Amimus III
Animus III
Coordinator: Teresa Sterne
Cover Art: Gene Szafran
Cover Design: Richard J. Nebiolo
Art Direction: Robert L. Heimall
A Nonesuch Records commission
Nonesuch H-71253
1971
A Nonesuch Records commission
Nonesuch H-71253
1971
From the cover: This recording embraces three titles, two works, but one central concern. The works are involved with the actual presence of the performer theatrically as well as musically, limiting their focus to a particular area of human affections as well as a limited body of musical materials. Each work presumes that the theatrical and musical elements are inseparable; that the ideal performance of the music already embodies the performance of the drama. The music focuses reflexively on musicians and virtuosity.
The two sides of the record present the two polar possibilities of combinations of live and pre- recorded sound. On Side One they are inextricably combined. The sound sources of the tape are mainly concrete: the voice and clarinet playing of soloist Arthur Bloom in various degrees of transformation. During the performance of Animus III the clarinetist has at his disposal a microphone connected to a feedback device, which allows him to transform his playing so that he can move in and out of the electronic sounds. In this way the tape and the live player can approach each other, even crossing to opposite sides of the real/electronic gamut.
On Side Two, the electronic and the live are juxtaposed but completely separate. The tape sounds are made entirely of electronic sources (one tiny exception – the voice of bassist Alvin Brehm for less than one second), and the instrumental Valentine is completely without electronics.
The genesis of Animus III began with my asking Arthur Bloom to record some clarinet sounds as sources from which I could build the tape part of the work. The recording session was late at night. We worked efficiently and informally as we are good friends and colleagues of many years standing. The tape of that session contained not only the brilliant clarinet sounds of this extraordinary musician, but also the vocal sounds of the session – the laughter, the banter, the irritation, the fatigue, the impatience. Over all this fluttered the ephemeral virtuosity – untouched, uncommitted, disassociated from the human dynamic. As I worked with the tape in the following months, I found myself more and more fascinated with the recorded sounds of the irrational dynamic. These sounds began to shape the image of the work as strongly as the instrumental material from which, I believe, they are eventually inseparable.
The completed work assumes a surreal, aloof arch-virtuosity which follows its whimsy through many states leading to an eventual decay into a mindless hysteria.
Synapse (n., the junction point of two neurons, across which a nerve impulse passes), aside from the exception mentioned above, is totally synthesized on voltage-controlled analog machinery. It assumes the stance of Valentine. It functions as avant-propos, paraphrase, setting for Valentine.
Valentine begins with the same driven intensity with which Animus III ends. The work is one of the most difficult ever written for the contrabass and demands that the player attack the instrument with bow, tympany stick, both hands alternating percussive tapping on the body of the instrument with pizzicato harmonics, while the voice sustains tones, sings counterpoints, and punctuates accents. All of this necessitates the player's assaulting the instrument with an almost deSade-like concentration (hence the title). Valentine moves in the opposite direction from Animus III – from intensity to euphoria. – JACOB DRUCKMAN
The two sides of the record present the two polar possibilities of combinations of live and pre- recorded sound. On Side One they are inextricably combined. The sound sources of the tape are mainly concrete: the voice and clarinet playing of soloist Arthur Bloom in various degrees of transformation. During the performance of Animus III the clarinetist has at his disposal a microphone connected to a feedback device, which allows him to transform his playing so that he can move in and out of the electronic sounds. In this way the tape and the live player can approach each other, even crossing to opposite sides of the real/electronic gamut.
On Side Two, the electronic and the live are juxtaposed but completely separate. The tape sounds are made entirely of electronic sources (one tiny exception – the voice of bassist Alvin Brehm for less than one second), and the instrumental Valentine is completely without electronics.
The genesis of Animus III began with my asking Arthur Bloom to record some clarinet sounds as sources from which I could build the tape part of the work. The recording session was late at night. We worked efficiently and informally as we are good friends and colleagues of many years standing. The tape of that session contained not only the brilliant clarinet sounds of this extraordinary musician, but also the vocal sounds of the session – the laughter, the banter, the irritation, the fatigue, the impatience. Over all this fluttered the ephemeral virtuosity – untouched, uncommitted, disassociated from the human dynamic. As I worked with the tape in the following months, I found myself more and more fascinated with the recorded sounds of the irrational dynamic. These sounds began to shape the image of the work as strongly as the instrumental material from which, I believe, they are eventually inseparable.
The completed work assumes a surreal, aloof arch-virtuosity which follows its whimsy through many states leading to an eventual decay into a mindless hysteria.
Synapse (n., the junction point of two neurons, across which a nerve impulse passes), aside from the exception mentioned above, is totally synthesized on voltage-controlled analog machinery. It assumes the stance of Valentine. It functions as avant-propos, paraphrase, setting for Valentine.
Valentine begins with the same driven intensity with which Animus III ends. The work is one of the most difficult ever written for the contrabass and demands that the player attack the instrument with bow, tympany stick, both hands alternating percussive tapping on the body of the instrument with pizzicato harmonics, while the voice sustains tones, sings counterpoints, and punctuates accents. All of this necessitates the player's assaulting the instrument with an almost deSade-like concentration (hence the title). Valentine moves in the opposite direction from Animus III – from intensity to euphoria. – JACOB DRUCKMAN
From the back cover: Jacob Druckman has produced a substantial list of works, several with electronic elements, a number of which have been recorded on Nonesuch, CRI, and Turnabout. He has also written for theater, films, and dance, and his music has been employed by the Joffrey City Center Ballet for the past several seasons. The works heard in this album, composed to a Nonesuch Records commission, have been adapted by choreographer Gerald Arpino for his ballets Solarwind (Animus III) and Valentine.
