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In
his early years in New York, Bazelon supported himself by scoring
documentaries, art films and theatrical productions. During the 1950s
and 1960s he composed more than 50 scores of this kind, which proved to
be an invaluable preparation for his orchestral music. In a valedictory
of sorts he wrote Knowing The Score: Notes On Film Music. Published in
1975, this book is widely used as a college text. As guest composer, Bazelon
frequently lectured at leading universities and music schools throughout
the United States and England. Young people were especially drawn to his
feisty spirit and no-nonsense approach to earning a living by applying
compositional talents to the commercial world without sacrificing integrity.
Bazelon’s works
for orchestra, chamber ensemble, solo instruments and voice have been
performed throughout the United States and Europe. He conducted his music
with such orchestras as the National Symphony, the Detroit Symphony, the
Kansas City Philharmonic and the Orchestre Nationale de Lille. He received
grants and commissions from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Koussevitsky
Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Kansas City Philharmonic, the New
Orleans Philharmonic, the American Brass Quintet, the Boehm Quintette
and the Royal Northern College of Music.
A long-time horse
racing enthusiast, one of his best known works, Churchill Downs (Chamber
Concerto No. 2) is named for the home of the Kentucky Derby (CRI 623),
and his Ninth Symphony (subtitled Sunday Silence for the winner of the
1989 Derby) is dedicated to the horse. In a small way, the racetrack helped
launch Bazelon’s symphonic career. With money from a big win at Aqueduct,
he recorded a concert ballet with 16 members of the New York Philharmonic,
the tape of which led directly to his conducting his Short Symphony (Testament
to a Big City) with the National Symphony in Washington, D.C. in 1962.
This was his major orchestral debut.
David Harold Cox,
Chair of Music at University College, Cork, Ireland and author of Irwin
Bazelon, A Bio-Bibliography (Greenwood Press, August 2000) said in a tribute
to him, "The quality I shall always remember about Bud was his integrity,
the integrity between his individuality as a person and his unique musical
personality. There seemed to be a perfect unity between the man and his
music. It was a unity based on a breadth of vision-both his personality
and his musical language were strong, wide-ranging and powerful, pulsating
with energy and life. These qualities will ensure that the music will
survive."
With this compact
disc, a reissue from LPs, CRI continues its commitment to presenting and
preserving the work of a gifted and uncompromising composer whose music
is remarkable for its originality, range and variety of expressive language.
In Bazelon’s
own words, "Prominence of musical line depends on dynamics, impact
accents, phrasing, rhythmic propulsion, color and contrast. There are
certain 12-tone and jazz elements present,
neither strict nor formal. And, the triplet is my musical heartbeat."
While the Woodwind
Quintet is cast in a familiar three-movement mold (fast-slow-fast),
the development and organization of its musical materials is not based
on 19th-century techniques. My thinking in putting together my "own
sounds" is
totally divorced from the associations of traditionalism.
The members of the
ensemble function in dual capacities-they are part of the whole,
but of greater significance, they are soloists in the true sense of the
word, sometimes as protagonists, and on occasion, I let them fight it
out for themselves. The dynamic markings in the score indicate which instrument
attains prominence. It was my intention to break up the normal order of
the winds (flute on top, followed by oboe, clarinet, horn and bassoon).
The instruments crisscross each other, disturbing the regular arrangement
of voice placings-sometimes the flute is low, clarinet or bassoon
high. This gives special attention to a particular line or phrase. Groups
of notes are broken into different kinds of markings-slurs, staccato
or half-staccato attacks, sudden sforzando, short rhythmic punctuations,
special notations, interlocking patterns, skips from one register to another
in a wide variety of rhythmic juxtaposition. The Quintet contains both
12-tone and jazz elements, neither formal nor strict.
I believe a composer
cannot escape his roots. I have lived all my life in the Big City. The
rebellious mutterings, cross-rhythms and nervous tension and energy of
the city are in my music. You cannot have life without a pulse beat, and
you cannot have music without rhythm.
Woodwind Quintet
was written expressly for the Boehm Woodwind Quintette. Its first performance
was May 22, 1975 in Alice Tully Hall, New York City.
In composing Imprints,
I have attempted to utilize the entire keyboard range with total freedom,
and, in the process, avoid the practice of one hand following the other
(up and down the keys) and old-style octave virtuosity.
The use of spatial
rhythmic notation and performing on the piano strings (including cluster
notes played with the palm of the hand) are not intended merely to be
effects. I have interpolated them into the score as logical expansions
of musical ideas: an alternate way to perform and alter pitches, convey
color, accent individual notes and/or bring out harmonic overtones.
Prominence of musical
line is secured through dynamic markings, phrasing, color contrast and
the general character of the music. It
is rhythmic progression and propulsion that serves to bind the musical
ideas together as part of the whole, connecting one section
to another and revealing the intervallic relationships of the
piece.
