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HARVARD UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF M U S I C cvN E W S L E T T E R Vol. 3, No. 2, Summer, 2003 |
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Composers in
Paradise. Elliott Gyger's Ischia Residency When asked about his summer,
Assistant Professor Elliott Gyger says he can't
complain. No wonder. He's in the midst of a
one-month compos-er's residency at Fondazione
William Walton on the grounds of La Mortella, the
home of the late Sir William Walton on the Italian
island of Ischia in the Bay of Naples. The property is
breathtaking. Carved out of what Sir Lawrence
Olivier called "a quarry" (water had to be piped in
from Naples; the first seven years of construction
was dedicated simply to breaking stones) by little
more than the determination of Lady Susana Walton,
La Mortella boasts a garden extending over an area
of 16,000 square metres, holding a collection of
over 1,000 different rare and exotic plants. Lord
Walton, an English composer, and Lady Susana
purchased property to get away from London city
life so that Walton could start work on his lyric
opera Troilus and Cressida. Sir William Walton died
in 1983. Susana continued her work on La Mortella
which she sees not only as a memorial to her
husband but also as a study centre for gifted young
composers and performers. Gyger concurs. "The main thing to say about La Mortella is that it's an incredibly beautiful place. Parts of the garden are laid out fairly formally, but the overall impression is of natural profusion and exuberance. Underlying this apparent spontaneity, however, is a huge amount of careful planning and sheer hard work. The paradox appeals to me a great deal, as I see close parallels with the way I approach writing music: the impression of expressive freedom that gives music life is often only achievable through the tightest control of compositional technique, and a single phrase may go through many drafts before reaching the perfect balance that makes it appear effortless. "I'm spending a lot of time at La Mortella working outdoors--something I've always enjoyed doing, but which isn't terribly compatible with the Boston climate for most of the year! The gatehouse apartment where we are staying has an open rooftop terrace, where I work for a couple of hours in the early morning, looking up from the page from time to time to see the sun rising over the ridge, or the changing light on the mountain in front of me. My other most productive time is in the mid-afternoon, when I climb up to the top of the garden and sit by the Cascata del Coccodrillo (Crocodile Cascade), a lovely, well-shaded pool perched right on the edge of the hill, where there is always a cool sea breeze, even on the hottest days. It's hard for me to tell how (if at all) these beautiful surroundings have made their way into the music I am writing, the second of a set of three pieces for string quartet. Each of the pieces isolates one member of the quartet from the others--in this case the cello, whose pizzicati alternately support and disrupt the line of the three upper parts. Although the basic conception of the piece is thus a dramatic one, I am coming to think of it more and more in "botanical" terms, with the music growing and putting out shoots in sometimes unexpected directions--and sometimes requiring judicious pruning!" Gyger's Soli for string quartet will be played by the Ying Quartet on October 23, 2003 as part of the Blodgett Chamber Music Series. Gyger recently received the Walter Hinrichsen Award for "the publication of a work by a gifted composer" from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. back to
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Words and music celebrating the
life,
