The Berkshire Music Center Lenox, Massachusetts
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dfik • BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Music yo, '57 (kJ The Berkshire Music Center Lenox, Massachusetts FIRST COMPOSERS FORUM Thursday, July 22, 1976 at 8:30 P.M. Theatre Concert Hall Prepared Emden the 4upekvizion o6 Theodore Anton.iou and Gunther Schatz/I. AARON ALTER RHAPSODY III Kristin Miller - violin Bruce Creditor - clarinet Barbara Davis - flute Kim Paterson - piano Jean Landa - oboe Sherry Overholt - soprano Edward Nord - conductor MICHAEL KOWALSKI HORS D'OEUVRES Donald Sanders - trombone Cheryl Studer - soprano WILLIAM AVERITT CHAMBER MUSIC (Joyce) Mark Stein - flute Christopher O'Riley - piano Mikki Shiff - mezzo soprano DEAN DRUMMOND ZURRJIR Cathrine Saunders - flute Martin Kluger - percussion Michael Corner - clarinet Michael Ravesloot - percussion Peter Takacs - keyboard Erik Hettstein - percussion Gerard Akoka - conductor After a question and answer period, in which the audience is invited to participate, the compositions will be repeated in reverse order. A4 a Ftiend otS Music at Tang.eewood and coat baton to the Bethshite Music Center, you have been invited to this concert and to the flume/was other concerns o the Music Centet. The BethshilLe Music Center is in pant supported through the genenosity oi the Ftiends, and we hope you witt encourage others to entatt. ContAibutions in any amount are weteome. A Season Membetship at $25 entittcs an individual. on a inmiPa to nttowd aPP Fur ovonIA without 4uAthet contAibution. Ftiends without r PROGRAM NOTES Rhapsody III, by Aaron Alter Rhapsody III was begun in April 1975 and finished on January 23, 1976. It is in one movement, and is scored for soprano, flute (doubling on piccolo), oboe, clarinet, violin and piano. The composition is in eight sections, each with its own particular instrumentation, duration and general character. One of the difficulties which I had to face in writing Rhapsody III was the role of the voice. Two problems were foremost in my mind: finding the material which was to be sung and incorporating the voice into the ensemble. I decided that the material to be sung by the voice had to be dictated by the context itself, in order to fully integrate it with the other instruments. Therefore, the sounds in the soprano are used for their appropriateness in a particular environment and are not intended to function as if they were words in a language. In the ensemble texture, I used the voice as I would another instrument, making it an equal partner, and at the same time I elevated the role of the other instruments from that of being merely an accompaniment. -Aaron Alter Aaron Alter, born in Chicago on May 30, 1955, received his Bachelor of Music degree from Northwestern University and is presently a graduate student at Princeton University where he studies with Milton Babbitt. hors d'oeuvres, by Michael Kowalski 1. I control the structure. You control the form. The performers have their fingers in both pies. (A love triangle, with all the usual jealousies.) 2. The trick is to maintain cohesion within a framework of maximum discontinuity. 3. Text and music: assembled from the same blueprint - an analogy, not a setting. 4. When does style become affectation? 5. Every time I try to write happy music, someone accu s es me of not being serious. 6. One thing for sure: Having a sense of humor is no longer a laughing matter. 7. Program notes should set the mood. 8. After all, dust jackets sell books. 9. What about all these gratuitous juxtapositions? 10. hors d'oeuvres was commissioned and first performed by soprano Candace Natvig and trombonist/composer Jon English. -Michael Kowalski- Michael Kowalski was born in 1950 in Buffalo New York. He received a Bachelor of Music in Music History from Oberlin College and a M.A. in Composition from the University of Iowa. He is studying composition and computer science at the University of Illinois; his composition teachers have been Richard Hervig, Herbert Bran, Ben Johnston and Salvatore Nartirano. Chamber Music, by William Averitt The song cycle Chamber Music was written in 1975 for performance on the Virginia Day Concert at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. The text utilizes the first three poems of the James Joyce Chamber Music, a group of thirty-six interrelated ;-,ems. In each case, the music is an attempt to expand on the rhythms, moods and implications of the text using a simple, lyrical, chromatic musical language. William Averitt- William Averitt was born in P:iucah, Kentucky in 1948. He received the B.M. in Composition at Murray State University in 1970, where he was a student of James Woodard, and the D.M. in Composition at Florida State University in 1973, where he was a student of John Boda. Averitt was a student composer-in-residence at the Yale Summer School at Norfolk in 1972 and a participant in the Wolf Trap-American University Composers Workshop in 1973. He is currently at work on two commissioned pieces, for the National Endowment for the Arts and the Virginia Music Teachers Association. He is assistnat professor of music at Shenandoah Conservatory of Music in Winchester, Virginia. I Strings in the earth and air Make music sweet. Strings by the river Where the willows meet. There's music along the river For love wanders there, Pale flowers on his mantle, Dark leaves on his hair. All softly playing With head to the music bent, And fingers straying Upon an instrument. II The twilight turns from amethyst To deep, and deeper blue; The lamp fills with a pale green glow The trees of the avenue. The old piano plays an air, Sedate, and slow, and gay; She bends upon the yellow keys, Her head inclines this way. Shy thoughts and grave wide eyes, And hands that wander as they list - The twilight turns to darker blue With lights of amethyst. III At that hour, when all things have repose, 0 lonely watcher of the skies, Do you hear the night wind and the sighs Of harps playing unto love to unclose The pale gates of sunrise? When all things repose, do you alone Awake to hear the sweet harps play To love, before him on his way; And the night wind answering in antiphon 'Til night is overgone? Play on invisible harps unto Love Whose way in heaven is aglow; At that hour when soft lights come and go. Soft, sweet music in the air above And in the earth below. Zurrjir, by Dean Drummond Zurrjir was composed during 1975-6 as the third in a set of pieces called Bardamu Music. The work began as a flute solo, but suddenly expanded to its present format when I decided to compose for six friends and most of the instruments they and I collectively owned. Perhaps the most revealing statement I can make regarding my attitude towards form is that such discussion in the concert hall does not particularly interest me. However, I would like to mention that most of the gongs and cymbals for Zurrjir are from mainland China, and that the use of such instruments did not arise from an intent to merge East and West but from an attempt to create a multi-layered but intimate soundscape. -Dean Drummond- Dean Drummond was born in Los Angeles in 1949. He has attended University of Southern California and California Institute of the Arts where he studied with Leonard Stein. For several years, he performed with and was an assistant to Harry Partch. In recent years, he has been conductor and co-director of the California New Music Ensemble. .