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American Composers Orchestra’s season opened on Wednesday, October 8, 2003 at Carnegie Hall, with a program featuring the long-awaited New York premiere of Steve Reich’s Different Trains, an evocative musical landscape for string orchestra and pre-recorded tape. Also on the program was the New York premiere of Anna Weesner’s Still Things Move, works by John Adams and Charles Wuorinen, as well as Irving Fine’s rarely performed Serious Song: Lament for String Orchestra and Alan Hovhaness’ haunting The Holy City.
The concert presented a dramatic, intimate, and diverse musical experience exploring the emotional range of music for string instruments—alone, with other instruments, and with electronic tape—with sonorities ranging from mystical to gritty to somber, and rhythms from minimalist to mechanical and dance-inspired. The program also contrasted music by some of today’s leading composers, from the prototype minimalist Steve Reich to serialist stalwart Charles Wuorinen.
For this soundAdvice survey, we asked listeners how they felt about the use of recorded speech in the music by Adams and Reich. As usual there was no agreement, as these comments illustrate:
And the dissent only grew stronger when comparing between Adams’s and Reich’s use of recorded speech:“Speech adds a whole other dimension to the music.”
“Recorded speech is an acoustic manifestation abhorrent to live orchestra.”
“I loved the recorded speech. It made for a totally new experience.”
We also asked audience members how they felt their experience of listening to a piece is affected by the presence of the composers in the concert hall. (Both Charles Wuorinen and Anna Weesner were in attendance). Most seem to feel it added something to the experience:“Adam’s use is not successful. The speech is a layer on top of a musical bed. Reich’s use is revelatory; the speech is the foundation of the composition.”
“In the Adams, it provided strong contrast to the instrumental parts in mood, texture, even tempo-very effective…but the orchestra is too large for the voices in the Reich.”
“Gripping in the Adams. In the Reich, the idea was fine, but too much was incomprehensible.”
“Jesus talk in the Adams was offensive! I liked the speech in the Reich because it was integrated with the music and was mysterious.”
But there were a few for whom there seemed to be little if any effect:“Yes. It gives the feeling of being part of the creative process.”
“Yes. It adds a special excitement. Also, I am more likely to feel positively about the piece—it’s harder to be objective!”
“Because I was trained as a composer, I experience a vicarious empathy, mostly for premieres only, when I can relive the experience of hearing a piece for the first time.”
“Of course. The performance is personalized, especially if there’s
been a pre-concert lecture.”“No question it adds an element. I simply don’t warm to Wuorinen, but knowing he was there made me listen more attentively than
I would have.”“Yes. I feel honored to see composers here.”
We then gave each audience member the hypothetical opportunity to commission any one of the six composers on the program (even those no longer living) to write a new piece. Our audience responses evoked strong opinions and varied opinions about their favorites and their feelings about the future of contemporary concert musi. It was clear Steve Reich has won many listeners hearts and ears:“No. I try to evaluate the music on its own terms.”
“Maybe I assume the musicians will try harder to embody the composer’s
intent”“I politely applaud more, even if I don’t care for the piece.’”
“If I had known Anna Weesner was in the audience, I might have paid closer attention to the differences in the movements.”
And John Adams, perhaps today’s most heard orchestral composer had his champions:“Reich—but the young Reich; his music in early days had character and guts.”
“Reich’s music has more of a 21st century sensibility.”
“I would pick Adams because I found his piece to be really exciting and the hall seemed to be electric.”And some couldn’t decide between the two minimalists:
“Tough call—I’d have to choose between Adams and Reich. Adams is haunting and evocative. Reich is simply amazing.”The hardcore hypothetical supporters of Charles Wuorinen’s next composition praised his masterful technique and strong commitment to his aesthetic. This was fairly typical:
“I’d choose to commission Wuorinen because of his great use of non-standard orchestral power”There were quite a few votes for Irving Fine, the “old master” of the group:
“Irving Fine. He’s the only one with any talent!”And more than a few for the “new kid on the block”:
“I’d choose to commission Anna Weesner, simply because I’d like to hear more of her music, previously unknown to me. I admire her ability to welcome the audience with accessibility and reward it withWe’ve always suspected that Alan Hovhaness, with his mystical and iconoclastic music, had a few :“dark horse” groupies, and they were clearly well represented at the concert:
complexity. And I suspect we enjoy listening to the same composers, like
Stravinsky, Copland, and Ives.”
“I would want Hovhaness to write me a new piece, because I love his use of non-western techniques and the ever-present ‘mystic’ sound in his music.”
“Alan Hovhaness! I’ve never heard a piece of his I didn’t respond to.”
