Harvard University Department of M usic

MUSICn e w s l e t t e r Vol. 12, No. 1/Winter 2012 Time & Micro-Time: Beaudoin Uses Scores to Teach, Compose

Richard Beaudoin was appointed Preceptor in Music in 2011 after a three-year tenure as Lecturer on Music Music Building at Harvard, for which he was awarded the Harvard North Yard University Certificate of Distinction in Teaching six Harvard University times. Beaudoin is a composer whose latest works pioneer Cambridge, MA 02138 a compositional technique involving micro-temporal 617-495-2791 measurements of recorded performances.

f you look at the finest examples of any style www.music.fas.harvard.edu “Iof music, you find that what they share is this: their most breathtaking passages seem to arrive at INSIDE perfectly calibrated moments in time. And it’s this placement—this pacing—that makes them vivid. 2 Letter from the Chair Across all time periods, the mark of a great com- 3 Faculty News poser is not simply to create memorable musical 4 Undergraduate News: Matt objects, but to control the relationship between the musical objects and the flow of time. Late of the composer. Aucoin's First Nights Premiere Beethoven, for example: he takes the most ordinary “A large part of my teaching is taking a very close 5 Christian Rivera: Music, Law, thing of all—a rest—and places it between chords look at a piece as it unfolds in time; for example, not Dance & Football that are pregnant with tension. It makes the silence just an arrival to the key of the mediant, but when 6 Finnish Heavy Metal electric. If he had placed the silence elsewhere, the and how this key is reached. Theorists often like to 7 Open Source Musical Literacy passage would read as ordinary.” look at multiple pieces and locate similar structures. Software Developed Newly appointed Preceptor Richard Beaudoin Often these comparisons overlook the pacing.” teaches both theory (Fundamentals of Tonal Music For Beaudoin the idea of pacing—the length 8 Alumni News I, Music 2; Theory II, Music150b) and composition of phrases and their organization via cadences, 9 Library News (Introduction to Composition, Music 4; Prosemi- interruptions and overlaps—is important in both 10 Calendar of Spring Events nar in Composition, Music 160r). Since arriving his teaching and his composition. 11 Graduate Student News at Harvard in 2008, his compositions have been Beaudoin’s compositional work currently deals 12 Yannatos Remembered performed at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, with micro-timing. Working with colleagues at the the Laeiszhalle in Hamburg, the Brucknerhaus in Hochschule in Lucerne, Switzerland, he studies Linz and the Konzerthaus in Vienna; he received recorded performances, measuring the moment

In both theory and composition classes, my textbooks are always scores. I want to teach about music from music.

Boston Lyric Opera’s first-ever commission, and each note comes into being, at the level of a mil- has his work was recently broadcast on Germany’s lisecond (one thousandth of one second). His Südwestrundfunk 2. compositions take this micro-timing information “It’s important for students to learn pacing and bring it back into standard notation, allowing Department Chair directly from composers,” says Beaudoin. “In both him to compose atop and around the micro-timed Alexander Rehding theory and composition classes, my textbooks are transcription of another work. always scores. I want to teach about music from “This process combines an ancient form of Director of Administration music. I believe that music’s most profound les- composition—cantus firmus—with state-of-the- Nancy Shafman sons come from scores, from the relationships of art technology in performance science,” explains musical objects in time. No matter what course I Beaudoin. “Though the micro-timing work began am teaching, I try to put students in the position in 2009, there was really no break with my earlier Newsletter Editor Lesley Bannatyne continued on page 2 A Letter from the Chair BEAUDOIN continued compositional style. I’ve loved Renais- here normally the sound of scales, vocal warm-ups, or filigree passages from Chopin wafts up sance music since I was young, and my Wthrough the department building, a very different kind of noise was heard over the summer: earliest pieces involved cantus firmus the busy hammering, drilling, and sawing was an audible sign that the practice rooms received a procedures. The fact that there was a comprehensive facelift. The basement area was completely redesigned, and where previously 19 piece embedded in another fascinated practice rooms offered cramped space for instrumentalists and singers, the new rooms, (7 grand me.” piano rooms, 6 upright, plus two classrooms equipped with grand pianos and a quartet-sized en- “Look at this,” says Beaudoin, semble rehearsal room), are bright and spacious state-of-the-art facilities. All rooms are properly pulling a large sheet from his file cabi- soundproofed, to the great relief of librarians and administrators who worked directly above the net. “It’s a diagram of Martha Argerich old practice rooms—and within full auditory range of any noise coming from them. playing a Chopin étude from October Two of the practice rooms are outfitted with electronic equipment that can be used to modify 1975. Each of Argerich’s eighth notes the acoustics. Invisible speakers, hidden behind the wall panels, provide additional reverberation are charted in tiny fractions of time, that mimicks venues such as a concert hall or cathedral, to provide a more realistic impression of and seen from 1/1000-scale each event the room acoustics of a variety of performance spaces. Laptop computers can be plugged into these has a unique length, often diverging rehearsal rooms to play back prerecorded music, in a twenty-first-century version of “music-minus-one.” wildly from the proportions seen in the New practice rooms are the first stage of the renovations of some of the key facilities in the music score. Her timings would have all been building. In the second stage, Paine Hall is outfitted with air-conditioning. This is long overdue: different on a different day. What I care the hall had been unusable during most of the summer months due to sweltering temperatures. about is capturing this single moment Now the hall will be available as a concert and lecture space throughout the year. in time.” The temporary adjustments we had to make to accommodate these renovations were compli- Beaudoin transcribes a specific cated. Since the entire wing of the music building was under construction, including the lecture performance into notation, and then rooms and several faculty offices, we needed to outsource all our fall classes and seminars and re- uses it as material in a new work. Music accommodate some department members’ work spaces, to the basement of Lowell Lecture Hall, the philosophers who study his pieces note secluded seminar rooms in Sanders Theater, Holden Chapel, and other spaces in theterra incognita that when played, his scores allow a that lies beyond the immediate vicinity of the music department. Nancy Shafman and the rest of performer to interpret upon another our wonderful staff came up with practicable and in some cases creative solutions to make sure the performer’s interpretation. regular departmental business would continue “I have a piece based on a 1931 to run smoothly. recording of Debussy’s “la fille aux These renovations are part of the uni- cheveux de lin” by Alfred Cortot [The versity’s efforts to maintain and update their Artist and his Model I—La fille floutée facilities around campus. We continue to ask (2010)],” says Beaudoin. “When a pia- the university for an addition to the department nist plays it, they’re interacting with a building to accommodate our growing needs 1931 performance by Cortot, not via as our long-term goal. But these renovation sampling or electronics, but by reading works are very encouraging first steps since the a score in which that performance is financial shutdown three years ago. inscribed. The analogy is with photog- As the university renovates and upgrades raphy: recording temporal events onto our music-making facilities in the practice pieces of paper.” rooms and Paine Hall, our equipment requires In the classroom though, Beaudoin similar updates: many of our piano benches, for doesn’t teach micro-timing composition example, have acquired the patina of antiquity to his students. He believes it’s impor- and are badly in need of upgrades. tant for them to learn their own iden- [They’re] bigger, brighter, prettier, All these renovations come at an auspicious tity first before intertwining their own time. Our revised undergraduate curriculum, music with that of another composer. cleaner, and cheerier...I actually find now in its third year, offers expanded options “It’s important for a composer myself wanting to raise my game be- in musical performance. The new curriculum who’s working with micro-timing to cause I can imagine I’m playing in a pursues innovative ways to integrate sound and understand that their pieces aren’t good musical interpretation and to place these front because they have embedded in them an professional setting or in front of an and center of teaching and learning in the music earlier piece of music. I am always work- audience. I concentrate better, and department. ing to make a great piece that stands on Our new courses include a number of it’s own.” perform better.—Mable Chan, ’12 exciting offerings. Next semester, for instance, v

