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TWENTIETH-CENTURY AMERICAN COMPOSER, THOMAS PASATIERI; AN EXAMINATION OF STYLE AS ILLUSTRATED BY THE WORKS SET TO THE TEXT OF AMERICAN POET KIT VAN CLEAVE

D.M.A. DOCUMENT

Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Musical Arts in the Graduate College of The Ohio State University

by

Beth Bauer, B.M., M.M.

* * * *

The Ohio State University 1996

D.M.A. Document Committee:

Dr. Robin Rice, Advisor

Dr. C. Patrick Woliver Advisor, School of Music

Prof. James Gallagher UMI Number: 9619984

Copyright 1996 by Bauer, Beth

All rights reserved.

UMI Microform 9619984 Copyright 1996, by UMI Company. All rights reserved.

This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code.

UMI 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, Ml 48103 Copyright by Beth Bauer 1996 To Bobbi Gail ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I want to acknowledge all those who have given time and consideration to this project. Foremost, I would like to offer my most sincere gratitude to Dr. Thomas Pasatieri who not only created the art and legend which inspired this document, but also provided a source of encouragement and wealth of information throughout its development. It is an honor to document his life and works and it is with enormous respect that I recognize this wonderful American composer. His gracious generosity and warmth are exceeded only by his extraordinary talent.

I wish to offer my thanks to Kit van Cleave for writing moving, romantic poetry, and whose magnanimous gifts of knowledge, profound insight and love of word have been so graciously shared. I want to thank my friend Dr. Lee D. Thompson for his generous and professional advice in editing this piece and for his wisdom, shared so selflessly. It is with great respect and gratitude that I acknowledge those who took the time to personally participate in interviews throughout the creation of this document; Anne Howard Bailey.

Elaine Bonazzi, Paul Dorgan, Marc Dulman, Matthew Epstein, Sheri Greenawald, Lorna

Haywood, Martin Katz, Evelyn Lear, Catherine Malfitano, Richard Nickson, Louis Phillips,

Joanna Simon, Frederica von Stade, Richard Stilwell, T homas Stewart, Shirley Westwood,

iii and Tom Broico. It was an honor to speak with and learn from each contributor. Thanks also to Mr. Samuel G. Licklider for his technical expertise and generous support.

I want to thank my D.M.A. Committee : Dr. Robin Rice, Chairman, Dr. C. Patrick

Woliver and Professor James Gallagher for their assistance and treatment of this document.

In closing, I thank my family and friends for all their efforts in contributing to the culmination of this project and for their constant faith in my academic and personal endeavors.

IV VITA

1987 ...... B.M., Central Missouri State University Warrensburg, Missouri

1989...... M.M., Kansas State University Manhattan, Kansas

1991-199 3...... Graduate Teaching Associate The Ohio State University Columbus, Ohio

1992-199 3...... Senior Lecturer in Voice University of Findlay Findlay, Ohio

1993-199 4...... Apprentice Young Artist Florida Grand Opera Miami, Florida

1994-199 5...... Graduate Administrative Associate The Ohio State University Columbus, Ohio

FIELD OF STUDY

Major Field: Music

Studies in Voice, Vocal Pedagogy, Vocal Literature, Music History TABLE OF CONTENTS

DEDICATION ...... ii

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS...... iii

VITA ...... V

TABLE OF CONTENTS...... vi

LIST OF FIGURES...... vii

INTRODUCTION ...... 1

CHAPTER PAGE

I. TH O M A S PASA TIERI:...... 6 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

II. KIRSTIN VAN CLEAVE:...... 33 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

III. MUSIC AND POETRY:...... 42 COLLABORATION OF ART

IV. EXAMINATION:...... 48 DRAMA OF MUSIC AND TEXT

CONCLUSION ...... 101

APPENDIX A. Chronological List of Vocal Works ...... 108 B. Thomas Pasatieri: Interviews ...... 117 C. Vocal Performances ...... 173

REFERENCES...... 174

vi LIST OF FIGURES

FIGURE PAGE

1. mm. 5-9, p. 2 ...... 49

2. mm. 18-25, p. 3 ...... 50

3. mm. 10-13, p. 2 ...... 51

4. mm. 1-4, p. 22 ...... 52

5. mm. 6-15, p. 22 ...... 53

6. mm. 21-28, p. 23 ...... 54

7. mm. 43-49, p. 24 ...... 55

8. mm. 50-55, p. 24 ...... 56

9. mm. 56-58, p. 25 ...... 56

10. mm. 63-75, p. 25 ...... 57

11. mm. 1-14, p. 26 ...... 59

12. mm. 15-25, p. 26 ...... 60

13. mm. 26-29, p. 27 ...... 61

14. mm. 30-34, p. 27 ...... 62

15. mm. 35-36, p. 27 ...... 62

16. mm. 45-53, p. 27-28 ...... 63

17. mm. 56-64, p. 28 ...... 64

vii 18. mm.

19. mm. .66

20. mm. .66

21. mm. .67

22. mm. .68

23. mm. .69

24. mm. .70

25. mm.

26. mm.

27. mm.

28. mm. .78

29. mm. ..78

30. mm. .79

31. mm. ..80

32. mm. .81

33. mm. ..82

34. mm. .83

35. mm. .84

36. mm.

Vlll 37. mm. 170-174, p. 14-15 ...... 86

38. mm. 179-184, p. 15 ...... 87

39. mm. 187-190. p. 16 ...... 88

40. mm. 198-225, p. 17-18 ...... 89

41. mm. 233-235, p. 19 ...... 90

42. mm. 261-267, p. 21 ...... 91

43. mm. 268-270, p. 21 ...... 92

44. mm. 271-273. p. 21-22 ...... 92

45. mm. "^76-278, p. 22 ...... 93

46. mm. 288-296, p. 24-25 ...... 94

47. mm. 297-324, p. 25 ...... 95

48. mm. 325-330, p. 27-28 ...... 96

49. mm. 352-365, p. 28 ...... 97

50 mm. 359-367,p. 28 ...... 98

IX INTRODUCTION

The twentieth-century has seen a myriad of musical developments, styles and compositions. This century is characterized by a diversity in musical composition and has enjoyed a multiplicity of styles, some avant-garde, some traditional and many a hybrid of the two. This music has been shaped by two opposing forces, those composers who attempted to break with the conventions of “flmctional-tonality” and those who desired to maintain the established traditions of previous eras. The iconoclastic movement has included dodecophony, musique concrète, serialism, minimalism, electroacoustic music, chance music, and eclecticism, in addition to tonal music. With these lines of development, experimental and traditional twentieth-century music has unfolded. This traditional vein has yielded the works of composer Thomas Pasatieri. Pasatieri writes in a style which in no way tempers the music’s merit, originality or profound significance.

Twentieth-century American composer Thomas Pasatieri enjoys a very diverse and interesting career. Classifying his music and his place in twentieth-century composition presents something of a challenge. At the height of his career, he was condemned for writing in a traditional manner, one reminiscent of the “bel canto” composers who wrote music for the voice — music with the ability to feature the voice to its best advantage. While he was condemned by critics, he was lauded by singers for writing music with beautiful melodies. With the current trend toward music that is lyrical and singable, Pasatieri's traditional music is enjoying a resurgence of interest. Robert Jacobson, editor of Opera News, said in a 1974 article, “Pasatieri describes his own music as contemporary-romantic, lyric, vocal, singable. and melodic. He admires Barber and resents snobbery about sincere, heart-on-the-sleeve music.”' The composer elaborates further:

People intellectualize and are alfaid of emotion in the present day. But music is the most emotional of all the arts. Love and romanticism are always relevant. In Rondine someone says, ‘Love is always a new subject,’ and expressing it can always be new. I have a well of the past to draw on. Puccini didn’t have Berg or Stravinsky to use. Today we have all the new sounds and orchestral techniques. And the word eclectic is not a bad one if you use all the material for the right reasons. Why deny yourself a beautiful vocal line? Be honest with yourself - and that’s the music I feel and write. I love all kinds of music. It is to be enjoyed with no differentiation. My own artistic experience is deepened by listening to and relating to all kinds of music ... Music is for enjoyment, whether it's an aria or a song.-

Known essentially for his vocal works, and more specifically his operas, Pasatieri left the “classical world” out of frustration with the state of American opera. This frustration prompted his move to Hollywood to earn his living in film work. Pasatieri discusses his choice:

As a musician, as a composer, your choices are very limited. You can either make your living writing music which is very tough to do ... a very limited income, or teach at a University, which 1 did not want to do. I had already done that. Or you can somehow work in an industry that will pay you for music. There is the recording industry in New York - you can get a job as a record producer, work for a record company or work in film and television. Those are the only areas [to work in] unless you want to conduct, and then you are a conductor rather than a composer.^ Pasatieri's focus turned to television and film work. However, after nearly a decade of minimal “serious” composition, Pasatieri returned to composing and performing. His self- imposed sabbatical provided him with a renewed sense of creativity and passion for the music that he was born to write, as well as the financial stability needed to pursue his art.

“The most natural thing for me is to write music. It is written in my head, and putting down the notes on paper is the easiest part.” At fifty years of age, Pasatieri continues to show the

ardor and enthusiasm of his youth and is once again showing his prolific compositional skills

in the classical music genre. He reached the point in his career where his desire to be

artistically satisfied is of utmost importance and the financial security he achieves in

commercial ventures allows him to compose classical works and not feel that he is “under

the gun” or “pressured.”

Pasatieri's work in the art song genre is extensive. He estimates that by the time he

was eighteen years old he had already composed between four and five hundred songs.

Virtually none of these early songs was published, but they enabled Pasatieri to develop his

burgeoning style and are the foundation for the songs that Pasatieri eventually published.

The importance of the text, writing idiomatically for the voice, and writing music that is

beautiful are the most salient features of Pasatieri's style. While he is probably most

recognizable as an opera composer, his art songs are exemplary of his style and are worthy

of examination. I he composer says the following in regard to analysis of his songs:

I know that somebody sent me their work sometime ago, and it was about twelve or twenty-four songs, Tm not sure. They did an analysis - but it was so foreign to me. They were analyzing this f-sharp is related to this g and this chord is resolving to this chord because - I had no idea what they were talking about. 1 do not conceive my songs in that way. 4

With this statement in mind, an examination of his songs will focus on his choice of poetry, the most prominent features of his style, and the education and experiences that have shaped and molded his music. Because of the extensive number of songs Pasatieri published, the scope of tliis work will examine the songs set to the text of twentieth-century American poet Kirstin van Cleave (Kit). In all Pasatieri's art songs there exists a collaboration; this collaboration extends from the subject of the poetry, adds to that the textures and colors of the music and produces a uniquely personal expression of art. Van Cleave’s poetry embodies

Pasatieri’s ideas regarding “love and romanticism,” and the dramatic possibilities that these subjects provide. Van Cleave’s belief that romanticism is the “essence of life”"' made for an ideal collaboration. The romantic spirit of her poetry fueled Pasatieri’s creativity. Pasatieri choose to set several of van Cleave’s poems: “Beautiful the Days,” Three Poems bv Kirstin van Cleave, and Dav of Love. For all these settings, except one the text comes from a from a volume of poetry entitled, Dav of Love (1977). The one exception is the third song of

Three Poems by Kirstin van Cleave which comes from van Cleave’s second published volume of poetry entitled. Amourette (1978). The body of van Cleave’s poetry is romantic and exhibits influence from the works of the twelfth-century troubadours, Eleanor of

Acquitaine and Shakespearian sonnets. These poems personify the emotion-filled and evocative verse that dramatist Pasatieri has a gift for setting. ENDNOTES

1. Jacobson, Robert. “Thomas Pasatieri: Opera is the Plural of Opus.” After Dark. March 1974, 48.

2. Ibid.,48.

3. Pasatieri, Thomas. Interviewed by Beth Bauer. Except where noted, all quotations of Pasatieri's words in this chapter are derived from interviews conducted at the home of Thomas Pasatieri in Tarzana, California (July, 1995), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (November, 1995) and intermittent subsequent telephone conversations (1995).

4. Van Cleave, Kit. Interview by Beth Bauer. (1995). CHAPTER I

THOMAS PASATIERI: BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

The year was 1954, and a nine year-old boy was walking home from St. Anne’s

Parochial School when he read a sign that would transform life as he knew it. Thomas

Pasatieri vividly remembers, although forty years have passed, the sign which read, "Vera

Wells - Piano Instruction.” From that moment, his destiny was determined. At a time when a typical nine year-old would be playing ball, spending time with friends and living for recess, Thomas Pasatieri found and quickly mastered the piano.

Webster’s Dictionary defines “prodigy” as, “something extraordinary or inexplicable, an extraordinary, marvelous or unusual accomplishment, deed or event, a highly talented child.” This word precisely describes the young Pasatieri. His aptitude for the piano was extraordinary, inexplicable and certainly an unusual event. After one brief year of study,

Pasatieri was performing music that would normally require years to master. To everyone's amazement (with the exception of Pasatieri), he began concertizing at the age of ten. In his words, “I had a great facility for it.” 7

Thomas Pasatieri was bom October 20,1945 in New York City. Of Sicilian descent,

Pasatieri did not come from a longstanding musical tradition. His father was a distributor for Pepsi-Cola and his mother was a housewife. His childhood was not idyllic, but rather a time that he remembers as difficult. Pasatieri recalls:

The real problem was when I was in Flushing. We moved there when I was four and a-half, and we left there when I was fourteen and a-half... I was not accepted in any way, by any group of classmates;... I had great difficulties with other children in school and in the neighborhood.'

In a 1976 interview for The Opera Journal between Pasatieri and his close friend

Martin Dulman, Pasatieri remembers:

I am alone. I’m not a child, not an adult. I’m nine; I’m thirty. The children are mean; they are cruel; they are harsh. I feel no peace. I want to be like a summer tree in evening by a lake. Summers in the country with my cousins are fun. It is nice when we get together for the holidays. My older sister is nearly fourteen; my younger sister’s just four. I have no brother. I feel safe in the hands of adults: they will not harm me, but they do not know my heart. My heart is a fragile place. I live there.’

It is clear that Pasatieri found peace in his music, and creating beautiful music brought solace to his fragile heart.

Pasatieri’s parents bought Thomas a piano and allowed him to study. They were supportive because they loved him, but did not see a future for their son in the field of music.

In Pasatieri’s words:

When I started my career at ten, they were not, well, they weren’t too bad about the piano career ... but my father didn’t want me to write music at all. The idea of writing music was just too abstract for him. He wasn’t that kind of person. He was really a truck driver from Brooklyn so he had no concept of this and he really didn’t like it... It wasn’t until I was accepted at Juilliard when I was sixteen that he accepted it. Then they supported it after that.. . He came to accept it and then he came to be proud of it... finally in the late 60's and 70's. By thirteen, Pasatieri, who had fiilly immersed himself in music, hosted a weekly radio program. The format was classical piano works followed by a discussion of the music.

Truly, music was more than a pastime. Music was his refuge, a safe haven from the unhappiness of his childhood. Pasatieri relates:

Not long ago I was going through papers because I was moving boxes after the earthquake ... papers that I had written in the eighth grade; I was twelve years old. I guess the teacher asked us what we were going to be when we grew up and I wrote a brother (Franciscan) or a musician.

In addition to his prodigious musical talents as a child, Pasatieri was equally enraptured by the traditions and pageantry of the church. Dulman said;

As a child, Thomas wished to enter the church; he loved pageantry but also felt a need to dedicate himself to a sense of peace. He had an intense religious training in his early childhood because he wanted to prepare for the priesthood.^

After moving from Flushing and attending a public school, Pasatieri describes his last two years of high school as, “Fine, I had a really wonderful time.” Pasatieri’s experiences at Sewanhaka High School nurtured his artistic endeavors. His love of theater generated his interest in the drama department. Pasatieri was named “Actor of the Year” for his portrayal of Mr. Palmer in the play. Turn Back the Clock. During this period, his prodigious piano talent soon evolved into an autodidactic compositional style. Pasatieri estimates composing over four hundred songs between the ages of fourteen and eighteen. As his commitment to composition grew, the need to cultivate his talent became more and more apparent.

At fifteen, Pasatieri met the first significant teacher to influence his compositional career. Irrefutably important in the young musician’s life was his first meeting with Nadia

Boulanger. Boulanger was first known as a prestigious performer, later as a well-known 9 composer and finally as a world renowned teacher of composition. Her ideology was passed to generations of composers and her advocation of American music was well established.

Her influence over the prominent composers of the twentieth-century is certain. Pasatieri recalls:

1 must have been about fifteen and 1 heard that Boulanger was coming to Manhattan to give a lecture at the Manhattan School of Music - so 1 cut school, took my compositions with me, and 1 crashed, 1 went in — 1 walked into the lecture and there she was. When she finished speaking, 1 went up on stage with my music and introduced myself to her. 1 was this teenage kid. 1 said, ‘I’m an American composer and I know you help American composers. Here’s my music.’She said, ‘write down your phone number.’ So 1 wrote it on the music and went back to Long Island. Now, when 1 think about it -what a bold thing to do, but 1 had no fear in those days. It all happened the way 1 thought it was supposed to happen. She called me the next day and said, ‘Come into Manhattan and start lessons.’ So 1 did. 1 worked with her about a month. She went back to Paris, so we did correspondence for a year. I would send works and she would critique them. Then, I was accepted at Juilliard. The summer of 62, just before I entered, she wrote to me saying, . . . ‘you can only have one teacher. It is best to work with Just one person.’ And of course, she was right.

Pasatieri graduated from high school at sixteen and began studies at The Juilliard

School of Music. Finally, surrounded by composers, singers and instrumentalists, Pasatieri felt accepted as a musician. He was suddenly immersed in a world where people understood him and his need to make music. But just as a creative environment fosters talent, it can easily stifle it. Pasatieri recalls:

It was only when I entered The Juilliard, when I was just a month shy of my seventeenth birthday - all these other pianists told me that all the repertoire that I had been playing for six years was so difficult. That is when it became difficult for me to play.

Pasatieri is not sure why he lost confidence in his performing gifts. Would he attribute it to peer pressure or performance anxiety? He said: 10

I don’t know why . . . but everybody was telling me how hard the Chopin Etudes were, and I could play them all. They didn’t seem hard to me, but when everyone began saying how hard they were, they became difficult for me and I never played them again publicly. (I played one of them for a film, part of the E-Major)... Suddenly, I felt not good enough. Shortly after that, I stopped giving solo concerts . . . 1 stopped playing concertos and solo recitals until I was forty-eight.

As time passed and his professional horizons expanded, Pasatieri realized his work would constantly be subjected to criticism. However, it became apparent that the criticism he received only helped to give notice to his works. Though his focus on composition began in earnest during this period, he still retained a clear aptitude for virtuosic piano performance that exists to this day.

Pasatieri did not stop playing the piano altogether, but continued to play for singers and chamber groups. He also shifted the impetus of his musical talents to composition. In his words, “There was no way that I was not going to be a composer and for me no way to focus on both.” What remains clear is that Pasatieri's virtuosic command of the piano would forever shape his compositional gift, perhaps most notably in the piano accompanied songs.

His prodigious talent in piano performance emphasizes the beauty and pianistic style of his compositions.

Pasatieri’s composition teachers were Vittorio Giannini and Vincent Persichetti. Of

Giarmini, Pasatieri says:

He was definitely an opera composer. His sister, Dusolina Giannini, was a famous opera singer. She sang with Toscannini. His father was an opera singer, a tenor. His older sister, Eufemia, Madame Gregory, was a singer and a voice teacher at Curtis, and was Anna Moffo’ s teacher ... So it was natural for me to become an opera composer. 11

Pasatieri credits Giannini with:

. . . teaching me the natural flow of an operatic line . . . the importance of knowing the voice, the importance of setting text, the extreme caution required not to cover the singers, the multiple possibilities of expressing the same emotion and a host of other considerations.'’

Giaimini provided the young composer with the ideal foundation to foster his compositional talents.

Vincent Persichetti's instruction followed Giannini’s and he taught Pasatieri, “how to chisel what I was doing, so it didn't have too many notes.” The influence of both teachers was enormous and laid the foundation of Pasatieri’s emerging style.

While at The Juilliard School, Pasatieri had the luxury of hearing his works performed. “We had orchestras that in those days would play our music right away. To hear it played with the orchestra is how you learn.” It was also at The Juilliard School that the importance of pleasing an audience became paramount. He said, “Particularly when 1 started, there was no pleasing the other composers because 1 was doing the exact opposite of what they were doing. At Juilliard in the 60's, they were all electronic and twelve-tone composers.” Due to his immense self-conviction and commitment “to do what I had to do,"

Pasatieri continued to compose in a traditional manner, foregoing excursions into the experimental music that was vogue.

Personal integrity is important to Pasatieri, but of equal significance to him is the reaction of his audience. He notes, “At Juilliard’s composer concerts, I would always get the most applause. There’s no question about it. So I had the audience. 1 didn’t have the other composers, they would turn down their noses, especially when I got more applause.” This 12 was to be the beginning of a career built on pleasing audiences, instinctively composing music that was built on beautiful melodies, and a love of the voice while overcoming ridicule from composers and critics for writing in a style they considered traditional and antiquated.

“Once I was laughed out of composition class for writing such romantic music.”^ Critics and other composers dismissed Pasatieri’s music because he maintained his traditional style.

Pasatieri became revolutionary by being traditional. However, the compositions they dismissed, enraptured audiences, which ultimately was Pasatieri’s goal.

Following graduation, during the summer of 1965, Pasatieri had an experience that he considers “. . . the beginning of my professional career.” While attending the Aspen

Music Festival, Pasatieri studied composition with composer and member of ‘Les Six,'

Darius Milhaud. The festival culminated in a competition for the best composition, and

Pasatieri’s entry was his one-act opera. The Women. This was his third opera, although The

Trysting Place ( 1964) and Flowers of Ice ( 1964) were never staged and are considered by the composer to be “student” operas. With The Women. Pasatieri won the competition, despite the fact that Milhaud strongly disliked his work. Pasatieri elaborates:

Darius Milhaud hated what I was doing, - absolutely hated it. There were composition classes so it would be me and the other composers. We would play our music for him and he would criticize it. Mine was by far the one that he hated the most.

Despite the fact that Milhaud also judged the competition, Pasatieri won the Aspen

Festival Prize. He remembers:

What happened was the audience reaction to that piece was much greater than anything I had ever heard a contemporary composition receive. This program of contemporary music had normal pieces like a woodwind quintet, violin sonata, brass . . . and then this thirteen minute opera. The Women was 13

greeted with screaming, a standing ovation... they had to give me the prize. It was always the public that came through for me rather than critics or other composers.

Probably more significant than winning the prize was the realization that he had found his calling - a direction for his music. Pasatieri said, “I felt at that moment, that opera was what I was supposed to do. This is what 1 did that elicited the greatest response from the audience.” His Aspen experience was also momentous because in addition to the prize, recognition, and realization that opera was the direction of his music, Pasatieri cultivated friendships with Jennie Tourel and Bob Holton.

Pasatieri describes Miss Tourel as “one of the greatest singers and artists that ever lived.” Jennie Tourel taught at The Juilliard School and during the summer of 1965, Tourel was a teacher in residence in Aspen. Pasatieri tells of a “remarkable experience” that he had that summer:

1 don't remember the exact circumstances, but at any rate, I got to know Jennie Tourel. The summer of 1965, her students were singing The Women. So we became friends and 1 always admired her tremendously ... Tourel was singing Sheherazade with the orchestra. It was so incredible . . . 1 was sitting in the first row, right in front of her and it was so amazing. The level of artistry transformed everything and when 1 went back stage to see her. literally no words came out of my mouth - the onlytime that 1 can remember being unable to speak. 1 was so moved by the artistry. We became very good friends, so in 1971, when we were casting for Black Widow. 1 wondered if she would return to the stage to sing the mother. And she did, she actually returned to the stage, which was an incredible thing to do for a young composer.

Their friendship and student/teacher relationship was most influential to Pasatieri’s vocal writing. He frequented her master classes and absorbed her philosophy regarding the use of the voice and artistry. Pasatieri attributes Miss Tourel with “teaching me what a song was all about - how to make every nuance, every syllable in a text important.”^ The magnitude 14 of Jennie Tourel’s ideology and artistry is realized in the way that Pasatieri continued to write “gratefully” for the voice, and the manner in which he learned to set the text.

Pasatieri describes the importance of meeting Robert Holton in the following:

Bob Holton, a great promoter of American opera, was the most powerful agent for composers. Holton represented Carlisle Floyd, Lee Hoiby, Aaron Copland, Samuel Barber, Gian-Carlo Menotti and Dominic Argento. He was one of the first to bring Benjamin Britten to America.

Holton, described as the “unsung hero” of American Opera, saw The Women in Aspen and was impressed with the young composer. When Pasatieri returned to The Juilliard School, his new opera La Divina (1966) as well as The Women were produced with Mr. Holton in attendance. This was a pivotal point in Pasatieri's career because following the performance

Mr. Holton signed Pasatieri with publisher G. Schirmer. In Pasatieri's words, “I thought 1 was in Heaven, for 1 was a published opera composer.”’ This was the beginning of a fruitful collaboration and close friendship between Holton and Pasatieri.

Pasatieri's years at The Juilliard School provided him with an idyllic world. A world overflowing with young talented singers who delighted in “trying out” the prolific composers latest creation. Soprano, Lorna Haywood, remembers fondly those early days at The

Juilliard:

Tom would bring me a song with great enthusiasm. ‘Lorna I did this last night, look at it.’ I would go through it and I would say ‘Tom, you are crazy to expect the singer to sing this word on that pitch. Ideally you should change that.’ He would happily go off with my suggestions and the next day he would come back with that song corrected and a new song. He must have stayed up nights fixing what we discussed. He had this huge enthusiasm to learn and he was hungry to be told what was and was not appropriate for the voice. He obviously wanted to learn his art because he was always ready to listen. Tom was like a big sponge soaking it all in. He was so prolific, it was just amazing. He was so anxious to know what would be good for singers. 15

He really learned that way - with singers. There is some music I will not bother with because it has obviously been written by somebody that knows nothing about the voice. I do not believe in subjecting the human voice to that kind of nonsense. Tom does not ask the impossible and I think that is why his music is so liked by singers.®

Pasatieri missed no opportunity to learn and refine his craft. He played for voice lessons. learning from both teachers and singers about the way the human voice works. Listening and studying the voice became his passion. Pasatieri says:

People were writing things that had nothing to do with the singing voice. Just things that well, a clarinet could do. It was Just terrible and the singers who were singing contemporary music had no voices. They were singers who could do this kind of stuff, but didn’t have pretty voices which is probably why they turned to contemporary music - that made it even worse. So I started writing music that was grateful to sing, because when I studied, I studied not only composition, but I used to go to the classes of the voice teachers, to the individual lessons and listen. And then, I was a coach for singers which was one of the ways I supported myself - so coaching singers. I always worked with singers and my friends were singers, so it was natural for me to want to write for the voice and that's what I did . . . These people were my friends and I would bring them things, and ask them to sing this for me, to show me how to make it better, They would say, T feel it is too hard to sing that syllable up there’ or ‘if I could hold this a little bit longer’ that is the way you really learn. You have to have an instinct and talent for it. but you have to have an education.

While Pasatieri’s influences seem vast, the importance of some were especially significant. Famed Soprano, Maria Callas’ art heavily influenced his musical development.

She was the greatest - probably one of the greatest influences of anyone in the twentieth-century as far as I am concerned. I only saw her a couple of times, but just the presence of this person would make the music come alive - who could sing and sound like she was speaking at the same time. She, who transformed the musical language - Oh, yes, definitely, I would listen over and over to the performance of hers - learning what it is to really create drama through the vocal line for me was as important as studying composition. 16

Pasatieri continued to study and compose. By 1969, at the age of twenty-three, he earned the first Ph.D. awarded by The Juilliard School of Music. He was required to complete two doctoral theses. The first thesis was a discussion of the theatre music of

Monteverdi, the second, an original composition, was an opera entitled The Penitentes

(1967). It was also during the last of this decade that Pasatieri began teaching. He taught composition at The Juilliard School from 1967-1969; in Sienna, Italy, in 1967; at the

Manhattan School of Music 1969-1971; and later was a Distinguished Visiting Professor at the University of Cincinnati College - Conservatory of Music. He was not particularly fond of teaching, but master classes with singers proved more interesting. Pasatieri knew that teaching was a commitment, primarily of time, that he would not find fulfilling. Pursuing his composing did not allow sufficient time needed to devote to teaching.

The 1970's were a time of achievement, excitement and productivity for Pasatieri.

He successfully established himself as a composer of vocal works and was celebrated by singers for his propensity to write singable, vocally-oriented melodic lines. As a prolific composer, he soon had a constant stream of commissions. Ironically, what made him the

“darling” of singers, generated adverse reactions by numerous writers, critics and composers.

