Roger Sessions Research Articles

Roger Sessions: How a “Difficult” Composer Got That Way by Frederick Prausnitz. Oxford University Press, £30.00.

<i>Roger Sessions: How a “Difficult” Composer Got That Way</i> by Frederick Prausnitz. Oxford University Press, £30.00.

Boston, Symphony Hall: Harbison's ‘Requiem’ and Carter's ‘Boston Concerto’

Any Bostonian who cared about newer music, particularly newer American music, had long been resigned to the unhappy knowledge that nothing of any particular interest was ever likely to be going on at Symphony Hall. It was a shock, therefore, when it became apparent this fall that there were quite a few things happening in the current season of the Boston Symphony which one would very much want to hear. This new and happy state of things can almost certainly be directly attributed to the Music Director Designate, James Levine. Levine's commitment to newer American music was made manifest by the one program that he conducted this season, which included, along with the Brahms First Symphony, Roger Sessions's Piano Concerto and John Harbison's Third Symphony. Works have been commissioned to celebrate Levine's first season as Music Director, 2004–2005, from Milton Babbitt, Yehudi Wyner, and Harbison, among others. This re-connexion of the orchestra to one of the proudest features of its history under Serge Koussevitzky is cause for celebration. This spring's concerts by the Boston Symphony have included two new works of more than passing interest.

Roger Sessions: how a "difficult" composer got that way

Roger Sessions: how a "difficult" composer got that way

Enterprise computing

In the March/April 1998 Micro Review, I reviewed a book by Roger Sessions about Microsoft's vision for distributed computing. Microsoft has continued to march down that road. As I found out at the VSLive conference in February 2002, the company seems to have assembled all of the pieces (COM+, .NET, C#, and Visual Basic) and is ready to put them together with XML into something called Web services.

Guest Editorial Open source software: investigating the software engineering, psychosocial and economic issues

Guest Editorial Open source software: investigating the software engineering, psychosocial and economic issues

Analysis and Criticism

As Julian Horton's provocative discussion of the tension between modern methodologies of interpretatio n and the traditional claims of analysis suggests, writing about music is a frustrating enterprise. To a great extent, the difficulty arises from the performative nature of music as well as from the inherent ambiguity of music's meaning. The subject is elusive. Music is diachronic for the listener, the reader, and the performer. The accumulated experience of an event counts, as does each unit of experience in a sequential unfolding as each occurs. So too does the expectation, the imagined work. The interaction, in anticipation, encounter, and recollection, of psychological dimensions with acoustic variables alters the stability of the objects of interpretatio n and analysis. Roger Sessions was reputed to have remarked that the best performance of the Ninth Symphony of Beethoven, the only one he considered adequate, was the one he heard in his head while reading the score. What was he referring to and what was he hearing? Did what he heard remain the same, even to him, when he repeated the experience? Even in the act of recollection by an individual, there is a nasty instability to the subject. When one looks at the printed or manuscript page, is there an ideal or even minimum adequate sounding equivalent on which we all might agree? Does one construct an ideal mental image which is then imagined as heard as one reads, or does one piece together sonic fragments and even memories of actual hearings that become adapted into coherent anticipations of a future real or potential event? Is one's imagination predictive or even sufficient in terms of what notation implies? Given the multiplicity of synchronic events, on what basis does one assign priority in the mental construct of sound? A written text in a novel may be complex, but overtly only one word sounds or follows at a time. Which event and what sound or even manner of violin or piano playing is implied or foregrounded by either the whole text of a Beethoven sonata or any specific moment? How might we, using language, reconcile several readers' accounts of their contradictory anticipations of sound? An oft-repeated question of conductors is: what do they hear when