2 Faculty News

Professor Robert Levin will teach a hands- This fall, Preceptor Richard Beaudoin completed on class on classical improvisation. Professor The Artist and his Model IV—la tradition française, Richard Wolf has incorporated practical composed for Köln-based clarinetist Carl Rosman, lessons on the kora, a West African harp, in The Artist and his Model V—Brûlage, composed for his recent course Music 97c. Federico Cor- the New-York based saxophonist Eliot Gattegno, tese has developed classes on Mozart’s Figaro and Now anything can hang at any angle, a solo piano and on Verdi’s Falstaff that combine the per- work based on micro-timings of Thelonious Monk. formance of key scenes with analytical and Gardner Cowles Associate Professor Suzannah interpretive tasks, while Andrew Clark ex- Clark published Analyzing Schubert (Cambridge amines a range of choral repertoires, currently University Press), in which she explores how the har- twentieth-century passion settings, from a monics of Schubert’s songs and instrumental sonata practical and scholarly viewpoint. Professor forms challenges the theory of tonal and formal order. Hans Tutschku’s students composed music Walter Bigelow Rosen Professor of Music Chaya in response to artworks from the Sackler Czernowin’s piece Zohar Iver (Blind Radiance) had museum and performed their compositions its premiere in Bern, Switzerland. Commissioned for at the museum. Two new courses in jazz har- the Bern Philharmonic and Ensemble Nikel with con- mony and jazz improvisation, taught this year ductor Mario Venzago, the piece won high acclaim by Daniel Henderson, are quickly becom- from both audiences and critics alike. Her 2011 solo ing staples of the curriculum. And graduate album Shifting Gravity received more then a dozen student Rowland Moseley has developed positive reviews including those in the Guardian, Irish a brilliant software application (see story on Times, Neue Züricher Zeitung, Mundo Clasico, Diverdi, page 9) that is going to revolutionize the in the sense that the new practice rooms Neue Zeitschrift fur Musik, Stuttgarter Zeitung, and keyboard component of Music 51. Moreover, are now completely soundproof. On the Haaretz. Chaya is now writing a piece for Poul Skjøl- our new affiliation with the dance center has contrary, there is plenty of music-making strup Larsen (organ) and Christina Meißner (cello) made possible a number of new courses that going on in the music department, now to be performed throughout Europe in 2012/13. In examine the interaction between music and even more than before. We will ensure fall 2011 Lovesong for chamber ensemble was per- movement. All these offerings complement that it continues this way. formed by Red Light Green Light (New York), Dal Niente (Chicago) and Notabu ensemble neue musik All these renovations come at an auspicious time: our revised under- (Duesseldorf). Czernowin additionally gave the 2011 graduate curriculum, now in its third year, offers expanded options Barlow Lecture at Brigham Young University. Morton B. Knafel Professor Thomas F. Kelly in musical performance. continued on page 4 and expand the tried-and-tested courses that make up the music concentration, always “We are always looking for new We Need Your Help with the view to giving our students the best ways in which we can support Please support our efforts to education possible. increase the amount of financial as- We are always looking for new ways our concentrators in their en- sistance our concentrators can receive in which we can support our concentrators to help pay tuition for their instrument in their endeavors as musical performers. deavors as musical performers. lessons. An envelope has been provided Harvard’s music department does not have Harvard’s music department full-time performance faculty, but we are in this newsletter, and any kindness on currently exploring ways in which we can does not have full-time per- your part would be greatly appreciated. better support and subsidize the cost of formance faculty, but we are Checks should be made payable to the instrumental tuition specifically for our Music Department, and check “Other,” concentrators. We welcome your support to currently exploring ways in specifying Instrumental Tuition, on enable us to make this a reality soon. which we can better support and the donor envelope. If you are receiv- The mythical story whereby music, like ing this newsletter electronically, please Victorian children, “should be seen but not subsidize the cost of instrumen- mail your donation to Music Depart- heard” in Harvard’s music department [often ment, Harvard University, Cambridge, attributed to ], is only true tal tuition specifically for our concentrators.” MA 02138. 