A Closet of Curiosities

Excerpts from the cover notes (enclosed):

Born in St.Petersburg in 1893,Ivan Wyschnegradsky was a disciple of Scriabin. In 1918 he had an intense mystical experience that caused him to see the necessity of a musical expression in micro-tones. Because of the chaotic conditions in Russia at the time,he moved permanently to Paris in 1920, where he lived until his death in 1979.
His determination and courage in face of incredible difficulties and the neglect of the musical world seem almost superhuman.because of the problems in creating adequate instruments for microtones,he had almost no performances until 1937 when he adopted the solution of two or more conventional pianos tuned to different diapasons.
Aside from the two successful concerts in 1937 and in 1945 in Paris, there were few performances and no publications.Only recently has the world recognized the importance of both his compositions and his theoretical writings on microtonal composition.
Since his death the "Association Ivan Wyschnegradsky" in Paris under the presidency of Claude Ballif has produces concerts,recordings and publications devoted to his music. But the first long playing recording of his music was produced by McGill University Records (No.77002) in 1978. On that recording the LePage-Mather Duo plays Two Concert Etudes,Op.19,Two Fugues,Op.33 and Integrations,Op.49, all in quarter tones. The works in sixths of tones on the present disc received their premieres at McGill University's Pollack Concert Hall in Montreal on April 21,1983* and are recorded here for the first time.
In the 1950's Wyschnegradsky elaborated his ultimate system for organizing his "continuum of sound".
This system he called "les espaces non octaviants". They are cycles that repeat not at the octave but at a slightly smaller or larger interval.In the case of Dialogue a Trois the interval is the major seventh or 33 sixths of tones.This interval can be subdivided equally (11,11,11) in "perfect regular structure" (requiring 3 pianos), in "irregular structure one colour" (9,12,12) requiring one piano) or in irregular structure two colours" (10,11,12) (requiring two pianos). He associated each piano with a color.
In DIALOGUE A TROIS he also uses his system of "ultrachromaticism rythmique"; very subtle changes in tempo which are the counterpoint of the small intervallic differences.The musical language can be reduced in three elements (1) broken chords, (2) repeated notes or chords, (3) regular fluctuations between two chords.

COMPOSITION OP 46,NO 1 is a short work which uses a non-octaviant space of 17 thirds of a tone (one third of a tone less than an octave). It is subdivided into three intervals of 12,11 and 11 sixths.This system offers the possibility of 34 different positions of the cycle.

The subject of the FUGUE in OPUS 30, on this recording, starts with a minor sixth,each note of which alternately slides downwards in sixths of tones. Following  the five voice exposition the fugue features an entry in augmentation, and entry with the inversion of the augmentation, a  stretto and a coda in non-fugal style.

For its pitch organization, Bruce Mather's POEME DU DELIRE uses Wyschnegradsky's system of "non-octaviant spaces", modified to produce a scale of thirds and sixths of tones.
Formally, it is a mosaic of six different textures: 1-monody, 2-a slow melody accompanied by complex broken chords, 3-a chorale with chords of 3,5,8 and 11 notes, 4-a melody of moderate pace accompanied by solid chords, 5-trills and chromatic (semitone) scales accompanied by slowly broken chords, and 6-fast tremolos and ostinatos.
Poeme du Delire is dedicated to the memory of A.Scriabin and his disciple I.Wyschnegradsky

ASPECTS by Jack Behrens is comprised of a Prologue,six Episodes and a Postlude- each less than a minute long. It is,in intent, a work for one piano with enhanced pitch possibilities; that is, the work is not antiphonal, with one piano echoing or reflecting another.Against a static pitch centre the Prologue quietly explores the "feel" of microtonal possibilities; these are reaffirmed (with many octaves slightly enlarged) in the Postlude. In the body of the composition, microtones are sometimes used to "color" pitches (especially in the final prankish Episode) and are frequently treated as point of fluctuation (rather than steps) or as ingredients in clusters (Episode 1) in other instances spatial expansion (Episode 3) or interval expansion (Episode 5) is explored .Aspects is dedicated to Bruce Mather.

