4.<., - ..
_ .. . t
and no concerts are scheduled. Col-
lege and staff who have a chance
to take trips to Lake Michigan
for beach parties, drive to Frank-
fort to climb the Dunes, or if
nothing more imaginative can be
devised make the 14 mile trip to
Traverse City.
Many forms of recreation are
found in camp, from sweaty bas-
ketball games, to sailing and swim-
ming, to bridge games in the
college hangout, the "Minny"
(Minnesota) Building.
Many college students spend
their time outside credit classes in
non-credit musical activities: Fes-
tival Choir, Honors Orchestra, im-
promptu ensembles and for the
first time in five years, opera.
UJNTIL.five years ago the Uni-
versity Division sponsored cred-
it courses in opera. Each summer
Glenn
Gould..
By SELMA SAWVA
Festival Choir and University Orchestra give a concert in the woods
Artistic Setting for Young
By DANIEL WOLTER
IN 1928 members of The National
High School Orchestra first took
to the woods outside the insignifi-
cant little town of Interlochen,
Michigan, for a summer of con-
centrated musical study and per-
formance.
This year 1,300 eight - week
campers, 800 two-week (All-State)
campers, and a faculty and staff of
over 500 will participate in the
32nd Season of The National Mu-
sic Camp.
Because the Camp is affiliated
with the University, and because
the University Division of the
Camp is one of the most active
off-campus programs of the Uni-
versity of MichiganhSummer Ses-
sion, the position which the Divi-
sion, and indirectly thehentire
Music Camp, fills as an adjunct of
the University may be examined
through the interests of and bene-
fits to individual students.
Campers ranging in age from
eight years to adulthood partici-
pate in programs suitable to their
interests and abilities.
The Camp is divided into four
divisions: Junior-grades three to
six, Intermediate-grades seven to
nine, High School and University.
Each division functions independ-
ently having its own schedule,
though certain special programs
and events include all campers.
NEARLY all types of musical ac-
tivity are offered: nine choral
and opera groups, four bands and
many wind ensembles, the nation's
most comprehensive orchestral
training school with eight orches-
tras ranging from elementary to
university level, individual instruc-.
tion for beginners and young vir-
tuosi, classes in all phases of mu-
sic including conducting, theory,
composition, and literature, and
more specialized activities such as
piano tuning, string - instrument
repair, electronics and others.
Yet music is not the only art
represented at the camp. Speech,
dance and art departments offer a
wide variety of opportunities. The
Speech department not only pro-
Daniel Wolter has spent
seven summers at Interlochn.
Although a senior it English
honors, he expresses "a strong
interest in performing as well
as listening" to music.
vides a full schedule of dramatic
events, but also offers courses in
radio and television production.
Behind all activities is a philos-
ophy based on two words, concen-
tration and competition.
According to Founder and Pres-
ident Prof. Joseph E. Maddy, the
camp is designed for "young peo-
ple with superior talent, energy
and ambition who are capable of
learning more quickly than aver-
age students for whom our educa-
tional system is, of necessity, de-
signed." Most persons after a
summer at camp, agree they ac-
complish more than in a year or
two under normal conditions.
THE BIG problem for the camp
staff (for six weeks, at least)
is to insure no student goes com-
pletely overboard in his engross-
ment in arts activity.
Some balance is achieved
through the extensivesrecreational
facilities available (no baseball
though, because a promising mu-
sician once suffered a broken fin-
ger which cut short his career)
and participation is mandatory.
Regular social events corre-
sponding to the normal events of
more typical summer camps also
help in maintaining some balance.
The University Division has a
somewhat different appeal for its
members. Many college:, students,
particularly music students, fol-
low a normal schedule equivalent
to the "heavy" schedule a high
school student encounters at camp.
Consequently, though they may
work as hard or harder at Camp
than on campus, a change of
scenery and routing becomes a
necessity.
Interlochen offers this change.
Prof. Allen P. Britton, Director of
the University Division, says the
attractien of the Camp is obvious.
And for those who have seen the
Camp this is true.
SITUATED in a pine forest be-
tween two lakes, Wahbekan-
netta, and Wahbekaness (more
prosaically known as Green and
Duck Lakes), the surroundings
have an appeal which even Ann
Arbor in summertime cannot
match. ,
Besides the physical surround-
ings and climate, which is not all
sunshine (Have you tried to keep
a violin tuned during an outdoor
rehearsal in a steady downpour?)
the contact with many students
with similar goals and ambitions
offers stimulation impossible to
find on the summer campus.
