FESTIVAL OF AMERICAN CONTEMPORARY MUSIC at Rice University November 2-7, 1986 FESTNALOF 2 A Message from Michael Hammond AMERICAN Dean, Shepherd School of Music CONTEMPORARY 3 A Message from Nancy Clarke MUSIC Executive Director, AT American Music Center RICE UNNERSilY 4 Schedule of Concerts and Events November 2-7, 1986 tO Biographies of Composers and Performers 18 Performing Organizations 25 A Partial List of Twentieth Century American Compositions Performed from 1975-1986 by the Shepherd School of Music 28 Acknowledgements A Message from Michael Hammond Dean, Shepherd School of Music This week's activities at the Shepherd School constitute one of the most ambitious festivals of new American music in the nation. We are proud to offer these seven programs in observance of American Music Week, and we are grateful to the many colleagues and collaborators who have worked with us over the past year in bringing all these concerts into being. A mutual devotion to fine music by living composers has inspired these efforts. Indeed, a number of the composers heard in this Festival are living among us here in Houston or elsewhere in Texas. We celebrate this fact and look to our own with special pride during this week. The myriad ways in which the music of these composers is woven into the rich fabric of Twentieth Century American writing will be apparent to our audiences. So will the endless links and family resemblances between these pieces and the unbroken tradition of European (and now Asian) music as well. We extend our gratitude too to the performers from beyond the Shepherd School who have joined us in these events. Most of them have had long and distinguished associations with various composers and works of our own time. Music continues to live because it continues to claim the full attention of living compositional imaginations and living artists who will labor to under­ stand and project the offerings of those imaginations. But equally, the tradi­ tion lives because there are listeners who wish to hear what is being said in their own time. May this Festival of American Contemporary Music at Rice University be an adventure for us all. Welcome. 2 A Message from Nancy Clarke Executive Director American Music Center On behalf of the American Music Center, I congratulate the organizers of the Festival of American Contemporary Music at Rice University. We are particularly pleased that the Festival is taking place in conjunction with American Music Week 1986. During American Music Week, all of America celebrates our living compos­ ers and performers of our country's contemporary music. American Music Week represents a continuing effort by the American Music Center and others throughout the nation to focus attention on the work of America's composers, to celebrate the quality and diversity of our music, and to stimu­ late performances of contemporary music. Through the work of all of us involved in American music, the music of America's composers will be heard. To be successful, American Music Week must involve the talents and exper­ tise of activists working locally and statewide. The fine work of Mary Duren and Robert Rodriguez of the Texas Composers Forum and Tom Littman of Rice University have made the success of American Music Week assured in Texas this year. 3 Schedule of Concerts and Events SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 2 4:00 p.m., Hamman Hall CAMBIATA .SOLOISTS PAUL COOPER Winter Poems Text by C.E. Cooper I. Dull sky drop your blinding soothing blanket II . Old tree men .. Ill. Naked before my mirror in the morning IV. Even the broken fences are beautiful V. The wonder of this icy splendor world SUMIYO ENDER, soprano AMY WINN, flute MARTHA BURWELL, harp ANITA LEMON, dancer/choreographer MARVIN FEINSMITH No'ach (text from Genesis) I. Chapter VI, Verses 5-9, 14-15, 17 II. Chapter VII , Verses 11-12,18, 21-23, Chapter VIII, Verses 1-4 Ill. Chapter VIII , Verses 6-12 IV. Chapter VIII , Verses 15-17, 21-22, Chapter IX, Verses 1, 9-11, 13, 16 ISABELLE GANZ, mezzo-soprano AMY WINN, piccolo and alto flute MARTHA BURWELL, harp RICHARD BROWN, percussion DAVIDCOLSON, percussion DEAN DALTON, narrator ARTHUR GOTTSCHALK, technical advisor INTERMISSION ARTHUR GOTTSCHALK Ragtime (World Premiere) * Text by Anal's Nin ISABELLE GANZ, mezzo-soprano DAVID TEASDALE, clarinet STEVE ESTES, cello CHRISTINE SCHAFFER, piano ARTHUR GOTTSCHALK, technical advisor RUSSELL PECK Liftoff RICHARD BROWN, percussion DAVID COLSON, percussion RIELY FRANCIS, percussion *Commissioned by CAMBIATA SOLOISTS. This concert is funded in part by a grant from the City of Hou·ston through the Cultural Arts Council of Houston. 