Southwest Chamber Music

New Release! William Kraft Encounters

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		Also available at CD Baby and Naxos Classic Online

“These works serve for Kraft the way the string quartet did for Beethoven or Shostakovich, as a kind of autobiography in chamber music...a monument both to Kraft and the world of percussion”
– Mark Swed, Los Angeles Times

“No one with the slightest interest in the music of our time can afford to be without this cornerstone of American chamber music.”
– Jim Svejda, KUSC Monthly Newsletter

“An epic body of work comparable to Berio’s Sequenzas”
– Richard Ginell, American Record Guide

Celebrating the 85th birthday of William Kraft, one of America’s most important composers and percussionists, GRAMMY®-winning Southwest Chamber Music, the Tambuco Percussion Ensemble of Mexico and Cambria Master Recordings are proud to announce the release of a major survey of Kraft’s Encounters. This new three-CD release celebrates the 25th recording of Southwest Chamber Music and fills a major gap in the recorded discography of American music.

The set contains over three hours of groundbreaking music that establishes the percussionist as a formidable soloist with various other solo instruments, such as trombone, violin, and cello. The three CDs span fourteen Encounters, documenting a compositional journey that began in the 1960s and will certainly continue with more Encounters in the future. Cambria Master Recordings are distributed world wide by Naxos’ Classics Online.

Southwest Chamber Music Artist Director Jeff von der Schmidt recently observed that “our Encounters project, recorded over a two-year period that began in 2007, is the culmination of many dreams. One was to demonstrate a monumental new canon of work for percussion spanning over forty years of creativity that predicted the now general acceptance of the sounds of world culture, so beautifully resonant with a timbre palate infused with an endless collection of gongs, rattles, tam tams, and marimbas. It’s a veritable clock factory of global influences from Asia, Africa and Latin America. Another was to continue our ensemble’s engagement with the brilliant musicians of Mexico’s Tambuco Percussion Ensemble, which since 2004 has led to numerous and highly successful concert and recording projects in both the United States and Mexico. And finally to celebrate the pater familias of percussionists and their brilliant creative force, William Kraft, a friend and colleague of mine for over thirty years. I hope you enjoy this superb collection of music and the vistas of new and evolving sounds it represents as the Encounters chronicle the music of the second half of the 20th century and the beginning of the Age of Aquarius.”

The Encounters were edited and mastered by recording engineer Mathew Snyder of MSR Recordings in Burbank, California. He has been the engineer for Southwest Chamber Music since 1993 and has worked for Cambria Master Recordings, BMG Classics, KOCH International, Orfeo, and Centaur Records, as well as mastering the catalog of Delos International. His other clients include the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival (1992 to present); La Jolla Music Society (1994 to present); Arizona Friends of Chamber Music in Tucson; the Mainly Mozart Festival in San Diego (1998 to present); and Chamber Music Northwest in Portland (2009).

Speaking about the Encounters project, Mr. Snyder said “this is one of the most challenging projects imaginable for an engineer to record. The dynamic range is extreme at both ends of the spectrum. Each Encounter demanded a unique set-up, so that balancing the whole project, over three hours of music, became a rewarding challenge. It’s a great follow-up to the two GRAMMY awards and six consecutive GRAMMY nominations we received for Southwest Chamber Music’s four-volume cycle of the Complete Chamber Music of Carlos Chávez. Kraft produces such a rich range of sounds that the project was very inspiring to work on over the past few years.”

The recordings and concerts prior to the sessions were supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Schoenberg Family Charitable Fund, the James Irvine Foundation, the Fromm Foundation at Harvard University, and the Argosy Contemporary Music Fund.

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Soliloquy: Encounters I for Solo Percussion and Tape: Karen Ervin, one of America’s prominent percussionists, wished to commission a piece with which she could travel easily on her various tours. That meant utilizing readily obtainable instruments – and not too many of them. The vibraphone was chosen as the core, because it is the most faceted and colorful of all the percussion instruments: it can produce sustained tones and short tones; it can be struck or bowed; and it can be made comparatively pitchless by various kinds of muting – and even totally pitchless if one were to strike parts other than the bars. In order to give the piece a larger aura, it was decided to incorporate tape. The tape music was created from naturally produced (not synthesized) sound sources. The use of tape intends to give the piece a sense of a concerto, the tape functioning like an orchestra, sometimes accompanying, and sometimes making major statements. Ms. Ervin premiered the work at the Percussive Arts Society Convention in Chicago in 1975.