Imprints was
commissioned by Rebecca LaBrecque. Its first performance was February
10, 1981 in Carnegie Recital Hall, New York City.
In a conversation
with author James Jones he said, "You composers live in a world of
sound dreams." He died May 9, 1977. His perceptive comment on the
composer’s world influenced me to use the title Sound Dreams for
this score dedicated to his memory. While the music is not programmatic-nor
an attempt to describe Jones’ personality or the power of his literary
works-it does express (in whatever way music can) my feelings about
the man.
Sound Dreams
is scored for six players divided into three groups: flute and clarinet,
viola and cello, and piano and percussion. The performers function both
as soloists and ensemble members; at some moments they accompany one another
and at others they are antagonists. Despite sustained lyrical statements-instruments
often fade into and out of each other’s sound to produce a variety
of colors, textures and shadings-the work is marked by dramatic interjections
that accentuate the natural tension between rhythmic and lyrical elements.
Sound Dreams
was commissioned by the Collage New Music Chamber Ensemble.
Its first performance
with Gunther Schuller conducting was November 13, 1977, in
the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Five Pieces for
Piano are miniature solo compositions; the contrapuntal style and
nature of the work was part of my musical language at the age of 28. They
are dramatic and lyrical in alternating contrasts of dynamic and phrasing.
The first performance
of Five Pieces for Piano was April 1, 1951 by pianist Ruth Strassman
in McMillin Theatre, Columbia University, New York City.
The Brass Quintet,
scored for two trumpets, horn, tenor and bass trombone, is a dramatic
work in four parts. Its inner two movements are in slow tempo, evoking
frequent color changes through the use of various kinds of mutes. They
contrast sharply with the fast sections (parts 1 and 4) whose contrapuntal
design is given form and shape by a driving rhythmic attack. Sudden sforzando
accents, acting as false downbeats within the bar, serve as means of launching
musical ideas. In addition, the juxtaposition (and breakdown) of 8th-
and 16th-note phrases, with triplet patterns of larger and smaller time
values, set off one rhythmic group against the other in a continuous stream
of clashing dialogue. As in all my music, certain 12-tone techniques and
jazz elements (neither strict or traditional) are present.
Brass Quintet
was commissioned by the American Brass Quintet. Its first performance
was March 22, 1964 as part of Max Pollikoff’s "Music in our
Time" series at the 92nd St. YMHA in New York City.
All program notes
by the composer.
The Boehm Quintette
Formed in 1968 by
clarinetist Don Stewart, the founding premise of the group was that the
repertoire for wind quintet is far deeper and richer than conventional
wisdom would have it. In addition, the Quintette ensemble commissioned
many new works by contemporary composers. This CD features Susan Stewart,
flute; Phyllis Bohl, oboe; Don Stewart, clarinet; Joseph Anderer, horn;
Richard Vrotney, bassoon.
Wanda Maximilien
Born in 1946, Wanda
Maximilien began studying the piano at the age of six in her native Port-au-Prince,
Haiti. She received her master’s degree in performance from the Juilliard
School and has studied with Adele Marcus and Nadia Boulanger. She is Professor
of Music at the Mason Gross School of the Arts of Rutgers University.
In 1991, Ms. Maximilien was also soloist in Bazelon’s Trajectories
. . . for solo piano with orchestra recorded by the London Philharmonic
with Harold Farberman, conducting (Albany Records TROY 054).
Collage
Collage is a chamber
music group composed principally of Boston Symphony Orchestra musicians
dedicated to the performance of 20th-century works. Its purpose is to
provide an arena for complete musical involvement; a union of composer,
performer and concert-goer. Throughout its history, Collage has presented
more than 75 premieres and commissioned works. Its concerts have included
full stage productions-music with dance, music with film and music
with extensive sophisticated electronic equipment. 2000—2001 marks
its 29th-anniversary season. This CD consists of Randolph Bowman, flute;
Robert Annis, clarinet; Frank Epstein, percussion; Christopher Oldfather,
piano; Joel Smirnoff, viola; Martha Babcock, cello.
Gunther Schuller
Gunther Schuller was
President of the New England Conservatory from 1967 to 1977. He was elected
President of the National Music Council in 1979. In 1975, his reconstruction
and reorchestration of Scott Joplin’s Treemonisha opened on Broadway
with Schuller conducting. A leading composer in his own right as well
as an authority on jazz, he has conducted most major orchestras both in
America and Europe.
American Brass
Quintet
Founded in 1960, the
American Brass Quintet has established itself as the recognized leader
among brass chamber music ensembles. The Quintet has toured nationally
and internationally, performing in the majority of the world’s major
chamber music concert halls. The players on this recording are Raymond
Mase, trumpet; Louis Ranger, trumpet; Edward Birdwell horn; Herbert Rankin,
trombone; Robert Biddlecome, bass trombone.
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