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This disc contains various chamber works I have written over the past few years.
Throughout this period I was interested in working with distinct genres of music
for smaller ensembles, each of which offered specific challenges and required
unique treatment. Contained here are two pieces for traditional ensembles, a
piano trio and a string quartet, as well as music in three idioms well developed
in the twentieth century: a work for flute and tape, a song cycle with mixed
instrumental accompaniment, and a work for small chamber orchestra.
In deliberately composing for genres with well-known antecedents, the task of
balancing invention with acquiescence begins. And there is where the attraction
lies. The sense of precedent weighs more heavily in the case of the three
last-mentioned works, inasmuch as these established twentieth-century idioms are
more laden with familiar localisms, more type-driven, and ultimately more
idiosyncratic. My engagement with them, then, results in an acknowledgment of
their style and manner, complemented by a stronger urge to take them along
another path.
Roman Passacaglias was written between October 1991 and January 1992. It was
composed for, and dedicated to, the Leonardo Trio who premiered it in Amsterdam
in March 1992. The second part of the title refers to the different passacaglia
themes which permeate and competitively inhabit the musical landscape.
Of the five passacaglia themes, three project themselves more prominently: the
"cello" passacaglia, which consists of the rapid alternation of bowed and
plucked notes (most of which are generated by sixths); the "piano" passacaglia,
which sounds as intermittent chords made in part of perfect intervals; and the
"violin" passacaglia which is scalar in nature and the most aggressive of the
three. The mode of variation on these themes is traditional to a point and could
be described as ornamental, figurative, and additive in nature. However, as the
piece progresses these themes lose their initial identity and are passed around
to different instruments.
At one point (about two thirds through the work) all three of these themes sound
simultaneously. This particular joining emits a number of specific harmonies
which form the chordal basis of another of the work's passacaglias and which
also functions as the resource of the piece's freer musical episodes. Yet
another passacaglia theme is the one heard first, played by violin and piano and
made of chordal thirds.
The piece opens with unison passages in the violin and piano followed by a
similar passage in the cello and piano. The music of these scenes makes possible
- both technically and emotionally - the existence of the passacaglia themes and
their variations. With the intention of rounding the structure, the opening
music recurs in varied form near the end of the composition. This rounding off
lends the work an air of Roman pragmatism (not unlike the symmetricality of a
Roman arch). Much of the harmony in the piece, perhaps more clearly heard near
the end, is made of small snippets of sounds reminiscent of scores for Roman
movies of the Ben Hur-and-less-variety popular in the fifties and sixties.
Angels, Emeralds, and the Towers was composed in 1992 on a commission from New
Music (across) America with funds from the C. Comstock Clayton Foundation. Its
first performance was given by the Canyonlands Ensemble at the Tanner
Amphitheater adjacent to Zion National Park in southern Utah.
This work is a non-programmatic, primal response to the spectacle of Zion
National Park, whose unique landscapes were suggestive in its composition. This
short piece, a free fantasia, aims to continuously infuse new material into its
discourse. Established tempos, orchestration, character and mood last only for
short periods as the music leads one to shifting and fresh venues.
The piece was composed with the physical setting of its premiere locale in mind.
Located in the desert of southern Utah, the amphitheater uses the base of an
imperial red-rock cliff as its backdrop and acoustic springboard. The
performance area is sided by raised plateaus. In the evening, the moon shines
against the smooth rock, the breeze blows, and the night insects sing.
The song cycle On the Wings of Wind was written between 1992 and 1994. The
concept of completing a cycle on Hebrew texts came after I was asked to write a
song for a friend's wedding, and after I was commissioned by the Hillel
Foundation to compose a work in recognition of the 50th anniversary of the
Warsaw Ghetto uprising. Together these two songs, "Two Verses" from The Song of
Songs and "Warsaw", provided the notion to extend the cycle by including
ancient, medieval, and contemporary texts, that address the conditions of
renewal, complaint, lament, marriage, revelry, and death.
Set for soprano, lyric baritone, violin, cello, clarinet, bass clarinet, and
harp, each song in the cycle applies the ensemble, or its various subsets, in
different ways. All of the songs are, of course, composed to augment, frame, and
express the notion and the structure of each text. For instance, in the first
song, the sense of beginning referred to several times in the text is mirrored
in the music with a progression of "starts." The last line of each verse in that
poem ends with "morning" in one application or another. In response to this, the
soprano, always in a different tempo than the baritone, intones these words over
and again very slowly, until near the end of the song, she gains her own
momentum and "beginning," and counterpoints the last verse of the text with his
utterance of the second-to-last verse.
The song about fleas is replete with discomfort, uneasiness, and animated
reaction. The allusion of broken and strewn instruments, sighs and resignation
informs "Warsaw." The refrain, "Pity the.....," suggested the short ritornello
which appears several times in the music and sets the tone of the music's
pathos. The game-like flavor of "Spring Wine Song" suggests the exchange,
anticipation, and echo which transpire between the performers. The last song
uses as its modus operandi ground-bass aria technique. The two melodic
ritornelli - the violin opening and the bass clarinet interlude music - are
somewhat varied in their return appearances. The ground-bass material unravels
and disintegrates as the song moves to its end.
