Music Library Reading Room Notes

Issue no.6 (2004)

University Libraries The University of the Arts

Compiled by the Music Library Staff Mark Germer: Music Librarian Lars Halle & Aaron Meicht: Circulation Supervisors

Philadelphia and the Essence of Light p.2

“A Nomenclature to Underlie the use of Light as a Fine Art” p.4

“A Secularized Theology”: Adorno on Steuermann p.8

Experimentelle Musik 2003: AB Duo in Munich p.11

“Speaking of Apropos”: An Analysis p.13

The University of the Arts . 320 South Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19102 http://www.uarts.edu University Libraries: http://library.uarts.edu Philadelphia and the Essence of Light

by Mark Germer

A curious and unexplored affiliation and sight, would be hard to appreciate in the University’s past has to do with the without reference to this background. A early 20th-century keyboardist Mary Hal- popular guest speaker and player on the lock Greenewalt. Now a nearly forgotten “color organ”, she was not without recog- resident of Philadelphia, she was once a nition in her development of “illumination flamboyant and seemingly ubiquitous pro- as a means of expression” (Rohrer 1940, ponent of the aesthetic coordination of 107). music performance with projected light. In addition to establishing a reputation as a performer of the standard recital reper- “Color-hearing” is one of various, tory, she also encouraged the exploration presumably related sensory experiences of music’s therapeutic and recuperative subsumed under the term synaesthesia. powers, and saw the synaesthetic ex- Despite wide general interest dating back perience of the spectrum and music as to the 18th century, and a rapidly accumu- the awakening of biological forces. Her lating clinical bibliography, the phenom- presence was a colorful one (the pun is enon remains incompletely understood. unavoidable). Around the turn of the last Much recent literature has addressed century, at a time when electrical lighting literary synaesthesia, in which subjects could still be experienced by many as rela- report unevoked color associations with tively novel, Greenewalt campaigned tire- the sounds of letters or syllables; writers lessly for financial and technological sup- such as Baudelaire and Nabokov have port of her “light-color playing” as well as left well-known descriptions of such ex- construction of the “color-consoles” she perience (Cytowic 2003, chap. 15). But designed. documentation of musical sound-color synaesthesia has also boasted famous adherents. It is difficult, in fact, to find Greenewalt had earned a reputation discussions of the music of Skryabin or as a concert pianist by the early 1900s, Messiaen that do not contain references having graduated from the Philadelphia to these composers’ attempts to incor- Musical Academy in 1893, and eventu- porate synaesthetic experience into their ally performing as soloist with the newly music scores. In the 1920s, the Hun- founded Philadelphia Orchestra after the garian composer Alexander László pro- turn of the century. Born in the Lebanon moted the idea of a generic innovation he Mountains in what was then Syria, she called “color-light-music”(Farblichtmusik). traced her somewhat obscure origins to Many artists and composers who did not the cosmopolitan communities of the Le- claim to be “synaesthetes” themselves -- vant. She was apparently educated in Bartók, Schoenberg, Kandinsky, among Europe before traveling to the Americas others -- nevertheless found themselves in 1882. Her varied interests, especially intrigued with simultaneous sensory stim- those having to do with the simultane- ulation and incorporated versions of it into ous stimulation of the senses of hearing some of their most experimental works.

Greenewalt’s early embrace of the sub- cades ago, to say nothing of Greenewalt’s ject, however, as evidenced in the 1918 time. That multisensory stimulation had lecture excerpted below, was reasonably an uplifting or cleansing, even a spiritual sophisticated by comparison with that of dimension, however, did seem borne out Skryabin, for instance, whose prescrip- by experiential evidence, if her consider- tion for a “tastiera per luce” (in the score able written legacy is any testimony. Late of Prometei [1911]), would have provided in life she published a monograph entitled unmodulated projections. It was always Nourathar (Philadelphia 1946), a word of a part of Greenewalt’s vision that nuanc- her own coinage (from Arabic), mean- es of fluctuating, diminishing, intensifying, ing “essence of light”. In addition to her and merging colors could be calibrated musings there -- a mixture of performer’s to comparable nuances of musical mod- memoir, technical schematics, practical ulation and expressive articulation. admonition, and spiritual counsel, with the only accessible fragment of an actual light score -- some 18 linear feet of unsorted As a neurological phenomenon, correspondence and other documents are synaesthesia has been approached reported to lie in the vaults of the Histori- through two principal avenues of inquiry: cal Society of Pennsylvania (www2.hsp. as a pathological behavior involving per- org/collections/manuscripts/0800.htm). ceptual confusion, owing to the collateral There are also legal briefs on deposit in the experience of sensitivity in a modality that Archives of the Library of Congress. The has not been stimulated during the per- excerpts offered here, from a single paper, ception of one that has; and as a univer- are meant only to suggest that a peculiar sal physiological potential for simultane- chapter of Philadelphia history awaits fur- ous processing in all sensory modalities, ther, well...., illumination. hyperexpressed in some individuals (Ter- naux 2003). One tentative supposition holds that the process of neurophysi- ological maturation may include a kind of “sorting out” of the modalities of percep- Cytowic, Richard. The Man who Tasted tion, so that “retention” of sympathetic Shapes. Revised ed. Cambridge, Mass.: sensation by certain individuals may be MIT Press, 2003. in some way vestigial. However, a long road lies ahead before neurobiologists Greenewalt, Mary Hallock. Nourathar: The will have sufficiently accounted for the Fine Art of Color Playing. Philadelphia: myriad variables involving brain pathways Westbrook, 1946. and receptors, the neural mechanisms of attention and memory, to say nothing of the internal and external environmental Music and Musicians of Pennsylvania. Ed. stimuli that have bearing on sensory per- Gertrude Rohrer. Philadelphia: Presser, ception, in order to advance a compre- 1940. hensive theory.

