Classic Ross Amico

Category: Daily Dispatch

William Grant Still: A Long-Awaited Revival

Can it be that William Grant Still’s time has finally come?

Whereas in the past, I would be lucky ever to encounter his works outside of recordings, within the last few months, I was able to hear “Ennanga,” for piano, harp and strings, with the Allentown Symphony Orchestra, the Symphony No. 2 with the New York Philharmonic, and the “Afro-American Symphony” (the Symphony No. 1) with the New Jersey Symphony.

In October, on its first subscription concert of the 2023-24 season, The Philadelphia Orchestra will perform the Symphony No. 4. The New Jersey Symphony will open its season with Still’s “Out of the Silence.” And how appropriate that title has turned out to be.

Still is on the move. And it’s about time.

The “Afro-American Symphony” is one of my favorite American symphonies ever. And it’s been so for decades. I’ve been in love with it ever since I first heard it on record nearly 40 years ago. It’s poetic, nostalgic, celebratory, genuinely reflective, beautiful, and brimming with great tunes. It’s congenial, and in the end quite moving. Not to take anything away from the noisy wartime symphonies of Copland, Harris, Schuman, and the rest, but surely there’s room in the pantheon for other points of view.

Any discussion of Still must include a litany of “firsts.” His “Afro-American Symphony” was the first written by a black composer to be performed by a professional orchestra (the Rochester Philharmonic in 1931). He was the first black composer to be given the opportunity to conduct a major orchestra (the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl in 1936). His opera, “Troubled Island,” became the first to be produced by a major company (the New York City Opera in 1949). Another of his operas, “A Bayou Legend,” was the first to be performed on national television (as late as 1981). His works were performed internationally by the Berlin Philharmonic, the London Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Symphony, and the Tokyo Philharmonic.

Yet in nearly 40 years of attending concerts, until recently, the only times I ever encountered Still “live” were when the Westminster Community Orchestra played “Wood Notes,” in 2015, and the New Jersey Capital Philharmonic Orchestra performed the Symphony No. 4, on a program with Florence Price’s Violin Concerto No. 1, in 2019. Both were before the death of George Floyd spurred arts organizations to get with it, already. So bravo, local orchestras!

Otherwise, all of my familiarity with Still’s work has been gleaned from recordings.

Price, in particular – the first black woman to have her music played by a major orchestra (the Chicago Symphony in 1933) – is undergoing quite a revival. It’s too bad neither she nor Still are around to see it. It’s not a matter of skin color that makes the music worthwhile, but unfortunately, it has been the case that because of it, their music was perhaps not always taken as seriously as it might have been.

We are now in the enviable position to be able to address some of the injustices of the past, in resurrecting this music, giving it the exposure it deserves, and allowing posterity to sort it out. Just because music is not played doesn’t always mean it is not worthwhile. A lot of very talented, very qualified people are finally getting their chance to be heard.

And you don’t have to be a minority to reap the rewards.

Happy birthday, William Grant Still.

PHOTO: In living color – my heart be Still!

May 11, 2023
Max Steiner & Dimitri Tiomkin Birthday Film Scores

May 10th is bursting with birthday energy! Turn down the lights for a celebration of those two silverbacks of the silver screen, Max Steiner and Dimitri Tiomkin.

Steiner (1888-1971), the literal godson of Richard Strauss, was instrumental in transplanting the sound of fin de siècle Vienna to the realm of cinematic dreams. He composed over 300 film scores for RKO and Warner Brothers, earning 24 Academy Award nominations and winning three – for “The Informer,” “Now, Voyager” and “Since You Went Away” – though he is unquestionably better remembered today for his work on “King Kong,” “Gone with the Wind” and “Casablanca.”

Tiomkin (1894-1979), a pupil of Alexander Glazunov, was born in Ukraine. He settled in the United States, where he composed music for films in all genres, though in the 1950s he enjoyed particular success writing for Westerns, including the Academy Award-winning “High Noon.” When asked why this would be the case, that a composer born halfway around the world would have such a command of this distinctly American idiom, Tiomkin replied, “A steppe is a steppe is a steppe.”

