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Home , Charles Wuorinen, River of Light

Международный отдел • International Division

ISSN 1997-0854 (Print), 2587-6341 (Online) DOI: 10.17674/1997-0854.2019.4.046-056

Interview with

Dear readers of the journal “Problemy muzykal’noj nauki / Music Scholarship”!

he editorial board of the journal with composer and performer Harvey T“Problemy muzykalnoj nauki / Music Solberger, he was one of the leaders of the Scholarship” is happy to concert series, the Group present an interview with the for Contemporary Music, famous American composer devoted to performance Charles Wuorinen. At the of works by contemporary present time Wuorinen is the composers. In the 1970s most well-known composer Wuorinen wrote an orchestral of twelve-tone music in the composition A Reliquary for USA. He was born in New , in which he York City in 1938, studied incorporated the last musical at in sketches of the great master. New York, and subsequently Wuorinen is the author of taught at many universities Charles Wuorinen. a book on serial music, and conservatories in the Photo by Nina Roberts titled Simple Composition, USA, including Columbia which he characterizes as a University, Manhattan School of Music (New manual for composers, meant to teach them York), and Rutgers how to compose music, and not a music University (New Jersey), New England theory book analyzing already composed Conservatory (Massachussetts), etc. In 1970 works. Wuorinen’s music is well-known he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his in the USA and in the countries of Western electronic composition Time’s Encomium, Europe, where there are frequent premiere composed with the use of the RCA Synthesizer performances of his new compositions, at the Columbia-Princeton among which it becomes proper to name Center. In his music Wuorinen adheres to his eight symphonies, his trilogy of ballets the musical traditions of Schoenberg and based on the theme of Dante’s Divine Stravinsky (especially the latter’s late period), Comedy, compositions for chorus and and asserts that he was most influenced in his orchestra on Biblical themes: Genesis and music by American composers A Celestial Sphere, music for piano, various and and German émigré to the chamber ensembles, percussion ensembles . The composer and several operas. Music lovers in Russia was also inspired by the fractal theories of have yet to discover for itself the music mathematician . Similar of this intriguing composer (see website to Babbitt, Wuorinen has incorporated www.charleswuorinen.com), and we hope that serial rhythm, in many cases projecting the this interview, which is the first publication latter onto the formal structures of entire about the composer in this country, shall compositions, following his own invented serve as an impetus for further popularization system. From 1962 to the mid-2010s, along of his music in Russia.

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Уважаемые читатели журнала «Проблемы музыкальной науки / Music Scholarship»!

едакция журнала «Проблемы музы- изобретённой системе. С 1962 до сере- Ркальной науки» рада представить ин- дины 2010 годов, вместе с композитором тервью с американским композитором и исполнителем Харви Солбергером, он Чарлзом Уориненом. В настоящее время был одним из руководителей концертной Уоринен является самым известным ком- серии «Group for Contemporary Music» позитором двенадцатитоновой музыки («Группы современной музыки»), ста- в США. Он родился в Нью-Йорке в 1938 вящей задачу исполнения сочинений со- году, обучался композиции в Колумбий- временных композиторов. В 1970-х годах ском университете и впоследствии препо- Уоринен написал сочинение «A Reliquary давал во многих университетах и консер- for Igor Stravinsky» («Усыпальница Игоря ваториях США, включая Колумбийский Стравинского»), где использовал послед- университет, Манхэттенскую школу ние музыкальные наброски Стравинско- музыки (Нью-Йорк), Университет Рат- го. Уоринен – автор книги о серийной герс и Принстонский университет (штат музыке «Simple Composition», которую Нью-Джерси), Консерваторию Новой он характеризует более как пособие для Англии (Массачусетс) и др. В 1970 году композиторов для обучения сочинению он был удостоен Пулитцеровской пре- музыки, нежели как музыкально-теоре- мии за электронное сочинение «Time’s тическую книгу, анализирующую уже Encomium» («Славословие времени»), написанное. Музыка Уоринена широко созданное при помощи синтезатора RCA известна в США и странах Западной Ев- Synthesizer в Студии электронной музыки ропы, где часто звучат его новые сочине- Колумбийского и Принстонского универ- ния, среди которых можно назвать восемь ситетов. В своей музыке Уоринен придер- симфоний, несколько опер, трилогию ба- живается традиций Арнольда Шёнберга летов по «Божественной комедии» Дан- и Игоря Стравинского (в особенности, те, произведения для хора и оркестра на позднего периода), и утверждает, что библейские темы «Genesis» и «A Celestial наибольшее влияние на его музыку ока- Sphere», музыку для фортепиано, раз- зали американские композиторы Эллиотт личных камерных ансамблей, ансамблей Картер и Милтон Бэббитт, а также немец- ударных инструментов. Российской пу- кий эмигрант в США Штефан Вольпе. блике ещё предстоит открыть для себя Он также был вдохновлен фрактальными музыку этого интригующего композито- математическими теориями математика ра (см. сайт: www.charleswuorinen.com), Бенуа Мандельброта. Вслед за Бэббитом, и мы надеемся, что данное интервью, Уоринен в своих сочинениях использо- являющееся первой публикацией о ком- вал серийный ритм, в некоторых случа- позиторе в стране, послужит толчком для ях проектируя его на форму целого со- дальнейшей популяризации его музыки чинения, следуя своей собственной, им в России.

