A Conductor's Guide to Selected Works by Female Composers for Chamber Wind Ensemblemichael Scott Douty

Home , Claude Arrieu, Elsa Barraine, Evan Jones (writer), Flowers in the Window, Julia Wolfe, Ruth Gipps

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Electronic Theses, Treatises and Dissertations The Graduate School

2019

A Conductor's Guide to Selected Works by Female Composers for Chamber Wind EnsembleMichael Scott Douty

Follow this and additional works at the DigiNole: FSU's Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected] FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY

COLLEGE OF MUSIC

A CONDUCTOR’S GUIDE TO SELECTED WORKS BY FEMALE COMPOSERS

FOR CHAMBER WIND ENSEMBLE

MICHAEL SCOTT DOUTY

A Dissertation submitted to the College of Music in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy

2019

Richard Clary Professor Directing Dissertation

Jane Piper Clendinning University Representative

David Patrick Dunnigan Committee Member

Steven Kelly Committee Member

Clifford Madsen Committee Member

The Graduate School has verified and approved the above-named committee members and certifies that the dissertation has been approved in accordance with university requirements.

To Bethany, for teaching me about the importance of supporting

women in their careers and—as always—for your support.

iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to thank several people who contributed to the completion of this dissertation, starting with my committee members, Prof. Richard Clary, Prof. Jane Piper

Clendinning, Dr. Patrick Dunnigan, Dr. Steven Kelly, and Dr. Clifford Madsen. Invaluable guidance and assistance were provided by Laura Gayle Green, Françoise Masset, Dr. Suzanne

Rita Byrnes, Dr. Rick Fleming, Prof. Nancy Galbraith, Dr. Julia Wolfe, Dr. Evan Jones, Dr. Jill

Halstead, Dr. Victoria Rowe, and Lance Baker. Also, a special thank-you goes to all my friends and colleagues at FSU.

Thank you to the players who rehearsed and/or performed the selections included in this project. Without your musicianship and critical feedback, this document would not have been possible: Brennen Blotner, Nick Childs, Harrison Cody, Bryce Coots, Jamal Davidson, Elyse

Davis, Tyler Duncan, Alvaro Fernandez, Connor Fuhrmann, Jacob Goforth, Ian Evans Guthrie,

Nathan Ingrim, Kenneth Johnson, Jonathan Lacey, Hank Landrum, Mark Lauer, Tristan

Magruder, Kyle Mallari, Vincent Moore, Gloria Ramirez, Nina Scheibe, Justin Smith, Mason

Smith, Jessica Speak, Alexander Vaquerizo, Rebecca Walenz, Kate Warren, Justin Way, Sam

Williams, Kaitlin Wong, and Chris Wray.

I must acknowledge the teachers and mentors who provided me with instruction and direction throughout many decades in music. There are too many to list, but I have not forgotten your insight and inspiration. And most importantly, thank you to my wife, Bethany, and our two children for your support during the writing process and throughout five years of graduate school. There simply are not proper words to express my gratitude.

iv TABLE OF CONTENTS

List of Tables ...... vi List of Figures ...... vii Abstract ...... ix

1. INTRODUCTION ...... 1

2. DIXTUOR BY CLAUDE ARRIEU ...... 10

3. DOS DANZAS LATINAS BY NANCY GALBRAITH ...... 50

4. ARSENAL OF DEMOCRACY BY JULIA WOLFE ...... 72

5. WIND SINFONIETTA BY RUTH GIPPS ...... 99

6. SUMMARY CONCLUSION ...... 130

APPENDICES ...... 132

A. COMPLETE LIST OF WORKS CONSIDERED FOR SELECTION ...... 132 B. RECOMMENDED REFERENCE RECORDINGS ...... 133 C. AVAILABLE WORKS LISTS FOR SELECTED COMPOSERS ...... 134 D. PERMISSION FOR MUSICAL EXCERPTS ...... 135

References ...... 143

Biographical Sketch ...... 146

v LIST OF TABLES

Table 1.1: Short list of considered selections...... 7

Table 2.1: Form of Dixtuor, mvt. I...... 27

Table 2.2: Form of Dixtuor, mvt. II...... 34

Table 2.3: Form of Dixtuor, mvt. III...... 39

Table 2.4: Form of Dixtuor, mvt. IV...... 42

Table 2.5: Form of Dixtuor, mvt. V...... 47

Table 3.1: Form of Dos Danzas Latinas, mvt. I, Habanera...... 63

Table 3.2: Form of Dos Danzas Latinas, mvt. II, Samba...... 69

Table 4.1: Form of Arsenal of Democracy...... 95

Table 5.1: Form of Sinfonietta, mvt. I...... 118

Table 5.2: Form of Sinfonietta, mvt. II...... 121

Table 5.3: Form of Sinfonietta, mvt. III...... 124

Table 5.4: Form of Sinfonietta, mvt. IV...... 128

vi LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 2.1: Dixtuor, mvt. I, theme I, 1st clarinet mm. 5-7...... 25

Figure 2.2: Dixtuor, mvt. I, theme II, oboe mm. 13-16...... 25

Figure 2.3: Dixtuor, mvt. II, theme I, 1st clarinet mm. 86-88...... 29

Figure 2.4: Dixtuor, mvt. II, repeated pitch motive, flutes mm. 90-91...... 29

Figure 2.5: Dixtuor, mvt. II, sixteenth note triplets, flutes m. 92...... 30

Figure 2.6: Dixtuor, mvt. II, triplets alternating with eighth notes, flutes mm. 95-96...... 30

Figure 2.7: Dixtuor, mvt. II, beginning of theme II, oboe mm. 98-99...... 32

Figure 2.8: Dixtuor, mvt. II, beginning of theme III, oboe mm. 127-129...... 32

Figure 2.9: Dixtuor, mvt. III, incipit of theme I, oboe mm. 176-183...... 36

Figure 2.10: Dixtuor, mvt. III, theme II, clarinets mm. 191-194...... 37

Figure 2.11: Dixtuor, mvt. III, contrasting motive, flutes mm. 292-295...... 38

Figure 2.12: Dixtuor, mvt. IV, incipit of opening melody, oboe mm. 333-336...... 41

Figure 2.13: Dixtuor, mvt. V, incipit of main theme, 2nd flute mm. 385-386...... 44

Figure 3.1: Habanera ostinato...... 58

Figure 3.2: Dos Danzas Latinas, mvt. I, theme I, 1st clarinet mm. 3-4...... 59

Figure 3.3: Dos Danzas Latinas, mvt. I, theme II, oboe mm. 13-16...... 59

Figure 3.4: Dos Danzas Latinas, mvt. I, theme III, oboe mm. 32-35...... 60

Figure 3.5: Dos Danzas Latinas, mvt. I, theme IV, 1st clarinet mm. 52-54...... 61

Figure 3.6: Dos Danzas Latinas, mvt. II, theme I, 1st oboe mm. 9-12...... 67

Figure 3.7: Dos Danzas Latinas, mvt. II, theme II, 1st clarinet mm. 34-37...... 67

Figure 3.8: Dos Danzas Latinas, mvt. II, theme III, 1st clarinet mm. 80-84...... 68

Figure 4.1: Arsenal of Democracy, mm. 1-2, full score...... 85

vii

Figure 4.2: Arsenal of Democracy, mm. 102-104, full score...... 89

Figure 4.3: Arsenal of Democracy, mm. 129-131, full score...... 91

Figure 4.4: Arsenal of Democracy, mm. 153-155, full score...... 93

Figure 5.1: Wind Sinfonietta, mvt. I, theme I, English horn mm. 2-3...... 116

Figure 5.2: Wind Sinfonietta, mvt. I, theme II, oboe mm. 15-16...... 116

Figure 5.3: Wind Sinfonietta, mvt. I, theme III, 1st horn mm. 23-26...... 117

Figure 5.4: Wind Sinfonietta, mvt. II, theme I, English horn mm. 62-66...... 120

Figure 5.5: Wind Sinfonietta, mvt. II, theme II, 1st bassoon mm. 78-81...... 120

Figure 5.6: Wind Sinfonietta, mvt. III, theme I, 1st horn mm. 117-122...... 122

Figure 5.7: Wind Sinfonietta, mvt. III, theme II, 1st clarinet mm. 135-139...... 123

Figure 5.8: Wind Sinfonietta, mvt. IV, incipit of rondo theme, 1st flute mm. 220-224...... 126

Figure 5.9: Wind Sinfonietta, mvt. IV, first phrase of episode, 1st horn mm. 229-233...... 127

Figure 5.10: Wind Sinfonietta, mvt. IV, third phrase of episode, English horn mm. 238-241. ...127

viii ABSTRACT

The purpose of this project is to provide historical background, formal and thematic analysis, and technical performance considerations for selected works by female composers for chamber wind ensemble. Chapter 1 introduces the project, providing the rationale, the selection process for included compositions, and a summary of conventions utilized throughout the text.

Chapters 2 through 5 each explore one of the following works and composers: Dixtuor pour instruments à vent by Claude Arrieu, Dos Danzas Latinas by Nancy Galbraith, Arsenal of

Democracy by Julia Wolfe, and Wind Sinfonietta by Ruth Gipps. This document may be utilized by directors and/or conductors of academic or professional chamber ensembles to facilitate preparation of these works, thereby promoting an increasing number of performances for these distinguished compositions.

ix CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

Rationale

Inspiration

This project was inspired by Claude Arrieu. I first encountered her work during my doctoral studies at Florida State University when Prof. Richard Clary invited me to conduct

Arrieu’s Dixtuor pour instruments à vent with the FSU Chamber Winds during my time as assistant conductor of the ensemble. Arrieu’s work was completely unfamiliar to me. I studied the score and found after only a few rehearsals that the players and I greatly enjoyed Arrieu’s elegant style, tuneful melodies, colorful harmony, and deft orchestration. Arrieu’s Dixtuor appeared to be a little-known masterpiece of the mid-twentieth century.

When preparing program notes for our upcoming concert, scant information in the

English language was to be found about either Claude Arrieu or her Dixtuor. A masters’ thesis— in French—written at Sorbonne Université in 1985 by Françoise Masset appeared to be the sole authoritative resource, but it was not available via electronic databases. With the help of Laura

Gayle Green, head librarian for the FSU College of Music, we found contact information for

Masset. I brushed-up on my French and sent her an email. Masset graciously agreed to have her

316-page thesis scanned and transmitted to me.

Masset’s extensive thesis provided a wealth of information: Arrieu was a prolific composer with over 250 titles in her works list, many of them commissioned. She studied composition with Paul Dukas. She was a friend and colleague of twentieth-century luminaries of

1 French music, including Messiaen, Ibert, Honneger, and many others. For over ten years she worked at the Paris radio station alongside the pioneer of musique concrète, Pierre Schaeffer. Yet she was largely unknown to both performers and musicologists, particularly outside her own country.

Purpose and Philosophy

The purpose of this project is to provide historical background, formal and thematic analysis, and technical performance considerations for selected musical works by female composers for chamber wind ensemble. This document may be utilized by directors and conductors of academic or professional chamber ensembles to facilitate preparation of these works, thereby promoting an increasing number of performances for these distinguished compositions. Background information about the need for recognition of female composers, the role of dissertations in meeting this need, and the philosophical approach of this document follows below.

Increasing recognition of female composers. Throughout the twentieth and into the twenty-first century, musicians and academics have acknowledged the lack of attention that female composers received throughout much of Western music history. Pioneering scholarship such as the International Encyclopedia of Women Composers—an eight-year effort by Aaron

Cohen and a team of researchers that was published in 1981—catalogued thousands of neglected female composers.1 Signaling an important shift in 1983, Ellen Taaffe Zwilich was the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for her Symphony No. 1.2 Soon after, scholarly campaigns for

1 Carol Neuls-Bates, review of Review of International Encyclopedia of Women Composers, by Aaron I. Cohen, Notes 40, no. 1 (1983): 53–55, https://doi.org/10.2307/941475. 2 “Music,” The Pulitzer Prizes, accessed March 27, 2019, https://www.pulitzer.org/prize-winners-by-category/225. 2 the inclusion of compositions by women in the canon of Western art music resulted in publications such as Deborah Hayes’ 1985 journal article, Some Neglected Women Composers of the Eighteenth Century and Their Music3 and Diane Jezic’s 1988 book Women Composers: The

Lost Tradition Found.4 According to Jezic’s rationale for the book:

The lack of available, accessible information and recordings became clear to me in the spring of 1985, when I surveyed fourteen music appreciation textbooks to determine the extent of their inclusion of women composers. The dismaying results […] convinced me of the need to write this book. As late as 1985—and the situation has not changed much since then—three leading textbooks made absolutely no mention of any women composers, and only one text published between 1980 and 1985 offered any piece by women in its accompanying recordings. I decided it was time to set the record straight.5

In the decades since these publications—through the efforts of many scholars, educators, performers, and oftentimes the composers themselves—female composers have increasingly received recognition for their influence on the development of Western art music and their important contributions to contemporary repertoire.

As a resource for bands and wind ensembles, in 2017 music educator Christian Michael

Folk created a public Google Doc cataloging works by female composers to encourage performances of these compositions by school and professional ensembles. This list later expanded into a spreadsheet database that included three categories: women composers, composers of color, and LGBTQIA+ composers. As of this writing, Folk’s database currently resides at the Institute for Composer Diversity website, hosted by Fredonia State University of

New York, where it continues to expand and serve as a resource for wind ensembles around the

3 Deborah Hayes, “Some Neglected Women Composers of the Eighteenth Century and Their Music,” Current Musicology; New York 0, no. 39 (January 1, 1985): 42–65. 4 Diane Jezic, Women Composers: The Lost Tradition Found (Feminist Press at CUNY, 1988). 5 Jezic, xv. 3 world.6 Folk’s initiative provided an important resource for this dissertation, and will doubtless inspire continued scholarship in years to come.

The role of dissertations. Doctoral dissertations have contributed to the increasing recognition of female composers by providing a summary of the career and achievements of selected composers plus detailed analysis of their works. Examples include:

Colgate, Laura. “Half of Humanity Has Something to Say, Also: Works for Violin by Women Composers.” DMA diss., University of Maryland, College Park, 2018. ProQuest (10745258).

Jennings, Jr, Ernest. “A Study of American Composers Carolyn Bremer and Nancy Galbraith: An Overview of Their Background, Compositional Style for Wind Band, and Analysis of Early Light and Febris Ver.” DMA diss., University of Iowa, 2014. https://doi.org/10.17077/etd.ycupz741.

Soares, Luciana. “Works for Piano by Brazilian Female Composers of the Twentieth Century: A Discussion and Catalogue.” DMA diss., The University of Southern Mississippi, 2002. ProQuest (3067249).

Tobita, Yujen Chen. “Historical Background and Pedagogical Analysis of Piano Works by Selected Taiwanese Women.” PhD diss., Texas Tech University, 2004. ProQuest (3124517).

Watson, Anne Alyse. “Selected Works by Female Composers Written for the Clarinet during the Nineteenth Century.” DMA diss., Arizona State University, 2008. ProQuest (3319409).

Along with these examples, the following document contributes to an ongoing academic conversation regarding works by female composers—in this case, specifically highlighting compositions for chamber wind ensemble. By providing a biographic summary of each composer’s life and career, relevant background information on the selected work, formal and thematic analysis of each movement, and technical performance considerations for each movement, this document provides a resource for conductors to facilitate preparation of the included works and promote future performances of these distinguished compositions.

6 Institute for Composer Diversity, accessed March 26, 2019, https://www.composerdiversity.com/. 4 Philosophical approach. This project does not take a gender-based approach to the analysis of these works. Nor does this project seek to address issues of gender discrimination in the context of the biographies of the composers, except when the issue has arisen in the sources consulted. There are two reasons for this: First, the subject of gender studies is outside my expertise and academic training. Although I have witnessed gender discrimination in the lives and careers of women who are important to me—family and friends—and I earnestly support their efforts to strive for gender equality, I do not consider myself an expert on the issues they face. The authors and researchers who have explored these topics in detail can provide a more complete and nuanced account. For instance, Dr. Jill Halstead’s biography on Ruth Gipps— utilized as a resource for this project—is an excellent example of gender-informed musicological research.7 Second, the works included in this dissertation stand on their own merits; they deserve to be studied and performed because they are excellent compositions. This project merely seeks to shine a spotlight on works of artistic merit so that they might become a regular fixture in the repertoire for chamber winds.

Selection Process

It was desired that the compositions included in this project would be suitable for a professional chamber winds ensemble, a college/university chamber winds ensemble, or an advanced high school ensemble. These ensembles are typically directed by a conductor, performing works for a large chamber ensemble of seven or more players. It was also desired

7 Jill Halstead, Ruth Gipps: Anti-Modernism, Nationalism and Difference in English Music (Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing Company, 2006). 5 that the selected works for this project be diverse within themselves, representing a variety of styles and difficulty, and that they be inclusive of both historical and contemporary composers.

The first resource consulted to find such works was An Annotated Guide to Wind

Chamber Music by Rodney Winther.8 Out of 541 works included in the book, eight are written by female composers. Although this is a disappointing figure, one should note that Winther includes Claude Arrieu’s Dixtuor in his select list of top 101 works for chamber winds, and that

Winther also compiled a critical edition of Ruth Gipps’ Seascape, Op. 53 (1958) for publication by Alfred music, thus promoting the work of both composers. The other resource that was comprehensively explored was Folk’s database (mentioned above) on music for wind ensembles by female composers.9 After these two resources were exhausted, knowledgeable colleagues were consulted for suggestions, which yielded a few additional possibilities. A complete list of chamber works for seven or more players by female composers that were found in the above resources is available in Appendix A.

Exclusion Criteria

The complete list was first narrowed by excluding works that met either of the following two criteria: works that had been featured in previously published research or works for which there was no suitable reference recording to aid analysis. Following these exclusions, I sought access to scores for the remaining works via interlibrary loan or borrowing from colleagues. A short list of nine compositions were considered in detail, perusing both recordings and scores:

8 Rodney Winther, An Annotated Guide to Wind Chamber Music for Six to Eighteen Players (Miami, FL: Alfred Music, 2004). 9 Because Folk’s database is a dynamic electronic document, future researchers are encouraged to consult it directly. Additional chamber works have likely been incorporated since the selection phase of this project was completed in the summer of 2018. 6 Table 1.1: Short list of considered selections.

Composer Title Instrumentation10

Arrieu, Claude Dixtuor pour instruments à vent 2(picc).1.2.2/1.1.1.0

Ballou, Esther Williamson Suite for Winds 2.2.2.2./2.0.0.0

Chen Yi Suite for Cello and Chamber Winds vc 1.1.1.1/1.1.1.0/perc

Coleman, Valerie Portraits of Josephine 1.1.1.1(ssx)/1.0.0.0/perc

Galbraith, Nancy Dos Danzas Latinas 0.2.2.2/2.0.0.0

Gipps, Ruth Sinfonietta for 10 Winds and Percussion, Op. 73 2(II=pic).1+eh.2.2/2[I=tamtam].0.0.0

Lann, Vanessa Dancing to an Orange Drummer 2(I=pic).0.1(bcl).ssx+asx.0/1.1.2.1/perc/pf/egtr.ebgtr

Lutyens, Elisabeth Rape of the Moone, Op. 90 0.2.2.2/2.0.0.0

Wolfe, Julia Arsenal of Democracy pic.0.0.ssx+asx+barsx.0/1.3.2+btbn.0/pf/ebgtr

For the above listed composers and compositions, I conducted an informal survey of available resources: composer biographies, comparable analyses of other works by the same composer, premiere performance information, availability of published scores, and contact information for copyright holders. I also carefully considered which works were most suited to my education and experience for analysis. For example, published analyses of compositions by

Chen Yi often made detailed comparisons between her works and traditional Chinese music—a field of inquiry currently outside this researcher’s experience. Although Chen’s Suite for Cello and Chamber Winds is a work I greatly admire, it was therefore excluded from this project.

With consultation from faculty advisors to aid in the decision process, the final four selected works for this dissertation—detailed in the following chapters—were chosen because they represent diverse styles, diverse levels of difficulty, and a balanced mix of historical and contemporary composers. My preliminary investigation had determined that resources were

10 Abbreviated instrumentation is largely based on the guidelines provided by Music Sales Classical at the following web address: http://www.musicsalesclassical.com/Instruments. 7 available to guide the research. As an analyst, my education had prepared me to explore the scores. Finally, as a musician, I was personally looking forward to spending time with these excellent works.

Conventions Used

All pitches, scales, and harmonies in this text are referenced in concert pitch, unless otherwise indicated. Chords are referenced using jazz/popular music abbreviations. A major chord with a major seventh is indicated with a delta symbol (e.g. CΔ7). Specific pitches or pitch- classes in the notation are uniformly referenced with an accidental following the letter name, even if the pitch does not have an accidental in the score or part (e.g. C♮). The abbreviation pc for pitch class indicates that enharmonic and octave equivalence is assumed for analytical purposes. This is particularly relevant for integer pitch-class notation, detailed below.

For atonal music this dissertation uses Introduction to Post-Tonal Theory by Joseph

Straus as a style guide for analysis.11 When a pitch class recurs in modern music it may be indicated by a variety of enharmonic spellings—for example, G♭, F♯, or E�. Integer pitch-class notation assumes equivalence between enharmonic notes and assigns a numeral to each pitch- class of the chromatic scale: 0 for C♮, 1 for C♯/D♭, 2 for D♮, 3 for D♯/E♭, … 11 for B♮. At C♮ the cycle repeats with 0, thus integer pitch-class notation makes no distinction between octaves.

Integer pitch-class notation is employed in the analysis of Julia Wolfe’s Arsenal of Democracy in

11 Joseph N. Straus, Introduction to Post-Tonal Theory, 4th ed. (W. W. Norton & Company, 2016). 8 Chapter 4. For consistency, pitch-class collections in this analysis are referenced in normal form, enclosed in brackets, e.g. [7,8,11,1].12

As indicated by Straus, when standard pitch-class collections are used without a tonal context, these are referenced using abbreviated names in capital letters with a subscript identifier of the specific set. This includes the three octatonic collections, also known as diminished scales or half-whole scales (OCT0,1, OCT1,2, and OCT2,3); the diatonic collections, referenced by their corresponding number of flats or sharps (DIA2♯, DIA1♯, DIA0, DIA1♭, DIA2♭, etc.); and includes one of the four hexatonic collections, also known as a symmetrical augmented scale, which is comprised of two augmented triads a minor-third apart from one another (HEX3,4). These abbreviations are used frequently in the analysis of Claude Arrieu’s Dixtuor pour instruments à vent in Chapter 2.

Other abbreviations include the following: Part names are indicated by ordinal numbers

(e.g. 2nd oboe). Measure numbers are abbreviated with m. for a single measure and mm. for multiple measures (e.g. mm. 67-73). The abbreviation f. indicates inclusion of the following measures (e.g. m. 158f.). Metronome indications are abbreviated with bpm for beats per minute

(e.g. 88 bpm).

12 For a description of how to put an unordered pitch-class set into normal form, see Straus p. 45. 9 CHAPTER 2

DIXTUOR BY CLAUDE ARRIEU

Biographic Summary and Compositional Influences

Most of the information in the following biography is sourced from Françoise Masset, whose 1985 master’s thesis at the Sorbonne Université de Paris detailed the life of Claude Arrieu and explored a selection of her works.13 In addition to Masset’s interviews with Arrieu and her analysis of Arrieu’s music, Masset compiled a repository of Arrieu’s documents and souvenirs from her long and successful career that resides at the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF).

This chapter—and all future research on Claude Arrieu—is indebted to Françoise Masset’s scholarly achievements. All quotations of Claude Arrieu are sourced from spoken and written interviews recorded by Masset; all translations from French are my own.

Early Life and Influences

Claude Arrieu was born in Paris on November 30, 1903. The first of four children, she was named Louise-Marie by her parents, Paul and Cécile Simon. The future composer would not take the pseudonym by which she is recognized today until sometime around 1927. Her father operated a family business consisting of a factory and multiple clothing stores. Her mother had poor vision and learned to read braille at a young age, but she played piano quite well, and she

13 Françoise Masset, “Une Femme et un Compositeur: Claude Arrieu” (Sorbonne Université de Paris, 1985). 10 composed.14 Cécile wished for a musical daughter, a wish that was fulfilled by Louse-Marie who showed early musical gifts.15

As a child, Louise-Marie knew how to interpret solfège, and she enjoyed listening to her mother play Chopin and Schumann. At age four-and-a-half she began piano lessons. By age six, she was composing short pieces for piano, which she decorated with fanciful drawings. These early attempts resembled the composers she heard and studied: Bach, Mozart, Schumann, and

Beethoven. From the age of 12, Louise-Marie continued her general education in history, literature, chemistry, and English, but her favorite subject was music. She worked hard at the piano and composed settings of her favorite poetry. She also wrote pieces on the death of loved ones: “It was always a question of death; I think that the war of 1914 had a big influence.”16

In 1915, the young composer noted the poor reception of the war bonds among some

French citizens. In response, she wrote a patriotic piece involving two peasants not wanting to participate in the war bonds who were visited in a dream by Joan of Arc. As a result of this encounter, they repented of their error and participated. Around the same time, Louise-Marie also had her first introduction to modern music. Her mother took her to Concerts Lamoureux, a fashionable series of weekly concerts featuring new music, where she heard Stravinsky’s Feu d’Artifice. She later described this experience as a “shock” that “opened doors for her.”17

Continuing her musical development, Louise-Marie began piano studies with Marguerite

Long in 1916. However, her skin was so fragile that she often bloodied her hands while playing,

14 “Cécile P. Simon (1881-1970),” Data.bnf.fr, accessed February 9, 2019, https://data.bnf.fr/fr/14829631/cecile_p__simon/. 15 Masset, “Une Femme et un Compositeur: Claude Arrieu,” 19. 16 Claude Arrieu, quoted in Masset, 22. 17 Arrieu, quoted in Masset, 22. 11 making it necessary for her to give up on a career as a pianist. With the encouragement of her parents, she began focusing on studies of harmony.18

Paris Conservatory and Compositional Breakthrough

In 1924, Louise-Marie Simon entered the Paris Conservatory, studying harmony with

Charles Silver and taking organ classes. But in 1925, suffering from anemia, her doctor recommended a stay in the mountains. She went to Chamonix where she could enjoy skiing, and during a bobsled run, she broke her left leg. This accident obligated her to drop her organ classes and leave the Conservatory. During this time, she enrolled in a private harmony course with Jean

Roger-Ducasse.19

Returning to the Conservatory in 1926 and 1927, the aspiring composer worked on fugue and counterpoint under the direction of George Caussade and Noël Gallon. She also composed settings of poetry and undertook a Requiem mass for acappella choir. Around this time, she began using her pseudonym, Claude Arrieu. Although she said little about the reasons for changing her professional name, it has been speculated that the gender neutral first name may have circumvented some reluctance toward her work in the musical establishment of the time.

