed in the Cologne and Salzburg Oja gave a lecture: “Bernstein Meets Broad- presented to a nationally recognized educa- Cathedrals, as well as the Berliner Dom, and way: Race, the Blues, and On the Town (1944)” tor, and has published frequently on jazz and St. Stephen’s in Vienna. Clark led the 130 as part of AMS-Library of Congress Lecture instrumental music. Currently Director of singers of the Harvard Summer Chorus in a Series in Washington, D.C. Oja brought two Bands at Harvard, Everett is an associate of concert of Beethoven's Mass in C, opus 86 undergraduates to perform from Bernstein the Department of Music and Jazz Advisor to and John Corigliano’s Fern Hill. Last April, manuscripts: Samara Oster and David Sawicki. the Office for the Arts. Clark conducted the world premiere of Nancy FACULTY NEWS continued on page 4

3 Jill Johnson Appointed Dance Director Dancer, choreographer, educator and producer ence in Göttingen (Germany). Jill Johnson has been appointed Director of the As the Phi Beta Kappa-Frank M. Updike Office for the ArtsDance Program and Senior Memorial Scholar, G. Gordon Watts Profes- Lecturer in the Department of Music. Johnson, sor Kay Kaufman Shelemay gave a series of a 23-year veteran of the dance field, succeeds lectures focused on intercultural relations. In Elizabeth Weil Bergmann. one, she discussed the emergence of an indig- Formerly on the faculties of Princeton Uni- enous style of jazz from Ethiopia; in a second, versity, Barnard College at , she detailed ways in which we literally perform and New York University’s Tisch School of the aspects of identity. A third talk took a com- Arts, Johnson is a graduate of Canada’s National parative look at music’s role in shaping and Ballet School. She was a dance soloist with the sustaining social memory in three contrasting National Ballet of Canada and a principal dancer traditions, including the Mexican-American in choreographer William Forsythe’s Frankfurt ballad (corrido), the New Orleans jazz funeral, Ballet for ten years. For the past two decades and hymns (pizmonim) of the Syrian Jewish she has staged Forsythe’s work worldwide. Cur- Professor Thomas F. Kelly marches with Placido diaspora worldwide. rently she is working with Mikhail Baryshnikov Domingo at commencement; Domingo received an James Edward Ditson Professor Anne C. honorary doctor of Music. and William Forsythe on a solo that Forsythe is Shreffler delivered a keynote lecture at the creating for Baryshnikov. FACULTY NEWS continued conference “Red Strains: Music and Com- “Jill Johnson’s inspiring vision of dance as Oja additionally lectured at the Center for the munism outside the Communist Bloc after a medium for boundary-crossing cooperation Humanities at Washington University in St. 1945,” in London. The lecture was entitled among disciplines and art forms—and as a Louis and delivered the Geiringer Lectures at “‘Music Left and Right’: A Tale of Two His- model of communication and collaboration in U.C. Santa Barbara. tories of Progressive Music.” She also delivered general—promises to bring new energy to dance Preceptor Olaf Post received a grant a lecture at the University of Southampton, at Harvard,” said Anne C. Shreffler, James -Ed from the Mind, Brain, Behavior Initiative, U.K. on “The Twelve-Tone Music of Hanns ward Ditson Professor of Music and Co-Chair which he used partially to collaborate with vis- Eisler.” Shreffler was recently invited to join of the Dance Director Search Committee. “We iting scholar Godfried Toussaint on designing both the editorial board of the German journal especially welcome Jill’s plans to forge stronger and conducting an experiment that applied Archiv für Musikwissenschaft and the Forsc- connections between the Dance Program and techniques normally used in computer science hungsrat (Research Advisory Council) of the the Department of Music.” to model cognitive responses to rhythm. Musik-Akademie der Stadt Basel, Hochschule Approximately 400 students enroll in co- Alexander Rehding published an für Musik. She was elected Member at Large curricular dance classes each semester. Dance article on ecomusicology in JAMS (as part to the Cold War and Music Study Group of programming also includes artist residencies of a colloquy organized by Aaron Allen, the AMS. and master classes. In all, the program supports phd’07). Jointly with John McKay he pub- Fanny P. Mason Professor Hans Tutsch- the activities of twenty-five undergraduate dance lished an article on Plato and music theory in ku taught a composition summer course troupes involving 800 students. the Classics journal Apeiron. As in most years, on multichannel electroacoustic music at continued on next page Jill Johnson, new Director of the Dance Program he rowed for Leverett House (and keeps on hoping that one day they will do Professor Richard Wolf well). Rehding finishedhis term as editor of Acta musicologica and served on the selection board of the Agence nationale de la recherche in France. During the Liszt bicentennial in 2011, he gave talks at the Liszt confer- ence at Villecroze (France), as well as at the Columbia Society of Fellows, the annual meeting of the International Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies in Graz (Austria), and a keynote address at the Erinnerung-Wah- rnehmung-Bedeutung confer- Alicia Anstead/Harvard Office for the Alicia Anstead/Harvard Arts

