Mark
Zuckerman grew up in New York and later studied at the
Juilliard School, at the University of Michigan and at
Bard College. Early on he became fascinated by twelve-tone
music – going on to complete a Ph.D. at Princeton, the
American stronghold of serialism, studying with Milton
Babbitt and J.K. Randall. At Princeton, indeed, he wrote
a doctoral dissertation entitled Derivation As
An Articulation of Set Structure: A Study of the First
Ninety-Two Measures of Milton Babbitt's String Quartet
No.2. Later he worked as an academic,
holding posts at Princeton and Columbia. Wearying of the
academic environment, and finding little stimulus to composition,
he abandoned the university life and reassessed his direction
as a composer. From roughly 1990 his work as a composer
has followed two routes, side-by-side. One series of compositions
has explored new aspects of atonality and serialist construction;
another series of works in a traditionally tonal idiom.
This second dimension of Zuckerman’s work is represented
on this CD, which brings together recordings of a series
of short choral works.
Perhaps
the most immediately attractive items here are to be found
in the series of Proverbs for Four at Fifty. Each
sets a brief Old Testament text, in Hebrew. The brief settings
are striking, the blend of voices often both intriguing
and moving. Also very successful is Kol Dodi, a
piece written for the 50th wedding anniversary
of the composer’s parents, setting verses from the Song
of Songs (again in Hebrew). Traditional Jewish idioms
and inflections are handled with a thoroughly modern compositional
sophistication. Quite a number of the pieces recorded here
seem to have been ‘occasional’ in nature – written for
the composer’s own wedding, for the birthdays of friends
or in commemoration of the long service of a particular
Rabbi. This last, Grant Us Peace, sets an English
version of a favourite prayer of the Rabbi concerned, Rabbi
Leonard Polter, setting it in a fashion which, in terms
of structure, imitates aspects of the liturgical dialogue
between cantor and congregation. The result is intriguing
music of deceptive simplicity.
On
the whole, I found Zuckerman’s settings of Elizabeth Barrett
Browning (Because), Robert Browning (Grow old
Along With Me) and William Blake (Laughing Song)
rather less compelling than those of the modern Yiddish
poets Avrom Reisen (Doyres fun der tsukunft and Gebet)
and Mani Yeyb (Shtiler, shtiler). There is much
that is subtle, persuasive and – quite simply – beautiful
about these latter settings.
The
choral quartet is admirable throughout; the composer provides
helpful notes, with most of the texts provided, in the
original (in the case of the English poems) or in translation.
This
is a striking collection of choral miniatures – but the
playing time is disappointingly ‘miniature’ too.
Glyn
Pursglove
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The Goldene
Keyt Singers: Mary Ellen Callahan (soprano), Hsi-Ling Chang
(mezzo), Michael Steinberger (tenor), Thomas
Meglioranza (baritone) 
