the new musIc• newspaper no.2 october/november 1977 25c WITH AT LEAST ONE FOOT ON THE GROUND Thankyou for your support. Hill New Music Centre elicited endeavour. Page 5 deals with the The New Music Newspaper responses from several sources. Video Show at La Trobe Uni- appears to be a success. The first This debate begins on p. 6 and versity and on page 17 Alison issue of 600 has sold out except we think it is only beginning. Richards talks about her per- for a few copies we have retained Buy the next issue for the next formance piece "Women's Work". for' archival purposes. We now episode. In the next isslie Mick Banks and feel confident enough to offer Corinne d'Cruz, recent visitors postal subscriptions and informa- In the first issue's policy from the UK, will discuss their tion about that appears on p.19. statement we omitted to say that work during their stay her-e. we intend including articles on We would like to explain just activities other than those just Also in the next issue will what a bargain you are getting for musical. This reflects the ten- be a technology special with a your 25c. Needless to say all the dencies for New Music to converge few circuits for you to copy and writing, layout, distribution and and .blur with other fields of a discussion on composing with endless legwork necessary for the cassettes. As an extra Christmas appearance of the Newspaper is bonus we have received special provided voluntarily by a large permission to print Richard David number of people, but the type- Hames' Christmas Carols. The setting and printing cost for each February/March issue we hope to single copy is approximately 70c. be a bumper issue to coincide with We decided that to .facilitate the Australian Composers and distribution this was too high Performers Seminar to be held a price to ask and so we have here in Melbourne. undertaken to raise the extra 50c per copy. The La Trobe University Reflecting the wonderful res- Union Activities Committee has ponse we have had to the News- generously provided the subsidy paper, our little publication has for the first two issues. had to expand a little more to 20 pages. Still we haven't had enough One of the most gratifying space to print everything we successes of the Newspaper is wanted to. In particular apologies that, as we had hoped, it is foster- to Carolyn Thompson and Julia ing dialogue and contributing to Anderson whose scores will now a sense of community amongst appear in the next issue. musicians working in New Music. Yes, we are talking to one another. Warren Burt Ron Nagorcka's article on Clifton Les Gilbert. KEITH HUMBLE Piano Recital. Sept. 15. 8.15 pm mic outlet for the event seems to pronounced Bronx accent of Har- Assembly Hall, Collins St. have paid off as the Assembly Hall vey Matusow's coming from one Keith Humble performing works was almost full and the atmos- and the smooth Australian of Don by Werder, Kos, Humble and phere in the mock-antique hall Banks coming from the other. Crumb. was quite pleasant as a result. In Keith Humble's recital the shock of hearing normally obedi- The Don Banks piece 'Com- ent speakers discussing the audi- For those of us that thought mentary for Piano and Two ence and the pianist was lessened the days of .the piano 'as we know Channel Tape' was written for the by the fact that the whole ritual it' are numbered, Keith Humble English Bach Festival and the of the recital had been rendered gave his second annual piano piece makes more sense when it a little less daunting by Keith's recital in the Assembly Hall on is performed in the atmosphere informal method of concert-giving. 15 September. of an orthodox concert. I saw it He introduces each piece and performed in the rather grand seems to invite the audience to So it's getting to be a tradition environment of St Johns, Smith join him in the realisation of each which hopefully will continue Square during the festival and I composition. when Keith returns from Paris and remember being very surprised the U.S.A. next year. Booking a and amused by the conversation So this time it was the piano hall in the centre of Melbourne between the two loudspeakers writing which left the lasting instead of using a secluded acade· on either side of the stage - the impression and I resented the intrusion of the speakers. But I play this a few weeks before in People were learning something was probably then in a state which the Robert Blackwood Hall of about the piano but, more than Don anticipates in his piece. I'm Monash University and there in that, they were listening to a sitting waiting for the piece to the large stage area with a superior fully-fashioned work which was start but it doesn't happen. These piano it had sounded magnificent good to hear. Whatever the level two speakers begin discussing us. - a virtuoso piece showing off the or the 'weight' of these pieces is, The comforting regular ritual of more traditional techniques of there wasn't a moment when the the recital room has been inter- writing and playing in the twen- audience was bored. rupted. tieth century. It looks to me as though most The piano reigns supreme in Keith Humble's own sonata is a of us are content to talk about Commentary. Even when the brief and concise work lasting composing with timbres, but when loudspeakers join in a section of only six minutes. The structure is it comes to listening to a work intense musical activity the voices based on sonata form. The 'ex- such as this in the traditional are made to announce the fact in a position' is fairly regular but in concert environment, albeit at a humorous way so that, even place of the normal subjects there 'lightweight' level, then our in- though we know a synthesizer can are sections of germinal material stincts are to treat it askance. As a beat a piano hands down at thirty which gradually assume a more devout member of the 'Bring back paces any day at this sort of thing, stable substance during, the pro- Ketelby and Suppe' Society I can the potency of the electronic gress of the sonata. The develop- never criticise any music for being contribution is reduced as a result. ment is a scherzo and, although 'lightweight'. There is no doubt But the fact that many of the the writing is far from the more that we must treat the music of sounds are so simple betrays their traditional methods of employing Makrocosmos as performed by origin in a very obvious way - son sonata form, it does have quite a Keith Humble with respect. of VCS2! - and the drama of the romantic feel about it. Keith calls piece is heightened by the pro· this 'sonata forming' rather than Where timbre is a dominant nounced character of those sonata' form. The sonata itself parameter of the music it cannot 'machine' sounds which are the seems more sympathetic to the be regarded in isolation and at very opposite poles from those piano - more aware of the timbral the very least it must be seen as a rich painstakingly synthesized tim- nature of the instrument even solution to a structural problem bres which rival natural sounds for though it does not venture out of on a par with the respect given to their interest and which can be its traditional resources - than pitch organisation in. a more employed quite easily in contem- any of the other peices with the conventional piece. porary compositions with great obvious exception of the last item approval from all concerned. by George Crumb. And this is why an excellent performance of Makrocosmos as In the Assembly Hall we saw a For the majority of the audi- Keith Humble gave in his recital is comment on the concert ritual ence 'Makrocosmos II' (Twelve so necessary these days. It makes that was taking place somewhere. Fantasy Pieces after the Zodiac us more aware ,of the resources Surely we don't need to be com- for Amplified Piano). by George of the traditional piano with mented on - or do we? Crumb was by far the most popu- simple addition of amplification. lar work on the programme. There's a whole worlq of soft 'Daktulophy' by Felix Werder The pieces vary in mood and sounds associated with conven- and 'Reflections' by Bozidar Kos exploit a vast range of piano tional instruments that, we hardly saw Keith Humble playing in top timbres in a very approachable ever hear. gear displaying a full range of way, but although the musical virtuoso techniques. Werder's is a structure, of many of them is Although Keith is born and dense piece of writing and the title minimal, they display a remark- bred a Melbourne man and feels literally means dexterity which able degree of good taste in their very much at home in Australia, was displayed in plentiful amounts use of sounds which might other- he has spent most of his adult life during the performance. A Straus- wise be dismissed as mere gim- in Paris where he founded the sian theme is pulled into many micks. Centre de Musique and ran a very shapes during the piece to give successful series of concerts. Re- rather an expressionist taste to a There was no doubt that the turning to Paris will be an essential form which greatly resembles a success of these pieces owed a lot part of 'rewinding' and catching Toccata for its incessant brilliance.