Sunday, March 16, 1969 THE MICHIGAN DAILY Pc age ThreA Sunday, March 16, 1969 THE MICHIGAN DAILY R ~ge Three arts &letters A non-inear equation of sound By R. A. PERRY significance of an electronic instrument that can be the exigencies generated in the music are determined Two years after Verdi's Rigoletto opened at La played by one man; implying that the new artist-per- neither from formal nor programmatic needs, but solely in Venice, the music critic of the Gazette former will have an infinite palette of sounds to use. from desired sonorities. What expressive, evocative con- Fenice indenicr rthes critilacks melody .ett But to apply this instrument to Bach in like harnessing notations may exist, exist more in the mind of the lMusicale de Paris wrote, musig t acsmld and fine ensemble pieces.This opera has scarcely any or rocket to a rickshaw. listener than in the structure or content of the music chance -of maintaining itself in the repertoire." Even As Peter Yates has well documented in his Twen- itself. The Lazarof is recorded on Vanguard BCS 10047. nine years later, in 1862, Henry Chorley for a London tieth-Century Music, the evolution of music out of the One of the few rcord companies that exists solely newspaper wrote, in reference to this opera, "Why not 'harmonic era" has been toward pure sound. Today's to promulgate new music is Composers Recordings Inc., as well present the effects of a cold in the head?" To- leading composers take us into uncharted aural realms and C.R.I. has a fascinating catalog containing grain day, when Rigoletto impresses us as exceedingly lyrical of suspended space and nonexistent time. Already, what and chaff that only time will separate. It is exciting early Verdi, such judgments seem quizzical and amusing. seems significant about Arnold Schoenberg is not what nevertheless to be audience to the varieties of expression The unparalleled furor aroused by the debut per- he gave up, but to what devices he found it necessary and experimentation that C.R.I. offers. formance of Stravinsky's Le Sacre du Printemps at the to cling-just as Picasso, in the Analytic Cubist phase, could only take apart the visual object so far, at which One disc, for instance, combines a trombone con- Theatre des Champs-Elysses 'n May 29th, 1913 (the pinheadltersureutosyhezegi.T- certo by Robert Parris, a string quartet by George Roch- Pearl Harbor of twentieth-century music) appears now point h had little resource but to synthesize again. To- crob oetPriasrn ure yGog oh day there can be no turning back. berg, and percussion music by Charles Wuorinen. (C.R.I almost charming in its naivete-after all, we can hear 231) The Parris work is conventional but great fun, and the thumping drama daily on our hifis if we wish. Much of contemporary music, then, demands a great is well-written without being over-intellectualized. In The moral of these familiar scenes is, of course, not deal from the listener, for it has not only abandoned both the first movement of cataleptic gestures and in merely that critics are often wrong, but that acceptance tonality-which, even at this late date, often acts as a the parrot-chattering and macabre second movement of the avantgarde by critic and audience alike comes centripetal force-but also Cartesian coordinates of time the trombone solo by Roman Siwek is nothing less than not with increasing enlightenment, but, simply, with (rhythm, tempi variations) and space (mathematically astounding. familiarity due to the persistence of the artists them- even devisions of duration within a closed system). Rochberg's quartet, entitled Contra Mortem et selves. Ironically, by the time audience and annotator When confronting electronic and modern instrumental Tempus (the concerns of modern scientist as well as have come to actively accept "the new" important artists music, we cannot fall back upon old recognizable pat- composer) comes closer to pure sound unconcerned have moved beyond these forms and ideas. terns of organization; we must involve ourselves freshly, with confining structures, and Wuorinen's Janissary immediately, and totally in the given musical matrix Contemporary music faces the problem of acceptance epeieny, If we nth sen ouspten and Music is a percussion extravaganza that again, for all through familiarity more acutely than any other art nexaer nc Imal natastkthat bomsa of the