While the camp itself forms a
superb laboratory for music edu-
cation students and in - service
teachers, Prof. Britton says most
students enroll in the Division be-
cause they are interested primarily
in performance; other benefits are
peripheral.
Opportunities for performance
are far more extensive than in
most other musical environments.
In 1968, 320 programs were given
during the eight week season. If
one was interested, it was possible
to hear a nine-year-old clarinet-
ist's performance of Brahm's
"Cradle Song," then later in the
evening attend a performance of
Brahm's "German Requiem," per-
formed by the several hundred
voice Festival Choir with Univer-
sity Orchestra.
MANY University campers also
work part-time in food-serv-
ice, stage crews and similar jobs.
Artists
Last summer 175 students were
enrolled in the University Division,
41 from the University. As many
more college students work full
time at camp, most as counselors.
The latter group usually are at-
tracted to the camp because they
have an interest in music or some
other art, and the surroundings
seem ideal for a combination of
work and relaxation.
While most enjoy their summer,
and a fairly high proportion re-
turn, the combination of job obli-
gations and the incessant activity
surrounding one sometimes frus-
trates, and usually exhausts. Yet
most find the experience healthy,
unless too many trips to the Hoff-
brau, the Interlochen equivalent
of "the Old G.," interfere with
6:55 reveille.
BOTH University campers and
staff personnel enjoy periodic
escapes from camp routine.
Since Sunday is the biggest day
for concerts; the week begins on
Tuesday and ends on Saturday, so
Monday is reservedfor relaxation,
several short America operas and
two major operas such as "Car-
men," and "La Boheme," were per-
formed.
The program was discontinued
because the University expanded
its opera program on campus and
it was felt the two programs were
unnecessary duplication. Each
summer the University Summer
Session produces one opera, while
Interlochen was reduced to a High
School Gilbert and Sullivan Pro-
duction as its lone operatic effort.
With the formation of the
American Opera Workshop this
summer this deficiency will be
remedied. The Workshop will pro-
duce twenty-one American operas
during the eight week season with
all phases of Opera production be-
ing emphasized.
The University's relation to the
Workshop can be compared to the
relationship between music school
and the Gilbert and Sullivan So-
ciety on campus, according to Prof.
Britton. Students participating in
the Workshop can either be en-
rolled full-time or may take a
limited number of University cred-
it courses through the University
Division.
THE UNIVERSITY association
with the National Music Camp
provides an expansion of offerings,
not duplication. Only those courses
necessary to any basic college pro-
gram such as elementary music
theory and Speech 31, are dupli-
cated at Camp.
Despite the budget cuts suffered
by the University no reduction in
the program is anticipated because
it is completely supported by stu-
dent fees.
After all activities have been
discussed, many which sound simi-
lar to programs offered elsewhere,
the essential differences between
the Camp and other places can be
traced to the philosophy of con-
centration and competition. "Do
more in less time," is an old camp
motto.
While the philosophy occasion-
ally backfires - high school stu-
dents begin to feel some pressure
during the sixth and seventh
weeks, incidents such as the en-
tire trumpet section walking out
of sectionalrehearsal "on strike"
on "Black Friday," the day when
all high school musicians compete
in tryouts for rank (and solo
parts) have marred the camp
routine in the past-the results
usually offer sufficient Justifica-
tion.
THE UNIVERSITY provides an-
other service by sponsoring Al-
State bands, orchestras, choir, dra-
ma and piano sessions of two
weeks length at the Camp.
Many universities sponsor all-
state groups which meet on their
campuses, but the unique atmos-
phere of the Camp provides the
finest experience possible for Mich-
igan students.
A major problem remains-the
cost has increasingly tended to
concentrate students in the upper-
middle and upper class income
brackets, and although an exten-
sive scholarship program has been
maintained through income from
seholarship lodges rented by visi-
tors, the camp still excludes some'
talent and admits a small group
of monied mediocrities. This prob-
lem will not be solvedsatisfactorily
until a large endowment fund is
established, and admission de-
pends solely on talent and ambi-
tion.