The last name was borrowed from an old friend from the Pyrenees, named Arrieu de Bat.20

In 1928, Arrieu settled into a Paris apartment at 32 Pérignon, which she maintained throughout her long career.21 That same year, she began composition classes with her most influential mentor, Paul Dukas. As Arrieu recalls it, the elder master composer was somewhat distant and very hard on his pupils at first, until they proved themselves to him. After that, the

18 Masset, 23. 19 Masset, 27. 20 Masset, 27 & 29. 21 Masset, 29. 12 atmosphere changed, and the students were spellbound.22 Arrieu’s closest friends among Dukas’ students were Olivier Messiaen, Tony Aubin, Georges Hugon, Maurice Duruflé, Yvonne

Desporte, and Elsa Barraine.23

Dukas expected his students to know the grammar of composition (form, style, etc.), but it was up to the students to “make the point.”24 He engaged his students in discussions about aesthetics and the philosophy of music. They analyzed new works by contemporaries such as

Stravinsky and Roussel. He rarely spoke about his own work, but he loved to tell anecdotes about his departed colleagues: Debussy, Fauré, Saint-Saëns, Albeniz, and d’Indy. When they visited his house, Dukas opened his personal library to his students, offering them books on philosophy or helping them comb the shelves for an author who might help to clarify the problems they faced. He was happy among his students. He encouraged their conversations and he listened to their ideas. He told stories and jokes. And he gave the impression of universality.25

Twice, in 1928 and 1929, Arrieu competed for the Prix de Rome. Both times, two females submitted their work, but the director of the Conservatory would only allow one to proceed. So Arrieu did not enter the competition a third time in the face of such bias.26 However, the year 1929 brought an important breakthrough for Arrieu. She had just written an orchestral suite, Mascarades, inspired by Ronsard’s poem Le Bocage Royal. Roger-Ducasse, who continued to have a paternal relationship with Arrieu, thought this suite compelling enough that he shared it with acclaimed conductor Walther Straram. The weekly concerts presented by the

Orchestre des Concerts Straram were a premiere musical event of Paris, featuring the best

22 Masset, 29. 23 Masset, 37. 24 Masset, 35. 25 Masset, 35–37. 26 Masset, 29. 13 instrumentalists and soloists of the time, frequently premiering contemporary works. When

Arrieu met with Straram in February of 1929, she played a reduction of her orchestral suite. She was shocked when he changed the program of his season finale concert to include it.27

Contemporary critics praised Arrieu’s public debut. Immediately after the concert, Arrieu had an introduction that would prove important to her career. Straram introduced her to playwright André Obey who was seeking works for an exposition to feature contemporary music. Later, in 1931, when Obey’s play Noé (Noah) successfully premiered, Arrieu requested his permission to create an opera with the text. She worked on the project until 1934, with the anticipation that Straram would premiere it as director of the Opéra Comique at the Théâtre

Champs-Elysées. Unfortunately, Straram passed away before the project could take place.

However, when Noé finally premiered fifteen years later in Strasbourg, it became one of Arrieu’s most successful and critically-acclaimed operas.28

Arrieu’s compositional career began to gather steam in 1932. In February, Straram premiered Arrieu’s Concerto en mi pour piano et orchestra at the Théâtre Champs-Elysées. In

June, she exited the Conservatory with a first-place Prix de Composition for her Variations,

Interlude et Finale, dedicated to Dukas. This score also earned the Lepaulle and Yvonne-de-

Gouy-d’Arsy prizes. At the same time, Arrieu’s Ballade pour la Paix for soloist, choirs, and orchestra unanimously won the Ambroise Thomas prize. The 3000 francs she received from this last award allowed her to purchase a piano.29 In November of that year, the Cercle Musicale de

Paris concert brought together two of Dukas’ former students for a joint concert: Arrieu and

Messiaen. A critical review at the time contrasted Messiaen’s mysticism with Arrieu’s distinctly

27 Masset, 31. 28 Masset, 33, 39, 81–84. 29 Masset, 41. 14 French humor. The critic stipulated that both young artists would benefit from future refinement, but noted that Arrieu already displayed a defined structure to her works.30

Early Career and Radiodiffusion Française

As a working young musician, from 1932 to 1938 Arrieu taught solfège, harmony and counterpoint at l’Ecole Française de Musique, taught piano lessons, accompanied a dance class for 3 hours a day, wrote solfège lessons for publishers, revised orchestra scores, was a chamber music critic for Monde musical, and—by her own admission—had a soft spot for writing arrangements for popular singer and songwriter Jean Tranchant. She collaborated on his songs

Ici l’on pêche and La Ballade du cordonnier. She also found time to meet with her friends at

Montparnasse, the neighborhood at the heart of Parisian musical life in the 1930s. There she conversed with such early twentieth-century musical luminaries as Messiaen, Jolivet, Ibert, and

Varèse. Her compositional work continued with songs, choral and orchestral works, and another collaboration with Obey on stage music for Loire (1934).31

In 1935, Arrieu’s career took a new direction when she began working for Service des

Programmes de la Radiodiffusion Française, as an editor of music programs. Responsible for music at fourteen regional radio stations, she had a tiring work schedule and found it difficult to find time to compose. Despite these constraints she completed several scores, including an orchestral suite, La Conquête de l’Algérie (1935), and her reed trio in C (1936). She also wrote songs to be performed at fashionable Parisian cafés.32

30 Masset, 42. 31 Masset, 42. 32 Masset, 47–48. 15 Arrieu’s employment at Radiodiffusion Française began her association with electronic music pioneer Pierre Schaeffer, whose innovations in musique concrète helped lay the foundation for sampling and electronic sound manipulation in both art music and popular music.

Schaeffer had created a series of 13 exams for young conservatory graduates who were seeking work in radio. Arrieu learned how to handle microphones and how to interpret the decibel curves of various instruments and ensembles. She considered herself poor at math, so she relied on her ear to place the microphones, to the amusement of her test proctors. Schaeffer, who collaborated with Arrieu for many years following her introduction to radio, said that she was a better musician because she did not solely rely on the numbers.33

Inescapably affected by the events of her day, Arrieu composed her first concerto for violin and orchestra in 1938. She wrote the Andante movement in response to the Munich

Agreement, thinking that Europe had been pulled back from the brink of war. Around the same time she wrote a concerto for two pianos and orchestra, premiered by the Orchestre National de la Radiodiffusion Française under the direction of Inghelbrecht. She also began her second opera, the comedy Cadet Roussel, on a libretto by André de la Tourrasse and Jean Limozin.34

During the second world war, Arrieu followed the displacement across France, leading her to Rennes in 1940, Toulouse in 1941, and Marseille in September of 1941 where she stayed until March 194335. She continued to work in radio and composed songs and piano pieces. She wrote her Sonatine for flute and piano, a favorably reviewed work that situated Arrieu’s unique gift for melody in the harmonic style of the mid-century. She also continued to make edits to

Cadet Roussel, collaborating with André de la Tourrasse via mail during the occupation.

33 Masset, 48–49. 34 Masset, 49–51. 35 Masset, 51. 16 Fortunately, these strange and potentially suspicious missives about the misadventures of soldier

Roussel were not intercepted!36

Returning to Paris in 1943, Arrieu reconnected with Pierre Schaeffer and they began to collaborate on several projects. Schaeffer wrote the libretto and Arrieu composed the music for

La Coquille à Planètes, a work based on the signs of the zodiac, to explore the variety of sonorities that could be produced via radio. Arrieu considered it a complicated, groundbreaking work that opened many doors for future composers and musicians. However, during the liberation much of it was lost and a complete version is not available today.37 Also, in the famous

Studio d’essai, Schaeffer and his colleagues made successive attempts to invent and refine musique concrète. Despite Arrieu’s ten-year collaboration with Schaeffer, and the mutual appreciation they shared, she always refused to work on musique concrète, later saying “I do not want to spend twenty years of my life doing something I do not understand.”38

The German occupiers never suspected that these radio technicians were also working on a clandestine radio station, preparing for the liberation of Paris. They made records of Ravel, d’Indy, and Debussy in anticipation of the allied victory. Writers and musicians came to the studio: Arthur Honegger, Jean Tardieu, Albert Ollivier, Jacques Ibert, Louis Aragon, Pierre

Bernac and others. In this studio Arrieu met Paul Eluard in 1944 and she composed a setting of his “Sept poèmes d’amour en guerre,” which had been published clandestinely in 1943. The seven poems, alternating between soprano and baritone with a reduced orchestra, are framed by a prologue and epilogue, both on the same theme. The limited orchestration reinforces the dramatic theme of love in a time of suffering, hoping for a better future.39

36 Masset, 53–55. 37 Masset, 55–57. 38 Arrieu, quoted in Masset, 57. 39 Masset, 57–59. 17 Around the end of the war, Arrieu was named deputy-chief of Service d’illustrations musicales, along with Henri Dutilleux, where they examined original texts and commissioned a musical illustration from the musician who seemed to best fit the text.40 Arrieu’s own prodigious compositional output continued apace. She wrote settings of poetry by writers such as Louise de

Vilmorin, Francis Jammes, Jean Cocteau, and Louis Aragon. Arrieu reconnected with André

Obey for another collaboration: Les Gueux au Paradis (1945). The Flemish story, written for vocal quartet, depicts two men who escape hell and travel to paradise disguised as St. Nicholas and St. Nicodemus. It was a huge success, running for three years at the Comédie des Champs-

Elysées.41 Arrieu wrote concertos to premiere with orchestras across Europe, including her

Concerto in G for flute and orchestra (1946) and her Concerto in E for violin and orchestra

(1946), both of which were later reprised by the same ensemble that had inspired her as a young student: l’Orchestre Lamoureux. She composed piano works, choral works, radio music, additional dramatic works, and in 1947 scored her first ballet, Fête Galante, by expanding on a previous orchestral suite, Divertimento (n.d.).42

Later Career

The year 1947 marked a turning point in Arrieu’s development. She was able to support herself financially as a composer, and the work in radio had become tedious, so she left it behind.43 Already a prodigious composer, her catalog greatly expanded during this period. This section will highlight a few works that brought her the greatest recognition in her later career.

40 Masset, 61. 41 Masset, 63–65. 42 Masset, 67–69. 43 Masset, 71. 18 Arrieu composed several dramatic works during this time. As a result of a state commission, she finished her third opera, Les Deux Rendez-vous, in 1949.44 The fact that Arrieu left her job in radio did not mean that she stopped writing music for films or radio programs. She wrote many radio scores, most of which are difficult to recover today. One of particular note was

Frédéric Général, a comic radio film that received the Prix d’Italia in 1949—awarded for the first time that year. The conception of the work was quite original: Frédéric was played by two actors, one to portray the living general, and another to portray him after death. Arrieu was in

Strasbourg, attending rehearsals for the long-awaited premiere of her first opera, Noé, when she received a telegram requesting her presence in Venice within three days. She did not find out that the reason was to receive the award of the Prix d’Italia until she arrived! She was welcomed back to Strasbourg triumphantly, her accomplishment celebrated in the local papers. Noé was finally performed in January 1950 and widely acclaimed under the direction of Ernest Bour, with

Henri Etcheverry in the title role.45 In addition to these accolades for her dramatic works, Arrieu received the Prix Radio-Genève in 1954 for a children’s operetta in two acts: Le Chapeau à

Musique.46

Arrieu also wrote many instrumental works during this period, especially concertos and chamber music. The day after the premiere of Noé, the Orchestre de la Société under the direction of André Cluytens premiered Arrieu’s second concerto for violin and orchestra, composed for the Jeunesses Musicales de France (JMF). With this concert, JMF founder René

Nicoly announced a plan to commission four new contemporary music scores each year from noted French composers.47 Arrieu wrote her Wind Quintet in C in 1952 for Jean-Pierre Rampal

44 Masset, 75–76. 45 Masset, 76–84. 46 Masset, 99. 47 Masset, 84–85. 19 (flute), Pierre Pierlot (oboe), Jacques Lancelot (clarinet), Gilbert Coursier (horn) and Paul

Hongne (bassoon)—a work to be later featured on chamber music recordings.48 The premiere of

Arrieu’s trio for piano, violin, and cello, commissioned by le Trio de France, consisting of

Geneviève Joy (piano), Jeanne Gautier (violin), and André Lévy (cello), took place October 19,

1957 at the Comédie des Champs-Elysées during the 250th concert of the Amis de la Musique de

Chambre. Also performed at this event were trios by Schumann and Ravel. A critical review at the time considered the program to include “two famous trios… and a third that deserves to become so.”49 And another reviewer noted that le Trio de France “interpret[ed] Claude Arrieu with as much perfection and love as the other composers on the program.”50

In 1959, Arrieu composed a Fantaisie lyrique for ondes martenot and piano for the

Concours du Conservatoire National Supérieur de Paris. Arrieu would compose several works for this competition: Toccata for harpsichord or piano (1963), Mouvements for trombone and piano (1966), Prélude et Scherzo for cello and piano (1967), Concertstück for trumpet and piano

(1969), and Capriccio for clarinet and piano (1970). Finally recognized as a member of the musical establishment, Arrieu herself was also solicited to serve on juries at the conservatoires of

Paris and Versailles, in les Ecoles de la Ville de Paris, and during the Concours International

Reine Elisabeth de Belgique for composition exams.51

As an anecdote to illustrate Arrieu’s work ethic, in 1960 she received a telegram commissioning music for a ballet by choreographer Léonide Massine entitled Commedia Umana, based on The Decameron by Boccaccio. She was hired on short notice to replace composer and conductor Bruno Maderna. In fulfilling this commission, Arrieu wrote two-and-a-half hours of

48 Masset, 87. 49 José Bruyr, quoted in Masset, 101. 50 Marcel Schneider, quoted in Masset, 103. 51 Masset, 104. 20 music in a mere three months, recreating themes of the 12th, 13th, and 14th centuries in a modern musical style. To complete this project, Arrieu relocated to Italy, but she wryly noted that while there she only saw the four walls of her room.52 The ballet premiered in Nervi, Italy on

July 7, 1960.

Starting in 1964, Arrieu also began to write educational music—dozens of short pieces for various instruments and varying levels of difficulty. She admitted that she found the genre amusing.53 Already a successful composer, these works were not likely a principal source of income, nor did she win any accolades for them. Her pedagogical music is reflective of both the quality music education that she received during her own formative years and her desire to make quality compositions available to the future generations, even at the earliest stages of their artistic journey.

In recognition of many decades of achievement, two notable honors were bestowed upon

Arrieu in the 1960s. In 1965, the Société des Auteurs, Compositeurs et Éditeurs de Musique

(SACEM) awarded Claude Arrieu the Grand Prix de la Musique Française. And in 1967 she was named a Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur.54

Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Arrieu continued to compose in what appear to be her favorite genres throughout her life: chamber music, piano pieces, and opera. Her reputation began to extend into the United States as evidenced by two recordings of her works by the

American wind quintet Soni Ventorum. In the liner notes of their 1978 album, they recount a pleasant anecdote:

During a few days break between concerts, our oboist Laila Storch was planning to visit Paris, and as she is fluent in French, had offered to contact Ms. Arrieu and deliver a copy of her quintet recording personally. A telephone call was made, with an appointment set

52 Masset, 108. 53 Masset, 111. 54 Masset, 109. 21 up for lunch at a neighborhood cafe. When Laila mentioned in addition that the trio had also just been recorded, Ms. Arrieu changed her plans and invited Laila to her home, stating afterwards, “When you mentioned having played and recorded the Trio, I knew you were serious!”55

At the beginning of the 1980s, Arrieu had to restrict her activities due to vision problems.

She had two cataract operations in 1982, which allowed her to complete a few more works. She was also recognized by the Société des Auteurs et Compoisteurs Dramatiques, awarding her their

Prix de la Musique. In honor of her 80th birthday, Sylvie Albert organized a program on France-

Culture radio to celebrate Arrieu’s career. Arrieu was invited to speak and several of her works were played.56

Throughout 1984 and 1985, Arrieu graciously welcomed Françoise Masset to her Paris apartment where she had lived for over 50 years. She agreed to be interviewed and provided a wealth of materials for Masset’s thesis. Masset’s work describes a small but pleasant apartment, filled with books, pictures, and flowers in the window. Arrieu was convinced that all the arts, far from being independent, are closely linked. Like her mentor Dukas, Arrieu admired great literature, painting, and music of both her contemporaries and predecessors. She always appreciated the opportunity to work in collaboration with writers, painters, musicians, directors, and producers—opportunities often supplied by her love of opera and other dramatic forms.57

Claude Arrieu passed away on March 7, 1990, at the age of 86 years,58 a master composer who merits continued study. Current and future generations of musicians and artists

55 Quoted in Masset, 113. See also, Neil Skowronek, “Discography,” The Soni Ventorum Wind Quintet, accessed February 7, 2019, https://soniventorum.com/7.html. 56 Masset, “Une Femme et un Compositeur: Claude Arrieu,” 117. 57 Masset, 123–27. 58 “Acte de Naissance No. 2433” (Archives de Paris, 8e arrondissement, December 2, 1903), http://archives.paris.fr/. Note: the date of passing is written in the margins of the birth record. 22 have much to learn from her accomplishments. Arrieu’s works are no less capable today of producing joy for both listeners and performers than they were when she put them to paper.

In their first interview, Arrieu explained to Masset that she would prefer for a person to know her music more than herself.59 To that end, this document will now turn to her masterpiece for large chamber ensemble, Dixtuor pour instruments à vent.

Dixtuor pour instruments à vent

Overview of Composition

Little information is provided in Masset’s thesis regarding the origins of Dixtuor pour instruments à vent (Dectet for wind instruments) by Claude Arrieu other than to note that it was written in 1967 and premiered by Ensemble Birbaum, presumably on the radio.60 It was later published in 1970 by Gérard Billaudot in Paris. This suite of five brief movements runs between twelve and thirteen minutes in most performances, although the printed score indicates an approximate duration of eleven minutes.

Scored for two flutes (second doubles on piccolo), oboe (with optional doubling on

English horn), two clarinets in B♭, two bassoons, horn in F, trumpet in C, and trombone,

Arrieu’s combination of flutes, reeds, and brasses recalls hallmark twentieth-century works for chamber winds, such as Stravinsky’s Octet or Hindemith’s Septet. Like these predecessors,

Arrieu seems to find the clear sonorities and precise articulation of wind instruments fitting to the modern aesthetic. The orchestration is transparently structured, easily perceived by both the

59 Masset, “Une Femme et un Compositeur: Claude Arrieu,” 125. 60 Masset, 306–7. 23 eye on the score and the ear of the listener. Motivic phrases are passed around the ensemble by solo players or small groups, while select others provide counterpoint or accompaniment. The full ensemble is reserved for moments of emphasis or dynamic climax.

Harmonically, Arrieu takes advantage of the diverse palette available to a mid-twentieth- century composer. The majority of the pitch material in this work is derived from octatonic or diatonic collections. Sometimes there is a designated central pitch; oftentimes there is not.

Tertian harmonies are common, but they are not always functional. When a dominant-tonic relationship is audible at select moments in the score, it appears to be an intentional reference to classical convention for formal or dramatic emphasis. Arrieu’s Dixtuor is a non-tonal composition in the sense that tonal harmonic relationships do not provide an organizing background structure for the music—either within the movements or for suite as a whole.

Despite the lack of broad-scale functional harmony, the music is not dissonant, nor does it wander aimlessly. Rather, the tuneful themes are generally harmonized with chords from the same referential pitch-class collection, creating a sense of local consonance within the non-tonal work. Themes are repeated, developed, and varied within the movements, and they are the primary means for conveying the structure of Arrieu’s music. A rhythmic pulse pervades, even in the slow movements. The whole effect is convivial and charming, like a pleasant conversation with a variety of perspectives.

For the analysis that follows, the reader should consult a score with measures numbered continuously through the movements. The score and parts are available for purchase from Gérard

Billaudot Éditeur via specialty sheet music retailers. Movement I contains measures 1 through

85; Movement II, measures 86 through 175; Movement III, measures 176 through 332;

Movement IV, measures 333 through 383; and Movement V, measures 384 through 453. Note

24 that the first eighth note in Movement IV—an anacrusis in 1st flute and oboe—is not counted as a measure; the measure numbering in this movement begins with the first full bar.

Movement I, Allegretto moderato

Thematic and formal overview. The first movement opens with insistent repetition of

B♮ in octaves by flute and piccolo until the clarinet presents the first theme, an atonal jig with downward leaps, at m. 5 (see Fig. 2.1). A second diatonic theme, like a folk-dance, appears in the oboe at m. 13 (see Fig. 2.2). The interplay of these two themes, as well as the contrast between octatonic and diatonic pitch collections, provides the musical interest for the A section of this binary form movement.

Figure 2.1: Dixtuor, mvt. I, theme I, 1st clarinet mm. 5-7.

Figure 2.2: Dixtuor, mvt. I, theme II, oboe mm. 13-16.

25 Theme I is restated with variations in flutes, m. 17; 2nd clarinet, m. 18; flutes, m. 25; oboe, m. 27; 2nd clarinet, m. 34; oboe, m. 44; clarinets, m. 48; flutes and oboe, m. 51; 2nd flute and clarinets, m. 52; and finally reprised in 1st flute, m. 82. An important evolution takes place with successive appearances of this theme: pitch classes from the earlier statements that do not

nd conform to OCT1,2 are stripped away (i.e. concert E♭ and C♮). Starting with the 2 clarinet statement of theme I in m. 34, the pitches used in this theme are limited to OCT1,2 for the remainder of the movement. The development of a clearly delineated pitch-class collection is confirmed by the arpeggiated interjection in horn and trumpet (mm. 40-41), followed by flutes

61 (mm. 42-43), both of which also conform to OCT1,2.

In contrast, when the diatonic theme II is restated it does not conform to a single diatonic collection throughout the movement. The statement in oboe, m. 13, utilizes DIA2♯; oboe, m. 20,

st st st utilizes DIA0; flutes and 1 clarinet, m. 23, utilizes DIA0; oboe, 1 clarinet and 1 flute, m. 31,

st utilizes DIA3♯ in a melodic-minor inflection with a lowered third (C♮); and flutes, oboe and 1 bassoon, m. 37, utilizes DIA0. Arrieu appears to take greater liberty with her pitch material when the collection from which it is drawn—the diatonic collection—is so readily recognized by the listener.

When the lilting 6/8 meter of the A section of the form gives way to the marching 2/4 of the B section (mm. 54-81), pulsing eighth notes and accented articulations create a more assertive, martial atmosphere. The melodic lines in this section consist of octatonic scales (e.g. horn, mm. 54-56) contrasted with leaping patterns in dotted rhythms or triplets that are reminiscent of the theme I (e.g. trumpet, mm. 58-59, or flutes mm. 76-77). With few exceptions,

61 For a summary of the abbreviations used in this analysis to refer to specific pitch-class collections, see Chapter 1, pp. 8-9. 26 pitches in all instruments throughout the B section belong to OCT1,2 until the concluding

st ritardando in m. 79, when bassoon and 1 clarinet present DIA1♯ in parallel tenths. The conductor may request that the 2nd clarinet trill starting in m. 58 is only a half-step so as to remain in the prevailing octatonic collection. An important change of meter to 3/8 at m. 62 will be addressed in detail in the technical considerations below.

In the last four bars, mm. 82-85, the form is concluded with a brief coda, recapitulating

st st nd theme I in 1 flute. Finally, in 1 clarinet and 2 bassoon, OCT1,2 scales conclude the movement in parallel augmented fourths.

Table 2.1: Form of Dixtuor, mvt. I.

Form A B Coda (A’) mm. 1-53 mm. 54-81 mm. 82-85 (53 measures) (28 measures) (4 measures)

Themes / Motives Theme I OCT1,2 scales and leaping patterns Theme I Theme II reminiscent of theme I

Pitch relationships OCT1,2 contrasted with a OCT1,2 until final measures in DIA1♯ OCT1,2 variety of diatonic collections

Technical considerations. The conductor must consider the transition between the 2/4 meter and 3/8 meter at m. 62 when setting the tempi for this movement. The printed indications for tempo and meter changes require some scrutiny. Starting with the printed tempo suggestion of 100 bpm at the beginning of the movement and adhering to the printed indication for equivalent quarter to dotted-quarter at m. 54 would result in an effective eighth-note tempo of

200 bpm at the start of the B section. In so doing, the transition to 3/8 meter at m. 62—with

27 eighth note at 168 bpm as printed—would necessarily be a reduction in tempo. This is not likely

Arrieu’s intention, considering the indication vif at m. 62. The preferred alternative is that the conductor starts the B section (mm. 54f.) in a new tempo with the quarter note at 84 bpm. This will maintain a constant eighth note tempo of 168 bpm throughout the B section. This stately march tempo starting at m. 54 will have the added benefit of clarifying the dotted-sixteenth and thirty-second note rhythms (e.g. trumpet, mm. 58-59).

The repeated B♮ that starts the movement presents a peculiar rhythmic challenge until players and conductor become accustomed to it. Starting on the fourth eighth note of a 6/8 measure, the location of the metric pulse is somewhat ambiguous throughout the beginning of this movement. The problem is not resolved when the principal themes begin to play; rather, their displacement onto weak beats of the meter increases the challenge—although it adds musical interest. To clarify the rhythmic structure throughout the first nineteen measures of this movement, players may be advised to tastefully perform the implied accents of the meter, with the greatest stress on the downbeat of each measure, and a secondary stress on the fourth eighth note. The conductor may also advise that the first measure convey a subtle crescendo to the downbeat of the second measure in order to set this metric scheme in motion.

No errata have been located in this movement.

Movement II, Moderato

Thematic and formal overview. The form of the second movement divides into four sections, with the final section serving as a development or extended variation of the first: A–B–

C–A’. The A section, mm. 86-97, relies heavily on OCT1,2 for pitches and emphasizes E♮ as a recurring central pitch. The principal theme of this section, stated in solo 1st clarinet and echoed

28 in 1st flute (mm. 86-89, see Fig. 2.3), features chromatic inflections of fourths and fifths followed by a rising octatonic scale toward the initial E♮. Theme I is followed by three motives that are introduced in this section but not developed. A motive of rhythmic repetition on a single pitch appears in mm. 90-91 (see Fig. 2.4). A motive of sixteenth note triplets for scalar passages appears in mm. 92-93 (see Fig. 2.5). And a motive of leaping sixteenth note triplets alternating with eighth notes appears in mm. 94-95 (see Fig. 2.6). Theme I and these accompanying motives will return for development in the A’ section.

Figure 2.3: Dixtuor, mvt. II, theme I, 1st clarinet mm. 86-88.

Figure 2.4: Dixtuor, mvt. II, repeated pitch motive, flutes mm. 90-91.

Figure 2.5: Dixtuor, mvt. II, sixteenth note triplets, flutes m. 92.

Figure 2.6: Dixtuor, mvt. II, triplets alternating with eighth notes, flutes mm. 95-96.

In the opening twelve measures Arrieu also introduces two compositional devices that will recur in this movement and elsewhere in the suite. The first is the use of descending chromatic scales (e.g. clarinets, m. 93) and sequential figures that descend chromatically (e.g. flutes m. 92). Not only does she employ chromatically descending figures several times throughout Dixtuor, but as noted in Masset’s thesis, this device occurs in many of Arrieu’s other works as well.62 A second favored device is Arrieu’s use of subsets of the octatonic scale to create tertian harmonies—even implications of functional cadences. For example, see mm. 94-96 for a harmonic progression with functional implications using pitches from OCT1,2. This

62 Masset, “Une Femme et un Compositeur: Claude Arrieu,” 209 & 276. 30 progression begins with E♮ and G♯ in reeds, implying E major. A trumpet arpeggio supported by trombone produces a C♯7 chord, which is followed by a dyad of F♮ and D♮. Then, the oboe triplets create voice leading from D♮ to D♯ that coincides with the B♮ in bassoons and horn, implying a dominant chord in the key of E. This leads to the return of E major on the third beat of the measure. This harmonic progression is repeated in the second half of the measure, although Arrieu allows herself the liberty of including an F♯ in clarinets at the end of m. 94—an interloping pitch that does not belong to the OCT1,2 scale. The oscillation between dominant and tonic continues in m. 95, prolonging the tension, so that the ultimate arrival on a unison E♮ at the downbeat of m. 96 is an unambiguous cadence.