Ternaux, Jean-Pierre. “Synesthesia: A The revelations of brain research Multimodal Combination of the Senses,” unfold ing today, owing to image scan- Leonardo 56 (2003), 321-322. ning and other technologies, could not, of course, have been imagined several de- “A Nomenclature to Underlie the use of Light as a Fine Art” by Mary Hallock Greenwalt

A hieroglyphic, a symbolism, a denotation the medium to be used. designed for the orientation of artists is [a] Decimal places and their figures can, in necessary adjunct to any art of succes- conjunction with a calibrated and similarly sion. marked resistance slide placed conve- A nomenclature underlying the use of light niently at the manipulator’s disposal, give as a fine art similar to that used on the mu- any intensity desired. But as a nomencla- sic page for recording music is necessary ture for the art, symbols that represent to this art’s perpetuation and growth. hue and saturation must be added not to Compactness, care of the line space, the mention still more cunning marks of ex- width space, is necessary. These marks pression. may be called upon to wedge between the We will therefore turn the ciphers into staves on the music page as an accompa- squares to give them four-cornered room, niment to the music or they may underlie as well as [to] be easier on the following the dramatic line for similar reasons. eye, and mark the decimal commas and To begin then: the main attributes of an periods in such a way as, without drop- art made up of light alone are: brightness, ping beneath the line, they will allow the hue, saturation, time—as time must be a elision of those ciphers or squares, not speaking part of any art of succession— at that point needed, for giving either the and space, as light is a thing for sight. quantity of light or its color. Since hue and saturation lie, as it were, We then get the following: in the lap of brightness, such a nomenclature must take care of the dynamics of light: the bright, the dark, first.