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Mr. Wuorinen, can you tell us about the It must be emphasized in this connection style of music you represent? You are known that during the time of my youth there was as a representative of the Uptown School, a an attitude, – which has changed a great deal composer of twelve-tone music, and you have since then, – that everything in the field of new written computer music. music was meant to be a constant redefinition These characterizations are essentially of music, which would continuously take labels, which do not mean anything. Besides place. Each new musical composition would that, they are not necessarily reflective of my present something which has never been done methods. Certainly, I would say that a large before. This was an ideology which spanned part of what I do emerges ultimately from a very wide spectrum of compositional the tradition established by Schoenberg and attitudes. In this regard John Cage had the continued by Milton Babbitt, also with a same attitude as Milton Babbitt did. In lot of influence of the twelve-tone period of fact, before these two particular composers Stravinsky. Nevertheless, these labels are realized how totally opposite they were, very bad to use, because they are substitutes they were even friendly with each other at a for thought and for listening. So I do not certain point. So that was something which think that they are helpful at all. Furthermore, always made me uneasy, even when I was a I do not have any particular capacity for self- very young composer, because I could not portraiture. I just compose the music that I do, see how one could live in a perpetual state of and I leave for others to describe it. I just wish revolution. This is an ideological cause, rather their descriptions were more accurate. than a sense of musical perception. Of course, Could you tell us, where you studied, who the European composers of that time, such as your musical teachers were and what your Boulez and Stockhausen, used this mainly as primary musical influences were? public posture, which had very little artistic My primary artistic professional education meaning. But in America you cannot get came from professional life more than away with that so much, since nobody cares. anything else. I went to Columbia University, These were genuinely held convictions, from where I received my Bachelor’s and albeit in very different ways: Elliott Carter Master’s Degrees. However, the teachers I had interpreted them one way, Milton Babbitt there did not really offer me much of interest, – another way, and John Cage – a third so I do not feel I owe them any particular way. Nonetheless, they all maintained these artistic debt. On the other hand, because attitudes, and this made me uneasy, since I was in New York, I came into contact with I could not see how human beings could live Milton Babbitt, Stepan Wolpe and Elliott in a perpetual state of upheaval. Things had Carter, who were the three major sources of to settle down, in the long run. Changes and inspiration on me. They influenced me not expansions of compositional processes had because I studied with them, which I never to be consolidated. So I took it on myself as did, but because I knew them personally, my vocation to try to assimilate the stylistic heard their music and examined it. I had also traits I developed in my music and not been friends with Edgard Varese, who was no necessarily push them farther, because, as theoretician, needless to say, but his attitudes far as I could see, farther motion towards a on music also had an effect on me. So these supposed “progress” in music represented a are the confessions of an autodidact, more kind of abyss. This is especially in view of than anything else. Such is the way my artistic the fact that the truly revolutionary results personality was shaped. in music had already been achieved in the

