American Society of University Composers

American Society of University Composers Proceedings of the First Annual Conference /April 1966 AMERICAN SOCIETY OF UNIVERSITY COMPOSERS Copyright © 1968 The American Society of University Composers, Inc. AMERICAN SOCIETY OF UNIVERSITY COMPOSERS Proceedings of the First Annual Conference, April, 1966 Held at New York University and Columbia University With the assistance of The Fromm Music Foundation Founding Committee BENJAMIN BORETZ, DONALD MARTINO, J. K. RANDALL, CLAUDIO SPIES, HENRY WEINBERG, PETER WESTERGAARD, CHARLES WUORINEN National Council MARTIN BOYKAN, BARNEY CHILDS, ROBERT COGAN, RANDOLPH E. COLEMAN (Chafrman), CARLTON GAMER, LEO KRAFT, DONALD MAclNNIS Executive Committee RICHMOND BROWNE, DAVID EPSTEIN, WILLIAM HIBBARD, HUBERT S . HOWE, JR., BEN JOHNSTON, JOEL MANDELBAUM, HARVEY SOLLBERGER, RoY TRAVIS Editor of Proceedings HUBERT s. HOWE, JR. CONTENTS I Proceedings of the 1966 Conference Part I: The University and the Composing Profession: Prospects and Problems 7 ANDREW W. IMBRIE The University of California Series in Contemporary Music 14 IAIN HAMILTON The University and the Composing Profession: Prospects and Problems 20 CHARLES WUORINEN Performance of New Music in American Universities 23 STEFAN BAUER-MENGELBERG Impromptu Remarks on New Methods of Music Printing Part II: Computer Performance of Music 29 J. K. RANDALL Introduction 30 HERBERT BRUN On the Conditions under which Computers would Assist a Composer in Creating Music of Contemporary Relevance and Significance 38 ERCOLINO FERRETTI Some Research Notes on Music with the Computer 42 GODFREY WINHAM How MUSIC 4B Generates Formants and Non-Harmonic Partials, and Improves Loudness Control and "Quality" 47 LEjAREN A. HILLER, JR. Some Comments on Computer Sound Synthesis 50 DAVID LEWIN Is it Music? 54 HAROLDSHAPERO Remarks Part III: Discussion: "What do you, as a Composer, Try to get the Student to Hear in a Piece of Music?" 59 Chairman: PETER WESTERGAARD Panel: MILTON BABBITT MARTIN BOYKAN ROBERT COGAN Ross LEE FINNEY BEN JOHNSTON LEO KRAFT BILLY JIM LAYTON ROBERT HALL LEWIS SALVATORE MARTIRANO LAWRENCE Moss LoUISE TALMA ROY TRAVIS 83 Other Presentations Addendum 85 Membership List, January, 1968 PART I THE UNIVERSITY AND THE COMPOSING PROFESSION: PROSPECTS AND PROBLEMS ANDREW w. IMBRIE 7 THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SERIES IN CONTEMPORARY MUSIC IT HAS become increasingly clear to everyone interested in contem porary music that the commercial publication of new American works has been inadequate in scope. The reasons for this situation are all too familiar and need not be repeated here. It has naturally come about that composers in the universities are seeking ways and means whereby new music can be issued under University auspices. One hears of attempts to secure foundation support for publication proj ects by university presses or associations of university presses. Since the University of California is about to issue a series of scores on its own initiative, without outside foundation support, a brief descrip tion of this project may be of interest. Early in 1961, Prof. Jerome Rosen, of the Davis campus of the University, proposed to the Editorial Committee of the Academic Senate the establishment of a series of publications in contemporary music. After some delay, the proposal was approved, and a panel of advisory editors appointed, consisting of Jerome Rosen, Lukas Foss (then on the faculty at UCLA) and myself. It is the function of such a panel to read each work submitted, or to suggest the names of outside readers to review the work. The Editorial Committee then 8 takes final action, and allocates the funds for publication. It should be made clear that the University Press is engaged in two types of activ,ity: book publication and series publication. "The purpose of the series issued under the title University of California Publications is to afford opportunity for publishing results of original investiga tion carried on in connection with the work of the University . .. Manufacturing costs of series publications are financed through the Scientific Publications Account of the University. This account is available for publication of eligible scholarly monographs, which are distributed mainly by exchange through the university libraries. (The books published by the Press are handled separately and are financed in various ways; they are sold commercially and are not distributed by exchange.) " 1 Since our purpose was to secure a subsidy for the publication of scores, we felt obliged to show that such scores could appropriately be issued under the series category. Although a piece of music does not literally come under the heading of "scholarly monograph," we had relatively little difficulty in persuading the Editorial Committee to accept original works of art for publication. Since the experience of the members of the Editorial Committee had so far consisted in the appraisal of manuscripts of scientific and scholarly studies, the question did arise as to what were the criteria by which original works of art could be impartially judged. But it was