The Music Of Arthur Custer - Vol. II
Cover art: Andre du Besset
New York Brass Quintet; Maurice Bialkin, Cello.
Serenus Corporation SRS 12031
From the back cover: ABOUT THE COMPOSER – ARTHUR CUSTER was born in Manchester, Connecticut, on April 21, 1923. Since that ancient time he has covered a great deal of territory as artist, scholar and administrator. As artist, that is, as composer, he has written numerous orchestral works, many chamber pieces, a large collection of vocal works in all categories and a sizeable group of works for young musicians. As scholar he has received degrees ranging from Associate in Science (Engineer- ing) at the University of Hartford to the B.A. (University of Connecticut), M.Mus. (University of Redlands) and Ph.D. (University of Iowa); while he has studied composition privately with Paul Pisk, Philip Bezanson and Nadia Boulanger. And kept his ears open (auto-didact). In addition to his studies he has written a considerable body of musicological material for magazines such as The Musical Quarterly, Estafeta Literaria, The Music Educators Journal, Atlantico and the American Composers Alliance Bulletin. As executive-administrator he has been Assistant Dean for Fine Arts at the University of Rhode Island, Dean of the Philadelphia Musical Academy, and Supervisor of Music for the United States Air Force in Spain. While in Spain (three years) he served as Music Consultant to the U.S. Information Agency in Madrid, lecturing extensively in both Spanish and English on aspects of the music of both countries. He was formerly Director of the St. Louis Metropolitan Center for the Arts a similar position to which he now occupies as the Director of the Arts in Education Project of the Rhode Island State Council On The Arts. But it is still safe to say, as Serenus said in its "Music of Arthur Custer - Vol. 1," that musical composition is still the keystone of the great career he is building.
ABOUT THE MUSIC (Composer's notes) – COMMENTS ON THIS WORLD, a song cycle on poems of Abbie Huston Evans for contralto and string quartet, was written for Maureen Forrester in 1967. Miss Evans describes her poetry as "highly personal, reflecting my reaction to the world and to living - which I find unfailingly exciting."
"Northern April" and "This World" are nature poems, simple and direct in their imagery. In "This Bridgehead Generation" the poet reflects in humility on the need for historical distance in assessing the events of our own time: "We are too near... Not till the tumult dies can men make song of what our eyes have seen."
I. NORTHERN APRIL
Gray, brown and blue:
Bleached field, bronzed firwood, sky
Like a babe's eye.
Long-legged winds like boys
Race down pastures to the sea,
With a clatter of bone-dry boughs
And locust pods jingling at the ends of branches.
Wan, spent, disheveled,
Saying, "We have come through,
But that is all,"
The land lies quiet for a little
Before making an effort,
Like a man waking from a fever,
Or a woman who has borne a child.
II.
THIS BRIDGEHEAD GENERATION
We are too near. In the cafe of what we see Silence is better than the sound of words. Homer himself sang not till Trojan swords Were long since rust in an old century.
Not till the tumult dies, and under green Lie all of us, and time has brought to birth Poets whose frame-dust slumbers deep in earth Can men make song of what our eyes have seen.
Side A.
COMMENTS ON THIS WORLD 9:40
(Abbie Huston Evans)
Northern April 3:45
This Bridgehead Generation 2:35
This World 3:20
Maureen Forrester, Contralto
Phoenix String Quartet
PARABOLAS for Viola and Piano 11:55
David Sackson, Viola; Dwight Peltzer, Piano
III. THIS WORLD
Early and late the backdrop is for joy;
The makings of wonder hang upon the air.
Fine, fine, like something seen from under the hand
On a morning in autumn, early, waits this world.
The heart sings out to see it hanging there
Half-apparition, marks it for its own,
Accepts the marvel freely as a child
That bends above the fadeless rock with laughter.
The forestage is the trouble; man made that,
And cannot blame another. (This I knew,
Returning to the changeless purple mountain.)
Inept, impatient, like a fractious child
He tangles ropes and cords into a knot
That all but stops the play. Yet all the while
The makings of wonder hang up on the air,
Early and late the backdrop is for joy.
"Northern April" (C) 1961 by Abbie Huston Evans from her volume, "Fact of Crystal." "This Bridgehead Generation and "This World," (C)1952 by Abbie Huston Evans. From her volume, "Fact of Crystal." Texts used by permission of Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc.
PARABOLAS is a two-movement work for viola and piano. Written for Robert and Gilda Glazer, the piece was completed in St. Louis in March, 1970.
The two movements begin in exactly the same way (the first six measures are identical), and each has a free section in which pitches are given but duration (and therefore synchronization) are left to the discretion of the performers.
The material of the second movement, titled, "Block that Kick, " grows out of the initial idea expressed at the beginning of both movements. A section devoted to trill-like figures is followed by a Scherzando section. If there is a page turner he is expected to rise and conduct this section. The trills and the Scherzando material are used to close the form and bring the piece to a quiet conclusion.