David Lewin, Walter W. Naumburg Professor of Music, was a beloved teacher and advisor to a generation of music theorists who are currently active in the United States and abroad. His work revolutionized the field of music theory through development of transformational networks and related topics. He forged links between tonal and atonal repertories, harmony and rhythm, breaking down long-standing intellectual boundaries. Lewin studied piano and harmony with Edouard Steuermann, graduated with a BA in mathematics summa cum laude from Harvard University in1954. In 1958, he earned an MFA in music at Princeton University, where he studied composition with Roger Sessions and theory and analysis with Milton Babbitt, Edward T. Cone, and Earl Kim. From 1958-1961, he was a Junior Fellow at Harvard University. Professor Lewin taught music at the University of California at Berkeley (1961-1967), State University of New York at Stony Brook (1967-1980), Yale University (1979-1985), and Harvard University (1985-2003). Professor Lewin was a Guggenheim Foundation Fellow in 1983-1984, and held a residency at the Rockefeller Foundation Study and Conference Center at Bellagio, Italy. He was awarded honorary degrees by the University of Chicago (1995) and the New England Conservatory of Music (2000). He was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Brahms Society, and the Society for Music Theory. A symposium on the Schoenberg string quartets was held in his honor at Harvard University in 1998. Professor Lewin's work includes numerous compositions and many publications in the field of music theory. His books are Generalized Musical Intervals and Transformations and Musical Form and Transformation, which won the ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award. He also wrote many articles for the Journal of Music Theory, Perspectives of New Music, Music Perception, Nineteenth-Century Music, and others. Lewin leaves his wife, June Knight
Lewin, and son, Alexander Julian Lewin. I first came to know David at the suggestion of the composer Milton Babbitt...before contacting David, I spent some time working through his 1987 book with the imposing title, "Generalized Musical Intervals and Transformations" (Yale). Its style and approach were eerily familiar from my own studies of mathematics, but here the objects of mathematical scrutiny were pitches, timbres, rhythms, phrases. The effect was dizzying. Progressions, Digressions, Regressions: A Graduate Student Conference February 28th through March 1st, music department graduate students hosted their first conference at Dudley House on the Harvard campus. "Progressions, Regressions, Digressions" was a pilot venture--the sort of event Harvard's deans say they'd like to encourage. "Why not us?" asks conference organizer and 6th year graduate student Jeannie Guerrero. "We'd been thinking about this for as long as I've been a student here: wouldn't it be nice to have a conference, to network with other graduate students? We have funding for professional development through the Graduate Music Forum, we have name brand faculty. More and more schools are hosting student conferences. It was time to act." Students came largely from New England, but some from as far away as Germany. "It attracted international attention--we got proposals and inquiries from Japan, Germany, even from Kenya," says Guerrero. "We got presenters we didn't know existed. The entire Smith graduate music contingent came, and we didn't know there were graduate music students at Smith until now." A committee of four graduate students, representing each of the department's four areas--theory, composition, ethnomusicology and musicology--selected eight papers to be read at the conference. "We really wanted it to be multidisciplinary. Professional organizations are so specialized--theorists on theory, musicologists on musicology--and they might not accept papers because of that specificity. We wanted our conference to be everybody together. It seems to be a trend of the current generation, this interdisciplinarianism. We want to create a forum where papers are accepted regardless of 'discipline.'" Guerrero thinks that students feel less intimidated giving papers for their peers, as opposed to their professors: "It's good training for job talks. And, the more people we know out in the world, the better connected we'll be as faculty scholars." The conference kicked off with a concert by Ensemble 1521 (a medieval singing ensemble) and 5th year ethnomusicology graduate student David Kaminsky on flute. "It was a glorious concert--so beautiful," says Guerrero. "I think it set the tone for the weekend." And, after the day of papers, conference participants headed over to Paine Hall for a concert by the Harvard Group for New Music featuring a regional exchange of New England composers. "It was exciting," remembers Guerrero. "The hall was full; the reception was packed. I think the whole conference was successful because there was so much music involved. Conferences usually don't have any music being played at all. We wanted to be different."