4
ONE OF THE most gifted-and
still highly controversial-art-
ists on the musical scene today is
pianist Glenn Gould.
Since making his American de-
but in 1955, Gould has inspired,
through public performances, de-
bates between critics, both pro-
fessional and amateur. The critical
storms center around his "ec-
centricities," which he has culti-
vated to a point of perfection sel-
dom seen nowadays, particularly
'in musical artists.
His "odd habits" include such
practices as continually wearing
two pairs of gloves, no matter
what the Weather, soaking his
hands in warm-to-hot water just
before each performance, and wav-
ing his arms, beating time with
composer
his feet and humming (usually
off-key) with the music he is
playing.
ONE SCHOOL of critics, at pres-
ent much the smaller, insists
that all of these physical pyrotech-
nics detracts from the ultimate
musical quality of the perform-
ance, and the ultimate musical
perfection of the artist himself.
This is the view held by the
more conservative critics and con-
cert-goers, who will even frown
on fine conductors like Leonard
Bernstein for too much "exhibi-
tionism." One critic, writing in
Musical America after Gould's
Carnegie Hall concert in Decem-
ber, 1957, said:
"Gould' played (the program)
with an erratic freedom and su-
perb showmanship that reminded
me strongly of the conducting of
Leopold Stokowski," and then
grudgingly added, "although in
Mr. Gould's case the effects are
probably less calculated."
In the early days of his post-
debut career, most of Gould's
critics were inclined to lean on
the side of the writer cited above.
Partly, perhaps, because they were
not used to any contemporary art-
ists who conducted themselves
with such abandon on the nor-
mally - dignified concert stage,
members of the audience at
Gould's recitals were taken aback
+ by his concert calisthenics and
temporarily forgot to listen to the
music produced by the performer
in the fascination of watching him
perform.
THIS WAS a mistake, and was
soon corrected by the more
perceptive critics and listeners.
The critic from the New Yorker
Selma Sawaya, one of
Gould's most avid fans, inter.
viewed him when he was in
Ann Arbor for the May Fes-
tival last year.,
summed it up admirably in a re-
view of a Gould performance in
March, 1958. Of the aforemen-
tioned eccentricities of perform-
ance, he writes:
"It would be easy to dismiss all
this as deliberate exhibitionism,
but after watching it with some
amusement the other night, and
listening to what emerged from
the piano, I came to the conclu-
sion that his manner is a perfectly
sincere expression of his Gesamt-
persoeniichkeit. He is obviously an
original, whom one must accept
on his own terms ... none of his
physical flamboyance enters into
what one hears."
-Gould is original, in the sense
of being rather unique: at 26, he
is extremely young to be one of
the top-ranking pianists-or any
kind of musical artist, for that
matter-in the United States; few
other concert artists acknowledged
to be among the "best" in theira
fields can boast of being so young,
or of having come as far in as
short a time as Gould has.
B OR~N IN Toronto, Ontario, ins
tery of the art of the piano be-
fore he had fully mastered the art
of speech.
From the age of three years, he
has devoted himself to the study'
of piano, almost to the exclusion1
of everything else. By the time he'
was 10 years old, he was studying
with Alberto Guerrero of ther
Royal Conservatory of Music in
Toronto; his first (and only other)
teacher had been his mother.
For eight years, he continued to1
study with Guerrero, meanwhile1
making his formal Canadian debut'
in a concert with the Torontoj
Symphony Orchestra in 1947, at
the age of 14. Since 1950, he has
had no formal teacher of piano;
he devotes his practice time to per-
fecting his pianistic technique by
himself.
Since his formal American de-
buts-in recital in Washington,
D.C., January, 1955, and in con-
cert with the -Detroit Symphony.
Orchestra, March, 1956-his career
has been an extremely busy and
fruitful one, both in number of
performances and in the more ab-
stract realm of the artist's de-
velopment.
AT HIS Detroit debut,, Gould
performed Beethoven's "Con-
certo No. 4 in G major;" two years
later he performed the same work
at the May Festival here.
It is safe to say that his Detroit
performance did not approach the
later one in terms of style, .or ma-
turity displayed, or any criteria
chosen. In those intervening two
years, Glenn Gould came a long
way.
Of course, this is not to say that
he began "growing" only when he
finally made his American debut;'
but he would probably be the last
to deny that the number of con.-
cert tours he made and the num-
ber of recording sessions he
"sweated through" did not sub-
stantially help him along the road
to musical maturity.
