Song Cycles, Composers Concordance, Pritsker, etc.

Modern classical contemporary song cycles are perhaps among the least integrated forms within the received general culture out there. That's so as compared with the symphony, or even some forms of chamber music, solo piano coming to mind. Or at least that's my impression. Song cycles remain more or less firmly a part of the "high culture/low culture" dichotomy, as part of the former, though there's no inherent reason why they should be considered "elitist" in any set way. Anyone with a musical ear can appreciate them, I think, at least the good ones.

Composers Concordance, both a label and an institution, has taken an iconoclastic stance on the high-low division. Their new anthology Song Cycles (Composers Concordance 0029), contains some of those good song cycles, and for all that does not overtly set out to break down the division in this case, but along the way does not advocate either a "purist" or an "elitist" stance on the matter either, instead giving us music written in the present tense, incorporating whatever high-low elements that seem needed for a particular cycle. So for example Gene Pritsker's four-movement "Music from an Airport Bar" brings in blues-jazz elements both lyrically and musically. Is that a "low" element? No, of course not, but on the other hand it still seems meaningless when you take account of the whole of that cycle and how it comes across, which is convincingly. Like Gene's recent opera.

There are six cycles included in the anthology, with "Carefully Try Balance" broken into three parts, each taken by a different composer: David Gotay, Zach Seely, and Thomas Carlo Bo, respectively. The rest of the cycles have a single composer each, Pritsker as mentioned but also Patrick Hardish, Luis Andrei Cobo, Eleanor Cory, and Lester Trimble.

All are contemporary-modern sounding without being in any way formulaic. All of course feature a singer, sopranos for the most part, but also a tenor-baritone (for the Pritzker cycle). A piano accompaniment is central to four of the cycles; "Carefully Try Balance" adds a flute part; Lester Trimble's "Four Fragments from the Canterbury Tales" uses flute, clarinet and harpsichord as instrumental accompaniment (the Circadia Ensemble).

The vocal parts are generally quite well sung, though on occasion the use and width of the vibrato for the soprano seems like it could be lessened productively.

At any rate these are song cycles that withstand close, repeated listening and hold together as significant and pleasurable compositions.

It may not be the record of the year but it holds a worthy treasure of new music from the Composers Concordance group. Anyone with a penchant for post-romantic song cycles with find this a welcome addition. It undoubtedly captures a moment in what is happening on the US scene, and does it memorably.

Stephen Paulus, Three Places of Enlightenment, Veil of Tears, Grand Concerto, Nashville Symphony, Giancarlo Guerrero

When you encounter recent composers in the modern tradition, but more towards post-neo-romantic than serialist form, are they pre-postmodernists? There is a point where labels get ridiculous and that would be an example. Stephen Paulus has a musical style that is no throwback, yet his syntax is expanded tonality in the idiom of the 20th century more so than the ritualist quasi-naivete of the postmodernist crew.

That comes through very nicely in a new disk of concertos and an orchestral work featuring impressive performances by the Nashville Symphony under Giancarlo Guerrero. Three Places of Enlightenment (Naxos 8.559740) carries the name of the subtitle for the "Concerto for String Quartet and Orchestra" that heads off the program.

Sadly Stephen Paulus passed away several weeks ago in the aftermath of a stroke, so that his vital life statistics are now 1949-2014. By default this ends up being his first posthumous recording. The loss seems great as I listen to the music on this program.

The music is prosaic, filled with eventful thematic richness and a sure sense of orchestral dynamics and color. The "Concerto for String Quartet and Orchestra (Three Places of Enlightenment)" (1995) is given its world premiere recording here. It has great drama and beautifully brio string writing for the quartet and the orchestral strings alike. The three movements have a very engaging forward momentum with virtuoso interplay within the quartet as well as with quartet and orchestra. Movement I "From Within" has a stirringly brisk pace that gallops across your speakers with diverse inventive passages that flow together with great rhythmic drive. Movement II "From Afar" has a chorale-like sadness expressed in the quartet and carried over to the orchestral strings, eventually expanding to the wider orchestra with expressive eloquence. It is touching, not sentimental as much as it is beautifully resigned. The final movement "From All Around and Radiating Ever Outward" returns to the briskly driving determination of the first movement. It is a work of genuine note, in every way a pleasing and extraordinarily well-turned showcase for the quartet with the orchestra taking an active involvement in the shaping of thematic development.

"Veil of Tears for String Orchestra" (2005) is quite brief, an excerpt from the holocaust oratorio "To Be Certain of the Dawn." It is a somewhat sadly bitter largo movement, poignant but over quickly.