The B section (mm. 98-122) presents a second theme in the oboe (see Fig. 2.7). This light scherzo theme is accompanied by non-functional DIA0 harmonies. Chromatic inflections of the tune (mm. 103-105) shifts the pitch collection toward OCT1,2. Then in mm. 105-122, octatonic collections take the lead: OCT1,2 in mm. 105-108, a quick OCT0,1 chord at the end of m. 108, and

OCT2,3 in mm. 109-110. However, Arrieu is not beholden to strict limitations in her pitch scheme. In the following measures (mm. 111-120), alternation between OCT0,1 and OCT2,3 occurs roughly every two measures, but many pitches—especially in the accompaniment—do not conform to the prevailing octatonic scale in each measure. Despite these deviations, the contrast between alternating octatonic pitch collections remains perceptible to the ear. Arrieu’s use of recognizable pitch collections without limiting her options by adherence to a strict formula allows her the freedom to write effective and pleasing counterpoint. This combination of structure and freedom gives her works a unique voice.

Figure 2.7: Dixtuor, mvt. II, beginning of theme II, oboe mm. 98-99.

The andante C section (mm. 123-140) opens with an introductory dialogue between 1st flute and chromatically descending clarinets. Theme III, a plaintive oboe solo (m. 127f., see Fig.

2.8), begins in DIA3♭ without a clear functional orientation. Eventually, a B♮ in the oboe line gives the hint of a leading tone in C minor at m. 133. This leading tone is confirmed by the sustained B♮ in 1st flute and 1st bassoon in mm. 138-139. Arrieu then concludes this section with a functional harmonic cadence in m. 140: the A♭ in bassoons and the C♮ in oboe and 1st clarinet imply an A♭ major triad. This is followed by a disjointed but clearly audible G7—see the G♮ in bassoons that is immediately followed by a B♮ in 1st clarinet and F♮ in 2nd clarinet. Finally,

Arrieu resolves the seventh of the dominant chord down to the third and the leading tone rises to the tonic in C minor.

Figure 2.8: Dixtuor, mvt. II, beginning of theme III, oboe mm. 127-129.

32 The A’ section begins with the indication of tempo primo at m. 141. Theme I is reprised in 1st clarinet with variation: the beginning of the theme is inverted, with the leaping sixteenth notes starting on the lower pitch. This is not a strict transformation of the original theme. Rather, it is an inexact inversion that recalls the wide intervals and rhythmic character of the original theme. Variations on theme I reappear throughout the development at mm. 150-151 in flute, mm.

154-155 in oboe, and m. 168 in clarinets. Other melodic statements appear to be loosely connected to theme I by the use of leaping fourths and fifths at m. 161 in 1st clarinet, m. 162 in oboe, and mm. 163-167 in trumpet.

The three additional motives that followed theme I in the A section also recur in the A’ section, particularly toward the end of the movement. The repeated pitch motive occurs at m. 157 in flutes, m. 159 in oboe, and prominently at mm. 171-172 throughout the ensemble. Scales in triplets appear throughout mm. 169-173. Alternating triplets and eighth notes close the movement (m. 174) much like they closed the opening A section. Arrieu’s parallel usage of these motives near the end of both the A and A’ sections unifies the formal structure of the movement.

Two of Arrieu’s characteristic compositional techniques that were noted in the A section also recur in the A’ section. Descending chromatic scales reappear in m. 149, 160, and 162.

7 Tertian subsets are drawn from OCT1,2 in m. 148, making a non-functional progression of B♭ –

D♭7(+♯4)–B♭7–G7.

OCT1,2 and OCT0,1 provide most of the pitches for the A’ section, but the last two measures utilize DIA1♯, concluding in Phrygian mode on a B-minor triad followed by a B♮ unison. Interestingly, the second movement began with an emphasis on E♮, and the following third movement also begins with E♮ as a central pitch. Perhaps the B♮ at the conclusion of the

33 second movement is intended to leave the form open, implying a dominant function, so that the suite harmonically continues into the next movement.

Table 2.2: Form of Dixtuor, mvt. II.

Form A B C A’ mm. 86-97 mm. 98-122 mm. 123-140 mm. 141-175 (12 measures) (25 measures) (18 measures) (35 measures)

Themes / Motives Theme I Theme II Theme III Theme I Three additional motives Three additional motives bring closure to the section bring closure to the section

Pitch OCT1,2 DIA0, followed by all three Chromatic opening, OCT1,2 and OCT0,1, relationships E♮ centricity octatonic collections oboe solo in DIA3♭, concludes in DIA1♯ with a functional cadence B minor triad. in C minor

Technical considerations. A special concern for performers in this movement is dynamic contrast. Arrieu does not make the all-too-common mistake known as “ensemble dynamics,” in which a composer places the same dynamic indication up and down the score, leaving it to conductor and players to balance the sonorities. Rather, Arrieu carefully specifies her desired balance or dynamic contrast. For example, at the beginning of the A’ section (m.

141f.) when the clarinet restates theme I forte, the sustained notes are marked forte-piano so that the melody speaks through the texture. As an example of dynamic contrast, see the fortissimo interjection at m. 148, followed by the sudden piano in m. 149. Much like Arrieu’s use of contrasting pitch-class collections to distinguish themes, she uses dynamic contrast to distinguish the prominent voices in her orchestration. Conductor and players must be sensitive to Arrieu’s intended dynamic contrasts.

34 Errata in this movement:

• Horn part, m. 96: the first note should be a full-value quarter note.

• Parts, m. 96: the final eighth note is misplaced in the bassoon, horn, and trumpet parts.

The score is correct.

• Horn part, m. 98: the indication for allegro scherzando is missing.

• Score and parts, m. 121: the bassoons and horn disagree with the trombone regarding the

final note of the measure. Although three out of four parts indicate B♮ on the descending

line, B♭ is the pitch correctly aligned with the prevailing OCT0,1 scale.

• Oboe part, m. 121: this measure is missing from the oboe part. Pencil in one measure of

rest before the 9/8 measure.

• Trombone part, m. 121: this measure is missing the indication of 9/8 meter, and it is

missing the final beat of rest. The score is correct.

• Score, m. 154: 1st bassoon should indicate G♯ on the final note.

• Score and oboe part, m. 160: the lowest oboe pitch in this measure should be C♯ (as in 1st

flute). This will also maintain consistency with the prevailing OCT0,1 scale.

Movement III, Andante and Allegro Scherzando

Thematic and formal overview. This movement presents two contrasting styles in binary form: an introductory andante followed by a scherzo. These contrasting stylistic sections, however, are unified by a shared theme that pervades the movement. Within each of the contrasting stylistic sections are nested forms: binary form within the andante section and ternary form within the scherzo.

35 At the beginning of the andante A section (mm. 176-189) the oboe sings the eight- measure main theme (mm. 176-183, see Fig. 2.9 for incipit) as a gentle lullaby accompanied by pulsing dotted-quarter notes and—once again—chromatic descending harmonies. Although E♮ is the tonal center in these measures, both F♯ and F♮ appear, creating ambiguity between E aeolian or E Phrygian modes. The interlude in mm. 184-189 reinforces E minor tonality.

Figure 2.9: Dixtuor, mvt. III, incipit of theme I, oboe mm. 176-183.

The tempo slightly increases to a moderate pastoral dance in the andante B section (mm.

190-216). Here, a rustic theme II in DIA2♯ is doubled in perfect fifths of flutes and clarinets (mm.

191-194, see Fig. 2.10). Partial statements of theme II return in horn (mm. 194-195) and oboe and 1st bassoon (mm. 204-206), with chromatic interludes linking the thematic incipits. As in

Movement I, Arrieu modally inflects the diatonic passages. For example, the oboe and 1st bassoon theme II in mm. 204-206 appears to emphasize D major, while the response from flutes in mm. 207-208 appears to emphasize D harmonic minor. Motives from theme I return in mm.

209-216, unifying the andante section. In mm. 215-216 the andante unwinds with a final rallentando as leaping accents in flute and oboe foreshadow the coming scherzo.

Figure 2.10: Dixtuor, mvt. III, theme II, clarinets mm. 191-194.

The scherzo A section (mm. 217-291) begins with the same theme as the andante, now rebarred in sixteen measures of 3/8 meter with livelier articulations (mm. 217-232). Instead of being played by one solo instrument, the theme is shared among flutes (mm. 217-224), oboe and trumpet (mm. 225-228), and 1st flute, oboe, and trumpet (mm. 229-232). Though the theme begins and ends on E♮ in DIA0 (mm. 217-224), the descending chromatic harmonies of the accompanimental parts obscure tonality or mode.

Lighthearted developmental material follows in mm. 233-259. A rhythmic E minor scale in bassoons and trumpet (mm. 233-236) recalls motives from theme II. The staccato chromatically descending figures in mm. 237-240 and mm. 244-247 have the character of laughter. Quick authentic cadences conclude the phrases in mm. 240-241 and mm. 243-244.

nd Jocular passages in OCT0,1 feature oboe (mm. 248-251) and 2 flute (mm. 252-255). Finally, as the accompaniment thins, 1st clarinet runs through a G melodic minor scale in mm. 256-259.

In mm. 260-291, Arrieu presents a string of variations on brief four-measure phrases.

These phrases are distinguished by the four-note melody that always appears in the uppermost voice of each phrase. The phrases are varied according to the following pattern: a–b–a’–b’–c–d– c’–d’. The four-note melody that defines each phrase should be brought out of the texture with bell-tone articulations when detached or a full, sustained sound when slurred. These variations 37 are accompanied by a continuous stream of oscillating sixteenth notes and punctuated with non- functional tertian harmonies.

The contrasting B section of the scherzo in meno vivo tempo (mm. 292-314) presents a brief contrasting motive that begins on the second sixteenth-note of the measure (see Fig. 2.11).

Figure 2.11: Dixtuor, mvt. III, contrasting motive, flutes mm. 292-295.

These halting, stumbling figures—like an organ grinder struggling to turn the crank—gradually gain momentum and stringendo to the original tempo. This passage also features the extended prolongation of an authentic cadence (mm. 300-315) that begins with the G7(♭9) chord in m. 300.

Along its sixteen-measure journey, the dominant chord is embellished with chromatic scales

(mm. 303-306), subito dynamic changes (m. 311), and transformed into a G half-diminished chord (m. 312-314). All of these devices increase tension before the anticipated resolution to C major, which finally arrives at m. 315.

The scherzo A’ section (mm. 315-332) recapitulates a two-measure incipit of the main theme in a series of brief variations with chromatic accompaniment (mm. 315-323). OCT0,1

38 scales in mm. 324-326 drive toward the accented chromatic eighth-notes in the concluding measures. The final C7 chord of the third movement forecasts the opening sonority of the following fourth movement—a C major triad with mixed major and minor sevenths.

Table 2.3: Form of Dixtuor, mvt. III.

Form Andante Scherzo

A B A B A’ mm. 176-189 mm. 190-216 mm. 217-291 mm. 292-314 mm. 315-332 (14 measures) (27 measures) (75 measures) (23 measures) (18 measures)

Themes / Theme I in lullaby Theme II; concludes Theme I in scherzo Contrasting motive Recapitulates incipit Motives setting with motives from setting, followed by and tempo of theme I theme I development and phrase variations

7 Pitch E minor Variety of diatonic Begins in DIA0 Prolongation of Concludes on C relationships settings with without clear tonality authentic cadence to chromatic interludes C major.

Technical considerations. Conductors should take care that the tempo change from the opening andante at 58 bpm to più mosso at 69 bpm is only a slight increase in tempo. More than the tempo, the change in style should be noticeable, as the lullaby-like song gives way to a moderate pastoral dance. Because the change of both tempo and meter occurs during a sustained

B♮ in 2nd bassoon (mm. 190-191), the lack of rhythmic activity during this transition tends to make the flute and clarinet players uncertain about the placement of their anacrusis before m.

192. Throughout the sustain, the conductor must provide a subtle but clear ictus in order to secure the next entrance.

There are places where the conductor may wish to adjust tempo in order to clarify the formal structure of the movement. First, the rallentando in mm. 215-216 should not slow down 39 excessively, but it may be concluded with a brief fermata on the last dotted-quarter note. This should be followed by a quick lift for players to take air and for the conductor to establish the new scherzando tempo. Second, the conductor may allow tempo to slightly unwind in mm. 288-

291 in preparation for the meno vivo section. Otherwise, the sudden change of tempo may be jarring and unpleasant instead of humorous and convivial. Third, conductors should note that the recapitulation of the scherzo A’ section does not begin at the indication of tempo primo at m.

307. Rather, the recapitulation begins at m. 315 when the prolonged authentic cadence (see above) resolves and the incipit of the first theme returns. As Arrieu employs the traditional convention of a prolonged cadence at this formal juncture, the conductor may wish to slightly stretch the tempo in m. 314 to delay the long-anticipated resolution. Curiously, this expressive delay of the cadence is indicated in some parts (oboe, bassoons, and horn), but not in the score.

Finally—and this is just for fun—conductor and players may wish to perform a poco accelerando in mm. 327-330, followed by a very slight pause before the final two eighth notes that conclude the movement. This jocular touch ends the movement with an emphasis on the playful atmosphere of Arrieu’s delightful scherzo.

Errata in this movement:

• Flute parts, m. 190: incorrect meter is indicated. It should indicate 3/8.

• Score and trumpet part, mm. 235-236: consider changing articulation to match bassoons

in preceding measures (mm. 233-234).

• Flute parts, m. 298-300: indication of ritenuto… a Tempo is incorrect and should be

stricken from the part.

• Horn part, m. 303: indication of stringendo is missing.

40 Movement IV, Cantabile

Thematic and formal overview. Unlike the other movements, there is very little thematic repetition in this movement, nor are there any prominent stylistic changes. The melodies and harmonies gradually evolve, making the form continuous, not sectional. Like a brief, dramatic intermezzo between the convivial scherzo of movement III and the driving allegro of movement V, this movement has an emotional arc that begins soft and song-like, proceeds to a turbulent interior with an agitated zenith, and then retreats to a somewhat mysterious resolution. Although the form is continuous, there are inflection points in the melodic structure, harmonic content, and orchestration to be detailed below.

Figure 2.12: Dixtuor, mvt. IV, incipit of opening melody, oboe mm. 333-336.

The first eight measures (mm. 333-340, see Fig. 2.12) feature a melody doubled in

st octaves of 1 flute and oboe in OCT0,1—plus an interloping B♮ that appears in both the melody and the sustained accompaniment. The shuffling compound meter combined with the alternation between half-steps and leaping intervals give this melody a bluesy character. At m. 341, the trumpet takes up a similarly-styled tune, this time in DIA0, accompanied by parallel tenths in bassoons. The 1st flute regains the spotlight in mm. 345-354 with a more conjunct melody in

DIA1♭. The dynamic intensity builds throughout mm. 345-354, as flute performs piano, then meno piano (m. 349f.), then forte (m. 353f.) on rhapsodic descending sixteenth notes. 41 At m. 355 the mood darkens as the pitch content shifts to chromatic subsets and increasingly dissonant intervals. The continuous melody is now a narrowly winding chromatic subset in oboe (mm. 355-358). This sinuous tune is accompanied by a repeated A♮ in the horn, forming major and minor sevenths and minor ninths with the oboe. The bassoons accompany with major seconds. In mm. 359-366, the chromatically descending melodies in 1st flute are immediately repeated, like wistful echoes. Suddenly, in mm. 367-370, an agitated subito forte from all woodwinds leads to a sweeping OCT0,1 scale in three parallel octaves (there is an important error here to be discussed below).

Following this climactic intrusion, 1st flute regains the melody with a soft chromatic line, cadenza-like, with shifting meter and changing subdivisions (mm. 371-375). Trumpet responds in mm. 376-379 with an OCT2,3 tune that is reminiscent of the opening melody but more articulate, accompanied by a widely-scored fully-diminished chord. Oboe and horn exchange a short mournful tune (mm. 380-381) in OCT2,3, and the movement ends—mysterious and unresolved—with the flutes, clarinets, and horn in OCT1,2 as the sound gradually dies away.

Table 2.4: Form of Dixtuor, mvt. IV.

Form Bluesy opening Turbulent interior Mysterious conclusion (continuous) mm. 333-354 mm. 355-370 mm. 371-383 (22 measures) (16 measures) (13 measures)

Themes / Bluesy melody Chromatic melodies Flute cadenza Motives Additional diatonic phrases Dissonant harmonies Brief melodic statements that Wistful echoes recall the opening Agitated forte in woodwinds

Pitch OCT0,1 Chromatic Chromatic relationships DIA0 OCT0,1 scale in woodwinds OCT2,3 DIA1♭ OCT1,2

42 Technical considerations. The stylistic concerns in this movement are best addressed by interpreting it as a dramatic interlude between the more animated movements that surround it.

Conductor and players must convey the narrative. To this end, the conductor may request a pianissimo dynamic from all players at mm. 361-362 and at mm. 365-366 so that these phrases are not a mere repetition of what precedes them, but a contemplative or melancholic echo. Also, the conductor may add an ensemble diminuendo in mm. 369-370 so that the agitated forte climax in the woodwinds recedes to the background before the flute’s delicate cadenza.

Given Arrieu’s careful balancing of sonorities throughout the suite, mm. 376-379 appear to be a misprint in both score and parts. All parts are indicated forte-piano except for the trombone at forte. It is unlikely that a sustained A♮ in trombone was Arrieu’s primary musical intention here. Rather, all sustained notes—including trombone—should be treated forte-piano; the trumpet should play forte.

Finally, note that the OCT0,1 scale in m. 368 begins on a written low D♯ for clarinets. As the addition of a low-E♭ key on B♭ soprano clarinets is rare indeed, the conductor will need to address this problem. Possible solutions depend on the flexibility of the players. Options include the following: omit the first four thirty-second notes, play the first four thirty-second notes one octave higher and all others as written, or simply omit the problem note and join the scale on the following written low E♯ or F♯—this last option is the most preferred but requires the most rhythmically competent players. One option that is not recommended is for the entire scale to be transposed up one octave, as this would eliminate the middle octave of Arrieu’s three octave spacing for this dramatic sweeping gesture.

The errata in this movement have been addressed above.

43 Movement V, Allegro risoluto

Thematic and formal overview. The final allegro movement initially appears to be a theme and variations form. However, as the movement progresses the phrase structure breaks down, causing the variations to dissipate into motivic development based on the theme. The development continues, adding a descending diatonic scale motive, until a final coda concludes both the movement and the suite.

Figure 2.13: Dixtuor, mvt. V, incipit of main theme, 2nd flute mm. 385-386.

The main theme (mm. 385-390, see Fig. 2.13 for incipit) begins in upper woodwinds, presenting the rhythmic motives that will become the unifying features of this movement. The theme begins in DIA1♭ (mm. 385-388) with recurring emphasis on C♮, G♮, and B♭ in the accompanying bassoons, implying a dominant-seventh chord configuration. Then a progression of major triads follows in mm. 389-390: B♭ major, A♭ major, and C major. In the second half of m. 390 the theme concludes with the bassoons, trombone, and clarinets moving from G♮ to C♮ while the dissonant F♯ and D♯ in the remaining voices resolve to C♮ and E♮. Although this is not an authentic cadence, the fifth movement in the bass combined with the tension-release in the upper voices has a distinctly cadential effect. This effect is confirmed with a humorous echo in

1st bassoon of C♮ octaves at the end of the measure.

44 In mm. 391-394, the first variation of the theme is somewhat shorter and emphasizes octatonic collections: OCT0,1 in mm. 391-392, followed by OCT2,3 in m. 393, and returning to

OCT0,1 in m. 394. A cadence at the end of m. 394 follows a formula similar to the previous cadence, but with the addition of the oboe resolving F♮ down to E♮ as would be expected in a traditional authentic cadence in the key of C major. This time, 2nd bassoon adds the humorous rejoinder of C♮ octaves.

A second variation in mm. 395-400 is accompanied by rapidly changing non-functional tertian harmonies. In mm. 398-399 the bassoons and clarinets move in parallel major-minor seventh chords, each chord omitting the fifth, in a non-functional progression of C7–F7–D7–G7–

C7–F7–D7–G7–C7–F7–B♭7–E. This final E major sonority—involving only the pitches E♮ and

G♯—resolves to A♮ and C♯ on the following downbeat (m. 400), again approximating an authentic cadence.

Following the initial theme and variations, the phrase structure dissolves as portions of the theme undergo development throughout mm. 400-445. Variations on the incipit of the theme draw pitches from OCT0,1 (mm. 400-405) and OCT1,2.(mm. 406-409). In m. 411, horn, clarinets, and oboe briefly pause the development by sustaining a fortissimo chord of A♭, F♮, and G♮.

Following this interruption, variations on the sixteenth note and staccato eighth note motives from the third and fourth measures of the theme (mm. 412-422; compare with theme, mm. 387-

388) use pitches from OCT1,2. A contrasting lyrical motive in descending diatonic scales is introduced in mm. 423-432. This descending scale motive appears in in DIA0 (mm. 423-426),

DIA1♭ (mm. 427-430), and DIA4♭ (mm. 431-432).

Following a brief linking phrase in trumpet (mm. 433-434), the incipit motive of the theme returns in mm. 435-438 in stretto-like orchestration, signaling a possible recapitulation.

45 Then—unexpectedly—Arrieu thins the texture to a piano sustained chord in mm. 440-441. This ambiguous sonority halts the development and provides no tonal orientation. In mm. 442-444, a final variation in OCT1,2 of the main theme incipit unwinds with a concluding ritenuto. The last motivic reference to the theme appears in the following coda—the 1st clarinet sixteenth notes in m. 448 are an inexact retrograde-inversion of the sixteenth notes at m. 386.

Surprisingly, Arrieu concludes the entire suite in mm. 446-453 with a wholly new pitch-

63 class collection—HEX3,4. The only exceptions to this collection are the F♯ neighboring tone in

1st clarinet (m. 448) and the planing triads in brasses before the final cadence (m. 451).64 The hexatonic collection is arranged so that a C major triad in flutes and 2nd bassoon encloses pitches from both C major and A♭ minor triads in the clarinet melodies and 1st bassoon accompaniment

(mm. 446-450). The harmonic tension between these triads is confirmed by the final cadence at the end of m. 451 into m. 452: A♭ minor to C major. Juxtaposing the complementary major and minor triads found within a hexatonic collection is a well-documented convention known as hexatonic poles that appears in both late-Romantic and twentieth-century music.65 The alternation of these chords, while non-tonal, has a distinctly cadential effect. Using this established cadential formula Arrieu concludes her suite not with a flourish and a bang, but with a peaceful resolution.

63 See Chapter 1, p. 9. 64 There is an erroneous A♮ in the score (2nd bassoon, m. 449). See the errata list below for details. 65 Richard Cohn, “Maximally Smooth Cycles, Hexatonic Systems, and the Analysis of Late-Romantic Triadic Progressions,” Music Analysis 15, no. 1 (1996): 9–40, https://doi.org/10.2307/854168. 46 Table 2.5: Form of Dixtuor, mvt. V.

Form Theme and variations Development Coda mm. 384-400 mm. 400-445 mm. 446-453

Themes / Main theme followed Motivic development Retrograde inversion of thematic Motives by two variations in octatonic collections sixteenth note motive

Contrasting diatonic theme

Pitch DIA1♭ OCT0,1, OCT1,2 HEX3,4 relationships OCT0,1 and OCT2,3 DIA0, DIA1♭, DIA4♭ Non-functional tertian OCT1,2

Technical considerations. The greatest challenge of this movement is getting it started.

Even for accomplished players, the motor of continuous sixteenth notes in 2nd clarinet, 1st bassoon, and horn is difficult to secure with a steady tempo and a light, articulate sound.

Moreover, even when the sixteenth notes become more secure, the eighth notes in m. 387 tend to drag. Individual metronome practice is essential for everyone, including the conductor, to be sure that time is steady.

Regarding phrase shapes, conductor and players should observe Arrieu’s placement of the accent as the dynamic high point of each melodic gesture. For example, see the accent in the opening theme at m. 386—the sixteenth notes preceding the accent should begin lightly and crescendo to the accented third beat. A similar phrase shape should apply each time these accents occur.

The sustained chord in m. 411, although intrusive and dramatic, should decrescendo to make room for the bassoon line that follows it.

Finally, be sure to enjoy Arrieu’s surprise ending (mm. 446-453)—almost a miniature movement unto itself—that brings this masterwork to a close.

47 Errata in this movement:

• Score and parts, m. 418: the sustained chord shows forte-piano in 1st bassoon and mezzo-

forte in 2nd bassoon, horn, and trombone; however, forte-piano in all sustaining voices is

the preferred dynamic here.

• Flute parts, m. 442: rhythm should be corrected to match the score.

• Score and 2nd bassoon part, m. 446, 448, and 449: The A♮ in m. 446 of the score does not

nd fit the HEX3,4 pitch-class collection. Furthermore, the score and 2 bassoon part disagree

regarding the contents of mm. 446, 448, and 449. Most likely, these three measures

should be identical. The conductor may decide whether to adhere to the version in the

score or the parts.

• Trumpet part, m. 451: the indication for sourdine is missing.

Conclusion

Given Claude Arrieu’s historical position as a colleague and collaborator with acknowledged masters of twentieth-century French music, and given her own formidable list of achievements as a composer of dramatic, educational, and concert repertoire, the omission of her name from most twentieth-century music history texts appears to be a significant oversight. As demonstrated in the preceding analysis of Arrieu’s Dixtuor, her compositions attest to her command of non-tonal compositional techniques while maintaining definite formal structure and a pleasing balance of dissonance and consonance. This chapter has explored one of Arrieu’s great works for chamber wind ensemble, but her vast catalogue warrants continued exploration

48 by ensembles of all types. Continued musicological research, theoretical analysis, and—most importantly—performances of Arrieu’s oeuvre will be of immense benefit in future research.

49 CHAPTER 3

DOS DANZAS LATINAS BY NANCY GALBRAITH

Biographic Summary and Compositional Influences

With a professional career spanning over 40 years, Nancy Galbraith’s catalogue includes compositions for symphony orchestra, wind ensemble, chamber ensemble, electro-acoustic ensemble, piano/organ, and choir. Galbraith’s music is generally modal with a definite formal structure. Her use of ostinati recalls American minimalist composers Steve Reich and Phillip

Glass, and especially the post-minimalism of John Adams. Her works have been performed under the baton of renowned conductors such as Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Mariss Jansons,

Keith Lockhart, Donald Runnicles and Robert Page, and they continue to be popular with school and community ensembles across the country. She is currently the Chair of Composition at the

Carnegie Mellon University School of Music, in Pittsburgh, and in 2018 she was honored with the Vira I. Heinz Professorship of Music endowed chair. 66

Early Life and Influences

Nancy Galbraith was born on January 27, 1951 and raised in the neighborhood of

Millvale, just outside the city limits of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Her mother, Alverta Hoffman

Riddle, was the organist at Christ Lutheran Church and her father, a deacon, sang bass in the choir. Nancy Galbraith recalls her early fascination with the liturgical music of the church, much of it either composed by or strongly influenced by J. S. Bach. She often stayed for both Sunday

66 Matthew Galbraith, “Biography,” Nancy Galbraith, accessed February 2, 2019, http://www.nancygalbraith.com. 50 services just so she could sing the music again. Galbraith’s mother was her first piano teacher, starting lessons at age four. At church she played piano, sang solos, and as a teen she joined the church choir.67 As Galbraith’s piano skills advanced, her mother passed her along to pianist

Frederick Schiefelbein for formal study.68

Galbraith’s teenage years provided a diversity of musical influences. Her uncle Freeman

Hoffman, a violinist in the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, encouraged her musical interests.