So sensitive must this use of intensities [INTENSITY] be that though the increment of least perceptible brightness has been measured at A table of brightness, from the thresh- even varying intensities of white light and old of vision to a high light yields twelve the spectrum of colors, expressing with space numerals. From one hundred lam- light, like expressing with time in music, berts or one hundred thousand millil- will come with nuances which can be felt, amberts to the one ten thousandth of a but scarcely measured. millilambert we get the unit and eleven ci- Whilst colors, like notes, are of distinct phers—100,000,000,000. Such an array and definite demarcations from one an- of spaces may well be made use of to hold other, the attribute inseparable from much that may be needed by the occa- light’s power for emotional speech lies in sion. It makes a base carrying within itself its capacity for an insensible increase and a certain amount of definite fact regarding decrease in brightness. It is so that the day comes and goes; it is so connected A sudden bright accent thus: with our capacity for a suggested feeling induced by it. The use of the numeral and its similarly and a sudden dark accent thus: marked slide will denote for repeated use [These symbols are missing in the type- and uses just where the play of different script] increases and decreases of light shall begin and end. It may be that the light will be wanted bright- Other marks will be needed to show how ening in waves or billows when curves in these “crescendos” and “decrescendos” the forked lines would mark on paper the of light intensities shall grow or ebb; the desired effect: time such change shall take; how a uni- form light shall remain for a given span; [This symbol is also missing in the type- how the sudden accent of dark shall be script] asked for in a symbolism put on paper to represent such [a] desired result. The play of loud and soft is a secondary There is no single word in the English lan- attribute of the art of music. The play of guage which takes the place for a grad- increase and decrease in light is the indis- ual increase of light, like the word “cre- pensable attribute of an art made up of scendo”, as used for a gradual increase light. For this reason, there will be many in loudness in music. variations of the forked lines, which are There is the word “brightening”, to be all considered sufficient for the crescendo sure, but this answers for silver polish, and decrescendo of music. too. The word “darkling” exists for a gradual decrease of light intensity and to give it its complemental mate, we cannot HUE do better than coin the word “brightling” for its reverse meaning. Hue is brightness broken up into its com- No line symbols could be better for these ponent rays. Let our square ciphers and two words than the forked lines used to their forked lines then be as cups to hold— resemble the “crescendo” and “decre- not only the intensity, but the color denota- scendo” in music: tion also. The primary colors are three. It is well known that any hue may be matched by combining the three primary colors [in the field of optics]: red, green and blue in prop- er proportions. But let us take the six chief spectral colors: violet, blue, green, yellow, An even light held at the height of an orange, and red so doubling this primal increase and ebb could be logically ex- quantity and build up our color indicators pressed as follows: by horizontal lines on them. Our marks governing the intensi- from the point of its high to the point of ties of light became of use through their its ebb. conjunction with a controlled and similarly marked resistance slide. . Colors complementary to each other, do not make a new color when mixed. Not meaning that as the intensity changes one only this, but the spectral color available color is to gradually displace the other. in artificial illumination is not unlimited. The It is right here that stress must be laid on tungsten nitrogen-filled lamp has compar- the fact that color sensations do not reach atively speaking much red and very little their full value immediately on application violet. The ratios are as follows: 751 of red of the stimulus. It is for this reason that a to 233 of yellow, 103 of green, 68 of blue rotating disc made up of several colors and 39 of violet or circa: one of violet, to will give the impression of one color. It is two of blue, to three of green, to seven of only for this reason that the notes of music yellow, to 21 of red. The violet of even a meant to act on the dot of time can never very strong light is only just perceptible. A suffice for a stimulus of leisurely growth. variety of proportioned symbols for violet, Our forked lines give ampleness of time for example, need give but little trouble. for color change. Let us now go back to our squares and conceive of them as divided, if necessary subdivided, each division colored to de- SATURATION note a hue. Three of the squares could give all manner of four combinations to the three colors and twelve squares, not to The least trouble need be experienced mention the forked lines, would thus cer- from the need for lessening the satura- tainly give the necessary symbol space for tion made by the addition of white. White getting at the twenty-two hues which the will turn red into pink, dark blue into paler eye can recognize irrespective of bright- blue, etc. ness and saturation change. It will be difficult to isolate absolutely a It is also to be remembered that it is not a spectral monochrome so as to be devoid question of painting forms, but of tinting of white. The filter cannot be prevented brightness. from fading. Since color printing is expensive, let us It will be difficult to keep all vagrant light use arbitrary symbols in black and white from filtering into the auditorium by some as a possible substitute in place of actual means or other. color. We know that red will show about 90 We will also keep the graceful names of shades of saturation. This represents re- these colors; symbols and names as fol- sults in accurate and minute scientific re- lows: search on a restricted circular surface of red paper. A difference in color was noted every 4 degrees of the 360 degrees or about one percent. We know that color systems of notation have taken account of but 10 shades and Supposing now a change of color were that increase of brightness will bring a wanted in the midst of a growing light in- lessening of saturation automatically with tensity, the forked lines can carry the same it. symbols as follows: In addition to all these ways by which saturation will be lessened, little pilot lights of white added to the powerful lights can furnish measured units of white to pale the color as needed.

ENSEMBLE IN LIGHT PLAY

It goes without saying that where one or more light effects are to be used as a foil one to the other, that two or more complete symbols will be placed one over the other, as the scores of music for different instruments playing simultaneously are tiered.

SPACE LIT

It is quite within the realm of conception that patches of variously colored lights will be wanted, as, let us say, purple over the cellos, while blue plays over the vio- lins. In this case, the written word must give this direction. A colored light falling on a background of a different and sup- porting light suffusion would also need a special noting and will refer, naturally, to a resistance slide operating independently. The beginning [and] the cessation of a given color must, of course, always be “[Greenewalt] at one of her Light Color Play carried on the intensity mark. Consoles that were produced in number” Such directions as “gently”, “violently”, (Greenewalt 1946) must, as in music, be given in words.

In all this, it is to be understood that every nomenclature underlying an art is but a skeleton around which the artist must build his creation. It is so with the notes of music. It is so with the dramatic line. Not the finest of computed brightnesses will be all sufficient for the artist. Only his instinct, his practice, his taste, will bring him where the light of his soul leads. Mary Hallock Greenewalt Wildwood Crest 7 September 1918 “A Secularized Theology”: Adorno on Steuermann