internal rhythms, concerns itself primarily with form. As early as 1937, John Cage, whose writings are te resuasalls a t let the an the experience of varying sounds. semial 4 tentethcenuryart muicandphiosohy, active response, almost a sought relief from the ima-~ seminal tO twentieth-century art, music, and philosophy, ginative engagement with on-Cartesian processes. Another successful piece of poetically evocative sonic wrote, "I believe that the use of noise to make music existentialism is George Crumb's Eleven Echoes of will continue and increase until we reach a music pro- . Certainly some aids are offered. Morton Subotnick, exsntaim sGogeCubsEvnEcesf duced through the aid of electrical instruments." Since who provided theeeffective electronic interludes in that Autumn, on CRI 233. Here, however, exist explicit pro- World War II, experimentation with electronic music, other piece of popular treacle, 2001, has, in his com- grammatic intentions, a motto from Lorca softly and begun by Ussachevsky and Luening in America and by' positions for electronic-music synthesizer, stuck to sporadically intoned: ". . . and the broken arches where Pierre Henry and Pierre Schaeffer in Paris, has in- sounds fairly programmatic in intention. In his None- time suffers." John Cage's comment is recalled: "Slowly creased enormously, finally abetted in these -last few such recording (H-71208), The Wild Bull, Subotnick we realize we are getting nowhere." years by the recording industrypresents an electronic piece quite, dependent upon the It would be pertinent to ask at this point how much Yea theorllofheinisetyfasverbal suggestions inherent in the Sumerian poem upon longer .traditional instruments will interest the com- ingful'recordings of new music available (a few of which the music is based; at the same time, levels of poser when electronically-generated sounds offer richer igharemrdigsofneelow)ts ishevareningthwough suggestiveness are complex though ultimately richness sonic possibilities. Perhaps some day a youth will not thoroughly expected that what the public has taken to of response must lie within the listener's own range of learn the tuba but the tape-o-tron. be "an important breakthrough" is a piece of kitsch imagi on. Record companies, especially C.R.I. and Nonesuch, so enveloped in the safety of the known as to be One of the most brilliant and important pieces which the latter commissioning and planning to release soon ludicrous. I am speaking of Columbia's "Switched-On utilizes electronically-generated sounds is Stockhausen's a new batch of electronic ad mixedmedia issues, are Bach," a recording of Bach items altered via an elec- Songs of the Youths, in the electronic matrix of which increasingly turning toward avant-garde compositions, tronic "keyboard" instrument; this recording has not are organically interspersed phrases in praise of God, but few people are willing to plunk down the money only contributed handsomely to Columbia's coffers, but the text ironically deriving from Daniel 3, "Song of the for an unknown commodity, even though the solution has also sucked in a claque of critics, including Harold Men in the Fiery Furnace." The resulting dream-like to the problem of discerning value from novelty can Schonberg, for whom familiarity is a needed sign of procession-an electronic Kandinsky-both dissolves only come with increased familiarity with the idiom. respectability. time and space while touching unconscious nerves of The question is not whether the "electronic Bach" nostalgic evocations. Perhaps there will come a time Familiarity, however, demands more than a record is fun to hear-for me the "Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring" when such pieces will seem, in their collage incorpora- purchase. New music demands full attention, and in sounds like amerry-go-round with a broken motor, and tion of non-electronic elements and adherence to our immediate-gratification society, few people will work the "Air on a G String" like a Tomy Dorsey tune wheez- literary modes, as old-fashioned as a crystal radio. To- for their aesthetic fulfillment. I have heard it said ing from a 1940 radio-but whether it is really,signifi- day they are exhilirating. that electroc music is appreciated more by people cant. The question is not whether the electronics make There are those who feel that electronic