Sonneck Society for American Music
Bulletin, Volume XXIV, no. 3 (Fall 1998)
Performances of Note
SECOND VANCOUVER INTERNATIONAL NEW MUSIC FESTIVAL: A CELEBRATION OF LIVING COMPOSERS
"Spring," the Second Vancouver International New Music Festival (29 May-6 June 1998), featured a
plethora of new music by Canadian, U.S., and European composers, including nineteen premiers of Canadian
works. Ten concerts and five symposia at which composers, conductors, and performers discussed issues
related to contemporary music constituted the event. The festival's international guest was James
MacMillan from Scotland, whose music was highlighed during the week.
The opening concert on 29 May by the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Owen Underhill
and Sergiu Comissiona featured the music of four Canadian composers. The concert began with Orchestral
Tuning Arrangment (1994) by Linda Catlin Smith and John Oswald, a work which includes choreographed
movements by orchestra members as the tuning process takes place. Keith Hamel's energetic and motoristic
Overdrive (1998) was followed by Rodney Sharman's transcendent and serene scherzo Archaic
Smile (1997). Also on the program were works by MacMillan and Sofia Gubaildulina.
The U.K.-based Maggini String Quartet's concert on 30 may marked the quartet's Canadian debut. In addition to
works by Britten and MacMillan, the quartet gave the premiere performance of Underhill's String Quartet
No. 3, "The Alynne" (1998), prominently featuring string harmonic effets and oscillating between the
tranquil and the maniacal.
The 31 May concert featured the Vancouver New Music Ensemble under the direction of Underhill. Four works by
Canadian composers received their first performances at the performance. The first section of Jacquite Leggatt's
Cat's Cradle (1998) consists of motoristic imitations of intertwining melodic lines while the second
part includes quotations from Ive's Second Piano Sonata. John Burke's Remember Your Power
(1998) for piano and chamber ensemble consists of organic tonal plates in a constant state of flux.
John Oliver's Retour (1998) was one of the most eclectic pieces on the entire festival,
incorporating minimalism, new instrument techniques, pitch bending, jazz, aleatoric improvisation, and
Klesmer styles. Nikolai Korndorf's Music for Owen Underhill and His Magnificent Eight (1997)
paid homage to Underhill and called upon him not only to conduct but also to play several different instruments
while doing so. The work is in three sections, the outer two of which contain a palpable angst. The
work's intensity grows through the entrance of a siren (an homage to Var$#233se?) to the gunshot which
brings the work to a startling conclusion. Three short miniatures for solo piano by MacMillan, one of which
was performed by the composer, also appeared on the program.
The 1 June concert by the Vancouver-based new music ensemble Standing Wave consisted entirely of
premieres of music by Canadian composers. Each work on the program explored the relationship between
static and active forces, befitting the name of the ensemble. The first two pieces, Doug Smith's
Music for Madeline (1998) and Jocelyn Morlock's Bird in the Tangled Sky (1998),
were the only purely acoustic works on the program. Serge Arcuri's Waves (1998) incorporated
live electronic manipulation with a pre-recorded tape. John Oliver's Long Time Coming (1998)
for MIDI Guitar and clarinet was followed by Stéphanes Roy's Inaccessible Azur (1998) and
Brent Lee's Ribbons of Visible Air (1998).
Canadian pianist Eve Egoyan presented a solo recital on 2 June. Her program included Piano Diary
(1995) by Canadian composer Michael Longton, For Cornelius (1992, revised 1994) by U.S.
composer Alvin Curran, and music by Satie and Finissy. The Longton work consists of a series of
fragmentary episodes, and is, according to the composer's program note, "more about forgetting than
remembering." For Cornelius is in three sections: a lyrical song, an extensive minimalist segment
(the focal point of the work), and a brief chorale.
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) Vancouver Orchestra presented a late morning concert on 3 June
as a part of Vancouver's well-attended "Music in the Morning" series. The concert began with the world
premiere of Heather Schmidt's Cello Concerto (1998) with cellist Shauna Rolston. Schmidt, at age 23,
is one of Canada's most promising young composers. The concerto is neo-romantic in style with
plenty of lyricism and bravura for the soloist. The concert concluded with MacMillan's Tryst.