by Aaron Meitcht

The pianist and composer Edward ed with the Polish piano student. Steuermann, who taught at the Philadel- phia Conservatory of Music from 1948 to 1962, has the distinction of being remem- In Edward Steuermann’s makeup, bered as the actual manifestation of an Art as such, and seriousness about almost mythic archetype: the exceptional aesthetics, came before the special artist of great intellectual and personal in- media of talent, but this serious- tegrity. Many portray themselves so, but ness, in turn, forced him to apply few would have earned the regard of so extreme concentration on these sharp an observer as the German so- media. cial theorist and writer on music Theodor Adorno, who offered his recollections of Steuermann in the Süddeutsche Zeitung I met Steuermann in 1925 through after the latter’s death in November 1964. Berg and took piano lessons from The sketch here leans heavily on this me- him. The friendship then born has morial, in a translation by the fellow pia- continued ever since. No words nist Konrad Wolff found in typescript in the can describe how much I owe him. Music Library. (The cited passages do Once, when I played the B-minor not necessarily appear in the order of the Capriccio of Brahms for him, he original.) A different translation, following drew my attention to a motivic con- an apparently revised German text in the nection which I had not perceived collected edition of Adorno’s writings, is and therefore not made clear [in available in The Not Quite Innocent By- my playing]. At that moment I was stander, ed. Clara Steuermann (Lincoln made to realize fully that correct 1989), 240-46. rendering of music in performance depends on the articulate knowl- edge of the score by the performer, Having emigrated from Germany in so that he is able to analyze it. 1934, Adorno’s transcontinental influence in the fields of social philosophy and aesthetics has been as profound as it is con- His education as a pianist began troversial. Even after his death he attracts with Vilém Kurz in Lemberg (Polish Lwów, both fierce advocates and detractors. But now Ukrainian Lviv). After moving to Ber- his writings, including his critiques of music lin he studied with one of the city’s most as social text, still serve as points of return stellar personalities, the Italian composer and reflection. He wrote from the position and keyboard virtuoso Ferruccio Busoni. of the questing insider, even taking composition lessons from Alban Berg. It was through his association with members of By the time he reached Berlin, a the circle around Arnold Schoenberg in Vi- few years before World War I, he enna and Berlin that he became acquaint- must already have been quite ad- vanced as a pianist and compos- the first performance of Schoenberg’s fa- er.... [At first, the composer Engel- mous cycle Pierrot lunaire, and premiered bert] Humperdinck was to have many works of the early twentieth cen- become his composition teacher. tury. He was the pianist for the Verein für In the first lesson, Humperdinck Musikalische Privataufführungen (Society asked him whether he preferred for Private Performances), founded in 1918 to be instructed in the manner of by Schoenberg and as such introduced composing of Wagner, or in that works by Scryabin and much new French of Brahms. Steuermann was so music to Vienna. He was often the pianist shocked by the lack of artistic for the incendiary journalist Karl Kraus’s moral standards revealed by this readings and recitations. Anton Webern question that he never went back. dedicated his only work for solo piano, the Variations, op.27, to Steuermann. (Much Busoni introduced him to Schoe- later, in 1957, Columbia Records issued nberg. He became Schoenberg’s Steuermann’s Schoenberg: Complete Pi- pupil, and much more, for his own ano Music (ML 5216) to public and critical spiritual and musical identity crys- acclaim. He continued his identification tallized itself as a result of the rela- with this repertory throughout his life, edit- tionship with Schoenberg. ing the solo keyboard music for the composer’s Collected Works edition shortly before his death.) His exceptional pianistic quality made him appear predestined for the role of authentic interpreter It is tempting to compare Steuer- of the Schoenberg School. While mann’s role in the music of the preserving a complete natural in- second Viennese School with that dependence, Steuermann was im- of Hans von Bülow for Wagner. But pregnated with the conception of Steuermann must have had greater new music developed by this, the creativity, wider humanity, and even Second Viennese School, and this better understanding of the great immediately also transformed the music of the past. [...] His insight relationship with Central-European in musical construction was formed music of the past, and indeed revo- through