The New York School
The term "New York School" refers in music to a circle of composers in the 1950's who orbited around John Cage: Morton Feldman, Earle Brown, Christian Wolff and David Tudor above all. Their music paralleled the music and events of the Fluxus group, and drew its name from the New York School of mostly Abstract Expressionist painters who had got their start in the 40's: Robert Motherwell, Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Mark Rothko, Franz Kline et al. (There was also a New York School of poets, among them Frank O'Hara, John Ashbery and Kenneth Koch.)
What brought these artists together – and together they were, since they often shared neighborhoods and even collaborated – was a faith in the liberation of the unconscious and an excitement drawn from the street energies of Manhattan. Among the composers, Cage exerted his benign influence through his interest in rhythm and percussion, through his meditative philosophy and contemplation of Eastern religions, through the patronage he could offer via the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, and through his generally, genially energetic personality.
This compact disc offers multiple realizations by the solo percussionist Max Neuhaus of scores by three key members of the New York School: Brown, Feldman and Cage. Neuhaus' own comments on their scores and his way of interpreting them can be found elsewhere in this booklet. In general terms, all three composers notated their scores in ways that invited individual interpretation.
Hence they conformed to the ethos of the 60's – not to the blend of hippie mysticism and pop commercialism that defined that decade toward its end, but to a broader notion of personal liberation, in which the individual artist (both the individual composer and the individual performing musician, in this case) was liberated to express himself. Conventional notation in the Western tradition was giving way to symbolic, even graphic evocations of the sounds the composer heard in his ears – and yet the scores urged performers to surprise the composers, too. Graphic notation in particular, of course, was a way for composers to reach out to painters – to become painters. Graphic scores became a Feldman specialty for a while, although that for The King of Denmark looks more like Chinese calligraphy.
It was no accident that Max Neuhaus came of age as a solo percussionist in this era. Had he been born earlier than 1939, he would have played in the more conventional ensemble percussion pieces popular in the 1930's. But in the 60's he was allowed to express himself, to revel in timbral color (including the use of electronics, as in the amplification of the cymbals in the Brown performances) and in giddy dialogue between notated compositional intention and performer expression. Each of the realizations on this disc is a valid response to the scores, yet each is different, almost a new piece of music, as much by Neuhaus as by Cage, Feldman or Brown.
John Rockwell, New York City, 2004
Notes
Earle Brown, Four Systems - For Four Amplified Cymbals (Realization date, 1964)
Brown's score consists completely of horizontal lines of various lengths and thicknesses. The constant thickness of each individual line stimulated me to search for and find an interesting percussion sound with a constant dynamic nature – not the usual one with its initial burst of the attack and sudden and then gradual decay. After considerable experimentation I settled on the idea of using a metal rod with continuous screw threads to 'bow' a set of cymbals. Rubbing it down their edges gave me the constant dynamic I was looking for.
Over years of playing cymbals, I had been struck by the difference of hearing them up close while playing them and their sound from a distance. Close, they are full of rich complex moving textures that get lost even a short distance away. The age of audio amplification was just dawning, and I was able to find a way to amplify these beautiful hidden sounds.
In the early fifties Earle Brown invented 'open form' and 'graphic notation'. Four Systems has the sense of freedom that these terms imply. The score's horizontal lines exist on many different planes, overlapping one another to form (if one equates horizontal space with time) various patterns of entrance and duration. Rather than a strict interpretation of these patterns, during the performance I allowed my eye to pick out various combinations that seemed interesting or relevant to that particular moment in the realization's flow. This produced an improvisation, but one with a very definite relationship to the score.
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Morton Feldman, The King of Denmark (Realization date, 1964)
The piece was written for me to premier at the New York Avant Garde festival in the fall of 1964. Feldman and I had several meetings at my studio on East Tenth Street over the previous summer. He wanted to hear my instruments and explore techniques. With Morty, at that time, it was always about finding ways to play more softly.
In the second or third session, he was still insisting, 'no, it's too loud, too loud'. I suddenly remembered how, as percussion students, we used to practice our parts on stage just before a concert started. In order that the audience not hear us, we used our fingers instead of sticks. I put down my sticks and started to play with just my fingers. Morty was dumbstruck, 'that's it, that's it!' he yelled.
This work is played throughout only with the fingers. Like most of Feldman's music, it is extremely soft and without attacks. The score specifies the relative pitch of each note (high, medium or low), its relative time, and in some cases the specific instruments.
Much of Feldman's music, because it is so soft, has the effect of putting a magnifying glass on that area of dynamic between pianissimo and piano – we find all sorts of things we never saw before. Because of the extremely quiet nature of this piece, much of it can only be heard (at least, in one sense of the word) on a recording.
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John Cage, 27' 10.554" for a Percussionist - Realization '64
John Cage, 27' 10.554" for a Percussionist - Realization '65
This is the last work in Cage's '10,000 things' series and was written in 1956, three years before Stockhausen's solo percussion piece Zyklus.
Cage uses the vertical position of the notes to indicate volume. Time is indicated by horizontal space with one page corresponding to one minute. The work has three types of sound events: point events, line events and a mixture of points and lines. A note in the score says the work may be segmented and the segments superimposed in any way to provide duets, trios, etc. The percussion instruments are represented as four lines in a system corresponding to four instrument groups: metal, wood, skin and all others. The performer makes the choice of the actual instruments used.