Notes from the editor. The training of musicians

The publication of a modem scholarly history of the Juilliard School of Music by Andrea Olmstead (who has made significant contributions through her work on Roger Sessions) is indeed timely. The book, Juilliard: A History (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1999) is rich in historical detail. It offers readers tantalizing extracts from archival sources as it proceeds to chronicle the complicated evolution of the modern-day Juilliard. It offers a useful tale of the irrationalities and pitfalls associated with extraordinary and unexpected philanthropy. The difficult history of Juilliard is a powerful case study in how private institutions not only depend on charismatic personalities and great wealth but must be able to outwit and survive their dominance. The history of America's leading conservatory can help focus the growing debate about the future of professional training in music. The establishment of freestanding conservatories in America has followed a path somewhat comparable to other types of institutions in American post-secondary education. European models have been imitated and adapted. The role assumed by conservatories as freestanding academies in the European style has placed the training of professional musicians into a category comparable to engineers and, to invoke a less flattering comparison, also accountants. The training of musicians is understood as focused on practical skills and technical proficiency defined quite narrowly. As Olmstead makes clear, the teaching of composition, history, theory, and music literature at Juilliard has not consistently been one of its claims to international fame. What has sustained Juilliard over the years is its capacity to attract the most talented students in music performance and expose them to teachers of international repute. To its credit, Juilliard expanded its mission within the performing arts to include theater and dance even though these remain secondary to its reputation as the best place to train instrumentalists. It is curious that one of the key figures in the history of Juilliard was John Erskine, English professor at Columbia University and writer, who served as Juilliard's president (1928-37) during a pivotal period in its evolution. Erskine's claim to a footnote in history is not dependent on his role at Juilliard, however. Apart from his status as a minor man of

The Sounds of Whitman: A Composer's View

Analyzes various musical settings of Whitman's poetry, including works by Ned Rorem, Vincent Persichetti, Roger Sessions, and Block herself.

Elliott Carter: collected essays and lectures, 1937-1995

Part 1 Surveying compositional scene: composer's viewpoint (1946) a further step (1958) challenge of new (1960-62/94) fallacy of mechanistic approach (1946) musique serielle aujourd'hui (1964/94) ISCM Festival, Rome (1959) Rasputin's End and Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk (1960) letter from Europe (1963) ISCM Festival, Amsterdam (1963/94). Part 2 music: once again swing - also American music (1939) music in New York scene (1940) agony of modern music in America, 1955 (1955/94) rhythmic basis of music (1955) European roots of musical culture (1961/94) Expressionism and music (1965/72) the composer is a university commodity (1970). Part 3 Charles Ives: case of Mr Ives (1939) Ives today - his vision and challenge (1944) an destiny (1946) Charles Ives remembered (1974) documents of a friendship with Ives (1975). Part 4 Some other composers: Gabriel Faure (1945) three late sonatas of Debussy (1959/94) figure, with landscape - Henry F. Gilbert (1943) Stravinsky in 1940 Igor Stravinsky - two tributes (1971) on Edgard Varese (1975/79) Edward Steuermann (1966) Walter Piston (1946) Roger Sessions - violin concerto (1959) in memoriam - Roger Sessions, 1896-1985 (1985/95) in memoriam - Stefan Wolpe, 1902-1972 (1972) two essays on Goffredo Petrassi (1960, 1986) to think of Milton Babbitt (1976) for Pierre Boulez on his 60th (1985). Part 5 Life and work: to be a composer in America (1953/94) composer's choices (circa 1960) shop talk by an composer (1960) time dimension in music (1965) two sonatas, 1948 and 1952 (1969) string quartets No 1, 1951, and No 2, 1959 (1970) orchestral composer's point of view (1970) on Saint-John Perse and concerto for orchestra (1974/94) brass quintet (1974) double concerto, 1961, and duo, 1974 (1975) music and time screen (1976) elle est la musique en personne - a reminiscence of Nadia Boulanger (circa 1985/95) reminiscence of Italy (1988). Part 6 Philosophy, criticism and other arts: more about Balanchine (1937) with dancers (1938) remembering Balanchine (1991/95) theatre and films (1943) genial sage - Paul Rosenfeld (1948) introduction to a poetry reading by W.H. Auden (1969) music as a liberal art (1944) time lecture (1965/94) Gesamtkunstwerk (1966/94) Soviet music (1967/94) music criticism (1972). Appendices: notes on sources published writings by Carter not included in this collection.

Seventy years of composing: An interview with Vivian fine

Vivian Fine is among the pioneering women of contemporary American music. With a career encompassing seventy years (1925–95) and beyond, Fine has produced a wealth of compositions, for which she has achieved recognition through numerous awards, commissions, and grants. Despite influences from various teachers, including Ruth Crawford and Roger Sessions, and contact with many other high-profile American composers of this century, the essence of Fine's music — her hallmark characteristics of linear writing and harmony defined by dissonance — has remained relatively unchanged. In 1996 Vivian Fine, in her eighty-third year, continues to compose with a vigor usually reserved for youth. This interview explores her thoughts on music, shares reminiscences about past teachers and associates, and traces her growth as a composer and an individual.

