Author: William Brooks

Solo Instrument: For Violin

I first became acquainted with Claudia Watson in 1985 or 1986. She had already become the violinist of choice for new music at the University of Illinois, and my memory is that the first of the many times I exploited her extraordinary intelligence and abilities was in the concert I put together for performances in St. Louis at the convention of what was then called ASUC. Subsequently, among many always rewarding interactions, her participation in the extended rehearsals and performance of Pierrot Lunaire stands out. In June 1990, I wrote what I later called “both a gift to and an etude for” Claudia; this was For Violin. In early 1991 I submitted the score to the Indiana State University Festival committee for consideration; they accepted the piece, and thus the first performance was given by Claudia in Terre Haute on September 12, 1991. I was not in attendance; this was my wife’s internship year, and we were both in Charlottesville, VA. I may, however, have come back for two October performances that Claudia gave at the University of Illinois.

Thereafter the piece was played by Roger Zahab in 1993, twice (the second was at the SCI convention in Cleveland); by Claudia at CalArts in a gorgeous performance which was fortunately recorded and is available on SoundCloud; and by Anna Cleworth in 2000 at the University of Illinois. Claudia also made a studio recording in 1995, technically but not artistically superior to the California recording a year before.

In program notes I describe For Violin as “deliberately unsystematic,” a phrase that meant more then than today. But it is true that I simply started writing and finished when I deemed the composition complete. Some revisions were made, of course, but there was no attempt to fit the music to a pre-existing scheme. I worked closely with Claudia to ensure that the notation was practical and specific; the harmonics, in particular, which might seem simpler if taken towards the bridge, are calculated to make phrases and shapes possible that would otherwise be obscured by athletic shifts of position.

Music Theater: Exhibit

The genesis of this conceptual piece was a concert of “piano theatre” that Pauline Oliveros proposed, probably near the start of 1976. I don’t recall what else was performed, but Pauline hoped to offer Translyvanian Etude, a short scene in which the lid of a grand piano would be opened very slowly from inside, and Ed Harkins, in full Dracula garb, would rise spectrally from the bed of the piano. This would require a piano with all the works removed, which Pauline managed to obtain from a local piano firm. The opportunity suggested to me a set of what I then called “piano tableaux”, which in the event were distributed without notice through the program. The empty piano was placed behind a second stage curtain, together with a stanchion bearing an announcement placard, vaudeville-style. Between other acts the piano behind the second curtain was repositioned to represent five “tableaux” in succession: Piano at Work; Piano at Play; Piano at Prayer; Piano Asleep; and Dead Piano. For each tableau, the second curtain slowly opened, remained open for about three minutes (time enough for the laughter to die down and the image to be fully appreciated), and then slowly closed.

My calendar for 1976 records, for February 12, “pick up piano”; and, for February 18, “piano theatre concert” (I have not yet been able to confirm the date or the location with another source). Photographs were taken, but they may have been lost; in any case I cannot now locate them. However, early in 1978 I received a letter from someone in Wisconsin—not yet identified—who requested information about the UCSD concert. I sketched five pictures depicting the various tableaux the best I could, and I wrote Jay Kinney, who was an artist and a member of the Bryant’s Ridge community to which I still officially belonged, to ask him to make proper drawings. I don’t believe Jay ever did that—or even responded—so there the matter rested. But I considered the piece complete, though only in fair copy, and in subsequent work lists over the next several years I listed the title as Exhibit.

The matter is complicated, however, because in 1977 and 1978 I titled this work Field Study, reserving the title Exhibit for a different theatre piece, in which a case is constructed around a grand piano. Correspondence with Conrad De Jong—instigated by Pauline Oliveros—makes this clear.

Solo Voice: Duets

Duets evolved from a series of experiments undertaken in the Keele Electronic Music Studio, partly in response to my encounter with Tim Souster, much of whose work involved both improvisation and live electronics. A prime source for the composition was the work with extended vocal techniques that I had done at UCSD, but the interpenetration of this with technology resulted directly from the invaluable tutelage I received from Tim and from Cliff Bradbury, the studio technician.

I probably began working with the equipment in November or December 1977, once I was settled at Keele. By February 1978 I had begun to sketch out alternative configurations, and these formed themselves into the set of ideas that became Duets sometime in March. As the concert date (March 16) approached, I finalized the concepts and the various settings; I recall some very long hours in Moberly Hall, after the equipment had been moved from the studio, during which I had to recalibrate much of the work to function in the new environment. For similar reasons—and lack of time—the London performance that followed a week later was, I recall, much less successful. The actual notation of the score—that is, the written descriptions—probably followed the March performances. The score has been issued by Frog Peak, and a recording (four tracks) of the first performance is available on SoundCloud.

