'The Group' at Columbia
NEWLIN, DIKA
ON MUSIC By Dika Newlin 'The Group' at Columbia AMID the great publicity given to the Lukas Foss and Gunther Schuller avant-garde concert series at Carnegie Hall, the efforts of another...
...Needless to say, one of the "far-out" boys in the audience used the occasion of one of the more delicate passages in the piece to yawn loudly and prolongedly...
...This is mannerism, not originality" The difference is that mannerism is originality in subordinate matters...
...This "homage" consisted, in effect, of various electronic transformations of a Joyce text projected from various parts of the hall...
...He used his structural plan as a means to express an idea—and his idea had, in turn, the power to trigger a deep emotional response...
...After hearing many of his works I have found— again and again—an admirable care for construction but nowhere even the vestige of communication of an idea—not to mention an emotion...
...But let's not confine the query to Milton Babbitt...
...Furthermore, not just the young composers represented in these concerts, but all those who aspire to say something new with complete artistic integrity and conviction, might well ponder the words of Arnold Schoenberg (from his essay "Criteria for the Evaluation of Music," published in Style and Idea in 1950 but just as valid today as when it was written): "Though originality is inseparable from personality, there exists also a kind of originality which does not derive from profound personality...
...I mean the Group for Contemporary Music at Columbia University...
...Then the program turned to what was obviously considered the clou of the evening: Milton Babbitt's Woodwind Quartet (1952...
...A query which might be germane here: Can Babbitt write, under con-trolled conditions, a strict example of, say, a tonal or modal double fugue...
...I noted with special pleasure that Schoenberg's extraordinary canons (published by Baerenreiter, already performed in Berlin but never before, so far as I know, in America) will be played on March 22...
...This had been advertised in advance as a composition written in 1952...
...I nonetheless underline it here in order to obviate willful misunderstanding...
...As one wide-eyed Young Thing said to another during intermission, "You know, it's totally serialized...
...That I do not use these words in any "programmatic" sense, as the literary Romanticists and certain of their musical contemporaries would have done, does not, I hope, need to be said...
...There are many, and even respectable artists whose success and reputation are based on this minor kind of originality...
...After intermission, Robert Miller played—and magnificently—the Quaderno Musicale di Annalibera by Dallapiccola...
...Webern could...
...ON MUSIC By Dika Newlin 'The Group' at Columbia AMID the great publicity given to the Lukas Foss and Gunther Schuller avant-garde concert series at Carnegie Hall, the efforts of another interesting group active in New York stand in danger of being overlooked...
...Let each member of the audience refine his own criteria of evaluation to the point where he can distinguish between the real composer and the fake—and make his feelings vigorously known...
...Certainly there was inventiveness at work when the striking changes of some subordinate elements were accomplished for the first time...
...A factual note for the record: Readers within travelling distance of these concerts (they're given in the McMillin Academic Theater at Columbia) may want to know that, besides the composers previously mentioned, the following are to be represented in programs to come (February 22, March 22, April 1 9 ) : Charles Wuorinen, Mel Powell, Peter Westergaard, Charles Dodge, Elliott Carter, Arthur Berger, Harvey Sollberger, Beverly Bond Clarkson, Bartok, Mario Davidovsky, Nicolas Roussakis, Webern, Schuller, Ussachevsky, Donald Martino...
...The Group regards itself as "an ensemble formed to provide highcalibre performances of contemporary music...
...Too often nowadays works by some would-be avantgarde composers give the impression that the author had attempted to produce something unusual and ended up (quite unknowingly) with something as conventional as the obligatory beards and black stockings...
...It was played twice, once before the intermission and once afterward...
...or a four-part riddle canon...
...Subsequently, used consciously, they achieved an aspectof novelty not derived profoundly from basic ideas...
...1600) of John Bull, and the transcription was by Harvey Sollberger...
...No one who knows him and his work can doubt his seriousness, his intelligence and his probity...
...Can any number of junior-grade Weberns, whose names I have failed to retain, fulfill such tasks...