For every singer who praised his treatment of the voice, there was a critic who denounced his traditional, neo-Romantic style. John Reardon, celebrated baritone summarized

Pasatieri’s music by saying:

Pasatieri writes from the heart rather than the head - scaring lines that we all love to sing without having to worry about picking out awkward jagged intervals. Sure, his music is conservative, but the diatonic scale is far from exhausted ; There’s still that tried and true thing of a rising series of tones, a leap to a climactic high note and a smashing cadence that lifts you out of your 17

seat. It’s worked for centuries and Pasatieri does it in his own original way.’

In opposition, was the review of New York critic Alan Rich following the Emmy

Award winning television production of The Trial of Marv Lincoln (1972). The acidic Rich said, “I don’t know from under which rock Mr. Pasatieri crawled out but he should crawl back in.” Despite condemnation by critics, commissions and public acceptance increased, and Pasatieri’s music maintained its characteristic idiomatic vocal writing.

During the Seventies, Thomas Pasatieri’s West End Avenue residence in New York

City became a haven of fostered creativity, remembered affectionately by various artists.

Soprano, Sheri Greenawald reminisces;

We used to sing at Tom’s house all the time. It was a real “Salon” atmosphere . . . He was just so generous about his gifts and his life in general. We always ate at his house: a good Italian boy - he could cook. There was always food at Tom’s, like he was nurturing us in more ways than one . . . We would get together and sing for each other and Tom would have me try this or do this ... It was a real “center” - Certainly a center for me and for many of our friends. Tom was someone around whom we circled — it was a place that was very alive with creativity. All these incredibly talented people coming together and stimulating each other. It was really important for me. Tom kept me going in the business.

This is a time that Pasatieri remembers fondly. He describes his relationship to other artists and their careers in the following:

I always felt good when I could help someone’s career, certainly the singers that I worked with. It felt natural to me. The gathering of people for food and music was also very natural and fun and wonderful. We were a very close knit group of people, not just musicians but largely musicians. There were writers and other people in the group. It was just a way of life. I didn” think about it at the time. I worked with all those singers, and worked is probably the wrong word because it was such a wonderful sharing and wonderful experience. Certainly, when I was in a position to help them, through recommending them or actually hiring them that was great. It was also very mutual, I learned from each of the voices that I coached ... the idea of giving 18

is very, very much my nature. That is what I was most comfortable doing - - giving.

This nurturing attitude and the close relationships he developed with a multitude of singers proved to be beneficial both to those he touched as well as Pasatieri and his music.

Pasatieri's influence and generosity was not felt by singers alone. Writer Marc Dulman has fond memories of Pasatieri and recalled:

At the point we met in 1974,1 had written so little, but 1 was declaring myself a writer. I was just breaking into writing. I was doing freelance work and children’s stories. Tom sat me down and said, "Listen, if you are going to be a writer, then you are going to have to write. Why don’t you do a series of poems.’ He presented me with Strauss’ Four Last Songs and suggested I choose a sense of time, or a theme or a season . . . Tom was known as a friendly cooperative man. He tailored his music to the voice. He was known for this cooperative quality. He truly tried to make a garment for the voice of the singer."

Pasatieri would eventually set two of Dulman’s poems, “The Kiss” and “Winter’s Child."

Keeping with tradition, Marc remembers, “Sheri (Greenawald) singing them in the living room after dinner.” Pasatieri’s supportive inclination and generosity touched performers and audiences alike.

Just as Pasatieri was influential to numerous artists, numerous artists were influential to his career. As previously mentioned Jennie Tourel and Maria Callas, both professional singers, had a great impact on Pasatieri’s compositional style. Another professional singer.

Rosa Ponselle, also had an great influence on Pasatieri but hers was a different type of influence. Pasatieri describes it in the following:

Rosa was one of those great singers of all times, so knowing her was a privilege, an honor and a joy. Just being in her presence intensified one’s appreciation of music. She was a link to the greatest operas of the nineteenth-century. Truly in the twentieth-century. She was one of the ten 19

greatest singers. Rosa’s artistry along with that of Maria Callas ... if I had to pick, oh it is so hard, but Rosa was one of the great singers of all time. That influenced me in the sense that it helped me with my music. By the time Rosa heard my music, it was an opera that had already been written for Baltimore. I had already written probably a dozen operas by then. Her influence was certainly emotional and artistic.

Following a production of The Seagull by the Atlanta Lyric Opera and a presentation of Washington Square by the Georgia Opera, Thomas Pasatieri was offered the position of

Artistic Director with the Atlanta Civic Opera.(There was a merger of the two companies.)

Pasatieri served as director from 1980-1984, and while he loved the collaboration with singers and making music, he abhorred the politics. He said:

1 loved opening nights, but it was getting there, it was awful. 1 loved the opera part of it. It was dealing with the Board of Directors and just, the Unions and so many problems. Just incredible things. But, of course, I loved the singers and the pieces 1 produced.

Pasatieri began his tenure at the Atlanta Civic Opera with an opera gala. Pasatieri recalls, “The gala presented thirteen opera singers from Sam Ramey, Catherine Malfitano.

Ashley Putnam. Everyone came down to do the benefit for me. Brent played the piano for me and Robert Jacobson, who was the editor of Opera News, was the M.C.” Subsequently

Pasatieri produced; The Consul. Ariadne auf Naxos. Cenerentola. The Medium. Dido and

Aeneas, and The Barber of Seville. He also produced a series called “Sundays at Seven."

Pasatieri remembers, “1 produced a whole series of cabaret concerts. We did all kinds of things, Verdi rarities, a Viennese evening, an American music theater evening, a number of things.” He both produced and directed his opera Black Widow. Pasatieri truly enjoyed directing although the time commitment was too great. He elaborates: 20

Unfortunately, the last time 1 did it was Black Widow for Atlanta. It takes a major commitment of time; you have to have three weeks to a month for a production and 1 can’t do that anymore - Now 1 have directed for film. I directed segments of Traviata for Prettv Woman, and segments of Traviata for a television show called Grace Note, part of the Twilight Zone series. 1 directed the little opera in Dick Tracv. So in the past decade, it has been for camera.

During his directorship of the Atlanta Civic Opera, Pasatieri had the opportunity to be a visiting composer at The University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.

Subsequently, he was engaged as a Distinguished Visiting Professor. This was not

Pasatieri’s first opportunity to teach, however it came at a time when he felt a certain obligation to educate young composers:

As I flew around the country giving master classes to singers, I began to notice a trend. After every class, when the singers had gone home to practice their bel canto, young composers would hang around to ask questions about writing for the theater, getting into the business and soon... There is nothing quite so frustrating as being on the outside, without experience, without connections, without production know how, without the slightest idea where to start. It made me feel a little selfish, I began to realize 1 had something of an obligation to these young composers.'-

The culmination of his tenure with the College-Conservatory was an evening of opera, a number of one-act operas were performed after extensive study under Pasatieri’s supervision.

While he enjoyed his work with the young composers, the stress of traveling, teaching. directing and composing was overwhelming. Coupled with his disillusionment with the plight of the American opera composer, weary from commuting between New York, Atlanta. and Cincinnati, and the desire to eam a living without relying on a concert career or constant travel, Thomas Pasatieri moved to Los Angeles. 21

Pasatieri's disillusionment with opera production epitomizes the state of American opera in the last half of the twentieth-century. Thomas Pasatieri has often been compared to Giacomo Puccini, although the climate in which they were functioning was vastly different. The comparison fostered these remarks from Pasatieri:

I’m flattered, but you know we have had two totally different careers. When Puccini was writing, opera was the musical of the day. That is no longer the case. Puccini was like the Andrew Lloyd Webber. I hate to mention those two names in the same sentence, but you know what I mean as far a popular success. That’s what people wanted to hear. It is a very different situation with opera in the twentieth-century, particularly in America. You have to fight for everything. It is so hard to get works repeated. They’ll do world premieres and that’s it, no matter how successful the pieces are. It doesn’t make any difference. You see this time and time and time again. People in the past decade have been telling me it’s changing, it’s changing, but I don't see it changing in opera. It’s just that more companies are doing one work; they’ll do one round of them because they all pitch in for the expenses but then it drops out and again it’s not done anymore. This is precisely what has been happening, even with successful composers like Philip Glass. Where are the repeats of his operas? I don’t see repeats of Einstein on the Beach. I know when John Adams wrote Nixon in China and then The Death of Klinghoffer. he just thought they were going to be performed all over the world. Then they disappeared, but I could have told him that. . .

The only person who came close was Gian-Carlo Menotti, and even that has stopped so much - but nobody else. None of the works are repeated or done with great frequency. There will be a run of Washington Squares in Germany, but that is not like making a career the way Benjamin Britten did. Benjamin Britten was the last composer - opera composer, to have a solid lasting career. They’ll do Britten here, in Germany, in Italy or England, but they don’t do that for any of the American composers.

Numerous professional singers who have had the opportunity to perform contemporary works sympathize with the attempts of composers to promote their works.

Mezzo-soprano, Elaine Bonnazi, has performed many modern works. She speaks of the trials and tribulations of composers: 22

It is a very meager living they make. It is not like a singer, who can sing many performances a year, they can’t write thirty works a year. It takes a long time to write an opera and the “Sturm und Drang” of getting it produced - the money involved - trying to raise money to produce and getting commissions. It is a hell of a way to live.'^

Musicologists, critics and writers have theorized and speculated regarding contemporary music. In John Rockwell’s All American Music, he states:

The fact is that orchestras, their music directors, their boards and their audiences seem deeply confused as to just what they want in the way of new music. Often players resent anything out of the ordinary. The conductors are too busy polishing their narrow repertory of classics and trendy exotica to bother with new music, especially new music of American or local origin.'*’

Pasatieri agrees wholeheartedly with Rockwell’s comments concerning modem music and adds, “It is really the audiences that have not supported the idea of contemporary music and they are just not popular enough to pay for themselves - that is the problem.” However.

Pasatieri strongly disagrees with Mr. Rockwell’s statement," ... the decline in appeal of twentieth century classical music, combined with the rise of alternative technologies and art forms, have lured away talent that might in previous centuries have been applied to composition.”'^ Pasatieri feels that “whoever is destined to compose is going to compose."

It is pertinent to note however, that one of the most frequently commissioned composers of twentieth-century classical music left the classical world to make a living in Hollywood.

Pasatieri does maintain:

I never completely left classical music, 1 just wound down for a while. I was no longer earning my living being a “serious” composer. I earned my living in Hollywood ... I wanted to live in one place and not travel anymore . . . When 1 was directing an opera company, very often 1 would perform as a pianist with the singers, do lectures - many master classes. I was doing all those things not only to support my art, but to support myself financially. 23

Pasatieri left the classical community because of his disenchantment with the state of American opera, however his transformation from “serious” composer to television and film work was rather effortless. His training and expertise, as well as his reputation in the music world provided an easy transition to a more lucrative genre. After moving to

California, he started Topaz Productions, a film production company that handles the business aspect of his work. While he has written original music scores, his preference is for orchestration.

Pasatieri elaborates:

When you actually write the melodies you have to do exactly what the director wants. They will alter it to whatever they want and I really don’t like to work like that. But in orchestration. I’m left completely to myself to decide whatever colors of the orchestra 1 want to use. Tm in charge, nobody interferes, and I like that... I like the movie work and doing orchestrations for films. I enjoy the orchestration part of it. The only problem is it is not artistic. It is not a good artistic endeavor. It is easy for me to do orchestration. It is work but nothing that I have to agonize over. It is more of a labor than a creative process. When 1 produce the recording sessions, that adds another dimension to the whole process but it just is not fulfilling the way “serious” composing is.

To date, Pasatieri has orchestrated more than one hundred major films.

Initially, his work was in television, but his current focus is film. His aptitude for orchestration has proven particularly successful. Pasatieri can easily handle large orchestration as well as conducting symphonic ensembles - an ability that untrained musicians would not possess. A brief list of his film work includes: Legends of the Fall. The

Little Mermaid. Shawshank Redemption. Prettv Woman. Dick Tracv. The Pelican Brief.

Little Women. Fried Green Tomatoes. A Walk in the Clouds. Corrina. Corrina. How to Make an American Quilt. The Page Master and The Fabulous Baker Bovs. 24

During the decade from 1984 - 1994, Thomas Pasatieri did not pursue a career in classical music. At the beginning of this time frame, he composed one or two pieces a year.

In the last few years, the impetus of his work has been instrumental, a departure for a composer known mainly for vocal works. There was a time when commissions not involving voice as the major instrument were not considered. To say that a decade of film orchestration has not influenced his current tendency to write instrumental music would be naive. Pasatieri says:

I thought for many years that my strongest music was vocal music. I was influenced by so many vocal composers that I didn’t write instrumental music. For the most part, like Verdi and Puccini, these were opera composers. There were three major opera composers who also wrote wonderful instrumental music - Mozart, Richard Strauss and Benjamin Britten, all equally famous for their instrumental music. I always felt that I was not as strong. Working with orchestras so much of the time, I felt stronger.

Pasatieri’s current inclination toward orchestral writing provided him with the opportunity to publicly perform for the first time in over thirty years. The conductor of the

Spanish Symphony invited Pasatieri to premiere his new Piano Concerto upon completion.

After much debate, Pasatieri decided that if he could have as many rehearsals as he wanted. and no critics, he would perform. Pasatieri spent six months practicing “to get my fingers back in concert shape.” Although the day of the performance was filled with anxiety, the event was a great success. As Pasatieri recounts his experience, one cannot help but note that although thirty years have gone by, the audience’s acceptance is still of paramount importance to this brilliant talent:

Last summer I played my new piano concerto. I hadn’t played a piano concerto in public since I was eighteen years old. But as I was writing the piece I thought, do I really want to write for myself and am I going to play 25

again? The day of the performance - all that day I thought this is crazy - 1 don’t have to do this - 1 don’t know why - I’ll give this concert and I’ll never give another - that’s it. I’ll never play again ... You talk about an audience reaction! ... When I finished, they started screaming! There were so many curtain calls for that concert that I finally had to tell the stage manager to turn the lights on . . . There are experiences like that, that make me feel like maybe I will do more ... when I play my own music I get applause and love from the audience for the music and the performance.

This desire to please an audience and gain their admiration has been something of a credo for Pasatieri. His desire to share his genius with his admiring public has remained unchanged. At nineteen years of age he said, “The Women was produced at the Aspen

Festival and it won the Aspen Festival Prize. It was the audience reaction.” Later at twenty- seven, Pasatieri said, “I’m writing for an audience. I want to bring joy with my music. 1 would rather please a real audience than please five other composers sitting in a room.”'^’

The composer at nearly fifty said of the reaction to his Piano Concerto that he was amazed by” . . . the screaming and standing ovation.” It is apparent that his desire to please an audience is undeniable. This desire to be accepted by the public overpowered the emotional pain that other composers and critics may have caused. Pasatieri elaborates further about the importance of pleasing the audience:

We don’t know much about what motivated composers to write music before they started writing it down. Once they did start we know that their first feeling was for the glory of God, Bach cantatas, masses, gregorian chants, etc. This lasted well into the eighteenth-century when the composer broke away and decided that he would write music ‘art for art’s sake’ and this produced a kind of music that some of us might consider self-indulgent today. But, we have entered a new period and composers are interested in dealing directly with their audiences and expressing their inner most feelings and insights directly for our audiences. 26

During the 1960's and 1970's, when being traditional and conservative was not the trend, Pasatieri was compelled by personal integrity. He maintained his propensity to write tonal music. Pasatieri never wavered in his convictions. The prevailing climate of modern music included electronic and twelve-tone music. This was not the music that he heard.

Pasatieri insists that what is of importance is listening to his music not discussing his music.

“The music should speak for itself.” The music he heard was healthy, singable and grateful for the voice - above all else, it was beautiful. He said:

About fifteen times a day I’m asked, ‘Well, what does your music sound like?’ I mean, from everyone, from my mother on down the line. I suppose if one has to use labels. I’d be called a conservative composer, whatever works - the best music I can write for that moment - is what I will write. But first of all, it has to be good music, and always music that is beautiful to sing.'*

Although he was writing in an Italian tradition, a neo-Romantic style, he was writing in a decidedly twentieth-century form. While he has been called the “American Puccini” his music does not sound like reinvented Puccini. His smoothly flowing vocal lines, dramatic intent, and integrity of the written word owe a great deal to Puccini. However, his music is tempered by an unquestionably twentieth-century use of harmonies.

The last few years have brought about a renewed interest in tonal composition. All movements, whether in music, literature, fashion or politics, cannot endure the tension of radical extremes. Ultimately, these movements will stage a return to their origins. A number of American composers are classified as traditional. These composers include: Barber,

Duke, Thomson, Rorem, Copland, Menotti, Pasatieri, Argento, and Hoiby. Their music is enjoying a revival in interest. This renewed focus on their work exists essentially because 27 it is traditional and features lyrical, singable melodies.

Trained in the avant-garde techniques of the day, most notably serialism, composer

David Del Tredici said:

For me, tonality was actually a daring discovery. I grew up in a climate in which for a composer, only dissonance and atonality were acceptable. Right now, tonality is existing for me. I think I invented it. In a sense, I have when you’re a composer you’ve got to feel that, on some level, you’re doing something for the first time. Maybe no one will agree, but you must feel that way.'’

This return to tonality is welcomed by many, especially singers, who adore singing music that is gratifying for the voice. The fact that Pasatieri always preserved his predominantly traditional style is at the very least, admirable; admirable because he was able to maintain his musical convictions and artistic integrity. However, Pasatieri would not see this as admirable, only as his charge - his destiny to write the music that he heard in his head.

Dulman writes of Pasatieri’s compositional technique in the following, “It is in his music where his heart, like a singer’s voice he hears in his head, guides the creative process; while his head, in harmony, chisels the technique with aplomb.”-" He wrote the only music that he heard, that he knew, that he loved. It was the voice of his spirit.

Indicative of the acceptance of his particular style, the list of Pasatieri "s accomplishments and awards are impressive. He does not relegate any one award with more distinction, but has been pleased with all his honors. He is the recipient of the Richard

Rodgers Scholarship, the Marion Freschl Prize, the Brevard Festival Prize for Orchestral

Music, the George A. Wedge Prize, the Irving Berlin Fellowship for Music Theater, a grant for the National Endowment for the Arts, numerous Pulitzer Prize nominations and 28 commissions, and an Emmy Award for the television production of his opera, The Trial of

Marv Lincoln. Pasatieri also had the honor of performing at the White House. The composer remembers:

The Seagull had been performed at The Kennedy Center shortly before this concert. This occasion was a State Dinner for the President of Ireland. The Kennedy Center Opera was asked to present a musical program. They put together artists that had performed with them that season. I loved it. It was very exciting. That was 1979, late in the year.

Pasatieri "s operas include: The Women 11965'). La Divina (1965), Padre via (1966),

Calvarv (1967), Black Widow (1969), The Trial of Marv Lincoln (1970), The Seagull

(1972), Signor Deluso (1973), Inez de Castro (1975), Washington Square (1975), Three

Sisters(1979), Before Breakfast (1980), The Goose Girl (1980), and Maria Elena (1982).

Pasatieri’s first published songs were Selected Songs, a compilation of eight songs, 1971.

In the same year came the Evelyn Lear, Thomas Stewart commission Heloise and Abelard an extended dramatic work for Soprano and Baritone. Rites de Passage , 1973, is an extended dramatic work for voice and chamber orchestra or string quartet written as a gift for Mezzo-soprano, Elaine Bonazzi. Three Poems of .lames Agee a cycle, had its premiere in New York by Shirley Veirett in 1974. Far From Love, for Soprano, clarinet, violin, cello, and piano, a commission by The David Ensemble premiered in 1975. Songs. Volume I. a collection of twelve songs was published in 1977, followed by the 1978 song cycle Day of

Love. Set to the text of Kirstin van Cleave, this cycle was commissioned by Frederica von

Stade for a 1979 Lincoln Center premiere. Songs. Volume II. another collection of twelve 29

songs, was published in 1980. Set to the text of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Three Sonnets from the Portuguese was published in 1984. Commissioned by The Music Academy of the

West, Pasatieri composed in 1988, the Sieben Lehmannleider. for the one hundredth anniversary of the birth of Lotte Lehmann. Pasatieri’s most recent collection of songs,

Windsongs. was published in 1989. Commissioned by Thomas Hampson in 1991, Pasatieri wrote the “Alleluia,” for Hampson's Christmas CD. In addition to composing, Thomas

Pasatieri also completed all the arrangements for Christmas with Thomas Hampson.

At fifty years of age, Pasatieri continues to be actively involved with his classical music career. In recent years his “serious” works are more abundant. His Hollywood works have financially afforded him the opportunity to satisfy his artistic need to create beautiful music. This financial freedom has allowed him to return to composing music that he loves.

Currently, Thomas Pasatieri resides in Tarzana, California with his four dogs: Dusty,

Sophia, Fiona and Delilah. His dogs are very much a part of his immediate family. He shares a closeness with all his family. His father passed away a year ago, but he remains close to his mother, two sisters, and their families who all live in Florida. His film career is thriving and he has achieved a level of success only a select few have earned. Pasatieri says,

“Once you are in a certain category, you get top dollar. I haven't worked for scale in years.”

Pasatieri has averaged approximately ten films a year for the last decade. He names Greig

McRitchie and John Neufeld as contemporaries in film orchestration. With his renewed emphasis on performance and classical works, is orchestration work has been less. His most recent classical works include: Piano Concerto (1994), Concerto for Two Pianos and Strings 30

(1994), Serenade for Violin and Orchestra (1994), Bang the Drum Loudly (1994), Flute

Quartet. (1995) and Canticle of Praise (1995). 31

ENDNOTES

1. Pasatieri, Thomas. Interviewed by Beth Bauer. Except where noted, all quotations of Pasatieri's words in this chapter are derived from interviews conducted at the home of Thomas Pasatieri in Tarzana, California (July, 1995), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (November, 1995) and intermittent subsequent telephone conversations. (1995).

2. Dulman, Martin. “Thomas Pasatieri: An Informal Portrait.” The Opera Journal. January 1974,15.

3. Ibid., 5.

4. Pasatieri, Thomas. “The American Singer: Gold Mine for Composers.” Musical Journal. January 1974, 15.

5. Davis, Peter G. “They Love Him in Seattle.” The Sundav New York Times Magazine. 21 March 1972,27.

6. Sperber, Ann. “Let Me Entertain You.” Opera News. 4 March 1972, 27.

7. Pasatieri, 15.

8. Haywood, Lorna. Telephone Interview by Beth Bauer, (1995).

9. Davis, 48.

10. Greenawald, Sheri. Telephone Interview by Beth Bauer, (1995).

11. Dulman, Marc. Telephone Interview by Beth Bauer, (1995).

12. Malitz, Nancy. “Treating the Voice with the Dignity it Deserves.” The Cincinnati Enquirer 6 January 1980.

13. Bonazzi, Elaine. Telephone Interview by Beth Bauer, (1995).

14. Rockwell. John. All American Music Composition in the Late Twentieth Centurv. (New York : Alfred Knopf, 1983), 149.

15. Ibid., 155. 16. Fleming, Shirley. “Musician of the Month.” High Fidelity/Musical America. Vol. 22. March, 1972, MA-4.

17. Pasatieri, Thomas. “The Operas of Thomas Pasatieri.” Camera Three. Produced and Directed by Roger Englander (New York: CBS Broadcasting, 1979).

18. Sperber, 27.

19. Rockwell, 77.

20. Dulman, 6. CHAPTER II

KIRSTIN VAN CLEAVE: BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

Unlike Thomas Pasatieri, Kirstin van Cleave experienced a wonderful childhood.

She describes it as “idyllic” and incessantly praises her parents. She says, “the values that my parents gave me are ninety-five percent responsible for my success in life.” Her reverence for her parents is strong and the unconditional love they showered upon her has manifested itself in a distinct maimer. At fifty-five, van Cleave is an intelligent, opinionated, aggressive, witty, romantic woman. Her life has been an intriguing and diverse journey - one that certainly has not been conventional, but fulfilling and exciting. Born in Fort Worth,

Texas in 1940, she knew at an early age that writing would be her great source of passion.

Van Cleave recalls:

When I was forty, I started my newspaper. My mother, who was truly a saint, found a copy of a newspaper that I made when I was seven. She framed it and hung it in the office of Inner-View. The paper was done all in pencil and it was called The Dailv Sun. It sold for a nickel and we made twenty copies. Unfortunately, it only survived for two editions because we printed things about the neighbors. My parents thought it was very creative, but not an option.'

33 34

The only events van Cleave recalls as unpleasant were the moves her family made when she was young. She moved from East Texas to Shreveport, Louisiana and finally to

Houston, Texas. Her father, Henry van Cleave, was an accounting executive for Gulf Oil

Company. Van Cleave experienced a certain amount of trepidation with each move, especially when she arrived in Houston. However, as is her way, she soon acclimated herself to life in the city. As a child, she was an avid reader of novels, magazines and newspapers.

This love of language strongly influenced her developing opinions and desires.

Van Cleave attended The University of North Texas in Denton. She had aspirations of becoming a jazz musician, however, her parents thought she would “starve to death.”

They felt the arts were not conducive to making a living. She decided that majoring in journalism was the most prudent choice, to satisfy her parents and herself. Van Cleave describes herself as “unreachable” and “closed.” She attributes one English professor. Dr.

Davidson, with the ability to reach her. She began writing more and more because “it was a way to express myself.” In 1961, after finishing college, she began her climb up the corporate ladder in what she refers to as her “corporate period.” When executive life proved boring after a year or two, she moved on. Van Cleave describes these years as “a time of self-indulgence.” During the Sixties and Seventies, van Cleave served as a Director of

Public Relations for a lumber company, worked for a number of advertising agencies, was a reporter for the Houston Tribune, a Press Representative for the Baroid division of NL

Industries, and the Presidential Speech Writer for Gulf Oil Company. “Satisfying” is not a term that van Cleave uses to describe her corporate life, however these years certainly provided her with a variety of experiences. Financial independence allowed her the freedom 35 to explore writing, and in 1972, she graduated from the University of Houston with a Master of Arts degree in English. In 1973, after a brief sojourn to England, van Cleave earned a

Doctorate in Literature from the London Institute.

Van Cleave began teaching at the College of the Mainlands and doing freelance writing. During the early Seventies, while working on interviews of a number of opera singers, van Cleave became enamored with the world of opera. She enjoyed interviewing people because, “I got to ask anything I wanted - polite or impolite, of people prominent in their fields.” She was fascinated by the “world” and the beauty of opera. This fascination lead to many friendships and acquaintances that she continues to speak of with great pleasure. During this time, she met Thomas Pasatieri, Frederica von Stade, Evelyn Lear,

Carmen Balthrop, Catherine Malfitano, Sheila Nadler and a vast list of artists. Van Cleave is quick to tell story after story of singers and composers she met and interviewed. She shows a certain deference for artists and her respect and praise is unceasing. Her admiration for the singing voice has no bounds and she describes it as “being touched by the finger of

God.”

In 1975, van Cleave published a set of poems entitled. Day of Love. Certainly, being immersed in such a creative world influenced her decision to publish her poems. This first volume of poetry was written during her late teens and was never intended for publication.

This volume of poetry' is intensely personal and many years later was given to friends as gifts. Van Cleave describes herself as a Romantic. “Whenever I was in love with someone that was unattainable, I wrote poetry - to express myself.” After Day of Love she wrote

Amourette. (1978) and Laurels (1979), which are also volumes of poetry. Her poetry was 36 written as a release - moments of catharsis. These works were a reflection of her inner thoughts - reflections of love, relationships, vulnerabilities, ecstasy and pain. Van Cleave’s poetry is characterized by her profound belief in romanticism. She says:

These songs are for you if you have ever loved truly or purely. Not everyone can love; to be able to give oneself to another in any way is a great gift. Guard yourself against the superficial, the sanctimonious, the suppressed; they can steal away the gold of your soul.-

Poems were an outlet - a place to express her most intimate thoughts and feelings.

At the end of the decade, van Cleave worked solely as a freelance writer. In 1980, she realized that she needed to dedicate her life to a more worthy cause. Van Cleave doesn't apologize, but recognizes time spent frivolously making money and playing. She knew she needed to re-evaluate her priorities and “the time was passing and the grave was yawning."

At the age of forty, van Cleave decided that it was time to give back to the community which had provided her with a wealth of experience and relationships.

Therefore, in 1980, she started her publication, Inner-View. and began her quest to make a communal difference in Houston. “The Seventies were about money, indulgence and love and the Eighties were about community, integrity and dedication.” Inner-View was a free monthly newspaper that provided the reader with interesting and creative news articles. In

1986, van Cleave earned the Excellence in Journalism Award given by the Executive

Advertising Council in Houston, Texas.

