Both of these works are
improvisational in style and make occasional use of motifs borrowed
from famous music. This is a normal situation, but is still remarkable
in our time because we have come through the dodecaphonist - perhaps
that should be dodecaphone; others think it should dodecacophonist
- age where even using an E flat minor scale was considered inexcusable
plagiarism. Wagner got his Tristan motif from Berlioz,
great moments from the Beethoven piano sonatas are scattered throughout
the keyboard works of Haydn and Mozart, Irving Berlin stole “God
Bless America” from the Berlioz Requiem (and his heirs
tried to force the U.S. Boy Scouts to pay a royalty every time
they sang it!), Liszt’s hungarian rhapsodies quote Hungarian pop
tunes, both Strauss and Stravinsky ended up having to pay fines
and royalties for borrowing tunes. So, we are just back to normal.
It’s OK.
Born in Wisconsin in 1926,
and possessor of a masters degree from Persichetti at the Juilliard
School, Marga Richter has always been one of my favorite
composers because of her unswerving pursuit of maximum passion
in her works. She goes directly for the heart every time and
usually hits square on. It was with some disappointment that
it became clear to me that she often uses a famous composition
by another classical composer as a matrix upon which to build
her structures, but then according to Tovey the young Schubert
did a lot of the same thing, as did the young Mozart etc., etc.
This work is pretty well
described by its current title, less well served by the original
program title which the composer no longer uses. These waters
are more deep than still and turbulent storms of passion rage
not far away. There are passages for full orchestra, for trio
alone and against full orchestra, and extended soliloquies for
each of the solo instruments. I enjoyed the work on first hearing
and find it growing on me with each additional hearing.
Howard Harris describes Musicke
for Dauncing Judicially (to give it a short title) as “jazz
influenced”, but if like me that raises an alarm bell for you,
don’t be concerned. The jazzy interludes are no jazzier nor
more frequent that in Hindemith, and the structure of the music
is sound and convincing. While it does not aim so deep in feeling
as the Richter, this work is very entertaining; you will look
forward to hearing it again. The piece was inspired by Hesse’s
Steppenwolf. The saxophone is “placed ... in a ... jazz
groove ... on top of music by Monteverdi, Bach, Handel and Schütz.”
Harris was born in Brooklyn,
has written music from the age of eleven, and graduated from
Juilliard with a B.Sc. in composition after studying with Elliott
Carter, Hall Overton and Roger Sessions. He died unexpectedly
at the age of 51 immediately after completing the orchestration
of this work.
Paul Shoemaker
AVAILABILITY
Leonarda
Productions
for
details
Renata Knific (violin); Pamela Frame (cello); Robert Weirich (piano) (Richter);
Carinthian Saxophone Quartet (Gilbert Sabitzer, alto saxophone); Polish
Radio National Symphony Orchestra/Joel Suben (Harris)
