Information/Write-up
The texts, spoken by the young narrators in Threnody, are eye-witness accounts by children of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. The orchestra and choruses illustrate this terrifying scene. I had received a commission to write a piece for the Vancouver Junior Symphony Orchestra shortly after arriving to teach at Simon Fraser University.
I wanted to write a piece for those young performers that would make them think about social issues. The Cold War was in high gear in 1967 and the stockpiles of nuclear weapons were rapidly growing. I knew that these extremely graphic accounts of suffering and death would affect both the performers and their parents, forcing them to consider seriously the consequences of nuclear war. Since there were numerous passages where the performers were required to create their own music to the accompaniment of particular texts, they had a more serious role to play than if they had just inherited a ready-made expression from the composer. There were tears after the performance.
But I also remember one man coming up to me defiantly and saying, 'We’d drop it again!' It bothered me for months that a work devoted to the cause of peace should have provoked such angry sentiments. But thank God, no atomic bombs have been dropped since. R. Murray Schafer
Liner notes:
Performed by Lawrence Park Collegiate Orchestra and Choir, with members of the North Toronto Collegiate Orchestra conducted by John P. Barron and John R. McDougall.
In 1967 Irving Lowens wrote in the Washington Star: “A few years ago, a young and virtually unknown Canadian musician, R. Murray Schafer, published a short pamphlet called The Composer in the Classroom. Now in 1967, Schafer has emerged as one of the most significant creative figures on the Canadian scene. He is most definitely a composer to watch, as he demonstrated quite undeniably at the summer 1967 Tanglewood Festival of American Music. With this Gift, a brilliantly expressive setting for chorus, brass and electronic instruments of a poem in Sanskrit, Schafer ran away from the field.”
This paragraph may well be regarded as a capsule description of the meteoric career of R. Murray Schafer, the Canadian composer who now makes his home in Vancouver, B.C.
Once an English teacher, it did not take long for Schafer to become known throughout the musical firmament: a composer of bubbling vitality, highly unconventional ideas, and a strong commitment for translating his imaginative visions into workable musical statements.
His widespread success abroad has only limited his success at home, where his visitors once included Cage and Lutoslawski. In 1967 he received a Fromm Foundation Award for Threnody, and a Ford Foundation Fellowship, and a commission from the Koussevitzky Music Foundation followed in 1968, along with a further Fromm Foundation award.
Schafer’s principal contributions consist of unconventional and graphic techniques, and of a remarkable understanding of both the dramatic and human world. Schafer’s Threnody, a protest against the senselessness of war, was heard this year in the United States under Lukas Foss. Epitaph for Moonlight remains one of his most popular works, scored for children’s chorus, employing the shades of a lonely moonlit night; while Statement in Blue, scored for Junior Orchestra, also stands out as one of his most outstanding creations.
Schafer’s reputation as a teacher of composition has already spread internationally. He is Head of the Music Department, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, B.C. His lectures and writings on music have been published extensively both in this country and abroad, and his writings on aesthetics and music education reflect a philosophy of sound which will be readily accepted by those whose education has been conditioned by eyes instead of ears. Schafer’s theories of sound perception and the relationship of music to man’s social environment were first published in the 1967 pamphlet The Composer in the Classroom and subsequently expanded in The New Soundscape and Ear Cleaning, both issued by Berandol Music Limited. His most recent book, When Words Sing, together with the scores of the educational pieces included on this record, are available in Canada from Berandol Music Limited and in the U.S.A. from Associated Music Publishers.
THRENODY
Threnody is a work for youth and it is intended to be performed by youth. It is scored for youth orchestra, choir, five narrators and electronic sounds. Threnody is an anti-war protest.
The text is spoken by the speakers come from two documents: 1) eye-witness accounts by children and young people of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki on August 9, 1945; 2) comments and telegrams to and from the Potsdam Conference in July 1945 following the first successful test explosion by the United States. The first section is spoken by children; the second text by adult voices on tape. The opposition of the texts is violent.
Threnody is an uncomfortable work. The composer prefaced the score with a statement by the eminent scientist Jacob Bronowski from his book Science and Human Values:
“When I returned from the physical shock of Nagasaki, . . . I tried to persuade my colleagues in governments and in the United Nations that Hiroshima and Nagasaki ought not to be isolated events in history, but should be made to bear upon the armament, and other issues which then agitated the fate of nations, to be held in memory, and constrained to work together with all else for man’s good. I was not listened to. Men go on from day to day changing their standards, and no man knows for which they may one day barter. Alas, my official colleagues thought nothing sufficiently connected with reality could come out of me, a man who delegates work to children.”
The music of Threnody is in a contemporary idiom, but it is always conceived for the age group for which it was intended. Within a controlled framework there are numerous sections where singers and instrumentalists are given opportunities for thoughtful improvisations. “Threnody” rather than being spoken because the text employs natural styles as yet in opposition to portions of the spoken texts for which they must set an appropriate mood and illumination. To perform Threnody demands serious and thoughtful artists.
EPITAPH FOR MOONLIGHT
Epitaph for Moonlight is a study-piece for youth choir. It is an ear-training exercise for singers, but many will perhaps find their faith in new works by texts challenged. The composer is writing graphically rather than in conventional musical notation. His knowledge of his performers is apparent throughout and shows the clarity of his image. The composer writes:
“My ‘once a great tree’ (a late eighteenth and finite subtitle byway of new word sound monologue), arranged to use a newly found language almost entirely expressing sound in sight: one word which can lead to a dozen such word expressions — N-u-yu-u-ul — Noowahrm — Mauhlkne — Malsion — Lounios — Slooulfo — Shivrelyouw — Shlaowa — Shlesek — Shinomdel — Nehomor.”
STATEMENT IN BLUE
Statement in Blue is a composition for junior youth orchestras. It is a graphic score containing several contemporary musical concepts and presents a broad range of sonorities for a young orchestra divided into two groups of performers and one or two “solo” groups. But it is both Schafer’s clear — as he summarises, “It gets below the eyes.” Statement in Blue was written for children to give them a simple awareness of new sounds and dynamics by the use of graphic notation. “Statement” may take the form of several sketches where tone clusters and aleatory lines form many “fake” improvisations, but are easily identifiable and distinct. The music always remains strictly within the limits of the performers’ capabilities and the previous two works also perform at a controlled level.
THE NEW SOUNDSCAPE
The composer talks about The New Soundscape, the title of his recent book. His remarks are of interest to anyone concerned with the quality of the environment in which he lives.
THE PERFORMERS:
The Lawrence Park Collegiate Orchestra of Toronto and members of the North Toronto Collegiate Orchestra appear together in Threnody. Both schools are well known for their music departments, and the music programme is administered by the Toronto Board of Education through John P. Barron. In addition to his regular duties, Mr. Barron also conducts the Lawrence Park Singers, a mixed choir of adults and students which has appeared frequently in concert and at the Stratford and Guelph Festivals. He has been associated with the CBC, the Kiwanis Music Festival and the Ontario Parks Music department, as well as conducting choirs in Canada, the U.S.A. and Europe. The student soloists on this recording are Heather Pringle, Heather Moore, Barbara Hoshko, Elizabeth Lister, Christina Procunier, Mary Tarr and Eric Mah.
Compiled by Ralph Cruickshank
COVER DESIGN – RUSSELL RUDO
Berandol Music Limited
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