Side One: Ivan Wyschnegradsky

a1-Dialogue a Trois,Opus 51 (1974)

a2-Composition,Opus 46,No.1 (1961)

a3-Prelude Et Fugue,Opus 30 (1945)

Side Two:

b1-Bruce Mather-Poeme Du Delire (1982)

b2-Jack Behrens-Aspects (1983)

Louis-Phillipe Pelletier,Paul Helmer,Francois Couture-Pianos
Bruce Mather,Conductor.


 






















 
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...And the Lukas Foss Mega-Hit Parade continues here in A Closet.
(Thanks to my father for the gift of this and other records which have appeared here lately and will appear here soon.)

I hope I will be forgiven for my lengthy reprint from the insert notes to this l.p., but I find the ideas here so fascinating that I have reproduced almost all of them.I have left out mostly biographical information, but have kept most of the technical notes intact.I hope you all will find them as inspiring and thought-provoking as I do, and I believe that they are of interest, not only to musicians, but to anyone interested in new (circa 1967) musical forms and creative approaches to performance.
Feel free to let me know if you find the notes too long or too esoteric.
 
These notes (enclosed) were written in or around 1967.

In the new musical rapproachement between composer and performer it is again possible for the creative and the re-creative functions to be taken by one and the same person.Lukas Foss,born in Berlin,in America since 1937,composer,conductor,pianist,teacher,and tireless proponent of newest new music,is an extraordinary case of a one and the same,whose single existence is split into many lives.
There are in general two types of musicians, the Mozarts and the Beethovens, the naturals and the studied.Foss is the former-the natural,the eternal Wunderkind.He started early,accomplished a great deal in a short time,and,still a young man,has gone far.He directs a major American orchestra and guest conducts others;he is one of a handful of avant-garde composers in the public eye and one of the few American composers and conductors whom Europeans take seriously.
He claims to compose slowly but (especially considering the length and breadth of his other activities) he has accumulated a considerable body of work.
He has not practiced the piano seriously in years,but he sits down and plays remarkably well.He is a virtuoso sight reader and a quick study.He is distrusted by many musicians but others swear by him.He has accomplished remarkable things,made terrible blunders,and still moves ever onward and upward.
He has a surprisingly large following-especially among young people.He has attracted a young,knowing audience made up largely of record-buyers who normally do not go to concerts (but he himself is better known on records as a composer than as a performing artist).
In 1957 he founded an Improvisation Chamber Ensemble-clarinet,cello,percussion,and piano-with the idea of developing an improvisational style specifically intended to break down the barriers between performance and the creative act.
In the five or six years of the Ensemble's existence, it followed a course which was,in effect, parallel to and the result of an extraordinary transition in Foss's own musical thinking.The early work of the Ensemble was in the manner of a free and neoclassical diatonicism closely related to Foss's own earlier written compositions.Then,in a frankly experimental way,new techniques were introduced,sometimes merely in a playful spirit,sometimes in a genuinely exploratory mood.
Quite obviously the Improvisation Chamber Ensemble could not use avant-garde materials in complex,plotted serial structures,so the work of the group began to evolve quite naturally toward a kind of free,far out,performance-practice music.
In his written-out work,Foss did flirt with stricter twelve-tone ideas;but even a work like TIME CYCLE, his closest approach to pure serialism and Webernism,has different versions for orchestra (see post below) and chamber ensemble, and was first performed with interpolated improvisations.

After TIME CYCLE, his work increasingly took on the characteristics of open-form and a kind of performance-practice aleatory.
ECHOI, written for the instruments of the Improvisation Chamber Ensemble,is a kind of summation of the improvisational experience but is not improvisatory itself. It is also a big step outward,incorporating action,gestural and chance techniques along with serial and post-serial ideas,the whole bound together by a superb sense of gesture and ensemble sound and color.
An orchestral work, ELYTRES, consists of a large score out of which various possibilities may be selected so that one performance will differ from another.

THE FRAGMENTS OF ARCHILOCHOS are an even more complex application of a similar idea.
 