Schoenberg’s workshop. lutionized interpretation of music in Steuermann’s severity in rendering general. No pianist of that epoch scores without compromise was was closer to the great production part of his artistic credo which ex- that took place now. Steuermann cluded any giving in to the predomi- did not just have an open, receptive nantly hedonist music market of the mind for the modern radicals, but time. He was adamant in opposing he was part and parcel of their very all compromise directions such as existence, and embodied the refu- replaced true modern music in the tation of the fatal habit of regarding epoch between the two world wars actual composing as something to an extent that young musicians separate from traditional music- of today can hardly imagine. making. In his article on Steuermann for In 1912 Steuermann took part in the second edition of The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (Lon- sonality—analytic penetration and don 2001), Michael Steinberg writes that forceful expression—were ground- Steuermann’s “Beethoven recitals in New ed in his inexhaustible and con- York in the early 1950s were, with their stantly self-generating imagination structural clarity and pianistic beauty, that was equally dedicated to ex- among the most remarkable events of that pressing the musical meaning and time.” Adorno attributed these attributes to discovering its traces and traces to Steuermann’s ability, born of analysis, of the relationship of each detail to to locate individuality within tradition, and the whole, in the dry symbols of mu- to make virtuosity expressive. sical notation. [...] The mechanism of his playing was strong and very virtuosic, yet he never indulged in The concrete individuality of the virtuosity. In the interest of expres- very piece which is being analyzed, sion and structure, he renounced though it may be extremely anchored the kind of smoothness that would in the more general musical idiom, have been very easy for him to pro- is what matters. Steuermann’s use duce, and never made concessions of analysis in interpretation is con- for the sake of a possible effect. nected with modern composing, inasmuch as here, too, the identi- fying features of each piece obtain Maintaining a relentless teaching against the outdated generalities of schedule, including decades of summer tonality. This experience of modern seminars in Salzburg and Darmstadt, art also penetrated the approach to Steuermann nevertheless always strove to tradition. For a long time already, the return to composition. His music clearly music of the past had indeed been demonstrates its allegiances to the Sec- a battlefield for the war between the ond Viennese School, mixing freely atonal here-and-now of composing on the and serial techniques. Michael Steinberg one hand, and [stylistic] generalities (op. cit.) judges them “of economical, on the other. This new direction in fastidious workmanship, imbued always score analysis has incalculable con- with a keen feeling for instrumental style sequences for the interpretation of and sonority, and bearing, in their sensu- music. [...] It is, however, true that ousness, traces of his involvement with the discipline and control that this Debussy and Scryabin.” Without ques- kind of performance exacts from tion, Adorno believed, “the source of his the performing musician, is more strength was his ability to compose.” than unusual and approaches the unbearable. Steuermann increased this ability to the point of a magnifi- Steuermann was not to be dis- cent defeatism of Kafka[esque] pro- tracted from composing by any- portions. thing, and it was his principal con- cern during his late years. [...] [His works] are not conveniently classi- [H]is expressionist impulse was fiable. Much of what he wrote de- equally strong: as a pianist, Steuer- cades ago anticipates the future, mann freed musical expression in through a predominance of a very agitated eruptions from its taboos. meticulous mosaic of structure—as Both these manifestations of his per- complex as a handwriting in which successive lines run together— After Theodor W. Adorno, “Nachruf auf ein- over the so-called melodic inspira- en Pianisten” (Recollections of a Pianist), tion, but also through their dark and Süddeutsche Zeitung 28-29 Nov. 1964 nocturnal tone, like the foundation block in a piece of graphic art. His works are objective, but they at- tain this quality not by borrowing external forms and rules, but by transcending their subjectivity, in a process of continuous, productive self-criticism. Steuermann had the primal strength, the faculty of hearing a thing through to its logical end, of disappearing as a subject in the consistency of the carrying- out of the original conception. This music was a secularized theology. [...] His hidden nature was to be one of the just men of music.

