David Ward-Steinman and his oratorio The Song of Moses: an appreciation and analysis

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Content DAVID WARD-STEINMAN AND HIS ORATORIO THE SONG OF MOSES AN APPRECIATION AND ANALYSIS by Bard-Alan Finlan A Dissertation Presented to the FACULTY OF THE THORTON SCHOOL OF MUSIC UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF MUSICAL ARTS (SACRED MUSIC) May 2010 Copyright 2010 Bard-Alan Finlan ii Acknowledgments The kindness, encouragement, generosity, and support of many individuals have contributed to my completing this paper; I gratefully acknowledge my indebtedness to them. I wish to acknowledge the members of my dissertation committee, both past and present, for providing me invaluable advice and direction; these include, William Dehning, Frederick Lesemann, Jo-Michael Scheibe, Bryan Simms, Nick Strimple, and David Wilson. I am also grateful to Jack Davis, Sylvia Fee, Autumn Finlan, Dianne Finlan, John Frame, and Susan Lucas Ward-Steinman for proofreading my drafts, or portions thereof, and offering helpful comments and suggestions. I owe a huge debt of gratitude to Frank Almond, David Ward- Steinman, Susan Lucas Ward-Steinman, and Patrice Madura Ward-Steinman for offering first-hand accounts of historical events, as well as primary source documents, which proved useful to me in my research. I am especially grateful to Annalisa Richards for taking time to trace and copy documents for me from distant libraries to which I did not have ready access, and I expressly thank Ruth S. Johnson and her staff at Sigma Alpha Iota for their assistance in locating information from the journal Pan Pipes. A few individuals who have stood out over the years due to their positive and affirming support of my musical studies deserve my deepest and most heartfelt thanks: my mentors Debora Huffman, Myron Tweed, James Vail, and David Wilson, my caring parents Guy and Reneé Finlan, my loving wife Dianne Finlan, and our wonderful children Ethan, Gabriel, and Adam Finlan. Finally, I cannot adequately express my most profound gratitude to two individuals in particular whose unique talents, inspirational teaching, boundless enthusiasm, and exemplary work ethic have been an ever- present source of inspiration: David Ward-Steinman and Susan Lucas Ward-Steinman —this humble endeavor cannot even begin to repay the innumerable gifts you have given to me. iii Table of Contents Acknowledgements List of Tables List of Figures Abstract Chapter One: David Ward-Steinman—a Brief Biography Introduction Early Years in Alexandria College Years in Tallahassee, Urbana, and Paris Professor in San Diego Comprehensive Musician Composer in Residence Composer, Pianist, Lecturer, and Pilot Retirement in Bloomington Legacy Chapter Two: David Ward-Steinman—an Overview of His Music The Composer’s Philosophy and Approach to Composition Catalog of Compositions Early Influences toward the Development of a Musical Style The Influence of Teachers Four Elements of Continuity in David Ward-Steinman’s Music Exceptions and Conclusion Chapter Three: The Song of Moses—Background and Libretto Genesis of the Oratorio The Story Behind the Oratorio Discussion and Analysis of the Libretto The Meaning of Moses’ Death Conclusion Chapter Four: The Song of Moses—Prologue 1. Introduction 2. O Lord God 3. And There Arose Chapter Summary ii v vi xii 1 1 2 8 19 27 35 38 58 63 65 65 69 71 74 86 132 139 139 153 161 188 202 205 209 212 217 226 iv Chapter Five: The Song of Moses—Part I: The Call 4. Here Am I 5. How Excellent Thy Name 6. Who is the Lord? Chapter Summary Chapter Six: The Song of Moses—Part II: Battle and Triumph 7. And the Lord Spoke 8. March 9. Why Have We Done This? 10. Why Hast Thou Led Us Away? 11. Sing Ye To the Lord Chapter Summary Chapter Seven: The Song of Moses— Part III: The Heresy 12. You Have Seen What I Did 13. Mount Sinai 14. Make Us Gods To Go Before Us 15. Dance To the Golden Calf 16. What Did This People Unto Thee? 17. Would To God We Had Died 18. Pity, Lord, Pity 19. Out of the Depths Chapter Summary Chapter Eight: The Song of Moses—Part IV: The Death of Moses 20. Be Strong and of Good Courage 21. The Lord Bringeth Thee 22. Give Ear, O Ye Heavens 23. There Arose Not a Prophet Since Chapter Summary General Summary Bibliography Appendices: Appendix A: The Music of David Ward-Steinman Appendix B: The Song of Moses Libretto Appendix C: The Song of Moses and the King James Bible Appendix D: The Two Versions of The Song of Moses 229 229 245 259 267 271 271 303 308 316 333 352 360 360 366 373 385 400 411 460 470 487 515 515 526 532 540 545 551 560 587 587 615 629 660 v List of Tables 5.1 Outline of “Here Am I. ” 6.1 Outline of “And the Lord Spoke.” 6.2 Outline of Section A, “And the Lord Spoke,” Plagues of Blood and Frogs. 6.3 Outline of Section B, “And the Lord Spoke,” Plagues of Lice and Flies. 6.4 Outline of Section C, “And the Lord Spoke, ” Plagues of Fire and Hail. 6.5 Outline of Section D, “And the Lord Spoke, ” Plague of Firstborn Slaying. 6.6 Summary Outline of “And the Lord Spoke.” 6.7 Outline of “Why Hast Thou Led Us Away? ” 6.8 Outline of “Sing Ye to the Lord.” 7.1 Outline of “Make Us Gods to Go Before Us.” 7.2 12-Tone Row Variants in “Dance to the Golden Calf. ” 7.3 Outline of “What Did This People Unto Thee? ” 7.4 Outline of “Would to God We Had Died.” 7.5 Outline of “Out of the Depths.” 8.1 Overall Tonal Outline of The Song of Moses. 232 272 274 284 287 291 300 317 350 374 386 407 412 486 556 vi List of Figures 1.1 David and Susan Lucas Ward-Steinman, Carbondale, IL, May 1958. 1.2 Nadia Boulanger and David Ward-Steinman, Carbondale, IL, May 1958. 1.3 David Ward-Steinman, French Lick, IN, September 2008. 2.1 Opening page of “Fugue” from Sonata for Piano. 2.2 Three Songs for Clarinet and Piano, title page. 2.3 Symphony 1959, title page. 2.4 Sonata for Piano, first movement, mm. 15-30. 2.5 Concerto No. 2 for Chamber Orchestra, title page. 2.6 Opening of canon from Jazz Tangents, mm. 101-108. 2.7 Arcturus, 1 st trombone part, 1 st page. 2.8 Prelude and Toccata, title page. 2.9 Third Lyric Prelude, mm. 38-57. 2.10 Duo for Cello and Piano, 2 nd movement, mm. 1-15. 2.11 Sonata for Piano Fortified, “Toccata,” mm. 32-41. 2.12 Childs Play, title page. 2.13 The Tracker, mm. 9-16. 2.14 Intersections II: Borobudur, opening pages. 2.15 Lullaby for Iluka, title page. 2.16 Fragments from Sappho, “Epilog,” mm. 37-52. 4.1 The Song of Moses, title page. 4.2 “Introduction,” mm. 1-11. 4.3 “Introduction,” mm. 30-33. 12 16 64 76 79 84 89 91 96 101 104 106 110 115 118 124 129 133 137 208 210 211 vii 4.4 “O Lord God,” mm. 1-18. 4.5 “O Lord God,” mm. 30-35. 4.6 “And There Arose,” mm. 1-6. 4.7 “And There Arose,” mm. 19-23. 5.1 “Here am I,” mm. 1-6. 5.2 “Here am I,” mm. 7-8. 5.3 “Here am I,” mm. 22-33. 5.4 “Here am I,” mm. 37-45. 5.5 “Here am I,” mm. 76-79. 5.6 “How Excellent Thy Name,” mm. 1-25. 5.7 “How Excellent Thy Name,” mm. 40-71. 5.8 “How Excellent Thy Name,” mm. 95-106. 5.9 “Who is the Lord?” mm. 1-9. 5.10 “Who is the Lord?” mm. 13-26. 5.11 “Who is the Lord?” mm. 27-34. 6.1 “And the Lord Spoke,” mm. 1-4. 6.2 “And the Lord Spoke,” mm. 5-17. 6.3 “And the Lord Spoke,” mm. 56-77. 6.4 “And the Lord Spoke,” mm. 187-195. 6.5 “And the Lord Spoke,” mm. 202-219. 6.6 “March,” mm. 1-4. 6.7 “March,” mm. 9-13. 6.8 “March,” mm. 19-21. 6.9 “Why Have We Done This?” mm. 1-4. 213 216 219 222 230 233 236 240 244 246 251 256 260 263 266 275 276 281 292 296 303 305 306 309 viii 6.10 “Why Have We Done This?” mm. 5-8. 6.11 “Why Have We Done This?” mm. 9-15. 6.12 “Why Have We Done This?” mm. 16-20. 6.13 “Why Hast Thou Led Us Away?” mm. 1-4. 6.14 “Why Hast Thou Led Us Away?” mm. 7-11. 6.15 “Why Hast Thou Led Us Away?” mm. 16-18. 6.16 “Why Hast Thou Led Us Away?” mm. 19-35. 6.17 “Why Hast Thou Led Us Away?” mm. 36-46. 6.18 “Why Hast Thou Led Us Away?” mm. 55-61. 6.19 “Why Hast Thou Led Us Away?” mm. 62-67. 6.20 “Why Hast Thou Led Us Away?” mm. 96-102. 6.21 “Sing Ye to the Lord,” mm. 1-22. 6.22 “Sing Ye to the Lord,” mm. 23-35. 6.23 “Sing Ye to the Lord,” mm. 36-39. 6.24 “Sing Ye to the Lord,” mm. 46-51. 6.25 “Sing Ye to the Lord,” mm. 52-66. 6.26 “Sing Ye to the Lord,” mm. 80-82. 7.1 “You Have Seen What I Did,” mm. 1-4. 7.2 “You Have Seen What I Did,” mm. 9-10. 7.3 “You Have Seen What I Did,” mm. 11-17. 7.4 “Mount Sinai,” mm. 1-7. 7.5 “Mount Sinai,” mm. 8-10. 7.6 “Mount Sinai,” mm. 11-19. 7.7 “Make Us Gods to Go Before Us,” mm. 1-9. 310 312 314 318 319 320 322 324 327 329 331 335 338 341 342 344 348 361 363 364 367 369 371 375 ix 7.8 “Make Us Gods to Go Before Us,” mm. 22-24. 7.9 “Make Us Gods to Go Before Us,” mm. 31-42. 7.10 “Make Us Gods to Go Before Us,” mm. 43-49. 7.11 “Dance to the Golden Calf,” mm. 1-3. 7.12 “Dance to the Golden Calf,” mm. 4-10. 7.13 “Dance to the Golden Calf,” mm. 11-21. 7.14 “Dance to the Golden Calf,” mm. 22-35. 7.15 “Dance to the Golden Calf,” mm. 36-55. 7.16 “Dance to the Golden Calf,” mm. 56-67. 7.17 “Dance to the Golden Calf,” mm. 68-75. 7.18 “Dance to the Golden Calf,” mm. 76-87. 7.19 “What Did This People Unto Thee?” mm. 1-9. 7.20 “What Did This People Unto Thee?” mm. 10-17. 7.21 “What Did This People Unto Thee?” mm. 42-48. 7.22 “Would to God We Had Died,” mm. 1-18. 7.23 “Would to God We Had Died,” mm. 19-22. 7.24 “Would to God We Had Died,” mm. 23-28. 7.25 “Would to God We Had Died,” mm. 29-38. 7.26 “Would to God We Had Died,” mm. 39-48. 7.27 “Would to God We Had Died,” mm. 49-54. 7.28 “Would to God We Had Died,” mm. 55-62. 7.29 “Would to God We Had Died,” mm. 68-70. 7.30 “Would to God We Had Died,” mm. 91-96. 7.31 “Would to God We Had Died,” mm. 97-105. 378 380 382 385 388 389 390 393 395 397 398 402 404 409 413 416 418 421 423 425 426 429 433 435 x 7.32 “Would to God We Had Died,” mm. 106-108. 7.33 “Would to God We Had Died,” mm. 121-126. 7.34 “Would to God We Had Died,” mm. 133-135. 7.35 “Would to God We Had Died,” mm. 140-149. 7.36 “Would to God We Had Died,” mm. 150-155. 7.37 “Would to God We Had Died,” mm. 156-162. 7.38 “Would to God We Had Died,” mm. 163-171. 7.39 “Pity, Lord, Pity,” mm. 1-7. 7.40 “Pity, Lord, Pity,” mm. 8-15. 7.41 “Pity, Lord, Pity,” mm. 16-24. 7.42 “Pity, Lord, Pity,” mm. 25-29. 7.43 “Out of the Depths,” mm. 1-6. 7.44 “Out of the Depths,” mm. 9-11. 7.45 “Out of the Depths,” mm. 14-18. 7.46 “Out of the Depths,” mm. 19-28. 7.47 “Out of the Depths,” mm. 29-47. 7.48 “Out of the Depths,” mm. 56-59. 7.49 “Out of the Depths,” mm. 65-70. 8.1 “Be Strong and of Good Courage,” mm. 1-10. 8.2 “Be Strong and of Good Courage,” mm. 11-22. 8.3 “Be Strong and of Good Courage,” mm. 23-36. 8.4 “Be Strong and of Good Courage,” mm. 37-44. 8.5 “The Lord Bringeth Thee,” mm. 1-20. 8.6 “The Lord Bringeth Thee,” mm. 21-37. 439 441 445 446 449 450 453 461 465 468 469 472 474 475 477 478 483 484 517 519 521 524 527 529 xi 8.7 “The Lord Bringeth Thee,” mm. 38-49. 8.8 “Give Ear, O Ye Heavens,” mm. 1-6. 8.9 “Give Ear, O Ye Heavens,” mm. 7-17. 8.10 “Give Ear, O Ye Heavens,” mm. 18-23. 8.11 “Give Ear, O Ye Heavens,” mm. 24-26. 8.12 “There Arose Not a Prophet Since,” mm. 16-24. 8.13 “There Arose Not a Prophet Since,” mm. 34-42. 531 533 534 537 539 540 542 xii Abstract David Ward-Steinman stands out among the post World War II generation of American neoclassic composers for his unique contributions as a performer, author, lecturer, music educator, and advocate of contemporary and world music, as well as for his eclectic integration of diverse elements of influence into a voluminous catalog of compositions. In an ostensibly paradoxical way, he has bridged the conflict-laden divide between innovation and communication and has produced music that incorporates both contemporary materials and novel ideas yet has immediate accessibility and appeal. Ward-Steinman has been an adamant believer in an interdisciplinary approach to the arts, and often appears as a lecturer at universities, concert halls, and museums speaking on the topic of analogs in music, painting, sculpture, and literature. A tireless promoter of music education, he encourages his listeners to have an active disposition to seeking out new venues of expression. Ward- Steinman prefers the actual craft of composition to its abstract concept, however, and he has produced an impressive oeuvre that includes compositions in every conceivable genre. In this paper, I will discuss the musical, cultural, religious, social, and personal influences on David Ward-Steinman’s artistic and intellectual development, the philosophy that has shaped his approach to composition, and the elements of continuity in his overall style. I will take special note of the music leading up to the writing of his oratorio, The Song of Moses—a seventy-minute work for narrator, soloists, chorus, and orchestra, which he has come to regard as a summing up of everything he had to say in music until his style took a turn toward the heterogeneous shortly after its composition. I will conclude this paper with a detailed analysis of the textual and musical features of this noble and impressive work. xiii Chapter One of this paper features a brief biography of David Ward-Steinman that highlights his achievements as a composer, performer, and educator. Chapter Two outlines an overview of his music and includes sections that discuss the influences of his teachers, in particular Darius Milhaud and Nadia Boulanger; the music of composers such as Prokofiev, Stravinsky, Bartók, Hindemith, Piston, and Copland; and his early roots as a jazz improviser. Four elements of continuity, being spontaneity and variation, cluster harmony, expanded instrumental sounds, and non-Western music, feature in a discussion of his music of recent years. Chapter Three opens with a study of the historical background of The Song of Moses and closes with an analysis of its text as well as a theological investigation into the meaning of the life and death of its protagonist that contextualizes the oratorio’s composition within the cultural climate of the turbulent 1960s. The paper continues with Chapters Four, Five, Six, Seven, and Eight that, respectively, present a detailed analysis of the five major parts of the oratorio: Prologue, The Call, Battle and Triumph, The Heresy, and The Death of Moses. Appendices to the paper include a copy of the oratorio’s libretto, a comparison of the libretto with passages from the King James Bible on which it is based, and a comparison of the original version of the oratorio with its revised version. In addition, a chronological listing of the composer’s most important works is included within the Appendices. 1 Chapter One David Ward-Steinman—a Brief Biography To the extent that musical, cultural, religious, social, and personal considerations may bestow their collective influence on the author of a work of sacred music, taking the opportunity to examine these influences is time well spent. This chapter will, therefore, briefly explore David Ward-Steinman‟s artistic and intellectual development and discuss his contributions to society as a composer, performer, teacher, author, and lecturer. Introduction In the fall of 1961, a promising young composer arrived on the campus of San Diego State College. His new campus environment came in stark contrast to the varied mix of Richardsonian Romanesque, Renaissance Revival, Beaux Arts Classic, and Georgian Revival architectures that he had experienced as a doctoral student in the harsh and wintry “wilds of Indo-Illinois.” 1 Built in the style of a Hispano-Mooresque monastic university after the fashion of Spanish Colonial Revival architecture, a manner of expression popular in Southern California during the early part of the 20 th century, the sunny and fair-weathered San Diego campus was located on a promontory overlooking Alvarado Canyon, three miles northeast of the downtown area. 2 The buildings at the heart of the campus “with their 1 Quoting Ward-Steinman from Christian Hertzog, “An interview with David Ward-Steinman: An edited transcript,” San Diego New Music, Jan. 2000, Mar. 2005 <http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Den/2293/dws.html>. 2 At its dedication in May 1931, a representative of the Spanish government said that the new campus contained “some of the finest and purest examples of Spanish style architecture” that he had ever seen outside of Spain. See Richard F. Pourade, The Rising Tide, The History of San Diego (San Diego: Union-Tribune Publishing Company, 1968) 159. 2 Andalusian imagery, drought-resistant gardens, and towering palm trees,” housed the college‟s music department, where he was to teach for 45 years. 3 There he could gaze across the vista, over the lowlands of Mission Valley, toward the plains of Serra Mesa, under the shadows of the hills of La Jolla, and survey the rapidly expanding environs of the City of San Diego—with their attendant promise of musical opportunity. Early Years in Alexandria David Ward-Steinman was born at the Baptist Hospital in Alexandria, Louisiana, on 6 November 1936. His mother provided him his earliest musical training, beginning at the age of five with piano lessons and continuing until he was fourteen years old. 4 “There was always something musical going on at home,” David much later recalled, “and all kinds of sheet music around. I was encouraged to sight-read, browse, and explore, which I did with great curiosity and enthusiasm.” 5 David‟s mother, Daisy Leila Ward, was a native of Alexandria where she was born on 23 March 1907. “In addition to being extraordinarily beautiful,” notes David‟s first wife, 3 Alexander D. Bevil, “From Grecian Columns to Spanish Towers: The Development of San Diego State College, 1922-1953,” Journal of San Diego History 41.1 (Winter 1995): 39. The music department had evolved out of the necessity of providing college-level musical education to the many talented musicians who had their early training in San Diego. The level of musical talent among both teachers and students in the city‟s school system was considerable. The San Diego Symphony had had its origins in 1910 in the San Diego High School Orchestra. Former San Francisco Symphony cellist Nino Marcelli (1890-1967) organized and conducted it. It gave its first concert as an independent professional organization under the name “San Diego Civic Symphony” in April 1927. Examples of successful San Diego trained musicians include violinist/conductor Daniel Lewis (music teacher at San Diego‟s Helix High School; Concertmaster and Assistant Conductor of the San Diego Symphony; Music Director of the La Jolla Chamber Orchestra, the U.S.C. Symphony, and the Pasadena Symphony; and Professor at the University of California, San Diego, as well as the University of Southern California) and violist/conductor Charles Ketcham (Assistant Conductor of the San Diego Symphony and the Utah Symphony). 4 Susan Ward-Steinman, e-mail to the present writer, 1 May 2005; David Ewen, “Ward-Steinman, David,” American Composers: A Biographical Dictionary (New York: G. P. Putnam‟s Sons, 1982) 704. David Ward- Steinman shares his birthday with John Phillip Sousa, the latter being born in the year 1854. 5 Quoting David Ward-Steinman from Ewen, 704. 3 Susan Lucas Ward-Steinman, “she distinguished herself with her natural musical talent.” 6 As a teenager Daisy earned income playing the piano for silent movies, and as an adult she developed into an accomplished songwriter, pianist, organist, and teacher. She earned an undergraduate degree in elementary education from the Southwest Louisiana Institute in Lafayette, Louisiana, but she had little formal training in music until later in life—well after her son‟s early musical successes. It was not until then that she earned a master‟s degree in music education from Northwestern State College in Natchitoches, Louisiana. During her teaching career in Alexandria, she taught at the Central Grammar School, the West End Grammar School, and subsequently became Music Supervisor for the district, whereupon she circulated around a group of schools in the parish. At the time of David‟s birth, Daisy taught fifth grade in the local public school, as well as piano in her own private music studio. She played the organ for Friday evening services at the Turner Street Jewish Temple, played cocktail piano music at the Bentley Hotel on Saturday nights, and served as Organist-Choir Director at the Chester Street Trinity Methodist Church on Sunday mornings. “With her experience playing for silent movies and playing cocktail music,” notes Susan Ward- Steinman, “she was unquestionably instrumental in [her son‟s developing] ability to improvise and play almost any tune by ear.” 7 Daisy taught David not only to play the piano, but also the basics of music theory, improvisation, and notation. 8 David‟s father was born Irving Steinman in Manhattan on 26 March 1905. Necessity perhaps turned him at the age of 13 into a self-starter when his own father died 6 Susan Ward-Steinman, e-mail to the present writer, 29 Apr. 2005. 7 Ibid. 8 Ewen, 704; Louise Spizizen, “The Composers Of Area Code 714: Part II: Composers of Academe,” Applause Oct. 1978: 16; David Ward-Steinman, e-mails to the present writer, 16 Sept. and 8 and 11 Nov. 2007. The two educational institutions that Daisy Ward-Steinman attended are now called the “University of Louisiana, Lafayette,” and the “Northwest State University of Louisiana,” respectively. Her Master‟s thesis consisted of original educational songs, for which she wrote lyrics and music, for teaching children about many different 4 and he found it expedient to run away from home. Irving thereafter supported himself in a variety of occupations. At a young age, he served as an amanuensis for the renowned explorer Raymond L. Ditmars in Central and South America. By the age of 20, he claimed to have been a rabbi who converted to Christianity upon reading the New Testament. He educated himself by auditing college classes. It was upon one such occasion, at the University of Utah, that he met Daisy Ward. He followed her to Alexandria, and there they were married on 8 April 1928. Irving eventually received both a bachelor‟s and a master‟s degree in sociology from Louisiana College in Pineville and Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, respectively, earning the former in just one year by examination. Because these achievements did not prove a fruitful foundation upon which to make a living, Irving took a variety of jobs, including managing movie theatres, and he was at various times engaged as painter, a writer, and a book reviewer. Shortly after World War II, he invested in and managed two local radio stations: KDBS-AM (“K-Dixie”) and KRRV-FM. For the former he hosted for 30 years an unscripted daily “Commentary for People Who Think,” and for both he initially devised programs catered to listeners who were too poor to afford television. Studying on his own, after having taken night classes at the Tulane University Law School in New Orleans for only six months, Irving passed the Louisiana bar exam. He, subsequently, opened a law office, founded the local Indigent Defender Board (which he led without pay for 17 years), and practiced law up until the time of his death. 9 David, no doubt, inherited from his father his own budding proclivity for eclecticism. subjects and cultures. Daisy died at the age of 79 in 1986. See: David Ward-Steinman, e-mails to the present writer, 16 Sept. and 11 Nov. 2007. 9 Ewen, 704; Hope J. Norman, “Panorama: Tome of U.S. Composers Includes Alexandria Native,” Alexandria Daily Town Talk [Alexandria, LA] 1 July 1984: C-1; Susan Ward-Steinman, e-mails to the present writer, 29 Apr. and 1 May 2005; David Ward-Steinman, e-mails to the present writer, 8 Oct. and 8 Nov. 2007. Irving Ward-Steinman died at the age of 86 in 1992, having written over a thousand book reviews and having served as a lawyer in his community for many years. He appeared in court two weeks before his death and was seeing clients in his office the week before he died. 5 “There are conflicting stories from the parents about how the hyphenated name came about,” writes Susan Ward-Steinman, “But the most reliable source was Daisy herself, when she said she just did not wish to become „Daisy Steinman.‟” 10 Possibly underlying this concern was the anti-Semitism in the small town world of the South during the 1920s. Both parents thus agreed to take both names. “They gave their children the hyphenated name with no middle name . . . since they were overly endowed with a last name.” 11 The hyphenated name remains the family one, even now, in the fourth generation. Due largely to the financial struggles they faced early in their marriage, during the time of the Great Depression, Irving and Daisy Ward-Steinman chose not to have children for almost nine years. Within four years after David‟s birth in 1936, Judith, his only sibling, was born. The parents exercised a strong determination to provide their children with every opportunity possible in life. This ethic of commitment included a strong support of their son‟s every endeavor in music. Irving initially wanted David to study law but he eventually relented and advised his son that he should do whatever he wished to do for a career. 12 During his formative years David had two all-consuming interests—music and flying. 13 His mother arranged for him to continue his piano studies through his secondary school years with H. D. Dear and Louisiana College faculty members Wallace McKenzie and John T. Venettozzi. “Practicing . . . was never a chore because it was always geared to something I wanted to learn,” David later observed. 14 He began the study of the clarinet while in the second grade, and during his time in secondary school he studied the saxophone. 10 Susan Ward-Steinman, e-mail to the present writer, 29 Apr. 2005. 11 Ibid. 12 Susan Ward-Steinman, e-mail to the present writer, 1 May 2005. 13 Kenneth Herman, “Ward-Steinman Felt An Early Urge To Compose,” Los Angeles Times 20 Sept. 1984, Calendar: 1. 14 Quoting David Ward-Steinman from Ewen, 704. 6 He began composing at the age of five or six. By the time he reached high school, he was writing music on a regular basis. 15 Ward Steinman recollects of this time: I started composing before high school. My first compositions were popular songs; that is what I was influenced by, of course. My mother taught me to read lead sheets, chord changes, and to play popular music. She wasn‟t into jazz, but I was, even as early as elementary school. I was listening to Dixieland, and then very quickly I was listening to modern jazz. I studied clarinet [beginning] in the 2 nd grade. [Later,] when I was in high school, I played clarinet in the concert and football bands. The clarinetists I admired were people like Benny Goodman, Woody Herman, and even Jimmy Noone . . . I remember trying to copy some of the Jimmy Noone solos off of his recordings. We used to go down to New Orleans fairly-regularly. I remember staying up late at night to listen to a jazz D. J. [radio] show, the only one in the state that came out of New Orleans: “Moonglow with Martin,” it was called. 16 As a complement to his musical activities, Ward-Steinman took flying lessons. He took his first lesson when he was nine years old, and he saved all his birthday and allowance monies thereafter to pay for additional lessons as a student pilot. 17 During his time in high school, Ward-Steinman found many opportunities to exercise his musical skills. He became the accompanist for his school‟s choir, for which he also wrote musical arrangements. Its director, H. C. Collings, who became a lifelong friend, was a great influence in urging him to make music his career. 18 Ward-Steinman also organized a dance band, “Dave Ward and the Rhythm Ramblers,” and led it from the piano: 15 Norman, C-1; Ewen, 704; Spizizen, 16; “Ward-Steinman, David,” The Harvard Biographical Dictionary of Music ed. Don Michael Randel (Cambridge, MA: Belknap, 1996) 966. John T. Venettozzi taught music at nearby Louisiana College in Pineville. Ward-Steinman studied the piano with him during 1950-52. 16 David Ward-Steinman, telephone interview, 10 June 2005; David Ward-Steinman, e-mails to the present writer, 8 Oct. and 8 Nov. 2007. 17 David Ward-Steinman, telephone conversation with the present writer, 30 May 2005. Ward-Steinman has also noted that, according to an unnamed contemporary newspaper story, he may have been “the youngest student pilot in the state [of Louisiana].” See: David Ward-Steinman, e-mail to the present writer, 1 June 2005. 18 Susan Ward-Steinman, e-mail to the present writer, 1 May 2005. 7 I started the RR band when I was in the 10 th grade at Bolton High School [Alexandria, LA] and ran it for three years. My first musical interests were indeed jazz (Dixie clarinet, big bands— especially Stan Kenton) and pop/Broadway standards. The latter I learned from my mother . . . . 19 I had some of the Stan Kenton charts, which were too hard for my band to play, but I studied them harmonically and memorized the piano parts. When I discovered Dave Brubeck, I became very interested in expanding my harmonic language. I started copying out some of the Brubeck arrangements. 20 In “serious” music, it was Gershwin first (I learned a piano solo version of Rhapsody in Blue in the 5th grade), then Bartók and Debussy. The classics came last—or actually the Romantics came last and are still lagging (the 19 th century after Beethoven was always an anathema to me . . . ). I always thought I came into music through the back door, so to speak. 21 At the age of 16, Ward-Steinman appeared as a piano soloist with the New Orleans Symphony. Of the occasion he noted, “As a pianist, I wrote a piece for myself to play and I auditioned [in a statewide search for young soloists] as a pianist-composer. . . . This was a very heady experience to a kid still in high school. . . . A few things like that were enough to convince me that this was what I wanted to do.” 22 He remarked further of the event: Besides writing piano compositions, I was writing for concert band. I then wrote a piece for a state composition contest [sponsored by] the National Federation of Music Clubs which I called Three Preludes for Piano and Orchestra. It was done [on 25 November 1952] by the all-state orchestra, and then twice [on 20 February 1953] by the New Orleans Symphony [Pierre Henrotte conducting], of all things—with me as the piano soloist. The piece was influenced by Bartók and Gershwin, I suppose, and Bartók specifically of the last of the Microkosmos: the “Six Dances in Bulgarian Rhythm”—those were pieces that I had studied and that I liked very much. 23 19 David Ward-Steinman, e-mail to the present writer, 10 May 2005. 20 David Ward-Steinman, telephone interview, 10 June 2005. 21 David Ward-Steinman, e-mail to the present writer, 10 May 2005. 22 Herman, 7. Ward-Steinman later maintained that the attention he gained for this early musical activity was “out of all proportion to its merit.” Quoting David Ward-Steinman from Spizizen, 16. 23 David Ward-Steinman, telephone interview, 10 June 2005. 8 During the summers of 1952 and 1953, Ward-Steinman attended the National Music Camp at Interlochen, Michigan, in his first year as a high school student and in his second in the college division. He earned college credits through the University of Michigan for these study activities. Because there was no scholarship money available for composition students at Interlochen at this time, he petitioned to expand the performance auditions to composition and he won the first such scholarship offered at the school. During his time at Interlochen, he had his first opportunity to study with a noted composer, Homer Keller. Concerning his study with Keller, he later remarked, “From then on there was no question that composition was what I wished to devote my life to.” 24 Ward-Steinman graduated from high school at the age of sixteen, and thereafter prepared to continue his studies in music in earnest. 25 College Years in Tallahassee, Urbana, and Paris With the encouragement of his piano teacher John Venettozzi, Ward-Steinman auditioned for and won a full tuition scholarship at Florida State University in Tallahassee. He began his freshman term there in 1953, majoring in both composition and piano, studying these disciplines with John Boda and Edward Kilenyi. He minored in French and art history, added skills that he would put to practical use in the years to follow. To help defray costs, he received an assistantship to be the accompanist for the University Singers, whose director the noted choral conductor Wiley L. Housewright became another musical mentor to him. 26 24 Quoting David Ward-Steinman from Ewen, 704. 25 “Ward-Steinman, David,” International Who’s Who in Music and Musician’s Directory, 14 th ed., ed. David M. Cummings (Cambridge: Melrose Press, 1994) 1088; Susan Ward-Steinman, e-mail to the present writer, 1 May 2005; David Ward-Steinman, e-mail to the present writer, 8 May 2005. 26 Ewen, 704; Susan Ward-Steinman, e-mail to the present writer, 9 May 2005. David Ward-Steinman studied piano with Boda during 1953-54 and with Kilenyi during 1954-57. 9 Ward-Steinman played alto clarinet in the University Concert Band. He also learned to play the string bass: “As a freshman I wanted to play in the school orchestra . . . I wasn‟t a good enough clarinetist, so I picked up the bass, took one semester‟s lessons, and joined the University Symphony.” 27 Through his college years, in addition, he continued to play jazz: “I put myself through school [as a jazz pianist].” 28 “David has never done one thing if he could do five,” Susan Ward-Steinman once noted. “At this early stage,” she added, “he already showed his tendency to want to be all things to all people musically. He was always in demand as an accompanist because of his prodigious ability to sight-read.” 29 Ward-Steinman‟s primary focus while he attended college, however, turned increasingly toward composition. In his early years he had written “a lot” of dance music, scored mostly for piano; and while at Interlochen, he had been “a kind of composer-in- residence” for a modern dance group. 30 He credits much of his encouragement in writing music at a higher level of craft, however, to his studies with John Boda: [Boda] helped me in many ways. He also reinforced my anti- romantic bias, as well as my interest in modern counterpoint and lively rhythms. He himself was a Hindemith-influenced American neoclassic composer, with a surprising interest in Wagner—a very good technician. 31 27 David Ward-Steinman, e-mails to the present writer, 18 May 2005 and 11 Nov. 2007. Ward-Steinman later played the bass in the University of Illinois orchestra. During his early years in San Diego, he was to play the bass in the San Diego Symphony for a summer season—before he “got tired of schlepping it around.” 28 Quoting David Ward-Steinman from Herman, 7. In David Ward-Steinman, e-mail to the present writer, 11 Nov. 2007, the composer wrote, “My parents subsidized my housing costs to the tune of $100.00 per month. The rest I made up by gigging with various bands and combos.” 29 Susan Ward-Steinman, e-mails to the present writer, 9 May and 18 Nov. 2005. David Ward-Steinman‟s technical skills as a pianist interpreting his own music, as well as that of others, has served him well throughout his life. As late as March 2004, Bloomington, Indiana music critic Peter Jacobi wrote: “[Ward-Steinman] has an ability to negotiate all the [pianistic] complexities of his own making.” See: Peter Jacobi, “Music Review: Ward- Steinman Recital: Pianist David Ward-Steinman amazes and confounds at recital,” Herald Times [Bloomington, IN] 5 Mar. 2004: C6. 30 David Ward-Steinman, telephone interview, 10 June 2005. 31 David Ward-Steinman, e-mail to the present writer, 2 Sept. 2007. While at Florida State, Ward- Steinman‟s also studied composition with Ernst von Dohnányi (1955-56), which was unproductive as he relates in the same e-mail: “I studied with Boda for three years at Florida State University. The one year he left to do a doctorate at Eastman, I studied with Dohnanyi, which was pretty much a waste of time. Dohnanyi didn‟t really 10 The young composer wrote his Sonatina for Piano (1953); Sonatina for Flute and Piano (1954); Two French Songs, for voice and piano (1955); and Evocations, I, II, and III, for orchestra (1954-55), all while he was a student of Boda. 32 He also wrote two Broadway- style musicals and directed a 29-piece orchestra in performances of one of them, Zo-Imba, during 23-26 March 1955. 33 He composed other music as well: I wrote orchestral pieces and every year had one done as part of the Southeastern Composers League forums. A group of Southeastern states—Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, and Mississippi—had a circulating annual conference with the different hosting institutions providing an orchestra. The forums [were intended] mostly for faculty and established composers, but I kept sending in scores and having them done every year from my freshman year on. So that was a learning experience. You know I loved writing for an orchestra, and of course the [Florida State] University orchestra also played what I wrote. 34 Ward-Steinman complemented his college studies with participation in various summer music programs. Under a Charles Ives Scholarship in 1954, he attended the Indian Hill Music Workshop in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. While there, he studied with Wallingford Riegger and wrote his String Quartet. In 1956 he attended the Aspen Music School in Colorado where he studied with Darius Milhaud and wrote his Chronicle for orchestra. 35 Susan Diana Lucas and David Ward-Steinman met during their college years. Susan, who was also a student at Florida State, was an accomplished flutist and music understand contemporary music and made all his students write fugues the entire year to chromatic subjects that he provided; he wasn‟t able to say anything constructive about the music that I or anyone else was writing.” 32 In 1982 Ward-Steinman revised his Two French Songs for publication under the title Les Odes de Jeunesse. 33 David Ward-Steinman, e-mail to the present writer, 16 Sept. 2007. The music of the approximately two- hour production consisted of an overture, a dozen songs, and incidental music, as well as dance music. Of the production Susan Ward-Steinman recalls: “[The musical] was reviewed [in a local newspaper] by the music historian on the faculty as having elements of Stravinsky and Schoenberg. Nothing could have been further from the truth. David decided to conduct it even though he had never had a conducting lesson. The pit orchestra for the show simply could not follow him on opening night . . . thus, the unintended dissonances.” David Ward- Steinman wrote a third musical, Barbican, after he began his teaching career in San Diego, but it has never been performed. See: Susan Ward-Steinman, e-mail to the present writer, 9 May 2005. 34 David Ward-Steinman, telephone interview, 10 June 2005. 35 Ewen, 704. 11 teacher. She was to contribute texts to many of David works, teach Comprehensive Musicianship at San Diego State University (winning her department‟s Outstanding Professor Award upon her retirement in 1991), and co-author their book: A Comparative Anthology of Musical Forms. 36 They were married on 28 December 1956 at the Trinity Lutheran Church in Jacksonville, Florida. David wrote all the music for their wedding. 37 Ward-Steinman received his Bachelor of Music degree from Florida State cum laude in 1957. 38 By the time of his matriculation, he had already won a number of awards. These included two BMI Student and Composers Radio Awards, one in 1954 for his Holiday Overture (1953) and another in 1955 for his String Quartet (1954). In 1955 he won a Sandspur Musical Theater Prize for his musical Zo-Imba. Additionally, he won two First Prizes from the Florida Composers League: the first (a tie) in 1956 for his choral setting City of Ships (1954, poem by Walt Whitman), and the second in 1957 for his Sonata for Piano (1956-57). In 1957 he received a commission from James L. Bauman and his Children‟s Arts Program Symphony of Milwaukee to write Two Episodes for youth orchestra (1957). These accomplishments served to sustain his zeal to continue his composition studies. 39 36 David Ward-Steinman and Susan L. Ward-Steinman, A Comparative Anthology of Musical Forms 2 vols. (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 1976; New York: University Press of America, 1989; San Diego: Montezuma Publishing, 1995). 37 “Ward-Steinman, David,” International Who’s Who in Music and Musician’s Directory, 1088. Wedding Music (1956) is scored for woodwind quintet, organ, and soprano, and the wedding march therein has changing meters. The music has not been published, however, the wedding itself was reviewed in a local newspaper because of the music. See: Susan Ward-Steinman, e-mails to the present writer, 9 May 2005 and 24 Aug. 2007. 38 David Ward-Steinman held an average load of slightly less than 20 units per semester, waived out of various courses by exam, and graduated with 155 unit credits in four years. In addition to piano and bass, he also studied harp and voice (for a year each). He took overloads in languages, including four years of French (he qualified for the French honorary fraternity), two years of German, and one year of Russian. In addition to his second minor in art history, he took electives in theatre history, comparative religions, and Classical civilizations (Greek and Roman). See: David Ward-Steinman, e-mail to the present writer, 10 Nov. 2007. 39 David Ward-Steinman, Curriculum Vitae (1960), from the composer‟s personal papers at Bloomington, IN; Susan Ward-Steinman, e-mail to the present writer, 9 May 2005. The BMI awards are now entitled “Student Composer Awards” or “BMI-SCA.” The “Sandspur Musical Theatre” was an on-campus group that sponsored a yearly competition to encourage the writing of original musical shows. In David Ward-Steinman, e-mail to the present writer, 20 Oct. 2007, the composer noted about his Two Episodes, “The score was written 3-31 January 1957, during my last semester at FSU. I do not know that it was ever performed—probably too difficult.” 12 Figure 1.1: David and Susan Lucas Ward-Steinman, Carbondale, IL, May, 1958. Al Fenn, photographer, © 1958 Time Inc. The young composer spent the summer of 1957 at the Berkshire Music Center in Tanglewood, Massachusetts, studying composition with Milton Babbitt and Aaron Copland. While there, he represented the center‟s composition division at the event, “Tanglewood on Parade,” performing his Sonata for Piano, and he tied for the Raphael Sagalyn Prize of “Best Orchestral Work” for his Concert Overture. 40 In addition, that summer, he attended the American Symphony Orchestra League West Coast Workshop at the Asilomar conference center in Pacific Grove, California, as the only student composer invited. It was there that he met the composers Paul Creston and Robert Kelly. Kelly recruited Ward-Steinman as a composition student at the University of Illinois at Urbana: “I was expecting to be drafted, Ward-Steinman notes, but when Kelly offered me a graduate assistantship to teach theory at the University of Illinois that fall it sounded much more interesting than the army.” 41 40 “Ward-Steinman, David,” Baker’s Biographical Dictionary of Musicians 9 th ed., 6 vols., eds. Nicolas Slonimsky and Laura Kuhn (New York: Schirmer Books, 2001) vol. 6, 3847. 41 David Ward-Steinman, e-mail to the present writer, 2 Sept. 2007. Unfortunately, Ward-Steinman came to be disappointed with his experience with Kelly, as he relates in the same e-mail message, “I got nothing from him as a teacher; he essentially just patted me on the head and said: „keep writing.‟” Elsewhere he noted: “I had 13 While at Urbana, during the academic year 1957-58, Ward-Steinman studied composition with Kelly and wrote his Two Sierra Songs (1957). He also won First Prize in the Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia national composition contest for his Three Songs for Clarinet and Piano (1957), a work he began while still an undergraduate at Florida State and finished under Kelly‟s tutelage. 42 He completed his Master of Music degree in composition and theory in the summer of 1958. Ward-Steinman, concurrently, applied for and received the university‟s Kate Neal Kinley Memorial Fellowship for study abroad. 43 Because he could already speak French, he desired to study in Paris, where his first choice for a teacher was to be Darius Milhaud. Milhaud, however, could not be in Paris during that fellowship term. The matter of with whom Ward-Steinman would study composition while he in Paris was not resolved until May of 1958. It was at that time that he attended performances of his Sonata for Piano and Three Songs for Clarinet and Piano at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, where the famed composer, conductor, and teacher Nadia Boulanger had been invited as a guest to hear and critique student compositions. 44 Of that event, he recalled: I had submitted two pieces for the concert, my Sonata for Piano And my Three Songs for Clarinet and Piano. Boulanger wanted To hear each of them twice. It was at this time that she picked Out three notes in very disparate bass lines in the last movement of my Sonata for Piano long distant pedal points, and found Rachmaninoff in it, probably the least visible composer [laughs] and no kind of model I would have consciously chosen. She said, “These are the first three notes of the Rachmaninoff Prelude in C-sharp Minor.” I was just aghast and appalled at her observation. naively applied only to Harvard for graduate work and when I was turned down I expected to be drafted. When Kelly heard that I had no plans for the fall, he offered me a Graduate Assistantship in theory on the spot, with full tuition waiver. This surprisingly . . . was more interesting and attractive than the infantry at that time, so I didn‟t need much persuading.” See: David Ward-Steinman, e-mail to the present writer, 30 May 2005. 42 David Ward-Steinman, Curriculum Vitae: Awards (1968). 43 The 27 th Kate Neal Kinley Memorial Fellowship grant that Ward-Steinman won was for $1,300.00. See: “Contests: David Ward-Steinman,” High Fidelity/Musical America July 1958: MA 22. 44 Mademoiselle Boulanger‟s appearance in the United States became the subject of an article in Life magazine. See: “Nadia Boulanger: Famous Teacher of U.S. Musicians,” Life 21 July 1958: 95-96. 14 About the things she found in my sonata—and she found other details in it—she was absolutely right. These were places about which neither Milhaud nor Babbitt had commented, nor Boda for that matter, but places that I had worried about. I was composing between islands of material. The links were like Bailey bridges: they sort of worked, but the material wasn‟t strong. Nobody seemed to notice or to mind, and I was beginning to think I was the emperor and I really was wearing clothes. But Boulanger, like an external conscience, . . . went unerringly to those places and put her finger right on them. It was an eerie and an uncanny experience, . . . so that is why I wanted to study with her. 45 Boulanger‟s comments about Ward-Steinman‟s compositions impressed him so much that he made a formal request to study with her. “I was so knocked out,” he recalled years later. “I knew this was [to be] the ultimate experience.” She promptly accepted him as a student. 46 Fortuitously, Ward-Steinman had become an acquaintance of Gail Kubik at this time. Kubik, who had studied with Boulanger himself, was “very helpful” to him and coached him in his review of counterpoint before he left for Paris in the fall of 1958. 47 Ward-Steinman studied composition with Boulanger in Paris during the academic year 1958-59. When he began his time there, he was leery of becoming another “carbon- copy neoclassicist” like so many of the previous American students of the great teacher, but his fears quelled shortly thereafter. It soon became apparent to him that Boulanger differed from his previous teachers in her approach to teaching composition: Milhaud had drawn Ward-Steinman‟s attention to “the overall shape of a work and its total sense of continuity,” while Boulanger “kept his focus on the perfection of detail.” 48 He years later noted: 45 David Ward-Steinman, telephone interview, 10 June 2005. 46 Quoting David Ward-Steinman from Betty Ligon, “Composer enjoys teacher role,” El Paso Herald-Post 23 Feb. 1979, Accent/Entertainment: 3; Ewen, 704; Susan Ward-Steinman, e-mail to the present writer, 9 May 2005; David Ward-Steinman, e-mail to the present writer, 4 Sept. 2005. 47 David Ward-Steinman, telephone interview, 10 June 2005, and telephone conversation with the present writer, 8 Sept. 2007. Ward-Steinman first met Kubik at the “Mid-American Symposium of New Music,” held at the University of Kansas in Lawrence. Although he never had the opportunity to study composition with Kubik, he came to consider him a “mentor” due to the advice and support Kubik offered to him in his early career. 48 Herman, 7. 15 I went to Boulanger originally with something of a chip on my shoulder, not anxious to join the “Boulangerie” . . . But I gained from her a heightened sense of musical conscience, the concern to make every note, every phrase, every gesture exactly right for the piece. Milhaud would say things like, “That page is useless —throw it out,” or “These pages—they go nowhere,” but he would never be any more precise than that. Whereas Boulanger‟s approach was very definitely on the microscopic level, the scrutiny of every single note. She would say, “This note here is wrong,” or “This cadence is not right for the passage.” 49 Boulanger never dictated style. Unlike, let‟s say, Hindemith, whose students all initially wrote like him, she never said anything about the style in which one should write. That was left up to the composer. She instead helped each of her students try to find their own way and eliminate what was derivative, imitative, not their own. What she tried to do was to find the spark, or whatever [potential] spark, of originality that might be there and help you to purify it. She would say things such as, “there it is not you,” or “there it is weak,” or “there it is somebody else.” So that was the way I worked with her: if you keep eliminating what is not you, what is left, willy-nilly, is you. That is how she got her students to develop styles of their own. She was not doctrinaire, and I think because she had given up composition on her own she had no stylistic axe to grind. 50 Susan Ward-Steinman recollects of David‟s study with Boulanger, “While [we were] in Paris she became his most influential and formidable composition teacher. She was a taskmaster and rarely gave compliments . . . and she demanded compositional discipline, making him rewrite fifteen different versions of four measures [of a piece on which he was working] at one point. Outside of class and lessons, however, she showed her fondness of him.” 51 Even though, by this point in her teaching career, Boulanger had reached the age of 72, her energy level and work ethic were still “incredible,” David Ward-Steinman observed, 49 Quoting David Ward-Steinman from Herman, 7. 50 David Ward-Steinman, telephone interview, 10 June 2005. Commenting further on the different approaches of Boulanger and Hindemith, Ward-Steinman, in that interview, observed, “I spoke with Lukas Foss recently in New York. . . . I asked him about his studies with Hindemith at Yale, and he said, „Oh, everybody had to write like Hindemith,‟ you know, while they were with him, and it took Foss a while to write his way out of that too.” 51 Susan Ward-Steinman, e-mail to the present writer, 9 May 2005. 16 “She had the vitality of a person half her age. She was intense, demanding: it was a rigorous discipline, but [an] exhilarating [one].” 52 He concludes: She so impressed me with her perception and insight, catching things that my previous teachers had missed . . . like an external musical conscience . . . She made an enormous difference in the way I approached music . . . It was exhilarating to find myself working at such a level with someone who seemed to understand everything immediately and to care passionately about the “rightness” of . . . every single detail in a piece. 53 Ward-Steinman came to cherish his time with Boulanger. He wrote and spoke highly of her over the years that followed his formal study with her. Figure 1.2: Nadia Boulanger and David Ward-Steinman, Carbondale, IL, May 1958. Al Fenn, photographer, © 1958 Time Inc. 52 Quoting David Ward-Steinman from Norman, C-1. 53 Quoting David Ward-Steinman from Ewen, 704. 17 The year Ward-Steinman spent with Boulanger was productive in the writing of his Excursion, an overture for band (1957-58), and Quintet for Brass (1958-59). For the latter he won a National Federation of Music Clubs‟ First Prize. 54 He also wrote the overture to an unfinished children‟s opera based on Antoine de Exupéry‟s book, Le petit prince. For his Symphony 1959, the last work he wrote under Boulanger‟s tutelage, Ward-Steinman won his third BMI Student and Composers Radio Award in 1960, as well as the Bearns Prize from Columbia University in 1961. Ward-Steinman dedicated the work to her. “It was my, kind of, graduation piece,” he later commented. 55 The San Diego Symphony Orchestra premiered it under the direction of Earl Bernard Murray in San Diego on 4 December 1962. In the fall of 1959, David Ward-Steinman returned to Urbana to work on a doctoral degree, first under a George A. Miller Fellowship, and then under a University Fellowship. Susan also enrolled in the music graduate program at the university at this time. During this second tenure at the University of Illinois, David studied composition with Burrill Phillips and Gordon Binkerd, and electronic music with Lejaren A. Hiller. 56 He won additional awards for compositions he wrote while there, including his fourth BMI Student and Composers Radio Award for his Concerto Grosso for jazz combo and chamber orchestra in 1961. Commissioned by John Garvey for the Modern Jazz Quartet‟s School of Jazz in Lenox, Massachusetts, it received a performance at Carnegie Hall on 8 November 1964. 54 “Awards: David Ward-Steinman,” Musical Courier 162.9 (Sept. 1960), 31. 55 Quoting David Ward-Steinman from Alice B. Thomas, “Composer to hear RSO perform his symphony,” Alexandria Daily Town Talk [Alexandria, LA] 3 Mar. 1989: C2; David Ward-Steinman [pamphlet] (New York: Broadcast Music, Inc., 1988). 56 In David Ward-Steinman, e-mail to the present writer, 2 Sept. 2007, the composer explained why he went back to the University of Illinois: “When I returned from my year in Paris, Illinois offered me the best deal for doctoral studies (highest fellowship they had, full tuition waiver, etc.) of any of the places I had applied to, but I didn‟t study with [Robert] Kelly again. Burrill Phillips and Gordon Binkerd were my teachers for the next two years, but after Boulanger I didn‟t really need anyone else. Both [Phillips and Binkerd] were very supportive and I got along well with them.” 18 Harold Farberman directed John Lewis‟s Orchestra U.S.A. in the performance. 57 Ward- Steinman‟s Psalms of Rejoicing had its premiere in Kansas City on 23 April 1961. The Mississippi State University Meistersingers sang the work under the direction of the composer‟s friend and mentor from high school, H. C. Collings. Ward-Steinman won an additional National Federation of Music Clubs‟s First Prize for it in 1961. Also in 1961 judges Henry Cowell, Ulysses Kay, and Halsey Stevens selected his Three Improvisations on a Theme of Darius Milhaud from among 100 other entries for the Sigma Alpha Iota 1959- 62 American Music Award. 58 Ward-Steinman completed his Doctor of Musical Arts degree in composition and theory in the spring of 1961 within two years time. He entitled his dissertation Serial Techniques in the Recent Music of Igor Stravinsky. 59 For his doctoral exams he wrote, what he later came to title, Three Improvisations on a Theme of Darius Milhaud. 60 In addition, he produced his Concerto for Chamber Orchestra, a work commissioned by Charles DeLaney 57 The first complete premiere of the Concerto Grosso was given on 14 May 1962 at San Diego State College, featuring Charles Caudle (trumpet), Dwight Stone (trombone), Bob Barnes (alto saxophone), and Barry Farrer (baritone saxophone) with members of the Deane Haskins Band and the San Diego State College Symphony Orchestra, conducted by the composer. The composer (pianist), Merle Hogg (bassist), and Danlee Mitchell (percussionist) performed a version of the work re-scored for piano, bass, and percussion in a feature presentation about the composer in the “Profile” television series produced in 1965 at KPBS-TV in San Diego. 58 Musical Courier 162.9, 31; Alan Kriegsman, “More Blue Ribbons For Ward-Steinman,” San Diego Union 27 Jan. 1963: E3. 59 David Ward-Steinman, Curriculum Vitae (1960); Susan Ward Steinman, e-mail to the present writer, 9 May 2005. 60 In David Ward-Steinman, e-mails to the present writer, 22 and 23 Sept. 2007, the composer wrote about his Milhaud Variations: “The first „performance‟ was by me at my doctoral qualifying exams. I was given three days to analyze the Schoenberg Violin Concerto, write a fugue in Bach style on a subject provided, and then write variations on an assigned theme by Milhaud, which I „improvised‟ and wrote out. I wrote the Milhaud Variations during 8-10 June 1960. My memory is that my doctoral exams were given the next day . . . but the committee would probably have needed time to look over the other materials I had handed in, so 16 June [1960] is perhaps the date of the exam where I first played the Variations. My „audience‟ consisted of my doctoral committee and my French professor. [The work] won the SAI American Music Award the next year, and one of their pianists [Anna Harriette Foshee] gave its „official‟ premiere. I‟m not sure about which day I performed it, but you can give the SAI lady the „honor‟ as far as I‟m concerned.” This information may serve to resolve the two conflicting dates specified in separate issues of the journal Pan Pipes for the work‟s premiere, 16 June 1960 and 20 August 1962. See: Marguerite Kelly Kyle, ed., “AmerAllegro: David Ward-Steinman,” Pan Pipes 53.2 (Jan. 1961): 79 and 54.2 (Jan. 1963): 74. 19 for the University of Illinois Chamber Orchestra. He conducted the orchestra in a premiere of the work at a concert of the Musical Arts Society of Eastern Indiana in Richmond on 5 February 1961. 61 Susan also completed her Master of Music degree in the spring of 1961. David and Susan returned briefly to David‟s hometown of Alexandria, Louisiana, for the birth of their daughter, Jenna, just six weeks after their graduation. Scheduled to serve in the military upon the completion of his doctoral studies, David had already gone through the preliminary procedures to join the Navy band. Due to his expected status as a father, however, he received an exemption from the draft. A second child, Matthew, was born to the Ward-Steinmans in 1965. David wrote “lullabies” for piano to accompany the birth announcements of both their daughter and their son. 62 Professor in San Diego With the expected completion of his formal education, David Ward-Steinman began his search for a full-time college teaching position. He had already received an offer to stay at Illinois and a tentative offer to teach at the University of Connecticut. Within twelve weeks of graduation, however, he received an invitation to interview for a teaching position at San Diego State College. He met with the Dean of the college in Chicago and became one of the finalists for the assistant professorship. After a subsequent interview in San Diego in January 1961, the college tendered an employment proposal to him. “Once I interviewed at 61 Marguerite Kelly Kyle, ed., “AmerAllegro: David Ward-Steinman,” Pan Pipes 54.2 (Jan. 1962): 76. 62 These piano pieces were published in 1965, along with others, in a collection called Latter-Day Lullabies. See: Susan Ward-Steinman, e-mail to the present writer, 9 May 2005. In that e-mail, and in Susan Ward- Steinman, telephone conversation with the present writer, 30 May 2005, Ms. Ward-Steinman noted that a draft sergeant in Louisiana had been tracking her husband‟s educational activities for a number of years. When he was a student in Paris under Boulanger, the sergeant questioned the legitimacy of the school. At the time of the birth of his daughter, two days before the end of his military deferral, the sergeant was so annoyed about his repeated deferments that he demanded to see her birth certificate before he would let him “off the hook.” 20 San Diego State,” Ward-Steinman recently noted, “I accepted their offer without a moment‟s hesitation, having had enough Arctic winters for a lifetime.” 63 Ward-Steinman began his long association with San Diego State in the fall of 1961 as a member of the music faculty. He was at first an assistant professor, then in 1964 he became an associate professor, and finally in 1968—not long before the college attained university status—he became a full professor. He directed the undergraduate theory as well as the upper-division and graduate composition programs and he became the founder and the first director of the Faculty New Music Ensemble as well as the Electro-Acoustic Music Studio. 64 He recently reflected on the atmosphere he enjoyed in San Diego at that time: There was no UCSD then—no campus at all. . . . the only other composers were Howard Brubeck, who had done some pieces for Dave Brubeck, Robert Heninger at Mesa [Junior] College, and Jim Whitsitt—but none of them were very active. . . . When I first came, I got commissions and performances from all the groups in town, a commission for the opening of the Civic Theatre downtown, the San Diego Ballet Company, a commission from the Sherwood Hall Orchestra, which Dan Lewis was conducting then. . . . I got lots of performances . . . It was a very heady atmosphere. I decided, when I took the job, that I didn't want to be in a place in a university/college town where all the activity took place on campus. I thought that was unhealthy and artificial. I wanted to be in a place where there was a viable artistic life outside the campus, and I wanted to work with groups in the surrounding area. 65 63 Quoting David Ward-Steinman, e-mail to the present writer, 8 Nov. 2007; Susan Ward-Steinman, e-mails to the present writer, 9 and 28 May 2005. In Hertzog, “An interview with David Ward-Steinman: An edited transcript,” the author quotes David Ward-Steinman reminiscing about the event: “Having spent three winters in the wilds of Indo-Illinois . . . I was beginning to get geographic claustrophobia . . . I left Chicago when it was snowing and slushy and ugly. I arrived [in San Diego] at 7 p.m. on January 15, and it was 70 degrees, and there were palm trees, and winds were blowing, and it was balmy, and it didn‟t take me much convincing [to accept the job].” In Susan Ward-Steinman, e-mail to the present writer, 19 May 2005, Ms. Ward-Steinman noted, “During his early years [at San Diego State] David received several offers from other colleges and universities to teach elsewhere. His first question to them was always, „Does it snow there?‟” 64 David Ward-Steinman [pamphlet] (King of Prussia: Theodore Presser, 2007) 2; David Ward-Steinman, Curriculum Vitae (1968); Karl Kroeger, “Ward-Steinman, David,” The New Grove Dictionary of American Music, eds. H. Wiley Hitchcock and Stanley Sadie, vol. IV (London: Macmillan, 1986) 477. 65 Quoting David Ward-Steinman from Hertzog, “An interview with David Ward-Steinman: An edited transcript.” 21 Ward-Steinman composed a number of important works during his early years in San Diego. In 1962 he received a commission to write a piece for chamber orchestra from the Sherwood Hall Orchestra of La Jolla. He fulfilled the request with his Concerto No. 2 for Chamber Orchestra, which contained a reworking of the second movement of his earlier Concerto for Chamber Orchestra composed while he was still a student in at the University of Illinois. The work premiered in La Jolla on 3 March 1963, with the Sherwood Hall Orchestra directed by Daniel Lewis. 66 Another orchestral work written in 1962, Prelude and Toccata, won the Albuquerque Civic Symphony Orchestra‟s national composition contest. It premiered on 21 March 1963 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, with the Albuquerque orchestra under the direction Maurice Bonney. During 1963-64 Ward-Steinman composed his seventy-minute oratorio The Song of Moses on a commission from J. Dayton Smith and the Music Department of San Diego State College. The oratorio premiered on 31 May 1964 in San Diego with Gregory Peck as narrator performing with the San Diego State University Concert Choir, Chorus, and Orchestra under the direction of Paul Anderson. During 1962-65 Ward-Steinman wrote his fifteen-minute song cycle, Fragments from Sappho, based on texts from Mary Barnard‟s translations of the Greek poet. 67 Scored for soprano, flute, clarinet, and piano, it premiered in La Jolla on 29 April 1966. Louis Campiglia directed the performance, which featured soprano Emma Small, as well as flautist Fredrick Baker, clarinetist Dan Magnusson, and the composer as pianist. Cellist Edgar Lustgarten was a frequent guest performer with the Sherwood Hall Orchestra in the early 1960s. In 1964 he commissioned Ward-Steinman to write a Concerto 66 In David Ward-Steinman, e-mail to the present writer, 23 May 2005, the composer noted that he “scrapped” the earlier Concerto for Chamber Orchestra after its premiere but salvaged the second movement for his Concerto No. 2 for Chamber Orchestra. 67 Mary Barnard, Sappho: A New Translation (Berkeley: University of California, 1958). Barnard‟s English translations were the first to avoid the use of rhyming stanzas and other devices not found in the Greek original. 22 for Cello and Orchestra. Lustgarten and the Japan Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra premiered the work in Tokyo under the direction of guest conductor Milton Katims on 13 June 1967. The famous cellist also commissioned a chamber version of the concerto. On 16 April 1970, he and the composer premiered Duo for Cello and Piano during a recital at San Diego State College. Lustgarten subsequently played the work with composer-pianist John Williams while they toured Europe together and recorded it with him in London in 1974. For the opening of the San Diego Civic Theatre in 1965 under a commission from the San Diego Ballet Company, Ward-Steinman wrote a thirty-minute ballet, Western Orpheus, with choreography by Richard Carter. Under the musical direction of Earl Bernard Murray, the San Diego Ballet and the San Diego Symphony Orchestra premiered the work on 26 February 1965. Ward-Steinman himself served as soloist on the piano, the celeste, and the cheng in the ballet‟s performances. The worked gained the composer notoriety when in May 1966 the Sigma Alpha Iota journal Pan Pipes featured it in a cover story. 68 For the spring 1966 academic semester Ward-Steinman received a Research Leave Award from the California Legislature. The grant enabled him to compose full-time. On 11 March, however, he took the opportunity to present a lecture-recital on Johann Sebastian Bach‟s Well-Tempered Clavier, during which he performed, on the piano, seventeen of the work‟s preludes and fugues. 69 The fruit of Ward-Steinman‟s compositional labor at this time included a second ballet, These Three, which he wrote upon a commission from the Ballet America Foundation for the Joffrey Ballet Company. The plot of the 28-minute work 68 Marguerite Kelly Kyle, ed., “WORLD PREMIERE—WARD-STEINMAN‟S „WESTERN ORPHEUS,‟” Pan Pipes 58.4 (May 1966): 2. In 1965 Ward-Steinman fashioned a twenty-minute concert suite from the ballet. The Illinois Wesleyan University Orchestra under Richard Hishman premiered it on 6 March 1975. A revised version of the ballet, with choreography by Maxine Mahon, was subsequently commissioned by the California Ballet Company and premiered at the East County Performing Arts Center in El Cajon, CA, on 17 April 1987. The koto part that Ward-Steinman specified in the score was in all actuality written for a Chinese cheng. 69 Marguerite Kelly Kyle, ed., “The Composer—AmerAllegro: David Ward-Steinman,” Pan Pipes 59.2 (Jan. 1967): 101. 23 concerns the 21 June 1964 murders of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner, three young civil rights workers who went to Mississippi to register African Americans to vote. The ballet featured the choreography of Eugene Loring. It premiered on 13 September 1966 at the City Center Theater in New York City under the direction of conductor Seymour Lipkin. 70 Of his work on the music for These Three, Ward-Steinman recalls: I wrote and orchestrated the whole 30-minute score in about six weeks. Loring and I started [working together] in San Diego in the summer of 1966. We both then moved to New York for rehearsals and for me to finish the score. I rented a studio in a music store and stayed at the Chelsea Hotel in the Village, where Virgil Thomson and a bunch of real characters lived. It was an exciting time for me. I also had a great expense account that I used mostly on gourmet dining once a week, the rest of my time being spent on the score. [Loring] was complimentary about my music and appeared to genuinely like it. Of the twelve scenes in the ballet, he accepted the first music I produced in all but two or three cases; in those cases he generally wanted more music, not different music. It was an ideal collaboration: Gene produced the scenario scene by scene, then I wrote music (in piano reduction) and played it for him . . . and only then did he begin the choreography. He was one of the very few choreographers who could not only read music, but could also read an orchestral score. These Three ran for six performances during the fall of 1966. The last page of orchestration was finished on the morning of the first rehearsal. Joffrey hired a team of four or five copyists who took each movement/scene as it was finished. After the premiere Joffrey himself presented me with a single rose and effusive compliments. Gene turned to me and said, “We dood it!” 71 70 In 1969 Ward-Steinman fashioned a concert suite from the ballet. The San Diego Symphony Orchestra, under Zoltan Rozsnyai, was scheduled to premiere the work on 5 February 1970. The parts, unfortunately, were lost in the mail, necessitating the performance of another of Ward-Steinman‟s works on the concert. The suite finally received its premiere by the New Mexico State University Civic Symphony, under Marianna Gabbi, at the American Society of University Composers conference, held in Las Cruces, NM, on 9 November 1979. 71 David Ward-Steinman, e-mail to the present writer, 20 Aug. 2007. Loring had originally engaged Jerry Goldsmith to write the score. In the same e-mail Ward-Steinman wrote: “Goldsmith was asked first because Loring was a Hollywood choreographer and knew his work, and, initially, not mine. Loring was very up front with me about having asked Goldsmith and being turned down because Goldsmith was „too busy.‟” 24 Another work that reflects the times in which it was written is the composer‟s Elegy for Martin Luther King. Ward-Steinman composed the solo piano piece the day after King‟s assignation on 4 April 1968. He played the work in its premiere at an ecumenical memorial service for the civil rights leader held in Balboa Park in San Diego on 7 April 1968. In the program notes of a subsequent performance of the work the author wrote, “This piece was the composer‟s immediate reaction to the turmoil, anguish, rage, and sense of helplessness at this latest act of violence in the turbulent „60s.” 72 Childs Play, also written in 1968, is a ten-minute piece for bassoon and piano commissioned by the composer Barney Childs for the bassoonist Lester Weil. Weil and Ward-Steinman premiered the work on 12 April 1968 at the American Society of University Composers conference held at the University of California in Santa Barbara. This was the first of three commissions that stemmed from a long friendship between Childs and Ward- Steinman that began when they met at Tanglewood in the summer of 1954. The “ineffable” composer and former Rhodes Scholar was to mentor Ward-Steinman and offer constructive criticism of his music for many years. 73 The second commission was an 11-minute piece for clarinet, “fortified piano,” and tape, written for Childs and clarinetist Philip Rehfeldt. 74 The Tracker premiered on 13 November 1976. The third came from Childs‟s University of 72 Program notes for a concert of the music of David Ward-Steinman, Mingei International Museum, Balboa Park, San Diego, CA, 13 Nov. 2004. 73 David Ward-Steinman, e-mail to the present writer, 16 Oct. 2007. In David Ward-Steinman, e-mail to the present writer, 14 Oct. 2007, the composer recalled his early impressions of Barney Childs: “I met him at Tanglewood, summer of „54, when I was studying with Riegger next door at Indian Hill. The next year he came to FSU to visit a faculty oboist he was romantically interested in, though the interest was not reciprocated. The lady in question said we should meet each other, but I was due to be out of town with the University Singers on a concert tour (I was their accompanist), so I left behind a copy of the score for the string quartet that I had written the summer before with Riegger. When I returned, I found that Barney had left a 3-4 page letter for me, with a detailed critique and discussion of my quartet. I responded, and that began a life-long friendship and mentorship (he was 10 years my senior). [Over the years] he became the only person I could trust to give me absolutely objective criticism and reactions to my music as I was writing it, up to and including my Prisms and Reflections [1996]. He also became a regular at our peripatetic faculty stag poker games once he settled in at Redlands.” 74 Childs and Rehfeldt performed together in a duo they called “Music for Clarinet and Friend,” with Childs providing “friendly” assistance as pianist, narrator, percussionist, or whatever was needed. 25 Redlands New Music Ensemble, a six-minute work for piano and chamber ensemble, titled Moiré. It premiered on 27 April 1984. In 1990 Ward-Steinman wrote a four-minute piece for solo clarinet, which he titled Etude on the Name of Barney Childs. Clarinetist Brigid Burke premiered the work on 8 April 1990 at the Linden Gallery in Melbourne, Australia. During 1963 the American Composers Alliance elected Ward-Steinman to their membership. On 23 November 1965 he was the recipient of the Ernst von Dohnányi Citation “for excellence in performance or composition” from Florida State University in Tallahassee, where he also presented a lecture-recital on that date. 75 On 4 June 1966 he was presented with the Sigma Alpha Iota Alumnae Award, “in recognition of meritorious achievement in the field of musical composition,” by the organization‟s San Diego chapter. 76 In addition, in 1966, during the New York rehearsals of his ballet These Three, he and his wife Susan were Presidential Reception guests at the White House under the Johnson administration. 77 In 1968 he received a Citation from the San Diego Institute for Creativity “in recognition of a unique and creative effort.” 78 San Diego Union music critic Alan Kriegsman summarized the favorable impression Ward-Steinman had made in San Diego: 75 Ewen, 706; Marguerite Kelly Kyle, ed., “The Composer—AmerAllegro: David Ward-Steinman,” Pan Pipes 58.2 (Jan. 1966): 91. 76 Kyle, “The Composer—AmerAllegro: David Ward-Steinman” (Jan. 1967), 101. 77 In Hertzog, “An interview with David Ward-Steinman: An edited transcript,” Ward-Steinman recounts the events that led to the invitation after he had written his ballet Western Orpheus for the San Diego Ballet: “This [event] led to a meeting with Eugene Loring, who asked me to do a score for him for the Joffrey Ballet [These Three]. So I had that commission—the score for the Joffrey—and got a White House invitation out of that. . . . The other guests at that reception were Dizzy Gillespie and Edie Adams, and a more motley crew I could not imagine.” In David Ward-Steinman, e-mail to the present writer, 20 Aug. 2007, the composer added, “The guest of honor was actually the visiting Burmese leader, General Ne Win. Dizzy, Edie, and I were just window dressing. No one knew who I was, of course, but Diz and Edie attracted a big crowd. I never did find out how I got on the White House list. Lady Bird sought me out and we had a nice conversation about a burgeoning „Southern Renaissance‟ of the arts in our neighboring states of Louisiana and Texas. Someone must have told her that I was the „composer.‟” 78 In David Ward-Steinman, e-mail to the present writer, 6 June 2005, the composer recalled that the plaque read, “San Diego Institute for Creativity: Award: In Recognition of a Unique and Creative Effort. This Award is Presented by the San Diego Institute for Creativity to Dr. David Ward-Steinman.” According to Ward-Steinman it is unclear what the “unique and creative effort” was, but it may have had something to do with the 1968 performances of his oratorio, The Song of Moses. 26 Ward-Steinman is a man of many and diverse talents . . . prizes, awards and citations his compositions have earned testify to the national and international esteem in which he is held. . . . But in addition to composing almost every form of music . . . he is also an accomplished conductor; a splendid pianist and a fine string bass player. 79 In addition to his composing and performing activities, Ward-Steinman was to develop and refine his skills as a teacher of composition and theory. He quickly rose through the ranks to become, in the words of music critic Kenneth Herman, “one of the most highly regarded members of the [San Diego State] music faculty.” 80 Undergraduate classes Ward-Steinman came to teach over his years at San Diego State included Introduction to Music; Comprehensive Musicianship; Introduction to Ethnic Musics; Introduction to Music of the 20 th Century; Introduction to Electronic Music; and Analogs in Music, Art, and Literature. He also taught graduate seminars in Schenkerian Analysis, Problems in Analysis, History and Development of Music Theory, Music of the 20 th Century, Music of Stravinsky, American Music, Music of Aaron Copland, and World Music Theory. 81 These teaching duties were in addition to his responsibilities in coaching private composition students. As early as May 1964, Ward-Steinman‟s skill as a teacher moved San Diego magazine‟s music critic, Nick Stamon, to write, “Already, during his short tenure here as teacher, his composition students have won a respectable share of awards and recognition themselves.” 82 Many of his former students have become noted composers, arrangers, performers, and university professors. A short list of Ward-Steinman‟s more successful students over his career include: Ted Lucas, Frank McCarty, Charles Ketcham, Dale Jergenson, James Sain, 79 Alan M. Kriegsman, “„Song Of Moses‟: Premiere At San Diego State Today,” San Diego Union 31 May 1964: E3. 80 Herman, 7. 81 David Ward-Steinman, Curriculum Vitae (1968). 82 Nick Stamon, “Music: Moses, Ward-Steinman and Gregory Peck,” San Diego May 1964: 68. Stamon cited two of Ward-Steinman‟s then current students as examples: “Frank McCarty is well-known for his Readers‟ Theatre work and Ted Lucas recently won a national competition judged by Vincent Persichetti.” 27 Corey Hibbs, Warren Dale, David Dunn, Bill Mays, Bill Brown, John Morgan, and Don Nemitz. 83 Comprehensive Musician Ward-Steinman‟s principal contribution to the undergraduate music education curriculum at San Diego State was the instigation and advancement of a “Comprehensive Musicianship” (CM) program at the college. Comprehensive Musicianship was a development in American music education that sought to “improve the music curriculum by integrating aspects of music usually studied as separate and discrete subjects.” Its goal was to “prevent fragmentation of musical knowledge and understanding.” 84 Those who championed the program conceived it as a novel approach to teaching “about musical styles, theories, genres, and cultural contexts from traditions around the world.” 85 Since the time of its inception at San Diego State in 1967, it has become a “unique” three-year course of study required of all music majors. 86 The sequence, as San Diego composer and music critic Christian Hertzog has observed, “ambitiously integrates classical music history, music 83 David Ward-Steinman, e-mail to the present writer, 6 Oct. 2007. The former students‟ current occupations are as follows: Lucas is a composer and the Chairman of the music department at San Jose State University; McCarty is a composer and a retired Associate Professor of Composition at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro; Ketcham is an internationally noted conductor who has served as Assistant Conductor of the San Diego Symphony and the Utah Symphony; Jergenson is a singer, composer, and publisher; Sain is a composer and a professor of music at the University of Florida; Hibbs is a composer; Dale is a performer and a composer; David Dunn is an environmental sound composer and theorist; Mays is a successful jazz pianist; Brown is a film composer; Morgan and Nemitz are both working in Hollywood as composers, orchestrators, and conductors. 84 Michael L. Mark and Charles L. Gary, A History of American Music Education 3 rd ed. (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2007) 440. A discussion of Ward-Steinman‟s involvement in the CMP and the development of the Comprehensive Musicianship program appears on pages 408-09 and 442-43. 85 Dale A. Olsen, “Globalization, Culturation, and Transculturation in American Music,” Reflections on American Music: The Twentieth Century and the New Millennium, eds. James R. Heinetz and Michael Saffle (Hillsdale, NY: Pendragon Press, 2000): 276. 86 Herman, 7. 28 theory, world music, ear-training, computer skills, composition, performance, and improvisation.” 87 The Music Educators National Conference‟s “Contemporary Music Project” (CMP) was “the catalyst” for the development of Comprehensive Musicianship. 88 “[It] was a major project undertaken to help the music education profession modernize itself to serve contemporary societal needs.” 89 Initiated in the mid-1960s, the CMP received its funding under the sponsorship of the MENC through grants obtained from the Ford Foundation. 90 The proposal accepted by the foundation stated the purposes of the CMP: 87 Christian Hertzog, “David Ward-Steinman: Is there anything he can‟t do?” San Diego New Music Newsletter 3:1 (Jan.-Mar. 2000): 3; rpt. as “David Ward-Steinman: A profile,” Jan. 2000, Mar. 2005 <http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Den/2293/dws.html>. 88 Mark and Gary, 440. The title and name of the endeavor, “Contemporary Music Project” eventually gave way to “Comprehensive Musicianship Program.” The latter title perhaps emphasized a more encompassing course of study. Strong elements of the former emphasis, however, remained in the program. In 1998 the MENC changed its own name to “The National Association for Music Education.” 89 In chapter 15, “New Curricular Foundations of Music Education: Comprehensive Musicianship,” of Mark and Gary‟s book, a detailed account of the history of the national undertaking is presented: “Through its publications and convention sessions, MENC had been trying, without much success, to interest its members in using more twentieth-century music. . . . Over dinner in New York in the late 1950s, composer Norman Dello Joio and MENC executive secretary Vanett Lawler talked about the difficulty that young composers faced in having their works performed. They developed a plan to use the schools to help composers who would introduce students to contemporary music at the same time. Since 1957, the Ford Foundation had expressed interest in the relationship between the arts and American society, and Dello Joio was successful in getting the project funded by the foundation. In 1959, the Ford Foundation sponsored the Young Composers Project . . . The purpose of the project was to place young composers . . . in public school systems to serve as composers-in-residence for students. . . . Teachers and students who gained firsthand experience with contemporary music from their composers-in-residence were more receptive to new music, and the composers had a better understanding of the educational possibilities of their music. . . . In 1963, the Ford Foundation awarded a grant . . . to MENC to organize what was named the Contemporary Music Project for Creativity in Music Education (known as the CMP). . . . The Young Composers Project was continued as part of the CMP under the title Composers in Public Schools. . . . The CMP sponsored workshops and seminars at sixteen colleges and universities throughout the country to help teachers better understand contemporary music through analysis, performance, and pedagogy. . . . In 1965, the seminar on Comprehensive Musicianship was held at Northwestern University to develop and implement ways to improve the education of music teachers, one of the most important functions of the CMP. The basic principles of the movement known as „comprehensive musicianship‟ were established by the seminar, but methodology and materials needed to be developed. That was done at six regional Institutes for Music in Contemporary Education that conducted experimental programs in thirty-six educational institutions.” See: Mark and Gary, 407-409. 90 The College Music Society took over the Contemporary Music Project/Comprehensive Musicianship Program for a limited time after the original Ford Foundation/MENC grants ran out. See: David Ward-Steinman, e-mail to the present writer, 29 May 2005. A detailed account of the collaboration between the MENC and the Ford Foundation in funding the CMP is presented in chapter 17, “Government, Foundation and Not-for-Profit Support: The Ford Foundation and the Contemporary Music Project,” in Mark and Gary, 441-443. 29 (1) to increase the emphasis on the creative aspect of music in the public schools; (2) to create a solid foundation or environment in the music education profession for the acceptance, through understanding, of the contemporary music idiom; (3) to reduce the compartmentalization between the profession of music composition and music education for the benefit of composers and music educators alike; (4) to cultivate taste and discrimination on the part of music educators and students regarding the quality of contemporary music used in schools; and (5) to discover, when possible, creative talent among students. 91 Two areas of opportunity were open to young composer-educators who participated in the CMP: a Composers-in-Public Schools program and a Professionals-in-Residence series. 92 Sponsored under the CMP in 1965, Ward-Steinman gave a series of lectures in Portland, Oregon and in Long Beach, Claremont, and San Diego, California on the topic “Developing Musical Understanding through Contemporary Music.” 93 He was concurrently demonstrating his interest in introducing children to contemporary music when in 1966 he accepted a commission from the Association for Childhood Education International to write a piece for an April 1968 premiere at the ACEI convention in San Diego. Ward-Steinman obliged with a 20-minute composition—scored for narrator, soprano, flute, clarinet, cello, percussion, piano, and celeste—which he titled The Tale of Issoumbochi. Susan Ward- Steinman wrote the work‟s libretto, basing it on a Japanese fairy tale. “Issoumbochi is the Japanese Tom Thumb; his role is sung by either a boy soprano or, in concert, a female soprano,” notes David Ward-Steinman. “The scoring for chamber ensemble is highly evocative and colorful, with many unusual effects.” 94 A film version of The Tale of 91 Malcolm E. Eessom, “CMP in Perspective,” Music Educator’s Journal 59 (May 1973): 34. The article is quoted in Mark and Gary, 407-408, cited with an incorrect date of “May 1972.” 92 Mark and Gary, 442; Hertzog, “An interview with David Ward-Steinman: An edited transcript.” In David Ward-Steinman, e-mail to the present writer, 29 May 2005, the composer noted that there were several grants available, including the various areas of specialization: “Composers in Public Schools, Comprehensive Musicianship Program, Pilot Projects in Musical Creativity and Professionals in Residence.” 93 Kyle, “The Composer—AmerAllegro: David Ward-Steinman” (Jan. 1966), 91. 94 David Ward-Steinman, program notes for a concert of his music, Meadows School of the Arts, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX, 20 Feb. 1973. 30 Issoumbochi eventually appeared on educational television, broadcast nationally on the “Profile” series. The initial phase of the CMP Composers-in-Public Schools program consisted of three pilot projects aimed at teaching music to elementary school children. Ward-Steinman was in charge of the first of them, which took place in San Diego. He held a seminar for 30 music teachers from the county‟s school system to demonstrate effective ways of presenting contemporary music to children. Classes at the second, fifth, and sixth grade levels involved children in improvisation and composition. Susan Ward-Steinman taught the second grade class. Rather than using the traditional approach of teaching music as historical phenomena and gradually moving forward in time, the Ward-Steinmans advocated introducing children to the most experimental music of today and then working backwards. David collaborated with author Mary Val Marsh, who organized all the material, edited it, and eventually published it as part of a report on the national project in an MENC handbook entitled Experiments in Musical Creativity. 95 He reflected at that time: Music is taught generally pretty badly in the public schools. It‟s not taught creatively. Art is taught creatively from the very beginning, even in kindergarten, where the teacher passes out crayons, finger paints, all the materials, and the kids start making art. They start drawing, sculpting, painting. But not in music. The usual cop-out from public school teachers is that they claim they can‟t teach contemporary music until they‟ve taught them all the classics. . . . We thought that reasoning was specious. . . . We had the kids in the second grade collecting sounds . . . organizing them . . . improvising, composing, making instruments, and doing all sorts of creative things that the teachers didn‟t think could be done. . . . In the end, they voted Harry Partch as their favorite composer—of all things—as their Model! 96 95 David Ward-Steinman, e-mail to the present writer, 18 May 2005. 96 Quoting David Ward-Steinman from Hertzog, “An interview with David Ward-Steinman: An edited transcript.” 31 Ward-Steinman made several appearances at seminars and conferences all around the country to speak and lecture in connection with the CMP and the Ford Foundation grant program. From 29 January through 2 February 1969, he attended a CMP seminar at the Airlie Conference Center in Warrenton, Virginia. He also made appearances in 1969 in San Antonio, Texas (20-23 February), as well as in Hawaii (29 March-4 April) and at Wichita State University in Kansas (6-7 June). In July 1970, he led a workshop in contemporary music for elementary teachers at Long Beach State College in California. 97 The Comprehensive Musicianship Project, geared to college-level undergraduate music education, was the second phase of the Contemporary Music Project. MENC/Ford Foundation grants founded the development of the program at over thirty colleges and universities across the country. Under one of these grants that allowed him to create an experimental CM curriculum, Ward-Steinman ran a pilot class at San Diego State during the two-year period of 1967-69. The college subsequently adopted the curriculum and expanded it into a three-year program. 98 Ward-Steinman later reflected about his CM experience: In each class, there is equal emphasis on composition, performance, analysis. I figure there are only three things to do with music: you can write it, you can play it, you can listen to it. Everything else is a spin-off of one of those fundamental activities. I visualize it as an equilateral triangle, and each of the points is united by improvisation, which draws on all three skills, so we do that too. So it turns out to be a very rich, very comprehensive experience that opens a lot of doors for the students, and opens their minds and their ears to other possibilities of music making. 97 Sue Eakin, ed., “Louisiana Artist: David Ward-Steinman,” Louisiana Heritage 1.2 (Winter 1969): 31; Marguerite Kelly Kyle, ed., “The Composer—AmerAllegro: David Ward-Steinman,” Pan Pipes 63.2 (Jan. 1971): 83-84. 98 Mark and Gary, 442. Ward-Steinman has noted that the San Diego State music department was at least a year behind the other colleges in getting the program started due to “bureaucratic obstacles” encountered in having the experimental courses approved and the required course descriptions published. See: David Ward- Steinman, e-mail to the present writer, 29 May 2005. 32 I took a third of the entering music majors, and the other two- thirds went through the standard fragmented curriculum, and my section was the weakest in terms of standardized tests. We did a lot of testing, ear/aural skills, background, ability, so forth . . . By the end of the first year, my class had reached the level of all the others. By the end of the second year, it had surpassed them, and the results were so extraordinary that the [music] faculty voted unanimously . . . to make this the standard program. 99 Mark and Gary noted that Ward-Steinman‟s approach was “one of many that went beyond the traditional music curriculum to show how various aspects of music relate to each other. . . . [The pilot course] unifies the study of music by bringing together theory, harmony, ear training, counterpoint, form and analysis, instrumentation and arranging, and history in a two year sequence of broadly-based courses.” 100 Ward-Steinman himself later wrote, “A primary objective of Comprehensive Musicianship is to teach students to deal intelligently with all kinds of music. Interrelationships among music and the sister arts are introduced with specific reference to formal, textural, and stylistic analogues in painting, sculpture, architecture, and poetry.” 101 Performance, improvisation, and composition play an equal and integral role in the program. Its intent is not that all students will become professional composers, but that all will be able to improvise and compose: Improvisation . . . remains an incalculably valuable form of musical expression and synthesis. To improvise convincingly in a given style, form, or musical language requires as much analytical and musical skill as a written exercise or research paper, and this reveals a great deal about the quality of musical intelligence at work. . . . A natural correlate of improvisation, composition, begins where improvisation leaves off, that is, with notation, polishing, editing, [and] rewriting. 102 99 Quoting David Ward-Steinman from Hertzog, “An interview with David Ward-Steinman: An edited transcript.” 100 Mark and Gary, 408-09. 101 David Ward-Steinman, “Comprehensive Musicianship at San Diego State University,” Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy 1.22 (Fall 1987): 129. 102 Ibid., 135-36. 