New Music Plays a Prominent Role at Chamber Music America National Conference

the AMC Listening Room Photo by Kingmond Young

The 23rd Annual Chamber Music America National Conference was held from January 12 to 14, 2001 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in midtown Manhattan. The Conference featured two prominent events devoted entirely to new music: the ASCAP Adventurous Programming Awards and the Chamber Music America Commissioning Showcase. Conference participants also had the option of attending multiple sessions on topics related to new classical and jazz music, and the American Music Center hosted a listening room featuring the music of almost four hundred living composers.

Paul Cox, George Steel, Nkeiru Okoye, Kyle Gann Photo by Kingmond Young

Sunday morning featured a general session on “New Music in America,” moderated by Paul Cox, Assistant Curator Of Music at the Cleveland Museum Of Art. The session examined how the impact of vernacular forms on new art music is shaping contemporary composition. The panelists were Kyle Gann, New Music Critic, Village Voice; Nkeiru Okoye, Composer, Norfolk State University; and George Steel, Executive Director of Columbia University's Miller Theatre.

Offering the “critical perspective,” according to Cox, Kyle Gann spoke about the downtown music scene and its connection to vernacular forms. He elaborated on the subject of downtown notation, and how it is more closely related to that of vernacular music than it is to “academic music,” with fewer expressive and dynamic marks, and more room left for improvisation. Gann also played excerpts of pieces by Morton Feldman, Mikel Rouse, Michael Gordon, Beth Anderson, Janice Giteck and Nick Didkovsky that demonstrated the blending of vernacular and art music influences.

Nkeiru Okoye offered “the composer’s point of view.” Cox felt that Okoye gave those present “an honest look at what it’s like to be an African-American woman composer living today.” In her music, Cox explained, Okoye uses vernacular music “in order to draw in an under-represented audience. She wants them to come to the concert hall, where they don’t feel comfortable, and hear music that contains elements that they can relate to.” Okoye presented a new work that was subsequently premiered in Norfolk, Virginia, that uses portions of Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, gospel melodies, and “electronic cacophony,” Cox stated.

George Steel and Cox himself provided “the presenter’s point of view.” Steel spoke at some length about the history of American music and the “nearly constant” use of vernacular music, pointing to examples by such well-known figures as Ives and Gottschalk. Cox took up the question of “why we have categories like rock, jazz, and art music in the first place.” He also remarked on changes in audience expectations and in presenters’ duties.

“The more I listen and read, the more I have come to believe that the boundaries between art music and vernacular forms is and has been porous, with each impacting the other,” Cox elaborated. “Rockers have freely participated in the art music dialogue. Once while out dancing, I heard samples of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring, a long, sample mixed in by the DJ, which surprised me at first. Here was Stravinsky in this surprising environment...but more and more, we hear what we consider art music popping up in popular music contexts. On the other end, composers like Gunther Schuller, the Bang On A Can crowd, and Michael Daugherty combine elements of popular music and pop culture into their works. So it's a two-way street.”

The theatrical elements of rock and pop concerts have been transferred into the halls of art music,” Cox went on. “Laurie Anderson and Meredith Monk create environments that are theatrical like rock concerts, but have the intimacy of a jazz club. The new music group eighth blackbird has changed the more traditional concert-going experience by subtly planning how they walk on stage, how they move instruments, and how, in an unpretentious theatrical mode, they address the audience between works. This theatrical approach mesmerizes the audience and the leave the hall feeling as if they've been on a journey or just watched a play.”

Cox believes that this open-minded approach to the blending of musical genres is affecting presenters every bit as much as it is affecting composers, performers, and audiences. “I've spoken to many 30-40 year olds who only attend concerts where they know they'll hear a new work,” Cox stated. “They grew up in a diverse musical world. Maybe they didn't own any Beethoven symphonies, but they bought one Beatles album after another, a Zappa album, one by Pink Floyd, one by Varèse, one by the Sex Pistols, and maybe they threw in some Mozart for good measure or some Jethro Tull or Miles Davis.” Specific challenges for presenters include increased technical requirements (“we have to negotiate 10-page audio, video, and lighting riders that frankly, I need a translator to understand”). Also, Cox pointed out, groups are seeking out new presenters altogether: some groups, such as the Intergalactic Contemporary Ensemble and the Meridian Arts Ensemble, play in clubs as well as more traditional halls and museums.

The blurring of old dividing lines between genres was evident throughout the conference. “Jazz was a natural part of the conversation even when it wasn’t a jazz session,” commented Lisa Stewart, CMA’s Director of Jazz Programs. “We tried not to focus so much on jazz-only sessions, but rather to include jazz panelists, to integrate their perspectives.”

Jazz influence was evident in two of the three new works, recently commissioned through CMA's grant programs, which were featured at the 2001 Commissioning Showcase. The PRISM Quartet performed Out of the Blue, a new blues-influenced saxophone quartet by Frank Ticheli, and jazz pianist Andrew Hill's Point of Departure Sextet performed his new work Bellezza Appasita. In addition, The Western Wind Vocal Ensemble performed Michel Camilo’s Manaña, based on a text by Federico García Lorca.