48 2019,4 Международный отдел • International Division earliest years of the 20th century, where, on in his music, there was no need for him to read the one hand, there was Stravinsky, on the a theory book or article. It would not be helpful other hand, there was Schoenberg. The rest of for the development of his compositional what essentially happened in the 20th century skills, because, after all, theory depends in music is essentially an afterthought. So this on perception. How could you perceive a is one point I must make. The second point, composition which does not yet exist? So related to this, is that I grew very tired hearing what I tried to do in this book, – which has constantly that there was an unbridgeable gap been consistently mischaracterized, – was to or gulf between the music of the diatonic write an instructive book, a practical, rather past and the music of the chromatic present. than a theoretical work. Everybody claimed It seemed to me that there could be made that this was a theoretical book, but it was not a continuity, which is what I have tried to so. It was simply a means for giving some express in my work. ideas how to write a composition. It was not helpful in the least, of course, In particular, about the question of the that at the same time and ever since there have extension of the principles derived from been whole series of composers who have the twelve-tone pitch system in the domain totally refused to take into account what had of time, – if anyone is interested in this been done by such masters as Schoenberg, anymore, – it is the insight of Babbitt that Webern, Berg, Stravinsky, Carter and Babbitt, pitch is determined by the intervals of pitch, and all the rest, and have asserted that the and that if one tries to translate that into world of diatonic tonality is the only one temporal terms, it has to be in the temporal that makes any difference, and they would or time interval between the events, not the just limit themselves to that forever. If any rhythm. Rhythm is epiphenomenal, it comes of them could write a composition as good out of these more fundamental relationships. as, say, Delibes at his finest, then I would be The great silly mistake that the European convinced by them, but they are usually not serialists made in their attempts was to try capable of composing such good music. to produce twelve-tone rhythms. I have no You wrote the book “Simple Composition,” idea what that means, and neither did they, in which you describe the serial technique in obviously, because they had abandoned these great detail. In the last chapter of the book attempts at the end of the 1950s, as they you propose a new system in which the could not do anything with them anymore. twelve- becomes transformed into But this insight, that the pitch continuum serial rhythm, as Babbitt had done before, divided by intervals and functioning through after which the rhythmic principle is extended constellations of intervals can be translated into the respective sections of a musical directly into temporal terms, as you make composition and determines its form. time interval the interval between events – I wrote the book “Simple Composition” usually attacks of notes, though not always out of sense of impatience with the fact that – that is the equivalence, and that is where all of the writings, as far as I knew, about a potentially rich field of compositionally Schoenberg’s tradition and the twelve- activity can exist. tone system were essentially analytical and Around the same time, I came across the theoretical, rather than presenting guides to works of Benoit Mandelbrot in the field of musical composition. It seemed to me that mathematics. Unfortunately, Mandelbrot died if a composer, especially a young composer, recently – we had been friends with him for a wanted to learn apply any of these techniques long time. He was born in Poland, and, being

