Sonneck Society for American Music
Bulletin, Volume XXV, no. 2 (Summer 1999)
Letters
To the Editor:
Recently, a review of my book, The Music of Morton Feldman, by Ms. Amy Beal appeared in
the Sonneck Society Bulletin (Spring 1998). I am writing to you to correct a number of
misconceptions and inaccuracies that I found in this review.
In the first paragraph of her review, Ms. Beal refers to my book, rather negatively, as eclectic;
however, later in her review notes: "A primary achievement of this book is the juxtaposition of
contrasting theoretical approaches." I agree. In fact, this kind of eclecticism is needed in the
analysis of all contemporary music, not just Feldman's.
Furthermore, the list of compositions in the first appendix is not incomplete as Ms. Beal alleges. The
only omission, as Ms. Beal noted, was the music for a 1987 production of Beckett's Words and
Music because this is incidental music that cannot stand on its own. Ms. Beal suggests that
my bibliography is thin, yet it was updated until about six months prior to publication and contains
every English language source published up to that time.
These, however, are minor points. My major objection to Ms. Beal's review is that she objects
to what the book does not do. Nowhere does Ms. Beal tell your readers what is actually in the book.
In my introduction, I clearly state the purpose of the book is to present a series of detailed analysis
of Feldman's music. If the review thinks the analyses are poor, incomplete, or in any way inaccurate
then let her defend her position.
This book begins exactly where one must begin if one wants to understand a composer's work -- with a
close examination of the work itself. I do not see how anyone could examine the cultural context
of any composer's work without first understanding, in the most minute detail possible, what the
composer's music is, how it was made, and the radical nature of its musical designs. Only then
can one begin to understand how those musical designs link that composer to the world around them.
--Thomas DeLio,
University of Maryland
Response from Amy C. Beal
I thank the Bulletin Editors for allowing me to address Dr. DeLio's response to my review of his book. I
grant him that my review emphasized the book's shortcomings more than its strengths. As a review I
tested DeLio's publication against existing publications on Feldman, evaluating the new book's
contribution to the field. As my cue I took DeLio's introductory remark that "there exist few serious
scholarly studies of [Feldman's] work," and that "the present collection of essays will begin to rectify
this situation" (xiii). I chose to spend my few allotted words assessing the book's overall contribution;
as a scholarly study, The Music of Morton Feldman fell short. But I wrote that the book
did successfully display several approaches for analyzing some of Feldman's work, adding to the body
of analyses already available, and I agree with DeLio that musical research includes examining
compositions' musical designs thorugh analysis. As for the value of cultural context at this
advanced stage of Feldman scholarship, our opinions differ.
These matters aside, I take issue with parts of Dr. DeLio's rebuttal. His description of some of
Feldman's works as "incidental" seems fuzzy as a justification for omission from a works list, as
does allowing a list supplied by Feldman to determine whether works are mentioned. Not only Feldman's
scores for Beckett's Words and Music but also all of Feldman's unpublished works -- including
historically significant works for films on painters -- are absent. These omissions disregard
Feldman's interdisciplinary interests, interests that could inform analyses of his work. Futhermore,
in respoinse to my statement that the book's bibliography is incomplete, he writes that the list includes
every English-language essay published within six months of the book. But his twenty-six item
bibliography omits substantial theses, interviews, conversations, and the Cage-Feldman "Radio
Happenings" (1993). Paul van Emmerik's bibliography, published in Muisk-Konzepte in 1986, lists over 200
English-language items. An author's reluctance to acknowledge or cite major contributions to
the field jeopardizes the authority of any new publication.
--Amy C. Beal
University of Michigan
Letter from the Editor
As I begin my third year as editor of the Bulletin, I find that I am continually impressed with the
quality of article submissions. For those considering submission, please remember that the Bulletin
may be the best forum for the results of exploratory research as it alerts other scholars to your work.
Many collaborative efforts have resulted from the publication of Bulletin articles. I am also very
pleased with the many fine submissions by our student scholars; our students represent the future of
American music scholarship.
