Gay American Composers

In 1971, after the release of pianist Natalie Hinderas' landmark double LP of classical music by black composers - the first recording to look at the contribution of African American composers to classical music - a storm of heated controversy ensued. What does race have to do with music? Why bring something so base as the human body into the discussion of something so precious as classical music? As one observer later remarked, "Black was beautiful but it was still revolutionary to say so."
I am reminded of this debate of twenty-five years ago when considering the reaction to the recent "outings" of gay American composers. Though gender and sexuality are hot topics today in musicology and pop music journalism, the mere mention of sexuality in the same breath as classical music frequently provokes squirms if not more vocal indignation.
Granted, music is an abstract art form and it has no gender. Yet haven't sexual words like "passion" and "climax" been used for years to describe music? And doesn’t all music, written and sounded, come through the body?
With this disc, Gay American Composers, we have tried to avoid presenting a point of view on the issues surrounding these topics (unless, of course, the very acknowledgment of homosexuality implies a point of view). Instead, we have gathered together works from the CRI catalogue by some of today's finest composers. They range in age from their early-30s to their mid-70s, live in various parts of the country, and write in a diversity of styles and genres. And we have allowed each composer to speak for himself on the topic of homosexuality and its impact on his music and his career. (We do hope that it will soon be possible for CRI to present a collection of music by lesbian American composers.)
here is no denying that throughout this century, gay composers have played a central role in the maturing art form of American classical music. CRI is proud to present this disc as further evidence of the vital contribution of gay men to the contemporary music scene. The works selected here are only samples of the substantial output of each artist. We hope this disc will ultimately entice you to explore their work further.
- Joseph R. Dalton
Managing Director
Composers Recordings, Inc.



ROBERT HELPS (b. 1928) has been professor of piano at the New England Conservatory, the San Francisco Conservatory, Princeton University, Stanford University, the University of California at Berkeley, the Manhattan School of Music and artist-in-resident at the University of California, Davis. As a composer, he has won awards and grants from the Guggenheim, Naumburg, Ford and Fromm Foundations, several commissions from the National Endowment for the Arts, and an Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. The American Composers Orchestra recorded his Gossamer Noons (1977), a setting of poetry by James Purdy, with soprano Bethany Beardslee, one of many artists whom Helps accompanied over the years.
Hommage a a Faure and Hommage a Rachmaninoff from "Robert Helps: Collected Works," CD 717 in the CRI American Masters series.

LEE HOIBY (b. 1926) was born in Wisconsin and lives in upstate New York. Though he has composed two piano concertos and other instrumental works, he is principally known for his vocal works, including the operas Summer and Smoke (1971), The Tempest (1986)the oratorio Galileo Galilei (1975), and the cantata A Hymn of the Nativity (1960). Among his nearly one-hundred songs are "Investiture at Cecconi’s," with text by James Merrill, which was part of the original 1991 AIDS Quilt Song Book, and the song cycle I Was There, which baritone Peter Stewart commissioned and premiered at his New York City debut in 1989.
"I Was There" from Continual Conversation with a Silent Man: Songs of Lee Hoiby," Peter Stewart, Baritone, Accompanied by the Composer, CRI CD 685.

LOU HARRISON (b. 1917) was born in Portland, Oregon and has lived for the past forty years in the Monterey Bay area of California. His music, while thoroughly American and personal, draws on Eastern sounds including alternative tunings and innovative and extensive uses of percussion. Recent major performances include Parade for MTT, which opened the 1995–96 inaugural season of Michael Tilson Thomas as music director of the San Francisco Symphony, and Dennis Russell Davies’ performance, also with the San Francisco Symphony, of the Symphony No. 3. Harrison is currently at work on a new score commissioned by choreographer Mark Morris who has set many dances to the composer's music. Harrison is also a published poet, calligraphist, painter and writer, studies sign language and is currently, with his companion William Colvig, designing a straw bale house for a high desert getaway.
String Quartet Set and Serenade for Betty Freeman and Franco Assetto from "Lou Harrison: Collected Works," CD 613 in the CRI American Masters series.