"Work notes for ECHOI"(By Lukas Foss-punctuation and all):

The Byzantine Echos: somewhere between Raga and Row perhaps.(The chants composed with the Echoi were like a mosaic of melodic formulae.)
 
ECHOI I: four simultaneous cadenzas?could be an opening,a gate,a not-yet-music,on the way.Introducing the four virtuosi in a joint disorderly display of virtuosity.let order creep in,as if by mistake.imitations,as if by accident.(players stepping on each others phrases.) the imitations will produce a semblance of order,so will the serially permutated cadenzas.
Step 1.construct a chain of notes,every one of the twelve followed by every one of the remaining eleven.total:132.contains every interval on every degree of the chromatic scale.(can be done with
the help of greco-latin squares.)copy many times,each time applying a numerical system (chart) for the distribution of various elements,of anything that can be structured,of held notes,accents,pauses,fermatas,overlappings,fast note groups,moderately paced groups of notes,grace notes. Surround myself with all this material.pin it on the walls.arbitrary note formations,the more the better.no longer an empty page to be gradually populated by music,but note-crowded pages,a jungle gradually cleared for inhabitance.
Step 2.to clear for inhabitance,to compose,to make choices.I circle what I like-groups of notes, these may number as few as  seven notes,as many as , say, seventeen. now collect the circled note groups,melodic formations.discard everything that is not circled,liquidating the serial order,the system,like a scaffold not longer needed.composition by deletion.(only way I can work with series.)
Second stage: manipulation of chosen formations casting.four players: they can play as 4,as 3,as 2,as 1.available distrubutions: 4 solos,6 duos,3 trios,1 quartet.total: 14.
Step 1: apply all 14 combinations to each formation.(takes too long.IBM programming for quicker assembling, permutating?-someday.)
Step 2: compose with resultant raw material,again by circling what I like,then building with obtained designs,patterns,groups.
(...)it is important to distinguish the two principal steps:the pre-compositional one-accumulation of an abundance of raw material obtained via serial proportioning-and manipulation of raw materials via an act of composition.)
I have now obtained the desired "quasi-music". notation?leave the rhythm rubato (proportional rather than metrical). fade-outs and climaxes can be notated so as to guarantee the proper "no-coordination"; everyone plays from the score,all coordination is via eye and ear )the "ideal" chamber music?) dotted vertical lines,to show where exact simultaneity is necessary.elsewhere the vertical picture on the page must reveal a "precise elasticity" allowing every player to be a note off to the right or to the left without harm to the resulting effect.check this.the slight freedom,or rather,license is necessary-in view of the fast tempo,and desirable-in view of the free cadenza concept.presto rubato.will require a lot of practicing.

ECHOI II: let the completely composed (in every sense of the word) follow the not-yet-music of ECHOI I. symmetry,clarity,order on the heel of anarchy.
First:a short piano solo.proceed similar to ECHOI I,step 1 except use a row for pitches to arrive at intervallic unity.(whenever a row is used in the piece,it is one and the same,throughout.) use 132 chain to obtain maximum variety in other parameters.
Step 2: again encircle what I like.look for possible opening and closing phrases among the circled areas.juggle,edit a dozen circled formations,until they "fall into line" that is,show continuity.Geatalt (minimum of the improvisatory).
Follows:vibraphone shadowing clarinet (close canon at the unison) sticks to him like glue.clarinet should make futile attempts to escape its own shadow,like an insect trying to extricate itself from a spider web.cello joins in the pursuit )canon at the minor second). this takes a special kind of playing at and against one another as in our Chamber Improvisation experiments. (difficult to write down,to pin down.)
Piano solo da capo but shadowed at the minor second and only a sixteenth note apart.pitchless percussion also shadowing.imitating.everyone wanting to get in on the act.
 
