University of California Berkeley Regional Oral History Office University of California The Bancroft Library Berkeley, California Composers of the Twentieth Century Oral History Series Andrew Imbrie PORTRAIT OF A CONTEMPORARY COMPOSER With an Introduction by Robert P. Commanday Interviews Conducted by Caroline C. Crawford in 1998 and 1999 Copyright o 2000 by The Regents of the University of California Since 1954 the Regional Oral History Office has been interviewing leading participants in or well-placed witnesses to major events in the development of northern California, the West, and the nation. Oral history is a method of collecting historical information through tape-recorded interviews between a narrator with firsthand knowledge of historically significant events and a well- informed interviewer, with the goal of preserving substantive additions to the historical record. The tape recording is transcribed, lightly edited for continuity and clarity, and reviewed by the interviewee. The corrected manuscript is indexed, bound with photographs and illustrative materials, and placed in The Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley, and in other research collections for scholarly use. Because it is primary material, oral history is not intended to present the final, verified, or complete narrative of events. It is a spoken account, offered by the interviewee in response to questioning, and as such it is reflective, partisan, deeply involved, and irreplaceable. *************************** All uses of this manuscript are covered by a legal agreement between The Regents of the University of California and Andrew Imbrie dated June 23, 1998. The manuscript is thereby made available for research purposes. All literary rights in the manuscript, including the right to publish, are reserved to The Bancroft Library of the University of California, Berkeley. No part of the manuscript may be quoted for publication without the written permission of the Director of The Bancroft Library of the University of California, Berkeley. Requests for permission to quote for publication should be addressed to the Regional Oral History Office, 486 Bancroft Library, Mail Code 6000, University of California, Berkeley 94720-6000, and should include identification of the specific passages to be quoted, anticipated use of the passages, and identification of the user. The legal agreement with Andrew Imbrie requires that he be notified of the request and allowed thirty days in which to respond. It is recommended that this oral history be cited as follows: Andrew Imbrie, "Portrait of a Contemporary Composer," an oral history conducted in 1998 and 1999 by Caroline C. Crawford, Regional Oral History Office, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, 2000. Copy no. Andrew Imbrie at work, circa 1990. Cataloguing information IMBRIE, Andrew (b. 1921) Composer Portrait of a Contemporary Composer, 2000, ix, 241 pp. Early years, studies with Ann Abajian, Leo Ornstein, Olga Samaroff, Rosalyn Tureck; Paris and Nadia Boulanger, 1937; Roger Sessions, 1939-1946; education at Princeton, and UC Berkeley; Composer s Forum, 1946-1966: programming and commisions, critics, the California Quartet; fellow at American Academy in Rome, 1947-1949; comments on Elliott Carter, Robert Commanday, SF Symphony conductors; teaching at UC Berkeley, 1941-1991: Albert Elkus, Manfred Bukofzer, Joaquin Nin-Culmell, David Boyden, Griller Quartet, committee work, teaching theory; marriage to Barbara Cushing; the process of composing, Angle of Repose, Prometheus Bound; 1990s, teaching, Chicago, NYU, and festivals, Tanglewood, Sandpoint; thoughts on the contemporary music scene, awards, frustrations; Appendices include list of compositions, and "A Grain of Salt," "Is Experimentalism Dead?" and other writings by Imbrie. Introduction by Robert P. Commanday, Director, San Francisco Classical Voice and former music critic, San Francisco Chronicle. Interviewed 1998 and 1999 by Caroline Crawford for the Composers of the Twentieth Century Oral History Series, Regional Oral History Office, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. ACKNOWLEDGMENT The Regional Oral History Office, on behalf of future researchers, wishes to thank Mrs. Phyllis Wattis, whose generous contribution has made possible the Composers of the Twentieth Century Oral History Series. TABLE OF CONTENTS- -Andrew Imbrie PREFACE i INTRODUCTION by Robert P. Commanday iv INTERVIEW HISTORY by Caroline C. Crawford vii BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION ix I EARLY LIFE AND INFLUENCES; PARIS, BOULANGER AND STRAVINSKY: 1921-1939 1 Parents and Family 1 Music Studies with Ann Abajian, Leo Ornstein, Olga Samaroff, Rosalyn Tureck 3 