Pease keep me apprised of the news. I regularly receive announcements of the accomplishments of the
new members of the Society for the Members in the News Department. Remember that inquiries concerning
research topics and other speculative matters may be published in the most underused department of the
Bulletin, Hue and Cry.
Each issue is placed online approximately three weeks after it appears in your mailboxes. To see it,
visit American-Music.org/sspubs.htm and follow the links. If you have suggestions as to how
the Bulletin may be best presented in its Web configuration, please address them to me.
The Bulletin is your voice to the world and the world's window on the Society. Don't forget that
the deadlines for Bulletin submissions are announced on page two of this publication. Please expect
a two-month lag time between the submission deadline and the publication date. Plan ahead so that your
announcement of events may be published in a timely fashion.
--Larry Worster
Letter from Britain
It was a wonderful autumn for American Music in London. The Barbican Centre ended its year-long series
called "Inventing America," with the final lap devoted to "American Pioneers: Innovators, rule-breakers and
iconoclasts"; there's been a long-running revival of West Side Story, convincingly based on the original
Robbins direction and choreography; and on 3 November the Institute of United States Studies presented
its first John Coffin Memorial Recital, at Senate House, with Menotti in person. The performers in this
all-American program were the Verdehr Trio of Michigan State University [Walter Verdehr, violin; Elsa Ludewig-Verdehr,
clarinet; and Kathryn Brown, piano], who have played American usic all over the world. Amazingly,
their commissions from living composers now total over 110 and they have made around 10 CDs. The Trio
played works by Dinos Constantinides, Joan Tower, Jon Deak, and Gian Carlo Menotti. The highlight of the
evening wa Menotti himself, magnificent at the age 87, and he introduced his own Trio (1996). He said that
Victorian children were supposed to be seen not heard whereas old composers should be heard and not
seen. The audience, totally disagreeing with this, much appreciated what he had to say. Finally,
he disarmingly claimed to know his own worth and quoted Rossini who said: "I realise I'm not Bach but
I know I'm not Offenbach either!"
The Institute is now planning a Copland Centenary Conference in autumn 2000. Back to the Barbican.
On 27 November, Harry Partch's Original Instruments came to Europe for the first time, played by Newband
under Dean Drummond. The first half contained Five Verses from And on the Seventh Day and Daphne
of the Dunes, separated by a piece of Drummond's. The second half ended with Partch's
Castor and Pollux, which was the climax of the evening -- a unique experience, even though
there were those who said it was a let-down after Partch's sacrifices and all these years of waiting.
But Castor and Pollux looked and sounded magnificent with the percussion duos spot on
and consistently exciting. Pre-concert talks or interviews were a feature of the series and the
one on Partch was given by Bob Gilmore, British author of the recent biography. The next day
was Carter's 90th Birthday Concert, with Ursula Oppens, the Arditti Quartet, and the BBC Symphony
Orchestra under Oliver Knussen. This included the Fifth Quartet and the London premieres of both
the Piano Quintet and the Symphonia. Carter was Composer of the Week on national BBC Radio 3 and
press coverage of his birthday visit was reverential. How amazing to go on like that at 90 --
and his first opera will be staged next year!
The Philip Glass Ensemble, with the film Koyaanisqatsi had their own following, but there
was a much rarer cult occasion on 1 December -- La Monte Young in person. I wasn't surprised by
his appearance since I had gone backstage first to say welcome to London -- he had given me a very
good interview for my BBC Radio 3 documentary on Cage back in 1989. He wore a black leather sleeveless
jacket, black bandanna, naked arms, but black gloves; dark glasses; and Levi jean. He was presented with
a limited-edition Levi jacket to go with them on stage during the pre-concert interview. The whole
evening was presented in dim trance-like lighting specially designed by Marian Zazeela.
The Theatre of Eternal Music was the ensemble -- four cellos and eight trumpets -- and the played the
Melodic Version [1984] of The First Blossom of Spring from The Four Dremas of China.
