June 11, 1979 - New Music New York - day 4
Panels (with Palmer, Lewis, Perron, Ashley, Kotik, Rutman, Oliveros; List, Crouch & Saltzman) ● Michael Byron ● Philip Corner ● Malcolm Goldstein ● William Hellermann ● SEM Ensemble ● Charlie Morrow
John Rockwell - Panel with Michael Nyman, Rhys Chatham, Chris Stein and Brian Eno Rock and Experimental Music
Robert Palmer - Panel with George Lewis, Wendy Perron, Robert Ashley, Petr Kotik, Robert Rutman, Pauline Oliveros The Risks of Improvisation
Philip Corner Gamelan: Italy Revisited III (regolato)
Malcolm Goldstein Soundings
William Hellermann Squeak
Petr Kotik and the S.E.M. Ensemble Many Many Women
Charlie Morrow Gesture Song, Two Kinds of Whistling, Dream Song
Joel Forrester Inauthentic Piano Music
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June 11, 1979 - New Music New York - day 4
Music Critics Association Morning Session
Robert Palmer with George Lewis, Wendy Perron, Robert Ashley, Petr Kotik, Robert Rutman and Pauline Oliveros “The Risks of Improvisation”
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Palmer’s panel on ‘Improvisation in Experimental Music’ brought Ashley, Lewis and Ms. Perron together for an interesting session. Ms. Perron found improvisation and composition to be essentially the same beast, except that improvisation “does not have the same time for reflection.” Ashley saw improvisation as a matter of ‘preparedness,’ adding that he found it ‘hard to tell’ when composition turns to improvisation.
- Keith Roether, Alburquerque Tribune, “Criticism is Wishful Narcissism” June 27, 1979
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- Beth Anderson “Report from the Front”, Guerrilla criticism of ‘New Music New York’ (26 pages), June 1979
And about that afternoon session:
Robert Palmer with Garrett List, Stanley Crouch, Eric Saltzman
“Jazz and Experimental Music”
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Palmer’s talk on ‘Jazz and Experimental Music’ was nicely supplemented by musical examples. The ensuing discussion was spiced by critic-playwright Stanley Crouch’s impromptu (and somewhat surprising) discussion of cultural nationalism in the arts.
- Keith Roether, Alburquerque Tribune, June 27, 1979
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Michael Byron with Malcolm Goldstein and Barbara Benary, violins
Duet from 159 Pieces for String Instruments
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Next, Malcolm Goldstein and Barbara Benary played Michael Byron’s DUET for violins. Mr. Goldstein approached the violin slowly, with determination, attacked it suddenly resulting in sound and recovered from the sound in slow motion. This activity repeated itself and Ms. Benary played a drone in contrast to it. Benary speeded up her bow strokes and Goldstein used longer and longer bowing with les and less recovery time until they stopped. It was a beautiful process primarily because of the sound of the bowed strings and their lush, human quality.
- Beth Anderson “Report from the Front”
Same report, comment by Merle “Tin Ear” Steir:
Michael Byron’s Duet was new and perfectly bowed in the half light.
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Philip Corner Gamelan: Italy Revisited III (regolato)
Gamelan Son of Lion recording:
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Philip Corner presented one of this many recent works for gamelan. This one, Gamelan: Italy Revisited III, is for four players, and it involves a repeated two-note phrase in which one note gradually becomes longer while the other gradually becomes shorter. Eventually they merge into simultaneity. The work goes on to treat a three-note and a four-note phrase in a similar way. The music is the height of simplicity, yet it is difficult to perform and challenging to follow in detail, and it attains a profound meditative calm.
- Tom Johnson, Village Voice July 2, 1979
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Philip Corner’s music was presented without the composer and was very mysterious in that the musicians chose to play in another room. The photographers had nothing to photograph so they went to look for the players. In the hall we saw the reflected flashes which contributed to the magic by resembling indoor lightning. It was a minimal gamelan piece.
- Beth Anderson “Report from the Front”
Same report, comment by Merle “Tin Ear” Steir:
The low; the furthest from the new stage, the black draped windows, was the ‘clammore’ in the far Corner.
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Malcolm Goldstein Soundings
1975 recording:
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Mr. Goldstein returned to perform his own violin solo – apparently an improvisation of sensitivity and concentrated personal listening. According to his notes, the reverberations in his skull become his music. To me it resembled the imagined sound of an ant climbing up (or down) a rain-pipe. Put another way (more flattering – and therefore better since its always good to see the brighter side): “He listens and he has a flair for timbre. It sounded like one long line with timbral variations.
- Beth Anderson “Report from the Front”
Same report, Merle “Tin Ear” Steir:
Malcolm Goldstein recalled some ear ache of youth and made it go away.
Same report, “Review of Malcolm Goldstein” by Eric Saltzman:
“The Paganini of Fiddle-Faddle (Paganini in the Fun House Mirror)”
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Malcolm Goldstein’s latest release from 2022; one of the free tracks to sample is his talking with the audience who has very appreciatively come to see him.
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William Hellermann Squeek
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Some things were amusing or intriguing… William Hellermann played Squeek for “virtuoso swivel-desk chair – a rock piece” during which he sat, in full tails of concert dress, in this chair and squeaked away artistically.