4 Adams Installs Veils and Vesper 2011 Fromm Visiting Lecturer on Music John Luther Adams’ installation Veils and Vesper was installed at 29 Garden Street from January through March. “The Veils are electronic soundscapes that fill time and space with enveloping atmospheres of harmonic color. These are not scores. They are maps, points of departure for musical exploration,” he writes. Sculpted from long strands of pink noise, polyphonic choirs of these lines pass through three “harmonic prisms” —banks of filters tuned to prime number harmonics 11, 13, 17, 19, 23, 29 and 31. The timbres are clear and slightly breathy, like human voices mixed with bowed glass or metal.

FACULTY NEWS continued EMPAC at Rochester Polytechnic Institute, Harvard Alumni Composers Receive participated in the international PRISMA 2011 American Academy Music composers meeting at IRCAM in Paris, Awards A Note to Readers presented a paper at the International Com- puter Music Conference in Huddersfield, and Karim Al-Zand (PhD ’00), Lansing Report to the Friends of Music 2010-11 taught at the Stockhausen Summer Courses McLoskey (PhD ’02), and Hannah Lash is now available. For those of you who in Kürten. His work behind the light will be (PhD ’10) were three of the fifteen composers would like to read more about the performed in Sanders Theatre in November. recognized by the American Academy of Arts music department, you may request Professor Richard Wolf performed in and Letters this year. a paper report (call 617-495-2791 or a concert of South Indian Classical Music Al-Zand, a member of the faculty of the write [email protected]) or at Harvard’s Tsai Auditorium in March. He Shepherd School of Music, received an Arts you can download our new Report at: played the vina, and was accompanied by and Letters award. McLoskey, an associate http://www.music.fas.harvard.edu/ David Nelson, mridangam and Deepti Na- professor at the University of Miami School news.html varatna, tambura. In April, Wolf’s students of Music, was one recipient of a Goddard W (Music 159, South Indian Classical Music) Lieberson Fellowship, given annually to two If you would like to receive email performed in a concert featuring B. Balasub- mid-career composers of exceptional gifts. notices of our performance series and rahmaniyan, voice, Suhas Rao, violin, David Lash was one of six composers awarded a colloquiua, please send an email to Nelson, mridangam, and the new Harvard Charles Ives Scholarship, intended for stu- [email protected]. Type Vina Ensemble. dents of great promise. Lash is a “add to mailing list” in the subject New York City-based composer line and we will make sure you hear who is currently pursuing an about what’s happening Artist Diploma in composition W at Yale University. A donation envelope is enclosed in the newsletter. Your kindness and generosity are always appreciated Legendary Broadway veteran and and we thank you for anything you Pulitzer Prize winner Sheldon Har- are able to give. nick with Carol Oja in her “Ameri- W can Musicals, American Culture” class this past spring. Harnick Please send news of your projects, wrote some of the most beloved travels, performances or publica- songs of all time, from shows such tions. We always enjoy hearing what as Fiddler on the Roof, She Loves you’re up to. Send to musicdpt@fas. Me, Tenderloin, The Umbrellas of harvard.edu Cherbourg and more. He has won W three Tonys and the prestigious UPCOMING EVENTS: Oscar Hammerstein Award for http://www.music.fas.harvard.edu/ Lifetime Achievement in Theatre (2009). Photo by Elizabeth Craft. calendar.html

