Suite for Percussion Concerto for Four Percussion Soloists and Symphonic Wind Ensemble Encounters VI: Concertino for Roto-Toms & Percussion Quartet Encounters IX Earplay | Mary Chun, conductor New England Conservatory Wind Ensemble | Frank Battisti, conductor New England Conservatory Percussion Ensemble | Frank Epstein, conductor Craig Mc Nutt, Roto Toms Marshall Taylor, saxophone Don Liuzzi, percussion VintageWILLIAM KRAFT WWW.ALBANYRECORDS.COM and beyond TROY1157 ALBANY RECORDS U.S. 915 BROADWAY, ALBANY, NY 12207 TEL: 518.436.8814 FAX: 518.436.0643 ALBANY RECORDS U.K. BOX 137, KENDAL, CUMBRIA LA8 0XD TEL: 01539 824008 © 2010 ALBANY RECORDS MADE IN THE USA DDD WARNING: COPYRIGHT SUBSISTS IN ALL RECORDINGS ISSUED UNDER THIS LABEL. the Contemporary Record Society competition; commissions from the Library of Congress, U.S. Air Force The Composer Band, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Kronos Quartet, Voices of Change, the Schoenberg Institute, consortium William Kraft (b. 1923, Chicago) has had a long and active career as composer, conductor, timpanist/ of Speculum Musicae/San Francisco Contemporary Music Players/ Contemporary Music Forum, The Boston percussionist and teacher. He is Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where Pops Orchestra, consortium of Pacific Symphony/Spokane Symphony/Tucson Symphony, the Los Angeles he served for 11 years (1991–2002) as Chairman of the Composition Department and Corwin Professor Philharmonic, among others. His works have been performed by the New York Philharmonic, San Francisco of Music Composition. Mr. Kraft had previously been a member of the Los Angeles Philharmonic for 26 Symphony, Boston Symphony, Chicago and Philadelphia Orchestras, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and years; eight years as percussionist, and 18 as Principal Timpanist. For three seasons, he was also assistant other major American orchestras as well as in Europe, Japan, Korea, China, Australia, Israel, and the U.S.S.R. conductor of the orchestra, and thereafter, frequent guest conductor. In 1981 Ernest Fleischmann, the Mr. Kraft’s Contextures: Riots—Decade ‘60 (1967) has been choreographed and performed by both the executive director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, appointed William Kraft to be Composer-in-Residence, Scottish National Ballet and the Minnesota Dance Company. In 1986, United Air Lines commissioned a which for one year was under the auspices of the Philharmonic and taken over for the next three years work expressly to accompany a lumetric sculpture by Michael Hayden titled Sky’s the Limit for their by the Meet the Composer program. A major part of the program was to serve as founding director of the pedestrian passageway at Chicago-O’Hare International Airport. In November 1990, Mr. Kraft was inducted orchestra’s performing arm for contemporary music, the Philharmonic New Music Group. Also included into the Hall of Fame of the Percussive Arts Society. were commissions for both the orchestra and the New Music Group. Compact Discs completely devoted to Mr. Kraft’s music can be found on Harmonia Mundi, CRI, Mr. Kraft was awarded two Anton Seidl Fellowships at Columbia University, graduating with a Cambria, Albany, Crystal and Nonesuch labels. Other works can be found on GM, Crystal, London Decca bachelor’s degree magna cum laude in 1951, and a master’s degree in composition. His principal instructors and Neuma. were Jack Beeson, Seth Bingham, Henry Brant, Henry Cowell, Erich Hertzmann, Paul Henry Lang, Otto Luening, and Vladimir Ussachevsky. He received his training in percussion from Morris Goldenberg and in timpani from Saul Goodman, and studied conducting with Rudolph Thomas and Fritz Zweig. The Music During his early years in Los Angeles, he organized and directed the Los Angeles Percussion Ensemble, Vintage Renaissance and Beyond (2005) a group which played a vital part in premieres and recordings of works by such renowned composers as “Beyond” in the title refers to going into the past beyond the renaissance into the Middle Ages and also Ginastera, Harrison, Krenek, Stravinsky, and Varese. Kraft served as Stravinsky’s timpanist and percus- moving forward into the 21st century for this setting. sionist in charge of all percussion activities for the composer’s Los Angeles performances and recordings. What has always attracted me to early music was the directness and clarity of expression as opposed As a percussion soloist, he performed in the American premieres of Stockhausen’s Zyklus and Boulez’ to the dramatic and emotionally laden works in the 19th century repertory. Also, the combination of different Le Marteau sans Maitre, in addition to recording Histoire du soldat under Stravinsky’s direction. instruments thus offering a multitude of colors, plus the use of small ensembles, spoke directly to the Mr. Kraft has received numerous awards and commissions, including two Kennedy Center Friedheim 20th century (and beyond!) Pierrot Lunaire of Schoenberg and Histoire du Soldat of Stravinsky. Awards; two Guggenheim