Born in Philadelphia in 1928, Mr. Druckman has degrees from The Juilliard School of Music; he also studied in Paris at the École normale de musique and at Tanglewood with Aaron Copland. He has been the recipient of numerous grants and awards, among them Guggenheim Grants in 1957 and 1968, the Society for the Publication of American Music publication award in 1967, Fulbright Grant in 1954, and he was honored by the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the National Institute of Arts and Letters in 1969. He has been commissioned by the Koussevitzky Foundation in the Library of Congress, the Groupe de recherches musicales (Radiodiffusion-Television française), LADO for the Juilliard Quartet, the Walter M. Naumburg Founda- tion, and others.
The composer now resides in New York where he has been teaching at Juilliard since 1957, and he has been associated with the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center since 1967.
Virtuoso clarinetist and conductor Arthur Bloom has performed with every major musical ensemble and orchestra in New York. As clarinetist he has, since 1954, given premiere performances of 112 works – many of them composed for him. His affiliations with the Contemporary Chamber Ensemble, the Lark and Dorian Quintets (he was a founder of the latter two ensembles), and with all the important new-music performance groups in New York City throughout the 1960s, have enabled him to participate in the creation of an extraordinary amount of challenging and important new music.
Mr. Bloom holds degrees from the Juilliard School of Music in New York, where he studied with Augustin Duques (clarinet) and Jean Morel (conducting). His activities as a conductor encom- pass 37 programs of orchestral repertoire, and Mr.Bloom has conducted the premieres of 87 compo- sitions, including that of Gustav Mahler's Tenth Symphony as realized by Joseph Wheeler (1965).
Alvin Brehm, whose remarkable virtuosity as a contrabass player has contributed to the creation of a number of new works for the instrument, is a composer in his own right. Mr. Brehm studied with Wallingford Riegger and at the Juilliard School of Music, is Artist-in-Residence at the State University of New York at Stonybrook, and is a faculty member of the Manhattan School of Music. As instru- mentalist, Alvin Brehm has appeared with the Budapest and Lenox String Quartets, the New York Woodwind Quintet, and with Alexander Schneider at the White House in Washington.
As soloist in contemporary-music series, Mr. Brehm is active in college and community concerts. His compositions have been performed in Europe and the Far East on U.S. State Department tours as well as throughout the U.S.A., and several of his works have been recorded on Golden Crest, Trilogy, and Nonesuch Records.
Born in Philadelphia in 1928, Mr. Druckman has degrees from The Juilliard School of Music; he also studied in Paris at the École normale de musique and at Tanglewood with Aaron Copland. He has been the recipient of numerous grants and awards, among them Guggenheim Grants in 1957 and 1968, the Society for the Publication of American Music publication award in 1967, Fulbright Grant in 1954, and he was honored by the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the National Institute of Arts and Letters in 1969. He has been commissioned by the Koussevitzky Foundation in the Library of Congress, the Groupe de recherches musicales (Radiodiffusion-Television française), LADO for the Juilliard Quartet, the Walter M. Naumburg Founda- tion, and others.
The composer now resides in New York where he has been teaching at Juilliard since 1957, and he has been associated with the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center since 1967.
Virtuoso clarinetist and conductor Arthur Bloom has performed with every major musical ensemble and orchestra in New York. As clarinetist he has, since 1954, given premiere performances of 112 works – many of them composed for him. His affiliations with the Contemporary Chamber Ensemble, the Lark and Dorian Quintets (he was a founder of the latter two ensembles), and with all the important new-music performance groups in New York City throughout the 1960s, have enabled him to participate in the creation of an extraordinary amount of challenging and important new music.
Mr. Bloom holds degrees from the Juilliard School of Music in New York, where he studied with Augustin Duques (clarinet) and Jean Morel (conducting). His activities as a conductor encom- pass 37 programs of orchestral repertoire, and Mr.Bloom has conducted the premieres of 87 compo- sitions, including that of Gustav Mahler's Tenth Symphony as realized by Joseph Wheeler (1965).
Alvin Brehm, whose remarkable virtuosity as a contrabass player has contributed to the creation of a number of new works for the instrument, is a composer in his own right. Mr. Brehm studied with Wallingford Riegger and at the Juilliard School of Music, is Artist-in-Residence at the State University of New York at Stonybrook, and is a faculty member of the Manhattan School of Music. As instru- mentalist, Alvin Brehm has appeared with the Budapest and Lenox String Quartets, the New York Woodwind Quintet, and with Alexander Schneider at the White House in Washington.
As soloist in contemporary-music series, Mr. Brehm is active in college and community concerts. His compositions have been performed in Europe and the Far East on U.S. State Department tours as well as throughout the U.S.A., and several of his works have been recorded on Golden Crest, Trilogy, and Nonesuch Records.
Side One (15:39)
Animus III for clarinet & tape
Arthur Bloom, Clarinet
Side Two (18:21)
synapse VALENTINE for electronic tape & Contrabass
Alvin Brehm, contrabass
Electronic tape realized at the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center
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