In Realization '64 I chose an amplified Tam Tam and a large automobile spring for the metals, an amplified wood scraper for wood, a timpani for skin and finally an FM tuner for the 'other'.
For Realization '65 I decided to create an electronic mini-instrument. Instead of the rich timbres of amplified percussion instruments, though, I wanted to play with sounds that were sparse and dry. I built a small frame and mounted metal rods, wood, a rawhide cord and a piece of plastic on it and amplified these with contact microphones. I then made an accompaniment tape – concrete sounds from Realization '64 spliced according to the score – resulting, in effect, in a duet with myself.
Reviews
"Max Neuhaus is a rare musician. His performance is at one with his intention; in his every gesture there is dance. There is no gap or unsureness to blur the clarity of the sound-idea. And his intention always grows out of a sensitive understanding of the music.
His choice of program demonstrated a mind searching out the full potential of his instruments (even beyond conventional procedures). The first piece, 'Reaktionen', by Bo Nilsson, was a pleasant kind of prelude into the realm of percussion sounds. While Mr. Neuhaus played one realization, another previously tape-recorded one was played back simultaneously. It is an elegant composition, no more, no less.
Earle Brown's 'Four Systems', next on the program, is quite a different matter. It is notated in a graphic manner, using lines of different thicknesses and lengths to indicate dynamics and duration, in a field (the four systems) that indicates the range of pitch. (It can be performed by any instruments, though it was originally composed for the pianist David Tudor.) That's all that is given. From there Mr. Neuhaus took it and traveled into fantastic realms. For his realization he suspended several different-sized cymbals and attached contact microphones to each. Touching (rubbing, tapping) each with a variety of metal rods, he created a kind of continuous melodic line that varied from a gentle rasping to an ear-shocking clamor, and all of the nuances in between. Within the relatively small timbre of the cymbals, Mr. Neuhaus created music that was always spacious, going beyond its seeming limitations. It was an exciting experience that cannot be forgotten.
The third composition was Karlheinz Stockhausen's 'Zyklus', a guttural, dramatic composition. Again Mr. Neuhaus changed to meet and realize a different conception. He moved in harmony with the music, transforming the virtuoso demands of the piece into intense expressive energy.
After the intermission, John Cage's '27' 10.554" for a Percussionist' was presented. The numbers in the title indicate the time-length of performance, and the score indicates the sequence in time of four general materials: wood, metal, skin, and a fourth by choice of the performer, not included in the category of the first three. (A radio was used.) Mr. Neuhaus set up his choice of specific instruments, sat down in the midst of them, and played. After a while the range of the instruments explored became a kind of continuum, but then the music began to reveal still more subtle possibilities within this timbre range. The radio was a touch of genius on Mr. Neuhaus's part: always a 'radio' but much more than that."
Malcolm Goldstein, Village Voice,
June 1964
"The final work on Max Neuhaus's solo percussion concert last night at Carnegie Recital Hall was perfect for primary night. Its instrumentation included an FM tuner.
In the manner of the work's composer, John Cage, there were many other sounds, too, from an immense battery of instruments that Mr. Neuhaus struck, rubbed, tickled, patted and beat the stuffings out of at times. To his own considerable energies the percussionist added electronic amplification, so that not only the initial impact tore at the ears, but also the echo as well.
At odd moments fragments of the tuner were heard, none for long enough to be intelligible, but all recognizable as election-night sounds: ''s headquarters. Come in, John. The very ....' Or, 'Congressman Hea ....' And other snatches, all spoken importantly, as election announcers do.
The Cage piece was called 27' 10.554" – which describes its length as timed by Mr. Neuhaus's stopwatch. As music, it was threatening, frightening, disjunct, and although not predictable in detail it was in effect.
Incidentally, the tuner was Mr. Neuhaus's own choice. The piece was written for four groups of instruments, three of which were classified by the composer according to the materials of which they are made: metal, wood, skin, and the fourth to be chosen by the performer.
Equally frightening and almost as loud was Earle Brown's 'Four Systems', for four sizes of electronically amplified cymbals. Here, the composer played with timbres and he gave a great deal of freedom to the performer in working out details of timing.
Again, the choice of instruments was left to the performer. For instance, the piece has been performed on the piano in place of the cymbals with four differently pitched sets of tone clusters.
But the limitation to four strong timbres of the same kind makes for a compelling unity, provided the performer's judgment is as dramatic as Mr. Neuhaus's was.
The other two percussion works sounded almost conventional compared with the Cage and Brown. Bo Nilsson's 'Reaktionen' was a plodding succession of puddles of sound with pauses between. Its notes were written out in detail, in distinction to the Cage and the Brown.
Karlheinz Stockhausen's 'Zyklus' was also written out carefully, with full instructions to the performer, but it was anything but plodding. Its splendid, altogether satisfying juxtaposition of timbres, its strong rhythmic gestures and its firm sense of direction made it a pleasure to hear. Mr. Neuhaus played it, and all else, beautifully."
Theodore Strongin, New York Times,
3 June 1964
These texts were published as liner notes for the CD Max Neuhaus, The New York School (nine realizations of Cage, Feldman, Brown), Alga Marghen (plana-N 22NMN.053), released in 2004. Portions of the notes on individual works were first published as liner notes for the Columbia Masterworks LP Electronics and Percussion, Five Realizations by Max Neuhaus (MS 7139), issued in 1968.