Her piano studies continued under Father Ignatius Purda at St. Vincent's College, and she studied theory as well as piano at the Carnegie Mellon Preparatory School of Music. She studied clarinet under Jerry Levine of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, and she earned first chair in the

Allegheny Valley Honors Band for four years. Shaped by the repertoire she learned in those early years of formal study, she was fascinated with the piano music of Bach, Debussy, and

Chopin. On clarinet she recalls enjoying the wind ensemble repertoire of Holst, Grainger,

Stravinsky, and others. She once had the occasion to perform the wind ensemble masterwork

Music for Prague 1968 under the direction of the composer, Karel Husa, when he was the honor band guest conductor. In the late 1960s and early 1970s growing up near a major city, Galbraith also had access to concerts by the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Doors, Mamas and Papas, and many others. She especially considers Janis Joplin and Grace Slick of Jefferson Airplane to be influential musical personae.69

Galbraith enrolled in Ohio University as a performance major on both piano and clarinet.

In her freshman year she took a composition course with Dr. Karl Ahrendt who was “adamant”

67 Email correspondence with Nancy Galbraith, April 7, 2019. 68 Ernest Jennings, Jr, “A Study of American Composers Carolyn Bremer and Nancy Galbraith: An Overview of Their Background, Compositional Style for Wind Band, and Analysis of Early Light and Febris Ver” (DMA diss., University of Iowa, 2014), https://doi.org/10.17077/etd.ycupz741. 69 Jennings, Jr, 172. 51 that she should switch her major to composition. According to Galbraith, “I was very young (17 years) and naïve and didn’t realize that people were ‘allowed’ to compose new classical music—

I thought that everything had already been written!”70

After earning her Bachelor of Music degree in composition from Ohio University in

1972, Galbraith continued her formal education with a Master of Music degree from West

Virginia University, studying composition with Thomas Canning. Also at WVU, Nancy met her husband, Matthew Galbraith, and the couple married in 1975 in Morgantown, West Virginia.

Nancy Galbraith earned her MM in 1977 and returned to Pittsburgh where she continued postgraduate study with Leonardo Balada, professor of composition at Carnegie Mellon

University. The first public performance in a non-academic setting of Galbraith’s work as a composer took place in 1978, when she performed the premiere of her piano work, Haunted

Fantasy, with the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble.71

Shaped by Balada’s avant-garde style, Galbraith wrote several works in that idiom, but ultimately she discovered her own path:

I was never really convinced that I was ready to abandon some of the most fundamental elements of music that I loved the most—harmony, melody, counterpoint, rhythm, form. These were all eschewed by my contemporaries. So when I decided to return to those fundamental ingredients and to utilize and shape them in a new way, I felt very much alone in that endeavor. There were, of course, a few brave souls in the 20th century who swam against the current—Orff, Copland, Bernstein, and a few others—and eventually I discovered the minimalism of Reich and Glass, and the post-minimalism of John Adams. I knew that a new era was dawning, and that I wanted to write music that would influence this new current of creativity.72

70 Jennings, Jr, 169. 71 Galbraith, “Biography.” 72 Jennings, Jr, “A Study of American Composers Carolyn Bremer and Nancy Galbraith,” 170. 52 Academic, Church Musician, and Professional Composer

As Galbraith’s own compositional identity developed, she began taking on the role of instructor and mentor to young composers. Galbraith began her academic career as adjunct faculty at the Carnegie Mellon University School of Music Preparatory School teaching piano, theory, and composition. Soon after, she moved over to the university faculty, teaching theory and composition. Galbraith’s position was converted to tenure track and she was eventually awarded a full professorship. In 2018 she was honored with the Vira I. Heinz Professorship of

Music endowed chair.73

Galbraith’s connection to church music has remained important throughout her career.

When her mother was unable to fulfill her duties as organist at Christ Lutheran Church after a tenure of 62 years in the position, Galbraith took over in 1984, serving as both organist and choir master until 2018. Though many years have passed since the time Galbraith was a child singing the liturgies of the Lutheran church, Bach remains her favorite composer.74 Galbraith’s catalogue of compositions includes many works inspired by sacred texts and themes. In addition to brief liturgical settings for choir, her large scale works for choir and orchestra include Missa

Mysteriorum (1999/2017), Requiem (2004), and Passion According to St. Matthew (2014).

Not forgetting her youthful experiences as a clarinetist, Galbraith has also composed concert works for wind ensembles. Her early compositions for winds, with brightness round about it (1993) and Danza de los Duendes (1996), have received numerous concert performances and are featured on commercial recordings. Among the first post-minimalist works written specifically for bands, these compositions filled a niche in the wind ensemble repertoire that remains popular with ensembles and audiences. Galbraith’s Febris Ver (2011) has also attracted

73 Email correspondence with Nancy Galbraith, April 7, 2019. 74 Email correspondence with Nancy Galbraith, April 7, 2019. 53 recent attention since it premiered at the College Band Directors National Association 2012

Eastern Division Conference at Indiana University of Pennsylvania and subsequently appeared on a recording by Drake University Wind Symphony in 2014.

Nancy Galbraith provides a list of highlights from her professional career on the biography page of her personal website.75 She has written for a wide variety of ensembles in both sacred and secular idioms, with premieres and commissions from both academic and professional ensembles. I asked Galbraith via personal correspondence to consider which of her accomplishments as a composer made her proudest. She replied with five events, quoted below and lightly edited at Galbraith’s request:

1. In 1987 I composed my second symphony for no particular reason other than the desire to do so. A few months after its completion, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra issued a call for scores at the request of Maestro Gennady Rozhdestvensky, who was slated to conduct the following season. I just happened to have one ready! It was the one selected for four subscription concerts in April, 1988.

2. In 1999, I finished my setting of the Ordinary of the Mass, Missa Mysteriorum. Maestro Robert Page was the director of choral studies at CMU and music director of the Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh (MCP). I asked him if I could play it for him and if he could offer critiques and comments. When I was finished, he asked if he could commission it for the fall season of MCP. That in itself was a tremendous thrill, as was the exciting premiere at Carnegie Music Hall in Pittsburgh.

3. A very similar scenario led to the premiere of my Requiem, which Maestro Page commissioned for his farewell concert with the MCP in 2005.

4. About 10 years ago, a new faculty member arrived at CMU in the person of world- renowned Baroque flutist, Stephen Schultz. He gave me a few CDs of his that, in addition to standard Baroque ensemble repertoire, featured a few commissioned works for electric Baroque flute that made use of various guitar effects pedals. In 2008, he premiered Traverso Mistico with the Carnegie Mellon Contemporary Ensemble that made use of all those effects, including reverb, echo, and delay. Several new works for Stephen followed in the coming years in premieres and recordings. The latest of those is maybe my favorite: Dancing Through Time, a double concerto with violist David Harding, received a very exciting premiere with the Contemporary Ensemble in 2016, and was recorded later that year for an EP album with the same name.

75 Galbraith, “Biography.” 54 5. I have had many more very rewarding moments in concerts and recordings, but I'll end with the most unique and exciting one. The Bach Choir of Pittsburgh commissioned me to write a work—thanks to an inspired idea from music director Thomas Douglas—that was to be premiered in two concerts at a retired steel mill! This was the Carrie Furnace Historic Site near Pittsburgh. I found a poem by Robert Frost titled Smoke and Steel, and I composed a 60-minute suite that was the only work on the program. It was performed at the site, which was still very much in its original “rough and raw” state, with concrete and dirt floors and, quite by chance, incredible acoustics. Both full-house performances received enthusiastic standing ovations. As a life-long Pittsburgher, this was a very proud moment for me.

Dos Danzas Latinas for Woodwind Octet

Overview of Composition

Dos Danzas Latinas was commissioned by the Mexico City wind octet Sinfonietta

Ventus, who premiered the two-movement suite in February 2002 at the Centro National de las

Artes in Mexico City.76 As an ensemble, Sinfonietta Ventus traces their beginning to 1994 when colleagues from the top four orchestras in Mexico City gathered to play wind octets for their own enjoyment. In 1995 they began to publicly perform eighteenth and nineteenth-century masterworks by Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, and others. Shortly thereafter, Sinfonietta Ventus was awarded a grant from the Mexico-USA Fund for Culture. This grant afforded the opportunity for more public performances and they expanded their repertoire with works by twentieth-century masters such as Poulenc, Milhaud, and Bozza. Most importantly, the grant also funded the commissioning of new works for wind octet that would highlight the distinctly

Mexican character of the ensemble.77

76 Matthew Galbraith, “Dos Danzas Latinas,” Nancy Galbraith, accessed February 24, 2019, http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/ngal/z-dosdanzas.htm. 77 “Sinfonietta Ventus Extended CV,” accessed February 24, 2019, http://sinfoniettaventus.com/docs/sinfonietta_ventus_cv_complete.pdf. 55 Sinfonietta Ventus states that “an important objective… is to bridge the gap between so- called concert music and music of popular culture.”78 In this spirit, they commissioned a series of works in 2001 by Mexican composers Horacio Uribe and Eduardo Gamboa, as well as American composer Nancy Galbraith. On Galbraith’s website, the commissions are described as follows:

The concept for these commissions fell loosely into the category of "a Sunday afternoon in the park" where symphonic bands or marimba bands might be found playing arrangements of a variety of classical and popular dance forms. The composers were encouraged to suggest the flavor and rhythms of these dances in a freer style, rather than adhere strictly to form.79

In fulfillment of this commission, Galbraith wrote her Dos Danzas Latinas suite for wind octet that explores two popular Latin-American dance forms: habanera and samba. According to

Galbraith, these forms were chosen for their “interesting tempos and contrasting moods.”80

When asked how she became acquainted with Sinfonietta Ventus as well other recent

Latin-American collaborators to receive these commissions, Galbraith provided the following response via personal correspondence:

All these relationships were born in the very richly talented community of Pittsburgh musicians, especially at Carnegie Mellon. Ellie Weingartner lives in Mexico City and is the clarinetist for both Trío Neos and Sinfonietta Ventus. She was born in Pittsburgh and continued to maintain ties here with her father, at whose home we were introduced. She was responsible for commissioning Aeolian Muses and Dos Danzas Latinas.

For 20 years, Cuarteto Latinoamericano was in residence at Carnegie Mellon. They were responsible for the births of my three string quartets. Luz Manriquez (piano) and Alberto Almarza (flute) have been my good friends and colleagues at Carnegie Mellon for many years. They played the premiere of my Atacama Sonata at Juilliard in 2001. Luz has performed and recorded several other works for me. Eduardo Alonso Crespo (conductor) was also a friend and colleague at Carnegie Mellon many years ago. He commissioned two works for his orchestra in San Miguel de Tucumán, Argentina—Danza de los Duendes (1992) and Tormenta del Sur (1995). I was present at both premieres.

78 “Sinfonietta Ventus Extended CV.” 79 Galbraith, “Dos Danzas Latinas.” 80 Email correspondence with Nancy Galbraith, April 7, 2019. 56 Galbraith’s experience with Latin-American composers and musicians finds a suitable outlet in

Dos Danzas Latinas. This work is a welcome addition to the chamber wind repertoire as a post- minimalist composition exploring popular music forms that are both rewarding for players and immediately accessible to audiences.

A word about the modality of Galbraith’s music is appropriate before proceeding with the analysis below. Although the modal center of each formal section is made clear through repetition, prominence, primacy and/or finality of the central pitch-class, Galbraith freely mixes parallel modes via chromaticism throughout her music. Most often, the tonic, third, and fifth scale degrees of the mode remain constant. However, the second, fourth, sixth, and seventh scale degrees shift frequently, creating ambiguity among minor modes such as Aeolian, Dorian,

Phrygian, harmonic minor, and melodic minor; or among major modes such as Ionian, Lydian, and Mixolydian. In fewer cases, the third scale degree also fluctuates between major and minor modes. Because of Galbraith’s modal ambiguity, in the following analysis the modality of each section will most often be referenced only as major or minor, as determined by the tonic, third, and fifth degree of the prevailing mode. The second, fourth, sixth, and seventh degrees should be assumed to fluctuate freely. In cases where mixed thirds cause fluctuation between major and minor modes, they will be addressed specifically.

For the analysis that follows, the reader should consult a score. The score and parts are available for purchase from Subito Music Publishing via most sheet music retailers. Measure numbers are provided in the published score that restart the count in each movement. Movement

I contains a total of 129 measures. Movement II contains a total of 192 measures.

57 Movement I, Habanera

Thematic and formal overview. The title Habanera refers to a dance and song form originating in Havana, Cuba, that was based upon an eighteenth-century French and English contradance in slow duple meter. Habanera is characterized by a dotted-eighth and sixteenth note ostinato (see Fig. 3.1) that was the innovation of Afro-Caribbean musicians in the nineteenth century.81 This sensuous dance was later re-introduced to Europe where it became popular as both a dance and musical form. Georges Bizet famously composed a habanera as the setting for the aria "L'amour est un oiseau rebelle" in Carmen (1875).

Figure 3.1: Habanera ostinato.

Galbraith maintains the characteristic habanera ostinato throughout her setting for chamber winds, although she varies its presentation. The opening measures in 2nd clarinet are a good example of how Galbraith strays from the traditional rhythmic pattern but maintains the propulsive sixteenth note that precedes the second and fourth beats of the measure. Variations on this ostinato appear in most measures of the movement.

The ostinato of B♮ octaves in 2nd clarinet and the sighing half notes in oboes (mm. 1-9) signal B minor mode to begin the movement. The overall form of the movement is A–B–A’–C–

81 Frances Barulich and Jan Fairley, “Habanera,” in Oxford Music Online (Oxford University Press, 2001), https://doi.org/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.12116. 58 A’’. The first A section, mm. 1-44, features two principal themes. Theme I is introduced in mm.

3-4 in 1st clarinet (see Fig. 3.2) and theme II is introduced in mm. 13-16 in 1st oboe (see Fig. 3.3).

Figure 3.2: Dos Danzas Latinas, mvt. I, theme I, 1st clarinet mm. 3-4.

Figure 3.3: Dos Danzas Latinas, mvt. I, theme II, oboe mm. 13-16.

Around and between these themes, additional motives function as accompaniment or commentary that also recur throughout the movement. In accordance with Galbraith’s interest in post-minimalist music, ostinato accompaniment is a unifying feature of her music. The accompaniment in 1st bassoon (mm. 13-30) provides an example. Brief figures also serve as commentary on the themes that precede or follow them. For example, the descending eighth notes in horn and bassoon at mm. 5, 10, 76, 120, and 125 are a reply to theme I.

A subsidiary theme III is introduced in 1st oboe, mm. 32-35 (see Fig. 3.4). Although this theme is not a true inversion of theme I, the ascending diatonic quarter notes at the beginning of 59 theme III recall the descending diatonic quarter notes at the beginning of theme I. Theme III appears most often as a counter melody to theme II, although it asserts its independence when it appears without theme II in an augmented variation in the horns, mm. 41-44.

Figure 3.4: Dos Danzas Latinas, mvt. I, theme III, oboe mm. 32-35.

The A section of the form remains in B minor mode until m. 32f. when theme II and theme III traverse into D minor (mm. 32-34), then E with mixed thirds (mm. 35-37), and F♯ minor (mm.

38-42).

After concluding the A section with an ambiguous C♯9(no 3rd) chord in mm. 43-44, the contrasting B section (mm. 45-69) begins with a Bm(add 2) chord on the downbeat of m. 45.

Although this would seem to indicate a return to B minor modality, Galbraith’s use of parallel harmonies throughout the B section obscures pitch-class centricity and disrupts modal orientation. Examples include the parallel major thirds in clarinets (mm. 46-48), perfect fifths in oboes (mm. 47-49), diminished fourths in horns (mm. 50-55), perfect fourths in bassoons (mm.

50-53), and major thirds in bassoons (mm. 54-55).

60 In the first few measures of the B section, the 1st horn quietly previews a minor third motive (mm. 46-49) that expands into a new theme IV when presented by 1st clarinet in mm. 52-

54 (See Fig. 3.5) and 1st oboe in mm. 54-56.

Figure 3.5: Dos Danzas Latinas, mvt. I, theme IV, 1st clarinet mm. 52-54.

Similar to previous motives in the B section, theme IV is also doubled in parallel harmonies.

Extended variations on Theme IV are doubled in parallel perfect fourths in oboes (mm. 55-61), perfect fourths in clarinets (mm. 62-66), and a variety of parallel harmonies in horns (mm. 66-

70). In this horn passage, the written intervals expand from parallel augmented thirds, to perfect fourths, to perfect fifths, and then contract again to perfect fourths. When asked via personal correspondence about her use of enharmonic spellings such as diminished fourths and augmented thirds, Galbraith replied:

I always give enharmonic spellings very careful scrutiny. It is sometimes difficult when there is “tonal” music that shifts quickly or has “wrong” notes in it to find correct enharmonic spellings. I never like to stick to strict guidelines […] rigid rules can make for very awkward melodic lines for the individual performers. I generally use a more common sense approach to enharmonics, choosing what I believe to be the smoothest for the individual performer to read. That being said, I would never, for example, with the use of a vertical D major chord, notate the F♯ as a G♭.

Asked whether this B section (mm. 45-69) would be considered non-tonal, Galbraith replied:

61 I would consider my music overall to be modal or pandiatonic. In this particular section, I wanted the music to sound a little “twisted” or slightly off. There is still a sense of shifting modalities, but with a more disturbed sense.

Measures 70-73 recall the opening of the movement and function as a retransition at the beginning of the A’ section of the form (mm. 70-105). Shifting away from the non-centric B section to the modal A’ section, the clarinets alternate between diminished and perfect fifths in mm. 70-71, and then alternate between the more stable intervals of unisons and perfect fifths in mm. 72-73. When theme I returns at m. 74, B minor modality again prevails. The A’ section is slightly shorter than its predecessor but presents all three of the original themes. In mm. 92-103, the modal plan deviates from the prior A section with each of the pitch-class centers transposed a whole step higher. Here, the modes pass through E minor (mm. 92-94), F♯ with mixed thirds

(mm. 95-97), and G♯ minor (mm. 98-103). See Table 3.1 to compare the A and A’ modal plans.

Galbraith concludes the A’ section with an ambiguous sonority in mm. 104-105 that includes six out of seven notes in the G♯ natural minor scale—A♯ is missing. This nearly pandiatonic chord again destabilizes pitch-class centricity to prepare for a second contrasting section.

The C section (mm. 106-113) presents a G♯7(♭5) chord in leaping octaves of upper woodwinds over a horn ostinato in the key of B minor and bassoon arpeggios in parallel fifths.

The harmonic material in this brief section is static throughout, so the primary interest is the rhythmic interaction between the parts. In mm. 111-113, the texture gradually thins and the rhythmic activity decreases, producing the effect of a composed morendo. The longest silence in the movement occurs between m. 113 and m. 114—a momentary pause before the retransition at the beginning of the A’’ section (mm. 114-129).

For the retransition at the beginning of A’’, the solo 1st bassoon recalls the habanera motive (mm. 114f.) and the sighing oboe half notes (mm. 116-117) make their first return

62 appearance since m. 9. The A’’ section is an abbreviated recollection of the beginning of the movement, serving to unify the form—but only theme I is recapitulated. The concluding measures (mm.126-128) present a dominant-function F♯9 chord to precede the final Bm(add 2). In contrast to the climactic moments of thematic and harmonic tension in this movement (see again mm. 43-44 and mm. 104-105), the movement concludes softly and gracefully—ending in the same way a pair of imaginary dancers might take their final, elegant step.

Table 3.1: Form of Dos Danzas Latinas, mvt. I, Habanera.

Form A B A’ C A’’ mm. 1-44 mm. 45-69 mm. 70-105 mm. 106-113 mm. 114-129 (44 measures) (25 measures) (36 measures) (8 measures) (16 measures)

Themes Theme I Theme IV Theme I none Theme I Theme II Theme II Theme III Theme III

Modality B minor Non-modal B minor Static harmony B minor D minor E minor on G♯7(♭5) E mixed 3rds F♯ mixed 3rds F♯ minor G♯ minor

Technical considerations. The greatest challenge of this movement is stylistic: obtaining light dance-style articulations and forward momentum of the pulse in a moderately slow tempo.

In music that calls for a slower tempo, wind players may be inclined to play with legato articulation and sustain all notes for full duration; however, this should be avoided in Galbraith’s

Habanera. A lightly marked articulation and an elegantly lifted resonance should characterize notes that are not otherwise connected with a slur. Extended slurred passages should not drag behind tempo (for example, mm. 41-42 in 1st horn). Players should also be reminded to avoid

63 late entrances after eighth and sixteenth rests in syncopated passages. Breaths should be taken early so that entrances arrive within the groove of the tempo.

There are a few technical challenges for specific players. The 1st clarinet tremolo from B♭ to D♭ in mm. 14-18 is particularly vexing as it crosses the break. There is no alternate fingering to facilitate this tremolo, but the tempo of the music is moderately slow, so the tremolo need not be extremely rapid. The player should keep the right hand down and may also consider stabilizing the instrument between the knees. A smooth, unhurried execution of this tremolo creates a beautiful effect as the instrument crosses registers. Also, the downward octave slurs in bassoons in mm. 112-113 may require practice for less-experienced players.

No errata have been located in this movement.

Movement II, Samba

Thematic and formal overview. Samba is an Afro-Brazilian song and dance form. The term sometimes refers to specific folk dance traditions, and other times it is used more generically to indicate South American influenced dance music—especially when such influences appear in North American jazz and popular music. As a folk tradition, samba emerged in rural Brazilian culture in the eighteenth and nineteenth century as a circle dance imported from Angola and the Congo with the slave trade. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, samba continued to be developed in favelas—impoverished neighborhoods with improvised housing—in and around major urban centers such as Rio de Janeiro.82 Samba became a cultural institution in the 1920s and 30s with the advent of urban samba schools. These highly structured organizations perform parades with thousands of dancers in ornate costumes and floats

82 Gerard Béhague, “Samba,” in Oxford Music Online (Oxford University Press, 2001), https://doi.org/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.24449. 64 in sambadromes across Brazil, especially during the annual celebration of Carnival prior to the start of Lent. The largest of these venues is the Sambadrome Marquês de Sapucaí in Rio de

Janeiro, seating 90,000 spectators.

As an influence on jazz and popular music in the United States, samba made its first appearances in the 1930s and 40s with recordings by Vincent Youmans, Ary Barroso, and

Zequinha Abreu. Samba dance was introduced at the 1939 World’s Fair in New York and was subsequently popularized across the county in films featuring singer and dancer Carmen Miranda throughout the 1940s. In the 1950s, jazz giants such as Charlie Parker, Stan Kenton, Dizzy

Gillespie, Oscar Peterson, and Horace Silver all recorded samba-influenced tracks on major albums.83 By the 1960s, samba and the related jazz style of bossa nova propelled the careers of artists such as João Gilberto, Antônio Carlos Jobim, and Stan Getz, among others. Although the samba craze has waned since the 1960s, Latin jazz has become a standard genre in the repertoire of jazz musicians today, and younger artists such as Tony Succar continue to innovate in this style.

Because of the broad diversity of influences and innovators that fall under the umbrella term of samba, there are many variations on the form. In general, samba is characterized by duple meter, syncopated interlocking rhythms that often feature sixteenth–eighth–sixteenth note patterns, singable melodic lines, and a lively dance pulse. A variety of traditional percussion instruments—bass drum, snare drum, shakers, tambourines, güiro, cuíca, and others—are often included in performances.84 Similar to the adaptation of samba to the jazz idiom discussed above, compositions intended for a classical music setting that imitate samba style may not include all

83 Thomas Owens, “Samba,” in Oxford Music Online (Oxford University Press, 2003), https://doi.org/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.J394000. 84 Béhague, “Samba;” and Owens, “Samba.” 65 of the traditional instrumentation. For example, Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos wrote his

Samba clássico (1950) first for solo voice and orchestra with extended percussion, and subsequently prepared a version for voice with piano reduction that receives regular performances today.

Galbraith’s Samba for wind octet likewise forgoes the traditional percussion but creates interlocking syncopated rhythms by the interactions of the available instruments. The brisk specified tempo of quarter note at 170 bpm results in the alla breve feeling of half note at 85 bpm. Sinfonietta Ventus, in their recording, takes a tempo of approximately 92 bpm for the half note. The syncopated rhythms of eighth and quarter notes in Galbraith’s cut-time notation take the place of syncopated sixteenth and eighth notes in common-time notation.

The movement divides into sections varying in length from eight to thirty-one measures that are distinguished by changes in modality, thematic content, and style. The formal outline of these sections is arranged in the following sequence: A–B–C–D–E–B–C–D–E’–A’. Because the middle sections are repeated, the formal design can be understood more simply as a modified ternary form (A–B–B’–A’). However, as each brief section presents its own unique musical character, the following analysis will employ the former, detailed outline to guide the conductor’s preparation of the work.

The A section (mm. 1-25) begins with a syncopated ostinato accompaniment in 1st bassoon that is joined by interjections from 2nd horn and insistent repetition of D♮–A♮ from eighth notes in 1st clarinet. With this accompaniment, Galbraith establishes the opening modality of the work as D minor. Theme I of the Samba movement appears in the oboes in mm. 9-12 (see

Fig. 3.6) and mm. 17-20 as a pair of antecedent and consequent phrases. As in the Habanera, additional figures serve as commentary on the principal themes, such as the legato line in 1st horn

66 (mm. 13-16) that connects the two phrases of theme I. Theme I is extended with related fragments in mm. 21-25 that link to the following section.

Figure 3.6: Dos Danzas Latinas, mvt. II, theme I, 1st oboe mm. 9-12.

At m. 26, the ostinato rises to E minor mode, signaling the arrival of the B section (mm.

26-43). The syncopated ostinato, now in 2nd bassoon and 1st horn, is joined by the repeated stopped-horn B♮ in 2nd horn (m. 28f.) and an E minor triad arpeggio in oboes (m. 29f.). The second theme appears in 1st clarinet (mm. 34-37) and then both clarinets (mm. 40-43) as antecedent and consequent phrases—as was theme I. Before and between these thematic statements, 1st bassoon frames them with a lyrical motive, arpeggiating a G major triad.

Figure 3.7: Dos Danzas Latinas, mvt. II, theme II, 1st clarinet mm. 34-37.

67 The C section (mm. 44-63) begins with an ambiguous modal center as the bass ostinato continues to emphasize E♮ but the 1st clarinet outlines a B minor arpeggio. It is not until Theme

II reappears in oboes (mm. 50-53 and mm. 58-62) that B minor appears to be the prevailing mode of this section. The descending arpeggio commentary by clarinets (mm. 49, 54, and 56-57) and the B♮–F♯ ostinato in 2nd bassoon (m. 52f.) confirm the B minor modality.

The D section (mm. 64-79) returns to D minor, this time with emphasis on the flatted second and sixth scale degrees, producing a darker Phrygian quality. Theme II appears in an augmented and altered variation in bassoons, doubled in parallel fifths (mm. 68-79). The flatted pitches in the bassoon passage—particularly the A♭ on the fifth scale degree (mm. 70, 77)— destabilize modality by altering the scale. An ascending D Phrygian scale in oboes doubled at the fourth (m. 79) links to the next section.