Some works by Steuermann available for examination in the Music Library include: Vier Lieder für eine hohe Frauen- stimme (1943); Brecht-Lieder (1945); Seven Waltzes for String Quartet (1946); Piano Trio (1954); Variations for Orches- tra (1958); String Quartet no.2, “Diary” (1961); Dialogues for violin solo (1963); Suite for Chamber Orchestra (1964); and Auf der Galerie, cantata for chorus and orchestra (with a text by Kafka, 1964).

Back in Philadelphia, Steuermann’s keen engagement with the world of new music and devotion to teaching earned him something close to reverence. Upon his loss, in November 1964, the director of the Musical Academy, Hendrik Drake, spearheaded the founding of an Edward Steuermann Memorial Society, among whose sponsors were Artur Rubinstein, Rudolf Serkin, Vladimir Horowitz, Leo- pold Stokowski, and of course Adorno himself. Experimentelle Musik 2003: The AB Duo in Munich by Aaron Meitcht

In the Fall of 2003 the drummer (and composer Cornelius Hirsch presented UArts alumnus) Brendan Dougherty and I his work Vom Hörensagen that is scored performed in a series of concerts in Berlin, for three female voices and tape. Each Cologne, Paris and Munich under the mon- performer had a portable audiocassette iker AB Duo. We presented improvisations player with a tape containing parts of an on trumpet, drum set, and two comput- electronic composition by Hirsch. They ers. The highlight of this series came on simultaneously started the tapes and be- 13 December in Munich, as we were part gan to vocalize based on what they heard. of the festival called Experimentelle Musik After this version of the work, Hirsch in- 2003. Stephan Wunderlich has organized vited three members of the audience up this Bavarian institution for more than 20 to the stage to attempt a “chance inter- years. The festival is described as a “six- pretation” of the same tape. hour international festival of experimental music” and it truly is a marathon. All of the performers are situated in a very large Next came a series of pieces room in a circle facing out to the audience, by three eminent masters of the Ger- with reasonable distances between them. man avant-garde, Heinz-Klaus Metzger, Audience members move around to each Rainer Riehn, and Hans Rudolf Zeller. musical station throughout the evening. Metzger and Riehn have been editors of Stephan has successfully created an eve- the monograph series Musik-Konzepte ning length program of performers with since it began in 1978. Metzger was in- varying ideas about the new music of our volved in the famous Darmstadt Ferien- time. kurse in the late 1950s and early 1960s and his associates included the Frankfurt School social theorist Theodor Adorno, The lights came up on the first among others. On this night Metzger be- group, Das PHREN-Ensemble—a group gan by reading an original text on sound from Munich playing four string instru- and music with Riehn sitting across a ta- ments and a helicon (a kind of tuba). Mi- ble from him taking notes. Zeller followed chael Kopfermann has played viola and with a twenty-minute electronic work for directed the ensemble since 1968. The samplers, sound generators and tape string scratches and squeals were occa- machines that he called Protocol and Re- sionally supported by low blasts by the hel- sumé. This sound blitz led to a linguistic icon as the ensemble members explored improvisation on words from Metzger’s the technical limits of their instruments—a text by Riehn. The audience then moved recurring theme in music of the last centu- across the space to hear the work of ry. After an hour-long performance by this Aleks Kolkowski, a veteran of the improv ensemble the lights dimmed and came up scene, having performed and recorded again across the room on another group. with John Tilbury, Evan Parker, Bill Dixon The audience of about 200 individuals and Tony Oxley. He presented a “por- quietly moved into this area and sat. The trait in shellac”—a solo performance for Stroh (metal horned) violin, gramophone phone, reading from photocopied pages and phonograph players. His music was containing information on acoustics. The a subtle blend of acoustically amplified performance, at first a bit off-putting, was tones from the skeleton string instrument eventually revealed as an incredible state- and sound effects from old 78rpm discs. ment as members of the audience, in an It was a remarkable performance. Follow- attempt to understand what he was mum- ing Kolkowski the Berliner Ignaz Schick bling about, gathered close around him. filled the room with ambient sound creat- This was one of the highlights of the eve- ed with a no-input mixing board, contact ning. At the end of the entire evening we microphones and signal processors. were able to talk with Biel about his work and ours. He has always found improvisation intriguing and believes it performs a Our Duo followed, presenting very important cognitive function in com- completely acoustic improvisations with position as well as performance. me on trumpet, fluegelhorn, and mutes, and Brendan on drum set. One of the motivations behind the music of the After Biel’s intimate reading the AB Duo is the exploration of noise in its lights went out and we were assaulted technical definition of unwanted sounds. by brass blasts from the three members “Unavoidable” sounds of the instruments of HAORNY led by the composer Otfried have led us to become more careful Rautenbach. With lights strapped to their with the sounds that are presented. The heads the players moved about the room early drum set, for example, was an as- grabbing various brass instruments and sortment of small and large percussion blatting huge sounds that reverberated instruments that were clamped, lashed throughout the space. and screwed together in an often-hap- hazard manner. This naturally created many smaller sounds each time a part The Italians were next with Luca Miti was struck. Also, the trumpet or flu- from Rome presenting his work Electronic egelhorn can be utilized unconvention- Music for G.R. that originally was a “sound ally in a variety of ways to accentuate the design” commission for the ring on a mobile noises created by the clanging of brass phone. In the version for the Munich Festi- against brass, the clicking of mutes, or val it went in a different direction, focusing the pinching of the embouchure. These on the “impossible” in performance: “the small sounds are of supreme interest to concept of the ‘mistake’ (the limitation) of our duo because, for one reason, these the electronic machine is overcome by the are sounds that helped to differentiate ‘impossibility’, due to [the] technical limita- jazz from other music. tion of the machine, to ‘respect’ the composer’s rule” (Luca Miti, from the festival program notes). Miti was then joined by After our performance came an- composer Albert Mayr from Florence and other icon of modern music, Michael von an uncredited assistant in a performance Biel, who was one of the first Europeans of Mayr’s Jacobus. Mayr played bass re- to make contact with Morton Feldman in corder very softly while walking around the America in the late 1950s. He presented space, Miti periodically rang combinations “On the Impossibility of Understanding of a number of different bells and the other Sound”—a difficult performance in which performer wrote Latin text on a large pa- Biel spoke very quietly, without a micro- per flip chart with a marker. The delicate sounds of the recorder, intermittent bells, squeaky marker and occasional page flip created a unique sound world that blend- ed musical and everyday sounds.

