Sonneck Society for American Music
Bulletin, Volume XXV, no. 2 (Summer 1999)
Reviews of Recorded Material
Edited by Orly Leah Krasner, Boston University
Karl Korte: EXTENSIONS: A RETROSPECTIVE OF ELECTRO-ACOUSTIC COMPOSITIONS. Jeff Hellmer,
piano; Kristen Wolfe, basson; Paul Bissell, percussion. Centaur CRC 2563, 1998. One compact
disc.
THE MUSIC OF STEPHEN RUSH. Lynn Sspnes, Dawn Watkins-Chou, Lydia CLeaver, and Kirsten
Allwin, harps; Erik Santos, Sarah Aspland, Kevin March, and Deborah Rentz, singers; Ben Thomas,
mallet synthesizer; Stephen Rush, keyboard synthesizer; Nick Petrella, marimba. MMC Recordings
MMC2056, 1997. One compact disc.
Herbert Brian: WAYFARING SOUNDS: COMPOSITIONS FOR INSTRUMENTS AND TAPE. Eckhart Schloifer, viola;
Percussion Group Cincinatti; Performers Workshop Ensemble and the University of Illinois New Music
Ensemble; Arun Chandra and Herbert Brun, conductors. EMF CD 00624, 1998. One Compact Disc.
NEW MEDIA FOR ELECTRONIC AND RECORDED MEDIA: WOMEN IN ELECTRONIC MUSIC -- 1997. Johanna
M. Beyer: Music of the Spheres (1938), The Electronic Weasel Ensemble. Annea Lockwood:
World Rhythms (1975). Pauline Oliveros: Bye Bye Butterfly (1965). Laurie Spiegel:
Appalachian Grove I (1974). Megan Roberts: I Could Sit Here All Day (1976), Danny Sofer,
Drums; Phil Loarie and William Novak, voices. Ruth Anderson: Points (1973-74). Laurie
Anderson: New York Social Life (1977), Time to Go (1977), Laurie Anderson, voice,
violin, telephone; Scott Johnson, guitar, organ, tamboura. CRI CD 728, 1977, 1997. One compact
disc.
There was a time when the term electronic music signified almost exclusively a kind of pointalistic,
post-Webern atonalism. Today, electronic music encompasses a wide variety of styles and techniques.
Four recent recordings of electronic music by American composers illustrate the diversity present in the
genre today.
Three of the pieces on Extentions: A retrospective of the electro-acoustic compositions, by University
of Texas professor Karl Korte, reflect the tendency of electronic compositions to rejoin the stylistic
mainstream. Homage -- Bud Powell, for piano and tape (1994), Demiola, for solo bassoon
and tape (1984) and Extensions, for solo percussion and tape (1994) would not be out of place
on any chamber music concert. In these pieces, the tape part serves as an accompaniment for a carefully
crafted solo instrumental line. The sounds on the tape often make use of samples from the solo
instrument -- sometimes they are recognizable, sometimes they are manipulated beyond recognition.
This tends to make the wedding of the tape part to the live instrument more effective than is o
often the case with pieces for instrument and tape. This disc also contains two works for tape
alone: Birds of Aotearoa (1986) and Meeting the Enemy (1995). Both of these works
are modern extensions of musicque concrete; they make extensive use of sampled sounds.
Birds of Aotearoa is based on sounds made by the Kakako bird of New Zealand while Meeting
the Enemy manipulates the sounds of children laughing, sporting events, and military drills.
The Music of Stephen Rush contains pieces for tape alone and pieces for instruments and tape,
in addition to Rush's one act electronic opera, Murders in the Rue Morgue. In this opera,
Rush mixes conventional vocal techniques with spoken word and a quasi-Sprechstimme "speech song." The
work presents excerpts from the story by Edgar Allen Poe and accompanies them with both evocative
electronic music and Latin dance rhythms. Save Changes before Quitting for electronic
tape (1993) takes its inspiration from jazz, funk, blues, and "space music" while Nature's Course
for marimba and electronic tape (1992) is reminiscent of the music of Frank Zappa. The opening
work on the disc, Aeneas in Strophades (Attack of the Harpies!) for four harps and electronic
tape (1990), is a light and charming work. The harps weave minimalist patterns that are reflected
in the music on the tape.
The work of Herbert Brun, Wayfaring Sounds: Compositions for Instruments and Tape, presents a
return to the predominately atonal style of the 1960s. This is literally true in that many of the works
were composed during that time period and it is figuratively true because Brun has remained true to
that aesthetic in his recent work. While the works might seem a bit old fashioned to contemporary ears
and the timbres a littel unrefined, the album is not without substance. Of particular note is
Sentences Now Open Wide (SNOW) (1984), a dramatic work mixing spoken voice with live instruments
and tape.