In further pursuit of her need to make a difference in her community, van Cleave became a self-defense instructor. From 1980 to 1988, she taught self-defense at the Houston

Area Women’s Center. An accomplished martial artists and third-degree black belt, she 37 enjoys instructing martial arts. She also joined the Harris County Sheriffs department and feels that “law enforcement was some type of attempt to bring order to my life.” In 1985 van

Cleave was named one of the “Fifty Most Interesting Houstonians.” She believes she was chosen because her “life’s work had been so diverse and interesting.” Along this new path, direction came to her through her alliance with the Guardian Angels. She felt this organization was doing important, much needed work and she became the leader of the

Houston Chapter as well as their Regional coordinator. In 1988, she was a recipient of the

“Mayor’s Volunteer Award” for her work with the Guardian Angels, an organization formed in urban areas for volunteers to curb violence and aid in policing public areas to make them safe. Van Cleave said, “What I did with the Guardian Angels was to completely suit it to the landscape ... I made it work for Houston.” In 1994, she was named Goodwill Ambassador for the City of Houston.

Currently, Kit van Cleave is back in Houston after a year spent abroad. She lived and studied literature and folk history in Ireland, fulfilling her goal to live in Europe and to commune with her Irish heritage. Most recently, she bought the Kingwood Karate Club and continues to try to educate and enlighten her community. Her school teaches the eight Arts of the East including; Karate, Judo, Aikido and Tai-Quan-Do. Kit van Cleave enjoys a very healthy, and energetic life. She is finishing her first novel and has completed two textbooks/teaching manuals on Cha Yon-Ryu in conjunction with Grand Master Kim Soo.

Her poetry is influenced by the events of her upbringing , and an awareness of her

Irish heritage. Also of great significance are her many well-informed yet aggressive views, particularly the civil rights movement, and socially liberal movements of the Sixties and Seventies. Van Cleave is quite candid about her poems. Perhaps due to the passage of time, she is able to freely discuss her influences and inspirations. However, it remains difficult for her to read through the words, so long ago written, but still so intensely personal. Her poetry is tempered by her overt confidence and belief in Romanticism “as the essence of life.”

Dav of Love. Amourette, and Laurels are all volumes of poetry that van Cleave wrote to find relief from the myriad of feelings she was experiencing while in love. She speaks of love in the following, “It is like magic, like a mystery to me. 1 simply don’t understand it.

Relationships are turbulent, exhilarating, paralyzing, stimulating and emotional.” Swept up in this emotional maelstrom, writing about it was her sole outlet.

Van Cleave’s verse owes much to works from the Elizabethan Restoration. Many references derive their spirit from Shakespearean sonnets, Eleanor of Aquitaine’s “Courts of Love” and her obsession with the Holy Grail. Van Cleave reveals Eleanor as beautiful, brilliant, wealthy and genetically seasoned for ruling. She revels in the strength of Eleanor's convictions and the cunning wit of her pursuits.

Eleanor of Aquitaine (1122-1204) was bom of noble heritage and during her life became both the Queen of France (as wife of Louis VII) and the Queen of England (as wife of Henry II). She was truly a woman before her time. Scholar Marion Meade relates the following:

She was a woman of enormous intelligence and titanic energy who lived in a passionate, creative age. The stage on which she moved encompassed the Crusades, the new Gothic architecture, the struggle between Church and State, the songs of the troubadours, the ideas of courtly love and the burgeoning of a feminist movement.^ 39

Eleanor created the “Courts of Love” and the troubadours circulated the ideas. She helped establish this movement in England because of her passion for poetry, romance, love of the arts, and love for the traditions of her homeland. The troubadours traveled from court to court singing these songs. Their use of poetic verse obscured the sensuality of the text;

The poems of the troubadours were written as songs with lute accompaniment. They might well tell of war, politics or rivals or they could be satirical - - but usually they were about ladies . . . The troubadours developed a cult of platonic love (amor de lonh love from afar) and sang of an impossible passion for some unattainable noblewoman, invariably married and a great lady, declaiming how lovely she was and how despite her scorn they would continue to adore her ... In theory, physical love played a very small part; a troubadour was expected to think himself well rewarded for ten years of devotion by the gift of a single rose.'*

The fact that one of the roots of contemporar>’ ferr.inism is based in the “Courts of

Love” during the twelfth-century had an impact on politically and socially minded van

Cleave. Her love for words and classical literature laid a foundation for her current romantic viewpoint, as illustrated by the following introduction to her poems:

Muse, n. 1. In Greek mythology, any of the nine nymphs or inferior divinities.

generally represented as young, beautiful, and modest virgins who

presided over the fine and liberal arts.

2. The spirit regarded as inspiring a poet or other artist; source of genius

or inspiration.

The Muses approach the poet on Helicon and give him sceptre, voice, and knowledge ... The Muses are among the most loveable and most influential creations; personifications of the highest intellectual and artistic aspirations, they yet retained a personal character. Poets . . . celebrate the Muses as bringing to humanity the purifying powers of music, inspiration of poetry, and divine wisdom.^ 40

Van Cleave’s intentions were always the same - to provide herself with an emotional outlet - a way to "‘cleanse her soul.” Although her intent was the same, her approach evolved through maturity, and expanded studies of poetic form. Dav of Love exhibits her use of free verse. “I was enamored with free verse,” van Cleave says.

The poetry continued to be romantic and immensely personal, however, van Cleave’s maturing style manifested itself in more structured forms and use of Elizabethan influences.

Regardless of the poetic form she employed, the recurring theme of love and romance remains the focus of her work. Van Cleave relates;

Once in a lifetime, a great love comes to each of us. Sometimes the lover is in disguise, packaged plain or dazzling. This one may come to share a life, or have little time to spend. Stay open for this moment; recognize and eliminate the need to possess, revise, expect, imprison. Love is best when revered and freed to come and go. Fate passes different cards to us all; attitude makes them playable. Trying to analyze love and avoid its future beclouds the experience at hand.*’

Finally van Cleave shares her opinions regarding the intent of artists:

Artist are trying to create people like Fiordiligi, or Mimi, or Liu out of our own experiences. We are trying to imprint them with our own contemporary experiences or we are trying to do portrait work, or painting, or sculpting. Or perhaps we are trying to create these experiences by writing, or composing. We are all trying to draw for others through the limb of our experiences of what life is al about. We are trying to resemble the experience of life. 41

ENDNOTES

1. Van Cleave, Kit. Interviews by Beth Bauer. Except where noted, all quotations of van Cleave’s words are derived from interviews with the poet conducted in Dallas, Texas (August, 1995) and telephone conversations (1995).

2. Van Cleave, Kirstin. Amourette. (California: Triton Press, 1978).

3. Meade, Marion. Eleanor of Aquitaine A Biographv. (New York: E.P. Dutton, 1977). xii.

4. Seward, Desmond. Eleanor of Aquitaine. (New York: Times Books, 1979). 14-15.

5. Van Cleave. Amourette.

6. Van Cleave, Kirstin. Laurels. (Texas: Innercity Press, 1980). CHAPTER III

MUSIC AND POETRY: COLLABORATION OF ART

An artist has higher highs and lower lows than anyone else. That’s the basis of song, so man can express something so joyous or sad that words alone cannot express. It’s a higher level of expression. We can be touched by words and by music, but the two together can be so elevated.'

Pasatieri has always maintained that his choice of texts is of primary importance. He says, “If I did not like the poetry I would not set it.” Pasatieri was an avid reader as a child and has a great appreciation of the English language. His preference is for “American or

British poetry,” but above all, Pasatieri “likes beautiful poems.” The significance that he places on the poetry is illustrated in the following story regarding the setting of the Sieben

Lehmannlieder (1988V.

1 do not remember the number, which song in the cycle, but it is called ‘ Wie schon ist dieser tiefe Schlummer.’ Now originally, they didn’t give me the book of poetry that she wrote in German, because there were so few copies. They had a typist type it out and she made a mistake. She wrote, ‘tiefe Schimmer,’ which means ‘deep shimmering.’ 1 started to set the song with the idea of shimmering, and then 1 got the text and it was ‘tiefe Schlummer,’ which means ‘sleep,’ so it became a different song.-

This reverence for the written word is not a universal feature of composers. Opinions by composers regarding the importance of the text are as divergent as the music they have created.

42 43

Composer Ned Rorem says, concerning his art songs, “I wouldn’t mind if this piece were played in concert on the violin; or omitting the vocal line, as a piano solo.”^ To this statement Pasatieri emphatically says, “RIDICULOUS.” Ridiculous, because the conception of his own music, his inspiration, begins with the words. Pasatieri shares composer Heniy

Purcell’s opinion in the following, “Both of them may excel apart, but sure they are most excellent when they are joined, because then nothing is then wanting to either of their perfections.”^ Regarding libretti, nineteenth-centuiy composer Gustav Mahler states, “It must not be forgotten, even for a moment, that the text of an opera is an artistic factor equal in value to the music.”' Finally, it was twentieth-century composer, Igor Stravinsky, who said, “Music, unlike words, cannot ‘express’ anything.”* While Stravinsky’s statement seems rather extreme, the fact remains that musical composition is an individualistic venture and for Pasatieri words are an intrinsic focus of his work.

Poets, like musicians, have firm opinions about the union of poetry and music. Irish poet Yeats stated, “No word of mine must ever change into a mere musical note, no singer of my words must ever cease to be a man and become an instrument.”^ Famed poet Shelley wrote;

A musician who would give me pleasure should not repeat a line or put more than one note to a syllable. I am a poet, not a musician, and dislike to have my words distorted or their animation destroyed even though the musician claims to have expressed their meaning in a different medium.*

In opposition to Yeats and Shelley’s words are the thoughts of poet Ezra Pound, “Poetry begins to atrophy when it gets too far from music.’” For Pasatieri, musical conception begins 44 with the text; it gives shape and form to his creation. It is the marriage of poetry and music that is one of the most salient features of his vocal works.

Thomas Pasatieri set the works of several literary geniuses including William

Shakespeare, Emily Dickinson, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, James Agee, Thomas Moore and John Donne. He also chose to set the works of friends: poet, Kit van Cleave; professional singer, Sheila Nadler; authors, Marc Dulman and Louis Phillips; poet Robert

H. Deutsch; and New York Times Sunday Magazine Arts Editor, Gerald Walker. The composer also set the poetry of writers Kenward Elmslie and Anne Howard Bailey, two librettists with whom he collaborated with during his opera compositions. Pasatieri has set his own texts, but the early songs still remain in manuscript form. He remembers, “1 never published anything like that, but 1 did several operas to my text. 1 suppose 1 wrote librettos out of necessity. There was never any necessity to write poems. There are so many wonderful poems to set.” In his most recently published song, “Alleluia”(1991), Pasatieri took the text from a medieval Latin chant with an English translation of his own.

During a discussion with Pasatieri, he elaborated further about his choices of poetry:

Sometimes, it is the best poetry that makes the best song, but sometimes it is not. At times, it is the simple poems . . . the turn of a phrase in simple language that makes it better for song, because that allows for the music to come into it. Sometimes the text is too complex . . . and sometimes the words are so perfect that music might make them - less perfect.

Examples of the traditionally Romantic topics of death, death of love, emotional agony, persecution, and peace through death ai e prevalent in his vocal works. When asked if he has a predilection for poems and librettos that deal with these topics he says: 45

This is a question often asked of writers and composers and I think the reason that death is such a strong subject in all literature is that first of all, it is the only finality, accept on soap operas. It is definitely the final curtain, the end of a piece. It makes a statement. Also, it is the goal, if you will, of every person, maybe not the desired goal, but it is the circumstance that happens to everyone. Really, the goal [of life] is death. It is also very dramatic. The Women is about death and struggle in life, with death being the release from struggle. Trial of Marv Lincoln is death of the child ... just one element that leads to her insanity. All the other elements, like having her brothers as Confederate Generals certainly [contributed] and losing her husband and the trial itself. Far from Love is really happily dying; it is even in the score - she is reunited through death ... not an original concept, certainly, that is what the Liebestodt is about. Day of Love is the death of love. Three Poems deals with emotional anguish and the death of love. Black Widow is death and peace through insanity. I think that it is one of the most popular subjects, not just with me.

Pasatieri does take dramatic license when setting poetry, not by altering the text, but with text repetition. Word repetition is a common feature in his vocal works. The composer elaborates, “Yes I do repeat words. I do it for musical and dramatic reasons . . . once the words are down, I feel that I can use them again, or parts of them again; once I have set them.

I certainly have tried not to alter them and if I have, it is a mistake.” This use of text repetition enables the composer to reiterate significant words or phrases which provide dramatic and musical unity.

While Pasatieri is focused on the text and careful setting of the English language, he also is concerned with the principal elements of music; melody, harmony and rhythm.

He expounds on these elements in the following:

I use melody, harmony and rhythm ... Melody has to be primary. However, I think sometimes in my songs, particularly my early songs, for the clarity of the text, I will sacrifice a little bit of the long melody. If you take a piece like the “Harp” that is based primarily on melody. (“The Harp That Once Through Tara’s Halls”), so there are some syllables that are not so easy to sing, because they are high for some people, but in that case, I was going 46

totally for the melody, where in other songs it has been more important to go for a description of the words. Rhythm and harmony go together. Of course, there is harmonic rhythm, the degree to which the harmony changes, the rhythm of the changes of the harmony. It is all one, it is like not being able to separate something that has several layers, Phyllo-dough . . . When you have something that you cannot separate without destroying the individual parts. If [ my songs] they are cohesive and well-conceived, it is probably because 1 follow the text. I’m concerned with the text and at the same time, musical structure. To create a world in a short space of time has to be done with whatever means you have at the moment. So 1 would say [it is significant] NOT to be too far out in the harmonic reaches. In other words, keeping it in a framework helps to make it cohesive. The same thing is true vocally. Not having large sections that are diverse from earlier sections helps to keep it cohesive.

It is natural to assume that Pasatieri’s compositions, particularly his accompaniments. have been influenced his keyboard background. Pasatieri reveals:

They have been affected because of my pianistic technique. Some of them are simple and some are very difficult. I think it would be impossible for it not to be affected by the fact that [piano] is my main instrument. For example, when 1 write a piece like the Serenade for Violin and Orchestra. 1 wrote the Serenade and then went over it with a violinist in careful detail because 1 am not a violinist. Although 1 certainly know how to write for the violin, it was vitally important to go over every detail with the instrumentalist. 1 do not have to do that with the piano since 1 am a pianist.

Finally, when asked if he approaches song composition in the same manner as opera the composer shares:

Certainly the vocal line in the same way, but the thing about a song is you have to create a whole world in a short space of time. With an opera, you have many different characters and an orchestra that adds so many different colors and there is a theatrical theme. You can take time and develop with an opera, but with songs it is quite different. You have to learn to compress them, but 1 have enjoyed writing songs just as much as opera. 47

ENDNOTES

1. Jacobson, Robert. “Thomas Pasatieri: Opera is the Plural of Opus.” After Dark. March 1974, 50.

2. Pasatieri, Thomas. Interviewed by Beth Bauer. Except where noted all quotations of Pasatieri’s words in this chapter are derived from interviews conducted at the home of Thomas Pasatieri in Tarzana, California (July, 1995), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (November, 1995) and intermittent subsequent telephone conversations (1995).

3. Ivey, Donald. Song: Anatomy. Imagerv. and Styles. (New York: The Free Press, 1970). 242.

4. Nickson, Richard. “Voice and Verse: Words Versus Music.” NATS Bulletin. November/December 1993, 21.

5. Ibid., 21.

6. Friedberg, Ruth C. American Art Song and American Poetrv Volume 1 : America Comes of Age. (New Jersey & London: The Scarecrow Press, Inc., 1981). 9.

7. Nickson, 23.

8. Ibid., 23.

9. Ibid., 25. CHAPTER IV

EXAMINATION: DRAMA OF MUSIC AND TEXT

The prevailing characteristics of Thomas Pasatieri’s style are readily seen in his art song compositions. The songs set to the texts of Kit van Cleave are exemplary of his soaring melodic vocal lines, doubling of melody in the piano accompaniment, repetition of words for dramatic and musical cohesiveness and use of expressive leaps for word emphasis. These

songs also exhibit his use of rhythmic and melodic motives which provide a sense of musical

and dramatic unity, melismatic writing for the voice, free use of chromaticism and free use

of meter changes allowing text setting most precisely resembling the rhythm of the spoken

word.

“Beautiful the Days,” composed on 26 July, 1978 is the only individual song that

Pasatieri set. It is a very simple setting of a simple, straight-forward poem. Regarding the

poetry van Cleave says:

When I wrote this I was very young, green as grass. This sounds very much like an academic exercise. I must have been trying to "sketch,’ write a poem that was strictly rhymed and was in iambic pentameter.

“Beautiful the Days” beautiful the days we spent but sweetest were the nights and softly was the way you went before we reached the heights as I think now, you did not creep your back was straight and proud and though you’d loved me in your sleep your head was still unbowed

48 49

you must have thought love’s fall was wild that spring would love you badly that summer’s passion was too mild or winter cared to sadly so flower moments turned to stone and penny candy soured and all my nights are dreamt alone and yours are empty-houred

Pasatieri set this song in f-minor, and he choose not to employ one of his

characteristic compositional traits - text repetition. It is also uncommon for the meter

marking, in this instance 4/4, to be maintained throughout the song. However, given the

consistent meter of the text, it is logical that he would not need to change meters to allow for

successful text setting. The melodic line is disjunct, and this use of large intervals serves to

accentuate the text for dramatic reasons:

nights. and soft - ly was the way you went be-fore we reached the heights as

Fig. 1, mm. 5-9

Notice his approach to the words ‘and softly’ with an interval of a minor 3 to a major 2, while the way you went before we reached the heights” is a series of large intervals adding emphasis to the sensual content of the text. 50

Another means of unity is provided by his striking use of rhythmic patterns in the vocal line, which is doubled in the right hand of the accompaniment. This melodic doubling is another salient feature of his songs:

- h f - ' e

must have thought love’s fall was wild that spring would love you bad - ly _____ that

H------1 1 , 1- - K J. j. MF - J J' j." - h L rr‘ Lj" r t T f -

^ —--

m er’s pas too mild vin - ter cared too sad

J. u „ —

mf

Fig. 2, mm. 18-25

With the rhythmic pattern firmly established, Pasatieri alters the rhythm to add stress to the words “did not creep.”: 51

îhink now. you did not creep your back was straight and proud and

UT crcsc.

Fig. 3, mm. 10-13

In this two-page song, Pasatieri uses the entire gamut of dynamic markings, providing the voice opportunity for complete expressiveness. He effectively portrays the nostalgic, sad remembrance of lost love.

The Three Poems by Kirstin Van Cleave was commissioned by the father of close friend, Sheila Nadler. Pasatieri choose these poems because, "I loved her poetry and so did

Sheila. Sheila was also a friend of Kit’s." The first and second songs of the set come from the volume of poetry Day of Love, and song number tliree is taken from van Cleave’s second published volume entitled. Amourette. The cycle was completed between July 1 and July

14, 1978.

Van Cleave describes the first poem as:

. . . a commentary about illusions, illusions about love. The whole era of Romantic poetry has to do with suffering for love. The war references are literally war because that is what they did for a living in that era. but it also 52

refers to any relationship where you are completely vulnerable and open. It can become something of a war zone. The references to dying are about orgasms. In Romantic literature “dying a little” death was an orgasm.

“A Night of Love” a night of love a night of your arms and your lips and your husky laugh and I could die tomorrow as a red-passion rose withers peacefully with morning dew still on its face at night I dream I kiss the soft comers of your mouth your misty eyes my finger tips tracing the shadows of your face all is real to me all is real to me Can I survive the war to make it real to you? I endure the pain because I know that you love me but I am terrified of what you will feel when I kiss you for the first time.

In the first song of the cycle, Pasatieri introduces a recurring melodic figure in the vocal line that serves to give musical cohesion, as well as dramatic emphasis;

Andante 2SE

night o f love

Fig. 4, mm. 1-4 53

Pasatieri’s use of large intervals for word emphasis is seen in the setting of “night of your arms and your lips and your husky laugh and I could die tomorrow.”:

night of your and yo u r iips and yo u r husk - y

laugh and could die row

Fig. 5, mm. 6-15 54

In figure six the constant eighth- note rhythmic pattern in the accompaniment, gives a sense of rhythmic vitality and also serves to create the dream-like state of the character:

peace - ful-ly m om • ing dewwith stillon. its face

...... — at light I dream

J. ------

■

”t f ^ — 1

Fig. 6, mm. 21-28

Under the text “at night I dream” the second entrance of the original melodic figure is seen.

(Refer to fig. 4)

The composer’s distinctive use of word repetition, “all is real to me, all is real to me,” effectively illustrates the character desperately trying to believe that this is more than a fantasy. Pasatieri makes this word repetition stronger by using a melismatic, ascending line, that crescendos to the downbeat, which further stresses the word “real.”: to me

cresc

r4

Fig. 7, mm. 43-49

This characteristic ascending line also allows the voice to blossom, which is one of

Pasatieri’s chief concerns.

The setting of "can I survive the war to make it real to you," with its large interval, a perfect 5 and fortissimo dynamic marking, accurately provides the double meaning of the word "war" intended by the poet: 56

Vive the to make it you?

Fig. 8, mm. 50-55

After the previous emotional outburst, the opening melodic motive is reintroduced and the interval of a perfect 5 serves to stress the word "pain.":

m p

en - dure the pain

m p

Fig. 9, mm. 56-58 57

The rhythmic motion which has been constant begins to slow and the texture of the

piano accompaniment becomes transparent, as the fear and reality of what the character has

said becomes apparent; “but I am terrified of what you will feel when I kiss you for the first

time.”:

had known Ilk would be with-oul you

" P 1 - r - ....

, i i d C 7 T - 4 ---- ÎT 3------—:------— :------u -

I would jiev - er have Jared love you. Noi

& I",

ven for that ment.

Fig. 10, mm. 63-75 58

This example also demonstrates the composers skillful use of repetition of the melodic motive. The melodic motive is quietly played in the left hand of the accompaniment, leaving the question unanswered. Which will you live with: a night of love, or the probable pain of knowing the truth?

The second song of the cycle is described by the poet as;

A poem which is about dealing with someone who is perfectly comfortable sleeping with someone, but not perfectly comfortable opening up to the vulnerability necessary to fall in love. Feelings of being trapped or caged are the fear. Essentially when you allow yourself to fall in love, there is a feeling of being caged. It is the agony and ecstasy of love.

“You Know” you know but you will not tell me you love me but you torture me you need me but you denounce me you long for me but you never touch me my heart grows tired from the strain I must walk away or die what are you afi-aid of little bird? are you feeling caged since you realized that you will love me always? how could you tell me that I am wrong for loving you when it is part of human thought to love what is most beautiful? how could I ever leave you when there is a chance for me to be loved by you for one hour? once again you have denied yourself by striking out at a person you fear to love knowing that you don't love me is half the pain the other half is loving you too much.

Pasatieri begins this song with a very sparse, chordal accompaniment, which serves to highlight the text. As the intensity of the song builds, the simple, chordal opening leads to tone clusters, increased dynamics and large melodic intervals to bring out the tension of the text: 59

Allegro moderato

you know but you will not tell me you Jove me but. you tor-tureme

you need me but you de*nounceme but you nev- er

8va bassa

touch m e

j f

8va bassa rit.

Fig. 11, mm. 1-14

The short stabbing phrases and the syncopated melodic entrances, add to the tension.

As the words “I must walk away or die” are sung, the accompaniment changes to a rolled chordal figure and the dynamic marking changes from fortissimo to piano both serving to 60

abate the tension. Along with the ritardando, and a slowing of the harmonic rhythm.

Pasatieri moves toward a new key, thought and mood:

m p

my heart grows tired from the strain I must walk a - way or

die

fit.

Fig. 12, mm. 15-25

This passage serves as a moment of reflection and is a common musical feature in Pasatieri’s compositions.

The next section is softer, reflecting the poetry. He continues the same melodic rhythms and shape of the vocal line, but the accompaniment becomes more flowing than before and his characteristic doubling of the vocal line is visible; 61

Andantino

what are you a -fraid of lit • tie bird? are you feel* ing caged d o k e

PP r

Fig. 13, mm. 26-29

The phrase “since you realized that you will love me always?” is sung with great fear.

Pasatieri sets the phrases in short, disjunct melodic fragments and concludes with the syncopated setting of the word “always?” Pasatieri inserts moments of silence into the melodic line providing a halting effect in the thought process which helps to depict the sense of overwhelming fear. The subito piano marking following four measures of crescendo serves to accentuate this fear. It highlights the hesitancy to utter the words aloud because it

might not bring the desired answer: 62

cresc. p subito

since you re - al-ized that you will love al • ways?

cresc. P subito

Fig. 14, mm. 30-34

In the piano interlude, the primary melodic figure from the second section is repeated in the right hand. This echos the thought, “what are you afraid of little bird?”:

how could you

Fig. 15, mm. 35-36 63

Pasatieri shows a glimpse of his melismatic soaring vocal writing when he sets the text “to love what is most beautiful?”, but he does not allow himself to fully develop it.

Instead, he calms the emotions by repeating the melodic figure from measure 26:

to lo v e- what— is most beau • ti*ful? ié= f n } j

how could I ev - er leave— you

dim. PP

Fig. 16, mm. 45-53 (Refer to figure 13)

The music then blossoms and the vocal line soars on the text “for me to be loved by you for one hour?” Pasatieri displays his penchant for octaves in the left hand. These octaves utilize the entire range of the piano, adding color to the moment: 64

cresc.

for me to

cresc.

loved by you» f o r .

4 4 -

f j f i

ü i- fcy-

- é r r ^ I hour? 4 4 - ecu m

Fig. 17, mm. 56-64 65

The question mark at the end of this statement is perfectly addressed in the ensuing two measure interlude. Employing the full range of the piano and with increased dynamics, the vulnerability of this question is realized. Before an answer can be given, the self- protective nature of the character lashes out, moving back to the tension-filled, accusatory posture of the opening material:

I T em po I ___ p j M t - f t ------1------r ------— t ------J—J— 1 8 v a ______1

. . r - = ]

S f j-K .a ^ ------c------4>Hr K ? —

gain you have de - nied your-self strik- in g out

Fig. 18, mm. 65-72

This chordal setting also serves as an effective contrast from the previous material which makes the intensity of the words even more startling. 66

The phrase “person you fear to love,” the essence of what the poei is saying, is heightened in intensity by the large interval of an expressive major 6:

per son, love

Fig. 19, mm. 74-76

In measure eighty-one, the unexpected b-natural in the vocal line aids in making the word “pain” evocative of the emotional pain:

love the o th er half is lov - ing

jL

Fig. 20, mm. 77-81 67

As the intensity builds, Pasatieri exploits the extreme ranges of the piano in a chordal

figure, and the expected chord on the downbeat of measure eighty-six is instead a silence.

This calls further attention to the last words of the song, “ loving you too much.”:

yoi too m uch.

Fig. 21, mm. 84-88

The final song of this cycle, is the only poem taken from Amourette. Van Cleave says:

This poem deals with disillusionment. It can be very difficult to find out that someone you dearly loved is not at all who you thought they were. As equally difficult can be letting that person go. I am no longer talking about roses, I am talking about wine (getting drunk). It also shows my obsession with the Holy Grail.

“Give Me Then Your Hand” Give me then your hand, czarevna. If the chalice of your mouth. Brimming with wine. Cannot be mine; I bum like a desert Turk a-wash with sun For you to touch me, cool me. 68

Give me your embrace as friend If I am barred the Kings Garden of your body With its sweet hills and forests; Give me what you will, blessed almoner; Gladly will I feast on such fare As a parched Crusader, ravenous from his journey. Gives thanks for succulent dates and figs And dares not think of bread. Give me then your hand, give me, give me, give!

Pasatieri introduces three recurring motives in the opening measures of this song.

He opens with two different rhythmic motives in the right hand of the accompaniment, which continues to provide musical unity as well as dramatic comment throughout the song. He also begins the vocal line with a motive that is repeated and used in altered forms:

Andante espressivo

Give me then your hand, na„

PP

Fig. 22, mm. 1-3 69

These accompanimental motives recur in measures seven, ten, eighteen and nineteen

in different forms; and they make for a cohesive, musical construction:

Meas. 7

For you to touch

Meas. 10

Give me what you

PP

Meas. 18-19

Fig. 23, mm. 7,10,18-19 70

At the beginning of the song, the mood is calm and peaceful, but as the work develops the mood changes. The accompanimental texture thickens and at measure fourteen, characteristic of Pasatieri’s style, the voice is doubled in the right hand, there are octave doublings and an octave in the left hand that utilizes the low range of the piano. The text ‘’If

I am barred the Kings Garden of your body” is aptly defined by this change in setting:

as friend If 1 am barred the Kings Gar » den of your bod bf. b- ^ b' b|« b^Ji^ l»J^J ^ " PP y 1 1 -J" y

—"T ...... b5:

Fig. 24, mm. 13-15

Quickly, the accompaniment becomes more sparse and there is a decrescendo.