The night concluded with two works by the host, Stephan Wunderlich and his partner Edith Rom. Duo was a multi-media work for film and slide projec- tors, lamps, sine-tone generator, guitar, snare drum and spoken text. The piece is a sonic and visual tug of war between the two performers. For Lichtspiel, Miti and Mayr joined Wunderlich and Rom in a twenty-minute silent light show produced on a huge screen with four flashlights. The performers had a series of rules to follow which determined when and how to shine their light on the screen. The serialized pat- terns eventually created an exciting mood among the audience—the silence being as powerful as any sound heard earlier. Ap- plause shattered the silence and our evening was complete. The event was a true meeting of different musical philosophies collected under the umbrella of Stephan Reproduction of the placard designed Wunderlich’s rare vigilance and support of by Stephan Wunderlich for Experimen- experimental aural culture. telle Musik 2003. The design of the image shows the relative placement of each participant for the evening. “Speaking of Apropos”: An Analysis

by Lars Halle

Upon analyzing one of my own chiefly employs the dorian mode. The compositions for big band I felt a mix of addition of some chromaticism gives the curiosity and terror, as I have not con- impression that we are straying from the C sciously composed music with theoreti- dorian tonality for a moment but the con- cal categories in mind. My writing has a clusion of the A-section melody implies stream-of-consciousness approach, even an altered-dominant sonority, gravitating with respect to melody and harmony, and I back to the tonal center. The contrast- have not been trained in, or taken particular ing tonality of the B-section suggests F interest in theoretical explanations. There- minor, but the melodic structure is largely fore this project has presented me with the chromatic, and somewhat serial in nature. opportunity to seek out, to the best of my This concludes the form of the “stand- ability, any “subconscious method” (or the alone” core composition. complete lack thereof) that I may be em- ploying. I chose tenor saxophone and har- mon-muted trumpet to carry the melody When composing “Speaking of as well as serve as the locus of improvi- Apropos” I initially wrote the melody and sation. Adding the mute alters the timbre harmonic structure as an independent of the trumpet to an extent where, com- body, keeping in mind my intent to keep bined in unison with the tenor saxophone, the melody accessible and the underlying its sound becomes starkly alien from that harmonies more complex. As far as the of the saxophone and therefore becomes “head” is concerned, I have consciously more distinguishable, especially since the disregarded traditional harmony and fo- melody is written within the range of both cused on two pedal-points which under- instruments such that neither voice has to mine independent chordal movement. It be displaced to another octave. is fair to say that the core composition is largely rooted in two tonalities, C minor The section beginning at rehearsal and F minor. It bears an AAB form, each letter D serves as a transitional section. A-section containing 16 measures and the At the finish of the B-section, immedi- B-section (which in this context does not ate development, or an intensified pace constitute a “bridge” since it does not tie would feel overwhelming, or harried, and two sections together in the overall form) so I’ve allowed for some breathing room, filling 12 measures, making the tune 44 both literally and figuratively. measures. The tenor saxophone solo follows The original chordal content of the at the section marked E, which is initial- A-section is largely dependent on the par- ly played through “clean” with no back- ticular voicings, which I have specified in ground figures, and then revisited three notation. In fact, the chords were notated more times. With each pass, a new back- first, and their emergent qualities estab- ground layer is added. I find that build- lished later. The melody of the A-section ing the underscoring in this way provides added energy for the soloist from which I believe that it is very important, in order to “feed,” and the build-up becomes mu- for an arrangement to work, to consider tual between the ensemble and the solo- the general balance of the arrangement. ist. For the climax of the section, and Some old LP recordings of big band music the solo, the layered backgrounds com- used to feature a graphic chart which illus- pound until the major release of energy trated the different textures and densities at letter F, the beginning of the trumpet throughout the chart, and though that idea solo. may have seemed gratuitous for the general listener, it is not a bad visual to keep The section marked by rehearsal in mind. In the case of “Speaking of Ap- letter I introduces a long, Gb pedal-point ropos,” the introduction starts out moder- and abandons the form of the initial com- ately reserved but half-way through we are position altogether. What follows are in- jolted by a tutti shout that is harmonically dependent, chromatic sequences by the dense and expressively engaging. We are three horn sections, coming together in subtly introduced to the general spirit of measure 201, forming a dense altered the music and then blatantly made aware dominant voicing. that this arrangement will embody some stark dynamic contrast. Moving to the new tonality, and in- troducing these seemingly unrelated chro- So commences the subtle texture of matic ideas sets up the freely improvised the rhythm section with the melody simply section at rehearsal letter J. The featured stated on top. As the end of the melody tenor saxophone and trumpet improvise becomes apparent, the tutti is repeated without pre-direction, the pedal-point be- from the introduction, reminding us again ing the only constant. This section is re- that we may expect excitement later on. peated openly until the soloists begin to The tutti drops down to just the trombone draw to a climactic close. The following section mimicking, at a lesser harmonic section is then cued, bringing in differ- concentration, the shout-like nature of ent combinations of instruments, provid- the tutti. The melody is