3 Faculty News continued from page 3 Undergraduate News published The Sources of Beneventan Chant (Ash- gate). Because the Beneventan Chant was sup- Aucoin Presents 2011 First pressed during the eleventh century, the music Nights Commission survives mostly in fragments and palimpsests, and Kelly’s book recounts the process of restoring t was Matt Aucoin’s day even though it the repertory. Iwasn’t planned that way. The 2011 First Dwight P. Robinson, Jr. Professor Robert Nights premiere was commissioned from Levin published Mozart, Three Movements for Michael Einziger, composer and lead guitarist Piano Trio, K. 442: (a) in D minor, Fr 1785e; (b) of the platinum-selling band Incubus. But in G major, Fr 1786c; (c) in D major, Fr 1787f Einziger was hospitalized during an Incubus and Mozart, Horn Concerto in D major, K. 412 European tour and couldn’t get back to (to be issued by Breitkopf & Härtel, Wiesbaden, Harvard. The premiere performance date Germany, in early 2012). He also recently pub- Emmy and Benjamin Conway-Rehding was around the corner, and Professor Kelly lished Haydn’s Complete Piano Sonatas (Wiener keynote panel of the conference, “Music in Divided suddenly found himself with nothing to pre- Urtext Edition), vols. 3-4, issued with notes on Germany,” Berkeley, California, and collaborated miere. Aucoin, already booked to conduct interpretation and suggested embellishments and on the project “Geschichte der Musikalischen the Einziger piece, stepped in. He had some cadenzas by Levin. In Reno, Nevada, Levin gave Interpretation” (History of Musical Interpreta- sketches for an extended string quartet, he talks on “Improvising Mozart” and “Who Cares tion) being developed at the Staatliches Institut told Kelly, and he thought that if he stayed if Classical Music Dies?” Most recently he gave für Musikforschung, Berlin, where Shreffler is on up all night, he could finish it. He did. three performances of Mozart, Piano Concerto the Research Advisory Board. Professor Shreffler “This is the most authentic First Nights #21 in C major, K. 467 with the Sarasota Orches- continued to advise the Anton Webern Collected experience we’ve ever had,” Professor Kelly tra, Grant Llewellyn, conductor; a trio recital at Works Edition, an ongoing project of the Univer- announced to the class. “The tasks of com- Mozartwoche in Salzburg, Austria, on Mozart's sität Basel, and was elected Member at Large of the posing, preparing parts, recruiting person- piano, with Frank Stadler (on Mozart’s violin) Cold War and Music Study Group of the AMS. nel, conducting rehearsals, and producing and Peter Sigl (cello); and two Mozart trios, K. Professor Richard K. Wolf invited West a first performance—and working against a 502 and 548, variations for piano, K. 500, and African musician and griot Morikeba Kouyate to deadline—are challenges that we know from the world premiere of Violin Sonata in C, K. 403 work with Wolf’s 97C (Music History and Reper- other composers’ experiences in First Nights. (with finale completed by Levin). tory) students during the fall term. Kouyate is a Now we have the privilege of watching some Willam Powell Mason Professor Carol master of the kora, a 21-string instrument made of our contemporaries trying to accomplish Oja published “Studying U.S. Music in the from a decorated gourd covered with cow skin that the same thing. It will be a near thing, but I 21st Century: A Colloquium,” co-authored and is traditional to the Mandinka people. Wolf, along think it will work.” co-edited with Charles Hiroshi Garrett in JAMS; with other musicians and the students of Music Aucoin’s 11th-hour commission is also “Reappraising Walter Piston” in NewMusicBox; 97C, joined Kouyate on stage for sections of a sold a happy piece of serendipity: when Matt was and “Mary Zimmerman’s Candide, Prelude, out public concert at the New College Theatre in ten he’d skip elementary school to come to Fugue, & Riffs” in the Leonard Bernstein News- November. Sanders to listen to Kelly’s First Nights class. letter, all out this fall. Oja spoke at the panel, The first classical concert he ever heard was “Researching Broadway Legacies,” at the 2011 at Sanders as well—Beethoven’s Ninth. San Francisco AMS conference and chaired the A First Reading session, “Bounding American Music.” She also At the rehearsal staged two days before appeared on WGBH’s “Callie Crosley Show” the premiere, Kelly’s First Nights students to discuss the American Reperatory Theatre’s packed Sanders Theatre to hear a cold reading production of Porgy and Bess. of the Aucoin piece. Fanny Peabody Professor Alexander “This is the first time anyone’s going Rehding is a proud father of twins. His to hear this, including me,” Aucoin told the long-awaited (and long) Oxford Handbook of audience. Then, turning to the group of a Neo-Riemannian Music Theories (co-edited with dozen of Harvard’s student string players: Edward Gollin PhD ’01) has been published. “Let’s tune.” While on leave in fall 2011, James Edward Aucoin, conducting with a pen (he’d for- Ditson Professor Anne C. Shreffler conducted gotten his baton) led the musicians through research in the Hanns Eisler Archive of the a rehearsal: “Keep the crescendo absolutely Akademie der Künste for a book project. She steady. Try not to back off. These notes trail presented “Who Owns the German Past?” at the Morikeba Kouyate off like efforts that have failed.”