The evening concert on 3 June was by Vancouver Pro Musica, a composer's collective. Electro-acoustic
works by Ron Samworth, Janet Berman, Rita Ueda, Martin Gorfrit, Scott Morgan and Doug Cross, and Scott Wilson
appeared on the program. Ueda's work, Spiral (1998), included computer-generated visual
images, while Gotfritt's Story Time (1997/98) was an electronically generated (and slightly
off-beat) version of Babar the Elephant.
The 4 June concert by the ensemble Rhythmic Attorneys at Large, consisting of two pianists and two percussionists,
included Peter Hatch's Shadow (1995), Bradshaw Peck's These Things Never Happened, But Are Always,
Tobin Stokes's El Sol del Sur (1996), Chistos Hatzis's Fertility Rites (1997),
and Omar Daniel's Strategies against Architecture, Book II (1995, rev. 1997). Peck's
piece was a tour-de-force for solo percussion brilliantly executed by Salvador Ferraras, and
Beverly Johnston gave a very fine performance of Hatzis's Fertility Rites for solo marimba
and tape. Taped sounds included Inuit katajjaq songs and prerecorded marimba samples. The remainder of the
works ranged from the canonic imitation of the Hatch work through the Latin flavor of the Stokes piece to the
disturbing love/hate picture of urban life in Daniel's composition.
The first half of the 5 June concert by the Vancouver New Music Ensemble consisted of music by the three finalists of the
1998 Emerging Composers' Competition: Damian Keller's "...Sorets de punta" for electroacoustic
tape, Hugh Peaker's Lawes: 1645 for chamber ensemble, and Gordon Fitzelli's spirit rebelious
for amplified cello and percussion. While all three works demonstrated creativity on the part of their
respective composers, the winning work by Peaker showed exceptionally fine craftsmanship in its use of
chromatic polyphony. The second half of the program consisted of works by Melissa Hui, John Korsrud and Iannis
Xenakis.
The final concert of the festival by the CBC Vancouver Orchestra on 6 June was a fitting conclusion to
the week. Two works for string orchestra by Canadians, Ann Southam's Webster's Spin (1993) and
James Danielson's The Trembling of Consonant Strings (1998), opened the concert. Southam's use of
organic minialism was extremely effective, as was Danielson's sense of overall formal design,
demonstrated by alternating sections of rhythmic drive and lyricism as well as the controlled use of
consonance and dissonance. Judith Wier's Piano Concerto (1997) with soloist Eve Egoyan and MacMillan's
Seven Last Words from the Cross (1993) with the Vancouver Chamber Choir both receive
outstanding performances.
Although not from North America, the presence of James MacMillan at the festival was something certainly not
to be missed. When decades from now, a paper appears on a Sonneck Society Conference on the American
reception history of James MacMillan, this festival will surely be mentioned. Three of MacMillan's major
works, The World's Ransoming, Tryst, and Seven Last Words from the Cross,
recieved their North American premieres at this festival. As the first American Festival dedicated to
MacMillan's music to take place on the North American Continent, this even did much to foster interaction
and dialogue between American and European contemporary music scenes.
Vancouver New Music sponsors in International New Music Festival in alternate years. Artistic director
Owen Underhill, general manager Randy Smith, and associate artistic director Janet Danielson are to
be commended for organizing and producing this year's event.
--William Everett
University of Missouri-Kansas City
STILL AND PRICE IN FLAGSTAFF
William Grant Still's Africa, his The Black Man Dances, and Florence Price's
Third Symphony, splendid rarites all, were among the major performances at "A Tribute to William
Grant Still," a conference held at Northern Arizona University 24-28 June. In honor of its own
centinnial, NAU generously underwrote two professional orchestra concerts, one of symphonic
music and the other of Still's arrangements (mostly for radio orchestra), plus a program of excerpts
from Still's operas, all supported by a lively and informative series of papers and smaller
lecture-recitals.
The symphony concert was prodigious in the quality of its offerings as well as its length. First up
was the Price symphony, unheard since 1940, courtesy of Wayne Shirley, who copied our parts almost
single-handedly in the space of ten weeks. It reflects almost a decade of development on the part of
its composer since her First Symphony, which has been performed several times in the past few years.
The lyricism of its slow movement and the richness of its five-part Juba were particularly memorable.
