Frederick Wilkins, flute soloist; Henry Brant, conductor
Eunice Alberts, contralto; Irving Fine, piano
The composer has volunteered the following précis of the “elements ... incorporated into the musical vocabulary of Angels and Devils: 1. Harmony. Chords up to eleven notes, including polychords and tone-clusters as well as the normal harmonic vocabulary. 2. Counterpoint. Up to ten independent voices. A double fugue forms the development section of the sonata- structured first movement. The second movement has several sections in eight-part counterpoint climaxed with a dissonant fugato shortly before the end. 3. Style. While predominantly serious, the music has many jazz, circus, and bird-vocabulary aspects, especially in the second and third movements. 4. Sonorities. The specialties of the flute — double-tonguing, triple-tonguing, flutter-tonguing, rhythmed vibrato, multiple trills and runs, and various composites of these elements — are found in a variety of registers. Simple unisons of alto flutes, of low C flutes and of piccolos also are used.”
The keyboard suite Music for Piano was composed at the MacDowell colony in Peterborough, New Hampshire, in mid- 1947. It was intended as a tribute to Nadia Boulanger, who had been one of Fine's distinguished teachers, on her sixtieth birthday. In all there are four movements. Two of them, the Variations and the Waltz-Gavotte, are excerpted herewith. A later stay at Peterboro, in 1952, resulted in Mutability — a cycle of five songs and an epilogue. The lyrics are by Irene Orgel, the young English poet who was a fellow MacDowell colonist that summer. The work had been commissioned by the Creative Concerts Guild. In conception it is essentially Romantic, although Nos. 1 and 3 use a relatively free modern chromaticism, No. 5 a rather stylized diatonic classicism, and No. 6 a twelve-tone technique comfortably within a clearly defined tonality. It is not irrelevant to add that the songs were written with contralto Eunice Alberts expressly in mind.
This title from the CRI LP back catalog has been carefully transferred from the original master tape, and is now available from New World Records as an on-demand CD (CD-R). It can also be downloaded in MP3/320, FLAC and/or WAV format(s).
We have preserved the original CRI LP catalog number for this title, preceded by the prefix NWCRL, to distinguish previously unavailable back catalog titles from those later reissued by CRI on compact disc. Please refer to the liner notes for information about the program.
***Please note that the newly-digitized CRI LP titles are priced at $12.99 (multiples excepted) and are not included in any of the special offers.***
Music of Henry Brant & Irving Fine
| MP3/320 | $9.99 | |
| FLAC | $9.99 | |
| WAV | $9.99 | |
| CD | $12.99 |
Track Listing
|
Angels And Devils: I.
Henry Brant
|
Buy
|
|
|
Angels And Devils: II.
Henry Brant
|
Buy
|
|
|
Angels And Devils: III.
Henry Brant
|
Buy
|
|
|
Music for Piano: Variations
Irving Fine
|
Buy
|
|
|
Music for Piano: Waltz-Gavotte
Irving Fine
|
Buy
|
|
|
Mutability: I. I Have Heard The Hoof Beats of Happiness
Irving Fine
|
Buy
|
|
|
Mutability: II. My Father
Irving Fine
|
Buy
|
|
|
Mutability: III The Weed
Irving Fine
|
Buy
|
|
|
Mutability: IV. Peregrine
Irving Fine
|
Buy
|
|
|
Mutability: V. Jubilation
Irving Fine
|
Buy
|
|
|
Mutability: VI. Now God Be Thanked for Mutability
Irving Fine
|
Buy
|