This permits the sensual remembrance of the text, “With its sweet hills and forests;” to be more precisely portrayed and savored: 71

With its hills and forsweet. csts;

Fig. 25, mm. 16-17

Due to the consistent doubling of the vocal line by the piano accompaniment the setting of the word “ravenous” becomes isolated. Pasatieri brings focus to the text by setting

“ravenous” in a triplet figure against the duple meter of the accompaniment:

parched Cru er.

Fig. 26, mm. 22-23 72

The pathetic nature of the emotional situation is maximized by Pasatieri's text

repetition, “Give me, give me, give.” Pasatieri’s use of text repetition is quite evocative and

vividly illustrates the powerful emotions that occur at the conclusion of this cycle:

Give me then your hand,.

cresc. aî fin e

m e,give give m e,

Fig. 27, mm. 28-32

The previous figure also shows the rhythmic motive that is first presented in measure one.

The repetition of this motive not only gives cohesion to the song but it also serves to create a recurrent begging theme. 73

The Three Poems bv Kirstin Van Cleave cycle effectively and passionately portrays the emotional stages that are involved in relationships. The sensual nature of the text is adroitly illustrated by Pasatieri’s musical settings of van Cleave’s poetry. The poems are successfully linked by the composer into a cycle that is musically and dramatically connected.

Dav of Love was commissioned by Frederica von Stade in 1978. Pasatieri remembers:

The first thing Flicka [Frederica von Stade] and 1 did was The Seagull and then she sang some songs of mine. Then she commissioned a cycle for a New York recital. . . When Flicka commissioned the cycle, the three of us went out to lunch. It was Flicka, Peter [then husband] and Jennie [daughter]. Jermie had just been bom. We had lunch in their East Side apartment and Flicka said she ‘loved the poetry of Kit van Cleave’ and she ‘wondered if 1 could set some of them.’ 1 liked them right away and chose various parts for the cycle. We decided on the approximate amount of time the cycle would take . . . We both knew Kit from Houston ... Kit was also a great fan of opera singers and a great friend of opera singers.'

Kit van Cleave recalls the circumstances that led her to give Flicka her poetry:

I met Flicka at the end of 1975. We became friends and 1 helped her in any way 1 could when she was in Houston to sing. 1 have a great respect for Flicka and 1 believe her to truly be one of the finest, most gracious, honorable and talented singers today. Around the time Jennie was born 1 took her a volume of my poems as a Christmas/Jennie gift. I had no idea that they would ever be set to music.’

Frederica von Stade shares her reasons for commissioning the cycle:

I believe Tom and 1 met through mutual friend Matthew Epstein. The Seagull was our first collaboration. It was great fun putting it together and I loved the part and the colleagues 1 worked with in Houston. It was a great joy and pleasure and there was one especially nice addition in that my grandmother, Granny to everyone, came and made her debut in a walk on role and it was such fun to see her have such a good time. It was very sweet of Tom to let her do it. Tom is great fun as well as being a wonderful musician. 74

He has always understood and loved the voice and that was quite rare in his generation of composers. The most important thing for singers is that he understands the voice and is able to show it off to good advantage . . . I really loved the poems that Kit gave to me as a present when Jenny was bom so my motives were really about trying to do something for Kit to say thank you for her many gestures of kindness to me and my then husband, Peter .. . So when I commissioned the cycle I wanted the work to be a tribute to Kit and Tom for their talents.^

Pasatieri remembers fondly the first time he heard von Stade and pianist Martin Katz perform the cycle for him:

Oh, it was incredible. I had been on tour and I didn’t have time to go to any of the early rehearsals because I was away. So when I got back a few days before the concert, Flicka and Marty Katz did the cycle for me. She was so perfect - absolutely perfect - breathtaking. I was so moved when she finished.**

Dav of Love's premiere was given February 25, 1979, at Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center, New York. Famed pianist Martin Katz recalls the experience:

Any Lincoln Center performance is, of course, filled with adrenalin, nerves, anticipation, terror and joy. What is challenging about Dav of Love, is creating a perfect ensemble with the soloist within a highly rubato environment. The emotional aspect, the length and the tessitura make for a very taxing work.^

The song cycle, Dav of Love is considered by the composer to be a “scena.” It includes six poems that are skillfully crafted into a dramatic progression, depicting the stages of love. In this cycle, the initial emotions of love soon give way to all-consuming passion and the loss of independence. The cycle moves quickly toward overwhelming feelings of jealousy accompanied by irrational thoughts and behavior, which then evolves into desperation, and finally leads to denial. Inevitably, yet painfully, the work progresses to the death of love and proceeds to the culmination of the scene, a bittersweet remembrance of happier times and the anguished realization of the loss of innocence. 75

Poet, van Cleave, discusses the poetry in the following:

Dav of Love was written during the time that I first fell in love. This was written while I was in college. My feelings about love and Romanticism were profoundly effected by this experience. Apart from a religious experience I think Romanticism is the essence of human existence. You can also feel that way about friendship at times, there certainly is a spirituality in friendship and the relationship between parents and children but romantic love also has the element of erotic content. Words are an attempt to provide sensual pleasure. I want the reader to remember what romance is, not sex but romance. Romance is a gift. It is the collision of two extraordinary people who give the gift of intensity and white hot passion to each other.*

Day of Love You remind me of a pale pink rose Growing slowly softly but unhesitatingly From a chaotic leaves blown grass confused world below you. Shall I die in little places And in little ways Just because you have not seen me? But for you I might have continued thinking 1 was really alive. Only yesterday I noticed that the days were longer And the nights eternities. I wondered why I walked more and read less And found no sweetness in the moon. Suddenly I saw that you had crept softly away (a night thief) Taking my freedom with you.

1 am so in love with you that every ner\/e of my being is on edge unless I am thinking of you Because you are such a part of me by now That only you can bring me peace And only seeing you can stop the pain in my eyes. (Only you can bring me peace) and only talking with you can ease my headache And only breathing the scent of you can clear my head And only if you touch my hands Do they stop their trembling and only by your kiss am 1 saved from the terror of loneliness. (Only you can bring me peace.) 76

Jealousy suspicion, kid of fifteen emotions Are tying me inside my shell While a hundred melodramatic, well-recorded sensations Attack my reason Like angry rattlesnakes. What do we gain from loving? Loneliness, depression, purgatory, angelic hell, meaningless goals. All that we need, nothing we can use.

In an instant of speech you are informed That someone is present And suddenly you change: You smile a little too much and you talk so nervously And in such an erratic manner that it is obvious that you know And when that someone rises And begins to leave the room of smoke and noise And you time his departure with hysteria inside but outward calm and just in time you raise your eyes, smile a hello And see the undisguised "no longer" Staring vaguely from those eyes And you die a little each time. I can see already the bat-shape death Of my love for you winging on it's eerie way.

Now I know the silence of heart That comes with the death of love And music is gone and color and laughter, And existence instead of life is upon me. If I had known what life would be without you I would never have dared love you. Not even for that moment.

Do I remember you at all? I often wonder as 1 watch Brittle leaves welcome seeping fall. I see only your fine brown hair. Only your catching, lovely smile. Your olive eyes, profound, aware. I see again your strong brown hands. 77

Your beauty when you were asleep and hear your whispered love commands. Our fall is passing by. My star, long since you gave me holy love And life has left me. Yet not far I look, and see the young years fly. I must have loved you more than ease. To keep a painful portrait by.

Pasatieri begins the “scena” with a lengthy introduction, serving much as an operatic overture to present motivic materials and set the stage for the unfolding drama. It is during the introduction and interlude music that Pasatieri deftly, carries the emotional content of the work, weaving it like a fabric between the tapestries of the individual poems. These piano interludes provide musical and dramatic continuity that does not allow the emotional intensity of the text to subside. Pianist, Martin Katz, elaborates further on the strength of

Pasatieri’s interludes:

The piano interludes enhance this cycle. It gives effective contrast in terms of music that is not lyrical or melismatic, and the piano provides this more brutal and homophonie treatment. He has arranged each interlude so that the following song is the only thing that could honestly occur. In essence we hear the protagonist’s thoughts evolving, devolving, ebbing and flowing until the next thought is formed. I wish more cycles had interludes-think of what they could do for Dichterliebe or Winterreise.^

In the thirty-four measure introduction, Pasatieri presents motives that he develops throughout the scene. A descending scale passage is presented, explored, and altered thi oughout the work, adding to the colors of this passionate scene. This characteristic use of extremes in the piano effectively provides the sense of emotions that Pasatieri will explore during the course of the “scena.”: 78

Fig. 28, mm. 22-25

Measures twenty-six through thirty three, motivically are reminiscent of the opening measures of the third poem from Three Poems bv Kirstin van Cleave. It is this poem that van Cleave refers to as “a commentary on disillusionment.”:

m

rf------'- 4 f r ' ' ------— p -'- ■'...... ■

-1— r ' =

Fig. 29 mm. 26-33 (Refer to Fig. 22) 79

Another motive is repeated in measures thirty-seven and thirty-eight that recalls the poet’s feelings of fear when you feel caged by love;

Grow-ing slow s o ft b u t u n •

Fig. 30 mm. 37-38 (Refer to Fig. 14)

Pasatieri continues to use expressive leaps in the melody to illustrate certain words.

In the text “Shall I die in little places And in little ways” and “But for you I might have continued thinking 1 was alive,” he sets apart “die,” “you” and “alive” which powerfully serves to elicit the emotional nature of the text: 80 #

J ------L-

die plac And in

Jusi cause you have no! seenbe

I might haveucd think ing was real ly—

live.

Fig. 31, mm. 43-53 81

The composer’s constant change of meter makes possible the most speech-like setting of the text, characteristic of his graceful prosody:

O n ly yes - ter-day. I no -ticed that the days were long - er

-T

t T T

And the nights ni • lies. I won*dcrcd why I

walked more and read less And found no sweet

Fig. 32, mm. 56-65 82

The interlude music between the first and second poems elicits the feeling of loss of emotional control and independence which is described in the second poem:

rit.

a piaeere

Fig. 33, mm. 75-83 83

The subsequent music is melismatic providing a vehicle by which the all-consuming loss of passion is so vividly described:

meno mosso m in love w ith y o u

that_ ev -ery_ nerve. o f m y be ing is o n ed g e un - less. 1 am

Fig. 34, nun. 84-95

Contrasting with the previous melismatic figures is the soft chordal setting of the text

“only you can bring me peace.” This setting illustrates Pasatieri’s proclivity to employ recuning themes. This motive is used at different pitch levels throughout this poem. The 84 haunting nature of the motive is heightened by the starkness of the setting, which sharply contrasts with the surrounding music:

by now Thai on - ly you bring me peace And

Meas. 101-105

IP.

(On peace.)

Meas. 112-115

bring me peace.)you

Meas. 141-146

Fig. 35, mm. 101-105, 112-115,141-146 The figure is presented one last time and the remainder of the instrumental interlude

is built around this motive. The extreme use of range and dynamics provides the impetus for

the emotional outburst of the next poem:

poco a puco accvl. I 4 ■_i.f! : ?f c

FP m p cresc.

J L

A llegro

8 "

Fig. 36, mm. 154-169 86

The interlude culminates in a scale passage that derives its development from the original scale passage in the introduction. (Refer to Fig. 28)

The setting of the third poem is markedly different from the previous material. Due to the extreme nature of the text this musical material serves to effectively illustrate the words “Jealousy suspicion, kid of fifteen emotions Are tying me inside my shell”:

colla voce

pi - cion, kid o f fif - teen m o - lions A re __ mg m e

Fig. 37, mm. 170-174 87

The setting of “Like angry rattlesnakes.” shows Pasatieri’s characteristic use of melismatic material. The unaccompanied setting provides a change in the previous accompanimental figure which illustrates the emphatic content of the text;

my rea - sonL ike — an gry

rat - tie snakes.

Fig. 38, mm. 179-184

This mood continues with a vengeance and in the setting of “Loneliness, depression, purgatory, angelic hell,” the starkness of the accompaniment and syncopated rhythmic vocal line stresses the desperate feelings and depicts emotional loss of control: Lon - Il ness. d e - p re s • s io n .

.

ffrp

pur • ga - to - ry, an gel • ic h ell. mean - mg -

8 bZ

■mf

Fig. 39, mm. 187-190

The following interlude runs through a range of emotions as the stage is set for the ensuing feelings of desperation and denial. Again Pasatieri’s use of extreme ranges in the piano, sharply contrasting dynamics and transforming motivic material allows for these emotions to be skillfully represented. It characteristically culminates with the descending scale pattern in an extremely low range of the piano: 89 s %

■ "~"'l /«t. — '

£ .

—’------' I if ’s|^ % 1 *î £ 7 - =

XTimiraio

Ï ■ — -■" ------! --- , 1 ^ m .1“ k T— ’ *’■' • «3 |5-= 8 ......

Fig. 40, mm. 198-225 90

Pasatieri again employs the “disillusionment” motive; a subtle reminder in this

current stage of denial. This motive is accentuated by Pasatieri’s characteristic use of

dynamicsjn this instance a subito pianississimo:

change: Y ou sm ile lit - tie too much and you

sub.ppp

Fig. 41, mm. 233-235 (Refer to Fig. 29)

The chordal introduction to the text “1 can see already the batshape death of my love for you winging on it’s eerie way” is ominously set followed by the starkness of the unaccompanied melismatic text setting. The sadness of the words epitomize the depth of emotion that has now been reached by the character: 91

-m P»—TTO— ♦ ♦ RT the bat-shape death Of my love for

IP

you wing ing— on it’s ee n e _ w a y .

Fig. 42, mm. 261-267

Following a subito fortissimo the ominous chordal figure resounds again but this time, it is a single note slowly repeated; 92

piü mosso

f f sub.

Fig. 43, mm. 268-270

Again the figure is used but slightly altered which magnifies the ominous feeling. All of these statements are foreshadowing the impending death of love:

5 _ J

Fig. 44, mm. 271-273 93

The use of large intervals emphasizes the agony of the character’s realization. “Now

I know the silence of heart That comes with the death of love And music is gone and color and laughter, And existence instead of life is upon me”:

,\llc}To moderato - . ' I Now I know the SI ■ Ignce o : heart

f T ------r— ' »!/* r r T

I P

., » * . * - - r -r-m^

T lu t___ comes with the death of love Anil - mil - SIC IS

I j ^ . . . ; ."t.

‘ 1 j . ^ j 1 i J - " V J

É and laugh - 1er.

— -p " IV r ' ■-? r Y ..—1-----

Ill • ste a d o l lilc

—J J rJ ^ 5»— ■.n______

Fig, 45, mm. 276-286 94

Representing the text, the setting of the fifth poem is vezy dramatic and shows

Pasatieri’s predilection for operatically conceived vocal lines and orchestrally conceived

piano accompaniments:

had know n what lilc would be witii-out you

I would _jiev - cr have Jared iovc

ven for that mo m e n t.

Fig. 46, mm. 288-296 95

The final interlude employs the largest limits of the piano’s range, which serves to heighten the intensity of the text. The ascending scale passage incorporates melodic material at the extreme ranges of the piano, both treble and bass:

kS

ff

± ‘t

Fig. 47, mm. 297-324 96

The setting of the closing section of text begins softly and is a sad reminiscence of lost love:

Andante triste TP

u Q / " — I p — 19 ^ ------^ T ' T - - -

w a tc h Rrit - tie leaves wel - come seen - ins

V ' 1 j f L r r- T — 1 T 1 1— 1— J— L— 1— r ~r , m J & rm f ¥ i ] n ------1 '1 "

Fig. 48, mm. 325-330

The final phrases are divided in thought and emotion, and are expertly set in the accompaniment with the thickness of texture and tire strongly contrasting dynamic markings.

Also characteristic of Pasatieri’s style is his vocal line doubling in the right hand of the accompaniment: 97

creic.

Yet not far I lo o k . and see the young years fly. I must have loved — you

cresc.

PP

m ore than ease, To keep a pain portrait by.

jpsub.

Fig. 49, mm. 352-358

The subito piano marking functions to stress the significance of the final text “To keep a painful portrait by.” The emotional content of the text is further highlighted by Pasatieri’s vocal writing which uses large intervals to draw attention to the words “painful” and “portrait by.” 98

The postlude provides a sense of closure to the scene and the musical content is derived from motives found throughout the work:

(flueme) frT

PP

dim. TP

XT

Fig. 50, mm. 359-367

Dav of Love, is the most dramatically effective of the Pasatieri/van Cleave collaborations. Perhaps because it was intended to be a “scena,” it is the most intense, theatrical and emotionally evocative work. It allows Pasatieri, the opera composer, to display his adeptness for expressing a full spectrum of emotions. His accompaniment 99 features the full range of the piano, changing dynamics, and contrasting musical material from very sparse to thick, lush orchestrally conceived writing. His use of recurring motives effectively provides the musical unity needed to sustain a work of this scope. The voice is required to present an immense range of colors, dynamics and emotions, and is impressively written to supply the emotional intensity of both the text and music. Pasatieri penetrates to the core of the characters’ emotions and provides a perfect vehicle for van Cleave’s text. 100

ENDNOTES

1. Pasatieri, Thomas. Interview by Beth Bauer. Except where noted, all quotations of Pasatieri’s words in this chapter are derived from interviews conducted at the home of Thomas Pasatieri in Tarzana, California (July, 1995), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (November, 1995) and intermittent subsequent telephone conversations (1995).

2. Van Cleave, Kirstin. Interview by Beth Bauer. Except where noted, all quotations of Van Cleave’s words are derived from interviews with the poet conducted in Dallas, Texas (August, 1995) and telephone conversations (1995).

3. Von Stade, Frederica. Interview by Beth Bauer. (1995)

4. Pasatieri, Thomas. Interview.

5. Katz, Martin. Interview by Beth Bauer. (1995)

6. Van, Cleave. Kirstin. Interview.

7. Katz, Martin. Interview. CONCLUSION

“Serious” music encompasses a gamut of compositional styles. In particular, twentieth-century music includes an evolving conglomeration of experiments and ideas. As with any art, there is a need for people to label, classify, and at times, absurdly identify the music. Thomas Pasatieri does not wish to direct his music into theoretical exercises. He believes music should be heard and that it speaks for itself. Pasatieri’s music has been categorized as traditional, and if traditional encompasses tonality and vocally-oriented melodic lines, then indeed, traditional it is. However, as with any classification, there are degrees and levels by which we delineate. Invariably, a composer is compared to other composers, so something of a spectrum or range is established. Pasatieri’s music is undeniably traditional, however, the presence of tradition does not inherently presume an absence of originality, inspiration or beauty. The following examples substantiate the futility of labels and the perspective gained through the passage of time.

If one examines the music of Arnold Schoenberg, Alban Berg and Anton Webern, it is evident that while Schoenberg is considered experimental, avant-garde and forward looking when compared to Berg, and even more so to Webern, he too can look somewhat traditional. The same analogy can be made with the music of George Crumb, Milton Babbitt and John Cage. All were composers whose main impetus was to create new sounds, ideas

101 102

and music, generally considered experimental efforts. However, if Crumb’s music is

compared to Babbitt’s and Cage’s, it would appear at times to be quite traditional. The final

analogy would be of Thomas Pasatieri, Lee Hoiby and Richard Hundley. Although all three

composers have persevered in their need to compose in a traditional vein, if a comparison

is made, Pasatieri is inarguably considered the most experimental. His music exhibits more

usage of chromaticism than Hoiby or Hundley. Therefore, let the music be what it was

intended to be. For Pasatieri, music was his “destiny,”' and he composes first and foremost

music that he considers beautiful. “Each path is it’s own path, and what happens is what is

supposed to happen within a framework. This is my path.”

Pasatieri composes because he is compelled to create expressive, lyrical music. He

composes what he hears in his head, feels in his heart and breaths from his soul. A love of

the voice, long soaring lines and studied attention to melody are reminiscent of Puccini,

however, one must also put this into perspective. Though Pasatieri is definitely influenced

by the Italian vocal tradition, his musical style is decidedly his own. His music, as with any

discerning composer’s work, owes much to his predecessors; Verdi, Puccini, Strauss and

Menotti, all composers of significant merit who left a wealth of music - an incredible legacy to be enjoyed and studied for generations to come. Also influential were his teachers: Nadia

Boulanger, Vittorio Giannini and Vincent Persichetti. Each instilled in Pasatieri their

individual doctrines, beliefs and personal genius. Finally, and perhaps most influential, were

the singers that helped mold Pasatieri’s vocal lines. In the composers words, “Leaming what

it is to really create drama through the vocal line for me was as important as studying

composition.” Jennie Tourel, Rosa Ponselle, Maria Callas, Frederica von Stade and an 103 extensive list of classically trained singers inspired Pasatieri’s idiomatic vocal writing. So did numerous “pop” singers such as, Barbra Streisand, Roberta Flack, Carly Simon, Judy

Garland, Peggy Lee, Tony Bennett and Frank Sinatra. Pasatieri wrote for the audience, never other composers, critics or some sense of éclat. He shares:

1 have never thought about writing a masterpiece, I write the best 1 can at the time . . . 1 definitely feel that we are the sum total of all our experiences. What we do artistically is translate these experiences into our medium— through our medium to communicate.

For centuries composers have suffered criticism; this is not a new phenomena. It is through those struggles for change that the need to follow one’s inner voice and commitment to art have created the vast array of music that exists today. In retrospect, what was shocking and avant-garde at the time of composition is often viewed as merely a natural progression or evolution of traditional styles. David Ewen states:

To charges that he was more of a showman than a creative artist, (also a criticism of Menotti), Pasatieri countered with the statement: 1 want to express myself in whatever way works, tonally or dissonantly. Because my music is tonal, 1 am accused of not being serious. What’s avant-garde, what’s conservative in the perspective of history?-

The following statements are all initial reactions to composers who went on to make invaluable contributions to classical music:

Far too many notes, . . . The Second Symphony is a filthy monster, a wounded dragon writhing hideously, refusing to die, and in the finale, even though bleeding from every pore, still thrashes about with upraised tail,. . . The public was wearied and the musicians puzzled,... Simply noise ... an impression of grim violence and dreary vagueness,.. . Could we ever learn to love such music?^ 104

The previous criticisms were made in regard to the music of Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms.

Wagner, and Tchaikovsky, respectively. This author believes one of the greatest obstacles for a composer is remaining true to her/his integrity and enduring a barrage of criticism that will inevitably occur. Joanna Simon, former opera singer. Arts Correspondent for the

McNeill/Lehrer News Hour, current Arts Correspondent for P.B.S. and close friend of

Pasatieri shares:

First of all, Tom is extremely vulnerable, as we all are. Secondly, when you become a performer in any of the artistic fields, part of the baggage is bad reviews and criticism of your work. In these fields, your work is thoroughly tied to who you are, however, I do not believe that Tom’s bad reviews destroyed his love for music or his ability to write gorgeous music. Because for every bad review he received raves.

Thomas Pasatieri has been revered by singers, criticized by fellow composers, condemned and venerated by critics, denounced by certain music scholars and lauded by audiences. His music elicits a plethora of sentiments, but this by no means is novel treatment of a composer and his work. One person’s banal, incongruous song is another’s beautiful, inspiring and celebrated work. For some, it is the beauty of sound or examination of the dramatic or theatrical qualities, and for yet others, the virtuosic display of a performer. One person’s virtuosic display is another’s vocal histrionics. For many, this century has been exciting, innovative and on cutting edge, while others find it a time riddled with bizarre, freakish conventions. Whether one chooses to listen to a composer’s music is a very individual choice. However, judgements should be made not on the basis of the chosen style, but rather on the content within that style. Pasatieri chose to remain true to himself and write 105 in a traditional, neo-Romantic idiom which resulted in a wealth of wonderful expressive art songs.

The art songs of Thomas Pasatieri are indicative of his overall compositional style.

They show Pasatieri’s penchant for Romantic poetry, attention to text setting, lyrical content, vocally gratifying melodies, and often lush piano writing. He maintains the traditional language of the late Romantics, expounds upon their harmonic structures and adds his personal voice. Specifically, the works set to the texts of Kit van Cleave show both the poet’s and the composer's sentiments about love and romanticism. There is an essence in their art that draws the audience to feel, or see, or hear something that leaves them with an appreciation and understanding that is unexplainable. Musician Ralph Shapey describes this appreciation by saying:

... great art affords us a form of religious communication ... If you want to call it religious, OK, call it religious, because for me, yes, great art is a miracle. Now if you’ve experienced these things, whether it’s art, religion— you call it religious experience. I’m talking about an experience in which, for that moment, you have lost control of your basic life, and lived in a different time-element, a different sphere. You receive something so marvelous that you cannot define it. You want it again—despite an element of fear, you remember it as a moment beyond yourself! It’s one of the most marvelous experiences of your life. If you’ve experienced that, you know what I’m talking about. I believe great art can do that for you. I’ve experienced it. If you haven’t. I’m sorry.^

This remarkable collab

Cleave. The artistry of these works permeates emotion. This poetry has the power to move the listener, to be evocative and to elicit memories and images. Sometimes it is the directness of expression that touches the heart of the listener, while at other times it is the 106 veiled subtlety that arouses a gentle reminder of forgotten feelings. Pasatieri skillfully set the vulnerable, painful and candid words of van Cleave. While some would deem her poetry self-indulgent and excessively overt, the fact remains that these words were personal outpourings never intended for such a “public” audience. These poems were written as a self-catharsis, not a self-gratifying, melodramatic display of emotions.

This author maintains that because of the current trend toward tonally based, lyrical music, Pasatieri’s art songs will enjoy a revival of interest. His permanence and stature as a major American composer is proven both through the intrinsic beauty of his works and the personal integrity to his art.

It is requisite for the ideal artist to possess a force of character that seems hardly compatible with its delicacy; he must keep his faith in himself while the incredulous world assails him with utter disbelief; he must stand up against mankind and be his own sole disciple, both as respects his genius and the objects to which it is directed.® 107

ENDNOTES

1. Pasatieri, Thomas. Interviewed by Beth Bauer. Except where noted, all quotations of Pasatieri’s words in this chapter are derived from interviews conducted at the home of Thomas Pasatieri in Tarzana, California (July, 1995), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (November, 1995) and intermittent subsequent telephone conversations. (1995).

2. Ewen, David. Composers Since 1900 First Supplement. (New York: H.W. Wilson Company, 1981)217-18.

3. Griffin, Clive. Classical Music. (London: Dryad Press, 1988). 48.

4. Simon, Joarma. Telephone Interview by Beth Bauer, 1995.

5. Rockwell, John. All American Music Composition in the Late Twentieth Centurv. (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1983). 64.