ECHOI III a study in different levels of sound-presence.distant sounds echoing close ones.discard obvious notion of seating in different locations.unsubtle and inflexible unless the players kept exchanging seats (not a bad idea).as a rule,obtain the levels via a sudden,unmotivated switch of roles forcing the performer to play as if in a distant room in one moment,close up front in the next.
To be perceived clearly,distant notes,lines should move at a slower pace than close ones and should tend to sustain.
There must be reaction of foreground music to background music and vice versa (Example:vibraphone (oscillator off) holds soft chord,turns oscillator on the moment pianist strikes same chord,but short,loud.result:as if piano attack made sustained background chord shake,vibrate.)
Use the four players in such a manner as to invoke the image of a quartet in front,mirrored int he distance.
Could gain a completely new dimension of "presence" )foreground) were equated with "the present"-and "distance" (background) with the "distant past". Note:space symbolizing time intrinsically musical,because of the dreamlike,hallucinatory nature of music.
(Note: the idea discussed here is explored also in Foss's work GEOD )

Found an old sketch,like a children's tune,tonal,sickly,complete with alberi bass,why not superimpose,that is,recompose,collage,combine with ECHOI III, so that children's music (vibraphone) is like something that has beenpainteed over., emerging if one scrapes the surface,shining through the background-the past-then distorted,disfigured in the foreground-the present- faintly emerging again in the distance (tape-covered triangle beater inside the piano strings,a la mandolin, only to be annihilated,cancelled out by the menacing activity in front,the clarinet in foreground is mocking the fragile tune,barking in distorted pitches,bell inside piano,later ball over timpani, for unnatural resonance- A two-music piece.

ECHOI IV: conjure up the noise,chaos of ECHOI I for a moment,to complete the arc.ECHOI IV (so to say) continuing ECHOI I after a 12-minute interruption.To make this clear,fade in (quick <) on the middle of ECHOI I (like "turning on" the players). for the rest of introduction:a recitative.use unused surplus material from ECHOI I, but fragmentize (pauses,interruptions,tentative sounds-clarinet and cello bending pitches). then attaca.
What I want now is a music like an obsession-hundreds and hundreds of notes-piano acting as protagonist,a compulsive,unending piano monologue with the other instruments accompanying,observing,commenting,bemoaning,mourning.(...)
The piano plays and plays,notes and more notes,gets nowhere.very moving.a task for a formidable virtuoso.must play sensitively mechanical,precision-obsessed,let him repeat little phrases from time to time,like a phonograph needle caught in a groove.from time to time?why not organize that too?
Compulsive repeats-go one better: jump back and forth between different spots in the music at the crack of a "whip"-wrong sound- "anvil", struck at the whim of the percussionist within a given two-page stretch.at this anvil signal the four musicians skip from the moment of interruption to an earlier place in the music (the idee fixe) and back as the anvil is struck again.the music is slapped back and forth in time.(Hope the musicians will be quick and simultaneous enough in obeying the anvil's command.the kind of task that is difficult only because it is new.)
(...)We begin to hear double and triple: clarinet and cello imitate their own performance as it emerges from two loudspeakers (two tape tracks prerecorded by the two musicians). who is echoing whom? the echo (tape) is "preceding" the performance.meanwhile the piano must go on following obliviously its separate course-the piano solo would now be at its fastest and loudest,widest register,longest and most obsessed repetitions.What now?End it cannot.it could abruptly stop in mid-course or be stopped.by the percussion?yes.stopped,drowned out.percussion eruptions.need not be notated except in form of samples to "inform" the player.each eruption wipes out the piano music for a second or two.each time the piano emerges again(as if recuperating), until the percussionist strikes all of his instruments starting with the one farthest fro the piano and hitting everything on his way to the piano,finally into the piano strings with his mallets.this literally and symbolically stops the pianist in whatever phrase he happens to be playing at the time.silence.an aperiodic assortment of a-musical sounds (percussion) . composing-these last few pages-has become almost a kind of "programming", that is: samples and footnotes such a: "percussionist,hit side of piano,music stand,drum sides,etc.dull, pitchless, illegitimate sounds-"use" but do not "play" the instrument.think between attacks,then strike with a sudden hurried gesture.strike large lid of a garbage can (dullest thud) silence- to be filled by audience laughter-but laughter must subside quickly lest it cover the short epilogue-epitaph, giving the clarinet,cello and vibraphone a chance to sing their last notes in peace.