Rising Tide, Still's piece playing continuously at the futurist Perisphere in the 1939
World's Fair, joined two other relatively short orchestral works, "Archaic Ritual' and "Los Alnedos de
Espana."
But the star of the show was Africa, a three movement suite for orchestra, unfortunately
performed in a cut version. Africa, first performed in 1930, some seven months before the
premiere of the ballet Sahdji and a year before the Afro-American Symphony (Howard Hanson
conducted all three in Rochester, one of his finest contributions to American music). Collectively
these three works represent a stunning achievement by Still, among other things a Lexicon of ways of writing
what Still understood as "African American" musical ideas into concert music. As the middle movement
of Africa, "Land of Romance," was omitted and the finale, "Land of Superstition," was
sharply cut, something of a well remains drawn over this work. Still's "African" gestures are, however,
clearly woven into the impressionistic, colorful orchestral texture. "A raving masterpiece," said
one observer; another talked about how Africa carried for him a unique sense of "authenticity"
as an African- and American-based response to the primitivism that is a fundamental aspect of
European modernism. Although the titles of the two movements we heard ("Land of Peace" and "Land of
Superstition") don't suggest it, I had a strong sense of Africa as Mare Nostrum, a response to
Debussy's La Mer, holding the mirror to European music from across "our sea"--the
Mediterranean to the ancient Romans and, in a more modern sense, the Atlantic as well. Although Still
thought of Africa as belonging to his "racial" period, it struck me as transcending that aesthetic and
achieving an extraordinary universality.
"The Big Broadcast" let us sample the commercial Still: a colorful "After You've Gone" (probably arranged
by Paul Whiteman), an early Handy blues (published 1916), an orchestration of his friend Price's Down in the
Canebrakes, Richard Fields took the solo piano part of Still's brief but exquisite suite,
The Black Men Dances ("Four Negro Dances" in the Whiteman arrangement) with appropriate
elegance. This was likely the work's first performance. Whiteman commissioned it but apparently neither
played it nor released it to others to perform. A sequence of instrumental arrangments, done for
Willard Robinson's "Deep River Hour" between 1931-34, was a highlugh along with Still's own "Blues" from
Lenox Avenue. Bert Emmett, a present-day radio annoucner, was a smooth emcee. Lance Bowling supplied
sevarl period radio commercials to lend another kind of "authenticity"; we heard a smoke-filled plug for
Lucky Strikes, and were offered a chance to send for a Li'l Orphan Annie shake-up mug, amoung other
opportunities. Ronnie Wooten and John McLaughlin Williams both conducted very ably indeed.
An all-star cast reminded us that Still composed some marvelous operatic numbers, and that some major
revivals are in order in that department too. "Bayou Legend," "Costaso," "Highway 1 USA," and
"Troubled Island" were beautifully represented by Regina McConnell, soprano, William Brown, tenor, Jeffrey
McGhee and James Sterrett-Bryant, baritones. Several fo the performers joined forces to give us
the concluding chorus to Act I of "Troubled Island," calling the slaves of Haiti to rebellion ("To the
hills! To the hills that rise against the skies," reads Langston Hughes's text).
Still's connections with his contemporaries were explored by papers on G.W. Chadwick (Steve Ledbetter), Henry
Cowell (Dana Perna), Florence Mills (Bill Egan), Irving Schwerke (Dominique-René de Lerma and
Sara Atlee), Clarence Williams (Tom Morgan), Ives (Gayle Sherwood), Howard Hanson and W.C. Handy (Bill
Richardson), Thomas H. Kerr (Hortense Kerr and Marva Cooper), and George Frederick McKay (Frederick McKay).
A session on the Afro-American Symphony began with a powerful reading of Paul Laurence Dunbar's
related poetry by Herbert Woodward Martin, continued with an exchange between John Andrew Johnson and
yours truly concerning the role of "I Got Rhythm" in Still's symphony in American culture, and concluded
with a presentation on teaching the symphony in elementary and middle school classes (Ed Duling).
Johann Buis, Horace Masile, Wallace Cheatham, Celeste Headlee, and a fine session on Still's
ballets by Gayle Mutchison, Carolyn Quin, and Wayne Shirley stretched our minds and opened our ears further.