In the brief E section (mm. 80-87) theme III is presented by oboes and clarinets (mm. 80-

84, see Fig. 3.8), doubled in parallel fifths. The horn and bassoon accompaniment ostinatos also are doubled in parallel fifths. The modal center seems to be F♮—given the primacy, prominence, and repetition of that pitch-class—but a fluctuating third scale degree blurs the distinction between major and minor modes. The ambiguous modality and parallel harmonies give this section a raucous quality.

Figure 3.8: Dos Danzas Latinas, mvt. II, theme III, 1st clarinet mm. 80-84.

68 In mm. 88-141, the B, C, and D sections are repeated verbatim, in the same order. Then in mm. 142-161, the E’ section extends and varies the previous E section material. The oboes are omitted in mm. 142-146 (compare with mm. 80-84) for contrast in the orchestration prior to the oboes’ entrance at m. 147 and the ensemble crescendo in mm. 148-149. In mm. 150-157, theme

III extends into a brief development. Similar to the non-modal passage in Habanera mm. 45-69, the parallel harmonies in Samba mm. 150-157 obscure pitch-class centricity and disrupt modal orientation. Starting on the second note in m. 150, oboes and horns appear in parallel fourths and clarinets and bassoons appear in parallel fifths. Bell-like descending pentatonic scales using pitch classes E♮, D♮, B♮, A♮, and G♮ (mm. 158-161) bring this climactic passage to resolution.

The final A’ section (mm. 162-192) begins with verbatim repetition of material from the first twenty measures of the movement, recapitulating theme I. The final eleven measures (mm.

182-192) repeat varied fragments of theme I and accompaniment, gradually thinning the texture in a composed morendo, until the final D♮ played by 1st bassoon concludes the movement.

Again, Galbraith finishes her piece with an understated ending, reminiscent of the fade-out often heard in the final seconds of a studio recording of popular music.

Table 3.2: Form of Dos Danzas Latinas, mvt. II, Samba.

Simplified A B B’ A’ form mm. 1-25 mm. 26-87 mm. 88-161 mm. 162- ______192

Detailed A B C D E B C D E’ A’ form mm. 1-25 mm. 26- mm. 44- mm. 64- mm. 80- mm. 88- mm. 106- mm. 126- mm. 142- mm. 162- 43 63 79 87 105 125 141 161 192

Themes Theme I Theme II Theme II Theme II’ Theme III Theme II Theme II Theme II’ Theme III Theme I

Modality D minor E minor B minor D minor F mixed E minor B minor D minor F mixed D minor 3rds 3rds, non- modal

69 Technical considerations. A lightly marked dance style as was discussed in the

Habenera movement above is also desirable in the Samba movement. This style comes naturally to wind players at fast tempi, and experienced players are likely to execute it on the first reading.

The movement should be conducted alla breve with a consistent tempo throughout the movement. The movement works comfortably in a range of tempi with the half note at 84 to 92 bpm, depending on the ability of the players. The writing is idiomatic for winds and the parts have frequent rests, allowing players to mentally and physically prepare for difficult passages.

Syncopated rhythms in cut-time may be difficult on initial reading but become easier with repetition.

A modification to the dynamics for 2nd horn—as performed on the recording by

Sinfonietta Ventus—is highly recommended. The stopped-horn eighth notes in mm. 28-44 should be performed with one measure of crescendo followed by one measure of decrescendo, every two measures. This exciting dynamic effect allows the stopped horn to crescendo to a louder dynamic than the printed mezzo piano without interfering with the overall texture. The characteristic buzzy, brassy sound of stopped horn will be heard at each dynamic zenith.

No errata have been located in this movement.

Conclusion

Nancy Galbraith’s modal, minimalist-inspired compositions continue to be enjoyed by performers and audiences, earning her a respected name among twenty-first century American composers. Academic and professional ensembles perform and record many of her compositions, including her well-known works for large wind ensemble. Galbraith’s Dos Danzas Latinas

70 brings Latin dance style to the wind octet, contributing a well-crafted, accessible, and entertaining composition to the chamber wind repertoire.

71 CHAPTER 4

ARSENAL OF DEMOCRACY BY JULIA WOLFE

Biographic Summary and Compositional Influences

Recognized as one of the leading composers of her generation, Dr. Julia Wolfe won the

Pulitzer Prize in 2015 for her oratorio Anthracite Fields about life in a Pennsylvania coal mining town at the turn of the twentieth century. Other notable recognitions include a Fulbright grant in

1992 and a McArthur Fellowship in 2016. Along with composers David Lang and Michael

Gordon, Wolfe co-founded the Bang on a Can Marathon in 1987. Bang on a Can continues today as a multi-faceted organization that promotes the education and performance of contemporary classical music. As a composer, artistic director, educator, and writer, Wolfe continues to be a passionate advocate for new music and new musicians. Much of the information in the following biographic summary is from her 2012 dissertation detailing the origins and early history of Bang on a Can.85

Early Life and Influences

Born in 1958, Julia Wolfe was raised in a suburb north of Philadelphia in a home that loved music of all kinds, but not one that demanded she take classical music seriously. She recalls playing piano and singing show tunes with her mother. She took flute lessons and played in chamber groups. She sang in madrigal ensembles.86 Wolfe describes her path to classical

85 Julia Wolfe, “Embracing the Clash” (PhD diss., Princeton University, 2012), ProQuest (3545787). 86 David Krasnow and Julia Wolfe, “Julia Wolfe,” BOMB, no. 77 (2001): 68. 72 music: “There was much more rock n’ roll or folk music, and then I really found my way on my own to get interested in Beethoven, even though I had heard it before at home.”87 The sensibility that all musical genres and styles—pop, folk, classical, and world music—are legitimate means of artistic expression would eventually become a defining feature of Wolfe’s career not only as a composer but also as an artistic director.

Wolfe described the different musics of both Joni Mitchell and Claude Debussy as balm to her teenage soul—they helped express feelings of adolescent angst and isolation. Her earliest attempts at composing were crafting her own “odd-sounding” chords on an acoustic guitar she borrowed from a neighbor, but she never imagined a career in music.88 Her interests instead were literature, psychology, sociology, and political issues. For college, Wolfe was accepted to an alternative Residential College within the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor “where there were no grades and the classes had interesting names.”89

As a student in this program, Wolfe met Jane Heirich, professor of a class entitled

Creative Musicianship, in which students explored a variety of musical skills. Regardless of their prior music ability level, all students were welcome in the class. Wolfe describes an environment without musical boundaries, exploring jazz, pop, and classical music. Heirich’s openness to all people and all music was influential on Wolfe, and she credited Heirich with launching her interest in composition as a career that could combine all of her interests. Wolfe describes composing as, “physical, emotional, mathematical, and best of all, I could actively create something and not just read about other people doing things.”90

87 Yuri Bortz, “Selective American Perspectives on Issues of Twenty-First-Century Musical Progress” (DMA diss., The Ohio State University, 2005), 53, ProQuest (3161108). 88 Wolfe, “Embracing the Clash,” 29. 89 Wolfe, 29–30. 90 Wolfe, 31. 73 As Wolfe continued to develop as a musician and composer, Heirich connected her with a tutor, Laura Clayton, a graduate student in composition at the University of Michigan. Wolfe studied with Clayton for about a year-and-a-half and was transfixed by her accomplishments and her elegance: Clayton had won several awards for composition and Wolfe compared Clayton’s demeanor to that of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.91 When Clayton eventually departed Ann

Arbor for New Hampshire, Wolfe’s education continued with a faculty member in the music school. Wolfe does not provide the name of this composition teacher in her own writings, but describes the encounter as “somewhat of a disaster”:

For over a year, as my teacher instructed, I painstakingly arranged the notes, obediently keeping strictly to the pitch order, avoiding repetition and consonances at all cost. But somehow the straightjacket didn’t stick. I wound up collaborating with a dancer on the piece and added ostinato patterns, some pretty tenths here and there, and a continuous low rumbling passage to spice it up. Needless to say, my teacher was not happy. He did not recommend me for the summer composition program at the Aspen Music Festival and let me know that I would surely be a dilettante composer for the rest of my life. (I did, however, manage to attend the summer program without the recommendation, won the composition prize that summer and somehow have exceeded his expectations.) This was my first exposure to formal composition lessons, and, while there were some interesting things to glean (listening closely, building a structure, working within limitations and controlling register), the lessons left me unsettled.92

These sharply contrasting early experiences with composition—Heirich and Clayton versus the unnamed music professor—seem to have left an indelible mark on Julia Wolfe, not only regarding the aesthetics of music, but also its politics. Around the same time as these formative events, Wolfe was introduced to the music of Steve Reich and Phillip Glass by her peers in a modern dance class. Wolfe noted that minimalist music was typically met with derision in her formal music classes, and her fellow composition students were not willing to even consider presenting such a work to their teachers. Wolfe longed for a musical world without

91 Wolfe, 32. 92 Wolfe, 34. 74 such restrictions, where music was not expected to adhere to an unwritten standard of acceptability in order to be counted as worthwhile or compelling. She soon found such a world with a new group of colleagues and a new location.93

Continued Study and Establishment of Bang on a Can

Wolfe first met Michael Gordon and David Lang in 1982 on a trip from Ann Arbor, by way of New York and New Haven, to her home in Pennsylvania. She had breakfast with Michael

Gordon in Tribeca at the suggestion of Wolfe’s friend and Gordon’s roommate, Peter Serling.

Wolfe then met David Lang on a brief trip out to New Haven where she could learn more about the composition program at Yale. Both Gordon and Lang had studied at Yale under Martin

Bresnick and together they had earned a reputation for being argumentative students, especially with visiting composers. They were interested in a wide variety of new music, including Steve

Reich, Phillip Glass, Laurie Anderson, Witold Lutoslawski, and others. Wolfe interviewed at

Yale the next year. Around this time, Wolfe also formed important association with composer and clarinetist Evan Ziporyn who interviewed at Yale on the same day as Wolfe but ended up accepting an offer to attend the University of California, Berkeley. He would become another lifelong friend and colleague in future endeavors.94

By 1986, Wolfe and Gordon were married and living in New York. They met frequently with David Lang at cafes, diners, or around their kitchen table where they discussed the state of new music in the 1980s. They noted that experimental film, dance, theater, and poetry all attracted audiences, but experimental concert music did not. Wolfe described the situation:

93 Wolfe, 34–36. 94 Wolfe, 5–7. 75 What was unsatisfying about the new music scene? New music concerts had the aura of academic lectures. The audience was select and serious, the program notes were lengthy and the composers’ biographies filled with accolades. The performers looked like they had spent their lives in practice rooms. The 19th-century classical music conventions they employed were formal and distancing.95

The young composers drew creative inspiration from a series of student-produced marathon concerts that had taken place at Yale called Sheep’s Clothing. Under the supervision of

Martin Bresnick, these all-night events featured both recent compositions and new works written by the students. Wolfe noted that “The all-night concert was an endurance test that blurred the boundaries between styles and dulled the impulse to be critical of any one piece of music.”96

With a vision for a similar marathon concert of new music to take place in New York, Wolfe,

Gordon, and Lang talked with art galleries until they found a suitable location, eventually selecting the progressive Exit Art gallery on lower Broadway. Although its three co-founders had no idea whether the concept would succeed, the event was somewhat ironically titled The First

Annual Bang on a Can Marathon, and it took place from 2 p.m to 2 a.m. on May 10-11, 1987.

The name was inspired from a quip Wolfe and Lang had made to describe a previous art gallery concert: “some composers sit around and bang on a can.”97

The First Annual Bang on a Can Marathon was a resounding success, prompting subsequent events in the following years. Throughout her dissertation, Wolfe reflects on several potential reasons for the mass appeal they generated. The atmosphere was casual, inviting, and unpretentious. However, Wolfe notes that “clearly it was more than the down-to-earth friendliness and beer sold at the concerts” that attracted audience and press.98 They also sought the attention of listeners outside the traditional academic crowd with short and slightly irreverent

95 Wolfe, 9. 96 Wolfe, 10. 97 Wolfe, 8–12. 98 Wolfe, 92. 76 commentary in their marketing materials, advertising to dance, theater, poetry, and film audiences. For one example:

Branca changed music history with his symphonies for massed electric guitars. He is the loudest genius in the world. This concert presents the New York premiere of Symphony #6, Devil Choirs at the Gates of Heaven.99

In so doing, they circumvented divisions between the various camps of new music in the late twentieth century. Wolfe noted, “Our audiences simply didnʼt know that if they liked Reich, for example, they were not supposed to like Carter, and vice versa.” 100

The bifurcation of the contemporary music world was acutely felt in New York City in the 1980s, when new music was divided between “uptown” and “downtown” aesthetics, each with their own ideological purity. According to liner notes co-written by Wolfe and Lang for the

1995 Bang on a Can album, Industry:

When we came to New York in the 1980s, things were very polarized––academic music uptown, its audiences filled with New Music specialists, a very critical atmosphere and everyone in tuxes, and downtown, another kind of uniform, black T-shirts, and another serious pretension. Neither side was really fun, and there was a whole generation of young composers who didnʼt fit in anywhere. We had the simplicity, energy and drive of pop music in our ears. Weʼd heard it from the cradle. But we also had the idea from our classical music training that composing was exalted and pieces could be ordered and structured, that there still was a value to writing music down. Too funky for the academy and too structured for the club scene, we had no clear place to go. We knew there were other young composers like us, and we wanted to make a statement. So in 1987 we decided to make a happening, a 12-hour marathon featuring the work of 28 composers, the first annual Bang on a Can Festival. It took place at the Exit Art Gallery in Soho. For our program, we put pieces together that were really strong and belonged to different ideologies, or not to any ideology, defying category, falling between the cracks. Music of unknown composers was presented side by side with music by living masters. We didnʼt want to be restricted by boundaries, and we didnʼt want the listener to be restricted either.101

99 Wolfe, 93. 100 Wolfe, 70. 101 Wolfe, 163–64. 77 Throughout the following years, the Bang on a Can Marathon continued to grow in size and scope, adding additional evening concerts to accommodate more music. Throughout Wolfe’s dissertation she reflected at length on the composers and performers who were influential in the success of these early years. Evan Ziporyn, although he was not living in New York at the time of the first Marathon, came on board early to support the artistic direction of Wolfe, Gordon, and

Lang. Other influential composers included Lois V. Vierk, Steve Martland, Louis Andriessen,

Martin Bresnick, John Cage, Jacob Druckman, Phillip Glass, Meredith Monk, Steve Reich, and

Terry Riley. New music performers who cultivated a dynamic, rock-like aesthetic with a strong sense of rhythm and groove propelled the excitement of the events. Wolfe particularly credited the six artists who comprised the original lineup of a contemporary music supergroup formed in

1992 known as the Bang on a Can All-Stars. These included cellist Maya Beiser, bassist Robert

Black, pianist Lisa Moore, drummer Steve Schick, electric guitarist Mark Stewart, and Evan

Ziporyn on clarinets.

It should be noted that some luminaries of late twentieth century music were not so keen on the rock festival-like atmosphere of Bang on a Can, nor did they approve of all of the music being programmed at these events. Despite the lack of acceptance by modernist composers such as Elliot Carter and Charles Wuorinen, Bang on a Can still programmed many modernist works, believing that such music was an essential part of the hard-edged aesthetic they sought. Bang on a Can also incorporated an “open call” for submissions, blindly reviewed without reference to composer or performing ensemble. In this way, they have maintained a posture of openness to new works and new musicians over the years.102

102 Wolfe, 83–84. 78 Subsequent festivals took place in various New York locations, mostly dictated by the ability or willingness of landlords to host the event. From 1994 to 1999, the Marathon was hosted by Lincoln Center. This partnership, although exciting due to the strong institutional support it lent to Bang on a Can, caused some soul-searching for organizers and stakeholders in both organizations. Would Bang on a Can be able to maintain its gritty outsider aesthetic while hosted in the refined halls of Lincoln Center? The partnership required flexibility by both parties, but it ended up forging an enduring relationship between Bang on a Can and Lincoln Center that has continued for many years.103

As the influence of Bang on a Can grew in the contemporary music world, it became necessary to build an administrative apparatus to handle the operations and fund raising. This not only allowed Wolfe, Gordon, Lang and others to focus on artistic direction, but it also allowed

Bang on a Can to expand into other areas of performance and outreach that take place year- round.104 In addition to the Marathon, other important elements of Bang on a Can include the

Bang on a Can All-Stars performing ensemble (mentioned above) that has recorded albums and presented live performances of new music since 1992; the People’s Commissioning Fund, begun in 1997, that bundles funds from numerous individual contributors to commission new works from emerging composers; the Bang on a Can Summer Music Festival at MASS MoCA (the

Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art), an annual event since 2002, where young musicians and composers convene for a three week intensive workshop on contemporary music;

Found Sound Nation, a project begun in the Bronx in 2007 that has since extended its reach internationally, encouraging young composers to develop new electronic music inspired by the

103 Wolfe, 97–102. See also, Zachary Woolfe, “Bang on a Can Plays Evan Ziporyn and Others at Tully Hall,” The New York Times, May 1, 2012, sec. Music, https://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/02/arts/music/bang-on-a-can-plays- evan-ziporyn-and-others-at-tully-hall.html. 104 Wolfe, 96. 79 traditions of both musique concrète and contemporary hip hop; the Asphalt Orchestra, a progressive music marching band that began performing in 2009; and other performance events throughout the year in New York and around the globe.105

Andriessen, the Netherlands, and Arsenal of Democracy

As mentioned above, Dutch composer Louis Andriessen was both an early supporter of

Bang on a Can and a mentor to Wolfe and her colleagues. While Wolfe and Gordon were traveling through Europe in 1985 they met with colleagues Steve Martland and Jeffrey Brooks in

Rotterdam. Martland took them all to Andriessen’s house where they were entertained by their host late into the evening, despite the young composers’ largely unknown status at the time.106

When Wolfe described the impact of Andriessen’s music on herself and her colleagues, she noted that Andriessen hails from a family of composers. Composition came easily and naturally to him, but he chose not to rely on flashy technical elements or romantic gestures that stem from a refined compositional technique. Instead, Andriessen sought to pare down his works to their most essential elements in order to focus on the message of the music itself. Andriessen’s music is aggressively rhythmic, often loud, nakedly political, and very demanding for the players.

Wolfe, who viewed herself as a latecomer to composition, found Andriessen’s simple and direct approach inspiring. Andriessen’s assertive style would prove to be a perfect fit for Bang on a

Can.107

In 1992, Wolfe received a Fulbright grant to study with Andriessen in Amsterdam.108 She and Gordon spent a year there, absorbing the culture and admiring the robust government

105 Bang on a Can, accessed March 14, 2019, https://bangonacan.org/. 106 Wolfe, “Embracing the Clash,” 48–49. 107 Wolfe, 59–60. 108 Wolfe, 97. 80 support for new music and musicians. Wolfe was particularly struck by the Dutch values of both openness to others and collective effort. The Dutch often leave their curtains pulled back, with the inside of their house in plain view. They also avoid drawing too much attention to the individual, as indicated in the popular Dutch expression, “Don’t put your head above grass level.” 109 Wolfe began writing Arsenal of Democracy during her stay in Amsterdam, and the composition reflects these distinctly Dutch values—the work is direct and unsubtle, and it relies on the group sound for its impact rather than highlighting soloistic lines.110

Arsenal of Democracy

Overview of Composition

Wolfe composed Arsenal of Democracy for the Orkest de Volharding, an ensemble founded by Louis Andriessen and saxophonist Willem Breuker in 1971. This was one of several

Dutch new music ensembles established around that time in reaction to the hegemony of large orchestras in the Netherlands—especially the Royal Concertgebouw—dominating the cultural and political landscape.111 In its original formulation, the group consisted of three each of saxophones, trumpets, and trombones, plus Andriessen on piano. Intended to bridge the gap between jazz and classical music, Orkest de Volharding performed outdoors for protests and political rallies. Andriessen wrote over ten works for the ensemble and arranged many others including Stravinsky’s Tango (1940), Riley’s In C (1964), and Milhaud’s La Création du monde

(1922). Andriessen wrote the work from which the ensemble takes its name, De Volharding

109 Wolfe, 55–56, 60–62. 110 “On ‘Arsenal of Democracy,’” MUSAIC, accessed March 21, 2019, https://musaic.nws.edu/videos/on-arsenal-of- democracy. 111 Yayoi Uno Everett, The Music of Louis Andriessen (Cambridge University Press, 2006), 23. 81 (literally, “perseverance”), for the Young People for Vietnam demonstration in Amsterdam

Woods in April, 1972. The eponymous composition demonstrated the democratic collectivist nature of the ensemble. With music arranged in blocks, each transition in the music was to be decided by a collective negotiation during the performance.112

Shortly thereafter, the ensemble added flute, horn, and bass guitar and continued to perform for additional protests against the Vietnam war, school assemblies, political rallies, and labor and trade union gatherings. The ensemble also attracted the attention of composers and proponents of new music, and they began to perform joint concerts with other ensembles and to commission new works.113 As Orkest de Volharding took on greater responsibilities as a concert ensemble, many of the original members eventually left the group. But the aesthetic of performing loud political music has remained central to the group’s purpose, as evidenced in

Julia Wolfe’s 1993 composition, Arsenal of Democracy.

The title Arsenal of Democracy recalls a speech by president Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1940 when he called upon American industry to provide supplies and materiel to Britain during the buildup to World War II.114 Wolfe describes her thoughts on the piece in the following program note:

In 1992 I went to live in Amsterdam for a year. It's so beautiful there and it's an amazing place to live as an artist. Art is a crucial part of Dutch society. It was an incredible relief to live in that atmosphere. I went to lots of concerts, joined the composers' ping-pong team, and wrote Arsenal of Democracy. The piece is written for Orkest de Volharding, a political street band started by Dutch composer Louis Andriessen and others. The group is loud and tough and they're organized in a socialistic framework—everyone has equal say, everyone arrives at consensus decisions. The title of my piece is taken from a phrase coined by Franklin Roosevelt referring to the United States' role as an arsenal before fully entering into WWII. In more recent U.S. history this ''arsenal of democracy'' has reached

112 Everett, 66–67. 113 Everett, 67. See also, “Orkest de Volharding: ‘The Minimalists,’” Mode Records, accessed March 16, 2019, http://www.moderecords.com/catalog/214minimalists.html. 114 “Franklin Delano Roosevelt: ‘The Great Arsenal of Democracy,’” American Rhetoric, accessed March 10, 2019, https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/fdrarsenalofdemocracy.html. 82 terrifying and absurd proportions. I imagined that Orkest de Volharding would be a far better arsenal, with trumpets and trombones on the front lines.115

For the analysis that follows, the reader should consult a score. The score and parts are published by Red Poppy Music and are available for rental from G. Schirmer, Inc. via the Music

Sales Classical online service. A loaned perusal score may be requested for a minimal fee.

Measure numbers are provided in the published score.

Arsenal of Democracy Analysis

Thematic and formal overview. Composed in one continuous movement that runs around eight-and-a-half minutes, Arsenal of Democracy lacks obvious formal divisions upon initial hearing. However, the pitch-class sets that define the harmonic content of Arsenal of

Democracy organize the structure. In many cases, pitch-class sets co-occur with specific motives, associating pitch with rhythm and dynamics in a thematic function. The organization of these thematic sets—how they are repeated, juxtaposed with one another, or expand and contract—illuminates both the formal and poetic structure of the composition.

Wolfe does not appear to rely on established set-transformational procedures— transposition and inversion—to develop new pitch material. When thematic sets recur, the orchestration differs, but the pitch-classes are invariant. To underscore the non-transformational nature of Wolfe’s pitch-class sets, the following analysis will rely on integer pitch-class notation in normal form enclosed by square brackets to label the thematic sets, for example: [5,7,10,0,1].

Individual pitch-classes will be abbreviated pc, for example: pc8. A brief description of this notation can be found in Chapter 1 under the section Conventions Used.116

115 Julia Wolfe, “Arsenal of Democracy,” Julia Wolfe, January 9, 2014, https://juliawolfemusic.com/music/arsenal- of-democracy. 116 For more detailed information, consult Straus, Introduction to Post-Tonal Theory, 43–46. 83 The orchestration of Arsenal of Democracy is constantly in flux. Throughout the work, small groups of instruments within the ensemble perform contrasting motives, but the membership of each group evolves as the piece unfolds. Perusing the first few pages of the score provides an example of Wolfe’s dynamic, evolving orchestration. In mm. 1-5, two groups perform contrasting motives. Repeated sixteenth notes together with trilled sustained notes form one group (for the purpose of this discussion, group A) consisting of piccolo, soprano saxophone, alto saxophone, trumpets, and piano. Short duration notes with rapid crescendos from pianissimo to forte form the contrasting group (group B) consisting of baritone saxophone, horn, trombones, and bass guitar (see Fig. 4.1 for the first two measures). At m. 6, the group membership changes when baritone saxophone, 1st trombone, and 2nd trombone join group A. At m. 7, further changes occur when piccolo, tenor saxophone, and 3rd trumpet join group B. As additional motives are added at m. 9 and beyond, the shifting orchestration becomes increasingly complex and unpredictable. This feature of Wolfe’s compositional technique is daunting to less- experienced players who are used to performing music with standard, predictable orchestration.

However, accomplished players have found this aspect of the work refreshing and exciting—a welcome break from established norms.

The contrasting motives alternate so that when one motive sounds the other is silent, making a continuous stream of music. The rhythmic alternation of motives throughout Arsenal of

Democracy is reminiscent of hocket—a stylistic technique from thirteenth and fourteenth century polyphony in which a melodic line is distributed among two or more voices. This medieval compositional device has also been employed by modern composers, notably Louis Andriessen.

84 [0,1,4,6,7]

pc2

pc9

Figure 4.1: Arsenal of Democracy, mm. 1-2, full score. Score is in concert pitch. Note the contrasting motives juxtaposed in hocket. Also note the addition of pc2 and pc9 in m. 2, beginning the process of incomplete chromatic saturation in the first thematic section. Copyright © 1993 by Red Poppy. Administered exclusively worldwide by G. Schirmer, Inc. International Copyright Secured. All Rights Reserved. Reprinted by Permission.

85 Hocket technique appears throughout Andriessen’s corpus, prominently in his 1976 work,

Hoketus.117 However, the hockets in Wolfe’s Arsenal of Democracy do not carry a melodic line; rather, they juxtapose contrasting motives (see again Fig. 4.1). Despite this difference in how hocket technique is applied to her composition, Wolfe’s use of hockets appears to be an homage to her mentor, Andriessen.

The relationship between the pitch-class sets and the contrasting hocket motives reveals that the poetic arc of Arsenal of Democracy proceeds from integration to disintegration. At the beginning of the work, one pitch-class set is shared among the groups of instruments in hockets.

Later in the work, the contrasting motives also employ contrasting pitch-class sets, increasing the distinction between the motives and creating a sense of conflict—confirmed by the performance indication of “violent interruption” in the score (see mm. 184 and 199). How this narrative of integration and disintegration unfolds will be detailed below.

Integration. The first pitch-class set of the work [0,1,4,6,7]—shared by piccolo, soprano saxophone, alto saxophone, trumpets, and piano in m. 1—recurs multiple times throughout the work. It is a germinal set that expands by gradually accumulating pitch-classes in the following measures: pc2 and pc9 in m. 2, pc11 in m. 6, pc3 and pc5 in m. 9, and pc8 in m. 11 (see again

Fig. 4.1 for the first two measures). By m. 11, Wolfe has nearly saturated the gamut of chromatic pitch-classes with the accumulated set [11,0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9]; however, pc10 remains notably absent until m. 19 when a contrasting theme appears. This is the first instance of a recurring structure in Arsenal of Democracy: incomplete chromatic saturation within a thematic section.