Encounters II was written for Roger Bobo in December of 1966, and premiered at the “Encounters” concert series in Pasadena in 1967. The first thing Roger and I did was spend a day together, during which we engaged in a creative interplay of ideas and exploration of the instrument’s possibilities. The resultant work was, as Roger described it in the liner notes of his second recording of the piece, “higher, lower, faster (probably louder or softer) than any previous work” for tuba. From the multitude of techniques that evolved, I chose those which I felt were best suited for a piece that was basically expressive along relatively traditional lines. Certain exploratory techniques were eliminated to suit the aesthetics of the piece – an aesthetic wherein I wanted to show the truly musical possibilities of the instrument without delving into effects for their own sake. I wanted to undertake the challenge of writing a set of variations for a solo player in which he would create the illusion of accompanying himself, sometimes by use of various dynamic levels, sometimes by varying pitch registrations, and especially by utilizing the voice while playing. Much of what resulted was due not only to Mr. Bobo’s remarkable virtuosity, but also to his creative intelligence.

Encounters III is conceived of as a medieval battle; the trumpet represents the attacking force, the percussion the defending. There are three movements: I Strategy, II Truce of God, III Tactics. Under one of the classical theories of warfare, strategy is considered the process of getting the enemy to come to battle, and tactics are the ways the battle is fought. The title Truce of God refers to a medieval convention of war wherein truce, supervised by the Pope, was maintained from sundown Thursday to sunrise Monday.

I. Strategy: After the approaching force (trumpet) has established contact with the defender (percussion) the players-combatants launch into a series of twelve attacks and counterattacks. Medieval soldiers were often fixed in a position behind their shields with their spears jammed into the ground to impale horses – or men. The percussion, as the defending force, thusly is given twelve counterattacks which correspond to twelve attacks, and the percussionist must recognize the attack and give the corresponding counterattack. They may also do these in order, one through twelve.

II. Truce of God is based on the Landini cadence (7-6-8), creation of the 14th century composer Francesco Landini (1325-1397). In reference to the peaceful and holy aspects of the truce, the orchestration centers on bell sounds of many varieties – song bells, tuned gongs, vibraphone, Pyrenees cowbell and glockenspiel – while the trumpet suggests distant horns or bugles.

III. Tactics is made of real skirmishes and battles calling for great virtuosity on the part of both soloists. The middle of the movement is occupied by two cadenzas, on for the trumpet and one for the percussion. A last skirmish leads to the denouement – the defeat and withdrawal of the trumpet, and the restoration of peace.

Encounters III was commissioned by Thomas Stevens and premiered in 1972.

Encounters IV was commissioned by Karen and Thomas Ervin for an album of duos which Karen recorded for Crystal Records. Mr. Ervin was her trombone protagonist, not only on the recording, but also at the world premiere, which took place at the University of Arizona in March of 1973.

Patterned after its predecessor Encounters III: Duel for Trumpet and Percussion, Encounters IV is based on medieval warfare. The first movement, Strategy (the manner in which one engages the enemy), is made of a series of attacks and counter-attacks, the trombone being the aggressor, the percussion responding from a fixed position – as did defenders in the middle ages. The opening has the trombone approaching and spelling out in Morse code an idea rather popular during the Second World War: “Make war to make peace” – while the defending percussionist strengthens his position with a growing ostinato. Then there are 12 attacks and counterattacks, which may be performed in different ways: 1) in order, 1 through 12; 2) in an order predetermined by the performers; 3) in random order, in which the percussionist must immediately recognize the attack and respond accordingly. In this latter case, provisions must be made for those interlocked attacks and counterattacks which are simultaneous.

The second movement is the most explicit commentary in the piece. It is titled Truce of God after a medieval convention supervised by the Pope, wherein fighting was suspended from Thursday sundown to Monday sunrise. The ineffectuality of this convention against man’s evidently stronger predilection for combat is represented by a variation which distorts the conductus Beata Viscera by the 13th century composer Perotin, accompanied by interspersed bell sounds of gongs, vibraphone and stainless steel bowls, along with various comments from the percussion.

The third movements, Tactics (the way in which the battle is fought) is “all out war,” with the combatants locked in virtuosic battle, climaxing in the defeat and retreat of the trombone, who spells out “peace” as he departs.