Frank Ticheli Photo courtesy of the composer

Ticheli, who was born in New Orleans, considers jazz and blues music to be his first musical influence. “My father would take me down to Bourbon Street. I heard Pete Fountain, and, at 9 years old, Louis Armstrong was my biggest hero. It’s very much a part of my DNA, this gumbo of musics that exists in New Orleans

He describes Out of the Blue as “a celebration of rhythm, especially syncopated rhythm. Almost every bar in the piece contains one form of syncopation or another.” It is the third piece in a jazz-influenced trilogy. The two previous works were Playing with Fire, written in 1992 for the Jim Cullem Jazz Band and the San Antonio Symphony, and Blue Shades, commissioned in 1996 by a consortium of 30 wind ensembles, and later turned into an orchestral piece. Out of the Blue was completed in 1999. “In between these works are lots and lots of other pieces,” Ticheli added. “I consider myself primarily a concert-hall, classical composer, but I love writing pieces influenced by American jazz and blues.”

The connection with the PRISM quartet was formed at a Philadelphia Orchestra performance of his piece Radiant Voices back in 1995. Tenor saxophonist Matt Leesy attended the concert, and immediately asked Ticheli if he would be interested in writing a piece for PRISM. A few years later, they applied to CMA for a commission.

Ticheli has one other work for saxophone quartet, a piece from 1988 called Back Burner that PRISM has also performed. He describes the ensemble has having “an incredible coloristic range” and “a surprisingly large pitch range. They also have a huge dynamic spectrum.” Most of Ticheli’s commissions in the past 10 years have come from orchestras and wind ensembles, “so the challenge to write for just four players was substantial.” The composer explained: “when you write for orchestra, you finish a phrase in one family of instruments, and then you can move onto another combination. Here you can’t do that - you’re a little bit more naked. An orchestra can be very forgiving to a careless or mediocre composer. With a sax quartet or a string quartet, you have to write real music from start to finish.”

PRISM has plans to record Out of the Blue in the near future.

There were also two general sessions and a breakfast roundtable were devoted exclusively to jazz topics. Friday afternoon featured “Fundamentals of Booking Jazz.” The session was presented by Mike Ross, Director of the Krannert Center, and pianist/composer Marcus Roberts. “A huge piece of the session was dedicated to the importance of considering the potential for developing strong jazz audiences through ongoing jazz 'education' offerings, informational enhancements to the actual main stage performances,” Ross explained. “These can take the traditional form of pre-concert talks, but can also be developed into separate sessions introducing the history of jazz, the musical characteristics of different style periods.” Roberts shared some of his views on jazz as an art form and demonstrated some of his approach to education at the piano.

Willard Jenkins, founder of Open Sky, a jazz consulting agency and service business, led a breakfast roundtable on Saturday morning, January 13. “It was a good conversation that covered a variety of related subjects, including presenting and performing issues,” Jenkins stated. “Considering the timing – Saturday morning after a Friday night in New York – I thought the conversation flowed well and I particularly appreciated the input from the musicians.” Among those present were Toyin Spellman of the Imani Winds ensemble, which is interested in expanding its repertoire to encompass works by jazz composers, flugelhornist Dmitri Matheny and pianist Darrell Grant, who perform as a duo and offered “helpful information and tips” to the presenters at the table, according to Jenkins. Two presenters attended, one from California and one from South Dakota. Both presenters wanted to know about “the various peculiarities related to presenting jazz,” Jenkins explained. The presenter from California runs a series in conjunction with a ski resort, and the presenter from South Dakota is working to incorporate jazz into symphony programming.

Later on Saturday morning, scholars gathered to discuss the musical influences that contributed to the development of jazz in the session “Musical Gumbo.” The panel was moderated by Bob Martin, Dean of Graduate Studies at Bard College. “There was a fantastic overall feeling at the session,” Martin commented. “It was well-attended by a broad spectrum of people.” Music historians Elliott Hurwitt and Peter Muir talked about the precursors and early forms of jazz: minstrelsy, ragtime, and cakewalk. As part of his presentation, Dr. Muir described the difference between classical music and jazz using the work of Henry Pleasants. Both Hurwitt and Muir played illustrative musical examples. Wayne Shirley, Senior Music Specialist at the Library of Congress, and Vincent Pelote of the Institute of Jazz Studies at Rutgers offered “spur of the moment” responses.

The last night of the conference, ASCAP and CMA joined hands for the fourteenth time to honor twelve chamber music ensembles and presenters for their adventurous programming. ASCAP's Vice President of Concert Music, Frances Richard, presented the awards with assistance from ASCAP composer, Peter Schickele. The awards are made in recognition of performances of the music of our time with specific emphasis on works written since 1975.

The ASCAP Adventurous Programming Awards were conceived to encourage ensembles and presenters to program new works as a salute to Chamber Music America's leadership in the field. A panel of experts selected by CMA chooses the winners from applicants who are current members. Recipients for the 2000 Season received plaques and cash awards. For a complete list of award winners, click here.

Joan Tower Photo by Kingmond Young

Great optimism over the future of new music reigned at the conference, but an anecdote from the senior American composer Joan Tower served as a sobering reminder of one of the problems that many ensembles face on a day-to-day basis. Tower participated in a Saturday plenary session led by Murray Horwitz that focused on how social forces have impacted chamber music professionals from diverse backgrounds.

“Early in my career,” Tower related, ”when I was having one of my orchestra pieces played,” I was asked to give a pre-concert lecture to an audience of about 1500. At one point I asked them to honestly tell me how many of them expected to dislike my piece. About 98% of the hands went up! I then asked them how many of them thought that that was unfair to me. The same hands went up!”

“I had made a point with two simple questions,” Tower concluded. “The audience was quite indisposed towards something they didn't know about ahead of time. This seems to be a pervasive American P.R. syndrome: how could my piece be any good if they hadn't heard of me?”