This was initially sketched on a paper napkin in 1962 when Young simply wrote four pitches down,
only four -- from bottom to top: F below middle C; B-flat; C and B-natural. The various combinations
are governed by rules. Since the tuning was at just intonation and odd harmonics floated above, there
was activity to focus on if you knew where to listen for it. But some people went to sleep. Just as the
conflicting marching bands once produced quintessential Ives so these endless sustained sounds rather
precisely derive from the noise the wind made passing through the beams of that log cabin in La Monte's
childhood. On a personal note to finish, I was delighted when David Nicholls was apointed to the
chair at Keele University three years ago in succesion to me after a twelve-year gap but continuing the
American enterprise set up there with the new Music Department in 1974. In the British tradition
new appontments to chairs usually deliver an inaugural lecture to their academic community. David
did this on 31 March, taking his title from Cage as "The Future of Music: Credo." I can report that
it was a splendid occasion -- and by now many of you, like me, will be enjoying exploring his
landmark Cambridge History of American Music launched at Fort Worth.
--Peter Dickinson
Institute of United States Studies,
University of London
Letter from Canada
The death of composer Harry Somers last 9 March deprived Canada of one of our leading composers, but
also brought me to reflect on the state of musical composition in the country at the close of the
twentieth century. There had been composers in the nineteenth century, a few even in the eighteenth,
but serious professional composition in Canada can arguably be said to have begun in the 1930s, notably
with the figures of Healey Willan (1880-1968) and Claude Champagne (1891-1965). Both of these men,
by teaching and example, demonstrated that composition could be taken seriously and that one could be
first and foremost a composer, not just an organist or teacher who also wrote music. But it was
the next generation that really set the stage. Many of those are still with us, now in their 80s,
such as Jean Coulthard, Barbara Pentland, Violet Archer, John Weinzweig, and Jean Papineau-Couture;
others are in the 70s such as Harry Freedman, Francois Morel, Clermont Pepin, and John Beckwith. Somers,
who was born in 1925, was among the second group. The War of 1939-45 interrupted the careers of the older
composers, but after 1945 their experience was energized by the younger generation to produce a
degree of compositional activity in the 1950s never known before in Canada. Stylistically they ranged
over most of the techniques of this century, but none of them were mere imitators. The valuable thing for
us was that they learned to speak with their own voices, the greatest technique of all and the one
that they have passed on to an ever-widening group of composers.
Somers was unquestionably one of our most successful composers. He obtained a measure of fame abroad,
but most importantly for Canada, he achieved fame at home. He had a clearly articulated view of
composition and embraced what he called "music for use" without compromising the music
that he created out of his personal development as an artist. His works range from the simple and
immensely popular North Country for string orchestra, to choral works, chamber pieces, and six
operas, of which Louis Riel, perhaps his masterpiece, has been heard in Toronto, Ottawa,
Montreal, Washington, and on television and radio. Somers' death is our loss, but that loss also
brings into focus the fact that for the first time in Canada we can look back on connected generations
of composers. (Information about composers and composition in canada can be easily accessed on the internet
through the Canadian Music Centre at www.culturenet.ca/cmc.
Paul Laird's article in the Spring issue of the Bulletin on Bernstein and the Chichester
Psalms and the renewed interest in the music of such figures as Korngold would suggest that there
might still be a future for tonality. It certainly seemed to be alive and well in Toronto last
spring. Philip Glass brought us his Monsters of Grace to remind us of his well-known personal
distillation of traditional tonality. But the surprise was a new opera, The Golden Ass,
commissioned by the Canadian Opera Company. New operas produced on a grand scale are rare enough,
and successful ones even rarer. The text of The Golden Ass is by the celebrated author
Robertson Davies, who completed the libretto just before he died in December, 1995. The music, in
a modernist but frankly tonal style is by the Winnipeg composer, Randolph Peters, who is also the director
of the notable new music festival of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra. The critical fraternity, and
a few of my friends, questioned the quality of the piece because of the librettist's self-consciously
old-fashioned story and the composer's refusal to quality for the avant garde. Indeed,
questions must arise about what to do about a contemporary opera with a story of magic and passion
derived from a Romal tale and with music that takes but passing account of the most radical trends
of the century. Audiences, however, are not bothered with such considerations; each of the six
performances was given a tumultuous reception, and word of mouth soon had the theatre's 3,400
seats sold out.