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Drawing on the collection of the Loeb Music Library, the new exhibition In Her Own Hand: Operas Composed by Women, 1625-1939 (through December 1, 2003) features little known scores by women composers, and follows the development of opera from the Italian courts in the 17th century, to the courts of the Holy Roman Empire and the German Princely States in the 18th century, and finally to the public opera houses of post-revolutionary Paris and beyond. With many scores on display for the first time, the exhibition shines a light on a veiled world of female opera composers. April Lynn James, Ph.D. '02, collaborated with library staff to stage the exhibition. Working with Sarah Adams, Project Director, US RISM Office and Keeper of the Isham Memorial Library, and Andrea Cawelti, Project Cataloger for the Ruth Neils and John M. Ward Collection of Opera Scores, James drew from the Loeb Music Library's Ruth Neils and John M. Ward Collection of Opera Scores for the content of the exhibition. "One of my primary interests in musicology is the recovery of women's works," said James. "This exhibit offered me a prime opportunity to do just that. For instance, we have included a section entitled Unknown Except by Their Works, which displays pieces by virtually unknown female composers. Some scores are being seen by researchers and music scholars for the first time and I hope to eventually perform and record some of the material so it can be heard as well." Featured is Maria Antonia, Electress of Saxony, a woman who wrote both the music and libretti to two operas Il trionfo della fedeltà (The Triumph of Fidelity, 1756) and Talestri, regina delle amazzone (Talestri, Queen of the Amazons, 1765), and performed in their premieres. The exhibition also includes works by Sophie Gail (1775-1819), daughter of a famous Parisian surgeon and composer of romances and opéras comiques as well as Elisabeth-Claude Jacquet de la Guerre (1665-1729), the first woman to have a work staged at the Paris Opéra. "We are thrilled that April's research could enhance and inform this exhibition. In coordination with Sarah and Andrea's knowledge of the library's collection, the three have created a rich display," said Virginia Danielson, Richard F. French Librarian of Loeb Music Library. We are proud to announce that Alexander Rehding will join the Music Department faculty this fall. Rehding's research is located at the intersection between history and theory, concentrating on German music and music theory between the 18th and 21st centuries. Recent publications include Hugo Riemann and the Birth of Modern Musical Thought (2003) and the edited volume Music Theory and Natural Order from the Renaissance to the Early Twentieth Century (2001). In 2001, he was awarded the inaugural Jerome Roche Prize of the Royal Musical Association. At present, he is working on two research projects: a study of musical monumentality in nineteenth-century German music, and a study of acoustics, sound and notation from the eighteenth century to the present day. back to
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It was a serendipitous series of events that took Anthony Cheung from his seat at the piano in the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra to winning a prestigious Charles Ives Scholarship (given to "composition students of great promise") from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. It all started with the New York Youth Symphony 's "First Music," a program that commissions composers under 30 to write new orchestral works. Cheung was selected as a participant in the program, chaired by John Corigliano, during the spring of his freshman year. He'd written orchestral pieces before--a 40-minute cello concerto, for example, that had taken two years to complete. Or the piece--his first orchestral work--that was performed by both the Berkeley Symphony and the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra while he was in high school. For his "First Music" commission, Cheung wrote a one-movement, ten-minute piece for symphony orchestra called Serendipitous Scenes. The New York Youth Symphony premiered the piece in February, 2002, at Carnegie Hall. "It was a great experience." says Cheung. "And only one month later, I participated in the inaugural Minnesota Orchestra Composers' Institute. They select eight new works each year for their reading sessions, which are led by their music advisor, Aaron Jay Kernis. I was there for a week participating in seminars and working with the orchestra at the reading session." He'd given them Serendipitous Scenes. Cheung still smiles at the recollection. "Their reading of it was spectacular. They performed it so well. Hearing your work played by a top notch orchestra like that makes all the effort worthwhile." At the invitation of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, he submitted two works, Serendipitous Scenes, along with Swan and Shadow (written for fellow Harvard undergraduate John McMunn and ensemble, based on a poem by John Hollander and premiered at