music is who smoke marijuana-as it clears the head of de- Bach's horizontal lines more lucid-the advocates of intriguing but lacking in musical meaning and quality. pendency upon inculcated patterning and heightens this bit of appreciative cant are usually the same people Accordingly, numerous composers are contributing to- synaesthetic response-but even these people easily turn who decry "technological man"-but whether' the ward the evolution of minimally structured sound via to forms of immediate titillation. Rock, so dependent musical experience derived from the record possesses traditional mechanical instruments. Penderecki's De upon word and beat, when less limited musical forms any of the qualities inherent in the compositions of Natura Sonoris (its title alone is telling) and Poly- would offer a richer "trip." serious vanguard composers. To anyone who has at- morphia, both precisely and energetically played by the For those who seek it, anyhow, there are an exuber- tempted to follow and understand the music of the last Cracow Philharmonia and vividly recorded by Philips ant number of recordings available, and the challenges twenty years, Columbia's "Switched-On Bach" has as (PHS900-184), explore the purely sonic possibilities of and excitement of primal participation sufficiently can- much relationship to the rigors, problems, and aesthetic the orchestra, and especialy the strings, in bold, un- cels out occasional disappointments. The new criteria rewards of electronic music as a frat riding a Honda inhibited strokes, unfettered by expressive necessities, for recordings will not be particulars of performance has to a Hell's Angel. that even Bartok would have thought excessively experi- or how many minutes on one side-but the intensity What is important about the Columbia release is the mental. Likewise in Henri Lazarof's Structures Sones, and quality of the active musical experience offered. music =====2 Who pays lop in now? By W. REXFORD BENOIT with some imitation showman cause she collects big money for C Dear friends and people of bad will everywhere: Last night the James Cotton Blues Band played the Events Building on the University campus. Janis Joplin played too, however she wasn't there. James Cotton was here many years ago. He will be around for some time to come-- I hope. Last night he was all around everyone with an ear. We yelled at him, with him, and about him. We begged for more. I felt satisfied when he was through, because Cotton is what is called a thoroughly pro- fessional musician. He gives all his talent to the people who get the money to- gether to hear him. He gives a PERFORMANCE. No cheating. Even the stage tricks look good. Last night, after his second en- core, he did a somersault on the stage. All 250 pounds of him. Then he sang some more killer blues. Cotton is like Buddy Guy. His talent hasn't been murdered by the colossal money interests tearing the industry apart. With Cotton was Luther Tucker, a very nice vamp gui- tarist whd also played a good solo and interacted with saxo- phonist Bill Nugent, a man with taste. Barry Smith played solid blues drums, and Bob An- derson did the bass. Anderson was there all the time, holding it together with Smith. These people have a new al- bum. Dig It. . Also offering last night was Janis Joplin and her' 26-piece orchestra-the San Francisco Pops. They were really wonder- ful. Special praise for the organ player, who was judged by a photographer as "good, because he can play standing up for a long time without his pants fall- ing down." I don't mean tp question how much dues Janis payed at one time or another in her life. No doubt the cost was high. She has a magic voice worth four dol- lars anytime if you're a man of some resources. But she didn't give it to us last night. She sang three songs. During the rest of the set she beat on a cowbell and danced who, incidentally, plays the bar- itone saxophone. The last song she sang was even good, even had glimpses of old times in it. When she had finished it, we asked for more. The band, however, was long gone- and not about to come back. Janis with them. She OWED us her talent, be- these gigs. She will play the Sullivan show tonight. James Cotton will not. I don't know why, but I suspect its because Cotton still has an idea of who's listening. I do know who was the warm-up band and who was