33 Ward-Steinman‟s expertise on the subject of CM garnered national attention. During 8-21 June 1969, he served on the faculty of a seminar held at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, lecturing instructors on how to teach comprehensive musicianship under the Contemporary Music Project program. During August 1970, he additionally served as a member of the analysis and writing skills faculty at the CMP workshop on Comprehensive Musicianship at San Jose State College in California. 103 In an article that appeared in Musical America in March 1979 Southern California music and dance critic William Sullivan wrote concerning San Diego State‟s CM program following ten years of development. He summarized the goal of CM as being the training of musicians “who know music from the real experiences of composing, performing, listening, and analyzing, instead of participating in a series of abstract theory exercises.” Sullivan took note of the fact that “many students go through music degree programs without experiencing anything but the re-creative rather than the creative aspects” of music: The traditional process of music education is one which educators such as Ward-Steinman found limiting, confining, unnecessarily dull, and ultimately self-defeating. They set out to develop Comprehensive Musicianship as a course to develop the total musical person. . . . The Comprehensive Musicianship program, in bringing together such previously separate courses as theory, harmony, ear-training, counterpoint, form and analysis, instrumentation and arranging, and a survey course in music history . . . creates an entity in which students are expected to be conversant with all these things . . . The material included reflects the . . . contention that the Comprehensive Musicianship course should point out the relationship between Western classical music and other Western and non-Western music, and also the relationship between music and art. 104 103 “Ward-Steinman, David,” Who’s Who in American Music: Classical, 2 nd ed., ed. Jaques Cattell (New York: R. R. Bowker, 1985) 621; Eakin, 31; Kyle, “The Composer—AmerAllegro: David Ward-Steinman” (Jan. 1971), 83-84. 104 William Sullivan, “on education: San Diego State goes comprehensive,” High Fidelity/Musical America Mar. 1979: MA 10-11. 34 Sullivan quotes Ward-Steinman in observing that CM is more demanding of students than traditional college music education, “but in a more creative way.” He closed his article noting, “There is [student] praise for Comprehensive Musicianship [at San Diego State] because the course is about music as a reality and not a series of abstract elements.” 105 In the spring of 1970, Ward-Steinman took a sabbatical from San Diego State College and became a post-doctoral Visiting Fellow in the music department at Princeton University. While there, he studied with Milton Babbitt, explored the use of the computer in composition, and was purported to have begun researching material for a CM anthology. 106 Stemming from Ward-Steinman‟s work in the Contemporary Music Project/Comprehensive Musicianship Program are two writings. He wrote the article, “Beethoven—A Composer for All Seasons,” for the December 1970 edition of the Music Educators Journal. 107 Additionally, the book that resulted from David and Susan Ward-Steinman‟s collaboration, A Comparative Anthology of Musical Forms, first published in 1976, has been in use extensively in CM training at colleges and universities all across the country. 108 The Comprehensive Musicianship program at San Diego State survives to this day as a monument to Ward-Steinman‟s insight and creativity in bringing it into being. 109 105 Quoting David Ward-Steinman and William Sullivan respectively from ibidem, 11. 106 “Ward-Steinman, David,” Contemporary American Composers: A Biographical Dictionary, ed. Ruth E. Anderson (Boston: G. K. Hall, 1976) 458; “Ward-Steinman, David,” Dictionary of Contemporary Music, ed. John Vinton (New York: E. P. Dutton, 1971) 806; Ward-Steinman, “Comprehensive Musicianship at San Diego State University,” 141. In Susan Ward-Steinman, e-mail to the present writer, 19 Oct. 2007, Ms. Ward-Steinman noted that she and David had not even spoken about doing an anthology at this early time. 107 Vinton, 807. The citation for the article shown in Olsen appears with Ward-Steinman‟s original title. The editor of the Music Educators Journal changed the title of the article, without Ward-Steinman‟s permission, to “At 200, Beethoven Can Still Rock Youth.” The Ford Foundation/MENC Contemporary Music Project commissioned the article while Ward-Steinman served as a Professional in Residence in the Tampa Bay Area during 1970-72. 108 David Ward-Steinman and Susan L. Ward-Steinman, A Comparative Anthology of Musical Forms. In David Ward-Steinman, e-mail to the present writer, 2 June 2005, the composer noted that the first two printings of the book (Wadsworth Press and University Press of America) each sold out, with 10,000 copies printed. 109 Herman, 7. Herman notes that the Comprehensive Musicianship program, unfortunately, has been abandoned in all but a half-a-dozen other schools throughout the country. Ward-Steinman wrote in 1987 of CM‟s national demise: “CM is obviously more than a curriculum or a format; it is a philosophy, an approach that can have many manifestations. Without commitment, determination, and belief on the part of those teaching it, 35 In relation to these achievements, besides having earned national recognition, Ward- Steinman gained notice at home as well. In 1967 he won the Outstanding Faculty Award from the San Diego State College Division of Fine Arts and the Outstanding Young Educator of the Year Award from the San Diego Junior Chamber of Commerce. 110 In 1968 the Board of Trustees of the California State College system chose him as one of two “Outstanding Professors of the Year.” This latter award, which recognizes an individual‟s “national reputation and international standing,” honored him for his “stimulating and effective classroom [teaching]” as well as his “scholarship and service to his institution, community and nation.” 111 Ward-Steinman put these awards in perspective when he commented upon the achievement of the latter, “I‟m always pleased and grateful, and always surprised. I don‟t work for the awards—the work I do is intrinsically rewarding.” 112 Composer in Residence Throughout his teaching career Ward-Steinman did most of his composing “during the summer, or on weekends and at night during the school year.” 113 “I like to think that everything else I do feeds the composition in one way or another,” he has said. 114 He once however, it would be doomed to failure, and that, no doubt, explains why so many of the thirty-six programs originally funded nationally by the Ford Foundation have fallen by the wayside.” See: David Ward-Steinman, “Comprehensive Musicianship at San Diego State University,” 143-44. 110 Also in 1967, an “Honorary Doctorate (SMD)” was awarded to Ward-Steinman. He comments about the matter, “I was awarded something called a “Doctor Sapientiae Mundanae” (which translates to „Doctor of Worldly Wisdom‟) by the Gracian Institute of Montreal [Canada], which I really know nothing about. Since they didn‟t offer to pay my expenses to the award ceremony I didn‟t go, but they mailed me the degree anyway. . . . I have no idea how they chose me or why. Possibly my father had something to do with it—he and some of the signatories belonged to the Boswell Society, a kind of Dickensian-Picwellian literary fellowship.” See: David Ward-Steinman, e-mail to the present writer, 2 May 2005. 111 Ewen, 704; “SDS Prof Receives Teaching Award,” San Diego Evening Tribune 28 June 1968: A17. 112 Quoting David Ward-Steinman from “SDS Music Prof Cited As Outstanding in Field,” Daily Aztec [San Diego State College] 9 Oct. 1968: 5. 113 Spizizen, 16-17. 114 Quoting David Ward-Steinman from Herman, 1. 36 advised a journalist that, “Musical phrases, rhythms or even sounds can get [him] started on a new work,” and he went on to compare the process to chipping away at marble: As it gradually emerges, you find yourself making musical discoveries that are very exciting. It‟s very rewarding to compose. There‟s a large amount of craft involved. I won‟t say composing is independent from inspiration . . . I won‟t say it‟s a gift from the muses. Symphonies are not dictated a note at a time by the muse from on high. You have to dig them out laboriously, like an archaeologist. 115 Ward-Steinman once jokingly described composing as “a form of addiction.” He elaborated: “If I go too long without composing, I begin to have terrible guilt feelings. I get uncomfortable and make everyone around me miserable. I have to get a piece going.” 116 It is, therefore, understandable that, when it became possible to take a two-year leave of absence from his responsibilities at San Diego State to spend time engaged in the second area of opportunity open to young composer-educators in the CMP, Ward-Steinman seized upon it. Under one of the MENC/Ford Foundation grants, beginning in the fall of 1970, he served for two years as a Composer-in-Residence for the Tampa Bay Area in Florida. 117 Michael L. Mark and Charles L. Gary, in their book: A History of American Music Education, wrote of Ward-Steinman‟s residency: [Ward-Steinman‟s] responsibilities in Florida were typical of composer-in-residence and professional-in-residence grants. He introduced new music, conducted workshops, and presented lectures. During his tenure . . . [he] composed fourteen pieces that were performed by himself or by area musicians, including school ensembles and the Gulf Coast Symphony Orchestra. Like other composers in this program, he was especially interested in working with children, to have them become receptive to contemporary music as listeners, composers, and performers. 118 115 Quoting David Ward-Steinman from Thomas, C1. 116 Quoting David Ward-Steinman from Herman, 7. 117 Ewen, 706. 118 Mark and Gary, 442. The citation references an article by Frank Bentayou, “Ward-Steinman Bids Farewell,” Tampa Tribune 16 July 1972, sec. IV: 1, 3. 37 Ward-Steinman was to play his music at a number of concerts while he was in Florida. During the summer of 1970, he gave performances in the cities of Saint Petersburg, Largo, and Tampa. 119 Commenting on a multimedia concert that he presented in Sarasota on 30 May 1971, local music critic Bill Copeland wrote: At the keyboard of [his Putney synthesizer], he was for all the world the mad maestro of melody, mixing and multi-tracking and generally assaulting the audience with combinations never before heard. Ward-Steinman . . . proved that rarity in music—a talent able to create for others and also bring off a one-man show . . . He is affable, he is interesting, and he challenges your channels of musical appreciation. 120 Worthy of mention are some of the works that Ward-Steinman composed during his Florida residency. The composer wrote two of them as commissions under the Tampa Bay area Composers-in-Residence Project: Gasparilla Day in 1970 and Raga for Winds in 1972. The King High School Band of Tampa premiered Gasparilla Day, “an uncharacteristic march for band,” in February 1971, and the University of South Florida Concert Band Ensemble premiered Raga for Winds at the MENC national convention held in Atlanta in March 1972. 121 The Florida Center for the Arts oversaw the commissions of three compositions: Antares, Rituals for Dancers and Musicians, and Sonata for Piano Fortified. Antares, composed in 1971 for orchestra, synthesizer, and gospel choir (ad libitum), was one of a series of pieces Ward-Steinman wrote shortly after he acquired an EMS VCS3 “Putney” synthesizer. Noted conductor Irwin Hoffman and the Florida Gulf Coast Symphony (now the “Florida Orchestra”) premiered Antares on 22 April 1971. Written in 1971 for an assortment of non-traditional instruments, Rituals for Dancers and Musicians premiered, 119 Kyle, “The Composer—AmerAllegro: David Ward-Steinman” (Jan. 1971), 83-84. 120 Bill Copeland, “Ward-Steinman Program „Unusual,‟” Sarasota Journal [Sarasota, FL] 1 June 1971: 2-A. 121 “Gasparilla Day” is a Tampa Bay version of the New Orleans Mardi Gras. “Pirates” invade the city during an annual three-day celebration. The program of events includes a parade and a festival of the arts. 38 with choreography by William Hug and dancers from the University of South Florida, on a WTVT Tampa television broadcast on 5 December 1971. Ward-Steinman later wrote of this work, “The composition is part of a multimedia experimental work for television called Kaleidoscope [Vega], in which music, dance, and video-camera techniques are integrally conceived, and the latent potential of videotape explored.” In the same writing, he also described a spin-off work: “Nova is a collage consisting of one segment of the videotape from Kaleidoscope plus a heterophonic live performance on synthesizer and tape of the same basic material in expanded stereophony.” 122 In 1972 for pianist Gary Wolf, Ward-Steinman composed his Sonata for Piano Fortified, written for the piano equipped in a manner that is an expansion on the technique used by John Cage in his works for “prepared piano.” 123 Gary Wolf premiered the piece on 23 June 1972 at the University of South Florida in Tampa. Composer, Pianist, Lecturer, and Pilot Over the years of his career, in addition to meeting the obligations of his regular teaching assignment at San Diego State, Ward-Steinman participated in a dizzying array of residencies, lectures, workshops, and concert engagements. As early as 1968 he traveled over 18,000 miles while lecturing between academic semesters, during holidays, and on weekends. 124 He has made appearances as a guest composer, performer, and lecturer at over seventy-five college and university campuses, both nationwide and abroad; and he has performed his works in all the major cities of the United States and in over a dozen other 122 David Ward-Steinman, program notes for a concert of his music, 20 Feb. 1973, Ars Nova Composers Forum‟s Fourth Annual Contemporary Music Festival, Meadows School of the Arts, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX, 20-23 Feb. 1973. 123 In chapter two of this paper the origination of the “fortified piano” will be discussed at length. 124 Eakin, 31. 39 countries on every continent, with the sole exception of Africa. 125 We will examine some of the highlights of his concert and lecture tours in the paragraphs that follow. During 1970, while on his above-cited two-year leave of absence from San Diego State, Ward-Steinman gave lectures and performed in concerts of his music at the Long Beach and San Jose State Colleges in California, the University of South Florida at Tampa (24-26 February), and Southwest Texas State University in San Marcos (21-22 April). He additionally served two one-week residencies as Composer-in-Residence at the University of Texas at El Paso, and he was a featured composer in the Fifth-Annual Contemporary Music Festival at Del Mar College in Corpus Christi, Texas (1-4 December). 126 Commenting on Ward-Steinman‟s performance of his Putney Three, for woodwind quintet, prepared piano, and Putney synthesizer, music faculty member and newspaper critic Ralph Thibodeau wrote in the Corpus Christi Caller-Times: The most interesting and controversial work of the festival was Ward-Steinman‟s “Putney 3” for woodwind quintet, prepared piano, piano interior and the Putney 3 [sic] Electronic Synthesizer. The composer resembled the fabled one-armed paperhanger with the hives, playing the piano keyboard, jumping up to position damping objects on the strings or bang on them with mallets or pluck them, all the while pushing buttons and playing the organ keyboard of the synthesizer. 127 During the early part of March 1972, Ward-Steinman gave a two-day seminar at Mississippi State College for Women, where he lectured on future directions in music. Grants he had received from the Mississippi Arts Commission and the National Endowment for the Arts made the event possible. 128 Also in 1972, Ward-Steinman received a 125 David Ward-Steinman, David Ward-Steinman: Composer, Pianist, Author, Lecturer [pamphlet] (La Mesa, CA: Author, 1985); David Ward-Steinman (New York: Broadcast Music, Inc., 1988). 126 “Ward-Steinman, David,” Who’s Who in American Music: Classical, 2 nd ed., 621; David Ward- Steinman, e-mail to the present writer, 11 May 2005. 127 Ralph Thibodeau, “„Song of Moses‟ impressive,” Corpus Christi Caller-Times 5 Dec. 1971: 12C. 128 “Now Is Like Piano Had Just Been Invented,” Jackson Daily News [Jackson, MI] 9 Mar. 1972: E9. 40 commission from Irwin Hoffman to write a short piece for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Hoffman, as was mentioned earlier, had commissioned the composer‟s Antares, a work for Minimoog synthesizer and orchestra, for the Florida Gulf Coast Symphony. A protégé of Serge Koussevitzky, Hoffman enjoyed ties with the Chicago Symphony from having been its Assistant Conductor (1964-65), Associate Conductor (1965-68), and Acting Music Director (1968-69) between the “régimes” of Fritz Reiner and Georg Solti. He was to again direct the famed orchestra in the final concert of its 1971-72 season. Responding to criticism that the institution had skirted its responsibility to program new music by American composers, Hoffman seized upon the opportunity to have the orchestra commission Ward- Steinman to write a work for the occasion. 129 Ward-Steinman fulfilled his commission with a 12-minute piece for Putney synthesizer and orchestra, which he titled Arcturus. The work premiered on 15 June at the Theodore Thomas Orchestral Hall in Chicago. The composer himself played the Putney synthesizer. He recalls of the occasion: Arcturus featured a solo synthesizer part that I played, primarily because I wanted to be able to say I had soloed with the Chicago Symphony, and I think I was the first to perform live on a synthesizer with them. I was given my own music folder, which was labeled in block letters, “SYNTHESIZER.” 130 The premiere caused an uproar, which prompted Bernard Jacobson of the Chicago Daily News to deride “how far behind the stream of musical history” and “how deficient in plain good manners” Chicago‟s concert audiences were. He wrote further of the occasion: 129 Thomas Willis, “Symphony Looks Ahead to Banner 1971-72 Season.” Chicago Tribune 16 May 1971, sec. 5: 3. 130 David Ward-Steinman, e-mail to the present writer, 6 May 2008. Also in the same e-mail, the composer recalls the events that led to the Chicago Symphony commission: “Irwin Hoffman had directed the Florida Gulf Coast Symphony in the premiere of Antares while I was serving as Composer-in-Residence in the Tampa Bay area. He did not much like contemporary music, so he had limited the specified duration of the commission to a token ten minutes. Shortly thereafter Claudia Cassidy, the reigning doyenne of Chicago musical culture, lambasted Hoffman for playing so little contemporary music in the CSO concerts he directed. Within a week of that devastating review, Hoffman telephoned me with an offer to commission a piece for the Chicago Symphony—again with a ten-minute limitation. Perhaps, I was to be gauntlet he would fling back at the critics.” 41 The instant reaction [to Arcturus] of our great, cultivated, intelligent Symphony public—or (let me be fair) of a sizable proportion of it—was a barrage of derisive comment liberally interspersed with laughter. Till we get to the stage where courtesy to composers, performers and fellow-listeners is more widely practiced among audiences, we might as well not have concerts at all. For the moment, though I cannot raise much enthusiasm for his piece, I apologize to Ward-Steinman for the barbarians. 131 During 20-23 February 1973 Ward-Steinman participated in the Fourth Annual Contemporary Music Festival, sponsored by the Ars Nova Composers Forum, and held at the Meadows School of the Arts of Southern Methodist University. While there, he performed in concerts of his music and presented lectures. On Tuesday, 20 February, he gave a lecture entitled “Interrelations in Music and Art.” During the same week, on Wednesday, 21 February, he performed in a concert of his music at Eastfield College‟s Twentieth Century Music Festival, which was running concurrently with the SMU festival. On Friday morning, 23 February, he gave a lecture at Eastfield titled “Jazz and the Twentieth Century Composer: a survey of musical influences and borrowings, including recent rock, jazz/rock and aleatoric music.” He repeated the lecture that afternoon at SMU. 132 Later that spring, at the Illinois Wesleyan University Fine Arts Festival held 6-19 March 1975, Ward- Steinman participated in a Symposium of Contemporary Music. There he played his music, and, on 7 March, he presented a lecture titled “The Aesthetics of Kinetics in Music and Art.” Important commissions that Ward-Steinman received in the following few years included one in 1976 from the Bowling Green Brass Quintet, which resulted in his second work for that instrumental genre. Brancusi’s Brass Beds premiered 22 January 1978 at 131 Bernard Jacobson, “Symphony loses to giggles and chatters,” Chicago Daily News 16 June 1972: 22. 132 “4 th Contemporary Music Festival Due This Week,” Dallas Morning News 18 Feb. 1973: 7C; “Festival at Eastfield to open Wednesday,” Dallas Times Herald 20 Feb. 1973: 6-C. 42 Bowling Green State University in Kentucky. This sixteen-minute work won First Prize in the Kansas Brass Quintet Composition Contest. Much of the time that Ward-Steinman spent composing from 1970-77 was devoted to his opera, Tamar. His friend and colleague, William J. Adams, wrote the libretto for this two-hour and twenty-minute “music-drama in three acts for six voices, dancers, and orchestra.” Adams based his libretto on the Tamar of Robinson Jeffers. Although Ward-Steinman wrote the work under the speculation of its performance by the San Diego Opera, funding did not materialize, and Tamar remains to this day his only major work that has not received a performance. 133 In 1978, in an entirely different genre, Ward-Steinman wrote his Toccata for Synthesizer and Slide Projectors, one in a series of works that explores the potential of the synthesizer in real-time performance. 134 Even with all his compositional and academic activities, Ward-Steinman found time to indulge his childhood hobby. He became a licensed private pilot in 1971, obtained an instrument rating in 1975, and purchased a plane, a single-engine Piper Warrior II, in 1980. He frequently loads his plane with his synthesizer, tape deck, and slide projector to fly to his concert engagements. 135 He told one newspaper reporter in February 1979: I use the excuse that it is easier to travel [that way] with my Putney electronic synthesizer, I think the truth is I try to book my tours around good flying routes. Last fall I flew a 3,000 [mile] 5-state round trip and made all but the last 100 miles. Got fogged in. I am instrument rated, but I won‟t take chances. 136 133 Save possibly the composer‟s Two Episodes, for youth orchestra (see earlier footnote). Walter Herbert, the founding director of the San Diego Opera who commissioned Tamar, died before Ward-Steinman could finish the score. His immediate successor, Tito Capobianco, granted Ward-Steinman one brief interview, did not listen to the score, and was only interested in whether or not the composer could personally raise $100,000.00 toward the cost of the premiere. See: David Ward-Steinman, e-mail to the present writer, 8 Nov. 2007. 134 Bill Hug of the University of South Florida, Tampa, painted many of the slides, directly on the glass, that Ward-Steinman used in this piece. He then modified them photographically and collaged them. The composer made and modified others himself and permuted them all. See: David Ward-Steinman, program notes for a concert of his music, Palomar College, San Marcos, CA, 6 Apr. 1983. 135 David Ward-Steinman, e-mail to the present writer, 1 June 2005; Herman, 1. 136 Betty Ligon, “Composer enjoys teacher role,” El Paso Herald-Post 23 Feb. 1979, Accent/Entertainment: 3. 43 As part of a ten-day cross-country tour he flew in the fall of 1978, Ward-Steinman gave a concert on 2 November at the Tempe campus of Arizona State University. Two days later, on 4 November, he gave a similar concert at the Guinn Auditorium of Louisiana College in Pineville. Commenting on the composer‟s performance of his Sonata for Piano (1957) during the latter concert, music critic and Louisiana College faculty member Arnold Epley wrote: The final movement, following the melancholy mood of the second, simply burst with such stunning brilliance and blinding speed that there was no doubt that here was a pianist and composer who both understands and possesses the technical facility to use the piano any way he chooses. David Ward-Steinman is one of this country‟s most outstanding contemporary composers. He is widely recognized as being one of the most brilliant minds working in the area of new music. 137 Upon his return home to San Diego from the tour, The San Diego Reader published an unsigned article concerning the state of contemporary music in the county which took note of the event: David Ward-Steinman, 42, at San Diego State, just completed a whirlwind one-man, ten-day crusade for his own music, literally barnstorming cities all over the country, piloting himself, his instruments—musical instruments—and his Moog [sic] synthesizer on a single-prop Cessna. 138 During February 1979, Ward-Steinman visited the music department of the University of Texas at El Paso‟s to participate in a faculty development program. On the 24 th of that month, he presented a concert at the university. The concert prompted this reaction from a local music critic who would later move to San Diego to become one of Ward-Steinman‟s composition students: “David Ward-Steinman‟s all original multi-media 137 Arnold Epley, “Ward-Steinman concert „extraordinary,‟” Red River Journal [Pineville, LA] 9-15 Nov. 1978: A-4. 138 “Reader‟s Guide to Local Events,” San Diego Reader 18 Nov. 1978: 14. 44 recital, given in the Fine Arts Recital Hall at the University of Texas at El Paso Saturday evening, did everything to prove contemporary music is anything but dull.” 139 Ward- Steinman returned to the UTEP in April of that year to work, once again, with its music faculty. The composer presented repeats of his multi-media concert performances later that year at the California State University, Dominguez Hills on 26 November and at the Arnold Schoenberg Institute on the campus of the University of Southern California on 7 December. In early 1980 Ward-Steinman served as a finalist judge in the BMI National Student Composition Contest in New York City. Columbia University thereafter featured him in their “Meet the Composer” Colloquium series and invited him to perform a concert of his works. He also appeared at this time as a guest lecturer and performer in concerts of his music at the New York City Teacher‟s College, the Catholic University in Washington D.C., the University of Maryland in College Park, and the University of North Carolina in Greensboro. From 20-24 June 1980, he served as a guest composer-lecturer at the Music Teachers Association of California annual convention in Los Angeles. 140 For the fall semester of 1981 Ward-Steinman took a sabbatical leave of absence from his teaching position at San Diego State and spent the entire time composing in his studio. He completed four works by the end of the sabbatical. These included Season’s Greetings, a festival overture for orchestra; Epithalamion, a chamber piece for flute and cello; and Golden Apples, a four-movement large-scale work for saxophone and fortified piano, commissioned by James Rötter, saxophonist for the Los Angeles Philharmonic. 141 The composer also completed a commission he received from the Collegiate Choir and 139 Ron Gillis, “Contemporary classics proven to be exciting,” El Paso Herald-Post 26 Feb. 1979: C7. 140 Jeanette Drone, ed., “American Composer Update: David Ward-Steinman,” Pan Pipes 73.2 (Winter 1981): 47. 141 Jeanette Drone, ed., “American Composer Update: David Ward-Steinman,” Pan Pipes 74.2 (Winter 1982): 47. 45 Chamber Singers of Illinois Wesleyan University. For them, he wrote Of Wind and Water, a thirteen-minute “choral suite” for mixed chorus, piano, and percussion. The work received its premiere under the direction of David Nott during a concert of the composer‟s music in Bloomington, Illinois on 4 March 1982. Following his sabbatical, Ward-Steinman appeared in a concert of various composers‟ music, including his own, at the University of Redlands in California on 17 May. Additionally, in 1982, he participated in a concert and lecture tour of Indonesia under the auspices of the International Communications Agency (United States Information Agency). While in Medan, he served as Artist-in-Residence and Academic Curriculum Consultant for the University of North Sumatra. 142 On 11 January 1983 Ward-Steinman presented a concert of his works at Baylor University. He gave a similar concert at the Eastern New Mexico University in Portales shortly thereafter. During the fall of the year, he twice toured the Southwest region of the United States. While on his first tour, he flew his Piper Warrior II from San Diego to New Mexico and Texas, flying in the mornings and giving lectures and concerts in the afternoons and evenings. On the evening of 11 October, he appeared in a concert of his music at the New Mexico State University in Las Cruces. On the afternoon of 13 October, he presented a symposium for composition students, and that evening he gave a concert of his works at North Texas State University in Denton, Texas. On the evening of 14 October, he gave another concert at Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas. During his second tour of the Southwest in 1983, on the evening of 31 October, Ward-Steinman presented a concert at the University of Texas at Austin. He was guest 142 Ward-Steinman, David Ward-Steinman: Composer, Pianist, Author, Lecturer. 46 composer for the Del Mar College 17 th annual Contemporary Music Festival, held in Corpus Christi, Texas, during 2-4 November. Concerts heard during the evenings featured his music. In an article published in the Corpus Christi Caller Times, local music critic Ralph Thibodeau wrote enthusiastically concerning Ward-Steinman‟s participation in the festival: Dr. Ward-Steinman is a veritable human dynamo, going from lectures to rehearsals to concerts, indefatigably it seems. In the three days, we heard six of his lectures on various aspects of contemporary music, Oriental and African as well as Western, and three concerts, all of which featured some of his works, and in all of which he appeared as performer. The lectures demonstrated his broad, almost universal, interest in music of all kinds and peoples, ranging from a thorough analysis of the Copland Piano Sonata—and a fine performance; through a well conceived discussion of common textures in music, art and poetry; an anthropological and ethnomusicological tour of the world; and finally a discussion of synthetic [sic] music, from the musique concrète of the French to computer duplication of human voices. 143 For two years from 1983-84, Ward-Steinman served on the National Council of the American Society of University Composers. During the summers of 1983 and 84, he taught in the College Music Society (CMS) Institute for Music in General Studies workshops for the Contemporary Music Project/Comprehensive Musicianship Teacher-Training Institute on the campus of the University of Colorado at Boulder. 144 On 11 May 1984, the composer presented a concert of his works at the Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington; and during 13-18 May, he appeared as Artist-in-Residence at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio, giving lectures and concerts of his music. Later that month, 27-29 May, he served under a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities as a Fine Arts 143 Ralph Thibodeau, “David Ward-Steinman guest composer for music festival,” Corpus Christi Caller- Times 5 Nov. 1983: 11B. 144 “Ward-Steinman, David,” Who’s Who in American Music: Classical 2 nd ed., 621; David Ward-Steinman, e-mail to the present writer, 11 May 2005. 47 Consultant at Heidelberg College in Tifflin, Ohio. 145 On 17 November of the year he read his paper “Ambiguity and Symmetry in the Copland Piano Sonata” at the American Society of University Composers Regional Conference at the University of Arizona at Tucson. Ward-Steinman once-again made appearances as a guest composer at both the 1984 Del Mar College Contemporary Music Festival and the 1984 University of Redlands Contemporary Music Festival. 146 Additionally in 1984 Ward-Steinman received a commission from the San Diego Civic Youth Orchestra, under a grant from the Colonel Frank C. Wood Memorial Fund of the San Diego Community Foundation, to write a six-minute Olympics Overture. The overture premiered, played by the orchestra under its conductor Arne Christiansen, at the University of California San Diego in La Jolla on 10 July. Lastly, in 1984, the Nouveau West Chamber Orchestra, with grants from the Arizona Commission on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts, commissioned the composer to write a nineteen-minute Chroma Concerto for Multiple Keyboards, Percussion, and Chamber Orchestra. The work saw its premiere in Scottsdale Arizona on 7 May 1985. Amy Smith-Davie and the composer shared keyboard duties and Terry Williams directed the orchestra. On 15 May 1985, Ward-Steinman shared the spotlight with Time magazine art critic Robert Hughes in a twin-bill lecture-concert program held at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio. 147 The composer fulfilled a number of commission requests from the middle through the late 1980s. In 1985 a commission materialized from the National Association of 145 Margaret W. Maxwell, ed., “American Composer Update: David Ward-Steinman,” Pan Pipes 78.2 (Winter 1986): 46. 146 Margaret W. Maxwell, ed., “American Composer Update: David Ward-Steinman,” Pan Pipes 77.2 (Winter 1985): 47. 147 Betty Dietz Krebs, “WSU event combines presentation by „Time‟ art critic with concert,” Dayton Daily News [Dayton, OH] 16 May 1985: 13; “Critic, pianist on WSU twin bill,” Beavercreek News [Dayton, OH] 13 May 1985: 8. 48 College Wind and Percussion Instructors. Ward-Steinman obliged the organization with a thirteen-minute piece for woodwind and brass quintets and percussion, which he titled Quintessence. The work saw its premier on 11 April 1986 at the NACWPI convention in Anaheim, California, with Gary Cook directing the combined forces of the Arizona Wind Quintet, the University of New Mexico Brass Quintet, and David Steinquest soloing on percussion instruments. The Las Cruces Symphony Association commissioned a work for chamber orchestra from the composer in 1985. Winging It was the thirteen-minute result. Marianna Gabbi directed the Chamber Players de Las Cruces in the work‟s premiere in Las Cruces, New Mexico, on 22 November 1986. Ward-Steinman served as composer-in-residence for the Festival of Contemporary Music sponsored by the Omaha Symphony and the University of Nebraska in May 1986. Prior to a choral concert given by the university‟s Chamber Choir under the direction of C. M. Shearer which featured a performance of his choral suite Of Wind and Water, as well as works by Ned Rorem, Karl Korte, and Dominick Argento, Ward-Steinman presented a lecture entitled “20 th Century Vocal Music.” Local music critic Rick Ansorge reviewed the ensuing concert in the Omaha World-Herald: “„Of Wind and Water‟ was the most accessible and well-received work of the evening. Shearer and the Chamber Choir received a sustained ovation from the audience of about 85 people, as did Ward-Steinman, who took several bows from his seat.” 148 Ward-Steinman spent the summer of 1986 as Composer-in-Residence at the Brevard Music Center in Brevard, North Carolina, where he held the Mu Phi Epsilon Chair of Composition. While at Brevard, his responsibilities to the institution included giving three 148 Rick Ansorge, “Choral Music at Festival: „Of Wind and Water‟ Is Well Received,” Omaha World- Herald 21 May 1986: 63. 49 public lectures, tutoring a single composition student, teaching a class of eight students, and assisting other faculty members and students in the preparation of his works for performance. 149 Thirteen of his works received performances at Brevard that summer. These included his Symphony 1959 as played by the Brevard Music Center Orchestra and his Concert Overture as played by the Transylvania Symphony Orchestra. The composer conducted the orchestras in both of these performances. 150 For the academic year 1986-87, San Diego State University appointed Ward- Steinman a University Research Lecturer, freeing him from all his teaching and committee duties during the fall semester. During this time, he orchestrated two versions of his Elegy for Astronauts. He also delivered two public lectures on the topic of analogs of visual art and music and wrote his second book, Toward a Comparative Structural Theory of the Arts, as an expansion on these lectures and his many other lectures on the matter. The book saw its publication in 1989. 151 Concerning its subject, the composer-author has noted: I‟ve found all kinds of analogs—analogs are more objective than analogies. An analog is something that is really there, the “deep structure level” that underlies the various arts, that they have in common . . . structure and style, texture and even the organizational grammar or syntax of the various arts. 152 The composer‟s book effectively “explores congruencies among concert music, folk, jazz, pop, nonwestern music, and art” and represents a compendium of his vast knowledge of the subject. 153 Rounding out his musical activities in 1987, Ward-Steinman held the title of Composer-in-Residence at the San Diego Chamber Music Workshop in La Jolla during 3-7 149 Kurt-Alexander Zeller, “Brevard Composer Program Meets Many Goals,” Triangle of Mu Phi Epsilon 81.2 (1986-87): 11. 150 Margaret W. Maxwell, ed., “American Composer Update: David Ward-Steinman,” Pan Pipes 79.2 (Winter 1987): 46. 151 Ibid.; David Ward-Steinman, Toward a Comparative Structural Theory of the Arts (San Diego: San Diego State University Press, 1989); David Ward-Steinman, e-mail to the present writer, 10 Oct. 2007. 152 Quoting David Ward-Steinman from Thomas, C2. 153 Ward-Steinman, David Ward-Steinman: Composer, Pianist, Author, Lecturer. 50 August, where he heard his Summer Suite performed on 4 August. Later in the year, on 5 December, he performed in a concert of his music at West Los Angeles College. 154 In the summer of 1988, Ward-Steinman served as Composer-in-Residence at the California State Summer School for the Arts held at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. There, on 21 July, he presented a concert of his music. Later that summer he participated in the San Diego convention of the National Flute Association, performing on 20 August as pianist in a jazz concert with shakuhachi player John Kaizan Neptune. 155 The composer was the recipient of a Fulbright Senior Scholar Award that allowed him to hold residencies during the 1989-90 academic year at both La Trobe University and the Victorian College of the Arts in Melbourne, Australia. In Melbourne he performed a concert of his music at the Ways Forward Festival on 16 August 1989. He performed in additional concerts of his music in Melbourne, and in Brisbane, Sydney, Canberra, and Adelaide during the early part of 1990. 156 During his time in Australia, Ward-Steinman composed, under the auspices of the Australian-American Educational Foundation, two important works. The first was a fifteen-minute piece for “fortified” piano and percussion titled Intersections II: ‘Borobudur.’ Percussionist Daryl Pratt played with the composer- pianist at the work‟s premiere on 5 March 1990 at the Canberra Institute of the Arts in Canberra. His second composition written during this time was a 40-minute piece for soprano, tenor, baritone, and piano. The work was entitled Voices from the Gallery after a published collection of poems of the same name, all inspired by paintings, many of which 154 Margaret W. Maxwell, ed., “American Composer Update: David Ward-Steinman,” Pan Pipes 80.2 (Winter 1988): 44. 155 Margaret W. Maxwell, ed., “American Composer Update: David Ward-Steinman,” Pan Pipes 81.2 (Winter 1989): 45. 156 “Ward-Steinman, David,” Baker’s Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, 9 th ed., 3947; Margaret W. Maxwell, ed., “American Composer Update: David Ward-Steinman,” Pan Pipes 82.2 (Winter 1990): 46. 51 had been on display at the Tate Gallery in London. The song cycle received its premiere in San Diego on 15 February 1991, sung by soprano Ann Chase, tenor Martin Chambers, baritone Philip Larson, and accompanied by the composer at the piano. 157 After returning home from Australia, Ward-Steinman gave a concert entitled “Recent American Music for Piano” at the University of Redlands on 2 November 1990, where he played music by Aaron Copland, Leonard Bernstein, George Crumb, William Duckworth, and Barney Childs. 158 Many more commissions materialized for Ward- Steinman in the decade between 1990 and 2000. Violist Karen Elaine Bakunin engaged him to write a six-minute piece for viola and piano in 1991, which the composer titled Cinnabar. Ms. Bakunin premiered the work with the composer-pianist on 15 June 1991 at the Nineteenth International Viola Congress held in Ithaca, New York. Ms. Bakunin subsequently obtained a grant from the National Association of Negro Musicians to commission Ward-Steinman to compose an additional work for viola, strings, percussion, piano, and celeste. The seventeen-minute Cinnabar Concerto received its premiere on 16 April 1994 at the University of San Diego with Ms. Bakunin accompanied by the San Diego Contemporary Music Ensemble directed by Lily Hood Gunn. In 1992 upon a commission from the San Diego chapter of the American Harp Society, Ward-Steinman set four poems by Robert Lee for mixed chorus harp accompaniment. The San Diego Choral Artists and Harpist Marian Rian Hays premiered the 13-minute Seasons Fantastic under the direction of Ron Gillis at the American Harp 157 Ward-Steinman subsequently wrote a version of the work with chamber orchestra accompaniment that received its premiere in San Diego on 2 April 2000. Ann Chase and Philip Larson again sang the respective soprano and baritone parts, and John Edwards sang the tenor part. Accompanying the singers was the Camarada Chamber Music Ensemble, under the direction of John Lorge. 158 “UR plans 2 new music events: Concerts to honor Childs, present avant-garde works,” Daily Facts [Redlands, CA] 31 Oct. 1990: A3. 52 Society‟s National Convention at the University of San Diego on 25 June 1992. In the midst of all this frenetic activity, Ward-Steinman continued to win awards for his teaching. In 1984 he received an Exceptional Service Merit Award from San Diego State University. The university also awarded him a Meritorious Performance cash award in 1988, and in 1992 it honored him with its Outstanding Faculty Award. 159 In August 1992 Ward-Steinman presented a lecture on “Flute Performing Traditions around the World” at the Los Angeles convention of the National Flute Association. During April 1993, he served as a judge in the final rounds of the BMI national composition contest. Through the years 1992-93 he served as a CMS National Board Member for Composition, and during 1994-96, on its National Advisory Committee for Composition. In June 1994 he was a faculty member for the CMS Center for Professional Development in World Music; he lectured on “Analogs in Music, Art, and Poetry,” at their Workshop held in San Diego. 160 He presented the same lecture series (lecturing in Spanish) at La Casa de Cultura in Tijuana, Mexico, in September-October of that year. In October, he co-presented a session entitled “Copyright Law and Fair Use” at the CMS convention in Savannah, Georgia, where he also served as a panelist discussing the topic: “Broad-Based Approaches to Teaching Music Appreciation Courses.” In addition, on 22 October, he spoke on the topic of “Analogs between Music and Art in the San Diego Museum of Art Collection” at the San Diego Museum of Art. Finally, in 1994, the CMS appointed him to the College Music Symposium editorial board and its national Advisory Committee for Composition for 1995-97. 161 159 Maxwell, “American Composer Update: David Ward-Steinman” (Winter 1989), 45 and (Winter 1985), 47; David Ward-Steinman (King of Prussia: Theodore Presser, 2007) 2. 160 Ward-Steinman received a grant from the CMS to organize their first Workshop on World Music. He continued to serve as a faculty member for the CMS in subsequent biennial workshops until the summer of 2003. 161 Dorothy Gross, ed., “American Composer Update: David Ward-Steinman,” Pan Pipes 86.2 (Winter 1994): 44, 87.2 (Winter 1995): 44, and 89.2 (Winter 1997): 44. 53 During the 1994-95 academic year, Ward-Steinman worked on a commission from Jeanne Bandes and the International Musicians‟ Recording Fund to compose a Double Concerto for two violins and orchestra for violinists Igor and Vesna Gruppman. 162 A chamber version of the Double Concerto entitled Perelandra, newly scored with an accompaniment of percussion, piano, and celeste, premiered in La Jolla, California, on 30 May 1998. The Malkin Duo (Anna and Bracha Malkin), along with percussionist John Flood and keyboardist Eduard Laurel, presented the premiere. In the summer of 1995, Ward-Steinman attended the IRCAM academy, founded and directed by Pierre Boulez, at Pompidou Centre in Paris. 163 At the CMS annual meeting on 9 November in Portland, Oregon, he lectured on the Comprehensive Musicianship Program, and on 30 November, he was a featured guest composer in a symposium held at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. The Louisiana State University New Music Ensemble, directed by Dinos Constantinides, subsequently hosted a concert featuring him as composer, pianist, and conductor on 1 December. The California Association of Professional Music Teachers underwrote a commission for a work for piano, which Ward-Steinman titled Prisms and Reflections. Pianist David Burge premiered the 17-minute solo, which consisted of six movements, interlaced with three for piano interior and three for keyboard alone, in San Diego on 19 January 1996. On 16 February Ward-Steinman lectured on twentieth-century painting, poetry, and music, at the San Diego Museum of Art. Also in early 1996, he served as a 162 Jeanne Bandes is a violinist, a member of David Amos‟ Tifereth Israel Community Orchestra in San Diego, and a patron of the arts. The intent behind the commission was that the Gruppmans would play the work with the San Diego Symphony Orchestra. The San Diego Symphony never played the concerto because it declared bankruptcy and was out of business for two years. The Gruppmans left San Diego at the time of the bankruptcy to take positions in Utah. See: David Ward-Steinman, e-mail to the present writer, 10 Oct. 2007. 163 IRCAM is an acronym for Institute de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique. 54 judge for the Composition Commission Project of the National Association of College Wind and Percussion Instructors. On 13-14 March he was a curriculum consultant for the music department at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh. While there, he lectured on the Comprehensive Musicianship Program. He additionally lectured on non-Western musical systems at the International New Music Festival held in San Diego on 22 April. 164 In the summer of the year, he was a Master Teacher/Artist in Residence on the faculty of the Atlantic Center for the Arts Summer Teacher Institute in New Smyrna Beach, Florida. On 21 January 1997 Ward-Steinman gave a guest lecture on the topic “Musical Creativity and Comprehensive Musicianship in Music Education” at the Hong Kong Baptist University. On 26 April he gave a lecture-recital (lecturing in French) for the American Association of Teachers of French at San Diego State, which he entitled: “L‟Esprit français dans la musique.” During July through August, Ward-Steinman returned to Australia to be Artist-in-Residence at the Victorian College for the Arts in Melbourne. Prior to the fall academic semester, he presented concerts and guest lectures in Australia and New Zealand. These included a concert given at Ormond College of the University of Melbourne on 30 July and a concert given with guest artist Brian Brown at the Victorian College of the Arts on 6 August. On 11 August he held workshop for staff and students entitled “Comprehensive Musicianship and Deep Structure in the Arts” at the Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand, and he additionally gave a concert there on 14 August. During 17-23 August he was Visiting Artist-in-Residence at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts at Edith Cowan University in Perth. While there, he presented a recital- seminar and an interdisciplinary lecture on 19 and 21 August, the presentations respectively titled, “The Copland Piano Sonata” and “Toward a Comparative Structural Theory of the 164 Gross, “American Composer Update: David Ward-Steinman” (Winter 1997), 44. 55 Arts.” On 25 August he gave a lecture-recital as well as a piano and composer‟s workshop at the Elder Conservatorium of the University of Adelaide, and on 28 August he presented a concert at La Trobe University in Bundoora (Melbourne). 165 In 1998 Ward-Steinman contributed the chapter “Learning Through Deep-Structure Connections in the Arts” in Michael Flachmann‟s book, Teaching Excellence: A Collection of Essays on College Education Written by Recipients of the California State University Trustees’ Outstanding Professor Award. 166 During the month of March, Ward-Steinman performed his Sonata for Piano Fortified at the meeting of the Pacific Southern Chapter of the CMS held in Tucson, AZ. On 9 July he gave another lecture concerning “Analogs in Music, Art, and Literature” at the CMS Center for Professional Development in World Music held at San Diego State. Later in July he traveled to the Czech Republic to oversee recordings of his Cello Concerto; Cinnabar Concerto; Chroma Concerto for Multiple Keyboards, Percussion, and Chamber Orchestra; and Elegy for Astronauts by the Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra. During 19-21 October he was a guest lecturer and performer of his music for piano at Florida State University in Tallahassee. Also in October, at the CMS annual convention, held in San Juan, his Night Winds (Woodwind Quintet No. 2) received a performance by Puerto Rico Conservatory of Music faculty and students. In November he was Guest Composer-in-Residence at the 21 st Rocky Mountain Contemporary Music Festival held in Fort Collins on the campus of the Colorado State University. At the Florida State University Festival of New Music, held in Tallahassee in February 1999, Ward- Steinman again played his Sonata for Piano Fortified. In this performance, choreography 165 “SAI Composers Bureau New Sheet” submitted by David Ward-Steinman to Pan Pipes for its “50 th Annual American Composers Update” (Winter 1999), from the composer‟s personal papers at Bloomington, IN. 166 Michael Flachmann, ed., Teaching Excellence: A Collection of Essays on College Education Written by Recipients of the California State University Trustees’ Outstanding Professor Award (Long Beach: California State University Institute, 1998) 139-52. 56 accompanied the music. In addition, in the year 1999, the composer adjudicated the national Mu Phi Epsilon composition contest. 167 With the turn of the new millennium came a commission from the Tifereth Israel Community Orchestra of San Diego that resulted in a four-minute selection, aptly titled by its composer Millennium Fanfare. The orchestra premiered the work on 4 June, under its conductor David Amos. That same year, author Dale A. Olsen cited Ward-Steinman as one of five twenty-first century American composers who epitomized the embodiment of global, cultural, or transcultural influence. The commendation appears in an essay entitled “Globalization, Culturation, and Transculturation in American Music,” published as part of a collection of essays presented in honor of the CMS. In it Olsen wrote: “Ward-Steinman has unique and visionary approaches to scholarship, teaching, and composition, making him a profound communicator interested in bridging cultures.” 168 The year 2000 saw the passing of Edward Kilenyi, the composer‟s former piano teacher at Florida State University. Ward- Steinman promptly wrote Vespers for Piano—In Memoriam Edward Kilenyi, and played the work at a memorial service held for Kilenyi on 14 January 2001 at Florida State. 169 The year 2001 brought a commission from the San Diego Symphony Orchestra and its artistic director Jung-Ho Pak. “Ward-Steinman, [the] thoughtful, bespectacled man who look[ed] younger than his 64 years,” fulfilled this request with an 18-minute, multi- movement work that featured a percussion soloist playing ethnic instruments. 170 The three movements that constitute Millennium Dances received their premier in San Diego by the 167 Dorothy Gross, ed., “Annual American Composer Update: David Ward-Steinman,” Pan Pipes 90.2 (Winter 1998): 46, 91.2 (Winter 1999): 45, and 92.2 (Winter 2000): 50; David Ward-Steinman, Curriculum Vitae (2004). 168 Olsen, 276. 169 “SAI Composers Bureau New Sheet” submitted by David Ward-Steinman to Pan Pipes for its “54 th Annual American Composers Update” (Winter 2003), from the composer‟s personal papers at Bloomington, IN. 170 Valerie Scher, “„Millennium Dances‟—dances to a multicultural beat,” San Diego Union-Tribune 24 May 2001: 35. 57 symphony and its conductor, along with percussionist John Flood, on 25, 26, and 27 May 2001. In the following year, Jung-Ho Pak and the symphony commissioned an additional, final movement for the work, which the composer called: Fiesta!—Millennium Dances Finale. Jung-Ho Pak and the symphony, joined this time by percussionist Steven Schick, premiered the movement in San Diego on 27 April 2002. On 28 May 2001, the day following the premiere performances of Millennium Dances, David Ward-Steinman and his second wife, Patrice Dawn Madura, married. Ms. Madura is a musician and an educator who at one time chaired the music education division of the Thorton School of Music at the University of Southern California. She now chairs the music education department at the Bloomington campus of Indiana University. 171 Upon an invitation later that year on 10 December, following upon the terrorist attacks of 11 September, Ward-Steinman gave the John R. Adams Memorial Lecture at San Diego State, a multimedia presentation on “Artistic Reactions to War, Violence, and Terrorism.” 172 On 16 March 2003, Ward-Steinman organized a San Diego memorial concert for the composer Lou Harrison. At the event he was the piano soloist in Harrison‟s Concerto for Piano with Javanese Gamelan. 173 His Elegy for Astronauts, dedicated to the memory of the Challenger and Columbia astronauts, received a performance at the concert. Ward-Steinman served as a member of the Institute Faculty for the CMS-sponsored “Leadership Institute for Curricular Innovation and Integration in Higher Music Education” held at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, on 15-18 June. Later that summer he served as a faculty 171 David Ward-Steinman, telephone conversation with the present writer, 1 May 2007. David and Susan Ward-Steinman separated in 1990 and finalized their divorce in 1993. 172 Jane Ellen, ed., “Annual American Composer Update: David Ward-Steinman,” Pan Pipes 96.2 (Winter 2004): 58-59. 173 In David Ward-Steinman, e-mail to the present writer, 8 Nov. 2007, the composer wrote, “Lou had been invited to my performance of his Concerto for Piano with Javanese Gamelan and expected to attend, but he died six weeks before [the event], so I turned the concert into a partial memorial for him.” 58 member of the CMS Leadership Conference in Curriculum Development held at Indiana University/Purdue University in Indianapolis. 174 In the fall of 2003, after 42 years of teaching, Ward-Steinman “retired” from San Diego State University. 175 He left a legacy behind him at San Diego State in having shaped the music curriculum, where he considered the “freedom and autonomy” he enjoyed “a good situation.” 176 By May 2004 the San Diego State University Research Council bestowed on him the title “Distinguished Professor of Music, Emeritus,” as a recipient of the Albert W. Johnson Research Lectureship for his “exceptional contributions to scholarly research.” 177 In November 2003 the composer received the San Diego Youth Symphony‟s 8 th Annual Music Educator of the Year/Profiles in Music Education Award. The citation accompanying the award read, “David Ward-Steinman represents the very best in excellence and lifelong dedication to the art of music education.” 178 Retirement in Bloomington In January 2004 David Ward-Steinman became an appointed adjunct professor of music in the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University in Bloomington, where he began to teach in the spring semester. Indiana University reappointed him each consecutive spring 174 David Ward-Steinman, Curriculum Vitae (2006). 175 By the time of his retirement under the university‟s Faculty Early Retirement Program (FERP), Ward- Steinman had taught at San Diego State for 42 years (minus five to six years of sabbaticals, leaves-of-absence, and residencies abroad). During his first 30 years of teaching, he had used less than a week‟s worth of sick leave. Early in the 1990s, he became seriously ill and required an emergency room visit. He returned to work immediately after arriving home from the hospital, saying that he did not want his department chairman to think he was “a malingerer.” When he “retired” in 2003, the university credited his pension with almost two years of unused sick leave. See: David Ward-Steinman, e-mails to the present writer, 31 Oct. and 8 Nov. 2007. 176 Quoting David Ward-Steinman from Spizizen, 16-17. 177 San Diego State University Provost Nancy A. Marlin, letter to David Ward-Steinman, 18 May 2004. 178 Ellen, “Annual American Composer Update: David Ward-Steinman” (Winter 2004), 58-59. 59 between 2005 and 2007. This schedule served him well because it complemented a fall semester commitment he had made to San Diego State. In the spring of 2007, he served at Indiana as an adjunct visiting professor of composition, filling in for two other composers who were on sabbatical. In the summer of 2007, Ward-Steinman officially resigned from his teaching commitment at San Diego State. He now serves as an adjunct professor of music in Composition and General Studies at Indiana through the entire academic year. In his second full year at Indiana, he is currently in charge of a weekly seminar and forum for all of the university‟s 50 composition majors—undergraduate through doctoral level. 179 “Retirement,” however, has brought no end to the composer‟s sometimes-frenetic schedule of composing, lecturing, and performing. On 27 August 2004 Ward-Steinman appeared as a pianist in the concert, “Celebrating Our Own,” that opened the new Coughlin- Saunders Performing Arts Center in Alexandria, LA. At this event he played his Three Lyric Preludes as well as his Prisms and Reflections, both as a piano soloist. 180 On 14 May 2005 cellist Imogen Manins and pianist Tony Gould premiered the composer‟s two-minute piece for cello and piano, Lullaby for Iluka, in Melbourne, Australia. In June Ward-Steinman participated in the CMS International Conference at Universidad de Alcalá, Alcalá de Henares in Madrid and presented a paper entitled “The Relevance and Application of Heinrich Wölfflin‟s Principles of Art History to Music of the Renaissance and Baroque.” 181 179 David Ward-Steinman, Curriculum Vitae (2006); Jane Ellen, ed., “Annual American Composer Update: David Ward-Steinman,” Pan Pipes 99.2 (Winter 2007): 47; David Ward-Steinman, e-mail to the present writer, 8 Nov. 2007; David Ward-Steinman, “Recent News,” David Ward-Steinman [composer‟s home page], June 2007, 5 July 2007 <http://www.dwightwinenger.net/ward-steinman.htm>. 180 Andrew Griffin, “New center draws rave reviews,” Town Talk [Alexandria, LA] 28 Aug. 2004: 1-A; David Ward-Steinman, e-mail to the present writer, 10 Oct. 2007. 181 Jane Ellen, ed., “Annual American Composer Update: David Ward-Steinman,” Pan Pipes 98.2 (Winter 2006): 49. The paper was published under a slightly different title: David Ward-Steinman, “The Relevance and Application of Heinrich Wölffin‟s Principles of Art History to the Study and Teaching of Choral/Vocal Music of the Renaissance and Baroque,” Australian Society for Music Education 15 th National Conference Proceedings: A Celebration of Voices (Victoria: ASME, 2005): 264-70. 60 In July he again presented a paper, this time for the Australian Society of Music Education National Conference in Melbourne, and there performed a concert of his music. On 20 October his three-minute Fanfare-Quodlibet on Themes from the Big Ten, for brass choir and timpani, commissioned by the Indiana University Music Education Department for the 2005 Conference of the Committee on Institutional Cooperation, received its premiere by the Indiana University Brass Choir under the direction of Edmond Cord. 182 Just a few days later, on 23 October, Ward-Steinman appeared as pianist in the world premiere of Brent Heisinger‟s EKTA. He was accompanied by tabla player Ashwin Batish, bassist John Shifflet, and percussionists Joe Hodge (drum set), Mark Veregge, and Galen Lemmon, along with the San Jose Chamber Orchestra, directed by Barbara Day Turner. EKTA includes such diverse elements as jazz improvisation, an improvisation on an Indian raga, and an improvised cadenza, all supported by passages for percussion and string orchestra. In the program notes for the concert, Heisinger wrote, “EKTA (the East Indian word for „oneness‟) was composed for my good friend composer/pianist David Ward- Steinman and inspired by my interest in the beautiful qualities of classical Indian music.” 183 The performers recorded the work shortly after its premiere, and it is available on a compact disc of Heisinger‟s music entitled “EKTA: Music by Brent Heisinger.” 184 At the invitation of noted jazz pianist Tony Gould, Ward-Steinman made a recording of two-piano jazz along with the Australian artist. This venture allowed the composer to return to his roots as a jazz pianist. 185 The compact disc that resulted, titled In Memoriam, 182 The Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC), established in 1958, is an academic consortium of twelve major teaching and research universities located in the Midwestern region of the United States. 183 San Jose Chamber Orchestra, concert program notes, 23 Oct. 2005 (San Jose: SJCO, 2005). 184 Ellen, “Annual American Composer Update: David Ward-Steinman” (Winter 2006), 49; Barbara Day Turner, cond. and David Ward-Steinman, pno., “EKTA, music by Brent Heisinger,” San Jose Chamber Orchestra, CD, Disc Makers, 2006. The disc is available at <http:// http://www.sjco.org>. 185 David Ward-Steinman, e-mail to the present writer, 31 May 2005. 61 features recordings of extended jazz works by John Lewis (Concert piece for two pianos: In Memoriam, Skating in Central Park, and Milano) and Martial Solal (Suite for two pianos). It also features an original number by Tony Gould (Prologue), two of Ward-Steinman‟s own pieces (Skyline, 2003 and Under Capricorn, 1989), and a piece by Buddy Bernier and Nat Simon (Poinciana). In the booklet notes that accompany the disc, Ward-Steinman observed: Rehearsing and recording with Tony was an extraordinary experience for me, and one of the most joyful times in my musical life. We had great fun exploring these pieces, and the symbiotic serendipity of playing off each other‟s ideas took us both, I think, to places we hadn‟t been before. 186 Australian music critics Leon Gettler and John Barns offered these remarks in their two respective reviews of the In Memoriam compact disc: Gould, one of Australia‟s finest pianists, teams up with American composer Ward-Steinmann . . . What‟s striking is the way two pianos merge as one. Even when they engage in the question and response, as on Martial Solal‟s Suite for Two Pianos, you hear it as one voice. That‟s the mark of a great combination. 187 Long regarded as one of Australia‟s greatest-ever jazz musicians, Tony Gould on this recording is joined by American David Ward- Steinman and the result is music-making of continual excellence. . . . The two longest pieces on the disc, the world premiere recording of a suite by the French pianist/composer Martial Solal and In Memorium [sic] by the Modern Jazz Quartet‟s John Lewis . . . receive captivating treatment. The former‟s constant changes of mood and rhythmic complexity hold no terrors of execution for these great pianists. . . . The beautifully played shorter pieces, including two attractively jaunty works by Ward-Steinman, add to the delight of this splendidly recorded disc. 188 Among the works Ward-Steinman wrote in 2006 is his Lullaby for Iluka, for cello and piano. The composer premiered a piano-only version of the two-minute piece at Indiana 186 Tony Gould and David Ward-Steinman, pnos., “In Memoriam,” CD, Move MD3311, 2006 [Australia]; CD, Kleos Classic KL5146, 2007 [U. S.]. 187 Leon Gettler, “Green Guide Music,” The Age [Melbourne, Australia] 5 Apr. 2007: 44. Gettler went on to refer to David Ward-Steinman amicably as, “the closest thing the music world has to an intellectual.” 188 John Barns, “In Memorium,” 3MBS Libretto [Melbourne, Australia] Aug./Sept. 2007: 24. 62 State University at Terre Haute on 3 April, while the original version for cello and piano received its premiere in Melbourne, Australia on 14 May as played by cellist Imogen Manins and pianist Tony Gould. The Westwind Brass premiered the composer‟s third brass quintet Windows, a work of only six-minute duration, on 1 May at the Neurosciences Institute in La Jolla, California. Also on 30 November, the Indiana University New Music Ensemble, under the direction of it conductor David Dzubay, premiered the chamber orchestra version of the composer‟s Elegy for Astronauts. The premiere of the final work which Ward- Steinman composed in 2006, his Songs of the Season, took place in the spring of 2008. 189 On April 12 2007, Florida State University featured Ward-Steinman in a composition master class. A concert of his music followed, which included jazz and an improvisation on five notes selected by the audience. Estelle R. Jorgensen, Professor of Music Education at Indiana University, noted the composer‟s abilities displayed in a similar manner at a 2004 faculty recital in her recently published book The Art of Teaching Music: Improvisation is . . . rarely demonstrated by classical musicians nowadays since it involves a fair amount of risk on the performer‟s part. Even concerto cadenzas that musicians were originally expected to improvise are now generally written out in full and practiced note-perfectly by performers before the concert. Still, there are some occasions in which classically trained performers improvise publicly. I think, for example, of a piano improvisation by David Ward-Steinman on five notes provided by the audience at a recital given at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music —a rare although welcome skill for classical pianists. . . . The performers‟ challenge is to pull off an unrehearsed performance drawing on their past experience in working out its musical possibilities in the midst of performance. . . . It is delightful to hear contemporary composer-pianists such as Ward-Steinman putting themselves on the spot publicly. And I wish that the art of improvisation were more widely practiced among classical musicians than it now is. 190 189 Scored for high voice and fortified piano, Songs of the Seasons sets poems by Robert Lee, John Gacen Brown, and Frieda L. Levinsky, and incorporates the composer‟s 1982 song, Seasons. 190 Estelle R. Jorgensen, The Art of Teaching Music (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2008) 144-45. 63 The improvisation has been the composer‟s favorite way of closing a solo concert for many years. “It‟s the most fun part of the evening,” he has said, “it‟s relaxing.” 191 Legacy In January 2000 Christian Hertzog wrote in the San Diego New Music Journal, “It is said that we live in an era of specialization, but whoever minted that platitude was obviously unfamiliar with David-Ward Steinman.” 192 Much earlier, a 1970 brochure produced by BMI attested, “David Ward-Steinman is one of those fortunate individuals who might be termed success-prone.” 193 Both of these observations concerning the composer have proven their truth as his new ventures and successes continue to mount. Over four-and-a-half decades, a number of music critics have noted the vital role that Ward-Steinman has played in the cultural life of San Diego. In the winter of 1969, Sue Eakin wrote in Louisiana Heritage magazine, “Ward-Steinman‟s work springs from a well of God-given talent and highly trained ability, an artist bent on expression and working with relentless dedication . . . work one would expect of this master craftsman.” 194 In May 1976 William Sullivan wrote in San Diego magazine, “David Ward-Steinman shows that contemporary music can be colorful, expressive, innovative and fun, especially when he is the composer.” 195 And in May 2001 Eileen Wingard wrote in The San Diego Jewish Press-Heritage, “An outstanding educator and an ardent supporter of world music, David Ward-Steinman is a San Diego treasure.” 196 191 Ibid.; Quoting David Ward-Steinman from Norman, C-2. 192 Hertzog, “David Ward-Steinman: Is there anything he can‟t do?” 1. 193 David Ward-Steinman (New York: Broadcast Music, Inc., 1988). 194 Eakin, 31. 195 William Sullivan, “People Music,” San Diego May 1976: 110. 196 Eileen Wingard, “Music from a San Diego treasure will conclude Symphony season,” San Diego Jewish Press-Heritage 25 May 2001: 13. 64 If David Ward-Steinman were to gaze out today from the promontory overlooking Alvarado Canyon on the campus of San Diego State University, he would see a very different San Diego than the one he saw when he began his career 47 years ago in 1961. As the topography of the city has changed, so has also its musical landscape. Through his unceasing dedication to composing, teaching, and performing, Ward-Steinman has done much to make San Diego a better place. There is little doubt that he will continue to do so for some time in the future. David Gregson wrote in his web column in May 2006, “Prolific composer David Ward-Steinman, Distinguished Professor of Music Emeritus from San Diego State University, is still going strong.” 197 I might only add to this observation, „his eye is not dim, and his vigor is unabated.‟ Figure 1.3: David Ward-Steinman, French Lick, IN, September 2008. Photograph courtesy of Patrice Madura Ward-Steinman. 197 David Gregson, “San Diego Arts: Westwind Brass: „New Music for Brass Quintet,‟” 2 May 2006, 6 July 2007 <http://www.sandiego.com>. 65 Chapter Two David Ward-Steinman—an Overview of His Music The intent of the present chapter is to provide a brief review of the music of David Ward-Steinman. Topics of discussion will include his philosophy of and approach to composition, the influences on his writing, and the elements of continuity in his overall musical style. Particular attention will be paid to his developmentally important works leading to and surrounding the writing of his oratorio The Song of Moses (1964). These works include his Sonata for Piano (1956-57), Three Songs for Clarinet and Piano (1957), Symphony 1959, Concerto No. 2 for Chamber Orchestra (1962), Prelude and Toccata (1962), Western Orpheus (1964), Fragments from Sappho (1962-65), Three Lyric Preludes (1961-65), and Concerto for Cello and Orchestra (1963-65). For the dual purposes of illustrating the breadth of his musical output and contextualizing his oratorio, a complete list of Ward-Steinman‘s works is included as Appendix A at the end of this paper. The Composer‘s Philosophy and Approach to Composition In a 1978 article celebrating the history of the city‘s local arts, San Diego magazine named David Ward-Steinman as ―San Diego‘s foremost music composer.‖ 198 For 46 years, beginning when he first arrived in the fall of 1961 and continuing while other composers came and left, Ward-Steinman composed, performed, and taught in San Diego. Through such efforts, he made major contributions to the city‘s artistic and cultural life, and enriched 198 ―Arts of the City: A Pictorial History 1948-78: Part II,‖ San Diego Dec. 1978: 217. 66 the musicianship of his many students. 199 Some might question why he stayed in San Diego as long as he did when there were opportunities elsewhere that he could have pursued. Ward-Steinman articulated his attitude about this matter while he was on a two-year sabbatical in Florida in 1972: Having lived and traveled in many parts of the country by now . . . I have long since shed the notion that New York or San Francisco or X or Y or Z was the navel of the universe. Art and professionalism are where you find them; they‘re found in many places. Cultural hegemony shifts frequently, and only the in- secure worry about who‘s wearing the crown at the moment. Provincialism is as much an attitude, a way of thinking, as it is a matter of geography. The provincial outlook is that nothing homegrown or home-produced can ever be any good, that all art of quality must be imported. And as long as a community continues to believe that it will remain in fact provincial. 200 One reason for Ward-Steinman‘s successful longevity in San Diego stems from the immediate accessibility and appeal of his music. Music critic Louise Spizizen expressed this actuality when in 1978 she observed: ―[Ward-Steinman‘s] music speaks eloquently to [local] audiences, players and critics.‖ 201 Indeed, it is his desire to convey artistic expression in a manner that emanates from an accessible denominator that has shaped Ward-Steinman‘s compositional philosophy. Interviewed in 1982, the composer noted, ―I think music ought to communicate something to an attentive audience even on first hearing—and without resort to the paraphernalia of program notes, elaborate analyses, or biographical anecdotes.‖ 202 This attitude has distinguished Ward-Steinman from many of his peers in San Diego who have preferred the anachronistic anonymity that is all too common among composers in 199 Kenneth Herman, ―Ward-Steinman Felt An Early Urge To Compose,‖ 1. These matters were also noted in Christian Hertzog, ―David Ward-Steinman: Is there anything he can‘t do?‖ 1. 200 David Ward-Steinman, ―FGCS Is Suncoast‘s Cultural Backbone,‖ Saint Petersburg Times 16 July 1972: 2-G. 201 Spizizen, 16. 202 Ewen, 706. 67 academia. 203 In an interview for an article that appeared in the Alexandria Daily Town Talk in July 1984, the composer compared the continuum of music composition to a train, ―Everybody has to decide how far to go on the train,‖ he said. ―For many it might be all the way to ‗minimalism.‘‖ The author then noted that Ward-Steinman himself gets off the train at ―conceptualism,‖ preferring the actual craft of composition to its abstract concept. 204 Music critic Allan Shields observed in San Diego magazine in December 1962 that Ward-Steinman is ―Not one to hold music too precious to be touched by the burly bustle of human activity . . .‖ 205 Ward-Steinman believes that, as a composer, it is his responsibility to be able to write upon commission whatever genre of music is required of him: I really believe in being of use as a composer. I don‘t want to live an isolated, ivory-tower existence and have my music gathering dust on the shelves. So I‘m flattered when people ask me to write for them. 206 Even so, once commissioned, Ward-Steinman then relishes the freedom to compose ―as he wishes,‖ and to incorporate novel musical ideas into his works. 207 In this sense he writes to please himself, with the hope that his audience will also be gratified with his work: I write for myself and that mythical other—anyone who is capable of understanding and enjoying the music. This isn‘t really an ivory-tower attitude, but I have never ―written down‖ to an audience—I respect their potential too much. 208 While ―respect[ing] their potential,‖ however, the composer maintains the expectation that his audience will be actively engaged in listening in a receptive manner: 203 This philosophy was communicated eloquently in Milton Babbitt, ―Who Cares if You Listen?‖ High Fidelity Feb. 1958: 38-40, 126. The title of the article was that of the magazine‘s editor, as Babbitt‘s original title was to be ―The Composer as Specialist.‖ The article has been republished in Elliott Schwartz and Barney Childs, eds., Contemporary Composers on Contemporary Music (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1967) 243- 250; expanded edition, James Fox, ed. (New York: Da Capo, 1998) 243-50. 204 Hope J. Norman, C-2. 205 Allan Shields, ―Music: The Winners: Strauss; A New Composer; The Opera,‖ San Diego Dec. 1962: 68. 206 Quoting David Ward-Steinman from Herman, ―Ward-Steinman Felt An Early Urge To Compose,‖ 7. 207 Shields, 68. 208 Quoting David Ward-Steinman from Ewen, 706. 68 When listeners are really listening to a piece of music, the first condition is that they must be willing to accept what comes to them. If not careful, they will have a fixed idea about what they should be seeking. . . . If all you want to do is have a fixed set of notions, and anything that doesn‘t fit those is no longer acceptable . . . then that‘s already spoiled the opportunity for communication. 209 In this seemingly paradoxical way, Ward-Steinman balances the often-conflicting poles of communication and innovation and is able to produce unique results. He stated in an interview in his hometown newspaper, the Alexandria Daily Town Talk, in March 1989 that he often finds his musical inspiration in the process of unearthing ideas and that these ideas are ultimately responsible for informing the perception of his music: ―Musical phrases, rhythms or even sounds can get [him] started on a new work.‖ 210 He once compared the craft of composing to the work of a sculptor chipping away at marble: As [a new work] gradually emerges you find yourself making musical discoveries that are very exciting. It‘s very rewarding to compose. There‗s a large amount of craft involved. . . . Symphonies are not dictated a note at a time by the muse from on high. You have to dig them out laboriously, like an archeologist. 211 The most rewarding part of music is discovering. The initial thrill of making the sonic discovery and putting notes together in some coherent sense is the high that makes it worth doing. 212 . . . I believe that each work should employ its own standards by which it is meant to be perceived and judged. A piece is finished only when my imagination cannot improve it. 213 It is perhaps no surprise that Ward-Steinman has earned praise for his ―innovative exploration of musical forms.‖ 214 His style has continuously evolved and embodied many of 209 Quoting David Ward-Steinman from ―Reader‘s Guide To Local Events,‖ 14. 210 Thomas, C1. 211 Quoting David Ward-Steinman from Thomas, C1. 212 Quoting David Ward-Steinman from Herman, ―Ward-Steinman Felt An Early Urge To Compose,‖ 7. 213 Quoting David Ward-Steinman from Ewen, 706-707. 214 Oliver Daniel, ―David Ward-Steinman,‖ BMI: The Many Worlds of Music June 1970: 10. 69 the techniques that are characteristic of contemporary musical experiment, which he has tracked closely. 215 Writing in 1982, David Ewen observed: Ward-Steinman's restless and innovative creative imagination has conducted him into such avant-garde pastures as electronic and aleatoric music; multimedia productions involving film, videotape, and slide projectors in various combinations; arcane and Far Eastern sound textures; and music for ―fortified‖ piano, which he developed from Cage's ―prepared piano.‖ 216 The ability to incorporate novel musical ideas and contemporary material into music that has earned the respect of his contemporaries as well as an appeal to general audiences has helped to ensure Ward-Steinman‘s success as a composer. Bloomington, Indiana, music critic Peter Jacobi noted in 2004: Though creatively Ward-Steinman sometimes dabbles in atonal techniques employed by modernists of recent decades, and though he can cause sounds to grate in dissonant juxtaposition . . . there can be no doubt that he knows how to write highly effective music that plays to a listener‘s mind and heart. 217 Catalog of Compositions David Ward-Steinman has written such ―highly effective‖ music for a wide-range of compositional genres, including major works for orchestra, ballet, band, chamber ensembles, choir, solo instruments, and voice. A number of noted orchestras, ballet companies, 215 Ibid., 10; Shields, 68. 216 Ewen, 703. In May 1964, Nick Stamon wrote in San Diego magazine, ―If one can judge from past works, the music of Ward-Steinman is not ‗modern.‘ Yet it reflects no compromise from his strict, aesthetic standards. His style is one of spare tautness.‖ See: Nick Stamon, ―Music: Moses, Ward-Steinman and Gregory Peck,‖ 68. Stamon subsequently clarified his earlier words in a June 1964 letter to the magazine‘s editor: ―[His] music is not forbiddingly ‗modern.‘ No fuddy-dud as a user of the latest—serial techniques, 3 rd -stream jazz, etc.—Ward-Steinman is considerably to the left of such composers as Copland and Menotti. . . . his music is both advanced and accessible in contrast to much that is written by such composers of the extreme left as Stockhausen, Boulez and Cage.‖ See: Nick Stamon, ―Editorial Blunder,‖ letter, San Diego June 1964: 13. 217 Peter Jacobi, ―Music Review: Ward-Steinman Recital: Pianist David Ward-Steinman amazes and confounds at recital,‖ C6. 70 educational and other organizations have commissioned and/or performed his works. Orchestras include the Albuquerque Civic Symphony, the Brevard Festival Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Florida Symphony, the Japan Philharmonic, the Moravian Philharmonic (Czech Republic), the New Orleans Philharmonic, the San Diego Chamber Orchestra, the San Diego Symphony, and the Seattle Symphony. Ballet companies include the California Ballet, the Joffrey Ballet, and the San Diego Ballet. Educational organizations include the Association for Childhood Education International, the California Association of Professional Music Teachers/Music Teachers National Association, the College Band Directors National Association, the National Association of College Wind and Percussion Instructors, San Diego State University, and the University of Redlands. Other organizations include the San Diego chapter of the American Harp Society, the Camarada Chamber Music Society, the International Musicians‘ Recording Fund, and the Modern Jazz Quartet‘s School of Jazz. Ward-Steinman‘s chamber works have been performed in Australia, Canada, Europe, Indonesia, Mexico, New Zealand, and—in the United States—at the Aspen and Berkshire Music Festivals, Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, and the Phillips Gallery (Washington, D.C.). Other performances of his chamber music have taken place at regional and national conferences of the American Society of University Composers, the College Music Society, the International Clarinet Society, the International Double-Reed Society, the International Viola Congress, the Los Angeles Philharmonic‘s ―Day of New Music,‖ and many other new music forums and festivals. 218 Publishers of Ward-Steinman‘s music include the American Composers Alliance Facsimile Editions; the American Society of University Composers/Society of Composers, 218 David Ward-Steinman Curriculum Vitae (2004); Daniel, 10; David Ward-Steinman, e-mail to the present writer, 30 June 2005. 71 Inc.; Editions Salabert; Galaxy; Highgate; Holt, Rinehart, and Winston; Ione Press; Lee Roberts Music; Leyerle; E. B. Marks Music; Mercury Music; Merion Music; MJQ Music; Music Guild; San Diego State University Press; Theodore Presser; and Tritone Press. Companies that have recorded his music include Advance, ASUC-SCI, Camarada, Contemporary Composers Guild, Crest, Composers Recordings Inc., Crystal, Fleur de Son Classics, Harmonia Mundi, Kleos Classics, Move, Orion, Roncorp, and Silver Crest. 219 Early Influences toward the Development of a Musical Style In the first edition of the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Karl Kroeger described Ward-Steinman‘s compositional style in these few words: ―His earlier works are neoclassical, the later more adventurous.‖ 220 Marshall Bialosky wrote at greater length about the composer in the second edition of the dictionary: His style, characterized by upbeat and optimistic writing, is thoroughly American in outlook, exhibiting a clarity and accessibility that is strongly influenced by his experience as a jazz improviser. He is especially fond of ‗tightly-written‘ music, in which a work grows out of a few initial notes. 221 Ward-Steinman himself has described his early musical style: ―American neoclassic, with a strong rhythmic component derived from jazz.‖ 222 This style mirrored his musical tastes from his developing years. With his roots planted firmly in jazz, he discovered the music of 219 David Ward-Steinman, Curriculum Vitae (2004); Daniel, 10; Christopher Pavlakis, The American Music Handbook (New York: The Free Press-Macmillan, 1974) 359; David Ward-Steinman (King of Prussia: Theodore Presser, 2007) 10. 220 Karl Kroeger, ―Ward-Steinman, David,‖ The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie, vol. XX (London: Macmillan, 1980) 212. 221 Marshall Bialosky, ―Ward-Steinman, David,‖ The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2 nd ed., eds. Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell, vol. XXVII (London: Macmillan, 2001) 86. 222 David Ward-Steinman, telephone interview, 10 June 2005. 72 George Gershwin, Béla Bartók and Claude Debussy. 223 Later in college, he studied the music of Darius Milhaud, Igor Stravinsky, Gail Kubik, Aaron Copland, and Vincent Persichetti. His sentiments tended toward the neoclassic rather than the neoromantic: I didn‘t like romantic music and the excesses of the late 19 th century that tugged at the heart-strings too obviously. I found it very saccharine. I was much more interested in the leaner, more ascetic timbres and sonorities of Igor Stravinsky, Aaron Copland, and Vincent Persichetti (and note there is no Howard Hanson, no Samuel Barber there). 224 Ward-Steinman‘s early music, dating from the middle 1950s through the early 1960s, though lacking in mawkishness, is not entirely austere. Unless he was intentionally writing popular music or jazz, there was never a time when he passed through a conservative phase writing in a purely tonal idiom. He composed using an extended palette of tertian harmonies, which eventually grew to encompass added-note chords, cluster chords, and polychords. He employed modal or intervallic cadences, or simply ―reductive tension‖ cadences. 225 He was not a 12-tone composer per se, but he did write two 12-tone songs, and he occasionally came to use the technique where he found it effective in the context of a tonal framework. 226 His melodies, though they were progressively becoming more angular, nevertheless, reflected a linear approach to composition and could be quite expressive. 227 223 In David Ward-Steinman, telephone interview, 10 June 2005, the composer related that he learned the entire first book of the Debussy Preludes when he was in high school and played them all during his first year in college. 224 Ibid. 225 Ibid. 226 e.g., in The Song of Moses, the 12-tone bass line and 3 rd Stream jazz elements in ―The Dance of the Golden Calf‖ suggest ―a forbidden element of rebellion.‖ See: Ibid. David Ward-Steinman wrote two twelve- tone songs, ―The Web,‖ and ―The Spider.‖ Both are settings of poems by Susan Lucas Ward-Steinman. Also a piece for alto saxophone and fortified piano, Golden Apples, has 12-tone sections, as does his more recent Prisms and Reflections. The latter work uses clusters. It begins in a 12-tone vocabulary but progressively filters down into octatonic, pandiatonic, and finally neo-tonal idioms at its end. 227 As is illustrated in Three Songs for Clarinet and Piano (1957), Fragments from Sappho (1962-65), and Three Lyric Preludes for piano (1964-66), all three of which works will be discussed below. In David Ward- Steinman, telephone interview, 10 June 2005, the composer commented that he ―find[s] major 7 ths and 9 ths very expressive now.‖ 73 Beginning in the middle 1960s, with a desire to break out of the neo-classic modus into which he had inadvertently boxed himself, Ward-Steinman‘s musical style took a turn toward the heterogeneous. With the publication of the New Grove Dictionary of American Music in 1986, the above-cited Kroeger was more generous with words about the composer and more attuned to the direction his recent music had headed: Ward-Steinman is a prolific and versatile composer. His early works are neoclassical but later ones explore more unusual performance media and idioms, including electronic tape, prepared piano, various exotic instruments, and aleatory techniques. He has increasingly attempted to integrate avant- garde techniques with music that communicates easily to a wide audience. 228 Kroeger has not been the only writer to comment on the multifarious influences apparent in Ward-Steinman‘s recent music. San Diego composer and music critic Christian Hertzog has called Ward-Steinman an ―eclectic‖ composer, ―not flagrantly postmodern,‖ but one who uses ―a lot of different tools.‖ 229 Music critic Kenneth Herman has noted, however, that, although the label ―eclectic‖ may be a convenient one, it is not one with which the composer is ―entirely comfortable.‖ 230 In spite of the fact that his later music is often freely composed of elements drawn from various sources, Ward-Steinman actively strives for an internal stylistic consistency in these works. 231 Herman quotes the composer: I will admit to eclecticism in the sense that I am interested in different kinds of music, I think there is a lot of variety in what I do, and yet I see common threads: rhythmic, propulsive figures, as well as a lot of rhythmic vitality. I think there is a continuity of technique and of manner, even though the materials may be different. 232 228 Karl Kroeger, ―Ward-Steinman, David,‖ New Grove Dictionary of American Music, vol. IV, 477. 229 Christian Hertzog, ―An interview with David Ward-Steinman: An edited transcript.‖ 230 Herman, ―Ward-Steinman Felt An Early Urge To Compose,‖ 7. 231 Hertzog, ―An interview with David Ward-Steinman: An edited transcript.‖ 232 Quoting David Ward-Steinman from Herman, ―Ward-Steinman Felt An Early Urge To Compose,‖ 7. 74 The Influence of Teachers Of the many influences apparent in Ward-Steinman‘s approach to composition, of paramount importance were those of his teachers, chiefly John Boda, Darius Milhaud, Milton Babbitt, and especially Nadia Boulanger. 233 The collective importance of these individuals on the composer‘s artistic development has already been alluded to in the first chapter of this paper. It is here, however, worth examining in particular and at some detail the influences of Milhaud and Boulanger. Their respective approaches to composition were quite different as Ward-Steinman came to learn during his studies with them. Although he had previously studied with Wallingford Riegger and John Boda, Ward-Steinman cites the time he came under the tutelage of Darius Milhaud at the Aspen Music School during the summer of 1956 as when he first became engaged in serious work as a composer. He credits Milhaud with getting him to ―think out of the box and out of the textbook,‖ especially regarding orchestration. 234 Milhaud encouraged Ward-Steinman to direct his attention to ―the overall shape of a work and its total sense of continuity.‖ 235 Milhaud‘s criticisms were consistently ―large scale,‖ notes Ward-Steinman. ―He would say things like ‗that page is useless, throw it out,‘ whereas Boulanger would get down to the individual note, the individual rest.‖ Milhaud always desired a piece ―be either going someplace or coming from someplace.‖ The music always had to have a sense of direction and a ―point of movement.‖ ―He didn‘t want music that treaded water, that didn‘t do 233 David Ward-Steinman, e-mail to the present writer, 2 Sept. 2007. 234 David Ward-Steinman, telephone interview, 10 June 2005. Ward-Steinman studied with Boda during 1953-57 (save during the academic year 1955-56 when he studied with Ernst von Dohnányi while Boda was pursuing a doctoral degree at Eastman), with Riegger during the summer of 1954, with Milhaud during the summer of 1956, with Babbitt and Copland (the latter in his class) during the summer of 1957, and with Boulanger during the academic year 1958-59. 235 Herman, ―Ward-Steinman Felt An Early Urge To Compose,‖ 7. 75 anything.‖ 236 Ward-Steinman credits Milhaud with acquainting him with much of the music of Arthur Honegger, which was also to become influential on his own. 237 Two of the pieces that Ward-Steinman worked on during his time of study with Milhaud, his Sonata for Piano (1956-57) and his Three Songs for Clarinet and Piano (1957), clearly show his teacher‘s influence. Their composition marks the beginning of what he regards as his first serious work as a composer. Ward-Steinman‘s interest in Milhaud‘s use of polychords and polytonality, as well as his jazz-inspired rhythmic vitality and his use of compound and changing meters, no doubt manifested itself as an influence in these works. 238 Ward-Steinman began writing his Sonata for Piano in 1956 while he was still a composition student of John Boda at Florida State University. Boda was a composer Ward- Steinman came to regard as ―a very find Hindemithian . . . very much a neoclassicist.‖ 239 Having already completed one movement with Boda, Ward-Steinman‘s work on the sonata continued that summer while he was studying under Milhaud at Aspen. 240 He finished it prior to his graduation from Florida State in the spring of 1957 and played the completed work for Milton Babbitt at Tanglewood that summer. Babbitt chose the Sonata for Piano, played by Ward-Steinman himself, to represent the composition department in the program ―Tanglewood on Parade.‖ 236 David Ward-Steinman, telephone interview, 10 June 2005. 237 Ibidem the composer noted that he had first been introduced to Honegger as a freshman at Florida State University when he accompanied the university‘s chorus in rehearsals of King David. He spoke of Milhaud‘s favor of the music of Honegger: ―I was with Milhaud, it was the summer of 1956, right after Honegger had died. They had been very close and, of course, Milhaud wanted to organize a Honegger festival. He began bringing a variety of Honegger‘s scores into his composition class. I was the score reader for the class, so I got to know much of Honegger‘s music quite well.‖ 238 These pieces were the ones that Ward-Steinman played for Nadia Boulanger at the time of their first meeting. In David Ward-Steinman, telephone interview, 10 June 2005, the composer noted, ―Boulanger had come to Illinois [in the spring of 1958 while Ward-Steinman was a graduate student at the University of Illinois] for a rare set of seminars at Southern Illinois University. I had submitted my Three Songs for Clarinet and Piano and my Sonata for Piano for the forum and both pieces got chosen . . . she wanted to hear them both twice.