6. Hawthorne, Nathaniel. “The Artist of the Beautiful.” Mosses From an Old Manse. (New York: Books for Libraries Press. 1970). 512. APPENDIX A

Chronological List of Thomas Pasatieri’s Published Vocal Works

OPERAS

Title The Women - 1 Act Text Thomas Pasatieri Date of Composition 1965 Premiere August 20, 1965 - Aspen, Colorado Publisher New York: Theodore Presser, 1967

Title La Divina - 1 Act Text Thomas Pasatieri Date of Composition 1965 Premiere March 16, 1966 Publisher New York: Theodore Presser, 1968

Title Padrevia - 1 Act Text Thomas Pasatieri, after Boccaccio Date o f Composition 1966 Premiere November 18, 1967 - Brooklyn, New York Publisher New York: Theodore Presser, 1968

Title Calvary - 1 Act Text William B. Yeats Date o f Composition 1967 Premiere April 7, 1971 - Bellevue, Washington Publisher New York: Belwin-Mills, 1971 Distributed By Theodore Presser

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OPERAS CONTINUED

Title The Trial of Marv Lincoln - television opera Text Anne H. Bailey Date of Composition 1970 Premiere February 14, 1972 - Network Publisher New York: Belwin-Mills, 1971 Distributed By Theodore Presser Commissioned By National Educational Television

Title Black Widow - 3 Acts with epilogue Text Thomas Pasatieri. after M. de Unamuno. Dos Madres Dale of Composition 1969 Premiere March 2, 1972 - Seattle, Washington Publisher New York: Belwin-Mills, 1972 Distributed By Theodore Presser

Title The Seagull - 3 Acts Text Kenward Elmslie, after Anton Chekhov Date of Composition 1972 Premiere March 5, 1974 - Houston, Texas Publisher New York: Belwin-Mills, 1974 Distributed By Theodore Presser Commissioned By Houston Grand Opera

Title Sienor Deluso - 1 Act Text Thomas Pasatieri, after Molière Date of Composition 1973 Premiere July 27, 1974 - Wolf Trap Co. Vienna, Virginia Publisher New York: Belwin-Mills, 1974 Distributed By Theodore Presser Commissioned By The Juilliard School of Music

Title The Penitentes - 3 Acts Text Anne H. Bailey Date of Composition 1967 Premiere August 3, 1974 - Aspen, Colorado Publisher New York: Belwin-Mills, 1975 Distributed By Theodore Presser 110

OPERAS CONTINUED

Title Ines de Castro - 3 Acts Text Bernard Stambler Date of Composition 1975 Premiere April 1, 1976 Baltimore, Maryland Publisher New York; Belwin-Mills, 1976 Distributed By Theodore Presser Commissioned By Baltimore Opera

Title Washington Square - 3 Acts Text Kenward Elmslie, after Henry James Date of Composition 1975 Premiere October 1, 1976 - Detroit, Michigan Publisher New York: Belwin-Mills, 1977 Distributed By Theodore Presser Commissioned By Michigan Opera Theatre

Title Before Breakfast - monodrama for Soprano - 1 Act Text Frank Corsaro after Eugene O'Neill Date of Composition 1980 Premiere October 9, 1980 - New York City Publisher New York: Belwin-Mills, 1981 Distributed By

Title The Goose Girl - 1 Act Text Thomas Pasatieri, after the brothers Grimm Date of Composition 1980 Premiere February 15, 1981 - Fort Worth, Texas Publisher New York: G. Schirmer, 1982 Commissioned By Fort Worth Opera

Title Three Sisters - 2 Acts Text Kenward Elmslie, after Anton Chekhov Date of Composition 1979 Premiere March 13, 1986 - Columbus, Ohio Publisher Theodore Presser, 1979 111

OPERAS CONTINUED

Title Maria Elena - 1 Act Text Thomas Pasatieri Date of Composition 1982 Premiere April 8, 1983 - Tucson, Arizona Publisher Theodore Presser, 1982 Commissioned By University of Arizona

VOCAL WORKS

Title Heloise and Abelard - soprano, baritone Text Louis Phillips Date of Composition 1971 Premiere December 11, 1971 - New York City Publisher New York; Belwin-Mills, 1973 Distributed By Theodore Presser Commissioned By Evelyn Lear & Thomas Stewart

Title Rites de Passage - voice, chamber orchestra or string quartet Text Louis Phillips Date of Composition 1973 Premiere March 19, 1974 - Fort Lauderdale, Florida Publisher New York: Belwin-Mills, 1974 Distributed By Theodore Presser

Title Permit me Vovage - soprano, chorus, orchestra Text James Agee Date of Composition 1975 Premiere April 13, 1976 - New Haven, Connecticut Publisher New York: Belwin-Mills, 1976 Distributed By Theodore Presser Commissioned By The New Haven Symphony Orchestra

Title Mass Text Liturgy Date of Composition 1982 Premiere March 18, 1984 - Atlanta, Georgia Publisher New York: G. Schirmer, 1987 Commissioned By Choral Guild of Atlanta 112

VOCAL WORKS CONTINUED

Title Far From Love - soprano, clarinet, violin, cello, piano Text Emily Dickinson Date of Composition October, 1973 Premiere January 11, 1975 - New York City Publisher New York: Be’v/in-Mills, 1976 Distributed By Theodore Presser Commissioned By The David Ensemble

Song Cycle Title Day of Love Text Kit van Cleave Date of Composition 1978 Premiere February 25, 1979 - Lincoln Center, New York Publisher New York: G. Schirmer, 1983 Commissioned By Frederica von Stade

SONG COLLECTIONS

Collection Selected Songs Publisher New York: Southern, 1971 Distributed By Theodore Presser

Title Three American Songs Text Louis Phillips Date of Composition “■Boundaries” - December 4, 1969 Date of Composition “Haiku” - March 25. 1969 Date of Composition “Critic’s Privilege” - March 25, 1969

Title Two Shakespeare Songs Text William Shakespeare Date of Composition “Parting” ( Romeo and Julief) Date of Composition “That Time of Year” (Sonnet 13) - September, 1965

Title Three Coloratura Songs Text & Date “Miranda -Miranda” - Louis Phillips - May 16, 1966 Text & Date “Lear and His Daughters”-Louis Phillips-December 10,1969 Text & Date “Love’s Emblems” -John Fletcher-April 12. 1969 113

SONG COLLECTIONS CONTINUED

Title Three Poems of James Agee Text James Agee Date August-September, 1973 Composition “How Many Little Children Sleep” Composition “A Lullaby” Composition “Sonnet” Premiere April 13, 1974 - Hunter College, New York Publisher New York, Belwin Mills, 1974 Distributed By Theodore Presser

Collection Songs. Volume 1 Publisher New York: Belwin Mills, 1977

Song Title: “These are the Days” Text Emily Dickinson Date of Composition December 29, 1973

Song Title: “Reflection” Text Emily Dickinson Date of Composition October 15, 1975

Song Title “Instead of Words” Text: Gerald Walker Date of Composition June 25, 1976

Song Title “Vocal Modesty” Text Gerald Walker Date of Composition June 26,1976

Song Title “Winter’s Child’ Text Martin Dulman Date of Composition May 10, 1976

Song Title: “The Kiss” Text Martin Dulman Date of Composition May 8, 1976 114

SONG COLLECTIONS CONTINUED

Song Title “Lullaby for a Lost Child” Text Josephine Schillig Date of Composition January, 1969

Song Title “Agnes” Text Paul Enos, age 9 Date of Composition December 30, 1973

Song Title “Dirge for Two Veterans” Text Walt Whitman Date of Composition December 16, 1973

Song Title “Discovery” Text Anne Howard Bailey Date of Composition December 31, 1973

Song Title “The Harp that once through Tara’s Halls' Text Thomas Moore Date of Composition September, 1975

Song Title “Ophelia’s Lament” Text William Shakespeare Date of Composition April 7, 1975 Commissioned By Joan Patenaude

Collection Sones. Volume 11 Publisher New York: Belwin Mills, 1980

Song Title “Beautiful the Days” Text Kit van Cleave Date of Composition July 26, 1978

Song Title “To Music Bent is My Retired Mind” Text Thomas Campion Date of Composition July 24, 1977

Song Title “There Came a Day ” Text Emily Dickinson Date of Composition May 23, 1977 115

SONG COLLECTIONS CONTINUED

Song Title “As in a Theatre” Text William Shakespeare Date of Composition May 24, 1977

Song Title “The Verandahs” Text Kenward Elmslie Date of Composition March 29, 1978

Song Title “Overweight, Overwrought, Over You” Text Sheila Nadler Date of Composition November 2, 1977

Song Cycle Title Three Poems by Kirstin van Cleave Text Kit van Cleave Date of Composition “A Night of Love” - July 1, 1978 Date of Composition “You Know” -July 8, 1978 Date of Composition “Give Me Then Your Hand” - July 14, 1978 Commissioned By Sheila Nadler

Song Cycle Title Three Married Songs for voice and cello Song Title “Break of Day” Text John Donne Song Title “The First Fight; Out of Sight, Out of Mind” Text Barnabe Googe Song Title “Dear if You Change” Text Anonymous Date of Composition 1970

Song Cycle Title Three Sonnets from the Portuguese Text Elizabeth Barrett Browning Date of Composition 1979 Premiere March 30, 1980, Baltimore, Maryland Publisher G. Schirmer, 1984 Commissioned By Mrs. Duane Lansing Peterson

Song Cycle Title Sieben Lehmannlieder Text Lotte Lehmann Date of Composition 1988 Publisher Theodore Presser, 1991 Commissioned By The Music Academy of the West 116

SONG COLLECTIONS CONTINUED

Collection Windsongs - for soprano and piano Publisher New York: G. Schirmer, 1989

Song Cycle Title Three Poems of Theodore Ramsay Text Theodore Ramsay Commissioned By Theodore Ramsay Song Title “Love” Song Title “Remembering” Song Title “On Parting”

Song Title “Vocalise”

Song Cycle Title Three California Songs Text Robert H. Deutsch Song Title “Brother” Song Title “Song” Song Title “The Middle-Aged Shepherd”

Song Cycle Title Windsong - soprano, viola and piano Text Richard Nickson from Book of Staves Song Title “Antiphon” Song Title “All Music, All Delight” Song Title “Farewell”

Song Title “Alleluia” for voice and piano, voice and harp, voice and orchestra, S.A.T.B. and piano Text Thomas Pasatieri, English translation: Medieval Latin Chant Date of Composition 1991 Publisher Theodore Presser, 1991 Commissioned By Thomas Hampson APPENDIX B

THOMAS PASATIERI: INTERVIEWS

Interview with Thomas Pasatieri July 11th, 1995 in Tarzana, California at the composer's home.

Beth Bauer: Why did you move to California? You were in New York.

Thomas Pasatieri: Yes, I was bom in New York and I lived in New York until 1984. 1 moved here [Tarzana, California] in January of '84. There are several reasons. First of all, I had been traveling so much in my life as a composer and a pianist - you know I was running an opera - so I was commuting from New York to Atlanta. I was teaching at the University of Cincinnati for a year, commuting there too. I wanted to live in one place and not travel anymore, but to do that, it had to be a place where I could earn a living, and I wouldn’t have to rely on a concert career to earn a living. Los Angeles was the obvious choice because here I can work in the film industry and not have to travel. Those were my reasons for moving.

Beth Bauer: Did you like teaching? You taught at Juilliard, Manhattan...

Thomas Pasatieri: No, I started teaching at Juilliard, started teaching at Manhattan, then I did master classes all over. Then I taught at the University of Cincinnati. I’m not crazy about teaching. It’s okay in small doses. I don’t mind a very talented student now and then, but there are several reasons why I didn’t like teaching. First of all, the commitment that I make to a student is to take them from wherever they are to a full fledged composer, which is an enormous commitment - a lifetime commitment - but you have to do it. I was interested for a small amount of time, but otherwise I would have to say no. Master classes were more interesting to me because I could go in and work with singers, mostly singers, sometimes composers.

117 1

To work with singers was a little bit more nteresting for me than working with composers.

Beth Bauer: And your family? I know you have two songs that are dedicated to your sisters.

Thomas Pasatieri: Yes, I have two sisters, an older sister and a younger sister and my parents. My father died a year ago, my mother is still alive. They all live in Florida.

Beth Bauer: Were they supportive of your choices when you were a child?

Thomas Pasatieri: No, no, no - absolutely not. When I started my career at ten, well, they weren’t too bad about the piano career. That was okay with them sort of, but my father didn’t want me to write music at all. It wasn’t until I was accepted at Juilliard when I was sixteen that he accepted it. Then they supported it after that.

Beth Bauer: And your father’s profession was?

Thomas Pasatieri: He was a truck driver. He was a distributor for Pepsi-Cola.

Beth Bauer: So he didn’t see any future or financial security in music?

Thomas Pasatieri: Right. He didn’t see - well, it was too abstract for him - the idea of writing music. He wasn't that kind of person. He was really a truck driver, you know, from Brooklyn, so he had no concept of this and really didn’t like it. But he came to accept it and then he came to be proud of it. Finally, you know in the late 60's and 70's.

Beth Bauer: You’ve said that you felt that the start of your professional career began with The Women.

Thomas Pasatieri: Yes.

Beth Bauer: When you really became involved with opera, did you feel that opera would be your forte?

Thomas Pasatieri: Well, I’ll tell you what happened.

Beth Bauer: And songs .. .

Thomas Pasatieri: No, no, songs too. I used to feel it was just vocal music. For many. 119

many years I wrote only vocal music. It is only recently that I am writing instrumental music without voice - literally, the past couple of years, maybe two years. Always before it was with voice. 1 always turned down every commission for anything that didn’t involve voice. There were a couple of exceptions, but very few, maybe ten years ago...a piece called Theater Pieces for violin, clarinet and piano. That was commissioned by The Verdehr Trio. I think they are at Michigan State or one of those colleges. Otherwise, I only wrote vocal music. The way that I came to opera? Well, there were many things that happened. First of all, my teacher at Juilliard, my first teacher, was Vittorio Giannini, who was an opera composer himself. He wrote many other things, but he was definitely an opera composer. His sister, Dusolina Giannini was a famous opera soprano. She sang with Toscannini. His father was an opera singer - a tenor. His older sister, Eufemia, Madame Gregory, was a singer and a voice teacher at Curtis and was Anna Moffo's teacher, so he definitely was an opera composer. [ Under his influence] it was natural for me to become an opera composer.

In 1965, thirty years ago this summer - in fact in August it will be thirty years - since I wrote The Women and I was nineteen. It was produced there at the Aspen Festival and won the Aspen Festival Prize. Audience reaction to that piece was much greater than anything I had ever heard a contemporary composition receive. In other words, this was a program of contemporary music for the composers in Aspen that summer. Normal pieces like woodwind quintets, and violin sonatas and brass..you know. Then [I presented] this thirteen minute opera that was done at the end of the program. And you have to be respectful, of course, but The Women was greeted with screaming and a standing ovation. I felt at that moment, opera was what I was supposed to do. That is what I did that elicited the greatest response from the audience and so I went on then to write operas for many years.

Beth Bauer: Do you approach song composition the same way?

Thomas Pasatieri: As in opera? Certainly, the vocal line in the same way, but the thing about a song is you have to create a whole world in a short space of time. With an opera, you have many different characters and an orchestra that adds so many different colors and there is a theatrical theme. You can take time and develop with an opera, but with songs it is quite different. You have to learn to compress them, but I have 120

enjoyed writing songs just as much as opera.

Beth Bauer: When looking at your volumes of songs, is it significant that every song or cycle is dedicated to someone?

Thomas Pasatieri: Is it? I didn't know that. I've never thought about that, no. Everything is dedicated to someone?

Beth Bauer: Yes.

Thomas Pasatieri: Oh, I didn't know that.

Beth Bauer: I was just curious as to whether you read a poem or you are drawn to a poem, if you connect it to “important” people in your life, or as you actually compose the song . . .

Thomas Pasatieri: No, no.

Beth Bauer: A number of them are dedicated to singers or your family ...

Thomas Pasatieri: Yes. Well, the dedications aren’t necessarily reflective of the material of the song. The dedications are reflective of my feelings in my life. So it could be - Give me an example.

Beth Bauer: “The Kiss”

Thomas Pasatieri: Alright, so that is to Catherine, right? Catherine Malfitano.

Beth Bauer: Correct.

Thomas Pasatieri: She was a very close friend of mine who 1 actually discovered when she was singing at the Manhattan School of Music and 1 was teaching there. She made her debut in an opera of mine. Black Widow (1972) at the Lake George Festival - 1 was directing. I had heard her sing in The Crucible and we had done the opera in Seattle in March. Then, David Lloyd, who was at that time the director of the Lake George Festival, wanted to do it at Lake George that summer. We needed a whole new cast, because all the other people in the original production were otherwise committed except for David, who also sang in the original production in Seattle. He had a mezzo for the lead - Nancy Williams, and we needed a baritone, a lyric soprano, and a mezzo for the mother. For the baritone, he had someone sing for me who was really very 121

good, Ron Hedler, but we were looking for the role of the lyric soprano, which is a very difficult, very long role. Evelyn Mandac had sung it in Seattle and I thought of Catherine and called and asked her. I hadn’t been teaching since, let’s see, I taught at Manhattan 1969- 1971, so this was about a year later. I asked her to come and sing for me, which she did, and she was very impressive. We hired her. That was her official debut, and then of course, she went on to international success. That song is dedicated to her, but not specifically because of the song, but probably because I wanted to dedicate a song to her.

Beth Bauer: “Vocal Modesty,” “Overweight, Overwrought, Over You” and “Agnes” would be in the lighter vein - comic. They are very different from the poetry that comprises the bulk of your songs.

Thomas Pasatieri; Well, they are comic songs - there aren’t a lot, but there are others - lighter ones like “Critic's Privilege” which is funny, and let’s see, “Love’s Emblems” which is not serious.

Beth Bauer: The song, “Overweight, Overwrought, Over You” was set to words by Sheila Nadler.

Thomas Pasatieri: Yes, Sheila Nadler, who was a singer.

Beth Bauer: Yes, and you dedicated the Three Poems by Kirstin Van Cleave to her.

Thomas Pasatieri: That’s right. Sheila is a mezzo that used to be at the Metropolitan Opera. I don’t know if she still is She is a very, very, close friend of mine, and had written this poem which was so funny 1 couldn't believe it. So I told her I would set it, which I did. Now, when I look at that song, I think I made it too hard. I should have made it more simple, because it is too difficult to get all those words across when the music is so complex.

Beth Bauer: When I was young, actually, before I changed my degree to music, 1 was first introduced to your work with the song “Vocal Modesty.” 1 suppose at that time in my naivete' believed all your songs to be of this nature.

Thomas Pasatieri: Yes, “Vocal Modesty” and a song called “Instead of Words” were written by Gerald Walker. Gerry Walker, who is the husband of Joanna Simon, to whom those aie dedicated. And this was in 19- 122

something, and we were all going on a cruise together. They weren’t married yet, but were getting married. That’s right, in 1976 they got married, I think in the fall. We were on this cruise in June or so, and Joanna and I were giving two concerts. They gave us the trip for free if we would give two concerts on the boat. As we were preparing for them, 1 decided to write two songs for her that we would do in our concerts. So Gerry sent me a bunch of his poetry and I chose the two.

Beth Bauer: So with the Kit van Cleave poetry, I know that the Day of Love was commissioned by. ..

Thomas Pasatieri: Flicka.

Beth Bauer: Frederica von Stade

Thomas Pasatieri: I met Kit in Houston when I was doing The Seagull in 1974 and 1 don’t know when, - When is Day of Love. -'79 o r'78 or something like that?

Beth Bauer: It was first performed February, 1979.

Thomas Pasatieri: Okay, so within that time, Flicka was commissioning, let’s see what had we done? The first thing Flicka and I did, I guess, was The Seagull and then she sang songs of mine. Then she commissioned a cycle for a New York recital. I asked what text she wanted to use and she said there were texts she loved by a poet in Houston, Kit van Cleave, who I knew.

Beth Bauer: So you both knew her?

Thomas Pasatieri: Yes, we both knew Kit, from Houston, right. Kit was also a great fan of opera singers and a great friend of opera singers. She was a friend of Evelyn [Lear], Sheila [Nadler] -Flicka [von Stade]. She definitely was just a friend and we all knew her. When Kit would come to New York, I would see her and when Flicka told me about this. I wanted to read the poems and 1 thought they were good and selected them and made that cycle.

Beth Bauer: You also set Three Poems bv Kirstin van Cleave.

Thomas Pasatieri: Yes, then Sheila’s father, a very wealthy man, wanted to commission a song cycle for Sheila, and he did and so I picked those, some more poems of Kit’s. 123

Beth Bauer: So in your experience, when someone commissions a work, do they most often have the poems already picked out, or do you?

Thomas Pasatieri: Sometimes they do, sometimes they don’t. There was once a poet that commissioned me to write a cycle for his poems. What was his name? They are published. Ted, I think, Schirmer published it in Windsongs.

Beth Bauer: Three Poems of Theodore Ramsav?

Thomas Pasatieri: Right. Theodore Ramsay, actually commissioned that cycle.

Beth Bauer: The poet himself?

Thomas Pasatieri: Yes, right, that is unusual.

Beth Bauer: And that cycle is dedicated to Gregoiy, Donna and Michael.

Thomas Pasatieri: Well, those are my... Gregory no longer is alive. But Gregory and Donna were the children of my sister .To Ann, and Michael is the son of my sister Frances. Gregory drowned four years ago. There is another piece dedicated to him. It is not published yet. It is a work called Canciones del Bario. it’s poetry we’ve done and may publish. It’s written for mezzo, string quartet and piano. It is written in Cholo, which is Spanish and English mixed all together - it is kind of Spanglish, like Spanicized English words. It's a language of the Mexican Barrio Community. It was commissioned by UCLA for the opening of the Mexican Festival a few years ago. Gregory had just died and I wrote it for that. Gregory died four years ago in May. I wrote it in June and we premiered it in September.

Beth Bauer: If you had to choose songs that you believe to be most exemplary of your style?

Thomas Pasatieri: Out of all my songs?

Beth Bauer: Or would you choose your favorite songs?

Thomas Pasatieri: Well, if I were to pick which of my songs are my favorites, and that is awfully hard to do, I mean, that will change, but certainly. The Agee Poems. You know when I am giving master classes and people sing my songs for me, I might choose this one or that one. but it is just too hard to pick. I don’t know. 124

Beth Bauer: Are your feelings the same about your operas or can you say?

Thomas Pasatieri: Probably The Seagull is my favorite opera. I think so...I think so.

Beth Bauer: With your film work, do you still try to make it a priority to get your classical works performed?

Thomas Pasatieri: No, no, as a matter of fact. I’m missing a performance in Germany of Washington Square. The first night is the 22nd of this month [July] and they wanted me to be there and I had agreed to come because I was going to be finished recording this movie on the 19th, fly on the 20th and do the premiere on the 22nd. I was going to fly to Scotland for a concert on the 25th of my new Viola Sonata and then they changed the movie, so now I can’t go over at all. I really regret that because I would have loved to hear Washington Square in German.

Beth Bauer: Do you feel like you are known more as an opera composer ...

Thomas Pasatieri: Sure.

Beth Bauer: ... or as an art song composer?

Thomas Pasatieri: Oh no, not as the art song, well maybe so. I don't know, but certainly more of a vocal composer than instrumental.

Beth Bauer: How do you feel about writers calling you the “American Puccini”?

Thomas Pasatieri: Well, I’m flattered, but you know we have had two totally different careers. When Puccini was writing opera, the musical was the form of the day. That is no longer the case. I mean, Puccini was like the Andrew Lloyd Webber. I hate to mention those two names in the same sentence, but you know what I mean as far as popular success. That’s what people wanted to hear.

It is a very different situation with opera in the twentieth-century, particularly in America. You have to fight for everything. It is so haid to get works repealed. They’ll do world premieres and that's it. No matter how successful the pieces are. It doesn't make any difference. You see this time and time and time again. People in the past decade have been telling me it’s changing, it's changing, but I don’t see it changing in opera. It’s just that more companies are doing one work - they’ll do one round of them, because they all pitch in for the expenses - but then it drops out and again, it’s not done any 125

more. Even with the people that have been very successful like Philip Glass, where are the repeats of his operas? I don't see repeats of an Einstein on the Beach or the other things he wrote. 1 mean, there are so many of them now. Where are they performed?

Beth Bauer: You mentioned Philip Glass. Do you think that composers like Glass or Babbitt or Cage have achieved more notoriety because they would be classified in the experimental vein - and in my opinion are often somewhat bizaiTe while composers like you - Lee Hoiby and Ned Rorem for instance, are more traditional?

Thomas Pasatieri: Yes, they get attention at first, but my point is, it doesn’t make any difference. They don't do them, they don't repeat works.

Beth Bauer: They don’t last.

Thomas Pasatieri: Right. There is no lasting opera, contemporary opera tradition - especially in America. The only person that came close to that was Gian-Carlo Menotti, and even that has stopped so much - but nobody else. None of the works are repeated or done with great frequency. There will be a run of Washington Square in Germany, but that is not like making a career the way Benjamin Britten did. Benjamin Britten was the last composer - last opera composer, to have a solid lasting international career. They’ll do Benjamin Britten here, in Germany, in Italy or England, but they don't do that for any of the American composers.

Beth Bauer: Do you find that horribly frustrating?

Thomas Pasatieri: Sure. That is why I eventually stopped writing opera.

Beth Bauer: So you moved to “Hollywood” because you were disenchanted with the business and you started Topaz Productions.

Thomas Pasatieri: That is my film production company - it is a production company that handles all the business for my .. .when I produce, in other words, if I produce a segment, usually an opera segment, in a movie, like in Prettv Woman, when they went to San Francisco Opera. The opera was La Traviata, or in Dick Tracv. I wrote a little opera for Dick Tracy, or T.V. things that need opera - my production company produces that and everything filters through that. 126

Beth Bauer; And this decision was sheerly based on a need to make a living because opera was not providing that?

Thomas Pasatieri: Yes, that’s right.

Beth Bauer: Do you enjoy it?

Thomas Pasatieri: I like the movie work and doing orchestrations for films. I enjoy the orchestration part of it. The only problem is it is not artistic. It is not a good artistic endeavor. It is easy for me to do orchestrations. It is work but nothing that I have to agonize over. It is more of a labor than a creative process.

Beth Bauer: Shawshank Redemption?

Thomas Pasatieri: Yes, I orchestrated that. Yes, I’ve done over one hundred movies now. Orchestrated over one hundred movies now. Since coming here in the past decade. I’ve done, I’ve lost count, but I do enjoy the actual orchestration part of it and I certainly enjoy the financial rewards - it allows me to do whatever I want to do, and that’s why 1 came here so that part has worked out. For several years I did very little writing of a serious nature - concert music maybe - sometimes I would do one piece a year. I would do the [Sieben] Lehmannlieder I wrote for the Music Academy, a piece for the Master Chorale and I wrote a piece for the New Classic Singers a couple of years ago. Then I started writing a great deal - all instrumental music - a piano concerto, a concerto for two pianos and orchestra, a sonata for viola and piano, serenade for violin and orchestra. Those pieces all came very quickly.

Beth Bauer: Returning to Kit van Cleave’s poems, when we spoke earlier on the phone, I asked whether you had written any other songs to her text besides Day of Love and Three Poems bv Kirstin van Cleave and 1 did find . ..

Thomas Pasatieri: Did I write something else?

Beth Bauer: “Beautiful the Days”

Thomas Pasatieri: Yes, that’s right, that is Kit’s poem.

Beth Bauer: That song is dedicated to Linda Phillips. Would she have any relationship to the poet Louis Phillips that you used for a number of 127

your songs

Thomas Pasatieri: No - Louis Phillips was - when I was starting out in School in 1962, I started at Juilliard. In 1963,1 went to summer camp at Brevard. My teacher, Vittorio Giannini, was the president of the Brevard Festival and I was having composition lessons every day. There was a flutist there named Katherine Menafee - she was first flute of the orchestra. She went to Juilliard, so we were friends. When we got back, she married Louis Phillips, who was a poet, and that is how 1 met him. So 1 started setting his poems, but that was many years ago 1 think the last piece was probably Heloise and Abelard, which premiered in 1971 for Evelyn Lear and Thomas Stewart. They commissioned that, so 1 set Louis’ poem.

Beth Bauer: Didn’t he also do the text for Rites de Passage in 1974?

Thomas Pasatieri: Yes, yes, that was also his work. Linda Phillips is a singer living in New Jersey, last 1 heard. 1 haven’t seen her in five or six years, and she is also a friend.

Beth Bauer: Perhaps this is more on the business end, but why did you use Southern Music, Theodore Presser, G. Schirmer, Belwin-Mills - so many publishers. 1 read at one point that you followed Robert Holton from .. .

Thomas Pasatieri: How it started out was in 1965 at the Aspen Festival. Bob Holton - who was at that time the most powerful agent for a composer - represented Carlisle Floyd, Lee Hoiby, Aaron Copland, Samuel Barber, Gian-Carlo Menotti, just absolutely everyone - Penderewski - he attended that performance and was a great promoter of opera. He was one of the first to bring Benjamin Britten to America - he is deceased many years now. So, he was there for the beginning of my career. When 1 got back to New York, he contacted me and the Juilliard School was doing two of my operas. The Women and La Divina - the premiere of La Divina was in 1966. Bob was at those performances. At that time, he was with Schirmer and they offered me a contract which 1 signed. Shoitly after signing and before publishing the works. Bob left to go to Presser. He asked me to take these three early works away from Schirmer and publish them at Presser, and 1 said fine. So 1 signed with Presser and my first published works were with them. La Divina. The Women. Padrevia - then he left Presser and went to Belwin-Mills so all the rest of those works are published by Belwin-Mills. 128

Now many years later, 1980 - 1 had been with Belwin-Mills for a decade at least, and I was very unhappy with Bob's work and with Belwin-Mills so I left and went to Schirmer. Then, Bob died and Belwin-Mills was no longer really handling opera or art song, so their whole catalogue went baek to Presser. I thought as long as my works are being handled by Presser, I might as well go back. Early on, there was one publisher. Southern, where a friend of mine was running the company. He was a singer, and asked for a book of my songs.

Beth Bauer: What about your songs that are out of print., [example - Volume I]

Thomas Pasatieri: Those are Belwin-Mills’. They just wanted to sell out all the stock so the only thing that is left are some copies of Volume II. Once that is sold, all rights will revert to me. 1 will probably do a book of fifty songs. [I’ll] just put together all those early songs that I have the rights to and publish them all in one volume. That will be in a couple of years.

Beth Bauer: When we spoke earlier, you said there are numbers of songs that you would never publish.

Thomas Pasatieri: Yes, all those early songs. They are in a closet somewhere.

