Page Two
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
Tuesday, October 28, 1969
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records---
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The rainbow
beyond electronic patina
By R. A. PERRY '
Too many works by contem-
porary composers who are in-
volved with electronic synthe-
sizers sound like mere labora-
tory experiments which, instead
of being scraped or refined, are
pressed into vinyl as completed
aesthetic statements. The re-
sulting bounty of electronic mu-
sic recordings creates a situa-
tion wherein a listener must act
as a child watching a procession
of nude emperors. Very few
highly-touted electronic or
mixed-media pieces are really
anchored in any emotional,
poetic, or synaesthetic creative
ground: very few allow much
play for even the eager imag-
ination.
A work like Leon Kirchners
String Quartet No. 3 for Strings
and Electronic Tape (Columbia
MS 7284 sounds very much like
the product of a Professor of
Music at Harvard trying his
hand at the latest "thing." and
although certain interesting ef-
fects are created in the c o n-
frontation between electronic
tape and human string trio, the
impression gained from repeat-
ed listening (one must try after
all is nothing more than an
exercise in modernity.
One of the few recordings of-
fering more than a skin-deep
patina of experimentation a n d
going beyond the sterile tone-
bursts of Stefan Wolpe and his
followers (still doing what Berg
mastered in his Chamber Con-
certo) is an album which pre-
sents two compositions by Terry
Riley.
I do not know much about
Terry Riley other than his first
Columbia recording, In C (MS
7178). won good notices, and
that his second Columbia re-
cording, A Rainbow in Curved
Air, presents an extraordinarily
beautiful, exciting, and involv-
ing musical experience. The se-
cond side of this album (MS
7315) is devoted to a piece call-
ed Poppy Nogood and the Phan-
tom Band, scored for soprano
saxophone and electric organ;
like the irreverent titles Satie
appended to his most serious
compositions, Riley's title should
not be taken indicate p u r e
whimsy. On the contrary, Riley
takes you on a very concentrat-
cd and very ecstatic adventure,
Poppy Nogood begins with a
slowly swelling electric organ
drone which clearly resembles
the opening crescendo in
Strauss's Thus Spake Zarathus-
tra. The swell peaks and then
maintains itself in a throbbing
drone of measured pulsation,
not unlike the tambura under-
lying Indian ragas The steady
throb is finally broken by brief,
rhythmic, electronic interjec-
tions and somewhere beneath
the all-encompassing pulses of
sound one senses distant fan-
fares. It is hard to be exact
about what the wave of sound
contains; its discrete particles
communicate on a subliminal
level.
Like a ray of golden light the
electric sax cuts in and begins
a long riff which simultaneously
recalls both Miles Davis in
Sketches of Spain and Bismillah
Khan on the Indian shenai.
Melodically, the influence is
Davis; ornamentally. one hears
Bismillah Khan. Riley alters
more freely flowing passages
with notes of longer, repeated
duration, using with each the
the electronic possibilities of
time-lapse echo effects, tape in-
version, and other devices that
connoisseurs of the synthesizer
will more easily detect. Under-
pinning the sax riff continues
the deep, pulsing organ drone.
At one point the drone assumes
command again, but it now ap-
pears warped, subtly fluctuating
in pitch; it sounds like the low
rumble one would hear in a
sound-proof chamber - the
sound of one's own life-hum.
Needless to say, the musical
effect cannot be translated
well into words, partly because
the effect is an .all-encompass-
ing one that, when the drone
is suddenly terminated, leaves
your mind suspended in air.
ebullient optimism of Haydn
and Mozart and both revel in
their moments of Sturm und
Drang. If anything u n i q u ely
Schubertian occurs in these
symphonies, it must be the sheer
love of melody, which, even in
the second movement set of
variations in the Second Sym-
phony, becomes the motivating
factor.
The late Karl Ristenpart was
one of those outstanding Euro-
pean conductors t along w i t h
Horenstein, Rosbaud, and Re-
del, to name but a few little
bi more rlaxed and one can
hear the expressive independ-
1iene he always allowed his solo-
ists. Yet many things in the
Ristenpart versions are better.