5 Library News

Loeb Music Participates in Library of Congress Music Treasures Consortium The Eda Kuhn Loeb Music Library, in collaboration with the Juilliard School and the Library of Congress, recently launched the Music Treasures Consortium, a website that provides a single point of access to some of the world’s most valued music manuscript and print materials from six esteemed institutions in the U.S. and the U.K. Loeb Music staff played a leading role in creat- ing and populating the site, and in establishing a faculty advisory group that includes Adams University Profes- sor Christoff Wolff and other leading music scholars. Hosted by the Library of Congress, the site is a portal that offers users access to digital collections web sites at each participating library. Researchers can search or browse materials, find bibliographic information about each item, and view digital images. Items available through the Consortium site in- clude manuscript scores to first and early editions of a work. Composers such as J.S. Bach, Mozart, Wagner, Debussy, Bizet, Schoenberg and Stravinsky, among others, are represented on the site through their original Kerry Masteller with manuscript scores to be included in the new Consortium’s website. handwritten manuscripts and first and early editions. the portal, but those lists, once created, needed to be refined to include enough pertinent The online items range from the 16th- to the 20th- information for scholars. Reference and Digital Program Librarian Kerry Masteller was centuries in this initial launch. responsible for refining the Loeb Music listings. From Loeb Music, scholars can access the full scope “We needed someone like Kerry, who knows music materials and understands how of the Digital Scores and Libretti Collection, including scholars will use this material, to manage that work,” Danielson said. “It is not unusual for works by Bach and Bach family members, Mozart, the title on a manuscript to be something generic, like ‘Sonata in F.’ For it to be meaningful Schubert and other composers, as well as 18th- and for scholars, though, you need the composer’s name, or what’s called the uniform title, for 19th-century opera scores, seminal works of musical it to make sense. Kerry was able to articulate what scholars need to use the site, and she also modernism, and music of the Second Viennese School. understands the technology that goes into building it. That’s why her work was so valuable Additional material from Loeb Music’s collection, and to this project.”—courtesy of Harvard College Library News from the Harvard libraries generally, will continue to be added. “The materials that are available through this Danielson to Work with NYU Library Initiative in Abu Dhabi project are very important to music scholars,” said Dr. After twelve years as the Richard F. French grant. Danielson later assumed the responsi- Virginia Danielson, Richard F. French Librarian of Librarian of the Eda Kuhn Loeb Music bilities of the Keeper of the Isham Memorial Loeb Music Library. “We expect this will be useful to Library, Dr. Virginia Danielson stepped Library and curator of the Archive of World scholars in the same way primary resources are. It will down in June to take a position as the Music. In 1998, she was appointed acting also be a tremendously valuable resource for perform- Associate Librarian for Collections and director of Loeb Music, and in 1999 was ers—especially in the world of historically-informed Public Services at New York University’s named the French Librarian. performance—who love to work with primary sources.” Abu Dhabi campus. In her new position, Recognizing the impact of the digital Other institutions participating in the Consortium Danielson will provide leadership in the world on libraries, Danielson helped lead are the Juilliard School’s Lila Acheson Wallace Library, planning and implementation of inno- the creation of the Audio Preservation the British Library, the Morgan Library and Museum, vative reference, instruction, and access Studio and supported efforts to digitize and the New York Public Library. An advisory board services and work to develop on-site col- scores and other printed and manuscript that includes Christoph Wolff and Professors Jeffrey lections appropriate to the new campus’s materials from Loeb Music’s collections for Kallberg, Philip Gossett, and Laurent Pugin helped academic programs. both teaching and research. She played a key Consortium members plan a site that would be useful Danielson’s work in Harvard librar- role in the founding of the Music Treasures for scholarly research. ies spans more than two decades, begin- Consortium, and was instrumental in the Presenting collections from six institutions in a ning as a catalog assistant in Widener acquisition of several major collections. consistent format posed a number of technical chal- Library in 1987. A year later, she moved Sarah Adams, Keeper of the Isham lenges. The Library of Congress developed a system to the Loeb Music Library where she Memorial Library at Loeb Music, took on that would automatically create bibliographic lists for worked as project manager of a federal the role of interim head of the library in July.