4 Christian Rivera: Music, Law, Dance, Football Music as preparation for a law career? Why not, class was probably the favorite class I’ve taken,” thinks Christian Rivera, ’13. Plus a secondary he says. “I plan on taking jazz improvisation next field in History of Science? term, and a music history course on Coltrane “I know,” he laughs. “Two disparate things, and Miles Davis.” and neither connected to law.” Rivera sees his future in law veering towards Rivera is accustomed to finding the threads entertainment law of some kind, maybe venue that connect two seemingly opposite things. The contracts or agenting. physicality he needs to perform modern dance “It’s really about how I can reach the most in college, for example, is not all that different people, how to create commercial art without from the physicality he used to play football. creating art that’s lost its soul. “In high school I was an inside linebacker or “Music is a passion of mine. But I’ve always offensive guard—the violent positions. My senior wanted to go to law school. There’s no pre-law year I got bored with gym, took dance and liked here at Harvard; you can study what you want. it so much I’ve been with the Harvard Radcliffe Most pre-law students study government but I Modern Dance Company since my freshman didn’t want that. Music can hold me. It still keeps year. It’s not that much of a disconnect, really, my interest.” Aucoin conducting the Dunster House Opera. Harvard Gazette from football to modern dance. Modern dancers photo by Jon Chase. are grounded; it’s a key defining feature. Flex, not Cannon’s Research in Asia The themes in Aucoin’s new work, he told point; emphasize down, not up. If you’ve ever the crowd, came from an opera he’s writing based seen the Alvin Ailey company, you know—those Chad Cannon (AB’11) pursued various musi- on the story of Hart Crane, an openly gay poet men are in extremely good shape.” cal interests in East Asia on a Paine Fellowship who lived in New York in the 1920s, and died Rivera likes the accepting atmosphere of the this past summer. He began in Fujian Province, young. “Some themes have a sadness to them,” dance studio. Also, he’s interested in its expressive China, where he hired a translator to arrange explains Aucoin. “There’s a striving, then top- possibilities. meetings with academics and professional pling off before a successful peak.” “I react to music emotionally and physi- musicians, most of whom are specialists in the Music for Mike cally, and dance is a good outlet for that,” he genre Nanyin, related to Okinawan both in On the morning of the premiere, Professor summarizes. its music instrumentation and linguistics. He Kelly introduces the piece; it’s now titled “Music His passion for music is a lifelong one. then spent a week in mainland Japan, visiting for Mike.” The players have had a rehearsal Rivera has played the piano since the age of the National Theater in Tokyo, and hearing or two, and the audience has swelled. Aucoin seven. Now, he says, he’s interested in music’s performances of taiko drumming, Noh and strides out from the wings, lifts his baton, and relationship to other arts and how they can be Kabuki, and three days in Korea, watching the ensemble of 13 plays a strikingly beautiful, combined to create an emotional experience. Korean traditional theater at the National Per- seemingly flawless twelve minutes of music. “I’m interested in film music, or the music forming Arts Center. In Okinawa he met many After the last note, the audience cheers. in video games, in how to create sound that sanshin players and visited his contacts at the As Aucoin slips off the stage, Kelly addresses doesn’t detract from the images, but adds to Prefectural University for the Arts and at the his First Nights 2011 class for the final time. them. Like the Star Wars theme—it’s memorable, National Theater in Urasoe City. Cannon was “I am always amazed by my First Nights but when you first heard the music, it wasn’t so able to deliver copies of his thesis to those who students,” he confides. “I know that many of you [powerful] that you stopped paying attention to had helped him during his studies last summer. out there are not going to become musicians. what was going on in the film. A performance of his thesis composition will You may become doctors, or go get an MBA, or “I’ve taken electroacoustic composition with likely take place in Singapore in March 2013 try to become president. I am always impressed Hans Tutschku. I think it opens your ear and with the Asian Contemporary Ensemble. that you would use your valuable time to take a makes you a better listener; the attention to detail course on music, to answer the question, ‘Would is so strict.” Rabinowitz wins Competition my life be better with art in it?’ Most re- “We are all here today to celebrate live cently, though, Danielle Galler Rabinowitz (Harvard ’14- performance. Here’s something that didn’t exist Rivera’s been NEC ’15) won both the State and Eastern a few days ago. It began, it was practiced, and fascinated by Division Music Teachers National Associa- it happened. If you weren’t here you didn’t hear jazz. tion Composition Competitions and is also it. It belongs to us. We audience members can “Daniel a National Finalist in the 2011-2012 Young take some credit for bringing a new piece of art Henderson’s Artist division of the the MTNA Composi- into the world. That is a good thing.” jazz harmony tion Competition.