New Music for Electronic and Recorded Media: Women in Electronic Music -- 1977 is a reissue
of a compilation that appeared originally on vinyl. While the music on this disc is over twenty
years old, it sounds very current. These composers were well ahead of their time. Hunter College
professor Annea Lockwood's World Rhythms (1975) is a meditative collage of natural sounds
including the sampled sounds of the world's rivers. Laurie Spiegel's Appalachian Grove I
(1974) uses the modal patterns typical of American folk music to create a minimalist electronic
texture. Megan Roberts' work I Could Sit Here All Day (1973-74) reflects the contemporary
trend toward the use of world music and popular music in serious compositions. The album also
includes music by electronic music pioneer Pauline Oliveros and the first two commercially released
recordings by Laurie Anderson. These two works are already quintessential Laurie Anderson, poignant
yet humorous spoken word pieces with accompaniment provided by Scott Joplin.
The disc begins with a work by a little known composer from the 1930s, Johanna M. Beyer. In spite of
her association with Henry Cowell and Percy Grainger, Beyer met with little success in her lifetime.
"Music of the Spheres" (1938) is an interlude taken from a large, politically motivated work, "Status Quo,"
which was intended as an attack on the prevailing politics of the 1930s. The version of included on the disc was realized by Allen Strange. Strange used instruments
designed by Don Buchla to imitate the electronic instruments of Beyer's day.
New Music for Electronic and Recorded Media demonstrates that the variety found in electronic
music today is not a recent phenomenon as many might think. There have existed all along composers
who were willing to go against the status quo. The variety that we enjoy today is in no small part
due to the work of composers like the women presented on this disc.
--Robert Fruehwald
Southeast Missouri State University
Notes in Passing
AMERICAN REVERIE: PIANO MUSIC OF HORATIO PARKER. Peter Kairoff, piano. Albany Records, Troy
315, 1998. One compact disc.
Edward MacDowell: PIANO MUSIC VOL. 1. James Barbagallo, piano. Naxos American Classics,
8.559010, 1998. One compact disc.
Edward MacDowell: PIANO MUSIC VOL. 2. James Barbagallo, piano. Naxos American Classics,
8.559011, 1998. One compact disc.
These three discs of American piano music from the turn of the last century represent the treasures
to be found among this repertory. Horatio Parker's piano pieces were written early in his career; even
with his organ works, his keyboard output is a relatively small part of the total oeuvre. Although
Parker's organ works have already been recorded, most of his piano pieces are presented here for the
first time. Peter Kairoff's nuanced performance of these piano miniatures reveals a lyrical side
to a composer often considered merely academic. The Six Lyrics, op. 25 make relatively modest
technical demands but provide ample opportunity to explore pianistic textures and colors. If these
pieces are indebted to Mendelssohn (and, to a lesser extent, Grieg), the influence of Schumann and
Chopin is felt elsewhere in the Four Sketches, op. 19 and the Morceaux Characteristiques.
The "Valse Gracile" is particularly Chopinesque. Even the longest of these pieces barely exceeds five
minutes; most are succinct song forms in the European fashion. All reveal a craftsman in complete
control of his medium. Kairoff's recording of Parker's piano music makes a persuasive case for them
to be added to the concert repertory.
Edward MacDowell's music, both piano and orchestral, is much better represented on disc, but it is
equally unfamiliar in the concert hall. A few of the MacDowell works -- the charming and simple "To
a Wild Rose" and "To a Water Lily," for example -- have remained at least in the canon of works
for young pianists; ambitious performers such as Constance Keene, James Tocco and Van Cliburn have
recorded the sonatas and concertos. These two recordings by James Barbagallo are part of the new American
Classics Series on the Naxos label that includes a third volume of MacDowell piano music as well as a disc
of his songs. Of the large-scale works, only the Norse Sonata is presented here (in vol. 2);
his pity programmatic sketches form the essence of these two discs and span MacDowell's entire
legacy in this genre, from the First Modern Suite, op. 10 -- begun during his student years at the
Frankfurt Conservatory -- to the New England Idyls, op. 62, his last published piano pieces,
composed during his tenure at Columbia University. Barbagallo's impressive technique tackles easily
the dramatic and the delicate. Unfortunately, the engineering of these two discs gives the piano
a muted presence that veils the pianist's passionate commitment to these pieces. The substantive
liner notes were written by Marina A. Ledin and Victor Ledin, respectively.
--Orly Krasner
New York, New York
Updated 8/31/98