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Jewish, he fled from the Nazis, and lived in an important idea of recursive shapes and Paris for a while, where he was educated in processes, that is, things that are shaped and part. Eventually he came to the United States nested inside larger replicas of themselves. and, among his multifold fields of activity, he There are many aspects, some are strictly was in the research department of IBM for a deterministic and geometrical, others are long time. He was a mathematician, though, statistical. to a greater degree, a geometer, and his When I was looking at this and coming contribution is an enormously important field. into contact with it, I felt like the famous It was very fashionable at a certain point, the bourgeois of Moliere, who discovered that interest having calmed down to a certain throughout all his life he had been speaking degree now. Mandelbrot was interested not in in prose. Likewise, I discovered that I had analyzing the root causes of natural events, been speaking Mandelbrotian, because my but in describing them. He wanted to describe compositional method had to do precisely that natural objects and processes in a geometric – of taking large-scale temporal intervallic way which did not involve abstractions. structures from pitch materials, generalizing There are Euclidian forms of abstractions, them into large shapes defined by large such as a mountain turning into a triangle, proportional time intervals, and then inside and these are not helpful at all. Among the each of these nesting replicas of the same central part of his investigation was the thing, or close transformations. For a long notion that the traditional Euclidian idea of time, I composed in that way. In more recent spatial dimensions that are threefold – up- years everything I do is much less calculated, down, back-and-forth, and sideways – is not which often happens with people, as they get really the way the natural world is devised. older. So now these ideas are not necessarily There are many objects in the natural world, reflective of the way I write music now, but – in fact, most of them, – and, certainly, many I do not think that there has been that much of processes which take place over time, which a change on the surface of the pieces. That is lie between these rigid spatial dimensions. the point I wanted to make about the so-called For instance, just thinking of an extremely “.” I think this should be a strictly irregular outline of something, such as a line historical, musicological term to describe the – it is supposedly one-dimensional, but it European attempts that ended around 1960. occupies so much space, that it cannot be one- It really has nothing to do with the music of dimensional, but it is not two dimensional Elliott Carter, Milton Babbitt or mine. As either. He developed a very simple and they say, I will give you a cigar, if you can rational means of determining this. There is find one. I must say that most of the music a famous question which has to do with this, I compose is based on a twelve-note series. which is: “How long is the coast of Britain?”. Which compositions of yours written The point of the question is: the answer – the in your system of transformation of pitch number – depends entirely on the measuring intervallic series into rhythmic series, which stick. If you are using a one-inch measuring ultimately affect the form of the composition, stick and every little inlet and outlet of the are especially notable? coastline, you will get an enormously greater Most of my compositions from the 1970s number than if you would use the yardstick. are written in this technique, most notably, So the question is: is it really just a line? the Concerto for Amplified Violin and This is a very interesting subject. However, Orchestra. That is a very good example of in the course of all this, he also developed this compositional process at work, which

50 2019,4 Международный отдел • International Division produces in the end something that you implements a recent method of timbral probably would not think of as a result of modeling, based on a numerical analogy with these kinds of compositional techniques. the physical system represented by a plucked You are also known for having created the string. In this work my main use of the electronic composition “Time’s Encomium,” computer simulates certain natural processes, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1970. Could which are employed to drive programs that you tell us about this work? actually create musical structures. After that “Time’s Encomium” was written in my interest in electronic music exhausted 1968 and 1969, which is a long time ago. It itself. is one of only two electronic compositions You have composed a number of religious I have created, and the more large-scale of the works, including a few Masses and a large work two. It is a four-channel electronic work for for chorus and orchestra called “Genesis.” synthesized and processed synthesized sound, Our readers would be very interested in composed by means of the analog synthesizer. hearing about these compositions of yours. All of the musical material used for it was I have written two masses. One of them produced on the RCA Mark II synthesizer was large, and it was called the “Mass for at the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music the Restoration of the Church of St. Luke in Center in New York, which had existed long the Fields1.” This was a church in Downtown before contemporary electronic synthesizers Manhattan which burnt to the ground in March came into existence. This was a room-size 1981 and was rebuilt. I was asked to write a affair with eight hundred vacuum tubes in it composition in honor of its restoration. It is and paper drives that you use for inputting written for chorus, three trombones, violin the sounds. I produced the recordings of the and organ. The second was a small work, a sounds on that particular synthesizer, and “Missa Brevis,” written simply for four-part then I went to the analog studio next door and chorus with organ accompaniment. transformed them to a much broader sound My composition “Genesis2” for chorus world, gluing the separate sound recordings and orchestra sets most of the opening together. I gave it this title, because in this chapter of the Book of Genesis in the Bible work everything depends on the absolute, not in Latin. It was commissioned by a group of the seeming, length of events and sections. orchestras, including those in San Francisco, Many people presently seem to like that Minneapolis, and other cities in the USA. composition, but I find the overall quality of In “Genesis” there is a hierarchization the sound to be very primitive, so I am not of harmonic language which I employ. This too fond of it. But that is what was available means that if I have a set, and there is a zero, at that time, so I could not do anything else. which is sort of like a tonic, albeit without There is one other work involving the customary tonal functionality. But it is electronics I have written, which is called not purely permutational, as, for example, “Bamboula Squared” for 4-channel electronic may be found in Babbitt’s music. Within the tape and orchestra. I have composed it 1984 overall writing there are certain allusions to with computer-generated sound. I decided diatonicism, which may be characterized as to give it a title that would sound scientific. “puns.” As I have mentioned earlier, I did not It was connected with these investigations think there needed to be a complete break of Mandelbrot I was mentioning, since it with the diatonic past, and that preserving was stimulated by his work. The computer elements of the diatonic past did not mean generated track of “Bamboula Squared” simply reproducing them and creating the