‖ 239 David Ward-Steinman, telephone interview, 10 June 2005. 240 Ward-Steinman also composed an orchestral piece, which he titled Chronicle, while studying under Milhaud that summer. The composer conducted the festival orchestra in the premiere of the work. 76 Figure 2.1: Opening page of ―Fugue‖ from Sonata for Piano. 77 The first movement of the Sonata for Piano is, of course, in sonata form. A slow introduction that reappears at the end of the movement serves to frame it. The tonality of the introduction is ―ambiguous,‖ but a clear tonal center emerges as the movement unfolds. 241 The movement is full of changing compound meters (e.g., 10/8, 5/8, 3/4, etc.) and polymeters. 242 It is ―very rhythmic and very jazzy‖ and clearly reflects the influence of Milhaud. The second movement is a slow fugue that moves at an ―almost glacial pace‖ with a long, wide-ranging, angular subject. The movement reaches a climax at its middle and so articulates an ―arch‖ form. 243 The third movement is a toccata that features repeated notes and is itself an ABCBA arch form. 244 It is ―dynamic‖ and ―rhythmic.‖ Like the first movement, it has an ―elusive‖ tonal center, confirmed only as the movement draws to a close. Influences on the work as a whole include not only Milhaud, but also Copland, and some ―American-filtered‖ Prokofiev. 245 Ward-Steinman describes his Three Songs for Clarinet and Piano, written in September 1957 at the request of his friend the clarinetist Dixon Redditt, as ―songs without words à la Mendelssohn.‖ He continues, ―Though a song usually implies a singer there are many precedents for instrumental ‗songs without words.‘ These pieces are essentially lyric, song-like compositions in contrasting moods.‖ The influence of Milhaud, as well as Hindemith, ―and perhaps even Bartók,‖ along with that of jazz, may be detected in these 241 David Ward-Steinman, telephone interview, 10 June 2005. 242 David Ward-Steinman, e-mail to the present writer, 23 May 2005. 243 David Ward-Steinman, telephone interview, 10 June 2005. In relation to the second movement of the Sonata for Piano, Ward-Steinman remarked, ―I don‘t know if there was any model for it except I was doing counterpoint at the time and I wanted to write a modern fugue, and it just seemed to emerge from it naturally. It was a challenge back then to make it work.‖ 244 Quoting David Ward-Steinman, program notes for a concert of his music, University of Texas at El Paso, 24 Feb. 1979. 245 David Ward-Steinman, telephone interview, 10 June 2005; David Ward-Steinman, e-mail to the present writer, 23 May 2005. As to the employment of repeated notes in the third movement of the Sonata for Piano, Ward-Steinman remarked, ―A pianist friend of mine . . . loved to do repeated notes. He wanted something that would exploit them. So the last movement is full of repeated notes.‖ 78 three pieces. 246 The work won for the composer the First Prize in the Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia national composition contest in 1958. It remained unpublished, however, until 1984. 247 In the spring of 1963 composer Barney Childs reviewed a recording of clarinetist Richard Robinette and composer-pianist Ward-Steinman playing Three Songs for Clarinet and Piano and Sonata for Piano for the Arizona Quarterly. 248 Childs wrote: Both the Ward-Steinman works here recorded share the sure grasp of medium and structure that has . . . characterized the composer‘s work; both are fine examples of what can be done by a fresh look at the ―mainstream‖ tonal vocabulary. The music often is affirmative, forthright, optimistic; the bright portions are full of air and light and the darker outlines are clean shadow, not the pathological darkness of self-dramatization and personal distortion. 249 Allan Shields, writing for the El Cajon, California Valley News, noted in his own review of the recording: The art of making melody, called melopoeia, is possessed by David Ward-Steinman to a remarkable degree . . . At first, what strikes the ear is the jazzy, vigorous, jaunty angularity of the movement of the sound. Quick ideas are almost chased across the keyboard and one‘s mind. Piano Sonata [sic], especially the first movement, will impress listeners that way. Repeated hearings, however, will add to the first impressions a growing awareness of the textures and orderliness of what appears to be a nearly accidental production. 246 Quoting David Ward-Steinman, e-mail to the present writer, 23 May 2005, and his notes which accompanied a recording of the work: Richard Robinette, cl. and David Ward-Steinman, pno, Three Songs for Clarinet and Piano and Sonata for Piano by David Ward-Steinman, LP, Contemporary Composers Guild CCG-I, 1962. 247 David Ward-Steinman, e-mails to the present writer, 23 May and 4 Sept. 2005. 248 Robinette, CCG-I. Clarinetist Richard Robinette was at that time a twenty-one-year-old student of Norman Rost at San Diego State College. He appeared as a soloist, at the age of sixteen, with the La Jolla Civic Symphony Orchestra. In David Ward-Steinman, e-mail to the present writer, 28 Sept. 2005, the composer noted of the recording, ―The record was put out by the Contemporary Composers Guild, which conducted a competition for a recording award. I won and got one side of the LP. Dudley Foster got the other side. The LP appeared as volume I of a projected series that never went any further, due to the less than lavish sales of vol. I.‖ 249 Barney Childs, ―Record Reviews,‖ Arizona Quarterly Spring, 1963: 95-96. Childs‘s review is quoted in Ewen, 704. Clarinetist Richard Robinette made the recording with the composer as pianist for Contemporary Composer‘s Guild in 1962. Clarinetist Phillip Rehfeldt has also recorded the work, once again with the composer as pianist: Phillip Rehfeldt, cl. and David Ward-Steinman, pno., Three Songs for Clarinet and Piano by David Ward-Steinman, Roncorp audio cassette EMS-021. 79 Figure 2.2: Three Songs for Clarinet and Piano, title page. 80 In the slow movement of Piano Sonata and in Three Songs for Clarinet and Piano the lovely melodic interest is more noticeable and could charm anyone who is fearful of modern idioms. Ward-Steinman lets it be known that his aim is to compose by ―controlled improvisation.‖ More difficult to achieve than to describe, he means to capture the freedom, excitement, and spontaneity of jazzy improvisation sessions, and to firm these into formal statement for communication. 250 Similar to Milhaud‘s approach to composition was that of Walter Piston, whose music Ward-Steinman was also studying at this time. Although he found some of Piston‘s music ―academic and neoclassically dry,‖ Piston‘s early grasp of the overall formal structure of a composition in progress, nevertheless, favorably struck him: I was especially impressed when I learned that Piston plotted out the emotional curve of a piece before actually writing it down. He knew where the climaxes were going to come and he was sure that he had control of the overall arch of the movement . . . I could not imagine [such a thing] happening unless you had the material in hand, because the material has to grow organically. 251 From his studies with Milton Babbitt at Tanglewood in the summer of 1957, Ward- Steinman gained insight into the role of structural continuity within a work. Concerning his playing of his Sonata for Piano for Babbitt in 1957, Ward-Steinman later commented: There were links between the movements that Babbitt found of which I was unaware. He started picking up relationships between them and saying: ―oh, this is very clever.‖ And I was just sitting there saying, ―yes, yes,‖ being totally unaware of these relationships until he discovered them. 252 Of all Ward-Steinman‘s teachers, however, Nadia Boulanger exercised the most influence on the developing composer. More than any of his former mentors, she focused on, and drew his attention to, the need for ―perfection of detail‖: 250 Allan Shields, ―Ward-Steinman Gains in Musical Stature,‖ The Valley News [El Cajon, CA] 31 Jan. 1964: B3. 251 David Ward-Steinman, telephone interview, 10 June 2005. 252 Ibid. 81 . . . I gained from [Boulanger] a heightened sense of musical conscience, the concern to make every note, every phrase, every gesture exactly right for the piece. Milhaud would say things like . . . ―These pages—they go nowhere,‖ but he would never be any more precise than that. Whereas Boulanger‘s approach was very definitely on the microscopic level, the scrutiny of every single note. She would say, ―This note here is wrong,‖ or, ―This cadence is not right for the passage.‖ 253 During the 1958-59 academic year, at which time Ward-Steinman studied with her in Paris, Boulanger instilled in him an approach to the craft of composition that utilized a ―systematic exhaustion of all the musical possibilities of the materials at hand.‖ While composing, he was encouraged to come up with ―multiple sketches‖ and thus ―multiple sources‖ from among which he could choose his musical materials. He thus learned to write by ―revising‖ and ―re-writing,‖ but never by ―erasing.‖ Ward-Steinman credits Boulanger with instilling in him an approach to composition that is more ―horizontal‖ (linear) than it is ―vertical.‖ Line is, at least initially, more important than harmony, so lines are worked out first and the vertical details come later. All of such work is subsequently subject to revision and change. In this way a sense of harmonic flow is established in a piece. 254 Commenting on Boulanger‘s harmonic criticism, Ward-Steinman has noted: This was an area where Boulanger was very helpful. She would tell me things like: ―That note is worn out; you‘ve used that note too recently.‖ She wanted every note to count and every line to be important. If you could take something out of a piece without harming it, then it didn‘t belong there. You wound up generating reams of material and having it boiled down, polished, and cut. In the end, you would keep perhaps a tenth of what you had brought in, what you had written. 255 253 Quoting David Ward-Steinman from Herman, ―Ward-Steinman Felt An Early Urge To Compose,‖ 7. 254 In David Ward-Steinman, e-mail to the present writer, 27 Apr. 2008, the composer explained: ―With Boulanger anything and everything was subject to change and revision. Her approach to the pedagogy of composition may be summed up as a ‗systematic exhaustion of all the contextual possibilities‘ achieved through successive sketches preserved for comparison. You cannot presume to make the best choices unless you have explored all the possibilities and have laid them out for comparison. Nonetheless, her comments and criticisms were spontaneous and intuitive, no matter how many sketch stages a piece had gone through.‖ 255 David Ward-Steinman, telephone interview, 10 June 2005. 82 Once a student completed a work, however, Boulanger was not one to insist that they engage in a process of continuous revision. She did not believe in revising older pieces. She desired that her students apply what they had learned to the next piece alone. 256 Boulanger was not ―doctrinaire‖ in her approach, in the sense that she never dictated to her pupils what musical style in which they should write. That decision remained in their hands. 257 Instead, she attempted to help her students ―find their own way.‖ She focused in on whatever ―spark of originality‖ the students might display and then helped them to ―purify‖ it by eliminating the ―derivative‖ or ―imitative‖—in short—whatever was ―not theirs.‖ Ward-Steinman commented on his own experience with her in this regard: She would make comments such as ―there it is not you‖ or ―there it is weak‖ or ―there it is somebody else.‖ If you keep eliminating what is not you, what is left, willy-nilly is you. This was how she was able to encourage her students to develop styles of their own. 258 The year Ward-Steinman spent with Boulanger was productive in the writing of his Excursion overture for concert band (1957-58), his Quintet for Brass (1958-59), and the overture to an unfinished children‘s opera based on Antoine de Saint-Exupéry‘s Le petit prince. 259 The composer abandoned the latter project when he was unable to obtain permission from Saint-Exupéry‘s publisher to produce it. 256 Ibid. 257 Ibidem the composer commented: ―[Boulanger‘s approach was] unlike, let‘s say Hindemith‘s, whose students all wrote like him initially. I spoke with Lucas Foss recently in New York . . . and I asked him about his studies with Hindemith at Yale, and he said, ‗Oh, everybody had to write like Hindemith,‘ while they were with him. It took Foss a while to write his way out of that!‖ Ward-Steinman also commented he felt that Boulanger was able to be neutral about musical style because she had given up composing herself, so she therefore had no ―stylistic axe to grind.‖ 258 Ibid. Ward-Steinman commented further concerning his own experience with Boulanger in this regard when he wrote about a time that he played his award-winning Sonata for Piano (1956-57) for her: ―[She] caught things both Milhaud and Babbitt missed . . . [she] went unerringly to the secret places I worried about but no one else seemed to notice; she confirmed my instincts and raised my standards enormously.‖ See: David Ward- Steinman, e-mail to the present writer, 23 May 2005. 259 Excursion was premiered in Washington, D.C. by the United States Navy Band under its conductor Commander Charles Brendler. Ward-Steinman‘s overture to Le petit prince ultimately became his daughter Jenna‘s musical birth announcement, which he subsequently published as part of his Latter-Day Lullabies for piano. See: David Ward-Steinman, e-mail to the present writer, 16 Sept. 2007. 83 Ward-Steinman spent most of his time during his final months in Paris composing his Symphony 1959. He completed fourteen sketches for the project while there and a fifteenth sketch when he returned home to Illinois. He subsequently finished the work in pencil sketch and orchestrated it. The Symphony 1959 is in three movements and is approximately 20 minutes in duration. Its first movement is cast in a ―fairly straightforward sonata form.‖ 260 The movement features a slow introduction, beginning with a rising major 7 th in the violins accompanied by polychords. Its second movement is a long, slow, ―lyric- dramatic arch,‖ an ―extended song‖ that climaxes in the middle. It is ―very intense, very passionate.‖ 261 Its last movement is a short rondo that features repeated notes. 262 Utilizing a procedure which the composer regards as ―fairly typical‖ of his work, the slow central movement was composed first and serves to ―set the over-all character‖ of the work. The surrounding movements were then composed ―to complement the slow movement.‖ 263 Ward-Steinman has said of the composition: The symphony is written in a kind of breezy, American neoclassic style with some jazz influences and a lot of lyricism . . . The last movement is a very rhythmic jazzy rondo, that I think could only have been written by an American composer. . . . The symphony‘s orchestration is very colorful, exotic maybe. . . . I think it‘s an accessible work. It‘s not terribly dissonant or problematic. I was about 22 years old when I wrote it, so it‘s full of what I can see retroactively as youthful vigor, energy and enthusiasm. 264 260 Quoting David Ward-Steinman from Thomas, C1. 261 Ibid. 262 David Ward-Steinman, telephone interview, 10 June 2005. The appearance of a rondo with repeated notes in the third movement of his Symphony 1959 was, according to the composer, ―a spillover from the 3 rd movement of [my] Sonata for Piano.‖ 263 Quoting David Ward-Steinman from Alan M. Kriegsman, ―A Double Musical Treat for San Diego,‖ San Diego Union 2 Dec. 1962: E-1. 264 Quoting David Ward-Steinman from Thomas, C1. In David Ward-Steinman, telephone interview, 10 June 2005, the composer commented further on the work: ―The second movement is in the same world as the slow movement of my cello concerto. It is a very intense [and] reaches a nice climax. It has some special effects in it, trumpet with cloth mute hanging over the bells (that kind of distant trumpet), harp, [and] piano. Since I had already been writing pieces every year for orchestra, I thought it was my natural medium and I was very careful about the orchestration of the symphony.‖ 84 Figure 2.3: Symphony 1959, title page. 85 The San Diego Symphony Orchestra first performed Symphony 1959 under its director Earl Bernard Murray on 4 December 1962. 265 Allan Shields wrote extensively about the premiere in San Diego magazine, providing some keen insights into the work: The Muses of music have descended upon Composer David Ward-Steinman, virtually all of them . . . there is evidence of all in his Symphony (1959). This music is initiated by an unusually well ordered and rational psyche. It is neat, clean, sensible and reasonable. Where new, it is not so different as to be jarring, nor yet so little different not to be arresting. . . . There are strong melodic elements. During the slow movement, this melodic writing approaches the impassioned romantic in its appeal, but never becomes sentimental because of another device [Ward-Steinman] uses: if an idea suggests repetition, he leaves it, and gets on to something new. . . . This writing is masculine. One feels strong rhythms in the main current, and under-currents, too. The melodic lines are forceful, the intervals often angular, the contrasts between and among instruments sharp, linear, occasionally musically strident. It is jazzy, but not meant for whistling. In his harmonic progressions we find the primary evidence of modernity. It is closely developed—and it is developed. Harmonically, there is always a leading, leading. Dissonance dominates, but is constantly tempered with consonance. His orchestration and instrumentation are masterly. Like the French moderns, he loves the flute in the low and middle registers. Writing for this level without losing the sound is difficult. He does it well. . . . He enjoys the brass especially. The music flares, like the bell of a French Horn. Ward-Steinman writes sonorous radiance for brass. The xylophone is a prominent percussive element in the work—and it fits. In the Symphony (1959) and its composer there is musical integrity. 266 265 David Ward-Steinman, telephone interview, 10 June 2005. Symphony 1959 has been performed twice since that time, once by the Brevard Festival Orchestra with the composer conducting at the Brevard Music Center in North Carolina during the summer of 1986 and once by the Rapides Symphony Orchestra with William Kushner conducting in Alexandria, Louisiana, on 12 March 1989. 266 Allan Shields, ―Music: The Man Who Made The Merger,‖ San Diego Feb. 1963: 77. Other local critics commented favorably concerning Symphony 1959. Dave McIntyre wrote that the work, ―displayed imagination and impressive musicianship.‖ See: Dave McIntyre, ―Violinist Wins Ovation At Symphony Concert,‖ Evening Tribune [San Diego] 5 Dec. 1962: B4. Alan Kriegsman noted that it was ―formidable and intriguing.‖ See: Alan 86 The Symphony 1959 won two prizes for its composer: the Bearns Prize from Columbia University and a BMI award. Ward-Steinman dedicated the completed work to Nadia Boulanger. ―It was my, kind of, graduation piece,‖ he said. 267 It is a fitting tribute to her as it commemorates the influence she exerted on the maturing composer. Four Elements of Continuity in David Ward-Steinman‘s Music Music critic Christian Hertzog has identified four ―elements of continuity‖ over Ward-Steinman‘s compositional career that helped to shape his musical style. He named them in a 2000 article entitled ―David Ward-Steinman: Is there anything he can‘t do?‖ These elements include ―clusters,‖ ―fortified piano,‖ ―chance and indeterminacy,‖ and ―Asian music.‖ 268 For the purpose of the present discussion, I believe that the use of the fortified piano should be included as a subset of an element that I will call Expanded Instrumental Sounds, the latter then encompassing the additional subset of Electronic and Computer Generated Music. Hertzog saw the ―spontaneity and variation‖ that characterizes much of Ward-Steinman‘s music as a feature to be included under the element of chance and indeterminacy. I prefer to view the latter as a subset of the former. Finally, I think that Hertzog‘s identified element of Asian music should be included under the broader category, Non-Western Music. Reordered according to their historical appearance in the composer‘s music, the elements identified for the present discussion are 1. Spontaneity and Variation, 2. Cluster Harmony, 3. Expanded Instrumental Sounds, and 4. Non-Western Music. Kriegsman, ―More Blue Ribbons For Ward-Steinman,‖ E3. Nick Stamon referred to the work as being, ―terse, well structured.‖ See: Nick Stamon, ―Music: Moses, Ward-Steinman and Gregory Peck, 68. 267 Quoting David Ward-Steinman from Thomas, C1; Ewen, 704; David Ward-Steinman (New York: Broadcast Music, Inc., 1988). 268 Hertzog, ―David Ward-Steinman: Is there anything he can‘t do?‖ 3. 87 1. Spontaneity and Variation The first element of continuity that may be found in Ward-Steinman‘s music is that of Spontaneity and Variation. Two sub-elements comprise this first element, the Influence of Jazz and Performer Interaction, Chance, and Indeterminacy. a. The Influence of Jazz Hertzog has noted, ―The notion of incorporating spontaneity and variation in his works no doubt arises from Ward-Steinman‘s love of jazz.‖ 269 Given his background playing professionally as a jazz pianist from his early high school years, through college, and beyond, it is no surprise that jazz has been such a powerful influence on Ward-Steinman‘s concert music. During the ―Third Stream‖ movement of the 1960s and 1970s, he found himself ―involved in a peripheral way,‖ writing music in that idiom. 270 For the School of Jazz in Lenox, Massachusetts, founded by John Lewis in 1960, he wrote his Concerto Grosso for Jazz Combo and Chamber Orchestra. Following the work‘s premiere in San Diego on 14 May 1962, Harold Farberman directed Lewis‘s Orchestra U.S.A. in a performance of the Concerto Grosso at Carnegie Hall on 8 November 1964. 271 Outside of such outright jazz-inspired works, however, the influence of jazz in Ward-Steinman‘s concert music has been a subtle one. 272 Although there has seldom been a time when he overtly used popular or jazz harmonies in his music, such as blues scales, blue 3 rds , or flatted 5 ths , the sway of jazz rhythm is unmistakable. 273 Author David Ewen has 269 Ibid. 270 David Ward-Steinman, telephone interview, 10 June 2005. 271 Conductor John Garvey (of the University of Illinois) commissioned the work for the John Lewis/MJQ- founded School of Jazz in Lenox, MA (adjacent to Tanglewood). The concerto‘s solo quartet (trumpet, trombone, alto and baritone saxophones) features an accompaniment of big band and string orchestra. Jazz critic Don Heckman of Down Beat reviewed the premiere of the concerto. See: Don Heckman, ―Orchestra U.S.A. Carnegie Hall, New York City,‖ Down Beat 14 Jan. 1965: 31-32. The New York Times also reviewed its premiere. See: H. K., ―First of Two Programs by Orchestra U.S.A.‖ New York Times 9 Nov. 1964: 54. 272 Herman, ―Ward-Steinman Felt An Early Urge To Compose,‖ 7. 273 David Ward-Steinman, telephone interview, 10 June 2005. 88 observed, ―when [Ward-Steinman‘s] writing was not overtly jazz-based, it often reflected his background in jazz through kinetic rhythms, syncopations, polyrhythms, improvisation options, and so forth.‖ 274 The most pervasive influence in Ward-Steinman‘s music, however, is as Allan Shields once noted, the ―freedom and spontaneity‖ of jazz: ―‗Composed jazz,‘ [Ward-Steinman] says ‗is the result of freezing spontaneity.‘ Peculiarly, after listening to his Piano Sonata [sic] . . . the most apt description that struck me was his own regarding jazz. It is ‗frozen spontaneity.‘ It is ‗controlled improvisation.‘‖ 275 Ward-Steinman notes: I like the spontaneity of jazz—of a good jazz improvisation. To me composition at its best has the energy and the vitality of a controlled improvisation, that is an improvisation with the wrong notes corrected. So I have tried, in everything that I have written, to incorporate a sense of direction and point of movement so that my music would, as far as possible, sound fresh and spontaneous. 276 Not all of the rhythmic vitality that Ward-Steinman displays in his music, however, may be attributed solely or directly to jazz. He himself clarifies this matter, notably in regard to his aforementioned Sonata for Piano: The interesting thing is that I did, and I still do, write the music first and then put in bar lines according to where the natural agogic accents seem to fall; then I count up how many beats I‘ve got. I was never consciously trying to write polymetric music, but I was able to hear phrases [that were] fresh and changing. I believe I was subconsciously influenced by jazz, but certainly not the jazz that was being done at the time; the syncopations of jazz are there, yes, but if there was [rather] a classical influence [for this] it may have been something like the ―dance sacrale‖ from Le sacre du printemps. In terms of its rhythmic drive and propulsion, The Rite of Spring had more to say to me [than the jazz of the mid-1950s]. 277 274 Ewen, 703. 275 Shields, ―Music: The Winners: Strauss; A New Composer; The Opera,‖ 68. 276 David Ward-Steinman, telephone interview, 10 June 2005. 277 Ibid. 89 Figure 2.4: Sonata for Piano, first movement, mm. 15-30. 90 An example of a work that falls in the category of influence of jazz is Ward- Steinman‘s Concerto No. 2 for Chamber Orchestra. Daniel Lewis and the Sherwood Hall Orchestra of La Jolla commissioned the work. Begun in 1961 and completed in 1962, its premiere took place on 3 March 1963. The concerto features members of the orchestra used in solo capacities in a manner similar to that found in Béla Bartók‘s Concerto for Orchestra. The work had its origins in his earlier Concerto for Chamber Orchestra, which he wrote while completing his doctoral studies at the University of Illinois. The composer promptly ―scrapped‖ most of this earlier concerto after its premiere. Its second movement, however, reappears intact as the second movement of the new concerto, with two new ―framing movements‖ composed around it. Ward-Steinman describes the aesthetic outlook of the concerto as being in the ―Americana camp.‖ ―Americana,‖ perhaps, in the sense of its use of melodic tunes, transparent textures, jazz rhythms and syncopations, with a ―Stravinskian‖ angularity derived ―via Copland and Piston.‖ Although the slow movement is ―very expressive, intense, and even passionate‖ at times, the stylistic identity of the work as a whole is that of ―neoclassicism,‖ not ―neo-romanticism‖ or anything approaching ―12- tone/atonal expressionism.‖ ―Unusual‖ about the framing movements is their ―rhythmic drive and intensity.‖ The composer explains this latter quality: ―That was probably a result of my playing jazz.‖ 278 San Diego music critic Anne Lois Roberts wrote of the Concerto No. 2 for Chamber Orchestra after attending its premiere: ―Dr. Ward-Steinman‘s magnificent Concerto for Chamber Orchestra [sic] . . . was an exciting adventure in contemporary music.‖ 279 Laurence McGilvery observed of this first performance: 278 Ibid. 279 Ann Lois Roberts, ―Sherwood Orchestra Ends Season with Brilliance,‖ La Jolla Journal 7 Mar. 1963: 11. 91 Figure 2.5: Concerto No. 2 for Chamber Orchestra, title page. 92 [Ward-Steinman‘s] talent is obvious and abundant. The concerto . . . has throughout its length brilliant orchestral color and vivid and exciting surface. . . . To the extent that he provides something in his music which the audience—an audience which has perhaps been left far behind by the journeyings of the mainstream of modern music into ever more difficult and unfamiliar territory —can immediately grasp and enjoy, Dr. Ward-Steinman is very much to be congratulated. 280 Allan Shields, who also attended the concerto‘s premiere, wrote: ―In this work, the composer shows his characteristic vigor, movement, the strong melodic elements, and the sonorous brass; and his distinctive use of the xylophone, percussion and flute. The rhythms are coercive, compelling, and powerful . . . It drives.‖ 281 Alan Kriegsman summed up the audience‘s reaction to the work‘s first performance when he noted: The premiere of David Ward-Steinman‘s Concerto No. 2 for Chamber Orchestra was a victory for both the composer and the orchestra, and one in which the audience took enormous delight in sharing. The new concerto is an exciting work in all of its aspects, vehement and convincing in expression and fitted together with consummate craft. On first hearing it impressed me as the most perfectly conceived and executed work by Ward-Steinman which has been performed locally so far. The wonderfully animated scoring, in sharply etched sonorities, deserves special commendation. 282 Following a second performance of the work in February 1964, Donald Dierks wrote of the concerto: [It] is a work [that] has aged well. It has good bone structure. The quality of the score‘s craftsmanship and its creative impulses have remained fresh and conservatively contemporary. There is a great deal of thematic interest in the work‘s three parts; and in the second movement, particularly, the melodies are gentle and appealing. In the outer movements there is busy interplay among the sections of the orchestra, and interesting incidental solos contribute to a prevailing character of vitality. 283 280 Laurence McGilvery, ―Concert Review,‖ La Jolla Light 7 Mar. 1963: 7-A. 281 Allan Shields, ―Sherwood: High Quality—And Price,‖ San Diego May 1963: 77. 282 Alan M. Kriegsman, ―Sherwood Group Hits Peak in Finale,” San Diego Union 5 Mar. 1963: B3. 283 Donald Dierks, ―Group scores, up to a point,‖ San Diego Union 7 Feb. 1964: D-5. 93 Reviewing another repeat performance of the work some 17 years later, Dierks wrote of its middle ―Nocturne‖ movement: It proved to be a gentle piece of melancholy character. . . . The harmonies of this nocturne, which are its principal focus of interest, are forthright and only occasionally colored by mild dissonances that might mark it as contemporary. . . . Another feature, and an appealing one, is Ward-Steinman‘s subtle tonal coloration, achieved as it was within restricted orchestrational limits. 284 The Concerto No. 2 for Chamber Orchestra has been one of Ward-Steinman‘s most performed pieces, and it has continued to win acclaim from both the public and the press. 285 David Amos and the City of London Sinfonia recorded the work in 1991. 286 284 Donald Dierks, ―New Orchestra Moves Indoors: Chamber Concert Hits Sour Note,‖ San Diego Union 5 Sept. 1981: C13. 285 Alan M. Kriegsman, ―Art Center Hunts Original Score,‖ San Diego Union 18 Aug. 1963: E-3. Other music critics commended the work following subsequent performances of it. Scott MacClelland wrote after a 1980 performance of the concerto by the Hidden Valley Chamber Orchestra of Carmel, CA: ―David Ward- Steinman is a San Diego composer of fine instinct and consummate composing skills. His Chamber Concerto No. 2 . . . reflects . . . eclectic feature[s] . . . composed with . . . finesse and brilliance . . . The distribution of material was rich, colorful and ever-surprising.‖ See: Scott MacClelland, ―Music Society, Hidden Valley Chamber finales memorable,‖ Carmel Pine Cone 29 May 1980, Epicenter: Arts & Leisure: B-7. Jonathan Saville wrote: ―Its freshness of invention . . . made me sorry that I could get to hear it only once; it had throughout a treasurable quality that invited closer acquaintance.‖ See: Jonathan Saville, ―Quarter Notes—Monteverdi Chamber Orchestra,‖ San Diego Reader 16 Feb. 1984: 32. Reviewing the most recent performance of the work by Daniel Spalding and the Philadelphia Virtuosi Orchestra in June 2003, Susan L. Peña wrote, ―Spalding [said he chose the work] to showcase the orchestra, since it gives nearly every musician a solo. In the first of three movements, the quick, swirling theme was tossed from one instrument to another, resulting in a breathless, light- textured effect. The slow movement was . . . reminiscent of Aaron Copland, with its simple tune, clean lines and soaring trumpet. The final movement was energetic and syncopated, with many surprises to catch the listener off-guard; it could have been the soundtrack to a spy thriller.‖ See: Susan L. Peña, ―Concert review: Philadelphia Virtuosi orchestra proves artful, energetic,‖ Reading Eagle [Reading, PA] 21 June 2003: B9. Kenneth Herman has lamented over the lack of recent performances of the work in southern California: ―Sadly, in the ensuing years [after 1963], the work has rarely been performed by local ensembles.‖ See: Kenneth Herman, ―San Diego Spotlight: Lesser Known U.S. Works Take Center Stage on Disc,‖ Los Angeles Times 27 Apr. 1991: F-2. 286 David Amos, cond., ―Modern Masters II,‖ City of London Sinfonia, CD, Harmonia Mundi 906011, 1991; audio cassette, Harmonia Mundi 406011, 1991; reissued as a CD, Helicon Records Kleos Classic KL5128, 2004. James Reel of the Arizona Daily Star wrote about the recording: ―David Ward-Steinman‘s Concerto No. 2 begins where Bartók‘s Concerto for Orchestra ends, with a percolating theme darting around the orchestra. From time to time the style is reminiscent of Leonard Bernstein‘s more serious scores.‖ See: James Reel, ―Starmusic,‖ Arizona Daily Star [Tucson, AZ] 23 Aug. 1991: F-16. Kenneth Herman, in his review of its recording, called the work ―a jaunty, extroverted essay . . . [that] easily overshadow[s] the trendy minimalist orchestral commissions [of recent years].‖ See: Herman, ―San Diego Spotlight: Lesser Known U.S. Works Take Center Stage on Disc,‖ F-2. Rob Barnett added, ―The Ward-Steinman . . . is a neo-classical piece, busy and soloistic, dervish-whirling, not too dry but evidently written with affectionate obeisance to Stravinsky and Pulcinella in the outer movements. The accents are affectingly ‗great open spaces‘ American (Harris and Barber).‖ See: Rob Barnett, Musicweb 4 Mar. 2004, 7 July 2007 <http://www.musicwebinternational.com/classrev/2004/Mar04/modern_masters_5128.htm>. 94 Throughout the years since the early 1960s, Ward-Steinman‘s music continued to reflect the influence of jazz. In 1964 he used third-stream jazz as a device to evoke a pagan atmosphere in the ―Dance to the Golden Calf‖ in his oratorio The Song of Moses. In his commission for the San Diego Ballet of the same year, Western Orpheus, he again utilized the idiom. 287 Allen Shields wrote in the El Cajon, California Valley News prior to the premiere of this latter work: ―Ward-Steinman‘s music is original, demanding a creative audient. In an idiom now almost familiar in San Diego ears, it is improvisational, jazzy, lyrical, strident, angular, torrid, frenzied, tender, melodic. . . . [and] contains some unusual effects. 288 Following the ballet‘s premiere, Shields wrote in The Valley News concerning Ward-Steinman‘s pursuit of the ―ecstatic allurements of artful expression‖ in the work: The Apollonian and Dionysiac in us still require the Orphic peregrinations. . . . [Ward-Steinman‘s] stated search for a form of controlled spontaneity—a conflict in goals—marks the problem of Orpheus himself. David Ward-Steinman is a latter -day Greek Orpheus, carrying his Muse‘s gift of a musical pilgrimage through the world of man and shades. . . . The total effect . . . all combined I say, to create a ballet of singularly dramatic and profound dimensions. 289 San Diego magazine music critic Nick Stamon noted of the premiere of Western Orpheus: The score is composer David Ward-Steinman‘s best. It achieves a sustained, at times moving balance between touching lyricism and demonic acerbity. [In its performance] the composer was much in evidence in the pit . . . not only as piano virtuoso for the score‘s integral Jazz elements but in similar capacity for ‗malleted‘ piano and ‗stroked‘ koto [sic]. 290 287 The 30-minute work was commissioned by the San Diego Ballet Company for the opening festivities of the San Diego Civic Theatre on 26 February 1965. Choreography was by Richard Carter. In 1968 the composer derived a twenty minute concert suite for orchestra from the score. In 1987, upon a commission from the California Ballet Company, Maxine Mahon devised new choreography for the ballet and the composer expanded the original score to thirty-seven minutes. 288 Allan Shields, ―Performance Tonight Of La Mesan‘s Work,‖ Valley News [El Cajon, CA] 26 Feb. 1965: n. pag. 289 Allan Shields, ―Ward-Steinman ‗Orpheus‘ Praised: Maria Tallchief Talent Showcased by SD Ballet,‖ Valley News [El Cajon, CA] 28 Feb. 1965: n. pag. 290 Nick Stamon, ―WESTERN ORPHEUS: OUR AMBIVALANT PSYCHE,‖ San Diego Apr. 1965: 50. 95 A work composed for wind ensemble in 1967, Jazz Tangents, uses jazz in a direct manner, as its title implies, in sections that offer improvisatory options. The composer‘s 1966 commission for the Joffrey Ballet Company, These Three, as well as his 1968 concert suite of the same title, makes use of Third Steam music that features solo alto and baritone saxophones with orchestra. While Ward-Steinman served as Composer-in-Residence at the Brevard Music Center during the summer of 1986, he wrote a short piece inspired by his life there. It is a set of variations on Taps, which was played nightly in one of the camps. In an article concerning the Composer-in-Residence program at Brevard that appeared in The Triangle of Mu Phi Epsilon, student alumnus Kurt-Alexander Zeller reviewed the piece: ―Dedicated to the BMC‘s Trombone Choir, Tap Out is scored for six-part trombones, and its jazzy metamorphoses of the old tune were a hit with the students.‖ 291 Of more recent vintage are works with direct connections to jazz, such as Under Capricorn, for piano solo or jazz combo (1989); Blues à la Mode, for choir and optional rhythm section (1999); Skyline, for piano or jazz combo (2003); and Derry Airs (―Rondo for Jazz Piano,‖ 2007). Ward-Steinman‘s most recent work in this genre, Fantango, for clarinet and piano (2007), features a 12-bar blues passage in D minor followed by an optional, open, improvisatory section for either the clarinet or the piano or the two instruments together. b. Performer Interaction, Chance, and Indeterminacy Ward-Steinman has often engaged performers in the creative process by writing for specific individuals and incorporating moments of chance and indeterminacy into his scores using procedures that allow for performer interaction and musical variety between performances. These moments are not unlike those found in the works of Earle Brown and 291 Kurt-Alexander Zeller, ―Brevard Composer Program Meets Many Goals,‖ 11. 96 Figure 2.6: Opening of canon from Jazz Tangents, mm. 101-108. 97 Witold Lutoslawski. 292 He often tailors his composing to the strengths and idiosyncrasies of specific performers or ensembles, all the while attempting to discover ―fresh things for them to say.‖ 293 ―I like to find out exactly what a performer can do,‖ the composer has said, ―then tailor-make a piece that will stretch him or her a bit.‖ 294 Chance and indeterminacy may or may not play roles in this approach. Examples of works that Ward-Steinman has written for specific performers include: Concerto for Cello and Orchestra (1964-65), for cellist Edgar Lustgarten; Childs Play (1974) for bassoon and piano, for bassoonist Lester Weil; and The Tracker (1976) for clarinet, tape, and ―fortified‖ piano, for clarinetist Phillip Rehfeldt. 295 Ward-Steinman notes that he likes writing for ―living musicians‖ as opposed to writing in the abstract without specific performers in mind, although he has done plenty of the latter: . . . I like the interaction with the performers, and I like to tailor- make the piece for specific performers, especially those who are virtuosic and enjoy finding out what they can do. There is a trade- off: the more difficult the music is, the fewer performances you get, the fewer options, and I don't want to write music that sits on the shelf forever. . . . I write for the performers that I have and the people that commission me. . . . I don‘t write much music on spec, waiting for some future performance that may never materialize. 296 Ward-Steinman implements ―interaction‖ by allowing performers to participate directly in the creative process through improvisation options, alternate paths through a score, or occasionally through a ―maximally individualized polyphony.‖ In the latter case, each performer is allowed his own tempo, meter, rhythms, and pitch material for the duration 292 Hertzog, ―David Ward-Steinman: Is there anything he can‘t do?‖ 3. Brown used an entirely graphic score in his December 1952 for piano solo. He employed ―open form‖ (i.e. the use of fixed modules chosen from the score at the time of its performance) in such works as Available Forms I & II (1961-62) for chamber orchestra and ―multi-orchestra‖ (98 musicians and two conductors) respectively, Centering (1973) for chamber ensemble, and Cross Sections and Color Fields (1975) for orchestra. Lutoslawski directed random elements in his aleatoric scores by carefully controlling architecture and harmonic progression, e.g., in his Third Symphony (1983). 293 Quoting David Ward-Steinman from Ewen, 706. 294 David Ward-Steinman, e-mail to the present writer, 18 May 2005. 295 The latter work was published in ASUC Journal of Music Scores (New York: American Society of University Composers, 1984) XIII, 75-92. 296 Hertzog, ―An interview with David Ward-Steinman: An edited transcript.‖ 98 of a musical event. When such an event occurs, however, the composer establishes a line of demarcation, never resigning to the performers‘ rule over the ―macrostructure‖ of a piece— something over which he himself retains authority: ―I believe in controlling the overall structure, and giving performers some choices within that.‖ 297 Many of his works feature graphic score sections. The paragraphs below describe examples of aleatoric technique displayed in several of the composer‘s works. The selection ―Would to God We Had Died‖ in the composer‘s 1964 oratorio The Song of Moses features a passage of controlled improvisation. When Moses strikes the rock at Horeb, the orchestra imitates the sound of the forthcoming stream of water. At the conclusion of this ―water‖ music, upon general cues, each instrumentalist in the woodwind, muted horn, muted brass, and muted string sections is instructed to ―begin as low as possible,‖ ―play any scale or pseudo-scale,‖ ―add turns at will,‖ and ―break at any point.‖ The composer directs the performers: ―do not exceed mezzo forte in dynamics‖ and ―end as high as possible in a controlled pianissimo.‖ Performer interaction and controlled improvisation play a prominent role in the composer‘s music for Eugene Loring ballet These Three (1966), which concerns itself with the slaying of three civil rights workers in Mississippi in June of 1964. At the point where the murders take place, a long graphic crescendo appears in the conductor‘s score. The entire orchestra plays and instructions in the players‘ parts read: ―Improvise wildly—out of control—Kill! Murder! Get the conductor!‖ 298 The ballet received mixed reviews in the press. In a review of its 13 September 1966 premiere at New York‘s City Center, Newsweek music and dance critic Hubert Saal brutally assailed its choreography as a ―poster-like 297 Quoting David Ward-Steinman from Ewen, 706; Hertzog, ―David Ward-Steinman: Is there anything he can‘t do?‖ 3. 298 See David Ward-Steinman, These Three, ms. ballet score, p. 82, mm. 206-213. 99 charade‖ and its music as ―hammy.‖ 299 Clive Barnes of The New York Times suggested that the work‘s ―aspirations outmeasured its achievements‖ and commented on the ballet‘s lack of character development as well its intentional stylization of choreography: The ballet seems neither explicit nor, say, elegaically poetic, so that what might have a threnody and an exultation, has become too bland and too shadowy.‖ Even with such poor dramaturgy, and the perhaps—forcefully dramatic music specially commissioned from David Ward- Steinman, all could have been saved if Mr. Loring had produced the choreographic insight characteristic of his ―Billy the Kid.‖ Here is the [work‘s] central failing. . . . A theme of this tragic compassion required choreography of such burning heat that it would hurt, appall and finally inspire. 300 Frances Herridge of the New York Post similarly criticized choreography and music: It is a complete change of style for the brilliant young company, and unfortunately not one that suits them nearly as well as the joyous movement creations of their own Gerald Arpino. Partly it is the fault of the David Ward-Steinman music which is so dramatic that it overwhelms the stage work. Partly it is the fault of the ballet itself, which is so verbal, so intellectualized that it is strained and confusing and a bit pretentious. 301 Alan Kriegsman, writing in The Reporter, however, felt that the music of the ballet had much to commend it: The theme is intrinsically compelling, and the ballet, in Loring‘s broadly eclectic ―free style,‖ has some gripping scenes . . . Yet in its entirety it seems more of a diagram than a drama—it is too schematic . . . Ironically, the vivid score by David Ward-Steinman was criticized for being too dramatic. The fact is that the music and the imaginative decor by William Pitkin succeed where the choreography fails. 302 299 Hubert Saal, ―A New York home for the Joffrey Ballet: In Balanchine‘s Footsteps?‖ Newsweek 3 Oct. 1966, 96. 300 Clive Barnes, ―Dance: Story of Martyrs: Joffrey Ballet Presents the Premiere of Eugene Loring‘s ‗These Three,‘‖ New York Times 14 Sept. 1966: L-52. 301 Frances Herridge, ―Joffrey Ballet Company Does New Loring Work,‖ New York Post 14 Sept. 1966: 52. 302 Alan M. Kriegsman, ―The Joffrey Ballet: Small Size, Large Vision,‖ Reporter 1 Dec. 1966: 44. 100 In addition, Walter Terry, in a series of articles in the World Journal Tribune, focused his attention on what he perceived to be the many redeeming qualities of the work: In my opinion, this is the best and most powerful ballet that Loring has done since he choreographed the now world-famous ―Billy the Kid‖ almost thirty years ago. . . . The specially commissioned score by David Ward-Steinman has its intrusive, bothersome moments, but on the whole, its jazzy air, its insistent beat, its restless pace serve the choreographer expertly. 303 ―These Three‖ is a powerful, important and disturbing work of the dance theater and I urge you to see it. 304 Written in 1967, Now-Music for 4 Tape Recorders and Dice incorporates chance and indeterminacy in an overt manner. Montage for woodwind quintet, composed in 1968, similarly includes elements of improvisation and indeterminacy. In two places in Arcturus for synthesizer and orchestra, dating from 1972, the orchestra divides into five blocks of instruments. The conductor may cue these blocks so that they may overlap in any manner. Once so cued the instrumentalists finish their passages on their own. Two works of recent vintage demonstrate Ward-Steinman‘s continual interest in improvisation and indeterminacy. Quintessence (1985), for woodwind quintet, brass quintet, and percussion, includes an open-form fugue where the conductor cues the entrances at will in a freewheeling collage. Seasons Fantastic (1991-92), for mixed chorus and harp, includes passages of choral improvisation. 2. Cluster Harmony Another element of continuity that has emerged in Ward-Steinman‘s music over the years is the use of cluster harmony. He saw, in the use of clusters, a ―great discovery,‖ a means to broaden his style away from the neoclassicism that prevailed in his earlier music: 303 Walter Terry, ―A Powerful Loring Ballet,‖ World Journal Tribune [New York] 14 Sept. 1966, 44. 304 Walter Terry, ―World of Dance: Joffrey Offers Old and New,‖ World Journal Tribune [New York] 19 Sept. 1966: 32. 101 Figure 2.7: Arcturus, 1 st trombone part, 1 st page. 102 For me, cluster harmony was a perfect alternative to extended tertian, post-tertian, or atonal harmony. Clusters may be diatonic, chromatic, or pentatonic; because they are a plastic substitute, they can make music sound consonant or dissonant, depending upon their internal intervallic content, but without depending on major or minor allusions. 305 Henry Cowell and Leo Ornstein were perhaps the first composers to use ―tone clusters‖ extensively and systematically in their music. Charles Ives made use of them in his piano and choral music. Other early innovators in the use of clusters, notably Béla Bartók, Lou Harrison, György Ligeti, and Krzysztof Penderecki, have since employed them in their piano, choral, chamber, and orchestral music. 306 Ward-Steinman‘s own adoption of clusters was an evolutionary one. It began with added note harmonies using 6 ths and 9 ths in a ―post- Debussy‖ tertian context, extended though the use of 2 nds and 7 ths , and finally evolved into ―just putting [intervals] together as slabs of sounds.‖ 307 He considered his use of cluster as an extension of secundal harmony. Although he made use of secundal harmony and clusters in several places in his Symphony 1959, composed under the tutelage of Boulanger, it was not until the middle 1960s that he used clusters on a consistent basis. An illustration of the evolution of Ward-Steinman‘s use of secundal harmony is contained in his Prelude and Toccata for orchestra of 1962. In the opening measures of the Prelude, a melody, first presented in a Trombone, ascends a major 7 th and generates the 305 David Ward-Steinman, telephone interview, 10 June 2005. 306 Cowell‘s Adventures in Harmony (1913), written when he was 15, and The Tides of Manaunaun (1917) are among his earliest piano pieces where clusters may be found. Ornstein gained notoriety for his use of clusters in his piano pieces Wild Men's Dance (ca. 1913–14) and Impressions of the Thames (ca. 1913–14), as well as his Sonata for Piano (1915). Ives likely first used clusters in his Psalm 90 for chorus (sketched 1893-94, rewritten 1900, and reconstructed 1923-24) and his Scherzo, Over the Pavements for piano (1906); large blocks of clusters appear in the second movement ―Hawthorne‖ of his Concord Sonata (1912). Bartók first used clusters in his Piano Sonata (1926), his suite for piano Out of Doors (1926), and his Fourth String Quartet (1928). Harrison first employed them in his Prelude for Grandpiano (1937). Ligeti used them in his Atmospheres (1960) and Requiem (1965). Penderecki gained recognition for the use of clusters in his Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima for string orchestra (1961) and in the ―Stabat Mater‖ of his Saint Luke Passion (1966). 307 David Ward-Steinman, telephone interview, 10 June 2005. 103 music that ensues. The Toccata is in a rondo form. The work‘s orchestration is detailed and full of variety; at one point, the cellos appear divisi in three parts. Ward-Steinman notes, ―The treatment of the various orchestral choirs . . . is mostly independent and antiphonal with great concern for color and sonorities.‖ 308 The Albuquerque Symphony premiered the work on 21 March 1963. It received six other performances that year, including ones by the San Diego Symphony and the New Orleans Philharmonic. For it the composer won the Albuquerque Civic Symphony‘s fourth annual ―National Composition Competition Prize‖ and considerable praise in the press. 309 New Orleans music critic Frank Gagnard wrote of the Prelude and Toccata: ―The work has a subtle as well as informal organization . . . There is bite to [Ward-Steinman‘s] harmonies as well as distinctive color to his orchestration . . . The Prelude and Toccata exhibits intelligence and sound craft.‖ 310 Albuquerque music critic Urith Lucas wrote, ―[the work] is carefully written and the composer has taken infinite care with the articulation of every phrase.‖ He also noted, ―The music is marked by interesting contrasts.‖ 311 The San Diego Evening Tribune said of the Prelude and Toccata, ―The work is well-structured, has interesting tonal patterns,‖ and subsequently referred to it as ―[Ward- Steinman‘s] most celebrated work.‖ 312 Not all of the reviews, however, were positive. Albuquerque music critic John Morris wrote: ―This award-winning work was a mixture of chaotic rhythms and needle-like stabs of sounds. It was a somewhat clinical experience, with the suggested echo of a heart-lung apparatus throbbing somewhere in the wings.‖ 313 308 Quoting David Ward-Steinman from Ewen, 705. 309 Kriegsman, ―More Blue Ribbons For Ward-Steinman,‖ E3. 310 Frank Gagnard, ―Works Are Blended Well in Symphony‘s Program,‖ Times-Picayune [New Orleans] 25 Oct. 1967: 8. 311 Urith Lucas, ―Pennario Play His Best In Prokofieff Concerto,‖ Albuquerque Tribune 22 Mar. 1963: A-7. 312 ―CONCERT REVIEW,‖ Evening Tribune [San Diego] 29 Mar. 1968: B-7; ―SDS Prof Receives Teaching Award,‖ A17. 313 John Morris, ―Pennario Gives Outstanding Performance,‖ Albuquerque Journal 22 Mar. 1963: A-2. 104 Figure 2.8: Prelude and Toccata, title page. 105 Ward-Steinman‘s first truly systematic use of clusters dates to the composition of the third of his Three Lyric Preludes for keyboard (1961-65). The Preludes were incidental pieces written for various occasions and eventually assembled into a set. 314 The third Prelude explores the use of cluster harmony and extrapolated melodic lines, and features pandiatonic clusters that sound in the treble range. These tonal conglomerates grow out of a minor 2 nd and ultimately become full ―elbow slabs‖ played by the pianist using both the forearm and the whole arm. Ward-Steinman comments: ―It occurred to me at that time what a protean device this was. I could derive melodic lines from the clusters. That‘s very clear, I think, in the third Prelude.‖ 315 From the time of his writing this Prelude, Ward-Steinman derived most of his music from cluster harmony. He spun melodies out of clusters using the technique of octave displacement and other permutations of the individual notes. 316 The third Prelude ultimately served ―in some respects as a sketch‖ for the second movement of Ward-Steinman‘s Concerto for Cello and Orchestra (1963-65) and its parallel chamber version the Duo for Cello and Piano (1964-65) where ―clusters are explored at some length.‖ 317 The composition of these works represented for the composer a stylistic turning point, coming after the writing of his oratorio The Song of Moses (1963-64): Moses summed up everything I had to say compositionally at the time . . . I felt after that I had to make a fresh start in some ways. The next piece [written] was actually the cello concerto . . . that commission came right after The Song of Moses. 318 314 The preludes were written as incidental pieces, one each for Barney Childs, Melvin Snyder, and John Blythe. After having heard Ward-Steinman play them at a concert at Louisiana College in Pineville, LA on 4 November 1978, local music critic Arnold Epley wrote, ―The ‗Three Lyric Preludes‘ are precisely what the title implies . . . with Ward-Steinman‘s stamp of lyrical dissonance deeply inbred in them.‖ See: Arnold Epley, ―Ward-Steinman concert ‗extraordinary,‘‖ Red River Journal [Pineville, LA] 9-15 Nov. 1978: A-4. 315 David Ward-Steinman, telephone interview, 10 June 2005. 316 Ewen, 705-06. 317 David Ward-Steinman, program notes for a concert of his music, Palomar College, San Marcos, CA, 6 Apr. 1983. The Concerto for Cello and Orchestra and the Duo for Cello and Piano were conceived simultaneously, but the latter was completed before the former. 318 David Ward-Steinman, telephone interview, 10 June 2005. 106 Figure 2.9: Third Lyric Prelude, mm. 38-57. 107 Incentive for the use of clusters in the Concerto for Cello and Orchestra originated from Ward-Steinman‘s contemporaneous exposure to the paintings of Mark Rothko. 319 Prior to that time, there were no visual artists with whom he ―connected‖ directly, at least in a ―structural way.‖ From early in his career, however, he had been struck with the idea of ―musical analog,‖ first from the standpoint of form and texture and later from that of style: I‘ve found all kinds of analogs—analogs are more objective than analogies. An analog is something that is really there, the ―deep structure level‖ that underlies the various arts, what they have in common . . . structure and style, texture and even the organizational grammar or syntax . . . 320 There was a lot of modern art that I liked: I loved Matisse, I respected Picasso, I was enraptured of Renoir . . . but Rothko was the first painter who suggested musical possibilities to me. 321 Rothko‘s paintings, during the final 20 years of his life, consisted of various combinations of rectangular slabs of color that were soft edged and ―floated luminously in space.‖ Ward- Steinman notes that in his Concerto, ―[he] had the idea of trying to treat the orchestra like a frieze of Rothko paintings.‖ 322 He explains: In the slow movement especially I tried to translate Rothko‘s slabs of color into static clusters for the orchestra that would serve as a foil for the cello, which was treated as a dynamic element moving in and out and around the color blocks. A good analog [to this music], which contains both static and linear/dynamic elements, is Rothko‘s Number 22, 1949 in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. 323 The noted cellist Edgar Lustgarten commissioned both the Concerto and the Duo. The Concerto for Cello and Orchestra premiered with Lustgarten as soloist with the Japan Philharmonic under the direction of Milton Katims. Immediately prior to the event, Katims 319 Hertzog, ―David Ward-Steinman: Is there anything he can‘t do?‖ 3. 320 Thomas, C2. 321 David Ward-Steinman, telephone interview, 10 June 2005. 322 Ibid. 323 David Ward-Steinman, e-mail to the present writer, 19 Apr. 2008. 108 suggested to Ward-Steinman that he consider renaming the work, giving it the title: ―A Rothko Triptych.‖ The composer comments on this incident: [Katims] thought [the change of title] would make the work more promotable. He and I argued about it because his title implied a one-to-one correlation between specific Rothko paintings and each of the [works] movements—a correlation that did not exist. 324 Ward-Steinman, nevertheless, carefully considered Katims‘s suggestion and finally affixed A Rothko Triptych as the work‘s subtitle. Its premiere took place at the Tokyo Metropolitan Festival Hall on 13 June 1967. In his review of the occasion, Tokyo music critic Marcel Grilli noted, ―Ward-Steinman‘s work sets beautifully on the cello.‖ He commented further: The music is tonal throughout, but it impressed me as somewhat overphrased and overemotional. Its best parts I found in the spacious middle movement (marked in the score ―slow, ethereal and suspended‖), which mounts in intensity . . . and then falls back into a kind of serene desolation. This leads to the ―moderately fast‖ finale, but here the music, though it generates much rhythmic and dynamic tension, only just works in its effect. 325 The composer‘s antipathetic decision to make use of the title that Katims suggested ultimately backfired in the year 2001 when music critic Robert Kirzinger penned a review in Fanfare of a new recording of the work that featured cellist Howard Colf and the Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of David Amos. 326 Kirzinger wrote: If, after hearing David Ward-Steinman‘s Cello Concerto, you start to think, ah, Mark Rothko, without being aware of the piece‘s ―informal subtitle,‖ ―A Rothko Triptych,‖ please let me know . . . The language of the concerto [rather] resembles early- 20 th -century Romanticism, a long, swooping, hyperexpressive cello part well to the fore of the texture, and very American orchestration with ample brass. 327 324 David Ward-Steinman, e-mail to the present writer, 20 July 2005. 325 Marcel Grilli, ―Speaking of Music . . . ,‖ Japan Times 21 June 1967: 5. Lustgarten and Katims gave later performances of the Concerto for Cello and Orchestra with the Seattle Symphony in Seattle and Spokane. 326 David Amos, cond., Karen Bakunin, vla., Howard Colf, vc., and David Ward-Steinman, kbds, ―David Ward-Steinman: Three Concertos,‖ Moravian Philharmonic, CD, Fleur de Son Classics FDS-57946, 2000. 327 Robert Kirzinger, ―Classical Recordings: WARD-STEINMAN: Cello Concerto, Cinnabar Concerto, Chroma Concerto,‖ Fanfare May/June 2001, 244. Ward-Steinman was not the only composer to draw 109 The premiere of Duo for Cello and Piano, which took place at San Diego State University on 16 April 1970, met with a favorable review from San Diego Union music critic Donald Dierks: The writing for cello was knowledgeable in the easy way it laid for the instrument. . . . [The Duo] began solemnly and in a relatively severe idiom, with angular lines and austere harmonies. Before long, however, the composition had worked itself into a mood that was spirited and almost jolly. [T]here was ample good workmanship to admire. The rhythmic momentum of the piece, particularly in the last movement, was strongly developed, and in the suave melodic treatment that was sometimes so florid and good-humored there were definite French flavors—a little Martin-esque, in fact. 328 In the words of its composer, ―The Duo is a quintessential rethinking of the material [of the concerto], focusing on exploiting the authentic characteristics of both the piano and cello.‖ Lustgarten and pianist John Williams recorded the Duo for Orion records in 1974. 329 Ward-Steinman has continued to use clusters and material derived from clusters in much of the music he has written since the time of his Concerto and Duo. In the short selection ―Matthew‖ from his Latter-Day Lullabies for piano (1961-66), a wooden ruler is used to play pandiatonic clusters in large groups of consonant-sounding, treble-range, white- and black-key notes. Ward-Steinman‘s 1968 piano solo Elegy for Martin Luther King, composed the day after the civil rights leader‘s assassination, makes use of dark-sounding, chromatic clusters in the lower range of the instrument. inspiration from Rothko‘s work. In 1971 Morton Feldman composed his Rothko Chapel for the opening ceremonies of the Rothko Chapel in Houston, TX. In Rothko Chapel, scored for solo soprano, viola, celeste, percussion, and mixed chorus, as in Ward-Steinman‘s Concerto for Cello and Orchestra, static blocks of sound serve as analogues to the paintings. Feldman, however, does not use clusters to achieve this effect; neither does he employ the musical tools of Expressionism. 328 Donald Dierks, ―S. D. STATE CONCERT: Ward-Steinman, Lustgarten Team,‖ San Diego Union 17 Apr. 1970: B-8. 329 Quoting Ward-Steinman from the notes accompanying Edgar Lustgarten, vc. and John Williams, pno., Sergei Prokofiev Sonata in C for Cello and Piano and David Ward-Steinman Duo for Cello and Piano, LP, Orion 74141, 1974; reissued as a CD, Marquis Music MAR 3115, 2007. 110 Figure 2.10: Duo for Cello and Piano, 2 nd movement, mm. 1-15. 111 In Raga for Winds, written for concert band in 1972, Ward-Steinman uses clusters in textures of woodwind instruments. At a number of places in the score, he demonstrates a method for building them. A group of instruments plays a melodic line. As each note sounds, a single instrument sustains it. The remaining instruments continue to play and drop out one-by-one to prolong melodic notes until all the instruments sustain tones that together form a cluster. Two other pieces for wind ensemble also demonstrate this technique for building clusters in a methodical manner: Scorpio (1976) and Bishop’s Gambit (1979). Ward-Steinman uses chromatic clusters to create eerie effects in his opera Tamar (1977). Of the prologue music at the opera‘s opening scene, subtitled ―the coast of Point Lobos on a December night,‖ the composer notes: ―A half-moon shines on the eastern hill- range. Stella (a ghost seer) is kneeling in a trance on the granite shore. Tone-clusters frame her trance music as she foresees the tragedy to come, Cassandra-like, and they suggest the coldness of the moon.‖ Clusters also introduce a forest scene, later in the opera, where Tamar seduces her brother while they are swimming in a pond. The clusters there appear as slabs of sound, suggesting the rippling of the water. 330 Other examples of Ward-Steinman‘s music that feature clusters include the second movement (―Clustering‖) of his second brass quintet Brancusi’s Brass Beds (1977). 331 Clusters accompany the voice in a song for baritone and piano titled ―The Rothko Room‖ from the composer‘s song cycle, Voices from the Gallery (1990), a work that has been recorded by the Camarada Chamber Music Ensemble. 332 Prisms and Reflections, for piano 330 David Ward-Steinman, e-mail to the present writer, 16 Sept. 2007. 331 The name of the work is the same as that of a furniture store in Los Angeles. The writer of this paper, whose wry wit is widely known, happened to be present at the naming of the work while on a drive with the composer to a concert in Hollywood in 1977. Brancusi’s Brass Beds has been recorded: I-5 Brass Quintet, music of Brent Dutton, Merle Hogg, and David Ward-Steinman, LP, Crystal S216, 1984. 332 Lorge, John, cond., ―Images,‖ Camarada Chamber Music Ensemble, CD, Camarada, 2000. The compact disc is available at: <http://www.camarada.org>. In David Ward-Steinman, program notes for the premiere of Voices from the Gallery, Camarada Chamber Music Ensemble, San Diego, CA, 2 Apr. 2000, the composer wrote, 112 interior, composed in 1996 and recorded by David Burge in 1999, employs first 12-tone aggregate, then octatonic, pandiatonic, and finally neo-tonal clusters, all played in an unconventional manner on the inside of the instrument. 333 Vespers for Piano—In Memoriam Edward Kilenyi (2001) is a more recent work that explores the use of cluster harmony. 3. Expanded Instrumental Sounds A third element of continuity that exists in Ward-Steinman‘s music is the use of an expanded sound palette. Through his employment of variously modified traditional instruments—especially the ―fortified piano‖—and his engagement of electronic instruments, the composer has explored the coloristic potential of new native sounds. a. Modified Instruments: ―Fortified Piano‖ Concurrent with his unearthing of the potential of clusters to broaden his musical vocabulary, Ward-Steinman also appropriated his ―great discovery‖ of the ―prepared piano‖ and thus formulated his ideas for the ―fortified piano.‖ The latter term, arguably a play on ―piano-forte,‖ originated from a suggestion by the composer‘s first wife Susan Lucas Ward- Steinman. 334 Ward-Steinman‘s adoption of the term became a way for him to distinguish his technique from that of other composers who wrote for the prepared piano. Henry Cowell was likely the first composer to use the piano in a non-traditional manner: reaching inside his ―string piano‖ with his hands to pluck and scrape its strings. 335 ―The poems and settings are variously evocative, descriptive, interpretive, ironic, or theatrical, and often there is a tight formal relationship between poem or painting and the musical setting. Every combination of the voices is explored; three solos, three duets, and three trios.‖ 333 David Burge and David Ward-Steinman, pnos., Karen Elaine, vla., Daryl Pratt, per., and Arioso Wind Quintet, ―Borobudur—Prisms and Reflections: The Chamber Music of David Ward-Steinman,‖ CD, Fleur de Son Classics FDS-57935, 1999. 334 Susan Ward-Steinman, e-mail to the present writer, 20 Oct. 2007. 335 This technique was first used in Cowell‘s Aeolian Harp (1923). The composer called the instrument, so transformed by its method of playing, the ―string piano.‖ In Henry Cowell, New Musical Resources (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1930), a widely read book, Cowell laid down the acoustic principles for many of the variety of new techniques he came to employ in his music. Béla Bartók, however, in his Allegro Barbar of 1910, was likely the first to use the piano as a percussion instrument. 113 Lou Harrison wrote music for a ―tack piano,‖ one that had small nails stuck in its hammers that yielded a percussive sound. Conlon Nancarrow wrote complex works for a player piano that he modified to produce a similarly percussive sound by covering the hammers with metal and leather. 336 It is John Cage, however, who is most associated with the prepared piano and often credited as its inventor, even though he has acknowledged his debt to Cowell. The instrument is a piano that has had its loudness, pitch, and/or tone color altered by the placement of non-inherent objects, such as bolts, nuts, and pieces of rubber, on and between its strings. Cage was thus able, in conjunction with the use of the instrument‘s pedals, to produce sounds that took on various percussive tone qualities. 337 Ward-Steinman‘s ―fortified piano,‖ on the other hand, may be realized in a variety of ways, including: sounding the strings directly using fingers, brushes, or mallets; laying objects, such as paper, claves, or rulers on the strings and then sounding them with the keyboard; and affixing material elements to the strings, as is done in the technique of prepared piano. 338 Merely describing how a performer readies the instrument for playing, however, does not adequately characterize the composer‘s notion of fortified piano. The genre must rather be defined as an approach to playing that involves the presentation of unified ―families‖ of sounds: What I call fortified piano has three families of sounds. Some of them are prepared á la Cage; some of them are produced by playing directly on the strings with fingers, mallets, brushes, and so forth, and the third family are unaltered notes played on the keyboard. So I have those three choirs going . . . . 339 336 Nancarrow wrote over 50 unpublished Studies for the Ampico Reproducing Piano using pianola rolls and associated requisite hole punching equipment. The Studies are highly contrapuntal, polytonal, and/or rhymically complex, and jazz-inspired. 337 Cage‘s Sonatas and Interludes (1946-48), for instance, demonstrates his great achievement in the art of writing for the prepared piano. 338 Olsen, 276. 339 Quoting David Ward-Steinman from Hertzog, ―An interview with David Ward-Steinman: An edited transcript.‖ See also the description of the techniques of the fortified piano in Thomas, C1. 114 It is how these distinct groups of sounds unfold and interact with each other that creates their interest in whatever work they may form a part. While other composers may have previously defined many of the techniques involved in fortified piano, as Christian Hertzog has noted, other than Ward-Steinman, ―few have explored it so thoroughly.‖ 340 ―I am interested in staking out new areas of composition,‖ Ward-Steinman has said, ―and the sounds from within the piano I feel are more interesting than the ones produced by playing the keyboard.‖ 341 Commenting further on the matter the composer has noted, ―I‘ve explored this in a whole series of pieces for piano and combinations of other instruments with the piano.‖ 342 Indeed, he has successfully used the fortified piano in a large variety of works, beginning with his use of xylophone mallets to strike and strum the piano‘s strings in the orchestral score of his ballet Western Orpheus (1964), and continuing with his incidental use of the piano‘s interior in his setting of a Japanese fairy tale, The Tale of Issoumbochi, for narrator, soprano, chamber ensemble, and piano (1968). 343 Thereafter, he continued the development of the concept in such works as Sonata for Piano Fortified (1972); 344 The Tracker, from a poem by Barney Childs, for clarinet, fortified piano, and tape (1976); Golden Apples, for alto saxophone and fortified piano (1981); Intersections, for fortified piano and tape (1982); Season, for voice and fortified piano (1982); 345 Intersections II: ‘Borobudur,’ for fortified piano and percussion 340 Hertzog, ―David Ward-Steinman: Is there anything he can‘t do?‖ 3. 341 ―Inland Composer Plans Performance March 21,‖ El Cajon Californian 13 Mar. 1976: 6A. 342 Quoting David Ward-Steinman from Thomas, C1. 343 See: Stamon, ―WESTERN ORPHEUS: OUR AMBIVALANT PSYCHE,‖ 50. The text of The Tale of Issoumbochi was adapted from a Japanese fairy tale by Susan Lucas Ward-Steinman. 344 ―The Sonata for Piano Fortified is a [work that] dramatizes my changing ideas about form, texture, and especially timbre.‖ See: David Ward-Steinman, program notes for a concert of his music, Palomar College, San Marcos, CA, 6 Apr. 1983. Author Dale Olsen noted of this and a later work, ―The sounds achieved in such compositions as Sonata for Piano Fortified (1972) and Intersections II: "Borobudur" for Fortified Piano and Percussion (1989-1990) are strongly reminiscent of Balinese and Javanese gamelan orchestras.‖ See: Olsen, 276-77. The composer has recorded the work: Burge, Fleur de Son Classics FDS-57935. 345 Ward-Steinman‘s San Diego State faculty colleague Robert E. Lee wrote the text for Season. 115 Figure 2.11: Sonata for Piano Fortified, ―Toccata,‖ mm. 32-41. 116 (1989-90); 346 Inside Out, for fortified piano (1995-96); Prisms and Reflections, for piano interior (1996); 347 and most recently Songs of the Seasons, four songs for high voice and fortified piano (2006), a cycle that assimilated the above mentioned song Season (1970). An April 2008 faculty recital at Indiana University included a performance of Golden Apples and the premiere of Songs of the Seasons with the composer as pianist. In a review of the event, Bloomington music critic Peter Jacobi praised Ward-Steinman‘s insights into composing for the piano but found fault with his writing for the voice: [Ward-Steinman] obviously loves the piano. For it, he composes material that reveals performance possibilities few others would even dream of. In two works . . . Ward-Steinman was at and all over [the] piano, causing it to emit sounds expected and rare, but sounds always designed so that instrument and music served each other. In ―Golden Apples,‖ he also managed to supply an adept alto saxophonist, Laura Kramer, with flourishes galore and expositions which benignly exploited instrument and player. He was far less successful in ―Songs of the Seasons.‖ Here, he had shaped for himself an array of playful and evocative exercises and images but had given the soprano, the hard-working Teri Herron, a meandering, occasionally jarring vocal line that seemed to have little to do with the poetic sentiments [of the texts]. 348 Other works where the fortified piano plays a less prominent or an incidental role include Arcturus, for synthesizer and orchestra (1972), in which the pianist places claves on the strings and then plays on the latter with mallets, and the choral suite Of Wind and Water 346 Concerning this work Ward-Steinman has noted, ―[In this work] the piano is ‗fortified‘ with screws, bolts and other materials to simulate the sound of a gamelan ensemble.‖ See: Program notes for a concert of the music of David Ward-Steinman, Mingei International Museum, Balboa Park, San Diego, CA, 13 Nov. 2004. 347 Of this work, Ward-Steinman has written, ―The core of Prisms and Reflections consists of three Facets, played entirely on the keyboard, that form a sonata in themselves. The interleaving movements are played mostly inside the piano, directly on the strings with mallets, fingertips, and fingernails. These short movements comment on the central Facets by extending or anticipating their material. The form is modular and can be played in any of seven possible formats or combinations.‖ See: Program notes for a concert of the music of David Ward-Steinman, Mingei International Museum, Balboa Park, San Diego, CA, 13 Nov. 2004. 348 Peter Jacobi, ―MUSIC REVIEW: IU WIND ENSEMBLE AND DAVID WARD-STEINMAN: Five premieres in two concerts overlap in one night of music,‖ Herald-Times [Bloomington, IN] 27 Mar. 2008: D2. 117 (1982), where the instrument is used in two of its four movements. 349 Chroma Concerto for Multiple Keyboards, Percussion, and Chamber Orchestra (1984) is a work that serves as a more recent example of how the composer has absorbed the fortified piano‘s unique sounds and solo possibilities into his broader compositional palette. What’s Left (1987), a piano solo for the left hand alone, though not written for fortified piano, uses percussive knocks and slaps on the bottom of the instrument. Ward-Steinman has wryly noted, since the fortified piano has become so pervasive in his musical output, ―I hardly ever write for standard piano any more; I can‘t resist the ‗Pandora‘s Box‘ under the lid.‖ 350 Although Ward-Steinman has not employed an expanded timbral palette using other traditional instruments as extensively as he has done with the fortified piano, he, nevertheless, has made considerable use of these sounds. Examples of new sounds produced by old instruments are to be found in works such as Childs Play, for bassoon and piano (1974), and the aforementioned The Tracker, for clarinet, fortified piano, and tape. The bassoonist and clarinetist, in these respective scores, are required to take off their mouthpieces and play on them separately or into the piano‘s strings. In the latter work multiphonics are explored. 351 Other examples of the composer‘s works that feature extended techniques for soloist or ensemble include the following: Etude on the Name of Barney Childs for solo clarinet (1989); Montage for woodwind quintet (1968); and Of Wind and 349 Of Wind and Water consists of four choruses drawn from The New Yorker Book of Poems (New York: Morrow, 1974), each representing a different season. The four poems set in the suite include, ―On Lake Pend Oreille‖ by Richard Shelton, ―Snow‖ by Ruth Stone, ―Porous‖ by William Carlos Williams, and ―No Moon, No Star‖ by Babette Deutsch. Ward-Steinman wrote the work in 1982 on commission from the Illinois Wesleyan University Collegiate Choir and its director David Nott. It has not yet been published. Of Wind and Water is scored for mixed chorus, piano, and percussion (glockenspiel, xylophone, wind chimes, sleigh bells, finger cymbals, suspended cymbal, guiro, and tambourine). The pianist places two claves on the strings during one movement and uses a wire brush for playing on the strings as well as finger pizzicato. In addition, the percussionist or a chorus member is called upon to assist the pianist in playing glissandos on the piano‘s strings. 350 David Ward-Steinman, e-mail to the present writer, 28 July 2005. 351 Ibid. 118 Figure 2.12: Childs Play, title page. 119 Water for mixed chorus, piano, and percussion (1982); as well as the aforementioned Golden Apples for alto saxophone and fortified piano, and Season for soprano and fortified piano. b. Electronic Musical Instruments Ward-Steinman‘s initial exposure to electronic music occurred when he was still a student at the University of Illinois in the late 1950s and early 1960s. This was a time when the equipment required for composition in the medium was bulky, expensive, and thus inaccessible for all but those who had access to university-related studio facilities. 352 The lack of access to such facilities prevented the composer from pursuing his interest in electronic composition for many years. Ward-Steinman‘s only foray into computer music occurred during a semester he spent at Princeton University as a post-doctoral visiting fellow in 1970. The technique for computer composition was at this time onerous. It involved programming, via punched cards, of computers at Princeton, which ran the program and recorded the result onto digital tape. Couriers then fetched the tapes between the Princeton campus and the nearby Bell Telephone Murray Hill Laboratories where the digital to analog conversion was realized. Ward-Steinman spent much of his semester at Princeton working with the Fortran program MUSIC 4BF, modeled on MUSIC 4 by Max Matthews. 353 He reminisces about this time: 352 The atmosphere in the United States during the late 1950s and early 1960s was different from that in Europe, where electronic studios were commonly associated with state supported radio networks. 353 Godfrey Winham and Hubert Howe wrote MUSIC 4BF at Princeton University in the late 1960s. Often called the ―father of computer music,‖ Max Matthews was an amateur violinist and a prominent scientist employed by the Bell Telephone Laboratories where he was the director of their Behavioral and Acoustic Research Center from 1955 to 1987. The center carried out research in speech communication, acoustics, programmed instruction, and human memory and learning, as well as other matters related to the automation of telephone equipment. Matthews wrote his ―MUSIC‖ programs as a by-product of his research. From 1974 until 1980, he served as Scientific Advisor to the Institute de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique (IRCAM) in Paris. In 1987 he joined the faculty of the Stanford University music department as Professor of Music at the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA). He is now Professor of Music Emeritus at that institution. Composers engaged in residencies with Matthews at Bell Labs included Jean-Claude Risset, who helped to develop frequency modulation (FM) sound synthesis while there. The FM technique now forms the basis of virtually all of today‘s commercially available keyboard synthesizers. 120 There was no real-time conversion. You could not hear your music in real time. So it would take forever to write a piece. A composer would have to spend easily a year doing a piece then another year revising it. I wrote one three-minute piece that I had programmed and that was about it. The people who were doing this were the people who were computer composers, period, such as Charles Dodge. You did not have time for anything else, so at that point I rejected it—this was entirely too cumbersome—I did not want to do computer music! 354 In terms of ―schools of composition‖ for analog electronic media in the late 1960s and the early 1970s, the East Coast preference was for the keyboard-oriented Moog synthesizers. The West Coast taste, on the other hand, was for the Buchla synthesizers, which did not generally include keyboards. Ward-Steinman sided with the latter approach because he felt that the lack of a keyboard would free composers rather than holding them back. 355 Among the electronic composers who influenced him were Milton Babbitt, Morton Subotnick, and Mario Davidovsky. He was particularly fond of the latter‘s Synchronism series for various solo instruments and tape. 356 In 1967 Ward-Steinman wrote Now-Music for 4 Tape Recorders and Dice which, as was noted above, incorporates elements of chance and indeterminacy in sounds modified using the techniques of musique concrète. It was not until the advent of the all-in-one, portable, voltage-controlled synthesizer in the early 1970s, however, that Ward-Steinman was able to indulge his interest in electronically produced sounds. In 1970 he purchased an EMS ―Putney‖ VCS3 instrument and began writing for it. 357 Since that time, he has used the Putney, audio processing 354 David Ward-Steinman, telephone interview, 10 June 2005. 355 Robert A. Moog designed the Moog synthesizers, in collaboration with the composer Herbert A. Deutsch. They were first manufactured by the R. A. Moog Company in Trumansburg, and then in Williamsville, NY. Donald Buchla designed the Buchla synthesizers. Buchla and Associates in Berkeley, CA manufactured them. The East-West Coast distinction did not systematically apply to the RCA Mark II synthesizer located at the Electronic Music Center of Columbia-Princeton Universities in New York City, as few composers (Milton Babbitt, Vladimir Ussachevsky, Otto Luening, Charles Wuorinen, Mario Davidovsky), actually had access to it. 356 David Ward-Steinman, telephone interview, 10 June 2005. 357 Electronic Music Studios, Ltd. of Cornwall, England manufactured the ―Putney‖ VCS3. 121 equipment, and magnetic tape in a series of works, some of which explore the potential of the synthesizer as a real-time performance instrument and/or incorporate multi-media. Putney One, composed in 1970 for synthesizer and tape, was the first of Ward-Steinman‘s works written for that instrument. Putney Three, for woodwind quintet, prepared piano, and synthesizer, came later that year. 358 Vega, for synthesizer and tape (1971); Nova (Collage ‘72), for synthesizer, tape, and film; and Riversong Variations, for synthesizer and tape (1973), followed his initial efforts in the genre. Works of a larger scale written for synthesizer and orchestra appeared in Ward- Steinman‘s catalog soon after his initial chamber pieces. Irwin Hoffman is a musician who gained notoriety while he was the Assistant Conductor (1964-65), Associate Conductor (1965-68), and Acting Music Director (1968-69) of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. For the Florida Gulf Coast Symphony, which he directed 1968-88, he commissioned the composer‘s Antares (1971). Ward-Steinman‘s first piece written for synthesizer and orchestra, Antares also featured a part for gospel choir. 359 Hoffman premiered the work on 24 April 1971. Featured in the performance with the Florida orchestra was the composer, 358 The composer‘s performance of his Putney Three at the 5 th Annual Contemporary Music Festival held at Del Mar College, Corpus Christi, TX, 1-4 December 1971, inspired music critic Ralph Thibodeau to speculate on the philosophical grounds of electronic music: ―Somewhere in a lecture by the composer [given earlier in the festival], we were warned to judge the work of art, but to beware of judging the means of producing it. In my neo-Thomism, this is tantamount to the end justifying the means, a sort of artistic Jesuitry up with which I will not put. We cannot dismiss electronic music, even the chance variety, out of hand, but we can demand that the composers convey a mood with the Moog or the Putney, or effect an emotional response, or express just anything whatever. If they do this, they have fulfilled the function of art. But disorganized noise will not do. We can also argue philosophically that the composers of electronic music have rejected the rationalism of the classical mind for the intuition of the modern Romanticism which is now called Consciousness III. And we can accuse them of failing to come fairly to grips with the apparent contradiction of trying to reconcile their loose, chancy, kinetic art with the most frighteningly rational technology, which could produce the computer and its musical sibling, the synthesizer. To use the products of such supra-rational technology to create a music whose essence is chaos seems to me a form of cultural atavism which can have no other ultimate effect than to drag us inexorably back to the Neanderthal. By comparison, Alvin Toffler‘s spooky ―Future Shock‖ is a reassuring bedtime story. With all the novelty of the ZAPS and WHEEEES and BANGS and WHIMPERS of the synthesizers, may we express the hope that in the progress of the human race to the theologians‘ Omega Point, we may yet deserve the consolation of a reassuring music, one which will not aggravate our neuroses, but just possibly help cure them.‖ See: Ralph Thibodeau, ―‗Song of Moses‘ impressive,‖ 12C. 359 The title Antares refers to a star in the Milky Way galaxy, the sixteenth brightest in the nighttime sky. 122 who played the Minimoog synthesizer, and the Saint Petersburg Bethel Community Baptist Church Choir. 360 Frederick Allen, music critic for the Saint Petersburg Independent, wrote of the premiere, ―The novelty of the composition, its newness, its out of the ordinary effects on the ear . . . took the audience off its guard.‖ 361 Hoffman, responding to criticism that the Chicago Symphony had skirted its responsibility to program new music by American composers, seized upon the opportunity he had to conduct the final concert of their 1971-72 season to commission Ward-Steinman to write a piece for the occasion. 362 The composer responded with a work that featured his Putney synthesizer with orchestra. At the premiere of Arcturus on 15-16 June 1972, he soloed on the instrument with the Chicago Symphony. 363 The work employs electronic, fortified piano, and conventional sounds, as well as aleatoric opportunities. The latter are realized in two places through graphic scoring, where first five and then seven lengthy passages are provided as ―building blocks . . . that [may] be juggled, discarded, or overlapped by the conductor.‖ 364 Music critic Robert Marsh, writing in the Chicago Sun- Times, noted of the work‘s premiere: ―‗Arcturus‘ . . . is a most effective example of combining electronic and live sounds. The thematic materials are varied and interesting, and it held attention to the very end.‖ 365 Other critics, however, were not so charitable in their reception of Ward-Steinman‘s new sounds and penned stinging criticisms of the piece. 360 The R. A. Moog Company manufactured the Minimoog synthesizer between 1970 and 1982. 361 Frederick S. Allen, ―Something For Everyone: New, Old Stir Audience,‖ St. Petersburg Independent [Saint Petersburg, FL] 26 Apr. 1971: n. pag. 362 Thomas Willis, ―Symphony Looks Ahead to Banner 1971-72 Season,‖ Chicago Tribune 16 May 1971, sec. 5: 3. 363 The title Arcturus refers is the brightest star in the constellation Boötes; it is the third brightest star in the nighttime sky. 364 James Roos, ―Chicago Revisited: New Music Gets the Ultimate Test From the Country‘s Best Symphony Orchestra,‖ Miami Herald 25 June 1972: L-2. 365 Robert C. Marsh, ―Chicago Symphony plays [sic] its respects to talents of Hoffman,‖ Chicago Sun-Times 16 June 1972: 75. 123 Thomas Willis of The Chicago Tribune attacked the work‘s alleged deficiencies in ―musical integration‖ and ―demonstration of the synthesizer‘s intrinsic individuality and power.‖ 366 James Roos of The Miami Herald added: The composer has [combined synthesizer with symphony] with more skill than imagination. . . . The music proves more fascinating in structure than in performance, as is often the case nowadays. . . . It is music made up of little melodic motifs and snippets, even a subtle jazz section in 6/8. It is professionally polished and precisely wrought. But it is not particularly original music or memorable, and the meek use of the synthesizer is disappointing at best. 367 Bernard Jacobson of The Chicago Daily News similarly faulted what he regarded as the facile quality of the work‘s inherent sound materials: The Putney synthesizer, an electronic instrument . . . made its first entry with various squiggly, wavery sounds not much more advanced or unconventional that those Olivier Messiaen was drawing from the Ondes martenot in his ―Turangalila‖ Symphony a quarter-century ago. Ward-Steinman . . . has a sharp ear for sonorities, but it will not profit him much until he decides what sort of music he wants to write—the present work is an odd mixture of fluent banalities with touches of modernism that seem to have been thrown in as a sop to 20 th -Century fashions. 368 And Kenneth Sanson, writing for Family today—Chicago today, observed: The trouble is that the composer, in his search for different sonorities and textures, emphasizes the means over the material . . . and the result is like an argument between an amplified Geiger counter, laughing hyena, angry jazz band, and Star Trek sound track. 369 Ward-Steinman‘s compositions for electronic media of more recent vintage include one for clarinet, tape, and fortified piano entitled The Tracker (1976). It incorporates a tape 366 Thomas Willis, ―Symphony Ends with a Whimper,‖ Chicago Tribune 17 June 1972: n. pag. 367 Roos, L-2. 368 Bernard Jacobson, ―Symphony loses to giggles and chatters,‖ Chicago Daily News 16 June 1972: 22. 369 Kenneth Sanson, ―Symphony season ends,‖ Family today—Chicago today 16 June 1972: 61. 124 Figure 2.13: The Tracker, mm. 9-16. 125 part consisting of processed sounds, including clarinet multiphonics and a spoken poem authored and read by Barney Childs. Written in 1978 and revised in 1982, Toccata for Synthesizer and Slide Projectors is a multi-media work. Intersections, for fortified piano and tape (1982), was the first of a series of three works bearing that title. Chroma Concerto for Multiple Keyboards, Percussion, and Chamber Orchestra (1984) features the use of the SCI Prophet-5 synthesizer. 370 Composed upon the occasion of the Challenger space shuttle disaster, Elegy for Astronauts (1986) features the use of pre-recorded tape sounds in combination with orchestra. 371 During a two-day seminar Ward-Steinman gave at Mississippi State College for Women in early March 1972, the composer gave a demonstration of his Putney and commented, ―The status of electronic music now is similar to that of the piano shortly after its invention in the early 18 th century: its greatest potential still lies ahead.‖ 372 This assessment proved its validity even as the portable analog synthesizers of the early 1970s revealed their limitations and composers of electronic music increasingly turned back to digital computers to realize their sonic conceptions in the 1980s and 1990s. 4. Non-Western Music The fourth and last element of continuity that may be found in Ward-Steinman‘s musical output is the influence of non-Western music. Indeed, as the writer Dale A. Olsen has noted, ―[Ward-Steinman‘s] compositional styles . . . include a large component that is global and transcultural.‖ 373 The composer‘s interest in the music of other cultures dates 370 Sequential Circuits Incorporated in San Jose, CA manufactured the Prophet-5 synthesizer between 1978 and 1984. 371 David Amos and the Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra have recorded the work for Naxos. See: David Ward-Steinman, e-mail to the present writer, 31 May 2008.) In 2006 Ward-Steinman wrote a chamber version of Elegy for Astronauts for two pianos/celeste, percussion, tape, and harp ad lib. 372 David Ward-Steinman, Mississippi State College for Women, Mar. 1972 lecture outline, from the composer‘s personal papers at Bloomington, IN. 373 Olsen, 276. 126 back to the time of his move to California in 1961. He had then perceived the East Coast tradition as the ―last bastion of orthodox post-Webernian serialism.‖ The West Coast atmosphere, once manifested in such composers as Henry Cowell, John Cage, Harry Partch and Lou Harrison, he found ―more open and experimental, and very much aware of Pacific Rim culture.‖ 374 Over time, his conviction that an impending transculturalization of music would mark the way forward solidified. During a two-day seminar at Mississippi State College for Women in early March 1972, Ward-Steinman observed, ―Never again will we have periods of music pegged as ‗Baroque,‘ ‗Classical,‘ or ‗Romantic.‘ We are headed toward a kind of musical ‗Bouillabaisse‘ of many styles heard throughout the world!‖ 375 The composer once responded to the question of how someone born in the South and educated in the Midwest could become interested in the music of other cultures: I was fascinated by the colors, by the timbres of the music, by the rhythmic complexity of sub-Saharan African music, by the textures of gamelan music . . . I found myself much more in sympathy with West Coast interest in color, freedom for experimentation, and I'm also aware of how the two schools think of each other. We on the West Coast perhaps see the East Coast as being academic and uptight and Eurocentric, and the East Coast sees us as being kind of wild and off-the-wall and undisciplined and so forth. . . . This was more true when I came out here in the ‘60s and ‘70s. I think it‘s less so now. I think things are more healthily eclectic, less doctrinaire. 