Drawing the Connections

That La Monte Young quote is priceless. Almost as good as my favorite Young quote: "Once I tried lots of mustard on a raw turnip. I liked it better than any Beethoven I had ever heard." (Lecture, 1960)

The term "eventfulness" is pretty useful, too, as a somewhat more down-to-earth and intuitive way of thinking about whether music has traditional teleology. "Eventfulness" is arguably one of the things that roughly divides Minimalism from Postminimalism.

KG replies: True - but I have a theory that lately postminimalism is drawing back toward noneventfulness.

I share your enthusiasm for the "Study in Sonority" of Wallingford Riegger. A truly wonderful composer, rarely heard these days. One of Henry Brant's teachers too. Do you remember the NY Phil concert when Kurt Masur, of all people, conducted Henry's "Desert Forests," followed by "Three Places in New England," followed by the Riegger "Study..." (the original 8-violin version, not the Stokowski arrangement) and concluding with "Sun Treader" by Carl Ruggles? Very fine, astonishing programming. Riegger belongs in such company, of course.

KG replies: I remember the concert, but somehow don't remember Study in Sonority being on it. How could I have forgotten a rare live performance of a piece I teach so often?

I still think Riegger's third symphony is the "Great American Symphony". Sadly, it's never played. On the issue of eventfulness vs. uneventfulness I find myself torn, as I like both. Woe is me.

KG replies: I'm not torn, I just go back and forth. Some of my pieces have to have events, and others don't. I usually aim for don't, sometimes don't make it.

Riegger's Study in Sonority isn't available on any extant recording. You can't buy it, you can't hear it, and no one performs it anymore. I've never heard it, and there is no prospect that I will ever be able to hear it anywhere, at any time, by any means, in any way.

This raises an interesting question: to what extent should we discuss pieces of modern music which no one in the audience has any prospect of ever hearing?

KG replies: Heavens, you're right, that is awful. Here is it, from the old Louisville recording:

http://www.kylegann.com/StudyinSonority.mp3

But by all means we could keep talking about great music that isn't available, to keep up pressure for someone to make it available.

During the 1995 Santa Fe production of Robert Ashley's four part, four night, opera Now Eleanor's Idea there was a low rider car on stage for the last night performance. The car started going up and down as low riders are apt to do.

I thought that was pretty eventful and has been stuck in my head ever since.

All kidding aside, have you ever noticed at a rock concert that the biggest applause usually comes after a note is held for a really long time or one is repeated again and again and again ?

How about an American 5 webpage?

I remember hearing a lovely performance of Study in Sonority at an Evenings for New Music Concert at the Albright Knox Gallery in Buffalo:

Concert 103 (ENM103)
OCTOBER 27, 1973
Performed in the Albright-Knox Art Gallery

Composer: Riegger, Wallingford
Title: Study in sonority (1927)
Performer(s): Benjamin Hudson, Jon Shallit, Michael Rosenbloom, Douglas Cone, Charles Haupt, Jacquelynne Leonard, Carol Zeavin, Rhoda Gena, Dennis Piwowarski, Donald Weilerstein, violins; Lukas Foss, conductor
Duration: 10:08

It had a stellar cast of players, including the concertmaster of the Buffalo Philharmonic and the first violinist of the Cleveland String Quartet. I would imagine that the UB library would have the recording.

Other pieces on the program were Threnody I and II by Copland, L'histoire du Soldat (with narrators) and Crumb's Vox Balaenae (!).
http://library.buffalo.edu/music/spcoll/evenings.html

Peter

I got into a quiet argument this week debating whether Cage or Coltrane were more important to music. We touched on Modal Jazz where he said "they started getting to the point where they'd start a song with a groove that didn't have a lot of change to it, like an intro. Except it wasn't an intro to anything. They just decided to turn that into a song itself."

I almost jumped up and said "yes! That's just like the uneventfulness in minimalism." He was a little startled. I thought it was a great connection, though.

Hi Kyle-

someone posted a performance of Study in Sonorities on YouTube-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dbc-utfyrfE

that's me playing it in the right-hand corner, along with seven pre-recorded tracks. As far as I know, it's the only non-orchestral version of it... I did record it, have not done anything with it yet.

still working on the Ben Johnston quartet discs, should be another one out in the Spring...

eric