The three-movement "Grand Concerto for Organ and Orchestra" (2004) (in a world premier recording as well) features Nathan J. Laube in the soloist's role. It begins gradually, then launches into music with the kinetic drive of the string quartet concerto but of course with the color and power of the full organ on display. The organ is in a triumphic mode and the amassed sound of organ and orchestra make for some truly grand spark flying, thickly at times but luminously, too. The second movement, dubbed "Austere; Foreboding" has a stark darkness in keeping with such concerns. It quietly haunts as it shows the quieter side of Paulus's virtuoso brilliance in scoring. The movement lets loose with outbursts that overwhelm with a hugeness of sound and contrast with the quiet anxiety of the movement as a whole. The final movement ("Jubilant") gives us a rousingly kinetic triumph that literally pulls out all the stops and amasses a well phrased immensity that makes for a moving conclusion.

I am very glad to have this disk of the orchestral-concerted Paulus, which will give your stereo a real workout while it envelopes you in some beautifully crafted, rather brilliant music. The Nashville Symphony sound fabulous under Guerrero. RIP Stephen Paulus. Don't miss this beautiful farewell!

Philip Blackburn, Music of Shadows

Avant garde composers of electronic and electro-acoustic music in the classic phase, at least the very best ones, managed to craft a set of sounds for each work that had a personal fingerprint, a special ambience all its own. It's true of Varese, Cage, Stockhausen, Xenakis, Berio, and so forth. With the rise of the Moog and other synthesizers and their ready-made series of sound options some of that tabula rasa aspect diminished for a time. Today's manifestations see a return to the home-made sound design approach in the best cases. That is very true of Philip Blackburn's latest set of compositions in a three-work compendium named Music of Shadows (Innova 250).

The first two works were designed to form the "Sewer Pipe Organ", to be played back inside storm drains in St. Paul, MN. They both have an ambience that would sound well in such a cavernous/elongated enclosure.

The first, "Dry Spell" (2011-13) has a striking sound design of thickly timbrous sustains with field recordings of children playing along with sonic interruptions and enhancements of various sorts. A chorus and various home-made instruments form the body of source sounds that Blackburn adeptly reworks and transforms. It is a beautiful piece.

"Still Points" (2011) works with different velocities in ways I certainly appreciate, creating sound poetry of a high order out of a synthesis process he calls the "Virtual Rhythmicon". Whereas "Dry Spell" favors long legato sustains, "Still Points" focuses on more staccato bursts of several timbre families articulating rhythmic figures of different contrasting periodicities, varying rates of pulse. It is music that mesmerizes as it fascinates.

The final work, "The Long Day Closes" (2013), features VAPA/The Sun Palace chorus and instrumentalists with the late Bob Paredes on clarinet. The music was composed "after Handel's 'Ombra mai fu'" which comprised the first radio broadcast of music in 1906, to passing ships in Brant Rock, Massachusetts who would otherwise have received messages in Morse code.

The initial instrumental-vocal source recordings get a sometimes subtle, sometimes more thorough electro-acoustic transformation to give it all increased ambiance. It's as if that original broadcasts is still resonating out towards infinite space, beyond the sea and reaching for the stars. It is an exceedingly beautiful work, another creatively realized study in sustains, wrapping up what "Dry Spells" initiated with a satisfying closure.

So there we have it. Philip Blackburn gives us a ravishingly sonic modern adventure that is both highly inventive and thoroughgoingly striking in its sound design. These are works to get inside of, to experience transformatively, to change as the music itself changes. It is something not to be missed.

Andrew Violette, Sonatas for Cello and Clarinet

Andrew Violette didn't make a pact with the devil before he produced his Sonatas for Cello and Clarinet (2011) (Innova 832), but he may have engaged in some extra-spiritual scrimmaging on the astral plane with Ives, Messiaen and Hindemith before he penned the sonatas.

It's not that he is imitating any of them. No. But his use of chromaticism, bi-tonality, atonality and juxtaposition of vernacular with avant garde elements owes something to the way they proceeded compositionally, all things considered.

That is not to take away from Andrew Violette's musical personality, which comes through with strength and originality on these pieces. It is only to suggest that he belongs in a lineage that has these three composers as forebears.

We get eight brief to relatively brief movements for the Sonata for Cello and Piano, played by Ben Capps on cello, one long movement for the Sonata for Clarinet and Piano, with Moran Katz on clarinet. The composer tackles the piano part on both sonatas. The performances are very lively and match the expressiveness of the music squarely and vividly. These are players at the top of their game, playing music that suits them well.

And the music is quite engaging. It is filled with a very individual quality, and has a presence and melodic dynamic that is unforgettable. Here we have two modern gems from a formidable composer of today. Those with contemporary ears, take heed!