In the opening tuttis of the
First Symphony, for instance,
Beecham swamped the trum-
pets: their calls ring true on
the Nonesuch version. Risten-
part never allows the "smudg-
imW of inner voices that Beech-
am lets pass, and in passages
such as the Landler trio of the
First Symphony or the an-
dante variations of the Second
fers for a want of recordings of
Brahms symphonies, yet few
truly outstanding performances
exist. The obesity of Brahm's
themes, the lack of interesting
developmental passages, the
heavy and square orchestration
are usually only emphasized by
conductors, making Brahms
sound like the Spiro Agnew of
composers. In many ways, I
think that Toscanini alone
trimmed the rhetorical fat from
Brahms by highlighting mom-
ent-to-moment tensions t h a t
only Toscanini could discover.
Pierre Monteux conducting the
London Symphony Orchestra
in a performance of Brahm's
Second Symphony, on a new
World Series release (PHC
9123. chooses moribund tempos
for the opening allegro n o
troppo that only make the ted-
ium more pronounced. Although
Monteux creates a beautifully
idyllic adagio, his version in
general fails to break through
the heaviness: except for the
fine adagio, it is no better or
no worse than most other re-
cordings. The quality of sound,
however, is deplorable; not only
does a high degree of back-
ground hiss exist, but also in-
termittent buzzes intrude.
A fine recital of lute music
can be found on Nonesuch H-
71229, by the lutenist Walter
Gerwig. Included are B a c h ' s
Suite in G Minor BWV 995,
Buxtehude's Suite in C minor
<adapted from a harpsichord
suite), and a lovely Suite by
Pachelbel. Gerwig does not
shape phrases with the emotive
subtlty of Julian Bream, but
his playing is smooth and sweet
arI the Nonesuch sound crystal-
clear.
WOW!
A three-piece Treas're Chest
chicken dinner, plus trench fries,
for only /9' Larmer take-home
orders also. Try a box soon!!
MILING S PEEbDY S)EHVICE
West of Arborland
NATIONAL ORNFRA. CORPORATION _
FOX EASTERN TrEATRES '~
375No.MAPLE RD.-769-1300
LAST TIME TODAY
"MIDNIGHT COWBOY"
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TUESDAY, OCTOBER 28
Day Calendar
Wind Instrument Dept. Students Re-
cital: School of Music Recital Hall,
11:30 am.
Thomas Spencer Jerome Lecture Series:
John Ward Perkins, Director, British
School at Rome, "Men, Methods, and
Materials: Some Practical Aspects of
Roman Architecture and Sculpture-
Theory and Practice: The Planning and
Construction o a Roman Building":
IAuditorium E, Angell Hall, 4:00 p 111
General Notices
Career Planning Meeting for under-
graduates: Members of tile faculty of
tihe Clinical Area of the Dept. of
Psychology will meet with seniors who
are interested in obtaining information
about clinical psychology as a career
and advice regarding application to
APA-Approved Doctoral Programs in
Program Information 662-6264
HELD
OVER!!
Clinical Psychology. Aud. B Angel Thursday. VISTA representative will be
Hall, tonight, 7:30 p.m. in the Fishbowl all week.
Late Announcement of Interview:
SHan.rvad Unirersity Business School:
Placemnent e ce Thursday, October 30. All bckrnds in-
terected in MAII- programs. Particularly
GENERAL DIVISION interested i> Black Seniors considering
3200 SAB going to busines school.
VISTA Week - Next Week, October
27 - 31. If you would like to find out
more about VISTA's accomplishment
and failures, its hopes and ams and if
you igt be interested in b coming
a voluee',-r, stop in at 3529 S.A.BA.;{
from 9-5 each day. A short filmwill
be shown at 2 and 7 p.m. on iMonday-
ORGANIZATION
NOTICES
aMort r Hoaird Alums and Actixes
Meeting, October 28. 8:00 p.m.. Inglis
House, Speaker: Mrs. Paul Liston, Sec-
tion Director, Mortar Board: Relevant
Anarchronismn.
