René Leibowitz on PSNY

by Ted Gordon on Feb. 26, 2013, 1:54 p.m.

René Leibowitz: world-renowned orchestral conductor; tireless advocate of the music of Schoenberg and Webern; surprisingly influential teacher of Pierre Boulez, Hans Werner Henze and Vinko Globokar; author of one of the first scholarly books on Schoenberg (coining the term 'Serialism' to describe his music); and finally: composer of some of the most interesting and under-performed serial-derived works of the mid-twentieth century. 

Born in Poland in 1913, Leibowitz and his family moved to Paris in 1926. He had all the makings for a child violin prodigy, though eventually his father put an end to that career path. But at age 17, Leibowitz found himself in Berlin, studying with Schoenberg and Webern-- a formative time in his life, for he would become Schoenberg's fiercest advocate in France, where he returned in 1933. Steeped in the European tradition, but fervently advocating for a modern break with tonality, Leibowitz occupied an interesting position: he started an international conducting career in 1937, only to have it cut short by the war. During those years, he was active in the French resistance, and wrote Schoenberg and his School, which was immediately translated into English, garnering a New York Times review by none other than Aaron Copland. 

Schoenberg and his School is a remarkable text, relentlessly pursuing the Adornian ideal of dialectical composition: music that bore the weight of the European tradition on its shoulders, but managed to cast off the shackles of tonality and embrace the utopian dream of pure, motivic, idealised Modern music. It is fitting that Leibowitz spent so much time conducting the Western canon. In championing Schoenberg's way forward through history, Leibowitz embraced the Canon wholeheartedly, uniting his political aspirations with his historical aesthetics. In a public editorial spat over Stravinsky (Serialism's favorite whipping-boy) on the pages of Esprit, a radical anti-totalitarian journal, Leibowitz used not Schoenberg as the idealized composer on the right side of history, but Beethoven. Positioning Schoenberg (and himself) on the side of the Western canon allowed Leibowitz to embrace his conducting career while simultaneously composing unabashedly forward-thinking Modern music.

Though his conducting career has been extensively documented, his career as a composer and pedagogue has been sadly neglected by scholars and performers alike. An influental teacher of Pierre Boulez, Leibowitz set the stage for the next generation of revolutionary European composers. Throughout his career as a conductor and pedagogue, Leibowitz stuck faithfully to Schoenberg's compositional methodologies-- through Boulez' "Schoenberg is Dead" article in 1951 well into the early 1970s. Though drastically removed form the public eye, Leibowitz's compositional output from this time bridges the gap between hard-line serialism and the next generation of experimenters, highlighting his sense for lyricism and drama.

In his works for solo piano-- for example, Three Pieces, Op.19 (1950), or Tre Intermezzi, Op.87 (1970)-- Leibowitz's melody and phrasing seems to come not from a machinistic, Serialist-derived arbitrariness, but rather from a fractured compositional voice, one which strives towards motivic unity while realizing the impossibility of that task. Leibowitz maintained this weighty sense of seriousness even in his "non-serious" composition from 1960, Marijuana (variations non sérieuses). This work, for violin, trombone, vibraphone, and piano, is an utterly strange, fascinating piece, mixing the sonorities of the trombone and vibraphone in almost cinematic interplay. 

We're extremely excited to have made fourteen of Leibowitz's works available for purchase through PSNY, including several solo piano works, string quartets, works for violin and piano, and even a work for solo vibraphone! Listen to excerpts of some of these works below.

 We hope to add more works and recordings in the near future; keep your eyes out for more from Leibowitz soon! 

An Exciting Month for Lei Liang

by Ted Gordon on Feb. 19, 2013, 4:22 p.m.

You've probably seen Lei Liang's name crop up on this blog before; as one of our first composers, Lei now has over twenty-five works available through PSNY! And that doesn't include his works published by Schott Music, such as Yuan, for saxophone quartet, or VERGE, commissioned by the New York Philharmonic. Lei is a prolific composer, and we're proud to make his work available for any interested performers. (And judging by your response, interested performers abound!)

Up in Boston, the Callithumpian Consort has just commissioned Lei to write a new piece for ensemble -- Bamboo Lights -- and in addition to the premiere on February 21st, Callithumpian will offer a program they call an "Open FOR'm": "equal parts teach-in, demonstration, free-form discussion, open rehearsal, Q and A session, pre-concert lecture, and post-concert reception." The FOR'm takes place on February 20th at the Isabella Stewart Gardener museum, and Lei's works will include Brush Stroke (2004), Aural Hypothesis (2010), Bamboo Lights (2013), and Parts for a Floating Space (2002). 

We applaud the Callithumpian Consort for their innovative programming (which, this season, includes works by John Cage, Earle Brown, and Alvin Lucier) and their thorough collaboration with Lei, whose music uniquely bridges lyrical figuration with strikingly original performance techniques for ensemble, organized with the masterful energy of a composer pushing the limits of contemporary composition. In much of Liang's music, haunting, etherial motifs emerge out of the wilderness of the real, the noisy, non-traditional soundings of instruments pushed to their limits, often performed on instruments whose timbres reflect an emergent embodiment of the human voice. We've edited together excertps of several of Lei's works, including some of those to be performed this week; take some time to listen to these on good speakers or headphones! 

And wind players, take note: we've just made Lei's Lake for two flutes or clarinet and flute, available on PSNY. 

For more on Lei's compositional process, check out an interview he did with WQXR during his residency at the American Academy in Rome in 2012: 

We congratulate Lei and the Callithumpian Consort for this exciting program! 

Ann Cleare Featured in Symphony Magazine

by Ted Gordon on Feb. 5, 2013, 1:23 p.m.

PSNY Composer Ann Cleare has been featured on the cover of Symphony Magazine, published by the League of American Orchestras, in a feature article on Emerging Composers. Also mentioned in the article, written by NewMusicBox's Frank Oteri, are Timo Andres, Adrian Knight, Chris Cerrone, and Hannah Lash. 

The ELISION Ensemble and the Rté National Symphony Orchestra will premeire Ann's work for bass clarinet, trumpet, trombone, and orchestra, to another of that other, as well as phosphors (.of either), for orchestra, on February 12th at the National Concert Hall in Dublin, Ireland. ELISION will perform a version of to another of that other for solo instruments following this performance. On the same day, Elision performs Ann's Paranoid Oneiroid at the Kevin Barry Room at the National Concert Hall. And two days later, February 14th, Ann will present a lecture on her recent works at University College Cork's Department of Music.

In addition to this exciting performance activity in Ireland, Ann will also see her composition on magnetic fields published by PSNY. This work divides a large ensemble into three chamber groups, which Cleare describes as "two different kinetic whirlwinds, and a box of light." Using the concept of the magnetic field to spatially arrange these miniature ensembles, this work explores a metaphor of "current" through its communication in melody, with a continuo solo violin channeling this piece's electric energy. Listen to a sample here: 

Employing a similarly spatial metaphor to other works such as phosphors (.of either), On Magnetic Fields encounters the orchestra as segmented groups, each enacting a different characterization of the piece's overall structure, each seemingly containing its own compositional will. In both works, each "island" of instrumentalists combines to form an archipelago of intricacy, a sonic exploration of texture, timbre, and motion.