the Goldberg Concert at Paine Hall last spring). The judges chose Cheung to be a recipient of the Charles Ives Scholarship, which comes with a financial prize to support further compositional study. "I'm still trying to find my voice and I have a long way to go, but I see that as a good thing. I'll continually try to develop as a composer, and what I write now might not be what I write in ten years." This is likely to be a lifelong journey. Cheung started playing piano when he was six. "I started writing things down shortly after. When I was twelve I had my first serious composition teacher. It was a turning point: my first real active exposure to twentieth-century music, and hearing and understanding Stravinsky and Schoenberg for the first time was a revelation. It opened up so many more possibilities, and it was a very liberating experience." When faced with the decision of choosing conservatory or university, Cheung selected Harvard College for its campus, courses, and music department, especially the opportunity to work with Bernard Rands and Robert Levin. "I always knew that as an undergrad I wanted to be at a university, rather than a conservatory, for the eclecticism of offerings, and for not being forced into my own shell." Cheung finds it challenging to balance his composing with classroom study. "I'm not the best manager of time, but I've gotten through three years. The most productive time for me is the summer. I have to compose much more sporadically during the academic year." Since completing this interview, Anthony Cheung learned that he had also received the 2003 John Green Fellowship (A University composition prize given in alternate years to Harvard graduate and undergraduate students) and a 2003 ASCAP Foundation Morton Gould Young Composer Award for the final movement of his "Symphony No. 1." back to
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In a rare appearance as a speaker, Pierre Boulez participated in a series of events co-sponsored by the Harvard Music Department and the Center for European Studies in May. He spoke for eight hours, more or less straight; from the panel discussions (with fellow panelists Jürg Stenzl (University of Salzburg), Paul Griffiths (New York Times), Eve-Alain H. Bois (Harvard), Michael Fried (Johns Hopkins University), moderated by Chair Thomas Forrest Kelly), to a music department-only seminar, to a public interview, "Boulez on Boulez," in Paine Hall moderated by Professors Karen Painter (Harvard) and Mary Davis (Case Western Reserve University). At various points Boulez spoke of his influences--teachers such as Olivier Messiaen and Rene Leibowitz, his interest in African, Japanese, Chinese and Tibetan music, his friendships with Ligeti, Stockhausen, Berio and Nono; and his admiration for Frank Zappa. As a composer, Boulez altered the history of music in the fifties, particularly with his major work of "tonal serialism," Le Marteau sans Maître. Boulez, along with his colleague Luciano Berio, became a leader of the European avant garde. As a conductor, he gave contemporary music a new status and worked through many masterpieces of symphony and opera (Wagner, Bruckner, Mahler, Debussy, Stravinsky, Bartok and others). He was chief conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra as well the Cleveland Orchestra, with whom he won a Grammy award for their recording of Debussy's La Mer. He directed the Institut de Recherche et de Coordination Acoustique/Musique (IRCAM), a computer studio in Paris, from the mid-1970s until 1991; his main work there was his Répons for orchestra and digital equipment. back to
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The Department of Music is happy to announce two appointments: Joshua Fineberg is now the John L. Loeb Associate Professor of Music and Richard Wolf is the Harris K. Weston Associate Professor of Music. Elliot Forbes received an honorary Doctor of Music degree at Harvard's 352nd commencement exercises. Forbes, a former chairman of the department and conductor of the Harvard Glee Club, devoted much of his retirement to writing about the history of music at Harvard. Assistant Professor Sean Gallagher and his wife, Aida Vidan announce the birth of a son, Adrian, on February 12, 2003. Robert Levin was featured in the 2002-2003 FleetBoston Celebrity Series in New England Conservatory's Jordan Hall, playing the world premiere of John Harbison's Piano Sonata No. 2, which was commissioned by Levin for the sum of $1 several years ago. Professor Emeritus Lewis Lockwood's book, Beethoven. The Music and the Life, was awarded finalist status for the 2003 Pulitzer Prize. Lockwood began work on the volume in the early 1990s; it was released on the composer's birthday last December. Jameson Marvin celebrated his 25th year at Harvard with an anniversary concert of Beethoven's Missa Solemnis at Sanders Theatre. Two hundred alumnae came to campus to honor Marvin at a series of gatherings. Highlights included a speech by Peter Gomes and a singalong version of Bach's Requiem. Bernard Rands' apokryphos was premiered at Symphony Center by the Chicago Symphony, Daniel Barenboim conducting. apokryphos is a large-scale, 35-minute choral symphony written in memory of Margaret Hillis, founder and longtime director of the Chicago Symphony Chorus, and employs both texts by exiled Jewish poets writing in German and English texts drawn from the Apocrypha. The premiere was uniformly hailed as an important work. back to