Incomplete chromatic saturation occurs at multiple points in the work, which will be detailed below. As a recurring structure, one wonders about Wolfe’s motivation for utilizing this

117 Everett, The Music of Louis Andriessen, 55. 86 device. Is the purpose to leave the structure incomplete and open, so that the composition may proceed to the next theme? This hypothesis would seem to be supported by the fact that pc10— omitted in mm. 1-18—appears in the contrasting theme that follows in mm. 19-20. However, one also recalls Wolfe’s frustration with serial composition technique during her undergraduate composition studies. Is Wolfe perhaps avoiding chromatic saturation as a subtle rebellion against what she considered a restrictive compositional approach?

In mm. 19-20, a contrasting theme introduces a rhythmic motive of triplets as well as a new pitch-class set of [5,7,10,0,1]. At m. 21, the opening set [0,1,4,6,7] and the hocket motives resume the process of incomplete chromatic saturation. Pitch-classes accumulate throughout the following measures: pc2 and pc9 later in m. 21, pc10 in m. 22, pc5 in m. 24, pc3 in m. 25, and pc11 in m. 27. In this thematic section (mm. 21-27), pc8 has been omitted to avoid chromatic saturation.

Set [4,6,7,9,11,1] interrupts with layered subdivisions—performed “with an edge”—at the end of m. 27 through m. 29. There is a brief return of the contrasting hocket motives in m.

30. In mm. 31-32 a variation on the [5,7,10,0,1] theme appears in rhythmic augmentation

(compare with mm. 19-20). The hockets return yet again in m. 33, continuing to omit pc8 throughout these passages.

After a brief transition in 7/8 meter (m. 34), all themes and motives of the first 33 measures are restated with variation in mm. 35-67. For this variation the driving sixteenth notes change pitch more often, dynamics decrescendo as well as crescendo, and there are numerous changes to the orchestration. However, the thematic and motivic structure is nearly identical to the first 33 measures, including the order and placement of the accumulating chromatic pitch-

87 classes.118 After the variation, the hocket motives continue in mm. 67-85 like an extended codetta—still without introducing pc8. Although there is a brief pause on a sustained chord at m.

79, the continuing hockets following this chord cohere with the preceding themes, not a new section.

In this first portion of Arsenal of Democracy, the motives juxtaposed in hocket shared common pitch-class sets. Within thematic sections, pitch-classes accumulated to near-chromatic saturation. Themes returned in variation, unifying the structure. These elements contribute to integration—the gathering and unification of thematic material. In the next portion of the work, integration breaks down and conflict emerges.

Conflict emerges. Transitional material opens this section of the work. With a sudden soft dynamic, the texture thins to two pitch-classes [10,2] at m. 86. Sustained notes paired with legato repeated sixteenth notes accumulate pitch-classes to form set [10,1,2,4,5] while making an extended crescendo in mm. 86-90. A forte sustained [2,3,5,7,9,11] chord suddenly intrudes in mm. 91-92. The rising and falling sixteenth notes in mm. 93-94 resemble a C melodic minor pitch-class collection—mixing B♮ and B♭—but the pitches are not arranged in such way as to make a tonal implication. A second accumulating crescendo in mm. 95-97 starts with set [0,2] and grows to set [11,0,1,2,3,5]. In mm. 97-102, the now-familiar thematic set [5,7,10,0,1] returns once again in a still-broader rhythmic augmentation than before.

118 There are two exceptions to the congruity of accumulating pitch-classes between the first and second statements of the opening themes. The first incongruity is at m. 27, when it appears that a G♯ is indicated in piano, right hand. Given the irregular engraving of these accidentals and the mismatch between this chord and the chords in m. 28, this may be a score misprint that was subsequently transcribed to the part (compare mm. 27-28 with mm. 61-62). The second incongruity is at m. 40, when pc5 arrives in 2nd trumpet earlier than expected based on the preceding sequence of pitches (compare 2nd trumpet and baritone saxophone mm. 40-43 with mm. 6-9). It is possible that an engraving mistake omitted the F♯ indication in this measure. Given the remarkable similarities between mm. 1-33 and mm. 35-67, whether or not to treat these incongruities as errata or as intentional variations by the composer is left to the conductor’s discretion. 88 [0,4,6,7]

[0,2,3,5,7]

Figure 4.2: Arsenal of Democracy, mm. 102-104, full score. Score is in concert pitch. Note the conflict between [0,4,6,7] and [0,2,3,5,7]. Copyright © 1993 by Red Poppy. Administered exclusively worldwide by G. Schirmer, Inc. International Copyright Secured. All Rights Reserved. Reprinted by Permission. 89 At the end of m. 102, conflict emerges. The hocket structure of contrasting motives returns, but now the juxtaposed motives are composed of different pitch-class sets (see Figure

4.2). Conflict between set [0,4,6,7]—which is a subset of the opening [0,1,4,6,7]—and set

[0,2,3,5,7] continues through m. 119. Additional sets comprised mostly of semitones join the fray—for example, [0,1,2,3] in the second half of m. 115, or [9,0,1,2,3,4] at the beginning of m.

118. At mm. 119-123, set [0,2,3,5,7] is finally unchallenged, yet reserved to softer dynamics. As this section of the work draws to a close, the tension builds in mm. 123-126: the dynamic level increases to mezzo-forte, the texture thickens as all instruments play together, and pc6 is added in flute and 1st trumpet.

Minimalist digression. In mm. 127-151 a minimalist digression provides formal contrast

(see Fig 4.3). Although this passage is not characterized by the periodic repetition of ostinato patterns that is typically associated with minimalism, it is composed with limited means that remain unchanged for 22 measures. There are three musical ideas: solo pitch-bends in flute, responding fortissimo chords from the remaining wind instruments, and rhythmic tension between the piano and bass. Wolfe’s unconventional approach to minimalism uses aperiodic repetition for these constrained musical ideas. The rhythmic spacing between the pitch-bends in flute and the responding chords from winds is varying and unpredictable. The conflicting rhythms in piano and bass also do not conform to a repeating pattern.

Regarding pitch content, this minimalist passage is harmonically static, confined to set

[3,4,6,8,9] until the transitional sixteenth notes at the end of this section introduce pc5 for added tension (mm. 149-151). Interestingly, pc8—not heard since m. 45—has made its long-awaited appearance in this section, prominently displayed as the pitch-bends in flute and included in the responding chords in winds.

Figure 4.3: Arsenal of Democracy, mm. 129-131, full score. Score is in concert pitch. Sample of the minimalist portion of the work. Copyright © 1993 by Red Poppy. Administered exclusively worldwide by G. Schirmer, Inc. International Copyright Secured. All Rights Reserved. Reprinted by Permission.

91 Disintegration. The remaining half of the work (mm. 152-296) functions as a single structural unit that gradually disintegrates during the course of roughly four minutes. As in mm.

102-126 (see Conflict emerges, p. 90), the juxtaposed motives in this section also have conflicting pitch-class sets. Wolfe progressively disintegrates the structure in this final section with limited pitch content, thinner textures, noise effects, and decreased rhythmic activity.

A melodic line at m. 152f.—indicated “legato, expressive” in the score—is doubled in sustained notes in baritone saxophone and repeated sixteenth notes in 1st trombone. The horn and piano left hand provide accompaniment “with forward motion.” Wolfe’s dynamic, evolving orchestration shifts both the melodic line and accompaniment to various instruments, but the melody may be traced in the score by continuing indications of “legato, expressive” or simply

“legato.”

Through m. 167, the melodic motive is limited to set [1,3,4]. New pitch-classes are added to the melodic motive in the following measures: pc0 in m. 168, pc6 in m. 172, pc8 in m. 176, and pc7 in m. 177. At first, it may seem that Wolfe is repeating the process of incomplete chromatic saturation that she employed in the first portion of the work. However, this section differs from the opening section in an important way: when pitch-classes were introduced in the opening section, they accumulated with the preceding pitch-classes to saturate the chromatic gamut. In contrast, when new pitch-classes are introduced in mm. 168f., previous pitch-classes are discarded, maintaining limited pitch content and thinner textures. For example, in the melodic passage at mm. 186-188, dyads shift from [4,8] to [3,8] to [1,3].

The legato melody (m. 152f.) is interrupted by a noisy, aggressive motive of repeated sixteenth notes in 2nd and 3rd trumpets and 2nd and 3rd trombones, flutter-tongued sustained notes

92 Melodic motive [1,3,4]

Noisy interruptions [2,3,4,5,6,7,8]

Figure 4.4: Arsenal of Democracy, mm. 153-155, full score. Score is in concert pitch. Note the contrast between the melodic motive [1,3,4], and the interruptions [2,3,4,5,6,7,8]. Copyright © 1993 by Red Poppy. Administered exclusively worldwide by G. Schirmer, Inc. International Copyright Secured. All Rights Reserved. Reprinted by Permission. 93 in alto and tenor saxophones and 1st trumpet, and cluster chords in the piano right hand (see Fig.

4.4). In stark contrast to the thin-textured melodic motive, the interruptions consist of large sets dominated by semitones—for example, set [2,3,4,5,6,7,8] in mm. 153-163. Adding to the noisiness created by flutter-tongue effects and cluster chords, Wolfe calls for distortion in the electric bass at m. 165. Throughout this section, conflicting motives are arranged in a hocket structure like the beginning of the work; however, this is not a return to previous motives or pitch-class sets. The form does not recapitulate. Arsenal of Democracy is organized in what

Wolfe might call a “unidirectional form.”119

As the disintegration continues in mm. 194f., the repeated note subdivisions begin to slow down: sixteenth notes are sometimes replaced with eighth notes, quarter notes, or triplets

(e.g. mm. 194-196). Thin textures of dyads and triads—non-tertian triads, typically—continue to be interrupted by a variety of highly chromatic sets featuring clusters in the piano part, distortion in the bass, and may include the words “violent interruption” in the score (e.g. mm. 199-200). At m. 231, the previously unbroken stream of continuous music finally begins to sputter. Brief rests in 2nd trumpet and 2nd trombone are not filled with a hocket response. At mm. 245-255, the silent spaces between the motives grow wider and pitches are thinned to dyads and monads. The forward motion grinds to a halt on a unison pc2 with a fermata at m. 255.

Following this pause, the motor starts and stops several more times before the final measure. Set [8,9,11,1] competes with a variety of interruptions throughout mm. 255-268, concluding on isolated [8,1] dyads in piano. An “aggressive” set [11,0,1] punctures the silence in m. 269. In mm. 270-277, [8,9,1,4] competes with conflicting interruptions and again concludes on [8,1] dyads in piano with even longer silences around them. In a final flurry of activity, mm.

119 Wolfe, “Embracing the Clash,” 44. 94 279-296 include several new pitch-class sets, reprise the rapid crescendos from the opening section, juxtapose syncopated rhythms in triple and duple subdivision, and snarl with distortion in the electric bass. After this frenzy, the dyad [9,11] in piano concludes the work without any sense of finality, as though an open question remains.

In this closing section, Wolfe contrasted a thin-textured melodic motive with noisy, aggressive interruptions. As the section prolonged, rhythmic activity decreased. Tiny cracks of rests without hockets expanded into long stretches of silence. In the final measures, spasmodic utterances railed against the inevitable end. Wolfe’s narrative of disintegration has concluded.

Table 4.1: Form of Arsenal of Democracy.

Form Integration Conflict emerges Minimalist digression Disintegration (continuous) mm. 1-85 mm. 86-126 mm. 152-151 mm. 152-296 (85 measures) (41 measures) (25 measures) (145 measures)

Description Hockets begin with Two extended crescendos Unpredictable rhythmic Melodic passages start [0,1,4,6,7] then accumulate that accumulate pitch space between flute and with [1,3,4] pitch classes classes other winds Noisy contrasting motive [5,7,10,0,1] triplets [5,7,10,0,1] returns in Rhythmic conflict between in hockets broader rhythmic bass and piano Hockets begin with augmentation Thin textures; rhythmic [0,1,4,6,7] then accumulate Minimal harmonic content activity decreases pitch classes Conflict between [0,4,6,7] [3,4,6,8,9] and [0,2,3,5,7] Sustained pc2 on fermata [4,6,7,9,11,1] layered Includes long-awaited subdivisions [0,2,3,5,7] remains and arrival of pc8 Final starts and stops tension builds to next [5,7,10,0,1] rhythmic section augmentation

Variation of the above themes

Transitional codetta

95 Technical considerations. The beginning and end of all sounds in Wolfe’s Arsenal of

Democracy must have clearly defined edges. This requires a precise release of each note that differs from typical performance practice for classical and romantic music. For example, in mm.

1-2, piccolo, soprano saxophone, and alto saxophone have a whole note tied to an eighth note

(see again Figure 4.1). In most chamber wind music, this notation would be interpreted as an open, resonant release on the downbeat of the measure. In Arsenal of Democracy, this should be treated as a sound that is exactly the length of nine eighth notes, followed by a sudden silence on the second eighth note of m. 2. Notes should not be tongue-stopped, but players should exercise careful control of their air stream to achieve these on-off sound effects.

Ensemble balance in loud passages depends on the piano. The wind instruments and amplified bass guitar in this work are capable of producing a large volume of sound. However, the piano, particularly in its high range, reaches a dynamic limit that the instrument cannot exceed. During fortissimo dynamics throughout the work, conductor and players should be sensitive to not overbalance the piano and obscure its contribution to the sonority.

Other specific considerations:

• Rapid crescendos in piccolo from pianissimo to forte tend to produce a rising pitch.

Advanced players are capable of correcting the pitch bend; however, the conductor may

wish to leave the bend as a natural effect resulting from the use of that instrument and

technique.

• In mm. 31-32 and 65-66, all wind players should perform very rapid decrescendos so that

the alternation of hockets is clearly audible.

• The tremolo markings occurring throughout this work should be interpreted as flutter

tonguing, a technique that is readily available to most brass and flute players. For

96 saxophones, flutter tonguing is also the preferred effect, but it is more difficult to execute.

If the saxophone players are unable to execute this technique, a growl may substitute.

• In the minimalist section (mm. 126-151), flute should begin each fall as loudly as

possible and then rapidly decrescendo as pitch falls. The pitch bend effect here is most

effectively executed by slowly closing the key under the first finger of the left hand,

rather than by manipulating the embouchure. The indicated fortissimo response from the

other wind instruments will necessarily be louder than solo flute, but should not be so

loud as to be dramatically out of balance.

• The baritone saxophone legato line in mm. 152-182 should be played with a full and

resonant sound. The trombone sixteenth notes that support this line should be molto

legato, played with a “dah-gah” double-tongue articulation, rather than a harsher “tu-ku”

articulation.

• 1st and 2nd trumpet may consider playing E♭ trumpets rather than C trumpets throughout

the work. If the players are comfortable sight transposing, this will facilitate execution of

high range passages.

• The piano part requires careful preparation. Piano clefs should be understood to pertain to

• In the engraving of the parts, downward glissando indications sometimes touch the open

end of crescendo hairpins. This produces a marking that looks like the letter “Z.”

Conductors should clarify for players the intended reading of this confusing marking.

• Piano part and score, m. 88: C♮ sixteenth notes should be corrected to C♯

• Other potential errata in this work have been previously addressed in footnote 118.

97 • Finally, if conductor or players study the recording available for streaming on Julia

Wolfe’s website (see Appendix B), please note that there are four additional measures in

the recording that do not appear in the printed score and parts, occurring between m. 169

and m. 170.

Conclusion

Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Julia Wolfe exemplifies the rebellious, rock-like aesthetic stream of contemporary music. Composed for Orkest de Volharding and inspired by

Louis Andriessen’s legacy, Wolfe’s Arsenal of Democracy offers performers and audiences an opportunity to become acquainted with these important twentieth-century innovators. The instrumentation of trios of saxophones, trumpets, and trombones, plus flute, horn, piano, and electric bass provides programming contrast with standard wind octets and dectets. In fact,

Arsenal of Democracy is ideal for performances in outdoor venues—as were many of Orkest de

Volharding’s performances in its original conception. Advanced players will appreciate Wolfe’s rhythmic challenges, dynamic orchestration, extended techniques, and creative reinterpretation of established compositional norms.

98 CHAPTER 5

WIND SINFONIETTA BY RUTH GIPPS

Biographic Summary and Compositional Influences

Ruth Gipps’ life and career spanned much of the twentieth century. A woman of many talents and indefatigable will, she came to be regarded as both an accomplished musician and— to many she encountered—an acerbic personality. Her career began and ended in two very different eras, and by her later years she remained a defiantly neo-Romantic composer at a time when modernism was reaching its zenith in England. Recent reassessments of her compositions and her professional accomplishments have renewed interest in her life’s work. The following biographic summary owes a great debt to Jill Halstead’s 2006 book, Ruth Gipps: Anti-

Modernism, Nationalism and Difference in English Music. Halstead’s interviews with Gipps, access to Gipps’ memoires, supporting documentation, and analysis of selected compositions provide a detailed, personal picture of a fascinating life. In this context, Halstead also explores the gender politics of twentieth-century music in England. Ruth Gipps’ Wind Sinfonietta (1989), an enduring testament to her creativity and musicianship, will be explored in this chapter.

Early Life and Influences

Ruth Dorothy Lousia Gipps was born on February 20, 1921 to a household dedicated to music. Ruth’s mother, Hélène, was a respected piano teacher with a home studio at Bexhill-on-

Sea, in southeast England. Hélène met Bryan Gipps, Ruth’s father, at the conservatory in

Frankfurt while she was a student-teacher pianist from Switzerland and he was studying violin as

99 a visiting student from England. The couple moved around Europe seeking various employment, meanwhile giving birth to their first two children, Laura and Ernest. The first World War prompted a return to England where Hélène established a reputable music school that provided the main source of income for the family.120

From the time she was very young, Ruth Gipps insisted that everyone call her “Widdy,” later shortened to “Wid” as she was known throughout her adult life. Gipps took to the piano at a very young age under the tutelage of her mother. By age five she was giving public recitals, and by age eight she had published her first composition, The Fairy Shoemaker (1929), under a pseudonym. When the piece became a composition prize-winner at the Brighton Music Festival and the young girl stepped up to perform it, there were early accusations that Hélène had actually written the work and that the competition was a mere publicity stunt to promote her daughter—a claim that Ruth Gipps always denied.121

The child composer and pianist became well-known around southeast England, giving professional concerts and facing both the adulation and skepticism that universally accompany the career of a child prodigy. Following nursery school Ruth Gipps attended The Gables, formerly an all-boys primary school that had recently accepted a limited number of female pupils. For secondary school she attended County School, an all-girls academy that was both academically suffocating and socially challenging for her. As part of a broader effort to improve the standards of girls’ schools at the time, the “feminine” subjects of music, art, and dance were reduced or excluded in favor of other academic pursuits. Furthermore, coming from a boys’ primary school meant that Gipps was not comfortable in the social milieu of an all-girls school.

120 Halstead, Ruth Gipps, 3–4. 121 Halstead, 4–5. 100 She was consistently bullied and found her academic work unbearable until her parents finally hired a tutor at home.122

In 1937, with encouragement from her older brother Ernest who had become a professional violinist, Gipps reluctantly enrolled in the Royal College of Music to further her studies. Her complicated relationship with formal education continued through these five-and-a- half years, during which her obstinate—and by her own admission, “tactless”—personality both earned respect and invited disdain from faculty and students alike.123 By this time, she had already written several complete works, including a piano concerto in 1935, so she was immediately placed in the top composition class under R. O. Morris. She also engaged in a self- described “cold-blooded” campaign to familiarize herself with the various instruments by agreeing to serve as an accompanist to fellow students.124 Once she became familiar enough with the instrument’s capabilities and limitations that she could write a short piece for it, she discontinued her services. Despite her transactional approach to these relationships, Gipps did form some enduring bonds during these years, including those with oboist Marion Brough and her eventual husband, clarinetist Robert Baker.125

No longer a child prodigy, Gipps met considerable resistance in her piano studies during this time. Before entering the Royal College she had previously failed to earn a Licentiate of the

Royal Academy of Music (LRAM) performer’s diploma, failing the exam three times as a teenager. Many of her tutors at the Royal College were similarly frustrated with Gipps’ technique and were even more frustrated with the continued involvement of Hélène in her daughter’s education. Finally seeking help outside of the academy, Gipps sought various tutors

122 Halstead, 5–10. 123 Ruth Gipps, quoted in Halstead, 12. 124 Ruth Gipps, quoted in Halstead, 12. 125 Halstead, 11–12. 101 and eventually began studies with George Weldon, an aspiring young conductor. Rather than emphasizing piano technique, Weldon engaged Gipps with studies of concertos and analyzing works from the perspectives of an orchestral musician or conductor. Gipps had also begun oboe lessons at the Royal College, and by 1940 it became her primary study instrument, including lessons from Léon Goossens. Gipps soon found that working as a freelance oboist in orchestras was a more dependable source of income than trying to secure work as a pianist. This transition had a decisive impact on the events to follow in her career.126

War, Marriage, and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra

As war engulfed Europe and the Blitz of London became a persistent danger, several changes would impact Gipps for both good and ill. In 1939 she had been accepted into Ralph

Vaughan Williams’ esteemed composition class, but before she could begin lessons he left to join the war effort by volunteering for the Auxiliary Fire Service. Instead, Gipps studied orchestration with Gordon Jacob during this time.127

Gipps also began work on her first major success in composition, Knight in Armour, Op.

8 (1940). Drawing from several inspirations for the work—including the omnipresent threat and nationalistic fervor of the war—the title of the work explicitly refers to Rembrandt’s seventeenth-century painting known as Man in Armour. According to her memoires, there was also a personal inspiration: Gipps’ infatuation with a fellow student at the Royal College, Lance

Robinson, who did not return her affections. Gipps’ written program for the work references the legendary Sir Lancelot and his unrequited love for Guinevere portrayed by a duet between oboe and English horn. Two years later, conductor Sir Henry Wood discovered this work in a

126 Halstead, 12–15. 127 Halstead, 19. 102 collection of unpublished music by British composers and it was performed on the last night of the 1942 BBC Promenade Concerts to an enthusiastic response and several positive reviews.

This auspicious debut marked the beginning of a complex professional association with the BBC.

In the following decades, Gipps’ relationship with the BBC would become a source of both pride and frustration. She never experienced another Proms performance in her lifetime.128

Vaughan Williams returned to the Royal College in 1940 and Gipps was finally able to count herself among his students. Though her studies with him were brief, she considered him profoundly influential, and according to her unpublished autobiography he was “the only altogether good person” she ever met. Because of his generosity of spirit and caring for her as a person, Gipps was willing to accept criticism from him that she would not have accepted otherwise.129

According to Halstead, Gipps relationship with clarinetist Robert Baker finally blossomed in her later years of schooling. This relationship was not based on the type of fiery attraction she felt for Lance Robinson, but on the recognition that Robert was a good friend and companion.130 The two became engaged when they were both 19, before Robert’s first deployment with the Royal Air Force. In his absence, Gipps volunteered as an Air Raid

Precautions warden. With guidance from Vaughan Williams, she composed vigorously during this time, winning prizes such as the Cobbett Prize and the Royal College’s Grade Four and

Grade Five composition prizes in consecutive years.131 She concurrently earned a B. Mus. from

Durham University, a degree that she pursued remotely by completing a two-part exam.

Although her first composition submitted for this program was rejected—The Temptation of

128 Halstead, 20–21. 129 Halstead, 22. 130 Halstead, 22–23. 131 Halstead, 23. 103 Christ, Op. 6 (1939)—her second submission successfully earned the degree—a quintet for oboe, clarinet, and strings, Op. 16 (1941).132

Robert Baker and Ruth Gipps married in 1942, before Robert’s next deployment in

March. Gipps graduated from the Royal College of Music that spring and had some early success seeking work as both a pianist and composer. She established a longstanding relationship with

Sir Arthur Bliss, head of music at the BBC, whom she later honored as the dedicatee of her

Symphony No. 4, Op. 61 (1972). During this time, Gipps found abundant work due to the wartime morale-boosting efforts of the Council for the Encouragement of Music and the Arts and the lack of men available to fill the needed orchestra positions. She performed on both piano and oboe with a variety of professional ensembles, including the BBC Theatre Orchestra, the London

Symphony Orchestra, and the Liverpool Philharmonic under the direction of Malcolm Sargent where she played the notoriously difficult English horn part in The Swan of Tuonela by

Sibelius.133

By 1944 George Weldon, who was still a close friend and associate, had become the full- time conductor of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO). He offered Gipps the position of second oboe and English horn. She accepted and moved into an apartment a five- minute walk away from Weldon’s residence. In addition to her duties as an oboist, Gipps occasionally stood in to perform piano solos when contracted soloists were unavailable.

Although for Gipps the CBSO was an important proving ground as a performer, composer, and conductor, this was also a time of intense interpersonal struggle.134

132 Halstead, 21–22. 133 Halstead, 24–25. 134 Halstead, 26. 104 In March 1945 the CBSO held a concert specifically showcasing Gipps’ talents. She performed oboe and English horn in Rimsky-Korsakov’s Capriccio Espagnol, changed her dress and reappeared as the soloist in the Glazunov Piano Concerto in E minor, and then played

English horn again in a performance of her own Symphony No. 1.135 Throughout this time she maintained a close relationship with Weldon and was frequently found at his house, but Gipps never felt completely welcome in the CBSO. She was not the only woman in the orchestra, but she was seen as a “little know-all and a friend of the management.”136 According to Halstead, the seeming impropriety of Gipps—a young married woman whose husband was away at war spending so much personal time with Weldon—only gave the orchestra members more reason to dislike her.137 Later that spring, Gipps was forced out of the orchestra.