- Charles Ward, Houston Chronicle July 24, 1979
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Bill Hellermann did what he called a virtuoso swivel-desk chair rock piece. It looked very entertainingly fluxus, sounded like variations on a theme called ‘sqeak’, and seemed to have something to say about the connection between rock and experimental musics. The obvious question is, will his next step be phase rocking? Will this concept grow into an orchestral-size work? Will the NYSCA go into the furniture business? A very famous but unnamed critic said: “I object. He has that chair tuned to a morning raga and it’s time for an evening raga!
- Beth Anderson “Report from the Front”
From the same report, comment by Merle “Tin Ear” Steir:
Someone squeaked a rosened chair and it formed a duet with those MANY MANY WOMEN who left us, needing oxygen and a beer in the Ear. And a round for the dead heads thumping in the streets and the rollers overhead.
From the same report, short, snort and snappy interview with Joseph D. McLellan of the ‘Washington Post’ by editor:
Q: [What about] Hellermann’s [piece}?
A: He didn’t explore the possibilities of the chair as a percussion instrument, or did he exploit the possibility of sustaining a note by swiveling. Minimal implies the lack of a thorough investigation of the possibilities.
Petr Kotik & the SEM Ensemble Many Many Women
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… Still, religious instincts make themselves felt in all human societies, and they have had much to do with the evolution of experimental music. Composers, perhaps more often than their contemporaries in any of the other arts, have been quite aware of spiritual values. Pauline Oliveros is a case in point.
… As the week progressed, I began to hear other works in religious terms. … The random structures in the excerpt from Petr Kotik’s Many Many Women and the rational permutations of Jon Gibson’s work also seemed connected with higher forces.
- Tom Johnson, Village Voice July 3, 1979
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Many Many Women is in the Cageian tradition of music that takes shape in composition and performance to some extent free from the obsessive control of its composer’s personal taste. It’s unusual, though, among works of this kind because it has the linear, contrapuntal texture of much Western classical music. And it even creates an illusion of traditional Western harmony, both consonant and dissonant: the familiar texture leads a listener to expect familiar harmonic sounds and these actually occur, but of course at random, unsettlingly (though refreshingly) unstructured by any actual harmonic direction.
The sound of Many Many Women has been compared to the fourteenth century composer Guillaume de Machaut (it’s most like Machaut’s Note Dame Mass) and to Stravinsky (perhaps it’s closest to his Mass and to Cantinum Sacrum); the comparison is apt but the combination of Machaut, Stravinsky, and Cage is surely unprecedented.
Many Many Women isn’t music you listen to so much as music you live with. It’s not necessary to hear these five records straight though, but it’s well worthwhile to spend a lot of time with them; you may find intriguing and arresting music anywhere, or everywhere.
- Gregory Sandow from the liner notes to the 1981 release of the full work by the S.E.M. Ensemble:
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- Beth Anderson “Report from the Front”
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Charlie Morrow
“Gesture Song” “Dream Song / Vision Chant”
“Two Kinds of Whistling”
2016 Sibelius Academy demonstration:
Finally, several pieces pointed up the fact that community of like-minded, tolerant musicians can sometimes allow the sloppiest of ideas to pass for art. … Finally, Charlie Morrow’s Dream Song/Vision Chant was the ultimate in self-oriented music. We watched while he banged a small gong held upright and chanted with his eyes closed. He then informed us of his vision as the psychoanalytical couch was transferred to the concert space.
- Charles Ward, Houston Chronicle July 24, 1979
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… Still, religious instincts make themselves felt in all human societies, and they have had much to do with the evolution of experimental music. Composers, perhaps more often than their contemporaries in any of the other arts, have been quite aware of spiritual values. Pauline Oliveros is a case in point.
… As the week progressed, I began to hear other works in religious terms. … And Charlie Morrow’s contribution, in which he chanted for a few minutes and then told us what visions he had during his chant, was an overt case of trusting powers outside human control.
- Tom Johnson, Village Voice July 2, 1979
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And onward to the concert – where Charlie Morrow with ocarina orchestra performed a moving sound piece with a woodsy quality which was due to the cooing timbre of the multitudinous ocarinas. Mr. Morrow vocalized a kind of chakra harmonization, touching his forehead, lips and heart. Then he performed trance singing and told us his dream. Then there were two kinds of whistling and more ocarinas. It was lovely and gentle. Comments from the audience included: Nice. It’s like old days. (and) He’s sincere.
- Beth Anderson “Report from the Front”
(same report, author: Merle “Tin Ear” Steir)
Head off; Charlie Morrow was #1. Hearing the clapping after Charlie’s final humane silence was jarring. The audience was still unsettled. Maybe Charlie should have ended the evening.
From the same report, short, snort and snappy interview with Joseph D. McLellan of the ‘Washington Post’ by editor:
Q: What about Charlie Morrow’s [piece]?
A: Charlie Morrow is a sweet person.
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Screen shots of the original New Music New York 1979 program were from a downloadable photocopied pdf available from the site of the late Michael Galbreth. Direct link to the downloadable program here:
https://www.michaelgalbreth.com/_files/ugd/b4072f_e5d11c9f076542479f8a38108565980a.pdf