A whole series of extraordinary performers contributed to the conference. Ronnie Wooten and John McLaughlin
Williams are exceptional conductors. Gwendolyn Lytle and Althea Waites started things off with a beautical
recital of songs by Still and his more (and a few less) famous contemporaries. Susheel Bibbs, Diane Bolden-Taylor,
Mark Boozer, James Gholson, Lawrence Gwozdz, Inetta Harris, John Hildreth, Hao Huang, Bob McMahan, Rachel Vetter
and Wildy Zumwalt all gave stunning short performances.
The largesse that made all this possible was summoned forth by Patricia Hoy, Conference Director, who
wrote the grants, contracted the orchestra, and organized her cadres of grad students into an efficient
an supportive conference-management team. We expect that an archival tape of selected performances will become
available through William Grant Still Music (4 S. San Francisco St. #422, Flagstaff, AZ 86001), with the
process to offset NAU's conference deficit.
The conference participants seemed to be immersed in a continuing, communal sense of wonder as the
range and depth of Still's contributions unfolded. This conference and perhaps others to follow
are likely to force a serious reapraisal of Still's work and his position in American music. Thank you,
Pat Hoy and Northern Arizona University!
--Catherine Parsons Smith
University of Nevada, Reno
EARLY AMERICAN MUSICAL THEATER SYMPOSIUM
Scholars, performers and aficionados of musical theater gathered together at the campus of the University
of Colorado at Boulder (UC-Boulder) for the second Susan Porter Memorial Symposium hosted by the American
Music Research Center (AMRC) 16-19 July 1998. The symposium focused on music as an integral part of
theatrical performances in the nineteenth century. The participants returned to an era of genteel melodramas,
silent movie performances with live ragtime orchestra accompaniment, and the birth of a new musical
genre with Jerome Kern's Show Boat.
The opening performance of Enoch Arden presented one of the earliest and simplest forms of
melodrama. It did not have an overtly sensational plot, but instead dramatically and artistically portrayed
the interwoven stories of three characters with the music accentuating the text. Dennis Jackson, Director of the
Lyric Theatre Program and Professor of Voice at UC-Boulder, read the 1864 narrative poem by Alfred, Lord
Tennyson; Robert Spillman, Chair of the Keyboard Department UC-Boulder, played the piano accompaniment
composed by Richard Strauss. Many in the audience remarked upon their lack of knowledge concerning this
piece and expressed their delight in its performance.
Later on Friday afternoon, Katherine Eberle, mezzo-soprano, University of Iowa, sang selections from Victor
Herbert operettas. Rodney Sauer, pianist and leader of the Mont Alto Ragtime and Tango Orchestra,
joined Dr. Eberle in presenting songs from Babes in Toyland (1903), Mlle. Modiste (1905),
Naughty Marietta (1910), Eileen (1917), and Capital Revue (1919).
Dr. Eberle's clear diction and use of expressive gestures, as well as the superb piano accompaniment by Mr. Sauer,
created a miniature melodrama. The broad range of outstanding papers included opera, minstrelsy,
sheet music covers, regional theater histories, information on specific performers, and the extensive
use of music in theatrical performances. A variety of disciplines represented included American music,
musical theaters, and the theatrical arts. John Huston, a professional actor dressed int he
appropriate morning attire for a nineteenth-century gentleman, presented the history of H.M.S.
Parliament, a parody of Gilbert and Sullivan's H.M.S. Pinafore by an American
troupe in Canada. Although all the topics dealt with some aspect of music in the theater, it was interesting
to hear presentations concerning the prominence of opera in nineteenth century America. "Give the
People What they Want: Audience Reception of Italian Opera as Represented in Spirit of the Times,"
by Kristen Stauffer, University of Kentucky, delved into the use of a gentlemen's sporting periodical as a
means by which a gentleman could assess whether a theatrical performance was appropriate for
the ladies of his home to view. Blase Scarnati, Northern Arizona University, continued with this
theme and describe in some detail the "Sexual Double-Entendre, Eroticism, and Male Gaze in the English
Adaptation of Bellini's La Sonnambula," one of the most popular operas of the time.