Beth Bauer: You don’t feel like they are mature enough songs to be published?

Thomas Pasatieri: Maybe I’ll go back, but I don't think so - those are from - you know. I was seventeen, eighteen. There are some good gestures in them, but nothing I would consider on a level to publish. The earliest published music was in 1965.

Beth Bauer: So your student operas were never published?

Thomas Pasatieri: No, that is true. I have them, but those two I don’t consider sufficient standards. And I hope they don’t publish them, any of them, after 1 am gone.

Beth Bauer: After you are gone?

Thomas Pasatieri: Yes, you see, very often, they will do that - but 1 don’t want to destroy them so I just wont worry about it.

Beth Bauer: How do you deal with criticism of your music? I read at one point. 129

your father had told you that 3,000 people in the audience loved you - so if one critic didn’t . ..

Thomas Pasatieri: That was true - Well, I’m not anymore - bothered by bad reviews. But for many, many, many years I was. It didn’t matter how many good reviews I got, I was very, very, very upset even with minor bad things - 1 would zero in on that. But actually now that Tm almost fifty, 1 can look back at it with some perspective.

There was a critic in New York named Alan Rich and this started in 1972. He wrote for New York Magazine and my first piece reviewed by him was the Trial of Marv Lincoln and it was an enormously successful opera on television. It garnered fantastic reviews, an Emmy and certainly put me on the map. Now, I would say ninety- eight percent of the reviews for Mary Lincoln were fantastic. The worst review was from Alan Rich, and his first sentence about me was, and I will never forget it - he said, T don't know from under which rock Mr. Pasatieri crawled out but he should crawl back in." and he continued on like that almost every month in New York Magazine - even if he wasn’t reviewing me. He would be writing about somebody else and say, this is terrible music, but not as bad as...and then would do a paragraph about how terrible 1 was. It was just awful and of course, at the time, 1 was traumatized. I was this, you know, I was in my early twenties and was just so vulnerable. But now in retrospect, I realize that it was that review - those reviews that got people talking about me and created interest in my career. So now I don’t regret any of that, but it is difficult for persons as insecure as I was, to receive those kinds of reviews.

Looking back on a thirty-year career, I would say that reviews are very important in the beginning of a career. What matters is if more people like you than don’t. If more people don’t like you then you won't have a career, but if more people like you then you will have a career. And if there is controversy, it probably will help and I was certainly controversial.

I was a composer, you see, at the time when there was not a return to Romanticism, yet, there were a few composers like Samuel Barber that were always in that vein, but they were older, much older than 1 was, so a composer of my generation to be writing the way that 1 do - was controversial. Years later, the tide turned but until then, there were always a cadre of critics that hated everything 1 did and a cadre of composers that actually hated everything 1 did. 130

Now, in retrospect, it is all fine, but also after so many years, they don’t review me violently anymore. They aie either very glowing or sort of tender at this point because I’ve been around so long. I think they just respect survival. They figure if there is somebody that is still writing, after all of those years, then of course, the tide has changed. I’m no longer revolutionary for being conservative - or for being tonal. It’s no longer strange to hear this music because everybody else is, but it wasn’t that way in the '60's. Believe me, in 1965, when I wrote The Women and then La Divina in '66, it was a very different world.

Beth Bauer: You have said that you were enormously influenced by Jennie Tourel. How would you describe that relationship?

Thomas Pasatieri: Well, it was great. Jennie Tourel, of course, is one of the greatest singers that ever lived, and one of the greatest artists. She was a teacher at Juilliard when I met her. I knew Loraine Newbar, who was her assistant.

And how did I first get to know Jennie? Well, it was summer, that same summer, 1965, and Loraine was her assistant in Aspen. I went to pick up Loraine or was it Loraine picking up Miss Tourel? I don’t remember the exact circumstances, but at any rate, I got to know Jennie Tourel. That summer o f'65, her students were singing in The Women. So we became friends and I always admired her tremendously. In fact, I had an experience that summer; it was remarkable.

Tourel was singing Sheherazade with the orchestra. It was so incredible .. .1 was sitting in the first row, right in front of her and it was so amazing. The level of artistry transformed everything and when 1 went back stage to see her, literally no words came out of my mouth - the onlytime that I can remember being unable to speak. 1 was so moved by the artistry. We became very good friends, so in 1971, when we were casting for Black Widow. I wondered if she would return to the stage to sing the mother. And she did, she actually returned to the stage, which was an incredible thing to do for a young composer. So yes, she was a great influence on me. Also, I went to her master classes and when she would teach French music or Russian music, it was .. .they were experiences that will never be duplicated, you can’t find that anymore.

I would add, another great influence was Rosa Ponselle - from the 131

Italian School. When I became friends with Madame Ponselle, 1 went down to Baltimore to work with her on the Italian operas that she was the greatest at extolling about.

Beth Bauer: Do you speak fluent Italian?

Thomas Pasatieri: 1 did at one time, unfortunately, 1 haven’t gotten to speak it in such a long time that 1 have a feeling it is very rusty. It would probably come back, but yes, 1 taught in Italy at one point - in Sienna, and at that point 1 could speak Italian.

Beth Bauer: You taught composition?

Thomas Pasatieri: Yes.

Beth Bauer: You also listed Maria Callas as a great influence.

Thomas Pasatieri: She was the greatest - probably one of the greatest influences of anyone in the twentieth-century as far as I’m concerned. 1 only saw her a couple of times, but just the presence of this person would make the music come alive - who could sing and sound like she was speaking at the same time. She, who transformed the musical language - Oh, yes, definitely, 1 would listen over and over to the performance of hers - learning what it is to really create drama through the vocal line for me was as important as studying composition.

Beth Bauer: I’ve read accounts of a number of singers and they all speak of the way you write for the voice.

Thomas Pasatieri: Before 1 was being performed, the vocal music for the most part - not everybody, because you had Ned Rorem, and Sam [Barber] and [Aaron] Copland, but for the most part, the great bulk of the music was so unvocal.

People were writing things that had nothing to do with the singing voice. Just things that well, a clarinet could do. It was just terrible and the singers who were singing contemporary music had no voices. They were singers that could do this kind of stuff, but didn’t have pretty voices... which is probably why they turned to contemporary music - that made it even worse. So 1 started writing music that was grateful to sing, because when 1 studied, 1 studied not only composition, but I used to go to the classes of the voice teachers, to 132

the individual lessons and listen. And then, I was a coach for singers which was one of the ways I supported myself - so coaching singers, I always worked with singers and my friends were singers, so it was natural for me to want to write for the voice and that’s what I did. But there were many people that helped me along the way. There is a singer at the Met named Batya Godfrey -She used to do very small roles, for years and years and years. Her name was Bonnie when we were in school, and her son, now this has been four years ago, was getting ready to go to Juilliard as a composer and Bonnie called me up. We hadn’t spoken in many years and she said her son wanted to speak to me about Juilliard. So I agreed and we spoke. Bonnie said that she had told him that we knew each other when we were students and he thought she was making that up. She told him I used to come running up and ask how the tessitura of this piece was, and you know I had forgotten that but it is absolutely true.

These people were my friends and I would bring them things, and ask them to sing this for me, to show me how and they would make it better. They would say, T feel it is too hard to sing that syllable up there’ or ‘if I could hold this a little bit longer’ - that is the way you really learn. You have to have an instinct and talent for it, but you have to have an education, so I would say that is why they say the music is so grateful.

Beth Bauer: How would you describe your relationship with Martin Dulman?

Thomas Pasatieri: Yes - whose name is now Marc Dulman. He was a very good friend of mine - we used to call him Kugie in New York. And he lives in San Francisco now, we haven’t seen or spoken to each other in many years, but recently, I was trying to get something - a book and somebody recommended a bookstore in San Francisco. I called and the person who answered the phone seemed to know me or at least about me and we spoke. I knew that Kugie had lived in San Francisco for years, so I asked if he had ever heard of Marc Dulman and he said yes and there was a volume of his poetry published. The man sent me the book. House Wine, so I have it. He once did an interview with me called an “Informal Portrait.”

Beth Bauer: So he was a professional writer?

Thomas Pasatieri: Yes, that’s what he did. He was a good writer.

Beth Bauer: And his text for “The Kiss” and “Winter's Child?” 133

Thomas Pasatieri: Yes, I love the words, but Tve been out of touch with most of these poets for a decade.

Beth Bauer: Do you feel you still have the respect of the "classical world" since you've gone commercial?

Thomas Pasatieri: I didn't think, well - see, I've - well certainly the movies are commercial ventures, but I operate in both worlds and hadn't thought for many years about it since I did not pursue a career for many years - from 1984 until about 1994 - a decade. And I had thought that everybody had forgotten about me. But Ashley Putnam, who is a friend of mine, was here performing the Marschellin. She came to dinner one night and she had been at a party with all the singers and said she was coming here and the younger singers asked about me and I just had no idea that they still remembered me after all these years, but apparently they do because they turn up, and the pieces sell. It has been so long since I thought about that. I mean, I haven't given an interview in many years.

Beth Bauer: How do you feel about being the subjeet of a dissertation?

Thomas Pasatieri: I know somebody sent me their work sometime ago, and it was about twelve or twenty-four songs. I'm not sure. They did an analysis - but it was so foreign to me. They were analyzing this f-sharp is related to this g and this chord resolves to this chord because, I had no idea what they were talking about. I do not conceive my songs that way.

Beth Bauer: You know when you begin this type of work you have to find out what is out there - what has already been written. I found that so little had been written about you and the main body of it was from the seventies.

Thomas Pasatieri: I left the opera world in 1984, the fall o f'84. The last opera that 1 produced was The Barber of Seville. 1 was the director of the Atlanta Opera '80 - '84.

Beth Bauer: Did you enjoy that?

Thomas Pasatieri: Well, I loved opening nights, but it was getting there, it was awful. 1 loved the opera part of it. It was dealing with the board of directors and just, the Unions and so many problems - just incredible things. But, of course, I loved the singers and the pieces I produced. It was hard - a hard life. I was travelling from New York to Atlanta, back 134

and forth. Things were coming to a head and I didn't want to write opera any more, so when I moved here, I closed that chapter - literally, in '841 did no interviews after that, and I certainly accepted no commissions. And then, the years would go by and I would write one piece, like Rossini in his old age, and it is only recently in the past couple of years that I have decided to perform again.

Last summer I played my new piano concerto. I hadn't played a piano concerto in public since I was eighteen years old. But as 1 was writing the piece I thought, do I really want to write it for myself and am I going to play again? I never stopped playing and 1 also gave concerts with singers and chamber music but to play again as a soloist, 1 mean, am I going to do this again? So I practiced. It took me six months to get my fingers back in concert shape, and then I started rehearsing with the orchestra. The day of the performances - all that day I thought this is crazy - 1 don't have to do this -1 don't know why - I'll give this concert and I'll never give another - that's it. I'll never play again. But then afterwards, 1 was so happy that I'm going to do it again in November. That's what happens - it had built up and built up, and I didn't want to do it but 1 changed my mind.

You talk about an audience reaction! The audience started screaming when 1 finished the piano concerto - this was with the Spanish Symphony. When the conductor of the Spanish Symphony heard 1 was writing a piano concerto, he told me he would like to premiere it - 1 said. I'll let you preview it - 1 had to think about it - under the following conditions: No critics, as many rehearsals as you can give me, and a few other conditions . So the place was just jammed - so many people had come they couldn't fit them in the hall - so some sat outside and there were people sitting on the floor. 1 went out on stage. I had to walk through all these people - hundreds of people, and I played.

When I finished, they started screaming! There were so many curtain calls for that concerto that I finally had to tell the stage manager, 'turn the lights on,' you know I was exhausted - I had rehearsed that afternoon and had a party here afterwards. I said, I can't do any more curtain calls. That is enough.' There are experiences like that, that make me feel like maybe I will do more. Certainly I am writing now. but for many years I did not. I didn't give interviews and 1 did not pursue my career at all. I had decided to put that behind me and to just live to earn money and support myself and have a nice life and not have to travel - and I did that for almost a decade. 135

Beth Bauer: Was the performance that you just spoke about, the piano concerto, more thrilling for you than seeing one of your operas performed or songs sung?

Thomas Pasatieri: Well, it is kind of a double whammy, because when I play my own music, applause and lovefrom the audience for the music and the performance are offered.

Beth Bauer: When you were young performing solo piano...

Thomas Pasatieri: When I was a kid, traditional stuff and I played my own music too, but mostly Beethoven and Chopin.

Beth Bauer: Can we discuss your relationship with Nadia Boulanger?

Thomas Pasatieri: Well, I must have been about fifteen, and I heard that Boulanger was coming to Manhattan to give a lecture at the Manhattan School of Music, so I cut school - Yes, but how it all started - I took my compositions with me and I crashed, I went in, I walked into the lecture, and there she was. When she finished speaking, I went up on stage with my music and introduced myself to her. I was this teenage kid! I said, T’m an American composer and 1 know you help American composers. Here's my music.' She said, 'Write down your phone number.' I wrote it on the music and went back to Long Island. Now, when I think about it, what a bold thing to do, but I had no fear in those days. It all happened the way I thought it was supposed to happen. She called me the next day and said, 'Come to Manhattan and start lessons.’ So Î did.

I worked with her about a month. She went back to Paris, so we did correspondence for a year. 1 would send works and she would critique them. Then, I was accepted at Juilliard and the summer of '62, just before I entered, she wrote to me saying, " You can only have one teacher. It is best to work with just one person." Of course, she was right. Next was "Vittorio Giannini.

Beth Bauer: In the Sperber article, you speak of both classical and popular singers - Barbra Streisand was one of them.

Thomas Pasatieri: Yes - Peggy Lee and all kinds of popular singers. The singing voice has been an influence on me - no matter who it was that was singing - Judy Garland, Frank Sinatra. There are singers - Tony Bennett - pop 136

singers - that do things with their voices that influence the whole spirit - my whole spirit. When I'm writing, it could be something as subtle as an inflection of Barbra Striesand's or a big note of Judy Garland's - the way she approaches it that will come into the way 1 am writing the music. But I sort of feel I should say that I definitely feel that we are the sum total of all our experiences. What we do artistically is translate these experiences into our medium... to communicate.

Beth Bauer: Getting back to the works by Kit van Cleave, I know it has been a number of years but do you remember composing and creating this cycle?

Thomas Pasatieri: No- no, I don't. In fact, a few years ago, I was giving a concert in Chicago with a group of singers and they sent me a list of songs they were going to do, because I was playing the piano. I would have one rehearsal in the afternoon and a concert in the evening, but 1 had played most of my songs in public so I looked at the list and brought the music and one of them listed a song called "On Parting." At the rehearsal, I got out the music to "Parting" and I played the G-major chord that starts "Parting" and the singer turned and said, 'No, I'm singing "On Parting" ' and I said 'Yes'. Then she said, 'What are you playing?' and I said, 'What are you singing?' She said. I'm singing "On Parting" ' and she showed me the music and I did not remember that I had written a song called "On Parting". Someone in a master class years ago - a tenor - stood up and said, I will sing "You know" ' and I had no idea what he was talking about, so I asked what that was, and he said, 'Well it is a song of yours.' I said, 'A song of mine called "You Know" ?' 'Yes,' he said. Now what happened is that when 1 wrote this cycle, 1 wrote three poems. No. 1, 2 and 3. The publishers titled them. 1 never called this song "You Know" . 1 didn't entitle any of them. 1 entitled them Three Poems bv Kirstin van Cleave. Did you record them?

Beth Bauer: Yes, for my recital.

Thomas Pasatieri: Yes, I'd love to hear them. They are rarely done. 1 think the songs of mine that they do are always "Instead of Words", "'Vocal Modesty" The Agee Poems. Shakespeare.

Beth Bauer: Do you prefer American poets?

Thomas Pasatieri: 1 like beautiful poems - it does not matter. Either American or 137

British.

Beth Bauer: But you prefer American singers?

Thomas Pasatieri: Oh yes, but I have had wonderful - Janet Baker certainly is wonderful, but the American singers I prefer. They are just closer to the music and they understand it so well - 1 like American singers best.

Beth Bauer: How was the premiere of Day of Love?

Thomas Pasatieri: Oh, it was incredible. 1 had been on tour and I didn't have time to go to any of the early rehearsals because I was away. So when 1 got back a few days before the concert, Flicka and Marty Katz did the cycle for me. She was so perfect - absolutely perfect - breathtaking. I was very moved when she finished.

The same thing happened with Shirley Verrett and The Agee Poems. She was on tour; she was actually doing them on tour before the premiere. She tried them out all over the country before she did them in New York. When I heard her rehearsal in New York, they were stunning. With both singers, they were there, they wanted suggestions but what could I say?

I remember there was a critic in Washington called Paul Hume, who actually didn't write badly about me, but was sort of on the fence, leaning more toward good. I was behind him in the hall for Flicka's concert when she did that cycle. He had a novel that he was reading and he was shuffling papers. He barely gave any attention to her and the recital. 1 think he wrote an okay review, but for someone who was hardly listening, it was, you know, disheartening, because here was a major critic that goes to a recital with a novel.

Beth Bauer: 1 know you have written a number of librettos for your operas but have you set songs to your own text?

Thomas Pasatieri: Years ago.

Beth Bauer: The unpublished songs?

Thomas Pasatieri: Yes, I never published anything like that, but I did several operas to my text. 138

Beth Bauer: Why not songs?

Thomas Pasatieri: I don't know. I suppose I wrote librettos out of necessity. There was never any necessity to write poems. There are so many wonderful poems to set. Opera librettos were another story. I really needed a certain, specific thing.

Beth Bauer: Currently, do you have a work in mind to set an opera?

Thomas Pasatieri: If I were ever to go back to it?

Beth Bauer: Will you ever go back?

Thomas Pasatieri: There is someone now who is trying to get me back into opera - we will see.

Beth Bauer: So for Shawshank Redemption, you were listed as Music Orchestrator...

Thomas Pasatieri: I do arrangements for orchestra - that is really what I do.

Beth Bauer: Do you ever compose original music for films?

Thomas Pasatieri: Sometimes. I don't enjoy that as much.

Beth Bauer: Why?

Thomas Pasatieri: Well, see when you write, you actually write the melodies; you have to do exactly what the director wants. They will alter it to whatever they want and I really don't like to work like that. But in orchestration I'm left completely to myself to decide whatever colors of the orchestra I want to use - I'm more in charge. Nobody interferes and I like that.

Beth Bauer: So when you were taking orchestration classes..

Thomas Pasatieri: I never had classes. I studied only with my teacher, Vittorio Giannini. I was very lucky in that at Brevard and also Juilliard, we had orchestras that, in those days, would play our music. So I got to hear my music right away. To hear it played with the orchestra is how you learn. Also, because I was an opera composer, I really got to hear everything with orchestras. You see, other composers that were say, symphonic composers, or composers that wrote chamber 139

music, rarely got an opportunity to have a whole orchestra play their music. I was writing opera, so the opera companies had their orchestras and I always got to hear my music.

Also, it is very different when you are an opera composer - you write three hours or two hours worth of music, people come to the theatre to hear your music. They sit and hear your music. If they go to a concert, they maybe listen to Beethoven, Mozart, a contemporary piece and then a Brahms symphony. It's a very different experience. That's another reason why I was so controversial in the beginning, you had to commit an evening to listening to my music. You couldn't go home after a fifteen minute orchestra piece or walk out to the lobby, you went to the opera or you didn't.

Beth Bauer: Your early opera career was also affected by Darius Milhaud, was it not?

Thomas Pasatieri: Darius Milhaud - there is another story. He hated what I was doing.

Beth Bauer: He did?

Thomas Pasatieri: Absolutely hated it. There were composition classes, so it would be me and the other composers. We would play our music for him and he would criticize it. Mine was by far the one that he hated the most.

Beth Bauer: But you won the Aspen Festival Prize!

Thomas Pasatieri: How could 1 have won the prize - he was the judge? Well, after that audience reaction, there was no way that they could not give me the prize. They had to give me the prize. It was always the public that came through for me, rather than the critics or other composers.

Beth Bauer: I read that it was more important for you to please an audience than a room full of composers.

Thomas Pasatieri: Absolutely, particularly when I started, there was no pleasing the other composers because I was doing the exact opposite of what they were doing. At Juilliard, in the sixties they were all electronic and twelve-tone composers. I was completely different from everyone.

Beth Bauer: Did you enjoy that music - electronic , twelve-tone, avant-garde music? 140

Thomas Pasatieri; Oh no, I never liked that music. But it was terrible being the only person to not do it.

Beth Bauer: But you had enough self-conviction to follow your instincts as a composer?

Thomas Pasatieri: Well, yes. 1 had to do what I had to do, and there was also the audience. At Juilliard’s composer concerts I would always get the most applause. There’s no question about it. So I had the audience. I didn't have the other composers, they would turn down their noses, especially when I got more applause. Remember, 1 was sixteen and seventeen years old and that was not easy. Though I felt very grown up at that time, I was a teenaged kid. I started to have international success at nineteen yer-rs old. That is vcr}', ver}' young.

Beth Bauer: And you received your doctorate at 23?

Thomas Pasatieri: To get a doctorate at 23 is very young. And I actually started teaching at Juilliard when I was 17. I had just been in school for a year and they needed somebody to take over ear training classes. They hired me for like two or three dollars an hour.

Beth Bauer: What age were you when you knew exactly what you wanted to do?

Thomas Pasatieri: When 1 was in the eighth grade, I was twelve years old. I found, not too long ago, because I was going through papers and moving boxes after the earthquake, papers I had written in the eighth grade. 1 guess the teacher asked us what we were going to be when we grew up and I wrote a brother (Franciscan) or a musician, so even then, at that age, I knew.

Beth Bauer: Are you familiar with the works of Dorothy Parker?

Thomas Pasatieri: Sure.

Beth Bauer: Have you ever considered setting any of her poems?

Thomas Pasatieri: No, because those words are so perfect that music might make them less perfect.

Beth Bauer: Truly? 141

Thomas Pasatieri: Yes.

Beth Bauer: So when you read there are times that you think .. .

Thomas Pasatieri: Oh yes, you see sometimes, it is the best poetry that makes the best song, but sometimes it is not. At times, it is the simple poem s... the turn of a phrase in simple language that makes it better for song, because that allows for the music to come into it. Sometimes the text is too complex.

Beth Bauer: I find that interesting. Are you familiar with the Barab settings of “Songs of Perfect Propriety”?

Thomas Pasatieri: No.

Beth Bauer: It is a collection of twenty-four songs with texts by Dorothy Parker. They are very light, comical, funny pieces. But recently, when 1 saw the movie, Dorothy Parker and the Vicious Circle. 1 was struck by the way the actress recited one of her poems. It happened to be one of the poems that Barab set, but his conception of it was vastly different from what 1 heard in my head and the way the actress recited it.

Thomas Pasatieri: 1 liked the movie very much and thought the lead actress, Jennifer Jason Leigh, was excellent. 1 really like the movie, but 1 wondered if it was too spread out for someone that didn’t know her life story.

Beth Bauer: After 1 saw it, 1 called my coach, Lee Thompson, who played my last recital. 1 did your van Cleave pieces and the Barab settings and told him 1 would love to hear how you would set them and how you would approach them.

Thomas Pasatieri: You know, 1 have always had the Portable Dorothy Parker in all my houses. 1 think she is terrific - so funny.

Beth Bauer: Are there other poets that you would like to set?

Thomas Pasatieri: 1 just did a big piece with poems by Carl Sandburg, called The Harvest Frost, a collection of his poems. In fact, this was a commission by a group just outside Chicago. 1 was looking for texts and there was a book of Sandburg there and 1 was reading backward through the book and found the one that 1 thought was just perfect and it turns out it was entitled “Chicago.” 1 thought that it was so interesting, since it was a group of singers from Chicago. 142

Beth Bauer: Is it published yet?

Thomas Pasatieri: No, it is written for chorus and seven instruments. I wrote it for the four parts of the chorus with no divisions, so I’m thinking of havng it done with four solo singers. That is still on the back burner.

Beth Bauer: Do you ever go back and revise early works?

Thomas Pasatieri: No.

Beth Bauer: No revisions?

Thomas Pasatieri: No, it is what it is and it was written when it was written.

Beth Bauer: Do you ever think that was weak, or why did I do that, or that was extremely effective?

Thomas Pasatieri: Well sure, when I listen to it. I think that this could be better here or that was very good - 1 do think that. But I don't want to rework it, 1 want it to exist the way it does.

Beth Bauer: Changing gears - are you close with your sisters?

Thomas Pasatieri: Well, after Gregory died, I became much closer to my older sister. 1 speak to them once a week. They are all in Florida. Everyone is in Florida but me. My mother will be 87 in December.

Beth Bauer: Do you listen to your music often?

Thomas Pasatieri: No.

Beth Bauer: What music do you listen to?

Thomas Pasatieri: It depends on my mood. I listen to classical or popular music. For classical I would probably listen to symphonies or chamber music. I love Rachmaninoff. It depends. I could be on a piano streak and listen to a lot of Rachmaninoff or Chopin, or if I’m on a vocal streak, Schwarzkopf or Callas, or Lehmann. Popular music, Barbra Streisand, Carly Simon or the Eagles - it depends. I like Michael Bolton, Billy Joel, Joan Baez. There are so many things; it depends on my mood.

Beth Bauer: Growing up in the "Classical World" did you listen to a lot of pop 143

music?

Thomas Pasatieri: Always!

Beth Bauer: Did fellow classical types give you a difficult time?

Thomas Pasatieri: That was one thing about the sixties. You were certainly allowed to listen to a lot of different things.

Subsequent Phone Interviews

Beth Bauer: How do you feel your accompaniments are affected by the fact that you were an accomplished pianist before being a published composer?

Thomas Pasatieri: They have been affected because of my pianistic technique. Some of them are simple and some very difficult. I think it would be impossible for it not to be affected by the fact that [piano] is my main instrument. For example, when I write a piece like the Serenade for Violin and Orchestra. I wrote the Serenade and then went over it with a violinist in careful detail because I am not a violinist. Although 1 certainly know how to write for the violin, it was vitally important to go over every detail with the instrumentalist. I do not have to do that with the piano since I am a pianist.

Beth Bauer: In our last interview, you said, “the thing about a song is you have to create a whole world in a short space of time .. .’’How do you believe you have achieved that creation? What makes your songs cohesive, well-conceived works? What musical devices do you use to make your songs work?

Thomas Pasatieri: 1 don't know how to answer that because I don’t know about devices. 1 use melody, harmony and rhythm. All the elements of composition. If they are cohesive and well-conceived, it is probably because 1 follow the text. I’m concerned with the text and at the same time, musical structure. To create a world in a short space of time has to be done with whatever means you have at the moment. So I would say [it is significant] NOT to be too far out in the harmonic reaches. In other words, keeping it in a framework helps to make it cohesive. The same thing is true vocally. Not having large sections that are diverse from earlier sections helps to keep it cohesive.

Beth Bauer: In an early interview, you spoke of “good gestures’’ referring to some 144

of your early songs. In terms of composition, what makes a “good gesture?”

Thomas Pasatieri: Well, “good gestures” - There are moments of good melodies and moments of good, interesting pianistic writing, but I don’t feel on the whole they were the level that 1 would publish. You could see that they were going in the right direction, but nothing that 1 would consider worthy of releasing.

Beth Bauer: When 1 was speaking with Sheri Greenawald, she remembered a song set to the text of Ogden Nash. She said it showed your humorous side. Which song would that be, 1 havent come across it?

Thomas Pasatieri: 1 wrote several songs to his text, but never published them - [such as] “The Purple Cow.” There were a number of them and she probably sang them.

Beth Bauer: There was also a set of songs to texts of Sara Teasdale with a small chamber group including harp that Sheri still wants. She said they were so beautiful, but you lost the manuscript.

Thomas Pasatieri: Oh yes, 1 think she was one of the singers that sang it. It was like seven or eight poems - Midsummer Nights - it was called Midsummer Nights. 1 don’t know if it is lost - it is possible that it is around - 1 have literally boxes of music that 1 havent looked at.

The only pieces that 1 have not been able to find were my “First Piano Sonata”, but that is already published, a trio for violin, piano and cello which was performed a great deal and 1 don’t have a copy. But there are works that other people have copies of that 1 don't. Sooner or later, everything will turn up. They just found a new Verdi Opera, his granddaughters or someone just found it. It is a late piece.

Beth Bauer: If you agree that the principal elements of music are melody, rhythm and harmony, could you describe your thoughts on each as related to your art song composition?