6 Alumni News

Solti Archive Comes to Loeb Music Library William Bares (PhD ’10) received an ap- The archive of Sir Georg Solti, a body of already rich Solti resources that include his pointment as director of jazz and popular work of significance to musical scholars and complete recorded legacy for British Decca music studies at University of North Carolina, musicians worldwide, has come to Harvard’s Records from 1947-1997. These recordings Asheville. He’ll be overseeing related bands, Loeb Music Library. The collection includes document his collaboration with virtually ensembles, advising, recruiting, and adjuncts hundreds of scores heavily marked for per- every significant instrumentalist, singer and in addition to teaching classes on jazz, popular formance and annotated by Solti, one of the orchestra for the last half century. music, African American music, and ethno- 20th century’s most renowned conductors The library also holds numerous live musicology. of opera and symphony and winner of more broadcast recordings from 1937 on, including Brigid Cohen (PhD ’00) and Ken Ueno Grammy Awards than any other recording documentation of Solti’s performances at the (PhD ’00) were featured in a PBS documentary artist in any category. Metropolitan Opera and the Royal Opera in for WNET in New York, about the American Rather than mark up a score and re- the 1960s, and video recordings of the maestro Academy in Berlin. use it for subsequent performances, Solti in rehearsals and performances made at the Michael Cuthbert (PhD ’07) was approached each performance as if it were apex of his career. In addition, Loeb Music’s promoted to Associate Professor at MIT. new, creating a uniquely marked score. print collection widely documents the achieve- Jose Luis Hurtado (PhD ’09) will begin Accumulated through an accomplished ments of his musical contemporaries—from teaching composition at the University of New career that spanned decades, these scores conductors to composers and solo perform- Mexico this fall. illustrate how Solti’s thinking progressed, ers—providing rich context for the study of (PhD ’06) won the 2011 Rome how he solved musical problems, and how Solti’s work. Prize in Music Composition. His portrait disc he adapted performances to suit a particular Born in 1912 in Budapest, Sir Georg “Milou” featured a stellar cast of musicians context. Solti became one of the foremost conductors and was released by New World Records. His “Sir Georg’s conducting scores are of and most influential musicians of the post-war saxophone quartet Yuan, commissioned by the special interest and importance to musicians era. He conducted every one of the world’s Fromm Music Foundation, was published by and scholars as they provide insight into the major orchestras, and assumed directorships Schott Music. Liang has been promoted to workings of an inspired and accomplished of several major opera houses, including those Associate Professor at U.C. San Diego. musical mind, laying bare understandings of Munich, Frankfurt, Hamburg, and most Lansing McLoskey (PhD ’02) was re- of style, technique, and interpretations of notably, the Royal Opera House, Covent cently selected as the Composer-in-Residence monuments of Western music,” said Dr. Garden. Solti had long-term relationships with for the 2011 soundSCAPE Festival in Mac- Virginia Danielson of Loeb Library. “We are the principal orchestras in London, Vienna cagno, Italy. In addition to daily masterclasses tremendously grateful to the Solti family for and Paris, and enjoyed a highly celebrated and lectures the festival will premiere a com- this most generous gift, which is so signifi- and artistically fruitful 22-year tenure at the missioned work for soprano, piano and percus- cant to music performance and scholarship.” Chicago Symphony Orchestra, beginning in sion, and give a concert of McLoskey’s music. In keeping with University’s efforts to 1969. He also worked with major music fes- McLoskey was the winner of the 2010 newEar provide broad access to resources, the Solti tivals in Salzburg, Glyndebourne, Edinburgh Composition Competition and the 2010 gift will enable the collection to be digitized and Bayreuth. American Composers Forum/LA Composition and made available online for scholars and —Excerpted from Harvard College Library News Competition. He is currently working on a music enthusiasts around the world via Barlow Commission to be premiered in the fall Loeb Music’s Digital Scores and Libretti Pianos were moved from Paine Hall in June as part of a renovation project will provide a new (silent!) heating and air of 2011. Highlights of recent performances in- site and the Music Treasures Consortium conditioning system and better sound isolation for Paine Hall clude performances in Philadelphia (premiere portal hosted by the Library of Congress. and classrooms, as well as new, state-of-the-art practice rooms. of a Pew Charitable Trusts commission for The Use of these materials will be promoted Crossing Choir), Boston, Washington D.C., through collaborations with agencies such as Australia, New York, and Utah Lyric Opera. the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Andrew Talle (PhD ’04) was appointed British Library, which own related material. one of the seventeen initial Gilman Scholars, Cataloging and processing of the a prestigious distinction recognizing excel- archive has begun and the Library hopes lence at The Johns Hopkins University. Talle to make the collection available to scholars also received a received a fellowship from the and musicians by early next winter. Much Alexander Humboldt Foundation, for research of the work will be accomplished in Harvard in Germany. Talle will be based in Leipzig col- College Library’s state-of-the-art audio and lecting information from travel diaries written digital preservation labs. between 1700 and 1750 in an effort to learn

