Classic Ross Amico

Category: Daily Dispatch

Gloria Coates American Composer Dies at 89

American composer Gloria Coates has died. Coates displayed an unconventional, though highly-developed sense of texture, grasping the power of microtones and clusters from an early age. But these were often tied to comprehensible forms: canons, palindromes, simple structures. A prolific artist, she composed 16 symphonies, 11 string quartets, orchestral works, song cycles, and a chamber opera.

Hers was a unique voice. I often programmed her String Quartet No. 8 – with its three movements “On Wings of Sound,” “In Falling Timbers Buried,” and “Prayer” – during my broadcast memorials of 9/11. In the context, her sinking glissandi were especially effective, both visceral and chilling.

Coates was also an abstract expressionist painter. Some of her artwork has graced the covers of her albums. For much of her life, she made her living solely from her compositions. Allegedly, she was the most prolific female symphonist.

Born in Wisconsin in 1933, Coates largely made her home in Munich since 1969. At the time of her death, she was 89 years-old.

String Quartet No. 8 (2001/02)

Symphony No. 1 “Music on Open Strings” (1972)

“Holographic Universe” for violin and orchestra (1975)

“Cette blanche agonie” (1988), after Stephane Mallarmé

In English:

The virgin, vivid and beautiful today
Will it tear for us with a blow of its drunken wing
This hard, forgotten lake that haunts beneath the frost
The transparent glacier of flights that have not fled!
A swan of other times remembers that it is he
Magnificent but without hope of freeing himself
For not having sung the region where to live
When of the sterile winter glistened the tediousness.
His whole neck will shake off this white agony
By space inflicted on the bird which denies it
But not the horror of the soil in which his plumage is caught.
Phantom that to this place his pure brightness assigns,
It immobilizes itself in the cold dream of scorn
That clothes during the useless exile of the Swan.

Symphony No. 8 “Indian Sounds” (1990/91)

Symphony No. 15 “Homage to Mozart” (2004/05)

A conversation with Bruce Duffie

http://www.bruceduffie.com/coates4.html

August 25, 2023
Lion King Flutist Philadelphia Encounter

Yesterday, I was in Philadelphia to meet composer Robert Moran for lunch, and we wound up at Indian Restaurant (yes, that’s the name) at 1634 South Street. We were the only ones eating in, until the arrival of a third diner, who couldn’t help but overhear our fascinating conversation, as we sat in the window of the otherwise empty establishment. This is how we came to meet Darlene Drew, a musician, it turns out, in town with a touring production of “The Lion King.” That’s Darlene in the pit, during the show, playing no fewer than 13 ethnic flutes! She’s been doing this for 20 years, and has received a fair amount of press for it, as here, in Salt Lake City…

and here, at the Kennedy Center:

https://wjla.com/news/local/iconic-disney-the-lion-king-returns-kennedy-center-flutist-darlene-drew-plays-13-flutes-throughout-show-music-musician-performance?fbclid=IwAR0bMKMqThDI6ICxG6sfEFnmQk2aP5JytChOFNSyXJISZuuh5D0EIxS8L2M

You can learn more about her at her website.

https://www.darlenedrew.com/

“The Lion King” continues in Philadelphia at the Academy of Music through September 10.

PHOTOS: Fast friends in Philadelphia

August 24, 2023
Kile Smith Composer Curator Photographer

He’s a Smith whose forge is seldom dark.

With so many talents, his hammer rings like Siegfried’s on Mime’s anvil.

In addition to being a fine composer, Kile Smith (pictured, left) was, for many years, curator of the Fleisher Collection at the Free Library of Philadelphia. Scores housed in the collection continue to form the basis for his monthly podcast, “Fleisher Discoveries,” which is more or less a continuation of “Discoveries from the Fleisher Collection,” a show he produced back during his days at WRTI.

He’s also a fairly prolific writer, with intelligent articles on arts and culture appearing in publications like the Broad Street Review. His liner notes include those for the Naxos release of music by 19th century Philadelphia composer William Henry Fry (which, if you haven’t “discovered” it yet, I urge you to do so).

But it is through radio that I primarily know Kile, as a frequent presence on WRTI, and once, as a guest on my weekly program “The Lost Chord.” In addition, I’ve broadcast his music many times over the years during my regular live air shifts. I’m particularly fond of the recording of his “Vespers,” with The Crossing and Piffaro, The Renaissance Band, a flat-out masterpiece. I’ve programmed it several times at both WWFM and WPRB.

