MUSIC FOR THE PIANO

SESSION EIGHT: IS THE PIANO HISTORY? 1950-2000

The above illustration for our eighth and final session shows the Yamaha CP-1 digital piano. This is a high-end digital model features fully-weighted keys that approximate the feel of a traditional piano. It is used by rock bands and studio musicians worldwide. Price: $6,000.

IS THE PIANO HISTORY? The subject of piano music in the second half of the twentieth century is a somewhat puzzling one. During this period, the piano remained the single most important and most useful instrument. Experiments in aleatory (chance) music did not result in the piano’s being displaced. Experiments in electronic music, and the widespread use of new, digital pianos, did not result in the piano’s being replaced as the instrument of choice of most composers. Solo piano music, chamber music with piano, and piano concertos continued to be written, although the number of

all these declined. The piano also remained an instrument of choice for accompanying other instrumentalists, singers, and choirs – although no longer the only choice. And yet, many of the most significant composers of the past half-century did not write much music for the piano, and the list of most significant compositions of this period does not include many for the piano, or with the piano as a significant instrument. Here are some of the questions we will explore today:

§ How did the composition of piano music change during this period?

§ What roles does the piano play today?

§ What kinds of piano music were created between 1950 and 2000?

§ What does it sound like?

*PREVIEW: CRUMB, EINE KLEINE MITTLENACHTMUSIK, 2002 The American composer George Crumb is an experimental composer, but his work is gentler and relatively easy to listen to. The title of this piece is a double pun. It uses the title of one of Mozart’s most famous compositions, a serenade for orchestra called “Eine Kleine Nachtsmusik” (A Little Night Music); but changes one word of the title to “Mittelnachtsmusik” (Midnight Music) in honor of another

famous piece, Thelonius Monk’s “Round Midnight,” the most recorded jazz standard in history. What’s the connection between these pieces? Listen to Monk playing the piano version of his own piece. George Crumb is one of several composers who were commissioned to create pieces based on ‘Round Midnight. His piece does not use Monk’s music note for note, but creates a gentle, evocative impression of the night based on Monk’s melody, using a conventional piano amplified and played in a variety of new ways. COMPOSERS 1950-2000 Today’s session focuses on the following composers. It is noteworthy that three of the five composers are American - a complete reversal from earlier historical periods and a reflection of the cultural domination of American music in this time period.

• Thomas Adès, the leading English composer of the late 20th century, whose original and inventive musical style combines traditional and prepared piano sounds with complex rhythms.

• George Crumb, an experimental American composer whose music is often witty and even playful in effect. He writes music in a variety of genres, for various combinations of traditional and new instruments. In

1971 he became famous for a piece called best-known piece is “Song of the Whale,” for three performers wearing black masks and playing on a darkened stage under blue lights. The instruments are grand piano, cello, flute, and a variety of percussion instruments including paper clips, a glass rod, a whistle, and antique cymbals.

• Philip Glass, a leading minimalist composer whose music is based on the repetition of short, simple patterns of notes. Glass is a popular and prolific composer in all genres, including piano.

• Steve Reich, America’s most influential composer of

the past 40 years, whose “minimalist” style of repetitive patterns, show harmonic change have been copied by jazz, pop, folk and classical musicians around the world.

• Krzysztof Penderecki, the leading Polish composer of the late 20th century, and a prolific composer in all genres, including four operas, eight symphonies, and many choral works and concertos. His early music was in the postwar mainstream of dissonance and complexity, but from the 1970s he began writing in a more consonant style. His 1971 work, “Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima,” became popular throughout the world.

THE SOFTENING OF STYLES Beginning around 1970, a new trend arose in opposition to early 20th century styles in all the arts. Let’s look at an example in domestic architecture, where it is easy to observe. *LE CORBUSIER, WEISSENHOF HOUSE, 1927

In one way or another, all the arts experienced some form of change away from the rigid styles of the early-to-mid 20th century. In the early 20th century, the arts focused on eliminating all 19th century

ornamentation and complexity to discover a new, “pure,” simpler, unadorned style based on a single volume and uniformity of window shapes. A great example is the famous Weissenhof House, of 1927, by the French architect, Le Corbusier. *RICHARD MEIER, SALZMAN HOUSE, 1969

Once the new style had been achieved, succeeding generations softened the style and made it more complex by adding curves, elevations, and members of different sizes and shapes. A good example, again in architecture, is American architect Richard Meier’s 1969 Salzman House. ARCHITECURAL STYLE We can summarize these changes this way:

Early 20th Century Style “Pure and Simple”

Late 20th Century Style “Complex and Varied”

• No ornamentation • Single volumes • Uniform sizes and

shapes

• Some ornamentation • Multiple volumes • Variety of sizes and

shapes MUSICAL STYLE Around 1970 composers around the world began to push back against the fragmented, dissonant style that characterized much music written in the previous generation. There were two major reasons for this:

• The dense, fragmentary style of much early and mid-20th century music seemed incomprehensible to many listeners, and audiences began to avoid it

• This musical style also seemed pompous and self-important, even to highly trained musicians who could understand it technically and intellectually, and they began searching for alternative styles that might be more expressive of their own lives and feelings.

The Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki commented on why he changed the style of his own music in these words:

The avant-garde gave one an illusion of universalism. The musical world of Stockhausen, Nono, Boulez and Cage was for us, the young, hemmed in by the aesthetics of

socialist realism. I was quick to realize however, that this novelty, this experimentation was more destructive than constructive; I was saved from the avant-garde snare of formalism by a return to tradition.

EXAMPLES And that’s not all:

• In 1977 a group of New York musicians began presenting informal chamber music concerts on an abandoned coffee barge moored just under the Brooklyn Bridge, rather than at establish venues such as Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center. Today Bargemusic is a thriving nonprofit that attracts many of New York’s most prominent established classical musicians for solo and chamber music concerts.

• In 1981 a group of young composers in the Boston area organized into a group called “Composers in Red Sneakers.” The name was chosen to distinguish the group as serious musicians who did not take themselves too seriously. It has grown and thrived, and several of its original members have become major classical composers.

• Since 1992 the group called “Bang on a Can All-

Stars” has presented well-attended concerts of new music and commissioned many new works

by composers who wish to distinguish their work from what they consider an over-intellectual, over-serious musical mainstream. The core group of musicians includes a cello, string bass, piano, percussion, guitar, and clarinet, to which they add additional instruments as needed.

• In the spring 2016 issue of “Music at Yale,” my

alma mater’s alumni magazine, the lead article is on musical collaborations of groups of young Yale-trained musicians. The featured groups include “The New Morse Code,” a cello and percussion duo; “Cantata Profana,” a collective of chamber vocalists and instrumentalists; “Roomful of Teeth,” a virtuoso octet of classically-trained singers; “Sleeping Giant,” a collective of contemporary composers; and “Invisible Anatomy,” a collective of musicians, dancers, actors, and multi-media audio-visual artists.

The same progression took place in classical music: first, a shedding of the highly complex music of composers like Brahms and Mahler in favor of a more direct, less pretentious, often jazz-influenced style in the 1920s. In the mid 20th century, a new complex intellectually style took over, but beginning in the 1970s, a softer musical style became widely popular. Let’s listen to some examples.

PIANO SOLO MUSIC, 1950-2000

*PHILIP GLASS, MAD RUSH, 1979 The push-back against the prevailing modern style of music took many different forms. In the United States a new style called “minimalism” arose that was less dissonant, more familiar sounding. Minimalist music is based on the repetition of short, simple-sounding patterns. It is easier to perform, and far easier to listen too. It has become very popular among composers and audiences around the world. Here is a fine example of a minimalist piano piece, played by American composer Philip Glass. *THOMAS ADÉS: STILL SORROWING, 1992 Thomas Adès is the leading English composer of the late 20th century. His piano works combine traditional and prepared piano sounds, and digital piano sounds with interesting rhythms and original-sounding chords. Here is a prime example, played by the brilliant young Italian pianist, Filippo Gorini.

CHAMBER MUSIC WITH PIANO, 1950-2000 *STEVE REICH, SEXTET, 1985 Another leading minimalist composer is the prolific American Steve Reich. His 1985 Sextet uses six players playing nine keyboard instruments, including two traditional pianos, two digital pianos, marimbas and xylophones, plus a cluster of traditional percussion instruments.

CONCERTANTE MUSIC WITH PIANO *KRZYSZTOF PENDERECKI, PIANO CONCERTO, 2001 Penderecki started life as an avant-garde composer of highly complex, dissonant music. In the 1970s he began to feel the limitations of this style and developed a somewhat simpler, less dissonant style. His piano concerto of 2001 is a wonderful example, played here by the distinguished Lithuanian pianist, Mūza Rubackytė.