51 Международный отдел • International Division 2019,4 same music as that which was written in the As far as I know, you have also written a 19th century. few ballets. I would be interested in finding This is true, indeed. Similar to you, out about them. Schoenberg, Webern and Berg also never I have composed three scores referring to thought of themselves as having broken the three parts of Dante’s Divine Comedy7. The with the tonal musical tradition, but simply three ballets owe as much to the illustrations as having continued it on a new level. made by toward the end of his As an example of turning to a particular life, as they do to the poem itself. In 1974- genre, continued all the way from the 18th 1975 I composed a work called “A Reliquary century, you have also written a number of for Igor Stravinsky,” which enshrines symphonies. fragments of the last musical sketches made I have composed eight symphonies by the great composer late in his life, as well altogether3. All of my symphonies are as Stravinsky’s 12-tone charts. This work was substantial, large-scale works. Some of them choreographed and staged. My ballet “Delight are one-movement works, while others are in of the Muses” was composed for an event several contrasting movements. One of the which took place in 1991 commemorating symphonies is a Percussion Symphony for 24 the 200th anniversary of Mozart’s death. players. Lincoln Center, with the tremendous vision You have a few compositions the titles of that it always has possessed, decided they which employ the term “Bamboula.” These would play every single note that Mozart are written for different means, including one had ever written. Since the for solo piano and one for orchestra. Could Ballet was part of this campus, the Lincoln you tell us about those works? Center directors tried to get it involved in the I have a short composition for string project. To their credit, they did not want to orchestra, called the “Grand Bamboula4.” dredge every tiny little piece by Mozart and The title is evoked by a piano piece by 19th have somebody prance around on stage to it. century American composer Louis Moreau Instead, among other things they asked me to Gottschalk called the “Grand Bamboula,” compose something referring to Mozart. So which was a concert version of what originally what I did was make a kind of parody version was a Creole dance from New Orleans. It is of several of the piano sonatas8. I have always also a place somewhere, as well as a name thought Mozart’s piano sonatas as rather of some kind of drum. So it has a number of minor pieces – they are nice in their own way, different meanings. But I just thought about it but they hardly involve the more profound as a fairly light-hearted title for pieces, where aspects of his composition. Essentially, they that is an appropriate label for them. are not heavyweight works, so they were The second work that I wrote, after the very easy to transform, expand, and then work, was a piano piece elaborate on their musical material in various called “Blue Bamboula5.” Then in 1984 other ways. In addition to orchestrating them, I wrote “Bamboula Squared” 4-channel tape what I did mostly was to expand on certain and orchestra, which I mentioned earlier. tendencies in the pieces, rather than wrapping Then there was a work written for an orchestra them up in a classical way. I also subjected the in Miami which was being formed, and they themes to various complex elaborations. In asked me to compose an overture for their first addition, for good measure I added an excerpt concert in 1986. And so I called it “Bamboula from a scene from “Don Giovanni,” which Beach6.” I transcribed for large orchestra as well.