It was actually through Kile that I got my foot in the door at WRTI. Unfortunately, I couldn’t do my own classical programming there, and most of my air time was spent on jazz overnights. I would have loved to have been able to select more of my own music during the classical shifts. Certainly, Kile’s recordings would have been included in the rotation.

Wouldn’t you know, it turns out his eye is as fine as his ear. If you haven’t already been doing so, check out Kile’s wildlife photography. He shares a lot of it on his Facebook page. And in case I forgot to mention, he has a wry, understated sense of humor, which comes through in most of his posts.

His blog entries and podcasts can be accessed at his website, kilesmith.com. There’s also a schedule of performances and premieres, a list of Grammy nominations, music publications, and compositions, and more wildlife photos.

Happy birthday, Kile. Long may your hammer ring true!

From “Vespers”

The latest installment of “Fleisher Discoveries,” featuring the music of Leo Sowerby

Fleisher Discoveries: Leo Sowerby and the Sense of the Joy

PHOTO: Kile Smith with yours truly at a Princeton Festival concert last year at Trinity Church. Yes, that’s Kenneth Hutchins on the right.

August 24, 2023
Constant Lambert: A Versatile English Composer

As composer, conductor, critic, scintillating conversationalist, and connoisseur of European culture, Constant Lambert proved himself to be one of the most versatile figures in English music.

Born on this date in 1905, Lambert emerged from an introverted childhood, marred by illness, and blossomed into a preternaturally-gifted musician. At 13, he was writing orchestral works. At 20, he composed a ballet, “Romeo and Juliet,” for Serge Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes.

He gained further notoriety as a reciter of Edith Sitwell’s patter verses for William Walton’s “Façade” (which was dedicated to him). His piano concerto with voice and orchestra, “The Rio Grande,” unashamedly incorporated jazz elements, at a time when such a thing could still provoke scandal. He also directed the first recording of Peter Warlock’s “The Curlew.”

His book, “Music, Ho!,” written at the age of 28, offers incisive and witty commentary on the “decline” of modern music. In it, he favors jazz and popular idioms, praises the music Liszt and Sibelius, savages Stravinsky and Les Six, lauds the Marx Brothers, and pokes holes in what he perceives as an artificial “symphonic folk” tradition.

In 1931, he was appointed music director of the Vic-Wells Ballet, soon to become the Sadler’s Wells. While he achieved great acclaim in this capacity, his responsibilities cut into his activities as a composer. Instead, he became largely occupied with the arranging of others’ music. An exception, his gloomy and sardonic choral work, “Summer’s Last Will and Testament,” was coolly received, following as it did so closely on the death of George V. Lambert took the failure to heart, and began to have serious doubts about his talent.

Moreover, the outbreak of war, alcoholism, and undiagnosed diabetes all took their toll on his vitality and creativity. A long-held fear of doctors, stemming from his childhood experiences, only hastened his decline. Lambert died on August 21, 1951, two days shy of his 46th birthday.

At Sadler’s Wells, he was integral to the planning of each new production, in many cases providing arrangements of lesser-known works by worthy composers. He also became something of an artistic mentor to dancers Margot Fonteyn and Robert Helpmann. In the case of Fonteyn, their relationship developed beyond teacher-pupil. In defiance of his personal demons and deteriorating health, Lambert’s conducting – like his celebrated conversation – remained buoyant and inspired.

Happy birthday, Constant Lambert. You burned your candle, like your cigarettes, at both ends.

Lambert and Edith Sitwell in the first recording of Walton’s “Façade” from 1929

“The Rio Grande” (text by Sacheverell Sitwell)

Conducting selections from his ballet “Horoscope”

“Concerto for Piano and Nine Instruments”

His arrangements of Meyerbeer into the ballet “Les Patineurs”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e15W-6FwEb4

Footage of Lambert conducting Tchaikovsky’s “Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture”

“Music Ho!,” thanks to Project Gutenberg

https://gutenberg.ca/ebooks/lambert-music/lambert-music-00-h.html

August 23, 2023
Debussy’s Birthday & My “Flaxen Hair” Moment

Following a leisurely walk through Rittenhouse Square in Philadelphia about 30 years ago, I sat down at a keyboard in my studio apartment, hoping to recapture the hazy, haunting music that had flitted around the periphery of my consciousness. I smiled with relief and satisfaction, when I knew I had finally gotten it down. I was proud of myself to have created something so beautiful! It was only later that I realized it was “The Girl with the Flaxen Hair.”

Claude Debussy, always stealing my thunder. Happy birthday, mon vieux!

Here it is, performed by flaxen-haired twins in a field full of wild flowers.

August 22, 2023

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