5 The Authentic in Finnish Heavy Metal: Blending Ethnography with Music Theory er interest in heavy metal music began Hwhen Olivia Lucas was an undergradu- ate and a friend gave her the album “Ocean- born” by the band Nightwish. She was first attracted to the energy and intensity of metal, but since becoming a student of music, Lucas has honed her enthusiasm into a specializa- tion in Nordic, and especially Finnish, heavy metal. She was intrigued by the folk elements she found such as Vikings, trolls, and themes from the Finnish epic poem, The Kalevala. She began investigating heavy metal music that had a strong emphasis on folkloristically authentic musical language. “The kantele, for example, is a zither- like stringed instrument that’s a traditional Finnish instrument. Some bands have used it—amplified, imitated, or electronicized— in their music.” Lucas is now focused on how folk songs manifest in Finnish heavy metal, and the role Finnish metal band Ensiferum, one of the bands who draw on folklore to create their music. the music plays in national identity. “It may represent a continuation of the Current music theory language doesn’t have a lot of the necessary struc- Kalevala tradition,” she theorizes, “which tures in place yet. For example, how do you analyze screamed vocals? did not exist as such until Elias Lönnrot, an academic, came along and arranged existing to heavy metal treatment. But in Finland’s ars have talked about metal music’s distortion folk songs and poems into a semi-coherent case, it also has to do with the relative youth and screamed vocal textures, but treated them plot. I see the way metal music uses folk of the nation. Finland didn’t become its as a sort of extra-musical byproduct—surface elements as a continuation of a tradition of own country until 1917. Drawing on the details that are descriptively salient but not adapting materials for one’s own aesthetic epic folklore of the land’s distant past gives something to be placed at the heart of a goals.” the music—and the nation—a historical systematic theory. I would like to be able Heavy metal music emerged in the gravitas. They continue to struggle with their to turn this around, and address them as 1970s and 1980s in America and Britain. By own ideas of nationality and what constitutes integral to the way heavy metal works as a the 1990s it had proliferated into numerous the Finnish heritage, and anti-immigration genre. This ties straight into the very long subgenres and spread around the world. politics have been on the rise in the Nordic and large musico-theoretical debate of what “Strong heavy metal traditions exist in countries in recent years. While these bands is essential to a discussion of music.” Sweden and Norway as well, but there are are rarely poitical in an active sense, they are variations in style,” explains Lucas. “Norway, still participating in a wider discussion about Olivia Lucas in is her 3rd year of music theory for example, is still trying to shed its asso- national identity.” graduate work in the Music Department. She re- ciation with ‘black metal’ and its attendant Lucas is looking at the music ethno- ceived a Paine Fellowship to travel to Finland this racism and message of white supremacy. graphically, but also as a music theorist. past summer to study both language and the music There are Viking themes in Sweden’s metal “I’ve been thinking more about how to scene in order to lay some of the groundwork for a scene, but my instinct is that they’re gener- bring heavy metal and music theory together, thesis that would combine ethnomusicology and ally less specific. There’s some tightly engi- especially since reading Esa Lilja’s book on music theory in a study of Finnish heavy metal. neered, strong music coming out of Sweden, heavy metal harmony. As there are not many though—their studios are on the forefront.” people who combine heavy metal with music Please send your news! Scandinavian countries, Lucas thinks, theory, it was really great to be able to meet Email your news, photos, or story may be especially fertile ground for folk- him this past summer and talk with him,” influenced metal music. says Lucas. ideas to [email protected]. “There’s a Romanticism that didn’t die “His approach is to take existing theo- edu or mail them to Newsletter/ out after 1800s—the Viking or heroic ideal retical approaches and show how they can Music Building/Harvard Univer- of riding into battle, having no fear, the ideal be adapted and adjusted to reveal interesting sity/Cambridge, MA 02138 of Valhalla. These themes all lend themselves aspects of heavy metal harmony. Other schol-

6 Open Source Musical Literacy Software Developed at Harvard GO!FiGURE is a new music literacy app created labels including chord by Rowland Moseley (who initiated and directed names. the application’s development) and Christopher “This is not a Johnson-Roberson (who did the technical re- compositional tool search, and wrote and compiled the application like Finale or Sibelius,” in HTML5 and Java). The project was funded he adds. “It’s a tool with a Presidential Instructional Technology Fel- for improving musical lowship and supervised by Bill Barthemly of the literacy that aids every- Academic Technology Group. The app employs one from beginners to several extant elements from non-Harvard cre- students at all levels of a ators, all of them open source and freely licensed college theory curricu- for non-commercial use, and when it is released lum. It’s not giving you in February 2012, this work will be available to exercises or a program the public in the same way. of drills. The app writes down what you’re play- After teaching Music 51 (Theory I), sixth- ing and labels it. You year graduate music theory student Rowland can use it any way you Moseley saw a need to build a faster relation- want to.” ship between what students heard and what Moseley defines Rowland Moseley they were writing. The mechanics of music GO!FiGURE as doing Christopher Johnson-Roberson graduated from literacy—recognizing notes, intervals, and three basic things. First, it acts as sheet music. Harvard in 2011 as a History of Literature/ labels used in talking, writing, and thinking “Say you’re a beginner, and you play a Music concentrator. He’s now in the ethnomusi- about music—were a real challenge. chord sequence C–a–F–G. You can see if you’re cology PhD program at Brown, advised by Kiri “I wanted a way to help students build hitting the right notes. People often feel adrift Miller (PhD ’05) connections faster,” says Moseley. “To connect when they’re just starting out; they doubt hearing music with seeing it written and feeling themselves unnecessarily or don't work through I hear that when ATG released their list of sum- it through your fingers on the keyboard.” mistakes constructively.” mer projects you leapt on this one. What attracted Over the summer months Moseley, Second, it helps students with music you to it? together with Music/History of Literature theory labels. Rowland’s proposal sounded great from the joint concentrator Chris Johnson-Robe- “You can feel where ‘A’ is on the piano,” outset. I knew I would have loved to use a program like this back when I was in Music By the time we met for the first time, Chris had already designed a 51, or even AP Music Theory in high school. piece of software that worked really well. I knew what I wanted, and It surprised me that something like it didn’t Chris had the JavaScript skills. Everything he did worked instantly. already exist. son ’11, developed a keyboarding software Moseley explains, “see where it is on the screen, You developed this fairly quickly. How ? called GO!FiGURE that does exactly this. and read the letter ‘A’. Intervals, say a major I’d used programs that had single aspects of GO!FiGURE is a web-based interface for 3rd or perfect 5th, appear on the screen as you the app (on-screen keyboard, staff notation, music literacy learning that takes the input play them, as do syllables if you’re working on chord analysis, and MIDI playback), but from a computer-compatible piano keyboard solfège. The computer is doing the mechanical never something that combined all of them. and shows what is being played in music nota- work, the work that normally would involve Nonetheless, it was easy to implement quickly tion at the same time it generates the sounds. lots of thinking when you really want to be because nearly all of the components were The interface displays virtual sheet music and, making connections through repeated prac- already available as open source software — I below that, a visual reproduction of the piano tice.” merely had to get them to talk to each other. keyboard. Lastly, the program can help stu- “Before this, there were virtual pianolas dents learn a shorthand performance no- GO!Figure is open source, meaning anyone, or applications that would highlight the keys tation, and learn about musical texture. anywhere can build on it. Where do you see this as you played yourself, but there was nothing “If you were playing harpsichord in the going five years from now? that would also show the notes,” explained 17th or 18th century, accompanying a singer, Pitch detection for singing purposes would be Moseley. “With the app, when a Bach chorale you wouldn’t have everything written out,” a great feature. I would perhaps add the ability plays, keys depress on the piano image, and the says Moseley. “You’d be reading figured bass— to designate thematic material and search for program writes all the notes going by in musical one line of notes with small numbers above transpositions or fragmentations, making it a notation. It also displays a range of technical . continued on p. 11 more full-fledged tool for analysis.