the main attraction, and it wasn't advertised on the posters that way. Participatory music By JOE PEHRSON Last night's concert, Contemporary Directions 1969, was an experiment in total media. It might also be remembered as the University's first light show. The program, excluding the visual portrayal of Luciano Berio's Visage, was normal enough, except for the unusual quality of all the works presented. The first work, Dream Music No. 2 (1967), a premiere per- formance, by William Bolcom might be classified somewhere in that never-neverland between contemporary jazz and modern serial composition. At times complete jazz, the themes would dis- integrate and re-combine to give only a semblance of the original in far from jazz form. Synchronisms No. 2 by Mario Davidovsky was an attempt to solve the time-honored mind-body problem in contemporary music: the interaction of traditional instruments with electronic sound. The ensemble, consisting of flute, clarinet, violin, and cello provided the initial exposition. The performance was sterile, dis- tastefully professional, but the score for the live performers was a beautiful blend, a sweeping unity which created an atmosphere to which all the instruments contributed. This first section is a proof of Davidovsky's excellent command over traditional in- strumentation. The electronic effects were then tastefully in- troduced, and the problem of perfect synchronization of the electronic sounds and the live sounds had been successfully solved. The last work on the program was Visage by Luciano Berio. This very well-known electronic work attempts to combine elec- tronic imagery with the sounds of language. A vocal artist on the arginal tape played through four separate channels and speakers in Rackham Hall, chants, giggles, laughs, girgles, and raps with the audience in some strange pre-fabricated foreign tonque de- signed by Berio. This is accompanied by electronic sound and is a complete experience in itself. However, the music school's composition department decided to try an experiment in total art with a correlated light-show happening (also, believe it or not, sponsored by the University). A mysterious flickering box, which was located on stage in the total darkness, began some strange growth process. Voila! A Hog-Farm type plastic balloon, complete with immersed ballet dancer, rises to the ceiling. Then, the audience began to participate,, in a way quite unanticipated by the composition department. We began pulling at this 'strange plastic thing which had ewandered out over our heads. We completely forgot the music, but we had a great time. 6 CHELD OVER including Best Actress-Joanne Woodward Best Actor-Alan Arkin Best Picture NAMED ON 00 "TEN BEST" LISTS ci~a cA We'Heart isa ConeluGkunter THE HIgHOP 3020 Washtenaw, Ph. 434-1782 Between ;Ypsilanti & Ann Arbor FEATURE TIMES Wed., Sat., Sun. 1:00-3:10-5:20-7:30-9:40 Mon., Tues., Thurs., Fri. 7:00-9:15 WALT DI.SNEYS MSTAffTE Watch For "THE SERGEANT" SHOWS AT 1, 3, 5, 7 & 9:05 Feature 20 Min, Later in the PAUL NEWMAN produdon f rachel, mochel r. The Hip Hop to Europe on Icelandic Airlines saves you $137 flying to Luxembourg. Daily flights from New York to Iceland * Luxem- bourg * England * Scotland "t'lrway * Sweden * Denmark. See your Travel Agent or write for folder CN Icelandic Airlines, 610 Fifth Ave. (Rockefeller Center),New York, N.Y. 10020 (212) PL5-8585. LOEST AIR FARES TO EUROPE ICr ELANIAIUMIES Order Your Daily Now- Phone 764-0558. At 3:25 and 7:15 * At 1:15-5:05-9:05 *Isl"6Wall Oluwy Prcdu tS EI BRING QUICK RESULTS DAILY CLASSIFIEDS " Suggested FerNature dadiaeoes CLIlT EST\WOOD A n"COoGafl'S BLUff" ersol ure olor In Cc IN COLOR - A UNIVERSAL PICTURE ---- "I i6R' n k n . ~i. a' iy }'faC:'4 ;::+R": raS 7 ' }?. «4 _ . ., .. ..., .. _ r ....i ...._..i Petition for CINEMA Ili BOARD'- The Department of Near Eastern Languages & Literatures' announces THE 1968-1969 ZWERDLING LECTURES IN OLD TESTAMENT STUDIES THE REVOLUTIONARY DYNAMIC IN JUDAISM. by ELLIS RIVKIN ADOLPH S.OCHS, Professor of Jewish History, Hebrew Union College, Cincinnati, Ohio '. S.h DIONYSUS Censorship, Freedom TRW presents FORUM of Expression in Dionysus in '69 SUNDAY, MARCH 16 8:00 P.M. Union Ballroom Admission FREE FIRST UNIVERSITY LECTURE II: 0 f f -1 % -2 0. ^ l -A- - .--!-lN04 A---M!-11 SAChdol PR'C)F_ PAUL D_ CARRINGTON. U-M Law School I I I 11