He had made tours on all the
important concert courses in Ca-
nada after his Toronto debut, but
it remained for his Detroit per-
formances and his first recording,
that of Bach's "Goldberg Varia-
tions," to give him the push on the
high road to international mu-
"sical recognition.
THE YEAR 1957 was a good in-
ternational year for Gould; he
went to Russia in May, gave four
concerts in. Moscow and another
four in Leningrad, playing to sold-
out houses and receiving "near-
hysterical" response in both. He
also stopped at Berlin and Vien-
na, where he was received as en-
thusiastically.
It was his repertoire, not his
manner of performing, that caused
consternation in the Soviet Union.
In Ann Arbor last year, Gould said
that his "most enjoyable two weeks
were in the Soviet Union.
"I played a great deal of Bach,
which was a sort of novelty for
them. Most of their artists have a
very conservative repertoire-19th
century conservative. The Western
music I played caused a furore."
LAST YEAR, Gould appeared at
four major music festivals,
two in America and two in Europe:
the May Festival here and the
Vancouver International Festival
in British Columbia, and the Salz-
the year he will devote to compos
tion.
"Before I'm 70, I'd like to ha'
made some good recordings ar
composed some chamber musi
finished a couple of symphoni(
and an opera," he remarked hop
fully.
OF HIS "eccentricities," Gou
says little. His off-stage habi
have drawn as much comment :
his on-stage "peculiarities."
A confirmed hypochondriac, 1
eats graham crackers and milk d
luted with bottled spring water f
lunch, swallows a wide variety
pills at odd times during the da
and bundles up against the weat]
er with an overcoat over a jack
over a sweater over a shirt, eve
in May.
The two pairs of gloves whit
he also wears in all weather
merely to protect his hands fro
chill; and he goes even further 1
carefully removing the gloves ju
before the performance and thi
soaking his hands in a basin
water, beginning with lukewar,
and continuing until the water
-comfortably hot.
On stage, Gould is likely to e
almost anything during a pe
formance, from playing throun
an entire concert with his le
casuallycrossed, as he did in.D
troit last winter, to stompii
vigbrously with his foot in tir
to the music, as he did in Ann A
bor last spring. (Those who mis
ed him last May Festival will ha
the opportunity to see him perfor
in Ann Arbor this fall as part
the Choral Union series.)
IN ADDITION to foot-stampir
Gould will often beat time wi
his free hand, wag his elbows ax
his head - often he seems to
hitting the keys with his nose
chin-and then suddenly, when;
finishes a passage, will drop r
hands and let them dangle lif
lessly at his side as though
were completely exhausted.
Again, he may sit, during a re
passage, wagging his hands vigo
ously to restore the circulation.
the New Yorker aptly put it, "I
gives the impression of a ms
subduing the piano by jujitsu."
Another of his minor habits,
ritating to a few people, but pa
ticularly to sound engineers, is 1
"crooning." Gould. will often b
come so immersed in the mu.
that he does not realize he is sin
ing along with his playing-a
he has ruined many a recordi
session when a playback of ma
ter tape indicates that Goul
voice comes over louder than t
piano's.
There are times when he realF
that he is making additional i
sic. and he says in defense of I
off-key singing: "The piano
basically a percussive. instrume
pianist
burg Festival (where he appeared
with the Concertgebouw Orches-
tra) and the Berlin Festival.
This year Gould has finished
his third North American tour;
he still complains that these cross-
country jaunts do not leave him
enough time for composition,
which is his second love but which
is rapidly replacing performing as
the sole object of his affections.
At the Stratford, Ontario, music
festival in July, 1956, Gould dis-
played his triple - threat talent.
During a two-hour program, he
appeared as piano soloist, return-
ed to hear the first concert per-
formance of his first string quar-
tet, and then followed that by con-
ducting Schoenberg's "Ode to Na-
poleon Bonaparte."
IS "DREAM" is composing; he
hopes ultimately to give up
concert tours and limit his per-
forming year to only two months,
during which time he will play
almost exclusively for recording
sessions. The other ten months of
An intermediate division ensemble supervised by a U-M student
shows laboratory advantages of the Camp to a prospective teacher.
THE MICHIGAN [
.Y MAGAZ I I