Renee Norris, Maryland, described the connection between antebellum blackgace minstrel shows and
European (in her paper French) operas. The presentation by John Graziano, City College and Graduate
Center of New York, showed a direct connection between the American musical of today and the
operatic experience of the nineteenth cntury. The musical and video examples in his paper, "Show
Boat: Jerome Kern's Operatic Operetta," clearly linked Kern's production with the musical
traditions of Richard Wagner. Kern utilized specific musical motives to represent characters, places,
and in particular the Mississippi River. Many of the atendees requested and were rewarded with a
showing of the entire video of Show Boat on Saturday night.
One session was held in conjunction with the Rocky Mountain Ragtime Festival. Rodney Sauer and the Mont Alto
Ragtime and Tango Orchestra provided authentic representative music for two silent films: The New York
Hat, starring Mary Pickford, and Fatty and Mabel Adrift, featuring Fatty Arbuckle
and Mabel Normand, enjoyably demonstrating its impact on audiences. During the closing plenary session,
Stephen Banford, University of Birmingham (England), remarked that even with his eyes closed he was able to
visualize what was occurring in the films through the orchestra's excellent musical interpretation of the
action. In addition to supplying the music for these two enjoyable films, Mr. Sauer introduced us to the
music of J.S. Zamecnik, a silent-film composer. A panel-led open discussion of "Early American Music
Theatre and Film Research: Ideas and Resources for Reconstruction" exemplified the cross-discipline nature
of this conference. Members of the panel were: Deane Root, Director of the Center for American Music Research,
University of Pittsburgh; Karen Alquist, George Washington University; David Mayer, University of Manchester
(England); and Thomas Riis, Director of the AMRC. The key issues dealt with the need for new bibliographic
works, local and regional studies, class studies, socioeconomic investigations, iconography, and analysis of
both muical and theatrical material. Dr. Root stressed the interest of these topoics across academic
disciplines and presented a grid showing areas where local music research is needed for his Center's
"Voices Across Time" projec.t This was echoedby Dr. Ahlquist, who pointed out that this field is
constantly evolving. Dr. Mayer, speaking as a theater and film historian, reiterated that work by
specialists in all areas is necessary. Jim Lovensheimer, The Ohio State University, presented the
results of his regional study focusing on Chillocothe, Ohio. Dr. Riis and the members of the committee
who selected the papers are to be commended fo rhte excellent continuity and quality of the Symposium.
--Roberta Lindsey
IU School of Music at IUPUI
THE SECOND INTERNATIONAL COLLOQUIUM ON SILVESTRE REVUELTAS
Mexico City, 25-28 Auguest 1998.
Silvestre Revueltas, subject of this colloquium, is immerging as the most important Mexican composer to
come out of the first half of this century. Hosted by the School of Music of the Universidad Nacional
Autonoma de Mexico, this remarkably varied and well-organized four-day festival on the music and
personality of Revueltas featured six panel discussions, four concerts, a film, a slide show with music,
and finished with an original drama/fantasy with music, followed by a Coctel de Clausura. Each of the
panels contained three lectures plus discussions. An exhibit of photos, letters in both English and Spanish,
and manuscripts was open throughout the four days, as was a table selling Revueltas scores, the newly-completed
catalogue of the protagonist's complete works, CDs and the offical colloquium tee-shirt. The event brought
Revueltistas from all around Mexico and as far away as the East Coast of the United States.
The concerts were undoubtedly the highpoints of the colloquium. The inaugural concert played by a
multinational orchestra composed of students and Mexico-city professionals performed Ocho por radio,
the cinema version of Caminos, a world-premiere of a reconstruction entitled Musica
para teatro, and the seldom-heard El renacuajo paseador complete with its delightful
puppet show. Soprano Lourdes Ambriz and pianist Alberto Cruzprieto performed nine songs, many of which
betrayed the composer's debt to the vocal traditions of Spain and France. The star performers of the
festival were the Latin American String Quartet which played all four of Revueltas' quartets in one
sitting. These works come from the early 1930s and tend not to show the Mexican nationalism found in
later music. The evening was enhanced by Sonneck Society member Mark DeVoto's penetrating analysis
of each quartet prior to its performance.
Fernando de Fuentes' 1935 film Vamonos con Pancho Villa was of interest more as a cinematic
period piece than for Revueltas's music. Many stayed thorugh the film in order to see a two-minute
vignette of Revueltas himself playing La Cucaracha on a bar room piano complete with a
sign asking the customers not to "shoot the pianist since he is doing the best he can."