7 Alumni News Gelbart Coordinator for Initiative for Romani Music at NYU We are saddened to report that former graduate Petra Gelbart (PhD ’10) has been named principal coordinator of the newly launched Initiative student in musicology Keith Sadko passed away for Romani Music (IRM), the first research and outreach entity of its kind. Gelbart launched earlier this year. A memorial service was held for him IRM at the Department of Music at New York University, and produced the Institute’s first in Montreal on November 19, 2011. Also, noted symposium, Opre!, in November. Opre! brought together scholars of several Romani cultures musicologist and former composer, University of and Roma who work as activists, academics, and/or performers. The keynote address was Massachusetts Professor emeretis, and author of given by Carol Silverman (University of Oregon) and featured a concert by Raklorom, the more than twelve books on American music Nicho- NYU ensemble directed by Gelbart. IRM was created to bring together a network of scholars las E. Tawa, PhD ’74, died on October 4, 2011. and artists working in the area of Romani music, and to educate the public about Romani Tawa was a historian of American popular culture cultures as well as ideas of “Gypsiness,” fostering partnerships between Romani and non- and a founder of the Sonneck Society. Romani thinkers in discussions of Romani people’s creativity and place in society.

Randall Eng (AB ’94) was appointed Assis- (Left) Felix, son of Ryan Bana- tant Arts Professor in the Graduate Musical Theatre gale, PhD’11, at the Garden of Writing Program at New York University. the Gods in Colorado. Banagale is now a professor at Colorado Hannah Lash (PhD ’10) was the recipient of College. a 2011 ASCAP Foundation Morton Gould Young (Right) Clara Melike was born Composer Award, chosen from among 750 entries. on July 23, 2011 to Matthias Ro- In conjunction with his 40th reunion in Sep- eder, PhD’10, and Department tember, the Memorial Church Choir sang Leonard Associate Seda Roeder. Matthias is now Managing Director of the J. Lehrman’s (AB ’71) “We Wish You Peace,” op. Eliette und Herbert von Karajan 130a, as part of morning prayer service. The class Institut in Salzburg. reunion chorus, conducted by Rick Wilson, sang his “Blessing & Prayer for Healing,” op. 129b and Kotilaine Called to the Bar of England andWales “Harvard-Radcliffe Reflections,” op. 203, at the class memorial service. Lehrman’s “Conscience,” op. Jennifer Baker Kotilaine (PhD ’99) was Called to the Bar 93a, was also performed. The Motyl String Quartet of England and Wales and is now a Barrister, completing a will premiere Lehrman’s Suite #2: “Remembrance,” pupillage at 42 Bedford Row in London. Barristers special- written to commemorate Kristallnacht, at Hebrew ize in courtroom advocacy, which Kotilaine, who wrote her Union College in 2012, and his setting of Langston dissertation on Lithuanian folk music, reports can be seen as Hughes poem, “Let America Be America Again” is another type of performance, involving improvisation and scheduled to be premiered at Long Island University thinking quickly. in Brookville this April. Jennifer Kotilaine with her youngest daugh- Evan MacCarthy (PhD’10) presented “Ab ter, Audra Belinda Gardner. eruditis existemetur: Tinctoris’ Neapolitan Col- leagues” in Barcelona, Spain at the Annual Medieval Archive Unveiled in Library Reception Honoring Lady Solti and Renaissance Music Conference. In October, he delivered “Translating Oedipus Tyrannus: John Matt Aucoin ’12, Lady Knowles Paine and America’s First Greek Tragedy” Solti, and Preceptor at a conference held at the University of Iowa en- Richard Beaudoin at titled, “Re-Creation: Musical Reception of Classical the opening reception Antiquity.” MacCarthy also contributed essays to of the Loeb Music Li- Festschriften in honor of Alejandro Planchart brary exhibit, “Music (PhD ’71) as well as Joseph Connors (Harvard first and last: Scores PhD ’78, Art History), former director of Villa I from the Sir Georg Tatti. These essays concern a newly discovered, late- Solti Archive.” Lady fourteenth-century papal letter recruiting singers Solti decided to house from northern Europe to Rome and a mid-fifteenth- her husband’s famous- century Italian bishop who began his career as a ly marked-up scores at professional singer. Most recently MacCarthy began Harvard, where they performing regularly as bass section leader with the will be digitized and Schola Cantorum of the College of the Holy Cross made available online under the direction of James David Christie. for a global audience.