Paris, 1937, and Nadia Boulanger 8 Meeting with Stravinsky 11 II STUDIES WITH ROGER SESSIONS: 1939-1946 14 First String Quartet, 1942 14 Sessions and Serialism 16 Military Service, 1942-1946 17 III STUDIES AT UC BERKELEY, 1946-1947, AND COMPOSER S FORUM 19 Sessions and Milhaud Schools 19 Composer s Forum, 1946-1966 21 Programming and Commissions for Composer s Forum 24 Associations with Other Composers 26 Remembering Roger Sessions 28 Composer s Forum and the Critics 30 The California Quartet and Other Forum Performers 32 Elliott Carter and the International Society for Contemporary Music 33 A Close Friendship with Robert Commanday 34 San Francisco Symphony and New Music: Monteux, Jorda, Krips, and de Waart 36 The Recording Industry and New Music 39 More About First and Second String Quartets; "Stealing from Bartok" 40 Funding New Music and More About Commissions 42 Two Years as a Fellow at the American Academy in Rome, 1947-1949 46 IV TEACHING AT UC BERKELEY: 1949-1991 55 Loyalty Oath Issues, 1949-1951 55 Remembering Albert Elkus, Joaquin Nin-Culmell, Manfred Bukofzer 56 Faculty Appointments 59 Weighing Performance against Scholarly and Creative Work; Noon Concerts 61 Musicologists vs. Composers and the Ph.D. in Composition 64 David Boyden and Ethnomusicology 68 The Griller Quartet 69 Committee Work at UC: Taking a Stand against Secrecy at the DC Labs 70 Thoughts about Teaching Composition; A Student s Thoughts about Becoming a Composer 74 The Teaching of Theory 77 Outstanding Music Department Alumni 79 Retirement, Music Students, and Advice to Young Composers 81 Marriage to Barbara Gushing and Family 85 V THE PROCESS OF COMPOSING 87 Finding the Central Idea 87 Importance of Architecture and Linear Thinking 89 Metrical Hierarchies 92 Mozart and Process: A Secure Musical Language 93 The Sonata Form and Commitment to a Basic Plan 95 Hearing One s Own Work Performed; and Quotations in Music 97 Angle of Repose, 1976: A Bicentennial Opera 99 Wagner, Writing a First Opera and Prometheus Bound 106 On Critics and Abstraction and Music 108 On the Choosing of Texts 111 VI OTHER TEACHING ASSIGNMENTS; FESTIVALS; EVALUATIONS 116 Visiting Professorships at the University of Chicago, 1996-1997, and New York University, 1995, and Princeton Associations 116 Postwar Avant-Garde Music at Princeton and the American Society of Composers at the Universities 121 Northwestern s School of Music, 1994 123 Festival Associations: Sandpoint, Idaho, 1989-1993 and Tanglewood, 1991; Gunther Schuller 124 McKim Fund Commissions 127 Music Journals 127 Thoughts on Evaluating One s Works 128 The Quartets 130 Composers and Their Audiences 132 Songs of Then and Now 133 The Composing Routine 137 VII THE CONTEMPORARY MUSIC SCENE; COMMUNICATION AND PROCESS 141 Shostakovich and Others 141 Music and Communication; More about the Quartets and the First Symphony 144 The Influence of Jazz 148 Awards and Panels 149 A Composer s Frustrations; A Conservative Backlash and Postmodernism 153 The Music Scene Today 154 APPENDIX A List of Compositions and Biographical Sketch 162 B "A Grain of Salt," by Andrew Imbrie, 1965 167 " C Expressive Behavior in Music," by Andrew Imbrie, from Conference on a Longitudinal Study of Expressive Behavior in the Arts, Jack Morrison, 1965 171 D "The Composer s Higher Learning," by Andrew Imbrie, 1970 174 E "Is Experimentalism Dead?", by Andrew Imbrie, 1978 179 F "Statement About My Music," by Andrew Imbrie, 1978 195 G "American Music In and Out of the Universities," contribution to the Einaudi Enciclopedia della Musica, 1978 196 H "Andy Imbrie on Writing Music," from 42 News, An occasional newsletter for the Princeton Class of 1942, September 1999 207 I Program notes; pencil worksheets and printed score of "Full Fathom Five," Songs of Then and Now, 1999 208 J Press Reviews (various) 224 INDEX 239 PREFACE The Composers of the Twentieth Century series of oral histories, a project of the Regional Oral History Office, was initiated in 1998 to document the lives and careers of a number of twentieth-century composers with significant California connections, the composers chosen to represent a cross section of musical philosophies, cultural backgrounds and education. The twentieth century in this country has produced an extraordinary disparity of musical styles and languages, resulting in controversy and even alienation between composers and audiences, as composers sought to find a path between contemporary and traditional musical languages: serialism, minimalism, neoclassicism, and back to some extent to neoromanticism in the last decades. The battle of styles was perhaps inevitable, as well as the reverse pendulum swing that has followed, but to quote a recent article in the New York Times,