Sonneck Society for American Music

Bulletin, Volume XXV, no. 3 (Fall 1999)

Reviews of Recorded Material

AMY BEACH: UNDER THE STARS. Joanne Polk, piano. Arabesque Recordings, Z6704, 1998. One compact disc.

The Beach business shows no sign of abating in the new century. Record companies release CDs of her music with some regularity and concert performances include her works with increasing frequency. Extra-musical accolades -- such as Beach's introduction into the American Classical Music Hall of Fame in Cincinnati and her inscription on the Hatch Memorial Shell (where the Boston Pops plays) -- continue to accrue to her posthumous reputation. Amy Beach, or at least her music, is being canonized.

Beach's own religiousness, which saw in nature the manifestation of the Divine, underlies the repertory in Canticle of the Sun, a CD of her sacred works most of which are presented here for the first time. Although predominately choral, this recording also includes two solo songs, "On a Hill" (1929) and "Spirit of Mercy" (1930) as well as Invocation for the Violin, Op. 55 (1904). The title work, Canticle of the Sun, Op. 123 (1928), is a twenty-two minute setting in English for chorus, soloists, and orchestra of St.Francis of Assisi's text. This large-scale public declaration of faith contrasts beautifully with the intimate Invocations for violin and piano that follows. The long upward arching phrases convey a Brahmsian sense of longing. Several of the choral pieces are well within the reach of college or good high school ensembles, including the a capella "With Prayer and Supplication," Op. 8 (1891) and "Constant Christmas," Op. 95 (1922) for solo trio, chorus, and organ. The latter is a strophic setting of a poem by Phillips Brooks for which Beach adopted a folk idiom supported by a richly harmonic accompaniment.

Betty Buchanan has insightfully chosen works that explore a particular facet of Beach's output, and her preparation of hte amateur Capitol Hill Choral Society is admirable. Their intonation is solid and their diction is generally good except in the denser orchestral passages. The recording itself captures expressive pianissimos, but occasionally prevents fortissimo dynamics from achieving their full majesty. The succinct liner notes were written by Adrienne Fried Block and Buchanan.

Amy Beach's deep responses to nature are also apparent in Joanne Polk's recording Under the Stars, the second of three projected volumes of Beach's complete piano music. Beach's "Valse-Caprice," Op. 4 opens this recording, and is truly capricious in its variety of pianistic gestures. During the first of her retreats at the MacDowell Colony, Beach notated a thrush warbling, from which she composed "A Hermit Thrush at Eve" adn 'A Hermit Thrush at Morn," Op. 92. These two pieces evoke in sound a single landscape transformed by different light, an aural effect similar to that of an Impressionist painter. Her Impressive Prelude and Fuge, Op. 81 on a teach A-B-E-A-C-H invokes Liszt's bravura command of hte instrument. Similarly Lisztian is Beach's early Ballade, Op. 6, a transcription of her own song, "My Luv is Like a Red, Red Rosse." The CD concludes with a five-movement suite inspired by characters from the commedia dell'arte, Les Reves de Columbine: Suite Francaise, op. 65. In particular, the harmonic twists of the third movement, 'Valse amoureuse," suggest the rapidly shifting emotions of courtship.

Joanne Polk brings a prodigious technique to these performances. Her sensitive use of rubato, control of pianistic color, and nuanced phrasing brings these pieces to life. The recording has a crisp ambience and Block's liner notes are authoritative and insightful.
--Orly Leah Krasner
City College, CUNY

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BEYOND THE RAINBOW: LYRICS BY E.Y. Harburg. Benjamin Sears, vocal, Bradford Connor, piano. Oakton Recordings ORCD0005, 1998. One compact disc.

In this energetic recording of popular songs, Benjamin Sears and Bradford Conner present twenty-five pieces that demonstrate the genius and versatility of lyricist E.Y. Harburg. They range from Harold Arlen's standard, "It's Only a Paper Moon" to the obscure but delightful "Cause You Won't Play House" (1934) by Morgan Lewis. Yip Harburg worked with many talented songwriters, bud did not have a lasting collaboration with any single composer. As a result, these songs represent a variety of styles which creates an interesting sequence. The research behind these rare gems must not be underestimated. Some of these pieces are unpublished, such as Harold Arlen's "The Peter Pan of Tin Pan Alley" (1937). Others have never before been recorded, like the satiric "Thank You, Columbus" (1942) by Burton Lane, the Depression tune "Brother! Just Laugh It Off!" (1930) by Ralph Rainger and Arthur Schwartz, and the syncopated "Hot Moonlight" (1931) by Jay Gorney, Yip's earliest collaborator. Sears and Conner have even ressurected rarely heard verses for several songs from The Wizard of Oz. The combination of popular hits and unknown treasures makes this an intriguing program, exemplified by the imaginative finale, "Rainbow Medley," which includes "Look to the Rainbow" (Burton Lane), the premiere recording of "I've Got a Rainbow Working for Me" (Jule Styne), and the classic "Over the Rainbow" (Harold Arlen).

