#16: 1940

I have now completed four decades of 20th century music on the Clinton

logically continued surveying of contemporary music. We have

so far witnessed since I started almost two years ago the first radical

eruption in the world of harmony and rhythm and formal and

structural principle and we saw how later a gentle kind of

consolidation of the discovery took place. They come from a basin that often

took the form of regression mostly under the guise of so-called neo

classicism by the latter I don't mean just the brand of milk left of

them but all the other versions of the same tendency to connect the recent

path up with previous tradition. If you have

followed my program consistently you have probably noticed that a

considerable thinning out of quality took place during the latter come from a

vacation period. Not only that except for the work of vagrant

and no new or radical ideas presented themselves in the 20s

and 30s composers even bought up and

abundantly or in one way or another and with varying degrees of success

reworking revamping revitalising or trying to

revitalize older Very often one thing an 18th century concept.

Now in tackling the forty It is my particular view of the development of

music during this time that the dearth of really important music

masterpieces if you will continue and if anything increases

until the late forties that is in the late 40s we

will see and hear a kind of new beginning born to a large

extent out of the development embodied innovative and that works and out of

various experiments by composers like messing with lead

and such relatively neglected figure that Harry Partch or Milton

Babbitt and still others. But I'm getting ahead of my

story as I say these developments did not really come about until the last years of

the 40s in the early 40s. The years of World War

Two we have a great deal of composing. But in my opinion very

little of great enduring quality compared. I think we must compare to

maintain some basis for 300 compared with the math the pieces of an

18th century music and even such earlier 20th century works as the

SACA Devinsky symphony of Psalms and so on.

Let me rattle off a list of pieces composed in 1940 for example

for the year we have now reached. You will perhaps agree with me when you

hear these names and part of that while some of these pieces are

competently written they are not works which are important and that a core innovation the

landmarks Hindemith's violin and cello concerto of

the latter we heard last week on the violin concerto

piano quintet Devinsky symphony and one of his most

mannered formula ridden and academic exercises. Guiltily

done of course. Procopius seventh Piano Sonata which

because of its life the last movement has a kind of animal excitement and direct appeal

but underneath it is really kind of crafting in an inspired me and you

also have works like pits in the Second Symphony Walton's

sculpting overture and below the top prelates.

None of these as I say are pieces that added much to the luster of contemporary music

or at least to its core with development that are not.

There were two other pieces however composed in 1940 which I shall

play. One of them by a very important work

the other by and Copeland perhaps not so important piece but an

attractive pleasant moving and in a limited way I think of the successful people

I am referring respectively to vegans. Variations for orchestra 30

and Copeland quiet sitting.

Let's warm up with Copeland. He's the origin of this music goes

back to 1939 when Harold Clurman director of the so-called

Group Theatre asked Copeland to write some music for a new play by Irwin Shaw.

The play was a realistic fantasy concerning and I'm now quoting Copeland.

The night thoughts of many different kinds of people in a great city

protagonist in this drama was a trumpet player and for the play Copeland wrote incidental

music for trumpet saxophone clarinet and piano. The

next summer in 1940 that is Mr. Copeland expanded the thematic material

from the incidental music into an orchestral piece for trumpet with

horns and strings and it had become one of Copeland's most

often performed works. In this piece Copeland had

captured a kind of nostalgia. It is however not growing and

sentimental.

Although the recording by Howard from that I'm going to play unnecessarily injects

some of the qualities into the work. Quiet critique of the work in which

Copeland basically diatonic approach has been lean and simple

melodic line and the Conoco techniques combined to

create an atmospheric almost impressionistic piece of music but

clothes as it were in a peculiarly suspended unresolved manner

like the sound of a city in the quiet of the night.

Who.

Why.

Why why.

Why why.

Why.

Were.

And Copeland quiet that he was played by the rockers The Symphony Orchestra

conducted by Howard and we turn

now to the other 1940 work on this program. Raven variations for

August. In previous programs I have discussed and analyzed to

some extent they have in development and I've mentioned from time to time how this development took

place very much in terms of a synthesis of canonical techniques

with variation techniques and I have tried to show this fight the handicap

of poor recorded performance of how these techniques released innovative and

a new kind of live for them and dramatic expression.

When discussing and playing the piano variations in string quartet and the

symphony all of which embody variation techniques of course I

am sure some of you must have been utterly confused by the fact that verb

and variations are not variations on a theme in the conventional nineteenth

century sense. In fact since in most they have been music there is

no theme in that conventional sense. How then can there be

variations. You might well ask even friend Beggs orchestra

variations were still predicated on the development and bearing of a theme.