376 Perhaps, the first manifestation of Ward-Steinman‘s budding interest in tapping into the musical resources of other cultures may be found in his ballet Western Orpheus. In this 1964 score written for the San Diego Ballet, he uses a 16 string ―barely-tuned‖ Chinese cheng to simulate on-stage guitar sounds. The composer himself played the cheng part in 374 Quoting David Ward-Steinman from Hertzog, ―David Ward-Steinman: Is there anything he can‘t do?‖ 3. 375 Quoting David Ward-Steinman from ―Now Is Like Piano Had Just Been Invented,‖ E9. 376 Quoting David Ward-Steinman from Hertzog, ―An interview with David Ward-Steinman: An edited transcript.‖ Hertzog posed the question. 127 the work‘s premiere. 377 The Tale of Issoumbochi, for narrator, soprano, flute, clarinet, cello, percussion, piano, and celeste, followed in 1968 with ―highly evocative and colorful‖ scoring and ―many unusual effects.‖ 378 Composed in 1971, Rituals for Dancers and Musicians makes use of instruments such as the Indian bamboo flute, the bamboo flute, the maraca, the koto (or cheng, zither, or autoharp), and the mbira (or afroharp), among more traditional ones. 379 As has been already noted, Raga for Winds (1972) employs clusters as a means to simulate the resonant sounds of the sitar and the tamboura. Chroma Concerto for Multiple Keyboards, Percussion, and Chamber Orchestra (1984) features the use of the fortified piano, the toy piano, the celeste, the synthesizer, and percussion. The Nouveau West Chamber Orchestra premiered the work with Amy Smith- Davie and David Ward-Steinman playing the keyboard parts and Terry Williams conducting. The premiere took place at the Kerr Cultural Center in Scottsdale, Arizona on 7 May 1985. In a review of the event, Arizona Republic newspaper columnist Dimitri Drobatschewsky noted that the composer was able to produced ―new . . . colors and sounds‖ with his novel instrumentation but he often ―revert[ed] to the use of conventional sounds and tonalities‖ when he desired to impart ―feelings, moods, even humor into the music.‖ Drobatschewsky explains his criticism of the work: 377 Stamon, ―WESTERN ORPHEUS: OUR AMBIVALANT PSYCHE,‖ 50; Kyle, ―WORLD PREMIERE—WARD-STEINMAN‘S ‗WESTERN ORPHEUS,‘‖ 2. The score actually specifies a Japanese koto. In David Ward-Steinman, e-mail to the present writer, 8 Nov. 2007, the composer explains the mistake: ―I thought it was a koto at the time, not knowing any better, but it was actually a Chinese cheng which I bought at an import house in San Francisco.‖ 378 David Ward-Steinman, program notes for a concert of his music, Meadows School of the Arts, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX, 20 Feb. 1973. 379 Ward-Steinman wrote of the work in his program notes for a 20 February 1973 concert of his music held at the Meadows School of the Arts of Southern Methodist University in Dallas, TX: ―The composition is part of a multimedia experimental work for television called Kaleidoscope, in which music, dance, and video-camera techniques are integrally conceived, and the latent potential of videotape explored.‖ Music critic Ralph Thibodeau wrote in a review of the performance, ―The Rituals . . . [were] played . . . with synthetic pictures, using every device of color synthesis to slow down, superimpose, discolor and otherwise distort the images of the dancers and players.‖ See: Thibodeau, ―David Ward-Steinman guest composer for music festival,‖ 11B. 128 Chroma played to an attentive audience of 200 or so fans who applauded composer and performers lustily, signifying that most of them understood the composer‘s intentions and approved of his ways of achieving them. Ward-Steinman uses four esoteric keyboards . . . in addition to a multitude of percussion instruments, to create new—or at least unusual—colors and sounds, which he then develops rhythmically with great technical skill. The question arises whether the composer at times does not confuse means and end. The sounds are interesting enough, but often they represent nothing but their own variety and novelty. If he had accomplished his expressive designs at least sometimes only by way of his innovative techniques, I would have called the piece a total success. 380 Jocelyn Mackey, music critic for Pan Pipes, offered a more favorable view of the work. She wrote in her review of its recording by David Amos and the Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra, ―‗Chroma‘ means color and it is a fitting description of this work. There are echoes of gamelan sounds, and the rhythmic intensity created is striking.‖ 381 A more recent work, Intersections II: ‘Borobudur’ for Fortified Piano and Percussion, written during 1989-90, was inspired by Ward-Steinman‘s visit to an 8 th Century Javanese temple. Author Dale Olsen wrote about the piece: ―The composition reflects the monument‘s impact on the composer, who witnessed both sunset and sunrise over Borobudur, and draws heavily on gamelan sounds—Balinese as well as Javanese.‖ Olsen observed that, although the work does not include actual Javanese instruments, Western percussion instruments and the fortified piano are used to imitate the gamelan‘s unique sounds. He notes, ―The work is transcultural in that Ward-Steinman effectively creates and 380 Dimitri Drobatschewsky, ―Avant-garde work warmly received in premiere,‖ Arizona Republic 8 May 1985: H-1. 381 Jocelyn Mackey, ―Recordings: David Ward-Steinman: THREE CONCERTOS,‖ Pan Pipes 93.4 (Fall 2001): 27-28; Amos, Fleur de Son Classics FDS-57946. 129 Figure 2.14: Intersections II: Borobudur, opening pages. 130 allows the listener to travel across Western and Indonesian soundscapes through the use of a variety of Western and modified Western musical media.‖ 382 Pianist David Burge and percussionist Daryl Pratt recorded the work in 1999. 383 Commissioned by violist Karen Elaine Bakunin and composed under a grant from the National Association of Negro Musicians during the years 1991-93, Cinnabar Concerto features an accompaniment of strings with percussion, piano, and celeste. The work draws its musical inspiration from Australian Aboriginal folk songs. Fanfare music critic Robert Kirzinger wrote of the work in a review of its recording by Bakunin and the Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of David Amos: Ward-Steinman‘s Cinnabar Concerto for viola and chamber orchestra . . . reminds one immediately and often of Bartok‘s stringed-instrument concertos. . . . The concerto is in three movements, modal-tonal in harmony and melody and rhythmically lively, including asymmetrical meters in the faster sections. The chamber-orchestra scoring is well handled, although it never achieves any real independence and remains accompaniment to the virtually continuous solo part. 384 In Night Winds (1993), a composition commissioned by the Arioso Wind Quintet, both Western and non-Western instruments are played. In the latter category, the sounds of clay ocarina, bamboo flute, slide whistle, train whistle, wind chimes, and Aboriginal rhythmic sticks are heard, in addition to the haunting sound of the Aboriginal didjeridu. The composer notes, ―These are used to create some of the atmospheric ‗night-wind‘ sounds— not only wind-sounds but wind-borne sounds as well.‖ 385 In this work, Olsen does not perceive the feature of ―transculturation.‖ Rather, he observes that ―globalization‖ (which 382 Olsen, 277. 383 Burge, Fleur de Son Classics FDS-57935. 384 Kirzinger, 244; Amos, Fleur de Son Classics FDS-57946. Bakunin has also recorded the work in its chamber music version with pianist David Burge: Burge, Fleur de Son Classics FDS-57935. 385 Quoting David Ward-Steinman from Olsen, 277. 131 he defines simply as ―cultural blending‖) is manifest: ―many different sounds from a variety of cultures are blended together to create an atmosphere rather than provide a conduit from one culture to another.‖ 386 The Arioso Wind Quintet recorded the work in 1999. 387 Upon a commission from conductor Jung-Ho Pak and the San Diego Symphony Orchestra in 2001, Ward-Steinman wrote his Millennium Dances. Originally of four movements, one of the movements was cut by Jung-Ho Pak, although in 2002 he and the symphony commissioned Fiesta!—Millennium Dances Finale from the composer as an extension to the original suite. 388 The work features in its various movements: a percussion soloist playing ethnic instruments; a performer playing an Irish tin whistle; a keyboardist playing piano, toy piano, and celeste; and four other percussionists playing a battery of instruments. Although the work does not draw its inspiration entirely from non-Western music, it represents in the composer‘s output a synthesis and summation of his various influences and techniques. Eileen Wingard, music critic of the San Diego Jewish Press- Heritage, wrote of its premiere, ―Intermingling jazz elements and themes from western music in the three dances, the piece symbolizes America‘s assimilation of musical traditions from around the world.‖ 389 San Diego Union-Tribune music critic Valerie Scher noted: For more than 30 years, the Louisiana native [David Ward- Steinman] has found enriching influences in the music of other cultures. . . . ―Millennium Dances‖ is a multicultural cavalcade, inspired by the music of Ireland, Bali and Africa. Along with an African dancer, it calls for a full orchestra with a percussion soloist and five [sic] other percussionists, playing everything from wood blocks to bodhran (the quintessential Irish drum). 390 386 Olsen, 277. 387 Burge, Fleur de Son Classics FDS-57935. 388 The four movements that constituted the original work were ―Dublin Dawn, Pelog Jam, Kenya Dance, and Tango.‖ Jung-Ho Pak cut ―Tango‖ because he judged it ―too chromatic and dense.‖ See: Valerie Scher, ―‗Millennium Dances‘—dances to a multicultural beat,‖ 35. 389 Wingard, 13. 390 Scher, ―‗Millennium Dances‘—dances to a multicultural beat,‖ 35. 132 What was most striking about the 21-minute-long work was its blending of exotic and orchestral instruments and its trans- formation of folk material into mainstream fare. 391 Each movement is devoted to a different culture. . . . To Ward- Steinman, ‗Millennium Dances‘ is a little like Gershwin‘s ―An American in Paris‖ in that it filters experiences through a distinctly American sensibility. Call it ―An American in Ireland, Bali and Africa.‖ 392 Since the time he wrote Millennium Dances, Ward-Steinman has continued to compose music that blends influences from other cultures. In 2000 he wrote a nine minute song cycle for high voice (doubling hand percussion), flute, alto flute, cello, and harp which he entitled I am the Wind (Songs of the Emerald Isle); and in 2007 he composed a jazz work for piano which he called Derry Airs. 393 Exceptions and Conclusion Ward-Steinman has written a number of works that do not fit neatly into any of the above categories, which is not to say that these works may not contain traces of influence from the four elements of continuity, unconscious or otherwise, as well. Other features that have become a hallmark of the composer‘s style, however, manifest themselves in these works. The composer‘s music for piano solo that fits into the exception category includes his Three Miniatures (1964), Third Piano Sonata (1996), and Lullaby for Iluka (2006). In the genre of chamber music there are several works that fall in the exception category: Epithalamion, for flute and cello (1981); Summer Suite, for oboe and piano (1987); 391 Valerie Scher, ―Symphony‘s finale hits all the right notes,‖ San Diego Union-Tribune 28 May 2001: E3. 392 Scher, ―‗Millennium Dances‘—dances to a multicultural beat,‖ 35. 393 As is witnessed in the name of this work, the declivity of age has not eroded Ward-Steinman‘s proclivity for inventing clever titles for his compositions. 133 Figure 2.15: Lullaby for Iluka, title page. 134 Intersections III: Dialogues for Piano and Brass Quintet (2000); Lullaby for Iluka, for cello and piano (2006); and Windows, for brass quintet (2006). Of the latter work, following its premiere by the Westwind Brass Quintet in La Jolla, California, on 1 May 2006, San Diego music critic David Gregson wrote about it: ―[Ward-Steinman‘s] brief piece, Windows, featured many important aspects of his style: a forceful, narrative clarity (making the music ‗accessible‘) and an imaginative use of shifting harmonies and dissonances.‖ 394 Much of the composer‘s choral music also falls in the exception category. These works include: Psalms of Rejoicing, for mixed chorus (1960); God’s Rock, for solo soprano, mixed chorus, piano or organ, bass, and optional percussion (1973-74); And in These Times, a Christmas cantata for narrator, soloists, mixed chorus, and wind ensemble (1979-81); and Hildegard’s Apothecary, for soprano solo, mixed chorus, and piano (2007). A number of Ward-Steinman‘s orchestral scores fail to derive from the four categorical elements of influence: Three Miniatures for School Orchestra (1967); Season’s Greetings (1981); Olympics Overture (1984); Winging It, for chamber orchestra (1986); Double Concerto, for two violins and orchestra (1994-5); and Millennium Fanfare (2000). Season’s Greetings, a piece that its composer refers to as a short ―Christmas card‖ for orchestra, is an arrangement of the title song from his aforementioned cantata, And in These Times. In 2006 conductor Robert Ian Winstin and the Kiev Philharmonic Orchestra recorded it for an ERM Media compact disc entitled ―Holidays of the New Era.‖ 395 Most of Ward-Steinman‘s solo vocal music, written between 1966 and 1996, is also exempt from the categorical elements of influence. His songs include: ―I Have a Popliteal‖ 394 Gregson, <http://www.sandiego.com>. 395 Robert Ian Winstin, cond., ―Holidays of the New Era,‖ Kiev Philharmonic Orchestra, CD, ERM, 2006. The compact disc is said by ERM Media to be ―the first in a new series of recordings of new Holiday music from living composers.‖ It is available at <http://www.numusic.org>. 135 (1966), ―Night‖ (1966), ―What if a Much of a Which of a Wind‖ (1968), ―I Rode in a Jet‖ (1969), ―Night Flight‖ (1974), and ―I Fooled My Mother Yesterday‖ (1980). ―The Web‖ (1974) and ―The Spider‖ (1975) are songs which the composer based on 12-tone scales. Ward-Steinman additionally wrote the song cycles: Grant Park (1969), . . . And Waken Green (1983), and Children’s Corner Revisited (1984, rev. 1985). Fragments from Sappho, a song cycle for soprano, flute, clarinet, and piano (1962- 65), is an outstanding example in its genre. 396 Ward-Steinman describes these songs as being like, ―a latter-day Schumann‘s Women’s Love and Life as told through the Greek poetess, but in modern harmonies.‖ 397 Although the composer wrote his Sappho songs during a time that overlapped the writing of his oratorio The Song of Moses (1963-64), the text settings and melodic styles of the two works differ in significant ways. Much of the reason for the differences has to do with the differences found in the text themselves. The Sappho texts are fragments of Greek poems while the Moses texts originate from long narrative passages in the Bible. ―Because the Sappho poems are more fragmentary,‖ Ward- Steinman comments, ―the music doesn‘t have the long lines that it does in Moses. The songs have shorter phrases because the words are shorter, and [therefore] there is more for the instruments to do.‖ 398 The particular nature of the words in Fragments from Sappho also apparently influenced the composer toward a more angular and primitive melodic style than the one he employed in The Song of Moses. Perhaps, this is so in the same sense that Stravinsky‘s melodies could be angular and primitive, except in this instance Ward- 396 The texts of Fragments from Sappho were set from a modern translation by Mary Bernard. The music of one of the songs is based on that of the second of the composer‘s Three Lyric Preludes for keyboard. In David Ward-Steinman, telephone interview, 10 June 2005, he commented about this matter: ―When I was writing the Sappho songs I had a text that I wanted to set. I kept hearing [in my mind] the second of the Three Lyric Preludes, so I went back to it and noticed that the text could be made to fit [the prelude] almost exactly, with virtually no changes. That was like a gift from on high . . . it was too effortless to refuse.‖ 397 David Ward-Steinman, telephone interview, 10 June 2005. 398 Ibid. 136 Steinman‘s melodies are typically ―more lyrical and less dissonant,‖ than Stravinsky‘s, at least in the way that they are treated and harmonized. 399 The Sappho songs and the vocal solos found in the Moses oratorio demonstrate this common thread of lyricism. ―Awed by Her Splendor‖ from Fragments from Sappho, as well as ―The Lord Bringeth Thee‖ and ―Give Ear, O Ye Heavens‖ from the close of The Song of Moses, do so in particular. Soprano Emma Small, flautist Fredrick Baker, clarinetist Dan Magnusson, and composer-pianist Ward-Steinman premiered Fragments from Sappho in La Jolla on 29 April 1966. Of the performance, La Jolla Light music critic Anne Lois Roberts noted: The seemingly strange combination of Greek poetry of the seventh century B.C. and the musical idiom of the twentieth century turned out to be a happy and successful union. . . . The crystal like combination of instruments and voice created a vivid tone coloring. With a broad linear perspective Ward-Steinman formulated music of meaningful stature. 400 Commenting on a repeat performance of the song cycle as sung by soprano Jean Stone in March 1974, San Diego Union music critic Donald Dierks observed: These songs illustrated Ward-Steinman‘s fine perceptions of instrumental tone colors as they relate to each other and complement, in this instance, the soprano voice quality. And his settings of the texts were natural, graceful and generally integral to basic word rhythms. . . . The compositional idiom of the songs was melodic, harmonically simple, but subtle, and the prevailing mood was light without being superficial. 401 Composers Recording, Inc. released a recording of soprano Phyllis Curtin, flautist Samuel Baron, clarinetist David Glazer, and pianist Ward-Steinman performing Fragments 399 Ibid. 400 Anne Lois Roberts, ―La Jolla Theatre Groups First Concert said ‗Highly Laudable,‘‖ La Jolla Light 5 May 1966: 6. Upon the same occasion, San Diego music critic Donald Dierks wrote about Fragments from Sappho, ―It is a composition which readily recommends itself. It is tonal in the present sense of the word . . . [Ward-Steinman‘s] style is, nevertheless, quite individual. He has captured the mood of each of the six poems quite well and set the words rhythmically and melodically.‖ See: Donald Dierks, ―‗Sappho‘ Premiered: La Jolla Theatre Group Concert Reveals Style,‖ San Diego Union 30 Apr. 1966: A-13. 401 Donald Dierks, ―Soprano Recital Solo Runs Gamut,‖ San Diego Union 7 Mar. 1974: B-7. 137 Figure 2.16: Fragments from Sappho, ―Epilog,‖ mm. 37-52. 138 from Sappho in 1969. 402 The recording received a review in High Fidelity magazine where Alfred Frankenstein observed that the work was ―one of the great finds of the year.‖ He added, ―The setting . . . ricochets off the text in brilliant fashion.‖ 403 Barbara Kinsey Sable wrote about the recording for the Bulletin of the National Association of Teachers of Singing, noting: The . . . pieces have a fine vocal line that grows naturally from the poetic scansion. They are singable, both from the viewpoint of the shape of melodic line as well as the range requirements. ―The Pleaides‖ is hauntingly beautiful with the ensemble of voice, flute and clarinet. 404 All of the music that Ward-Steinman wrote through the early 1960s was, in the composer‘s words, ―one way or another preparation‖ for the writing of his oratorio The Song of Moses. 405 This seventy-minute work for narrator, soloists, chorus, and orchestra cannot be easily included within any of the aforementioned categorical elements of influence, although on various occasions it does freely utilize some of those stylistic elements, specifically jazz and indeterminacy. Repeating and expanding upon the composer‘s words quoted above: Moses summed up everything I had to say compositionally at the time and it stretched me in many ways. I believed very intensely in what I was writing about. It was a wonderful opportunity—this commission to do a big piece for narrator and orchestra. 406 It is toward this landmark work in the composer‘s musical output that we will now turn our full attention. 402 Phyllis Curtin, sop., et al., Ned Rorem Some Trees and David Ward-Steinman Fragments from Sappho, LP, CRI 238-SD, 1969; audio cassette, CRI CAS 238, 1969. 403 Alfred Frankenstein, ―Classical,‖ High Fidelity Nov. 1969: 116. Frankenstein additionally wrote that he found Ward-Steinman‘s Fragments from Sappho to be ―the best setting of old Greek texts since Debussy‘s Chanson de Bilitis.‖ The latter complement, however, must be qualified by the fact that the ―old Greek texts‖ Frankenstein refers to, as set by Debussy in 1897, were in all actuality neither ―old‖ nor ―Greek.‖ The French poet Pierre Louys wrote them in 1895 and tried to pass them off as being ancient. 404 Barbara Kinsey, ―Disc Discussion,‖ NATS Bulletin 27 (Oct. 1970): 136. 405 Ewen, 705. 406 David Ward-Steinman, telephone interview, 10 June 2005. 139 Chapter Three The Song of Moses—Background and Libretto In this chapter we will explore how David Ward-Steinman‟s oratorio The Song of Moses had its genesis in the personal influences, talents, and cultural climate that surrounded the composer when he began his teaching career in San Diego in the early 1960s. The story behind the oratorio‟s libretto will be reviewed and the work‟s performance history will be recounted. The libretto will then be analyzed in light of the Biblical narrative from which it drew its inspiration. Finally, both the ontological question posed in the libretto and its expression through the oratorio will be considered from a historical-theological perspective. Genesis of the Oratorio David Ward-Steinman began his teaching career at San Diego State College in the fall of 1961. 407 At the time of Ward-Steinman‟s appearance, the Chairman of the San Diego 407 San Diego State College traces its roots back to its founding in March 1897 as the San Diego Normal School. The campus is located three miles northeast of downtown San Diego. Prior locations included temporary quarters over a downtown drug store, where seven faculty and ninety-one students met at its founding, and a 17-acre campus on Park and El Cajon Boulevards in the University Heights suburb of San Diego. The school had as its function at first the preparation and training of elementary school teachers. Curriculum was initially limited to courses of study in English, history and mathematics, but offerings broadened under the leadership of Samuel T. Black, the school‟s first president (1898-1910). The successive presidency of Edward L Hardy (1910-35) witnessed continued growth of the institution. While still under the academic control of the State Board of Education, in July 1921, the school was granted college status by the California State Legislature and was renamed San Diego Teacher‟s College. By 1923 the previously limited two-year preparatory curriculum had grown to that appropriate to a four-year liberal arts college. In 1935 when leadership was assumed by Walter R. Hepner (1935-52), the legislature authorized expansion of degree programs beyond teacher education and the school was renamed San Diego State College. The college continued its growth and reached an enrollment of more than 25,000 students during the administration Malcolm A. Love (1952-71). In 1960 it became part of the newly created California State College system, and for a brief period of time during the early 1970s it was know as California State University at San Diego, before it settled on its present title: San Diego State University. See: Alexander D. Bevil, “From Grecian Columns to Spanish Towers: The Development of San Diego State College, 1922-1953,” Journal of San Diego History 41.1 (Winter 1995): 38-57. 140 State College Department of Music was “J. Dayton” Smith. Prior to his own coming to San Diego to assume the department‟s leadership in 1955, James Dayton Smith (1917-85) had taught at both the University of Nebraska and at Florida State University. He was a respected teacher, tenor, choral conductor, clinician, and adjudicator. 408 A force to be reckoned with, Smith was, in the words of his student and subsequent colleague, Frank Almond, “the single most important individual responsible for transforming the [San Diego State College] Music Department from a modest, local one to a prestigious impressive collection of talented faculty, creative curricula and motivated students.” 409 Smith directed the college‟s Aztec Concert Choir and was the principal director of the College Chorus. Smith was particularly fond of finding ways to bring the college and its surrounding community together. In so doing he no doubt acted under the influence of Robert Shaw, whose path he had come to cross, and in particular the latter‟s philosophy of music as a form of “community expression.” 410 Shaw had been the director of the San Diego Symphony since 1953, and he appeared in the city for a seven-week season of innovative concerts every summer until he left the position in 1958. His directorship was not limited to conducting. He brought a musical program to the city that included “performance, education and broad community involvement.” 411 As part of this overall plan of musical development, he instituted a chamber music series with performances at San Diego‟s Hoover High School, 408 “J. Dayton Smith, retired music educator, choir director dies,” San Diego Union 19 Apr. 1985: B5. Smith was Chairman of the music department at San Diego State from the time of his arrival in 1955 until his retirement in 1978. He possessed two bachelor‟s degrees from Saint Olaf College in Minnesota and a masters degree in music from the University of Nebraska. 409 Quoting Frank Almond from Rhonda Nevins, ed., “Frank Almond Retires,” Pointe-Counterpoint (San Diego: SDSU School of Music and Dance, 2003): 9. 410 Joseph A. Mussulman, Dear People (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1979) 122. 411 Ibid., 113. Shaw gave the post up only after his success created a demand for a year-round schedule. Maurice Abravanel, Roger Wagner, and Daniel Lewis substituted for him during the summer of 1958, and Earl Bernard Murray assumed directorship of the orchestra with its first winter season beginning in 1959. The San Diego Symphonic Chorale (San Diego Master Chorale) was founded in 1962. See: Mussulman, 113-126. 141 and he partnered with Julius Herford to offer an annual “Workshop in the Choral Arts,” all in collaboration with the San Diego State College music department. The workshop, from its inception, had attracted an annual attendance of over 80 choral musicians and educators from 38 states and the territory of Hawaii. Shaw recruited 200 people to supplement his core workshop chorus from the local military base, as well as from church and high school choirs. He rehearsed and conducted them in performances featuring such major works as the Beethoven Missa Solemnis, Honneger‟s Le Roi David, and the Berlioz Requiem. Not the least of Shaw‟s accomplishments was the commissioning of new works from local composers Howard Brubeck and Robert Heninger, and summer resident Robert Kurka. 412 Inspired perhaps in large part by his association with Robert Shaw, and later with Roger Wagner, J. Dayton Smith went on to establish a tradition of presenting “super-musical epics” at San Diego State College. These included performances by his choruses of major works by Mozart, Brahms, Mendelssohn, Verdi, and Honneger. In the presentation of the latter composer‟s Le roi David (King David), Smith arranged to feature actor Lorne Greene as guest narrator. Such energetic entrepreneurial activities prompted San Diego music critic Nick Stamon to dub Smith “the Cecil B. DeMille of San Diego.” 413 Smith, as we will presently see, was to follow Shaw‟s lead in commissioning new music for his choruses. 412 Ibid., 113-126. Nancy McNally writing in Pomona Today, a publication of Pomona College, said of this time, “What [Shaw] wanted to accomplish in San Diego were the same ends he had been striving for since the beginning of his career: the creation of a community amateur chorus which would enjoy performing together; the continual encouragement of new composers, particularly local talent; and the presentation of new and challenging programs instead of insipidly conventional ones . . .” See: Nancy McNally, “Our Alumni in Music: Conductor Robert Shaw,” Pomona Today 64:1 (July 1966): 15-17. Prior to Shaw‟s tenure in San Diego, other important conductors, including Nikolai Sokoloff, had made their impact on the local musical scene, but perhaps the most significant music festival occurred during the California-Pacific International Exposition held in Balboa Park in 1935-36. This event was considered a “milepost” in San Diego's history. The San Diego Symphony gave a concert under the direction of Nino Marcelli at the time of the exposition‟s opening on 29 May 1935. There followed weeks of symphonic and choral music given by the orchestras of San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, and Seattle, and by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. See: Richard W. Amero, “San Diego Invites the World to Balboa Park a Second Time,” Journal of San Diego History 31.4 (Fall 1985): 261-79. 413 Nick Stamon, “Music: Moses, Ward-Steinman and Gregory Peck,” 68. 142 Smith and Ward-Steinman had become well acquainted during the time they spent together at Florida State University. Smith was the Assistant Chairman of the school‟s music department. He had served on a committee that auditioned Ward-Steinman for an undergraduate scholarship prior to the latter‟s freshman year there. 414 Seven years later, Smith advised Ward-Steinman to come to San Diego to interview for the teaching position that he subsequently attained at San Diego State College. Smith unhesitantly promoted Ward-Steinman‟s candidacy based on the favorable impression that he had made on him as a student at Florida State. 415 In relation to The Song of Moses, once again Smith was ultimately responsible for commissioning Ward-Steinman to write his oratorio. The project germinated from a conversation that took place between the two individuals during March 1963. In the program notes he wrote for the premiere of the work in May 1964, Ward-Steinman said: J. Dayton Smith . . . initiated the work through his commission and offer of department musical forces for performance. Christine Springston and my wife, Susan, independently suggested the subject of Moses, and the latter helped me reduce this immense epic to manageable proportions. . . . I am most indebted to my wife . . . who helped make “The Song of Moses” possible in ways too numerous to list. 416 Smith‟s persistent encouragement of Ward-Steinman in the writing of his oratorio was so indefatigable that San Diego Union music critic Alan Kriegsman came to refer to him as the “godfather” of the project. Ward-Steinman, in his turn, ultimately dedicated the 414 In Susan Ward-Steinman, e-mail to the present writer, 18 Nov. 2005, Ms. Ward-Steinman reminisces, “I met Dayton when I was 16 and attended Music Camp at FSU. I had known him longer than anyone else on the faculty at San Diego State had. I remember he was on the committee that auditioned David for a scholarship.” 415 In David Ward-Steinman, e-mail to the present writer, 21 Nov. 2005, the composer wrote, “[Smith] certainly did remember me from Florida State University, which was why he had promoted my candidacy. . . . Actually, he remembered my mother and the „big hat‟ she wore when she drove me over for the interview. He reminded her of this when she came out to San Diego for the premiere of The Song of Moses.” 416 David Ward-Steinman, program notes for the premiere performances of The Song of Moses, San Diego State College, San Diego, CA, 31 May 1964. Ms. Christine Springston was, at the time of the planning of the oratorio, a theory professor in the music department at San Diego State College. 143 oratorio to Smith. 417 Susan Lucas Ward-Steinman, at the time the composer‟s wife, has summarized the genesis of the “Moses” project: When David first arrived at San Diego State, he discovered that J. Dayton Smith had a vital campus chorus consisting of anywhere from 700 to 800 students, representing all disciplines at the college. The chorus met regularly to rehearse in smaller groups and joined forces at dress rehearsals prior to their concerts. Their staple each year was a performance of Handel‟s Messiah, which was presented at the end of every fall semester. It did not take long before Dayton asked David to write a modern oratorio, which would be performed by the chorus with orchestra at the end of the spring semester in 1964. David accepted the challenge gladly and set about formulating a text. His first effort was on the subject of the Passion of Christ. When he presented this idea to Dayton, however, it was rejected as being too similar in subject matter . . . to Messiah. So, David started over. He researched the Old Testament and ultimately . . . came up with the libretto for The Song of Moses. This was heartily approved by Chairman Smith, and David spent much of 1963-64 working on the huge piece. 418 As to the subject matter of the pending oratorio, the selection of which, according to the composer himself, was “a monumental task which in itself required several months [of time],” a number of possibilities were considered. 419 In an interview that appeared in the San Diego Evening Tribune at the time of the oratorio‟s premiere, the composer confirmed that 417 Alan M. Kriegsman, “„Song of Moses‟: Premiere at San Diego State Today,” E3. Nick Stamon also wrote, “Moses carries on the tradition of super-musical epics at State College established by . . . Smith . . . The benefits of such an experience can be rewarding not only for the participants but for culture in general through creating sympathetic support for artistic enterprise.” See: Stamon, 68-69. David Ward-Steinman‟s father noted, “The oratorio is dedicated to Smith, whose vision commissioned „The Song of Moses.‟” See: Irving Ward- Steinman, “Louisiana Book Shelf: „Song of Moses‟ by Louisiana Artist,” Ruston Daily Leader [Ruston, LA] 11 Mar. 1968: 2. In Frank Almond, e-mail to the present writer, 1 May 2007, Almond, a graduate student at San Diego State at the time of the premiere of The Song of Moses, wrote, “J. Dayton Smith was the motivating and cohering force behind the production. He was not only the principal conductor of the Chorus and Concert Choir, as Department Chair, he brought together the strengths of all Departmental resources. He was an exceptional administrator: the man who thought of and secured Gregory Peck, who oversaw all the many other details such as publicity and venue, getting a good sound system, etc. Without J. Dayton‟s supervision, the thing would never have happened.” 418 Susan Ward-Steinman, e-mail to the present writer, 19 May 2005. Ms. Ward-Steinman continues, “Because of the subject matter of the oratorio, and the fact that David was still relatively new to San Diego, it was assumed by almost everyone that he was Jewish. He is Christian, and he and his family attended the Presbyterian Church. Because of the publicity surrounding SOM [at the time of its first performance] we received several crank telephone calls from anti-Semites.” 419 David Ward-Steinman, program notes for the premiere performances of The Song of Moses. 144 his first inclination was to base his work on the Passion of Christ though he had also considered subjects from mythology and the Old Testament. The first choice was judged as too tried and weathered by Smith, and the second was “not inspiring” to the composer. Ultimately, Ward-Steinman returned to an Old Testament subject. He later noted, “I started reading about Moses and felt that I could get more conviction out of writing about him.” 420 While he was on a trip in Rome in 1959, Ward-Steinman had visited the Church of San Pietro in Vincoli (Saint Peter in Chains). There he viewed the Carrara marble statue Moses sculptured by Michelangelo for the tableau of the subsequently unfinished tomb of Pope Julius II. “The intense spirituality of Michelangelo‟s Moses,” depicted with such “tremendous radiation of inner strength,” writes cultural historian Deborah Vess, has come to be known as the sculptor‟s “terribilitá.” 421 In the words of art historian William Fleming, the Moses portrayed in the sculpture is “the personification of the elemental forces . . . the human volcano about to erupt with righteous wrath . . . the dead center of a hurricane of emotional fury.” 422 Legend has it that Michelangelo, overwhelmed by the realism that 420 Quoting David Ward-Steinman from Joe Thesken, “Moses‟ Epic Story Inspires Composer to Major Effort,” Evening Tribune [San Diego] 23 May 1964: B2. Stamon‟s statement concerning Smith‟s March 1963 meeting with Ward-Steinman, “By luckful coincidence, Dr. Ward-Steinman had been exploring the subject of Moses as a basis for a musical composition,” appears to be in error. See: Stamon, “Music: Moses, Ward- Steinman and Gregory Peck,” 68. 421 Deborah Vess, “The Influence of Neoplatonism on Michelangelo,” World Civilization Virtual Library, 3 May 2002, Georgia College and State University, Milledgeville, Georgia, 7 Jan. 2006 <http://www.faculty.de.gcsu.edu/~dvess/micel.htm>. Vess addresses the reconciliation of Christian and Neoplatonic ideologies in the works of Michelangelo: “The tomb of Julius II and the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel illustrate the triumph of the soul over the material world. Both . . . can be interpreted within a Neoplatonic scheme, but in these works, Neoplatonism operates in conjunction with Christian ideology. The struggle of the soul to free itself from matter is equated with the Christian doctrine of resurrection and eternal life. Neoplatonists argued that matter, in itself, was a complete negation, and depended on the soul to endow it with shape and life. The higher realms, then, inform the lower realms. The Intelligible is a reflection of the One [the highest, most perfect realm], Soul is a reflection of the Intelligible, and matter is reflection of the Soul. . . . The body was not only a reflection of the [Christian] Divine, but it was a reflection of the human‟s inner self. . . . Michelangelo‟s treatment of the body . . . is consistent with Neoplatonic tenets. . . . In the Renaissance, Neoplatonism enjoyed a resurgence in popularity, and this was not thought of as being in opposition to Christianity. . . . The tomb of Julius II, then, is neither entirely Christian nor Neoplatonic . . . [it] appears to have multiple layers of meaning. Its complexity illustrates the extent to which a pagan philosophy could be blended into a Christian framework. . . . Neoplatonism . . . provided [such] a framework for reconciling secularism with Christianity.” 422 William Fleming, Arts and Ideas (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1974) 190. 145 radiated from his statue during its sculpture, is said to have thrown his chisel at it and screamed: “Perché non parli?” (“Why don‟t you talk?”). 423 The memory of seeing the great artist‟s majestic statue had so moved Ward-Steinman that it later caused the sculpture to serve as inspiration for his oratorio, as the composer subsequently recounted: When I had visited Rome as a student, I saw Michelangelo‟s sculpture of Moses for the first time, and it made a powerful impression on me. That memory came back to haunt me when I was searching for a libretto subject. I then knew I could make no other choice. 424 By the beginning of June 1963, with a commission in hand and the subject of his oratorio having finally been decided, Ward-Steinman began work on his libretto. This task proved to be what he came to regard as the most difficult part of the project. It was to occupy him for the following six weeks as he nursed it through four drafts until he was fully satisfied with it. 425 He did not write a note of music for his oratorio until the libretto was complete. 426 The writing of the libretto, however, was to suggest musical ideas, and by the time it was completed the composer had already envisioned the nature of much of the music he was then to reduce to notation. 427 A number of pencil notations in the libretto‟s revisions 423 Vess observed in her essay that in Neoplatonic theory the artist‟s task was, “to bring preexistent forms out of the material at hand [since] art forms exist independently of the artist, and are implanted in matter by nature.” See: Vess, <http://www.faculty.de.gcsu.edu/~dvess/micel.htm>. 424 David Ward-Steinman, e-mail to the present writer, 14 Nov. 2005. 425 Thesken, B2; David Ward-Steinman, e-mail to the present writer, 19 Sept. 2005. In David Ward- Steinman, e-mail to the present writer, 24 Aug. 2006, however, the composer states he began work on the libretto in March 1963. 426 David Ward-Steinman, “„Song of Moses‟: an Epic In Music,” San Diego Union 24 May 1964: E1. In this article the composer wrote, “Four months were spent on the libretto alone before a note of music was written.” As this assertion appears to raise a conflict of chronology, the present writer will interpret this time- period to include the choosing of the subject of the oratorio as well as the writing of the libretto. 427 Mary Munford, “Two Performances Set for Ward-Steinman‟s Oratorio,” Daily Aztec [San Diego State College] 17 May 1968: 5. What Mumford actually wrote was “According to Ward-Steinman, the text itself suggested three-fourths of the musical score and that by the time it was completed he had „heard‟ the music of every major portion of the oratorio.” Mumford‟s account of the evolution of Ward-Steinman‟s selection of subject matter for the pending oratorio is apparently also in error, as it distorts the timing of events: “Selection of a subject took several months with Ward-Steinman starting with Moses and then rejecting it because „of its grandiose nature.‟ Several other topics such as the Passion Story, a Babylonian epic, and tales from Greek mythology were considered, but Ward-Steinman kept coming back to Moses.” See: Mumford, 5. 146 serve to verify this fact. Ward-Steinman began composing the oratorio‟s music on 14 July, the day he finished its libretto, and he continued writing in earnest throughout the balance of the summer and well into the academic year. The actual process of composition took seven months: “roughly 10 minutes of finished music a month, working full-time in the summer, part-time during the school year, and on stolen time whenever I could manage it,” he noted. 428 Ward-Steinman initially balanced his time equally between working on the vocal solos, the choruses, and the orchestral numbers, but by early September he directed his primary attention to the choral numbers so as to insure that they would be prepared with adequate rehearsal time. 429 In the middle of December, when all but two of the choruses had been completed, he resumed his work on the vocal solos. By the beginning of January 1964, a few of the choral numbers were made available to the chorus; and by the start of the second academic semester in February, duplications of all of the choral manuscripts had been printed and put in the hands of the chorus. 430 Choral rehearsals for the oratorio premiere, thereafter, began in earnest. The last of three orchestral numbers was completed in 428 Thesken, B2; David Ward-Steinman, “„Song of Moses‟: an Epic In Music,” E1; Ward-Steinman made copies of the libretto drafts available to the present writer from his personal papers at Bloomington, IN. 429 The dates of completion of the pencil sketches of the choruses, as notated upon them and referenced to the numbering contained in the 1968 published piano-vocal score, follow: 4. “Here Am I,” 31 July 1963; 5. “How Excellent Thy Name,” 12 Aug. 1963; 17. “Would To God We Had Died,” 3 Sept. 1963; 19. “Out of the Depths,” 7 Sept. 1963; 7. “And the Lord Spoke,” 8 Sept. 1963; 11. “Sing Ye To the Lord,” 25 Sept. 1963; 14. “Make Us Gods To Go Before Us,” 25 Sept. 1963; 3. “And There Arose,” 4 Oct. 1963; 23. “There Arose Not a Prophet Since,” 5 Oct. 1963; 8. “Why Have We Done This?” 18 Oct. 1963; 16. “What Did This People Unto Thee?” 29 Oct. 1963; 12. “You Have Seen What I Did,” 5 Jan. 1964. See: David Ward-Steinman, e-mail to the present writer, 24 Aug. 2006. 430 David Ward-Steinman, program notes for the premiere performances of The Song of Moses. The dates of completion of the pencil sketches of the vocal solos, as notated upon them and referenced to the numbering contained in the 1968 published piano-vocal score, follow: 2. “O Lord God,” n.d.; 18. “Pity, Lord, Pity,” 16 July 1963; 10. “Why Hast Thou Led Us Away?” 7 Aug. 1963; 22. “Give Ear, O Ye Heavens,” 20 Aug. 1963; 6. “Who is the Lord?” 8 Sept. 1963; 20. “Be Strong and of Good Courage,” 1 Jan. 1964; and 21. “The Lord Bringeth Thee,” 23 Jan. 1964. See: David Ward-Steinman, e-mail to the present writer, 24 Aug. 2006. Mary Mumford appears to suggest that David Ward-Steinman completed his work on the choruses before he began work on the vocal solos, but her contention is not supported by the composer‟s own record of his completion dates. See: Mumford, 5. 147 early February. 431 Inking of the manuscript often proceeded along with composition, but in general the choruses were the first numbers that were copied out in ink, then the solos, and finally the orchestral numbers. By 8 February the composer had put the “finishing touches” on the piano-vocal manuscript, and the printed copies of the score were made available to the vocal soloists by 1 March. 432 Orchestration began on 15 February and involved ten more weeks of work, with the composer going into “seclusion” in order to finish in time for the oratorio‟s premiere performances. Ted Lucas, one of Ward-Steinman‟s first composition students, copied out the bulk of the parts after each movement was orchestrated. 433 Orchestration was not completed until 29 April, just a month before the work‟s premiere, with the ink “barely dry” on the score and parts. 434 In all, the project had lasted well over a year and had occupied every spare moment of the composer‟s time, keeping him busy throughout most of his evenings and often well into his early morning hours. “If I had fully realized the immensity of the work,” commented Ward-Steinman to Joe Thesken of the San Diego Evening Tribune, “I may not have attempted it.” 435 “Echoes of the travail and energy it must have cost,” wrote Alan Kriegsman in the San Diego Union, “can be read in the note added to the date of completion, April 29, 1964, which reads simply—2:30 a.m.” 436 431 David Ward-Steinman, e-mail to the present writer, 19 Sept. 2005. The dates of completion of the pencil sketches of the orchestral numbers, as notated upon them and referenced to the numbering contained in the 1968 published piano-vocal score, follow: 8. “March,” 14 Sept. 1963; 1. “Introduction,” 30 Oct. 1963; 13. “Mount Sinai,” 1 Feb. 1964; and 15. “Dance to the Golden Calf,” 8 Feb. 1964. See: David Ward-Steinman, e-mail to the present writer, 24 Aug. 2006. 432 David Ward-Steinman, program notes for the premiere performances of The Song of Moses. 433 David Ward-Steinman, e-mail to the present writer, 24 Aug. 2006. 434 Thesken, B2; quoting Stamon, “Music: Moses, Ward-Steinman and Gregory Peck,” 69. 435 Thesken, B2. 436 Kriegsman, “„Song of Moses‟: Premiere at San Diego State Today,” E3. In David Ward-Steinman, e- mail to the present writer, 10 Nov. 2007, the composer wrote that he had received a quarter-time release from his teaching responsibilities to write The Song of Moses. He also, however, noted, “But at the post-performance banquet Dayton surprised me with a $1000.00 check.” 148 The performance forces Ward-Steinman designed into The Song of Moses are substantial. The work is scored for four vocal soloists, double chorus, and large orchestra, with harp, piano, celeste, and 25 percussion instruments. A solo saxophone is featured in one number. Biblical texts are allocated to a Narrator, the characters of Moses (baritone), Aaron (tenor), Pharaoh (tenor), and the chorus. Additionally, in parts III and IV of the oratorio, there are passages of a narrative nature set for a solo “Voice” (soprano). The chorus functions in a number of roles. It is at times divided into male and female choirs, and at other times it is divided into dual mixed choirs. The chorus often serves as a commentator on the action—not unlike the role of the chorus in ancient Greek drama. At times, it acts as the voice of God speaking to Moses. In two instances it represents the children of Israel when it sings poetic texts from the Book of Psalms. Sometimes, the chorus assumes a narrative role, but most often narration passages are allocated to the speaking Narrator. After attending an early rehearsal of the oratorio, El Cajon Valley News music critic Allan Shields observed: “The narration is a major and integral part of the oratorio, not incidental or merely contributive to the continuity.” 437 Reaching a similar conclusion after hearing the work‟s first performance, the aforementioned music critic Nick Stamon wrote, “Throughout, the role of narrator is vital to binding the work together.” 438 The Song of Moses received its premiere at San Diego State College on 31 May 1964, with two performances, at 3:15 p.m. and 8:15 p.m. respectively. 439 The actor Gregory 437 Allan Shields, “Preview: „Song of Moses‟: Narration, Drama Add To Sounds, Novelties,” Valley News [El Cajon, CA] 27 May 1964: b-5. Shields performed as a violinist in the premiere of the oratorio. 438 Stamon, “Music: Moses, Ward-Steinman and Gregory Peck,” 69. 439 Of the premiere in Frank Almond, e-mail to the present writer, 1 May 2007, Almond wrote: “There were several last-minute things which heightened the drama. The combined forces did not come together until the Saturday preceding the next day‟s performances, because logistics precluded that large number assembling in advance. Peterson Gym was acoustically a problem, but we had nothing else available, so we were apprehensive about poor acoustics affecting some of the complex passages.” Nevertheless, “A near-capacity crowd of 2,300 persons gave a standing ovation at the close of the world premiere.” See: “Ward-Steinman‟s Oratorio Praised,” [UPI] Alexandria Daily Town Talk [Alexandria, LA] 1 June 1964: 1. 149 Peck, a native of La Jolla, a graduate of San Diego High School, a student at San Diego State College (1933-36), and a co-founder of the La Jolla Playhouse, was engaged to perform the narration. 440 The part of Moses was sung by Cleve K. Genzlinger, who substituted at the last moment for the ailing David M. Loomis. 441 Aaron was sung by Ralph Wright, Pharaoh by Leonard Johnson, and Doris Jean Stone sang the soprano role. The San Diego State Aztec Concert Choir and College Chorus performed with the San Diego State Symphony Orchestra. Paul V. Anderson directed the performances. 442 440 According to Nick Stamon, music critic for San Diego magazine, when Smith approached Peck to perform the narration, Peck was “tremendously intrigued” with the idea. Concerning the impending premiere at San Diego State College‟s Peterson Gymnasium, shortly before the event Stamon wrote, “In sheer numbers involved, any pyramid-building Pharaoh would be envious. Not only will this super gym-scope production have an enormous complement of performers—vocal soloists, a massive 850 chorus, full symphony orchestra—but what no Pharaoh could possibly have commanded, film star Gregory Peck as narrator.” See: Stamon, “Music: Moses, Ward-Steinman and Gregory Peck,” 68-69. Although Peck‟s presence “added an unprecedented glamour and raised everyone‟s adrenaline level sky-high,” when he first appeared at the dress rehearsal the day before the oratorio‟s premiere it was soon discovered that he could not read a note of music and “was completely lost as to when he was supposed to speak.” Quoting: Frank Almond, e-mail to the present writer, 1 May 2007 and Susan Ward-Steinman, e-mail to the present writer, 19 May 2005, respectively. Susan Ward-Steinman offered to sit with Mr. Peck and give him all his cues, but at the performance this duty was performed by an advanced student. See: Susan Ward-Steinman, e-mail to the present writer, 19 May 2005 The improvised solution, however, evidently had limited success. In reviewing a recording of the 31 May 1964 premiere, music critic and performance violinist Allan Shields wrote, “The recording makes painfully clear what some of us were thinking about the narration by Mr. Gregory Peck after rehearsal and performance. His reading is inept, reflects misunderstandings, and is ill-communicated. He was the least prepared of all performers—and possibly the most important solo part. Mr. Peck‟s failures to comprehend the text or composition were profound and pervasive.” See: Allan Shields, “Sound Judgment,” Valley News [El Cajon, CA] 20 Sept. 1964: b-3. Peck had been offered a fee of $1000.00 for narrating the two premiere performances of The Song of Moses, but as an alumnus he refused it and instead donated it to the school. See: David Ward-Steinman, e-mail to the present writer, 10 Nov. 2007. 441 Slightly differing accounts exist as to the details of the substitution: “Cleve Genglinger [sic], [San Diego State College] associate professor of music, sang the role of Moses with only two days rehearsal.” See: “Ward- Steinman‟s Oratorio Praised,” 1. “Cleve Genzlinger, who fortunately has perfect pitch, stepped in at the last moment and gave a remarkable performance.” See: Susan Ward-Steinman, e-mail to the present writer, 19 May 2005. “David Loomis, who was to sing the part of Moses, lost his voice about ten days prior to the premiere and was replaced by Cleve Genzlinger, who performed the difficult part flawlessly.” See: Frank Almond, e-mail to the present writer, 1 May 2007. “The major musical solo part, Moses, sung by Prof. Cleve Genzlinger, possessor of a powerful, flowing, and sonorous baritone voice, could not be improved upon in his artful work.” See: Shields, “Sound Judgment,” b-3. 442 David Ward-Steinman, program notes for the premiere performances of The Song of Moses. J. Dayton Smith, Frank Almond, and David Loomis prepared the choir for the premiere. The pianist at the premiere was Robert Farris and the organist was Kenneth Fall. About Paul Anderson‟s direction of the performance, music critic and performance violinist Allan Shields wrote, [San Diego State College] “Prof. Paul Anderson‟s conducting is the one major element in the . . . performance success of “The Song of Moses.” No other single person gave so much, apart from the composer himself, to insure that success.” See: Shields, “Sound Judgment,” b-3. A limited edition recording of the 1964 performance was made available: Paul Anderson, cond., Gregory Peck nar., Cleve Genzlinger, bar., Ralph Wright, ten., Leonard Johnson, ten., and Jean Stone, sop., The Song of Moses by David Ward-Steinman, San Diego State College Concert Choir, Chorus, and Symphony Orchestra, LP, Location Recording Service LRS-1264-2347, 1964. 150 Following the work‟s premiere, Ward-Steinman edited the oratorio so as to “tighten it dramatically” and quicken its pace. The score, as it was originally performed, had consisted of an introduction and five parts; these were titled: Prologue; Part I: The Call; Part II: The Battle; Part III: The Triumph; Part IV: The Heresy; and Part V: The Death of Moses. The entirety of Part III originally had amounted to one number set for chorus (“Sing Ye to the Lord”). Eliminating much of the text that he had set, Ward-Steinman cut three large sections from this number and appended the shortened chorus to the end of Part II of the oratorio. In so doing, he renumbered and re-titled the various sections of the score, to wit: Prologue; Part I: The Call; Part II: Battle and Triumph; Part III: The Heresy; and Part IV: The Death of Moses. He cut one of Moses‟ solos completely (“Why Doth Thy [sic] Anger Blaze?”), a decision about which he remains “ambivalent.” In the version of the work as it was originally performed, a chorus that closed Part I of the score (“Out of the Depths”) also appeared in an expanded form at the close of Part IV of the score. The composer cut the first appearance of this chorus and retained the second, which is now located at the close of Part III of the revised score. Lastly, he cut a reprise from the chorus that closes the work (“And There Arose”). In making these changes, Ward-Steinman eliminated material that he had come to regard as “too rambling and discursive,” and he shortened the entire oratorio by ten minutes, resulting in a final performance time of about 70 minutes. 443 While in the process of revising his work, Ward-Steinman also made changes to his libretto. These alterations were of a minor nature and consisted mainly of the elimination of 443 Quoting David Ward-Steinman from Mumford, 5, and David Ward-Steinman, e-mail to the present writer, 14 Nov. 2005. A note in SDSC Press, “the song of moses: DAVID WARD-STEINMAN: a new publication of SAN DIEGO STATE COLLEGE PRESS,” press release, 1968, reads, “The performance time of approximately 70 minutes brings The Song of Moses into the repertoire of every group of music lovers. This is a refreshing and dramatic „something different‟ for churches, schools, colleges, universities and music societies.” The note appeared in Irving Ward-Steinman‟s article for the Ruston Daily Leader, without credit given to its source. He added, “The cover design by Robert E. Lee [then a San Diego State College faculty member] portrays dynamically and instinctively the power of the theme of „The Song of Moses.‟” See: Irving Ward-Steinman, 2. 151 narration associated with two numbers that were cut from the score. He disposed of text that had appeared before the discarded chorus (“Out of the Depths”), as well as text that had appeared before and after the discarded solo (“Why Doth Thy [sic] Anger Blaze?”). Appendix E, included at the end of this paper, presents a comparison of the original and revised versions of the libretto. In 1968 in anticipation of a second performance of the oratorio, and the publication of its piano-vocal score, Ward-Steinman further edited the work. 444 San Diego State College Press released the piano-vocal score in a limited edition printing that year. Subsequently, in 1995, all of the publication and rental rights to the score were assigned to Merion Music/Theodore Presser, Ward-Steinman‟s current publisher. 445 Two performances of the oratorio took place on 19 May 1968 at San Diego State College. The actor Vincent Price was engaged to perform the part of the Narrator. David M. Loomis sang the part of Moses, Victor Merth sang the part of Aaron, Leonard Johnson returned to sing the part of Pharaoh, and Doris Jean Stone again sang the soprano solos. The San Diego State Aztec Concert 444 In Susan Ward-Steinman, e-mail to the present writer, 27 Apr. 2007, Ms. Ward-Steinman described a domestic incident that occurred during the preparation of the score: “The engraving of the [piano-vocal] score of The Song of Moses was done by someone in Italy since there were few engravers in the United States at the time and none of them affordable. Before sending off the score, David went through it with red pencil, making minor corrections and giving indications to the engraver in the margins. Our son, Matthew, who was two or three at the time, toddled unnoticed into David‟s studio one day when his father was away. He climbed up on a chair, took the red pencil, and „did what Daddy does.‟ The score was sent off with these additions unobserved. When the score came back from the engraver, Matthew‟s additions were circled, with a question added in Italian that roughly translated, „What the hell does this mean?‟” 445 David Ward-Steinman, The Song of Moses, for narrator, four solo voices, chorus and orchestra (or piano) (San Diego: San Diego State College Press, 1968) 182 p. The score had a limited production run of 1000 copies, as is witnessed in Roger L. Cunniff [Director of the Campanile Press, formerly San Diego State College Press and now San Diego State University Press], letter to David Ward-Steinman, 10 Apr. 1978. The letter calls attention to the problems faced by composers who have their scores published in-house by college and university presses. Cunniff wrote, “A cursory examination of the expenses of The Song of Moses persuades me that there was never an intention of making a profit on this production.” If nothing else, Cunniff‟s observation serves to validate, once-and-for-all, Deut. 34:10: “There arose not a „profit‟. . . like unto Moses.” The Song of Moses, published piano-vocal score, won a San Diego State College Press Publication Award for the year 1967. The piano-vocal score, full score, and rental orchestral parts are now available exclusively through Merion Music/Theodore Presser, King of Prussia, PA. See: Gross, “American Composer Update: David Ward- Steinman” (Winter 1997), 44. 152 Choir and College Chorus performed with the San Diego State Symphony Orchestra. Howard Hill directed the performances. 446 A third, single, and most recent San Diego performance of the work took place at San Diego State on 9 May 1976. K. Kingsley Povenmire, a retired professor in the school‟s Drama Department, performed the part of the Narrator. Christopher Lindbloom sang the part of Moses, Jack Sheldon sang the parts of Aaron and Pharaoh, and Marcia Cope sang the soprano parts. The San Diego State Aztec Concert Choir and College Chorus and the San Diego State Symphony Orchestra performed. Once again, Howard Hill directed the performance. The complete oratorio has been performed in three other venues. One such performance took place at Del Mar College in Corpus Christi, Texas, on 4 December 1971. 447 Rabbi Sidney Wolf spoke the part of the Narrator, Edward Baird sang the part of Moses, David Jennings sang both the parts of Aaron and of Pharaoh, and Harriet McCleary performed the soprano solos. C. M. Shearer directed the performance, which featured the Del Mar College Orchestra and Choir, as well as “Selected High School Singers” from the Corpus Christi Independent School District. Another performance of the work took place on 2 May 1976, at the Westbrook Auditorium of Illinois Wesleyan University. The production featured Kevin Dunn as the Narrator, David Nott as Moses, Tim Pinkham as Aaron, David Rayl as Pharaoh, and Karen Huffstodt as the soprano soloist. The Collegiate and Festival Choirs sang, accompanied by the University Orchestra. Richard Hishman directed the performance. 446 A limited edition recording of the 1968 performance was made available: Howard Hill, cond., Vincent Price, nar., David Loomis, bar., Victor Merth, ten., and Jean Stone, sop., The Song of Moses by David Ward- Steinman, San Diego State College Concert Choir, Chorus, and Symphony Orchestra, LP, Century 31198, 1968. 447 The performance location and date of this particular production was not included in the program; the information was provided in David Ward-Steinman, e-mail to the present writer, 9 Feb. 2006. 153 The most recent presentation of The Song of Moses took place at the national conference of the Society of Composers, Inc., at the University of Kansas in Lawrence on 30 April 1998. William Kuhlke was the Narrator and Kenneth Woodward sang the part of Moses. James Ralston directed the soloists and the combined choirs and orchestra of the University of Kansas. 448 Excerpts from The Song of Moses have been performed over the years on multiple occasions in various venues, including church services. 449 The Story Behind the Oratorio The Song of Moses is an oratorio cast in a Prologue and four parts: The Call, Battle and Triumph, The Heresy and The Death of Moses. The libretto of the work consists largely of passages excerpted and adapted from three of the first five books of the Bible. 450 These passages include: Exodus 3-9, 11-15, 19, 24, and 31-33; Numbers 9, 11, 14, and 20; and Deuteronomy 3, 8, 31-32, and 34. There are no excerpts appropriated from either Genesis or Leviticus, but other passages found in the Old Testament, namely from Psalms 8 and 130, are used. 451 Appendix C, included at the end of this paper, presents the libretto of the work in its final revision. A brief synopsis of the story is offered here. 448 Gross, “American Composer Update: David Ward-Steinman” (Winter 1997), 44. 449 On 7 July 1964, at a “Matinee Music Club” concert at the City Hall Convention Center in Alexandria, LA, excerpts from The Song of Moses were performed featuring the composer‟s father Irving Ward-Steinman as Narrator. A concert of the San Diego State Symphony Orchestra on 9 April 1978 featured soloists Doris Jean Stone and David M. Loomis performing excerpts under the direction of Howard Hill. Excerpts for soloists and choir, led by J. Dayton Smith, were performed at the Point Loma [CA] Community Presbyterian Church, on 4 June 1972, during a service of worship that included a sermon entitled, “Who is on the Lord‟s Side.” On the occasion of the funeral of J. Dayton Smith, at the Point Loma Community Presbyterian Church on 20 April 1985, excerpts from the oratorio were also sung. These included: “The Lord Bringeth Thee,” sung by soprano Marilyn Rue, and “Out of the Depths,” sung by a choir of “former students and choir members [of J. Dayton Smith],” under the direction of Frank Almond. 450 Irving Ward-Steinman, 2. The first five books of the Bible are often referred to as the Torah, the Five Books of Moses, or The Law of Moses, or in Greek the Pentateuch. 451 The creation themes found in the Book of Genesis, as well as the less-than dramatic ritual concerns of the Book of Leviticus, are to a degree acknowledged, but not directly quoted, in David Ward-Steinman‟s libretto. 154 The Prologue serves as an introduction to the subject matter of the oratorio. It uses, as music critic Nick Stamon observed, “the modern cinematic device of a flashback scene,” and as Alan Kriegsman further noted, “[it] presages the outcome . . . [the oratorio] returns to this point in a sweeping dramatic arch.” 452 After a short introduction played by the orchestra, the Narrator sets the stage for the story of Moses as he speaks from Deuteronomy 34:1-4. Moses is found at the top of Pisgah, on the Mountain of Nebo, overlooking the land of Judah that God had promised to give to the descendents of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He acknowledges the greatness that the Lord has shown in bringing the children of Israel out of Egypt, but he laments the fact that God will not allow him to lead the people over the Jordan into the Promised Land. He pleads with God for entrance into the land: “Have I not served thee well all these years?” In response to Moses‟ prayer, the Narrator informs us that God will not attend to his pleading: Moses is not to lead the children of Israel into the land (Deut. 3:24-26). The Prologue concludes with a tribute to Moses sung by the double chorus set to the words of Deuteronomy 34:10-12: “And there arose not a prophet since in Israel, not a prophet like unto Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face . . . .” In Part I, The Call, the oratorio proper begins. From this point forward the narration is Biblically “chronological.” 453 The narrator tells us the story of God‟s appearance to Moses in the form of a burning bush while he is keeping the flock of Jethro on the mountain of Horeb (Exod. 3:1-3). God calls to Moses and he answers, saying, “Here am I.” The Lord speaks to Moses alternately through the voice of the men‟s choir, the women‟s choir, and the full chorus, with statements more declarative in nature allocated to the men‟s choir. God 452 Stamon, “Music: Moses, Ward-Steinman and Gregory Peck,” 69; Kriegsman, “„Song of Moses‟: Premiere at San Diego State Today,” E3. 453 David Ward-Steinman, “„Song of Moses‟: an Epic In Music,” E1. Our discussion of the libretto in this chapter will show that its narration is not consistently chronological. 155 tells Moses of his plan to have him lead the children of Israel out from under the tyranny of the rule of Pharaoh, and into a plentiful land which they will be able to call their own (Exod. 3:4-10). Moses responds, imploring consideration of his humble status and his personal inadequacies, “Who am I?” The Lord, however, assures Moses that his power will be with him and he will teach him to speak on his behalf (Exod. 3: 11-12; 4:1-17). The Narrator, subsequently, informs us that Moses and Aaron have gathered the children of Israel together to tell them the astonishing news that God gave to Moses and to perform the signs and wonders that he had commanded of them. Moses and Aaron inform the people that the Lord has noticed their affliction and will deliver them out of Egypt into a land promised to their forefathers: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Exod. 4:29-30). In response to the good news, the children of Israel “praised God and rejoiced”: the full chorus sings “How Excellent Thy Name” (Ps. 8:1, 4-5, 9), and a high point of the oratorio is thus realized. The Narrator then speaks of the meeting that Moses and Aaron have before the presence of Pharaoh and their efforts to convince him to “let [God‟s] people go” so that they may hold a feast in praise of their Lord in the wilderness. Pharaoh answers that he will not let the people go and tells Moses and Aaron to have them return to their labor. All the while he reasons: “Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice and let Israel go?” (Exod. 5:1-5) With this query Part I of the libretto is brought to a close. Part II, Battle and Triumph, portrays the difficulties that the children of Israel encounter in their escape from Egypt. The Narrator speaks the words which the Lord spoke to Moses when he reminded him of the Lord‟s covenant promise to his forebears: “I am the Lord: and appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob . . .” (Exod. 6:2-8). God tells Moses that his promise to deliver the children of Israel into the land of Canaan is about to be fulfilled. An account of the plagues that God brought over the land of Egypt follows 156 thereafter. The chorus, now divided, alternately sings the words of narration and the words of the Lord in a dialog with Pharaoh. Pharaoh beckons Moses and Aaron: “Take . . . away [the plagues] . . . and [then he] will let the people go.” Following each of his promises to release the children of Israel, however, Pharaoh hardens his heart and refuses to let them go. With the final plague God smites all of the male firstborn of the Egyptians (Exod. 8-11, 12:29). Pharaoh, thereafter, relents and finally agrees to let the captives go: “Rise up and get ye forth from my people, both ye and the children of Israel. Go and serve the Lord as ye said . . .” (Exod. 12:30-32). The Narrator then describes the journey of Moses and his people out of Egypt and informs us that God led the children of Israel “not through the land of the Philistines . . . lest the people repent when they see war . . . but God led them through the way of the wilderness of the Red Sea.” (Exod. 13:17) God led them by “a pillar of clouds” by day and “a pillar of fire” by night, until they finally camped by the sea (Exod. 13:21). The narration is now heard over a “March” played by the orchestra. We are told that when Pharaoh discovers the children of Israel have fled, he turns his heart against them once again. Pharaoh sings: “Why have we done this? Why have we let Israel go out from serving us?” He commands his army, his horsemen, and his chariots to pursue the children of Israel, capture them, and return them to Egypt (Exod. 14:5-9). The Narrator announces that, at the sight of Pharaoh and his men, the children of Israel “cried out unto the Lord.” The chorus assumes the voice of the children of Israel crying to God: “Why hast thou led us away to die in the wilderness? . . . Better to serve Pharaoh than to die in the wilderness!” (Exod. 14:10-12) Moses, however, commands the people to “Fear . . . not! Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord!” (Exod. 14:13) Now the Narrator describes how Moses stretches forth his hand, as God had commanded, and 157 divides the Red Sea so that the children of Israel may flee Pharaoh‟s approach. Pharaoh, however, continues to pursue the children of Israel. The men‟s chorus, the women‟s chorus, and finally the full chorus describe the dramatic account of Moses again stretching forth his hand, causing the sea to return, and drowning the Egyptians just as the children of Israel reach the shore on the other side (Exod. 14:21-30). The chorus then proclaims, “Sing ye to the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously, the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea . . . ,” and this setting of Exodus 15:1-21 brings Part II of the oratorio to its conclusion. Part III, The Heresy, begins with a description of the Lord‟s appearance at Mount Sinai. This event, the Narrator says, occurred after the time that God had led the children of Israel from Rephidim to camp anew at the base of the mountain in the wilderness of Sinai (Exod. 19:1-2). A male choir speaks as the voice of God, telling the people through Moses that they “shall be a kingdom of priests . . . and a holy nation,” if they will only keep his covenant (Exod. 19:3-7). With the sound of a trumpet and with thunder and lightning, the Lord appears in a cloud before the children of Israel and speaks to Moses (Exod. 19:16-19). Moses ascends to the top of the mountain to commune with God. Receiving the commandments from the Lord, which are inscribed on stone tablets, he remains there for forty days and forty nights and prepares for his descent from the mountain (Exod. 24:12-18; 31:18). The people, however, have given up waiting for Moses to come down from the mountain and gather themselves around Aaron. Even as Moses is receiving instructions from the Lord as to how the children of Israel may worship him, the chorus now assumes their voice in a demand to Aaron that he: “make [them] gods to go before [them].” Aaron ultimately succumbs to their pressure and tells the people to gather their jewelry to make a golden calf that they may worship it (Exod. 32:1-6). The chorus sings: “Let the golden calf 158 go before us! Let us celebrate his feast!” An orchestral “Dance to the Golden Calf” is played. God, we are told, has warned Moses that the children of Israel have blasphemed him (Exod. 32:7-8). Moses descends from the top of the mountain with the stone tablets upon which the commandments of the Lord are written only to find the people dancing before the golden calf. “Moses‟ anger blazed, and he flung the tablets from his hands, and broke them at the foot of the mountain.” (Exod. 32:15-16, 19) Moses then twice inquires of Aaron: “What did this people unto thee . . . ?” Aaron responds: “Thou knowest the people, how set on mischief they are.” (Exod. 32:21-24) Moses punishes the children of Israel for the great sin that they have brought on themselves and then, standing at the gate of the camp, asks the question: “Who is on the Lord's side?” One by one and then together, gradually building to one voice, members of the chorus who now represent the sons of Levi shout: “I, Lord” (Exod. 32:26). 454 We learn from the Narrator that God asks Moses to lead the people toward the land of Canaan because the Lord himself will not lead the “stiff-necked” people there, lest he destroy them on the way for their disobedience (Exod. 33:2-3). The people, however, are said to murmur against Moses and Aaron, demanding bread to eat, as the chorus sings: “Would to God we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt. . . . Have you brought us forth only to kill us with hunger?” Moses assures the children of Israel that God 454 In Susan Ward-Steinman, e-mail to the present writer, 20 May 2005, Ms. Ward-Steinman commented on this passage: “There is one part in The Song of Moses where Moses turns to the chorus and sings: „Who is on the Lord's side?‟ After a pregnant pause one lonely member says, „I, Lord.‟ Then another joins in, and then a few more, and many more until the entire chorus sings, „I, Lord.‟ This is probably the most exciting part and the pinnacle of the entire oratorio. This compositional technique was the result of two things: David's beginning experimentation with random elements in music and his upbringing in the South. In small-town South there were many revival meetings. The preacher at one point would ask any sinners to come forward and turn their lives over to Christ. After one courageous „sinner‟ came forward, the others would come and the number would grow and grow just as this event in The Song of Moses.” 159 will provide for their needs. A solo soprano “Voice” sings, describing the manna God has caused to fall from heaven (Exod. 16:3-4, 14-17, 31). The people are not satisfied with the manna and demand meat to eat. Moses, in turn, promises that the Lord will provide them an abundance of meat: “Until it comes out of [their] noses!” The “Voice” then describes a wind from the sea bringing a rain of quail that God provides (Num. 11:4-23). The children of Israel are as yet unsatisfied and demand water to drink. From the “Voice” we hear the sung narration: “And Moses gathered the people together and took the Lord‟s staff from the temple. He selected a common rock and pointed thereto, and his eyes blazed with fire as he spoke.” Moses tells the people that he will strike the rock to bring forth water for them to drink: “Hear now, ye rebels! Must we fetch you water out of this rock?” (Num. 20:2-11) Moses, however, fails to honor the Lord when he does not speak to the rock but strikes it twice with his staff instead. We are told that God chastises the people for putting him to the test “ten times,” and he chastises Moses also for not sanctifying him in the eyes of the children of Israel when he brought water from the rock. The people will, therefore, be put to death and Moses will not be permitted to lead them into the Promised Land (Num. 20:12). Moses intercedes with the Lord for the people‟s pardon: “Pity, Lord, pity; Mercy, Lord, mercy.” The Narrator informs us that God will pardon the people, but he will not allow any of them to enter the land of Canaan. This privilege will be granted only to their children. The elder generation will wander in the wilderness for 40 years until they die in the desert (Num. 14:20). We hear the chorus bemoan their fate through a setting of Psalm 130: “Out of the depths we cry unto thee, O Lord . . .” and with that chorus Part III of the oratorio closes. In Part IV, The Death of Moses, the Narrator quotes the Lord speaking to Moses at the time his life is coming to an end: “Behold, thy days approach that thou must die. Call 160 Joshua, and present yourselves in the tabernacle of the congregation, that I may commission him.” Moses admonishes Joshua to “Be strong and of good courage” when he leads the children of Israel into the Promised Land. He is to “fear not,” for “the Lord thy God doth go with Thee; he will not fail Thee, nor forsake Thee.” (Deut. 31:7-8, 14). Joshua, the Narrator informs us, is “full of the spirit of wisdom” after Moses laid his hands upon him (Deut. 34:9). A solo “Soprano” sings Moses‟ departing words to the descendents of the people: “For the Lord thy God bringeth thee into a good land . . . Bless the Lord thy God for the good land which he hath given thee.” (Deut. 8:7-10) We return to the place where we found Moses at the beginning of the oratorio: at the top of Pisgah, on the Mountain of Nebo, overlooking the land of Judah, the land that God had promised to the children of Israel. We hear the Narrator speak: “And the Lord said unto him: This is the land which I promised unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, saying, „I will give it unto thy seed.‟ I have caused thee to see it with thine own eyes, but thou shalt not go over into the land.” (Deut. 34:4) Moses then sings a paraphrase of the first four verses of the Biblical Song of Moses found in Deuteronomy 32:1-4: Give ear, O ye heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth. My words shall fall as the rain, my speech shall distill as the dew, as the mist upon the tender herb, and as fresh showers upon the grass: for I proclaim the name of the Lord! Give praise unto God! He is the Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are just. A God of truth without iniquity: just and right is he. We are told of the death of Moses in the land of Moab: “His eye was not dim, and his vigor was unabated” (Deut. 34:7). The oratorio then closes with a fragment of the concluding chorus of the Prologue, returned here in epilogue (Deut. 34:10): “And there arose 161 not a prophet since in Israel, not a prophet like unto Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face.” And so, The Song of Moses ends. David Ward-Steinman has written concerning the close of his oratorio: At the conclusion . . . „The Death of Moses,‟ we are back at the opening scene of the Prologue, and the initial question raised there has now been answered. Moses, in perfect acceptance, sings: „Give praise unto God. He is the Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are just; A God of truth without iniquity: Just and right is he.‟ 455 To what extent the “initial question” of the oratorio has been answered is a matter that will be addressed at a point later in this chapter. Discussion and Analysis of the Libretto David Ward-Steinman authored the libretto of The Song of Moses with the help of his first wife Susan Lucas Ward-Steinman using the text and language of the King James Version (KJV) of the Bible. 456 The five parts of the revised version of the oratorio, along with citations of the Biblical passages appropriated in them, follow: Prologue (Deut. 34, 3, 34); Part I: The Call (Exod. 3, 4; Ps. 8; Exod. 5); Part II: Battle and Triumph (Exod. 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15); Part III: The Heresy (Exod. 19, 24, 31, 32, 33; Num. 9, 14, 11, 20, 14, 20, 14; Ps. 130); and Part IV: The Death of Moses (Deut. 31, 8, 34, 8, 34, 32, 34). 455 David Ward-Steinman, “„Song of Moses‟: an Epic In Music,” E1. 456 In David Ward-Steinman, e-mails to the present writer, 19 Sept. 2005 and 8 Feb. 2006, the composer wrote: “I made the libretto myself from the King James Version of the Bible, which I still think has the most poetic language,” and “Where the KJV was too arcane, archaic, or unvocal I did my own „revised non-standard‟ translation. I may have consulted other translations, but I think I just simplified the language on my own initiative. On the whole I much preferred the Elizabethan-Shakespearean prose of the KJV to any of the modern translations, which I felt lacked the power and majesty of the KJV. Besides, [the latter] was the version from which I memorized over a thousand verses [as a youth] and I didn't want to have to relearn them!” In Susan Ward-Steinman, e-mail to the present writer, 20 Nov. 2006, Ms. Ward-Steinman shed some light on the assistance she provided with the libretto: “My work on the text was general [and mostly involved] cleaning up some of the cumbersome words to make the text more singable.” 162 The libretto is, in the words of San Diego music critic Alan Shields, “a considerable creative triumph of a literary kind . . . an unbelievably tight distillation into 8-10 pages of almost 150 double column pages of Biblical action and history.” 457 While writing his libretto, Ward-Steinman sought the assistance of John Carey and Sanford Engel, who provided “literary and dramatic criticism” of the text. 458 He also consulted his father, Irving Ward-Steinman, “a Biblical scholar of sorts,” who helped him to resolve some theological problems. Ward-Steinman, however, maintains that the final choice of the libretto‟s wording was his own. 459 In the process of writing and revising, the composer-librettist made a number of changes to the original KJV text in order to adapt it for musical-dramatic purposes. The purpose of the present discussion is to illustrate and discuss these changes. 1. Textual Alterations Made in the Exodus Story The alterations made to the Biblical text may be classified into three broad categories: Minor Changes, where new words and phrases were substituted for the original ones; Moderate Changes, which made additions or deletions of phrases and/or sentences; and Substantial Changes, which significantly transformed the order of occurrence of historic events. The purpose of the minor changes was to exchange elements of speech that were so far out of today‟s common usage that they would be generally misunderstood by the listener and/or would be awkward for the performers to pronounce and/or to sing. Minor changes in 457 Allan Shield [sic], “„Song of Moses‟ Premiere: Religious Experience Delivered by Libretto,” Valley News [El Cajon, CA] 3 June 1964: a-4. The composer‟s actual libretto in its draft form numbers to 20 pages, plus a cover page and a table of contents. 458 Quoting David Ward-Steinman, program notes for the premiere performances of The Song of Moses. In David Ward-Steinman, e-mail to the present writer, 20 Dec. 2005, the composer wrote: “John Carey was a La Jolla High School English teacher, a poet, a friend, and a collaborator. We worked together on a [never completed] musical about the life of Richard Sheridan, with John doing the book and lyrics. Sandy Engel was an actor and a director. He narrated my and Susan‟s Tale of Issoumbochi (a work commissioned by the Association for Childhood Education for their national convention in San Diego in 1968) several times.” 459 David Ward-Steinman, e-mail to the present writer, 19 Sept. 2005. 163 punctuation were also made, but their purpose is generally so obvious that they will not be noted or discussed here. In order to increase the clarity and/or the singability of the text, moderate changes were made: the order of words was rearranged, awkward phrases were simplified and/or paraphrased, and long passages were shortened and/or summarized. 460 Substantive changes to the text were made when the clarity of the drama was judged to be dependent on the simplification of complex threads found in the Biblical narrative. Appendix D, included at the end of this paper, presents a comparison of the text of the libretto with its source in the King James Version of the Bible. We will presently examine many of the changes there noted. In the illustrations shown in our discussion below, the KJV text appears first and its corresponding text in the libretto succeeds it. As in Appendix D, words in the libretto that do not appear in the KJV text, as well as words in the quoted KJV passages that are omitted from the libretto, are italicized. a. Minor, Moderate, and Substantial Changes All of the categories of textual alteration that are described above may be noted early in the libretto. The very first passage spoken by the Narrator in the oratorio‟s Prologue illustrates a number of the types of changes that may be found in the work as a whole: 1 And Moses went up from the plains of Moab unto the mountain of Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, that is over against Jericho. And the LORD shewed him all the land of Gilead, unto Dan, 2 And all Naphtali, and the land of Ephraim, and Manasseh, and all the land of Judah, unto the utmost sea, 3 And the south, and the plain of the valley of Jericho, the city of palm trees, unto Zoar. 4 And the LORD said unto him, This is the land which I sware unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, saying, I will give it unto thy seed: I have caused thee to see it with thine eyes, but thou shalt not go over thither. [Deut. 34] 460 In David Ward-Steinman, e-mail to the present writer, 19 Sept. 2005, the composer noted, “I had to fill in some of the Bible verses when I needed more text.” 164 And when Moses had come to the end of his days, he went up from the plains of Moab unto the Mountain of Nebo, to the top of Pisgah that is over against Jericho. And the Lord showed him all the land of Gilead unto Dan, and all the land of Judah unto the utmost sea; and to the south, and the plain of the valley of Jericho, the city of palm trees, unto Zoar. And the Lord said unto Moses: This is the land of Judah which I swore unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, saying, “I will give it unto thy seed.” I have caused thee to see it with thine own eyes, but thou shalt not go over into the land. The first change to be noted in this passage, the addition of the words “when Moses had come to the end of his days,” serves to provide the listener with a point of reference in time. It is a substantive change because the phrase does not occur in its corresponding KJV passage. In the ensuing lines of text, the composer-librettist apparently thought it wise to omit some of the geographic details found in the Biblical account, such as those that occur in the sentence fragment, “all Naphtali, and the land of Ephraim, and Manasseh,” likely judging this information as superfluous to the dramatic purpose of his narrative. Several minor changes may be noted in this passage that are representative of alterations made to the KJV text in the entire libretto. These consist of the repetition of names (e.g., “Moses” and “Judah”), the addition of prepositions (e.g., to) and adjectives (e.g., own), all for emphasis, and the substitution of new words for those which might be considered archaic in our present vocabulary (e.g., “shall not go over into the land” for “shall not go over thither”). None of these changes adds to, or subtracts from, the meaning of the original text; they only serve to simplify, clarify, and lend dramatic impact to the passage. The same techniques of textual adjustment that are used in the opening narrative are also employed in Moses‟ solo which follows (2. “O Lord God”). Here the text is sung, not spoken, compounding the task of adaptation. Both the clarity of Moses‟ text and its singability were factors the composer-librettist had to take into consideration: 165 24 O Lord GOD, thou hast begun to shew thy servant thy greatness, and thy mighty hand: for what God is there in heaven or in earth, that can do according to thy works, and according to thy might? 25 I pray thee, let me go over, and see the good land that is beyond Jordan, that goodly mountain, and Lebanon. [Deut. 3] O Lord God, thou hast only begun to show thy servant thy greatness and thy mighty hand: For what god is there in heaven or earth that can do such mighty acts and deeds as thine? Have I not served thee well all these years? I pray thee, Let me go over and see the good land beyond the Jordan, those verdant highlands, and the Lebanon. The solo illustrates a number of minor changes that the composer-librettist made to the KJV text. These modifications include the elimination of adverbs (e.g., only) and prepositions (e.g., in); the addition of articles (e.g., the); and the replacement of words (e.g., show for shew) and entire clauses (e.g., “what god . . . can do such mighty acts and deeds as thine?” for “what God . . . can do according to thy works, and according to thy might?”). All of these exchanges illustrate the composer-librettist‟s obvious intent to improve the clarity and singability of his text. The helpfulness of a number of his phrase substitutions, however, is questionable (e.g., “those verdant highlands” for “that goodly mountain”). The solo additionally illustrates one of the more significant types of changes found throughout the libretto. The composer-librettist directs our attention to the theological dilemma personified in the oratorio‟s principal character when Moses asks God, “Have I not served thee well all these years?” He accomplishes this goal, however, with words that are extraneous to the Biblical text, in addition, he appropriates artistic license here and elsewhere in the libretto to the advancement of the drama. The libretto‟s four drafts show that he made many of the additions of phrases that supplement the KJV text over time, and that he struggled with a number of them. 166 The Narrator speaks the next passage that occurs in the Prologue. This passage offers an illustration of how the imposition of clarity and brevity on the text contributes to its dramatic impact: 26 But the LORD was wroth with me for your sakes, and would not hear me: and the LORD said unto me, Let it suffice thee; speak no more unto me of this matter. [Deut. 3] But the Lord was angry with Moses for his people’s sake, and would not hear him. Here the composer-librettist dispenses with language that is archaic to the ears of today‟s listener and sure to cause confusion rather than enlightenment in their minds. The Double Chorus that closes the Prologue (3. “And There Arose) contains additional examples of textual changes that serve various purposes: 10 And there arose not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face, 11 In all the signs and the wonders, which the LORD sent him to do in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh, and to all his servants, and to all his land, 12 And in all that mighty hand, and in all the great terror which Moses shewed in the sight of all Israel. [Deut. 34] And there arose not a prophet since in Israel, not a prophet like unto Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face. In all the signs and wonders which the Lord sent him to do in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all his land, and for all the mighty power and all the great wonders which Moses wrought in the sight of all Israel, there was none like him at all. There arose not a prophet since in Israel, not a prophet like unto Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face. In this passage the phrase “for all the mighty power” substituted for “in all that mighty hand,” as well as the phrase “and all the great wonders” substituted for “and in all the great terror,” add clarity and lend singability to the text. The addition of the words “there was none like him at all” serves the dual purpose of focusing drama on the character of Moses and creating a sense of repose in the music. 167 As the four examples above illustrate, the oratorio‟s Prologue demonstrates all three categories of textual alteration: minor, moderate and substantial changes. The examples show additions, substitutions, and exclusions of words and phrases that were made to accomplish the goals of clarity, brevity, contextualization, singability (where required), and dramatic focus. A number of other examples of these changes, taken from the balance of the oratorio, will now be cited. While no attempt will be made to systematically compile an exhaustive catalog of every textual alteration that occurs, subcategories of examples will be cited from the two overall categories of moderate changes and substantial changes. Within the category of moderate changes examples will be given of i. Rephrasing, ii. Verbal Reduction, iii. Creative Assignment of Text, and iv. Poetic License; and within the category of substantial changes examples will be given of i. Reordering, and ii. Exclusion. b. Moderate Changes i. Rephrasing In the category of moderate changes and the subcategory of rephrasing, two examples of altered texts assigned to the Narrator are examined. In the first (13. “Mount Sinai”), the substitute phrase, “was completely enveloped in smoke,” used in lieu of “was altogether on a smoke,” serves to modernize the language and, thereby, establish clarity: 18 And mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the LORD descended upon it in fire: and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly. [Exod. 19] And Mount Sinai was completely enveloped in smoke, because the Lord had descended upon it in fire; and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly. In the second example of rephrasing (4. “Here Am I”), a substitution of wording helps to clarify ancient geography: 168 1 Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father in law, the priest of Midian: and he led the flock to the backside of the desert, and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb. [Exod. 3] Now, Moses kept the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian; and he led the flock to the western part of the desert, and came to the mountain of God, which was called Horeb. ii. Verbal Reduction ii. The libretto illustrates a number of instances of verbal reduction. Two examples of occur when the Lord, whose words are sung by the chorus, promises he will abide with Moses at the time he calls him to lead the children of Israel out of Egypt (4. “Here Am I”). Moses has just expressed his reluctance to speak with Pharaoh on behalf of the people because he has judged himself “slow of speech and slow of tongue”: 11 And the LORD said unto him, Who hath made man‟s mouth? or who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind? have not I the LORD? [Exod. 4] Who hath made man‟s mouth? Have not I, the Lord, made man‟s mouth? 