A Closet of Curiosities

Lukas Foss - Music of Lukas Foss

released on LP in 1980

STRING QUARTET NO. 3

Performed by Columbia Quartet: Benjamin Hudson - violin ; Carol Zeavin - violin ; Janet Lyman Hill - viola ; Andre Emelianoff - cello)

STRING QUARTET NO. 3 is Foss's most extreme composition; it is themeless, tuneless, and restless. It is probably the first quartet without a single pizzicato since Haydn. The four strings are made to sound like an organ furiously preluding away. The sound vision which gave birth to this quartet may be the most merciless in the quartet literature. Though some of the pages of the music may look unusual, QUARTET NO. 3 is notated in every detail. There are no performer choices, except for the number of repeats of certain patterns. Repetition? Actually something is always changing, even in the introduction, which contains only two pitches, A and C, combining in various ways - a kind of prison from which the players are liberated by a sudden all-interval flurry.

MUSIC FOR SIX

Performed by University of Buffalo Percussion Ensemble: Jan Williams - vibraphone ; Bruce Penner - marimba ; Edward Folger - vibraphone ; Rick Kazmierczak - marimba ; Kathryn Kayne - electric piano ; James Calabrese - synthesizer

MUSIC FOR SIX was composed in 1977. On this record it will sound to the listener like a typical percussion piece. In a sense this is misleading. The main feature of the piece is that any six instruments can play it. The piece is usually performed by a mixture of instruments from the string, wind, keyboard, or percussion groups. If high instruments are used one can transpose it upwards, if low ones, downwards. It is written entirely in treble clef. Each of the six musicians can take on any of the six parts. Foss, whose imagination is usually fired by the specific possibilities of specific instruments, found it difficult "to think in terms of any six instruments." His solution is: simple motives capable of combining in complex ways. The use of a score had to be abandoned in favor of separate parts plus instructions for their vertical combination. The key to the many available combinations is found in the harmony, in a particular chord progression which makes MUSIC FOR SIX "happen." Wrong word: nothing happens in MUSIC FOR SIX, except at the very end when a melody appears for the first time. By rights this should seem out of character with the rest of the piece. Instead it feels as if the melody had been there all along, incognito (it is implied throughout by the chord progression). This melody appears just as the listener becomes reconciled to listening to yet another piece of hypnotic or minimal music, all rhythm and texture. This kind of inconsistency is consistent within Foss' output. When he uses a twelve-tone series, he doesn't really: the series is soon discarded like a scaffold no longer needed. When the music is aleatoric it really isn't because Foss likes to control the result, and when it is minimal-repetitive music as it is here, it suddenly sports a romantic tune.

CURRICULUM VITAE

Performed by Guy Klucevsek - accordion

CURRICULUM VITAE was commissioned by the American Accordionist Society in 1977. The piece requires a virtuoso accordionist; yet, the accordion contains childhood reminiscences for the composer; hence the title, and hence the sudden intrusions of bits of tunes which have autobiographical connotations for Foss; a Brahms Hungarian dance (a record given to him as a child), the Mozart Marche turque (the first Mozart piece he ever played), the Nazi anthem, etc. Except for those flashbacks, CURRICULUM VITAE is devoid of quotations; even the nostalgic tango is a near invention. The piece is both tragic and comic (the pitchless sigh following a sentimental harmonic progression), tonal and atonal, simple and intricate.  (liner notes by Ann Russell)

 



















 


Excerpts from the booklet (enclosed):

MUSIC IN THE BELLY:

 Julika, my little girl,was about 2 years old when one evening all kinds of little sounds started coming from her insides and I said to her, "Why Julika- you have music on your belly!"(...)
In 1974, 7 years later, as I awoke one morning, I heard and saw a performance of Music In The Belly, exactly as I have now written it down.However, several details took shape only when I started composing.For instance, I wrote not only the three melodies which are imparted to the listener, revealed tone for tone and motive for motive- they are born as a whole and finally even handed over to the listener- I composed, instead, 12 melodies- one for each sign of the Zodiac.Each of these melodies has its own particular character and its own central pitch.(...)
For a performance,the players choose 3 melodies and everything they play comes from these.The marimba plays one of them stretched over the entire length of the performance.The klangplatten* play the three chosen melodies one after another and in their total duration, determine the length of the performance. The other instruments interpret motives and single notes of the melodies, or they play the melodies in various tempi simultaneously.
For the world premiere in Royan,France on March 28,1975 with "Les Percussions de Strasbourg", I chose the melodies LEO- AQUARIUS- CAPRICORN (they occur in the order,each played in 16:1 augmentation on the klangplatten, these notes serve as time orientation for the other players.
For this recording, the same order af these 3 melodies has been chosen.
*"Klangplatten"-Literally "sound plates"- are panels made of a metal alloy which,when struck,sound like low bells with very strong penetrating low fundamentals and long resonance.They differ from "plattenglocken"("plate bells") in that these are made of bronze and sound distinctly like low church bells.

Performance Description (excerpted from the booklet,enclosed):

 (from)1-In the middle of the open stage hangs a birdman with the name MIRON (who is covered in strings of small bells). The silvery glittering klangplatten stand stage left in front of a sky blue, sound-reflecting partition,at the front edge of the stage are three small tables,at stage right a marimba,and in the background of the stage,at the left and right,one set of antique cymbals each,and in the middle a glockenspiel. In front of  MIRON stands yet another, small glockenspiel on a low stool.(...)

