American Masterpieces Chamber Music Different Drums Seattle’s “Drums Along the Pacific” festival pays tribute to three American originals John Cage rehearsing a percussion ensemble, early 1940s. Third in an ongoing series spotlighting n December of 1938, Seattle’s Cornish School of the Arts hosted an epochal musical performances supported by the NEA’s event: America’s first percussion concert. The performance was the brainchild of John American Masterpieces: ICage, then on Cornish’s faculty, and Lou Harrison, who taught summer sessions there. Chamber Music initiative The original players weren’t all professional musicians; the group also included dancers and eurhythmic instructors. (Cornish has a rich modern-dance tradition; it was there that The current March–April calendar of Cage met his lifelong companion, Merce Cunningham.) The instruments ranged from American Masterpieces activities Asian gongs to automobile brake drums. It was an altogether unusual undertaking, can be seen on the opposite page. Some indicative of Cornish’s status as a hotbed of the avant-garde. of the works being performed are Cage and Harrison had sent out a call to fellow composers for new percussion scores— acknowledged American classics, others most notably to their onetime teacher Henry Cowell, then in jail on a trumped-up morals are worthy but little known and rarely charge, who responded with two percussion scores, along with the finale for a Cornish performed, and still others are very production of a Cocteau play. (“Why is it more reprehensible to write for four percussion recent commissions. instruments than for two violins, viola and ’cello?” wrote Cowell in 1940.) The next year, the ensemble widened its influence by going on tour. Titled “Drums Along the Pacific,” the tour visited universities throughout the Pacific Northwest. 10 march/april 2009 When Paul Taub heard about the American Masterpieces NEA’s American Masters: Chamber Music Performances in program, his mind immediately jumped Chamber Music March and April to the Drums Along the Pacific move- ment. Taub, flutist on the faculty of what 2009 is now known as Cornish College of the MARCH 2 PRESENTER: Cantus PROGRAM: Lux Aurumque, Eric Whitacre; Variations; Michael Daugherty, Sinatra Shag PERFORMERS Arts, hit upon the idea of a festival pay- Shall I Compare Thee, Stephen Paulus; A Sound Like (Cube Ensemble): Lawrence Axelrod, keyboards/conduc- ing tribute to the two key figures of the This (a new commission), Edie Hill; The Turning (a new tor; Caroline Pittman, flute; Douglas Brush, percussion; commission), Maura Bosch; There Is Sweet Music, Daniel Dane Richeson, percussion; Christie Miller, clarinets; original tour—Cage and Harrison—along Gawthrop; Oolichan – Sliammon chant arr., Stephen Janice Misurell-Mitchell, flute/voice; Patricia Morehead, with their mentor Cowell. “This project Hatfield; Deep River African Spiritual arranged, Harry T. oboe/English horn; Phil Morehead, keyboards/conductor almost seemed to have an ‘American Burleigh; Witness an African Spiritual arranged, Moses www.cubeeensemble.com Masters’ stamp on it,” Taub says. Hogan PERFORMERS: Cantus www.cantusonline.org MARCH 29 Cedar Falls/Waterloo, IA Taking place March 26–29, the 2009 MARCH 11 St. Paul, MN PRESENTER: University of Northern Iowa PERFORMER: Cantus See March 2 “Drums Along the Pacific” festival, seeded PRESENTER: Zeitgeist PROGRAM: Terry Riley, John Cage, and Frederic Rzewski PERFORMERS: Zeitgeist ensemble: Heather APRIL 2 New York, NY by NEA funds, evokes a crucial moment Barringer, percussion; Patti Cudd, woodwinds; Pat O’Keefe; PRESENTER: Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center not just in Cornish’s history, but also in percussion Shannon Wettstein, piano www.zeitgeist.org PROGRAM: Verge, Sebastian Currier; Necronomicon, John American music. The event includes four MARCH 14 Seattle, WA Zorn PERFORMERS: Inon Barnatan, piano; Erin Keefe, Yoon Kwon, Arnaud Sussmann, violins; Richard O’Neill, viola; concerts, including a two-part “John Cage PRESENTER: Music of Remembrance PROGRAM: Ghetto Fred Sherry, cello; Tara Helen O’Connor, flute; Jose marathon” and a closing performance by Songs (MOR Commission), Paul Schoenfield PERFORMERS: Morgan Smith, baritone; Angela Niederloh, mezzo- Franch-Ballester, clarinet www.chambermusicsociety.org/ a Javanese gamelan, along with lectures soprano; David Klein, narrator; Mikhail Shmidt, violin; calendar/179/2008-09_chron_season and reminiscences about the three com- Laurie DeLuca, clarinet; Walter Gray, cello; Jonathan APRIL 2 & 5 Milwaukee, WI Green, double bass; Mark Salman, piano posers. The plan is to take the festival on PRESENTER: University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee www.musicofremembrance.org the road, replicating the route of the orig- PROGRAM: American Sounds Project: “Unruly Music”—a inal Drums Along the Pacific tour. MARCH 16 St. Paul, MN residency featuring compositions by sfSound members and UWM composition students. PERFORMERS: sfSound The latest Drums Along the Pacific PRESENTER: Zeitgeist St. Paul, MN PROGRAM: Pieces written for Zeitgeist by John Cage, Terry Riley, and Frederic Rzewski (core group: Kyle Bruckmann, oboe; ma++ ingalls, clar- inet; John Ingle, saxophone; Christopher Jones, piano, endeavor differs from the original in some PERFORMERS: Zeitgeist (Heather Barringer, percussion; important aspects. While composers like Patti Cudd, woodwinds; Pat O’Keefe; percussion; bassoon, conductor; Monica Scott, cello; Erik Ulman, violin) Ray Green and Gerald Strang contributed Shannon Wettstein, piano) www.spiritofthetimes.org APRIL 17 & 19 New York NY to the original concerts, the current MARCH 25 New York, NY PRESENTER: Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center PROGRAM: Knickknacks and Piano Quartet No. 3, by George incarnation concentrates exclusively on PRESENTER: Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center Tsontakis PERFORMERS: Opus One Piano Quartet (Anne- Guarneri String Quartet and Johannes Quartet PROGRAM: the works of Cage, Cowell, and Harrison. Passing Through (NY premiere), Derek Bermel; Octet: Marie McDermott, piano; Ida Kavafian, violin; Steven Tenenbom, viola; Peter Wiley, cellist) www.chambermusic It includes not just their work of the late Double Quartet (NY premiere), William Bolcom PERFORMERS: 1930s and early ’40s, but also music from Guarneri String Quartet (Arnold Steinhardt, John Dalley, society.org/calendar/179/2008-09_chron_season violins; Michael Tree, viola; Peter Wiley, cello); Johannes APRIL 18 Santa Fe, NM throughout their careers. The percussion- String Quartet (Soovin Kim, violin; Jessica Lee, violin; ists are all professionals, and this time Choong-Jin “C.J.” Chang, viola; Peter Stumpf, cello) Steiren Hall; Santa Fe Opera around they’re joined by other instru- www.chambermusicsociety.org/calendar/179/2008- PRESENTER: Santa Fe New Music PROGRAM: Paul Moravec: 09_chron_season The Time Gallery; Useful Knowledge (A Franklin Fantasy) mentalists, including the Seattle Chamber PERFORMERS: David Felberg, violin; Cherokee Randolph, Players. (Taub is a founding member.) MARCH 26–29 Seattle, WA viola; Sally Guenther, cello; Carol Redman, flute; Melissa Despite these differences, percussion PRESENTER: Cornish College of the Arts PROGRAM: Pena, oboe; James Shields, clarinet; David Tolen, per- “Drums Along the Pacific”: an homage to the legendary cussion; Lydia Brown, piano; John Boehr, baritone instruments are still at the center of the percussion concerts organized by Cage and Harrison in APRIL 18 SeatA tle, W events—a circumstance that has presented the Pacific Northwest in the 1940s. PERFORMERS: Pacific PRESENTER: Music of Remembrance PROGRAM: Steve Reich, a daunting challenge to the organizers, Rims Percussion Quartet, pianist Steven Drury, tenor John Duykers, the Seattle Chamber Players, and Dif ferent Trains; Daniel Asia, Breath in a Ram’s Horn since most of the original instruments no Gamelan Pacifica. http://arts.cornish.edu/calendar PERFORMERS: Ross Hauck, tenor; Mina Miller, piano longer exist. “We’ve done a lot of exploring www.musicofremembrance.org MARCH 29 Chicago, IL in trying to find the instruments,” says APRIL 25 Danbury, CT Gottlieb Hall, Merit School of Music PRESENTER: Western Connecticut State University PRO- Matthew Kocmieroski, co-artistic director PRESENTER: Cube Contemporary Chamber Ensemble GRAM: Amy Beach, Quintet for Flute; Laura Kaminsky of the festival, and a member of the par- PROGRAM: Henry Cowell, Quartet for flute, oboe, cello and (premiere); Joan Tower, String Quartet No. 3 PERFORMERS: harpsichord; Joan Tower, Petroushkates; Bruce Saylor, ticipating Pacific Rims Percussion Quartet. Manhattan String Quartet (Eric Lewis, violin; Calvin new work for violin, viola, clarinet, cello and piano; Laurel Wiersma, violin; John Dexter, viola; Chris Finckel, cello) Brake drums, for example, changed forever Firant, Dance for violin and piano; George Crumb, Gnomic American Masterpieces Chamber Music when World War II depleted the supply of any of its solo parts added high-quality steel; the originals, Kocmieroski or subtracted, even multi- says, “sound like church bells when you hit plied through recordings. them on the side.” The organizers combed (The festival’s March 28 junk shops, flea markets and garage sales performance will feature finding pre-World War II Chinese gongs all three soloists.) in antique shops and tam-tams that be- “Like a lot of John’s work,” longed to retired drummers. Kocmieroski says, “it has a The scores themselves present their very strong sensibility and own archival difficulties. Some of the