12 And he said, Certainly I will be with thee; and this shall be a token unto thee, that I have sent thee: When thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this mountain. [Exod. 3] Certainly I will be with thee. When thou hast brought the people out, ye shall serve God upon this mount. The second of the two passages quoted above is much more graceful and singable than the first—a tongue-twister of sorts for the choir. Verbal reduction is often necessary when a long narrative passage of text that originates from more than section of scripture is used. In the second example (16. “What Did This People Unto Thee?”), a number of different KJV passages are combined into one, skipping verses, chapters, and even jumping between whole books, while leaving out details judged to be non-essential to the essence of the drama: 169 1 And the LORD said unto Moses, Depart, and go up hence, thou and the people which thou hast brought up out of the land of Egypt, unto the land which I sware unto Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying, Unto thy seed will I give it: 3 Unto a land flowing with milk and honey: for I will not go up in the midst of thee; for thou art a stiffnecked people: lest I consume thee in the way. [Exod. 33] 23 At the commandment of the LORD they rested in the tents, and at the commandment of the LORD they journeyed: they kept the charge of the LORD, at the commandment of the LORD by the hand of Moses. [Num. 9] 2 And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron: and the whole congregation said unto them . . . [Num. 14] And the Lord said unto Moses: Depart, thou and the people which thou hast brought up out of the land of Egypt; and go up hence unto the land which I swore unto Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying, “Unto thy seed will I give a land flowing in milk and honey; for I will not go up myself in the midst of thee, lest I destroy thee on the way, for thou art a stiff-necked people.” And at the commandment of the Lord, the children of Israel journeyed onward, and at the commandment of the Lord they pitched their tents and rested. They kept the charge of the Lord, at the commandment of the Lord by the hand of Moses. But the whole congregation of the children of Israel began to murmur against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness, and the children of Israel said unto them . . . iii. Creative Assignment of Text In the subcategory of creative assignment of text, two examples of textual alteration are offered. The first example (4. “Here Am I”) is set for Narrator, the character Moses, and the chorus. Note in this example that the women‟s chorus, the men‟s chorus, and the full chorus alternately sing the voice of God: 4 And when the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I. 5 And he said, Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground. 170 6 Moreover he said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to look upon God. 7 And the LORD said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows; 8 And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey . . . [Exod. 3] Narrator: And when the Lord saw that Moses had turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said: Chorus: Moses, Moses, Moses: Here am I. Chorus: Moses, Moses, Moses: Here am I. Women’s Chorus: Do not draw nigh: Put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place where thou standest is holy. Men’s Chorus: I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. Chorus: I have seen the plight of my people in Egypt; I have heard their cry, and I know their sorrows. And I am come down to deliver them out of the hands of Pharaoh, and to bring them up out of that land, unto a land, fine and large; unto a land flowing with milk and honey. The second example illustrates a particularly striking instance of creative assignment of text. It is found in Moses‟ address to the children of Israel that occurred subsequent to the heresy of the worship of the golden calf (16. “What Did This People Unto Thee?”). After Moses asks who among the children of Israel will stand with him “on the Lord‟s side,” one by one each member of the chorus of the Levites responds in a spoken voice: “I, Lord.” The mass of sound that ensues builds until the choir finishes in unison: 171 26 Then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, Who is on the LORD‟s side? let him come unto me. And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together unto him. [Exod. 32] Moses: Who is on the Lord‟s side? Chorus: I, Lord; I, Lord; I, Lord; I! iv. Poetic License: The final subcategory of moderate changes is that of poetic license, nine examples of which are here provided. The first two examples illustrate the composer-librettist‟s free use of embellishment, and the next three illustrate his imposition of rhyme, on the KJV text. The sixth and final example illustrates insertion of parenthetical commentary on paraphrased text. The first example of poetic license achieved through textual embellishment is contained in words set for Pharaoh (7. “And the Lord Spoke”), where a free reconstruction of Pharaoh‟s promise to Moses and Aaron, based on a foregoing text sung by Chorus II (not shown here), is made: 28 And Pharaoh said, I will let you go, that ye may sacrifice to the LORD your God in the wilderness; only ye shall not go very far away: intreat for me. [Exod. 8] Take the lice away, take the flies away; take them out of our homes and fields. Cleanse the land of all these pests and I will do my best to let your people go. The second example in this subcategory is from a text setting for chorus (14. “Make Us Gods To Go Before Us”). Here, the words “[Moses has] been gone not one day, nor two days, nor ten days, nor twenty but forty days and nights!” do not find their origin in the quoted passage but accomplish a musical purpose that does not alter its meaning: 1 And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him, Up, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him. [Exod. 32] 172 Up, up, make us gods to go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up from Egypt, we know not what has become of him. He’s been gone not one day, nor two days, nor ten days, nor twenty but forty days and nights! And we know not what has become of him! Make us gods to go before us. Often, the character of music that the composer desired for a particular section of the oratorio necessitated the superimposition of rhyme on the KJV text. The danger inherent in this approach to setting text is that the overlaying of rhyme may create a stylistic dissonance with the intrinsic quality of the King James language. Indeed, the composer-librettist was at some times more successful in his use of rhyme than he was at others. The examples of poetic license in the form of superimposition of rhyme that will be examined here are found in passages for chorus from a single number (7. “And the Lord Spoke”). In the first example obscured rhyme is derived from a rearrangement of the KJV text itself. In the second the composer-librettist creates a triple rhyme in embellishment on the original text but in so doing discards a rhyme that is already present in the KJV. In the third rhyme is created through the insertion of a new word: 6 And Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt; and the frogs came up, and covered the land of Egypt. [Exod. 8] Chorus II: And Moses once more stretched forth his hand, and the frogs came up and covered the land. 22 And the LORD said unto Moses, Stretch forth thine hand toward heaven, that there may be hail in all the land of Egypt, upon man, and upon beast, and upon every herb of the field, throughout the land of Egypt. [Exod. 9] Chorus I: And the Lord spoke unto Moses: Stretch forth thy crook unto heaven’s brook that hail may come down as the people look, throughout the land of Egypt. 173 23 And Moses stretched forth his rod toward heaven: and the LORD sent thunder and hail, and the fire ran along upon the ground; and the LORD rained hail upon the land of Egypt. [Exod. 9] Chorus II: And Moses stretched forth his crook toward heaven and the Lord sent thunder and hail as a leaven; and the fire ran along upon the ground, as the hail rained down from all around, throughout the land of Egypt. Ward-Steinman‟s early libretto drafts show a set of couplets that the composer-librettist assigned to Pharaoh in current number that he, perhaps, wisely excluded from his final draft. The passage appears immediately before the Lord brings the final plague upon Egypt: I have sinned this time, I‟ve been wicked and rough; Inform your Lord that I‟ve had enough. Withdraw the hail and stop the lightning, too; I will let you go, and I won‟t pursue. Crafty as these couplets may be, it is questionable how well they would have fit the style of the King James language. Following the plague of the slaying of the Egyptians‟ male firstborn, the couplet that closes the number is tastefully rhymed: 31 And he called for Moses and Aaron by night, and said, Rise up, and get you forth from among my people, both ye and the children of Israel; and go, serve the LORD, as ye have said. 32 Also take your flocks and your herds, as ye have said, and be gone; [Exod. 12] And Pharaoh sent for Moses by night and bid him be gone in haste, before light. The sixth and final example in the subcategory of poetic license is one that—for want of a better title—will be called parenthetical commentary. It is a line that the composer-librettist granted to Pharaoh immediately after the Lord brought the Plagues of Blood and Frogs upon Egypt (7. “And the Lord Spoke”). Interestingly, Ward-Steinman did not include this intentionally humorous banality in the libretto that accompanied the oratorio‟s published piano-vocal score, although it does appear in the various revisions of his 174 drafts, included, crossed-out, and re-inserted again. It is shown here as the final line of the illustration: 8 Then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron, and said, Intreat the LORD, that he may take away the frogs from me, and from my people; and I will let the people go, that they may do sacrifice unto the LORD. [Exod. 8] Take the frogs away from me and my people, take the blood away from the lakes and wells; for I really can’t stand the smells. 461 c. Substantial Changes i. Reordering Within the category of substantial changes and under the subcategory of reordering, alterations are made to the KJV text that impose on the substance and order of historic events as they are there expounded. A single example of these changes is here provided. It involves shuffling of text from Exodus 15. The chapter indicates that the canticle, The Song of Moses and Miriam, was sung twice or perhaps only once, but in an antiphonal manner. Beginning in the first verse, it was led by Moses: 1 Then sang Moses and the children of Israel this song unto the LORD, and spake, saying, I will sing unto the LORD, for he hath triumphed gloriously: the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea. [Exod. 15] The words of the complete song are recounted in verses 1-19 of the chapter. Verses 20-21 indicate that the song was repeated, this time by Moses‟ sister Miriam: 20 And Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel in her hand; and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dances. 21 And Miriam answered them, Sing ye to the LORD, for he hath triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea. [Exod. 15] 461 In David Ward-Steinman, e-mail to the present writer, 10 Nov. 2007, the composer noted, “I saw Pharaoh as an epicene dandy, mincing around Moses; hence, „I really can't stand the smells.‟” 175 As a preface to his setting of The Song of Moses and Miriam (11. “Sing Ye to the Lord”), of the two introductions that the composer had at his disposal, he chose to use the one that offered the most in musical possibilities, that of course being the one from Exodus 15:20, although it was not the one that came first. The chorus then sings verses 1-7 of the canticle: Narrator: And Miriam, the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel in her hand; and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dances. Chorus: Sing ye to the Lord, For he hath triumphed gloriously, the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea. He is my God, my father‟s God; I will exalt him most highly (while he fights for us, and is good to us). The Lord is a man of war: The Lord is his name! Sing ye now to the Lord above: Pharaoh‟s chariots he hath cast into the sea: his chosen captains and all his host are drowned. Thy right hand, O Lord, is glorious in power: In the greatness of thine excellence thou hast overthrown them who rose up against thee. Sing ye to the Lord above for he hath triumphed gloriously. Sing ye to the Lord. ii. Exclusion In our final examples of textual alterations made in the Exodus story, substantial changes of text occur under the subcategory of exclusion. Given the sheer length of the Pentateuch and the immense range of events described therein, it is inevitable that anyone who would venture to formulate a libretto on the story of Moses would have to exclude a great deal of Biblical text in the process of doing so. As has already been noted, Ward- Steinman placed the focus of his oratorio on the spirituality of Moses, how he reconciled his role as God‟s ambassador and leader of the children of Israel with his human failings. He further narrowed the oratorio‟s scope to the events that surround the people‟s exodus from Egypt and their camp at Mount Sinai. Writing even within these limitations, he had to make a number of textual exclusions. Because of their nature, however slight or substantial they may be, some of these exclusions ran the risk of being onerous. An inspection of the 176 revisions of the composer‟s libretto shows that he struggled over time with many of them. In one number (11. “Sing Ye to the Lord”) text is discarded in the third draft of the libretto, only to be restored in the fourth draft, and then ultimately discarded again in the post- premiere revision of the score. In another number (“Why Doth Thy [sic] Anger Blaze?”), text is likewise discarded in the third draft of the libretto, only to be restored in the fourth draft, but then the entire number is scraped in the post-premiere, revised score. 462 Ward-Steinman excluded most of the details of Moses‟ early life. 463 In the oratorio‟s Prologue we meet Moses as an old man looking back at his accomplishments in the Exodus. 464 When we meet him again in Part I of the oratorio, he is sojourning as a shepherd in the land of Midian, keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro. Moses has led his flock to the mountain of Horeb; and while he is there, God speaks to him in the form of a burning bush. Moses is about to lead the children of Israel out from under the tyranny of the rule of Pharaoh and into a plentiful land that they will be able to call their own. 465 Moses sets off with his family for Egypt. The composer excludes from his libretto the details of Moses‟ journey through the desert, of God‟s wrath against him for his failure to circumcise his son Gershom, and his meeting of his elder brother Aaron on the way. Once in Egypt Moses and Aaron gain a hearing before their oppressed kindred, who believe their account of God‟s intent after the children of Israel see the signs that God has Moses and Aaron perform in their midst. 462 In David Ward-Steinman, e-mail to the present writer, 6 Oct. 2007, the composer justified his use of the word “thy” instead of “thine” in this number: “The open vowel on „thy‟ is easier to sing than the consonant in „thine.‟” 463 The account of Moses‟ early life is related in Exod. 2. It includes his birth to Jochebed, the wife of the Levite Amram; Jochebed‟s effort to save him from certain death at the hands of the Egyptians by placing him in a basket and setting him adrift in the river Nile; his rescue from the Nile and adoption by Thermuthis, the daughter of Pharaoh; his slaying of an Egyptian slave master whom he found beating a Hebrew slave in the land of Goshen; his fleeing and escape over the Sinai peninsula; his adoption by Hobab; and his marriage to Zipporah. 464 This section of the libretto derives its text from Deut. 3:24-26 and 34:10-12. 465 The Lord‟s conversation with Moses is recorded in Exod. 3:1-4:17. 177 One specific example of exclusion which involves a change of text more radical than those cited above occurs at the close of Part I of the libretto, at the end of a passage that occurs immediately prior to the chorus‟ singing of Psalm 8 (5. “How Excellent Thy Name”): 29 And Moses and Aaron went and gathered together all the elders of the children of Israel: 30 And Aaron spake all the words which the LORD had spoken unto Moses, and did the signs in the sight of the people. 31 And the people believed: and when they heard that the LORD had visited the children of Israel, and that he had looked upon their affliction, then they bowed their heads and worshipped. [Exod. 4] And Moses and Aaron went and gathered together all the elders of the children of Israel; and Aaron spoke all the words which the Lord had spoken unto Moses, and performed the signs which the Lord had commanded in the sight of the people. And the people believed. When they heard that the Lord had visited the children of Israel and had noticed their affliction, they praised God and rejoiced. With the substitution of the words “they praised God and rejoiced” for the original “they bowed their heads and worshipped,” Ward-Steinman intentionally turns a solemn occasion into one of celebration. He does so solely for musical-dramatic purposes since he felt that a high point was necessary at the close the Part I of the oratorio. 466 This change first appears in the third draft of the composer‟s libretto. He justifies his alteration: “I wanted an exuberant climax at that point in the oratorio which, along with the „sacred dance‟ of „Sing Ye to the Lord,‟ makes a vivid counterpart to the later pagan „Dance to the Golden Calf.‟” 467 In Part II of the oratorio, Moses and Aaron go to Pharaoh to tell him that the Lord God of Israel wants him to let the children of Israel celebrate a feast in the wilderness. 466 According to a literal translation of the Hebrew as found in the Masoretic Text, the passage in Exod. 4:31 reads in English: “And believed the people; they and heard that had visited Jehovah the sons of Israel, and that had He seen their affliction, they and bowed and worshiped.” Jay P. Green, Sr., ed. and trans., The Interlinear Hebrew-Aramaic Old Testament, 2 nd ed. (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1985) 150-51. 467 David Ward-Steinman, e-mail to the present writer, 8 Feb. 2006. 178 Pharaoh replies that he does not know Israel‟s God and that he, therefore, will not release the people to celebrate such a feast. 468 Of the ten plagues that subsequently befall Egypt, the libretto mentions only six of them, and those six are so arranged to give the impression of only four. 469 Omitted entirely from the libretto is the story behind the Passover. 470 Following the final plague inflicted on the Egyptians, the slaying of their firstborn males, Pharaoh releases the children of Israel, but he then has a change of mind and calls out his army to recapture them. 471 The composer gives a prominent role in his libretto to the story of the escape of the children of Israel through Moses‟ parting of the Red Sea, as he does to the singing of The Song of Moses and Miriam in celebration of their liberation. 472 He, however, does not represent the incident of the sweetening of the waters of Marah; neither does he recount the story of the incident at the rock of Horeb at Rephidim, the first of two occasions when Moses called forth water from a rock to quench the people‟s thirst. 473 The attack of the Amalekites on the camp of the children of Israel at Rephidim and Joshua‟s subsequent battle with them the composer likewise does not mention; nor does he include 468 Moses‟ journey back to Egypt, and his and Aaron‟s appearance before both the children of Israel and Pharaoh, is recorded in Exod. 4:18-5:4. 469 The ten plagues God imposed on Egypt are outlined in Exod. chapters 7-12: 1. Egyptian rivers turned to blood (Exod. 7:14-24), 2. Plague of frogs (Exod. 8:1-15), 3. Plague of gnats (Exod. 8: 16-19), 4. Plague of Flies (Exod. 8:20-32), 5. Disease of Egyptian livestock (Exod. 9:1-7), 6. Boils on the Egyptians‟ skin (Exod. 9:8-12), 7. Fiery hail and thunder (Exod. 9:13-35), 8. Plague of locust (Exod. 10:1-20), 9. Darkness over the land of Egypt (Exod. 10:21-29), and 10. Slaying of the Egyptians‟ male firstborn (Exod. 11:1-10 and 12:29). Part II, number 7 of the oratorio, “And the Lord Spoke,” is divided into four sections wherein only four “plagues” are dramatized: 1. Plague of frogs and blood, 2. Plague of lice and flies, 3. Plague of hail and thunder, and 4. Slaying of the Egyptians‟ male first-born. 470 The first Passover is described in Exod. 12:1-28. 471 The story of the exodus from Egypt is recorded in Exod. 12:31-42 and 13:17-14:4. The story of the Egyptian pursuit, the parting of the Red Sea, and the drowning of the Egyptians is recorded in Exod. 14:5-31. 472 The Song of Moses and Miriam is contained in Exod. 15:1-21, and is set for chorus and orchestra in Part II, number 11 of the oratorio: “Sing Ye To the Lord.” 473 The incident at the waters of Marah, when Moses caused the bitter water to turn sweet, is recorded in Exod. 15:22-26. The incident at Massah and Meribah (Hebrew for “testing” and “quarreling,” respectively) near Rephidim, when Moses summoned water from the rock of Horeb, is recorded in Exod. 17:1-7. 179 the visit of Moses‟ father-in-law Jethro, who encouraged Moses in his role as a judge over the children of Israel. 474 Well-represented in Part III of the composer‟s libretto is the record of the events that transpired after the children of Israel camped at Mount Sinai, including the appearance to them of the cloud, thunder, lightning, and trumpet blast that accompanied God‟s descent onto the mountain. Also well-represented is Moses‟ communion with God on top of the mountain, Aaron‟s fashioning of a golden calf for the idolatrous people to worship, and the wrath of God that ensued because of the latter. It is clear from the Biblical text that Moses ascended Mount Sinai to meet with God more than one time, but the librettist has condensed these several meetings into one occurrence. Segueing seamlessly between Exodus 19, 24, 31,and 32, he has excluded any mention of the giving of the Ten Commandments, the ceremonial law, or the promise of an angel from the Lord who will guide the people into the land of Canaan. In addition, he has omitted many non-dramatic details, such as the specifications for the building of the Tabernacle and the Ark of the Covenant. 475 The composer portrays the events surrounding the idolatrous worship of the golden calf in some detail, including the dialog between Moses and Aaron about the matter. Putting 474 The story of the attack of the Amalekites and their defeat by Joshua is recorded in Exod. 17:8-16. Moses had sent his wife and sons away for the duration of the exodus from Egypt. Jethro returned with them. See: Exod. 18:1-27. 475 The omissions include the giving of the Ten Commandments in Exod. 20:1-17; the warning against worshiping idols in Exod. 20:22-23; the requirement to fashion an alter for sacrifice to the Lord in Exod. 20:24- 26; laws on various matters outlined in Exod. 21:1-23:13; the three annual festivals outlined in Exod. 23:14-19; God‟s promise to send an angel to guide the children of Israel into the land of Canaan in Exod. 23:20-23; the meeting on Mount Sinai before God with Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel in Exod. 24:1-9; the offerings for the Tabernacle in Exod. 25:1-9; the instructions for the building of the Ark, Table, and Lampstand in Exod. 25:10-40; the instructions for the building of the Tabernacle in Exod. 26:1-37; the instructions for the building of the Altar and the Courtyard in Exod. 27:1-19; the requirement of oil for the Lampstand in Exod. 27:20-21; the instructions for the fashioning of the Priestly Garments, the Ephod, and the Breastpiece in Exod. 28; the instructions for the consecration of the Priests in Exod. 29; the instructions for the fashioning and use of the Altar of Incense in Exod. 30:1-10; the mention of the census and atonement money in Exod. 30:11-16; the instructions for the fashioning of the Basin for washing in Exod. 30:17-21; the instructions for making and using the sacred anointing oil and the incense in Exod. 30:22-38; the employment of the craftsmanship of Bezalel and Oholiab in Exod. 31:1-11; and the instructions concerning the observation of the Sabbath in Exod. 31:12-18. 180 aside for the time being his ingenious effect of having Moses turn to the chorus to confirm their loyalties, “Who is on the Lord‟s side?” he neglects to mention the fact that it was only the Levites who gathered around Moses to answer in the affirmative. He then omits from his libretto the matter of the subsequent slaying of the three thousand idolaters by the Levites. 476 Excluded from the libretto are a number of historic events that occur after the incident of idolatry at Mount Sinai. These include the departure of the children of Israel from their camp by the mountain and the forty-day exploration of Canaan by Joshua, Caleb, and the ten other Israeli ancestral tribal leaders. 477 The libretto, on the other hand, depicts well the people‟s endless grumbling concerning perceived and imagined hardships. Tension between Moses and his people grows over the course of the libretto and culminates in an incident at the waters of Meribah at Kadesh, one that proves to be tragic for Moses and his people. 478 In his telling of this incident the librettist paraphrases freely from Exodus 16 and Numbers 11, 14, and 20, jumping back and forth between the texts with a decreasing regard for historic order supplanted for dramatic purposes. What the composer-librettist has done here is to combine two distinct and unrelated tragic pronouncements, one concerning the children of Israel and the other concerning Moses himself, into one dramatic occurrence. 479 This conflation of events is contained in the corresponding passage from his libretto: 476 Exod. 32:25-29. 477 The omissions include the Lord informing Moses to leave Sinai in Exod. chapter 33; the Lord instructing Moses to carve his commandments in a second set of stone tablets in Exod. chapter 34; Moses‟ communicating the commandments of the Lord to the children of Israel concerning the observance of the Sabbath and the Tabernacle in Exod. chapters 35 through 40; the Lord‟s commandment to Moses to take the first census of his people in Num. 1; the arrangement of the tribal camps in Num. 2-9; the departure of the children of Israel from Sinai in Num. 10:11; Miriam and Aaron‟s opposition to Moses on account of his Cushite wife in Num. 12; and Joshua, Caleb and the other tribal leaders‟ exploration of Canaan in Num. 13. 478 Most principally in part II, number 10, “Why Hast Thou Led Us Away?” and in part III, number 17, “Would To God We Had Died.” 479 The text of the libretto here quoted begins at the conclusion of number 17, “Would To God We Had Died,” and continues through number 18: “Pity, Lord, Pity.” The incident at the waters of Elim, as related in Exod. 16:1-36, where God provides manna and quail for the children of Israel to eat and the incident at Kibroth Hattaavah, as related in Num. 11:4-35, where the rabble-rousers among the people who crave meat are destroyed, are here merged. 181 Chorus: Would to God we had died by his hand in the land of Egypt! O, if we only had water to drink! Else we and our cattle shall die here. We remember the fish, the melons, the leeks, and the onions, the garlic, the plentiful fruit; but now we are thirsty, there‟s nothing to drink! No grapes or figs in this evil place, nothing but Manna and quail! [Exod. 16 and Num. 20] Voice: And Moses gathered the people together and took the Lord‟s staff from the temple. He selected a common rock and pointed thereto, and his eyes blazed with fire as he spoke: [Num. 20] Moses: Hear now, ye rebels! Must we fetch you water out of this rock? I'll strike twice with my staff, and get water for you from this rock! [Num. 20] Narrator: But the Lord was angry and said unto Moses: How long will this people provoke me? And how long ere they believe me and heed my injunctions, despite all the signs that I have performed in their midst? I will smite them with pestilence and destroy them. And because you honored me not, and forgot to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel when you called forth the water from the rock, therefore you shall not bring them into the land which I have given them. [Num. 14 and 20] Moses: Pity, Lord, pity; mercy, Lord, mercy. Would‟st thou have the Egyptians say, “The Lord hath slain his people in the wilderness because he was not able to bring them into the land which he hath promised them?” Pardon, I beseech thee, the iniquity of this people, according to the greatness of thy mercy, even as thou hast forgiven them from Egypt, until now. [Num. 14] Narrator: And the Lord said: I will pardon them according to thy request; but as surely as I live, none of those who have seen my glory and my miracles in Egypt and in the wilderness, and yet have put me to the test these ten times now, shall see the land which I promised on oath to their fathers, and none of those who despised me shall see it. But your children shall know the land which ye have despised. As for yourselves, your corpses shall fall in this desert, while your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years and suffer for your iniquities, until the last of your corpses lies in the desert. I the Lord declare that this is what I will do to all this evil congregation that are gathered together against me: in this wilderness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die. [Num. 14] 182 Effective as this passage may be as a dramatic climax, it is problematic in that it glosses over the principal reason why the Lord denied the elder people passage into the land of Canaan and forced their children to wander in the wilderness for forty years. The event which occurred immediately prior to the Lord‟s condemnation of the people is a key to the understanding of the harshness of his verdict. The leaders of the twelve ancestral tribes of Israel had just returned from their forty-day exploration of Canaan. They had spread a misleading report among their kindred concerning the strength and fortifications of the Amalekites, the Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites. Only Joshua and Caleb had not exaggerated the difficulties of a conquest to Moses, Aaron, and the assembly of the children of Israel. The account of the rebellion that followed is contained in Numbers 14:2-11: 2 And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron: and the whole congregation said unto them, Would God that we had died in the land of Egypt! or would God we had died in this wilderness! 3 And wherefore hath the LORD brought us unto this land, to fall by the sword, that our wives and our children should be a prey? were it not better for us to return into Egypt? 4 And they said one to another, Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt. 5 Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel. 6 And Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, which were of them that searched the land, rent their clothes: 7 And they spake unto all the company of the children of Israel, saying, The land, which we passed through to search it, is an exceeding good land. 8 If the LORD delight in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it us; a land which floweth with milk and honey. 9 Only rebel not ye against the LORD, neither fear ye the people of the land; for they are bread for us: their defence is departed from them, and the LORD is with us: fear them not. 10 But all the congregation bade stone them with stones. And the glory of the LORD appeared in the tabernacle of the congregation before all the children of Israel. 11 And the LORD said unto Moses, How long will this people provoke me? and how long will it be ere they believe me, for all the signs which I have shewed among them? 183 The Lord had forgiven the grumbling of the children of Israel through the nine times they had disobeyed him, tested him, and otherwise treated him with contempt. 480 This latest incident, however, would prove to be the breaking point. Grumbling about their food was one thing, but blatantly rejecting the inheritance that the Lord had promised to their forefathers and threatening to kill the Lord‟s prophet in a slaying so hideous that it was reserved for only the worst of moral offenses was quite another. Only Moses‟ intercession with the Lord for the people‟s forgiveness saved them from imminent destruction and saved their children from losing their inheritance to the Promised Land. 481 Moses, the object of the peoples‟ scorn, once-again became their deliverer. Of the older generation, however, only Joshua and Caleb would live to enter the land. All of the others would die in the desert. Their children would suffer for their iniquities and wander as shepherds in the wilderness for forty years, a year for each of the forty days during which time the leaders of the twelve ancestral tribes searched the land. 482 The composer has excluded from his libretto a number of historic events that occurred after this pronouncement and before the incident of Moses‟ striking the rock at the waters of Meribah at Kadesh. 483 He also omitted several historic events that occurred following this latter event but before Moses‟ death in Part IV of the libretto, including the conflict that Joshua and the younger generation experienced upon their entering the land of 480 Num. 14:22. 481 Num. 14:13-19. 482 Num. 14:20-35. The remaining ten tribal leaders who caused the people to turn against Moses “by bringing a slander upon the land . . . died by a plague before the Lord” shortly thereafter. See: Num. 14:36-37. 483 The omissions include the foiled attempt by the children of Israel to enter the land of Canaan in Num. 14:39-45; the Lord‟s prescription of a thanksgiving and sin offering in Num. 15:1-31; the stoning of the Israelite who gathered wood on the Sabbath in Num. 15:32-36; the Lord‟s prescription for the wearing of tassels on garments as a reminder to follow his commandments in Num. 15:37-41; the uprising of Korah, Dathan, Abiram, and others against Moses and Aaron in Num. 16; the Lord‟s prescription of the twelve staffs in Num. 17; the Lord‟s prescription of the duties of, and offerings for, the Priests and the Levites in Num. 18; and the Lord‟s prescription for the water of cleansing in Num. 19. 184 Canaan. 484 He additionally fails to mention the deaths of Miriam and Aaron. The libretto, in general, plays down Aaron‟s role in the story of the Exodus. We hear about him only in relation to the Lord‟s commissioning of Moses, the meeting that takes place with Pharaoh, and the incident of blasphemy with the golden calf at Mount Sinai. Old Testament scripture, however, accords Aaron a prominent role. Numbers 14:12 tells us that Aaron, like Moses, was forbidden to enter the Promised Land for his part in the incident in Meribah at Kadesh. As a final example of exclusion, even the canticle, The Song of Moses, from Deuteronomy 32, as it appears in Part IV of the libretto, contains only the first four of 43 verses: 1 Give ear, O ye heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth. 2 My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distil as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass: 3 Because I will publish the name of the LORD: ascribe ye greatness unto our God. 4 He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he. Give ear, O ye heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth. My words shall fall as the rain, my speech shall distill as the dew, as the mist upon the tender herb, and as fresh showers upon the grass: For I proclaim the name of the Lord! Give praise unto God! He is the Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are just. A God of truth without iniquity: just and right is he. 484 The omissions include the Edomites denying the children of Israel permission to pass through their territory in Num. 20:14-20; the death of Aaron in Num. 20:15-29; the kingdom of Arad destroyed in Num. 21:1- 3; Moses‟ fabrication of the bronze snake in Num. 21:4-9; the journey of the children of Israel to Moab in Num. 21:10-18; the defeat of Sihon and Og in Num. 21:19-35; Balak‟s summonsing of Balaam in Num. 22:1-20; the incident with Balaam‟s donkey in Num. 22:21-41; the Oracles of Balaam in Num. 23 and 24; the women of Moab seduce the men of Israel and God‟s resulting wrath manifest in a plague in Num. 25; Moses conducts his second census in Num. 26; Zelophehad‟s daughters ask Moses for their inheritance in Num. 27:1-11; Joshua is appointed to succeed Moses in Num. 27:12-23; instructions on giving offerings to the Lord in Num. 28:1-15; the instructions concerning the observance of the Passover in Num. 28:16-25; the instructions concerning the observance of the Feast of Weeks in Num. 28:26-31; the instructions concerning the observance of the Feast of Trumpets in Num. 29:1-6; the instructions concerning the observance of the Day of Atonement in Num. 29:7-10; the instructions concerning the observance of the Feast of Tabernacles in Num. 29:11-40; the regulations and expectations concerning the taking of vows in Num. 30; the children of Israel‟s vengeance on the Midianites and the dividing of the spoils of their conquest in Num. 31:1-54. Part IV of the libretto derives entirely from Deut. 8:2, and 7-10; 31:6-7, 14, and 23; 32:1-4; and 34:1-4, 5-7, 9, and 10-12. 185 2. Psalm Settings Two psalm settings, both scored for the chorus in its role as the voice of the children of Israel, appear at key points in the composer‟s libretto. The first occurs when the people learn that the Lord has noticed their affliction and has promised to deliver them from out of Egypt after Aaron spoke all the words that the Lord had spoken to Moses and performed the signs that he had commanded in their sight. The composer‟s choice of words for “How Excellent Thy Name” illustrates his approach to setting text. If a word makes a good “fit” for the music he retains it, even if it is archaic or lacks clarity (e.g., visitest and dost). If, on the other hand, textual variety is desirable in a musical repetition, he substitutes another word for the original (e.g., glorious for excellent). In his setting of Psalm 8, only verses one, four, five, and eight appear, showing another example of verbal reduction: 1 O LORD, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens. 2 Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger. 3 When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; 4 What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? 5 For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour. 6 Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet: 7 All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field; 8 The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas. 9 O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! O Lord our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! We will sing thy praise to the heavens. What is man that thou art mindful of him? And the son of man that thou visitest him? Yet thou hast made him only a little lower than the angels, and dost crown him with glory and honor. O Lord, our Lord, how glorious is thy name in all the earth! We will sing thy praise to the heavens. 186 This psalm bears the subtitle, “For the director of music according to gittith. A psalm of David.” The meaning of the word “gittith,” also found in the subtitles of Psalms 81 and 84, is unknown. It may refer to a Gittite lyre, a festival song (associated with the wine press), or it may be another musical term. Nevertheless, the psalm‟s subtitle indicates that it may have been used in Temple worship, perhaps recited by the leader of the choir. 485 Psalm 8—along with Psalms 33, 104, and 145—concerns itself with the topic of creation. It is viewed as “a hymn of creation praise,” one associated with evening worship. 486 Thus, it is neither contemporary with the time of Moses nor historically associated with the Exodus. Even so, the psalm works in the context in which it appears. The composer pars out its references to the heavens and man‟s dominion over creation, but he retains its questions concerning man‟s meaning and the place of the “son of man” in that regard. Perhaps, the matter the typological significance of Moses was not far from the composer‟s mind. 487 The oratorio‟s second psalm setting, “Out of the Depths,” appears at the close of Part III of its libretto. The Narrator has just informed us that the Lord has denied the older generation of the children of Israel entrance into the Promised Land. They must instead spend the remainder of their days wandering in the desert. Psalm 130 is subscripted “A song of ascents.” It forms a part of the psalms in that collection (Ps. 120-34) and the collection of the “Great Hallel” psalms (Ps. 120-36), as well as the seven “Penitential” psalms. 488 Unlike 485 Willern A. VanGemeren, “Psalms,” Psalms – Song of Songs, vol. 5 of The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, Frank E. Gaebelein, ed., 12 vols. (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1991) 34-36. 486 VanGemeren, 109. 487 VanGemeren points to the messianic application of this psalm: “Though the psalm is not messianic in the narrow sense . . . it has a messianic application in that Jesus is fully man and has realized God‟s expectation of man in perfect obedience and holiness.” See: VanGemeren, 110. 488 VanGemeren notes, “The meaning of the designation „song of ascents‟ is not clear, whether „Pilgrim Songs,‟ „Song of Degrees‟ or „Gradual Psalms.‟ The Mishnah links the collection of fifteen songs with the fifteen steps of the temple where the Levites sang these songs . . . (Middoth 2.5). It is more likely that the songs were sung in the three annual festival processions, as the pilgrims „ascended‟ . . . to Jerusalem . . . hence the designation „songs of ascents.‟” See: VanGemeren, 768-69. The “Penitential Psalms” also go by the name of “Psalms of Confession,” the remaining six include: Ps. 6, 32, 38, 51, 102, and 143. VanGemeren additionally notes, “Part of the reason for the designation lies in the confessional nature of these psalms . . . [The phrase] „cast 187 the composer‟s setting of Psalm 8, “Out of the Depths” sets text from all the verses of Psalm 130, albeit not the entirety of each verse: 1 Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O LORD. 2 Lord, hear my voice: let thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications. 3 If thou, LORD, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? 4 But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared. 5 I wait for the LORD, my soul doth wait, and in his word do I hope. 6 My soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning: I say, more than they that watch for the morning. 7 Let Israel hope in the LORD: for with the LORD there is mercy, and with him is plenteous redemption. 8 And he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities. Out of the depths we cry unto thee, O Lord. Hear our voice! If thou record iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But with thee there is forgiveness, that thou might be revered. Let us hope in the Lord, for with the Lord there is mercy and hope. And with him is plenteous redemption. He will redeem Israel from all its guilt. The date of the authorship of Psalm 130 is a matter of dispute among Biblical historians. Some argue for a pre-Exile date and others, for a post-Exile one. There is no support, however, for dating the psalm to the time of Moses. 489 As the psalm occurs in the context of the present libretto this fact may not matter. The psalms collectively recount the history of the Jewish people and they, therefore, may be used freely. Psalm 130 here serves to give voice to the abject despair experienced by the children of Israel when they face their sin and realize that they must bear the consequence for their lack of faithfulness. into the sea‟ is a metaphor of adversity and trouble . . . The weight of sin, confession of guilt, and confidence in God form an individual expression on behalf of others . . . Though no reference is made here explicitly to sin or to confession of sin, the adversity is related to sin. The word „mercy‟ presupposes a servant-master relationship in which the „servant‟ petitions his „master.‟” See: VanGemeren, 800. 489 VanGemeren reasons, “It would seem that the usage of v. 2 [of Ps. 130] in Chronicles, the word „forgiveness‟ . . . and the greater awareness of sin and the need of forgiveness in the post-exilic era could provide the context in which this psalm arose.” See: VanGemeren, 799. 188 The appearance of these two psalms in the composer‟s libretto raises the question as to why he chose not to set psalms more closely aligned with the period of history during which the great events of Moses‟ life transpired. Psalm 90 (“A prayer of Moses the man of God”), the only psalm the authorship of which scholars may reasonably attribute to Moses, is not included in the libretto. 490 Nor is Psalm 106 included in the libretto, although it recounts the spiritual events of the Exodus and contains a verse that is central to the message of the oratorio: “Therefore he said that he would destroy them, had not Moses his chosen stood before him in the breach, to turn away his wrath, lest he should destroy them.” (Ps. 106:23, KJV) The concern presented by this verse is one that we will explore presently. The Meaning of Moses‟ Death The Song of Moses, one might assume, takes its title from the canticle found in Deuteronomy 32:1-43. Ward-Steinman was not the first composer in history to bestow this name on a work. 491 In addition his oratorio is not a setting of this particular text per se, as only verses 1-4 of the passage are actually set—and these not until its closing part. 492 490 See: VanGemeren, 592. 491 In 1771, Thomas Linley Jr. (1756-1778) an English contemporary of Mozart, produced an oratorio that he also titled The Song of Moses; and Max Bruch (1838-1920) wrote his oratorio Moses in 1894-95. More recently, Arnold Schönberg (1874-1951) wrote his masterly Moses und Aron in 1930-32. 492 The practical function of the Song of Moses, as it is described in the context in which it appears in the Book of Deuteronomy, was to be as a “witness” against the children of Israel. Old Testament scholar Carl H. Cornill describes the canticle as, “a compendium of the prophetic theology.” See: Carl H. Cornill, Introduction to the Canonical Books of the Old Testament, trans. G. H. Box (New York: Putnam‟s, 1997) 123. Dennis T. Olson writes of the Song: “The poetic Song of Moses . . . recounts the movements of Israel through judgment and death to life and hope . . . [it] strains through human language to express the inexpressible mysteries of the relationships of God, humans, and all creation.” See: Dennis T. Olson, Deuteronomy and the Death of Moses: A Theological Reading (Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 1994) 4, 21. Likewise, George A. F. Knight said of it, “The Song has been seen as a „living‟ interpretation of the Torah . . . [it is] the exciting, creative summary of God‟s revelation of his very self—in God‟s own words!” The teaching contained in the Song, Knight notes, “was expressed not in mere prose, but in . . . easily memorized verse,” and could thus be passed down from father to son through the generations. See: George A. F. Knight, The Song of Moses: A Theological Quarry (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995) 2, 140, 6. Knight explores the song‟s purpose: “Moses foresaw how, after his death, 189 Mentioned earlier in this chapter was the fact that the oratorio, in its original form, consisted of an introduction and five parts and that the entirety of Part III had amounted to a single choral number: “Sing Ye to the Lord.” The text of “Sing Ye to the Lord,” of course, is rooted in the canticle found in Exodus 15: The Song of Moses and Miriam. Now somewhat obscured in the revised version of the oratorio, this number, nevertheless, forms its centerpiece, an overall highpoint of a musical and dramatic arch that is framed on one side in the original version by the Prologue and Parts I and II and, on the other, by Parts IV and V. The early drafts of the libretto shed light on the naming of the work. They indicate that the original title that Part III bore was not “The Triumph,” but “The Song of Moses.” This fact leads one to wonder—in all actuality—which canticle of Moses inspired the oratorio‟s name. Ward-Steinman‟s libretto draws on the rich wealth of themes presented and developed in their Biblical accounts that encompass the tribulations, trials, victories, and defeats experienced by the nation of Israel under the leadership of Moses. 493 From the Book of Exodus originates the divine institution of the prophet; it is introduced in its quintessence in the person of Moses. He first becomes involved as the leader of the children of Israel „this people will begin to prostitute themselves to the foreign gods in their midst. . . . They will forsake me, breaking my covenant that I have made with them.‟ (Deut 31:16 . . .) . . . Their sin would be twofold. (1) They would apostatize and so break the First Commandment; and (2) they would break the bond of [steadfast love] which bound Yahweh to them. . . . Yahweh‟s wrath, therefore, would have to be kindled against them „in that day,‟ and Yahweh would necessarily „hide his face‟ from them (Deut 31:17). [Deuteronomy] Chapter 31 goes on to declare that the Lord actually „induced‟ Moses . . . to write down the Song that follows, that it „will confront them as a witness‟ (31:21). Then he was to speak it out „in their hearing.‟ Consequently we also are to read the Song now as a witness for God, and as God‟s own „answer‟ . . . addressed to us.” See: Knight, 2. And Knight concludes, “Because it is an exposition of the Sinai covenant, the Song deals with the relationship between matter and spirit, heaven and earth, body and soul, mankind and nature.” See: Knight, 142. “To summarize, we have noted that the Song of Moses deals first with the very nature of God and with God‟s faithfulness to his people. This faithfulness never changes so that it is present through the Covenant made with God‟s elected people, and will remain so into all eternity.” See: Knight, 141. 493 The major themes contained in the Pentateuch include the blessing bestowed on nature and humanity in the creation; God‟s promises made to the patriarchs; God‟s deliverance of his chosen people during their exodus from Egypt; God‟s revelation of himself in covenant and law, and through his tabernacling presence at Sinai as well; the wandering of the people in the wilderness; and God‟s preparation of the people for their entrance into the promised land. See: Walter C. Kaiser, Jr., “Exodus,” Genesis – Numbers, vol. 2 of The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, 287. 190 following his 80 th birthday and thereafter leads them out of their bondage in Egypt. Moses is the representative of the Lord to his people. He is also their leader and their judge. 494 He reveals to them God‟s law and provides instruction for worship. 495 In the Book of Numbers the dual aspects of “the Lord‟s wrath and his mercy, his anger and his love” inform his people, who, however, rebel against his grace and disbelieve his power to deliver them. 496 An entire generation, including Moses himself, becomes involved in this breach of covenant and for this reason will not be allowed entrance into the land which God promised to their forebears. Old Testament scholar Ronald B. Allen put it this way: That even Moses would come under the wrath of God is stunning . . . Moses . . . a life that cannot be rivaled in the service of God save only in the life of Jesus . . . Moses, who spoke the words of God from the holy mount of Sinai, would only see the Promised Land from a promontory in Moab. 497 Even at the height of his anger, however, the Lord remembers his mercy and his covenant promise: a new generation will arise to inherit the land. The Book of Deuteronomy often refers to the continuing promises of the covenant that had its inception in the Book of Genesis. It contains the guidelines for the instruction of the new generation as they begin 494 Kaiser, 288. According to Kaiser the Book of Exodus contains “some of the richest, foundational theology” to be found in the Old Testament. See: Kaiser, 292. Within it the grounds are laid for a theology of God‟s disclosure of his person, his worship, his code of law, and his plan of redemption. The relationship between God and the children of Israel that grew out of the promises made to the Patriarchs is developed through the redemption theology of the Passover narrative, sealed in the form of covenant, mediated through the newly- created institution of the priesthood, and echoed in a “theology of deliverance and salvation.” See: Kaiser, 293. 495 Between the time-period of the Exodus and that of the wandering in the wilderness, Moses was busy effecting national order, formulating laws, establishing courts, building the army, and organizing the formal worship of God. It is important to note that during this time ancient Israel‟s sacrificial system was established. The sacrifices were intended to be, typologically and symbolically, substitutionary in their nature: “Life was for life, and the one who trusted in God„s substitute for sin was freed from [its] penalty.” See R. Laird Harris, “Leviticus,” Genesis – Numbers, vol. 2 of The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, 520. 496 Ronald B. Allen, “Numbers,” Genesis – Numbers, vol. 2 of The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, 675. Allen observed that the entire Book of Numbers has been looked at as “a pointing back to failure and an addressing forward to the possibility of success.” See: Allen, 679. 497 Allen, 675-76. Allen additionally observes, “Miriam and Aaron, yes, and even Moses, the great prophet and servant of the Lord, were not exempt from God‟s wrath when they disobeyed him or resisted his will.” See: Allen, 675. 191 their subjugation and occupation of the land of Canaan. 498 Deuteronomy is a book that is at once both spiritually earnest and theologically deep; the recurring theme of the death of Moses outside of the Promised Land permeates it with stunning theological implications. 499 There it is written that “God . . . is personal, eternal, omnipotent, sovereign, purposeful, loving, holy, and righteous,” and the proper response of the people toward him is “faith, love, and obedience.” 500 Old Testament scholar Earl S. Kalland has observed: The most important element of subjective theology in Deuteronomy is that of the absolutely unqualified, total commitment of the people to the Lord. Nothing less is acceptable. No dissimulation, no assimilation, no syncretism with other gods or religions or religious practices are to be tolerated. The people belong to the Lord alone. He is the absolute—though benevolent—sovereign, whose people uniquely and completely belong to him. 501 Against this historical background is cast the story outlined in Ward-Steinman‟s libretto which “depicts the Exodus of the children of Israel from Egypt.” 502 Alan Kriegsman, San Diego Union music critic, wrote concerning the oratorio: Music and text recount all of the familiar and hallowed scriptural incidents—the Angel‟s visitation and the Burning Bush, the coming of the Plagues, the parting of the Red Sea and the Pillar of Fire, the receiving of the Commandments, the worship of the Golden Calf, the rain of Manna. 503 498 Earl S. Kalland, “Deuteronomy,” Deuteronomy – 2 Samuel, vol. 3 of The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, 3-4. Kalland here notes, “Deuteronomy may be approached from several angles: (1) as a „Book of the Law‟; (2) as a series of addresses with materials . . . repetitive . . . (from Exod., Lev., and Num.) and additions that occasionally are more or less extemporaneous; (3) as a covenant-treaty in both form and content; . . . [and] (4) as a compendium of the directives of the Lord given through Moses to prepare the people for the conquest, settlement, and occupation of Canaan.” 499 The Book of Deuteronomy is perhaps, as Olson notes, “the most theological book of the OT . . . [it] holds together law and human responsibility with promise and divine mercy.” See: Olson, 1-3. 500 Kalland, 10, 4. Here Kalland further notes, “The knowledge of [God‟s] person and will is communicated by [revelation that is] propositional, directive, exhortative, informative, and predictive.” 501 Kalland, 10. Kalland justifies his reasoning: “[God‟s] relationship with Israel under the covenant-treaty makes him especially their sovereign. They are his vassal people.” See: Kalland, 4. 502 David Ward-Steinman, The Song of Moses, for narrator, four solo voices, chorus and orchestra (or piano), iii. 503 Kriegsman, “„Song of Moses‟: Premiere at San Diego State Today,” E3. This quotation appeared in the above-cited San Diego State College Press announcement of the publication of the oratorio‟s piano-vocal score without acknowledgment of Kriegsman as its author. See: SDSC Press, press release, n. pag. 192 The specific focal point of the work, however, is not so much the Exodus as it is the person of Moses, whose “noble fidelity to both the Lord and to man,” El Cajon, Valley News music critic Allan Shields noted, “provides the iron core to the dramatic characterization.” 504 Ward-Steinman wrote of his principal character: The Moses of my imagination is the Moses of Michelangelo which made a profound impression upon me when I first saw it in Rome [in 1959]. I have tried to convey musically the power, majesty, and charisma of the man as he is to me: the most fascinating and intriguing figure in the Old Testament. 505 Ward-Steinman was not the first composer to be inspired by Michelangelo‟s statue, Arnold Schönberg, commenting on the characterization of Moses in his opera Moses und Aron, wrote in 1933: “My Moses . . . resembles . . . Michelangelo‟s. . . . He is not human at all.” 506 Ward-Steinman, however, does not present his Moses solely in glorious terms, nor does he rewrite the Moses story in response to anti-Semitic agitation as did Schoenberg. 507 He highlights Moses‟ faults as well as his virtues: “Moses is not the perfect man . . . he is revealed as a human being with very real human weaknesses.” 508 Kriegsman has noted: The structure of the oratorio throws into high relief the personal tragedy of Moses, who, having led the Israelites on the perilous trek to the Holy Land, is himself forbidden to enter it. But it also emphasizes Moses‟ heroic acknowledgment of the Lord‟s justice, and his acceptance of responsibility for his own heresy and that of his people. 509 504 Shield [sic], “„Song of Moses‟ Premiere: Religious Experience Delivered By Libretto,” a-4. 505 David Ward-Steinman, “„Song of Moses‟: an Epic In Music”, E1. 506 Arnold Schönberg, letter to Walter Eidlitz, 15 March 1933, Erwin Stein, ed., Arnold Schönberg: Letters, trans. Eithne Wilkins and Ernst Kaiser (London: Faber and Faber, 1964) 172. 507 See: Mark Berry, “Arnold Schoenberg‟s „Biblical Way‟: From „Die Jakobsleiter‟ to „Moses Und Aron,‟ Music and Letters 89.1 (February 2008): 84-108. In the Abstract to his article Berry writes, “Schoenberg‟s development may be summarized in general terms as leading from the religious syncretism of Die Jakobsleiter, via Zionism (Der biblische Weg), to the „negative monotheism‟ of Moses und Aron. It is a journey strongly influenced by Schoenberg‟s German, Lutheran inheritance, his Judaism, and, most importantly, the problematical yet productive interplay between these influences.” 508 David Ward-Steinman, “„Song of Moses‟: an Epic In Music,” E1. 509 Kriegsman, “„Song of Moses‟: Premiere at San Diego State Today,” E3. This additional quotation also appeared in the above-cited San Diego State College Press announcement of the publication of the oratorio‟s piano-vocal score without acknowledgment of Kriegsman as its author. See: SDSC Press, press release, n. pag. 193 What was the proximate cause of Moses‟ personal misfortune? Ward-Steinman addressed the question posed at the beginning of his oratorio in an article that appeared in the San Diego Union a week before the work‟s premiere, suggesting that it stemmed from his involvement in an event that happened at the waters of Meribah Kadesh in the Desert of Zin: [Moses] has been instructed by the Lord to assemble the people and “speak unto the rock before their eyes, and it shall give forth water,” but Moses in his rage strikes the rock with his staff (instead of speaking unto it) and calls forth the water in his own name, forgetting to honor the Lord “in the eyes of the children of Israel.” For this sin he is forbidden to enter the Promised Land, and is allowed only a glimpse of it before he dies at the age of 120 with “eye undimmed and vigor unabated.” 510 Numbers 20: 7-12 (KJV) provides the historical basis for Ward-Steinman‟s conclusion: 7 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, 8 Take the rod, and gather thou the assembly together, thou, and Aaron thy brother, and speak ye unto the rock before their eyes; and it shall give forth its water, and thou shalt bring forth to them water out of the rock: so thou shalt give the congregation and their beasts drink. 9 And Moses took the rod from before the LORD, as he commanded him. 10 And Moses and Aaron gathered the congregation together before the rock, and he said unto them, Hear now, ye rebels; must we fetch you water out of this rock? 11 And Moses lifted up his hand, and with his rod he smote the rock twice: and the water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their beasts also. 12 And the LORD spake unto Moses and Aaron, Because ye believed me not, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them. In Ward-Steinman‟s libretto, however, the above-quoted episode at the waters of Meribah Kadesh culminates an extended drama during which the people murmured against Moses and Aaron (17. “Would To God We Had Died”). In the narration which ensues, the 510 David Ward-Steinman, “„Song of Moses‟: An Epic In Music,” E1. 194 composer seamlessly blends God‟s threat to destroy the people (Num. 14:11-12) and his prohibition banning Moses from entering the Promised Land (Num. 20:12) in a passage that suggests the connectivity of the two matters. The penciled-in circles and arrows that appear in the various drafts of his libretto trace the progress of his thought process in formulating two Biblical threads into one. To wit: But the Lord was angry and said unto Moses: How long will this people provoke me? And how long ere they believe me and heed my injunctions, despite all the signs that I have performed in their midst? I will smite them with pestilence and destroy them. And because you honored me not, and forgot to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel when you called forth the water from the rock, therefore you shall not bring them into the land which I have given them. The people‟s plan to stone Moses, Aaron, Joshua, and Caleb, recounted earlier in this chapter, immediately preceded the Lord‟s threat to destroy them. The children of Israel acted out of fear that their leaders would bring them into the Promised Land only to allow the Amalekites to slaughter them. Forty years earlier a similar incident had occurred, and in that episode, unlike the one at the waters of Meribah Kadesh, the people‟s demand for drink, Moses‟ fear of being stoned, and his striking of a rock to produce water were directly linked. The incident, recorded in Exodus 17, occurred when the children of Israel were camped at Rephidim, the plain at the base of Mount Horeb. At Alush, half way down the slopes of the mountain, the children of Israel had demanded of Moses water to drink (KJV): 3 And the people thirsted there for water; and the people murmured against Moses, and said, Wherefore is this that thou hast brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst? 4 And Moses cried unto the LORD, saying, What shall I do unto this people? They be almost ready to stone me. 5 And the LORD said unto Moses, Go on before the people, and take with thee of the elders of Israel; and thy rod, wherewith thou smotest the river, take in thine hand, and go. 195 6 Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb; and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel. The place of this episode was named “Massah and Meribah” because the children of Israel quarreled there and questioned the Lord. 511 This precedent for Moses‟ subsequent actions naturally raises the question: what had happened in the relationship between God and Moses in the space of 40 years that caused the former to take offense with the latter‟s behavior at the waters of Meribah Kadesh? Was Moses truly defiant in his actions? Might the rock have been a symbol of God himself? 512 Does not Moses, in his canticle found in Deuteronomy 32:4 (“Give Ear, O Ye Heavens”), refer to the Lord as “the Rock?” The oratorio answers the question set out at its beginning, but it also raises a further question as to whether it is sufficient to assume that Moses‟ punishment was rooted solely in his failure to sanctify God at the waters of Meribah Kadesh. The problem of why Moses was not allowed to lead his people into the Promised Land, perhaps only partially solved by Numbers 20:7-12 (as it is in Deut. 32:48-52), nevertheless remains a mystery, the depth of which has fueled theological speculation for ages. Its solution, however, may illuminate the theological dialectic between the shortcomings of human nature and the perfection of God. Ward-Steinman has observed that the demonstration of the “frailty” of Moses forms the “climactic point” in his oratorio. 513 Indeed, its significance draws to the heart of it: 511 Exod. 17:7. 512 It is to be remembered that when Moses had Aaron struck the river Nile with his staff in Exod. 7:20, the Lord turned the water into blood. The interrelationship of the metaphors of water as Spirit, blood as sacrificial atonement, and the Lord God as “the rock of our salvation” (Ps. 95:1 KJV) are continuously developed throughout both the Old and the New Testaments. 513 In David Ward-Steinman, e-mail to the present writer, 23 Dec. 2005, the composer wrote, “The reason Moses was not allowed to „go over into the Promised Land,‟ as I understand it, and as you will find it in the Narrator's words, was because he „forgot to honor God in his impatience with the Israelites when he called forth the water from the Rock,‟ apparently in his own name. I made this the climactic point in the libretto and the musical setting. To me it revealed Moses‟ human frailty, though I thought his punishment was rather severe after all those years leading the complaining Israelites through the desert.” 196 Moses is on Mount Nebo, dying, seeing the Promised Land, but forbidden to enter. He pleads: “O Lord God . . . Have I not served thee well all these years? I pray thee, let me go over and see the good land that is beyond the Jordan . . .” The Narrator answers: “But the Lord was angry with Moses for his people‟s sake, and would not hear him.” Why the Lord was “angry with Moses for his people‟s sake” is not only the subject of the oratorio, but . . . an insight into the character of Moses himself. 514 The story of Moses is one that has a diverse appeal to peoples of Jewish, Muslim and Christian faiths. A purely sectarian response to Moses‟ personal tragedy, therefore, may not elicit universal agreement. Nevertheless, the works of two contemporary authors offer plausible answers to the problem presented by Moses. Paul A. Barker, in his book, The Triumph of Grace in Deuteronomy, addresses the dialog of “hope and despair” found in Deuteronomy through a “synchronic” approach. He argues, “Deuteronomy expects Israel (and by extension, Moses) to fail, and that optimism is grounded in Yahweh, not Israel [emphasis added].” 515 After a similar mode of thinking, Dennis T. Olson, in his book, Deuteronomy and the Death of Moses: A Theological Reading, notes that “the motif of the death of Moses casts its shadow over the entire Book of Deuteronomy” and may be explored “for the richness of its theological and interpretive implications.” Olson reasons for the 514 David Ward-Steinman, “„Song of Moses‟: an Epic In Music,” E1. The context of Deut. 3:26 is Moses addressing the children of Israel; it appears in the KJV as “But the LORD was wroth with me for your sakes, and would not hear me: and the LORD said unto me, Let it suffice thee; speak no more unto me of this matter.” In an earlier verse, Deut. 1:37—one that does not appear in Ward-Steinman‟s libretto—Moses speaks to the children of Israel concerning the Promised Land: “Because of you the LORD became angry with me also and said, „You shall not enter it, either.‟” 515 Paul A. Barker, The Triumph of Grace in Deuteronomy (Carlisle, Cumbria, U. K.: Paternoster, 2004) 1, 4, 217, 220. Barker writes regarding the contrast of approaches to the Book of Deuteronomy: “Many scholars attempt to solve the tension between hope and despair by distinguishing different redactions of Deuteronomy (and DtrH). [The] thesis of a unified and pessimistic DtrH has largely given way to theories of double, triple, and multiple redactions which reflect concerns to identify strands of doom and hope.” See: Barker, 4. “The synchronic reading of Deuteronomy has challenged some of the premises of diachronic critical approaches. These usually presuppose univocal strands or redactions and regard pessimism and optimism as standing in tension and historically conditioned. We have suggested that the two are integrated harmoniously in Deuteronomy.” See: Barker, 220. 197 necessity of Moses‟ death outside of the Promised Land as a prerequisite for the success of a new generation of descendents of Israel. 516 Barker observes that the Book of Deuteronomy is often interpreted as an idealistic vision—a “utopian paradise”—where the laws of Israel are completely reasonable as to their expectations and are easily observed. Such a representation, however, is in his estimation a “simplistic, even misguided,” one. 517 A proper understanding of the message of Deuteronomy goes beyond the association of obedience with reward and disobedience with punishment. The choice for Israel, rather, is to operate under its own strength and fail or to abide in God and prosper under his grace: “The key is not whether Israel will obey, because it cannot [emphasis added], but whether Israel will trust in itself or Yahweh. . . . the parenesis is theocentric, not anthropocentric. Deuteronomy is a call to trust in Yahweh.” 518 In a similar manner, Olson reasons: The theology of Deuteronomy . . . is much more nuanced and viable than the simple retributional theology often associated with [it], which says “if you obey, you will be blessed” and “if you disobey, you will be cursed.” This formula reflects neither the fullness of Deuteronomy‟s theology nor the reality of human experience. 519 Barker continues in this line of argument when he observes that hope for Israel as a nation and the renewal of hope for its new generation are ultimately grounded, neither in the people‟s repentance nor in the general mercy and compassion of God, but in God‟s promises to the Patriarchs. Promise and the grace that emanates from it are the key factors in the relationship between God and Israel. 520 Even the sins of Israel are powerless to nullify the 516 Olson, 2-3. 517 Barker, 1. 518 Ibid., 6. 519 Olson, 3. 520 Barker, 2, 5, 217. 198 covenant relationship that is rooted in the promises made to Abraham. Grace does not abolish human responsibility, but neither is Israel‟s ability to fulfill the law an antecedent to the giving of the law. Rather, the law reveals Israel‟s inability to succeed and drives Israel back to the lawgiver for grace: “Yahweh‟s grace both precedes Israel and enables Israel and ultimately ensures a faithful Israel.” The resolution to the dilemma of “a faithless people and a faithful God” is to be found in Deuteronomy 30.6: “And the LORD thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live” (KJV). 521 Olson concurs with Barker when he writes, “Deuteronomy in the end holds together law and human responsibility with promise and divine mercy.” 522 Such an interpretation of the Book of Deuteronomy may inform our understanding as to why Moses had to die outside of the Promised Land, without having had the privilege of leading the children of Israel therein. Olson speaks to this matter when he outlines a number of facets that may together define the meaning of Moses‟ death. He reasons: “The theme of Moses‟ death weaves into itself hermeneutical concerns of overcoming boundaries of space . . . of time, and of divinity and humanity. No one human individual, not even Moses, can overcome such boundaries of finitude and limitation.” 523 Thus, the first facet of meaning in Moses‟ death is that he is not God and should not be regarded or worshiped as such. A corollary to this first facet is the second one: Moses, standing in the place of death for his people, was the mediator between his people and God, albeit only a human one. 524 521 Ibid., 218-20. 522 Olson, 3. 523 Ibid., 48, 61. 524 Olson notes, “Moses‟ burial place is not known, a deliberate check against establishing a shrine or worship of the dead for Moses.” Deut. 34:6 reads, “And [the Lord] buried him in a valley in the land of Moab, over against Bethpeor: but no man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day.” (KJV) See: Olson, 60. 199 Deuteronomy 5:26 poses the question: “For who is there of all flesh, that hath heard the voice of the living God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as we have, and lived?” (KJV) Ultimately, Olson observes, “The burden of mediating God‟s word will lead to the premature death of the greatest prophet Israel ever had.” 525 (“And Moses was an hundred and twenty years old when he died: his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated.” Deut. 34:7 KJV) The third facet of the meaning of Moses‟ death is its analogy to the law that he gave, much of which deals with “giving something up, letting go . . . or acknowledging the limits of human abilities [and] knowledge.” 526 Moses‟ demise is likewise a metaphor for human finitude before God. This is its fourth facet of meaning: “the necessary and inevitable losses and limits of human life and power” on both an individual and a collective level. 527 Olson reasons: Moses‟ death functions as a cipher for the human failure to arrive at some paradisiacal promised land where moral and epistemological foundations are secure, justice and righteous- ness are unambiguously achieved, boundaries are absolutely demarcated, and authority is singular and centered. 528 The fifth facet of the meaning of Moses‟ death is that it serves as a model of a “faithful dying to self-interest.” 529 In Exodus 32:10, in Numbers 14:12, and in Deuteronomy 9:14, we read about God‟s desire to destroy the children of Israel and make of Moses himself a great nation that he may personally lead into the Promised Land. 530 Moses, however, forsakes his own ambitions and persuades the Lord to preserve the people. So notes Olson: 525 Olson, 18; also see 47. 526 Ibid., 20. 527 Ibid., 17, 124. 528 Ibid., 86. 529 Ibid. Knight has noted that Moses spoke of no belief in his own survival of death; his concern was not for himself, “God has made a covenant with his people that will remain forever, for God remains forever. Consequently dying and death, judgment, heaven and hell are all aspects of God‟s unshakable, rocklike faithfulness.” See: Knight, 141. 530 Olson, 61. 200 In a posture resembling death, Moses lies prostrate before God for forty days and forty nights. . . . Moses intercedes on behalf of the life of the people and of Aaron. Remarkably, God listens to Moses and allows the Israelites to live. 531 Thus, the sixth facet of meaning in Moses‟ death is that he so identified himself with his people that he linked his own fate to the collective fate of Israel. Barker concurs with Olson when he discusses Moses‟ address to the older generation contained in Deuteronomy 1: The depth of Israel‟s sin is seen in Moses own exclusion from the land which is attributed to [“Also the LORD was angry with with me for your sakes, saying, Thou also shalt not go in thither.” (KJV)] (v37). There is no allusion to Moses‟ own sin, though it is mentioned in Numbers 20:10-12. While it may be possible to presuppose the account of Moses‟ own sin, silence about the matter keeps the spotlight on Israel‟s sin. Thus the blame seems here to be put on the people. . . . That Moses is prevented from entering the land shows that the ramifications of Israel‟s sin are great indeed. 532 Olson observes that Moses‟ death became associated with judgment that was confined to the old generation and at the same time opened the possibility for the new generation to enter the land that had been promised to the descendants of Abraham. 533 A key to the seventh and final facet of the meaning of Moses‟ death may be found in Deuteronomy 18:15. This passage is a stunning one in which Moses tells the children of Israel: “The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken” (KJV). 534 In a number of regards, in his 531 Ibid., 19. 532 Barker, 23-24; see also Barker, 217. The matter of Moses‟ “own sin” is, in fact, mentioned in relation to his exclusion from the land, later in Deut. 32:48-52, on the occasion that God spoke to Moses “that selfsame day” Moses recited the “Song of Moses” to the children of Israel. It is here interesting to note the context with which the culpability was assigned: in both Num. 20:12 and Deut. 32:51-52, God is addressing Moses while in Deut. 1:37, Moses is addressing the children of Israel. 533 Olson, 18. Moses has passed on the blessing promised to Abraham, e.g., in Deut. 34: 9 it is recorded, “And Joshua the son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom; for Moses had laid his hands upon him: and the children of Israel hearkened unto him . . . .” (KJV) 534 Music critic Allan Shields called attention to this matter in his review of the premiere of David Ward- Steinman‟s oratorio when he wrote, “It is a passion such as Moses predicted (Deut. 18) would come in a future prophet. It means the Greek compassionate man, filled with agape. „The Song of Moses‟ is a love-feast, a holy kiss.” See: Shield [sic], “„Song of Moses‟ Premiere: Religious Experience Delivered By Libretto,” a-4. 201 own outward history, Moses was a “type” of the Messiah that was to come; and in many ways the dialectic found in the Book of Deuteronomy foreshadows the grace-law debate of Saint Paul found in the New Testament Book of Romans. 535 Knight observes, “No line can be drawn to separate the theology of the „Song of Moses‟ and the New Testament, summed up as it is in what Revelation 15:3 calls the „Song of the Lamb.‟” 536 He concludes: What we have revealed to us through the Word uttered in this humanly conceived poem is a picture of total judgment, absolute love, mercy, and forgiveness—complete shalom. . . . This good news of the whole re-creation—both of God‟s world and of God‟s chosen people—is to be passed on to all mankind by this people whom God has first rescued and restored. God does so through the strength of the love and grace that he first bestows upon this people of his choice. Thereby God enabled them to be his salvation „to the end of the earth‟ (Isaiah 49:6 MT). God does so finally in the One whom on the Mount of Transfiguration God declared was to complete the „exodus‟ of the creation from death to life. 537 In “The Old Testament Origins of the Gospel Genre: Moses-Exodus Typology in the Gospels,” chapter four of his book The Structure of Biblical Authority, Old Testament scholar Meredith G. Kline has observed in relation to this Moses-Christ typology: By the citation of Old Testament promise and prediction in their narration of Jesus‟ life, the New Testament evangelists show that they understood our Lord‟s mission to be the fulfillment of the Old Testament hope. They also make the connection with the Old Testament revelation by constructing their account of God‟s epochally new intervention through his son in such a way as to bring out its typological relationship to the history of the old covenant. They present the saving acts of Christ as a new exodus led by a new Moses. . . . Jesus and his work are contemplated in the gospels from a perspective that is primarily and pervasively covenantal. 538 535 Barker, 6. 536 Knight, 139. 537 Ibid., 145-46. 538 Meredith G. Kline, “The Old Testament Origins of the Gospel Genre: Moses-Exodus Typology in the Gospels,” chapter 4 of The Structure of Biblical Authority, 2 nd ed. (Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock, 1989) 181-82. 202 For the children of Israel awaiting entrance into the Promised Land, Moses‟ death was not the end of the story. Hope “in the midst of death and loss” sustains in a new generation of believers who will enjoy God‟s blessing because of the faithfulness of Moses. That blessing has passed down through generations to this day. 539 With a paraphrase of Deuteronomy 34:10-12, the narrative of Moses‟ death detailed in the oratorio The Song of Moses concludes in a passage that celebrates his life: And there arose not a prophet since in Israel, not a prophet like unto Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face. In all the signs and wonders which the Lord sent him to do in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all his land, and for all the mighty power and all the great wonders which Moses wrought in the sight of all Israel, there was none like him at all. Moses‟ life was one that was given, as Olson observes, “in powerful service for the sake of Israel and of Israel‟s God.” 540 Conclusion David Ward-Steinman‟s choice of subject matter for his oratorio was perhaps fortuitous for its time, given the tumultuous events that unfolded during the balance of the decade of its composition. Although he has acknowledged no influence of contemporary events on the work, the memory of the untimely death of a young president during the work‟s composition must have hung as a cloud over the audience who heard the oratorio at its premiere. 541 The four years that followed this first performance saw upheavals in social 539 Olson, 17. 540 Olson, 86. 541 When asked by the present writer if John F. Kennedy‟s assignation had any influence on the composition of his oratorio, the composer replied that it had not. In David Ward-Steinman, e-mail to the present writer, 14 Nov. 2005 he addressed this matter: “The Song of Moses was something I kept quite separate [from that event], at least consciously.” Ward-Steinman did, however, write a musical score for These Three for the Joffrey Ballet 203 values and racial justice as well as the assassination of two more national leaders, one whose own public allusions to events in the life of Moses became an inspiration to an entire movement. 542 “In the midst of death and loss,” the hope offered through the oratorio‟s message, surely resonated with listeners of the generation for which it was composed. It evidently did so with music critic Allan Shields, who observed concerning the foreboding experience of Ward-Steinman‟s work and the endearing qualities of its principal character: Though Jewish history does not claim allegiance from us all, the humanity in it does. The religious fervor of the saga is suffused with the power of a man with his people—a great national leader. The oratorio sings and orates that quality. 543 The entire composition is augurous—pregnant with significance for humanity. One responds to the work with fervor, with the desire to go up into the mountain and search again the profound reverberations that this art symbol expresses, touching the vast potencies in our individual beings. 544 The libretto of The Song of Moses remains faithful to the Biblical story that inspired it. The changes the composer-librettist made to the KJV text, which in itself is no more than an English translation of the Hebrew original, are eminently reasonable. Viewed in its most favorable light, save in some of the occurrences where rhyme unreasonably forces itself on Company in 1966. The ballet concerns itself with the story of the murders of the three young civil rights activists in Mississippi during the summer of 1964. Ward-Steinman additionally wrote an Elegy for Martin Luther King for piano solo on 5 April 1968, the day following the civil rights leader‟s assassination. The composer premiered the work at a memorial service held for King in Balboa Park, San Diego, CA, on 7 April 1968. Highgate Press published it a year later on the anniversary of King‟s death. Ward-Steinman subsequently repeated the work during a concert of his music held at the Mingei International Museum, Balboa Park, on 13 Nov. 2004. In the program notes for that concert it is written of the Elegy, “The score, which employs dark tone clusters and distant echoes of We Shall Overcome . . . was the composer‟s immediate reaction to the turmoil, anguish, rage, and sense of helplessness at this latest act of violence in the turbulent ‟60s.” After hearing Ward-Steinman play his Elegy in a concert of his music in Bloomington, Indiana, during March 2004, local music critic Peter Jacobi wrote, “[The Elegy] blended low rumblings and plaintive high tones to suggest both tragedy and a subtle hope of good somehow coming out of evil. The ominous roll of bass notes gave way to what one perceived to be an emerging spirit, a light rising out of darkness.” See: Peter Jacobi, “Music Review: Ward-Steinman Recital: Pianist David Ward-Steinman amazes and confounds at recital,” C6. 542 i.e., Martin Luther King Jr., “I‟ve Been to the Mountaintop,” speech delivered to the Sanitation Workers of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, Local 1733, Mason Temple, Memphis, TN, 3 Apr. 1968. 543 Shields, “Preview: „Song of Moses‟: Narration, Drama Add To Sounds, Novelties,” b-5. 544 Shield [sic], “„Song of Moses‟ Premiere: Religious Experience Delivered By Libretto,” a-4. 204 the text, the adaptation retains much of the beauty of language to be found in the KJV from which it was derived. In the few instances where significant changes occur in the story, they reveal no contrary purpose. They do not rise to the level of distortion witnessed in the texts of a number of other recent sacred works (e.g., those of Arnold Schönberg or Benjamin Britten), however purposeful and ingenious those composers‟ distortions may be. 545 Of the story of Moses, Old Testament scholar Earl S. Kalland advocates that it “should be read . . . for the spiritual truths that pertain to the redemption offered to all people and for those truths concerning God and man that never change.” 546 Similarly, Paul Olson writes of “the limits of human law and the triumph of divine love” found in the story: “[It] calls its readers „today‟ to a similar vocation of working and hoping for the promised land, knowing that its accomplishment will finally be God‟s doing, not theirs.” Olson‟s final words return us to the music of Ward-Steinman‟s oratorio, which we will hereafter examine in detail: As Moses draws his last breath on Mount Nebo with the vision of the promised land still alive in his eyes, the tragic and the noble intermingle. Moses‟ life is a life whose end is too soon but whose legacy lingers on in a text which is still read and a song which is still sung across the ages. 547 545 Of Schönberg, e.g., the aforementioned Moses und Aron; of Britten, e.g., the “Offertorium” from his War Requiem. 546 Kalland, 4. 547 Olson, 170-71. 205 Chapter Four The Song of Moses—Prologue In the present chapter and the four that follow it, we will examine the music of David Ward-Steinman‘s oratorio The Song of Moses. We will begin our examination of the work with some background information concerning its musical influences and composition, and then we will discuss matters of its style, inclusive of text setting, rhythm, harmony, and orchestration, with a chapter devoted to each of the five overall segments of the work. In his compositional approach to The Song of Moses, Ward-Steinman acknowledges his debts of inspiration. He is fond of quoting Igor Stravinsky in this regard: ―Stravinsky felt that, on the whole, the Church‘s influence on music was a benevolent one, because ‗we commit fewer musical sins in church.‘‖ ―Francis Poulenc was a living proof of Stravinsky‘s observation,‖ Ward-Steinman continues, ―Poulenc put his best efforts into his sacred music.‖ 548 As to how these influences played out in the writing of his oratorio, Ward-Steinman has noted: I was very much aware of [Stravinsky‘s observation] when I was writing The Song of Moses. I believed very intensely in what I was writing about. [The oratorio] was a summing of everything I had to say in music at [the] time [I composed it]; it stretched me. It was a wonderful opportunity—this commission to do a big piece for narrator and orchestra. 549 548 David Ward-Steinman, telephone interview, 10 June 2005. Stravinsky‘s actual words, taken from the context of a discussion of the influence of his Mass, Canticum Sacrum, and Threni, were, ―Whether or not the Church was the wisest patron—though I think it was; we commit fewer musical sins in Church—it was rich in musical forms.‖ See Igor Stravinsky and Robert Craft, Conversations with Igor Stravinsky (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1959) 141. Ward-Steinman comments further on this matter, ―[Stravinsky‘s observation] really struck home with me when I was able to hear much of Poulenc‘s music in Paris. Poulenc actually came to Boulanger‘s class once, and I heard the premiere of his opera La voix humaine [The Human Voice]. I have since come to know virtually all of his music. His sacred music is so much better than his secular music. The Gloria is his crowning monument and his last major work. The Mass in G is a wonderful piece. Yet his secular pieces, most of them, are full of technical problems: transitions are badly handled and the material can be cheap. Poulenc described himself as ‗half-monk, half-boulevardier‘—you know, a ‗man of the streets.‘‖ 549 David Ward-Steinman, telephone interview, 10 June 2005. 206 So much of me has gone into the music that it is difficult now to write about it with any degree of objectivity. Suffice it to say I regard every previous work of mine as preparation for the composition of ―Moses.‖ 550 Ward-Steinman specifically cites Stravinsky‘s Symphony of Psalms, as well as Arthur Honegger‘s Le Roi David, as direct musical influences on The Song of Moses. These two works he regarded not so much as ―musical models‖ but rather as ―ideals‖ for which to strive—or to which to aspire. ―There is certainly some Honeggerian influence,‖ the composer has noted, ―because I knew King David so well.‖ 551 According to Ward-Steinman The Song of Moses was ―conceived dramatically and musically as an immense arch, reaching a climax of concentration and intensity in [its] central ‗Battle‘ and ‗Heresy‘ sections; unlike most other oratorios it begins and ends quietly.‖ 552 San Diego magazine‘s music critic Nick Stamon wrote of the work: As Ward-Steinman has developed it, the text and musical score of Moses differ from the conventional oratorio in that there is no triumphant Hallelujah chorus at the end. Instead, there is a comparatively placid end in The Death of Moses scene; the climax of the work occurs in the middle Battle and Heresy sections. 553 Stamon further observed that the style of the oratorio is one of ―spare tautness,‖ which he noted, ―could well underline the emotional tone of the subject, yet preserve the clarity of the 550 David Ward-Steinman, ―‗Song of Moses‘: an Epic in Music,‖ E1. 551 David Ward-Steinman, telephone interview, 10 June 2005. About his experience with Milhaud and Honegger‘s King David, Ward-Steinman continued in that conversation and in an e-mail to the present writer dated 29 March 2006: ―I thought for a long time that King David was really a very inspired work; very, moving. Honegger had to be a believer in what he was writing. During the summer that I spent with Milhaud he brought in a secular work by Honegger, a ‗ballet-melodrama‘ of 1929 called Amphion about Apollo the muse based on Greek Mythology. In Apollo‘s epiphany music there were some of those same progressions that Honegger had used in the radiant chorale near the end of King David, now he had put them to use for a totally secular subject. I was actually disappointed to find such similar music in a ‗pagan‘ work. And I was really disillusioned at that point because here was this great music that I thought that was so special it should only be reserved for matters of the deepest faith and conviction. So much for divine inspiration.‖ 552 David Ward-Steinman, ―‗Song of Moses‘: an Epic in Music,‖ E1. 553 Stamon, ―Music: Moses, Ward-Steinman and Gregory Peck,‖ 69. 207 spoken and sung line.‖ 554 The work is distinctively ―tightly written‖ and it style reflects the ―clarity and accessibility‖ that characterizes much of the composer‘s music of the time. 555 For all of the work‘s economy of means, however, it demonstrates a variety of expression achieved, in part, through its ample but varied scoring. 