A Question of Technique: The Second and Third Piano Sonatas of Roger Sessions

Research Article| October 01 1996 A Question of Technique: The Second and Third Piano Sonatas of Roger Sessions Judy Lochhead Judy Lochhead Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Journal of Musicology (1996) 14 (4): 544–578. https://doi.org/10.2307/764072 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Twitter LinkedIn Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation Judy Lochhead; A Question of Technique: The Second and Third Piano Sonatas of Roger Sessions. Journal of Musicology 1 October 1996; 14 (4): 544–578. doi: https://doi.org/10.2307/764072 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentJournal of Musicology Search This content is only available via PDF. Copyright 1996 Regents of the University of California Article PDF first page preview Close Modal You do not currently have access to this content.

A Question of Technique: The Second and Third Piano Sonatas of Roger Sessions

A Question of Technique: The Second and Third Piano Sonatas of Roger Sessions

Strictly Personal, Memories of Yesteryears, Revived with Affection

T ANGLEWOOD, SUMMER OF 1955 . Sal was studying with Roger Sessions, I with Boris Blacher. Sal had been working on a road construction crew, somewhere in Westchester, Scarsdale? Virility oozed out of his tanned body, his gestures, strut, eyes, voice, throaty laughter. He'd recently come back from Florence, from studies with Dallapiccola, with Eva, his first wife, she with a beautiful ornate hand. (I can still visualize her copy of Sal's, twelve-tone to be sure, Mass-which may have been performed that summer.) My wariness notwithstanding-his overt sensuality put me on & off guard-our friendship blossomed. With Al Daniels (whose friendship I also valued that summer, but poor Al couldn't deal with the world), we three often boated on the lake. They both liked my neoclassic Brandeis 1955 piano pieces, but Sal found them unhip, they weren't twelve-tone! ... Skip to New York City mid-1960s performances

The history of American classical music: MacDowell through minimalism

American classical music has come a long way in a short time. From the European-style music that was the norm at the end of the 19th century, a body of music has evolved that at the end of the 20th can be termed authentically and distinctively American. The History of American Classical Music takes an in-depth, panoramic look at this amazing variety of music, how it developed and the often fascinating people who composed it. While the emphasis is on the 20th century, author John Warthen Struble goes back to colonial times to examine all the early influences: the hymns of the First New England School; the genteel musical traditions of the East Coast cities during the 18th and 19th centuries, the folk music of Appalachia and the Mississippi Valley imported by Scottish and Irish settlers; the indigenous music of the North American Indians; the African music brought over and adapted by slaves; the balladry, beginning in the 1820s and continuing even today; and the Creole and Gulf Coast music, an amalgam of French, Spanish, African, Cuban, Haitian and American influences. By the 1920s American classical music had reached its most active stage to date. Many conductors and musicians were willing to play it, enough dedicated patrons and promoters were willing to present it and a brilliant group of American composers existed who spoke a language that the public was, on the whole, willing and able to hear, a group that included the likes of Aaron Copland, Virgil Thomson, Roy Harris and George Gershwin. As university music departments expanded in the 1920s and 30s, Americans like Howard Hanson, Roger Sessions and Walter Piston became influential teachers along with many European composerswho had fled the Nazis. An entire generation of composers were taught and influenced by these academics, and many of these new composers produced music that, at worst, antagonized audiences who found it difficult to understand. The author lays the groundwork for the emergence in th