Thomas Pasatieri: Melody has to be primary. However, 1 think sometimes in my songs, particularly the early songs, for the sake of clarity of text 1 will sacrifice a little bit of the long melody. If you take a piece like the “Harp” that is based primarily on melody. (“The Harp That Once Through Tara’s Halls”), so there are some syllables that are not so easy to sing, because they are high for many people, but in that case. 145

I was going totally for melody, where in other songs it has been more important to go for a description of the words. Rhythm and harmony go together. Of course, there is harmonic rhythm, the degree to which the harmony changes, the rhythm of the changes of the harmony. It is all one, it is like not being able to separate something that has several layers, phyllo-dough [laughing], you know what 1 mean? When you have something that you cannot separate without destroying the individual parts. They are all stuck together.

Beth Bauer: You are describing the relationship of rhythm and harmony?

Thomas Pasatieri: Rhythm, harmony and melody, but certainly rhythm and harmony.

Beth Bauer: Could you discuss the effect on you personally and musically that Nadia Boulanger, Vittorio Giannini and Vincent Pershichetti had?

Thomas Pasatieri: They are all enormous influences. Nadia Boulanger because I was so young and she encouraged me. Hers was not so much a technical school of teaching because we were apart. We were separated by continent, but she was the first major person to encourage me to continue writing music.

Vittorio Giannini was truly the basis of my technique. He was the one that taught me everything technically and also allowed me to open myself up to expansive writing without being inhibited about it. Perischetti, who came after Giannini was wonderful because he taught me how to chisel what I was doing so it didn't have too many notes. The combination of Giannini and Perschetti, I think was ideal.

Beth Bauer: When you were the Artistic Director with the Atlanta Civic Opera, what operas did you produce? Direct?

Thomas Pasatieri: First of all, before I became Artistic Director of the company, 1 directed a production of The Seagull. Now in those days, it was called the Atlanta Lyric Opera, I believe. There originally were two companies. A company called the Georgia Opera which presented Washington Square, which was my first time in Atlanta. It joined with the other company and they formed a company called the Atlanta Lyric Opera. In their first year, they did two operas - The Seagull, which I directed for them, and La Traviata. The second season I was offered the directorship of the Atlanta Civic Opera; they changed the name. In my first season, I produced first a gala. It presented thirteen opera 146

singers from Sam Ramey, Catherine Malfitano, Ashley Putnam. Everyone came down to do the benefit for me. Brent played the piano and Robert Jacobson, who was the editor of Opera News, was the M.C. It was a great success; that was the first event I produced .Following that, I did The Consul of Gian Carlo Menotti, David Alden directed. Then Ariadne auf Naxos. Richard Strauss. The next season, I directed Black Widow and Cenerentola. Rossini

Then I produced a whole series of cabaret concerts. We did all kinds of things, Verdi rarities, a Viennese evening, an American music theatre evening, a number of things. They were called “Sundays at Seven.” The last season I did a double bill of The Medium of Menotti and Dido and Aeneas of Purcell. The last opera I produced was The Barber of Seville. Rossini.

Beth Bauer: Do you like directing?

Thomas Pasatieri: Yes, I do. Unfortunately, the last time I did it was the Black Widow for Atlanta. It takes a major commitment of time; you have to give three weeks to a month for a production and I can’t do that anymore. Now I have directed for film. I directed segments of Traviata for Pretty Woman, and segments of Traviata for a television show called “Grace Note,” part of the Twilight Zone series. I directed the little opera in Dick Tracy. So in the past decade, it has been for camera.

Beth Bauer: As a former Artistic Director, could you comment on the following thoughts from John Rockwell’s All American Music (1983'):”The fact is that orchestras, their music directors, their boards and their audiences seem deeply confused as to just what they want in the way of new music. Often, the players resent anything out of the ordinary. The conductors are too busy polishing their narrow repertory of classics and trendy exotica to bother with new music, especially new music of American or local origin. There is also a tendency to avoid the contemporary works unless they are prestigious premieres or proven triumphs."

Thomas Pasatieri: He is correct, he is absolutely right. Orchestras yes, I don't believe the players resent it that much, but the fact of the matter is that they have to sell tickets and there is a problem with that. It is really the audiences that have not supported the idea. There are places for contemporary music and they are not popular enough to pay for themselves - that is the problem. 147

Beth Bauer: John Corigliano has said, “The burden on composers to write masterpieces is astronomical. This obligation to be profound and eternal with every utterance makes music such a grimly serious business.” Do you agree or disagree and why?

Thomas Pasatieri: I don’t believe so, no more so than ever before. I have never thought about writing a masterpiece, I just write the best I can at the time. The fact of the matter is that it takes so much money to produce an opera, [they] are reluctant to commit to something that won’t have a shelf life. But unless they do, which they dont - you are never going to have a shelf life. This is precisely what has been happening even with successful operas. I know when John Adams wrote Nixon in China and then the Death of Klinghoffer. he just thought they were going to be performed all over the world. Then they disappeared, but I could have told him that.

Beth Bauer: Do you agree with John Rockwell’s statement. . .’’that the decline in appeal of twentieth-century classical music, combined with the rise of alternative technologies and art forms, have lured away talent that might in previous centuries have been applied to composition.”

Thomas Pasatieri: No I don’t, I think that whoever is destined to compose is going to compose.

Beth Bauer: Specifically, regarding you?

Thomas Pasatieri: I never completely left classical music. I always wrote music, 1 just didn’t write as much. When I first came out here, I wrote a piece called Theatre Pieces for Clarinet, Violin and Piano, a commission by the Verdehr Trio, and a piece called Make a .lovful Noise commissioned by the Master Chorale of Orange County.

Later was the Lehmannlieder commissioned by the Music Academy of the West and orchestrated for the Louisville Symphony. 1 also did an orchestra piece called Portraits, based on the material from my opera Three Sisters. I wrote a number of songs during that period: the Flute Quartet, the Viola Sonata, Violin Serenade, Piano Concerto. I certainly gave fewer concerts, but continued to perform maybe two or three times a year instead of thirty. I was no longer earning my living by being a “serious” composer or “classical” whatever term you want to use. I earned my living in Hollywood. When I was directing an opera company, very often 1 would perform as a pianist with the singer, do lectures - many master 148

classes. I was doing all those things not only to support my art, but to support myself financially. When I came out here I was no longer doing those things. I didn’t stop, I just wound down for a while.

Beth Bauer: Previously you said, “Los Angeles was the obvious choice because there I could work in the film industry.” Why was the film industry an obvious choice?

Thomas Pasatieri: As a musician, as a composer, your choices are very limited. You can either make your living writing music which is very tough to do .. . a very limited income, or teach at a University, which I did not want to do. I had already done that. Or you can somehow work in an industry that will pay you for music. There is a recording industry in New York - you can get a job as a record producer, work for a record company or work in film and television. Those are the only areas [to work in] unless you want to conduct, and then you are a conductor rather than a composer.

I didn’t actually do a lot of composition. I did some, but 1 was involved mostly with orchestrations and musical supervision. The film industry offered more opportunity and it was not teaching.

Beth Bauer: When we spoke before, we briefly touched on your childhood. In Martin Dulman’s Thomas Pasatieri: An Informal Portrait he writes, “His early childhood is a time about which he rarely speaks - a time he dislikes having to remember - and if to relive, he needs to put himself in a near trance-like state”. . . “The intense early childhood fears of abandonment, persecution, hurt, betrayal are now under the earth of the heart; and his music offers him shade” and your words. ... “1 am alone. I’m not a child, not an adult - I’m nine ; I’m thirty. The children are mean, they aie cruel; they are harsh. I feel no peace. I want to be like a summer tree in evening by the lake. Summers in the country with my cousins are fun. It is nice when we get together for the holidays. My older sister is nearly fourteen; my younger sisters just four. 1 have no brother. I feel safe in the hands of adults. They will not harm me, but they do not know my heart. My heart is a fragile place. 1 live there.”

Are there any feelings or beliefs that you could share regarding your status as a child prodigy? Do you feel that your creative genius is in any way tempered by these times in your life? Would you prefer that discussion of your childhood be omitted from any writing about your 149

life and talent?

Thomas Pasatieri: If he quoted me, I must have said that. That was Kugie writing?

Beth Bauer: Yes.

Thomas Pasatieri: Well, Kugie was a friend and certainly knew about the difficulty of my childhood. It was a terrible time - a very difficult time for me. It had to influence my music, everything does. Our childhoods, no matter what we do, probably influence the rest of our lives. 1 don’t mind talking about it. It was a time when 1 had great difficulties with other children in school and in the neighborhood. It was not a comfortable time for me and it continued until I was about fifteen. I had [my] music, so it sort of balanced that. I was basically doing my music by myself - practicing and giving concerts.

Everything changed when I was fifteen. After that, everything was fine. We moved and then I had a really wonderful time my last two years of high school. 1 graduated from high school when 1 was sixteen. Fourteen and a half to sixteen and a half were wonderful, then I went to Juilliard and 1 was more than accepted. 1 don’t remember a lot about the very early years, so the really difficult patch was from four and a half to fourteen and a half. Emotionally, this was a very rough ten year period.

Beth Bauer: Was this magnified by moving?

Thomas Pasatieri: The real problem was when I was in Flushing [New York]. We moved there when 1 was about four and a half and we left there when 1 was fourteen and a half.

Beth Bauer: Partly because you had nothing in common with other children?

Thomas Pasatieri: Yes, that was certainly part of it. I was not accepted in any way, by any group of classmates. I was always in Catholic schools, parochial schools - St. Anne’s which went through eighth grade. I went to a private boys school in Brooklyn called St. Francis Prep and attended until we moved.

Beth Bauer: When we spoke before, you talked about your parents, and Sheri [Greenawald] and Catharine [Malfitano] spoke of the importance of your family. Were they unable to be supportive during this time? 150

Thomas Pasatieri: They didn’t know about it. They knew nothing about what was going on. I didn’t share it with them. I kept it all to myself. They had no idea, I don't think they knew.

Beth Bauer: Also, in Marc’s [Dulman] article, he tells of you walking by a sign that read, “Vera Wells-Piano Instruction.”

Thomas Pasatieri: Yes, that is how it started.

Beth Bauer: So you were already nine years old when you began playing?

Thomas Pasatieri: I stalled doing concerts at ten.

Beth Bauer: Nine is actually late in the scheme of things ....

Thomas Pasatieri: Right.

Beth Bauer: So you were phenomenal from the. . .

Thomas Pasatieri: Right. That was the shocking thing. I took lessons for a year and I started giving concerts. I could play everything right away. I continued to study and give concerts. That truly was the shocking element.

Beth Bauer: Shocking to you?

Thomas Pasatieri: To everybody, but not to me because I didn’t know it was any different. I never thought it was difficult to play the piano. It seemed easy to me. It was only when I entered Juilliard, when I was just a month shy of my 17th birthday, all these other pianists told me that [my] repertoire, that I had been playing for six years, was so difficult. That is when it became difficult for me to play. Up until that point, it was not; I had a great facility for it.

Beth Bauer: Difficult because of the pressure from other students?

Thomas Pasatieri: Y ou know, I don’t know why it was, but evei-ybody was telling me how hard the Chopin Etudes were, and I could play them all. They didn’t seem hard to me, but everyone [said] how hard they were. Then they became difficult for me, and I never played them again publicly. (I played one of them for a film, part of the E M ajor. . .) Shortly after that, I stopped giving solo concerts at eighteen or nineteen. I stopped playing concertos and solo recitals until 1 was 151

forty-eight.

Beth Bauer: Do you think you experienced a form of performance anxiety?

Thomas Pasatieri: Suddenly, I felt not good enough, but also, I was concentrating on [my] composition. Now that I think about it, I always played with singers and chamber music, but [as for] solo piano, I didn’t.

Beth Bauer: Have you ever wondered how your career would have unfolded if you would have focused on solo performing?

Thomas Pasatieri: There was just no way of that happening because I started writing music early on. Also, there was no way I was not going to be a composer.

Beth Bauer: No way to focus on both?

Thomas Pasatieri: Not for me.

Beth Bauer: You said the classical works that you have begun to write have been mainly instrumental. Could this perhaps be due to a decade of film orchestrations?

Thomas Pasatieri: That is true, and yes I think it was influenced by that. To be absolutely honest, I thought for many years that my strongest music was vocal music. I was influenced by so many vocal composers that didn’t write instrumental music for the most part - like Verdi and Puccini - these were opera composers. There were three major opera composers who also wrote wonderful instrumental music - Mozart. Richard Strauss and Benjamin Britten - equally famous for their instrumental music. I always felt that I was not as strong. Then, working with orchestras so much of the time, I felt stronger.

Beth Bauer: When you do the orchestrations, does that also mean you conduct?

Thomas Pasatieri: Not always - sometimes I conduct. What I always do is produce. I’m the musical producer. In other words, I do the orchestration and 1 supeiwise the recording session. I sit in the booth, when I’m not conducting which is most of the time now, because I prefer to do that. I speak over the intercom about what could be better, that sort of thing. 152

Beth Bauer: John Duke, also a composer that wrote in a traditional vein, said, “But now the singer is being asked to imitate the instrumentalist, and the inimitable appeal of the solo voice is being lost in a welter of instrumental and compositional complexity. Music has become

instrumentalized with a vengeance.” Do you agree and could you elaborate?

Thomas Pasatieri: I think that at an earlier time, because composers have returned more so to grateful vocal music - not all composers. Certainly the voice was being asked to do things that were not healthy or good for it, but there were always a core of composers like Duke, Barber, Menotti, Hoiby, Rorem and Copland that wrote very gratefully for the voice. So I think that both existed at the same time and much of the music that was just unsingable has been eliminated, dropped, and nobody does it anymore - that 1 hear. Maybe some people are still doing it and I just don’t get to hear it.

Beth Bauer: Were the Three Poems by Kirstin van Cleave chosen from the same set as Dav of Love?

Thomas Pasatieri: Yes, the same set. When Flicka commissioned the cycle, the three of us went to lunch. It was Flicka, Peter and Jennie. Jennie had just been bom. We had lunch in their East Side apartment and Flicka said she loved the poetry of Kit van Cleave and wondered if 1 could set some of them. I liked them right away and chose various parts for the cycle. We decided on the approximate amount of time the cycle would take. The Tliree Poems were also taken from that set of poems.

Beth Bauer: How would you describe Kit’s poems?

Thomas Pasatieri: Very direct, clear logical images - sometimes a bit esoteric, but that is good too. For example. Czarevna. But they definitely filled the requirements of what I was looking for.

Beth Bauer: The poems that you chose for Dav of Love in comparison with The Three Poems seem to be more direct, real, straightforward ....

Thomas Pasatieri: It is also more dramatic.. . . more cohesive as a whole than the others which aie individual poems I linked together. I think Dav of Love becomes a dramatic scene, rather than a cycle. Like the Italians would say, a “scena.” 15-

Beth Bauer: What is your opinion about altering the given text? Do you feel it changes the integrity of the written word? Do you do it for musical and/or dramatic reasons?

Thomas Pasatieri: 1 try never to, do I do it?

Beth Bauer: Perhaps “alter” isn’t the best choice of words. You often repeat words or phrases that the poet did not.

Thomas Pasatieri: Yes, 1 do that. I do it for musical and dramatic reasons.. .. once the words are down, I feel that I can use them again, or parts of them again; once I have set them. I certainly have tried not to alter them and if I have, it is a mistake. 1 maybe copied the word down wrong. Did I tell you the story about the Lehmannlieder?

Beth Bauer: No.

Thomas Pasatieri: 1 do not remember the number, which song in the cycle, but it is called “Wie schon ist dieser tiefe Schlummer.” Now originally, they didn’t give me the book of poetry that she wrote in German because there were so few copies. They had a typist type it out and she made a mistake. She wrote, “tiefe Schimmer,” which means “deep shimmering.” 1 started to set the song with the idea of shimmering, and then I got the text and it was “Schlummer,” which means “sleep.” so it became a different song. [Laughing] So, yes, 1 certainly do repeat parts of text.

1 do that a lot, but I wouldn’t change a word unless I’m setting a libretto. When I’m setting mine or somebody else’s, very often you have to change words, and it happens at the last minute.

Beth Bauer: Do you feel that you have a predilection for poems and librettos that deal with death, death of love, emotional agony, persecution, peace through death? i.e....

The Women - struggle for peace and love, death Trial of Marv Lincoln - death of a child, agony of persecution Far From Love - peace through death Dav of Love - emotional agony, death of love Black Widow - death , peace through insanity “#2 & #3 Poems of Theodore Ramsay” - death of love, emotional turmoil 154

Three Poems bv Kirstin Van Cleave - emotional anguish and death of love “Lullaby for a Lost Child” - death of a child.

Thomas Pasatieri: This is a question often asked of writers and composers and I think the reason that death is such a strong subject in all literature is that first of all, it is the only finality, except on soap operas. It is definitely the final curtain, the end of a piece. It makes a statement. Also, it is the goal, if you will, of every person, maybe not the desired goal, but it is the circumstance that happens to everyone. Really, the goal [of life] is death. It is also very dramatic. The Women is about death and struggle in life, with death being the release from struggle. Trial of Marv Lincoln is death of the child... just one element that leads to her insanity. All the other elements, like having her brothers as Confederate Generals certainly [contributed] and losing her husband and the trial itself.

Far from Love is really happily dying; it is even in the score - she is reunited through death . . . .not an original concept, certainly, that is what the Liebestodt is about. Dav of Love is the death of love. Three Poems deals with emotional anguish and the death of love. Black Widow is death and peace through insanity. I think that it is one of the most popular subjects, not just with me.

Beth Bauer: If you were to write an article about your music, what would you say? Also, in regard to Thomas Pasatieri, the man?

Thomas Pasatieri: Oh, God, I would never write an article about my music. I think that is what the music is for - it says what I would poorly say in an article. In regard to me as a person, I don’t think that I could do that because I dont think that I am completely realistic. I can try to be realistic about myself and my life, but there is so much other influence there.

Beth Bauer: In the many interviews that I have done thus far, there seems to be a number of aspects about you and elements of your music that are constantly mentioned - that you are charming, generous - very- generous with your friends, funny, and your music came at a time when music written for the voice was not the nomi. Also, both Sheri Catharine and Marc felt that you were a strong, motivating source for them. You fostered and nurtured an atmosphere that was important to developing many talents. Did you ever feel that you served that purpose for so many people? 155

Thomas Pasatieri: I always felt good when I could help someone’s career, certainly the singers that I worked with. It felt natural to me. The gathering of people for food and music was also very natural and fun and wonderful. We were a very close-knit group of people - not just musicians, but largely musicians. There were writers and other people in the group. It was just a way of life. I didn’t think about it at the time. I worked with all those singers, and “worked” is probably the wrong word, because it was such a wonderful sharing experience. Certainly, when I was in a position to help them through recommending them, or actually hiring them, that was great. It was also very mutual; I learned from each of the voices I coached. Well, that is probably idealized. There were probably some people that sounded just terrible, and I didn’t learn anything [Laughing]. Also, the idea of giving is very, very much my nature. That is what I am most comfortable doing - giving. I don’t know what brought that into my life - - some people are good at gardening. I'm not. [That was] just what I do. I do that still as much as 1 can, but it is on a different scale now.

Beth Bauer: She said birthday parties were a riot because everyone would try to outsing and sing higher than everyone else.

Thomas Pasatieri: That is true - imagine the opera singers that were in that group.

Beth Bauer: Marc Dulman said he felt like that time in New York was a wild, flamboyant time and you lived out your childhood during your 20's and 30's because you weren’t allowed to earlier because of your musical gifts.

Thomas Pasatieri: That is entirely possible, but I don’t think I can be objective about it because I lived it.

Beth Bauer: Do you have any professional regrets?

Thomas Pasatieri: The only thing that I really regret, well, I did it the way I had to do it, was walking out on Julius Rudel when he was rude to me. He used to be the director of the New York City Opera before Beverly. We had an appointment. The first time he was nice to me, but the second time, I was supposed to play one of my operas for him and he was rude. He kept me waiting for two hours and didn’t send word. So 1 finally left, shocking everyone and now that I think about it, it was a stupid childish thing to do. He never produced any of my works at The City Opera and maybe he wouldn’t have produced any if 1 had 156

stayed. If you start regretting stuff, you will just worry about everything.

Beth Bauer: May I please have a complete listing of your film and television ventures?

Thomas Pasatieri: I have orchestrated over one hundred movies. If I were to give highlights: Legends of the Fall. Little Mermaid. Prettv Woman. Dick Tracy. Fried Green Tomatoes. Little Women. Shawshank Redemption. Pelican Brief. A Walk in the Clouds. Corrina. Corrina. Fabulous Baker Boys. How to Make an American Quilt. The Page Master. 1 didn’t do a lot of television. I did a series called the Finnelv Bovs which I wrote the main theme for, and interlude music, and Twilight Zone. I started with a mini-series called Space. James Michener - several hours and two-hour long dramas, music for a series called Blue Skies. I did television in the beginning and just stopped and concentrated on films.

Beth Bauer: Were you immediately employable?

Thomas Pasatieri: I moved in January, but 1 was still running the Opera Company, so 1 finished that contract on September 1st and began working in November.

Beth Bauer: So, not everyone can do the big orchestration?

Thomas Pasatieri: Yes, that is probably why I was hired. Instead of little T.V. orchestras of twenty, I could handle orchestras of one hundred and twenty.

Beth Bauer: What was the subject of your doctoral thesis?

Thomas Pasatieri: The theatre music of Monteverdi and an opera I wrote called The Penitentes: those were my two doctoral theses.

Beth Bauer: You did two?

Thomas Pasatieri: Thev made me do it.

Beth Bauer: Marc Dulman writes “next to pure inspiration and the sound of the singer’s voice, the written word inspires Thomas.” Do you believe this to be true regarding your art songs? 157

Thomas Pasatieri: Yes! The importance of the text is essential.

Beth Bauer: You told me that it is unusual to have a poet commission a composer. Do you remember any specifics about Theodore Ramsay that might

help me find him? Would you have set them if you did not care for the poetry?

Thomas Pasatieri: He has passed on. No, I would not have set the poetry if 1 hadn’t liked it. The man who was the liaison person for Theodore Ramsey was an agent named Jaques Leiser. He had called me and said there was a poet who greatly admired my music and wanted to commission a song cycle. This was back in the early ‘80's. Then 1 had been in California since ‘84 so it had probably been two or three years and when I went to publish the songs I called Jaques and he told me Theodore had died.

Beth Bauer: I really love the poetry. I am very drawn to them.

Thomas Pasatieri: Aren’t those just beautiful poems?

Beth Bauer: Shirley Westwood said that at one point she spoke to you about setting some Adelaide Crapsey poems, but you were not particularly fond of them. If the poetry does not speak to you does it make it too difficult for you to set?

Thomas Pasatieri: Yes, it does. I just don’t remember poems by Adelaide Crapsey.

Beth Bauer: Do you feel you are at your best in a commission, where you know the specific voice and can tailor the music for it?

Thomas Pasatieri: No.

Beth Bauer: Rorem says, regarding art songs, “I wouldn't mind if this piece were played in concert on the violin; or omitting the vocal line, as a piano solo.” This statement leads the reader to believe that the importance of the text is minimal. How would you address the statement?

Thomas Pasatieri: RIDICULOUS.

Beth Bauer: Has there been animosity between you and Ned Rorem? He made a really hateful statement about you, Lee Hoiby and Kenton Coe. 158

Thomas Pasatieri: It wasn’t just about me, you see. Everybody has talked about that for years. Ned was writing a story about American Opera Composers and he was referring to me and Lee and somebody else and said, “ Their music or melody is like a stream of perfumed urine,” which is a ridiculous thing to say. People have picked on that statement for many years. Ned and I knew each other very slightly in New York. I always admired his music. I never thought he had talent for opera whatsoever. His best work was really instrumental music. This man who has been known for American songs - his songs sound all exactly alike. There is no character. You can’t tell it’s his song. It could be Ives or anybody else. It doesn’t sound like a Ned Rorem song. But he is a wonderful instrumental composer - just excellent. I suppose there was jealousy when I made my career in opera because that is where he wanted to make his career and he was a flop. However, when he won the Pulitzer, I was invited to his big party. 1 went to congratulate him and he embraced me and said, “You are going to be next.” So it was always friendly, we just don’t know each other very well.

Beth Bauer: Who was Paul Enos?

Thomas Pasatieri: A nine-year old boy in the Midwest. Mark Howard was doing an affiliate artist stint there. He was doing all these community concerts and he had a number of children write poetry. He sent me the poetry and I chose “Agnes” by Paul Enos. He must be around thirty years old by now.

Beth Bauer: The poetry for Three California Songs by Robert Deutsch is very esoteric. What drew you to his work?

Thomas Pasatieri : His sister, Janice, was a very close friend. My connection with Robert Deutsch was in Atlanta. My best board member was named Janice Townsend. She had been an opera singer and became a dear friend. Janice’s maiden name was Deutsch and she had two brothers Robert and Larry. Robert lived in California. He was a poet and he taught at Northridge University. Larry was one of the founders of the Music Center. He and his partner owned Adolph’s Meat Tenderizcr and they gave us a great deal of money. They were the ones who brought the New York City Opera to Los Angeles every year.

So, it was a very musically oriented family. Larry died of cancer and Janice was also riddled with cancer. I was to meet Robert in ‘84 when I got to California. He died before I got there. 1 became friends 159

with his widow Kathy Jacobi. She is a painter. Remember the painting that’s in publicity photos? It’s a little girl with the body of an older woman. That is a Katherine Jacobi painting. In fact, I have four of her things up. It was natural for the first set of songs I wrote to use Robert Deutsch’s poems, “Three California Songs.” They were done for Marvellee Cariaga. Her husband, Dan, was the music critic for the L.A. Times. We had worked together not only in my music, but also Gian-Carlo Menotti's The Consul. That was the first opera that I produced in Atlanta. She also sang Black Widow in Atlanta and the world premiere of Three Sisters. I wrote that cycle for her.

I told you the taxicab story, right?

Beth Bauer: No, you did not.

Thomas Pasatieri: When I first took over the Atlanta Opera I was trying to get him to direct The Consul and he wanted me to direct it because he didn't want to do it. I didn’t direct it, David Alden did, but I was trying to get him [Menotti] to come down for a masterclass. And we were in meetings because he wanted me to do the changes he had made in The Consul. He’d cross them out in red pen in my score. We were riding in a taxicab and I said, “Gian-Carlo, First of all, in all the early reviews of my music they always compare me to you. I consider it a compliment because anyone that wrote opera in English that wasn’t influenced by you obviously didn’t know opera.” He thought that was a nice thing to say. And he said to me, “But I have a far greater ghost behind me because they compare me to Puccini" and I said, “But Gian-Carlo - You do sound like Puccini.” He thought that was really funny. So we never had any anymosity, but he never produced any of my work. I produced his.

Beth Bauer: I suppose I am just taken aback when I read about composers criticizing other composers. I expect it from the critics.

Thomas Pasatieri: Well, I have had far worse than that said about me by Hugo Weisgall in the New York Times. They were intei"viewing him because no one had heard from him for years. He had done a piece called Nine Rivers From Jordan for the New York City Opera. This was the great bomb of all time. People walked out in droves and nobody heard from him for twenty years. Finally, the Juilliard was doing a one-act opera of his called Jennie. They were interviewing him and the headline in the New York Times said. “A Dead Composer Comes 160

Alive.” This was during the height of my popularity as an opera composer. Weisgall was talking about other composers and he said, "a composer like Pasatieri just pours out trash “

Beth Bauer: Where you an avid reader as a child?

Thomas Pasatieri: Yes.

Beth Bauer: Kit describes you as a Romantic. Would you agree?

Thomas Pasatieri : Yes I am.

Beth Bauer: In regard to Debussy’s statement, “Music is neither major or minor.’" do you agree or disagree?

Thomas Pasatieri: I agree.

Beth Bauer: Hoiby said, “Without the sea of tonality underneath you, you are rudderless.” Do you agree?

Thomas Pasatieri: Yes, without a doubt.

Beth Bauer: Was Maria Elena tl983") your last opera?

Thomas Pasatieri: Yes, so far.

Beth Bauer: Have you ever undertaken anything that you weren’t good at? Your life and career seem so “golden.” When speaking about Boulanger, you said, “it just happened the way I thought it should.” Is that how you feel your life has been - the way you thought it should happen?”

Thomas Pasatieri: Gold tarnishes, my life has been a roller coaster.

Beth Bauer: Was the “Alleluia” (1991) a commission by Thomas Hampson?