Well they have an orchestra variations are his ultimate achievement in the

renewal of variational techniques and thus the work affords I think an

excellent occasion to clarify this point

in its simplest terms of Evan's approach could be stated as follows.

Once composers through the evolution of the 12 tone method had eliminated the

theme by substituting for it the tone row and its various versions

and once this fact had been linked with the concept of perpetual non repetitive

variation as a logical consequence of 12 tone procedure then it

followed that the variation as a musical form could and should

do away with thematic variation and become serial variants.

This obviously Crees the music from a constant specific reference to

a specific musical idea while at the same time still adhering to the

structural principles and challenges of variation procedures.

In fact one can say that with this development the variational technique moved

from the surface of the music to its inner structure instead of

involving only or primarily melody variation now applied to the

complete outward and internal structure of the material to be varied

and to jump ahead again for a moment. You can see how inevitable it was

that serialization would soon experiment to encompass all the elements of music.

Rhythm duration even and so on. Indeed

Ravens orchestra variations by virtue of the fact that the entire piece is in a

sense pre-determined by the initial four note phrase in the

basses. If the original forerunner and prototype of today's

preview term and or as it's sometimes called totally organized serial music.

The point to remember is that this variation concept this new variation concept has

given the composer simultaneously greater means of freedom and discipline

both being linked irrevocably to the same musical material

and both complementing each other in the ways that had never

existed in just that way in music before. So when you listen

to these variations don't listen for the gradual embellishment and

variations that by step of a theme what you must listen for

simply the three unfolding of an opening statement in this case the first

phrase of four notes stated in the bases. What

happens after that is a continual metamorphosis of this initial musical idea

through a musical technique such as augmentation diminution in version

reversion or retrograde turning melody turning melodic

ideas into harmonic ideas and so on. Every note in this piece

is nothing more than the same initial musical idea heard in 100 different

ways. Some of these ways are rather remote from conventional

variational techniques as you might encounter in Beethoven for example.

I don't think for example even an enlightened listener can be expected to hear on first

or even on Tenth hearing that these stuck out chords in the brass.

You are simply a vertical version of a transposition of the inversion

of the first musical statement.

But then I don't think that the whole question of whether this variation approach was

comprehensible from an aural point of view ever occurred to them.

Nor do I think that the this issue has ever been faced up to by composers

since then. Raven was clearly more interested in the working

out of the manifold serial implications and relationships and

was not at all concerned about how this particular aspect of his work would communicate

artistically. He knew that this approach was artistically valid and

logical. And the public would have to come to grips with it in its own way. In due

time. But it is worth while dwelling on this question for a moment because

it is a problem still with us today obviously. And one of the most burning

questions of music in contemporary society

knew from bitter experience that his music was not exactly on the hit parade in concert halls

many earlier works were at the time of writing other variations. Still unperformed

in fact and so the fact of communicating or not communicating

via this variation technique probably never entered Raven's mind. He had probably

given up on that score by then. In fact they've been

instinctively hope that his music would communicate on the basis of its relationship to

past tradition and on the basis of its lyricism and expressive

content. By that I mean that he was much too pragmatic a

man with all his idealism to assume that ordinary concert goers

would bother to analyze the intricate make or serial relationships of his

composition in the case of the orchestra variations. We know for

example that the variation process was not the only formal structural

aspect of the work that interested begun over and above the variation form.

They've been thought of this piece as an overtone in the so-called andante or I dodge

will form like Beethoven's Prometheus overture or the Brahms tragic

overture and Babe and proudly pointed this out to his friends.

Accordingly may have been thought of the opening material of the piece

as the introduction of the overture. Then variation one

represented the overtures main theme such as the variation

to a transitional episode variation 3 a second theme.

What the Germans called was Eichmanns that's variation for

was do they have in mind a recapitulation of the overture as main theme. Someone developed

various In fine a recapitulation of the introduction and the transitional

episode and variations takes the coda. In other words

we could state this form schematically as A B C

D B C and D. The point is that each

variation corresponded to one formal link in the structural chain

comprising this particular over to form. There is every reason to believe

that vagrant expected whatever comprehension there would be of the piece to come

on this level and by way of this broad formal outline.

But I think it is safe to say that in the heat of inspiration they have been greatly

overestimated the perceptive capacity of his audience.