Tiomkin was honored with four Academy Awards – three for Best Original Score (for “High Noon,” “The High and the Mighty” and “The Old Man and the Sea”) and one for Best Original Song (“The Ballad of High Noon”).

Here’s a transcript of his acceptance speech, delivered after being handed the Oscar for “The High and the Mighty” in 1955:

“Lady and gentlemen, because I working in this town for twenty-five years, I like to make some kind of appreciation to very important factor what make me successful to lots of my colleagues in this town. I’d like to thank Johannes Brahms, Johann Strauss, Richard Strauss, Beethoven, Mozart, George Gershwin, Jerome Kern, Wagner, Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov. Thank you.”

You can watch it here:

Though Steiner and Tiomkin were both very well-connected in the wider musical world, comparatively speaking, neither left very much in the way of classical concert music. In 2019, Intrada Records put out a diverting 2-CD set of Tiomkin’s brightly-scored ballet music, dances composed in Paris for his wife, Albertina Rasch, in 1927-1932, prior to his work in film. It would be wonderful for afternoon drive-time – if only I had a live air shift! You can sample some of it by following the link. Already detectable is Tiomkin’s trademark snarling brass, in a number titled “Mars” (the second track in this YouTube playlist):

In 2020, Oxford University Press published a book by Steven C. Smith, “Music by Max Steiner: The Epic Life of Hollywood’s Most Influential Composer.” Read my impressions of this authoritative biography, unbelievably the first full-length treatment of Steiner’s life and achievements, here. Then get yourself a copy!

Also in 2020, while I was twiddling my thumbs, waiting to get back to work, I put together a Steiner-Tiomkin crossword puzzle. The clues not only allude to specifics of their respective lives and careers, but they should also be of ample interest, I hope, to classic movie buffs. So even if you’re convinced you don’t know a lot about music, do check it out if, like me, you happen to watch a lot of movies from the ‘30s, ‘40s, and ‘50s.

To fill out the puzzle, follow the link and select “solve online” at the bottom of the page. You’ll then be able to type directly into the squares. Once you feel you’ve exhausted the puzzle, you’ll find the solutions by clicking on “Answer Key PDF.”

https://www.armoredpenguin.com/crossword/Data/2020.05/1007/10071219.977.html?fbclid=IwAR1pIAkaVZccK4LXQ5yTMtwJ7kzNlQeOPjgyn3Fkx4X4NcAvd1Cxp52iahw

Happy birthday to Max Steiner and Dimitri Tiomkin, two composers who enriched generations of movie lovers by keeping it “reel!”

Steiner’s “Now, Voyager”

Tiomkin’s “Land of the Pharaohs”

A great, two-part interview with Steiner:

Part 1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQuNnzH6_g8
Part 2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmJLTn_6UOY

The official Dimitri Tiomkin website:

Welcome to DimitriTiomkin.com

PHOTOS (counter-clockwise from top): Screen credits for their work on “Lost Horizon” (1937); Steiner conducting; Frank Capra (in coat) with Steiner and Tiomkin on the podium; Tiomkin composing

May 10, 2023
Milton Babbitt Beyond the Monster Myth

The headline read “Who Cares if You Listen?” And the notoriety was instant and long-lasting.

All at once, Milton Babbitt was a musical monster.

Babbitt, a staple at Princeton University for many years, was born in Philadelphia on this date in 1916. He received lasting blowback from angry villagers wielding torches and pitchforks for an essay he wrote for High Fidelity magazine, which bore the title stated above.

Unfortunately, the headline wasn’t Babbitt’s. It was actually an editorial decision. Babbitt’s original title had been “The Composer as Specialist” – not nearly as eye-catching or provocative. Today, we might describe it as clickbait. But it stuck like Karloff’s neck-bolts, as both a source of animation and a signal of abnormality, branding him in the eyes of the superstitious rabble as an outcast to be feared.

Also, it is kind of arrogant.