LOW PRICED PREVIEWS
MON. and TUES., Nov. 3 and 4
MG PRMl f ~~iD I 1MOA N., N'a (SA? hM NVAR
VVVIfW MURIM
AUDRA
LINDLEY
I-
JAMES
WHITMORE
CATHERINE
BURNS
Rti7R, ['1C,7Y .3" Jl (. (YVY.f
1611 '%1./ 1616
b EVAN HUNTER
wvni Vto
Riley's music becomes an en-
vironment in a certain trans-
portive way, and a shock occurs
when that environment vanish-
es. I suppose that the piece
could be called head music, but
the error here would be to pre-
sume that it needs any external
booster; the music itself be-
queathes and calls forth its own
imaginative potential. Compar-
ed to the imaginative expansion
Riley elicits, most acid-rock is
pure Turkey in the Straw.
Riley has combined jazz, orien-
tal patterns, and electronic wiz-
ardry into a work which is much
more than the sum of its parts.
Another excellent recording,
on far more traditional ground,
is a Nonesuch release w h i c h
features the first two symphon-
ies of Schubert under the direc-
lion of Karl Ristenpart. H-
71230) Schubert's First Sym-
phony was written as a fare-
well present to the Wiener
Stadtkonvikt, where the young
Schubert had for five years
trained under Salieri for p e r-
formance as a choir boy in the
Hofkapelle. The Second Sym-
phony was written only a year
later. Both works reflect t h e
Terry Riley
A Rainbow in Curved Air"
known in this country. Although
he devoted much of his energy
to pre-Romantic composers, he I
made some excellent recordings
of Romantic works, such as a
beautiful Brahms A-Major Ser-
enade on the now defunct Cheek-
mate label. This new Nonestuch
recording is another tribute to
Ristenpart's sense of quality.
The conductor achieves with
the Stuttgart Symphony 0 r -
chestra a cohesiveness and yet a
clarity of instrumental detail {
that can hardly be faulted.
The classic perfornmances of
these two cheerful symphonies
has always been Beecham's
still available Columbia press-
ing; Beecham's tempos are a
now you can SEE
anything you want
starng ARLO GITHRIE
n COLOR by Deluxe
::_ United Artists
Shows at: 1,3, 5,7, 9 P.M.
Desiwed br JO MIELZINER
j , 'db MA.ELA CSE
Symphony, Ristenpart effects a
Toscanini-like tightness in the
i :,h of solo voices. At the same
tin, the cellos and basses have
a weight and definition you can
rally sink your teeth into, and
,e violin sound is solid and pre-
Nolmuch used their D o 1 b y
ois -reeduction system for the
recording and produced im-
maculatt surfaces and clean de-
tails; the playing time runs
over an hour without end-
groox e distortion. I would con-
sider this bud'et-priced album
oe- of the otsttanding sym-
pho.ic retcordings so far this
year.
The music lover hardly suf-
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PREMIERE STARTS THURSDAY. JOIN US.
TODAY AT 8 P.M.
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YOU CAN DO
SOMETHING USEFUL!
Tutor someone who wants to learn. Washtenaw
Community College Students need tutoring in Eng-
lish, French, Spanish, Social Sciences, Biology, Chem-
- istry, Math, Accounting, etc.
Call Tutorial Project-2547 SAB-763-3548
SUSAN ALLAN, Co-ordinator
University of Michigan School of Music
Presents
1969-1970 FESTIVAL OF
CONTEMPORARY MUSIC
Wednesday, October 29-8:00 P.M.
Hill Auditorium
BASSETT-"Collect" for chorus and tape
SCHAFER-"Gita" for chorus, bass choir, and tape
University Chamber Choir
Thomas Hilbish, Conductor
STOCKHAUSEN-"Spiral" (first American
performance)
William Albright, organ
I
I
What If
Someone Monumentally Incompetent
Became President?