Author's note: Be the obvious mentioned here: there are not and never were "Work-Notes":only pages with numbers,and pages with music, 2 1/2 years of them.The so-called Work-Notes were written post factum in 2 1/2 days; they are based on the best of my recollection.


THE FRAGMENTS OF ARCHILOCHOS

The words of THE FRAGMENTS OF ARCHILOCHOS are surviving fragments by the ancient Greek satirist,Archilochos (714-676 B.C.),whose bitter pen caused caused several of his contemporaries to commit suicide.In many cases the composer emphasizes the humor of these fragments,their implications and possible juxtapositions.Subjects dealt with are life,death,love and war.
The work is written for four small choirs,large chorus,percussion,mandolin,guitar,male and female speakers and solo countertenor In addition to standard notation Foss writes specific pitches but leaves the rhythm up to the performers,or specific rhythms with the pitches only approximately indicated.At other times free choice of both pitch and rhythm is granted,within strictly defined limits.Considerable use is made of speech.In the more traditional passages,Foss employs some serial techniques.
To a musician,the unique feature of this composition,like the same composer's ELYTRES, is its form.Like other avant-garde composers,Foss is excited at the idea of writing works which can be performed many different ways.This is a reaction against music of the last 150 years,in which one performance ideally should not differ from another, and is a throwback (possibly subconscious) to the 18th century practice of improvising or embellishing a composition during a concert.Thus the performer once more becomes a creative artist instead of merely a reproducer of someone else's ideas.
With the new Foss technique,the complete composition is written out,the full score appearing quite dense-that is,most of the performing forces seem to be engaged simultaneously.However,by following an intricate diagram,the music is marked so that only a small amount of this material is actually heard at any one time.At another concert,different combinations are used.There are actually hundreds of different compositions pissible with the material assembled under this title,all predetermined by the composer when designing the diagram.
Foss comments,"I would not be interested in the many possibilities per se, were they not controllable.It is the fact that a glance at the score suffices to foresee all possible textures,harmonies,etc.,which makes the idea that every performance is different interesting to me.In a word,the composer is not taking a chance...the detail is as controlled as it is in a conventional score,one which does not vary from performance to performance.
"My aim,then,was to make multi-diversity possible without surrendering to chance.There remains the question WHY? Why is it desirable that each performance should differ from the other?The answer in this case is simple;for the pleasure of surprise-not so much the audience's, who may hear the piece but once,but the performer's.He will experience surprise at every performance because (a) the detail is always different, (b) because,though always different, the music remains curiously the same."

NON-IMPROVISATION

There are (curiously) no notes for this work in the enclosed insert.
From a couple of listens, I can tell you this:

The work is made up of two distinct layers of activity, one of which functions as a curtain or "fog" through which the second may sometimes be viewed (heard).
The first layer, the curtain, is a massive cluster of unknown origin (perhaps a forearm or two on the organ?) which, by being varied in volume or dynamics, allows the second layer- a sort of faux-Baroque (mostly harpsichord) music (whether authentic or fancied) to come more or less into focus.
Foss seems to be using a device he muses about above, of placing the music in time- the Baroque music representing the past literally, but, more importantly, also figuratively or metaphorically- in this instance by the varying of the speed and pitch of the fragments so that the echoes (repeated fragments) seem to be slipping into a fog of memory as they decrease in speed or pitch,
(I'm reminded of Brian Eno's First Variation on the Canon in D major by Johann Pachelbel-"Fullness Of Wind", where the speed of the fragments being played is governed by the pitch of the instrument playing them "(Bass=Slow)" but the effect here is quite different.)