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I took a phrase from John Dryden, “Delight and Boosey and Hawkes, which published of the Muses,” and used it for the title of this Stravinsky’s music and owned the rights to work. it, came to an agreement about allowing me It is an interesting occurrence, that you to use these fragments for composing a work incorporated the music of another composer, based on them. namely, Mozart, into your own music and Subsequently, elaborated on it, as well as using Stravinsky’s commissioned the work, and I wrote last musical fragments to compose “A Reliquary for Igor Stravinsky” for orchestra “A Reliquary for Igor Stravinsky.” Are there by using these little musical fragments. any other examples in your music where you I embedded these fragments in an imitation incorporated the music of other composers of late Stravinsky, which I took through his into your own, besides that? little chart of rotations, which I used as the I have not incorporated music by other basic musical material. I wrote an imitation composers into my own works. The only of about three or four minutes, and then exception is the Percussion Symphony, I wrote my own version of the same thing. which has two entr’actes, that are settings for So Stravinsky’s material is embedded within reduced ensemble of two versions of a Dufay a larger structure of mine, and it is very easy chanson. I have done lots of things with early to tell the difference between the two of them. music, including many transcriptions and I followed a very simple design, to which instrumentations. But I have not incorporated I added a violin solo in the middle, which them into my own music. actually used all of the remaining material It is a very remarkable fact that in 1974- that implicitly figured in Stravinsky’s little 1975 you have completed the last musical chart. fragments of Stravinsky in your composition You have been known for your teaching “A Reliquary for Igor Stravinsky.” Could you activities in many institutions, including tell us about that? Rutgers University, where I studied with you “A Reliquary for Igor Stravinsky” for during my doctoral studies. Could you tell us orchestra was not, strictly speaking, a about your work as a teacher, and in what completion of a work by Stravinsky, but the other institutions have you taught? incorporation into my own composition of I started my teaching activities at tiny fragments of his, as well as the 12-tone Columbia University, first instructing charts he wrote for projected future works. harmony and other music theory courses, Many years ago I had a meeting with Vera and then quickly switching to composition, Stravinsky and Robert Craft in the apartment first to undergraduates, and then to graduates. Stravinsky and his wife had on Fifth Avenue Then in 1971 they denied me tenure, so I quit at that time. Craft pulled out these sketches Columbia University. After that I was hired and showed them to us, and I was very glad to by the Manhattan School of Music, where see them. I suggested giving these fragments I stayed for a number of years. Then I switched some practical use, and Craft was very between different universities, teaching interested in this idea and got permission from for one semester each at Yale University, Vera Stravinsky. However, it turned out, that Princeton University, the , she had to obtain permission herself for these the University of Buffalo, the University of fragments, since she did not have any legal California at San Diego, the New England rights over them. But she gave this project her Conservatory, and many others. Eventually blessing. Finally, the publisher of my music I was offered a professorship at Rutgers

