Liner Notes
Cat. No. NWCRL167
Release Date: 2010-05-01
The Japan Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra, Akeo Wantanabe, Conductor; Jan DeGaetani, mezzo-soprano; Gerald Carlyss, vibraphone and percussion; Robert Ayers, glockenspiel and percussion; and the New York Brass Quintet: Robert Nagel, Fred Mills, Trumpet; Ralph Froelich, horn; David Uber, trombone; Harvey Phillips, tuba.
Excerpt from the notes by Robert Goeb:
Serialization has for so long been the trend of the newest in music that it has become habitual for some to expect it in new music. Often rather comic irrelevancies are indulged in because of the habit. New music is expected to sound “atonal” and if a new piece doesn’t sound “atonal” it is automatically classed as “tonal” and therefore not “challenging;” this, despite the fact that the sound used may be completely different from 19th century music for which the term “tonality” was developed. Understanding why this happens helps very little. Atonality, by definition, eschewed the use of harmony as it is generally understood and obtained change by other means. A sound pattern that does use harmonic change is therefore classified with earlier music, even if the kind of sound used is entirely unrelated to it. Harmony has been the one unique experience of Occidental music and one of its historic glories, and it should be one of the basic building blocks usable by composers. We would like to submit that a work using harmonic change may very well be equally as “challenging” as an atonal work, even if for different reasons.
The above essay has been included in these notes because the air around new music needs to be cleared of the many protestations by the sanctimonious. Both works on this record show that the composers are conscious of what has been happening to music, but they show also that the composers are interested in disengaging themselves from the recent past and going on to newer modes of expression. It is hoped that my Symphony No. 4 will be considered as an attempt in this direction. I had no express intention of writing a work with such an ideational background but it so happens that the work came out to fit the idea; and in all probability, I was reacting to much of the music I was coming in contact with when I wrote it (1954).
Excerpt from the notes by Jacob Druckman:
Dark Upon The Harp was composed during the winter of 1961-62 in answer to a commission for a work dedicated to the memory of the publisher, Leo Feist. It is scored for mezzo-soprano, two trumpets, horn, trombone, tuba, and two percussion players. The texts are from the Psalms, the title coming from a line in the 49th Psalm, which reads: “I will open my dark saying upon the Harp.”
The musical organization of the work is inseparable from the choice and order of the texts. They develop and unfold in a highly personal dramatic sequence leading to the complete acceptance inherent in the final line: “Surely He is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.” This line was, in fact, the starting point from which evolved the final order, an order revealing itself in a series of dramatic prerequisites and the natural energies of the musical material itself.
Excerpt from the notes by Robert Goeb:
Serialization has for so long been the trend of the newest in music that it has become habitual for some to expect it in new music. Often rather comic irrelevancies are indulged in because of the habit. New music is expected to sound “atonal” and if a new piece doesn’t sound “atonal” it is automatically classed as “tonal” and therefore not “challenging;” this, despite the fact that the sound used may be completely different from 19th century music for which the term “tonality” was developed. Understanding why this happens helps very little. Atonality, by definition, eschewed the use of harmony as it is generally understood and obtained change by other means. A sound pattern that does use harmonic change is therefore classified with earlier music, even if the kind of sound used is entirely unrelated to it. Harmony has been the one unique experience of Occidental music and one of its historic glories, and it should be one of the basic building blocks usable by composers. We would like to submit that a work using harmonic change may very well be equally as “challenging” as an atonal work, even if for different reasons.
The above essay has been included in these notes because the air around new music needs to be cleared of the many protestations by the sanctimonious. Both works on this record show that the composers are conscious of what has been happening to music, but they show also that the composers are interested in disengaging themselves from the recent past and going on to newer modes of expression. It is hoped that my Symphony No. 4 will be considered as an attempt in this direction. I had no express intention of writing a work with such an ideational background but it so happens that the work came out to fit the idea; and in all probability, I was reacting to much of the music I was coming in contact with when I wrote it (1954).
Excerpt from the notes by Jacob Druckman:
Dark Upon The Harp was composed during the winter of 1961-62 in answer to a commission for a work dedicated to the memory of the publisher, Leo Feist. It is scored for mezzo-soprano, two trumpets, horn, trombone, tuba, and two percussion players. The texts are from the Psalms, the title coming from a line in the 49th Psalm, which reads: “I will open my dark saying upon the Harp.”
The musical organization of the work is inseparable from the choice and order of the texts. They develop and unfold in a highly personal dramatic sequence leading to the complete acceptance inherent in the final line: “Surely He is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.” This line was, in fact, the starting point from which evolved the final order, an order revealing itself in a series of dramatic prerequisites and the natural energies of the musical material itself.
Japan Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra
Goeb/Druckman
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A *.pdf of the notes may be accessed here free of charge.
Track Listing
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Symphony No. 4: I. Allegro
Roger Goeb
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Symphony No. 4: II. Andante
Roger Goeb
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Symphony No. 4: III. Moderato
Roger Goeb
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Dark Upon The Harp: Psalm XXII 12-17, 20
Jacob Druckman
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Dark Upon The Harp: Psalm LVIII 4-9
Jacob Druckman
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Dark Upon The Harp: Psalm XVIII 4-9
Jacob Druckman
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Dark Upon The Harp: Psalm XXX 12, 13
Jacob Druckman
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Dark Upon The Harp: Psalm CXXXIII
Jacob Druckman
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Dark Upon The Harp: Psalm XVI 6-8
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