Side One:

a1-Echoi I (3:37)

a2-Echoi II  (4:26)

a3-Echoi III  (7:24)

a4-Echoi IV  (11:58)

Lukas Foss-Piano
Jan Williams-Percussion
Douglas Davis-Cello
Edward Yadzinski-Clarinet
Side Two:

b1-The Fragments Of Archilochos  (10:12)

Crane Collegiate Singers,State University College of Potsdam Directed by Brock McElheran
Robert Betts-Tenor
Miriam Abramowitsch,Melvin Strauss-Speakers
Oswald Rantucci-Mandolin
Jonathan Marcus-Guitar
Jan Williams
Edward Burnham
Lynn Harbold-Percussion

b2-Non-Improvisation  (9:14)

Lukas Foss- Piano, Harpsichord
Jan Williams- Percussion, Hammond Organ
Douglas Davis- Cello
Edward Yadzinski- Clarinet
This recording was first issued as Wergo LP 60040. It was later re-issued on LP and cassette by Heliodor. The original masters for Echoi and Non-Improvisation were made on November 20, 1968 at the Buffalo and Erie County Public Library in Buffalo, New York. The Fragments of Archilochos was recorded at Potsdam, New York, in the late spring of 1968.

























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Notes from the back cover (enclosed):

TIME CYCLE marks somewhat of a departure from the composer's earlier music
 (though it is one of the very earliest of his works which has been posted here in the Closet-the only earlier work is here.) 
mainly because of the absence of the neo-classic or neo-baroque.The vocal writing is "Lied" rather than  "Aria". Furthermore,tonality is clearly defined only in some places,totally destroyed in others. Finally,form and content,organization and substance can no longer be distinguished one from the other. They have become synonymous. Each song develops its own serial devices (of which the twelve tone row is the least frequently used).

The four SONGS are not tied to each other by either motive or row.Only a chord,a single sound-C#,A,B,D#,which undergoes various alterations- serves as a unifying element.
Though there is no overall musical motive, there is a literary one: the "Time-motive". Each poem refers to time,clocks,or bells.The relationship between music and words in the individual songs goes beyond mood painting. The idea and structure of the poems are mirrored in the ideas and structures of the music. Text and music are fellow conspirators.

One of the principal musical techniques used in the cycle was suggested to the composer by the sentence (by Franz Kafka, Song 3) "The clocks do not synchronize-the inner one chases in an inhuman manner the outer one goes haltingly at its usual pace".
Foss says: "It was when I came across this sentence that I had the time song cycle idea".

The IMPROVISED INTERLUDES are not, properly speaking,part of the composition. The song cycle can be performed without them. They form,however,an added attraction, a spontaneous commentary on time,clocks,bells. The four improvising instruments remain silent during the performance of a composed movement, then conductor,orchestra and singer stand by and the improvising chamber group takes over- then the composition continues with the next song. At no time are composition and improvisation combined.
Foss discarded the obvious possibility of improvisations developing from thematic material of the songs.Instead,he conveived a variety of basic "textures" and basic "pulses" - a kind of pre-compositional raw material- then proceeded to put these "in order", assigning  "roles" to the four improvising instruments, according to a technique developed by him and his ensemble, a technique based on the study of the predetermined coordination of non-predetermined musical ideas. Furthermore,since recordings do not have the concert hall's advantage of visual distinction between the composed songs and the chamber improvisations, Foss structured the improvisations in their relationship to the composed parts in such a manner as to convey a feeling of "two performance levels". Each succeeding interlude appears to ignore the song which precedes it by retracing its steps,as it were.to the place where the previous interlude left off. Thus the interludes weave like a thread through the song cycle, connecting not with the songs but with each other.
In summing up the difference between composition and improvisation, Foss says "In composition all becomes "fate". Improvisation remains "chance", "hazard", corrected by the will".


Lukas Foss: Time Cycle (Orchestral Version)

Side One:

a1-I-We're Late

a2-Improvised Interlude No.1

a3-II-When The Bells Justle

a4-Improvised Interlude No.2

Side Two:

b1-III-Sechzehnter Januar

b2-Improvised Interlude No.3

b3-IV-O Mensch,Gib Acht

Leonard Bernstein conducting the Columbia Symphony Orchestra

Adele Addison-Soprano

The Improvisation Chamber Ensemble:
Lukas Foss-Piano
Richard Dufallo-Clarinet
Charles DeLancey-Percussion
Howard Colf-Cello


























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Excerpted from the (rather dry and dull) cover notes.