Canada's durable musical icon, Glenn Gould, continues to be celebrated in books, articles, the
publication of his music, a Society and an award that honors his name, a journal, recordings and
videos, and again this fall, a conference. The Glenn Gould Gathering in Toronto (22-26 September)
is the second devoted to the extraordinary pianist and broadcaster. (The first was in September 1992
for Gould's sixtieth birthday). A series of presentations and concerts will explore Gould and his
accomplishments, not only as pianist but also as writer, broadcaster, and general musical gadfly.
Peripheral to the conference but clearly related to it is a new play, Glenn, by David Young
which was given in Ottawa in the spring and will have a summer-long run at the Stratford Festival.
The National Ballet of Canada will unveil a new ballet in November called Inspired by Gould
with music by John Oswald and Timothy Sullivan. And on the same program, Ballet British Columbia
will dance a piece by William Forsyth based on Gould's recording of Well-Tempered Clavier. All
this might strike the unbeliever as hagiology, and there is something of a self-perpetuating
industry that has grown up around Gould; nevertheless, if it is not easy to explain fully the
endless fascination that Gould continues to exert seventeen years after his death, a check of the
internet will quickly reveal that he is surely the most famous Canadian musician ever. (The Glenn
Gould Foundation can be found at www.glenngould.ca. Not only is
his playing an ever-renewing revelation, his quirky writings and television commentaries seem to
catch a modern sensibility that is as fascinated by communication as by what is communicated. It
is probably no accident that there is renewed interest in Gould's older contemporary and fellow
Torontonian, the 1960s guru of communication, Marshall McLuhan. When Gould abandoned the public
stage in 1964 to devote himself to the switched-on world of electronic (virtual) reality, McLuhan
sent him a note: "Bless Glenn Gould for throwing the concert audience into the junkyard." With a
twisted irony that no doubt would delight both men, the Glenn Gould Gathering was centered in the
Glenn Gould Studio, a concert hall of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
--Carl Morey
University of Toronto
Letter from Hong Kong
After finally meeting so many fellow "SAMers" face to face at the meeting in March, I'm happy to have an
opportunity to hello again. I'm doing research on a nineteenth century North American musician
and often feel that I'm justifying my work to skeptical listeners, so the atmosphere in Fort Worth
was a welcomed change. It was also interesting to see people raise their eyebrows and say "bet you
get the prize for traveling the furthest," or something to that effect, when they noticed my
nametag. As I often said, I would have to share the prize since there were two of us there (from
here) -- not quite a chapter yet but space is at a premium in this city.
Many of those to whome I spoke in Texas seemed curious about life and music here. Hong Kong is a quirky
place, but it has many things in common with the US, including a similar attitude towards
music and culture. When people here think of the US I doubt that "The Arts" is the first
thing that comes to mind. MacDonald's, Michael Jordan, and Madonna are all well known and appreciated
but I'm not so sure about Charles Ives or Mingus. I suppose it's not surprising that
many Asians still tend to associate popular culture with America and classical music in Europe,
even though both are part of everyday life here. Internationally known performers in the classical
music world do very well in Hong Kong and attract much younger audiences than they do in America, but
their repertoire could use some expanding. The most recent Hong Kong Arts Festival (HKAF) provides
an example.
The HKAF is the city's biggest annual cultural event, a month-ling binge of theater, dance, and music
that brings in performers from around the world. Festival organizers program cutting edge dance and
theater from Europe but seem much less daring with music, especially that from the Americas.
The Kirov's Opera's production of Tchaikovsky's Queen of Spades was the festival's big drawing
card (sorry) this year. Two years ago the Canadian Opera Company had this position but it was
their productions of European works, Erwartung and Bluebeard's Castle.
This year's festival did feature some illustrious Americans but not very much Amerian music. The Juilliard
String Quartet played Copland's Three Pieces for String Quartet at one of its three concerts.
I opted fo rhte night they performed Bartok's Fourth Quartet and was not disappointed by my choice.