8 Library News

TransmissionTransformation: Sounding China in Enlightenment Europe

ll eyes are turned towards China, as it con- Ehjeen Kim, Atinuously grows in global importance. This Paavali Jump- phenomenon may have a contemporary ring to it, panen, and Jona- but the eighteenth century was equally enthralled than Withers, at by the Middle Kingdom. Everything about the dis- the Peabody Mu- seum, researhing tant empire was fascinating to the western world, historic Chinese including its music. Fanny Peabody Professor of i n s t r u m e n t s . Music Alexander Rehding, in conjunction with Photo: Emerson graduate students Peter McMurray and Meredith Morgan Schweig and the students in Music 220, “History of Music Theory,” have developed a library exhibit that retraces the voyage of this music from Qing- dynasty China to the urban salons, drawing rooms, and coffee houses of Enlightenment Europe. The exhibit, Transmission/Transformation: Sounding China in Enlightenment Europe, opens in the Loeb Music Library February 1, 2012. additional educational and exotic flavor.” been instrumental in developing this innovative Much of the knowledge the eighteenth cen- The class gathered material for the exhibi- course as part of the expanded PITF (Presidential tury had about Chinese culture was owed to Jesuit tion throughout the fall semester. In addition to Information Technology Fellowship) program, missionaries in the Far East, who wrote extensively the usual seminar settings, they visited many of that now also includes Museum (MITF) and about their encounter with this foreign world, and the ongoing exhibitions at Harvard and spoke Library (LITF) variants—precisely the kinds of whose reports were eagerly studied by European to numerous curators and experts. expertise needed for this project. In the course Enlightenment philosophers and music scholars “This course covers such a vast terrain,” says of planning the class and the exhibition that is mesmerized by anything Chinese. To some, China Rehding, “that it is quite impossible to be expert its final product, the digital component of the represented an opportunity for critical reflection on in all areas. We have made great use of Harvard’s exhibition took on an increasingly weighty part. Western society, and to others China represented extraordinary resources and its amazing library Schweig has a background in Asian Studies and a radically different societal order. Scholars incor- and museum staff.” museology, and McMurray is an old hand in porated missionary accounts—often in highly Schweig adds, “We’ve reached out to mu- digital media. imaginative variants—into their own published sicians, scholars and instrument makers from “These two are the perfect collaborators,” works on musical evolution and knowledge, Taipei and Shanghai as well, which has helped enthuses Rehding. “I would not have been able while Enlightenment composers began transcrib- ing melodies and harmonizing them to make For many students of “History of Music Theory”—normally a heady, abstract endeavor—it them “more palatable” to the European ear. The was a surprise to be working with digital applications like iMovie, Adobe Illustrator, or eighteenth-century public’s curiosity about China the newly developed software Zeega, and that they would be sent on treasure hunts to col- ensured that many bourgeois homes would own lections in far-flung places around the Harvard campus. such musical arrangements. The operatic stage, too, eagerly took up the idea of China as a colorful make this a very transnational experience.” to launch this ambitious project without them.” backdrop for exotic extravaganzas. To enhance the visual experience of the Everybody involved agrees that the project “The whole idea for the course grew out exhibit the class worked on digital augmenta- has been a huge learning experience. “One of a score [Acting Loeb Librarian] Sarah Adams tion—audio files of music, documentation, film thought that is always at the back of my mind,” showed me a couple of years ago,” says Rehding. files—for some of the pieces. says Rehding, “is how relevant some of these “It was a English arrangement from 1796 of a “The trouble with musical exhibitions,” ideas are. Sure, the details have changed— song transcribed in China. It became clear to me says Schweig, “is that you really want to hear sometimes drastically so—but China still that this apparently insignificant piece of music the music. In an exhibition setting this is not occupies the central place in western imagina- encapsulated the whole story of the transmission of an easy task to accomplish. So we had to think tion that it’s held since the Enlightenment.” Chinese music into Europe: from the— faulty— about alternatives.” v transcription of a popular Chinese tune to its “The Loeb library was eager to help,” adds Exhibit opens Wednesday, February setting in a manner that could be easily sung in McMurray. “They bought a number of ipads that 1st. Music performance at 4:00 pm, a bourgeois parlor. In many ways, these simple visitors will be able to use to access the digital arrangements were the precursor of the radio augmentation.” opening reception at 5:00 pm. Spalding and the CD player: they provided simple musical McMurray and Schweig, two advanced Room, second floor of the Eda Kuhn entertainment at home, but in this case with an graduate students in ethnomusicology, have Loeb Music Library.

9 Gil Rose. Photo: Liz Linder SPRING 2012 Calendar of Events BLODGETT CHAMBER MUSIC SERIES Chiara Quartet Friday, February 17 Schubert: Quartet No. 13 in A minor “Rosamunde” Quartet No. 12 in C minor “Quartettsatz” Quartet No. 14 in D minor “Death & the Maiden” Friday, March 23 Haydn: Quartet Op. 76 No. 5 Ann Cleare: moil* Bartok: Quartet No. 3 Brahms: Quartet No. 3 in B flat major, Op. 67 *Blodgett Composition Competition Winner

HARVARD GROUP FOR NEW MUSIC New works by Harvard composers Saturday, February 18 with Ensemble Nikel Saturday, April 14 with Frank Worner, bass-baritone Saturday, May 12 with musikFabrik

Lectures on Music Tuesday, February 28 at 5:15 pm LOUIS C. ELSON LECTURE friday and saturday, march 30 and 31 Alvin Curran, composer Fromm Players at Harvard “A New Common Practice, or A Life with Boston Modern Orchestra Project in Upopular Music” Gill Rose, Conductor Concerts Curated by Hans Tutschku Monday, April 16 at 4:15 pm Gianmario Borio, University of Pavia March 30 “The IndeterminateStatus of the Audio/ Charles Wuorinen Epithalamium Visual Experience” Gerard Grisey Jour, contre-jour Alvin Curran Davison Room, Music Library Jonathan Harvey Bhakti

March 31 All events are free and take place in John Knowles Paine Concert Hall at 8:00 Kaija Saariaho Io p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free passes are required for the Chiara Quartet Alvin Lucier In Memoriam Jon Higgins concerts, available two weeks before each concert at the Harvard Box Office. Roger Reynolds Personae Please check the website for availability and location of free parking. Charles Wuorinen Epithalamium

Friday February 24 at 5:00 pm

CELEBRATING PAINE ! John Knowles Paine Concert Hall A concert and reception in celebra- tion of the renovation and reopen- ing of Paine Hall, the music class- rooms, and our new practice rooms.

