Composers' Laboratory Concert

More than eighty people braved the storm Friday evening to attend an informal concert of the Composers' Laboratory in Paine Hall. The affair was arranged to provide Laboratory members with a chance to hear their recent works and to test them out on an audience--a necessary step in the development of young composers.

Four ambitious large-scale works were included on the program. The main problems here for the incipient composer are over-all form and stylistic consistency, plus the special difficulties involved in writing a slow movement (which often trips up even the best-established composers). Frederic Rzewski '58's Sonata for Violin and Piano was most successful in the fast outer movements. The first movement, in a modified sonata-form with a bit too much stop-and-go, adopted a Bartokian brutality and approach to dissonance; and the finale dared to end softly with an effective pizzicato and staccato section. Rzewski failed to realize, however, that the bottom range of the violin is easily covered up by too heavy a piano accompaniment. And his piano texture tended to fall into two extremes--simple parallel octaves, or thick massive chords--with little in between. The slow movement was much too long, contained enough material for four movements, and lapsed into passages of pure Prokofiev. I would advise Rzewski to write a new central movement for this sonata.

Victor Ziskin '59 played his On the Border of Israel, which is in reality a piano sonata in three movements, entitled "Birth," "Recollection," and "Work." Ziskin showed a definite flair for idiomatic piano virtuosity, but drew too heavily on Prokofiev, Rachmaninoff and Ravel. The connection with Israel seemed rather tenuous, except for a few Jewish turns of melody, particularly in the exciting first movement. The second movement fell into a cocktail-lounge style, with slithering parallel chords in the left hand repeated ad nauseam. The finale was almost wholly a piece of Leonard Bernstein jazz, and relied too much on sequences. Ziskin needs above all to develop self-critical taste.

Claudio Spies '50 was represented by his Music for a Ballet. My only reservation is that there was not enough Spies in the piece: it was pure neo-Classical Stravinsky--clear, clean and often dry with its reliance on repeated staccato notes. It had the virtues of being stylistically consistent (albeit in another man's style) and eminently danceable. Spies wrote it for two pianos and now intends to orchestrate it. This can be a dangerous procedure; for orchestration ought to be part of the original conception, not something to be added last. As this work now stands, it is beautifully written for two pianos. But I suspect it will not lend itself to a completely successful orchestration.

David Behrman '59's one-movement Piano Sonata displayed the common fault of changing material too often. Though the music was busy, the ideas (save for the opening few notes) lacked an individual character. I felt that I was listening to a series of transitions that had no origin or destination. There was not even a real end; the piece seemed to break off abruptly in mid-air.

Smaller Pieces

The remaining music on the program consisted of items on a smaller scale. John Austin '56 continued his laudable concentration on contrapuntal techniques in his Three Madrigals for flute, violin, 'cello and piano, and Five Fugal Pieces for two violins and viola. These pieces preserved his customary refined, conservative, low-voltage, post-Delius style--except the third of the latter group, which fell back into the style of Austin's teacher, Roy Harris. Even in the Madrigals, the linear emphasis extended to the piano parts, which maintained melodic interest at all times rather than just serving as harmonic background.

Rather close to Austin's style were the Variations on "Greenbushes," for 'cello and piano, by Thomas Beveridge '59. The composer here adopted a suitable traditional modality and over-all simplicity, with just a couple of dashes of rhythmic complexity. In one variation he happily gave the theme to the piano with an effective plucked accompaniment in the 'cello. In places, however, Beveridge's piano writing (like Rzewski's) suffocated the stringed instrument in the lower portion of its range.

The only non-instrumental music on the program were some songs by Stephen Addiss '57. "Confitebor tibi," for baritone and 'cello, did not come off very well. The ungratefully jagged vocal line posed inevitable intonational difficulties. Since the music bore no relation to the text, I think the piece would fare best as a purely instrumental duo. On the other hand, "Dream" and "Go Seek Her Out," both for soprano, were truly vocal conceptions, the first with a chordal accompaniment for two clarinets and 'cello, and the second with an attractive arpeggiated piano background. It was a welcome relief, furthermore, to hear songs with the text set straight through instead of having the phrases repeated a dozen times. Thrown in for good measure were the four tuneful airs for soprano, violin, flute and 'cello that Addiss wrote for last fall's Eliot House production of The Tempest.

I hope that the wide and friendly interest shown in this concert will spur the Composers' Lab to present similar programs at frequent intervals. Out of such affairs come the major composers of tomorrow.