TRIANGLES is Kraft's most recent percussion-featured work.It was begun in 1965 and completed in 1968, and bears the dedication "to the maestro,Igor Stravinsky-my constant inspiration-with love and respect".
The solo voice handles a huge array of drums (six differing types), metallophones (including varied sized cymbals,tam-tams,and triangles,plus four differently pitched antique cymbals and a pair of finger cymbals), lignophones (i.e. wooden instruments,in this case,five temple blocks and three graduated wood blocks as well aas marimba,vibraphone and glockenspiel.
The instrumental body that supports and complements the solo percussion is a dectet of four woodwinds,three horns and three stringed instruments
(...)
A three-in-one organization pertains to the solo voice.First there is a predominance of the membraneous instruments,working out of a number of aleotoric jets of material which Kraft calls "cells". A more settled,motoric type of music follows.The next section features the vibraphone and the marimba,with a substantial cadenza (indeed, a concerto) for the vibraphone.Part three just as emphatically highlights the timpani. Despite this coloristic paragraphing,the music is not segmented.Though devoted to rhapsodic concepts the totality provides  the logical fundament of concert design.For the greater part the other instruments support the structure and frame the detail(...)


THEME AND VARIATIONS
 Is a mini anthology of percussion detail for four players performing on twenty-seven instruments.Kraft's opus serves a dual purpose: it is used as the finale of an entertainingly didactic "Introduction to the Percussion Section"(preceded by short instrumental examples and narration) or,as here, it stands alone as a concert piece.

MOMENTUM
Kraft's octet is based first on an idea in which pitch enlarges and aids the governing doctrine of rhythm.The primary part of the piece is a generating figure with disjunct properties, first heard on the xylophone.This is elongated ant compressed and then contrasted to more conjunct data in which rhythmic counterpoint comes to full growth.


For personel and instrumentation on each piece,see the record labels reproduced below. 
                                                                                                                                                                       

        

Side One:
 
a:Triangles (a concerto for percussion and ten instruments) (18:12)

Side Two:

b1:Theme And Variations (for percussion quartet) (8:16)

b2:Momentum (for eight percussionists) (5:08)

 






















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To paraphrase one of our regular visitors,who recently wrote this sentiment about a different composer:
"No amount of Lukas Foss is too much".

And with a nod to another of our visitors, who likes the phrase "Show me dangerous music", first seen at Wolf Fifth, where you may find another rendition of Paradigm has been posted recently-(see the "some worthwhile blogs and sites" sidebar).


Extended excerpts from the back cover (enclosed):


ELYTRES (French for wing-sheaths) is the first of three compositions (Fragments of Archlochos and For 24 Winds or the others) containing on every page more than is almost ever heard vertically at one time.In other words,when that page is played, a portion of it is likely to be omitted.During the same performance,that page will return,but now only that is played which has been left out before.New here is the concept of obtaining various combinations via omission. It paved the way for Baroque Variations and especially Geod, in which that which is not heard, is nevertheless played,only inaudibly.The instrumental forces of Elytres are 1-solo flute 2-two solo violins,3-distant violins and percussion,4-harp,vibraphone,piano keys, piano strings (played with triangly beaters a la mandolin) There are twelve phrases, which when played twice successively,constitute one complete performance.True to the above-mentioned principle of omission, an instrumental force which played the phrase the first time through will remain tacet when the phrase comes back later,and vice-versa. The choice can be made spontaneously, at the moment of performance,resulting in one of 15 different possibilities ranging from silence to everybody playing at once.Also, Elytres can begin with any of the twelve phrases,end with any of them.Repeat performances should use different starting points and make different omission choices. To repeat the identical version, is to violate the intent of the composition.