556 In addition to parts for soloists and chorus, the oratorio calls for a moderately large orchestra with a big percussion section. Its instrumentation includes: flute I, II, and III (doubling piccolo); oboe I and II; English horn; B-flat clarinet I and II; bass clarinet; bassoon I and II; E-flat alto saxophone; horn I-IV (V optional); B-flat trumpet I, II, and III; trombone I and II; bass trombone; tuba; piano (doubling celeste); harp; timpani; strings; and 25-28 percussion instruments. A minimum of three percussionists are called upon to play two triangles, finger cymbals, large cymbals, sizzle cymbal, suspended cymbal, anvil (or steel plate), gong, tambourine, claves, castanets, ratchet, wood block, slapstick, snare drums I and II, tom toms I and II, tenor drum, bass drum, xylophone, glockenspiel, autoharp, and optional trap drums, marimba, and vibraphone. Figure 4.1 illustrates the title page from the oratorio‘s orchestral score. The composer devised the oratorio‘s music using the same palette of extended tertian harmonies that typified his style during the time in which he wrote it. It features the use of 7 th , 9 th , 11 th , and 13 th chords, added-note chords, compound chords, polychords, quartal and quintal chords, and cluster chords, as well as intervallic or ―reductive tension‖ cadences. 557 In the ensuing discussion, the reader may refer to measures cited from the work‘s published piano-vocal and MS orchestral scores. We will employ a Schenkerian approach to its tonal analysis consistent with the composer‘s own design of his music. 554 Stamon, ―Music: Moses, Ward-Steinman and Gregory Peck,‖ 69. 555 See: Kroeger, ―Ward-Steinman, David,‖ The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2 nd ed., 86. 556 In David Ward-Steinman, ―‗Song of Moses‘: An Epic in Music,‖ E1, the composer notes: ―The orchestra required is a large one . . . but the scoring is not ‗thick‘: the instrumentation varies with each of the . . . numbers.‖ 557 See Chapter 2; quoting David Ward-Steinman, telephone interview, 10 June 2005. 208 Figure 4.1: The Song of Moses, title page. 209 1. Introduction The enriched harmonic language that characterizes the oratorio as a whole is immediately apparent in the orchestral ―Introduction‖ to its Prologue. This brief movement, nominally in 4/4 time, is set in an AA‘B form with individual sections consisting of 10, 10, and 13 mm. 558 It ―crackles with jazz punctuations and syncopations [and contains] a strong rhythmic component derived from jazz.‖ 559 The opening two measures of section A feature a D augmented-major 11 th chord that the horns and upper strings sustain over rising dyads of 9 ths and 7 ths in the brass and lower strings. An E – D dyad played pizzicato by the cellos and basses establishes a foundation for one to perceive this opening sonority as an E diminished 7th/D augmented-major 7 th polychord. 560 Ictus accentuations that the woodwinds and xylophone play contribute to an aura of suspense maintained throughout the movement. A complementary three measures of descending chords of mixed-interval content played by the woodwinds follow the opening two measures. Dissonant figurations in the flutes that rise and descend by 7 ths over a 1 st -inversion D minor/2 nd -inversion A-flat major polychord that the brass sustain for four measures create a sense of repose as section A draws to a close. A measure in 2/4 meter marks the transition into section A‘ at m. 11 (letter A) where the composer introduces a sixteenth–dotted-eighth-note rhythmic figure that he has the horns, celeste, and upper strings articulate with a 3 rd -inversion C minor 7 th /A dominant 7 th polychord. Figure 4.2 illustrates section A of the movement. 558 The date of completion recorded on the pencil sketch of the ―Introduction‖ is 30 Oct. 1963. 559 Quoting David Ward-Steinman, telephone interview, 10 June 2005. 560 In David Ward-Steinman, e-mails to the present writer, 22 Apr. 2006 and 28 Aug. 2009, he notes that Schenkerian prolongations and diminutions, ―especially in the bass,‖ govern all of his ―tonally-directed‖ music: ―My thinking derives from Felix Salzer's extrapolations of Schenkerian theory in his book, Structural Hearing: Tonal Coherence in Music, which I often use as a text when I teach seminars in Schenkerian Analysis. Salzer's analyses of Hindemith‘s piano sonatas and his mapping of their progressions onto traditional Schenkerian theory are exactly what influence my ex-post-facto interpretations of what I came by intuitively in The Song of Moses.‖ 210 Figure 4.2: ―Introduction,‖ mm. 1-11. In section A‘ of the ―Introduction,‖ the celeste and strings take up melodic material previously assigned to the woodwinds (compare mm. 4-6 with mm. 14-16) while the snare drum (played with brushes) underpins the rhythm in even quarter notes. Oboes and clarinets join the flutes in playing rising and descending figures in mm. 17-20. In m. 18 the harmony thins into a sustained C minor-major 9 th chord while dissonant overlays of descending 211 figurations in the woodwinds continue into m. 20. A reduction in the levels of dissonance, dynamic, and tension once-again provides a moment of repose, and a seamless transition through a 2/4 measure segues the music into section B, which ensues one beat before m. 21. Section B of the ―Introduction‖ opens at the pickup to m. 21 (letter B) where the C minor-major 9 th chord of mm.18-19 expands a minor 3 rd in both directions to become an A dominant 13 th chord. Notes that sound in the tubas, cellos, and basses in the same minor 9 th interval as they did in m. 11 obscure its identity. The composer has arranged this chord to appear as a cluster of five notes that he distributes in the horns and trombones. Its voicing is such that pairs of horns play consonant 3 rds and 4 ths . By way of the cluster‘s incessant throbbing, it repeatedly rearticulates the sixteenth–dotted-eighth-note rhythm introduced at the beginning of section A‘. Its augury becomes increasingly evident as the xylophone and strings (played pizzicato) sound a contrasting chromatic figure in octaves above its pulsation in the horns and brass. The music henceforth returns to its opening tonality of D in m. 27 when the tuba joins the texture to play the root of a new, less dissonant, cluster consisting of the upper notes of a D augmented-major 11 th chord (with augmented 11 th G-sharp). In mm. 27-31 the aforementioned contrasting chromatic figure winds its way down in mixed-interval dyads in the oboes and strings (played pizzicato) in alteration with the flutes and clarinets. Figure 4.3: ―Introduction,‖ mm. 30-33. 212 Accented by strikes on a wood block, it abates and concludes, aided by the use of judiciously placed rests. Stopped horns (I-V) play the cluster in mm. 30-33 over the roots of an implied E major/D augmented polychord which the 2 nd trombone and tuba play, and so mark the close of the movement. Figure 4.3 illustrates the final measures of the ―Introduction.‖ The entirety of this short movement instills in the listener an impression of impending tragedy. In so doing, it serves as a mise-en-scène to the Narrator‘s presentation of Moses, spoken via a paraphrase of Deuteronomy 34:1-4, when the prophet finds himself at ―the end of his days‖ on ―the Mountain of Nebo‖ at ―the top of Pisgah that is over against Jericho.‖ The Lord shows Moses the Promised Land but he will not allow him to enter into it: ―I have caused thee to see it with thine own eyes, but thou shalt not go over into the land.‖ 2. O Lord God At the close of the narration, we meet Moses as an aged prophet addressing the Lord in prayer in a 35-mm, through-composed setting of Deuteronomy 3:24-25. 561 Over an opening tonal center of E-flat, established by a quintal chord played by the cellos and basses with periodic doubling in the harp and horns, muted 1 st violins extend and develop a six-note melodic figure in chromatic sequence. Counterpoint in muted 2 nd violins and violas (mm. 1- 7) as well as the woodwinds (m. 5) complements the melodic figuration and together with it creates static sounding harmonic composites of mixed-interval content. 562 This mystical, ‗other-worldly‘ music, shown in figure 4.4, reappears later in the oratorio when Moses ascends Mount Sinai to receive the law. The notes constituting the quintal chord E-flat, B- 561 The date of completion of the pencil sketch of ―O Lord God,‖ unfortunately, does not appear thereon. 562 In David Ward-Steinman, e-mail to the present writer, 22 Apr. 2006, ―transient moving upper factors.‖ 213 flat, F, and C will serve as tonal regions (through a circle of 5 ths ) in the movement. This quintal-based chordal foundation gradually gives way to an extended tertian texture after the second beat of m. 12 but it returns at m. 29 to close the setting. Figure 4.4: ―O Lord God,‖ mm. 1-11. 214 Figure 4.4, continued: ―O Lord God,‖ mm. 12-18. The linear and expressive melody with which Moses opens his prayer grows out of the mystical motific material heard in the upper strings. Even as the melody becomes increasingly angular, it progresses through modal permutations that engage in imitation with the 1 st violins (e.g., mm. 12-13). In the manner of a caricature of piety, Moses prays, ―O Lord God, thou hast only begun to show thy servant thy greatness and thy mighty hand: for what god is there in heaven and earth that can do such mighty acts and deeds as thine?‖ His words sound in rhythmic simplicity in two phrases that mount in emotional polarity as he 215 sings over an accompaniment, the tonally significant bass notes of which rise at first from an E-flat to an E and then descend progressively to an F and a G-flat at a climax in mm. 16-18. In the first of his two phrases, Moses sings a largely conjunct melody: he opens on an F in measure two, rises and falls as he ‗wanders with the wind‘ within the boundaries of an octave E-flat, and closes on a B-flat in measure nine. In his second phrase, however, the melody Moses sings becomes increasingly disjunctive as his thoughts vacillate between the opposing poles of his ambivalence: he opens in m. 10 on an A-flat, reaches a climax in an ―allargando‖ through a crescendo of intervallic expansion, and cadences in m. 16 via a major 7 th from an F-sharp to an F. Mirrored scale figurations in the E-flat Dorian mode that the woodwinds and harp play in a flourish of septuplets and sextuplets extend his cadence. The flourish sounds against an upward glissando in the lower strings and forte-piano chords in the bassoons, horns, trombones, and tuba. Moses‘ cadence continues into m. 18 with a three-beat, downward, scalewise passage for various combinations of instruments sounding in mixed septuplets, sextuplets, and quintuplets that serve first to quicken and then diminish its pace. This variegated descent from ‗heaven to earth‘ lands squarely on the major 7 th dyad G-flat – F—the same notes through which Moses climaxed in mm. 15-16. The G-flat stands in an upper leading tone relationship with the F and so the dyad has a most unsettling effect. Moses comes to face his fate and the music he sings reflects his grief in doing so. He implores of God longingly in mm.19-20 (letter B) in a ―slow, plaintive‖ recitative, ―Have I not served thee well all these years?‖ Moses begins his recitative on a C. He rises to an E- flat, descends to a B-flat, and returns to cadence on his initial C. His recitative bridges the F that concludes the opening section of his solo in mm. 16-17 with the F that begins its closing section in m. 20. The unresolved harmonic tension generated by way of Moses‘ recitative, which sounds over the sustained G-flat – F dyad played by the basses and cellos, serves as a 216 metaphor for its unanswered inquiry. A rising figure that the flutes play punctuates this inquiry with a question mark at its completion. Moses sings a tender, ‗uplifting,‘ modulatory, transitional passage, ―I pray thee,‖ in mm. 20-22 and concludes his prayer by asking God to let him ―go over and see the good land beyond the Jordan‖ with accompaniment of a leaner instrumental texture that features intimations of secundal harmony (e.g., mm. 23-32). He begins his final words on an F in m. 20, touches on an E-flat and a B-flat, and then cadences back on an F in mm. 31-32. The composer achieves continuity and formal balance in ―O Lord God‖ by having Moses repeat in m. 25 the melodic material he sang in m. 5 as well as by reprising the ‗mystical‘ melodic and harmonic material from the movement‘s introductory measures, once again in muted violins and violas in mm. 31-32. He also engages the flutes, oboes, clarinets, and ‗distant‘ muted trumpets in text painting (i.e., ―beyond the Jordan‖) in mm. 26-29. Figure 4.5: ―O Lord God,‖ mm. 30-35. The circle of fifths in the bass is the impetus that drives the tonal progression of Moses‘ solo. The bass also outlines two tritone prolongations: E-flat – A in mm. 1-14 and G-flat – C in mm. 18-30. Taken collectively these tritones interlock to form a diminished 217 7th chord—one that echoes the opening chord of the ―Introduction‖ and contextualizes the G-flat pedal in mm. 18-20. Moses‘ prayer ends on a quintal chord rooted, once again, on an E-flat in the lower strings with a three-note ―color cluster‖ F – G – A hovering overhead. These cluster tones, as figure 4.5 illustrates, sound staggered in the flutes, clarinets, stopped horns, celeste, harp, and the harmonics of muted upper strings. 563 3. And There Arose The Narrator speaks a short sentence, ―But the Lord was angry with Moses for his people‘s sake, and would not hear him,‖ over the closing chord of ―O Lord God‖ which serves to introduce a choral eulogy that reflects upon Moses‘ life. In this eulogy the words of Deuteronomy 34:10-12, ―And there arose not a prophet since in Israel, not a prophet like unto Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face,‖ are set for double chorus in ABA‘ form. 564 Although there are no specific score directives as to the placement of the two constituent choruses of the double chorus, the composer conceived the music of the eulogy to be antiphonal, with the smaller chorus I assuming the more difficult material when it occurs: I made this decision in deference to the limitations of writing for an untrained chorus and my need [at certain times] for a more flexible, musically-sophisticated, chorus. I could not trust the mega-chorus with a cappella modern counterpoint, so I divided the choral music into ―easy‖ and ―more difficult‖ according to the musical necessity of the moment. At times, when the choruses are not divided, everyone sings. Much of this music is in unison or is octave doubled. 565 563 In David Ward-Steinman, e-mail to the present writer, 22 Apr. 2006 the composer dissuaded the present writer from interpreting the note A as an 11 th of the chord and the note G as simply an added note to the harmony, preferring the term ―color cluster‖ for the 3-note group. 564 The date of completion recorded on the pencil sketch of ―And There Arose‖ is 4 Oct. 1963. 565 Quoting David Ward-Steinman, e-mails to the present writer, 7 and 22 Apr. 2006. 218 In ―And There Arose,‖ however, neither choral part presents much in the way of difficulty. In fact the setting shows how much it is possible to achieve using an economy of vocal resources. Author Thurston J. Dox aptly wrote in his description of this movement, ―Warm sonorities, gentle rhythms and antiphonal exchanges between the choirs characterize the aged deliverer of Israel.‖ 566 As figure 4.6 illustrates, section A of the setting opens with the voices of chorus I singing the words, ―And there arose . . . ,‖ a cappella, ―rather slow, tentative,‖ in semi-imitative, staggered entrances, each occurring one beat sooner than the previous one. The entrances occur twice at the interval of a 2 nd and then at the interval of a 5 th , building from the bass upward in a play on the secundal intervals that closed ―O Lord God.‖ The voices thus rob Moses‘ prayer of its concluding E-flat quintal-cluster harmony to introduce a quartal chord rooted on (a new dominant note) A. They engage in text painting when they close their phrases in rising intervals. Chorus II subsequently enters, ―suddenly faster,‖ with voices in unison repeating the opening motif that the basses of chorus I sang, one that descends through a 4 th and then rises a 5 th as it lays the foundation for a D major tonality. ―Exultantly,‖ the two choruses continue, ―not a prophet since in Israel,‖ cadencing on a D major/E compound chord, and further, ―not a prophet like unto Moses,‖ cadencing on an A major/D compound (D major 9 th ) chord. The texture of the choral parts, thus, weaves quartal and quintal chords on lesser-important beats with 9 th and 11 th chords (absent their 3 rds ) on downbeats. The latter are heard in measures six, eight, and ten. Powerful chords scored for the horns, brass, timpani, and strings in measures six through nine frame the first mention of the name of ―Moses‖ and punctuate the vocal writing with an even richer texture. This enriched accompanying texture is heard in measure six in 566 Thurston J. Dox, ―David Ward-Steinman: The Song of Moses,‖ Kurt Pahlen, Werner Pfister, and Rosemarie Konig, The World of the Oratorio: Oratorio, Mass, Requiem, Te Deum, Stabat Mater and Large Cantatas, ed. Reinhard G. Pauly, trans. Judith Schaeffer (Portland, OR: Amadeus Press, 1990) 330. 219 the polychordal fusion of a D major chord leading to an A major 9 th chord in the horns, high brass, and upper strings over the outline of an E major chord in the lower brass and lower strings. The accompaniment ends in measure nine prior to the phrase, ―whom the Lord knew Figure 4.6: ―And There Arose,‖ mm. 1-3. 220 Figure 4.6, continued: ―And There Arose,‖ mm. 4-6. face to face,‖ where the choruses trade words in a dialogue between voices, a cappella, in symbolization of the intimate relationship that God had established with Moses. 221 Section B of ―And There Arose‖ follows a cadence on E (the supertonic to the movement‘s primary tonal center D) on the downbeat of m. 12 (letter A). With ―Più mosso‖ and ever increasing animation the choruses sing, ―In all the signs and wonders which the Lord sent him to do in the land of Egypt.‖ The choruses proceed in a gradual crescendo in a combined unison and tertian texture over a sparser accompaniment that features the horn, trumpet, string, and woodwind sections. They reach a grand climax ―calando molto‖ in m. 22 (two measures before letter B) with the words, ―and all the great wonders which Moses wrought,‖ over the accompaniment of the full orchestra. As figure 4.7 illustrates, the accompaniment carries the climax, in accord with a graceful thrift of means in the choral writing. All the while, the accompaniment‘s bass line descends chromatically from a G in m. 15 to a D in m. 18. The harmonies above it in both of these measures imply a G major tonality. Following its ascent to a B-flat, the bass line descends to an F in m. 19 where it prolongs as the root of a G-flat major 7th/F incomplete 7 th polychord that sustains into m. 21. In this latter measure the bass line descends scalewise to a C on the downbeat of m. 22. This C in the bass forms what the listener may perceived as a transitional 3 nd -inversion D minor 7 th chord. With the chord change on the third beat of the measure, however, the harmonic entity becomes an altered 2 nd -inversion F major 11 th chord. Progressing into the downbeat of m. 24 (letter B) the bass line shifts back to an F via upper leading tone F-sharp to serve as the root of an F minor 9 th chord. Through a circle of fifths (B-flat – F – C) the ―calando molto‖ section so prolongs F as a pedal point. The F minor 9 th chord, however, resolves to a quartal chord rooted on an E by way of an upper leading tone to tonic relationship at the ―Come prima‖ on the downbeat of m. 26. Thus, in mm. 24-26, the section subsides in its pace, dynamics, and orchestration, and concludes peacefully after the singing of the words, ―There was none like him at all.‖ The chord progression heard 222 antiphonally in the voices in mm. 24-25 may be perceived as a repeated quasi-plagal (i – iv 6/4 – i) cadence that affirms the words, ―none like him,‖ in a metaphoric ―amen.‖ Figure 4.7: ―And There Arose,‖ mm. 19-20. 223 Figure 4.7, continued: ―And There Arose,‖ mm. 21-23. Continuing in m. 26, ―Come prima,‖ the music achieves a sense of repose when chorus II open section A‘ in the same tonality with which chorus I opened section A. The 224 music for chorus II in section A‘, however, begins on the third beat of the measure instead of on the downbeat as did the music for chorus I in section A, thus altering the order of metric accents between the two sections. The choruses proceed, interchanging the antiphonal musical materials they sang at the opening of the movement, while the punctuations in their accompaniment, now performed by the strings alone, wane in their accentuation and dynamics. The metric alteration and interchange of parts in section A‘ serve to create subtle textural variety and subdue the textual emphasis heard in section A (e.g., see the subito piano on the third beat of m. 29 at the word ―Israel‖). The choruses join as one to sing, ―not a prophet since in Israel, not a prophet like unto Moses . . . .‖ The music returns to its original metric order after a 2/4 measure that the composer inserts as m. 31 but prior to the choruses‘ climax on an A major/D compound (D major 9 th ) chord at the name of ―Moses‖ in m. 32. The choruses close section A‘ by once-again singing the phrase, ―whom the Lord knew face to face,‖ the fragments of which pass in imitation in antiphonal text painting from chorus I to the women of chorus II, to the men of chorus II, and subsequently back to chorus I. While the choruses hold their closing notes E and A in a pianississimo in m. 36 the cellos and basses play the outline of an E-flat major chord in a portentous reference to the tonality with which the movement opened. The root of this chord stands in an upper leading tone relationship to a low D that the cellos and basses subsequently play in m. 37. Chorus II sustains a wordless hum in a diminuendo to a pianississimo over this pedal D while the woodwinds and harp play 2 nd -inversion D and E major chords in a thirty-second–half note rhythm that articulate a polychord in a tranquil pianissimo. The harmony and rhythmic figuration combine to form a ―unifying motif‖ that will sound repeatedly as a symbol of Israel‘s hope in the providential care of the Lord at strategic places throughout the oratorio. 225 An important defining characteristic of ―And There Arose‖ is its tonal ambiguity. Section A treats the E-flat tied over from the final measures of ―O Lord God‖ as either a leading tone to a new tonality of E or an upper leading tone to an alternate new tonality of D. The quartal chord rooted on an A that chorus I outlines in measures two and three spins its notes from those of the color cluster heard above the E-flat. This quartal harmony may function as subdominant to the tonality of E or dominant to the tonality of D relative to the cadences on the D major/E compound chord on the word ―Israel‖ in measure six or the A major/D compound chord on the word ―Moses‖ in measure eight, respectively. The significant landmarks in the tonal landscape of section B of ―And There Arose,‖ witnessed in the progression of its bass line, include the cadences on G in m. 15, D in m. 18 (possibly a prolongation of G—but note the E-flat again in m. 17), F in m. 21, C in m. 22, and F in m. 24. Section A‘ of the movement differs from section A in that it opens on an E pedal instead of an E-flat pedal and it closes on an E major/D major polychord instead of an E major chord. There are two clear cadences on E in the setting: one on an incomplete triad rooted on an E at the ―Più mosso‖ at the opening of section B in m. 12 and one on a quartal chord rooted on an E at the ―Come prima‖ at the opening of section A‘ in m. 26. ―And There Arose‖ is tonally indistinct in the sense that strong arguments may be made for either E or D as its defining tonal center. I feel that the E-flat reprise played by the lower strings in the movement‘s penultimate measure that resolves to D in its final measure helps to make a better argument for D as its overall tonal center. 567 567 In David Ward-Steinman, e-mail to the present writer, 22 Apr. 2006, the composer offered two ―alternate defensible interpretations‖ for the movement‘s tonal center: ―E is either the tonal center itself, modulating to D at the movement‘s end, or supertonic to D, the ‗real‘ tonal center of the movement. There are hints of D along the way, however, which I myself think is ‗really‘ the tonal center of the movement. Note especially the climatic medial D in m. 18.‖ 226 Chapter Summary The agitated and syncopated rhythms as well as the dissonant tertian and secundal harmonies that characterize the instrumental ―Introduction‖ which opens the Prologue to The Song of Moses not only betray the music‘s roots in jazz and non-functional harmony but also intimate the conflict and distress experienced by the man whose story forms the basis of the oratorio. Throbbing horns that herald the movement‘s final section portend tragedy before the clusters that distinguish its colorful conclusion linger in suspense. The ―Introduction‖ is 33 mm. in length, moves in 4/4 time, and features an AA‘B form with individual sections that encompass 10, 10, and 13 mm. Its tonal center proceeds from E/D to D/A-flat in section A, A to C in section A‘, and A to E/D in section B, and the movement‘s overall tonality is D. In a solo entitled, ―O Lord God,‖ the listener meets Moses as a regretful old man at ―the end of his days‖ on the mountain of Nebo gazing at the Promised Land. The text and music of this through-composed song reflect the depth of his struggle with disenchantment as he come to terms with the fact that he must die outside of the land without having led the children of Israel into it. They also, however, portray his enduring faith and trust in the Lord. An eerie texture of mixed-interval chromatic polyphony that oscillates aperiodically in the upper strings at the opening of the solo serves to create an aura of otherworldliness. The composer repeats this music later in the oratorio when Moses ascends ―Mount Sinai‖ to receive the law, where its intended effect is far more convincing, at least upon first hearing. He uses it here to convey the mystique of Moses‘ communion with God in prayer. Moses goes through the motions of acknowledging the Lord‘s sovereignty and omnipotence as he sings a melodic line, the initial aimless meandering of which reflects his disillusionment and the subsequent dramatic discontinuity of which mirrors his inner conflict. His antipathy 227 ultimately explodes in a cascade of scale figurations that the orchestra plays. This scalewise descent settles on a secundal dyad that comes to underlie a pivotal recitative in which Moses poses the question, ―Have I not served thee well all these years?‖ In the measures that follow this recitative the composer makes exemplary use of secundal harmony to create music of gentle lyricism with which he sets the closing words of Moses‘ prayer. The quintal chord E-flat – B-flat – F – C that sounds in the accompaniment at the opening of ―O Lord God‖ is structurally significant to the song, particularly the vocal part Moses sings. The root of the E-flat quintal chord functions as the tonal center in which the song opens and closes. In the recitative in mm. 19-20, Moses‘ reciting note C is the top member of this chord while his upper and lower boundary notes E-flat and B-flat are its lower members. The F that closes the opening section of the solo in mm. 16-17 and the F that begins its concluding section in m. 20 are also members of this chord. The outer notes of the E-flat quintal chord envelop the diminished 7 th chord E-flat – G-flat – A – C that the tritone prolongations in mm. 1-14 and 18-30 establish. By echoing the diminished 7 th element of the polychord that sounds at the opening of the Prologue‘s ―Introduction‖ (albeit a half step higher in pitch), the latter chord justifies the strategically important G-flat pedal that underlies the aforementioned recitative. It is only at the conclusion of the Prologue that we finally meet Moses in his guise as the venerated prophet of Old Testament history. ―And There Arose‖ is a beautiful choral eulogy composed as a tribute to Moses that, like the oratorio of which it is a part, begins and ends quietly. Its opening and closing sections make abundant use of text painting with the words, ―and there arose,‖ set to rising intervals in mm 2-5 and 26-28, and the words, ―There was none like him,‖ set to plagal cadences in mm 24-25. In mm. 9-11 and 33-37 the two 228 choruses engage in further text painting by trading the words, ―whom the Lord knew face to face,‖ in a dialogue that symbolizes the intimate relation that God established with Moses. In the central section of ―And There Arose,‖ especially effective use is made of the double chorus. Antiphonal exchanges between the constituent choruses build in intensity until the music climaxes in mm. 21-22, ―calando molto,‖ as they sing, ―and all the great wonders which Moses wrought . . . .‖ The choruses‘ accompaniment serves to carry this climax. Puzzling at the climactic point, however, is the choice the composer makes to limit the unison phrase sung by chorus I to its tenors and basses—as the total effect of the climax would surely be more magnificent if all the voices of chorus I were to sing this phrase. ―And There Arose‖ is 37 mm. in its overall length, is structured in an ABA‘ form with sections encompassing 11, 14, and 12 mm. and its overall tonal center is D. Section A of the movement opens on a quartal chord rooted on A, which develops out of the E-flat pedal that undergirds the final measures of ―O Lord God,‖ and concludes subsequent to cadences on extended tertian harmonies rooted on the notes E, D, and G. Section B opens concomitant with a seamless shift of the tonality to E, progresses through the tonal regions of G, D, F, C, and concludes in the tonality of F. Section A‘ opens via an upper leading tone to tonic relationship in the tonality of E and cadences once again in harmonies rooted on the notes E, D, and G. In the measures that close section A‘, chorus II intones a woodless hum on the dyad E – A while the cellos and basses play an ominous phrase that alludes to the tonality of E-flat before they sustain a pedal D. The woodwinds and harp sound an E major/D major polychordal motif in a distinctive thirty-second–half note rhythm to conclude ―And There Arose,‖ and the Prologue to The Song of Moses, in the tonality of D. Cast in various harmonic and rhythmic transformations, this unifying motif will reappear regularly as a symbol of hope in the providence of the Lord throughout the balance of the oratorio. 229 Chapter Five The Song of Moses—Part I: The Call Part I of The Song of Moses tells the story of the call that the Lord extends to Moses to lead the children of Israel out from bondage under the tyranny of Pharaoh. A descendent of the tribe of Levi, Moses was born to Amram and Jochebed, who lived with their Hebrew brethren in the land of Goshen. At the age of three months, he escapes a certain death at the hands of the Egyptians when his mother sets him adrift on a craft of bulrushes on the Nile. Thermuthis, the daughter of Pharaoh, rescues Moses and brings him up as her adopted son, but he chooses to suffer affliction with his own people rather than enjoy the pleasures of the Egyptian court. At the age of 40 he again becomes a fugitive from Pharaoh when he slays an Egyptian whom he finds smiting a Hebrew slave. Moses flees into the land of Midian where he meets and marries Zipporah, the daughter of Jethro, and becomes a shepherd for 40 years. 4. Here Am I A setting of Exodus 3:1-12 and 4:12 for the Narrator, Moses, and the chorus titled ―Here Am I‖ opens part I of the oratorio. 568 During its introduction, shown in figure 5.1, the Narrator speaks a text adapted from Exodus 3:1-2 and 4. Moses has led a flock of sheep that belong to his father-in-law to Mount Horeb, and there an angel of the Lord appears to him from out of the midst of a bush. A three-measure series of altered 9 th chords with split chord members that stopped horns (―cuivré‖) and muted strings play in 2/4 time, accented 568 The date of completion recorded on the pencil sketch of ―Here Am I‖ is 31 July 1963. 230 sforzando-piano first by the tutti orchestra and subsequently by the low brass, marks the appearance of the angel. As the bush burns with fire, God calls to Moses from out of its midst. The narration continues over the music with entries cued by the conductor. 569 Three measures of mirrored sextuplet figurations that the flutes, clarinets, marimba, celeste, and 2 nd violins (played pizzicato) play over a G minor-major 9 th chord that the horns sustain flame in a blaze of color and fade to a pianissimo under the close of the narration. Figure 5.1: ―Here Am I,‖ mm. 1-6. 569 A note affixed to this passage in the MS orchestral score reads, ―Cue entries ad lib. Do not attempt to synchronize tempi or entrances. Continue all ostinati until narrator has reached the end of his line above, which should coincide with the fade-out.‖ 231 Structurally ―Here Am I‖ is through composed. The dramatic dialogue of its text governs its form and its music develops organically. The setting encompasses 79 mm. of music, inclusive of the aforementioned six measures of introduction. The balance of the setting divides into three sections, A, B, and C, wherein both the men‘s and full choruses, which alternate according to the dictates of the text, sing the part of the Lord in a dialogue with Moses. Each of the sections features an address by God to Moses, and each culminates in a choral climax that gradually subdues and closes with an iteration of the thirty-second- note–quarter-note, polychordal, unifying motif that made its first appearance in the oratorio‘s Prologue. The timing of the climatic points in the three sections insures forward movement of the music, and the motif that closes each section serves to both unify the oratorio and signify the Lord‘s promise to deliver his chosen people. 570 While the lengths of the three sections, 27, 21, and 24 mm, respectively, balance well between themselves, textural variety decreases as the number progresses in line with the requirements of the libretto. Table 5.1 maps the overall form of ―Here Am I.‖ Indicated in the table are measure numbers that correspond to the beginnings of each of the movement‘s constituent sections and subsections, an enumeration of the measures contained in each subsection, and a mapping of the tonal areas with which each subsection begins and ends. 571 Harmonically the music for soloist, chorus, and orchestra employs the same extended tertian (e.g., mm. 1-6), mixed interval (e.g., mm. 9, 10), secundal (e.g., mm. 36-41, 44-45, 78-79), quartal (e.g., mm. 7-8, 46-48), quintal (e.g., mm. 19-21), and polychordal (e.g., mm. 15, 33, 55, 76) constructions as does the music of the Prologue. The choral writing is largely homophonic and the rhythm of its text governs the often-changing meter of its individual measures. 570 The motif‘s rhythm differs in its various appearances throughout the oratorio, as it is dependent on the tempo of the music, the duration of its second (sustained) note, and subtle differences in the motif‘s affect. 571 In the tonal tables, upper-case letters refer to major harmonies, lower-case to minor, ° to diminished, etc. 232 Introduction Narrator m. 1 (6 mm.) ―Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro . . .The bush burned with fire . . .‖ F-sharp – B-flat – b – g Section A Chorus & Moses Chorus Men‘s Chorus Chorus m. 7 (2 mm.) m. 9 (5 mm.) m. 14 (5 mm.) m. 19 (15 mm.) ―Moses . . .‖ ―Here am I . . .‖ ―Do not draw nigh . . .‖ ―I am the God of thy father . . .‖ ―I have seen the plight of my people . . . And I am come down to deliver them.‖ D-sharp quartal – E quartal d/e – D-sharp/C- sharp F-sharp (pedal) – C (added 4 th F) F quintal – a – D/E (pedal) Section B Men‘s Chorus Moses Chorus m. 34 (3 mm.) m. 37 (9 mm.) m. 46 (9 mm.) ―Come now, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh.‖ ―Who am I, who am I . . .‖ ―Certainly I will be with thee . . .‖ G-flat/F (pedal) – D-flat A-flat /G (pedal) – D-sharp (pedal) D quartal – E (added C-sharp) Section C Moses Chorus m. 56 (7 mm.) m. 63 (17 mm.) ―But I am not eloquent . . .‖ ―Who hath made man‘s mouth?‖ E/D-sharp G-sharp – A – E (added C-sharp) /D-sharp (pedal) Table 5.1: Outline of ―Here Am I.‖ 233 Following the introduction, section A of ―Here Am I‖ begins in measure seven when a lone horn sounds the note E-flat and the chorus sings the root of a quartal chord as the voice of God calling for ―Moses.‖ In response to the chorus‘s summons, Moses raises his voice and articulates a descending triplet over a half-step interval C – B as he ―tentatively‖ answers, ―Here Am I.‖ Compelling his attention, the chorus emphatically repeats its call, now in harmony, singing a second quartal chord rooted a half step higher on E—the ostensible tonal center of the movement. Moses answers, ‗rising to the call‘ once again, animating his earlier response and repeating it a half step higher. The oratorio‘s composer sets this dialogue between the chorus and Moses, shown in figure 5.2, against a mystical backdrop of arpeggiated quartal-quintal chords that the woodwinds, horns, brass, harp, celeste, and strings play. At progressive intervals throughout the setting, the music explores and develops the half-step relation introduced during the course of these two measures. Figure 5.2: ―Here Am I,‖ mm. 7-8. 234 Over an E minor 11 th chord that the strings play ―senza vibrato‖ and thereafter sustain suspensefully, the Lord speaks to Moses through the voice of the chorus: ―Do not draw nigh: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place that thou standest is holy.‖ Traversing through various added-note and mixed-interval harmonies in mm. 9-13, in a passage that would cause a modern-day Moses to shutter in awe, the chorus reaches a climax on the downbeat of m. 13 where it sings the word ―holy‖ on an E-flat major/D-flat major (D- sharp major/C-sharp major in E) polychord. The bassoons, cellos, and basses underlay the passage‘s rich harmonic texture with a bass line that rises, E – C – D – E-flat, and then falls, D-flat – B – A-sharp – A (the upper leading tone to the A-flat in the chorus). An attendant build up in the orchestra, punctuated by crash cymbals, accompanies the ―maestoso‖ climax. Following the climax in m. 13, the cellos and basses play an ascending phrase F – B- flat – E-flat – F which progresses over the bar line in a shockingly-sudden, sforzando-piano shift to an F-sharp on the downbeat of m. 14 (letter A). This note subsequently serves as a pedal point over which the men, who enter on the third beat of m. 14, sing in two-part counterpoint. They create an aura of suspense when they dramatically declare, ―I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham,‖ opening and closing their phrases with the major 2 nd dyads, E – F-sharp and A – B, respectively. Horns II and IV and violas join the cellos and basses in prolonging the F-sharp pedal into m. 16 where the instruments subsequently rise in a triplet in minor 2 nd dyads into m. 17. Following the downbeat in m. 17, the men resume their textual declaration on a unison D and expand, once again, into two-part counterpoint as they sing, ―the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob,‖ while the entire string section sounds a jaunty, syncopated rhythmic figure that closes sfortzando on an A-sharp half-diminished 7 th chord. A C major chord (with added 4 th F) that the woodwinds, horns, tuba, cellos, and basses play in m. 18 underlies the men‘s cadence on the dyad E – G. 235 The full chorus enters, once again, at the pickup to m. 19 (letter B) on an F major 9 th chord to sing a passage which begins with the Lord saying to Moses, ―I have seen the plight of my people in Egypt; I have heard their cry, and I know their sorrows.‖ Harmonics that float in the upper strings, followed by rising figures for solo woodwinds, tuba, harp, and percussion, accompany the passage‘s opening measures. The choral texture throughout the passage features an admixture of extended tertian, quartal, and quintal based harmonies with frequent returns to unisons that expand through two-part counterpoint into five and six parts. The segment of the passage that begins at the pickup to m. 25, ―awakening, pressing forward,‖ illustrates the aforementioned expansion technique. Boldly proclaiming the text, ―And I am come down to deliver them out of the hands of Pharaoh,‖ the chorus enters piano, rises in unison in a crescendo from an E to a C, and expands in textures of three, four, five, and ultimately six parts until it effects a majestic climax on the downbeat of m. 27. The chorus repeats this procedure after a more amicable manner when it sings the text, ―and to bring them up out of that land, unto a land fine and large, flowing with milk and honey.‖ Beginning again on a unison F at the pickup to m. 29, it expands through two coupled parts in parallel 5 ths into three and four parts. Accompanying the chorus, the woodwinds, piano, harp, and strings play scalewise runs and glissandos that ebb and dissipate in volume and texture in coordination with the imagery of the text the chorus sings. The chorus cadences on a D major/E compound chord in m. 32 (letter C) and two instances of the aforementioned unifying motif that the English horn, horns, brass, and celeste articulate over a roll on the suspended cymbal peacefully conclude the passage. Illustrated in part in figure 5.3, this passage splendidly portrays the dual expressions of compassion and assurance that the words of the Lord convey—the God who promises to ―deliver‖ children of Israel out of their bondage to the Egyptians so that they may inherit a land ―flowing with milk and honey.‖ 236 Figure 5.3: ―Here Am I,‖ mm. 22-25. 237 Figure 5.3, continued: ―Here Am I,‖ mm. 26-29. 238 Figure 5.3, continued: ―Here Am I,‖ mm. 30-33. 239 A sudden shift of harmony on the downbeat of m. 34 alters the tenor of the Lord‘s address when the flutes and celeste play a G-flat major chord over a pedal F that the cellos and basses play. The men of the chorus enter and sustain an F while the horns join the harmony on the third beat of the measure with a half-step downward shift between two three-voice quartal chords rooted on E and E-flat, respectively, in rhythmic imitation of the unifying motive. The men intone the Lord‘s instructions to Moses ―freely‖ in 5/4 time with a crescendo, expanding from their unison F to cadence on an octave F at the close of their first phrase, ―Come now, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh . . . .‖ They subsequently ritard, diminuendo, and expand once again in a second crescendo from a unison C and cadence quietly on a D-flat – A-flat dyad at the close of their second phrase, ―that you may bring the people out of Egypt.‖ An echo of the unifying motif that the cellos and basses articulate in m. 36 shifts the pedal to an A-flat in the 1 st violins and the violas over a G in the 2 nd violins, the cellos, and basses, so concluding the Lord‘s instructions to Moses. Accompanied by the brass, woodwinds, and strings, Moses humbly yet dubiously responds to the directive that God has given him in a quasi-recitative that begins at m. 37 (letter D), inquiring, ―Who am I that I should go unto Pharaoh?‖ During his first phrase he sings slowly and inquisitively, while he descends through the same half-step motive with the words ―Who am I‖ that he did with the words ―Here Am I‖ in measure seven, but now a minor 3 rd higher: E-flat – D. When he completes his self-effacing response, Moses twice repeats this motive in descending half steps, moving as he does in m. 40 B-flat – A and in m. 44 D-flat – C, so framing the balance of his second phrase, ―that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt?‖ Although the oratorio‘s composer employs a chromatic melodic idiom to set the words of Moses, as figure 5.4 shows, he artfully shapes the contours of Moses‘ vocal line to follow the natural emphasis and cadences of speech. 240 Figure 5.4: ―Here Am I,‖ mm. 37-45. 241 A sparse instrumental texture, marked ―colla voce,‖ underlies Moses‘ inquiry. The secundal A-flat/G pedal that the strings play in mm. 36-37 expands to an A/G pedal that muted trombones play in m. 38 and muted trumpets play in m. 39. The flutes, oboes, and upper strings play along with the trombones at m. 40 where the pedal descends to a G-flat/F. The English horn, bassoons, and lower strings resume playing the G-flat/F pedal on the downbeat of m. 41, after which (non-muted) 1 st and 2 nd trombones play dyads in two-part counterpoint that expand from this secundal pedal into m. 42. On the third beat of m. 42, the tuba and basses effect another shift in the pedal to a D and subsequently to an E. Solo oboe, English horn, and bassoon imitate Moses‘ solo ―expressively‖ in three-part counterpoint in m. 43. The clarinets, bass clarinet, and bassoons, along with the cellos and basses (crossing parts), effect a final shift of the pedal to an E-flat (D-sharp) to underlie a sustained C that Moses sings and a sustained E-natural that the English horn plays in mm. 43-45. The accompaniment concludes in m. 45 on an accented E-flat that repeats in eighth notes while the cellos and basses exchange octaves. The overall movement of the bass line in the passage is from a G stepwise down to an E-flat, and the overall tonality of Moses‘ answer is E-flat. The downward-moving upper leading tone relation serves as a unifying device within the passage, often articulated with subtle changes in color and texture, and perhaps as a metaphor for the conflict developing between Moses‘ timorous disposition and his calling. Following another shift in the pedal from an E-flat to a D, which the horns, 1 st trombone, and tuba play sfortzando-piano in m. 46 (one measure before letter E), the strings sound a commanding series of down-bowed chords on beats one and four of successive measures while God answers Moses through the bursting voice of the chorus. The Lord avows that his presence will abide with Moses in a passage in which the chorus recites the phrase, ―Certainly I will be with thee,‖ three times in a grand crescendo that culminates in an 242 ―allargando‖ on a quartal chord at the opening of the phrase, ―When thou hast brought the people out . . . .‖ The pedal D that the horns sustain segues in the tuba, timpani, and lower strings through an F to an E in mm. 49-50 where it underlies the choral climax. The music gradually dissipates through a series of added-note and mixed-interval harmonies in a ritard and diminuendo until it settles momentarily on an F major chord that hovers over the prolonged E pedal in m. 52 and thereafter cadences on a chord rooted on E (with an added 6 th in place of its absent 3 rd ) in m. 55. Noteworthy in mm. 53-55 is the symbolism in the tremolo that reaches heavenward while rising scalewise (E – B) in the Phrygian mode in octaves in the violins over the chorus as it sings, ―ye shall serve God upon this mount.‖ Solo muted trumpet, English horn, and muted trombone, as well as the balance of the woodwinds, rearticulate the unifying motif in a serene polychordal cadence at the close of this passage. A split D-sharp/E pedal that the bass clarinet, bassoons, and cellos play on the downbeat of m. 56, and the violas and basses subsequently play on the third beat of m. 57, introduces a largely conjunct and tonal ―quasi recitative‖ that centers about G-sharp minor. In this recitative, Moses, ever shackled by his own insecurities, implores of God once again in a self-abasingly expressive manner, ―But I am not eloquent, never have I been a speaker, nor since thou hast spoken to thy servant; for I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.‖ Horns join a ―colla voce‖ accompaniment in m. 59 where they unfold the E/D-sharp pedal into a three-part texture. The texture‘s lower voice descends an octave in m. 60 through a Phrygian scale that the cellos and basses play, so prolonging the D-sharp pedal into m. 61. Its two upper voices expand outward to terminate ambivalently on a major 6 th with an E that the trombones and violas play and a C-sharp that a solo horn plays. An animated, up-beat transition for the woodwinds, horns, brass, timpani, percussion, and piano accelerates in a crescendo over a pedal A-flat (G-sharp) which the 243 cellos and basses play in mm. 63-64. This A-flat pedal subsequently shifts upward to an A on the downbeat of m. 65 (letter G) where the Lord answers Moses a final time through the voices of the chorus in mm. 65-70 with the powerfully alliterative yet tongue-twisting, thrice-repeated pronouncement, ―Who hath made man‘s mouth? Have not I, the Lord, made man‘s mouth?‖ The climactic music for the chorus that sets this text is virtually identical to that which the chorus sang in mm. 47-52, save for minor changes in its tenor part in m. 66 and its bass part in m. 68. The chorus‘s accompaniment, however, differs substantially from its earlier version, due in significant part to its substitution of an A pedal for its prior E/D- sharp pedal. The A pedal prolongs in the tuba, piano, cellos, and basses into mm. 67-68 where, as in the earlier climactic passage, it shifts downward through an F to an E. In m. 68, now reinforced by the horns, trombones, and timpani, the E pedal once-again underlies the choral climax that closes the passage. Entering a final time in m. 71 on a (3 rd -less) 9 th chord rooted on A, and ―slowing gradually‖ in a diminuendo, the chorus conveys the Lord‘s closing instructions to Moses, comforting him with the words, ―Now go, and I will help thee speak and I will teach thee what to say.‖ Here, as in mm. 19-24, 29-33, and 53-55, the oratorio‘s composer writes rich, consonant, and often polytonal sonorities for the chorus to sing when they comfort and encourage Moses with the promises of the Lord. Sustaining the root and the 6 th of a (3 rd - less) chord rooted on E, as they did in m. 55, the singers ―gradually close mouths‖ on the phrase‘s final word, ―say,‖ in m. 77, intoning a hum in m. 77-79 while the orchestra plays the unifying motif. The latter sounds at first in a cadence on a 3 rd -inversion G-sharp minor 7 th chord that the flutes, clarinets, and harp play in m. 76. It sounds subsequently in repeated cadences on a pedal D-sharp that the trumpets and celeste play in mm. 76-77, the trombones and strings play in m. 77, and the bassoons play in m. 78. Figure 5.5 illustrates this music. 244 Figure 5.5: ―Here Am I,‖ mm. 76-79. Early in our analysis of ―Here Am I‖ we identified E as its ostensible overall tonal center. The balance of the movement confirms this postulation. The pedals on D and A in mm. 46-49 and 65-67, respectively, as well as the choral cadences on C-sharp – E dyads in mm. 55 and 76, implicate A as a possible tonal center. The pedals that resolve A-flat/G to A/G in mm. 36-38 and A-flat to A in mm. 63-65, however, may be heard merely as VII of IV relationships. The chorus first establishes the tonality of E in a VII to I relationship in mm. 6-7 and reaffirms the tonality three times at the close of each of the three major sections of the movement in mm. 33, 55, and 76. D major/E is polychordal in m. 33 while C-sharp functions as an added ‗color‘ tone to the (3 rd -less) chords rooted on E in mm. 55 and 76. 245 The half-step relationship pervades the entirety of ―Here Am I.‖ In its introduction in mm. 1-6, an altered F-sharp 9 th chord resolves to an altered G 9 th chord. In his answer to the Lord‘s call, Moses resolves a C to a B in m. 6 and a D-flat to a C in m. 8—half-step resolutions he repeats in imitation in mm. 37, 40, and 44. The cadence on the polychord E- flat major/D-flat major in m. 13 anticipates the cadence on the D major/E compound chord in m. 33. The F-sharp pedal in mm. 14-16 resolves to an F in m. 18 while a G-flat major chord hovers over an F pedal in mm. 33-34. The E – D-sharp relation in the accompaniment that closes the movement in mm. 76-79 mirrors the D-sharp – E relation in the chorus that follows the movement‘s introduction in mm. 7-8. These half-step relations serve as musical metaphors for the conflict that Moses experiences as he strives to heed the Lord‘s call and provide the stylistic glue that links ―Here Am I‖ with other movements in the oratorio 5. How Excellent Thy Name Following upon the completion of ―Here Am I,‖ the Narrator informs us that Moses and Aaron have gathered the elders of the children of Israel and that Aaron speaks to them the words that the Lord spoke to Moses and performs the signs that the Lord commands him to perform in the sight of the people. Continuing with his account of Exodus 4:29-31, the Narrator tells us: ―And the people believed. When they heard that the Lord had visited the children of Israel and had noticed their affliction, they praised God and rejoiced.‖ Although, in reality, Exodus 4:31 indicates that the people ―bowed and prayed‖ rather than ―praised God and rejoiced,‖ the oratorio‘s composer evidently felt that musical-dramatic concerns necessitated placing a ―lively, lilting, joyous‖ song of praise at this strategic point in his work. Such an exalted number is exactly what he wrote—a setting for chorus of Psalm 8. 246 Figure 5.6: ―How Excellent Thy Name,‖ mm. 1-13. 247 Figure 5.6, continued: ―How Excellent Thy Name,‖ mm. 14-25. 248 ―How Excellent Thy Name‖ is cast in an ABA‘ form. 572 It features a moderately open choral texture and a largely uncomplicated accompaniment that proceed for the most part in 3/8 time. The setting encompasses only106 mm: 39 devoted to section A, 31 to section B, and 36 to section A‘. Section A itself divides into three distinct subsections of 11, 13, and 15 mm. Figure 5.6 illustrates its first two subsections. The woodwinds play a 2 nd - inversion chord rooted on E forte to mark the downbeat of a two-measure introduction in which the strings sound a sustained tremolo with the same chord while a trill rings in the triangle. The chorus enters in unison, singing a sprightly opening phrase in iambic rhythm to the words, ―O Lord, our Lord,‖ dropping a 5 th from a B to an E and rising again through an A back to a B. The woodwinds, horns, xylophone, and strings (played pizzicato) sound a jaunty dotted-eighth-note–sixteenth-note–eighth-note rhythmic figure that descends scalewise over a 2 nd -inversion F-sharp major/E compound chord to answer the chorus even as the latter sustains the closing note of its first phrase. Following a resolution back to the opening chord rooted on E, the chorus repeats the phrase, ―O Lord, our Lord,‖ now enriching it with the addition of a D-sharp that they sing prior to closing on the note B. Trumpets supplement the previously heard accompaniment in an answer that moves in a dotted-eighth- note–sixteenth-note–eighth-note rhythm from an F-sharp major 9 th chord to a D-sharp/C- sharp compound chord and cadences on an F-sharp major 9 th /G-sharp compound chord. In the second subsection of section A, the chorus sings and repeats the words, ―how excellent,‖ in fugal imitation with ever-increasing animation. The four horns now double the choral voices. Beginning with the altos singing piano at the pickup to m. 12, and continuing with the tenors and basses at two-measure intervals, the voices drop from their pick-up notes in alternating 4 ths and 5 ths in a downward circle of 5 ths to the notes E, A, and D while singing 572 The date of completion recorded on the pencil sketch of ―How Excellent Thy Name‖ is 12 Aug. 1963. 249 the words to the aforementioned dotted-eighth-note–sixteenth-note–eighth-note rhythm. The sopranos and tenors subsequently enter in imitation in a mezzo piano dynamic at the pickups to mm. 17 and 18 respectively, and in a poco crescendo beginning at the pickup to m. 19 the altos couple with the basses and the sopranos couple with the tenors to alternate in imitative entrances at one-measure intervals. Buoyed by the continued support of the horns, in mm. 22-24 the voices crescendo and climax fortissimo through a homophonic quintal chord texture that has as its root a G while they repeat the word ―excellent.‖ In the third subsection of section A, the chorus sings two nearly identical, buoyant, four-measure phrases, beginning in unison and concluding in homophony, through simple tertian harmonies with the words, ―. . . is thy name in all the earth! We will sing thy praise to the heavens.‖ Featured in the choral parts are an abundance of 4 ths and 5 ths . The horns and brass alternate with the bassoons and lower strings (played pizzicato) in accompanying the chorus. To conclude the subsection the chorus sings a seven-measure extension in which they develop the opening octave motive of the aforementioned four-measure phrases in inversion and inexact imitation between voices. The woodwinds double the chorus while it cheerfully reiterates the words, ―We will sing . . . sing thy praise,‖ and close on a major 2 nd F-sharp – G-sharp dyad that the woman and men double in octaves. 573 The range of intervallic movement throughout section A, inclusive of its middle subsection, spans through the circle of 5 ths : G – D – A – E – B – F-sharp. The section‘s first and third subsections, however, gravitate to an apparent tonal center of E major. The F- sharp major chords in mm. 5 and 10 function contextually as V of V in E major, but only the closing measures of the psalm setting will finally confirm the movement‘s overall tonality. 573 At the conclusion of Section A, in the published piano-vocal score, page 37, second system, final measure, there is a missing sharp before the note F in the bass clef of the piano part. 250 The rhythmically supple section B of ―How Excellent Thy Name,‖ achieves structural contrast through its employment of a ―half-chorus‖ as well as its use of paired and tripled voices within its half chorus texture to set the text, ―What is man that thou art mindful of him? And the son of man that thou visitest him? Yet thou hast made him only a little lower than the angels, and dost crown him with glory and honor.‖ The continuously varying accompaniment, played for the most part by the woodwinds and strings but additionally by the trombones, horns, trumpets, and suspended cymbal, serves to double the choral parts (optionally, ―if necessary‖) and lend further textural interest to the section. The primary feature of section B, however, is its extensive use of hemiola in a basic 3/8 meter. Figure 5.7 illustrates the first 21 mm. of section B. The chorus opens Section B of ―How Excellent Thy Name,‖ in m. 40 (letter B) singing, ―What is man that thou art mindful of him?‖ The voices proceed in a crescendo from piano to mezzo forte with the altos and basses, as well as the sopranos and tenors, coupled in contrasting variants of hemiolic rhythms. The altos and basses sustain a pedal E while the sopranos and tenors rise, first in unison and subsequently in major and minor 2 nds , via a Mixolydian scale. The sopranos and tenors suddenly drop in m. 45 to sing the root of a G-sharp major 7 th chord even as the altos and basses rise to fill out the chord. Thereafter, the sopranos and basses fall silent while the altos and tenors, which couple in a lilting hemiolic rhythm, sing the balance of their phrase piano. The altos and tenors conclude their phrase in mm. 47-48 on a 2 nd -inversion D-sharp minor pivot chord. In m. 48 the sopranos and basses take up the text, ―And the son of man that thou visitest him?‖ The altos and tenors join them in m. 49 with the latter intoning a wordless hum. The voices crescendo from pianissimo to forte as they progress from a 2 nd -inversion B-flat chord through an A-flat major/B-flat compound chord to cadence on a chord rooted on C (with an added 2 nd ) in m. 54. 251 Figure 5.7: ―How Excellent Thy Name,‖ mm. 40-51. 252 Figure 5.7, continued: ―How Excellent Thy Name,‖ mm. 52-61. 253 Figure 5.7, continued: ―How Excellent Thy Name,‖ mm. 62-71. 254 The altos, tenors, and basses, in a near whisper, sing a rhythmically diminished echo of the words ―visitest him‖ in quartal and added-note harmonies in mm. 55-56. Immediately thereafter the sopranos press forward with a two-note pickup (F – G) into m. 57 where the altos, tenors, and basses join them. Expanding from a unison A-flat into a homophonic texture in a gradual crescendo while segueing between the normal accent of the 6/8 meter and a superimposed hemiola, the chorus sings, ―Yet thou hast made him only a little lower than the angels.‖ Following a repetition of the soprano pickup, now raised a whole step (G – A) into a 3/8 measure, and the progressive reappearance of the alto, tenor, and bass voices at one-measure intervals in mm. 60-63, section B reaches its apex in mm. 64-70 when all four voices sing, ―And dost crown him with glory and honor.‖ The composer has carefully timed metrical accent, harmonic rhythm, and hemiola in this passage to highlight the meaning of his text (i.e., accenting the words, ―thou hast . . . angels . . . crown him‖ in mm. 57, 61, and 65, respectively). The inclusion of a single measure in 3/4 time at m. 60, which in itself is a clever solution to the setting of the affected portion of the text, serves to mark the metrical accent in the passage. The chorus cadences initially on an E major chord in mm. 67-68 but with the repetition of the phrase ―glory and honor‖ in mm. 69-70 it climaxes on an incomplete A-sharp major chord. This chord is enharmonically equivalent to B-flat major, the dominant to the E-flat chord with which section A‘ subsequently opens. Overall tonal movement in section B proceeds from E in m. 40 to A-flat/B-flat (pedal) in mm. 49-52 to C in m. 54 to G in m. 56 to A-flat in m. 57 to E-flat in mm. 61-63 to E in mm. 64-68 and to B-flat in m. 70. The section‘s harmonic content consists largely of chords of simple tertian construction that are sometimes limited intervallically to dyads and coupled dyads of bare 2 nds , 7 ths , and 9 ths . Particularly effective in section B is its composer‘s employment of a subtle vocal texture that varies continuously in its density and color. 255 The sound of crash cymbals and a repetition of the chord that the woodwinds and strings played in a tremolo at the opening of section A, now rooted a half-step lower on an E-flat and played fortissimo, herald the beginning of concluding section of ―How Excellent Thy Name‖ on the third beat of m. 70 (prior to letter D). Section A‘ is no mere, literal repetition of section A; it is, however, a model of concision in repetition. The five-beat instrumental introduction of section A now lasts only four beats, tightening the transition from the end of section B to the reappearance of the chorus in section A‘. At the pickup to m. 73, the chorus sings and repeats the words, ―O Lord, our Lord,‖ with an accompaniment as it did in the first subsection of section A but now centered tonally on E-flat. Standing in the place of the second subsection of section A‘, albeit a half step lower in pitch and abbreviated from thirteen to seven measures, is a repetition of the second subsection of section A. The order of voice entrances differs between these two subsections. In the second subsection of section A, the voices entered thus: alto – tenor – bass – soprano – tenor – alto/bass (coupled) – soprano/tenor – alto/bass – soprano/tenor – full chorus. In the second subsection of section A‘, however, the voices enter in an altered manner: alto – tenor – soprano – alto/bass – soprano/tenor – alto/bass – tenor – full chorus. The first entrance in the second subsection of section A‘, which the altos sing, begins on the second beat of the measure (m. 80) instead of the first, as it did in the second subsection of section A, and all its initial voice entrances are staggered by a single measure instead of two. Additionally, the full chorus climaxes the second subsection of section A‘ by singing the word ―excellent‖ only one time instead of three as it did in the second subsection of section A. The third and final subsection of section A‘ begins in m. 88 (one measure before letter E) with a sudden shift of the movement‘s tonality upward to E. Its first eight measures repeat the music of the first eight measures of the third subsection of section A. This 256 repetition is literal in both structure and tonality; it differs only in a thickening of the choral texture accomplished through the addition of a second alto part, changes in the voicing in the alto and tenor parts, and changes in the rhythm and text placement in the bass part. Figure 5.8: ―How Excellent Thy Name,‖ mm. 95-106. 257 The third subsection of section A‘ replaces the extension found in the third subsection of section A with an eight-measure ―coda‖ in which the chorus at first joyously rises in unison from an E to a B while singing an ―ah‖ and subsequently takes up the buoyant dotted-eighth-note–sixteenth-note–eighth-note melodic figuration of the accompaniment in a wordless hum. In so doing, they begin forte and continue molto diminuendo from mezzo piano to end pianissimo. Solo melodic fragments that the glockenspiel and celeste play highlight the figuration that the chorus sings over a harmonic underlay in the strings. The A- sharp in this figuration once-again suggests a tonality of either E Lydian or B major as it did at the opening of the movement. Figure 5.8 illustrates the section‘s coda. The sound of a small triangle played pianississimo on the second beat of m. 104 punctuates the close of the third and final subsection of section A‘, and with it the psalm setting itself. In general, the harmonies that sound in the accompaniment in section A‘ are similar to the ones that sound in section A. Some of them, however, differ. Specific instances of alternate harmonies occur at the close of the first and third subsections. The F major 9 th – D major/C compound – E-minor/F compound chord progression that occurs in mm. 79-80 of section A‘ contrasts in terms of harmony and voicing with the F-sharp major 7 th – G-sharp dominant 7 th /C-sharp compound – F-sharp major 9 th /G-sharp compound chord progression that occurs in mm. 10-11 of section A. 574 F-sharp major/B major compound chords played in mm. 97, 99, 101, and 103 of section A‘ cadence in mm. 98, 100, and 102 on 2 nd -inversion E major chords, and in m. 104 a B major chord, respectively. In contrast, whenever an F- sharp major harmony appears in section A it does so over an E (pedal). The orchestration of the two sections is likewise similar, but the woodwinds and brass assume a more prominent 574 In David Ward-Steinman, e-mail to the present writer, 15 Nov. 2007, the composer expressed his own interpretation of the latter chord: ―If you include the choral B in the sonority (as I forgot to do) then it becomes a G-sharp minor 13 th /7 th . It is a cluster in the accompaniment by expansion (8ve displacement).‖ 258 role in section A‘ than they did in section A. Part writing for individual instruments in section A‘ often replaces the unison doublings that occur in section A. Additionally, section A‘ features the use of a greater variety of percussion instruments, including the glockenspiel, celeste, and antique cymbals (finger cymbals), than the small triangle, large triangle, and xylophone already used in section A. The oratorio‘s composer made these changes in order to achieve variety in repetition and to impart a sense of finality to the movement. While the tonal map of section A spanned through a circle of 5 ths , G – D – A – E – B – F-sharp, tonal gravitation in its first and third subsections suggested that the section‘s tonal center was E. The range of tonal movement in section B followed a course that featured relationships via 5 ths , 2 nds , and tritones: E – A-flat/B-flat (pedal) – C – G – A-flat – E-flat – E – B-flat. The opening subsection of section A‘, on the other hand, centers tonally on E-flat. Tonal movement in the second subsection of section A‘, albeit a half-step lower in its pitch, follows tonal movement in the second subsection of section A. With the opening of the third subsection of section A‘, however, E-flat manifests a leading tone relationship to E and a sudden shift back to the movement‘s E tonal center occurs. Finally, at the aforementioned coda to the third subsection of section A‘, movement to the tonality of B major occurs. The A-sharp in the melodic figurations that the chorus sings, as well as the 2 nd -inversion F-sharp ―dominant‖ chords that sound in their instrumental accompaniment, are features that were prefigured in the first and third subsections of section A as well as in the first subsection of section A‘. These features offer persuasive evidence for the coda‘s completion in B major. The appearance of a prolonged pedal B in the coda‘s bass line provides further validation for such a conclusion. In spite of its lofty and genial ending in B major, however, the overall tonality of ―How Excellent Thy Name‖ remains pervasively fixated on E and we, therefore, must conclude that E is the tonal center of this noble and triumphant movement. 259 6. Who is the Lord? Following upon the conclusion of ―How Excellent Thy Name‖ the Narrator speaks to us once again. He quotes from Exodus 5:1, telling us that Moses and Aaron have gone to meet with Pharaoh to advise him of the Lord‘s desire that he release the children of Israel so they may hold a feast to him in the wilderness. Part I of The Song of Moses closes with a dramatic solo in which Pharaoh sings a paraphrase of Exodus 5:2 and 17 in response to this request. A short 34 mm. in length, ―Who is the Lord?‖ proceeds ―freely‖ in a ―quasi- recitative‖ but ―always driving relentlessly.‖ 575 It, albeit loosely, follows an ABA‘ form and features sections that consist of 3, 22, and 9 mm. The brevity of its opening and closing sections suggest that they serve merely as a frame that contextualizes its lengthy middle section rather than as the outer panels of a full-blown ternary form. Section A of ―Who is the Lord?‖ opens with three forte chords that the trombones and tuba play ―tempestuously‖ in an eighth-note triplet rhythmic figure. 576 These chords, an A major chord with an added 4 th in place of its absent 5 th which follows a repeated B-flat major 3 rd dyad over a 2 nd -inversion B major 3 rd dyad, portend the tyrannical defiance to be displayed by Pharaoh. The triplet progression resolves to a G half-diminished 11 th chord that the strings play and suspensefully sustain from the downbeat of measure two. The impudent Pharaoh opens his recitative in this measure demanding, ―Who is the Lord that I should obey his voice and let Israel go?‖ 577 Pharaoh intones his text to a melodic line that encompasses two tetrachords, C – D-flat – E-flat – F-flat and E – F – G – A-flat, that define two centers of 575 The date of completion recorded on the pencil sketch of ―Who is the Lord?‖ is 8 Sept. 1963. 576 The published piano-vocal score does not show a time signature at the opening of ―Who is the Lord?‖ The ms orchestral score, however, indicates 4/4 time, so as not to cause confusion among the instrumentalists. 577 In the voice part of the oratorio‘s published piano-vocal score, page 44, system one, measure two, there is a missing flat before the note E. The flat before the note appears correctly in figure 5.9. 260 pitch. A major 3 rd couples the tetrachords. Pharaoh begins on a C before he ascends and descends through the tetrachords, first in eighth-note triplets and subsequently in a quarter- note triplet—the latter by way of rhythmic augmentation, and concludes on an A-flat. The three measures that open figure 5.9 illustrate section A of ―Who is the Lord?‖ in its entirety. Figure 5.9: ―Who is the Lord?‖ mm. 1-8. 261 Figure 5.9, continued: ―Who is the Lord?‖ mm. 9-12. The horns and tuba play a second series of chords, arranged once again in an eighth- note triplet, at the pickup to measure four and, thus, open section B of ―Who is the Lord?‖ This series, which is similar in intent and effect to the one that opened section A, consists of a repeated chord rooted on a G, with an added 4 th in place of its absent 3 rd , followed by a 4 th - inversion E-flat dominant 9 th chord. It resolves to an E half-diminished 7 th chord that the strings play and thereafter sustain from the downbeat of measure four. The first subsection of section B follows in mm. 4-12. Articulating a quarter-note triplet, Pharaoh leaps an octave on a G and descends scalewise to an E singing, ―I know not the Lord.‖ The Egyptian ruler repeats this dramatic gesture, segueing emphatically through an eighth-note quintuplet and a series of even eighth notes, and closes on an E insisting, ―nor will I let Israel go.‖ In a cadential progression, the strings reiterate their E half-diminished 7 th chord forte-piano and follow it with an E-flat major 7 th chord, sounding an echo of the eighth-note triplet that opened section B. A rim shot on the snare drum marks the conclusion of the progression on the downbeat of measure six where the horns join the strings in playing a D major 7 th chord. Pharaoh sings in a secco style and expresses himself through a variety of rhythmic devices as he attempts to justify not allowing the children of Israel their freedom. Mixed- 262 interval chords that the strings play both arco and pizzicato accompany his arioso. With voice seething in anger, he rises in eighth-note triplets from his opening A, first a 4 th and then an augmented 4 th , upping the ante of his criticism of the children of Israel: ―Ye are lazy, ye are idle.‖ He subsequently employs contrasts in his range for emphasis, ―therefore ye say,‖ before he returns to an E in m. 10 to recite, ―‗Let us go and sacrifice to the Lord,‘‖ in a sixteenth-note quadruplet- and quintuplet-figuration with a ritard that terminates in a rise to a G-sharp—a note that he sustains in a fermata. Doubling of his rhythm in the tom-toms highlights his notated ritard and marks the close of the first subsection of section B. While Pharaoh sustains his closing G-sharp in mm. 11-12, the woodwinds, celeste, and strings reach a temporary repose on an F-sharp quintal/G compound chord. This eerie ‗elevated‘ chord, along with the rhythmic doubling in the tom-toms, no doubt serves to symbolize the primitive ritual that Pharaoh must have envisioned. The final ten measures of figure 5.9 illustrate the music of the first subsection of section B. The second subsection of section B encompasses mm. 13-17. Proceeding forward in his recitative, the obviously irritated Pharaoh belittlingly enjoins Moses and Aaron to return to their burdensome labor. Rising from an E at the pickup to m. 13 and outlining a 2 nd - inversion A minor chord in a gradual ―stringendo,‖ he commands, ―Be off now to your work.‖ Pharaoh insistently repeats his charge, his voice dropping from a D-flat to an F and rising back to a D. He sings over a woodwind accompaniment, the harmonies of which include extended tertian chords that often appear in inversion and feature split roots or 3 rds . Seeking retaliation against the children of Israel for the perceived offense Moses and Aaron have committed against his sensibilities, Pharaoh appends his command in mm. 15-17 with the words, ―Henceforth no straw shall be given you for bricks.‖ He intones his vengeance in a disjointed melodic line that opens on an E-flat and rises and falls within the 263 boundaries of an octave F-sharp. Expressing his disgust over the request that Moses and Aaron have brought before him, he glides down in a portamento from a D-sharp (E-flat) to an E where he concludes his phrase curtly while he half-shouts the word ―bricks.‖ Pharaoh sings this phrase over a sparse accompaniment that the woodwinds and strings play, the harmony of which demonstrates a leading tone relationship that pervades the entirety of his solo: an E-flat minor/E compound chord and a D major/E-flat compound chord follow an F- sharp – G dyad that expands from a major 7 th to a minor 9 th . An octave E played pizzicato by the cellos and basses on the downbeat of m. 17, along with a strike on the bass drum, punctuate the close of the second subsection of section B. Figure 5.10 illustrates this music. Figure 5.10: ―Who is the Lord?‖ mm. 13-17. 264 Figure 5.10, continued: ―Who is the Lord?‖ mm. 18-26. In the final subsection of section B, Pharaoh refocuses his wrath on the children of Israel. Singing a sequence of ascending 4 ths that rises in successive half steps, he twice bids Moses and Aaron, ―Let your people gather straw . . . .‖ The sequence, which artfully mimics the people‘s scurrying as they gather straw, begins at the pickup to m. 18 (letter B) on an E- flat, proceeds in sixteenth notes in an accelerando and a crescendo, and ends in m. 19 with a rise of a 5 th to a D-flat. Pharaoh voices his retribution, ―and yet deliver the same measure of bricks,‖ in a notated ritard, rising to a D and climaxing through an eighth-note triplet on a high E in mm. 20-21. In a musical metaphor of his text, accents mark the ―measure‖ of the final four notes of the closing phrase he sings when he descends from a high E in m. 21 to an A in m. 22, rises again in a quarter-note triplet to a B-flat, and concludes on a low C in m. 23. Pharaoh sings this passage over a series of chords that begins with a harmony rooted on E-flat (with added 4 th ) and ends on a 1 st -inversion G major/F major polychord. Section B 265 concludes in mm. 24-25 with a cadence that consists of two chords: a D (open 5 th )/E-flat major polychord followed by a D major 7 th /E minor polychord. The strings play these chords pizzicato in eighth notes, in piano and pianissimo dynamics, respectively. Fermatas over rests succeed each chord and a single measure separates them. Measures 17-25 of figure 5.10 illustrate the subsection that concludes section B. A prominent feature of section B is its use of instrumentalists in solos and small ensembles. The textures resulting from the composer‘s orchestration of the section often resemble those produced by a chamber orchestra. The contrast of arco and pizzicato strings in mm. 4-12 is one example of the composer‘s creative use of instruments to produce a variety of colors of sound in passages that symbolize the imagery of his text. The incidental use of the trombones, tuba, and snare drum in measure 6; tom toms in mm. 10-11; celeste in mm. 11-12 and 21; and bass drum in m. 17 are further examples. In the closing section of ―Who is the Lord?‖ the indignant and self-reflexive Pharaoh ruminates over his earlier inquiry, ―Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice?‖ Section A‘ opens in m. 26 (letter C) when the trombones and tuba play, ―come prima,‖ the same eighth-note triplet chord progression that they played at the opening of section A, which resolves, once again, to a G half-diminished 11 th chord that the horns play and the strings sustain and reiterate in mm. 27-32. Pharaoh concludes his recitative when he repeats his initial question, ―senza licenza,‖ and insolently prolongs his final words, ―Who is the Lord?‖ in notes in triplets that oscillate between a C and a D-flat in a diminuendo and poco ritard. When the strings fall silent in m. 32, the clarinets and bassoons play their G half-diminished 11 th chord a final time and sustain it in a diminuendo to a pianissimo. The strings (playing pizzicato) thereafter punctuate the chord with its release on the downbeat of m. 34. Figure 5.11 illustrates section A‘ of ―Who is the Lord?‖ in its entirety. 266 Figure 5.11: ―Who is the Lord?‖ mm. 27-34. Tonal relations in ―Who is the Lord?‖ move for the most part by half- or whole-steps but occasionally by thirds. Section B of the solo begins in the tonality of E. In mm. 11-12, at the close of the section‘s first subsection, its tonal center moves to G, the same tonality that pervades the solo‘s outer A and A‘ sections. In m. 17, at the close of the section‘s second subsection, the tonal center reverts to E, and in m. 25, at the close of the section‘s final subsection, the tonal center once again returns to E. Harmonic movement internal to section B (F to C in mm. 10-15 of its first subsection and reciprocally C to F in mm. 20-22 of its final subsection) links the G tonality of the outer sections A and A‘ with the B-flat polychordal element of the chord progressions that introduce them. The B major and A major polychordal elements of these same progressions frame the E tonality of the central B section, respectively, by a 5 th above and below. The circle of 5 ths establishes these tonal connections. Extending this circular link allows it to embrace the D (open 5 th )/E-flat major 267 polychordal harmony that the strings play in the penultimate m. 24 at the close of section B: E-flat – B-flat – F – C – G – D – A – E – B. Just as it did in ―Here Am I‖ at the opening of part I of the oratorio, the half-step relation pervades the entirety of ―Who is the Lord?‖ It first appears in the B-flat major/B major harmony in the eighth-note triplet chord progression that the trombones and tuba play to introduce section A in m. 1 and it repeats in the same introduction to section A‘ in m. 26. It appears in the C – D-flat that Pharaoh intones to the question ―Who is the Lord?‖ in m. 2 of section A and repeatedly recapitulates in mm. 27, 29, and 31 of section A‘. It appears in inversion as a major 7 th in the D-sharp - E which Pharaoh sings to the words ―for bricks‖ at the close of the second subsection of section B. It also appears in the root progression E-flat – E that occurs in mm. 5, 16-17, and 24-25, and it sounds in the clash of G and G-sharp in m. 11, the E minor/F harmony in mm. 10-11, the F-sharp major/G harmony in mm. 11-12, and the D major/E-flat major harmony in mm. 16 and 24. Chapter Summary A setting for Moses and the chorus that depicts the Lord‘s call to Moses to be a leader over the children of Israel and Moses‘ tepid response to that call opens Part I of The Song of Moses. The oratorio‘s composer uses a colorful palette of vocal and instrumental textures in ―Here Am I‖ to suit his dramatic and textual needs and to achieve a variety of expression. He sets the words of the Lord to music for the chorus that suggests power and holiness. This music ebbs and recedes through four climactic passages that its composer articulates with tonal shifts, tempo changes, and concurrent fluctuations in dynamics. ―Here Am I‖ is through composed in its organizational structure and includes 79 mm. of music. 268 Lively and exciting is the composer‘s use of the woodwinds, celeste, percussion, and strings in measures four through six of the movement to play chord figurations that move in sextuplets as they represent the fire of the burning bush out of which God speaks. Clever is his use of a lone horn—a noble instrument he comes to associate with Moses—to sound a pitch for the chorus when they assume the Lord‘s voice and sing to Moses while he is yet a shepherd tending his father-in-law Jethro‘s sheep. Imaginative is the contrast and variety he achieves in a predominantly homophonic vocal texture when he writes an imitative passage for the men and women that builds to a grand climax on the word ―holy‖ (mm. 10-13) as well as two transitional passages for the men alone that set declarative words that the Lord speaks (mm. 14-18 and 34-36). Animated is his use of the piccolo in octaves with the flutes to accompany the chorus in mm 28-32 (―and to bring them up out of that land, unto a land fine and large‖) with descending and ascending scalewise modal figurations that suggest the vastness of the land to which the Lord promises to deliver his chosen people. The theme of promise echoes repeatedly in ―Here Am I‖ in a polychordal unifying motif with which the composer tranquilly concludes each of its four affirmations that the chorus sings to Moses. The only fault that I am able to identify in ―Here Am I‖ is its occasional use of KJV text that presents difficulties for the chorus. The words of one passages in particular, ―Who hath made man‘s mouth?‖ (mm. 65-67), represent the worst of these problematic texts. This tongue twister of a phrase is extremely awkward to for the chorus to sing, especially in its specified range and tempo. The fact that it repeat three times in the passage in which it appears make its employment in the movement even more onerous. ―Here Am I‖ may be parsed into four sections of 6, 27, 21, and 24 mm. A brief introduction for Narrator and orchestra precedes sections of varying content and substructure for Moses and the chorus. A frequently shifting tonal center animates the setting‘s awesome 269 and fearful subject matter. Although the movement‘s overall tonality does not establish itself until well after its introduction, the close of each of its three latter sections confirms it as E. The half-step relation pervades the entirety of ―Here Am I,‖ especially in the solos that Moses sings in mm. 6, 8, 37, 40, and 44. Additionally, a portentous reference to the leading tone occurs in repeated cadences on a pedal D-sharp that underlies the E major (with added- note C-sharp) harmony that the chorus sustains at the close of the movement. These half- step relations link this movement with others in the oratorio and serve as a metaphor for the internal conflict that the demur Moses experiences as he responds to the Lord‘s call. Following upon the Lord‘s commission of Moses in ―Here Am I‖ and the Narrator‘s subsequent description of Aaron‘s demonstration of the signs and wonders associated with God‘s promise to deliver the children of Israel, is a movement in which the people sing their gratitude to the Lord by way of a joyous and uplifting setting of Psalm 8. Organized in a ternary ABA‘ form, ―How Excellent Thy Name‖ is 106 mm. in length, encompasses sections of 31, 31, and 36 mm, and proceeds for the most part in 3/8 time. Its outer sections parse into in three distinct subsections of 11, 13, and 15 mm. Section A of ―How Excellent Thy Name‖ opens in the tonality of E; a circle of 5 ths governs harmonic movement within the section and returns it to the tonality of E at its close. Section B opens in the tonality of E; the range of tonal movement within the section features relationships via 5 ths , 2 nds , and tritones, and the section closes in the tonality of B-flat. Section A‘ opens in the tonality of E-flat; its initial two subsections follow courses similar to those of the initial subsections of section A, albeit a half-step lower in pitch, and its third subsection returns to the tonality of E before its coda moves to the tonal center of B. In spite of its lofty and genial ending in B major, however, the overall tonality of this noble and triumphant movement remains fixated on E, and we, therefore, must conclude that E, not B, is its tonal center. 270 Characteristic of ―How Excellent Thy Name‖ is its lilting rhythms, lean sonorities, and seamless transitions. This succinct and tightly written movement demonstrates variety in repetition and spontaneity of expression and serves as a microcosm of its composer‘s approach to composition. Noteworthy is the movement‘s employment of polychordal accompaniment punctuations in its dynamic outer sections and hemiola in its contrasting middle section as well as its clever settings of text in all its sections. In a free, dramatic, secco recitative that the oratorio‘s composer titles ―Who is the Lord?‖ Pharaoh demonstrates his ―relentless‖ stubbornness in refusing to yield to God‘s will and release the children of Israel so they may worship him. ―Tempestuous‖ low brass and strings accompany the recitative's opening and closing sections while its middle section makes subtle use of instrumental resources to generate a variety of expressive instrumental color. Wide, disjointed intervals and extremes of range characterize Pharaoh's vocal line, especially in the recitative's middle section, to reflect his rage and vindictive response to having had Moses and Aaron challenge his authority. ―Who is the Lord?‖ follows an ABA‘ form, albeit loosely, and features sections that encompass 3, 22, and 9 mm. Structural movement in ―Who is the Lord?‖ proceeds from a G tonality in section A through a tonality of E in Section B and back to a G tonality in section A‘. The leading tone relation C – D-flat which Pharaoh repeatedly intones to his question, ―Who is the Lord?‖ in sections A and A‘ turns on its head the upper leading tone relation D-flat – C which Moses intones to his question, ―Who am I?‖ in m. 40 of ―Here Am I.‖ Moses‘ self-effacing inquiry, ―Who am I?‖ and Pharaoh‘s arrogant inquisition, ―Who is the Lord?‖—questions that respectfully open and close part I of The Song of Moses—contrast the deportment of these two individuals and set the stage for the conflict that ensues between them in part II of the oratorio. Both of these questions will be answered in due time as the oratorio so unfolds. 271 Chapter Six The Song of Moses—Part II: Battle and Triumph Part II of The Song of Moses recounts the story of the Exodus. It concerns itself with the plagues that befall the Egyptians due to Pharaoh‘s stubborn refusal to release Moses and the captive children of Israel from their labor so they may hold a feast to their Lord in the wilderness. When, in consequence of the final plague, his firstborn son dies, Pharaoh relents and agrees to let the people go. He thereafter has misgivings for having done so and determines to pursue the people with his army and recapture them. When the Lord directs Moses to causes the Red Sea to swallow the Egyptian army, Pharaoh is defeated, and the newly liberated children of Israel celebrate their freedom by singing a canticle of triumph. At the opening of part II of the oratorio, the Narrator speaks a paraphrase of Exodus 6:1-5 in which God responds to Pharaoh‘s inquiry, ―Who is the Lord?‖ God declares that he is himself ―the Lord,‖ the one who established his covenant with the Patriarchs and promised to give them the land of Canaan. He has heard the groaning of the children of Israel who are under the Egyptians‘ bondage and informs Moses that he will deliver them into the land that he promised to their forefathers. Compelled by the hand of the Lord, Pharaoh will not only let the people go, but ―he shall drive them out‖ of Egypt ―with a firm hand.‖ 7. And the Lord Spoke Following the conclusion of the Narrator‘s spoken introduction, Pharaoh and the choruses sing an extended number that recounts the story of the plagues contained in Exodus 272 7-12 and the devastation that the Lord thereby brings to the land of Egypt. Encompassing some 219 mm, primarily in duple time (half note = 76), ―And the Lord Spoke‖ is the longest single movement in the oratorio. It passes quickly through its text, however, and as author Thurston J. Dox notes, its music preserves a ―unity of style‖ throughout the setting. 578 Appropriately, the oratorio‘s composer marks the movement, ―Driving, tempestuous,‖ to reflect the storm of terror that the Lord inflicts upon Pharaoh through the plagues. Section A Section B Section C Section D mm. 1-89 (89 mm.) mm. 90-135 (46 mm.) mm. 136-178 (43 mm.) mm. 179-219 (41 mm.) Plagues of Blood and Frogs Plagues of Lice and Flies Plagues of Fire and Hail Plague of Slaying of the Firstborn pedal b-flat to g to E Lydian to B quartal chord B to D quartal- quintal chord pedal b-flat to e-flat 7 th /e 7 th / F b-flat to b Table 6.1: Outline of ―And the Lord Spoke.‖ The composer has reduced the ten plagues described in Exodus 7-12 to six and has distilled them into the four sections that constitute the present movement. Table 6.1 outlines these four sections. For the purpose of analysis, we will name them, A. Plagues of Frogs and Blood, B. Plagues of Lice and Flies, C. Plagues of Fire and Hail, and D. Plague of the Slaying of the Firstborn. Each of these sections is shorter than the one that precedes it. The sections in and of themselves do not necessarily articulate the movement‘s musical structure but they do show how the composer has organized his texts. The additional tables that follow below illustrate each of the movement‘s four sections and map their tonal plots. 578 Dox, 330. Dox‘s actual observation was, ―With a unity of style maintained for the entire section dealing with the plagues, there is little need for the descriptive word painting so common in other settings of this story.‖ The oratorio‘s composer, however, does in fact engage in a fair amount of text painting in the movement, chiefly in the music that represents the plagues of rivers turned into blood and frogs, as will be discussed below. The date of completion recorded on the pencil sketch of ―And the Lord Spoke‖ is 8 Sept. 1963. 273 Commenting on the thematic unity between the four sections of ―And the Lord Spoke‖ Dox observes, ―The agitated choral narrations . . . use modifications of the same thematic material . . . A driving triplet figure in broken octaves provides a rhythmic dynamic for these sections.‖ 579 The juxtaposition and carefully timed occurrences of this thematic material gives musical form to the movement. The first of these themes is associated with reappearances of text set for the choruses that begin with the words, ―And the Lord spoke unto Moses.‖ This theme is often but not always preceded by a four-measure orchestral ―ritornello‖ and/or a one- to four-measure ―transition‖ that features ―driving‖ repeated notes. A B-flat pedal (or its enharmonic equivalent) undergirds the ritornello. A complementary theme is associated with text that begins with the words ―And Moses did so,‖ or ―And Moses once more,‖ or ―And Moses stretched forth his crook . . . .‖ Solos for Pharaoh that feature leaner accompaniments provide additional thematic and textual contrast and relief from the setting‘s pervasive driving rhythm. All together, and in varied combinations, this thematic material creates a loose strophic form that unites the first three sections of the movement. Brevity, variety, and the avoidance of literal repetition are characteristics displayed in the repetition of the thematic material that reflect an ―economy of means‖ on the part of the composer. The music of the fourth section of the movement, the plague of the slaying of the firstborn, however, contrasts thematically, texturally, rhythmically, and dynamically with the music of its first three sections, insofar as it reflects the somber nature of the text it sets. Table 6.2 illustrates a detailed outline of section A of ―And the Lord Spoke.‖ In its essence, the section consists of two complementary sets of antecedent-consequent choral ―narratives‖ that tell the story of the first two of the libretto‘s six plagues: the first narrative recounts the plague of rivers turned to blood and the second recounts the plague of frogs. 579 Ibid. 274 Pharaoh reacts to the calamity caused by these plagues in a solo in which he promises Moses that if he will only call off the plagues his people may have their freedom. The chorus then describes how the Lord quells the plagues but Pharaoh thereafter hardens his heart and breaks his promise to release the people. Short orchestral ritornello and transitional passages preface and/or surround the antecedent-consequent choral narratives, Pharaoh‘s solo, and the closing choral episode, and thereby lend structurally unity to the 89-measure section. Orchestra Orchestra Chorus I Orchestra Orchestra Chorus II m. 1 (4 mm.) m. 5 (2 mm.) m. 7 (9 mm.) m. 16 (4 mm.) m. 20 (2 mm.) m. 22 (8 mm.) 4-m. ritornello 2-m. repeated note transition ―And the Lord spoke unto Moses . . .‖ 4-m. ritornello 2-m. repeated note transition ―And Moses did so . . .‖ pedal b-flat g g to E Lydian pedal a-sharp (enharmonic b-flat) d to F F Lydian to e Orchestra Chorus I Orchestra Orchestra Chorus II m. 30 (4 mm.) m. 34 (9 mm.) m. 43 (4 mm.) m. 47 (3 mm.) m. 50 (5 mm.) 4-m. repeated note transition ―And the Lord spoke unto Moses . . .‖ 4-m. ritornello 3-m. repeated note transition ―And Moses once more . . .‖ e to g g to E Lydian pedal a-sharp (enharmonic b-flat) B B to e Orchestra Pharaoh Orchestra Orchestra Chorus I Chorus II m. 55 (2 mm.) m. 57 (17 mm.) m. 74 (4 mm.) m. 78 (2 mm.) m. 80 (4 mm.) m. 84 (6 mm.) 2-m. repeated note transition ―Take the frogs away . . .‖ 4-m. ritornello 2-m. repeated note transition ―And the frogs died out . . .