repeated, and the ing different colors for the backgrounds. shape stays the same, providing a feeling The pedal-point continues, as does the of consistency and familiar ground. improvisation. After an implied continua- tion of the sectional independency at let- The B-section is a little trickier. It ter I, the pedal shifts up a half step to the doesn’t exhibit as distinctive a profile as the dominant degree, implying that we are A-section, but it is musically much more returning to the original tonality. complex, so in this sense, the textures of the B-section demand as much of the lis- The climax for both the soloists tener as does the A-section. The conver- and the remainder of the band is now sation between the soloists and the low- brewing. A series of independent en- end instruments contrast with the earlier trances between the sections lead into parts of the arrangements by foreground- the climactic diminished whole-tone ing the bass register of the band as a me- scale climb and soaring trumpets. The lodic entity. The B-section builds slightly soloists then fizzle out and the ensemble to a climax, immediately dropping down returns to the pivotal riff. A dal segno to the subtle pivot-point riff. This “down- brings us back to letter A and the original time” allows listeners to digest what has form until just before C where we jump to just happened, as well as realize that the the coda. melody has finished and we are moving ahead to the next development. tained chord at letter I sounds mysterious and implies that perhaps something alien The tenor saxophone solo starts is lurking around the corner. in this context, and with each repeat, a texture is layered on top, bringing the en- The development of that chord ergy level up bit by bit until the last pass grows slightly, then sighs back into the col- when the ensemble ever so slowly cre- lective improvisation between the two so- scendos to a larger climax, signaling the loists. The rhythm section gets involved in solo’s finale. The trumpet solo begins this free improvisation too, without losing immediately, because here I judge that the steady pulse or the pedal point. The the listeners, as well as the ensemble, open improvisation section is designed to have experienced such an effective build increase in energy somewhat, but not too that dropping the level completely again much. As the energy level has reached an would inhibit the momentum. So, the appropriate level, the backgrounds (letter energy level is now shifted to the rhythm K) are cued. section, which morphs the style into a more driving, linear kind of playing. The The backgrounds are layered, re- bass plays a “walking bass” line over the calling the anticipation of the shout cho- chord progression, which is simplified rus, and the band swells to another small and stretched out metrically. The saxo- climax after which the pedal drops an phones enter in the background at letter octave: the pitch remains, but the shift in G, seemingly at the second pass of the register is felt. There is another sequence form (which is deceptive, since neither of layered backgrounds before the modu- solo is mapped after the original form of lation which sets up the gradual build to the tune). At the end of the trumpet solo, the ultimate climax with the trumpets soar- layers accumulate again, first trombones, ing. After peaking, the horns “fall off” their then trumpets and saxophones respec- notes, perhaps implying the need for relax- tively, and finally the whole band explod- ation and digestion. ing into a dense, rich altered-dominant chord which rounds off the trumpet solo A brief moment of relaxation fol- and leads into the next section. lows, but before we forget what has just happened music of the initial introduction Now that the soloists have shown recurs, announcing the original melody. I what they can do, I allow the band to have used the device of the dal segno in- shine a little. This is where the shout stead of re-writing the melody and back- chorus comes in. Letter H marks the grounds, perhaps out of convenience, or beginning of a conversation between the perhaps because I felt that all sources of saxophones and the brass, based on the further development had been exhausted. chord progression used for the solos. And in a way, it brings about a feeling of The energy level is fairly high coming out familiarity, almost like returning home from of the trumpet solo, and it is sustained an adventure. through the calls and responses between the sections. The short saxophone soli After the B-section, instead of cli- section acts as a deceptive denouement. maxing again, which would feel redundant, When the brass comes back in and the I opt for a rather opposite effect. I envi- sections are more or less integrated, we sion a drummer finishing a solo and, rather start the real denouement, thwarting ex- than finishing with a crash and boom, just pectations of a grand climax. The sus- dropping his sticks aimlessly and walking away from the drum set. That is largely the effect of the coda. The soloists, saxophones, and the rhythm section strike the downbeat and fall off while the brass acknowledge the downbeat and sustain a moderately quiet, ambiguous minor- major tonality, voiced densely in seconds and thirds, until cut off by the conductor. In summary, as the piece was composed largely intuitively, and the arrangement was fleshed out measure by measure as well, I am surprised to find this much structure and formal cohesion that could just as easily have been overtly intentional. Perhaps this shows that, in the context of a controlled vocabulary, the unconscious mind adheres to prin- ciples, even as one consciously explores new approaches. On a practical note, performing “Speaking of Apropos” brings much more to the table than I have discussed. Given the innovative nature of the improvised sections, the composition becomes tem- porarily collective and the soloists display a power of energy-control and musical development, however much this stems from the composed material. The improvisations really make this piece come alive, and each performance achieves a slightly different finished product.

For a closer look, Speaking of Apropos (CD4659) and Collected Compositions for Large Jazz Ensemble (M1366 .H132 2004) are in the Music Library collection.