Recollections of Stefan Wolpe by Former Students and Friends
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Recollections of Stefan Wolpe by former students and friends Edited by Austin Clarkson Claus Adam tion.” And then he would show me why it was an exception, and the ingenious devices of a man like I studied with Wolpe for the first time in the sum- Bach. Stefan was never interested in the ordinary, mer of ’42, and in ’43 I came back to New York the obvious, he always was interested in why did and was drafted into the Army. I was back in New the composer turn to that or another idea, and what York within two weeks, because I got into an Air was the germ, and how did it develop in his mind. Force show by Moss Hart called Winged Victory.I He would even project. He’d say, “Well, he could was very lucky, because then I was in New York for have gone in this direction.” He would make some six months, and during those six months I studied a sketches and say, “Now that’s another possibility.” great deal with Wolpe. We began right from the very And this is where he was the greatest teacher, be- beginning. I said I only knew some harmony and cause he opened up your process of thinking how a little counterpoint but had never learned system- to develop what possibilities you had. That was the atically. I asked Stefan to start me off completely great thing. from scratch. And he did with basic harmony. I re- I went from that step to chromatic harmony, then member very well the relationship of fifths within to whole-tone harmony, and then to completely free the basic key. I would also have to do keyboard harmony. But he always helped to put you in focus. harmony with him. He would ask me to go from, You had to have a certain harmony that would be let’s say, D minor to F-sharp major; then he would structural in the piece, not just anything. The piece show me how many extra steps you can take in or- had to have a shape added to some kind of convic- der to solidify the new key. You can sometimes do tion. Then he also took me for a little while through it in three steps, and sometimes in forty steps, if you serial technique. I must say, I turned off on serial know how, which is what Bruckner and Mahler did technique. It didn’t interest me. Atonal was what I over a long period of time. He knew this system was talking about. very well. Then I said, look, I’ve never really had Later on he had all these analysis classes, where thorough counterpoint, so we went through Palest- you take a work of Bartók or a Beethoven sonata rina counterpoint right from scratch. We used the and analyze it. It was a revelation that one could Jeppesen book. see music that way. One could project possibilities At a certain point he said, “That’s enough of that. from the material. They were really very exciting. I If you want to go on and on and on with that and remember later on, when I joined the Juilliard Quar- understand it to its fullest, you can become a pro- tet in ’55, I went up to the president of the Juilliard fessor of counterpoint, but let’s go on to Bach—to School and asked why a man like Wolpe isn’t at a free counterpoint and to linear and harmonic coun- school like Juilliard, because he doesn’t just give the terpoint.” That was a revelation. I remember one ordinary kind of analysis—sixteen bars and eight session when he looked for a fugue, and said, “Well, bars and four bars transition, and this was that key, that’s a very usual kind of fugue, and that’s sort of and this is this key. He wasn’t interested in that kind standard, and, ah, here’s one. Now that’s an excep- Claus Adam 1 Recollections of Stefan Wolpe of analysis. He was interested in what made a piece forgot. That was not only with me, that was with ev- work, what was the germinal idea and how did it de- erybody. If he was in the middle of a composition, velop. And the president said to me, “I would never he would not take care. But mostly I got the lesson, have a man like Wolpe teach here, because I once and then he sat down, and he scribbled. He gave me attended a rehearsal in which the ensemble played a a row and said, “Write now a piece for violin and couple of wrong notes and he didn’t know the dif- another instrument.” And he introduced me to strict ference.” That is why he wouldn’t have him at the twelve-tone writing. Juilliard School. That was his answer. Other people Stefan’s music always made a really immense im- tried, but it was hopeless. pact on me. I mean, you couldn’t say, “all right, neu- Then I had to go away for a couple of years. As tral.” What I said to his personality I would say to soon as I was out of the Army, I settled in New York his music. He was a man you could accept whole- and really went to work with him again for a cou- heartedly, or you could reject wholeheartedly. So ple of years and began to write some pieces, not just with me, first of all, I loved him. I liked him very shorter pieces. The first thing I wrote was a string much as a personality. He made an impact on me as quartet, and the second piece was a piano sonata. a young fellow. I was here alone, I had nobody, and It’s being played again this year. I didn’t study or- he was like a father to me. chestration with him extensively. I had to orches- I would say he gave me the beginning of what I trate a number of things with him, but orchestration could call a bridge to Darmstadt, and Darmstadt was was not a big problem for me, because I played in an my second shock. But the shock of Wolpe was per- orchestra. I had studied a lot of scores. However, he haps not as great as of Darmstadt, because after all, opened my eyes to certain kinds of sonorities, cer- I was in the mean time embedded in this Mediter- tain types of doublings, or overlaid sounds I’d never ranean thing. And suddenly I see Stockhausen, and thought of. Cage, and Wolpe on the other side again. I feel I haven’t been around a lot of other teachers, so I that I missed a lot of experiences. We were here can’t tell, but it’s hard for me to imagine any other in Schlaraffenland [fool’s paradise], and we forgot teacher having the kind of vision, the kind of insight that music was going on in the world. We did not that he had. He almost detected what the composer know what’s going on. was trying to do before it was happening, and there On the one hand, it absolutely transformed me in was something very special about that. a way. I thought that it must be a man with an abso- Born in Indonesia, Claus Adam (1917–1983) lute genius personality who is able to do such things moved to New York in 1929, where he later stud- in such a manner. That he is fearless about what he ied cello with Emanuel Feuermann, conducting is doing gave a real impact on me. On the second with Leon Barzin, and eventually composition with hand, I was also a little bit influenced by the peo- Wolpe. In 1948 he formed the New Music Quartet ple around me who where disgusted mostly. And and then joined the Juilliard String Quartet, which mainly the mediocre musicians, who did not under- he left after twenty years to devote his attention to stand. And they laughed silently and said, “What do composition. Adam was also active as a teacher and you think about him?” And I said, “It’s a great im- held positions at the Juilliard School and Mannes pact.” “Ah, it’s rubbish, you throw it away, it’s noth- College. Interview: AC, New York, 19 November ing.” I would not say that everything which Stefan 1980. has done would give tribute to my own thinking, that I would accept it wholeheartedly. But on the whole, I would say that certainly he was such an outstand- Haim Alexander ing personality and composer that the great things he has done were really some things that could not Every week [was a lesson], and it happened some- have been done by anybody else. He had his own times that I couldn’t find him at all, because he just style. And in his own style he made on me a great Haim Alexander 2 Recollections of Stefan Wolpe impact. And sometimes I was also against it. it’s hard, it’s a challenge. As a player I like to We discussed very often how the music should be conquer a piece. I’ve done that many times and taught. And he said, “For my opinion, you shouldn’t ended up half the time with a piece that I don’t like. start with Beethoven or Mozart, you should start Wolpe’s music I adore.