In the morning of the winter sea
our shape presents itself
the fruit of all storms
a fragile sound
in sand

Unseen the soul dance
returns to the sea
our lover restless
again
Orpheus carries us beyond our eyes
To see these storm gifts
The etching of the sea kiss
And
in warm tears
we become
more than they say we are

Carl A. Faber

Carl Faber was a psychotherapist who helped me through a difficult period in my life as I was working on Encounters V. Encounters V was commissioned by the Ford Foundation and written for cellist Nathaniel Rosen. It was premiered in 1976 in Alice Tully Hall (Lincoln Center, New York) by Mr. Rosen, with the composer performing the percussion part. In the course of the piece, which probes the relationships of violoncello and percussion, specific references are made to Scriabin’s Ninth Sonata. As it progresses, the work incorporates more of Scriabin’s “mystic chord,” which was involved in the serial formulation of the composition. Encounters VI: Concertino for Roto-toms and Percussion Quartet was written in 1976. Here I have adapted a standard musical form to a contemporary medium. The concertino is a small concerto; a one-movement work that draws upon the basic principles of the concerto form – two bodies of sound which at times compete, contrast, or act together.

The piece explores the musical possibilities of Roto-toms. The sound of these drums is a cross between a tom-tom and a timpani, and their pitch is changed by rotating the drum. During the course of the work, the various effects used include pitch and fingernail glissandi; playing on the rims; and playing on the heads with fingers, brushes, timpani sticks, wood mallets or rattan. Harmonics on the octave and the fourth above the fundamental pitch are produced by the drums when weights (in this case, small pitched cymbals called “crotales”) are placed in the center of the drum heads. In return the drum itself acts as a resonator for the crotales, which also have a fundamental pitch when played on the face and a partial a fifth above when played on the center dome.

The opening section of the concertino introduces a motive, played by the soloist, while the ensemble sustains a bowed chord on the vibraphone. Following this cadenza-like introduction, the piece gradually moves into a bright 6/8 tempo that is characterized by constant 16th note patterns and the soloist plays an improvised solo. Next, an interlude is presented by the ensemble which leads to a dramatic recapitulation by the soloist of the motivic material. A thematically-derived coda concludes the work.

Encounters VI, commissioned by Remo Belli, is dedicated to Jennifer Kraft, the composer’s daughter. The premiere took place in 1976 at the MENC Convention in Atlantic City, New Jersey, and was performed by the Temple University Percussion Ensemble conducted by Glenn Steele.

Encounters VII was commissioned by Steve Grimo and Pat Hollenbeck for a series of performances in the Boston area. Two of the earlier Encounters (III and IV) were, with some humorous intent, structurally derived from certain tenets of war: Strategy, Truce of God (a medieval practice), and Tactics. In Encounters VII the approach is more personal, being based on various anti-war poems. Each section of the work, except for the opening, begins by quoting a specific poem, and then goes on to a musical setting. Quotations are from the Bible, The Arsenal at Springfield by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Issa, and The Jewish Conscript (1916) by Florence Kiper Frank.

Encounters VIII was commissioned by Dean Anderson originally under Mr. Anderson's requested title Divinations. Subsequently it seemed appropriate to have the work join my Encounters series and to replace the discarded original Encounters VIII, but to retain that dedication to James Latimer. Divinations was premiered October 7, 1995 by the Boston Musica Viva, with Dean Anderson as soloist. As Encounters VIII the first performance took place March 17, 2008 with Lynn Vartan as soloist as part of the Southwest Chamber Music's project of performing and recording my Encounters pieces. It is a virtuosic piece involving a wide array of instruments: marimba, vibraphone, pedal bass drum, Om coil chime, six almglocken, conga drum, four tam tams, two cymbals, 16 gongs, four cup bells, bongos, snare, tenor and field drums. Divinations is seven sections connected by the two pivotal motives which open the piece. The first motive is a crescendo roll on a tam tam followed by the second motive: two large clusters covering the entire vibraphone keyboard. The first section is centered on Station I. It is characterized by an alternation between quiet sustained or gently moving music and bursts of rapid figures which subside into the second section, a quiet interlude. The third section begins with an extension of the first motive involving all four tam tams taking the soloist to Station II – primarily an interplay between suspended and muted gongs. The second motive – two large clusters – opens the fourth section. A large muffler (e.g. a janitor’s broom) isolates the high, low and middle registers, respectively, of the vibraphone. Other instruments join in. On the whole, the fourth section can be considered a second interlude. The tam tam rolls are not taken by the cup bells to introduce section five (the third large section) and takes the player to Station III. This section centers itself on the six drums and is climaxed in a cadenza. The cadenza stops with a sharp stroke on the high bongo followed by accelerating strokes leading into a one hand tremolo and finally a concluding circular glissando around the drum. The motive rolls on the tam tams body end section five and introduce a fourth interlude, and the motive clusters on the vibraphone melt into the music of the closing coda.