The Solti collection joins Loeb Music’s more about music in daily life. ❖

7 Graduate Student News

Foundation Dissertation Fel- lowship from the McNeil Center for Early American Studies in Philadelphia, and she will take up residency there in September. She re- cently married her longtime sweetheart, Ben Ullery. Katherine I. Lee was invited to present a paper at the symposium “Sound and Music in Mass Performance.” The two-day symposium was Ryan Bañagale (PhD ’11) will be Visiting the Witten festival in Germany for the Swiss hosted by the Jackman Humanities Institute Assistant Professor and Riley Scholar in Resi- group Kolegium Novum. at the University of Toronto. dence at Colorado College. Bañagale was Al- Sivan Cohen Elias received the Impulse Matthew Mugmon presented a paper, vin H. Johnson AMS-50 Fellow, 2010-2011. 2011 award in Austria and was commissioned “After Mahler’s Death,” at the International Edgar Barroso’s piece Binary Opposi- to write a piece for Klangforum Wien. She was Symposium on Gustav Mahler, at the Konzer- tion for video and electronics was selected to awarded a year-long fellowship at the Akad- thaus in Vienna. be screened at the International Computer emie Schloss Solitude in Stuttgart, Germany. Quatuor Bozzini recorded Sabrina Music Conference in England. Corrado Rojac Q2 and NPR Music launched a crowd- Schroeder’s string quartet Slip Trains for a performed Barroso’s Metric Expansion of Space sourced project to determine listeners’ favorite new release this fall. Schroeder participated at the Instituto Italiano di Cultura in Slove- composers under the age of 40 and, by exten- in the Acanthes Festival in Metz, France and nia, and his AINI is one of the winners at the sion, those pieces which were shaping our the Summer Academy at Schloss Solitude Grafimuse and will be interpreted in Chieti, contemporary musical scene and defining what in Stuttgart, Germany. Her work will be Fermo, Kraków, Pescara, Sambuceto, Santos, it means to be a composer in the 21st century. performed by Ensemble Surplus and the Or- Sofia, and Warsaw. Barroso gave four work- Ashley Fure, Ann Cleare, and Du Yun chestre National de Lorraine in the coming shops in Mexico at the Monterrey Institute (PhD ’06 ) were three of the “100 composers year. for Technology and Higher Education and under 40 in the world.” Meredith Schweig presented a paper Guanajuato University with a focus in social Ashley Fure won the 2011 Jezek com- at the IASPM meeting in Cincinnati called entrepreneurship and the creation of music position prize. Her sound installation was per- “Opening the Source: New Digital Archives programs in two communities with extreme formed at Agora Festival in Paris this summer. and the PTT System in Taiwan.” levels of poverty. Fure completed a year-long residency at Schloss Anna Zayaruznaya (PhD ’11) recently William Cheng presented papers this Solitude Stuttgart Germany and at IRCAM. accepted an assistant professorship at Princ- year at AMS-NE, AMS, SAM, and Music and John Gabriel and Ian Power presented eton University. the Moving Image. Recent and forthcoming papers at Stony Brook’s “Perspectives on Per- publications include articles in Cambridge formance” Symposium in February. Opera Journal, Ethnomusicology, 19th-Century Marta Gentilucci was selected for a Music, The Oxford Handbook of Sound and second year at IRCAM. Image in Digital Media, and The Oxford Glenda Goodman has recently been Handbook of Virtuality. a research fellow at the Huntington Library, Ann Cleare recieved a commission for in Los Angeles. In May she accepted a Barra

“Harvard-Princeton Musical Theater Forum,” a one-day working group bringing to- gether an interdisciplinary cluster of eight scholars from the U.S. and the U.K. Each of the American scholars brought a student, and all shared re- search-in-progress. The event Andrew Friedman successfully ran the 2011 Boston was co-directed by Carol Marathon (20,455th place!), helping to raise over Oja with Stacy Wolf (Theater $10,000 in honor of his father to support the Leukemia Department, Princeton). and Lymphoma Society.

