Okay, so I’m the kind of guy who submits 1,930 words when the quota is 1200. I expected that there would have to be a little trimming.
But as I was reading the online version of my latest article, posted this morning, I thought it peculiar that all the information about Princeton University Concerts, which I thought was to be the primary focus of the article, was cut!
Then, as I continued to read, I realized it all started turning up at the bottom of the page. So after the opening, the second half of the article appears first, then the content I imagined would be closer to the top, and then it just kind of ends stone cold. So much for all my careful craftsmanship.
In the final analysis, not all that much was actually cut. Some, but not as much as I anticipated. It just kind of turned out to be a topsy-turvy presentation of my article.
But I really can’t complain – as long as the check is cut right-side up. It looks like I got the cover story!
Read all about Marna Seltzer, director of Princeton University Concerts, and the return of PUC’s tent-pole chamber music series to Richardson Auditorium, in this week’s U.S. 1 newspaper.
To me, John Adams has always embodied the spirit of youth. How the heck, then, did he get to be 75???
Adams is considered by some to be America’s preeminent living composer. Of the generation that emerged from the haze of Minimalism, he is perhaps the one representative least likely to repeat. Arguably the most versatile and substantial of the early proponents of the style, he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 2003 for his 9/11 memorial “On the Transmigration of Souls.”
Personally, I’ve never found all of his music convincing, and I would include among that his Pulitzer winner. Some of it I find fun (“Short Ride in a Fast Machine,” “Grand Pianola Music”), some of it I find to be quite good (“Shaker Loops,” “El Niño”), some of it I find to be boring, clumsy, or downright embarrassing (“Harmonium”). But undoubtedly everyone will have their own reactions (“Grand Pianola Music” was booed at its premiere), and all are free to assess for themselves.
A new opera is imminent, Adams’ take on Shakespeare’s “Antony and Cleopatra” – a departure for a composer whose stage works have been rooted in modernity – scheduled for a Los Angeles debut. Samuel Barber notoriously went down in flames for tackling the same subject for the grand re-opening of the Metropolitan Opera House at its current location at Lincoln Center in 1966 (though some would argue, in Barber’s case, it was not for wholly musical reasons).
In common with another illustrious predecessor, Aaron Copland, Adams in his maturity has expanded his activities as a conductor. While wondering what new I could possibly add to the 75th birthday encomiums, I stumbled across this substantial interview, in which he talks about, among other things, the challenges and rewards of conducting Sibelius. As a great admirer of Sibelius’ music myself, I found it to be of interest, even if I’m not sure I entirely agree with all of his assessments.
Regardless of my own mixed reaction to Adams’ body of work, there’s no arguing against his influence or his standing. Happy birthday on his 75th. Congratulations on his long-term success, and may he enjoy many more!
A “prepared piano” is a piano that has foreign objects laid on or inserted between its strings. These serve to alter the sound, character, timbre, and tuning of the instrument, and in the process create some rather fascinating percussive effects. It’s kind of like having your own gamelan orchestra at your fingertips. For a composer, it’s both effective and economical – if a little time consuming to get it set up.
John Cage was a pioneer of the practice. He composed “A Valentine Out of Season” for prepared piano in 1944, shortly before his separation from his wife, Xenia – which could very well account for the title. In this instance, he employed weather stripping, rubber, wood, bolts, pennies, and bamboo.
Cage’s first foray into the prepared piano came about as a solution for the writing of a dance piece, “Bacchanale,” for performance in a venue too small to accommodate a percussion ensemble, in 1938. To give an idea of how radical this was, that was the same year Aaron Copland’s “Billy the Kid” was introduced!
“A Valentine Out of Season” was choreographed by Merce Cunningham, as “Effusion avant l’heure,” for presentation in Paris in 1946. For New York, the title was changed to “Games,” and later “Trio.”
Thanks to a little ingenuity, Cage’s out-of-season Valentine turned out to be music for all seasons.
Whether as a composer, a performer, or a conductor, he was all Kraft.
William Kraft, a triple threat, died on Saturday at the age of 98.
Born in Chicago in 1923, he was raised in Santa Barbara, and it was on the West Coast that he made his greatest mark for over 40 years.
Already as a young man and freelance musician in Manhattan, he was rubbing shoulders with some of the most remarkable musicians of his day.
He studied composition at Columbia with Otto Luening, Vladimir Ussachevsky, and Jack Beeson. Closer to home, he also took lessons with Henry Cowell. He learned orchestration from Henry Brant, percussion with Morris Goldenberg, and timpani with Saul Goodman, for 50 years principal timpanist of the New York Philharmonic. He also studied conducting with Rudolph Thomas and Fritz Zweig.
After a brief stint with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, he returned to California, where from 1955 to 1985, he served as percussionist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. He later became its first composer-in-residence. For several seasons, he also served as regular guest conductor and assistant conductor. In 1991, he began teaching at the University of California.
He organized and directed the Los Angeles Percussion Ensemble, a group that gave first performances and made first recordings of works by Alberto Ginastera, Lou Harrison, Ernst Krenek, Igor Stravinsky, and Edgard Varèse.
Kraft was in charge of all percussion activities for Stravinsky in Los Angeles and appeared on some of the composer’s own recordings, including “L’Histoire du soldat.” As a soloist, Kraft performed in the American premieres of Karlheinz Stockhausen’s “Zyklus” and Pierre Boulez’ “Le marteau sans maître.”
Also, as one of the more unlikely composers to score a success with the Boston Pops, Kraft was enlisted alongside Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, Oliver Knussen, Joseph Schwantner, and John Adams to write works to be premiered under the baton of John Williams. Come to think of it, these Boston Pops commissions would make a terrific album! (To my knowledge only Maxwell Davies’ “An Orkney Wedding with Sunrise” was ever recorded by them and issued commercially.)
Kraft composed “Vintage Renaissance” for the Pops in 1989. The work incorporates two Renaissance melodies: “Danza” by Francesco de la Torre, and an anonymous “bransle” (pronounced “brawl”).
Like Williams, Kraft sometimes worked in film, although his projects as composer tended to be a little less prestigious. He wrote music for the slasher flick “Psychic Killer” (1975), the risible “Avalanche” (1978), and Ralph Bakshi’s “Fire and Ice.”
However, was also active in the music departments on more reputable fare, appearing as a percussionist on the soundtracks to “North by Northwest,” “None But the Brave” (scored by Williams), “Inside Daisy Clover,” “The War Wagon,” “A Man Called Horse,” “The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean,” and “The Great Santini.” As a conductor, he led studio orchestras in recording the music for “Dead Again,” “Indochine,” and “Carlito’s Way.”
Kraft was chair of the composition department at USC. He retired in 2002.
“Vintage Renaissance”
Concerto for Four Percussion Soloists and Orchestra
“French Suite”
Bakshi’s “Fire and Ice”
Kraft on percussion in Stravinsky’s “The Soldier’s Tale”