Encounters IX (1982) was commissioned by Baylor University for David Hastings and Larry Vanlandingham. It was premiered July 9, 1982 at the International Saxophone Congress in Nuremburg, Germany by Hastings and Vanlandingham. The work is in one continuous movement with a variety of sections within. As with the other works in my Encounters series, particularly those involving solo percussion and an instrument, the attempt is made to draw out the relationships as well as the differences between the two soloists. This means that sometimes the percussion will be melodic and sometimes the saxophone will be percussive. The rest of the time they will be doing their own thing. Encounters IX has undergone a substantial revision for the performance by Don Liuzzi and Marshall Taylor. I thank Marshall for his insights and suggestions. This recording marks the premiere of the revised version.

In Encounters X, advantage is taken of the various recent developments in marimba technique to attain a range of expressivity as equal to the violin as possible. Also, while the violin has advantages in some areas, e.g. smooth legato playing, the marimba has advantages elsewhere, e.g. control of four notes at once. The exchange of double stops (two notes at once) and of short virtuosic bursts in the opening measure display immediately two areas of equality: 1.) percussive attacks 2.) agility. The opening two measures are to be heard twice more in the 1st movement, somewhat varied, serving as structural pillars. The other elements of construction – which instrument does what when, the pitch and harmonic determinations etc. – are best left to the oft stated truism “Music speaks for itself.” After all, music eventually becomes a private experience for each listener. The 2nd movement, which comes without interruption, begins with very rapid, soft, perhaps eerie to some, figures played by the violin. Much of the playing is “ponticello” – a manner of playing near the bridge of the violin creating a sound often described as “glassy.” The subtitle of this movement is “Fantasmagoria III.” The term came from the dedication Nicolas Slonimsky wrote on the frontispiece of my copy of his autobiography “Perfect Pitch.” The surrounding phrase extracted here is “…and in free time compose fatasmagorias in musical fata morgana…” Needless to say the word suggested a musical setting. Encounters X was commissioned by the Serge Koussevitzky Foundation in the Library of Congress, dedicated to the memory of Serge and Natalie Koussevitzky and written in particular for Marimolin. It was premiered November 13, 1992 by Marimolin (Nancy Zeltsman, marimba; Sharan Leventhal, violin) at the 1992 Percussive Arts Society International Convention in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA.

Encounters XII was written in 2003 and premiered August 12 of that year at the Lobero Theatre in Santa Barbara on the summer series of concerts of the Music Academy of the West. The remarkable soloists were David Herbert, percussion, and Alison Bjorkedal, harp. The title/pun is meant to combine the character of the Encounters Series (battles, duo-confrontations), but the actual music emphasizes integration rather than confrontation. Encounters XII was a unique challenge because of the delicacy and vulnerability of the harp. At the same time, it was a wonderful opportunity to bring out the delicate and poetic side of percussion. For that reason, the percussion instruments involved are: Vibraphone, Marimba, Seated ("Temple"; "Prayer") Bell (also called "Bowl" and "Cupped Gong"), Almglocken or Tuned Gamelan Gongs, Crotales or Glockenspiel (a misnomer for "Orchestra Bells"), Graduated Drums, Sizzle Cymbal and Large Tam-Tam. The drums, which can, of course, be played quite forcefully, are never used that way. Rather, when they are utilized, they are played with sponge-headed mallets, which I had made for soft sounds, though soft timpani mallets can also be used. I like to term the musical language "American Impressionism," though the much respected critic Mark Swed calls it "Abstract Expressionism" and goes on to say that I "paint with percussion." I like that. The first movement opens with harp playing the same pitch in many different ways: B-flat - A-sharp - B-flat as a harmonic, A-sharp as a harmonic, and then moves into a discrete interplay with vibraphone and, later; marimba. This discrete interplay dominates the rest of the piece.