Within this large formal plan the overtures form everything breaks

down into further levels of structural units. Thus forming

ultimately a whole hierarchy of small to large structures beginning with

the opening for note idea. So in so many variants of it

form his opening theme like statement. This unit

in turn undergoes a series of variance and these latter variants

combined in turn form the total form of the piece so

that there are really three structural levels upon which the piece evolves

simultaneously in the meantime babe and the

other inexorable logic of his variation. Taking a logic which each of us

can only fully appreciate after detail analysis. This logic was undoubtedly very

own private justification for the work and his faith in it resided I'm

sure in this unassailable logic. In other words

Raven could afford not to worry about public or audience comprehension on this

level since his own incredibly demanding criteria were satisfied

namely every note was structurally justifiable that is its own that would

be a monster ball at the same time the aural or auditory aspects of the work

were also solved to his satisfaction. With that

Rayburn could rest his case and let the world eventually catch up with him

which is incidentally exactly what has been happening. Although admittedly very even still

isn't on the hit parade. There is one other point about these

variations that intrigues me. I've tried to indicate that they have been

like any great composer with concern to some extent with

how his music affected his fellow man. At the same time of course remaining

true to his own personal and artistic vision toward the

end of his life I believe they've been became increasingly concerned over the

brevity of most of his music. I have a private theory.

Well it's actually just a hunch or a belief that they've been wanted in the worst

way to write longer pieces like his friend I've been banned

not only longer pieces but larger in format and scope and content.

I think that the extreme condensation and limitation of his earlier works began to bother

him and toward the end of his life he sought and found ways and means of

expanding and freeing me of it. I referred to this last week when

talking about his opus 29 composite. This is further

borne out by the fact that his later works did in fact become longer.

Where earlier the average work except for the Opus One but the Count had a

duration of about one to two minutes from his opus 20 string to

the average duration is about five to six minutes with some works running

as long as 10 or 11 minutes now in Batemans published

cards fund and there are several letters to friends written for only after he had finished the

orchestra variation regarding the duration of the work which

he estimated at between 15 and 20 minutes. In fact

however by a careful tabulation of the duration based not on

performances I wouldn't have to rely on that but based on vagrant own metronome

marking the piece is about 6 minutes long not 15 or 20.

Now the intriguing question is how could a man who was so precise and meticulous

in his work miscalculate the duration of his work by so much.

I think the answer is as I have suggested an overestimation with wishful

thinking so strong in fact that it became a reality for him.

All of which we may show that Rayburn was in certain ways a very simple and ordinary

man about the Orks the variations up with 30. It might be

well to point out once again what can be said about almost all of Aiblins late music

namely that everything is honed down to the essential. There's no healing or

passage heard and as a result every note is exposed and completely

audible even more so than in a Mozart piece. For example

the transparency in airiness in this school and its use of pauses and silence

are in themselves a subject for an entire lecture. But I am

reminded that this is not a lecture and we should now get to the music.

And here I'm happy to report for a change that the Robert Craft performance

in Columbia is completely and that is quite good and it's probably the best

performance in the entire set. It is still a little breathless and inflexible

in its continuity. Kraft seems to have a built in aversion to written down

those coming when they're called for. But on the whole it's a very creditable

job. Ravens August event. Yes.

Oh.

Oh.

What.

Why.

Oh you know.

You just heard and performance of the orchestra variations over 30 bands on they have been

in a performance conducted by Robert Kraft with an

anonymous Los Angeles orchestra that wraps

up the year in 1940 on this series and we plunge on to

1941. There were a number of interesting works written

back here which would define the place on this program series if they were available

in recorded form. Unfortunately works such as the piano concerto by

Travis a concerto by the Argentinean composer one Carlos

quartet to the end of time and because those countries

are all unavailable. What is left between what is usable and what is

recorded is very little but the best I can offer is a rather

successfully turned up piece about Bionic Symphony for strings

considered one of the best composition. I like the

dark brooding thing coloring of this work. It's alternation of

dollars and moods with strongly written passages and in the finale

the boisterous rugged widely skipping themes a little strained

though they may be at times. I like the symphonies. I

totally cringed chromaticism. I also enjoyed those moments in the corner

movements where contrapuntal skill builds itself as

in one of the climax of the first movement where a particular motive

which first appeared in the viola in the introduction is used simultaneously in three

registers in three degrees of diminution in other words the same motive

appears simultaneously in three different speeds. The second

movement has a strange theme which seems a little forced and doesn't quite make it.

And after a while without any development of the theme a certain monotony sets in

for this monotony is broken by broken momentarily I should

say by a wailing plaintive with a diva like phrase in the higher it is

that of the bases this is a wonderful spots in free basses in that

you might call it the viola register have a strange kind of intensity.

On a good thing they also known as a second thing for me is now played by the bus

and the orchestra conducted by someone who introduced the piece and

eventually to this country. Right after the war.

Why.

You're.

You're.

You're.

You're.

More.

Why.

You're.

Sure.

I was.

I was.

Her.

Mom.

You heard a performance of the Second Symphony monk want to go to the symphony with

spring played by the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the bank on

Monday and that wraps up this computer program

and I'll be back with more music from 1941 next week about the same time.