Robert came home briefly for a holiday with Gipps and Weldon. Weldon offered Robert a clarinet job in the CBSO, anticipating his demobilization next year. This meant that Gipps would remain in Birmingham for some time longer without her husband. She put together an assortment of jobs: writing program notes, lecturing, broadcasting, adjudicating, freelancing, and composing. She wrote incidental music for radio plays and documentaries at BBC Midland. She also continued to study scores with Weldon.138

When Robert returned in 1946, he accepted the position of first clarinet at the CBSO.139

Robert and Ruth started a family with one son, Lance Baker, who eventually became a horn player and composer in his own right.140 Not willing to delay her career ambitions even for motherhood, Gipps said, “not one sacrifice did I make for that much-wanted baby; I ate my cake

135 Halstead, 27–28. 136 Ruth Gipps, quoted in Halstead, 27. 137 Halstead, 28–29. 138 Halstead, 29–30. 139 Halstead, 30. 140 Catherine Gerhart, Annotated Bibliography of Double Wind Quintet Music, accessed March 22, 2019, http://faculty.washington.edu/gerhart/. 105 and had it.”141 She continued to perform and she pursued a doctoral degree from Durham university, earning the degree after a series of exams and submitting her cantata, The Cat, Op. 32

(1948) as a final composition.142

Shortly after Gipps earned her D. Mus., the job of conductor for the City of Birmingham

Choir came available. In 1948 Weldon gave Gipps a summer of conducting lessons and backed her for the job.143 This experience jumpstarted a passion for conducting that Gipps would pursue for the remainder of her career. Gipps took further lessons with Stanford Robinson and received financial support from a friend, amateur viola player Jack Graty, to give a concert of new British music in Birmingham with the Co-Operative Orchestra in 1949.144

By 1950, Weldon was no longer conductor of the CBSO and had been replaced by

Rudolph Schwartz. According to Gipps, Weldon resigned before he would have been terminated, although the exact reason remains unclear.145 At the same time, Gipps was similarly unemployed and found that her compositions were no longer being performed. However, Robert still had a job as first clarinet which kept him in Birmingham for another eleven years. Gipps found new employment with the Oxford Extra-Mural Board of Studies, teaching music appreciation classes and travelling around the country some 500 miles per week. Her right hand, which had been injured in a cycling accident as a teenager, started to give her greater trouble, effectively ending her career as a performing pianist.146

141 Ruth Gipps, quoted in Halstead, Ruth Gipps, 31. 142 Halstead, 31. 143 Halstead, 31–32. 144 Halstead, 33. See also, Raymond Holden, “Gipps, Ruth Dorothy Louisa (1921–1999), Conductor and Composer,” in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press, September 23, 2004), https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/72069. 145 Halstead, 32. 146 Halstead, 32–33. 106 In 1954, with financial support from Gipps’s friend and fellow composer Adrian Cruft, she had her first professional conducting assignment with the Boyd Neel Orchestra performing in

Birmingham. The concert included Mozart Symphonies Nos. 39 and 40, Piano Concerto No. 23 with Dola Harris as soloist, and Gipps’ own Clarinet Concerto featuring Robert as soloist. To pursue her conducting ambitions further, a return to London would be necessary.147

Return to London and Conducting Career

Gipps took on the role of impresario and educator in London. In 1955 she founded and conducted an ensemble to fill a need for aspiring professional musicians: graduates of music schools were accustomed to rehearsing for several weeks in preparation for a concert, but in the professional world, one or two rehearsals is the norm. Originally called the One Rehearsal

Orchestra, later renamed the London Repertoire Orchestra (LRO), this ensemble provided both the ensemble members and many concerto soloists an opportunity to familiarize themselves with the repertoire and demands of the professional world.148 Gipps described the pleasure she took in the group:

I am convinced that the…orchestra is doing useful work, but I must admit that my main enthusiasm for the orchestra derives from what is often mentioned by members of our concert audiences—“the players so obviously enjoy themselves.”149

In a high-profile concert financed by her mother, Gipps conducted the Pro Arte Orchestra and Goldsmith’s Choral Union at Royal Festival Hall in 1957. The concert featured Gipps’ cantata, The Cat, and Beethoven’s Choral Symphony. Reviews were generally positive, crediting her musicianship and the enthusiasm of the players under her direction.150 More conducting

147 Halstead, 33. 148 Halstead, 33. 149 Quoted in Halstead, 45. 150 Halstead, 46. 107 engagements followed. In 1958, Gipps stepped in front of the still all-male London Symphony

Orchestra for two concerts in November and December. According to Halstead’s correspondence with Gipps:

Wid had an ace up her sleeve, and she opened her first rehearsal by stating: “This isn’t the first time I have worked with you—during the war I played second oboe with you for a week in the Albert Hall.” They applauded and gave her no difficulty.151

In 1959, Gipps was awarded an English Speaking Union Fellowship to research the development and organization of professional orchestras in the United States. Following a two- month tour of the U.S. where she met with Leonard Bernstein, Frank Lloyd Wright, and other famous Americans, she submitted a report to the Incorporated Society of Musicians and the

Composer’s Guild.152 She also published articles in which she noted the independence of

American orchestras from governmental oversight. She decried the system of state sponsorship in England that had choked out smaller municipal orchestras and provided fewer opportunities for young players to develop their skills.153 This is one example of the antagonistic posture that

Gipps began to assume with the musical establishment. More disagreements would follow in the coming years.

After her trip to the U.S., Gipps began a full-time teaching career at Trinity College,

London. She never saw herself as a teacher primarily, stating: “I hate teaching, I resent teaching,

I despise teaching—not for real teachers, but for me.”154 Gipps was often a difficult person to like, but the irony is that most often it was her students who liked her best. She was enthusiastic and supportive, considering them family.155 Cellist and conductor Julian Lloyd Webber said of

151 Halstead, 46. 152 Halstead, 34–35. 153 Halstead, 53–54. 154 Quoted in Halstead, 35. 155 Halstead, 36. 108 Gipps, "Without people like her…a lot of us would not have had the necessary experience of the repertoire when we first entered the profession."156

Around this time Robert received a large, unexpected inheritance that provided the startup funds for the type of independent professional orchestra Gipps idealized. In 1961 she founded the London Chanticleer Orchestra, starting with a series of six concerts in St. Pancras

Town Hall. Eventually she gained the support of the Gulbenkian Foundation and the Arts

Council and was able to give two or three concerts each year in London’s Queen Elizabeth

Hall.157

Although she was a teacher of advanced students, conductor of two orchestras, recognized composer, and guest conductor with professional ensembles, this time period was also littered with disappointments for Gipps. In 1955 she was turned down for a job at BBC

Midland as assistant conductor and accompanist, told by the panel that a woman would not command respect from an orchestra of men.158 In 1966 she made it to the final stage of interviews for the position of principalship at Trinity College, but was ultimately rejected.

Though the college indicated that there was no prejudice against women involved in the decision, Gipps suspected otherwise and resigned from Trinity soon after.159

Starting in 1967, Gipps filled the vacancy left by Gordon Jacob at the Royal College of

Music, her alma mater.160 She was lecturer in composition and conductor of the first and second orchestras—a post she held for ten years. But this appointment also ended poorly as she conflicted with Sir David Willcocks and Anthony Milner over who should serve on the

156 Lewis Foreman, “Obituary: Ruth Gipps,” The Independent, March 3, 1999, sec. Culture, http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/obituary-ruth-gipps-1077990.html. 157 Halstead, Ruth Gipps, 36, 46–47. 158 Halstead, 47. 159 Halstead, 35. 160 Foreman, “Obituary.” 109 University of London Committee, and she was asked to resign. She briefly held a position as senior lecturer at Kingston Polytechnic, but again resigned after two years in 1979.161 Although these career setbacks frustrated her ambitions, the arena in which Gipps more keenly felt her exclusion was as a composer. Her tonal, neo-Romantic compositions were out of step with emerging modernist trends in Britain.

Opposition to Modernism

When Gipps began her composing career, England was in the midst of a nationalistic musical renaissance that had begun around the turn of the twentieth century and subsequently heightened during wartime. With particular emphasis on British folk music and similar-sounding pastoral melodies, this neo-Romantic orientation focused on modal melodies, homophonic textures, and triadic—if sometimes non-functional—harmonies. Reared as a child by an accomplished pianist and then formally educated by masters of this style, Gipps’s music naturally exemplified the best of this era. But in the years following the Second World War, especially in the 1950s and 1960s, British musical culture shifted rapidly beneath her feet.

Halstead provides a nuanced account of this shift in chapter five of her book; highlights are summarized below.

Particularly influential in the wave of British modernism was the arrival of William

Glock as head of the BBC in 1959, who undertook a far-reaching initiative to introduce England to musical currents that had been flourishing in Europe for quite some time. These efforts were reflected in academia as well, with conservative composers eventually being sidelined in favor of modernist influencers. Gipps, the proud warrior for her own understanding of musical

161 Halstead, Ruth Gipps, 35. 110 excellence, did not take these changes sitting down. A series of published exchanges in 1960 between Gipps and composer Reginald Smith Brindle in the Musical Times illustrates the temperament of both sides. Gipps alleged:

It is quite time this “serial music” nonsense was debunked. Music is an aural art, not a visual design on manuscript paper… often he [the serial composer] cannot even at rehearsal say whether his so-called “music” is played correctly. The result is often unpleasant, sometimes harmless, and—as we all know by now—invariably boring… the public hates “twelve note music.” What needs stating emphatically is that most professional performing musicians dislike it just as much… Those naïve people who have been bamboozled by this passing craze will doubtless call me reactionary, prejudiced or a fool. This was the fate of the boy in Hans Andersen’s story who said: “But the emperor hasn’t any clothes on.”162

Smith Bridle retorted:

I regret that she and other professionals cannot appreciate twelve-tone music. The reason is naturally their retarded and under-developed aesthetic sensibility in this field… Far from being a “passing craze” twelve-tone music is already a part of the classical tradition on the continent. As history proves, Britain will eventually embrace the same state of affairs. 163

The changing musical landscape led to an increasingly tense relationship between Gipps and the BBC. Gipps conducted her own Symphony No. 3 in 1969 on a BBC broadcast—a first for a female composer. The BBC also broadcast her darker and more progressive Symphony No.

4 in 1983. But when she submitted her Symphony No. 5 in 1985 it was rejected. Gipps was led to believe that “they didn’t broadcast that sort of music any more.”164 Without broadcast performances and professional recordings, it became increasingly difficult for Gipps to be recognized as a composer of merit in the latter twentieth century. Although she continued to compose into the mid-1990s, Symphony No. 5 was Gipps’ last work for large orchestra. The

162 Quoted in Halstead, 78–79. 163 Quoted in Halstead, 79. 164 Quoted in Halstead, 81. 111 remainder of her compositional output was focused on chamber orchestra, chamber winds, and various small ensembles.

Late Career and Legacy

In addition to her teaching career and advocacy for young professional musicians, in

1966 Gipps became chair of the Composers’ Guild of Great Britain just as the British Music

Information Center (BMIC) was preparing to open. This important institution served as a repository for compositions by British composers, both published and unpublished, with scores dating back to 1900.165 Previous members of the Guild had promoted the idea and raised grant funding to support it, but it fell to Gipps and Guild secretary Elizabeth Yeoman to sort 32 chests of music and coordinate the renovation of space in West London for the BMIC opening in

1967.166 The BMIC has since been renamed the British Music Collection and merged with other charitable musical organizations under the umbrella of Sound and Music, a national charity for new music in the United Kingdom.167 To this day, Gipps’ painstaking contribution to this legacy is largely unrecognized.

In honor of Gipps’ 60th birthday in 1981, Jack Graty and Lorrain Nagioff with the help of former members of the London Repertoire Orchestra organized a birthday concert in Queen

Elizabeth Hall. She was presented with a check for £900 by the Master of the Queen’s Music which she spent on a long-held ambition to travel through India and Nepal. That same year she

165 “The British Music Collection — Clean, Shiny and Accessible!,” Heritage Quay (blog), accessed March 22, 2019, http://heritagequay.org/2015/08/the-british-music-collection-clean-shiny-and-accessible/. 166 Halstead, Ruth Gipps, 36–37. 167 “About Us,” Sound and Music, accessed March 22, 2019, http://www.soundandmusic.org/knowledge-hub/about. 112 was awarded the chivalric rank of Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire

(MBE) in recognition of her “services to music.”168

Because the London Repertoire Orchestra was subject to the regulations of the Inner

London Education Authority, Gipps was compelled to retire in 1986 at the age of 65.169 The

LRO continued under the direction of Francis Griffin until 2009 and continues to operate today with freelance conductors and players.170 Gipps found continuing musical outlets by playing church organ—although she refused to play modern “pop” hymns—and conducting the

Heathfield Choral Society.171

In her later years, Gipps enjoyed the pleasures of a Tudor house in East Sussex called

Tickerage Castle that she and Robert shared with Jack Graty.172 She was also a sportscar enthusiast, and loved to be seen driving a 1935 MG, and later a 1968 Morgan.173 After surviving both breast cancer in 1992 and a stroke in 1997, Gipps passed away in a nursing home on

February 23, 1999.174

Wind Sinfonietta

Overview of Composition

Gipps wrote her Wind Sinfonietta, Op. 73 (1989) for the Rondel Ensemble, a chamber wind ensemble in which her son, Lance Baker, played first horn.175 Although the work is written

168 Halstead, Ruth Gipps, 37–38. 169 Halstead, Ruth Gipps. 170 “LRO History,” London Repertoire Orchestra, accessed March 21, 2019, http://londonrepertoireorchestra.org.uk/lro-history/. 171 Halstead, Ruth Gipps, 38–39. 172 Halstead, 38. 173 Foreman, “Obituary.” 174 Halstead, Ruth Gipps, 39. 175 Gerhart. 113 in a conservative tonal style, the parts are moderately difficult. Presumably due to Gipps faith in her son’s performance abilities, the 1st horn part is challenging, with a written range to D♮ above the treble staff. This part may be performed on a descant horn—a double horn pitched in B♭ and high-F. The 1st horn part also doubles on optional tam-tam, which is employed at the start and finish of the first movement and at the end of the final movement. Conductors and players should note that bass clef horn passages in both the score and the 2nd horn part are in old-style notation and should be played “up” accordingly.

The term sinfonietta implies a work with symphonic character, but lighter in style or limited in means. Though the word is Italian in construction, it is not genuine Italian vocabulary and has been seldom used by Italian composers.176 However, the term has been in frequent usage since the early twentieth century, employed by numerous composers. In the case of Gipps’

Sinfonietta, the term applies to both the ensemble and the scope of the work. Performed by a chamber ensemble of ten players—a pair of flutes (second doubles piccolo), oboe, English horn, and pairs of clarinets in A, bassoons, and horns in F—Sinfonietta is 17-18 minutes in performance length. This work does not adhere to the poetics often associated with the term symphony—that is, conflict between opposing themes.177 As Halstead notes in her gender- informed analysis of Gipps’ Symphony No. 2, expression through conflict is not always suited to

Gipps’ compositional aims.178 Rather, Gipps’ Sinfonietta allows each theme to be heard and developed before moving on to contrasting material. The melodic line is often played by solo instruments, supported by the ensemble with accompaniment or counterpoint.

176 Nicholas Temperley, “Sinfonietta,” in Grove Music Online (Oxford University Press, 2001), https://doi.org/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.25862. 177 While not original to Christopher Small, the concept of a symphony as a drama of opposition is vividly articulated in chapters 9-11 of his influential—somewhat polemical—book, Musicking: The Meanings of Performing and Listening (Wesleyan University Press, 1998). 178 Halstead, Ruth Gipps, 152–62. 114 For the analysis that follows, the reader should consult a score with numbered measures.

The published score and parts are available from Tickerage Press and can be purchased from

June Emerson Wind Music in the United Kingdom. Measures should be numbered continuously through the movements. Movement I contains measures 1 through 61; Movement II, measures

62 through 112; Movement III, measures 113 through 193; and Movement IV, measures 194 through 289.

Movement I, Andante

Thematic and formal overview. The first movement is a rounded continuous form that begins in C major with undulating accompaniment in flutes and clarinets, encompassing all notes of the C major scale but F♮. The first two notes of the theme in English horn leap up a major seventh, emphasizing the leading tone (m. 1-3, see Fig 5.1). The theme is nearly lost in the rich harmonies of m. 4, but re-emerges in oboe (m.5) and 1st flute (m.6). Gipps’ triadic harmonies in the first six measures of the work traverse CΔ7, D♭7, CΔ7, F♯m7, F♯m7 over B♮, A♭ over B♮, Bm,

GΔ7(♯11), E7(no 3rd), and finally return to CΔ7 in m. 7. These extended tertian harmonies support the theme without providing clear functional orientation. As the theme is stated again in flutes and clarinets (mm. 7-10), the harmonic progression is likewise repeated. A developmental extension of the theme (mm. 11-12) crescendos to the GmΔ7 in the second half of m. 12. This melodic- minor sonority in G♮ functions as the dominant in a movement that is tonally anchored in C♮.

The structural role of this chord is confirmed by the placement of GmΔ7 here, at the end of the A section of the form, and the recurrence of GmΔ7 at m. 44 before the recapitulation.

115

Figure 5.1: Wind Sinfonietta, mvt. I, theme I, English horn mm. 2-3.

The contrasting portion of the movement provides two additional thematic sections, ending with a rhythmic retransition to the original material. Introduced with harmonic alternation between Cm7 and CΔ7 in m. 14, the second theme is light and detached, appearing in oboe in C major (mm. 15-16, see Fig. 5.2) and English horn in D♭ major (mm. 17-18). These two thematic statements are followed by brief motivic development in 1st horn (m. 19), 1st clarinet (m. 19-20), and flutes (m. 20), and are concluded with parallel fourths and fifths in oboe and English horn

(m. 21). The pattern seen here of two thematic statements followed by extending or developmental material occurs throughout Gipps’ Sinfonietta. In the first movement, this is the design of the A section (mm. 1-13), the B section (mm. 14-21), and the following C section (mm.

22-38).

Figure 5.2: Wind Sinfonietta, mvt. I, theme II, oboe mm. 15-16.

116 The third theme, passionate and pastoral, starts in D minor in 1st horn (mm. 23-26, see

Fig. 5.3). As the theme extends, developing the motives, it is supported by 2nd horn (mm. 27-29).

The next statement in oboe starts in E♭ minor (mm. 30-33) and is supported by English horn

(mm. 31-33) with countermelodies in 1st horn (m. 31) and 1st clarinet (m. 32-33). A beautiful harmonic suspension and resolution takes place at the end of m. 33. Again, the two thematic statements are followed by motivic development in mm. 34-38. A duet between oboe and 1st horn (mm. 37-38) concludes this section and leads to the retransition. The retransition (mm. 39-

45) provides no melodic theme. The marcato ostinato begins soft and crescendos as Gipps weaves an increasingly complex series of harmonies, culminating on the dominant-function

GmΔ7 (m. 44).

Figure 5.3: Wind Sinfonietta, mvt. I, theme III, 1st horn mm. 23-26.

The returning A’ section (mm. 46-54) presents the beginning of the first theme in C major in oboe (mm. 46-47), followed by E♭ major in English horn (mm. 48-49). Motivic development follows in both instruments (mm. 50-53). Additional motives from earlier in the movement are recalled by 1st bassoon (m. 53) and 1st horn (m. 54). The coda (mm. 55-60) concludes the work meno mosso with a harmonic departure from C major and brief recollections of previous motives: the rhythmic ostinato of the retransition, the horn theme, and the undulating sixteenth

117 note accompaniment all return. The final G♯m7 chord, distant from C major, leaves the work open for the next movement.

In the table below, note how the tonality of each theme in the contrasting sections rises chromatically. The recapitulation features both the initial tonality of the movement and the final tonality of the contrasting section. Despite the lack of functional harmonic direction at a local level, like a master craftsman, Gipps carefully constructed a tonal plan for the movement as a whole.

Table 5.1: Form of Sinfonietta, mvt. I.

Form A B C Retransition A’ Coda mm. 1-13 mm.14-21 mm. 22-38 mm. 39-45 mm. 46-54 mm. 55-61 (13 measures) (8 measures) (17 measures) (7 measures) (9 measures) (7 measures)

Themes Theme I Theme II Theme III none Theme I Motives of previous themes

Thematic C major C major D minor Transitional to C major Concludes on Tonality Concludes on D♭ major E♭ minor GmΔ7 E♭ major G♯m7 GmΔ7

Technical considerations. The primary challenge of this movement is one of balance.

The problem presents itself in the first measures when solo English horn carries the melody while undulating sixteenth notes occur in four instruments: pairs of flutes and clarinets. The density of orchestration throughout this movement requires that accompanimental players create a soft and transparent texture while melodies insistently support their line. However, in certain moments the melody seems to be intentionally obscured by the counterpoint of supporting

118 textures for a dramatic effect, as in mm. 10-12. For these richly-colored passages players may relax into an open and supported sound, without over blowing.

The printed tempi in the score are quite suitable for the rustic folk song-like character in the outer sections of the form and the slower, passionate horn solo during the meno mosso.

Conductors may wish to apply a small amount of rubato during the suspension at m. 33. The ritardando followed by tempo primo at mm. 38-39 is a challenging moment that requires attention from the conductor, as does the ritardando and a tempo in mm. 45-46.

No errata have been located in this movement.

Movement II, Adagio

Thematic and formal overview. The second movement is in ternary form with a contrasting coda. Like the formal design of movement I, two statements of the theme are followed by developmental material in each section of this movement. The A section (mm. 62-

76) begins with the first theme in English horn in G minor (mm. 62-66, see Fig. 5.4). The sixth scale degree is raised at first (m. 62) but later is not (m. 65), creating modal ambiguity between

Aeolian and Dorian modes. The theme encompasses four measures, with the fourth measure in

3/4 meter. This metric pattern applies each time theme I appears. The second statement is shared between oboe and horn in A minor (mm. 66-69), again with an ambiguous sixth scale degree. A developmental extension featuring English horn and horn continues in mm. 70-74 with emphasis on the dotted-eighth and sixteenth note motive from the third measure of the theme. The fortissimo Gm9 chord at the beginning of m. 76 signals the return of G minor tonality before the following B section.

119

Figure 5.4: Wind Sinfonietta, mvt. II, theme I, English horn mm. 62-66.

The B section (mm. 77-88) develops the dotted-eighth and sixteenth note motive with a second theme in 1st bassoon (mm. 78-81, see Fig. 5.5). This theme is restated in oboe (mm. 81-

83) with a stretto-like echo in horn (m. 81). Motivic development of this theme continues through m. 86, followed by a retransition to the opening material in mm. 87-88. The retransition introduces an accompanimental figure in flutes of sixteenth notes in descending thirds that will continue into the recapitulation. The retransition is also concluded with a measure of 3/4 meter, indicating a return to the metric scheme established with theme I.

Figure 5.5: Wind Sinfonietta, mvt. II, theme II, 1st bassoon mm. 78-81.

The recapitulation in the A’ section (mm. 89-105) initially repeats the beginning 14 measures of the movement, but with the first statement of the theme in horn instead of English horn and with additional descending sixteenth note figures in flutes. The development following 120 the theme (mm. 102-105) transitions to the poco meno mosso coda. The coda (mm. 106-112) begins by restating the first theme and its accompanying harmonies (compare mm. 63-64). The final five measures once again depart from the prevailing tonality of the movement, concluding on an ambiguous C♯9(no 3rd).

Table 5.2: Form of Sinfonietta, mvt. II.

Form A B Retransition A’ Coda mm. 62-76 mm.77-86 mm. 87-88 mm. 89-105 mm. 106-112 (15 measures) (10 measures) (2 measures) (17 measures) (7 measures)

Themes Theme I Theme II Introduces new Theme I Partial restatement of accompaniment Theme I

Thematic G minor G minor G minor G minor Concludes on C♯9(no 3rd) Tonality A minor A minor Concludes in G minor Concludes in G minor

Technical considerations. This beautiful slow movement is in peril of being perceived as dull if not performed with expression and care. Soloists should be encouraged to play with legato, arching phrase shapes, as in a song. The conductor may also wish to add a tasteful poco piu mosso during the contrasting section of the ternary form, starting with a gentle stringendo in mm. 73-76 and relaxing tempo again during the retransition in mm. 86-88. This gives the tempo an arch shape to match the thematic content. The coda, slightly slower, is a wistful reflection on the song that precedes it.

No errata have been located in this movement.

121 Movement III, Scherzo

Thematic and formal overview. The scherzo movement of this sinfonietta begins by reorienting the listener to a new tonality. In the first three measures, C7(no 3rd) is followed by

A♭7(no 3rd), which resolves by fifth motion to C♯7(no 3rd). In the fourth measure, oboe and English horn provide the missing third, establishing the tonality of this movement as C♯ minor. The movement is in ternary form, dictated by the dal segno repeat, and concludes with a tonally uncertain coda. As in previous movements, thematic statements are presented twice and then followed by motivic development, but in this scherzo movement the brief theme forms a pair of parallel antecedent–consequent phrases. These parallel phrases and are played by the same instrument, rather than trading instruments as in previous movements.

Horn provides the first theme in mm. 117-122 (see Fig. 5.6). This is followed by motivic development with the aid of second horn in mm. 123-130. The gesture of turning thirty-second notes—introduced in oboe and English horn in m. 130 and echoed in other instruments in the following measures—has a concluding function that signals the completion of the first theme and transitions to the second.

Figure 5.6: Wind Sinfonietta, mvt. III, theme I, 1st horn mm. 117-122.

122 The second thematic area begins in F♯ minor at m. 134. The parallel phrases of the second theme appear in 1st clarinet in mm. 135-142 (see Fig. 5.7 for the antecedent phrase). The development in mm. 143-152 again employs the concluding gesture of turning thirty-second notes. The ritardando (m. 150f.) unwinds the brisk tempo for a seamless transition to the contrasting section of the form. As the tempo relaxes, 2nd flute inverts the turning thirty-second notes so that the figure ascends rather than descends (m. 152). This variation prepares for the development of this motive in the contrasting B section.

Figure 5.7: Wind Sinfonietta, mvt. III, theme II, 1st clarinet mm. 135-139.

The andante B section (mm. 153-182) lacks a melodic theme but develops two motives heard in the previous section. The first motive is the turning thirty-second notes—now written as sixteenth notes—ascending in 2nd bassoon as they did in 2nd flute (compare 2nd flute m. 152 with

2nd bassoon mm. 154-155). The second motive is the quarter, dotted-quarter, and eighth note motive throughout this section (e.g. upper woodwinds m. 153), which is an augmentation of the incipit rhythmic motive of the second theme (compare with 1st clarinet, m. 135). With these two augmented motives, Gipps creates the effect of slowing time so that the listener might observe these motives in fine detail. As the harmonies in the upper voices change more frequently, the bassoons continuously develop the sixteenth note motive (mm. 159-179). Flutes signal the 123 conclusion of this section at mm. 179-180 with a passage similar to the one that concluded the A section (compare m. 152). A final, slowing variation from oboe and English horn anticipates the return of vivace tempo and the dal segno repeat of the A section.

The coda (mm. 184-193) initially sounds like a return of the middle andante section, but at the last eighth note in m. 184 the harmonies venture into new territory. After a cadential Em7 to Am9 in mm. 189-190, the coda concludes on the quintal/quartal sound of pitches C♯, G♯, and

F♯.

Table 5.3: Form of Sinfonietta, mvt. III.

Form A B A Coda mm. 113-152 mm.153-182 mm. 183, 116-152 mm. 184-193 (40 measures) (30 measures) (38 measures) (10 measures)

Themes Theme I Motivic development Theme I Initial restatement of B Theme II Theme II section

Thematic C♯ minor Tonally unstable C♯ minor Concludes on pitches C♯, Tonality F♯ minor F♯ minor G♯, and F♯

Technical considerations. The balance concerns between melody and accompaniment that were witnessed in the first movement also apply in the Scherzo—for example, mm. 117-122 when theme I is introduced in 1st horn. The articulated scale patterns easily obscure the melodic line unless the dynamic level of the accompaniment is reduced—much less than the indicated forte—and very light articulations are also applied. Light staccato articulation is also essential to maintain the forward momentum of the pulse. Heavy articulations will certainly weigh down the tempo.

124 In a related articulation matter, the indication of staccato dots under slurs in the andante section (mm. 153, 156, and indicated simile thereafter) may be confusing to players unaccustomed to this marking. This is a string articulation known as portato (It.) or louré (Fr.) in which the bow continues to travel in the same direction but the notes are lightly pulsed, not slurred. Depending on performance practice, portato notes may also be slightly tapered by slowing the bow speed between notes. When this indication appears in wind music it should be performed similar to portato bowing technique: gentle articulation with a slight taper between notes. Although this leaves a great deal of room for interpretation—How much articulation?

How much taper?—the conductor should ensure that all players agree on the style and provide a matched interpretation across the ensemble.

Bassoon range in the andante section may be a challenge, as it requires the 1st bassoon to slur up to D♮5 (m. 171). This requires practice to execute consistently with a beautiful tone.