While it’s true that Babbitt frequently composed in a serial style, which might be off-putting to some coming to it for the first time, his music is often fairly lucid, without undo congestion and with a minimum of soul-crushing dissonances. On the contrary, he often achieved a paradoxical simplicity under the guise of complexity.

In the 1960s, Babbitt became interested in electronic music, apparently for its rhythmic precision, as opposed to any unusual timbral considerations. I find it endearing that he was also fond of jazz and musical theater and that late in life he enjoyed a friendship of sorts with film composer John Williams. (They bonded over Bernard Herrmann.) His one-time student, Stephen Sondheim, characterized him as “a frustrated show composer.”

Babbitt himself was a saxophonist. In 1946, he penned a musical, “Fabulous Voyage,” a retelling of Homer’s “The Odyssey.”

Yes, we all have our off-days, but the lasting impression Babbitt left on his students and colleagues seems to be that he was largely a warm and personable human being. He loved Broadway, beer, and football. Simple pleasures for someone portrayed as so lofty, he didn’t give a hang if you listened.

Babbitt was the recipient of an honorary Pulitzer Prize in 1982. He died in Princeton in 2011, at the age of 94.

Listen to “Penelope’s Night Song” from “Fabulous Voyage” and tell me if it seems to you like the product of a rampaging monster.

“Composition for Twelve Instruments” (1948):

“Reflections” (1974) for piano and synthesized tape:

Milton Babbitt on electronic music:

John Williams talks Babbitt in The New Yorker

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/persons-of-interest/the-force-is-still-strong-with-john-williams?fbclid=IwAR1gsLDyvvw7MFV_1NTP2OYNFwkYSOqHhiwBatZFtCT1FFYe4qWw6pt0Ems

If you’re interested in learning more about Princeton’s important role in the history of computer music and haven’t done so yet, do check out this podcast, produced by the Princeton University Engineering Department.

Composers & Computers, a podcast

I profiled the podcast’s creator, Aaron Nathans, in September for the Princeton weekly U.S. 1.

https://www.communitynews.org/princetoninfo/artsandentertainment/a-good-ear-for-stories-and-electronic-music-inspires-a-princeton-podcast/article_93780110-3384-11ed-93a9-1ba8b9106ed7.html?fbclid=IwAR0vF9aavdWS2hecaAE5XkVs62EOYFY9fFHcQYRVr1jReBT6_-WFPuPoyyg

A refresher on “Milton the Monster”

“Milton the Monster” Mixed Horror with Humor

Happy birthday, Milton Babbitt!

May 10, 2023
Gershwin & Berlioz in Princeton

Gershwin and Berlioz are “in” this weekend at the Princeton Symphony Orchestra. The orchestra will present “An American IN Paris” and “Harold IN Italy,” IN Richardson Auditorium IN Alexander Hall, this Saturday evening at 8:00 and Sunday afternoon at 4:00.

By merest coincidence, “Harold in Italy” received its first U.S. performance on this date, 160 years ago. In 1863, it was presented in New York by the Theodore Thomas Orchestra, sharing a program with Mozart’s overture to “The Magic Flute” and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5, interspersed with some shorter musical interludes.

Berlioz’s symphony is unusual for, among other things, its prominent role for an instrumental soloist – a flourish usually reserved for the concerto. The work was written for Niccolò Paganini, the legendary violinist who was hoping for a showcase for his new Stradivarius viola.

Unfortunately, when Paganini received the score, his face dropped, as the composer was evidently more interested in Harold’s meditations – admittedly punched up by some colorful musical evocations, of a religious pilgrimage, a mountaineer’s serenade, and a brigands’ orgy – than in the virtuosic flights Paganini had envisioned. In the event, the world premiere took place in Paris in 1834, with Chrétien Urhan as the soloist.

Though Paganini never played the piece, he did come to appreciate its genius. When he finally heard the work performed in 1838, he ascended the stage, dropped to his knees, and before a cheering crowd, kissed Berlioz’s hand. Perhaps even more gratifying for the composer, Paganini later sent him a bank draft for 20,000 francs.