One of the strenths of this recording is the intimate cabaret setting that it simulates. The outgoing duo Sears and Connor charm the audience with their music, theatrics, and humor. Sears has a richly baritone voice with which he creates a variety of tones and expressions for dramatic effects. Although his vibrato is at times a bit strong for this listener's taste, the overal effect is very satisfying. Conner's able accompaniments are excellent enhancements of the singer's performance. His occasional vocals are well executed and add to the cabaret ambiance. Sears and Conner are to be commended for their important work in this field of popular song. Their tireless search for unusual, entertaining material will guarantee the preservation of unique music from some of America's best-known -- and least-known -- composers of the Golden Era.
--Vicki Ohl
Heidelberg College

Video Reviews

PARTCH, HARRY: FOUR HISTORIC ART FILMS BY MADELINE TOURTELOT WITH MUSIC BY HARRY PARTCH. Rotate the Body in All Its Planes (b&w, 1961. 9 min); Music Studio--Harry Partch (b&w, 1958. 18 min); U.S. Highball (b&w/color, 1958, completed 1968. 25 min); Windsong (b&w, 1958, 18 min). With notes by the composer. Series: Enclosures: Harry Partch, I. Innova 400 (American Composers Forum, 332 Minnesota Street E-145, St. Paul, MN 55101), 1995. VHS/NTSC.

PARTCH, HARRY. DELUSION OF THE FURY: A RITUAL OF DREAM AND DELUSION. (color, 1971. 75 min). Directed by Madeline Tourtelot, Danlee Mitchell, Musical Director. Also: The Music of Harry Partch (color, 1968. 28 min): A concert performance of Daphne of the Dunes (Windsong), conducted by Thomas Nee. KEBS-TV, Channel 15, San Diego. Series: Enclorues: Harry Partch, IV. Innova 400 (American Composers Forum, 332 Minnesota Street E-145, St. Paul, MN 55101), 1997. VHS/NTSC.

Under the direction of British-born musician and scholar Philip Blackburn, Innova Recordings has issued a remarkable series of historic recordings, films, and facsimiles of composer Harry Partch (1901-1974), who pursued a rigourously creative alternative path from that of many Western composers. He is sometimes described perfunctorily as the "43-tone-scale Corporeal man" who developed new instruments to suit his desire to tune to just intonation. But, as these films demonstrate, his contributions to American music were far broader and more interesting. The two videos comprise six of the films listed in the 1974 revision of Partch's Genesis of a Music. Music Studio follows Hary inside his Chicago studio, where he demonstrates his instruments and then "performs" excerpts of his score for Windsong, a retelling of the Daphne and Apollo episode, on which he and Madeline Tourtelot were working at the time. (As the actual soundtrack was the product of Partch's overdubbing all parts, this section is a synchronization of hand to sound.) Windsong has the feel of 1950s experimental film -- a touch of Maya Deren in the sandy Lake Michigan-side setting -- with the protagonists (the director and her cameraman) in informal dress scampering around the hills in a somewhat abstract rendition of the tale. Some fine images and the beauty of Partch's only true film score overcomes the artistically unrealized intended symbolism. The soundtrack was rescored a decade later for The Music of Harry Partch and film in a (literally) breezy outdoors performance in television-documentary style. A brief interview with Partch and Will Ogdon, as well as footage of the instruments, make up for what this segment lacks in weight when compared to Music Studio.

The Windsong/Daphne-related films all have on-camera performances by Partch. This holds true for U.S. Highball, "a musical account of a transcontinental hobo tripo" that he took from San Francisco to Chicago in 1941. The black & white portions are of a studio performance, with effective, even humorous close-ups of the players, many of whom speak the hoboes' lines. Interspersed are color scenes of trains, railways, and sites to be seen along the journey. Once the film's conceit is accepted, the alternating sections project the effect of the piece successfully; the shadowing in the interior shots contrast wonderfully with the outdoor panoramas. Rotate the Body is an odd duck, fusing sequences of gymnasts tumbling (and doing other things) with a soundtrack based on partch's then-new theater work Revelation in the Courthouse Park; it was in part a retort to choreographers who refused to include tumberls in Revelation. The result is womewhat incongruous, especially in light of the music's origin. The sound quality is the poorest among all six films; the others are good or better, especially for pre-digital recording. At the other, happier extreme is Partch's theatrical masterpiece, Delusion of the Fury, a recreation of a 1969 UCLA production. The camera moves among the onstage and costumed instrumentalists and choir, dancers (who realize Storie Crawford's straightforward, at times Grahamesque movement), and the three mime leads, who enact two tales (on Japanese Noh and African folk themes). Other than a few exterior entrances, the production (directed by John Crawford) takes place on a modified thrust stage. The colorful costumes help compensate for the overall darkness of the setting. In summation, the few problems in the originals with synchronization, superfluous noise (age?), and a few "splices" in Delusion; are minor quibbles in this treasure. The opportunity to witness Partch's music as he "saw" it, not the same as live theater, perhaps, but at least a record of his vision is highly recommended.
--Richard Kassel
New York, NY

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Updated 12/15/99