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Derek Ashong '97, Ph.D. student in Afro-American Studies and Ethnomusicology, has launched a new way of licensing music called the FAM License, an acronym for "Freedom, Access, Music." The license is an incentive of ASAFO productions, (a talent agency of which Ashong is CEO), and follows the lead of the free software movement by allowing anyone to copy and distribute music with the sole stipulation that artistic credits must accompany all copies. Jeannie Guerrero has accepted a position as professor of music theory at Eastman School of Music, beginning this fall. Zöe Lang received a Center for European Studies fellowship to pursue dissertation research abroad on "'Light' Music and Austrian Identity: The Strauss family legacy 1918-1935." Julia Randel and James Leach announced the birth of Clara Phillips Leach on March 22nd. Richard Whalley was a composer-in-residence this summer at Fondazione William Walton on the grounds of La Mortella, the home of the late Sir William Walton on the Italian island of Ischia in the Bay of Naples. back to
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Caprice Corona A.B. '97 received two Master of Music degrees (in Vocal Performance and Opera Studies) at New England Conservatory. She made her Jordan Hall debut in 2001 as the winner of the Conservatory Concerto Competition (singing six Swedish songs by Sibelius). In the summer of 1999, Caprice was a Vocal Fellow at Tanglewood Music Center, in 2001, an Apprentice Artist at The Santa Fe Opera, and in 2002 she made her mainstage operatic debut at Central City Opera in Colorado, where she shared the role of Helena in Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream with Sylvia McNair. Caprice is a Young Artist at the Steans Institute at Ravinia this summer. She has been the recipient of many awards including finalist status in the 2003 Palm Beach Opera Competition, the 2003 Opera at Florham Guild Competition, and the 2003 Fort Worth Opera Competition, among others. Judah Cohen has been appointed the Dorot Faculty Fellow/Assistant Professorship from the Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies at New York University. His book, Through the Sands of Time: A History of the Jewish Community of St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, is forthcoming from Brandeis University Press. Ed Gollin has accepted a professorial position at Williams College, where he'll teach music theory. Jonathan Holland's Actions Rendered: Interpretation of Pollock for Three Orchestras was premiered by the South Bend Symphony. Holland's work, he explained, "is not so much an emotional response to the paints…I wanted to re-create the painting musically." Holland was in residence in South Bend as part of "Music Alive," a program of Meet the Composer and the American Symphony Orchestra League. Arní Ingolfsson has recently joined the music department of the Iceland Academy of the Arts as a lecturer in musicology. He'll also be giving a public seminar at the University of Iceland on the symphonies of Shostakovich, marking the beginning of the Iceland Symphony Orchestra's complete cycle of Shostakovich's symphonic output. David Lyczkowski (A.B. '99) conducted the Columbia University Collegium Musicum in a collaborative performance with the HRCM of British and American Secular Choral Masterworks, "Reincarnations," in Sanders Theater in April. Kenneth Mansfield (A.B. '54, A.M. '55) retired from Lafayette-Orinda Presby-terian Church (California) at the end of June, 2002, where he served as organist for thirty-five years. He was appointed organist emeritus by the church. He is also professor emeritus at California State University Hayward where he taught in the Music Department for 29 years. National Music Publishers of California will issue a collection of eleven of his organ works this year. Thomas Peattie has taken the position of Assistant Professor at the School of Music in the College of Fine Arts at Boston University, beginning in the fall. Ann Morrison Spinney has accepted a tenure-track professorship in the Music Department at Boston College. Four Harvard composers contributed to a recent Composers in Red Sneakers concert. Kurt Stallmann, Brian Hulse, Lansing McLoskey and Elliott Gyger had pieces on the Aire Lines: old words, new sounds choralfest at St. Paul's Church in Harvard Square. *See 2003 Report to the Friends of Music for a full listing of undergraduate student accomplishments. Will Aronson '04 co-wrote "It's a Wonderful Afterlife", the 2003 Hasty Pudding Theatrical. The show premiered in Cambridge in February, then moved to New York City, then Bermuda, in March.
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