4 SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 2 8:00 p.m., 60th Floor, TEXAS COMPOSERS FORUM Transco Tower 2800 Post Oak Blvd. Benefit concert for "Meet the Composer" Grant Program KARL KORTE The Birds of Aeroratoa I. Song - The Kokako II. ·Dance- The Bellbird CHARLES SEPOS Breathless LAURA HUNTER, soprano saxophone RICHARD LAVENDA The Weary Man Whispers DAVID PELTON, tenor PIERROT PLUS ensemble DAVID COLSON, conductor INTERMISSION CINDY McTEE Chord (Solo flute music in five movements) MARILYN MEAD, flute MARK WARHOL What's With Sam? (Shirley's Aria from the opera Sam) LYNN GRIEBLING, soprano HENRI-PAUL SICSIC, piano MARK CLINTON, piano ROBERT XAVIER RODRIGUEZ Tango di Tango ROBERT XAVIER RODRIGUEZ, piano MARY DUREN, accordian BRIAN DEAN, violin 5 55~ '3£_/(_3 S50 MONDAY, NOVEMBER 3 SHEPHERD SCHOOL 8:00 p.m., Hamman Hall SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA HAROLD FARBERMAN, guest conductor PAUL COOPER Symphony in Two Movements I. Largo II. Molto allegro INTERMISSION GUSTAV MAHLER Symphony No. 1 I. Langsam Schleppend II. Kraftig Bewegt Ill. Feierlich und gemessen, ohne zu schleppen IV. StOrmisch bewegt 6 TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 4 SYZYGY: 8:00 p.m., Hamman Hall New Music at Rice ARTHUR GOTTSCHALK Heavy Metal SHEPHERD SCHOOL HONORS BRASS QUINTET DAVID COLSON Intaglios I. (to William Hibbard) II. (to Charles Owen) Ill. (to Thomas L. Davis) IV. (to George Burt) DAVID COLSON, vibraharp HAROLD FARBERMAN Shapings 1: J = 60 II. J = 104 Ill. J = 76 IV. J = 96 PIERROT PLUS ensemble HAROLD FARBERMAN, guest conductor ROBERT OLSON, English horn INTERMISSION GEORGE BURT Exit Music Ill PIERROT PLUS ensemble DAVID COLSON, conductor ELLSWORTH MILBURN Spiritus Mundi Text by C.E. Cooper I. Pluto II. Venus Ill. Mars LYNN GRIEBLING, soprano PIERROT PLUS ensemble DAVID COLSON, conductor 7 WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 5 ROBERT WARD, piano 4:00p.m. Lecture Recital Shepherd School Rehearsal Hall "East Meets West: The Gamelan Music of John Cage" Origins of an Idea Philosophy and Aesthetic The Gamelan Orchestra The Prepared Piano Performance JOHN CAGE Sonatas and Interludes· (1946-1948) ) s N\ THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 6 a6 ~ !1.~ 8:00 p.m., Hamman Hall /() } r RICE JAZZ ENSEMBLE lJ\ t KEN DYE, director LARRY SLEZAK, saxophone THEA MARTIN, vocalist MALCOLM HARRIS, trumpet JOHN LA BARBARA Doodlin' MATT HARRIS Mira Mira BILL HOLMAN Flirt SAMMY NESTICO 88-Basie Street LES HOOPER Killer Joe Arranged by MALCOLM HARRIS Don't Rain on My Parade TOM DOSSETT Never Ending Blues 8 FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 7 8:00 p.m., Hamman Hall LAURA HUNTER, saxophone M. WILLIAM KARLINS Impromptu (World Premiere)* Giocoso con abbandono Luttuoso Con energia PETER MALEITZKE, piano RODNEY ROGERS The Nature of This Whirling Wheel*t PETER MALEITZKE, piano PAUL COOPER Variants IV (World Premiere)* Tema: Molto adagio Tempestoso Tranquillo Semplice Dramatico Tranquillo diventando tempestos Tema: Molto adagio BRIAN CONNELLY, piano INTERMISSION HENRY BRANT Concerto for Alto Saxophone and Nine Instruments I. Con brio II. Sostenuto Ill. Ritmico, ironico PIERROT PLUS ensemble HENRY BRANT, guest conductor *Commissioned by the National Endowment for the Arts Consortium Commissioning Program. tSimultaneous World Premiere witr1 Lawrence University New Music Ensemble, Appleton, Wisconsin. Photographing and sound recording are prohibited. We further request that audible paging devices not be used during the performance. Paging arrangements may be made with the ushers. 9 •HENRY BRANT. one of the pioneer com­ American Academy and Institute of Arts posers of 20th century "spatial music", was and Letters in 1968, and to the American born in Montreal in 1913. In 1929 he moved Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1978. He to New York and for the next 20 years he has been a Fellow of the Centers for Ad­ composed and conducted music for radio, vanced Studies at Wesleyan University and films, ballet and jazz groups, also compos­ at the University of Illinois, and Composer­ ing experimentally for the concert hall. In in-Residence at the University of Cincinnati 1950 he began to write spatial music of a and the University of California at Davis. He particular kind, in which the positioning of was Regent's Lecturer at the University of the performers throughout the hall, as well California at San Diego (1980). Recent com­ as on stage, is an essential element in the missions include Thirty Pieces for Five Orches­ composing plan. This procedure, which tras (1981) for the Orchestra de Lorraine and limits and defines the highly contrasted the Centre Europeen pour Ia Recherche music assigned to each performing group, Musicale, and Dance/4 Orchestras (1981) for derives from concepts of Charles lves. the.19_82 Cabrillo Festival, Aptos, California. Brant's principal works since 1950 are all Cage is the author of Silence (1961 ). AYear spatial; these comprise over 50 composi­ from Monday (1968), M (1973) , Empty Words tions, each for a different combination of (197-9), all published by the Weslayan Uni­ instruments/ voices, and each requiring a versity Press; Notations (with Alison Knowles, different spatial arrangement of the per­ 1969) published by Something Else Press; formers in the auditorium. Brant's music Writings through Finnegans Wake, published has been widely performed and recorded in 6.GEORGE BURT. who was born in 1929 in by Printed Editions (1979) ; For the Birds this country and abroad, and his long San Francisco, received degrees in compo­ (Conversations with Daniel Charles) (1981) career has been recognized by numerous sition from the University of California in published by Marian Soyars; Another Song awards and honors, including two Guggen­ Berkeley, Mills College and Princeton.