I expected the two 1978 performances to be the only ones, given the transience of technology; but in 1988, when Chris Brown invited me for a residency at Mills College and asked what pieces of mine might be performed, I suggested Duets, along with Medley. I suggested the latter because Chris is such an amazing pianist; and I suggested the former because of the venerable Mills studios, which I thought might have the antiquated equipment needed. The latter turned out to be only partly correct; the other equipment, nearly identical with the first performance, was assembled by Chris in a series of marathon travels up and down California. I had originally expected to perform the piece myself, but it became evident that rehearsal time would be insufficient for that. As a result, I suggested that Ed Harkins be invited, so that I could manipulate the technology offstage. Ed did a wonderful job, in part by favoring the movements that relied most intensely on his own vocal techniques and avoiding those that relied on careful calibration of the technology.

I doubt the piece could be performed with today’s equipment, which is not only too reliable but also too precise. But I might be surprised; certainly, in theory, one could design a digital interface that would successfully mimic the eccentricities of 1970s pitch followers and synthesizers. Whether that’s worth doing is very much an open question.

Solo Voice: Medley

I was appointed a Fulbright Professor at the University of Keele for the year 1977-1978. Although I submitted a proper and, presumably, persuasive application, in retrospect the appointment probably came about primarily through the intervention of the late Peter Dickinson, then Professor of Music at Keele and the person who had managed to broker the professorship with the Fulbright Commission. We had met, I believe, at the Ives Festival-Conference in 1974, though it may be that Peter had stopped by Illinois during my years as a graduate student. In any case, Peter subsequently became a lifelong friend and was enormously helpful to me, especially in maintaining and expanding my presence in the UK.

It is certainly Peter who is solely responsible for Medley: he arranged for a commission from West Midlands Arts, brokered through from the Worfield Trust; he encouraged and critiqued the composition as it took shape; and he and his sister Meriel gave the first set of performances. Medley is only one of many reasons why I am deeply indebted to him.

Aesthetically and historically, Medley is closely entangled with Madrigals: the second and third Madrigals were completed in December 1977; Medley was begun in early 1978. Medley was premiered in July; the first and fourth Madrigals were premiered in October. In both pieces I was unashamedly infatuated with what was not yet called a polystylistic postmodernism, one that relied especially on American popular idioms. Both pieces drew from my own experiences and preferences—from performances, recordings, and research that were deliberately highly disparate. Madrigals presented four of these in successive movements; in Medley I wanted the differences to be more directly juxtaposed and the sequence to depend on choices made by the performers.

The composing was done in stages. For the first performance (July 1978) I prepared a single, straight-through score from which Peter and Meriel performed. This closely resembled later versions, but there were some discrepancies. Then, in the autumn, I completed the remaining sections. I was still working out the final structure in October, and the hand-copied score was not complete until mid-1979. The first performance that used the final score was given by Sondra Stowe and Bennett Lerner on May 26, 1982.

In 1984, I approached Sylvia Smith (of Smith Publications) about issuing some of my music. She was interested, and Medley was the first work she distributed, with copies made available in the summer of 1985. However, in about 2003 I began to place my scores with Frog Peak. A decade later, I asked Sylvia whether I could reacquire the rights to Medley, and she graciously agreed. There then ensued a lengthy editorial process—which entailed re-contacting some of the performers who had done the piece—as I tried to rediscover and set right various small errors. It was not until 2023 that a truly definitive score was published by Frog Peak.

Medley has received several truly wonderful performances by fabulous musicians. The premiere was given by Peter and Meriel Dickinson at a charity event organized by the Worfield Trust in Worfield, Shropshire, England. No recording was made, but the program survives (see below; the original is in my archive at the University of Illinois).

Over the years, Medley has had upwards of a dozen performances. Because the score is comprised of seven distinct units of material and a map summarizing their permissible interconnections, each set of performers assembles a continuity that has been tailored to their interests and abilities. Each version is different, and all are equally valid. I have about eight performance recordings that demonstrate a good range of the alternatives; unfortunately, most are suitable only as documentation. However, I have uploaded to SoundCloud two quite good recordings—by Amy Neuburg and Chris Brown, and by Teri De Sario and Bill Purse. I’m hugely grateful to everyone who has done this piece; it’s not easy (you bet!), and it requires imagination as well as virtuosity.

Music Theater

It’s pretty obvious what this bay in my metaphoric library will eventually contain. But there’s nothing substantive here yet. (Remember: . . . and that is poetry . . .)

As a start, however, I’ve extracted from my CV a short list of compositions for music theater, broadly conceived to include works with movement, dance, lighting, etc.:

that it was built . . . (1967; ten percussionists, ten dancers)
Untitled (1972; eight singers, two actors)
ensemble (1974; untrained performers)
Wood/stone (1974; untrained performers)
Exhibit (1976; modified piano)
InSignIam (1978; six dancers, six-channel fixed media)
The Legacy (1982–83; four singers, live electronics, actor, three actor-mimes)
Makers (1992; cello, flute, violin, percussion, clarinet)
Metamorphoses (2005; baritone, soprano, fixed media, projections)
Everlasting Voices (2012; clarinet, actor, fixed media)

Recordings

Texts

Lectures

History