Dialogue in Three Parts was composed during 1994 for flutist Carlton Vickers,
who specified that the work be written for piccolo, flute, and alto flute to an
electronic accompaniment. The constituent three segments of the work are
intended to contrast one another, while extending and reflecting one another as
well. The tape part was conceived away from the studio in score and later
realized at the Vladimir Ussachevsky Center for Electro/Acoustic Studies at the
University of Utah. The relation of the flute to the tape part is intensely
competitive and participatory.
Written for flute, the Chorale operates very much like a traditional chorale
prelude. The Caprice, featuring piccolo, is the most intertwined of all these
segments; it gives way to a contrasting trio which pits the alto flute against a
metrically regular accompaniment. The music heard at the beginning of the
Caprice is again enacted and leads into the Chorale/Chaconne. This last section
returns to the music of the opening Chorale, but suspends the arrival of the
work's strongest centric point, C, until the conclusion of the Chaconne.
Quartet was co-commissioned by the Abramyan Quartet and the Koussevitzky
Foundation in the Library of Congress. The work was written between September
1996 and February 1997. It is dedicated to the Abramyan Quartet and to the
memory of Serge and Natalie Koussevitzky.
One preoccupation concerning the writing of this work had to do with finding a
process that would facilitate the construction of each movement so that each
maintained their respective identities, while complementing and reflecting one
another. To achieve this goal, various forms of both contrast and unity were
employed in making the work's global design and local detail. Each movement is
composed using a distinct methodology in an effort to achieve balance in the
quartet's structure as a whole.
About 19 minutes long, the three-movement work is cast in a traditional
fast-slow-fast pattern. The first movement, Fantasia, kinetic, gestural and
energetic, is freely written and structured using a network of associated
motives. The second movement is a set of seven variations based on a simple,
quiet, lyrical theme played in unison at the beginning of the movement. These
variations consist of differing characters, among them, a serenade, a waltz, and
a scherzo. The sixth variation functions as the work's scherzo, thereby
enclosing a movement inside of a movement. The last movement is a rondo, in
which the rondo theme reappears not in its traditional repeated form, but as a
succession of modular units which are flexibly reassembled and made new with
each appearance. Its last sounding gives way to extensive change and brings on
the end of the piece.
- M.R.
Morris Rosenzweig (b. 1952) received his professional training at the Eastman
School of Music, the University of Pennsylvania, and Columbia University. In
recognizing his achievements, the Department of Music of the American Academy of
Arts and Letters wrote: "Morris Rosenzweig's music displays images and projects
narratives rich with rhythmic energy, orchestral wit, and intense
expressiveness. The moment-to-moment events are crafted with laser-like
precision that allows the listener immediate access to a surface full of color
and motion. Those moment-to-moment events securely compound into formal designs
of great elegance."
His works have been performed by many noted ensembles and soloists throughout
the U.S. and abroad, including Philippe Entremont with the New Orleans Symphony,
Joseph Silverstein with the Utah Symphony, Emerson Quartet violist Lawrence
Dutton, hornist William Purvis, Earplay, and Speculum Musicae.
He has received honors from the Guggenheim Foundation, the American Academy of
Arts and Letters, the Koussevitzky Foundation in the Library of Congress, the
Fromm Foundation at Harvard University, the Utah Arts Council/NEA, the MacDowell
Colony, and the Composers Conference, and has been awarded the McCurdy, Nietche,
Rappoport, and the International Horn Society prizes in composition.
Formerly on the faculty at New York University, he has taught at the University
of Utah since 1987 where he also directs the university's new-music ensemble,
Canyonlands, and the Maurice Abravanel Visiting Distinguished Composers Series.
In addition to directing Canyonlands, Mr. Rosenzweig conducts the Chamber
Players of the League-ISCM in New York and guest conducts many other ensembles.
His music may be found on Centaur CD CRC 2103, and CRI CD 705, where he also
appears as conductor with Speculum Musicae.
Warsaw*
(soprano, clarinet, violin, cello, harp)
The English lyric of this song, which alludes to Psalm 137, was written by Jacqueline Osherow (b. 1956). In addition to the English lyric, two Hebrew fragments from the psalm have been inserted between the stanzas. The translation of these fragments are given below.
Pity the tune bereft of singers.
Pity the tone bereft of chords.
Where shall we weep? By which waters?
Pity the song bereft of words.
(Upon the willows...)
Pity the harps hung up on rifles,
The alien cunning in each hand.
Pity the shrill, bewildered nightingales.
How could they sing in that strange land?
(How can we sing the Lord's song in a foreign land?)
Pity the string that has no bow.
Pity the flute that has no breath.
Pity the rifle's muted solo.
Pity its soundless aftermath.
*The author titles this poem SONG FOR THE MUSIC IN THE WARSAW GHETTO
from With a Moon in Transit by Jaqueline Osherow. Copyright (c) 1966
by Jaqueline Osherow. Used by permission of Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
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