Modern American Music

New Zealand Listener, Volume 30, Issue 766, 26 March 1954, Page 24

Modern American Music

SUAVE style, combined with A elegant workmanship, has made 40-year-old Samuel Barber one of the important new voicés to appear in American music within the past two decades. Of all American composers Barber is the most likely to appeal to New Zealand

ears, and it is his music which opens a series of eleven prozrammes called Contemporary American Composets, at pres- | ent. being heard from YC { stations. The music is played and sung by New Zealand | artists, and the programmes include works by Samuel | Barber, Roy Harris, Paul Bowles, Charles Griffes, David Diamond, Virgil Thom-_ son, John T. Niles, Randall Thompson, Ernest Bloch and | Norman dello Joio. The first programme, of songs by Sam--uel Barber, will be heard from 4YC at 9.44 p.m. onTuesday, March 30, and from 2YC at 7.0 p.m. on Thursday, | April 1. The third programme, | ‘of works by Paul Bowles, will : be heard from 1YC at 7.0_ p.m. oh Tuesdav. March 30.

and from 3YC at 7.18 p.m. on Saturday, April 3. Samuel Barber is at his most important in his orchestral music, but he has written a’ great deal for voices and his songs are ati important part of his output. His first programme includes four songs sung by Olga Burton, soprano: "I Hear an Army," a setting for a poem by James Joyce; "Sure on this Shining Night," to words by James Agee; "Monks and Raisins’ (words by Jose Garcia Villa); and "Nocturne" (words by Frederic Prokosch). In the same programme Owen Jensen plays Barber’s only piano work, "Excursions," Opus 20, written in 1944 and first performed by Horowitz in 1945. In Barber’s second programme the Ina Bosworth String Quartet and Stewart Harvey (baritone) give a performance of his "Dover Beach," a setting of Matthew Arnold's celebrated poem, and his String Quartet, Opus 11, the latter a serene and restful work which won high praise from Sibelius. Paul Bowles, whose work is heard in the third programme, is one of the most ‘interesting of the younger American composers. He has led a wandering life, living for long periods in Spain, Mexico, Guatemala, the Sahara and several parts of North Africa, and these exotic backgrounds are reflected in much of his music. This programme includes two songs, "Three," a setting of a poem by Tennessee Williams, sung by Stewart Harvey, and "David," written to words by Frances Frost. Colleen McCracken plays three piano solos in the programme: "Sayula," and "Two Huapangos." The Huapangos are based on a native dance-form from the provinces of Tamaulipas and Vera Cruz in Mexico. The music of Charles Tomlinson Griffes makes frequent use of ancient modes and Oriental scales, and his masterpiece The Pleasure Dome of Kubla Khan placed him /in the front rank of American composers, shortly before he died in 1920 at 36. The fourth programme in the séfies includes Griffes’s Roman Sketches Part III ("The Fountain of Acqua Paola") played by

Henry Shitley at the piano, and two songs sung by Ramon Opie (tenor), "Thy Dark Eyes to Mine" and "The Lament of Ian the Proud." When he was a small boy in Kentucky, John Niles first heard in their original settings the folk music of the American Negroes. and the songs of the Kentucky mountaineers. He later col-

lected and harmonised many of these songs, and two groupseof them are included in the series -- seven Negro "exaltations," which ‘are used for the most part to inspire congregations with religious fervour, and a number of songs from Kentucky’s Appalachian mountains. Thése songs are sung by Barbara Hyland and Reginald Spence, accotnpanied by Patrick Towsey. The titles of the first group are: "Does You Call Dat Religion,’ "The Story of Noah,’ "Poor Mourner,’ "Hold On," "Trip to Raleigh,’ "Little Black Star" and "Wide Deep Troubled Water." The last 6f these seven exaltations is probably the,smost impressive. John Niles first heard it as the climax of a multiple baptism ceremony, when the congregation, gathered on the river banks, suddenly broke into its majestic phrases as the most hardened sinner of the community emerged from the water declaring that he’d seen the light. The second group includes "Hi Ho the Preacher Man," "The Cherry Tree," "When I Lays Down and I Do Die," "In My Little Cabin," "Come All Ye Fair and Tetider Ladies." "If I Had A Ribbon Bow," and "Fair Eleanor and the Brown Gal." Some of these folk songs have English origins, and others, such as the jump-up song "In My Little Cabin" (called a jump-up because it has no connected story) are purely local in origin. Better-known American composets whose work is included in this series, such as Virgil Thomson and Roy Harris, are represented by typical works sung by local artists. One of particular interest but who is almost certainly unknown to listeners in this country is Norman dello Joio. His Piano Sonata No. 1 is played by Freda Blank. Dello Joio has a long list of compositions to his credit, includifg a symphonic work for Solo Voice, Narrator, Choir ard Orchestra, which he has called Western Star. The scores of the music in this series of Contemporary American Composets were made available to the NZBS through the courtesy of the American Embassy in Wellington.