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University, which was around 1985, and stayed performance. We were successful in elevating there for about twenty years, until 2005, when the performance standards for contemporary I retired from teaching. Except for the first music quite dramatically. Subsequently, few years at Columbia University, I taught other universities around the country began only composition. Occasionally I was asked imitating us – first the University of Buffalo, to instruct a course for graduate students, but then University of Chicago, then University that usually never went anywhere. of California at San Diego, and then other You are also famous for having organized institutions. After our endeavor, organizing concerts of contemporary music in New York. contemporary musical groups has become a Could you tell us about those? rather common occurrence. In 1962 together with Harvey Solberger After I was removed from Columbia I have founded the first new music concert University, we relocated to the Manhattan series in New York, which was called School of Music for a while, and then, the Group for Contemporary Music. It when I left there, we found ourselves in a was the first contemporary music concert free floating status. Eventually we stopped organization which was housed at a university making concerts on a regular basis, but we – namely, Columbia University. At that time, would reappear from time to time and make we thought, as everybody else did, that the recordings. Finally, a few years ago, after we university as institution would become a had been in business for over fifty years, we wonderful home for the arts. Unfortunately, closed down. this never happened. Nonetheless, even Every kind of composer had their music though I have not had any connection with performed in the Group for Contemporary Columbia University for many years, to Music. We did not host a fixed ensemble, their credit, they have established some kind but different instruments were involved, of School of the Arts, which has managed depending on the compositions we decided relatively well. to perform. In terms of a fixed repertoire, The point of starting the Group for we were always especially interested in the Contemporary Music at that time, – which three composers I have mentioned before: was a long time ago and has no bearing on Babbitt, Wolpe and Carter, but we also conditions today, – was that performances of performed music by many other composers new music in New York were done mostly of that direction who were much younger, by commercial studio musicians, who were some of whom, unfortunately, are forgotten very well intentioned. Some were good now. We never really included works of some players, but did not understand the music particular trends, particularly the school they performed – mostly, because there was of John Cage. However, later on I became not enough time for them to delve into it much more interested in the music of Morton adequately. The Group for Contemporary Feldman, and we even became friends with Music wished to create an environment in him. But Feldman was a completely different which, most notably, the composer himself personality, a real composer, unlike some of would be in charge. This did not mean that he these other people. We also never performed would necessarily be conducting or playing much of the neo-romantic music, while himself, – although that would be most minimalism had not yet begun. desirable, – but at least running the show, so Have you had any notable performances to speak, for the performance of his music, of your works recently? Are there any and that this would enable higher standards of compositions you are working on now, or

54 2019,4 Международный отдел • International Division are there any performances of your works performed in Salzburg and Aachen. expected in the near future? I have now completed another Percussion I have had my music frequently performed Symphony. That is expected to be performed in New York, throughout the United States and in a number of places – first by the institution in Europe. In terms of recent performances I mentioned in Miami, and then by other of my works, I must mention my third opera ensembles in other cities. There are many “,” which was staged by schools that have percussion ensembles the in June 2018. Before which were interested in my first Percussion that it was premiered in Madrid, having been Symphony, who will gladly take up my commissioned by the Teatro Real, and then second work in the genre.

NOTES

1 The work consists of seven sections, the States and in other countries. Some of them outer two being instrumental, and the central have been recorded on CDs. The first one was five comprise the Kyrie, Gloria, Sanctus/ composed in the 1950s. The Third Symphony, Benedictus, Agnus Dei and a Communion written in 1959 was the first one of them to have motet. The latter is a setting of words of St. been published and recorded. One of them, John in Latin, which were inscribed at a rood namely, the Fourth Symphony is a percussion screen in the original church. Its premiere symphony, which, although not, strictly took place on November 20, 1983 at the St. speaking, orchestral, is nonetheless a large- Ignatius Church in Antioch, New York. It was scale work, following the symphonic format. recorded on an Albany Records CD, along with It was written in 1976, performed by the New “Genesis” and “A Solis Ortu.” Jersey Percussion Ensemble with the composer 2 Herbert Blomstedt, the director of the San conducting, and released on a Vinyl LP record Francisco Symphony, where Charles Wuorinen in 1976. The Fifth Symphony is called the Two- was composer-in-residence in 1985-1989, was Part Symphony, and it was composed in 1976, the primary initiator of the idea for the work, followed by the Sixth, the single-movement having suggested to him to compose a musical Microsymphony in 1992, and the Seventh “Genesis.” It was recorded on a CD of the Symphony in 1997. Albany Records label in a performance by the The composer’s latest work in the genre is the and Chorus, conducted by Eighth Symphony, subtitled “Theologoumena,” Edo de Waart. “Genesis” consists of three main a work in three movements. It is the most sections separated from each other by interludes, traditional work in the genre, according to its altogether amounting to five movements. The formal design, and the composer has written first movement, the “Invocation” is followed it that way intentionally. It was composed in the First Interlude, titled “Meditation.” Then, 2006 upon the request of and the second movement, titled “Creation History, upon the commission of the Boston Symphony is followed by the Second Interlude, titled Orchestra in honor of its 125th anniversary. “Cosmology,” after which comes the third The score of the symphony is dedicated to movement, “Doxology.” Hereby, the composer James Levine. The Eighth Symphony was presents the phenomenon of God’s creation of linked in its conception to another work written the world in different philosophical, conceptual shortly before that, the orchestral symphonic and theological aspects. poem, “Theologoumenon,” composed in 2003 3 Wuorinen’s eight symphonies have been upon commission of James Levine in honor performed by various orchestras in the United of the latter’s sixtieth birthday. The title can

