UMS Concert Program, March 24, 1973: The Aeolian Chamber Players --

Concert: Seventh
Complete Series: 3820
Rackham Auditorium, Ann Arbor, Michigan

The University Musical Society
of
The University of Michigan
Presents
THE AEOLIAN CHAMBER PLAYERS
LEWIS KAPLAN, Violin ERICH GRAF, Flute
JERRY GROSSMAN, Cello RICHARD WASLEY, Clarinet
WALTER PONCE, Piano
Saturday Evening, March 24, 1973, at 8:30 Rackham Auditorium, Ann Arbor, Michigan
PROGRAM Largo...............Charles Ives
(for violin, clarinet, and piano)
Centerings I..............David Gilbert
(for violin, flute, clarinet, and piano)
Composed for the Aeolian Chamber Players
Vox Balaenae.............George Crumb
(for electric flute, electric cello, and electric piano) Vocalise (. . . for the beginning of time) Variations on Sea Time
Sea Theme
Archeozoic (Var. I)
Proterozoic (Var. II)
Paleozoic (Var. Ill)
Mesozoic (Var. IV)
Cenozoic (Var. V) Sea Nocturne (... for the end of time)
INTERMISSION
Sequenza..............Luciano Berio
(for flute solo)
Chamber Symphony No. 1, Op. 9.......Arnold Schoenberg
(arranged for violin, cello, flute, clarinet, and piano by Anton VVebern)
In cooperation with the School of Music, The Aeolian Chamber Players will present a lecturedemonstration at 1:00 p.m. on Sunday, March 25, in the Cady Room of the Stearns Building, at the corner of Baits and Broadway. You are cordially invited to attend.
Seventh Concert Tenth Annual Chamber Arts Series Complete Program 3820
PROGRAM NOTES
Vox Balaenae.............George Crumb
The songs of the humpback whale, published on disc in 1970, have moved listeners to many moods, the commonest, perhaps, being awe at these mysterious, lyrical melo?dies of the deep. The timbre of whale song often suggests a cello. George Crumb in his "Vox Balaenae" . . . has achieved a closer simulation, using a trio of flute, cello, and piano, each electrically amplified. Much sonic experiment must have preceded the composition. Among other new devices, the piano strings are stroked by "a nveeighthsinch chisel with smooth cutting edge" (which, as the composer rightly observes, "will produce a very delicate sound"); the cello mews softly in small reiterated cries while the player's fingers slide the length of the string; the flutist sounds the opening theme by at once playing on, and, an octave lower, gently singing into, his instrument. All three players wear black half masks. . . . This is not just a stunt; the depersonalization enhanced the spell. And the work--a theme with five variations and epilogue-is not just a stunt; the depersonalization enhanced the spell. And the work--a theme with five variations and epilogue--is not merely a collection of cunning soundinven?tions but, rather, a quiet, beautiful, manyhued composition that steals into stillness, grows, develops, then fades at last beneath a scarcemoving sea ripple.
The New Yorker, Andrew Porter
Chamber Symphony No. 1, Op. 9.......Arnold Schoenberg
The Chamber Symphony marks Schoenberg's reversion from the huge orchestras of Gurrelieder and Pelleas, and introduces a tentative use of new harmonic devices: cadential evasion, "sideslips" with the fourth as basis, and contrapuntal inversion. Mahler, angered at the noisy reception of the work, confessed that he did not under?stand its logic. Twenty years later Schoenberg made the same confession--stating that he was guided by intuition; yet he viewed the Symphony as a difficult and crucial score, begging Siloti (1914) for more rehearsal time and advising his friend Zemlinsky, with the outbreak of the war, to substitute for it a simpler composition--his battles being severe enough in peacetime.
Next season's Chamber Arts Series will be announced April 1. Inquire at the Musical Society for new 197374 fullseason brochure.
UNIVERSITY MUSICAL SOCIETY
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Gail VV. Rector, President William L. Brittain Paul G. Kaupcr
Harlan Hatcher, VicePresident Allen P. Britton Wilbur K. Pierpont
Erich A. Walter, Secretary Douglas D. Crary Sarah G. Power
E. Thurston Thieme, Treasurer Robben W. Fleming Daniel H. Schurz
Burton Memorial Tower, Ann Arbor, Michigan Phone 6653717