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American Music Review Formerly the Institute for Studies in American Music Newsletter H. Wiley Hitchcock for Studies in American Music |
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Inside
This Issue: Inside This Issue “Her
Whimsy and Originality Really Amount to Genius”: New Biographical Research on Marketing Musard: Bernard Ullman at the Academy of Music by Bethany Goldberg Remembering Jim Maher by Joshua Berrett |
Interview
with
Photo courtesy of the Brooklyn College Office of Communications In Fall 2007, JE: Your mother was a
pianist who briefly studied with Anton Webern. Were you aware of post-tonal
music when growing up and when did you first become involved in performing
it? UO: I was aware of Bartók,
Schoenberg and Berg. When my mother came to the JE: As one of the
earliest advocates of post-war American music, what challenges did you face
when first learning the demanding music for which you’ve become known? UO: There were many
different things. One is that I spent summers in JE: What about the practical aspects of bringing a piece of new music to life? UO: One of the first works I learned under a lot of pressure was Carter’s Sonata for Flute, Oboe, Cello and Harpsichord. But that, as we look at it now, is still relatively conservative. I haven’t gotten into the most complicated rhythms, as in the music of Brian Ferneyhough. But for me it’s not so bad, because it’s basically second-grade math: you find the common denominator and you have lots of patience. A piece that I had great difficulty with was Conlon Nancarrow’s first canon, which is five against seven. The common denominator of thirty-five is long! Again, it’s more a question of patience than a question of difficulty. JE: In preparing a
piece like the Nancarrow, do you create a common-denominator rhythmic grid
that you then use as a basis for counting the written rhythms? UO: In the Nancarrow, each measure is supposed to be less than a second long. But I played it so slowly that I learned it by counting up to thirty-five. Another thing I remember was how long it took to learn Boulez’s Sonatine for Flute and Piano with Paul Dunkel—again, it was a matter of patience. We had to count every sixteenth note. Now, I think when young people find contemporary music difficult it might be because they are not expecting it to take so long to learn. And we did take a long time to learn things. JE: You
are also one of the co-founders of Speculum Musicae, one of the first
contemporary music ensembles in the UO:
The Group for Contemporary Music existed before Speculum Musicae and so did the
Juilliard Ensemble, which was run by Luciano Berio and Dennis Davies; the
Group was run by Charles Wuorinen and Harvey Sollberger. Some of the members
of Speculum were members of one or both. Basically, we would have talks late
into the night about having our own group. One day it was Charles Wuorinen
who said, “Why don’t you form your own group?” And he, as a
somewhat older person, gave us the confidence to do it. It was also a
different time economically, so in terms of a time/work ratio, one could pay
one’s rent more easily. So how did Speculum influence the music? Well,
I think it was because people knew that we were really willing to work hard.
It always goes back to that. We wanted to do it, we wanted to be really good,
we were very good friends but kind of crazy. In fact, someone once referred
to us as the fifteen most neurotic musicians in JE: That being said,
do you think that pedagogy of music has changed radically and has impacted
the way that you teach? UO: Many instrumental teachers are still not interested in music of our time. For instance, there are situations where you could offer something complicated for an audition and no one would want to hear it. So that hasn’t changed quite as much as it might. But I personally feel that it is very important as a performer to play all music, all music of the past, because after all every composer draws on it, and is educated in it, and how could you play the music of our time without playing the music that a contemporary composer has known and loved? So, I would not be too supportive of someone being too specialized when they’re young. I think you need as broad a knowledge—both listening and playing—as possible. JE: While establishing
your career as a soloist, you became well known for combining traditional and
contemporary works on recitals. How do you compose these mixed programs? UO: Most audiences want to
hear something familiar, that they might have heard before, and something
they haven’t heard before. It’s important to have to work at
listening because it sharpens your attention span for a piece you have
heard before. There are other elements one can vary, or not vary, like the
length of pieces or the forms of pieces. So, I think a program should have
variety but it can also have no variety in some other ways. You could do a
program of works inspired by dance or your could a program of sonatas, but a
sonata can be anything from a John Cage Sonata and Interlude to a Brahms F
minor. JE: The living
composer whom you are perhaps best known for championing is Elliott Carter.
Since Carter conceives of his music in such literary terms, I’m
wondering if your college studies in English literature had anything to do
with your attraction to Carter’s music. UO: I find that his pieces are so full of character, and different characters. I especially enjoy playing them because in order to play Carter's pieces, one has to be able to play many different kinds of music. So, it is wonderful to be as expressive as possible on your instrument, which is something Carter makes you do. JE: It sounds as if part of
the appeal is that you get to inhabit the lives of many different characters
throughout the course of the work. UO: Yes, exactly! JE: Are there any
specific approaches you take to learning Carter’s works? UO: I have been incredibly fortunate to play Carter’s music and work with him for more than forty years. And, just as with Nancarrow, if there are two tempi going on at once, it is important to find the common denominator and practice very slowly. If there is a steady pattern that goes against the written time signature, I also practice with a metronome in that pattern. For example, in the first Diversion I set the metronome to forty beats per minute, the speed of the ostinato. What I learned from Carter is to pay a great deal of attention to every expressive mark and every articulation, and somehow, the more I do this, the more I understand the piece. I believe that his music explores an unbounded range of emotion and expression. This has helped me infinitely in music of earlier composers. However, Brahms can begin a slur on an upbeat, and with Carter they almost always begin on a downbeat—in character, not necessarily notation. JE: You recently
recorded a CD of piano music by Tobias Picker. How did you become acquainted
with his work? UO: I first met Tobias in 1974, when he was living at Charles Wuorinen’s house. Frederic Rzewski and I were about to perform the Schoenberg Kammersinfonie Opus 38b on a concert of the Group for Contemporary Music, and Tobias turned pages for me. Looking back at that moment is truly amazing. As you can tell, we were all much younger then. Tobias and I instantly became friends—almost relatives—and I realized right away what an incredibly talented composer he was, and is. And we have been friends ever since. So our relationship is musical and personal. He has written three solo piano works for me: When Soft Voices Die, Old and Lost Rivers, and Four Etudes for Ursula, and a two-piano piece for us, Pianorama. There was also a sextet for Speculum Musicae when I was part of that group. And just today he showed me a harpsichord part in a new ballet that he is writing. JE: As someone who has
long been at the vanguard of contemporary music, can you offer any predictions
for where it might be headed? UO: I think we’ve been for quite a while in a period where there’s a multiplicity of styles going on all at once and I see no reason why this isn’t going to continue. I think it’s freed up a lot of people and audiences. I also think audiences that listen to one contemporary piece that they might not like know better now than they used to that something else might be absolutely terrific to them. So, I think it’s very exciting that we’re in a period like this. Editor’s note: 2008
saw the issue of two new CDs by Oppens, one of music by Carter (Oppens
Plays Carter, Cedille CDR 90000 048) and the other featuring works by
Picker (Keys to the City: Works for Piano, Wergo WER 6695 2),
including the Four Etudes for Ursula and a two-piano version of
Picker’s The Keys to the City, written in honor of the centenary
of the Brooklyn Bridge. ~ ~ ~ ISAM home Who we
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