 (from) IV- The three players begin very slowly , then gradually faster to run bizarrely in a circle around MIRON, continuously hittin him more intensely, until they create through an secstatic dance with wild leaps, a dense rattling and tinkling of bells and tramping on the floor.

V-At three peals of the tubular bell, they all freeze and stare at MIRON.Player 1 looks to the exit,runs out,comes back with a large pair of scissors and cuts open MIRON's stomach.He searches inside the stomach with his hand,pulls out a small wooden box,looks around,sees one of the small tables (at the left edge of the stage, goes there.places the box on the table,opens the cover of the box and the music box melody of th LION begins.He goes to the small glockenspiel in front of MIRON and plays the melody simultaneously with the music blx the second time that it begins.
(...)

ZODIAC
 
After I had dreamed Music In The Belly, I inquired about music box factories, and landed after some searching in the music box factory Reuge in 1450 Sainte Croix in Switzerland.There I learned how music boxes are built and what one must consider when on wishes to compose for them. I learned,by the way,that until then, only arrangements of fragments from compositions and from songs were made for music boxes and that there were no original compositions for them in existence.

Apart from this, I began to busy myself with the 12 human characters of the Zodiac of which I had until then only a vague idea.In inventing each melody I thought of the character of children,friends,and aquaintances,who were born under the various star signs,and I studied the human types of the star signs more thoroughly.Each melody is now composed with all its measure and proportion in keeping with the characteristics of its respective star sign, and one will discover many legitimacies when one hears a melody often,and exactly contemplates its construction(...)


Karlheinz Stockhausen- Music Im Bauch/Tierkreis

Side One:  

a1-Music In The Belly for 6 Percussionists and 3 Music Boxes (33:13)

Side Two: b1-12: Tierkreis (Zodiac) for Music Boxes

I-Aquarius     (1:25)
II-Pisces      (2:10)
III-Aries      (1:59)
IV-Taurus      (1:36)
V-Gemini       (1:31)
VI-Cancer      (1:35)
VII-Leo        (1:53)
VIII-Virgo     (1:22)
IX-Libra       (1:46)
X-Scorpio      (2:14)
XI-Sagittarius (1:59)
XII-Capricorn  (1:41)























(1) or (1)

From the cover notes (enclosed): 


Symphony No.3 (1969) This work is scored for string orchestra, five percussion players, timpani, harp and piano and is cast in three movements.In it the composer has consciously attempted to paint a self portrait in which the long string lines are punctuated with jabbing percussion.Sometimes these musical effects are independent of each other, sometimes they are parallel, sometimes they are directly opposed.
The first movement opens with a slow introduction and the main body of the movement is Allegro Spirituoso, the string writing being cast in a frankly cool jazz style in his phrasing and accents.
The second movement is marked Adagio Semplice and is mainly expressive, with contrasting sections and an easily identifiable principal melody stated almost immediately in the violins. 
The finale, Allegro Scherzoso, is  is for the most part a pizzicato romp for the strings, , suddenly stopping and recalling the slow movement, then ending with a  twenty two measure unison on the note A
The symphony was commissioned by The Manhattan School and and recieved its first performance there.

Simultaneities (1971) Is scored for brass quintet, electric guitar and percussion. It was commissioned by Max Pollikoff for his ""Music In Our Time" series, was first performed there with the composer conductiong and, later, at the Aspen Music Festival in Colorado. It is also in three movements, very similar to the symphony in over-all construction.
In the second movement the trumpet part has been written to exploit the virtuoso playing of Gerard Schwarz and includes  and includes half-valve glissandi, growls, wah-wah and other exotic effects.
The third movement begins fast with a collage of well-known classical themes during which a Clyde McCoy "smack" on the trumpet can be clearly heard. The work ends slowly and quietly, with a filigree accompaniment on the celesta.

Nocturnes (1962) is a song cycle originally written for medium voice and string quartet, later arranged for voice and mixed ensemble, , still later arranged with piano accompaniment, which is the way it is recorded here.(...)
The four poems are by Robert Fitzgerald, a friend of Francis Thorne from the Italian years (see notes), and were published by New Directions in their collection of Fitzgerald's poetry entitled "In the Rose of Time" in 1956.
Since the ear cannot compensate for the eye in the matter of poetry set to music, the lyrics are printed herewith.

 
a1-3:Symphony No.3 (1969) Ffor Strings and Percussion 

I:Allegro spiritoso
II:Adagio semplice
III:Allegro scherzoso
 
Prague Chamber Soloists under the direction of Jindrich Rohan

 
b1-3:Simultaneities (1971) for Brass Quintet, Amplified Guitar and Percussion
 
I:Adagio
II:Adagio introspettivo
III:Allegto vivace e scherzoso
 
The American Brass Quintet with Stephen Bell, guitar
Richard Fitz, percussion

 
b4-7:Nocturnes (1963) for Voice and Piano
 
I:Night song
II:Song After Campion
III:Horace I, 25
IV:Before Harvest
 
Catherine Rowe, Soprano
Francis Thorne,Piano
























(1)  or  (1)