‖ ―But Pharaoh hardened his heart . . .‖ e f-sharp (but ends on dominant) pedal b-flat G G Lydian E Lydian to B quartal chord Table 6.2: Outline of Section A, ―And the Lord Spoke,‖ Plagues of Blood and Frogs. 275 The music of the opening four-measure, fanfare-like, ritornello, shown in figure 6.1, is reminiscent of the music heard in the ―Introduction‖ to the oratorio‘s Prologue. With its ―pounding orchestral chords,‖ it suggests the terror that is to befall the Egyptians. 580 A series of rolls in the timpani preface these offbeat chords and undergirds them with a B-flat pedal. The ritornello‘s first chord is an E diminished 7 th /C-sharp diminished 7 th polychord. Its constituent chord elements feature split roots (E – E-flat and C-sharp – C) and share common note members. In the balance of the ritornello, these two chord elements appear rearranged, recombined, and in rhythmic diminution. The relationship of a 3 rd between their roots is significant in light of the fact that tonal relations of a 3 rd pervade the movement. Figure 6.1: ―And the Lord Spoke,‖ mm. 1-4. A two-measure transition follows the opening ritornello where, accentuated by the snare drums, the violins articulate a G in broken octaves a 3 rd above the prior pedal B-flat in a ―driving‖ eighth-note triplet figuration. The composer shifts the accent of the prevailing 4/4 meter when in the middle of the transition he temporarily displaces this repeated G up an octave. Entering at the pickup to measure six, chorus I intones a nine-measure ―antecedent‖ narrative that opens in G minor and closes a 3 rd lower in the E Lydian mode. The chorus sings the narration of God‘s instruction to Moses to turn the waters of Egypt into blood for 580 Ibid. 276 the most part in unison but occasionally (as in mm. 10-12 and 14) splits into parts, with its soprano and tenor as well as its alto and bass voices coupled. The strings play the chorus‘s initial accompaniment. As the drama unfolds, however, the woodwinds, horns, and brass Figure 6.2: ―And the Lord Spoke,‖ mm. 5-10. 277 Figure 6.2, continued: ―And the Lord Spoke,‖ mm. 11-17. 278 play. After passing through a measure in 3/2 time, with accompaniment provided by the woodwinds and upper strings alone, the chorus cadences on the downbeat of m. 16 on a unison (dominant) B over an (A-sharp) octave tremolo. Figure 6.2 illustrates this music. The opening ritornello repeats in m. 16 over the same pedal B-flat, now written as an A-sharp consistent with the tonality of the E Lydian mode. It varies from its original version only in its last measure, which effects a modulation—again by way of a 3 rd from its pedal (enharmonic) B-flat—to the tonality of D minor. Note that the C-sharp (D-flat) in the bassoons, bass trombone, tuba, and basses which occurs on the third beat of m. 19 functions as both the (enharmonic) 3 rd of B-flat minor and the leading tone in D minor. This C-sharp resolves to a D on the downbeat of m. 20. Another triplet-figure transition sounds over the two measures that follow the ritornello, this time articulating the note F—the 3 rd of the tonic chord in D minor. The orchestration of these six measures is largely similar to that of the first six measures of the section save for the use of the glockenspiel in the percussion part. At the pickup to m. 22 (letter A), chorus II sings a ―consequent‖ narrative of eight measures duration informing us that Moses completes the task of turning the waters into blood. The narrative opens in the F Lydian mode (relative to D minor) and modulates in mm. 26-30 to the tonality of E minor. The music for the chorus is similar to that heard in the antecedent narrative but textual variety is now achieved by temporarily silencing voices (i.e., in mm. 25-27). The chorus‘s accompaniment shows a general thinning of texture and the employment of a more varied combination of instruments. Where one might expect to hear another repetition of the ritornello in m. 30, a triplet figure transition sounds instead. This four-measure transition begins in the tonality of E minor and again articulates a G—the 3 rd of the tonic chord. Its varied instrumentation features a muted trumpet and xylophone, as well as the violas and cellos (played pizzicato). 279 Chorus I sings again at the pickup to m. 34 (letter B). They intone a second nine- measure antecedent narrative concerning the Lord‘s instructions to Moses to call forth frogs upon the land while essentially repeating the music of the first antecedent narrative—albeit with some textural variety. As it did during its first narrative, the chorus opens in the tonality of G minor. It segues a 3 rd lower to the tonality of E Lydian and closes through a measure in 3/2 time on another unison (dominant) B. The chorus‘ accompaniment, which at times features horns, brass, and timpani, again heightens the drama of the text. The brass and percussion play a more prominent role in a three-measure transition in mm. 47-49 that follows a repetition of the ritornello with its associated A-sharp pedal which the woodwinds, timpani, and strings play in mm. 43-46. The triplet figure that appears in the trumpet and xylophone parts of the transition sounds a D-sharp minor 7 th chord over an E minor chord (absent its 5 th B) that the trombones, tuba, cellos, and basses play in the same measure. The polychord that this juxtaposition of chords creates features constituent roots in a half-step relationship. The two beats of m. 48 interrupt the impetus of the triplet but the horns take it up again in m. 49, with horns II and IV playing the missing 5 th B of the E minor chord, in preparation for the reentry of the chorus at the close of the measure. Chorus II enters at the pickup to m. 50 (letter C) singing a consequent narrative informing us that Moses completes the task of calling forth frogs while solo piccolo, flute, and clarinet, as well as the violins, play a lyric phrase against the triplets that the horns play. The two-phrase choral narrative opens in B major and closes via a dominant-tonic relation in E minor. During the second of these two phrases, the chorus and brass sound in fanfare together: first in two, then in four, and finally in six parts. This grand musical gesture confirms Moses‘ calling of the frogs onto the land and contributes a sense of finality to the events surrounding the appearance of the first two of the movement‘s six plagues. 280 The two complementary sets of antecedent-consequent choral narratives that tell the story of the first two plagues illustrate a number of instances where the composer uses text painting to create music that mimics the literal meaning of his libretto. Mention has already been made of how the music‘s brisk tempo, ―pounding‖ orchestral chords, ―driving‖ triplet figures, and ―agitated‖ choral narrations contribute to an aura of terror and calamity. Note should also be taken in mm. 8, 10, 12, 25, 37, and 41 of the primal effect of the offbeat rhythmic accents that occur in choral writing that is uniformly unison or homophonic in texture and moves for the most part in even eight and quarter notes. Specific instances of text painting include the rising minor 7 th in an otherwise conjunct melodic context that sets the words ―stretch forth‖ in mm. 8-9 and 35-36 as well as the large melodic contour, which rises a 5 th before it descends a 19 th , encompassed by the phrase ―through all of the land of Egypt‖ in mm. 14-16 and 41-43. Synchronized (‗hopping‘), conjunct, rising lines associated with the singing of the words ―call forth the frogs upon the land‖ in mm. 40-41 and ―and the frogs came up‖ in mm 51-52 are further examples of text painting. The syncopations played by the horns and brass against the square rhythm sung by the chorus in mm. 39-41 bring ‗leapfrogging‘ to mind while the filled-in harmonies that close the phrase ―and covered the land‖ in mm 52-55 suggest the all-encompassing nature of the Egyptians‘ misery. A two-measure transition of eighth-note triplets followed by even eighth notes played by the violins and violas, broken in their rhythm only by rests, leads in m. 57 (letter D) to a solo sung by Pharaoh. The Egyptian ruler responds to the calamity that has befallen his land ―in a leaping, staccato recitative‖ with a sardonic request that Moses remove the frogs and blood from Egypt. 581 Figure 6.3 illustrates Pharaoh‘s solo in its entirety. 581 Ibid. 281 Figure 6.3: ―And the Lord Spoke,‖ mm. 56-72. 282 Figure 6.3: ―And the Lord Spoke,‖ continued, mm. 68-77. Pharaoh sings a vocal line, the staccato opening notes of which once-again bring to mind the frolicking of frogs (note its use of octave displacement). Built largely out of paired 3 rds (e.g., in mm. 57-59: F-sharp – D, D – B-flat, A-flat – C, B – G, G – D-sharp, etc.), its opening pitch and tonal center F-sharp is the tonic of a dominant C-sharp that descends from an E in the transition that precedes the solo. Pharaoh‘s accompaniment is lean: with its employment of solo instrumentalists from various sections of the orchestra, its texture resembles that of a chamber orchestra. An abundant use of pizzicato and slap pizzicato (e.g., mm. 57-63) in alternation with arco playing (e.g., mm. 69-70) in the strings adds to its intimate atmosphere. Its orchestration yields some amusing effects, the most notorious of which is the ―raucous‖ minor 2 nd (F-sharp – G) triplet figure in m. 64, scored for the upper woodwinds, muted trumpets, xylophone, and violins (played ―sul ponte‖), which appends Pharaoh‘s reaction to the blood and the frogs: ―For I really can‘t stand the smells.‖ 582 582 It is to be noted that this line does not appear in the composer‘s libretto, nor, of course, does it appear in the KJV Biblical text. Its appearance in Pharaoh‘s solo may be attributed to the inspiration of the moment, what the composer likened to a ―Bronx cheer.‖ See: David Ward-Steinman, e-mail to the present writer, 14 Oct. 2007. 283 Pharaoh concludes his solo with a suave but sly promise that he will set the children of Israel free if only Moses will do away with the plagues. Marked for performance in a ―warm, lyric,‖ and ―entreating‖ manner, the composer sets his words over a slightly fuller accompanying texture of strings (note the cello solo beginning at m. 67). Although Pharaoh gravitates back to the tonic F-sharp prior and subsequent to the fermata in mm. 69-70, following his closing descent in m. 71—also notably in 3 rds , he ends his solo in m. 72-73 on a dominant C-sharp. The woodwinds, including solo flutes and bassoons, and the strings (played pizzicato) mimic his descent in two-part imitation in these final measures. 583 The full orchestra, once again, plays the four-measure ritornello with its associated B-flat pedal in mm. 74-77. Following the ritornello at the ―Tempo primo‖ in m. 78 (letter E), the upper strings play a two-measure transition of triplet figures that articulates a G augmented-major 7 th chord in broken octaves. These events mark the introduction to the choruses‘ account in mm. 79-90 of how Moses pleads with the Lord on Pharaoh‘s behalf to stop the plagues. Singing in unison in the G Lydian mode over a continued accompaniment of triplets, chorus I intones two nearly identical phrases concerning the demise of the frogs and the receding of the blood: ―And the frogs died out, and the blood turned back to water.‖ In both of these phrases, the chorus passes through the distinguishing note C-sharp of the G Lydian mode. Chorus II then sings two complementary phrases that speak of Pharaoh‘s deception in refusing to grant the children of Israel their freedom: ―But Pharaoh hardened his heart and broke his promise to the Lord.‖ The chorus opens its first phrase on a C-sharp and sings in unison through F-sharp harmony similar to that heard in Pharaoh‘s solo before it cadences on a G minor dyad. In its second phrase the chorus sings in triadic harmony and 583 In David Ward-Steinman, telephone conversation with the present writer, 30 September 2006, the composer noted, ―Pharaoh is still the dominant figure at this point; he has no intention of letting the people go.‖ 284 concludes section A in a molto crescendo that climaxes on a quartal chord rooted on a B, even as the basses outline a conjunct root progression from an E down to a B. This choral climax occurs over an accompaniment that opens in the strings with occasional woodwind flourishes and subsequently builds to a full texture that includes the horns, brass, and percussion (snare drums, xylophone and suspended cymbal). Tonal movement in the closing choral episode thus proceeds from G Lydian to a B quartal chord in E Lydian. In summary, section A of ―And the Lord Spoke‖ consists of two sets of antecedent- consequent choral narratives that tell the story of the first two plagues, a solo in which Pharaoh reacts to the devastation they cause, and a choral episode that recounts how Pharaoh breaks his promise to free the children of Israel at their cessation. Short orchestral ritornello and transitional passages introduce and connect these subsections. Although each appearance of the ritornello returns the tonality of the section to B-flat, each of the choral subsections opens in G and closes in E, while Pharaoh‘s solo alone centers on F-sharp. Orchestra Chorus I Chorus II m. 90 (4 mm.) m. 94 (6 mm.) m. 100 (3 mm.) 4-m. repeated note transition ―And the Lord said unto Moses . . .‖ ―Stretch forth thy rod . . .‖ B to F F to f to e E Lydian to B Orchestra Pharaoh Orchestra Chorus I Chorus I & II m. 103 (6 mm.) m. 109 (16 mm.) m. 125 (2 mm.) m. 127 (5 mm.) m. 132 (4 mm.) 4+2-m. ritornello ―Take the lice away . . .‖ 2-m. repeated note transition ―And the lice . . .‖ ―But Pharaoh hardened . . .‖ F-sharp F-sharp E-flat E-flat to e E-flat to D quartal- quintal chord Table 6.3: Outline of Section B, ―And the Lord Spoke,‖ Plagues of Lice and Flies. 285 Table 6.3 outlines section B of ―And the Lord Spoke.‖ Section B, which encompasses mm. 90-135, shares similarities, yet also displays differences, with section A. It opens with a single narrative in which the choruses relate the story of the plagues of lice and flies. Pharaoh expresses his aversion to these plagues in a solo in which he rearticulates disingenuous promises to Moses. The choruses then close the section by relating how Moses lifts his arms and subdues the plagues even as Pharaoh plots to violate his pledge to release the people and so toys, once again, with the wrath of the Lord. Short orchestral ritornellos and transitional passages surround the section‘s subsections as they did in section A. Heralding the opening of section B is a four-measure interlude that features triplets scored for the horns, muted trumpets, and upper strings. The triplets swell from a single note C into a three-note quartal chord as snare drums accentuate their underlying rhythm. The choruses describe the calling of the plagues of lice and flies in unison to the music associated with the antecedent narratives of section A. Solo flourishes in the woodwinds supported by chords played by the horns and strings (tremolo) accompany chorus I as it opens the narrative in the tonal center of F major, segues through F minor, and closes it in E minor, singing: ―Stretch forth thy hand and smite the dust, let it turn into lice and cover the land.‖ Accompanied at first by the horns and brass and subsequently by the woodwinds and upper strings, chorus II concludes the narrative in the E Lydian mode while singing, ―Stretch forth thy hand and send swarms of flies; let the land be covered with lice and flies.‖ A strike of the triangle marks the downbeat of m. 103. There members of the woodwind, horn, brass, and string sections, along with the timpani, play a somewhat subdued and harmonically altered version of the four-measure ritornello. An ever-shifting pedal in the lower strings, which at first rises from an A-sharp to a C-sharp and then drops to an F-sharp, undergirds its harmony and prefigures the tonality of the music that follows it. 286 Pharaoh solo, which follows the ritornello at the pickup to m. 109 (letter G), is highly similar in its (paired 3 rd ) construction, (16 mm.) length, (derisive) character, (sparse) texture, and (F-sharp) tonal center to the one he sang in section A. Singing an increasingly disjunctive melody that animates his displeasure with the plagues of lice and flies, Pharaoh demands that Moses ―cleanse [his] land of all these pests.‖ A glissando in the horns and violins in mm. 113-114 ‗buzzes by,‘ interrupting Pharaoh‘s discourse, and flutter tonguing in muted brass that ends with a rim shot on a snare drum in mm. 115-116 simulates the sound of the swat of a fly bat. These two instances of musical metaphor add to the roster of sonic colors that the composer employs to good effect in the solo. Solo clarinet, oboe, and English horn mimic the vocal descent to the note with which Pharaoh concludes his solo (this time not a dominant C-sharp but a leading tone E-sharp) in two-part imitation over muted violins (played pizzicato) in mm. 123-24 and cadence in m. 125 (letter H) in the tonality of E-flat. During a brief transition that occurs in the space of a single measure, the strings initiate a rhythm of mirrored triplets that accompanies the balance of section B. Measures in 2/4, 3/4, 5/4, and 4/4 time follow the transition and create an aura of stirring uneasiness as the choruses sing a dialogue that describes how Moses eradicates the lice and flies from the land even as Pharaoh hardens his heart and refuses to set the children of Israel free. Strings alone accompany chorus I as it recounts the demise of the plagues in mm. 126-131 with a passage that begins in E-flat and ends a half-step higher in E: ―And the lice died out, and the flies died out, as Moses lifted his rod.‖ The woodwinds then supplement the strings when chorus II retorts in mm. 131-133, once-again in E-flat, ―But Pharaoh hardened his heart once more.‖ Bustling brass support chorus I as it closes the choral episode in mm. 133-136 with the words, ―And broke his promise to God,‖ and in so doing concludes section B in the tonality of D with a climactic cadence on a quartal-quintal chord. 287 In summary, section B thus conveys the story of the plagues of lice and flies: An orchestral transition modulates from the tonality of B to F, prefacing a single choral narrative that begins in the tonality of F and ends in that of E Lydian. A ritornello and transition surround a solo that Pharaoh sings in the tonality of F-sharp. The transition leads to a choral episode that begins in the tonality of E-flat and concludes in that of D. Table 6.4 presents an outline of section C, mm. 136-178, of ―And the Lord Spoke,‖ within which the choruses recount the events surrounding the plagues of fire and hail. An extended two-part antecedent narrative that details the Lord‘s command to Moses to call forth the plagues opens the section and a similarly extended consequent narrative that depicts the plagues‘ impact on the land of Egypt closes it. Section C differs from sections A and B in that Pharaoh does not sing a solo and there is no subsequent choral episode. Orchestral ritornellos and transitional passages surround the narratives as they did in prior sections. Orchestra Chorus I Orchestra Chorus II m. 136 (4 mm.) m. 140 (9 mm.) m. 149 (1 m.) m. 150 (9 mm.) last 2 mm. of ritornello plus 2-m. repeated note transition ―And the Lord spoke unto Moses . . .‖ 1-m. repeated note transition ―And Moses stretched forth his crook . . .‖ pedal b-flat to b-flat 7 th /a (pedal) a to A 11th C (quartal) F whole tone to B 7 th /a- sharp (pedal) Orchestra Orchestra Chorus I m. 159 (4 mm.) m. 163 (1 m.) m. 164 (15 mm.) 4-m. ritornello 1-m. repeated note transition ―And the hail smote all . . .‖ pedal a-sharp (enharmonic b-flat) F quartal chord F Lydian to e to b (fermata) to e-flat 7 th /e 7 th / F Table 6.4: Outline of Section C, ―And the Lord Spoke,‖ Plagues of Fire and Hail. 288 A four-measure transition opens section C at the pickup to m. 136. Its first two measures combine elements from earlier ritornellos and transitions when offbeat chords in the woodwinds and horns sound with the bass drum over a pedal B-flat triplet played by the lower brass, lower strings, and timpani. In the transition‘s third measure an A pedal that the bass clarinet and lower strings play establishes a new tonal center while the clarinets and upper strings outline a B-flat minor-major 7 th chord in a triplet rhythm that continues throughout the section emphasizing the upper leading tone to tonic relationship B-flat/A. Following the instrumental transition at the pickup to m. 140 (letter I), chorus I recounts the Lord‘s command to Moses to call forth the plagues of fire and hail when it sings the first part of an antecedent narrative: ―Stretch forth thy crook unto heaven‘s brook that hail may come down as the people look.‖ Over an accompaniment provided at first by the woodwinds and strings and subsequently augmented by the horns and lower brass, the three upper voices of the chorus sing their initial lines of text in unison to the now familiar antecedent narrative music heard in sections A and B. Chorus I, however, does not conclude its nine measures of music in the manner that it concluded the antecedent narratives of sections A and B. It instead closes these measures in an ―allargando‖ in which all its voices sing in homophony and cadence on an A major 11 th chord. In a one-measure transition, solo flute, clarinet, and muted trumpet effect an abrupt modulation from the tonality of A to that of C, whereupon the horns and violas articulate the note C in a repeating triplet. This triplet figuration, along with sustained notes played by the brass, accompanies chorus II as it answers chorus I at the pickup to m. 150 (letter J) with a complementary nine measures of music that constitute the second part of the antecedent narrative. The sopranos tell of Moses raising his hand toward heaven singing a melodic line that animates its text as it rises by whole tones from F to C-sharp in consecutive ascending 289 4 ths : ―And Moses stretched forth his crook toward heaven and the Lord sent thunder and hail as a leaven.‖ Even as the lower brass and cellos join the horns and violas in playing the accompanying triplet figure at the pickup to m. 154, the altos, tenors, and basses repeat the melodic line that the sopranos sing to the text: ―And the fire ran along upon the ground as the hail rained down from all around.‖ Running eight-notes sung by the chorus and triplets played in its accompaniment create another instance of text painting whereby the composer suggests by musical means the rain of fire and hail upon Egypt. Marked by a crash of the cymbals on the downbeat of m. 158, chorus II closes the second part of the antecedent narrative, singing the words ―throughout the land of Egypt‖ to the concluding music of the antecedent narratives of sections A and B and cadences on a B 7 th /A-sharp compound chord. An instance of the four-measure ritornello with its associated A-sharp pedal, scored initially for the woodwinds, horns, and brass, and in its final measure—which the composer curtails by a single beat—the strings, sounds at m. 159. The ritornello cadences in m. 163 (letter K) on a quartal chord rooted on F, whereupon the clarinets and marimba initiate a triplet rhythm that outlines the outer bounds of the quartal harmony over sustained notes that the flutes and oboes play in a single-measure transition. Over this continuing triplet accompaniment, chorus I recounts the story of fire and hail reigning down upon Egypt in a consequent narrative of 15 mm. duration: ―And the hail smote all that was in the field . . . only where the children of Israel were there was no hail and the fire didn‘t strike.‖ Accompanied at first by chords played by the woodwinds and marimba, as well as triplet flourishes played by the upper strings, the chorus intones its initial lines of text to the opening phrases of the consequent narrative music heard in section A. Singing in unison with the cellos in the F Lydian mode, it crescendos from a ―hushed but excited‖ piano to a spirited fortissimo and climaxes through polychordal harmonies, ―molto allargando,‖ over an 290 accompaniment of strings, horns, brass, and percussion (suspended cymbal, timpani, and glockenspiel). Following a momentary pause on a B minor 7 th chord at the fermata in mm. 173-74, the chorus sings music that assumes a more reflective character even as it fades to a piano in a ―molto ritard and diminuendo.‖ The chorus closes the consequent narrative with a cadence on a 3 rd -inversion E 7 th /F polychord, after which the flutes, oboes, English horn, and glockenspiel sound an E-flat 7 th chord above the polychord to form a cluster. This second pause, which sustains through a fermata in m. 178, serves to set the stage dramatically and harmonically for section D which is to follow. In summary, section C consists of a single set of elongated antecedent-consequent choral narratives that tell the story of the plagues of fire and hail. These narratives expand upon and develop the musical materials heard in the narratives sung in section A. As in previous sections, short orchestral ritornello and transitional passages introduce and connect the narratives. A four-measure transition that combines elements from earlier ritornellos and transitions shifts the section‘s tonal center from B-flat to A as it introduces the antecedent narrative. Chorus I sings the first part of the narrative while chorus II sings its second part, and a single-measure transition that shifts the tonality from A to C bridges the parts. A four- measure ritornello followed by a one-measure transition returns the tonality to B-flat and F, respectively, before chorus I ushers section C to its conclusion with a consequent narrative that begins in the F Lydian mode and ends on an E-flat 7 th /3 rd -inversion E 7 th /F chord cluster. Section D of ―And the Lord Spoke‖ relates the story of the final plague—the slaying of the Egyptian male firstborn. Absent from the section are the ritornellos and transitions featured in the previous sections: a somber choral narrative climaxes in a portrayal of the ―great cry‖ heard throughout the land of Egypt and Pharaoh at long last sings a lament in which he decisively grants the children of Israel their freedom. Table 6.5 maps section D. 291 Chorus I & II Chorus I & II Chorus II Chorus I Chorus II Pharaoh m. 179 (9 mm.) m. 188 (6 mm.) m. 194 (4 mm.) m. 198 (2 mm.) m. 200 (2 mm.) m. 202 (18 mm.) ―And it came to pass that the Lord at last . . .‖ ―There arose a great cry . . .‖ ―Not a house was exempt . . .‖ ―And Pharaoh sent for Moses by night . . .‖ ―And bid him be gone in haste, before light.‖ ―Rise up and get ye forth from my people . . .‖ b-flat to b to e E to d/e to E- flat quintal chord E-flat quintal chord to e-flat e-flat e-flat to B g/f to b Table 6.5: Outline of Section D, ―And the Lord Spoke,‖ Plague of Firstborn Slaying. Section D opens at the pickup to m. 179 (letter L). Accompanied at first by the strings, shortly thereafter by the woodwinds, horns, and tuba, and in due course by the trumpets and trombones, the two choruses sing as one concerning the impending death of the Egyptian male firstborn: ―And it came to pass that the Lord at last brought the final plague upon Egypt.‖ Following a momentary pause on a B minor chord at the fermata in m. 182, their somber homophonic texture segues through a weighty unison as they pronounce God‘s judgment upon the Egyptians, ―Thus saith the Lord, ‗All the firstborn shall die,‘ and he smote them thus for their evil,‖ and cadence on an E minor chord at m. 187. The choruses climax their narrative with a musical rendering of the ―great cry‖ heard throughout the land of Egypt. Shown in figure 6.4, this passage begins in m. 187 with an antiphonal exchange between the two choruses, ―There arose a great cry,‖ and ends with ―textless choral melismas‖ that articulate the great cry itself. The horns, trumpets, and upper strings double the choruses‘ voices while the woodwinds, lower brass, and lower strings garnish them with menacing scale figurations. The choral melismas ―release the anguish of the beleaguered Egyptians.‖ In their imitation, the lower brass abruptly shift the section‘s tonal center down a half step to conclude the passage at m. 194 on an E-flat quintal chord. 584 584 Dox, 330. 292 Figure 6.4: ―And the Lord Spoke,‖ mm. 187-189. 293 Figure 6.4, continued: ―And the Lord Spoke,‖ mm. 190-192. 294 Figure 6.4, continued: ―And the Lord Spoke,‖ mm. 193-195. 295 Following upon their depiction of the great cry, the choruses complete their exposé of the Lord‘s final devastating plague with a doleful three-phrase antiphonal exchange. The lower brass undergird the sopranos, altos, and tenors of chorus II with an E-flat quintal chord that they sustain from the conclusion of the previous passage, and the woodwinds, horns, and muted trumpets double their voices as they sing the first of these phrases: ―Not a house was exempt from the wrath of God‘s hand.‖ Muted strings imitate the closing melisma of the great cry and subsequently rearticulate the quintal harmony that supports the first phrase enharmonically as a 2 nd -inversion B major 7 th chord. Over this protracted chord, ―slower, more freely,‖ the men of chorus I sing of the capitulation of Pharaoh—who has suffered the death of his own son—in a desolate unison: ―And Pharaoh sent for Moses by night . . . .‖ The women of chorus II answer the men of chorus I in hushed voices, ―and bid him be gone in haste, before light,‖ and so conclude the narrative. In a solo which occurs in mm. 202-219 that ―becomes slower and slower‖ over the course of 18 mm, ―the wearied Pharaoh summons Moses to receive the words of release.‖ 585 He instructs him to ―rise up‖ with his people, ―go and serve the Lord,‖ and ―be gone‖ from Egypt. The oratorio‘s composer has conceived this solo in a different manner than he did Pharaoh‘s two previous solos. Although 3 rds are certainly a feature of Pharaoh‘s vocal line, coupled 3 rds do not govern its construction as they did in his earlier solos. The solo‘s harmony once-again features chords of tertian construction as well as polychords, but its texture is for the most part an open one: in addition to intervals of 3 rds and 6 ths , 7 ths and 9 ths prevail. Instruments formerly scored in solo capacities now appear in homogenous groups and textural color is largely subdued. Figure 6.5 illustrates Pharaoh‘s solo in its entirety. 585 Ibid. 296 Figure 6.5: ―And the Lord Spoke,‖ mm. 202-212. 297 Figure 6.5, continued: ―And the Lord Spoke,‖ mm. 213-219. Pharaoh sings the words, ―Rise up and get ye forth from my people,‖ in a weary manner to a morose chromatic phrase that is set against a dark, dissonant, and tonally peculiar homophonic accompaniment scored for three trombones. Over mm. 202-04, he ascends a tritone from an A-flat to a D, descends to a B-flat, and ascends once again to an E- flat before he descends one more time to conclude on the A-flat on which he began. A 298 cadence on an F half-diminished 9 th chord, played ―plaintively‖ by the flutes and clarinets, articulates an unresolved double appoggiatura as it accompanies the close of his initial phrase. In mm. 205-07 Pharaoh repeats his first phrase in tonal imitation to the words, ―Both ye and the children of Israel,‖ and concludes it not on its opening B-flat but a minor 3 rd lower on a G. Trombones once-again support Pharaoh as he sings but now a trumpet and tuba augment his accompaniment. The flutes, clarinets, and upper strings subsequently join the brass in m. 207 to play a cadence that culminates on an E half-diminished 9 th chord. At the pickup to m. 208, an E-flat pedal played by the lower strings displaces the E pedal played by the tuba and in m. 209 a D pedal played by the bass clarinet supplants the E- flat pedal. The clarinets and bassoons sound a C-sharp and an E above the new D pedal to form a D major 9 th chord. Over this chord, which the lower strings subsequently prolong, Pharaoh issues his directive informing Moses that the children of Israel must leave Egypt. In two phrases he sings in an E synthetic mode (E major with a flat 3 rd ), he commands Moses, ―Go and serve the Lord as ye said; take your flocks and your herds, as ye have said.‖ In the process of concluding his second phrase, he outlines a B major chord. While in mm. 214-16 his accompaniment builds in texture and intensity, beginning with the strings and expanding to include a solo horn, the brass, and finally the woodwinds, Pharaoh thrice orders Moses to ―be gone,‖ ultimately climaxing his voice on a high G over a G minor/F minor 7 th polychord. Following his climactic G which he sustains ―lunga‖ in a fermata after the music diminuendos from a forte to a piano, Pharaoh intones the outline of an F minor chord in 1 st - inversion and cadences on a D as he pleads with Moses to ―bless [him] also.‖ His solo concludes in mm. 218-19 with a distant echo of the unifying motif, last heard in part I of the oratorio in ―Here Am I,‖ articulated by the flutes in a double appoggiatura over a B minor- major 9 th chord played in 1 st -inversion by divided 1 st violins, divided cellos, and the basses. 299 While the ambiguity inherent in the polychord that accompanies Pharaoh climactic high G in mm. 216-17 may reflect his ambivalence in freeing the children of Israel, it also unlocks the tonal mysteries of his solo: it contextualizes the tonalities of his opening phrases and the harmonies that undergird them. The A-flat on which Pharaoh begins and ends his first phrase is the 3 rd of the F minor 7 th chord element of this polychord while the B-flat and G with which he begins and ends his second phrase are the 3 rd and root, respectively, of its G minor chord element. The bewildering trombone chord with which his solo opens in m. 202 is in reality an incomplete manifestation of this G minor/F minor 7 th polychord, and the B minor-major 9 th chord with which it concludes in mm. 218-19 parallels the B major chord that he outlines in m. 213. The latter chord, of course, bears a relative relation to G minor. In summary, section D of ―And the Lord Spoke‖ conveys the story of the final and decisive plague brought upon Egypt. A somber choral narration of the Lord‘s proclamation of punishment begins in m. 179 and segues through a kaleidoscope of textures, cadencing fleetingly on a B minor chord in m. 182 and an E minor chord in m. 187. This depiction of events climaxes in a rendering of the ―great cry‖ heard throughout the land subsequent to the slaying of the firstborn. A brief transition scored for the brass cadences on an E-flat quintal chord in m. 194 and a similar transition scored for muted strings cadences on a 2 nd -inversion B major 7 th chord in m. 198. Over these two sustained harmonies, in a subdued antiphonal exchange, the choruses complete their account of the events that follow the disastrous plague. Pharaoh closes section D, and the movement itself, with a solo in which he finally, albeit reluctantly, sets the children of Israel free. A G minor/F minor 7 th polychord heard at the solo‘s climax governs its construction: it opens in the tonal area of F minor and closes in B minor. The Egyptian ruler has at last yielded to the will of the Lord, and he finds passing repose in his sorrow even as the movement‘s music finds its resolution in its closing chord. 300 Orchestra Chorus I Orchestra Chorus II Orchestra Chorus I m. 1 (4 + 2 mm.) m. 7 (9 mm.) m. 16 (4 + 2 mm.) m. 22 (8 mm.) m. 30 (4 mm.) m. 34 (9 mm.) rit. & trans. Blood & Frogs rit. & trans. Blood & Frogs transition Blood & Frogs pedal b-flat to g g to E Lydian pedal b-flat to d to F F Lydian to e e to g g to E Lydian Orchestra Chorus II Orchestra Pharaoh Orchestra Chorus I & II m. 43 (7 + 3 mm.) m. 50 (5 mm.) m. 55 (2 mm.) m. 57 (17 mm.) m. 74 (4 + 2 mm.) m. 80 (4 + 6 mm.) rit. & trans. Blood & Frogs transition Blood & Frogs rit. & trans. Blood & Frogs pedal b-flat to B B to e e f-sharp (ends on dominant) pedal b-flat to G G Lydian to E Lydian to B quartal chord Orchestra Chorus I Chorus II Orchestra m. 90 (4 mm.) m. 94 (6 mm.) m. 100 (3 mm.) m. 103 (4 + 2 mm.) transition Lice & Flies Lice & Flies ritornello B to F F to f to e E Lydian to B F-sharp Pharaoh Orchestra Chorus I Chorus I & II m. 109 (16 mm.) m. 125 (2 mm.) m. 127 (5 mm.) m. 132 (4 mm.) Lice & Flies transition Lice & Flies Lice & Flies F-sharp E-flat E-flat to e E-flat to D quartal-quintal chord Orchestra Chorus I Orchestra Chorus II Orchestra Chorus I m. 136 (2 + 2 mm.) m. 140 (9 mm.) m. 149 (9 mm.) m. 150 (9 mm.) m. 159 (4 + 1 mm.) m. 164 (15 mm.) rit. & trans. Hail transition Hail rit. & trans. Hail pedal b-flat to b-flat 7 th /a (pedal) a to A 11 th C (quartal) F whole tone to B 7 th /a- sharp (pedal) pedal b-flat to F quartal chord F Lydian to e to b to e-flat 7 th /e 7 th / F Chorus I & II Chorus I & II Chorus II Chorus I Chorus II Pharaoh m. 179 (9 mm.) m. 188 (6 mm.) m. 194 (4 mm.) m. 198 (2 mm.) m. 200 (2 mm.) m. 202 (18 mm.) Firstborn Great Cry ―Not a house was exempt . . .‖ ―And Pharaoh sent for Moses by night. . .‖ ―And bid him be gone in haste . . .‖ ―Rise up . . .‖ b-flat to b to e e to E-flat quintal chord E-flat quintal chord to e-flat e-flat e-flat to B g/f to b Table 6.6: Summary Outline of ―And the Lord Spoke.‖ 301 Table 6.6 displays a summary tonal outline of ―And the Lord Spoke.‖ In our analysis of the movement, we note that it is comprised of four sections. Section A consists of two sets of antecedent-consequent choral narratives that recount the story of the plagues of blood and frogs, a solo in which Pharaoh vows that he will release the children of Israel if Moses agrees to call off the plagues, and a closing choral episode that recounts how Pharaoh breaks his promise to set the people free. In a similar manner, section B consists of a single antecedent-consequent choral narrative that recounts the story of the plagues of lice and flies, a solo in which Pharaoh rearticulates his deceitful vow, and a closing choral episode that recounts how Pharaoh once-again breaks his promise, even though Moses had already lifted his arms to subdue the plagues. Section C consists solely of one elongated antecedent- consequent choral narrative that recounts the story of the plagues of fire and hail and omits any reference to the obdurate Pharaoh. Section D, the final section of the movement, contains a choral narrative that recounts the story of the plague of the slaying of the male firstborn. Pharaoh closes section D, as well as the movement itself, by singing a solo in which he begrudgingly grants the children of Israel their long-sought freedom. Similar musical materials, characterized by their brevity, variety, and avoidance of literal repetition, distinguish the constituent choral narratives of the movement‘s opening three sections and preserve stylistic unity in them, while the solos that Pharaoh sings provide rhythmic, thematic, and textural contrast and relief. In its long-term progression from B-flat to B, the movement explores a multiplicity of tonal and harmonic devices, including the E, F, and G Lydian modes, the F whole-tone scale, and quartal and quintal cadential chords. Instrumental ritornello and transitional passages knit its various subsections together and regularly return its tonality to B-flat. The music of the movement‘s final section, in keeping with the gravity of its text, contrasts in color and dynamic with that of its first three sections. 302 If the opening sections of ―And the Lord Spoke‖ work better as pure music than they do as a text setting, credit for that misfortune in them may be attributed to the composer‘s incessant repetition of similar words and phrases. In describing the plagues of blood and frogs in section A, mm. 6-16 and 33-43, e.g., chorus I sings, ―stretch forth thy hand o‘er the waters of the land; o‘er the streams, o‘er the rivers, o‘er the ponds and the lakes,‖ a tiresome two times. Chorus I sings a third, albeit varied, repetition of this text in section B, mm. 93- 99, of the movement. Some phrases which the composer sets reflect poor choices of textual accent or simply fail to come off effectively in climactic passages: e.g., ―And the hail smote all that was in the field,‖ in section C, mm. 163-67, and ―Only where the children of Israel were . . . ,‖ in section C, mm. 171-74. Other textual weaknesses appear in places where the composer imposes a rhyme scheme on the KJV texts. I addressed this matter at some length in chapter three of this paper, but one particular example of otiose poetic intervention of a singsong nature occurs in section C, mm. 139-159, and merits mention here: And the Lord spoke unto Moses: Stretch forth thy crook unto heaven‘s brook that hail may come down as the people look, throughout the land of Egypt. And Moses stretched forth his crook toward heaven and the Lord sent thunder and hail as a leaven; and the fire ran along upon the ground, as the hail rained down from all around, throughout the land of Egypt. The composer‘s text setting in section D of the movement, by comparison, is much more sensitive and tasteful. Contrasts within and between choral textures in its ―great cry‖ are particularly well articulated: e.g., choruses I and II in mm. 187-93 as well as chorus II SAT, chorus I TB, and chorus II SA in mm. 194-201. The complement of words and music in the solo that Pharaoh sings at the conclusion of the movement is also uniquely expressive. 303 8. March Following upon the emancipation of Moses and the children of Israel from their captivity in Egypt, part II of The Song of Moses continues with a passage that the Narrator reads from Exodus chapters 13 and 14. The passage recalls how God led his people out of the reach of the Egyptians—not through the land of the Philistines but through the way of the wilderness. While the Narrator informs us that the Lord went before the people in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night as they marched toward the Red Sea, a ―March‖ that the orchestra plays undergirds his account of these events. The march consists of 21 mm. scored for full orchestra with ample percussion. Written in 12/8 over 4/4 time (note its dual meter signatures), it features occasional measures of 9/8 over 3/4 (mm. 7 and 8), 3/4 (mm. 11 and 13), and 2/4 (mm. 12, 14, and 18) time that interrupt its regular metrical impetus. 586 The march is through composed and its tonality centers on D minor. Figure 6.6: ―March,‖ mm. 1-4. 586 The date of completion recorded on the pencil sketch of ―March‖ is 14 Sept. 1963. In 1971 the oratorio‘s composer wrote a metrically similar ―uncharacteristic march for band‖ in 5/4 time which he titled Gasparilla Day, after the name of an annual festival celebrated in the Tampa, FL, city in which he then lived. 304 The most distinctive feature of ―March‖ is its pervasive ostinato, which the bass clarinets and bassoons (playing marcato) as well as the violas, cellos, and basses (playing col legno) initiate with rhythmic support from the snare drum during its opening measures. Four tertian chords voiced in either root position or 2 nd -inversion articulate these initial iterations in such a way as to highlight their quartal and quintal intervallic content. The ostinato advances through melodic and rhythmic development as it internalizes itself in the march‘s inner texture. Throughout the movement, the strings alternate between col legno, pizzicato, and arco playing while they provide rhythmic and harmonic support for the ostinato. The march‘s overall harmonic palette features elements of quartal and quintal harmony (i.e., mm. 7, 8, 17, and 18) as well as harmony that is conventionally tertian (i.e., mm. 8-13—note the use of split roots) or polychordal (i.e., mm. 19-21). Figure 6.6 illustrates the movement‘s initial measures with its attendant ostinato. ―March‖ opens with a solo clarinet playing an offbeat triplet motif that iterates the note D over the aforementioned ostinato that the lower woodwinds and lower strings play. Following its imitation by muted trumpets in measure two, a duet for solo oboe and solo English horn extends and develops this triplet motif into a melodic segment. The piccolo and flutes highlight the segment‘s close in measure four with contrasting on-beat triplet figurations. Subsequently, over fragmentation of the ostinato realized by the lower brass and timpani, two trumpets (now sounding without mutes) play a complementary variant of the melodic segment. Measures seven through eight interrupt the impetus of the persistent ostinato by virtue of their 9/8 over 3/4 metrical pattern while an on-beat triplet is ―tossed about‖ in imitation within and between the woodwinds, horns, and brass. Octaves that the piano and lower strings play lend harmonic support to continuous melodic development even as their rhythm further splinters the movement‘s ostinato accompaniment. 305 Figure 6.7: ―March,‖ mm. 9-13. Beginning at m. 9 (letter A) and continuing over six measures of shifting meters through m. 14, a passage scored for the horns and brass provides thematic and rhythmic contrast to the music that precedes and follows it. Sixteenth notes expand into triplets while the horns play a melodic fragment that rises chromatically and develops over two measures in a variation of the underlying ostinato rhythm, now played in octaves by the bass trombone and tuba. The trumpets answer the horns with an eight-note triplet that rises to terminate in a half note and the xylophone joins the trumpets as they repeat this second melodic fragment. The music grows to a climax through a series of largely half-step related polychords with a minimal use of the cymbals, snare drum, and bass drum. A series of triplets that the horns and brass perform connect descending scale fragments that the woodwinds sound with a downward glissando that the strings execute to draw the passage to its conclusion on a G minor/D polychord on the downbeat of m. 15. Figure 6.7 illustrates this music. 306 The music of the fully developed melodic segment that the horns play between the pickup to m. 16 and the downbeat of m. 19 reminds the listener of its now-apparent skeletal outline that the woodwinds articulate at the beginning of the movement. This recapitulation of material generated through motific development finds its harmonic support, as it did in its earlier embryonic state, in the ostinato that the lower woodwinds and lower strings play. Flourishes played by the upper woodwinds and muted trumpets in m. 16 serve to highlight the motif‘s unceasing elaboration. The close of the march proceeds in a gradual diminuendo as a final instance of the ostinato figuration, now harmonized with an E-flat/D polychord, rises over two octaves in the strings (played pizzicato) and woodwinds (played staccato). Following a silent downbeat at m. 20, the upper woodwinds play the polychord on the second beat of the measure, an octave higher than the woodwinds and strings played it at the close of m. 19, and the trombones and tubas play it as a triplet figure on the fourth beat of m. 20. The movement concludes on the downbeat of m. 21 with the polychord voiced to sound in the lower woodwinds, lower brass, and lower strings (played pizzicato), accentuated by the piano and the bass drum. Figure 6.8 illustrates the movement‘s closing measures. Figure 6.8: ―March,‖ mm. 19-21. ―March‖ is snappy in its construction and succinct in its expression. During its brief incarnation it spins off melodic and rhythmic fragments that either reappear in (e.g., ―Why Hast Thou Led Us Away?‖) or inspire (e.g., ―Why Have We Done This‖) movements that follow it. No specific markings in the oratorio‘s piano-vocal or orchestral scores indicate an 307 exact coordination between the movement‘s spoken narrative and its music, although the orchestral score does parse the Narrator‘s text over the first three of its four pages. As we have already noted, ―March‖ unfolds a through-composed organizational structure, albeit, as our analysis demonstrates, it loosely follows an ABA‘ form. We render a more accurate representation of its constitution: introduction – A – interlude – B – interlude – A‘ – codetta. Each of its sections encompasses no more than two to four measures. The melodic segments heard in section A and section A‘ of the movement alternate between the D minor and D Dorian modes (note the raised 6 th scale degree in mm. 5-6 and 18). We have defined the tonality of ―March‖ as D minor; nonetheless, while it is not polytonal per se, the movement demonstrates a certain degree of parallelism of tonality (e.g. note the dominant B-flat/A pivot in mm. 13-14) that culminates in the E-flat/D polychord on which it concludes. Varied and colorful, ―March‖ portrays the diverse tableau of humanity who participate in the flight from Egypt. Its living picture includes the warp and woof of the twelve tribes of Israel—an itinerant people that encompass well over six-hundred-thousand men, women, and children—along with their flocks and herds of livestock. A mixed- multitude of gentiles accompanies them, a community of individuals who become partakers of the Lord‘s grace by extension of the mercy he bestows on the children of Israel. It is a kaleidoscopic vision of a people who begin a long journey in which they will endure a nomadic existence, traveling over the arid and barren landscape of the desert, driven by a promise of a new home where they may live and worship in freedom in a land ―flowing with milk and honey.‖ The trotting tempo, changing meters, and improvisatory style employed by the oratorio‘s composer in ―March‖ serve to represent the people‘s sometimes-chaotic missteps in their haste to flee their captivity as well as express a sense of urgency as to their mission so ordained by the Lord and conveyed to them through the mouth of Moses. 308 9. Why Have We Done This? With the completion of ―March,‖ the Narrator speaks a paraphrase of Exodus 14:5 in which he tells us that Pharaoh expresses misgivings about having granted Moses and the children of Israel their freedom. The Egyptian ruler‘s apprehension rises to anger when the people flee from his land. Channeling his animosity into action, Pharaoh sings a solo: ―Why Have We Done This?‖ 587 Its title reflects a question he asks of his servants for which he abruptly demands an answer. Comparable in length to the contributions that Pharaoh makes to ―And the Lord Spoke,‖ the solo is fashioned in a rounded binary form ABA‘, is inclusive of sections of nine, six, and five measures, and progresses in a nominal 4/4 meter. Section A consists of a dramatic recitative in which Pharaoh poses his inquiry and directs his servants: ―Make ready the chariots . . . with captains over them, every one.‖ Section B calls to mind the wry character of a Shostakovich march. It consists of a four-measure instrumental bridge followed by two measures of ostentatious militant arioso: ―Call out the army, Call up the horsemen.‖ Section A‘ reprises the solo‘s opening recitative. Pharaoh commands ―all the horses and chariots of Egypt [to] pursue [the people], capture them, and return them‖ so they may once-again serve him. The presence of a 12-tone row in Pharaoh‘s vocal line provides some insight into the structural glue that holds it together, albeit the row does not oblige its composer to a dodecaphonic approach to the solo‘s overall composition. Pharaoh sings this row, F-sharp – D – B-flat – A-flat – C – B – G – D-sharp – E – C-sharp – F – A, or sections thereof throughout his solo in its original incarnation with no retrogrades or transpositions. 588 587 The date of completion recorded on the pencil sketch of ―Why Have We Done This?‖ is 18 Oct. 1963. 588 In David Ward-Steinman, e-mail to the present writer, 5 Aug. 2007, the composer commented on his use of a 12-tone row in ―Why Have We Done This?‖: ―The metaphor [of the row] is that Pharaoh was bound by his own beliefs and was resistant to change from without.‖ 309 In section A of ―Why Have We Done This?‖ tonal ambiguity characterizes a two- part recitative in which the King of Egypt airs the agonizing ambivalence he feels about Moses and his people. Pharaoh opens his recitative on the note F-sharp as he does in the first two of the three solos he sings in ―And the Lord Spoke.‖ In measure one he negotiates the first five notes of the aforementioned 12-tone row via a descending triplet through the bounds of an augmented triad—one that arises out of a tonal juxtaposition of D major and E- flat major—as he ―impetuously‖ demands, ―Why have we done this?‖ He elaborates upon his inquiry in measures two through three, ―Why have we let Israel go out from serving us?‖ even as he expands upon his palette of pitches to include notes six through ten of the row. Pharaoh‘s string accompaniment, played alternately arco and pizzicato, features a blend of polychordal, tertian, and mixed-interval harmonies and employs an ample amount of free dissonance. It begins with a D major/E-flat major polychord that sounds on the second beat of measure one—a harmony similar to the one with which ―March‖ closes (E-flat minor/D minor) but with its discrete elements inverted—and concludes with a thirty-second note mixed-interval figuration that the woodwinds, muted trombones, and xylophone imitate in measure three. Figure 6.9 illustrates the first half of Pharaoh‘s opening recitative. Figure 6.9: ―Why Have We Done This?‖ mm. 1-2. 310 Figure 6.9, continued: ―Why Have We Done This?‖ mm. 3-4. Following a momentary pause at the fermata on the last beat of measure three, a transition for the horns, trombones, and lower strings links the two subsections of section A. In the space of a single 2/4 measure, consecutive descending triplets imitate the motif that Pharaoh sings in measure one, albeit a half-step lower in pitch. Over a continued string accompaniment that the timpani underscore with a regular metrical pulse of quarter notes, Pharaoh sings, quasi marcia, to notes 11-12 and 1-5 of the 12-tone row, ―Make ready the chariots, six hundred chosen chariots.‖ Muted horns and brass that supplement the strings lend a militant aura to his accompaniment as Pharaoh concludes the second part of section A to notes 5-12 of the 12-tone row, ―And all the chariots of Egypt, with captains over them, everyone.‖ Figure 6.10 illustrates the second half of Pharaoh‘s opening recitative. Figure 6.10: ―Why Have We Done This?‖ mm. 5-6. 311 Figure 6.10, continued: ―Why Have We Done This?‖ mm. 7-8. A downward chromatic progression (F – E – D-sharp – D) that the cellos and basses play in measures six through eight follows a similar downward diatonic progression (B-flat – A-flat – G-flat – F) that the trombones, cellos, and basses play in measures one through five. Concurrently a chain of major, minor, and diminished chords, as well as various compound chords, which often move in root relationships of 5 ths , find agitation in the D-sharp/D minor harmony of measure eight—an altered reciprocal of the D major/E-flat major polychord that opens the solo—and repose in the F major harmony of measure nine. This tonal cascade, no doubt, functions as a metaphor for the chaos that ensues when Pharaoh turns his house topsy-turvy as he prepares to pursue Moses. It also ushers section A to its completion. The paramount attribute of Section B of ―Why Have We Done This?‖ is the martial atmosphere it creates, similar to the one that its parallel passage establishes in mm. 9-14 of ―March.‖ Section B opens più mosso in mm. 10-13 with a four-measure instrumental bridge scored for the horns, brass, timpani, percussion, and strings marcato e pesante. The 1 st and 2 nd trombones, trumpets, and strings, each in their turn, play a rising chromatic fragment in a triplet rhythm while the bass trombone and tuba play a descending ostinato pattern. The ostinato sounds in a distinct manner for one measure only. Thereafter its rhythm becomes 312 jagged and the mixed-interval harmony it spawns takes on an ambiguous quality. The cymbals, snare drum, and bass drum accentuate the music‘s rhythm until the bridge closes with a five-note fanfare that the horns play. Four notes establish the tonal pillars that support the bridge‘s bass line: F-sharp, C-sharp, A-flat (G-sharp), and E-flat (D-sharp). The circle of 5 ths governs the tonal relationship between these notes. Downward progressions of notes that the tuba plays during the bridge‘s first three measures (m. 10: A-flat – G – D – C-sharp, m. 11: A-flat – G – E-flat, and m. 12: F-sharp – G – D-sharp) as well as an upward progression of notes that the basses play during its fourth measure (m. 13: C-sharp – D – D-sharp) reflect the circle‘s organizational authority. Figure 6.11 illustrates section B in its entirety. Figure 6.11: ―Why Have We Done This?‖ mm. 9-13. 313 Figure 6.11, continued: ―Why Have We Done This?‖ mm. 14-15. The bridge introduces a brief arioso that the obdurate Egyptian ruler sings. Amidst the grandiose sound of trombones and tuba moving in restless chromatic counterpoint, and cymbals, snare drum, and bass drum mounting in furious agitation, Pharaoh appropriates notes 10-12 of the 12-tone row to rise through consecutive descending minor 6 ths while pompously commanding his servants, ―Call out the army, call up the horsemen.‖ Advancing a tonal trajectory to undergird Pharaoh‘s injunction, the tuba descends in m. 14, F-sharp – F – E – D-sharp, furrowing chromatically between the opposing poles of the aforementioned circle of 5 ths . The trombone harmonies that the tuba supports (D major 7 th – D-sharp minor 7 th /F – C-sharp diminished – C minor 7 th – F major/E – D-sharp/E – E minor 9 th ) become increasingly distinct as the arioso progresses. On the downbeat of m. 15, the tuba finally flanks upward in a leading-tone relation to ensconce itself on an E for the measure‘s duration and in so doing marks the tonal center in which section B comes to its conclusion. The recitative that Pharaoh sings in section A‘ of ―Why Have We Done This?‖ is textually and dramatically contiguous to the arioso passage he sings at the close of section B. The words it sets suggest an entirely different affect than the one with which the solo begins and the composer makes necessary adjustments to his earlier notes, chords, and rhythms to 314 adapt them to their new requirements. Section A‘ is thus no mere variant of section A. It is instead a complete rethinking of its musical materials. Whereas section A features a stromentato style of recitative, as figure 6.12 shows, a secco style pervades section A‘. Figure 6.12: ―Why Have We Done This?‖ mm. 16-20. Pharaoh orders his army to follow the fleeing children of Israel: ―And all the horses and chariots of Egypt shall pursue them, capture them, and return them unto us.‖ In so doing he broadens the tempo in a diminuendo from a fortissimo to a piano while he repeats note 12 (A) of the 12-tone row at the pickup to m. 16 and restates the entire row between mm. 16-20, altering it only in m. 18 where he reiterates note 7 (G) between notes 11 (F) and 12 (A). The woodwinds and strings, the latter playing alternately pizzicato and arco, accompany Pharaoh in a sparse manner into his final cadence with a series of compound chords, the roots of the 315 discrete elements of which feature both half- and whole-step relations. These chords include an F-sharp/G minor polychord on the downbeat of m. 16 and an E minor/F-sharp compound chord on the downbeat of m. 17. An incomplete, altered G augmented major 9 th chord (G – F-sharp – A-sharp) over a G-sharp diminished 7 th dyad (G-sharp – A) that sounds on the final beat of 5/4 m. 17 serves as a color cluster in penultimate relation to an F-sharp – C- sharp open 5 th pedal that the violas, (divisi) cellos, and basses sustain under Pharaoh‘s closing cadence in mm. 18-20. Section A‘ of ―Why Have We Done This?‖ comes to a satirical conclusion when the clarinets, ―lazily‖ in triplets, play a brief duet in parallel 6 ths in the F Lydian mode and cadence on a tritone over this F-sharp – C-sharp pedal. With the strike of a triangle, the piccolo and flutes sound a B – G-sharp dyad to complete the quintal chord B – F-sharp – C-sharp – G-sharp in a dubious play on the oratorio‘s unifying motif, which was last heard in part II of the oratorio at the conclusion of ―And the Lord Spoke.‖ Our analysis of ―Why Have We Done This?‖ has revealed it to be cast in a rounded binary ABA‘ form, even so, an examination that parses Pharaoh‘s solo into a simpler binary AB structure, with section B of the latter encompassing the musical material we identify as sections B and A‘ of the former, is also a reasonable one. As our analysis stands, however, section A opens in the tonality of D and closes in the tonality of F. Section B opens in the tonality of A-flat, subdominant to the E-flat element of the E-flat/D polychord with which section A begins, and closes in the tonality of E. Section A‘ opens in F-sharp and prolongs this tonality into the pedal that undergirds its closing measures. It is, nevertheless, a 12-tone row and a circle of 5 ths that bring unity to Pharaoh‘s solo, and we have noted the structural importance of these musical devices in our analysis of the movement. A sardonic bitonal passage that the clarinets play over the aforementioned F-sharp pedal concludes the solo with an adumbrative reference to the unifying motif that portends Pharaoh‘s demise. 316 10. Why Hast Thou Led Us Away? A setting of text from Exodus 14:11-30 airs concerns that the children of Israel raise over Moses having lead them out of servitude in Egypt to an apparent standoff with Pharaoh and his army in the desert. It further tells of the people‘s deliverance from the impending conflict when Moses at first parts the Red Sea and later enjoins the waters to return to engulf the Egyptians. Table 6.7 outlines ―Why Hast Thou Led Us Away?‖ 589 Over 102 mm. in this five-section, through-composed movement, the Narrator speaks, Moses sings, and the chorus initially gives voice to the disquiet of the people but subsequently utters the text of the narrative and proclaims the directives of the Lord. In section A of ―Why Hast Thou Led Us Away?‖ the chorus of the children of Israel confront Moses in a hostile manner in regard to their fate as nomads in the wilderness and demand that he allow them to return to a life of servitude in Egypt. Moses addresses their lack of faith in a solo in section B in which he admonishes them to maintain their composure and place their trust in the Lord. Section C presents the Narrator and orchestra in a vivid report and colorful musical portrayal of the dividing of the waters of the Red Sea, the passage of Moses and his people through it, and Pharaoh‘s pursuit of the children of Israel with his horses, chariots, and equestrians into it. Section D consists of two subsections: in the first, the Lord speaks through the voice of the men‘s chorus, telling Moses to signal the waters to return to liquidate the Egyptians; in the second, the women‘s chorus assumes the narrative and describes the devastation that God inflicts upon Pharaoh. In section E the full chorus meditates in prayer upon the salvation that the Lord finally grants to his people. 589 The date of completion recorded on the pencil sketch of ―Why Hast Thou Led Us Away?‖ is 7 Aug.1963. 317 Section A Section B Section C Section D Section E Chorus Moses Narrator & Orchestra Men‘s Chorus Women‘s Chorus Full Chorus m. 1 (18 mm.) m. 19 (19 mm.) m. 38 (26 mm.) m. 64 (9 mm.) m. 73 (9 mm.) m. 82 (21 mm.) ―Why hast Thou led us away to die . . . ?‖ ―Better to serve Pharaoh than to die in the wilderness.‖ ―Fear not! Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord!‖ ―And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea . . . the waters were divided . . . and the Egyptians pursued . . .‖ ―Stretch out thy hand over the sea that the waters close again upon the Egyptians.‖ ―And Moses stretched forth his hand over the sea, and the sea returned with the morning sun.‖ ―The waters returned . . . And the Lord saved Israel that day. Amen.‖ B-flat to E- flat to d e to d e to F (pedal) to E-flat to B- flat to E-flat/d to d d to d e to E-flat to E-flat/e B-flat to A to B quartal to e to D to B/A Table 6.7: Outline of ―Why Hast Thou Led Us Away?‖ Heralding the first appearance of the chorus at the opening of section A of ―Why Hast Thou Led Us Away?‖ is a two-measure orchestral introduction in 5/4 time. Prior to its execution, however, the Narrator speaks from Exodus 14:10: ―And when Pharaoh drew nigh, the children of Israel lifted up their eyes, and they were sore afraid.‖ When the introduction finally proceeds, the basses sustain a pedal B-flat in conjunction with consecutive rolls on the gong and suspended cymbal. Arpeggiated chords sound in the harp and lower strings even as quintuplets and septuplets rise, accelerate, and crescendo in the woodwinds. The coloristic harmonies that characterize these gesticulations anticipate the music the composer later comes to associate with the parting of the Red Sea. Suddenly the 1 st violins, violas, 2 nd violins, and cellos, each in their turn, articulate a descending series of trills and tremolos mustered by the support of the horns. The high D and low B-flat that frame the sonority this series produces function as the leading tone and dominant, respectively, of E-flat—the first note the chorus sings after the woodwinds and harp precede its appearance with an upward eruption of scales and glissandi. Figure 6.13 illustrates the introduction to section A. 318 Figure 6.13: ―Why Hast Thou Led Us Away?‖ mm. 1-4. Taking its cue from the balance of the words the Narrator speaks, ―And they cried out unto the Lord,‖ the chorus enters on a unison E-flat on the downbeat of measure three. Over a sporadic accompaniment of mixed-interval chords that the woodwinds, horns, brass, and strings play, it descends through a D-flat major chord when, in an explosion of triplets in 4/4 time, it ―vehemently‖ demands: ―Why hast thou led us away to die in the wilderness?‖ Rising via an elongated quarter-note triplet in a phrase that effects a crescendo as well as a half-step modulation to D major, the chorus then queries Moses, ―Were there no graves in Egypt?‖ A roll on the suspended cymbal and a rim shot on the snare drum mark the close of the chorus‘s second inquiry, nevertheless, the tonal antagonism between E-flat major and D major that its two petitions precipitate continues until it at last resolves in favor of D major. 319 Figure 6.14: ―Why Hast Thou Led Us Away?‖ mm. 7-11. Measures 7-11, shown in figure 6.14, repeat a passage from mm. 9-13 of ―March.‖ The chorus, horns, brass, and strings here perform music originally scored for horns and brass alone. Sixteenth notes expand into triplets when the horns, trumpets, and violas play a melodic fragment that rises chromatically and develops over two measures in a variant of the ostinato rhythm that the bass trombone, tuba, cellos, and basses play. Pleading with Moses, ―Let us alone, that we may serve the Egyptians,‖ the chorus answers the horns and violas by way of a phrase consisting of rising triplets that escalate to a climax over an accompaniment of compound chords that the strings play. Scale fragments in the woodwinds and glissandos 320 in the harp and piano descend fitfully as the passage comes to its conclusion and in so doing complement punctuations that the snare and bass drums play at the opening of the passage. The chorus pauses briefly over a cadence articulated by a B major – C major/D-flat chord progression that the lower brass play in m. 11 before it gives a cowardly voice to yet another melodic fragment first heard in mm. 15-18 of ―March.‖ Over an accompaniment of the woodwinds, lower brass, harp, percussion, and strings play in mm. 12-13, the men declare, ―Better to serve Pharaoh than to die in the wilderness!‖ The women thereafter join the men in mm. 14-18 to usher section A to its conclusion by way of a passage written in double parallel 5 ths . After proclaiming, ―Let us go, let us surrender,‖ the men and women repeatedly reiterate the closing syllables of the word ―surrender‖ in hammered triplets even as they highlight an upper leading tone to tonic relationship between incomplete (3 rd -less) chords rooted on E-flat and D. Figure 6.15 shows how the tonal ambiguity which the composer protracts in section A resolves to the tonality of D when the men and women of the chorus conclude the section in m. 18 by mocking Moses with the word ―Ha!‖ Figure 6.15: ―Why Hast Thou Led Us Away?‖ mm. 16-18. 321 Section B of ―Why Hast Thou Led Us Away?‖ comprises a 19-measure solo for Moses in 4/4 time in which the prophet seeks to quell his people‘s fears as to the great events that are to ensue and encourage them to trust in the providence of the Lord. With respect to their demand to return to the life of affliction from which they had recently fled, he ―angrily‖ retorts, ―Fear ye not!‖ and nobly directs them to ―Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord!‖ Moses declares, ―The Egyptians ye have seen today ye shall nevermore see again,‖ and proclaims, ―The Lord shall fight today for you, and ye shall stand and hold your peace!‖ A variety of instrumental color in Moses‘ orchestral accompaniment compliments a multifariousness of expression in his vocal part. In mm. 19-23 he sings a melodic segment, the most salient characteristic of which is its rising tritones that resolve into perfect 4 ths . The continual agitation of the segment‘s accompaniment, which the horns, brass, and tenor drum play, animates the authoritative dynamic of Moses‘ plea: ―Fear ye not! Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord!‖ In mm 24-27 Moses declares, ―The Egyptians ye have seen today, ye shall nevermore see again,‖ while he ascends and descends in triplets through a melodically disjunctive phrase with the support of muted brass and the harp and then rises scalewise molto stringendo with the support of the strings. In mm. 27-32, over a woodwind accompaniment, he proclaims, ―The Lords shall fight today for you,‖ even as he rises meno mosso in even quarter notes through a diminished 5 th and a major 6 th and then intones a contrasting dotted-eighth–sixteenth note rhythm, all the while accenting, sfortzando, the final word of each phrase he sings. At the conclusion of his solo, in mm. 25-29, Moses intones a metric variation of the melodic segment he sings in mm. 19-23—now elevated a major 3 rd . Over an altered accompaniment that the brass, snare drum, and strings play, he prophesies to his people, ―And ye shall stand and ye shall hold your peace!‖ closing his final phrase with a sfortissimo shout—accented by a rim shot on the snare drum—on the word ―peace!‖ 322 A number of vocal and instrumental cadences located at strategic points in Moses‘ solo mark its tonal progression. The first and most important of these, an upper leading tone to tonic relationship articulated by the lower brass in m. 20, confirms an initial tonal center of E. This E tonality prolongs through the first three melodic segments that Moses sings whereupon, with his closing segment, it shifts to A-flat. The brass conclude Moses‘ solo in m. 36 with a cadence on a D minor chord. Figure 6.16 displays the entirety of the solo. The oratorio‘s manuscript illustrates its composer‘s original intent for the conclusion of Moses‘ solo. Six measures appear in the manuscript piano-vocal and orchestral scores that do not appear in the revised piano-vocal score. These measures occur between mm. 37 and 38 of the revised score, following a two-measure interlude that features descending open 9 th dyads that the woodwinds play—a transition that properly becomes, in the revised score, a part of the orchestral music that accompanies the parting of the Red Sea. In the six deleted measures, the last five of which are in 3/4 meter, the composer has Moses repeat the words with which he opens his solo: ―Fear ye not! Stand still!‖ Moses reiterates his text over a sparse accompaniment of offbeat 1 st -inversion E minor 9 th chords that the harp and lower strings play. The recapitulation thus unifies Moses‘ solo by returning it to the tonality of E where it began, albeit, the composer ultimately judged this tonal homecoming unnecessary. Figure 6.16: ―Why Hast Thou Led Us Away?‖ mm. 19-21. 323 Figure 6.16, continued: ―Why Hast Thou Led Us Away?‖ mm. 22-35. 324 Section C of ―Why Hast Thou Led Us Away?‖ consists of a verbal account and musical depiction of the story of the parting of the Red Sea. Speaking over an instrumental accompaniment of ―accelerating orchestral phrases, undulating broken chords and swelling chromatic lines,‖ the Narrator tells us that Moses stretches forth his hand over the sea: God drives the sea back with the wind, divides the waters, and allows the children of Israel to pass on dry ground. 590 The clarinets open the music that illuminates the narration in m. 38 (letter D) with contiguous, hastening, eighth-note figurations that crest and trough over a roll on the suspended cymbal while the cellos and basses ground a tonal anchor on the pedal note F. Oboes and English horn, muted trumpet, and piccolo and flutes waft intermittently in the sonorous turbulence stirred up by the clarinets. The tidal anomaly billows to its apex under an octave B-flat that trembles in the upper woodwinds and xylophone in m. 46 as quarter notes rise in the lower woodwinds and 2 nd violins, sixty-fourth note figurations escalate upward in the piano, and a glissando ascends in the harp. Figure 6.17 illustrates the opening measures of the ‗water music‘ from section C of ―Why Hast Thou Led Us Away?‖ Figure 6.17: ―Why Hast Thou Led Us Away?‖ mm. 36-39. 590 Dox, 330. In David Ward-Steinman, e-mail to the present writer, 5 Aug. 2007, the composer described his ‗water music‘ thus, ―It's a gusher, actually, from piccolo to Niagara Falls.‖ 325 Figure 6.17: ―Why Hast Thou Led Us Away?‖ mm. 40-46. In mm. 47-49 the piccolo, flutes, and clarinets articulate the notes D and E-flat in a frothy tremolo while the oboes, English horn, bassoons, and muted trumpets iterate fluttering sixteenth-note sextuplet figurations. 591 The surge of music crescendos from forte-piano to fortissimo then ebbs at the downbeat of m. 50 to uncover a G major 11 th chord (―a wall of water on their right?‖) that muted strings sustain pianissimo. A renewed flow of figurations refluxes in the woodwinds in association with a ring on the triangle, a reiterated roll on the suspended cymbal, and glissandos that rise and fall in the harp. The rush of music ebbs a second time on the third beat of m. 51 to reveal a 2 nd -inversion G minor/3 rd -inversion A major 7 th polychord (―a wall of water on their left?‖) that muted strings once-again sustain. 591 Measures 47-48, both barred as 2/4 measures in the manuscript (1964) and published (1968) piano-vocal scores, appear as a single 4/4 measure in the manuscript (1964) orchestral score (page 99, measure one). In David Ward-Steinman, e-mail to the present writer, 5 Aug. 2007, the composer addressed this discrepancy: ―It was purely a mechanical layout solution in the orchestral score, as there wasn‘t any space at the end of the last measure on page 98 for a warning 2/4 sign. It doesn‘t make any musical difference here, since I do not need a downbeat agogic accent in the middle of the orchestral 4/4 measure.‖ 326 The aural portrayal of the parting of the Red Sea resumes with a molto crescendo in m. 52 as gradually accelerating sextuplet, septuplet, octuplet, and nonuplet figurations ascend in the clarinets and piano while an A minor 7 th chord voiced in 3 rd -inversion wells up in the trumpets and bassoons. When the violins and violas reiterate this chord pizzicato to mark the downbeat of m. 53, sextuplet figurations circulate furiously, first in the oboes and English horn and subsequently in the piccolo and flutes. Suddenly, in m. 54, the tidal turmoil yields to tranquility a third time when muted violins, violas, and cellos sustain an elevated G major/F compound chord (a clear path on dry ground ―in the midst of the sea?‖). The calm lasts for but a measure. At the ―Come prima‖ in m. 55 (letter E), the horns sound a 1 st -inversion quintal chord D – G –A in galloping triplets, ―driving forward—alla marcia,‖ in 3/4 meter with rhythmic support provided by two snare drums. This music signals the arrival of the Egyptian army, who pursue the children of Israel ―[in]to the midst of the sea,‖ so the Narrator informs us: ―even all Pharaoh‘s horses, his chariots, and his horsemen.‖ The woodwinds, trumpets, and strings develop the triplet motif in the measures that follow its first appearance while the horns twice articulate a tonally and rhythmically contrasting sixteenth-sixteenth-eighth note figure: A-flat – B-flat – A-flat. The bass trombone, tuba, piano, and basses play a rising quarter-note motif B-flat – D-flat – A in octaves in mm. 55-57. The lower brass and lower strings (playing pizzicato) sound a variant of this motif in 9 ths and octaves in mm. 59-60 and the piccolo, oboes, English horn, trumpets, xylophone, piano, and violins (playing pizzicato) repeat it in mm. 60-61. Most notable in this passage is how the composer juxtaposes these sonorities together to create an aura of impending calamity. The music concludes by way of an upper leading tone to tonic E-flat/D harmonic relation that the flutes and clarinets sound in a trill in mm. 62-64. Figure 6.18 illustrates the militant music of pursuit from section C of ―Why Hast Thou Led Us Away?‖ 327 Figure 6.18: ―Why Hast Thou Led Us Away?‖ mm. 55-61. The expressive gestures and coloristic harmonies with which the composer distinguishes the two-measure introduction to section A of ―Why Hast Thou Led Us Away?‖ come to full flower in the music he writes in section C for the parting of the Red Sea. The circle of 5 ths as well as an upper leading tone to tonic relationship between chords rooted on E-flat and D play a significant role in the tonal impetus of this music. A pedal F that the lower strings prolong in mm. 38-45 functions in a dominant relation to an octave B-flat that the woodwinds and xylophone sustain in m. 46. This B-flat is in turn dominant to the auxiliary note E-flat of an E-flat/D trill that the woodwinds play in mm. 47-49. Three chords that muted strings sustain in mm. 50, 51, and 54 establish their roots on the notes G, E, and A, respectively. The chord rooted on G is subdominant to the section‘s tonal center D while 328 the chords rooted on A and E stand in a dominant and secondary dominant relation to the D tonal center. In the music of pursuit that comprises mm. 55-63, the F – B-flat – E-flat tonal progression plays out once again in the quarter-note motif that the lower brass and lower strings play in mm. 55-57 and 59-60 as well as the E-flat/D harmonic relation that the flutes and clarinets sound in a trill in mm. 62-63. This cadential trill terminates on the downbeat of m. 64 in a chord rooted on the note D, fixing the section‘s overall tonal progression: E – D. Speaking the words, ―And the Lord said unto Moses,‖ over the aforementioned cadential trill, the Narrator introduces the decree of the Lord which the men loudly proclaim in the first of two subsections that comprise section D of ―Why Hast Thou Led Us Away?‖ Tenors and basses enter in unison on the downbeat of m. 64 and proceed in two- and four- part harmony in a ―strident, intense‖ manner. They symbolically elongate their first note and sing a buoyant antecedent phrase in 12/8 time in the D Dorian mode: ―Stretch out thy hand over the sea that the waters close again upon the Egyptians.‖ In an ensuing one-measure interlude, muted trumpets imitate a triplet figure that the violins initiate. Over the support of a woodwind accompaniment that flows in even eighth notes, the basses sing a consequent phrase, ―upon their chariots and upon their horsemen,‖ and the tenors join them in parallel 3 rds in its insistent repetition to conclude their recitation of the Lord‘s edict. Figure 6.19 illustrates the opening measures of section D of ―Why Hast Thou Led Us Away?‖ A one-measure extension of the music that the woodwinds play connects the two subsections of section D and culminates in an abrupt upward shift in tonality from D Dorian to E minor. Sopranos and altos answer the tenors and basses in unison at letter F and expand into two-, three-, and four-part homophony as they detail the defeat of the Egyptian army: ―And Moses stretched forth his hand over the sea, and the sea returned with the morning sun; and the Lord overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea.‖ Of the four broad phrases 329 that the women sing in mm. 73-82, they perform the first a cappella, the second with string quartet accompaniment, the third with divisi string (without basses) accompaniment, and the fourth with oboe and English horn accompaniment. The entire passage effects a modulation to E-flat: the women sustain a climactic 2 nd -inversion E-flat major chord at the close of the final phrase they sing. Under this chord solo clarinet and bassoon play a descending, quasi- imitative passage that reaches its terminus on the downbeat of m. 82 on an F-sharp/E dyad, thus completing the tonal journey of the two subsections of section D: D – E – E-flat – E. Figure 6.19: ―Why Hast Thou Led Us Away?‖ mm. 62-67. 330 A sudden shift in musical character manifests itself at the opening of section E of ―Why Hast Thou Led Us Away?‖ the section that navigates the movement to its tranquil conclusion. The men and women who gave voice to the Lord‘s directive and the calamity it precipitated now unite in the manner of a Greek chorus to reflect on these historic events. Accompanied by the horns, strings, brass, and ultimately the woodwinds, the full chorus enters, allargando, in a somber manner at the pickup to m. 83 to sing three short phrases: ―The waters returned, the waters returned, and of all the host of Pharaoh . . . .‖ Chorus and orchestra crescendo and effect a modulation from B-flat major into a cadence on a 1 st - inversion A major 11 th chord. After a brief pause, the chorus, now a cappella, closes the passage by way of a subdued ―molto ritard‖ and diminuendo to a pianissimo. Singing the words, ―there remained not so much as one of them,‖ they converge from a quartal chord rooted on a B to an E. This choral compression from four-part harmony to unison serves to ―represent total destruction,‖ the Lord‘s ultimate defeat of the pertinacious Pharaoh. 592 Section E continues at m. 90 (letter G). There the tubas, cellos, and basses repeat a pedal E over seven measures under the subdued sound of slow moving chords that the horns, brass (―bells down‖), and the balance of the strings play, while the sopranos, altos, and tenors ―mournful[ly]‖ sing, ―But the children of Israel walked upon dry land; and the Lord saved Israel that day.‖ Instrumentalists weave a harmonic texture that ebbs and flows in accord with the emphasis of the chorus‘s text. The singers segue through a D major 9 th chord in a shimmering, textless hum, and subsequently, in the manner of a subdued prayer, the sopranos and altos, nobly doubled by a solo trumpet and a solo horn, reiterate the words, ―And the Lord saved Israel that day.‖ They do so in consecutive arched melodic phrases in the tonality of A minor above an ―amen‖ that the tenors and basses sing. The men imitate 592 Dox, 330. 331 the women‘s phrase in the A Lydian mode prior to cadencing with them in m. 101 on a 2 nd - inversion A major chord. Figure 6.20 illustrates the closing measures of section E. Figure 6.20: ―Why Hast Thou Led Us Away?,‖ mm. 96-102. 332 Our analysis of ―Why Hast Thou Led Us Away?‖ parses the dramatic movement into five overall sections. In section A the chorus of the children of Israel directs its anger at Moses for leading them into a dubious future in the wilderness. A B-flat pedal that underlies the section‘s brief orchestral introduction sets the stage for the chorus‘s initial sojourn in E- flat while on its way to D. The waffling tonal center of this music reflects the antipathy the people feel toward their leader and the destiny they fear he has brought upon them. The solo Moses sings in section B, in which he encourages the children of Israel to place their hope for deliverance in the Lord, ups the ante on the drama and raises the music‘s tonal center to E. A cadence that the brass play at the conclusion of Moses‘ solo returns its tonality to D. Section C presents the Narrator and orchestra in a melodramatic portrayal of the parting of the Red Sea. A circle of 5 ths that encompasses F, B-flat, E-flat, E, A, D, and G pedal points and chords and an upper leading tone to tonic relation between E-flat major and D minor chords once-again leads the music‘s tonal center from E to D. The two subsections of section D present choruses of men and women in passages that contrast the movement‘s complementary tonal centers. The men give voice to the words of the Lord in a passage in the D Dorian mode in which they instruct Moses to cause the waters to return to drown the Egyptians. A one-measure interlude that the woodwinds play prompts a sudden tonal shift to E minor. The women thereafter describe the ruin that the Lord exacts upon Pharaoh‘ army in a passage that effects a modulation from E to E-flat, and a solo clarinet and bassoon close out section D with a symbolically descending, imitative passage that returns its tonality to E. As the remnants of the Egyptian army wash away with the tide, the men and women of the chorus together complete their recitation of the movement‘s narration, ―The waters returned and of all the host of Pharaoh there remained not so much as one of them,‖ shifting its tonality from B-flat to A to E. Thereafter, with an attendant tonal segue through D to A, 333 they reflect upon the deliverance that the Lord has granted them: ―And the Lord saved Israel that day.‖ Of these, the closing measures of section E, author Thurston J. Dox notes, ―[The] words pass through the chorus in a sequence of melodic arches, symbolizing the rainbow which appeared as a sign of God‘s covenant after the flood.‖ 593 ―Why Hast Thou Led Us Away?‖ comes to its conclusion when the flutes, clarinets, and harp play a 2 nd -inversion B major chord, which they precede with an F-sharp dominant 7 th chord, over a sustained 2 nd - inversion A major chord that the chorus sings and the lower strings play. It thereby sounds, once again, the unifying motif of hope that recurs so often throughout the oratorio. 11. Sing Ye to the Lord ―Sing Ye to the Lord‖ is a spirited setting of the ―Song of Moses and Miriam‖ from Exodus 15. With the singing of this canticle, part II of The Song of Moses concludes ―in a whirling jubilation.‖ 594 Quoting from Exodus 15:20, the Narrator speaks its preface: ―And Miriam, the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel in her hand; and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dances.‖ This through-composed movement proceeds in 6/8 meter and spans 82 mm. As figure 6.21 illustrates, a ―fast, furious; wild, delirious‖ instrumental introduction, the most distinguishing feature of which is its use of an abundant complement of percussion instruments, occupies its first 22 mm. 595 593 Ibid, 330. 594 Ibid, 330. The date of completion recorded on the pencil sketch of ―Sing Ye to the Lord‖ is 25 Sept. 1963. Only a paraphrase of verses 1-7 and 21 of the canticle, as it appears in Exodus 15:1-18 and 21, is set. 595 In the piano-vocal score, the marking is ―Fast, furious,‖ and in the orchestral score, the marking is ―Wild, delirious.‖ A note found on page 106 in the orchestral score reads, ―Suggestion: recruit some idle choristers for the extra percussion parts in this movement. Rehearse carefully, however.‖ In David Ward-Steinman, e-mail to the present writer, 8 Feb. 2006, the composer notes, ―I wanted an exuberant climax at this point in the oratorio. In ‗Sing Ye to the Lord,‘ the chorus is invited to take up extra percussion instruments and join the orchestra in an exuberant free-for-all. The number makes a vivid counterpart to the later pagan ‗Dance to the Golden Calf.‘‖ 334 The introduction portrays the festivities that the children of Israel engage in when the Lord delivers them from Pharaoh‘s army and readies the stage for the choral setting that follows it. It features a cacophony of sounds, the main elements of which are the rhythmic motive contained in m. 1-2, the descending figuration contained in m. 7, and the cluster passage contained in mm. 8-11 and 14. In addition to piano and celeste, other percussion instruments that play throughout the introduction include antique cymbals, triangle, cymbals, bass drum, castanets, tambourine, snare drum, tom-tom, ratchet, wood blocks, glockenspiel, gong, xylophone, and claves. The introduction opens in a tonality centered on F and closes on an altered E-flat 11 th chord (with split 9 th and flat 11 th ). Its composer more often than not appropriates his extensive harmonic palette in the movement for coloristic as opposed to functional purposes. This palette variously consists of secundal and mixed-interval chords (mm. 2, 4, 6, and 14), chords with quartal and quintal intervallic elements (mm. 16), and cluster chords (mm. 5, 8-11). Polychords (mm. 18-22) as well as conventional tertian chords (mm. 12, 13, 15, and 17) also feature prominently in the introduction‘s texture. Figure 6.21: ―Sing Ye to the Lord,‖ mm. 1-7. 335 Figure 6.21, continued: ―Sing Ye to the Lord,‖ mm. 8-22. In the introduction‘s opening measures, trills that the piccolo, flutes, and clarinets play shimmer, even as offbeat chords that the oboes, English horn, and upper strings play rise, over a rhythmic motive that the horns and brass articulate in the manner of a fanfare. A 336 descending eighth-note figuration that the glockenspiel plays in measure seven imparts relief to the fanfare‘s driving rhythm and segues into a series of offbeat cluster chords that ascend in the celeste. These celeste clusters emerge from under the player‘s hands in mm. 8-9 and expand in mm. 10-11 into full arm slabs. Melodic fragments that the xylophone and glockenspiel improvise over sixteenth-note figurations that descend in the harp complement the rhythmically supportive sounds that percussion instruments of indefinite pitch supply. 596 The introduction continues in mm. 12-16 when the piccolo, horns, brass, and strings rearticulate variants of its opening rhythmic motive. Descending harp figurations and celeste clusters briefly return in m. 14 to interrupt these measures. The woodwinds, celeste, and glockenspiel play two more variants of the rhythmic motive in mm. 17-18, and in m. 19 the trumpets herald the arrival of a dotted-eighth–sixteenth–eighth-note rhythm that becomes the principal rhythmic component of the choral setting that follows the introduction. Rhythmic development continues in the woodwinds, horns, brass, percussion, and strings in mm. 20- 21. Over an E-flat major 9 th chord that the 2 nd trombone, bass trombone, and tuba sustain in mm 21-22, the trumpets and 1 st trombone rise triumphantly through C and D major chords to conclude the introduction with a G minor-major 9 th chord that they sound in dotted-eighth– sixteenth–eighth-note rhythm. It matters not how one perceives this final juxtaposition of tones, whether as cited or as an altered E-flat 11 th chord, its effect remains a striking one. At the completion of the introduction, the chorus enters ―boldly‖ in m. 23 (letter B) to open section A of the movement proclaiming, ―Sing ye to the Lord.‖ As figure 6.22 illustrates, the dotted-eighth–sixteenth–eighth-note rhythm that had its genesis in the introduction features prominently in the chorus‘s unison articulation of its text. Singing 596 A note above the xylophone and glockenspiel parts in the oratorio‘s orchestral score instructs the players they may play ―any notes, but [they must] observe [the] contours and rhythms [that the composer specifies].‖ 337 a disjunctive but buoyant melodic phrase in the D Mixolydian mode, the chorus ascends a 5 th from a C to a G and then descends a 4 th to a D by way of the aforementioned dotted-eighth– sixteenth–eighth-note rhythm. It closes its initial phrase with an octave leap to a high D—a note it sustains for a full measure. The chorus repeats this phrase in sequential variation in the E Mixolydian mode, ending its reiteration on a sustained high E. Horns, tuba, piano, percussion, and strings undergird the closing notes of each of the two phrases with sixteenth- note compound chord figurations, G major/E-flat/D and A major/E-flat/E to B major/E- flat/E, and close the choral passage that opens section A by articulating an F-sharp major 9 th /E compound chord in the now-familiar dotted-eighth–sixteenth–eighth-note rhythm. Section A continues in mm. 27-36, where the chorus asserts in homophony, ―For he hath triumphed gloriously, the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea.‖ Attributes of this passage include a comprehensive employment of hemiola and a continued use of dotted- eighth–sixteenth–eighth-note rhythm. Extended tertian and added-note harmonies pervade the choral passage and its accompaniment, the latter of which sounds at first in the strings and later expands into the woodwinds, horns, brass, and percussion. Especially worthy of note in this passage is the use of the timpani to insistently punctuate the end of the first two of its three jubilant phrases. Following the horns‘ final iteration of the dotted-eighth– sixteenth–eighth-note rhythm at the close of the passage‘s third phrase, section A concludes with sixteenth-note triplets that piccolo, flutes, clarinets, percussion, violins, and violas play. Tonal progress in section A follows a course that begins with the resolution of the altered E-flat 11 th chord that closes the movement‘s introduction to the D tonality with which the section opens in mm. 23-24. The tonal center advances to E and F-sharp/E in mm. 25-26 before it segues D-sharp – A-sharp – F-sharp – C in mm. 28-32. The music departs from its C tonality in mm. 33-34 to close in mm. 35-36 on a 3 rd -inversion A-flat dominant 9 th chord. 338 Figure 6.22: ―Sing Ye to the Lord,‖ mm. 23-28. 339 Figure 6.22, continued: ―Sing Ye to the Lord,‖ mm. 29-35. 340 Following its premier, the composer revised his oratorio, and in so doing made several cuts to ―Sing Ye to the Lord.‖ The first cut he made occurs prior to what is now, in his revised piano-vocal score, letter C. He discarded seven measures he originally wrote to connect sections A and B. 597 The measures in question set the words of Exodus 15:2, ―The Lord is my strength and my song, and he is become my salvation,‖ for women‘s chorus with flute, clarinet, bassoon, brass, and string accompaniment. The composer‘s exclusion of these measures promotes forward momentum in the movement, albeit at the possible expense of a more calculated transition between its initial two sections, or so he may have judged. 598 Section B of ―Sing Ye to the Lord‖ begins at m. 37 (letter C) with two sprightly phrases which the chorus sings to the words, ―He is my God, my father‘s God‖ and ―I will exalt him most highly,‖ over an accompaniment played by the horns, brass, percussion, and strings. A pattern of dotted-eighth–sixteenth–eighth-note and offbeat rhythms invigorates each of these phrases; a single 3/8 measure scored for solo violin and harp with woodwind accompaniment connects them. The chorus prolongs the harmony that closes section A in this passage with 3 rd - and 4 th -inversion G-sharp minor 7 th , 9 th , and 13 th chords until it iterates the final word of its second phrase in a cadence that sustains 3 rd -inversion G major-minor 7 th and 13 th (raised 11 th ) chords. Figure 6.23 illustrates the opening measures of the section. Section B continues molto allargando in mm. 42-47. Sopranos, altos, and tenors sing, ―While he fights for us,‖ in a unison phrase that rises a minor 3 rd in even eight notes and falls a perfect 5 th in a dotted-eighth–sixteenth–eighth-note rhythm over figurations that descend in the woodwinds and an E-flat – B-flat – F quintal chord that sounds in the horns, 597 The composer located the reference letter ―C‖ in the original version of his score at the second of the seven measures he deleted in the revised version of his score. 