The colloquium was organized and run with both precision and good humor by Prof. Roberto Kolb
Neuhaus, the compiler of the catalogue of Revueltas's music. Even though all the papers were in
Spanish save for the one by this writer on the orchestra work Sensemaya, there was
plenty to satisfy those who did not speak the native language.
--Charles Hoag
University of Kansas
OREGON FESTIVAL OF AMERICAN MUSIC
"Rags, Jazz, Blues and Boogie Woogie: Hot American Music 1900-1950" was the title of the 1998 Oregon Festival
of American Music (OFAM) 20-29 August in Eugene. The seventh year of this unusual festival was even wider-ranging
than the title suggests, encompassing symphonic re-workings of these genres and including one riveting
concert which featured the music actually performed on the Titanic (as opposed to what was used in the
recent movie version) juxtaposed with Stravinsky's Rite of Spring to illustrate the
enormous forces of changed that were present in those early years of the 20th century.
This year's Festival ran for two weeks, with the first weekend being devoted to "The Age of Ragtime" and the
second week to "The Jazz Age." It assembled an entourage of professional, amateur, and young artists
representing a wide range of American music genres. Dick Hyman, New York jazz pianist/composer and OFAM's
Jazz Advisor, served as this year's music director and, in what can only be characterized as a tour de
fource, appeared in all eight of the evening concerts and most of the afternoon Heritage Concerts as
well. The "Age of Ragtime" featured Richard Zimmermann, well-known ragtime pianist; Jelly Roll Morton
expert Bob Greene; vaudeville/historian Ian Whitcomb, who specialized in turn-of-the-century popular music and served
as music dvisor on the recent film ("Only they didn't take my advice!"); and a locally assembled, amateur-professional
ragtime orchestra, regimental brass band and choir. "The Jazz Age" featured the Jim Cullum Jazz Band
with Byron Stripling, trumpet, playing music of Buddy Bolden, Martinque clarinetist George Stellio, Louis
Armstrong, and Bix Biederbecke; bassist Michael Moore and drummer Frank Capp, who often perform with Mr. Hyman
as the Dick Hyman Trio; OFAM's own vintage jazz band, Steve Stone and the Emerald City Jazz Kings; and, finally, Jay
McShann, New Orleans pianist Henry Butler, and Ruth Brown, who capped the whole festival with an outdoor
concert of rhythm and blues, boogie woogie and gospel. The world of early 20th century classical music
was represented throughout the two weeks by James Paul, OFAM's Conductor and Artistic Advisor; a huge
Festival Orchestra; guest pianists Ruth Laredo and Christopher O'Riley; and guest conductor Jefferey Peyton
(The Third Angle), who led a special Festival chamber ensemble in a performance of Stravinsky's Soldier's Tale.
The organizers of all of this are Jim and Gievra Ralph, new lifetime members of the Sonneck Society,
who have, with the help of an advisory board, devised annual events that have variously featured
the Gershwins, Broadway musicals, film and radio music, fiddling, French Louisiana genres (including
gumbo!), American art music, and much jazz of all eras. In addition to each summer's August festival, OFAM
sponsors an American Composers Series in January, which features American classical repertoire and has so far
spotlighted Copland and Barber; Twin Rivers; an American traditional music festival (June); and
The Emerald City Jazz Kings, a highly successful ten-piece, four-singer ensemble that explores
jazz and hot dance music of the 1920s-1930s, founded and led by Sonneck member Stephen Stone.
The educational side of this music is not ignored as OFAM also sponsors a number of educational
programs, including TeacherPartners, a summer teacher in-service program; Music Throu' the Eye, a fine art
appreciation program; SchooLinks, a school-based concert and workshop series; and two performance-oriented
music schools--the year-round American Music Institute and the summertime Young Artists Academy,
wherein participants work with visiting artists to learn first-hand the styles that are being featured
at each year's summer festival. In addition, it co-sponsors with the University of Oregon School of
Music a series of free lectures in connection with the summer festival and American Composers Series.
The educational piece for all audience members if the free Program Book, full of informative articles,
which this summer ran thirty-seven pages. For more information the OFAM web page is www.ofam.org
(or inquire at office@ofam.org).
--Anne Dhu McLucas
University of Oregon
Updated 12/28/98