Why should one performance differ from the other? To this there are many answers. One of them is surely; for the pleasure of surprise.Not so much the listener's, who may hear the piece only once, but the performer's.His surprise will be two-fold: That his own performance,his own part can combine in so many different ways, creating ever new simultaneities, two- that for all these differences of detail the composition remains somehow mysteriously the same.

PARADIGM ("for my friends") is possibly the only existing score in which the percussionist doubles as conductor.He conducts with mallets in his hands or a flexaton or a musical saw or anything else he has to play with at the moment.He also shouts words which at times serve as cues for the other four performers.These are= an electric guitarist and any three other instrumentalists designated in the score as high,middle and low.(In this recording-oboe,viola and electric harpsichord.)
Thus choice is an integral part of the instrumentation.Choice is also at the core of the individual performance.In fact, there is not a single sound that is not subject to some spontaneous choice on the part of the player.

I-Session: There are three musical tasks for each player.The musicians also have syllables to shout or whisper, derived from the sentence "someone will be held responsible".

II-Reading: A poem results from 8x8 available word juxtapositions.The individual players have moments of note choice and moments of word choice.The poem, though ever changing,will alcways be something of a commentary on the music.

III-Recital: Each player has three pitch choices for every sonority.These sounds are cued by the percussionist who plays flexaton.

IV-Lecture: The words are taken from one of my recent lectures. In an extended middle section,the performers imitate the inflection and or rhythm of a phrase on their instruments.The imitation may anticipate,duplicate,or echo the spoken words.














These final words-"show me dangerous music!" -are followed by the only theatrical moment on the piece:the percussionist brings the other instrumentalists to a sudden and violent stop,but the one he singles out last is instructed not to obey-He will continue to play and shout syllables from "I" until the others have acknowledged the applause and left the stage.
In this performance,the conductor/percussionist aptly singled out the composer (on electric harpsichord) for the task.

NI BRUIT NI VITESSE can be seen all over France on traffic signs,mostly in hospital zones.
Though the work is for 2 pianists and 1 percussionist (playing inside the piano) only 1 pianist and 1 percussionist appear on this record.Mr.Williams and Mr.Foss recorded one part then added the other track while listening to the first with ear phones.

There are no electronic sounds or electronically changed sounds in the piece. Moreover,all percussion sounds are produced inside the piano with the help of large cowbells,small Japanese bowls,and tape covered triangle beaters.
There is a close interaction between pianist and percussionist;when the former depresses a key the respective damper will rise, indicating to the percussionist the location of the correct piano string.Thus,one man's performance makes the other man's possible.Canons are arrived at in the same manner.There is a "simple child-like tune" the pitches of which change with each performance.
Ni Bruit Ni Vitesse is a tone poem without a story,for two pianos that do not sound like pianos,but like sounds in nature,often rising barely beyond the threshold of audibility.


About his DREAM LESSON Jan Williams has this to say:

"In early 1970,Lukas Foss asked me to compose a work for the Festival of the Foundation Maeght which was to take place in July 1970 at the Maeght Gallery in St Paul de Vence,France
The performance area was to be a large,inflatable structure,with no supporting superstructure.Dream Lesson was written with this structure in mind.The interior of a grand piano is utilized as the primary source of sound,with one performer exploring the instrument with a variety of acoustical and electronic devices, ie electronic megaphones producing feedback.A non-angular montage of sustained masses of sound results.The form is open-ended and relatively free with only the basic shape being specified."

For this recording,the acoustical material was arranged in multi-layers,equally divided between the two stereo channels,with one additional layer which is "thrown" back and forth between the channels in a random pattern (much as the pendulum can be manipulated in the live performance situation)...


Side One:

a1-Lukas Foss: Elytres (6:12)

a2-Lukas Foss: Paradigm ("for my friends") (19:37)

Side a: Members of The New York Philomusica Chamber Ensemble, A.Robert Johnson,Director,
Lukas Foss Conducting.

Side Two:

b1-Lukas Foss: Ni Bruit Ni Vitesse (13:19)
Lukas Foss and Jan Williams,Performers
 
b2-Jan Williams: Dream Lesson (8:14)
Jan Williams,Percussion

 

























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