Gershwin and American Modernists of the 1920s

Like Leonard Bernstein, Duke Ellington, and a host of other innovative figures in American music, George Gershwin straddled the divide between the so-called high and low realms of art. The position must have been exhilarating, providing an opportunity to challenge time-hardened expectations and attempt daring new feats. But for spectators, it was often unsettling. In Gershwin's case, the same critics who heartily acclaimed his popular songs and Broadway shows often winced at his ventures into the concert repertory, as two contrasting scenes from a 1945 film biography of Gershwin vividly illustrate. 1 In the first, Gershwin chats amiably in a Paris nightclub, clearly in familiar surroundings. But in the next, as he wanders through a gallery of contemporary art, the dashing young American appears to have lost his confidence, completely out of place in a European temple of abstract expression. Although broadly drawn, these cinematic snippets convey a common view: Gershwin was at home in the commercial world, but once he ventured into high art, he quickly lost his bearings. In working toward a musical and cultural study of the modernist composers' movement in New York City during the 1920s-a decade when a talented and ultimately powerful generation came of age, including Aaron Copland, Henry Cowell, Roger Sessions, and Virgil Thomson-I have grappled with this stylization of Gershwin, trying to fathom how it took shape and how closely it reflects evidence from the period. 2 After all, Gershwin was of the same age and nationality as the American modernists, and his concert music emerged simultaneously with theirs, receiving performances in the same concert halls and being reviewed by the same critics.3 He and they all aimed for recognition in an international arena and worked to challenge longheld distinctions between lowbrow and highbrow--to use the lingo of the day. A close look at writings from the 1920s by both composers and critics suggests not only that Gershwin at one time

REVIEWS OF BOOKS

Journal Article REVIEWS OF BOOKS Get access Conversations with Roger Sessions. By Andrea Olmstead. pp. (x) + 274. ( Northeastern University Press, Boston, 1987, $18.95. ISBN 1-55553-010-9. ) DAVID NICHOLLS DAVID NICHOLLS Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Music and Letters, Volume 72, Issue 1, February 1991, Pages 151–152, https://doi.org/10.1093/ml/72.1.151 Published: 01 February 1991

Sacred and Secular America: Virgil Thomson's Symphony on a Hymn Tune

Virgil Thomson's life and work are fascinating not only in themselves but because they represent America's musical coming-of-age. Along with Aaron Copland and Roger Sessions, Thomson brought international recognition to American music in the early part of this century. Like his colleagues, he wrote identifiably American music which was nonetheless attractive to music lovers of other lands. His Symphony on a Hymn Tune is one such work, brightly illuminating his achievement and epitomizing his native land. Written in Paris by a young man from Kansas City, the symphony manifested America's thoughts, feelings, and sophistication to the world. Like most Americans, Virgil Thomson came from widely mixed stock. His mother's family roots reached back to Jamestown in the early seventeenth century. His father's family name first appeared in American records in 1717, when a Scottish forebear immigrated to Virginia to become a planter. Virgil was born in 1896 to an upwardly mobile family in Kansas City. The young Thomson's musical interests were encouraged, and he rapidly outgrew several piano teachers. He eventually began collecting fees as a substitute church organist and piano accompanist. At the age of thirteen, Thomson told his parents that he planned to be a musician. Although they did not object, he was so surprised by the vehemence of his own announcement that, as he records in his autobiography, before there was time for any reply I burst out crying and fled upstairs.'

Roger Sessions's Fugal Studies with Ernest Bloch: A Glimpse into the Workshop

Among the holdings of the Firestone Library of Princeton University is a large collection of manuscripts, documenting Roger Sessions's work as a student of composition. The collection, compiled and given to the library by the composer, has been generally available to scholars (as stipulated by Sessions) only in the few years since his death. It thus constitutes an important, yet virtually untouched, resource for investigation of Sessions's life and works.1 The contents of the collection are preserved in three portfolios, corresponding to a basic chronological arrangement of material. One body of manuscriptsundated, but by all indications reflecting work undertaken before 1919-is enclosed in a portfolio labeled Exercises and in Form. The entry on the cover of a second portfolio, Studies in Counterpoint 1933-41', indicates contents that date from a much later time-indeed, well after Sessions's student years. These groups of manuscripts (which represent the earliest and the most recent portions of the collection, respectively) are essential components to the complete picture of Sessions as a student of composition. The focus of this article, however, is on the remaining portfolio. Its contents, dating from 1919-20, are rooted in an especially noteworthy phase of Sessions's training, identified by the title under which the manuscripts are gathered: Studies with Ernest Bloch. The events of Sessions's years as a student of Bloch have been fairly well documented in the scholarly literature.2 It seems that he originally came to Bloch in 1918 in response to a creative crisis that he felt required the special help of a teacher who was also an accomplished

Conversations with Roger Sessions

Interviews with the American composer discuss orchestral and local music, music theory, sessions' life, and fellow musicians and composers.

Roger Sessions and His Music

Roger Sessions and His Music