Portland String Quartet perform John Knowles Paine: String Quartet in D Major, Op.5; Walter Piston: Quartet No. 1. Brief, pre-concert talks by Professors Evan MacCarthy and Anne Shreffler on the legacy and music of Paine. musikFabrik. Photo: Klaus Rudoph

10 Graduate Student News GO!FiGURE continued from p .5 Edgar Barroso composed the score for The them—and based on what you knew you’d Compass is Carried by the Dead Man, a film play a complete piano part. You knew that “7” that was selected from 1000 entries for the over a G, for example, meant G-B-D-F. The 2011 Tokyo Film Festival. Barroso recorded program provides an easy way to visualize and the score at the Music Department’s Studio think through how music works by illustrating for Electroacoustic Composition. the implied theory. The AMS Philip Brett Award (oustanding “GO!FiGURE moves students away work in gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender/ from pen and paper. You don’t learn language transsexual studies) went to William Cheng through an algorithm. This program is like for “Acoustemologies of the Closet: The Wiz- early stage language learning. It serves a basic ard, the Troll, and the Fortress,” forthcoming need—developing musical intelligence. It’s an in The Oxford Handbook of Virtuality (Oxford). intuitive way to get familiar with music nota- Peter McMurray and his wife Eunice are very excited to re- Katherine I. Lee is affiliated with the port the birth of Penelope Jaekyung McMurray, on July 27. tion.” Mahindra Humanities Center at Harvard and The app will be used in Music 51 and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences as performed at the “Rainy Days” Festival in Lux- Music 150 beginning spring term 2012. Har- an Interdisciplinary Dissertation Completion embourg. His composition Fremdkörper #1 for vard’s Innovation Fund subsidized the purchase Fellow during this 2011-2012 academic year. ensemble and live-electronics will be performed of 50 MIDI keyboards for students to use in She presented papers at the ICTM (St. John’s, by Ensemble Mosaik at “Musica Viva” Festival in their dorm rooms. Newfoundland) and SEM (Philadelphia) Munich, Germany in February, and the premiere “With this new technology, practice isn’t conferences in July and November 2011. of Joystick Studies for Nadar Ensemble will take a ten minute walk in the rain to the music Luci Mok will present “When Jazz Goes place in Belgium in March. Most recently, the building, but ten minutes before breakfast in North: Oscar Peterson and Possibilities of Association of Belgian Music Journalists elected the dorm room,” Moseley notes. Northern Jazz” in January at the conference Prins “Young Belgian Musician of the Year” for To use GO!FiGURE you need is a MIDI “Music and the Imaginary of the North and the 2012. keyboard controller (or any keyboard compat- Cold” at UQAM in Montréal and in February In February and July Gabriele Vanoni will ible with a computer), and Google Chrome. at the New England Chapter Meeting of the attend the International Rautavaara Workshop It’s also open source, which means that come AMS. and Competition in Finland, where his music February, Harvard is making the program avail- The world premiere of Stefan Prins’ will be performed by the Helsinki Chamber able to many, many people, free, worldwide. Piano Hero #2 and UK premiere of Piano Hero Choir. Vanoni was recently invited to write a “It was important to me that this was open #1 for piano, midi-keyboard, live-electronics piece for 15 instruments and electronics for the source,” says Moseley. “I wanted this to have and video were performed at Huddersfield International Ensemble Modern Academy that real life to it, and the fact that it has the capabil- Contemporary Music Festival 2011 (UK) will be premiered in Frankfurt, Karlsruhe, and ity to reach millions of people is important. I by Mark Knoop. Prins also had his work Paris in September 2012. want it to be useful. This is kind of thing the Internet should enable.” Electroacoustic Composition at the Sackler Museum What do you see? What is it? What size? What color? What emotion or reflections does it trigger? What would you like to know about it? These are a few of the questions students in Hans Tutschku’s Music 264 and 167 (Josiah Oberholtzer, teaching assistant) thought about when they approached artwork from the Sackler Museum’s collection. Student composers were charged with writing an original piece related to a specific artwork over the course of six weeks. Although museum curators toured with students to add context and history to the study of each artwork, the students’ first contact was personal. A concert of all the new works took place December 8th and 9th in the Sackler. A subsection of Hydra, Harvard’s multi-speaker sound diffusion system, was imported to play the compositions.

Tutschku prepares for a student concert in the Sackler Musuem. Photo: James Moisson, Harvard Art Museum.

11 Harvard University Department of Music Non-Profit Org. Harvard University U.S. Postage Cambridge, MA 02138 PAID Boston, MA Permit No. 1636

In Memoriam: Yannatos, Conductor, Composer, Violinist, Educator

James Yannatos, who as leader of the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra for more than 45 years worked with thousands of young musicians, died at his home in Cambridge on Oct. 19 from complications of cancer. He was 82. Yannatos was born and educated in New York City. He attended the High School of Music and Art and the Manhattan School of Music. Subsequent studies with Nadia Boulanger, , , , and Philip Bezanson in composition; William Steinberg and Leonard Bernstein in conducting; and Hugo Kortschak and Ivan Galamian on violin took Yannatos to Yale University (B.M., M.M.), the University of Iowa (Ph.D.), Aspen, Tanglewood, and Paris. As a young violinist, he performed in various professional ensembles including a piano trio, string quartet, early music groups with Hindemith and Boulanger, and in the Casals Festival. In 1964, he was appointed music director of the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra, and led that group on tours to Europe, Russia, South America, and Asia. He organized and co-directed the New England Composers Orchestra, the Tanglewood Young Artists Orchestra, and taught conducting at Tanglewood. He appeared as guest conductor-composer at the Aspen, Banff, Tanglewood, Chautauqua, and Saratoga festivals; with the Boston Pops, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Baltimore, and San Antonio symphonies, and the Sverdlovsk, Leningrad, Cleveland, and American Symphony chamber orchestras. Yannatos was Senior Lecturer in Music at Harvard. Photo by Phoebe Sexton/Harvard Staff He leaves behind his wife, Nyia O’Neil; daughter, Kalya, of Malboro, Vt.; and son, Dion, of West Photographer Hurley, N.Y.; sister, Katherine, of New York City; and two grandchildren. A memorial tribute was held on December 10 in Harvard’s Sanders Theatre, where Yannatos’ music was performed and where family members and friends shared memories. Other remembrances may be found at: www.music.fas.harvard.edu/yannatos.html —from the Harvard Gazette 10/31/11

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