55 Международный отдел • International Division 2019,4 be translated as “a private non-dogmatic from Wuorinen’s interpretations of the events theological opinion.” Wuorinen was inspired in Dante’s poem. The first ballet of the Dante by the “Theologoumenon” of the Neo-Platonist cycle is called “The Mission of Virgil,” and commentator from the 2nd and 3rd century AD that describes the events of the “Inferno” part Maximus of Tyre to compose the symphonic of Dante’s masterpiece. It was composed in poem. Then, when he was suggested to write 1993 and consists of seven parts. The composer the symphony, he thought of closely connecting treated the infernal aspect of the poem more it with the previously written symphonic formally than psychologically, having translated poem, even to the point of playing the latter fragments of it into musical terms. The second just before the symphony as a “prologue.” He is called “The Great Procession,” and it evokes consciously chose to provide a sharp musical “Purgatory.” It was written in 1995 and contains contrast to the “Theologoumenon” symphonic seven movements, punctuated by a recurrence poem, which is why he wrote the Eighth of a brief refrain. There is a special climactic Symphony in conventional symphonic form section at the end of the music, depicting with three movements, following the classical the section of the poem when Dante reaches succession of fast-slow-fast. It was performed the Earthly Paradise on top of the Purgatory in 2006 by the Boston Symphony Orchestra, mountain. There are two versions of this work with James Levine conducting, and released on – one is orchestral, written particularly for the a CD of the Bridge Records label, along with ballet, and the other – for chamber orchestra, the composer’s Fourth , where meant for a concert performance. The latter played the solo piano part. was commissioned by the Christian Humann 4 The “Grand Bamboula” was written in Foundation and was premiered by the New York 1971 and performed by the Light Fantastic New Music Ensemble. The third, final ballet is Players conducted by Daniel Schulman, and called “The ,” and it describes released on a set of CDs with the composer’s “Paradise.” The entire trilogy was composed music, titled “Wuorinen: Music of 2 Decades.” for the . All three ballets 5 “Blue Bamboula” for piano was composed were recorded on a Naxos CD with the Group of in 1980 upon a commission by pianist Ursula Contemporary Music. Wuorinen’s ballet “Five” Oppens. was composed upon a commission of the New 6 “Bamboula Beach” incorporates elements York City Ballet and premiered by them with of Cuban folk tunes embedded into the context choreography by Jean-Pierre Bonnefoux on of the composer’s personal style. April 28, 1988 at the New York State Theater at 7 These are entirely separate ballets, and the American Music Festival organized by the it is absolutely not mandatory to perform them ballet. together. They are not narrative in their approach, 8 Mozart’s Sonatas for piano No. 3 in B-flat but deal with certain formal structures, derived Major, K. 281, and No. 5 in G major, K. 283.

Anton A. Rovner Ph.D. in Music Composition from Rutgers University (New Jersey, USA), Candidate of Arts (Ph.D.) from the Moscow State Conservatory, faculty member at the Department of Interdisciplinary Specializations for Musicologists of Moscow State P. I. Tchaikovsky Conservatory ORCID: 0000-0002-5954-3996, [email protected]

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