Fellowships; two Ford Foundation commissions; fellowships from the Huntington Nothing in the three pieces on which Vintage Renaissance and Beyond is based has been altered. Hartford Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts; the American Academy and Institute of In Danza Alta written by Francesco de la Torre (1483-1504), the piccolo plays the entire tune with Arts and Letters Music Award; the Norlin/MacDowell Fellowship; the Club 100 Distinguished Artist of comments by the viola, and, occasionally, with the other strings. The rest of the ensemble joins in and Los Angeles Award, the ASCAP Award; the NACUSA Award; the Eva Judd O’Meara Award; first place in gradually draws the music into the 21st century where fragments of the tune are exploited. Danza Alta is the only instrumental piece of the 12 or so surviving works by Francesco, the rest My solution was to add two movements that were not pedagogical and title the work Suite for being secular or sacred vocal music. Percussion. As Suite for Percussion, there are five movements: 1.) Fanfare; 2.) Andante; 3.) Ostinato; Hildegard von Bingen’s antiphon O rubor sanguinis is found in the large work 11,000 Virgins, 4.) Toccata and 5.) Cadenza. (1, 3 and 4 begin the original Suite for Weatherkings). As such, the piece chants for the Feast of St. Ursula. I felt it would be a violation to do anything but state the chant as it was premiered on November 6, 1961. was written. Therefore, it is set in a statement-response structure. Phrases of the chant are stated in unison, followed by responses from the ensemble. Concerto for Four Percussion Soloists and Symphonic Wind Ensemble (1995) On the other hand, the Bransle, whose composer is unknown, invites tinkering. It is a rather bawdy The Concerto is transcribed from the original version for orchestra. Wind instruments, including brass, piece that one can readily imagine hearing it played by the shawm, the precursor to the oboe that played a strong part in the orchestral version, so much so that when Erich Leinsdorf performed the work arrived in Europe from the near east in the 12th century. In France, where it originated, it was also with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, he arranged the orchestra seating so that the winds were brought called “branle.” In Italy “brando,” but in England by any of three names: “brawl, brall, brangill.” forward and the strings pushed back. Therefore it was quite natural to do a transcription for wind Bransle is harmonized primarily with the interval of the fifth, characteristic of the period. When ensemble. The Concerto for Four Percussionists and Orchestra was written in 1964 and premiered the tune is completely stated, it is joined by Danza Alta. The two play together and then as if being March 10, 1966 by Zubin Mehta and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. The wind ensemble version was played by two minstrels wandering off into the forest (or wherever), Vintage Renaissance and Beyond recorded and premiered February 20th and 21, 1997 by the New England Conservatory Wind Ensemble comes to a quiet conclusion. conducted by Frank L. Battisti. The structure is the conventional three-movement concerto form, differing in that the first movement Suite for Percussion (1961) is slow and the second fast. The first movement features expressive solos by glockenspiel, vibraphone, The Suite for Percussion was originally commissioned by Remo Belli as a three movement work titled graduated drums and timpani against a light accompaniment in the ensemble. This is a way of saying Suite for Weatherkings, “Weahterkings” being his brand name for plastic drum heads. Mr. Belli realized “percussion can be beautiful.” the potential for the plastic mylar as drumheads, particularly as not being subject to the effects of The second movement rides on a jazz-like ostinato stemming from the way Count Basie’s drummer humidity, a constant problem for percussionists. From what could be considered a cottage industry, Jo Jones would reverse the hi-hat rhythm. The middle section for percussion alone was written first to Weatherking” has mushroomed into an enormous company simply called Remo now making a large guarantee an idiomatic character. Then pitches were set to the rhythms thus creating the first section. variety of percussion instruments distributed throughout the world. The third movement cadenza and variations, opens with a brief dialogue between timpani and tuba, My publisher at that time refused to publish music with a brand name in the title. Thus Suite after which the timpani plays the cadenza, which sets off the 12 variations that follow. The variations are for Weatherkings remained unpublished until Lawrence Morton, director of the well known Monday set in pairs wherein each states the variation and then in the succeeding variation the percussion responds. Evening Concerts, wanted to program my percussion music, of which only one other piece, the Theme and Variations for Percussion Quartet, existed. Encounters VI: Concertino for Roto-toms and Percussion (1976) I resisted.