8 What Lies Beneath: Diagraming the Structure of Hollywood Film Music

Frank Lehman is a G-6 working on the music theory structure. that underpins blockbuster film scores such as Star “I’m using transforma- Trek: The Motion Picture or the Jaws franchise. He tion theory to analyze and dia- co-authors unsungsymphonies.blogspot.com and his gram the music. This analysis 2009 talk on A Beautiful Mind has been accepted for comes out of David Lewin’s publication in Music Theory Spectrum. work here at Harvard; he was the mastermind behind fter 1975, American film was distinguished transformation analysis, or by the emergence of the blockbuster—eas- Neo-Riemannian theory.” ily franchise-able, wildly popular movies Traditional music theory Awhose soundtracks included not only a lot of music, attends to things in music as but very prominent, complex music. And although if they were objects: chords, film music is now some of the most recognizable intervals, lines. Transforma- music we share as a culture, music theorists don’t tion analysis takes an alternate yet have the language to talk about it. path by looking at changes “It’s not art music, but that doesn’t mean it’s and movement rather than less interesting or sophisticated,” says theory gradu- objects—not at points, but ate student Frank Lehman. “When you talk about at linear transformation; cal- film music, there are two strange truths: film music culus, not geometry. is powerful, recognizable, and decisive in how you “Neo-Riemannian theo- experience the film. And film music is supposed to ry was a radical change in how be not heard, it’s meant to not distract you from the we approached music. But so There’s bothvisual space and musical space in the filmA Beautiful Mind. The musi- film.” far it has been largely applied cal space takes on this starfish-like shape, and the routecomposer Horner navigates Lehman has been analyzing the musical to a very localized repertoire, through it reflects the orderly and rational action happening on screen. structures of movie scores, looking specifically for mostly 19th-century music and 19th-century “Jerry Goldsmith (Star Trek: The Motion theoretical structures and ideas. He’s interested in chromaticism. And there has been some work Picture) fills his film score with progressions from creating a methodology for analyzing film music done with pop and jazz, but nothing sustained. the 19th century that had associations with the on its own terms in order to determine where pat- What’s great about the film music I’m working uncanny and wonder. Seen through the lens of terns recur in music that have parallels in the action on is that it’s coming out of those 19th century transformation theory these major third chord onscreen. traditions but no one’s applied this theory to it yet. progressions create a six-sided figure—a hexagon. “I’m starting with movies I’m familiar with, I’m testing transformation theory on music that The movie visuals are also strongly defined by six- like Spielberg or Lucas films—Jaws for example— has yet to be analyzed.” sided things. What can these musical transforma- the kind of film you’ll still see over and over late at Take James Horner’s score for A Beautiful tions tell us about experiencing the film? How do night on TV. I start by doing an in-depth techni- Mind, for example. There is a subtle musical pat- we take abstract musical ideas and put them in cal analysis, which isn’t as simple as it sounds. The tern in a crucial scene when the character, John a film to evoke this perfect response? Goldsmith physical materials I need to look at are either in Nash, is decoding numbers. probably wasn’t thinking ‘I need something with studio libraries or in archives on the West Coast, or “He’s figuring out a math equation and six sides’, but it’s eerie the way they correspond. not available at all because they don’t exist. Movie boom! He understands,” explains Lehman. “In the “The diagrams of the analysis are really scores are made for just one use: the composer goes accompanying score, and maybe unbeknownst beautiful, too” Lehman admits. into a studio, shifts things around, and what results consciously to composer and listener both, there Instinct, perspective, association, expecta- on film is not always what has been written. It’s a exists an ordered process with a logical end point. tion—Lehman says there are a complicated mix rarity for musicians to perform a film score in a When Nash figures the pattern out, the musical of factors that blend together to create a movie concert hall, which is why I’ve been going to the pattern completes itself and reveals the underlying music experience. And there’s a totally involuntary Boston Pops for fifteen years—John Williams is the order. You couldn’t parse this with regular music aspect as well. exception. You can actually hear parts of his scores theory; you need transformation theory.” “It often comes down to really simple, performed live; it’s not exactly the same normally, Did James Horner set out to build this into powerful categories, like familiarity/strangeness but it’s closer than others.” the music? and major/minor. Sure it’s crude, but the biggest The dearth of final scores means Lehman “Scores are written by people with deadlines; determinant for affect is major/minor. I can’t spends long hours with the playback function and often, they have to go into their bag of tricks. stress enough how important this is. Major/minor on his computer, transcribing music from movie Maybe they’re not always aware of how a musical powers the machinery of emotion.”

soundtracks. Afterwards, he constructs analytic idea is working theoretically, but their tricks can be diagrams. He’s found Power Point is best for mak- subtle. Horner, specifically, has a deep knowledge ❖ ing diagrams and animating their transformational of classical composers.