CHESTER BISCARDI (b. 1948) was born in Kenosha, Wisconsin, and lives in Manhattan with his partner, the baritone Peter Stewart. He is the recipient of the Prix de Rome, the Japan Foundation Fellowship, an Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts & Letters and a Guggenheim Fellowship, as well as commissions from the Martha Baird Rockefeller Foundation and the NEA. He is currently chairman of the music department as well as the William Schuman Chair in Music at Sarah Lawrence College. Among his recent works is The Gift of Life (1990-93) a setting for soprano and piano of texts by Dickinson, Levertov and Wilder. His opera, Tight Rope with a libretto by Henry Butler was produced in 1985 in Madison, Wisconsin.
Incitation to Desire: Tango from "Chester Biscardi: At The Still Point," CRI CD 686.

NED ROREM (b. 1923), once called by Time magazine "the world’s best composer of art songs," has written over three hundred songs as well as numerous works for chamber and orchestral forces. Two of his operas, Miss Julie (1964-65) and A Childhood Miracle (1952) have recently been recorded for the first time. Rorem won the Pulitzer Prize in 1976 for the orchestral suite Air Music. Other honors include Guggenheim fellowships and membership in the American Academy of Arts & Letter. Recent major works include the Concerto for Piano Left-Hand and Orchestra (1991) written for Gary Graffman and premiered by the orchestra of The Curtis Institute (the composer’s alma mater) with conductor Andre Previn; the Concerto for English Horn and Orchestra (1993), commissioned by the New York Philharmonic for its 150th anniversary celebrations; and the String Quartet No. 4 (1995) commissioned by the Emerson String Quartet. Rorem has also written thirteen books including the 1994 memoir "Knowing When To Stop." He has lived with James R. Holmes, a musician and analyst, since 1967.
The Nantucket Songs from "Ned Rorem: Collected Songs," CD 657 in the CRI American Masters series.

DAVID DEL TREDICI (b. 1937) is famous for his on-going series of large-scale settings of Lewis Carroll's "Alice in Wonderland" writings. In Memory of a Summer Day, a section of the evening-length Child Alice (1977-1981) received the Pulitzer Prize in 1980. The unabashedly tonal writing in many of these works, especially Final Alice (1976), a bicentennial commission for the Chicago Symphony, earned Del Tredici a reputation as a leader in "neo-Romanticism" and the return to tonality. However, he first came to prominence in the 1960s for his atonal writing, especially three settings for chamber ensemble and voice of texts by James Joyce. As child prodigy, Del Tredici first studied piano before turning to composition.
Fantasy Pieces from "New Chamber and Solo Works by Del Tredici, Helps, Street and Radzynski," CRI CD 649. Also available:"Del Tredici: An Alice Symphony," CRI CD 688 and "Del Tredici: Three Joyce Settings," CD 689 in the CRI American Masters series.

ROBERT MAGGIO (b. 1964) lives in Philadelphia with his partner, the artist Tony LaSalle, and is on the faculty of the West Chester University School of Music. Maggio graduated from Yale University in 1986, and subsequently received Master's and Doctorate degrees in Music Composition from the University of Pennsylvania. Maggio's music has been commissioned and performed by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, the Kennedy Center and Oakland East Bay Symphony. He has received awards, grants and fellowships from ASCAP, BMI, Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, Meet the Composer and the American Music Center.

Desire-Movement from "Robert Maggio: Seven Mad Gods," CRI CD 720.