It was a similar situation with The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, which played on two evening. I had
heard much about this ensemble and was happy to hear them for myself. The group's musical director,
Hugo Wolff, is great fun to watch and his lively conducting translates into a sprightly orchestral
sound. I chose the evening that they performed Ives's Three Places in New England but would
agree with much fo the audience that the SPCO was at its best with Mozart's Symphony no. 34 and
Stravinsky's Pulcinella Suite. They added Ho Down, from Rodeo, as the first
of their three encores and listeners would gladly have remained for more.
Music at the festival is not exclusively classical. I missed the performances by Jesus Alemany's
Cubanisimo but suspect they might have sparked an interest in Latin music, as there have been a number
of salsa nights taking place over the last few months. Last year I attended a fine performance
by Winton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, but thought I'd be in for something a bit more
audacious with the Paul Motion Trio this year. It was the first time I had heard Motion since
this group played at my university since I was an undergraduate, some fifteen years ago. Motion's
rich and imaginative drumming was much as I remembered but the overall sound was less electronic
and adventurous as I had expected and much more traditional (opening with "Salt Peanuts" and "Body and
Soul").
One can't fault the festival's organizers for their programming. During the first recession in thirty
years they set an attendance record in 1999! But I do sometimes wish there was a bit more live
jazz. The bigger hotels sometimes offer jazz but more often they book local Filipino cover bands. Our
Jazz Club -- yes, when there's only one it gets the name -- tends to book blues artists
who have reached the "twilight of their careers" -- the point at which their peers in baseball move
over to the Japanese leagues for a season or two.
Foreign pop concerts are also rare, due only to the lack of a suitable venue. This prevents many groups
from stopping here while touring Japan, Korea, and other countries in the region. The problem is
that the Hong Kong Stadium is situated in a posh neighborhood, whose residents have all but banned
loud concerts or other loud events (in a city where cell phone conversations continue undisturbed
amid the constant din of jackhammers, pile drivers, and traffic?). In any case, in recent years
the stadium situation has led concert organizers, hoping to attract Michael Jackson and Elton John,
to suggest replacing the amplification system with individual headsets for spectators, and issueing
gloves to soften the applause. Neither MJ nor Sir Elton accepted the invitations.
A temporary solution to this problem was found when our venerable old Kai Tak Airport closed last
year. The soft property market has delayed the area's redevelopment, and the runway itself played host
to the Canadian singer Celine Dion earlier this year. Now I think Dion has a fine voice and as a former
Montrealer I have a parochial interest in her success. I had, however, heard the woman just about
every time I took a mini-bus or entered a grocery store over the past year and I didn't feel the need
to join the 20,000+ on the tarmac for this one.
Last fall I attended a performance at the music festival in the nearby Portuguese colony of Macau for
the first time. Aside from its unique local cuisine and charming architecture, Macau is known mostly
for its casinos. Lately it has gained some notoriety for its gambling-related Triad (Mafia) killings.
This has not helped the enclave's tourist industry but it did make festival tickets easier to come by.
Our choice was a Portuguese production of Gershwin's Of Thee I Sing. Although the strong accents
of some cast members caused a bit of confusion the performers were quite talented, and the numerous
references to then current events in Washington were extremely funny. With a chorus from the Chinese
city of Guangzhou, it was truly an international production and showed how well Gershwin transcends
cultures. Incidently, Macau will rejoin the Mainland later this year and I hope it loses none of
its personality in the process.
Hong Kong's transition to Chinese rule has been smoother than many dared hope. Despite the regional
recession life has continued much as it had before 1997 (I arrived in 1995). Hong Kong often likens
itself to a bridge between East and West but, like Americans, Hong Kong people to not spend much time
engaged in debates about culture. They do, however, invest a good deal in it. This obsessively
capitalist society spends more per-capita on arts funding than any other country with the exception
of France, and a small nubmer of people are giving careful thought as to how this money is spent. As
this city is now part of China some are asking if more funds should go towards traditional arts,
such as Cantonese opera. Young composers look at this issue from a slightly different angle. Most
are concerned with writing music that reflects their identity and are working very hard to create a
language of their own, much as American musicians began doing not so long ago.
--Brian Thompson
Hong Kong
Updated 09/10/99