9 Adams and Sellars Visit “Operas of John Adams” Seminar; Transmigration Performed

“The Operas of John Adams,” co-taught by Professors Carol Oja and Anne Shreffler, took on the task of surveying the stage works of one of America’s best-known composers. Students studied Nixon in China, The Death of Klinghoffer, I Was Looking at the Ceiling and Then I Saw the Sky, and Doctor Atomic, examining questions of genre, politics, historical context, librettos, film adaptations, and musical language. Visits from both Adams and opera director and frequent collaborator Peter Sellars were highlights. Graduate student Hannah Lewis served as Teaching Fellow for the course. “If you’re thinking about how something will be received you’ve missed it,” Sellars told the class, when asked how he comes up with subjects for new operas. “I ask if 100 years from now, will this be a topic that will interest people? Opera is a conversation with Graduate student Wenqi Tang and John Adams (PhD ’69) discuss Adams’ people not yet born and a conversation with your ancestors. Opera exists to take on the work in Oja and Shreffler’s new seminar, “The Operas of John Adams.” biggest subjects on earth.” The course received funding from the Provostial Fund in the Arts and Composer John Adams talked with seminar students later in the semester, during Humanities and Course Enhancement Funds (Office of the Dean of FAS), and Tom Lee of the Office for the Arts’ Learning From Performers his visit to campus to watch a rehearsal of a student performance of his 2002 On the Program helped arrange visits with special guests. Transmigration of Souls, a work requested by the New York Philharmonic to respond to the events of September 11. Although he first wondered how—or even if—he could Opera provides a way [to explore complex tackle the task, an amateur video taken that day shaped Adams’ vision: it was of scraps political issues] which is not just propa- of paper, millions of pieces, drifting through the air as people on the street below looked up with concern. The overlapping voices Adams wrote into the score, both choral and ganda. It creates something that is layered, recorded, mirror the falling scraps of paper. multivocal, and intricate and doesn't just produce flat statements.—Peter Sellars

Although most of the students performing in Transmigration were in middle school when the towers fell, their fascination with the piece was evident. Sanders Theatre stage was packed with more than 200 musicians rehearsing for the New England premiere of John Adams’ work. The Harvard Glee Club, Radcliffe Choral Society, Harvard-Radcliffe Collegium Musicum (Andrew Clark, conductor), and the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra (Federico Cor- Students and faculty from the seminar, “The Operas of John Adams,” on a field trip to see Nixon in China tese, conductor) performed. at at the Metropolitan Opera House.

Students performed a deleted scene from Death of Klinghofer for Sellars (’81), who laughed in obvious pleasure, then sprang up to hug each and every one. “I haven’t heard it performed since Brooklyn Academy of Music 17 years ago,” he said.