CONCERTO FOR BRASS QUINTET is a one-movement work in four sections. The sections are separated by interludes. The first part is a kind of prelude, for the most part contrapuntal, in which tex- tural and dynamic contrasts are exploited. The music tends toward greater animation at the end of the section, but this gives way to an interlude featuring the two trombones. The second section features rapid figures whose notation is partly aleatoric (the rhythms are specified but the pitches are left to the discretion of the performers). A horn solo provides the interlude leading to the third section, Scherzando, which introduces percussive effects made by striking the music stands with mutes. A trumpet duet forms the interlude which introduces the final section. The composition ends quietly.
I USED TO PLAY BY EAR FOR TWO PIANISTS, ONE PIANO, AND SELECTED OBJECTS - was completed in January, 1971. The four movements heard on this recording are selected from the complete seven-movement work. A theatre piece requiring a con- siderable amount of stage action, the composition relies heavily on improvisational interplay between the two pianists.
The composer counterposes conventionally notated music with im- provised gestures performed inside and outside the piano using four objects: an inflated plastic whiskey bottle (Rhapsodality Booze), a rubber snake, a large toothbrush (Dad, Dad, Guess What), and a stuffed rubber chicken (Fowl Play). In addition to these ob- jects used in making and performing the piece, various percussion instruments (and a kazoo) are required. A key to the general spirit of the work may be found in one of the composer's notes: "High ar- tistic purpose is not necessarily incompatible with low humor. "
Side B.
CONCERTO FOR BRASS QUINTET 8:55
New York Brass Quintet
I USED TO PLAY BY EAR 11:35
Dwight Peltzer, (Duo-) Pianist
RHAPSODY AND ALLEGRO 5:35
Maurice Bialkin, Cello; Dwight Peltzer, Piano
RHAPSODY AND ALLEGRO for Cello and Piano is a small-boned but charming composition dating from the composer's student days (1957). Both movements exploit scale permutations, but in different ways and with decidedly contrasting musical results. "Rhapsody" is all stately lyricism, while the robust lines of "Allegro" derive from the strong rhythmic elements of Custer's language.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS – The glorious voice of MAUREEN FORRESTER is well-known to audiences on six continents. In a recent season she travelled more than 100,000 miles and sang in New Zealand, Japan, Europe and the United States. Her recital tours are sold out. And when she is not appearing in recital her career is occupied with appearance with the great symphonic organizations of the world, concerts with the Bach Aria Group, operatic performances, especially in works of Handel although more recently she has taken on a broad range of roles in what is commonly referred to as "grand opera." She is widely acclaimed for her interpretation of Mahler's "Das Lied von der Erde," "Kindertotenlieder," "Des Knabenwunderhorn" and the "Songs of a Wayfarer. But she is so versatile, so musical, that her repertoire is far too extensive even to be indicated here. She has appeared under the baton of such eminent maestri as Bruno Walter, Otto Klemperer, Herbert von Karajan, George Szell, Leonard Bernstein, Eugene Ormandy, Josef Krips, William Steinberg, Zubin Mehta and Seiji Ozawa.
THE NEW YORK BRASS QUINTET, one of the foremost brass ensembles in the world, was founded by Robert Nagel in 1954 and has been concertizing on an international scale since 1960. Its members are Robert E. Nagel, Jr., trumpet; Allan J. Dean, trumpet; Paul Ingraham, French horn; John W. Swallow, trombone; and Thompson Hanks, tuba. All these men are additionally important soloists and teachers, on the faculties of leading Eastern universities such as Yale, Rutgers, Syracuse, University of Hartford, Juilliard, Mannes, and periodic performers with the Casals Music Festival orchestra, the Metropolitan Opera, Chicago and Minneapolis Symphonies and the New State Ballet orchestra. All the members are also active as brass clinicians as soloists and as a group.
DAVID SACKSON is both first violinist of the PHOENIX STRING QUARTET heard with Miss Forrester and viola soloist in "Parabolas," with Dwight Peltzer. Mr. Sackson has also been heard as the violinist of the Musical Arts Trio in other Serenus recordings.
In the quartet he is joined by William R. Stone, violin; Harry Zaratzian, viola; and Maurice Bialkin, cello. MAURICE BIALKIN is the cellist heard with Dwight Peltzer in the "Rhapsody and Allegro." Like all the musicians here Bialkin is a fine artist with a big, rich tone-one of the best known musicians in New York.
DWIGHT PELTZER, pianist, was brought to Serenus by Arthur Custer for the first Arthur Custer album, in which he performed nobly and well as soloist. In the present album he is heard as a duo-pianist in "I Used To Play By Ear" (he overdubbed the second piano or underdubbed the first -); then he is heard as joint artist with David Sackson and with Maurice Bialkin. He is now Professor of Piano at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. He will be heard in more Serenus Recorded Editions