Encounters XIII was first performed on March 17, 2008. Kenneth McGrath was the soloist with Jeff von der Schmidt conducting. The occasion was the first of 3 concerts devoted to performing and recording the complete series of my Encounters pieces. It occurs to me that one may call this the Hi Hat concertina. The High Hat is a part of the jazz drummer’s arsenal: 2 mounted cymbals opposing one another horizontally, striking together but opening immediately to allow the cymbals to ring or pressing shut to get a dry "chuck" sound, all controlled by a pedal mechanism. The traditional rhythmic motive of the Hi Hat particularly in the swing/big band era, was de dum de, de dum de i.e. short long short, short long short. This motive is notated +o+, +o+, and in various guises, subtly ties the piece together. It opens the piece in variations via a bass drum solo wherein the drum is muted (+) by hand. The motive reoccurs ever so often, sometimes obviously, sometimes peeking the rough the fabric of woodwinds. But, it ends the piece in a very straight-ahead manner, turning the motive around periodically e.g. +o+. +o+, +o+o+. Joe Jones, the drummer with Count Basie's band, hypnotized me with that turn around when I was 15, and determined me to become a drummer. My particular affection for the woodwind quintet lies with the sounds of the individual instruments rather than the combined sound of the ensemble. This idea invites duos, (percussion with one other instrument) -or, as in the center of the piece a trio: percussion with flute and oboe with bass clarinet, horn and contrabassoon providing a supportive body. Encounters XIII ends with the Hi Hat, playing in the Joe Jones manner, and dying away, as if to indicate that era is gone.

Encounters XIV: Concerto a Tre: it was, indeed, a challenge to integrate these three instruments, which have such contrasting idiomatic characteristics: the piano, essentially a pitched percussion instrument, though with strings which can actually be bowed using fish line, but not in this piece; the violin, essentially a sound sustaining instrument which can become percussive primarily by plucking the strings, i.e., pizzicato, but also through other means, but not in this piece; and then the percussion, an array of instruments known mostly as “percussive,” but some of which can be bowed.

This integration is what became fascinating in the composing of Concerto a Tre, and it seems that this fascination suffers by writing about it. As Samuel Beckett once put it, “only music can penetrate the veil of its own existence.”

So, if the reader will forgive me, I prefer he/she be just a listener.

Encounters XV was commissioned by the Fromm Foundation to complete the Encounters project of the Southwest Chamber Music. Encounters XV is dedicated to my dear friend Charlotte Hyde. Charlotte was born in Paris 2 years before the death of Debussy and shares my intense love of the music of both Debussy and Ravel. As a child her father made her aware of the richness of French culture in all its forms --- experiences which shaped her personality. The strength of her personality is indicated by her becoming a member of the French Resistance during the World War II --- smuggling weapons and helping to hide those facing extermination by the Nazis. For this, Charlotte was awarded the National Order of Merit (L’Ordre du Merite National) by the French government. This dedication is but a small recompense for bringing an awareness of her life’s experience into my world --- and all without intention or pretension but only by my determined inquiry. I have said, more or less facetiously, that each of the pieces in the Encounters series is fixed so that the percussion wins. In XII, for harp and percussion and now XV, considering the delicacy of the harp and the guitar that seems quite unfair. However since the guitar can be amplified it is therefore possible to create a state of equality. During the composition of Soliloquy: Encounters I, I found that combining the interval of a 6th on the vibraphone with a Chinese Tam-tam (or “gong” as commonly used) simulates the sound of a large bell. Encounters XV carries this a bit further, incorporating 4 note combinations, 2 on the guitar and 2 on the vibraphone coupled with tuned Asian Gongs. This allows for the enhancement and enrichment of the expressive qualities of the bell sound. The second section is an active duet built on a repetitive figure while the third section acts as an interlude. The fourth section requires some explanation: the percussionist plays on a chromatic set of Thai gongs. To blend with the diffused pitches of these gongs, the guitarist switches to a guitar that has small alligator clips attached to all strings; this causes a diffusion of the guitar pitches. The percussionist moves to a collection of drums while the guitarist returns to the first unaltered guitar. For this fifth section, the guitarist plays lyrically while the percussionist plays an extended solo, beginning very quietly, but then deciding to make a cadenza out of it, rather virtuosic, and, at times, reminiscent of the great drummers of my mid-teens, Chick Webb (his own band with the young vocalist Ella Fitzgerald), “Big Sid” Catlett (with Art Tatum), Jo Jones (with Basie), Gene Krupa (with Benny Goodman) and Buddy Rich (with Tommy Dorsey – but mostly in his own world). Encounter XV was written particularly for John Schneider, guitar and Lynn Vartan, percussion.

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