Thomas Pasatieri: Yes. What happened was that at a party in Los Angeles, we were both guests. That is when we met. The woman who gave the party was named Mila Wormer. When it was time for her 75th birthday party, I wrote a song for her which I performed with a mezzo. Thomas also performed on the program so we got to know each other a little bit better. Then, when he was doing this album, Robert Goldfarb who had been the head of the classical music station here, was working for Teldec. I knew him because he wanted me to host 161

a radio show. He said to Thomas [Hampson] “Let’s try to get Thomas [Pasatieri] to do the album.” So he called and asked if 1 would do it and I said yes. We decided I would write a new piece, which is the “Alleluia”, and we chose other pieces that were going on the album. Some were traditional and some were German Christmas carols that I didn’t know. Also some arrangements of songs like “I’m dreaming of a White Christmas.” I did it all very quickly and we were to record it in two days. The Monday before my nephew drowned. We recorded it in St. Paul with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. My sister, her husband and my niece were on a car trip on the eastern seaboard. There was no way to get in touch with them. We tried through the police, VISA card at the hotel and Gregory’s body still had not surfaced, so my mother suggested that 1 continue to record the album. It was an absolutely horrible day. The album was good because it got my mind off of it. Not really - but it helped. On Friday I flew back to California and we didn’t know when my sister would be there. So I didn't fly to New York. The body still had not surfaced. When I got back to California, my niece Christine (actually my cousin’s daughter) said, “Gregory has been found, he’s in a hospital in New York.” I thought for a moment that he was alive, but it was just his body. Just a horrible period. I got on the Red Eye with my cousin Florence and flew to New York. That’s what happened with the Thomas Hampson album.

Beth Bauer: Did you speak with Mr. Hampson about his voice, tessitura and where he is most comfortable.

Thomas Pasatieri: No. I knew his voice and we were doing that long distance. He was in Vienna when I was writing.

Beth Bauer: I was listening to the “Alleluia” and at the end where you have the F- sharp, F-sharp, E, E - on alleluia, I wanted it to go to the high A.

Thomas Pasatieri: [Laughing] We talked about it. We actually did and he of course could have sung the A. We decided against it because we thought that it would be in better taste not to. I am sure people sing it with the high A.

Beth Bauer: Does that bother you?

Thomas Pasatieri: No. Even in Signor Deluso there are two notes one for the tenor which is an optional high C - it is not printed. There is also one for the soprano which is an optional C-sharp, also not printed. People do 162

them. Singers will tell each other - particularly tenors.

Beth Bauer: You won numerous awards and prizes - are there any of which you are particularly proud?

Thomas Pasatieri: All of them.

Beth Bauer: Do you feel that your early religious training has affected your vocal works?

Thomas Pasatieri: Definitely. My religious training greatly affected my early pieces. So many are based on religious themes. Padrevia. Calvary. Mass and The Penitentes.

Beth Bauer: Do you believe your frequent use of meter changes is due to setting the text as closely as possible to speech patterns.

Thomas Pasatieri: Yes. I try to follow the natural rhythm of the words.

Beth Bauer: Are your use of large leaps in the melodic line (M7, m7, M6, m6, P5) for dramatic emphasis, emphasis on particular words, or do they simply convey the conception of your melodic line?

Thomas Pasatieri: It would be all of the above.

Beth Bauer: Could you address your propensity to double the vocal line in the accompaniments?

Thomas Pasatieri: I feel like it’s easier for the singer and gives them a sense of support.

Beth Bauer: Do you consciously try to use recurring motives to provide unity and cohesion?

example: “Night of Love”

voice meas.: 2-3 d-flat, b-fiat, f , c voice meas.: 26-27 d, b , f-sharp ,c-sharp voice meas.: 56-57 d-flat, b-fiat, f , c left hand postlude meas.: 73-74 d-flat, b-fiat, f, c 163

example: "Reflection"

right hand introduction ineas.:l-2 f , e , d , c-sharp voice meas.: 7-8 f , e , d , c-sharp voice meas.: 25-26 f , e , d , b right hand postlude meas.: 27-28 f , e , d , c-sharp

Thomas Pasatieri: Absolutely.

Beth Bauer: Do you feel like your "Vocalise" was influenced by Rachmaninoff?

Thomas Pasatieri: It had to have been influenced by Rachmaninoff. But his was much better. Martha Toney was a friend of mine. She used to coach with me. She actually performed it in New York but I wasn't there. It wasn’t a commission, I just wrote it for her.

Beth Bauer: I read that you had to audition for Beverly Sills. Is that true?

Thomas Pasatieri: I was happy to audition for Beverly. The opera that we decided upon was based on a French play. I wrote one duet and “The Harp That Once Through Tara”s Halls” for her to sing. The opera never took place, I withdrew and Gian-Carlo [Menotti] took it over and did La Loca. That was the last opera she did.

Beth Bauer: Why did you withdraw?

Thomas Pasatieri: Well, do you want the real story?

Beth Bauer: [everyone laughing] Sure. The article had such a positive statement about your audition.

Thomas Pasatieri: It wasn’t because of Beverly. It had nothing to do with that. She was upset that I didn’t w ite it - definitely upset. What happened was Tito [Capobianco] and his assistant decided that they would write the libretto and I hated it. Beverly and I became friends again and at her first season at the opera she produced Before Breakfast which was actually written for her, but she retired before she sang it. I didn’t want to have it done at City Opera because I thought it was too big a place for a mono-drama and I certainly didn’t want to be on the program with those two other pieces [The Student from Salamanca 164

by Jan Bach and Madame Adare by Stanley Silverman.]

Beth Bauer: You said before that you don’t revise. But was it common to make revisions in your operas. . . .for instance I read that in Washington Square. . .

Thomas Pasatieri: No. With Washington Square we changed it from a two-act opera to a three-act opera after the premiere in Detroit. My librettist, Kenward Elmslie and myself felt that the acts were too long so we kept the same scenes but divided them differently. I also added an orchestral introduction and scored it for a larger orchestra - From thirteen players in Detroit to double that size in New York.

Beth Bauer: Are the Lehmannlieder the only songs you have composed to foreign text?

Thomas Pasatieri: No, I’ve done songs in Italian, French, Latin, German, English and Cholo.

Beth Bauer: In French, Italian and Cholo? What songs are published?

Thomas Pasatieri: None of them are published. 1 wrote text on the songs of Jaques Prevert. I’ve only published songs in English, German and Latin.

Beth Bauer: What was your relationship with Gerard Souzay?

Thomas Pasatieri: Gerard wanted to commission a cycle. 1 believe 1 began a cycle or looked into a cycle named After Eden. I never finished it. 1 completed “Reflection” by Emily Dickinson [for Souzay].

Beth Bauer: Do you prefer that the Three Sonnets From the Portuguese be performed as a cycle?

Thomas Pasatieri: I consider it a cycle and prefer that it be done together. However, the last song has been done as a closing song in recitals.

Beth Bauer: 1 just read the article that you wrote about Rosa Ponselle in Opera News. How do you feel she impacted you or your music?

Thomas Pasatieri: I can’t say that she was a direct influence, but I can say that everyone was an influence in some way or another. Rosa was one of those great singers of all times, so knowing her was a privilege, an honor and a Joy. Just being in her presence intensified one’s appreciation 165

of music. She was a link to the greatest operas of the nineteenth- century. Truly, in the twentieth-century, she was one of the ten greatest singers. Rosa’s artistry along with that of Maria Callas ...if I had to pick, oh, it is so hard, but Rosa was one of the great singers of all time. That influenced me in the sense that it helped me with my music. By the time Rosa heard my music, it was an opera that had already been written for Baltimore. I had already written probably a dozen operas by then. Her influence was certainly emotional and artistic.

Beth Bauer: I thought that there was an interesting parallel in your careers. The way she left New York and her singing career to go to Baltimore and the way you left your opera career to go to California.

Thomas Pasatieri: What happened to Rosa was first of all, she was the most famous female singer in the world. It was Rosa and Caruso. She was very frightened of performing. She said it was just too hard to be Rosa Ponselle every night on stage. The second thing that happened was that she had sung Carmen the season before and got bad reviews. That was very hard for her to take. The third thing was that she wanted to sing Adriana Le Couvrer and she offered to do it for free with her own costumes. Johnson [Director of the New York Met] wouldn’t do it for her. With all that, she packed it up and left at the height of her career. She went to Baltimore, married and retired. But she could still sing gloriously. I don’t know that I was at the height of my career. I certainly had had the bulk of my career in opera and was the director of an opera house. But there was a great deal of dissatisfaction by that time. At that point I realized what was not happening in American opera. I realized that there was really no future in that because it made no sense to write yet another opera.

Beth Bauer: Who is John V. Shea?

Thomas Pasatieri: He is an actor. He does movies and television. You’ve seen him many times on t.v. He was on one of those big series. He also made that movie with Jack Lemmon in Venezuela where the father goes down to find his son. I met John when we were doing Romeo and ■luliet on Broadway. I was writing the music and he was doing Prince Paris. During that run, I was taping the CBS special on my operas. And Catherine [Malfitano] and Brent [Ellis] were doing The Seagull last act, and there is an off-stage line that Trigorin sings and so instead of having it sung, we had John speak the line off-camera. So you can actually hear John in that. There are dedications of mine 166

that you don’t know about. Three Sisters was dedicated to Minnie and Dusty.

Beth Bauer: Your dogs?

Thomas Pasatieri: Minnie passed on, but Dusty is still alive. The Harvest Frost is dedicated to Sophia Maria, another one of my dogs. The babies haven’t gotten their dedications yet, but sometime soon they will get a piece.

Beth Bauer: One article I read talked about Minnie barking in the background. So you have always been a dog person?

Thomas Pasatieri: [laughing] Yes. I had them growing up, but I didn’t have my own dogs until 1979. It was October 6 when I found Minnie. She was two months old at the ASPCA. She was named after Minnie because I lived on West End Avenue. She was Minnie Fanciulla del West End. Minnie had her debut in 1980 in The Seagull in Atlanta. She played the dog in the second act. She also made a film with Meryl Streep. She is on the big screen and the movie is called In The Still of The Night with Meryl Streep and Roy Schneider. The guy watching Minnie and Dusty while I was on tour did a number of things and got a call to be a - what do they call those walk-on parts...

Beth Bauer: An extra?

Thomas Pasatieri: Yes. And they asked him if he knew where they could get a dog. So Minnie got the job. I’ll never forget the first time 1 saw that at the movie theater. It was just incredible. I traveled so much that May 1 went back to the ASPCA and got Dusty. Dusty is till alive. He will be sixteen in March...one of the oldest dogs on the planet. He has slowed down a lot but today was a good day for him. Minnie died three years ago on November 13th. Sophia will be five on March 5th. And Fiona and Delilah will be three on January 6th.

Beth Bauer: You said you were doing the music for Romeo and Juliet?

Thomas Pasatieri: Yes. Circle in the Square Production in Broadway. In 1977 there were 100 performances. It was supposed to be directed by Vanessa Redgrave, which is why I agreed to do it. Because Circle in the Square, is a subscription theater, and Redgrave was so controversial, the Jewish ladies from Long Island refused to renew their subscriptions with her as the director. 1 had already signed on, so 1 167

did the show.

Beth Bauer: How was your relationship with Robert Jacobson?

Thomas Pasatieri: The editor of Opera News? We had a great relationship. He also interviewed me for After Dark in 1973,1 think.

Beth Bauer: Were the two songs for Rodney Godshall commissions?

Thomas Pasatieri: No. He was an opera singer friend of mine and 1 wrote them for him - “There Came A Day” and “To Music Bent is My Retired Mind.” He went to Germany and 1 guess he is still there.

Beth Bauer: Is the song you wrote for Mila Wormer’s birthday published?

Thomas Pasatieri: No. It is called “Strings” based on a poem by James Joyce. 1 also did a concert in Chicago about three years ago and a woman came up backstage and had been an opera singer. She taught piano, was a painter and was a very interesting woman. She was just gushing and she wrote to me. She wanted me to set some poems in Italian and sent me lots of beautiful Italian poetry. I set one of them, dedicated it to her, and sent it to her. Her name was Leonore Horseman.

Beth Bauer: What was the name of the song and is it published?

Thomas Pasatieri: “11 Vecchio Poeta.” No I have not published it yet.

Beth Bauer: ’’Windsong” was a gift for Shirley Westwood, correct?

Thomas Pasatieri: 1 wrote it for Shirley, and the violist was Don Mclnnes for whom 1 wrote the Viola Sonata. I met Shirley in 1972 and gave my first voice master class at Glassboro State College where she was teaching. Later, she was teaching at the University of Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music. I did a three day residency. They then asked me to join the faculty. 1 taught there as a visiting professor for a year. I wrote this piece on the text of a poet that she really loved - Richard Nickson. She was singing it at Cincinnati and in walked Don Mclnnes and he sight-read it. Later, 1 met him out here - he was playing at the studios and teaches at USC and The Music Academy.

Beth Bauer: I’ve read that Rites de Passage and Heloise and Abelard have been called dramatic cantatas. Is that your definition? 168

Thomas Pasatieri: I don’t know. Sure, they are definitely dramatic. .In fact, Heloise and Abelard was staged like an opera at a college and they sent me a video tape. Evelyn and Thomas did a semi-stage version when they did the premiere in Florida.

Beth Bauer: “Ophelia’s Lament” has been called a mono-drama.

Thomas Pasatieri: It has? Well, it is very dramatic and it is more of a monologue - a very dramatic, extended song. That was commissioned by Joan Patenaude. 1 was at the premiere in Washington, D.C.

Beth Bauer: Have you ever heard your works done and thought, oh dear God that is not what I wanted?

Thomas Pasatieri: [laughing] Sure. I have been to operas...Oh! I’ll tell you a story, but I’d better not say where it was. I was doing a master class at a university and they were doing two of my one-act operas. 1 went to the dress rehearsal and the woman singing the maid in La Divina. a mezzo part, had no voice whatsoever. She was a very nice lady, but she was just dreadful. Afterwards, she came up to me and said, T really just apologize to you because I know that 1 am really a soprano and this is a mezzo part.’ You probably want a different kind of color.” [laughing] I mean, she had no notes to speak of whatsoever.

Beth Bauer: So you do have those moments?

Thomas Pasatieri: Sure it happens, but you have to go with it.

Beth Bauer: So you’re very diplomatic.

Thomas Pasatieri: What are you going to say? You have no voice! Did I tell you the first opera of mine that they did in Cincinnati was La Divina and they did it with a concert band instead of the orchestra?

Beth Bauer: No.

Thomas Pasatieri: I was walking into the hall [laughing] - they said, we’ve made a slight change. We re-orchestrated it for concert band. No strings, just band instruments!

Beth Bauer: Did that make you crazy?

Thomas Pasatieri: Well, I guess I sort of went with it after a while. It sounded like 169

cartoons at first, [laughing] but then I thought, this is sort of interesting, all these clarinets and saxophones.

Beth Bauer: I was reading in Musical America. It said that Marilyn Zschau sang one of your early songs called “From the Song of Solomon.”

Thomas Pasatieri: Yes, that’s right. A big dramatic piece for voice and piano.

Beth Bauer: This isn’t published?

Thomas Pasatieri: No.

Beth Bauer: There are numerous songs that you need to publish.

Thomas Pasatieri: Oh, I don’t know. They can do that when I’m gone. I published a lot if you think about it.

Beth Bauer: In the article that Bob Holton wrote, he quotes you as saying, “I’m not difficult, I’m demanding (and perhaps a bit neurotic) but I’m not difficult.”

Thomas Pasatieri: [bursts out laughing]

Beth Bauer: Do you still feel that way?

Thomas Pasatieri: I don’t think Tm difficult, but other people would tell you differently.

Beth Bauer: I’ve spoken to so many people and. . .

Thomas Pasatieri: They didn’t say I was difficult. Or did they say 1 was difficult?

Beth Bauer: A couple of people said . ..

Thomas Pasatieri: Who said?

Beth Bauer: You want to get me in trouble. Actually, the majority of the time everyone says how gracious you are.

[stories related, not published]

Beth Bauer: But you do have these moments. . .

Thomas Pasatieri: Yes, that is for sure. 170

Reth Bauer: That’s because you’re an artist. You’re supposed to have moments.

Thomas Pasatieri: But in general, I don’t think I’m difficult.

Beth Bauer: Kenward Elmslie and Anne H. Bailey both wrote librettos and songs?

Thomas Pasatieri: Yes, in both cases I set their librettos and a poem. Kenward’s was a commission by Z-Press. It was called “The Verandahs.” And Anne’s was called “Discovery”. Kenward did The Seagull. Washington Square, and Three Sisters, and Anne did The Penitentes. and The Trial of Mary Lincoln..

Beth Bauer: Anne Howard Bailey wrote for Soap Operas?

Thomas Pasatieri: Yes. Anne came out here to write for General Hospital - Head writer. Then she did Santa Barbara and Days of Our Lives. She won two Emmys.

Beth Bauer: How did you meet?

Thomas Pasatieri: Through Bob Holton. I met her in ‘67 1 think.

Beth Bauer: I was reading the Robert Jacobson article and it said that you were the “Actor of the Year.” Where was that?

Thomas Pasatieri: [Laughing ] That was at my high school, Sewanhaka High School in Long Island. I had done the role of Mr. Palmer in a play called Turn Back the Clock.

Beth Bauer: What were the circumstances that led to your White House invitation?

Thomas Pasatieri: The Seagull had been performed at The Kennedy Center shortly before this concert. This occasion was a State Dinner for the President of Ireland. The Kennedy Center Opera was asked to present a musical program. They put together artists that had performed with them that season. I loved it. It was very exciting. That was 1979, late in the year.

Beth Bauer: Did you have any students that went on to have musical careers?

Thomas Pasatieri: Ken Notte was a private student in New York. Ken was a 171

composition student but he was also a concert pianist. He later stopped concertizing and became Jimmy’s [Levine] assistant at the Met.

There was one student that was on the brink of a career. Timothy Lloyd, the son of David Lloyd. Tim studied with me from the time he was fourteen. He had written two operas and was really doing well and then he died of pancreatic cancer as a very young man.

Beth Bauer: Who would be your contemporaries in film orchestration?

Thomas Pasatieri: For orchestration there is Greig McRitchie and John Neufeld.

Interview in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania following the premiere of Canticle of Praise for choir and organ. A commission for the three hundredth anniversary of The Christ Church.

Beth Bauer: You told me you had no history of musical talent in your family. Have you ever wondered if you had had children whether they would have your musical gifts?

Thomas Pasatieri: Well my dogs are musical. [Laughing] That is so hard to say - the road not taken. You just do not know in life if one thing would have happened something else terrible might have happened. Each path is its own path and what happens is what is supposed to happen within a framework. This is my path.

Beth Bauer: So your future plans include printing a volume of songs that would include ...

Thomas Pasatieri: What 1 want to do is print a volume of songs that includes; Volume I, Volume IL Three Poems bv Thomas Agee and a few of my newer unpublished songs but I still do not have the rights to Volume II. which is probably why I have been dragging my feet.

Beth Bauer: You have a published aria, “Bubbles, Beautiful Bubbles” from The Goose Girl in an anthology G. Schirmer. Will you ever publish a volume of arias?

Thomas Pasatieri: Oh yes that is right. Schirmer sells that. When they told me they were going to do this volume and it would include Menotti’s. The Consul and Barber’s Vanessa, all these big dramatic arias I told them. 172

‘I’ll write a new aria, not this it is a cute little girls aria’ but they said ‘no we already publish it.’ So that is the aria they used.

Beth Bauer: For so many auditions they want to hear a twentieth-century American aria.

Thomas Pasatieri: You are right.

Beth Bauer: You could publish a volume for Soprano and especially for Mezzo- soprano. There are so few good audition arias for Mezzo-sopranos - everyone sings “Must the Winter Come so Soon.”

Thomas Pasatieri: Well it would not sell as well as the Schirmer collection but you are right, there isn’t much else besides the Barber. 1 know that within the next six months I will get all these things together. It is just that in the past few years I was not focusing on the classical works and recently I have been performing again. Practicing takes a great deal of time You know I have done my concerto twice now and in March and April (1996) I will be playing my new Flute Quartet. I’m performing with Don Mclnnis and his group the Bach Camerata. 1 have also committed to writing a Flute Sonata, 1 will start that in February (1996).

Beth Bauer: 1 spoke to Anne H. Bailey in L.A.

Thomas Pasatieri: You did? How is she? I haven’t spoken to her forever.

Beth Bauer: She was incredibly gracious. We spoke about the work that you did together. Artistically, she loved writing opera librettos and her poem you set “Discovery” was a highlight for her. However, she said that she probably made one thousand dollars writing four different opera libretti and when she had the chance to make twenty thousand a week as a Soap Opera Head writer she really had no option.

Thomas Pasatieri: That is just the reality of a “serious” artist. At some point, you must decide if you are willing to live the “starving artist” life forever or if you are going to be practical. 1 was practical but now 1 can compose again. APPENDIX C

VOCAL PERFORMANCES

BETH BAUER, SOPRANO

Performance One: Solo Recital February 16, 1993 Weigel Hall Auditorium The Ohio State University

Performance Two: Die Fledermaus Performing the Role of Rosalinda April 29 and May 1, 1993 Mershon Auditorium The Ohio State University

Performance Three: Cosi fan tutte Performing the role of Fiordiligi May 6 and 7, 1994 Greater Miami Opera Miami, Florida

Performance Four: Solo Recital April 25, 1995 Weigel Hall Auditorium The Ohio State University

173 REFERENCES

Bailey, Anne Floward. Interview by Beth Bauer. 1995.

Bonazzi, Elaine. Interview by Beth Bauer. 1995.

Corsaro, Frank. “Parings on Pasatieri.” The Opera Journal. Vol. 9. No. 2, 1976.

Davis, Peter G. “They Love him in Seattle.” The Sundav New York Times Magazine. 21 March 1976.

Dulman, Martin. “Thomas Pasatieri: An Informal Portrait.” The Opera Journal. Vol. 9, No. 2, 1976.

______. Interview by Beth Bauer. 1995.

Epstein, Matthew. Interview by Beth Bauer. 1995.

Ewen, David. Composers Since 1900 First Supplement. New York: H.W. Wilson Co.. 1981.

Friedberg, Ruth C. American Art Song and American Poetrv. Metuchen, New Jersey: The Scarecrow Press, Inc., Vol. 1, 1981.

Fleming, Shirley. “Musician of the Month.” Musical America. March 1972.

Fox, Leland. "Opera in das Land der Jack London: Convention Report 1976." The Opera Journal. Vol. 9, No. 4, 1976.

Greenawald, Sheri. Interview by Beth Bauer. 1995.

Griffin, Clive D. Classical Music. London: Dryad Press Limited, 1988.

Hall, Steven. “Libretto Land: An Interview with Kenward Elmslie.” The Opera Journal. Vol. 9. No. 2, 1976.

174 175

Hanlon, Gregory. “Interview with Robert W. Holton.” The Opera Journal. Vol. 9, No. 2, 1976.

Hawthorne, Nathaniel. “The Artist of the Beautiful.” Mosses from an Old Manse. Freeport, New York: Books for Librairies Press, 1854, reprint 1970.

Haywood, Loma. Interview by Beth Bauer. 1995.

Ivey, Donald. Song: Anatomv Imagery and Styles. New York: The Free Press, 1970.

Jacobson, Robert. “Thomas Pasatieri: Opera is the Plural of Opus.” After Dark. 19 March 1974.

Katz, Martin. Interview by Beth Bauer. 1995.

Lear, Evelyn and Thomas Stewart. Interviews by Beth Bauer. 1995.

Malfitano, Catherine. Interview by Beth Bauer. 1995.

Malitz, Nancy. “Treating the Voice with the Dignity it Deserves.” The Cincinnati Enquirer. Cincinnati, Ohio: 6 January 1980.

Meade, Marion. Eleanor of Aquitaine A Biography. New York: E.P. Dutton, 1977.

Nickson, Richard. “Voice and Verse: Words Versus Music.” The NATS Journal. November-December, 1993.

______. Interview by Beth Bauer. 1995.

Pasatieri, Thomas. Interview by Beth Bauer. Tarzana, California; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and telephone conversations, 1995.

______. “From The Villa Pace.” Opera News. 12 March 1977, 16-18.

_. “The American Singer: Gold Mine For Composers.” Musical Journal. January 1974, 14-15. 176

______. Day of Love. Musical Score. New York: G. Schirmer. 1983.

______. Three Poems by Kirstin Van Cleave. Pasatieri Songs. Volume Two. Miami, Florida: Belwin-Mills Publishing Corp., Warner Brothers Publications, 1980.

______. “Beautiful the Days.” Pasatieri Songs. Volume Two. Miami, Florida: Belwin-Mills Publishing Corp., Warner Brothers Publications, 1980.

Phillips, Louis. Interview by Beth Bauer. 1995.

Rockwell, John. All American Music Composition in the Late Twentieth Century. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1983.

Scanlon, Roger. “Spotlight on American Composers: Thomas Pasatieri.” NATS Bulletin. 31 December 1974.

Simon, Joanna. Interview by Beth Bauer. 1995.

Soria, Dorle J. “An American Trilogy.” Musical America. October 1980.

Sperber, Ann. “Let Me Entertain You.” Opera News. 4 March 1972.

Stevens, Denis. A History of Song. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1970.

Stilwell, Richard. Interview by Beth Bauer. 1995.

Villamil, Victoria Etnier. A Singer’s Guide to the American Art Song. Metuchen, New Jersey: The Scarecrow Press, Inc., 1993.

Van Cleave, Kit. Interview by Beth Bauer. Dallas, Texas and telephone conversations, 1995.

______. Amourette. Boulder Creek, California: Triton Press, 1978.

______. Laurels. Houston, Texas: Innercity Press, 1980. 177

Von Stade, Frederica. Interview by Beth Bauer. 1995.

Westwood, Shirley. “Discovery.” The Opera Journal. Vol. 9, No. 2, 1976.

______. Interview hy Beth Bauer. 1995. October 19,1995 G. SCHIRMER, INC.

& Associated Music Publishers, Inc.

Bstin BsUfir A Division of Music Sales Corp.

Re: DAY OF LOVE, WINDSONGS, THREE POEMS OF THEODORE RAMSAY by Thomas Pasatieri 25; Park Awnu« Sair.h. .Ve«- York. Yorkicotc ulophoiK. 21P.‘ 254‘ 2!00 Tikfax: 212>2ô‘l‘ .;0!:< Întcmiî; 71;6C.35î4@compMSC7'vc.coîM via fax #314-893-8601

Dear Ms. Bauer:

This letter is to confirm our agreement for the nonexclusive right to reprint musical excerpts from the above-referenced work(s) for inclusion in your thesis/dissertation, subject to the following conditions:

1. The following copyright credit is to appear on each copy made:

DAY OF LOVE Copyright (c) 1983 by G. Schirmer, Inc. (ASC.A.P) Reprinted by Permission

WINDSONGS Copyright (c) 1989 by G. Schirmer Inc. (ASCAP) Reprinted by Permission

DAY OF LOVE Copyright ® 1989 by G. Schirmer, Inc. (ASCAP) Reprinted by Permission

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 permission fee of twenty-five ($25.00) dollars, to be paid by you within thirty (30) days from the date of this letter,

5. If your thesis/dissertation is accepted for commercial publication, further written permission must be sought.

^ rtg e i^ ly ,

^"Zora^Marrdez-DeCosmis Print Licensing Manager WARNER BROS. PUBLICATIONS U.S. INC, / FAX LETTER

including the cataiogs of CPP/Belwin & Belwin-Mills Publishing Corp.

TO: Beth Bauer (314-893-8601)

FROM; David C. Olsen, Director/Business Affairs

DATE: December 11, 1995 Total number of pages: one

SUBJECT : Ifiomas Pasatieri

Dear Ms. Bauer;

This letter will confirm our permission to you to reprint portions of the following Thomas Pasatieri compositions as part of your doctorate paper. Please be sure to include the following credits.

BEAUTIFUL THE DAYS

Music by THOMAS PASATIERI, Words by KIRSTIN VAN CLEAVE Words; © 1977 by Kit Van Cleave Music: © 1980 BELWIN-MILLS PUBLISHING CORP. (ASCAP) Reprinted by Permission of the Composers and WARNER BROS. PUBLICATIONS All Rights Reserved including Public Performance for Profit

THREE POEMS BY KIRSTIN VAN CLEAVE -a night of love- - you know - - Give Me Then Your Hand -

Music by THOMAS PASATIERI, Words by KIRSTIN VAN CLEAVE ; Words: © 1977 by Kit Van Cleave Music: © 1980 BELWIN-MILLS PUBLISHING CORP. (ASCAP) Reprinted by Permission of the Composers and WARNER BROS. PUBLICATIONS All Rights Reserved including Public Performance for Profit

might be of service in Ae future, please let us know.

**new fax number** 15800 NW 48th Ave., Midmi, FL 33014 ph:305-620-1500 ext. 248 / fax:305-625-3480 K i n g w o o d K a r a t e C l u b H i l l » P r i -i'e King w 9

TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN:

Beth Bauer has permission from me to use parts of my poetry in her doctoral dissertation on DAY ON LOVE and Thomas Pasatieri.

Copyright, of course, will be retained by me.

Sincerely,

Kirstin Deavn (Kit) van Cleave PO Box 66127 Houston TX 77266