irwin bazelon BAZZ MA TAZZ PERCUSSION AND MORE Cover: Collage by Susan Gross Dreuelt Special thanks to Virko Baley, TNC Records, Las Vegas for the use of Triple Play Produced and engineered by Adam Abeshouse; Edited by Silas Brown and Adam Abeshouse; Mastered by Adam Abeshouse Bazz Ma Tazz is taken from a recording made at the Aspen Music Festival, Harris Hall, August 18, 2007. The producer was Raymond Mase and the recording engineer was Riccardo Schulz. WWW.ALBANYRECORDS.COM TROY1089 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 © 2009 ALBANY RECORDS MADE IN THE USA DDD WARNING: COPYRIGHT SUBSISTS IN ALL RECORDINGS ISSUED UNDER THIS LABEL. The Composer The most recent orchestral performances have been with the American Composers Orchestra and the Jerusalem Symphony. The latter played Memories of a Winter Childhood, Leon Botstein conducting. The Albany Records recording, TROY101 is with the Vancouver Symphony, Harold Farberman conductor. Born in Evanston Illinois on June 4, 1922, Irwin Bazelon, nicknamed Bud, graduated from DePaul In the 2000 Fanfare’s Most Wanted List, reviewer Stephen Ellis said, “ The complete cycle of Irwin Bazelon’s University with both a bachelor’s and master’s degree in music. After studying composition with Paul symphonies is nearly complete and the Fourth Symphony is an astonishing achievement…at once wigged Hindemith at Yale for a short time, he went to Mills College in Oakland, California to work with Darius out and head-knocking in typical Bazelon manner.” (Albany Records TROY262, Rousse Philharmonic, Milhaud. In 1948 he moved to New York City. Harold Farberman, conductor). In his early years in New York, Bazelon supported himself by scoring documentaries, art films and Also in same issue of Fanfare critic William Zagorski wrote, “Irwin Bazelon is a splendid composer— theatrical productions. During the 1950’s and 1960’s he composed more than 50 scores of this kind, one thoroughly classically trained but honed by the exigencies of the musical commercial world. I cite which proved to be invaluable preparation for his orchestral music. A long-time horse racing enthusiast, that fact not as a criticism but as a virtue. Like Haydn, he knew the importance of engaging an audience, one of his best-known works Churchill Downs Concerto is named for the home of the Kentucky Derby, and like that Austrian master he also understood the importance of finding and exploiting a universally and his ninth symphony (subtitled Sunday Silence for the 1989 Derby winner) is dedicated to the horse. acceptable classical language. Like Haydn, he also knew, deep in his gut, the need to push the envelope. Sunday Silence for Solo Piano, (Albany Records, TROY602, Scott Dunn soloist) preceded the orchestral This release not only underscores those points, but does so extraordinarily well…The results are revelatory.” version (TROY174, Bournemouth Symphony, Harold Farberman, conductor). Bazelon’s percussion writing is known and performed In a small way the race track helped launch Bazelon’s symphonic career. With money from a big win by percussionists the world over and is truly unique. at Aqueduct racetrack, he recorded a concert ballet with 16 members of the New York Philharmonic, the With this compact disc Albany Records continues its tape of which led directly to his conducting his Short Symphony No. 2 (subtitled Testament to a Big City) commitment to present Bazelon works (the sixth since with the National Symphony in Washington D.C. in 1962. This was his major orchestral debut. his death) and the first to be devoted solely to chamber In 1960 he married artist Cecile Gray. On their Paris honeymoon they bought a Yorkshire terrier, Mr. works with percussion being the binding element. Clem, named for one of Bud’s favorite racehorses. With Mr. Clem’s demise at age 15, they acquired In a eulogy at his funeral fellow composer Richard Miss Clementine, half Llhaso-Apso and half Schnauzer. Both dogs were devoted to Bud and sat at his Rodney Bennett said “Buddy and his music were both feet while he composed. They often summered in the Hamptons and in 1990 bought a small house in totally unpredictable, one never knew what thought was Sagaponack. They continued to reside in New York but eventually divided their time between the city and coming next, even if one was familiar with some of his the country. Bud is buried in the Evergreen Cemetery in Sagaponack, Long Island. characteristic states of mind…Both the man and his The Bazelon archives are housed in the Library of Congress. Irwin Bazelon-A Bio-bibliography by David music were profoundly eccentric, in the best and most Harold Cox, Dean of Music at University College Cork, Ireland was published by Greenwood Press in 2000. fascinating sense. He was absolutely uncompromising All told, Irwin Bazelon composed nine symphonies and more than 60 orchestral, chamber and instru- and entirely original both as a man and a composer.” mental pieces that have have been performed throughout the United