May 1, 1952 - James Newton; April 13, 1906 - Samuel Beckett
Including lots of Beckett as presented à Montréal and I found Jean Derome's soundtrack recording as well for the "Cantate Grise" Beckett anthology.
James Newton - May 1, 1952 Los Angeles
From James Newton’s webpage: jamesnewtonmusic.com
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Newton
Interesting short bio at the wiki which includes a bit of the story of how the Beastie Boys had a hit with a six second sample they used from a Newton recording, but for which he only got $1000 for its frequent usage in one of their songs. The story here nonetheless being that of the lawsuits that were unsuccessful…
At the New Music America festival, we only got one appearance by flautist-composer James Newton, and it was in the presentation of his work The Twelve Tribes, a title which has stymied me in finding out more about it since biblical references kind of skew the search thingys…
James Newton with Richard Greene, Margaret Wooten, Roxanne Jacobson and Gloria Strassner The Twelve Tribes
This was performed during the closing CalArts weekend which is from where this notice comes.
I was able to find a review in the LA Times by John Henken who didn’t seem to be too pleased by the piece (in a concert which also included Joan La Barbara and Carl Stone), though he did give a bit of a description:
On the other hand, long, shapeless pastorales at the beginning and end of The Twelve Tribes--for flute and string quartet--by James Newton, gave it a vapid feeling, despite a peppy central movement and two wide-ranging, jazz-tinged flute cadenzas. The composer presented the demanding flute solos forcefully, and the Misterioso string cast labored diligently.
From his website, a short interview from 2015:
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Samuel Beckett
April 13, 1905 or 6 Foxrock, Dublin, Ireland
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Beckett
We got to see Beckett’s spirit float into New Music America twice.
Charles Dodge presented two works at New Music New York in 1979, and though the program indicates he presented the work featuring the sound of Enrico Caruso called Any Resemblance Is Purely Coincidental, reviewer gave reviews of his interpretation of the Samuel Beckett work Cascando. Here are both:
Beckett version: BBC October 1964
*
Some of the ideas that worked, for me, included… Charles Dodge’s Cascando was a superbly crafted example of computer-derived music. Starting with the recording of an actor reading the Samuel Beckett radio play, Dodge manipulated that sound to produced (sic) a distorted voice that answered and mimicked the text and then altered it more to produce an unrecognizable background noise.
- Charles Ward, Houston Chronicle July 24, 1979
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Charles Dodge set some Beckett text in synthetic voice apparently made from tritones. Some electronic music-type sounds were interjected between the machine-like voice and the man-like voice. The piece might have worked better had it ot been at the end of the program. Its text kept saying it was going to stop (“And I close.”) and then it would continue. After Mr. Lucier’s scale, this dated choice of text did not have a chance, even if it is true that it was a sensitive setting. Since it wasn’t listed on the program, it was impossible to tell if it was possibly an old work – which would tend to lend it a classic air, rather than a dated one.
- Beth Anderson “Report from the Front”
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To this taste, the ‘best’ pieces were by Phill Niblock, Charles Dodge, David Behrman, Rhys Chatham, Frankie Mann and Laurie Anderson. … Mr. Dodge’s setting of Beckett’s radio play Cascando suffered from a too-actorish actor, but the use of computer synthesis to create one of the spoken parts and the ambient music seemed wonderfully suited to Beckett’s sensibility.
- John Rockwell post festival wrap up review, New York Times June 18, 1979
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At the last NMA in Montreal in 1990, Jean Derome and Théâtre Ubu performed an evening’s anthology of Beckett works titled Cantate Grise:
Jean Derome et Théâtre UBU
Cantate Grise de Samuel Beckett
(my translation from the review below by Sophie Galaise)
An associated event to NMA/MMA was held at the Chapelle du Bon Pasteur. Théâtre UBU with original music by Jean Derome presented Cantate Grise. Seven actors bring us into the morbid, peculiar and gray world of Samuel Beckett with an excellent direction by Denis Marleau… the soundtrack featured Jean Derome, Allan Laforest from the Granules ensemble, Shannon Peet (from Sound Pressure), the well known Montreal baroque fiddler Chantal Rémillard and trombonist Alain Trudel whose styles were perfect to integrate among Beckett’s short dramas. To be re-seen!
Jean Derome’s soundtrack which made it to bandcamp:
The works presented:
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- Sophie Galaise, "Les concerts de musique 'sérieuse' et quelques autres", Circuit Vol. 1 no. 2, 1991
♪ And since we have a bit of space and time…
You’ll want music to go along with those…