10 Music 180 Takes On Crumb’s Black Angels

head and trusting that George Crumb had magnificent ears and knew what he wanted.” Crumb’s in- structions call spe- t wasn’t the usual collection of instruments you’d see strewn across the cifically for a set of seats of Paine Hall as student musicians prepared to rehearse for their crystal glasses tuned Music 180 (Performance and Analysis) recital this past May. Thimbles, for each instrument. wineI glasses, tam tams, amplifiers, glass rods, and scads of metal picks dot- “Real crystal ted the hall in preparation for the 1970 George Crumb piece, Black Angels. glasses were at least Subtitled “Thirteen Images from the Dark Land,” Black Angels was $60 each,” confided composed by Crumb over the course of one year for electric string quartet. Glenn. “We didn’t Utilizing numerology and themes of death, evil, and war, Crumb constructed have the funds for the edgy, ominous composition that compelled the Kronos Quartet to make that. We tried wine it the very first piece they performed. glasses but they “I’d heard it many times, but I’d never seen it performed live,” said Julia were one octave too Glenn ’12/NEC ’13, first violinist for the quartet. Aaron Kuan [Harvard low. Aaron [Kuan] ’09/NEC ’10, second violin] had also been interested in the piece for quite made a heroic trip a while. I had played with Lucy Caplan [’12, viola] before and knew how to China Fair and much I enjoyed working with her, so we were happy to have her become a tested 500 glasses to member of the group. We heard about Lucien Werner’s [’13, cello] potential find ones with the interest in putting together Black Angels through the grapevine, and when appropriate range, we asked him he was very excited to join the project.” and we tuned them Glenn spent last summer at the Kneisel Hall Chamber Music School using a squirt bottle and Festival working with Mark Sokol of the Concord String Quartet on and water.” First violinist Julia Glenn. Schoenberg’s String Quartet No. 3, Op. 30. It was her first major experience “You really with something outside of the typical Western canon of classical repertoire. have to want to play this,” added Glenn. In the fall semester of 2010 Glenn took Electroacoustic Composition (Music Black Angels is also very dark. Although Crumb’s official website states 167) with Hans Tutschku, which, she said, opened her ears even further that he didn’t set out to make it a work about Vietnam, it eventually became to new sounds, and to a different way of approaching what is and is not seen as one. “music.” She began wanting to work on music she could “chew” a little bit Glenn approached the piece not as a response to a specific war, but as a more. “sponge” that soaked up the terrifying atmosphere of the time. “It’s a sound “I was thrilled when Julia informed me of her interest in preparing world you slip into,” said Glenn. “There is a general concept of absence of Crumb’s Black Angels,” said Professor Levin, who teaches Music 180 to- the spirit, a religious departure, what happens in the void when God is gone. gether with Preceptor Dan Stepner and TA Seda Roeder. “Initially Daniel That particular atmosphere is always going on [during wartime or times of Stepner and I were concerned that the practical hurdles that needed to be disaster] somewhere, and anyone can access it. It’s a terrifying snapshot that surmounted—acquiring the four electric stringed instruments and the grips you. The last movement of the piece is more optimistic—it ends with paraphernalia specified by Crumb for the performance of the quartet— redemption—but it’s not warm and fuzzy and back-to-normal-now. Clearly might prove insuperable. But the four musicians—Aaron Kuan first and something’s gone wrong.” foremost—aided and abetted by Professor Stepner, succeeded in overcoming The quartet performedBlack Angels at the Harvard Club of Boston in all of these obstacles. The idealism of the group, the glowing commitment April, then again at ARTS FIRST, and finally at the recital for the students of each of them to bringing this visionary piece to performance is one of of Music 180 in Paine Hall at the semester’s end. the most inspiring experiences I have had at Harvard.” Says Glenn, “The faculty of 180 are all such great musicians and were It didn’t come easily; in fact, not one single aspect of the project was such a help and inspiration. Sure, the performances were the climax of the straightforward. process, and we got to share the music with more people, but it doesn’t stop “The first time I took the score into a practice room I was baffled. I had with that. We’ve lived with this piece for so many months! There’s no true no idea how to begin making it sound like what I knew it was supposed to completion or distance. The main thing for us has been the journey of being sound,” said Glenn. “I had to master the technical side, but I also had to inside this piece for a semester.” learn to use my ears in new and demanding ways. I knew I had to hit the Music 180 concerts are funded by the Arthur L. Levin Fund, a gift of violin with a glass rod, but how exactly could I translate that into the sound I Arthur and Marilyn Levin in memory of his father Harold Lee Levin ’29. wanted? It was awkward, physically, but it helped having a clear vision in my

11 12 tures onMusic inthe AgeofItalian Risorgimento” at SergioDurante University, Padua:of “Nation and Taste: 10 Lec- Three HISTORY November 20, THE 5:00 pm at October Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies 22, IN September Thursdays: LECTURES BOSIS OF ITALIAN CIVILIZATION de LAURO c i s Harvard University: “Music Theory’s Predicament” u M Suzannah Clark, Gardner Cowles AssociateProfessor ofMusic, n o Davison Room, MusicLibrary s e Monday, September26at 4:30pm r u COLLOQUIUM t c e L

The Chiara Quartet The Chiara Quartet return asquartet-in-residence forthe2011-12season. Photo: Liz Linder

Cambridge, MA 02138 MA Cambridge,

HarvardUniversity

DepartmentMusic of HarvardUniversity FALL 2011 calendar

of

events

http://www.music.fas.harvard.edu/calendar.html closed through January. *Please note new concert venues! Paine Hall willbe availability offree parking. Harvard Box Office, Holyoke Center. Pleasecheckahead for only,tet concerts available twoweeks before atthe eachconcert otherwise noted. Free passesare required fortheChiaraQuar - All events are free andtake place at 8:00p.m. unless Morikeba Kouyate Griot, Master Kora Musician Friday November 18at New College Theatre* WORLD MUSIC With Talea Ensemble Saturday, November 12at AdamsPool* New works by Harvard composers HARVARD GROUP FORNEW MUSIC Franz Quintet inCMajor Schubert: withPaul Katz Hans Tutschku: andelectronics behindthelight:forstringquartet Mozart: No.14 Quartet inGmajor, K.387 Wednesday, November 16at Sanders Theatre* Johannes Brahms: inA minor, Quartet Op. 51,No. 2 Richard Beaudoin: Charles Ives: No. Quartet 1 Friday, September30at Sanders Theatre* Chiara Quartet BLODGETT CHAMBERMUSICSERIES Étude d'un prélude X — Second String Quartet Permit No. 1636 Boston, MA U.S. Postage Paid First Mail Class