As Berlioz stated in his “Memoirs,” “My intention was to write a series of orchestral scenes, in which the solo viola would be involved as a more or less active participant while retaining its own character. By placing it among the poetic memories formed from my wanderings in the Abruzzi, I wanted to make the viola a kind of melancholy dreamer in the manner of Byron’s Childe-Harold.”

Although “Harold” is probably the composer’s second most-popular symphony, after the weird and wonderful “Symphonie fantastique,” concert performances are comparatively rare, due to a scarcity of star violists – that is to say, violists who are able to sustain a career as soloists. If the work is done, it’s generally with an orchestra principal in the spotlight. In fact, I believe the last time I heard the piece in person was over 30 years ago, with Joseph de Pasquale and the Philadelphia Orchestra. That’s not to say it hasn’t been played, but rather in my decades of concertgoing, it’s the last time I personally encountered it. Indeed, De Pasquale was the orchestra’s principal violist, but he had quite an association with the piece, having performed it in Boston, where he had also been principal, with Charles Munch, and recorded it in Philadelphia with Eugene Ormandy.

Princeton’s soloist will be De Pasquale’s successor, Roberto Diaz, who was Philadelphia’s principal violist for ten years. In 2006, he left to become director of the Curtis Institute of Music.

The weekend’s concerts will also include Julia Perry’s “Study for Orchestra.” Perry, a graduate of Princeton’s Westminster Choir College in 1948, continued her studies with Luigi Dallapiccola at the Berkshire Music Center at Tanglewood, at the Juilliard School in New York, and with Nadia Boulanger in Paris. With the recent push to reevaluate neglected music by minority composers, Perry’s “Study” has become a focus of renewed interest, with a number of performances popping up on orchestra schedules this season and next.

The other American on the program requires little introduction. “An American in Paris” even became the subject of an Academy Award winning movie, starring Gene Kelly, with the show-stopping climax a 17-minute ballet inspired by Gershwin’s by turns eager, melancholy, and exuberant score.

It’s an American IN Paris and Harold IN Italy IN Princeton, with one of Westm-IN-ster’s own, IN concert this Saturday and Sunday with the Princeton Symphony Orchestra. Rossen Milanov will conduct. For tickets and information, visit princetonsymphony.org.

Berlioz, stylin’, in 1832 (portrait attributed to Emile Signol)

May 9, 2023
“Omar” Wins Pulitzer Prize for Music

And this year’s Pulitzer Prize for Music goes to… Rhiannon Giddens and Michael Abels for the opera “Omar.”

“Omar” was inspired by the memoir of an enslaved Muslim man, Omar ibn Said, whose autobiography was written, mostly in Arabic, in 1831. In 1807, Said was captured during a military conflict, taken from his home in Futa Toro (in what is now Senegal), and sold to slavers. He was 37 years-old. He was also from a wealthy family and highly educated.

In the U.S., he had contrasting experiences under a cruel master and one who realized his exceptional nature. It was the latter who encouraged him to write his story down. Said was offered the chance to return home, but doubtful about the fate of his people, he chose to remain in North Carolina.

The opera was commissioned by Spoleto Festival USA. Giddens wrote the libretto and composed the music, and then handed it off to co-composer Abels for him to orchestrate it. According to The New York Times, the score is “a melting pot inspired by bluegrass, hymns, spirituals, and more, with nods to traditions from Africa and Islam. It’s an unforced ideal of American sound: expansive and ever-changing.”

And according to the Pulitzer committee, it’s “an innovative and compelling opera about enslaved people brought to North America from Muslim countries, a musical work that respectfully represents African as well as African American traditions, expanding the language of the operatic form while conveying the humanity of those condemned to bondage.”

Here are some clips and promotional material from the West Coast premiere with LA Opera:

https://www.laopera.org/performances/202223-season/omar/

The composers talk a little bit about it here:

Congratulations to Rhiannon Giddens and Michael Abels!

May 8, 2023

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