...Previously heard also were Stefan Wolpe and Chou Wen- Chung...
...Whether he is a composer, however, is open to serious question...
...The evening closed with what has become rather a feature of these concerts: an up-to-date "arrangement" of an older work...
...Unearthing this bland little piece, which is not at all representative of Luening's later work, certainly did no particular service to this amiable composer and teacher...
...Unfortunately, the tendency to arouse interest by technical peculiarities, which are simply added to the nothingness of an idea, is now more frequent than it was in former times...
...I quote, therefore, its most recent statement...
...I am sure it is—though details of this sort, of course, could not reveal themselves in just two hearings— but this does not necessarily guarantee the production of a piece of music...
...But why, one wonders, are they to be juxtaposed with works of Vicentino, one of the Renaissance's prime "anti-composers...
...Let each composer, then, search his own artistic conscience...
...The case of Milton Babbitt is a curious and distressing one...
...Products of such artists are often distinguished by a unique appearance which resembles true originality...
...Only then will our many "evenings of new music," whether they be on Morningside Heights or on Darmstadt's Marienhdhe, project a purpose, and lead to a future...
...Braving the uptown subway trip and the bearded, black-stockinged, and long-haired crowd (it is not absolutely necessary to be adorned with one of these items in order to attend, but such attire still seems to be fashionable for such occasions), I arrived in time for the first work: Thema (Omaggio a Joyce, 1958) by Luciano Berio...
...The Group indubitably has done and will continue to do good work...
...There was a richly varied instrumentation, including, unfortunately, a piano (vigorously thumped by Wuorinen) which was quite simply out of place...
...Varese...
...Can Leon Kirchner, that Schoenberg pupil manque who has managed to rise to the heights of pseudo-genius, do these things...
...While the first half of this concert gave rise to such disagreeable questions, the second brought a distinct improvement...
...In this case, the piece was an In Nomine (c...
...I therefore felt a pleasurable obligation to attend one of the Group's recent concerts and see whether, in fact, its aspirations are being fulfilled...
...It turned out, however, to be a work of the '20s...
...The resident character of the Group makes possible the extensive rehearsals which are mandatory for the performance of most new music, and the permanence of its personnel encourages the development of a unified ensemble style...
...Schoenberg also used to say, "I always attempted to produce something quite conventional, but I failed, and it always, against my will, became something unusual...
...The moral air of such products is rather for success and publicity than for enriching mankind's thoughts...
...One wonders...
...Here for the first time that evening was a real piece of music...
...When I asked Charles Wuorinen, co-director of the Group (the other is Harvey Sollberger), what its aims and aspirations are, he referred me to the brochure which it issues each season...
...Of actual musical sounds, however, there were few...
...Schoenberg could...
...This organization, now presenting its third season of concerts (free of charge to the public), enjoys a distinguished list of sponsors that includes Columbia's Department of Music, the Alice M. Ditson Fund, American Composers Alliance, the Ingram Merrill Foundation, the Scherman Foundation, and ASCAP...
...As a composer (as well as an alumna of the department involved) I find such a declaration of aims particularly commendable...
...But, it seems to me, a greater effort needs to be made to avoid narcissism, cliquishness, and kowtowing to big names with small talents...
...LEST this account give an allover negative impression of the Group's total achievements, I should perhaps add that this concert was but one of six in the season, and material of considerable interest is promised for some of the future ones...
...The establishment of the Group is an expression of the Music Department's belief that the University has an obligation to serve the community in which it operates by sponsoring the performance of music which is rarely or never given in the normal concert environment...
...Dallapiccola wrote for the piano with a fine sense of its manifold sonorities...
...As a word game, it was fun, and probably would have appealed to Joyce...
...His Differences had originally been scheduled for this program, but that work was not heard, for reasons not known to me...
...Next was heard a Fantasia Brevis for flute and piano by Columbia's Otto Luening...
Vol. 48 • January 1965 • No. 2