CONRAD CUMMINGS (b. 1948) was born in San Francisco and trained at Yale, Stony Brook and Columbia and was a researcher at IRCAM in Paris before joining the faculty of Oberlin Conservatory where he directed the music and media program. He has written and produced three full-length operas, Eros and Psyche (1983) for Oberlin, Photo-Op (1989) with libretto by James Siena for La MaMa Etc. in collaboration with Ridge Theater, and Tonkin (1993) with Opera Delaware. In addition to repertoire for his New York based ensemble of amplified instruments and voices, he has written orchestral and chamber music. Currently Cummings is a nano-opera composer for Hyperspace Cowgirls, an interactive multimedia company in New York City.
In the Department of Love from Conrad Cummings: Photo-Op, CD 627 in the CRI Emergency Music series.

WILLIAM HIBBARD (1939-1989) was associated with The University of Iowa from the time he received his PhD there in 1967, serving as Professor of Music and co-founder and music director of the University's Center for New Music. Born in Newton, Massachusetts, Hibbard maintained homes in Iowa City and San Francisco, where he died of AIDS at age 49. As a violist, Hibbard frequently played new works and was principal of the Quad City Symphony Orchestra. He described his music as strictly serial and his catalogue consists of over forty concert works. Both Hibbard and his music have been described as unabashed, honest, and direct.
The composer and arts administrator Philip Blackburn, a former student of Hibbard’s, recalls: "A twinkle came to his eye at the mention of Carter, Wuorinen and trichords - and he mentioned them a lot. As a teacher, he really made those subjects come alive. He was known to have shown up in class in full-leather and once said among friends 'My two favorite things are serialism and sex and not necessarily in that order.' He was deeply committed to the relationship between physicality and academically rigorous music." Another former student and friend, Donald Engstrom remarks "Bill was deeply shy and could come off as cold or elitist. This is because he would be hesitant to speak, always wanting to use language very precisely so that it would say exactly what he wanted it to say, especially when it came to spiritual and queer topics. But his heart and his true voice were in his music."
Bass Trombone, Bass Clarinet, Harp originally released on CRI SD 324. Currently available on the CD "William Hibbard In Memoriam," CD 675 on the Music & Arts label.

JERRY HUNT (1943-1993) was a true American original. He described the focus of his musical work after 1978 as "the production of a series of interrelated electronic, mechanic and social sound-sight interactive transactional system performances, with and for other performers, and interactive participant array installations." Besides the electronic soundpieces of the 1970s, he is remembered for legendary performances at international music festivals in the 1980s, including a series of collaborations with performance artists Karen Finley. Hunt drew inspiration from the esoteric magical studies and angelic transcriptions of the Elizabethan John Dee. He also drew upon the latest advances in electronic equipment, himself a pioneering inventor of electronic circuitries (Transform (Stream) is an early example of digital speech synthesis). A life-long Texan, Hunt was born in Waco and died in Canton after long bout with lung cancer.
Transform (Stream) from "Jerry Hunt: Lattice," CRI CD 713.


CHRIS DeBLASIO (1959-1993) was the composer of the musical Instant Lives (1984), based on the poetry and prose of Howard Moss, and the operetta A Murder is Foretold (1984), suggested by an Oscar Wilde story, with a libretto by Sharon Holland. He received commissions from Trinity Church (New York), Union Theological Seminary, the New Orleans Gay Men's Chorus, and various instrumentalists and singers. He provided scores for the off-off-Broadway and off-Broadway plays "Stray Dog Story," "Night Sweat," and "Adam and the Experts," and served as composer-in-residence for the Williamstown Theater Festival's Second Company. He created arrangements for the late Martha Schlamme, and served as arranger and conductor at the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, the Chelsea Theater Center, and Mabou Mines. His song cycle, All The Way Through Evening, is a setting of texts by the New York City-based author and poet Perry Brass. Chris was an early member of ACT-UP/New York and is survived by his lover William Berger.
"Walt Whitman in 1989" from "And Trouble Came, Musical Responses to AIDS," by Chris DeBlasio, C. Bryan Rulon and Laura Kaminsky performed by Musicians' Accord, CRI CD 729.