States and Europe. He was working on his tenth symphony, from which Prelude to Hart Crane’s ‘The Bridge’ was performed and recorded in 1992 (Albany Records, TROY101, Chicago String Ensemble, Alan Heatherington. conductor). The Music Three Men on a Dis-Course for Clarinet, Cello and Solo Percussion (1979) This piece is intended to be a light-hearted romp and a form of dialogue between the percussion on one hand and the clarinet and the cello on the other and is hopefully a fun piece, both for the performers and the audience. Quintessentials for Flute, Clarinet, Marimba, Percussion and Bass (1983) Quintessentials is the latest in a series of chamber works featuring instruments not normally in association. There are three independent but interrelated soloists. As in all my music, prominence of musical line depends on Performers are both protagonists and antagonists, sometimes accompanists and other time soloists, and dynamic, impact accents, phrasing, color, contrast and the general character of the music. There are twelve-tone frequently work against each other. Prominence of musical line depends on dynamics, phrasing, contrast, elements and jazz fragments in my music, neither strict nor formal. instrumental color and the general character of the score. Jazz elements often appear, marked by special —Irwin Bazelon accents and rhythmic variety. Commissioned by Meyer Kupferman. First performance by him on clarinet; David Moore, cello; Jeff Krauss, percussion —Irwin Bazelon in Carnegie Recital Hall, New York, New York, April 8, 1989. Commissioned by the New York Quintet. First performance by them at the Peabody Conservatory of Music, Baltimore, Bazz Ma Tazz for 12 Trombone and 6 Percussion (1993) Maryland, November 3, 1983. Irwin Bazelon’s music is characterized by a restless, tense, dynamic energy rooted in the rhythmic pulse of the Double Crossings (Duo for Trumpet and Percussion) (1976) city. It is not surprising to find one of the most interesting aspects of his musical language is its exploitation Double Crossings is essentially a dialogue between trumpet and groups of percussion sounds (pitch against of rhythm. The nervous energy that imbues Bazelon’s music is produced by a rhythmic style of a breadth and non-pitch, rhythm against melodic contour) in which both instruments function as protagonists and antagonists. sophistication that calls to mind great masters of rhythmic freedom in the 20th century such as Bartok and The natural tension existing between brass and percussion is heightened by changes in tempo, dynamics and Varèse. Bazelon’s music is built on rhythmic propulsion, not by employing regular ostinato patterns, but by the color—in the case of the trumpet by utilizing different mutes and in the case of the percussion by alternating juxtaposition of all the rhythmic elements possible within the metronomic frame. The result is a challenging timbre—membrane, wood and steel sounds. rhythmic idiom, wide-ranging in the content and the diversity of mood it can create. —Irwin Bazelon As one might expect from the range and variety of his rhythmic language, he writes very effectively for per- cussion. Another important facet of Bazelon’s style is his sensitivity in the quality of sound as revealed by the First performance: Gerard Schwarz, trumpet and Morris Lang, percussion, Carnegie Recital Hall, New York, New York; many imaginative ways he finds to create new and effective combinations of sound. Performance instructions Rolf Smedvig, trumpet and Frank Epstein, percussion, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts, December 5, 1976. are always very precise: Bazelon knows exactly what sound he wants and how to achieve it. His expertise in Partnership for Timpani and Marimba (1980) controlling the medium of sound is the result of a lifetime of experience of using limited resources to the full in Partnership is a musical dialogue between timpani and marimba. Each instrument has its own solos and virtuoso his composition of music for documentary film scores. The resourcefulness in exploiting instrumental color is techniques. In the case of the marimba, the performer utilizes two mallets in each hand, playing chords, com- combined with a thorough exploration of the expressive potential in memorable thematic material, which, though plicated passages, and counterpoint between the top and bottom registers. basically simple is often given an extensive and complex treatment in the course of the work. His is an original The work is lyrical, not dramatic, in spite of certain rhythmic interjections that occur from time to time. musical language whose “alterations of mood, color and dramatic flair are a direct expression of the constant Prominence of instrumentation is determined by dynamics, phrasing and general character of the music, which changes of pace, the rhythmic beat of life in a big metropolis.” is often subdued, light and somewhat “will-o’ the wisp.” —from notes by David Harold Cox —Irwin Bazelon Commissioned by Frank Epstein.