necessary only to remind them that responsible criticism and judgment is possible in the arts, that one can speak of acknowledged experts in the field, and finally that universities have long accepted the principle of granting higher academic degrees for creative work. Our aim in the proposed series was to print and distribute new musical compositions of high intrinsic merit, without regard to their current market value. In the preparation of the scores, the optimum standards of typographical beauty and legibility were to be main tained, in the hope of encouraging and facilitating both the study and the performance of these works. But it soon became apparent that although funds were now available for turning this ideal into reality, certain practical difficulties stood in the way. In the first place, the Rules and Policies governing series publication state that to be eligible, all manuscripts must be written by members of the faculty or registered students of the University of California. This sharply limited our choice, and we hoped for a time that the provision could somehow be circumvented; but the policy remains clear and unequiv ocal. The University cannot undertake to subsidize the publication of material written by outside authors. (Book publication by the Press is largely self-supporting. Books by outside authors are pub lished, but not subsidized.) In the second place, we soon discovered 1 Rules and Policies, Series Publications of the University of CaU/ornia, Univer sity of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1963. that in discussing the details of production with representatives of the 9 University Press, special problems arose for them with which they had had no previous experience. They discovered that a printed musical composition is likely to be accompanied by printed instrumental parts, if it is a chamber work; or worse still, that the publisher of an orchestral work is expected to rent out the instrumental materials. They had to learn that, whereas in distributing chamber works through inter-library exchange, both score and parts would normally be sent; nevertheless many individual purchasers might wish to buy only the score, and possibly an instrumentalist might wish to replace a single part. For them this posed a particularly annoying problem of storage and cataloguing, apparently quite insoluble by means of their customary procedures. As for rental, there was no precedent or machinery for such an operation. Then, too, the problem of distribution itself loomed large. The Press knows the business of selling books, but knows nothing of the music publication business. After some discussion, it was decided to explore the possibility of contracting with a recognized music publisher or distributor to act as selling agent for the works published in the series. A number of New York firms were informally approached. They all showed great interest in participating in some arrangement of this kind. One pub lisher proposed, for example, that if the Press supplied him with the score at production cost (not including the engraving cost) and that cost was one dollar, he would have to retail at six dollars and would pay the composer a royalty of ten percent of the retail price. Another publisher suggested that the University Press set the retail price and supply the score to him less 75%. In each instance the matter of a royalty was insisted upon. This might seem only equitable, but for the unfortunate fact that all subsidized series publications by the University of California Press become the property of the University, and no royalties can be paid to the authors. Despite these difficulties, negotiations continued haltingly, and a tentative contract was drawn up by one New York distributor. The Press was to appoint the distributor as sole and exclusive selling and renting agent; the distributor was to fix all prices and fees; the Press was to receive no sums directly from any customer or user of the music; the distributor was to receive 40% of sales and 50% of rental; the Press was to grant to the distributor the right to use its name. Commenting on this proposed contract, one of the attorneys for the University stated, in part, that an exclusive license of this kind, which excluded even the Press, itself was too broad, and that the use ---- -------------------------------~ 1O for purposes of exploitation by an outside agency except by express of the name of the University of California could not be permitted approval of the Board of Regents. As a result of the lack of success of these negotiations, it was finally decided that the Press should attempt the distribution and handling of the whole project. The fruitless search for a professional liaison had proved wasteful of time; all publication of approved man uscripts had been held up pending the outcome. It was decided that the University Press would handle the sale of all printed scores and instrumental parts. The Press would attempt to cope with the prob lem of selling scores and parts together or separately (although not individual parts out of a set of several).

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