Finally, the tempo change into the andante section (mm. 150-153) should be handled as a metric modulation in which the slowing eighth notes of the 6/8 meter become equivalent to the quarter notes of the 3/4 meter. The conductor should allow tempo to gradually unwind in mm.

150-152, but should not indicate eighth note subdivision until the second half of m. 152. The transition from m. 152 to m. 153 should be seamless, in the same tempo.

No errata have been located in this movement.

Movement IV, Andante doloroso and Allegro

Thematic and formal overview. The andante doloroso opens with a yearning song in oboe. After the initial Am chord, the melody and harmonies wander for twenty measures without tonal direction. This introductory melody is tuneful and consonant with the supporting

125 harmonies, but the lack of repetitive phrase structure or tonal orientation implies an aimless or uncertain path.

A transitional rhythmic ostinato in horns, doubled in fifths and fourths, begins softly at m. 213. The tempo quickens, the dynamic level increases, and with the addition of bassoons and clarinets, a tonality of D♭ major emerges. In the following measures (mm. 217-220), all pitches of the D♭ major scale except for G♭ confirm the tonality of this section.

The spritely melody in flutes (mm. 220-228)—with one measure of help from oboe and

English horn (m. 227)—presents the main theme for a rondo (see Fig 5.8 for the initial measures). The rondo theme begins in D♭ major and ends in A minor. Symphonies, concerti, and chamber works often conclude with rondo form, and the choice is doubly fitting for Gipps’

Sinfonietta, considering the name of the ensemble to which this work is dedicated.

Figure 5.8: Wind Sinfonietta, mvt. IV, incipit of rondo theme, 1st flute mm. 220-224.

The contrasting episode theme consists of a three-phrase group. Two parallel phrases— both of which end harmonically open—are followed by an independent third phrase, completing the a–a’–b phrase group. Horn presents the first two parallel phrases in E minor in mm. 229-237

(see Fig. 5.9 for the antecedent phrase). English horn plays the third phrase, concluding the

126 theme in B minor in mm. 238-241 (see Fig. 5.10). Brief linking material (mm. 241-242) connects to a second thematic statement presented by clarinets. The parallel phrases appear with variation in B minor (1st clarinet, mm. 243-251). The third phrase follows in the key of F♯ minor— maintaining the fifth relationship between the phrases of the previous phrase group—played in unison by chalumeau-register clarinets (mm. 252-255). Linking material follows in mm. 255-

258, leading to an exact restatement of the rondo theme in mm. 258-268.

Figure 5.9: Wind Sinfonietta, mvt. IV, first phrase of episode, 1st horn mm. 229-233.

Figure 5.10: Wind Sinfonietta, mvt. IV, third phrase of episode, English horn mm. 238-241.

In mm. 269-282, the episode theme is again varied in oboe and English horn, doubled in octaves. All three phrases remain in the key of B minor. The third phrase is extended one additional measure in motivic repetition while all instruments crescendo to the final statement of 127 the rondo theme. This abbreviated variation on the rondo theme (mm. 283-289) begins in G major and proceeds with the following harmonic progression: GΔ7, E9(mixed 3rd), Cm7, GΔ7,

E9(mixed 3rd), Cm7, Dm7, and G5. Although this succession of chords does not lead to a perfect authentic cadence as is typical for the conclusion of a tonal work, it is noticeably more stable than the ambiguous harmonies that conclude the preceding movements.

No errata have been located in this movement.

Table 5.4: Form of Sinfonietta, mvt. IV.

Form Introduction A B A B’ A’ mm. 194-216 mm. 217-228 mm. 229-258 mm. 258-268 mm. 269-282 mm. 283-289 (23 measures) (12 measures) (30 measures) (11 measures) (14 measures) (7 measures)

Themes Introduction Rondo theme Episode theme Rondo theme Episode theme Variation on rondo theme

Thematic Tonally unstable D♭ major to E minor D♭ major to B minor G major Tonality A minor B minor A minor F♯ minor

Technical considerations. In the opening oboe solo, all remaining players should balance to the oboe’s dynamic level and phrase shapes. In the following allegro section, dynamics are indicated piano and leggero throughout the ensemble. High tessitura flutes naturally cut through the light texture. Of necessity, the flute players will employ strong breath support in this range of their instrument. Because they carry the melody this does not pose a problem per se, but harshness is to be avoided. Developing flute players may have difficulty achieving the desired light and breezy sound on these upper pitches. Phrases in the rondo theme that conclude with a single eighth note should employ a long tenuto articulation on the final note.

128 In the passages presenting the episode theme of the rondo, balance is obtained by encouraging the accompanimental players to listen to the dynamic of the melody.

Accompanimental parts are not generally demanding in these passages, so players should be able to make balance corrections with relative ease. As mentioned previously in the first movement, linking passages that do not present a melodic theme (as in mm. 255-258) may be played with a rich, supported sound from all instruments, without undue harshness.

Finally, it is the opinion of this researcher that the last variation of the rondo theme benefits from being repeated. After m. 288, players may repeat to m. 283 and then proceed to the end. On the repeat of m. 283, flutes and oboe should add a G♮ eighth note in place of the rest on the downbeat. The optional tam-tam, if played, should be reserved for the final repetition. This suggested change helps to balance the form of the final movement and increases the tonal stability of the conclusion of Gipps’ Sinfonietta.

Conclusion

Ruth Gipps was a champion for music that is accessible, expressive, and tonal. At times, especially in her late career, this put her at odds with prevailing tastes and established authorities.

A conservative voice in a progressive time, many of her well-crafted works have unfortunately faded to obscurity. Wind Sinfonietta exemplifies Gipps’ neo-Romantic style with engaging melodies, extended tertian harmonies, and original harmonic progressions while maintaining a tonal formal structure. In addition to providing excellent concert music, this work will familiarize performers and audiences with an important British educator, conductor, and composer of the twentieth century.

129 CHAPTER 6

SUMMARY CONCLUSION

The purpose of this project is to provide historical background, formal and thematic analysis, and technical performance considerations for selected musical works by female composers. This document contributes to an ongoing academic conversation regarding works by female composers, in this case specifically highlighting compositions for chamber winds. It was desired that the compositions included in this project would be suitable for a professional ensemble, a college/university ensemble, or an advanced high school ensemble. It was also desired that the selected works for this project be diverse within themselves, representing a variety of styles and difficulty, and that they be inclusive of both historical and contemporary composers.

The four compositions selected for this project each offer a unique and valuable contribution to chamber wind repertoire. Claude Arrieu’s conspicuous absence from historical accounts of twentieth-century French music is addressed by the selection of her Dixtuor pour instruments à vent. This clever and beguiling composition highlights Arrieu’s refined compositional style in a work that is non-tonal yet melodically and harmonically engaging.

Nancy Galbraith’s minimalist-inspired modal compositions have earned deserved recognition from performers—particularly wind ensembles—and from audiences. Galbraith’s Dos Danzas

Latinas contributes to the chamber wind repertoire an appealing setting of popular dance forms and provides performers the opportunity to explore Latin dance style. Julia Wolfe’s free-spirited approach to composition and embrace of aggressive, rock-like aesthetics has made her a leading voice in new music of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Dedicated to Orkest de

130 Volharding, Wolfe’s Arsenal of Democracy celebrates the rebellious elements of modern music.

Educator, conductor, and composer Ruth Gipps was an advocate for conservative tonal music in a progressive atonal era. Wind Sinfonietta is a quintessential example of Gipps’ mature style and her expert craftsmanship warrants re-examination by performers and audiences.

By providing a biographic summary of each composer’s life and career, relevant background information on the selected work, formal and thematic analysis of each movement, and technical performance considerations for each movement, this document provides a resource for conductors to facilitate preparation of the included works. Future performances of these distinguished compositions will familiarize performers, audiences, and the broader academic community with these accomplished musicians and their creative contributions.

131 APPENDIX A

COMPLETE LIST OF WORKS CONSIDERED FOR SELECTION

Composer Title Instrumentation179

Arrieu, Claude Dixtuor pour instruments à vent 2(picc).1.2.2/1.1.1.0

Ballou, Esther Williamson Suite for Winds 2.2.2.2./2.0.0.0

Chen Yi Suite for Cello and Chamber Winds vc 1.1.1.1/1.1.1.0/perc

Chen Yi Dunhuang Fantasy org 1.1.1+bcl.cbsn/1.1.1.0/perc

Cheung, Pui-shan Chi'en III (The Dragon III) 1.0.1+bcl.asx.0/1.0.0.1/perc/pf.acdn

Chin, Unsuk Fanfare chimérique 2.2.2.2/2.2.2.2/sampler

Coleman, Valerie Portraits of Josephine 1.1.1.1(ssx)/1.0.0.0/perc

Doğuduyal, Meliha Ikarus 2.0.1.asx+barsx.0/1.1.2.1/xyl.perc/pf/egtr.bgtr

Driessen, Miranda Die Entscheidung 2.2.1.asx+tsx.0/1.2.2.1/pf Galbraith, Nancy Dos Danzas Latinas 0.2.2.2/2.0.0.0

Gardner, Alexandra Vixen 1.0.1.asx.0/vib/pf/1.0.1.0

Gipps, Ruth Seascape, Op 53 2.2.2.2/2.0.0.0 Gipps, Ruth Sinfonietta for 10 Winds and Percussion, Op. 73 2(II=pic).1+eh.2.2/2[I=tamtam].0.0.0

Gipps, Ruth Octet, Op. 65 0.2.2.2/2.0.0.0

Gotkovsky, Ida Suite pour dix instruments 2.1.2.1/0.0.0.0/2.1.1.0 Higdon, Jennifer Wind Shear 3.3.2+bcl.2+cbn/4.0.0.0

Jolas, Betsy Points d’Aube vla 2(pic).0.4(bcl,cbcl).0/2.3.3.0

Jolas, Betsy Lassus Ricercare 0.0.0.0/0.2.3.0/2perc/hp.pf.cel Jolley, Jennifer Blue Glacier Decoy 1.0.1+bcl.asx.0/vib/pf/tape[narrator]

Lann, Vanessa Dancing to an Orange Drummer 2(I=pic).0.1(bcl).ssx+asx.0/1.1.2.1/perc/pf/egtr.ebgtr

Lutyens, Elisabeth Music for Wind, Op. 60 2.2.2.2/2.0.0.0 Lutyens, Elisabeth Rape of the Moone, Op. 90 0.2.2.2/2.0.0.0

Ran, Shulamit Double Vision 1.1.2.1/1.2.2.0/pf

Ran, Shulamit Chicago Skyline 0.0.0.0/6.4.3(btbn).2/timp.3perc Ran, Shulamit Concerto da Camera III (Under the Sun’s Gaze) 2(afl,pic).0.2(bcl).ssx.0/0.0.0.0/perc/pf/1.0.1.0

Svanoe, Erika Steampunk Scenes 0.0.1.asx.0/0.1.1.1/3perc/acdn[pf]/1.0.0.0

Thomas, Augusta Read Ring Flourish Blaze 3pic.0.0.0/4.6(3=pictpt).2+btbn.0 Tower, Joan Black Topaz pf 1.0.1.0/0.1.1.0/2perc

Wolfe, Julia Arsenal of Democracy pic.0.0.ssx+asx+barsx.0/1.3.2+btbn.0/pf/ebgtr

179 Abbreviated instrumentation is largely based on the guidelines provided by Music Sales Classical at the following web address: http://www.musicsalesclassical.com/Instruments. 132 APPENDIX B

RECOMMENDED REFERENCE RECORDINGS

Dixtuor by Claude Arrieu

The Atlanta Chamber Winds; Robert J. Ambrose, conductor. Music from Paris. Albany Records TROY1127, 2009, compact disc and streaming services.

Dos Danzas Latinas by Nancy Galbraith

Nancy Galbraith. Atacama: A Collection of Five Works. Albany Records TROY556, 2003, compact disc and streaming services.

Streaming of this recording is also available for free on the Soundcloud website: https://soundcloud.com/ngalbraith/sets/nancy-galbraith-atacama

Arsenal of Democracy by Julia Wolfe

Julia Wolfe. Arsenal of Democracy. Polygram Records, 1996, compact disc.

Streaming of this recording is also available for free on Julia Wolfe’s website: https://juliawolfemusic.com/music/arsenal-of-democracy

Wind Sinfonietta by Ruth Gipps

Erie County Chamber Winds; Rick Fleming, conductor. Trois sélections pour Chamber Winds. Mark Records 50790-MCD, 2014, compact disc and streaming services.

133 APPENDIX C

AVAILABLE WORKS LISTS FOR SELECTED COMPOSERS

Claude Arrieu

Masset, Françoise. “Une Femme et un Compositeur: Claude Arrieu.” Sorbonne Université de Paris, 1985, pp. 299-330.

Nancy Galbraith

Galbraith, Nancy. “Catalog of Works.” Nancy Galbraith. Accessed April 10, 2019. http://www.nancygalbraith.com/

Julia Wolfe

Wolfe, Julia. “Music.” Julia Wolfe. Accessed April 10, 2019. https://juliawolfemusic.com/music

Ruth Gipps

Halstead, Jill. Ruth Gipps: Anti-Modernism, Nationalism and Difference in English Music. Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing Company, 2006, pp. 163-179.

134 APPENDIX D

PERMISSION FOR MUSICAL EXCERPTS

Dixtuor by Claude Arrieu

To: Gérard Billaudot Editeur From: Michael Douty Subject: Dixtuor par Claude Arrieu Date: 1/27/2019

Cher Mr. Billaudot,

Je suis candidat au doctorat en pédagogie musicale à l’université Florida State aux États Unis. Ma thèse, intitulée “A Conductor's Guide to Selected Works by Female Composers for Chamber Wind Ensemble,” tâche de présenter des œuvres peux connues. Dans le cadre de ce document, je voudrais inclure des extraits de Dixtuor par Claude Arrieu, ainsi que des informations de base, des analyses, et des suggestions pédagogiques à être utilisées en répétition ou en concert.

Je vous demande, respectueusement, l'autorisation d'inclure certains extraits dans ma thèse. Ces extraits ne dépasseront pas 10% des mesures totales de l'œuvre. Cette thèse sera publiée en forme électronique, qui pourra être accédée dans les bibliothèques de l’université Florida State, ainsi que dans la base de données de thèses ProQuest. Je vous assure qu’il s’agit d’un projet scolaire, non-commercial, visant à promouvoir l’exécution de cette pièce musicale. Étant donné que je suis au début de ce projet, je pourrais vous fournir les mesures spécifiques que je voudrais utiliser, si vous en avez le besoin.

Enfin, s'il vous plaît me mettre au courant des frais, s’il y en a, associés à l'utilisation de ces extraits. J’apprécie votre soutien de l'éducation musicale et de la recherche scientifique indépendante.

Dans l’attente de votre réponse, je vous prie d’agréer, Monsieur, mes sincères salutations.

Michael Douty PhD Candidate Graduate Teaching Assistant Florida State University Bands

135 To: Michael Douty From: Gérard Billaudot Editeur Subject: Dixtuor par Claude Arrieu Date: 5/7/2019

Cher Monsieur,

Nous avons le plaisir de vous accorder l'autorisation de reproduire les extraits de Dixtuor de Claude Arrieu tels qu’indiqués dans votre courriel du 11 avril, au sein de votre thèse de doctorat à l'Université Florida State.

Cette autorisation vous est accordée à titre gracieux, et uniquement pour cet usage, à l'exclusion de tout autre, et en particulier de toute exploitation sous forme numérique.

Nous vous demandons de faire apparaître la mention suivante sous les extraits reproduits :

Cordialement,

Didier MASSIAT Directeur Adjoint chargé des Services Administratif, Juridique et Financier Gérard Billaudot Editeur SA

136 Dos Danzas Latinas by Nancy Galbraith

To: Subito Music Publishing From: Michael Douty Subject: Excerpts for dissertation Date: 1/22/2019

Dear Subito Music Publishing:

I am a PhD in Music Education graduate student at Florida State University. My dissertation topic is A Conductor's Guide to Selected Works by Female Composers for Chamber Wind Ensemble. As part of this study, I would like to include excerpts from Nancy Galbraith's Dos Danzas Latinas, in conjunction with background information, analysis, and pedagogical suggestions for rehearsal or performance.

I respectfully request your permission to include relevant excerpts in my dissertation, not to exceed 10% of the total measures in the work. This dissertation will be published electronically, with access available at the Florida State University libraries as well as the ProQuest database of dissertations and theses. Please note that this is a scholarly project, not commercial, and it is intended to promote future performances of this excellent work.

As I am in the early stages of this project, I will be able to provide you with specific measures for the excerpts at a later date, should you require them.

Finally, please let me know if there will be any fees associated with the use of these excerpts. Your support of music education and independent scholarly research is greatly appreciated.

Thank you for your time and consideration. I look forward to your reply.

Best Regards,

Michael Douty PhD Candidate Graduate Teaching Assistant Florida State University Bands

137 To: Michael Douty From: Subito Music Publishing Subject: Excerpts for dissertation Date: 1/22/2019

Dear Michael,

We are agreeable to your use of excerpts from Dos Danzas Latinas by Nancy Galbraith in your doctoral dissertation. Please provide us with the exact excerpts you will be using when you have finalized that list. All excerpts must be accompanied by the following copyright credit notice:

Sincerely,

David Murray, Editor/Publishing Manager Subito Music Corporation

138 Arsenal of Democracy by Julia Wolfe

At the recommendation of Julia Wolfe’s agent, the initial contact for publisher permission for Arsenal of Democracy was made via phone call to G. Schirmer, Inc. Following the phone call, I was directed to submit a request form for permission to quote music in a dissertation, available at the following web address: http://digital.schirmer.com/license/. The email below was received in reply:

To: Michael Douty From: G. Schirmer, Inc. Subject: Excerpts for dissertation Date: 1/22/2019

Dear Michael:

This letter is to confirm our agreement for the nonexclusive right to reprint measures from the composition referenced above for inclusion in your thesis/dissertation, subject to the following conditions:

1. The following copyright credit is to appear on each copy made:

ARSENAL OF DEMOCRACY By Julia Wolfe Copyright © 1993 by Red Poppy Administered exclusively worldwide by G. Schirmer, Inc. International Copyright Secured. All Rights Reserved. Reprinted by Permission. • Mm. 1-2, 102-104, 129-131, 153-155

2. Copies are for your personal use only in connection with your thesis/dissertation, and may not be sold or further duplicated without our written consent. This in no way is meant to prevent your depositing three copies in an interlibrary system, such as the microfilm collection of the university you attend, or with University Microfilms, Inc.

3. Permission is granted to University Microfilms, Inc. to make single copies of your thesis/dissertation, upon demand.

4. A one-time non-refundable permission fee of twenty-five ($25.00) dollars, to be paid by you within thirty (30) days from the date of this letter.

139 5. If your thesis/dissertation is accepted for commercial publication, further written permission must be sought.

Sincerely, Will Adams Print Licensing Manager

Lic #14625

140 Wind Sinfonietta by Ruth Gipps

To: Victoria Rowe From: Michael Douty Subject: Ruth Gipps, Sinfonietta (Op. 73) Date: 2/16/2019

Dear Dr. Rowe:

I am a PhD in Music Education graduate student at Florida State University (United States). My dissertation topic is A Conductor's Guide to Selected Works by Female Composers for Chamber Wind Ensemble. The purpose of this document is to provide scholarly research on selected female composers and to promote increased performance of their works. I hope to include a study of Ruth Gipps' Sinfonietta (Op. 73), written for the Rondel Ensemble, as part of this project.

To the best of my knowledge, the Sinfonietta is unpublished, thus making you and any other members of the Ruth Gipps estate the persons I should contact regarding permission to use this work. I am writing to request permission to include relevant excerpts from the Sinfonietta in my dissertation, not to exceed 10% of the total measures in the work. This dissertation will be published electronically, with access available at the Florida State University libraries as well as the ProQuest database of dissertations and theses. Please note that this is a scholarly project, not commercial, and it is intended to promote future performances of this excellent work.

As I am in the early stages of this project, I will be able to provide you with specific measures for the excerpts at a later date, should you require them.

Finally, please let me know if there will be any fees associated with the use of these excerpts. Your support of music education and independent scholarly research is greatly appreciated.

Thank you for your time and consideration. I look forward to your reply.

Kind Regards,

Michael Douty PhD Candidate Graduate Teaching Assistant Florida State University Bands

141 To: Michael Douty From: Victoria Rowe Subject: Ruth Gipps, Sinfonietta (Op. 73) Date: 2/21/2019

Dear Michael

I'm glad that you are working on such a valuable project and wish you every success with it. Please do use excerpts from the Sinfonietta as required, under the normal 10% guidelines. There will be no charge for this: as a fellow academic I am happy to share this material with you.

Best wishes

Victoria Rowe and Lance Baker (Ruth Gipps' daughter-in-law and son)

142 REFERENCES

“About Us.” Sound and Music. Accessed March 22, 2019. http://www.soundandmusic.org/knowledge-hub/about.

“Acte de Naissance No. 2433.” Archives de Paris, 8e arrondissement, December 2, 1903. http://archives.paris.fr/.

Bang on a Can. Accessed March 14, 2019. https://bangonacan.org/.

Barulich, Frances, and Jan Fairley. “Habanera.” In Oxford Music Online. Oxford University Press, 2001. https://doi.org/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.12116.

Béhague, Gerard. “Samba.” In Oxford Music Online. Oxford University Press, 2001. https://doi.org/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.24449.

Bortz, Yuri. “Selective American Perspectives on Issues of Twenty-First-Century Musical Progress.” DMA diss., The Ohio State University, 2005. ProQuest (3161108).

“The British Music Collection — Clean, Shiny and Accessible!” Heritage Quay (blog). Accessed March 22, 2019. http://heritagequay.org/2015/08/the-british-music-collection- clean-shiny-and-accessible/.

“Cécile P. Simon (1881-1970).” Data.bnf.fr. Accessed February 9, 2019. https://data.bnf.fr/fr/14829631/cecile_p__simon/.

Cohn, Richard. “Maximally Smooth Cycles, Hexatonic Systems, and the Analysis of Late- Romantic Triadic Progressions.” Music Analysis 15, no. 1 (1996): 9–40. https://doi.org/10.2307/854168.

Colgate, Laura. “Half of Humanity Has Something to Say, Also: Works for Violin by Women Composers.” DMA diss., University of Maryland, College Park, 2018. ProQuest (10745258).

Everett, Yayoi Uno. The Music of Louis Andriessen. Cambridge University Press, 2006.

Foreman, Lewis. “Obituary: Ruth Gipps.” The Independent, March 3, 1999, sec. Culture. http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/obituary-ruth-gipps-1077990.html.

“Franklin Delano Roosevelt: ‘The Great Arsenal of Democracy.’” American Rhetoric. Accessed March 10, 2019. https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/fdrarsenalofdemocracy.html.

Galbraith, Matthew. “Biography.” Nancy Galbraith. Accessed February 2, 2019. http://www.nancygalbraith.com.

143 ———. “Dos Danzas Latinas.” Nancy Galbraith. Accessed February 24, 2019. http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/ngal/z-dosdanzas.htm.

Gerhart, Catherine. Annotated Bibliography of Double Wind Quintet Music. Accessed March 22, 2019. http://faculty.washington.edu/gerhart/.

Halstead, Jill. Ruth Gipps: Anti-Modernism, Nationalism and Difference in English Music. Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing Company, 2006.

Hayes, Deborah. “Some Neglected Women Composers of the Eighteenth Century and Their Music.” Current Musicology; New York 0, no. 39 (January 1, 1985): 42–65.

Holden, Raymond. “Gipps, Ruth Dorothy Louisa (1921–1999), Conductor and Composer.” In Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press, September 23, 2004. https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/72069.

Institute for Composer Diversity. Accessed March 26, 2019. https://www.composerdiversity.com/.

Jezic, Diane. Women Composers: The Lost Tradition Found. Feminist Press at CUNY, 1988.

Krasnow, David, and Julia Wolfe. “Julia Wolfe.” BOMB, no. 77 (2001): 66–71.

“LRO History.” London Repertoire Orchestra. Accessed March 21, 2019. http://londonrepertoireorchestra.org.uk/lro-history/.

Masset, Françoise. “Une Femme et un Compositeur: Claude Arrieu.” Sorbonne Université de Paris, 1985.

“Music.” The Pulitzer Prizes. Accessed March 27, 2019. https://www.pulitzer.org/prize-winners- by-category/225.

Neuls-Bates, Carol. Review of Review of International Encyclopedia of Women Composers, by Aaron I. Cohen. Notes 40, no. 1 (1983): 53–55. https://doi.org/10.2307/941475.

“On ‘Arsenal of Democracy.’” MUSAIC. Accessed March 21, 2019. https://musaic.nws.edu/videos/on-arsenal-of-democracy.

“Orkest de Volharding: ‘The Minimalists.’” Mode Records. Accessed March 16, 2019. http://www.moderecords.com/catalog/214minimalists.html.

Owens, Thomas. “Samba.” In Oxford Music Online. Oxford University Press, 2003. https://doi.org/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.J394000.

144 “Sinfonietta Ventus Extended CV.” Accessed February 24, 2019. http://sinfoniettaventus.com/docs/sinfonietta_ventus_cv_complete.pdf.

Skowronek, Neil. “Discography.” The Soni Ventorum Wind Quintet. Accessed February 7, 2019. https://soniventorum.com/7.html.

Small, Christopher. Musicking: The Meanings of Performing and Listening. Wesleyan University Press, 1998.

Soares, Luciana. “Works for Piano by Brazilian Female Composers of the Twentieth Century: A Discussion and Catalogue.” DMA diss., The University of Southern Mississippi, 2002. ProQuest (3067249).

Straus, Joseph N. Introduction to Post-Tonal Theory. 4th ed. W. W. Norton & Company, 2016.

Temperley, Nicholas. “Sinfonietta.” In Grove Music Online. Oxford University Press, 2001. https://doi.org/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.25862.

Tobita, Yujen Chen. “Historical Background and Pedagogical Analysis of Piano Works by Selected Taiwanese Women.” PhD diss., Texas Tech University, 2004. ProQuest (3124517).

Watson, Anne Alyse. “Selected Works by Female Composers Written for the Clarinet during the Nineteenth Century.” DMA diss., Arizona State University, 2008. ProQuest (3319409).

Winther, Rodney. An Annotated Guide to Wind Chamber Music for Six to Eighteen Players. Miami, FL: Alfred Music, 2004.

Wolfe, Julia. “Arsenal of Democracy.” Julia Wolfe, January 9, 2014. https://juliawolfemusic.com/music/arsenal-of-democracy.

———. “Embracing the Clash.” PhD diss., Princeton University, 2012. ProQuest (3545787).

Woolfe, Zachary. “Bang on a Can Plays Evan Ziporyn and Others at Tully Hall.” The New York Times, May 1, 2012, sec. Music. https://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/02/arts/music/bang- on-a-can-plays-evan-ziporyn-and-others-at-tully-hall.html.

145 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

Michael Douty began his career teaching K-8 general music in Greene County Schools,

TN. As a result of his achievements in this position, Douty was invited to organize and direct an entirely new band program within Greene County for grades 6-12, serving one high school and three elementary/middle schools. Following eight years of successful program growth, Douty returned to graduate school to pursue higher education. Douty holds a B.A. in Instrumental

Music Education from Milligan College, TN; a M.M. in Wind Conducting from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville; and a Ph.D. in Music Education from Florida State University.

146