598 In David Ward-Steinman, e-mail to the present writer, 5 Aug. 2007, the composer discusses his cuts in ―Sing Ye to the Lord‖: ―I came to feel that the original version started and stopped too much and lost momentum along its way. I wanted to cut it to the bone so it moved convincingly and efficiently from beginning to end.‖ 341 brass, and strings. Altos and basses answer, ―and is good to us,‖ in a similar unison phrase that rises a minor 3 rd and falls a major 6 th over an F minor/G-flat compound chord that the strings sustain. Sixteenth-note figurations that a solo clarinet, piccolo, and the 2 nd violins play close the passage even as the cellos and basses shift the music‘s tonal center to F. Figure 6.23: ―Sing Ye to the Lord,‖ mm. 36-39. The men conclude section B with two short phrases in which they extol the Lord for displaying his power over the Egyptian army. At the pickup to m. 48 (letter D), the basses ―boldly‖ declare, ―The Lord is a man of war,‖ and at the pickup to m. 51 the tenors join them to ―strong[ly]‖ proclaim, ―The Lord is his name!‖ The composer once-again conscripts a dotted-eighth–sixteenth–eighth-note rhythm for the men‘s articulation of these melodically disjunctive phrases, the prolonged final notes of which he doubles with ―stopped‖ horns to lend a heroic quality to the passage. Solos played by the oboe, bassoon, flute, and the cellos undergird these notes. This all-too-short episode, shown in figure 6.24, closes in E-flat. 342 Figure 6.24: ―Sing Ye to the Lord,‖ mm. 46-51. 343 Section C of ―Sing Ye to the Lord,‖ shown in figure 6.25, begins in m. 54 with the chorus singing a varied reprise of the words it first sang in mm. 23-24, ―Sing ye now to the Lord above,‖ to the music it initially intoned in mm. 37-38, over an accompaniment played by woodwinds, horns, tuba, percussion, harp, and strings. A 3 rd -inversion G-sharp minor 7 th chord opens the passage and its 7 th F-sharp prolongs as a pedal until m. 57. The harmony there segues down a half step to a 3 rd -inversion G major-minor 7 th chord, where after the brass shore up the strings while the chorus sings a climactic passage, ―Pharaoh‘s chariots he hath cast in the sea,‖ in mm. 57-60. The chorus cadences momentarily on an A minor chord after which in mm. 61-62 the brass and strings animate the words the sopranos and tenors sing, ―His chosen captains and all his host are drowned,‖ as they billow section C to its conclusion over an F-sharp pedal that the timpani iterates. When the chorus cadences on an E minor 11 th chord (with flatted 11 th ) in mm. 63-64, the horns and violins crest in an undulating phrase and a roll sounds on the suspended cymbal. The now-familiar dotted- eighth–sixteenth–eighth-note rhythm makes manifest eight times in this dramatic passage. The composer made a second cut in ―Sing Ye to the Lord‖ at the conclusion of section C. This cut occurs prior to what is now, in the oratorio‘s revised piano-vocal score, letter F. There he eliminated a six-measure passage that he originally wrote for chorus in unison with timpani and string accompaniment. The passage set a somber text from Exodus 15:5 that portrays, by way of a simile, the tragic fate that befell the Egyptians: ―The depths have covered them, they sank [into the bottom] as a stone.‖ The three descending phrases that it contains reinforce its textual metaphor. The passage effected a ―rallentando, poco a poco‖ to a ―molto ritard‖ to link sections C and D, and the sustained note A with which the altos and basses conclude its final phrase served in a dominant relation to an impending D tonality. The passage‘s exclusion once-again promotes the movement‘s forward momentum. 344 Figure 6.25: ―Sing Ye to the Lord,‖ mm. 52-58. 345 Figure 6.25, continued: ―Sing Ye to the Lord,‖ mm. 59-66. 346 Section D of ―Sing Ye to the Lord‖ opens with the full chorus singing, ―Thy right hand, O Lord is glorious in power,‖ ―lightly‖ and ―pianissimo,‖ to music it initially sang in mm. 37-38 and repeated in mm. 54-56. A 3 rd -inversion E minor 7 th chord with a repeating pedal D permeates the passage. Trumpets and trombones accompany it while glockenspiel and harp punctuate rests that delineate phrases the chorus sings. A weakness in this passage is the composer‘s incessant repetition of the word ―power‖ in mm. 67-68. 599 The music the chorus sings between the pickup to m. 65 (letter F) and the first beat of m. 68, however, once-again employs the dotted-eighth–sixteenth–eighth-note rhythm that pervades the entire movement. This same rhythm, appearing in alternate measures with the hemiolic rhythm that distinguishes the setting‘s introductory measures, also articulates the words the chorus sings and repeats in mm. 68-72: ―In the greatness of thine excellence . . . .‖ Horns, brass, and strings here accompany the chorus—which now intones an E-flat major 7 th chord in 3 rd - inversion over the pedal D that the tuba and (string) basses now play—and glockenspiel, harp, and suspended cymbal mark a rest that separates the two phrases it sings. The D pedal that the tuba and basses prolong underlies the conclusion of section D. At the pickup to m. 73, the full chorus at first ascends from an E-flat major chord to a unison D. The sopranos and tenors thereafter sustain this high D while the altos and basses sing a descending unison phrase (contrary to movement suggested by the text), ―thou has overthrown them who rose up against thee,‖ that proceeds ―poco ritard‖ through a single 9/8 measure. The altos and basses closes their phrase and section D itself in mm. 73-74 by outlining a 2 nd -inversion B- flat dominant 7 th chord and cadencing on its open diminished 5 th D – A-flat. The relationship between this passage and that contained in section B, mm. 42-46, is significant to the structure of the movement—note a similar descent to A-flat in the alto and bass parts. 599 The present writer suggests that the words, ―power, and honor, and majesty,‖ would be more effective. 347 The composer made a third and final cut to ―Sing Ye to the Lord‖ at the conclusion of section D, prior to what is now, in the oratorio‘s revised piano-vocal score, letter G. This particular cut is more substantial than the two prior cuts he made to the movement‘s original manuscripts in that it encompasses a full 37 mm. The text that the composer omits is one that he adapted from Exodus 15:9-10: ―The enemy said: I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil; my lust shall be satisfied upon them; my flesh shall gorge itself upon them. I will draw my sword, and my hand shall destroy them. But thou did blow with thy wind, and the sea overcame them; they sank as lead in the mighty waters.‖ 600 The discarded measures contain a number of interesting musical features. One is the employment of an unaccompanied ―quasi recitative‖ in a passage scored for the women. A second is the use of eighth-note duplets in 6/8 time to create rhythmic variety in a passage scored for the men. A third is the use of a vocal glissando in a passage also scored for the men. A fourth is the use of parallel quintal harmony, initially in a passage scored for full chorus and lower brass and subsequently in a passage scored for horns and tuba. Finally, a climactic passage that closes the cut features an idiomatic employment of the piano as a percussion instrument. Altos and basses conclude the present cut, as they did the penultimate one, on the note A. The composer‘s justification for the cut appears to be the same as that for his previous cuts: to avoid interrupting the momentum of the movement‘s music and to reduce its overall length. A pregnant pause links sections D and E of ―Sing Ye to the Lord.‖ This pause has the effect of suspending the music‘s momentum while whetting the listener‘s anticipation for the closing section of the movement. In mm. 75-78 (letter G) the chorus sings, ―Sing ye to the Lord above, for he hath triumphed gloriously,‖ to music that recapitulates a series of phrases first sung in mm. 54-55. This passage centers tonally not on E-flat as one might 600 The words, ―my flesh shall gorge itself upon them,‖ do not appear in Exod. 15:9. 348 expect but on G, and it exhibits a strong dominant-tonic polarity—in spite of the ubiquity of the 4 th -inversion G major-minor 9 th chord with which it opens and closes. While it sings over an accompaniment that the horns, brass, snare drum, strings, and woodwinds play, the chorus crescendos from a piano to a forte. In mm. 78-80, singing fortissimo, it repeats the words, ―Sing ye to the Lord,‖ to music that recapitulates a phrase first heard in mm. 23-26. The chorus sustains their closing (dominant) note over an accompaniment that now features sixteenth-note figurations that the tenor drum and piano play. These figurations initiate an exalted climax in the horns, brass, and strings, which the chorus crowns with the words, ―sing ye, sing ye, sing,‖ to conclude section E in mm. 81-82 via 5 th - and 2 nd -inversion G major-minor 11 th chords. Offbeat accents that the bass clarinet, bassoons, bass trombone, tuba, timpani, piano, cellos, and basses supply complement on-beat accents that the woodwinds, cymbals, and snare drum provide. Figure 6.26 illustrates these final measures. Figure 6.26: ―Sing Ye to the Lord,‖ mm. 80-82. 349 Table 6.8 displays a complete outline of ―Sing Ye to the Lord,‖ indicating its various broad sections and general tonal progression. The movement‘s lively and brilliant introduction features a cacophony of sounds—many played by the orchestra‘s full panoply of percussion instruments. A wide-ranging harmonic palette that consists of mixed-interval, tertian, secundal, quartal, quintal, and cluster chords as well polychords often serves coloristic as opposed to functional purposes and features prominently in the introduction‘s texture. The introduction opens in a tonality centered on F and concludes on an altered E- flat 11 th chord (with split 9 th and flat 11 th )—a.k.a. a G minor-major 9 th chord. Its principal stylistic elements include a rhythmic motive that the horns, brass, and percussion articulate in mm. 1-6, a descending figuration that the glockenspiel executes in m. 7, and a cluster passage that the celeste plays in mm. 8-11 and 14. In m. 19 the trumpets herald the initial appearance of a secondary dotted-eighth–sixteenth–eighth-note rhythmic motive that becomes the principal rhythmic element of the choral setting that ensues in section A. In sections A, C, and E of ―Sing ye to the Lord,‖ the chorus of the children of Israel develops textual and musical variants of the declaration, ―Sing ye to the Lord above, for he hath triumphed gloriously,‖ and so celebrates its deliverance from Pharaoh‘s army. The oratorio‘s composer, hence, by turn presents, embellishes, and then shortens the movement‘s refrain to realize melodic and harmonic variation. By contrast, in sections B and D of the movement, the chorus offers digressive commentaries on the Lord‘s attributes, the episodic texts of which enumerate his many and great deeds. The music with which the composer opens these latter sections resembles that of sections A, C, and E, but the music with which he closes them distinguishes them from the refrains, even though his use of a dotted-eighth– sixteenth–eighth-note rhythmic motive unifies all of the sections. Thus, in its structure and character, the choral setting that follows the movement‘s introduction resembles a rondo. 350 Introduction Section A Section B Section C Section D Section E Orchestra Chorus Chorus Chorus Chorus Chorus mm. 1-22 (22 mm.) mm. 23-36 (14 mm.) mm. 37-53 (17 mm.) mm. 54-64 (11 mm.) mm. 65-74 (10 mm.) mm. 75-82 (8 mm.) ―Sing ye to the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea.‖ ―He is my God, my father‘s God; I will exalt him most highly (while he fights for us and is good to us). The Lord is a man of war; the Lord is his name!‖ Sing ye now to the Lord above; Pharaoh‘s chariots he hath cast into the sea; his chosen captains and all his host are drowned.‖ ―Thy right hand, O Lord, is glorious in power; in the greatness of thine excellence thou hast overthrown them who rose up against thee.‖ ―Sing ye to the Lord above for he hath triumphed gloriously. Sing ye to the Lord, sing ye, sing!‖ F to E-flat 11 th (split 9 th and flat 11 th ) or G minor- major 9 th E-flat 11 th (altered) to D Mixolydian to E Mixolydian to F-sharp 9 th /E (pedal) to C to 3 rd -inv A-flat dominant 9 th 3 rd -inv g- sharp 7 th to F to 3 rd -inv G major-minor 13 th (raised 11 th ) to E-flat quintal to f/G- flat (pedal) to F to E-flat 3 rd -inv g- sharp 7 th (F pedal) to 3 rd -inv G major-minor 7 th to a to e 11 th (flat 11 th ) 3 rd -inv e 7 th (D-A pedal) to E-flat/D (pedal) to 2 nd - inv B-flat dominant 7 th (D pedal) G Table 6.8: Outline of ―Sing Ye to the Lord.‖ Our tonal analysis of the choral setting proceeds on a course that begins in Section A with the chorus singing two similar unison phrases in the D Mixolydian mode in mm. 23-24 and in the E Mixolydian mode in mm. 25-26. The tonal center segues from D-sharp through A-sharp and F-sharp to C as the chorus sings a homophonic passage in mm. 28-32 before it settles in A-flat at the close of the section in mm. 35-36. The chorus opens section B with a homophonic passage that begins in the tonality of G-sharp and ends in G. In mm. 42-47 two unison phrases that subsections of the chorus sing over an E-flat quintal chord and an F minor/G-flat compound chord precede an instrumental passage that shifts the music‘s tonal center to F. Solo instrumentalists accompany the men of the chorus in mm. 47-53 when they conclude section B with declaratory phrases that return the music‘s tonal center to E-flat. 351 In section C, mm. 54-56, the full chorus sings a reprise of the material it sang in section A. This varied refrain opens in a tonality centered on G-sharp and in m. 57 segues down a half step to one centered on G. A climactic passage that the chorus sings in mm. 57- 60 cadences briefly on an A minor chord before the sopranos and tenors bring section C to its conclusion in mm. 63-64 in a tonality centered on E. The chorus opens section D in mm. 64-72 in the same manner as it did section B, with the full chorus singing a homophonic passage that begins in the tonality of E and ends in E-flat. In mm. 72-74 the chorus sings a concluding passage in which the sopranos and tenors sustain a high D while the altos and basses sing a descending unison phrase that concludes section D in the tonality of B-flat. With the chorus‘s final execution of the setting‘s refrain in section E, mm. 75-82, the tonality of the movement returns to G. Dominant-tonic progressions that the chorus sings in mm. 75-78 serve to affirm this tonality, albeit 4 th -inversion chords with which the passage opens and closes briefly obfuscate it. A unison phrase that the chorus sings in mm. 78-80 recaps similar phrases with which it opened section A in mm. 23-26. The chorus sustains the final (dominant) note of this phrase and then concludes section E in mm. 81-82 while iterating 5 th - and 2 nd -inversion G major-minor 11 th chords even as the bass clarinet, 2 nd bassoon, tuba, timpani, piano, 2 nd cellos, and 2 nd basses reiterate an offbeat (dominant) pedal D that ultimately resolves to an octave G in the setting‘s final measure. 601 The weight of evidence presented in table 6.8 suggests to a reasonable juror of musical structure that ―Sing Ye to the Lord,‖ as an entire movement, gravitates to an overall tonal center of G. 601 In place of a G octave, there is a minor 7 th A – G written in the bass of the published piano-vocal score on the bottom system of p. 171 in the movement‘s final measure (m. 82). This notation differs from that of the original piano-vocal and orchestral MSS, which preserve a G octave, as does figure 6.26. Most pianos, of course, do not have a low G, which is why the composer made the alteration: ―If I'd had a Bösendorfer piano I would have written a G octave—the [minor 7 th A – G] will reinforce the intended G without projecting an A—the orchestration didn‘t pose that problem.‖ See: David Ward-Steinman, e-mail to the present writer, 1 Dec. 2007. 352 When the composer revised his oratorio, he made cuts to ―Sing Ye to the Lord.‖ These cuts encompassed 50 mm. of music that reduced the movement‘s overall span to 62% of its original length. One might rightfully argue that perhaps the composer went too far in his paring of the movement. The passage that he set for men‘s chorus at letter D, mm. 48- 53, for example, is all too short and craves for balance with a similar passage set for men‘s or women‘s voices which he could have strategically placed later in the movement. His overall paring of the number, however, results in a tighter piece—one that has a quality and momentum consistent with its purpose: to close part II of The Song of Moses in a joyous manner. In this regard ―Sing Ye to the Lord‖ functions after a fashion similar to the likewise brief number, ―How Excellent Thy Name,‖ which the chorus sings in part I of the oratorio (although the latter number is not the final one in its part). Noteworthy is the fact that both of these psalm settings share a similar buoyant tempo and the same dotted-eighth–sixteenth– eighth-note rhythmic motive. We can offer no doubt that the composer anticipated such a coincidence. ―Sing Ye to the Lord‖ is the song of praise and celebration of faith that the children of Israel offer to the Lord when they come to realize that they live under his grace. Chapter Summary Part II of The Song of Moses commemorates the story of the Exodus. The Narrator paraphrases the words of Exodus 6:1-5 to preface its opening movement. He tells us that the Lord has heard the cry of the captive children of Israel and vows to deliver them from out of their bondage in Egypt to a land he had promised to their forebears. The opening movement itself depicts the devastating plagues that Moses calls upon Egypt when Pharaoh refuses to release his people from their labor so they may hold a feast to their God in the wilderness. 353 Our analysis of ―And the Lord Spoke‖ parses the movement into four major sections. Section A comprises a choral narrative that tells the story of the plagues of blood and frogs, a solo in which Pharaoh declares he will release his prisoners if Moses will agree to call off the plagues, and a closing choral episode that relates how Pharaoh reneges on his promise to set the people free. Section B, in a similar manner, features a choral narrative that describes the story of the plagues of lice and flies, a solo in which Pharaoh rearticulates his disingenuous pledge, and a closing choral episode that details how Pharaoh once-again breaks his promise. Section C limits itself to a choral narrative that recounts the story of the plagues of fire and hail. Section D, the movement‘s final choral narrative, communicates the tragic story of the plague of the slaying of the male firstborn. Pharaoh closes the movement when he sings a solo in which he begrudgingly grants the children of Israel their freedom. Similar musical materials, which the oratorio‘s composer imbues with brevity, variety, and an avoidance of literal repetition, distinguish the narratives the chorus sings in the movement‘s opening three sections—which are more often than not uniformly unison or homophonic in texture and move for the most part in even eight- and quarter-notes. The composer builds a variety of interest and expression into these narratives while at the same time he maintains stylistic unity through his use of offbeat, shifting, and cross accentuation as well as text painting and musical metaphor. Solos that Pharaoh sings infuse the movement with melodic, rhythmic, and dynamic contrast and relief. His solos feature lean accompaniments that frequently highlight individual instruments in a chamber-like texture and often inject musical and theatrical levity into an otherwise histrionic dynamic. Instrumental ritornello and transitional passages knit the movement‘s various subsections together. In keeping with the gravity of its text, the music of its closing section likewise contrasts in theme, rhythm, color, dynamic, and texture with that of its first three sections. 354 The brisk tempo, driving triplet figurations, and pounding orchestral chords that characterize ―And the Lord Spoke‖ create an atmosphere of excitement and suspense as well as contribute to an aura of terror and calamity that the oratorio‘s composer employs to depict the Lord‘s terrible judgment on Pharaoh and the Egyptian people. The thematic material that he appropriates in his choral narratives creates a loose strophic form that unites the setting‘s first three sections. Frequent ritornello and transitional passages periodically return the movement‘s tonality to B-flat and tonal relations by 3 rds pervade the movement. In its long- term progression from B-flat to B, the setting as an entirety explores a variety of tonal and harmonic devices, including the E, F, and G Lydian modes, the F whole-tone scale, extended tertian, quartal, and quintal chords, and polychords. Part II of The Song of Moses continues, following the conclusion of ―And the Lord Spoke,‖ when the Narrator speaks a passage from Exodus chapters 13 and 14 that describes how God leads his people out of Egypt by the way of the wilderness. A short ―March‖ that the orchestra plays animates the words the Narrator speaks. Written in a nominal 12/8 over 4/4 time, ―March‖ follows an ABA‘ form, albeit loosely, and features a brisk tempo, an extemporaneous style, and occasional 9/8, 3/4, and 2/4 measures that interrupt its regular metrical impetus. Its overall D minor tonal palette combines quartal and quintal harmonic elements with those that are conventionally tertian or polychordal. The movement‘s most distinctive feature, however, is its pervasive ostinato that progresses through various states of melodic and rhythmic development. During its brief span, ―March‖ spins off melodic and rhythmic fragments that reappear in the movements that follow it. Varied and colorful, taut and succinct, ―March‖ is a tightly written movement that could well stand on its own absent the narration it undergirds: as melodrama, it effectively portrays the sense of urgency that the children of Israel experience as they hastily flee the tyranny of their Egyptian captivity. 355 Pharaoh‘s apprehension over his decision to free Moses and the children of Israel takes an angry turn when he learns that they have fled his land. The Narrator advises the listener of this development at the close of the ―March,‖ and the Egyptian ruler in turn expresses his angst over the matter in a solo that follows the narration. This curt solo, ―Why Have We Done This?‖ presents itself in a rounded binary ABA‘ form (in alternate analysis a simple AB binary structure), encompasses 20 mm, and advances in a nominal 4/4 meter. A 12-tone row in Pharaoh‘s vocal line that features no retrogrades or transpositions, as well as a circle of 5ths in his accompaniment, bring structural unity to the movement. The solo features a colorful orchestration that showcases brass and percussion ensembles. Section A of ―Why Have We Done This?‖ consists of a recitative stromentato in which Pharaoh poses his query and directs his servants: ―Make ready the chariots . . . with captains over them, every one.‖ This two-part passage features an accompaniment that blends tertian, mixed-interval, and polychordal harmonies with an ample amount of free dissonance. The section opens in a tonality centered on D and closes in one centered on F. Section B of the solo consists of a two-measure arioso, ―Call out the army, Call up the horsemen,‖ which follows a four-measure instrumental bridge that the horns, brass, timpani, percussion, and strings play. The principal attribute of this section is the militant aura it evokes, similar to the one that a comparable passage in ―March‖ suggests. The section opens in a tonality centered on A-flat and closes in one centered on E. Section A‘, which is in reality only an extension of section B, reprises the recitative that opened the solo. It does so in a secco style with the words, ―And all the horses and chariots of Egypt shall pursue them, capture them, and return them unto us.‖ This section, which centers on a tonality of F- sharp, as well as the solo itself, concludes mischievously when the woodwinds sound a sardonic, bitonal passage that they follow with a wry play on the oratorio‘s unifying motif. 356 In the same way that the supercilious Pharaoh questions his obligation to Moses in ―Why Have We Done This?‖ the faith-challenged children of Israel protest their new status as nomads in the wilderness in ―Why Hast Thou Led Us Away?‖ This through-composed, multi-sectioned movement sets a text from Exodus 14:11-30. It tells the story of how the Lord delivered his chosen people from a standoff with Pharaoh in the desert where Moses parts the Red Sea, provides the people passage in its midst, and effects the drowning of the Egyptians. Over its 102 mm. the Narrator speaks, Moses sings, and the chorus voices the people‘s concerns, intones the text of the narrative, and announces the edicts of the Lord. The oratorio‘s composer characterizes in this movement the insufferable anxiety the children of Israel experience as they learn to place their trust in the Lord. An aura of restless agitation pervades its introduction while one of quiet tranquility permeates its conclusion. Section A of ―Why Hast Thou Led Us Away?‖ opens with the Narrator reciting the words of Exodus 14:10: ―And when Pharaoh drew nigh, the children of Israel lifted up their eyes, and they were sore afraid.‖ The chorus of the children of Israel thereafter directs its anger at Moses for leading them into an uncertain future in the wilderness, demanding that he allow them to return to a life of servitude in Egypt. In so doing, it freely parodies melodic fragments that the orchestra played in ―March.‖ The antagonism between E-flat major and D major that the choral petitions generate, before the music finally resolves in favor of the latter tonality, reflects the antipathy that the people feel toward their leader. In section B of the movement, Moses responds to the dearth of faith the children of Israel exhibit with a solo in which he admonishes them to place their trust in the Lord. The variety of instrumental color and continual agitation that the solo displays compliments its diversity of expression and animates the authoritative dynamic of Moses‘ plea. The opening of the solo raises the music‘s tonal center to E and a cadence at its conclusion returns it to D. 357 Section C of ―Why Hast Thou Led Us Away?‖ unfolds a melodramatic portrayal of the parting of the Red Sea. At its opening, the Narrator informs us that Moses stretches forth his hand over the sea, drives the sea back with the wind, divides the waters, and allows the children of Israel to pass through them on dry ground. Pharaoh unwittingly follows the people with his horses, chariots, and equestrians while militant music of pursuit accompanies his chase. The oratorio‘s composer juxtaposes a variety of sonorities to create an aura of calamity in the ‗water music‘ that animates the Narrator‘s words. Its textural turbulence ebbs and flows with each phrase he speaks. Section C opens in the tonal center of E and concludes in that of D. A circle of 5 ths plays a primary role in the tonal impetus of its music. The two subsections that constitute section D of ―Why Hast Thou Led Us Away?‖ feature the chorus‘s men and women in passages that contrast reciprocal tonal centers. Speaking the words, ―And the Lord said unto Moses,‖ the Narrator introduces a passage in which the men, singing in the D Dorian mode, instruct Moses to cause the waters to return to drown the Egyptians. A one-measure interlude that the woodwinds play prompts a sudden tonal shift to E minor before the women describe the ruin that the Lord brings upon Pharaoh in a passage that ultimately modulates from E to E-flat. Solo woodwinds conclude section D with symbolically descending phrases that return the movement‘s tonality to E. In section E, the movement‘s closing section, the chorus meditates in prayer upon the deliverance that the Lord grants his people when Moses stretches his hand over the sea and causes the waters to return to drown the Egyptians. Tranquility and peace prevail as the sopranos and altos close the narration by singing in consecutive arched phrases, ―And the Lord saved Israel that day,‖ over an ―amen‖ that the tenors and basses intone. They guide the section‘s tonality from B-flat to A, to E, to D, to A before the woodwinds and harp sound the unifying motif that ushers ―Why Hast Thou Led Us Away?‖ to its elegiac conclusion. 358 A preamble that the Narrator speaks, ―And Miriam, the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel in her hand; and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dances,‖ precedes the singing of the canticle, ‗The Song of Moses and Miriam,‘ that ushers part II of the oratorio to its conclusion. This spirited movement, ―Sing Ye to the Lord,‖ advances in 6/8 meter and spans 82 mm. It comprises an instrumental introduction as well as a setting for chorus of Exodus 15:21 and 2-7, the latter of which mimics a rondo in form and character. It opens in a tonality centered on F and concludes in one centered on G. The movement‘s ―fast, furious; wild, delirious‖ introduction depicts the festivities the children of Israel engage in after the Lord liquidates the Egyptian army at the Red Sea. In it the oratorio‘s composer more often than not appropriates his extensive palette of tertian, secundal, quartal, quintal, mixed-interval, polychordal, and cluster harmonies for coloristic as opposed to functional purposes. He additionally employs a plentiful battery of percussion instruments to produce a variety of cacophonic sounds. Sections A, C, and E of the movement‘s choral setting develop textual and musical variants of the proclamation, ―Sing ye to the Lord above, for he hath triumphed gloriously.‖ In these sections the oratorio‘s composer by turn presents, embellishes, and then abbreviates his refrain to create melodic and harmonic variation. Sections B and D of the setting, by contrast, employ episodic texts that enumerate the Lord‘s many and great deeds. In these latter sections, the composer appends his expositions with digressive commentaries that serve to illuminate the attributes of God. His comprehensive use of similar thematic materials as well as a dotted-eighth–sixteenth–eighth-note rhythmic motive that has its genesis in the movement‘s introduction unifies all of its sections. Extended tertian chords, inclusive of 7 th , 9 th , 11 th , and 13 th sonorities that often appear voiced in 3 rd - and 4 th -inversion, serve to enrich the setting‘s choral texture and lend further unity to the movement. 359 ―Sing Ye to the Lord‖ is the song of praise and celebration of faith that the children of Israel offer to the Lord when they finally come to realize that they live, move, and have their being by virtue of his grace alone. It functions in The Song of Moses as the climax of a long musical arch. It also serves as a climactic high point in part II of the oratorio in a manner similar to the way ―How Excellent Thy Name‖ served in part I. Both of these psalm settings share similar buoyant tempos and the same dotted-eighth–sixteenth–eighth-note rhythm. In the composer‘s original manuscripts, ―Sing Ye to the Lord‖ appeared as a stand- alone movement comprising all of part III of an oratorio in a prologue and five parts. In that early version of his oratorio, the composer titled part II ―The Battle,‖ part III ―The Triumph,‖ and part IV ―The Heresy.‖ In the composer‘s revision of his work, ―Sing Ye to the Lord‖ appears at the close of part II, a part that he renames ―Battle and Triumph.‖ The composer‘s reassignment of parts and movements in The Song of Moses during his revision of the oratorio is a wise and logical one that needs no lengthy justification. ―Sing Ye to the Lord‖ simply stands better as a conclusion to part II of the oratorio than it does as a part in and of itself. In the composer‘s revised score, he retitles part III of his work ―The Heresy.‖ It is to that tragic part of The Song of Moses that we will now turn our attention. 360 Chapter Seven The Song of Moses—Part III: The Heresy Part III of The Song of Moses recalls the story of the Lord calling Moses unto Mount Sinai when three months after their departure from Egypt the children of Israel had arrived in the Sinai wilderness. Moses ventures to the top of the mountain to commune with God for forty days and forty nights. He is to descend to bring the law to the people, but the latter have grown impatient waiting for him and have petitioned Aaron to fashion them an idol in the form of a golden calf so that they might worship it. God calls Moses out of the mountain to deal with the people‘s sin. The children of Israel repent, but even as they venture toward the land of Canaan, their dwindling faith causes them to test the Lord repeatedly. They complain for lack of food and drink, and they long for the feeling of security they felt when they were in Egypt. Worn by the people‘s persistent complaining, in a moment of weakness Moses himself disobeys God when in pursuit of water he strikes the rock in Kadesh in the Desert of Zin. God is now angry with both Moses and the people. Moses intercedes for the people, but God condemns them to wander in the desert for 40 years until they die. Only their children will proceed into the land and Moses will not lead them there. Despondent over their fate, the people sing a psalm of repentance that ends Part III of the oratorio. 12. You Have Seen What I Did A pronouncement, spoken by the Narrator from Exodus 19:1-3, opens Part III of the oratorio. He informs us that the people have pitched their tents and camped before Mount 361 Sinai. The Lord calls Moses from the mount to speak with him. He gives him a message to deliver to ―the house of Jacob‖ and to ―the children of Israel.‖ The male chorus then sings the message, ―You Have Seen What I Did,‖ with the words that continue in Exodus 19:4-6: You have seen what I did to the Egyptians; and how I bore you on eagles‘ wings, and brought you unto myself. Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a treasure unto me out of all the peoples: For all the earth is mine. And you shall be a kingdom of priests to me, and a holy nation. The setting is through composed in a nominal 4/4 time with occasional measures in 2/4, 3/4, and 5/4 time and is 17 mm. long. 602 The men sing in two parts, occasionally in three, with either tenors or basses divided depending on the tessitura of the music. As may be seen in figure 7.1, above an open 5 th C – G pedal heard in both the bassoons and cellos, the men sing their opening three phrases ―very slow.‖ An instance of harmonics in the violins, a flourish in the woodwinds, and a melodic fragment in muted violins punctuate these three phrases. The voices create a hauntingly dark texture as they sing in parallel 5 ths in the Locrian mode on C, straying only temporarily from this mode to cadence on the notes A and E at the end of measures three and four to thereby insinuate impending movement. Figure 7.1: ―You Have Seen What I Did,‖ mm. 1-2. 362 Figure 7.1, continued: ―You Have Seen What I Did,‖ mm. 3-4. This expected movement comes in the fifth and sixth measures, ―cresc. ed accel.,‖ and into the seventh measure, ―fast, excited,‖ with the singing of the ensuing text: ―Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice . . . .‖ The vocal texture, though remaining homophonic, now varies between two and three parts. A fresh surge of sonority of varied intervallic content, coupled with a gradual yielding of the prevailing parallel modal harmony, assists the motion. There is an attendant build up in the instrumental texture with the brief appearance of the piccolo, flutes, clarinets, violas, and cellos played pizzicato at the words ―keep my covenant‖ in measures seven and eight. The sound of horns prefaces the ―molto allargando‖ in the ninth measure, where one brief instance of independence of vocal parts occurs with the words ―ye shall be.‖ The horns, muted trumpets (played ―intensely‖), and tuba assist the climax that follows in measure ten on the words, ―treasure unto me out of all the peoples,‖ sung ―fortissimo,‖ after which the music subsides ―ritard e dim. molto.‖ Figure 7.2 illustrates these measures. By following the foundation line written for the cellos and basses, one may trace the tonal movement in mm. 5-11. Beginning with the last beat 602 The date of completion recorded on the pencil sketch of ―You Have Seen What I Did‖ is 5 Jan. 1964. 363 of measure five there is movement away from a tonality fixed on C, and with the downbeat of measure six, the tonality shifts to E-flat. Continuing through measure six there is implied harmonic motion with the notes E-flat – D-flat – C – B (observe a fleeting F-sharp written for the basses). A pedal B-flat in measure seven is prolonged through measure eight, and after a shift back through C into measure nine the tonality reaches D at measure ten. Figure 7.2: ―You Have Seen What I Did,‖ mm. 9-10. Extended tertian, quartal, and quintal chords are all represented in the harmonies contained in the voice parts. In measure six three-note chords of quintal construction are heard over the harmonic motion found in the foundation line, and in measure seven and eight an A minor chord, as well as a quartal chord rooted on A, are both heard, sounding in their turn on the word ―covenant.‖ In measure ten, as figure 7.2 illustrates, the notes A and E appear once again as an arrival point in the voice parts, but this time as the 5 th and 9 th of a D major 9 th chord (without its 3 rd ), which may be alternatively heard as an incomplete A major/D major polychord. The current section of the number, as figure 7.3 shows, ends in m. 11. The voices sound the closing word ―peoples‖ on a 2 nd -inversion C major triad while supported by the same notes in the horns and the trumpets, constituting the 9 th , 5 th , and 7 th 364 Figure 7.3: ―You Have Seen What I Did,‖ mm. 11-17. 365 of an F major 9 th chord. The root of this chord sounds in the tuba, cellos, and basses while its (continually significant) 3 rd A and 7 th E sound in the piccolo, flutes, and harp, as well as in the 2 nd violins (harmonics). This tonal conglomerate may likewise be regarded as an incomplete C major/F major polychord given its context between the A major/D harmony that precedes it and the D major/E major harmony that follows it. The number‘s second and final section begins at the pickup to m. 12. It is marked ―very slow, tender‖ and it sets the text, ―For all the earth is mine. And you shall be a kingdom of priests to me, and a holy nation.‖ As figure 7.3 illustrates, textural variety occurs with voices singing simple triadic harmonies high in their range followed by singing in two-part counterpoint and unison singing. While the voices in m. 12 shift through D major – E major – D major harmonic entities, the harp and strings sustain a pedal E while the horns sustain a D major triad—collectively an altered 11 th chord. Subsequently in m. 13 the horns, harp, and strings join with the voices to play a G-flat major 9th-chord. The voices then sing unaccompanied two-part counterpoint until the second beat of m. 14 where they cadence on the note C and subsequently sing in unison. They are here joined in turn by the harp, 1 st violins, flutes, 2 nd violins, a clarinet, the bassoons, and finally, while the music fades to a pianissimo, muted cellos and basses. The notes heard in the men‘s two closing phrases lend a character of C minor to the tonality, and the notes played by the harp, 1 st violins, cellos, and basses frame the outer bounds of the C minor triad. Even so, the woodwinds and 2 nd violins play notes, particularly in solos heard in the 1 st flute and 1 st bassoon, which serve to recall the hauntingly dark Locrian mode with which the number began. At the final chord, which sustains in a fermata, the 3 rd flute and 1 st clarinet play an unresolved suspended 4 th F against the C and G held by the remaining woodwinds, as well as the harp, violins, cellos, and basses. 366 To summarize the tonal map of ―You Have Seen What I Did,‖ we have observed movement from the opening Locrian mode on tonic C in measures one through four to E-flat in measure six. From thence, movement continues through dominant B-flat in measures 7-8, D in m. 10, F in m. 11, and E in m. 12. A return occurs through G-flat in m. 13 to C in m. 14, where this tonality prolongs through the number‘s closing measure, m. 17. Structurally, G-flat in m. 13 is mediant to E-flat in m. 6 and bears an upper leading tone relationship to F in mm. 11 and 16. In addition, F/C in m. 16 inverts C/F in m. 11, and the appearance of E- flat in m. 16 relates to the E-flat tonality in m. 6. Finally, D-flat in mm. 13 and 16 bears an upper leading tone relationship to the number‘s overall opening and closing tonality of C. 13. Mount Sinai Following without pause after the preceding chorus is a piece for Narrator and orchestra titled ―Mount Sinai.‖ While the Narrator speaks a text from Exodus 19:17-20 that recalls God‘s descent on Mount Sinai to meet with Moses, the music that accompanies the narration portrays the mystery and majesty of the event, as well as the power and holiness of the Lord therein displayed to Moses and the children of Israel. This brief number of only 19 mm. is in an AB form. Section A comprises 7 mm. and section B 12 mm. 603 The spoken text divides to coincide with the respective sections, Exodus 19:17-18 to wit: And Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet with God; and they stood at the nether part of the mount. And Mount Sinai was completely enveloped in smoke, because the Lord had descended upon it in fire; and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly. 603 The date of completion recorded on the pencil sketch of ―Mount Sinai‖ is 1 Feb. 1964. 367 The eerie quality of the music for muted strings over which the Narrator speaks these initial verses suggests an aura of other-worldliness to the listener. An open 5 th pedal C – G in the cellos, with root C doubled an octave below in the basses, prolongs a tonality of C through the entirety of section A. The upper strings play even quarter notes in a pianissimo that oscillates aperiodically between triple and duple time (6/4, 4/4, and 2/4) in two distinct divisions of instruments in counterpoint. These sub-entities, consisting of divided 1 st violins in the one and 2 nd violins and violas in the other, each play their respective dyads in separate octaves, at first in perfect 5 ths and subsequently in mixed intervals. By measure two the upper division of strings plays intervals of 6 ths and 7 ths and by measure four it plays 2 nds and 3 rds . Similarly, by measure five the lower division of strings plays varied intervals of 4 ths , 7 ths , and augmented 5 ths . Figure 7.4: ―Mount Sinai,‖ mm. 1-7. 368 The two divisions of string instruments, independently in and of themselves, exhibit free chromatic movement with emphasis on the interval of the minor 2 nd . Together they form a texture of mixed-interval chromatic polyphony that grows louder and accelerates into the end of the number‘s first section. The passage is polychordal but neither polytonal nor atonal, with no row-oriented or similar methodology employed. In measure four, the bassoons join the texture, playing at first the same open 5 th as the cellos play and then the interval of a minor 9 th C – D-flat, the tonic and its upper leading tone. These pedal notes prolong through measure seven and thus herald the opening of section B, the closing tonality of which is the enharmonic equivalent (C-sharp) of the upper leading tone D-flat. 604 Figure 7.4 illustrates the entirety of the music of section A. Section B of ―Mount Sinai‖ begins at measure eight (letter A), where the Narrator continues his oration from Exodus 19:19-20: And when the voice of the trumpet sounded long, and waxed louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him with his voice. And the Lord came down upon Mount Sinai, to the top of the mountain; and the Lord summoned Moses to him, and Moses went up. Instrumentation in section B includes three flutes, two clarinets, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, two tubas, celeste, piano, xylophone, and gong, in addition to the bassoons and strings that already played in section A. At the opening of the section the horns, trumpets, and celeste play arpeggiated clusters that rise with increasing intensity in triplets, 604 Measure seven as it appears in the manuscript (p. 100) and the published (p. 111) piano-vocal scores is missing in the MS orchestral score (p. 126). It appears that the composer inadvertently deleted the measure when he copied out the orchestration. Evidence to support this hypothesis may be found in the orchestral score itself where un-terminated ties appear from the notes C and D-flat written for the bassoons at the conclusion of measure six (i.e., they are tied to nothing in the measure that follows). Note also that the crescendo to a forte notated at the end of section A in the piano-vocal scores is also missing in the MS orchestral score. The discrepancy, uncorrected, has the potential to create a performance difficulty for the Narrator. It evidently did so for Vincent Price in 1968, as the recording of the performance clearly shows he ran short of time—approximately a measure‘s worth of time—during this segment of his narration. In David Ward-Steinman, e-mail to the present writer, 6 Aug. 2007, the composer apologetically confirmed the existence of this error. 369 quadruplets, sextuplets, and septuplets. By measure ten, the rising clusters also appear in the flutes and clarinets. Each cluster includes two tetrachords that are composed of similar cells of half-step–whole-step–half-step intervals: G – A-flat – B-flat – B and C – D-flat – E-flat – E. 605 In mm. 8-9 the flutes and bassoons, and in m. 10 the strings, play short segments of dyads in counterpoint, similar to the sonorities that sound in section A, in alteration with the executions of the clusters. The oratorio‘s composer has voiced the dyads in the strings such that the 1 st violins, 2 nd violins, and violas double their first division in octaves and the cellos and basses alone play their second division without doublings. As figure 7.5 shows, the overall effect of the three measures is one of unmitigated tonal and rhythmic agitation. Figure 7.5: ―Mount Sinai,‖ mm. 8-10. The music becomes more insistent at m. 11, where musical material reminiscent of section A now sounds in a nine-part texture (six real parts) of divided strings. Each division features widely spaced, three-voice, quartal and quintal chords. The divided strings together play the chords marcato in even quarter notes in a ―striding‖ 5/4 meter. In a musical 605 On page 126 of the MS orchestral score, measure nine, there is an F in the celeste part that appears as an F-flat in the piano-vocal scores. This discrepancy is likely a copyist‘s error in the orchestral score, as the F-flat appears correctly in the previous measure. Additionally, in measure ten, the last celeste note in the orchestral MS is a B-flat whereas in the piano-vocal scores it appears as a B-natural. The former discrepancy is harmonically the more egregious of the two. In David Ward-Steinman, e-mails to the present writer, 6 Aug. 2007 and 6 Dec. 2007, the composer confirmed that F-flat and B-flat are the correct notes. Figure 7.5 notates the music correctly. 370 portrayal of the text which begins in m. 12, ―the voice of [three] trumpet[s] sound long, and wax louder and louder.‖ Triplet and quintuplet motific figures precede half notes in this short trumpet fanfare, and the ―striding‖ musical material, which now sounds in the woodwinds as well as in the strings (played pizzicato), accompanies it. The motive that the trumpets play at first sounds the interval of a minor 2 nd , then a 3 rd , and then a tritone as it morphs into a quartal texture that develops through measures in 2/2 and 3/4 meter in imitation in the horns, trombones, and xylophone over sustained strings. The fanfare reaches a sfortissimo climax in the number‘s final measure, where a concomitant roll in the ―gong‖ supports the climax and an arpeggiated flourish in the piano punctuates it. The music‘s harmonic language becomes increasingly dense, dissonant, and secundal as section B progresses in mm. 8-14. The major 2 nd originally heard in the trumpets in m. 12 expands to a minor 3 rd in m. 13 and to an augmented 4 th and a major 6 th in m. 14. In the latter measure the notes of the three trumpets sound a 3 rd -inversion G dominant 7 th chord over a 2 nd -inversion F-sharp major triad which the bass line outlines (the relationship between F-sharp and G may again be observed in the piano arpeggio that closes the number in mm. 16-17). The trumpets continue to play into m. 16, sounding parallel 4 ths in imitation and contrary motion with the horns and trombones, developing a tritone relationship between the dyads. The pedal C-sharp in mm. 15-17 harkens back to the enharmonic D-flat in the 1 st bassoon part in mm. 5-7, and the closing chord in mm. 18-19, heard first in the brass then in the full orchestra, couples a minor 9 th and a major 7 th (secundal variants) with roots, also notably, a tritone apart. Figure 7.6 illustrates this music from section B. 371 Figure 7.6: ―Mount Sinai,‖ mm. 11-19. 372 An overall tonal examination of ―Mount Sinai‖ suggests the viability of more than one approach to its analysis. As was stated earlier, a tonality of C prolongs through the entirety of section A via an open 5 th pedal C – G in the cellos, with root C doubled an octave lower in the basses. Movement away from C to a tonal center of C-sharp finds its seed in the (enharmonic) D-flat played by the 1 st bassoon in measure four. This movement hastens with the appearance of clusters in the horns, trumpets, and celeste in measure eight at the opening of section B. Root movement in the basses in mm. 11-12 passes through a C-sharp, its subdominant F-sharp, and its dominant G-sharp. This activity coincides with the repeated iteration of the new tonic C-sharp in the 1 st trumpet part in mm. 12-13. The note B-flat (enharmonic A-sharp) that appears in mm. 13-14 is the 3 rd of a subdominant F-sharp major chord that the basses outline in these two measures. From m. 15 through the end of the number, the tonal center C-sharp prolongs via a pedal that sounds in the basses. Finally, it may be noted, in m. 16, the downbeat quartal chord in the brass has a G-flat (enharmonic F- sharp) root that is also subdominant to the tonic C-sharp pedal. This C-sharp pedal reiterates in the lower octave of the basses in the number‘s closing measures, mm. 18-19. Tonal movement from C to C-sharp is thus an important feature of the number, as is also the harmonic development of the opening string sonority in measures one through six as well as the cluster tetrachord texture in measures eight through ten. The progressive development of the major 2 nd in the trumpet fanfare in m. 12 through the tritone relationship between the horns and brass in m. 16, which continues into the final cadence in mm. 18-19, is certainly also significant. The mounting tension heard in this music reflects the cognitive dissonance Moses experiences while he simultaneously inhabits both the world of men and the otherworld of the mountain where the Lord reveals himself to him. The music of ―Mount Sinai‖ leaves Moses and the listener ―up in the air‖ both tonally and spiritually. 373 14. ―Make Us Gods to Go Before Us‖ After the close of ―Mount Sinai,‖ the Narrator continues reciting from Exodus 24:15-18, 31:18, and 32:1 over the silence. He informs the listener that Moses remained on the mountain for 40 days and 40 nights while communing with the Lord. At the close of this time, the Lord gives Moses two stone tablets with instructions and commandments written thereon so that he might institute these laws among the children of Israel when he returns to them. The people, however, have become impatient waiting for Moses to come down from the mountain and weak in their faith. They demand from Aaron an idol so that they may worship it. ―Make Us Gods to Go Before Us‖ paraphrases an account from Exodus 32:1-5 of the dialog that ensues between the people and Aaron, the people‘s demand for something tangible to worship, and Aaron‘s unwise concession in providing them with a golden calf: [Chorus:] Up, up, make us gods to go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up from Egypt, we know not what has become of him. He‘s been gone not one day, nor two days, nor ten days, nor twenty but forty days and nights! [Aaron:] Break off your golden earrings, tear them from your wives, your sons, and your daughters; and bring them to me. I shall make you a golden calf to lead you forth. Here is your god, O Israel! The god who brought you out of the land of Egypt! [Chorus:] Let the golden calf go before us! Let us celebrate his feast! The number, constructed in a quasi-rondo form of 55 mm. in a nominal 12/8 time, is set for tenor soloist, chorus, and orchestra, to wit: Introduction, A B A C A D A. 606 In the introduction, the chorus sings ―Up, up‖ and in the first three iterations of section A they 606 The date of completion recorded on the pencil sketch of ―Make Us Gods to Go Before Us‖ is 25 Sept. 1963. 374 repeat the refrain, ―Make us gods to go before us.‖ Sections B and C set the balance of the chorus‘s initial text, and section D sets Aaron‘s text in its own two-part form. The closing section A sets the chorus‘s text, ―Let the golden calf go before us!‖ appended by a one- measure codetta: ―Let us celebrate his feast!‖ Table 7.1 illustrates an outline of the rondo. Intro Section A Section B Section A Section C Section A Section D Section A Chorus & Orchestra Chorus & Orchestra Chorus & Orchestra Chorus & Orchestra Chorus & Orchestra Chorus & Orchestra Aaron & Orchestra Chorus & Orchestra m. 1 (6 mm) m. 7 (5 mm) m. 12 (6 mm) m. 18 (4 mm) m. 22 (6 mm) m. 28 (3 mm) m. 31 (20 mm) m. 51 (5 mm) ―Up, Up.‖ ―Make us gods to go before us.‖ ―As for this Moses . . .‖ ―Make us gods to go before us.‖ ―He‘s been gone not one day . . .‖ ―Make us gods to go before us.‖ ―Break off your golden earrings . . .‖ ―Let the golden calf go before us!‖ E e a – dº e b e F/e-flat – F/e e – a Table 7.1: Outline of ―Make Us Gods to Go Before Us.‖ As may be gleaned from an examination of figure 7.7, the introduction sounds in a fast tempo (quarter note = 120) with an ―agitated, excited,‖ short two measures in 4/4 time set for the horns, a solo trumpet, and a solo trombone, the alternate offbeat entrances of which emphasize the interval of a tritone. The instruments enter mezzo piano and sustain their notes to create a chord that has both a diminished and an added-note flavor. The voices of the chorus enter similarly in short, staggered, unsustained forte bursts in measure three, singing the words ―Up, up‖ in 12/8 time, thus creating the effect of a suddenly accelerated tempo. Simultaneously, the horns and full brass play in a manner similar to that of the opening two measures. They crescendo from a piano to a forte and close on a chord, the clashing diminished 5 th and major 7 th of which combine to create a notably unsettled feeling. The set of pitches utilized in these six measures of introduction form an E dominant 7 th chord with added flat 9 th F and 13 th C-sharp. The composer‘s free use of these pitches 375 creates a static harmony not unlike the kind he uses to form clusters. The opening note F is an upper leading tone to the tonicized E and the B that follows has a dominant relation to the latter. Also of note is the same upper leading tone relation between F and E in the tuba part in measures five through six, a relation that will gain significance as the number proceeds. Figure 7.7: ―Make Us Gods to Go Before Us,‖ mm. 1-6. 376 Figure 7.7, continued: ―Make Us Gods to Go Before Us,‖ mm. 7-9. The chorus reenters at the pickup to measure seven and sings section A of the rondo, ―Make us gods to go before us.‖ A phrase that is sung fortissimo and repeated with slight variation comprises this short ritornello. The harmonization of the choral parts, which features intervals of 4 ths and 7 ths in the vertical spacing of the woman‘s voices, lends a strident and clamorous quality to the sound. The phrase repeats twice in the strings in mm. 9-11 while being punctuated by the horns, trombones, tuba, timpani, and, at the conclusion of the second repetition, the bass drum and piano. Added to the arsenal of pitches that sound in measures seven through eight are the strategically placed passing notes C, E-flat, and G which the chorus sings on beat seven in measure seven and the A-sharp which the violas play on beat seven in measure ten. A continued play between the functional supertonic F and the tonicized E sounds in the horns, lower brass, timpani, piano, and basses in mm. 7-11. 377 Section B of the rondo begins at the pickup to m. 12 (letter A). Spanning seven measures, the section is comprised of measures in 6/8, 9/8, and 12/8 time. The chorus opens the section singing a vociferous phrase on the words, ―As for this Moses.‖ This phrase, centered in A minor, subsequently repeats in a canon between the woman‘s and men‘s voices with each iteration punctuating by notes that sound in the tuba, timpani, and strings. Section B draws on the same pitches as were heard in the introduction, with the addition of the note C, which sounds in the voices both on the downbeats of mm. 13 and 15 and at the pickups to mm. 16 and 17. Beginning at the latter points, the men sing an antecedent phrase, mezzo piano, ―The man who brought us up from Egypt,‖ and the women respectively answer with a consequent phrase, mezzo piano, ―We know not what has become of him.‖ Singing in unison in their respective genders in combination with staggered entrances of notes that subsequently sustain in the horns, brass, and strings the voices build a half- diminished 11 th chord with a strong quintal flavor over a pedal note D. On this chord, the section closes. The ritornello section A material reiterates beginning at the pickup to m. 18. Mixed- interval chords with a quartal flavor played by the woodwinds punctuate the first of two phrases that the chorus sings, once-again subito fortissimo with the text, ―Make us gods to go before us! The composer alters the voicing and terminating harmony of the second phrase that the chorus sings slightly from their original appearance in measure eight (note the C-flat on the downbeat of m. 20). A one-measure, downward-leading, phrase in the horns, brass, timpani, and strings that itself terminates on a dominant 7 th chord (absent its 3 rd ) rooted on F follows the second phrase. The root of this chord has an upper leading tone relation to the ubiquitous E tonality that arguably prolongs through the section. 378 Figure 7.8: ―Make Us Gods to Go Before Us,‖ mm. 22-24. Section C follows, beginning at the pickup to m. 22. Similar to section B, it is also seven measures in length and comprised of bars in 6/8, 9/8, and 12/8 time. In a gradual crescendo from a piano to a fortissimo, the chorus intones the text, ―He‘s been gone not one day, nor two days, nor ten days, nor twenty but forty days and nights! And we know not what has become of him!‖ The chorus sings over an accompaniment of woodwinds played staccato and strings played pizzicato, which features the use of octave displacement and hocket-like writing in its various parts. The horns, brass, and xylophone eventually join the accompaniment. Singing in unison and beginning on a B at the pickup to m. 22, the chorus proceeds through a C to a G in mm. 22-23. As figure 7.8 illustrates, it subsequently rises incessantly on repeated iterations of an E-flat in mm. 23-25 to an A-flat, then to an A, a B- flat, a C, and a D, and finally in mm. 25-26 from a B to an E-flat an octave above where it started. With each jump from E-flat to a higher note, text and music portray the hardship 379 and frustration the children of Israel experienced as they wait for Moses‘ return. The chorus concludes their text, singing down through a C to a G-sharp and back up through a G-sharp and an A to a D-sharp – F-sharp dyad in m. 27. A half step lowering of the prevailing E tonality becomes a precursor for a similar tonal movement that follows in section D. Of interest rhythmically in the section‘s choral writing is the duple eighth-note figuration found in m. 26, as well as the syncopations found in mm. 23-24. The chorus sings the ritornello yet once again, now forte, beginning at the pickup to m. 28, intoning two sparsely accompanied phrases over two measures and concluding in an additional one-plus-measure extension while reiterating the words ―go before us.‖ The first two notes of their opening phrase (E and A) now appear whole steps below where they did in the previous iterations of the ritornello. Minor changes occur in the soprano and tenor parts as well as more significant alterations in the alto and bass parts. Once again, the ritornello centers tonally on E: its quartal flavored chords hammer home a repeated E in the bass line, as well as the upper leading tone-related notes F and E in the soprano and alto lines. An additional interplay of a minor 9 th between the notes E and F occurs in the basses‘ part in mm. 28-31, similar to the one heard in mm. 9-11 of the ritornello‘s first iteration. Section D begins in m. 31 (immediately prior to letter B) with a clarinet line that descends through the notes of E-flat minor and B-flat minor chords and effects a tonal transition to F/E-flat minor. A solo clarinet, a snare drum, and the lower strings (played col legno) then proceed in a manner similar to that heard in the ―March‖ from Egypt contained in Part II (no. 8) of the oratorio. Over this polychordal accompaniment, which the entire string section eventually supplements (playing ordinario), Aaron addresses the rebellious children of Israel in the first part of a two-part solo, singing two similar phrases. Employing notes that outline an A diminished 7 th chord, he sings his first phrase, ―Break off your golden 380 earrings, tear them from your wives.‖ He intones the text in a gradual crescendo and in a rhythmically rigid marcato manner. When he reaches m. 36 Aaron sings over an accompaniment that has shifted to E/D. He outlines a G diminished chord as he continues with his text, ―Break off your golden earrings, tear them from your sons and your daughters.‖ A rim shot on the snare drum punctuates the close of his second phrase. Figure 7.9 illustrates this music from the first part of Aaron‘s solo. Figure 7.9: ―Make Us Gods to Go Before Us,‖ mm. 31-37. 381 Figure 7.9, continued: ―Make Us Gods to Go Before Us,‖ mm. 38-42. A solo English horn and a solo bassoon join the solo clarinet to form a contrapuntal texture in m. 38 that effects a tonal transition to A-flat/E-flat. Aaron continues the first part of his solo coincident with the reentry of the snare drum in a crescendo on the words, ―And bring them to me. I shall make you a golden calf . . . .‖ Singing initially in E-flat minor he subsequently shifts to A major while his accompaniment moves through polychords of A- flat/E-flat – A major/E-flat – A-flat/E-flat – D major/E-flat – E minor/D minor – A major/D major – D/C-sharp. Tension increases when the upper strings play a rising septuplet figure that precedes Aaron‘s high G-sharp (a leading tone) on the word ―calf.‖ An F-sharp – G- sharp – A cluster in the woodwinds supports this first of his two high notes. Aaron subsequently resolves his G-sharp to an A when he sings, ―to lead you forth,‖ thereby 382 closing the first part of his solo an octave higher than where it began over a similar but half- step higher G – A – (pedal) B-flat cluster in the strings. The horns, cup-muted brass, and a roll on the suspended cymbal assist in effecting this momentary climax. Figure 7.10: ―Make Us Gods to Go Before Us,‖ mm. 43-49. 383 Rising chromatic quintuplet figures sound over three beats in the oboes, English horn, and clarinets during the balance of m. 43, and lead to an incongruous C-sharp – F- sharp dyad that sounds over the preexisting B-flat pedal in the bassoons and basses on the downbeat of m. 44. Aaron commences the second part of his solo, singing his first two notes C and F a half step below this dyad. Over the course of six measures (mm. 44-49) a second climax builds while Aaron rises to an F, a G-flat, an A-flat, and then with a crescendo to an A singing, ―Here, here! Here is your god, O Israel; the god who brought you out of the land of Egypt!‖ The 1 st and 2 nd violins double Aaron‘s vocal line in octaves in their upper range while snare drum accented cadences in the trombones and tuba in mm. 45-46 and in the woodwind and strings in m. 47 pit F-sharp minor and G-sharp minor/E-flat minor harmonies against an F chord outlined by Aaron and punctuate his high notes. After singing through a diminished 7 th chord rooted on F-sharp, one that is reminiscent of the similar diminished chord that he outlined in the solo‘s opening measures, Aaron concludes his solo on the downbeat of m. 49 with a high A on the word ―Egypt.‖ The bassoons, horns, brass, and strings play a 3 rd -challenged polyquintal chord D/A/E to mark his cadence. Descending chromatic triplet, quintuplet, and septuplet figures played ―furiously‖ fortissimo by the woodwinds and piano follow. These figures balance the rising chromatic quintuplets heard in m. 43 and hasten the second part of Aaron‘s solo, as well as section D of the rondo itself, to a close on an F – E minor 9 th dyad played by the timpani and piano on the downbeat of m. 50. Considered as a whole Aaron‘s solo runs a tonal and harmonic gamut, beginning as it does in F/E-flat, concluding in F/E, and featuring an abundance of extended chords, altered chords, polychords, and clusters in between. Figure 7.10 illustrates this music. 384 The final section of the ―Make Us Gods to Go Before Us,‖ begins at the pickup to m. 51, where the chorus sings the two phrases that constitute the ritornello music for a final time, now to the text, ―Let the golden calf go before us!‖ A passage featuring descending figures in the woodwinds and strings follows at m. 53, and culminates in an F minor 9 th chord which notes played by the horns and brass punctuate on the downbeat of m. 54. The chorus subsequently sings an abbreviated, one-measure codetta to conclude the rondo with the words, ―Let us celebrate his feast.‖ This phrase, sung fortississimo on repeated sixteenth notes in unison with the timpani, begins on the note E and cadences on the downbeat of m. 55 on the note A. The bassoons, brass, timpani, and piano, as well as cellos and basses (played pizzicato) play a closing E-flat/A quintal chord (a 3 rd -less E-flat chord over an A pedal) sforzando on the offbeat of m. 55. Table 7.1 provides a tonal map of the complete rondo. The information contained therein offers a convincing argument that ―Make Us Gods to Go Before Us‖ revolves around a primary tonal center—not of E minor—but of A minor. The latter tonality first appears in section B, and makes itself manifest once again at the close of the rondo‘s final ritornello. In the first three iterations of the ritornello, however, the dominant E minor tonality and/or that of its upper leading tone neighbor F prevail. In section C, B minor, which has a dominant relation to the tonicized dominant E minor, predominates; and in section D, although an A tonal center is in evidence at the opening and conclusion of Aaron‘s solo, F/E-flat minor frames and resolves to the dominant E minor. A number of stylistic elements cited in the above paragraphs serve to provide unity to the rondo and contextualize it in the oratorio as a whole. Aaron‘s solo in section D provides contrast within the larger rondo form through an effective application of an enriched harmonic palette, as well as through an equally effective employment of alteration between 12/8, 9/8, 2/4, and 4/4 meter. 385 15. Dance to the Golden Calf The ―Dance to the Golden Calf‖ is a musical depiction of the indulgence in revelry around the idol that Aaron fashioned for the children of Israel to worship. 607 Scored for Narrator and orchestra, with the narrative heard only during its final measures, the number is 87 mm. long. The dance may be structurally parsed into an ABA‘ form if the listener allows that, although its outer sections are similar to the extent that they utilize the same musical materials, section A‘ does not amount to a simple variation or extension of section A. The dance is unique in its place in the oratorio in that it employs a 12-tone row as well as musical materials akin to Third-Stream Jazz to suggest ―a forbidden element of rebellion.‖ 608 Indeed its opening line for the 1 st bassoon, which is doubled for emphasis at times in the 2 nd bassoon, bass clarinet, and lower strings (played pizzicato), ―crackles with jazz punctuations and syncopations,‖ even as its first 12 notes outline a row from which the ensuing bass line takes its departure. 609 Figure 7.11 illustrates the dance‘s opening measures. Figure 7.11: ―Dance to the Golden Calf,‖ mm. 1-3. In spite of the initial appearance of a row, the number does not follow a rigid application of the principles of 12-tone composition. Indeed, repetitions and variants of the 607 The date of completion recorded on the pencil sketch of ―Dance to the Golden Calf‖ is 8 Feb. 1964. Compare the different translations of Exod. 32:6 as they are found in the KJV and the New International Version. 608 David Ward-Steinman, telephone interview, 10 June 2005. 609 David Ward-Steinman, e-mail to the present writer, 11 May 2005. 386 original row appear only in isolated instances throughout the dance, and only in its outer A and A‘ sections. Table 7.2 illustrates row variants based on P 0 , the original 12-tone row as it is found (as mentioned above) in measures one through three: E-flat – G – B – G-sharp – A – F – D-flat – C – E – D – A-sharp – F-sharp. 610 The bassoons, tuba, and piano also play a complete statement of P 0 in mm. 56-58. I 0 I 4 I 8 I 5 I 6 I 2 I 10 I 9 I 1 I 11 I 7 I 3 P 0 Eb G B G# A F Db C E D A# F# R 0 P 8 B Eb G E F Db A G# C A# F# D R 8 P 4 G B Eb C Db A F E G# F# D A# R 4 P 7 A# D F# Eb E C G# G B A F Db R 7 P 6 A Db F D Eb B G F# A# G# E C R 6 P 10 Db F A F# G Eb B A# D C G# E R 10 P 2 F A Db A# B G Eb D F# E C G# R 2 P 3 F# A# D B C G# E Eb G F Db A R 3 P 11 D F# A# G G# E C B Eb Db A F R 11 P 1 E G# C A A# F# D Db F Eb B G R 1 P 5 G# C E Db D A# F# F A G Eb B R 5 P 9 C E G# F F# D A# A Db B G Eb R 9 RI 0 RI 4 RI 8 RI 5 RI 6 RI 2 RI 10 RI 9 RI 1 RI 11 RI 7 RI 3 Table 7.2: 12-Tone Row Variants in ―Dance to the Golden Calf.‖ Using the table as a guide, one may observe that the first six notes of row variant P 1 appear in the tuba, piano, and basses in mm. 23-24. Additionally, one may find instances of row variant RI 6 in two places in the dance. In the first instance, in mm. 8-11, RI 6 appears distributed throughout the woodwinds with occasional doubling in the strings. In the second, 610 The present writer generated this table using the ―Twelve Tone Matrix Calculator‖ made available by composer and theorist Paul Nelson (c. 2004) at <http://composertools.com/Tools/matrix/MatrixCalc.html>. 387 in mm. 66-69, RI 6 appears in the piano and is scattered throughout the woodwinds with partial doubling in the strings. In both instances notes 1-12 of RI 6 appear in an initial two of four measures. Notes 2-12 and then note 1 appear in the subsequent two of four measures. While establishing bass lines that serve as points of departure for musical development defines the employment of the original P 0 and its variant P 1 , variant RI 6 is used more freely in isolation in the upper parts to effect transitions within the dance‘s various sections. The aforementioned ABA‘ form divides the dance into sections of 33, 22, and 32 mm. respectfully. The balance between the lengths of the outer sections is audibly evident, although the dividing line between section A and section B is not visually apparent in the score. The demarcation point between section B and section A‘, however, is clearly marked with a double bar. The dance‘s outer sections subdivide into distinct subsections. Three subsections of 11 mm. each comprise the 33 mm. of section A. Moreover, its first 11-m. subsection parses into groups of seven and four measures; the latter measures consist of RI 6 material and follow the former measures as a link to the second 11-m. subsection. The third 11-m. subsection parses into groups of six, two, and three measures. Likewise, two subsections of 14 and 18 mm. comprise the 32 mm. of section A‘. The 14-m. subsection parses into groups of ten and four measures; the latter measures consist of RI 6 material and follow the former measures as a link to the 18-m. subsection. The validity of my postulated resolution of component parts of the structure will become apparent with a consideration of the dance on a microscopic level. I will undertake this analytical task presently in the paragraphs that follow below. 388 Figure 7.12: ―Dance to the Golden Calf,‖ mm. 4-10. The dance begins in a ―sardonic, nervous‖ manner, played forte in a ―hurrying‖ tempo. Following upon an initial statement of P 0 in the bass line in measures one to three, a repetition of P 0 notes 3-4 fills out the last two beats of the third (6/4) measure. The expectation of the music‘s continuation with a literal variant of the row is unfulfilled when in measure four the first two notes of P 0 sound once again. The music that ensues in the line that comprises the cello and bassoon parts diminishes in intensity from a fortissimo to a mezzo piano. The line is not, however, a literal repetition of P 0 , but one that is initially constructed with selections of two-note groupings from P 0 . As figure 7.12 indicates, the bass line in measure four originates from notes 1-2, 7-8, and 5-6 of P 0 . This line continues in the first three notes of measure five with an upward half-step transposition of the first three notes of measure four. The first note F-sharp that follows in measure five creates the expectation of another half-step upward transposition, but the line concludes by regressing through D to B-flat (the enharmonic equivalent of A-sharp). This permutation of P 0 is one of development. The rhythmically displaced, sharp, and biting chords in the woodwinds, horns, trombones, and xylophone sound against the bass line in measures four through five with 389 rhythmic support from the snare drum and continue in a crescendo into measure seven. Trumpets and a glissando in the timpani join the texture to effect a climax. The chords, largely composed of augmented 5 ths , major 7 ths (often spelt as diminished 8vas), and minor 9 ths establish a harmonic flavor that will permeate the balance of the dance. As has been noted above, an instance of row variant RI 6 notes 1-12, followed by notes 2-12 and note 1, distributed throughout the woodwinds with occasional doubling in the strings, links the first and second subsections of section A. This triplet-rich and rhythmically spry link, shown in figures 7.12 and 7.13, sounds in mm. 8-11. It winds down the previous climax from a fortissimo to a piano and completes the first 11-m. subsection. Figure 7.13: ―Dance to the Golden Calf,‖ mm. 11-21. 390 The second 11-m. subsection of section A, shown in figure 7.13, begins in m. 12 and lasts through m. 22. It opens with a restatement of the bass line heard originally in measure four that links note 12 of RI 6 to a G-sharp (as opposed to row note F-sharp—which sounds in the treble). The restatement, heard in the bassoons, piano, and cellos with occasional doubling in the basses, repeats in m. 13. Over it rhythmically displaced chords, accentuated by the snare drum, sound sforzando in muted trumpets and the upper strings. These chords contain major 7 ths and minor 9 ths and are thus similar to the chords heard in the first 11-m. subsection of section A. The rhythmic idea develops in the woodwinds, horns, and brass into a second climax over the nine measures that follow. Sounding in the bassoons in m. 19 and repeating in all the woodwinds, the brass, and the piano in m. 22, a triple figure which outline a cluster containing the notes G – G-sharp – A – A-sharp – B – D rises from a low G to a high B-flat. This triplet figure effect a crescendo into the second fortissimo climax that occurs on the fourth beat in m. 22. The trumpets, trombones, slapstick, bass drum, and strings accentuate the climax. Figures 7.13 and 7.14 together illustrate this two-measure passage. With this second climax, the second 11-m. subsection of section A reaches its conclusion. Figure 7.14: ―Dance to the Golden Calf,‖ mm. 22-25. 391 Figure 7.14, continued: ―Dance to the Golden Calf,‖ mm. 26-35. The third 11-m. subsection of section A begins in mm. 23-24. Here notes 1-6 of row variant P 1 , appended by the notes C and D-flat, sound staccatissimo and fortissimo in a mechanical fashion in quarter notes in the tuba, piano, and basses. Once again, the here- abbreviated row variant does not continue in a systematic manner. It functions only as a point of departure to set the character for the music that continues beyond it. Over mm. 25- 28, the bass line rises in ascending four note phrases, and a contrapuntal line rises over it, sounding intervals of major 2 nds , minor 3 rds , major 6 ths , major 7 ths , and minor 9 ths . Trombones and cellos join the bass line in m. 25 at the point where the horns and violas begin to play in counterpoint. The trumpets and 2 nd violins join the contrapuntal texture in m. 27 while the violas follow the line a minor 9 th below it. The horns and tuba also thicken the texture with new parts that move in parallel half notes. While the horns sound in minor 3 rds , the tuba moves with them to sound intervals of minor 9 ths and major 7 ths in m. 27 and m. 28 respectively. The music of these two measures, which a roll on the suspended cymbal serves to highlight, builds in a molto crescendo to a climax in m. 29 (letter C). Over the course of two measures, the woodwinds and piano repeatedly iterate figures of parallel major 9 ths in 392 descending octaves in a fortississimo dynamic. These figures sound B-flats in the piccolo, flutes, 1 st oboe, and 1 st clarinet against A-flats in the 2 nd oboe, English horn, 2 nd clarinet, and bassoons. In a molto decrescendo through the three measures that follow, the climax winds down through a two-part contrapuntal texture of two-note phrases of descending 3 rds . These parts sound first in varied intervals of minor 7 ths , 9 ths , and 10 ths , major 7 ths and 9 ths and then in augmented 5 ths , the latter played staccato. They are heard initially in the upper woodwinds, and they descend to terminate in a minor 7 th rooted on the note D in the bass clarinets and bassoons. As shown in figure 7.14, this music concludes the third 11-m. subsection that completes section A of the Dance. Section B of the dance begins in m. 34 with the sound of a repeating D in a solo trumpet over the aforementioned D minor 7 th interval sustained in the lower woodwinds and accented by ―trap drums, brushes on snare, ad libitum.‖ The trumpet player places a ―Harmon‖ mute in his instrument to produce a ―tight-muted jazz sound.‖ 611 In m. 35 an octave D pedal that sounds in the violas and cellos supersedes the minor 7 th interval, and at the pickup to m. 37 a blue note enriched 5-note riff sounds in a solo alto saxophone over the D pedal and the brushed snare drum—now supplemented with offbeat strikes on the high-hat cymbal. 612 The riff, encompassed within the interval of an augmented 5 th and performed in an ―easy swing‖ style, repeats in a solo flute, extends itself in the solo alto saxophone, and appends itself in a solo bassoon. In its intervallic envelopment, the riff is an outgrowth of the vertical intervals contained in beats three and four of m. 33, the second of which stands in an upper leading tone relation to the riff as it sounds in mm. 36-39. 611 In David Ward-Steinman, e-mail to the present writer, 21 Mar. 2007, the composer wrote concerning the notation ―vibrato‖ he placed in the orchestral score at the trumpet solo, ―[I desired] a tighter-muted sound than may be obtained with cup or straight mutes; no ‗wah wah‘ was intended . . . just the Miles Davis jazz sound.‖ 612 Optional cues for more commonly available orchestral instrumentalists are included in the oratorio‘s orchestral score in the unlikely event that an alto saxophonist is not available. 393 Figure 7.15: ―Dance to the Golden Calf,‖ mm. 36-55. The riff is also of itself rich in intervallic content and, as figure 7.15 illustrates, its composer explores this richness in a free quasi-improvisatory manner during the measures that follow its initial statement. Fragments of the riff appear in solos for the bassoon, trombone, alto saxophone, flute, strings, and bass clarinet. Chords composed of its notes sound in the xylophone, piano, trumpets, trombones, woodwinds, and strings where the additional notes C, A, F, E, and E-flat come to enrich this supporting harmonic palette. In m. 50, the alto saxophone restates the original riff a whole-step higher than it appeared in its initial statement. From m. 54 through the completion of the section the doubled notes of the riff sustain as a cluster in stopped horns, muted trumpets, and ultimately the woodwinds. A 394 solo in the alto saxophone, doubled consecutively in the violas, cellos, and a solo bass and accented by rolls in the suspended cymbal, winds down and concludes section B against the sustained cluster. The E-flat reappears in the solo alto saxophone as a precursory note that serves to prepare the listener for the restatement of the original row P 0 in the section that follows. Indeed it may also be argued that the restatement of the riff in m. 50, beginning as it does on the note E, bears an upper leading tone tonal relation to a restatement of P 0 that will open section A‘. Even as it was found convenient to divide the dance‘s opening section into subsections for the purpose of analysis, it is also so with the dance‘s closing section. It may be recalled that section A was composed of three subsections, each totaling 11 mm, resulting in an overall length of 33 mm. The first 11-m. subsection consisted of seven measures that contained a statement and extension of P 0 in the bass accompanied by rhythmically displaced chords in the upper parts. A four-measure transition, which consisted of a statement and a repetition of row variant RI 6, followed. The second 11-m. subsection was grounded in a restatement of the six-note bass line first heard in measure four, which itself was composed of three two-note subsets of P 0 rearranged into a six-note figuration. Rhythmically displaced chords accompanied the figuration‘s repetition and the music developed in a manner similar to the music heard in the first subsection. The third 11-m. subsection, similarly grounded in a six-note bass line, consisted of a contrapuntal development of the first half of row variant P 1. Section A‘ is similar in its overall length to section A as it encompasses 32 mm, but as is noted above it is capable of being parsed into only two subsections, the first totaling 14 mm. and the second 18 mm.. As will be shown below, the two subsections of section A‘ have much in common with the first two subsections of section A but little in common with its third subsection. 395 Figure 7.16: ―Dance to the Golden Calf,‖ mm. 56-67. The first subsection of section A‘ begins at m. 56 (letter E) with a restatement of P 0 in a solo bassoon, the piano, and the basses. In a manner similar to its initial statement in section A, notes 3-4 of P 0 repeat while the bass line continues to unfold. In m. 58 the tuba and cellos double the line. In m. 59, the trombones join them, as the line continues freely without any systematic regard to the previously stated row. Here, as in section A, the composer confines his use of the row to establishing a bass line as a point of departure for further musical development. As figure 7.16 shows, however, the varied and rhythmically displaced chords that accompanied P 0 ‘s extension in section A are present from P 0 ‘s onset in section A‘. These largely tertian chords, heard in the trumpets from m. 56 onward and in the horns from m. 59 onward, contain augmented 5 ths , major 7 ths , and minor 9 ths , showing them to be similar to the chords heard in section A. 396 Beginning on the fifth beat of m. 60 the alto saxophone introduces a contrasting rhythmic figure, which consists of two sixteenth notes followed by an eighth note, that alters between the notes G and A-flat. The figure, which develops in the woodwinds in the four measures that follow, is a precursor to the triplet figure introduced in m. 65, which is in turn derives from a similar figure heard at m. 20 of section A. In a manner similar to the music of the first subsection of section A, the present music grows in tension and intensity until it culminates in a fortississimo at m. 66 where a four-measure transition begins. In these four measures row variant RI 6 notes 1-12, followed by notes 2-12 and note 1, serve to link the two subsections of section A‘ in the same way that they previously linked the first two subsections of section A. As was noted above, this agile music, freely distributed in the woodwinds and piano with concurrent doubling shifting from the upper to lower strings, features distinct triplet figurations. It serves to wind down the restless nature of the preceding passage with its graceful and nimble diminuendo to a piano. The closing subsection of section A‘ begins in m. 70 with an ostinato figure of four equal quarter notes that sounds the pitches D-sharp, D, E, and C-sharp. The figure is reminiscent of the mechanical ascending four-note phrase heard in mm. 25-28 of the closing subsection of section A. Here the piano and cellos play it for two measures, and then the basses play it, pizzicato, for two more measures. As with its six-note counterpart in mm. 12- 13 in the second subsection of section A, the figure sounds from the beginning of the present subsection against rhythmically displaced chords which contain major 7 ths . Measures 70-74 of figure 7.17 illustrate the ostinato pattern along with its accompanying offbeat chords that together serve to open the final portion of the dance. 397 Figure 7.17: ―Dance to the Golden Calf,‖ mm. 68-75. In the midst of this music, at m. 72 (letter G), the Narrator begins to speak a paraphrase of God‘s instruction to Moses from Exodus 32:7-8, and he continues his narration over the music that concludes the dance. Moses must curtail his communion with God and go down from Mount Sinai to deal with the contemptuous sin of the children of Israel: And the Lord said unto Moses: Go, get thee down; for thy people, whom thou brought out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them: they have made them a golden calf, and have worshipped it; and have sacrificed thereunto, and blasphemed. While the Narrator describes a grave picture of the children of Israel squandering the trust the Lord has established with them through their blasphemy, so too the music portrays a fracturing relationship between the people and their God. As may be seen in figure 7.18, over the course of seven measures between mm. 74-80 the music fragments increasingly as the notes of the now disjointed ground-bass ostinato figure scatter and dissipate though the instruments of the orchestra. In m. 74 the ostinato‘s original note pattern, E-flat – D – E – C-sharp, cascades down in pizzicato through 1 st and 2 nd violins, the violas, and cellos. In m. 398 76 the now-disordered note members appear consecutively on beats two through four in the violas, basses, and cellos respectively, and in m. 77 on beats three and four in the 2 nd violins and 1 st violins respectively. An added note F joins note members D and E in phrases of two notes each played by a solo bassoon and a solo clarinet in m. 78 and a solo flute in m. 79. Finally, in m. 80, notes E and F appear as dyads sounding together played by (straight) muted brass, the piano, and strings. Interspersed amid this pointillistic dissemination of individual notes, the trombones in m. 75 and the (cup) muted trumpets in m. 77 play chords in phrases similar to the ones that accompanied the ostinato at its introduction. It is easy to discern the programmatic connotations in this music. Having forsaken the divine guidance and direction provided by Moses, the children of Israel have lost their mooring. They find themselves to be out of step because their loyalties have dispersed; they have ceased to pattern their lives in the rhythm of the divine dance. Figure 7.18: ―Dance to the Golden Calf,‖ mm. 76-87. 399 Following this seven-measure derailment, however, the music continues in m. 81 (letter H) back on track with the ostinato figure in the bass where it is accompanied by offbeat chords in much the same manner as it was at the beginning of the subsection. Cellos play the ostinato, pizzicato, into m. 86. Doubling the cello is a solo bassoon in mm 81-82, a solo bass clarinet in mm. 83-84, and the basses playing pizzicato—which thin out and drop out by m. 85. The flutes and clarinets at first, later the clarinets and bass clarinet, and subsequently muted horns play the three-note chords that accompany the ostinato. These chords feature minor 6 ths and diminished octaves, or augmented 5 ths and major 7 ths , consistent with the harmonic vocabulary established from the beginning of the dance. In m. 86 the woodwinds, while gradually diminishing in intensity to a pianissimo, play and repeat an augmented 5 th /major 7 th chord rooted on G over a minor 7 th dyad rooted on F. As the dance comes to its close in m. 87, strings played pizzicato join in the final iteration of this chord. Although ostensibly based on a 12-tone row, the ―Dance to the Golden Calf‖ is hardly atonal in a conventional sense. The row P 0 that opens the first subsection of section A begins on E-flat and the bass line in measure four continues from E-flat. Following transitional measures that contain row variant RI 6 , the second subsection of section A opens in the bass on an E-flat. The third subsection of section A, however, begins with a tonal shift to E. The riff in section B opens on a D and repeats at the close of the section with E as its starting note. These two latter notes, it may be noted, frame E-flat by symmetrical half steps. The restatement of P 0 in the first subsection of section A‘ opens as well in the bass on an E-flat, and the bass ostinato and its restatement in the section‘s closing subsection begins on an (enharmonic) D-sharp. The continuing reappearance of the note E-flat or its enharmonic equivalent at strategic points in the dance, as well as the harmonic vocabulary that constitutes its chords, is a testimony to the dance‘s tonal, rather than atonal, roots. 400 16. What Did This People Unto Thee? After the conclusion of the ―Dance to the Golden Calf,‖ the Narrator continues his account of Moses‘ venture at Mount Sinai, speaking a paraphrase of Exodus 32:15, 19-20: And Moses turned and went down from the mount, and the two tablets of the law were in his hand. But as soon as he came nigh unto the camp, he saw the golden calf, and the dancing: and Moses‘ anger blazed, and he flung the tablets from his hands, and broke them at the foot of the mountain. And he took the calf which they had made and burnt it in the fire, and ground it to powder, and strewed it upon the water, and made the Israelites drink it. 613 Immediately upon the conclusion of the narration, a one-measure biting fanfare for brass and percussion marked ―fast, vengeful,‖ opens a paraphrase of Exodus 32:21-23 and 26 set for Moses, Aaron, and the chorus titled ―What Did This People Unto Thee?‖ The setting is through composed and consists of three sections of 19, 22, and 7 mm. respectively, totaling to 48 mm. 614 All section feature a question posed by Moses. In each of the first two sections the fanfare sounds and Moses poses a question to Aaron; a short interlude follows the question in both instances and Aaron responds. No fanfare precedes the third section; Moses poses a question directly to the chorus and they answer. Figure 7.19 illustrates Moses‘ first interrogatory. Trumpets, trombones, and tuba play the short fanfare, which in similarity to the preceding ―Dance to the Golden Calf‖ features chords containing diminished 5 ths and 8 vas (major 7 ths ) as well as minor 9 ths . The tuba line opens on and frames a D-sharp (enharmonic E-flat), the former tonal center of the 613 With the elimination of Moses‘ solo, ―Why Doth Thy Anger Blaze?‖ the composer also deleted the passage for the Narrator from Exod. 32:14 that prefaces the remaining text, to wit: ―And the Lord repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people.‖ 614 The date of completion recorded on the pencil sketch of ―What Did This People Unto Thee?‖ is 29 Oct. 1963. 401 ―Dance,‖ and then shifts with a cymbal crash to sound a pedal D. Over this pedal Moses poses to Aaron the question, ―What did this people unto thee, that thou has brought so great a sin upon them?‖ Moses sings his first phrase, rising a minor 9 th from the leading tone C- sharp to a D, and then moves down and settles on a B. The oboes, English horn, bassoons, and piano play a series of flourishes that conclude on a 2 nd -inversion split-3 rd chord on G rooted over the leading tone C-sharp while supporting Moses‘ sustained B. The violas then sequentially sound in eighth notes the tonic D, the leading tone C-sharp, and the supertonic E. The bassoons subsequently take up the E, drop chromatically to a B-flat, and conclude down a 5 th on an E-flat while the strings play a 2 nd -inversion E-flat minor split-5 th chord. Supported by this accompaniment, Moses sings an E, rises a major 7 th to an E-flat, and then descends to an A. While the horns play a minor 7 th dyad G – F and a major 9 th dyad A – B falls through a glissando in the piano and upper strings (pizzicato), Moses rises once-again through a B-flat to climax on an F. After the falling dyad rests on E – F in the lower brass and the strings, Moses drops a minor 9 th through a D to finish his second phrase on an E. The piano plays a descending septuplet, from the D above middle C, to sound a C with the lower strings as the bass drum punctuates the completion of Moses‘ first question. The overall affect of Moses‘ solo to this point is one of unsettled anger, frustration, and hostility. Continuously changing meters provoke a feeling of unrest. The cadences on major 7 ths and minor 9 ths reduce the tension but do not eliminate it. The shift in the tonal center of gravity from D to E—the B that ends Moses‘ first phrase being dominant to the E that concludes his second—is perhaps symbolic. Moses has come down from the mountain to demand accountability for the predicament in which he finds his people. The shifting of the tonal center, finally portrayed in the descending piano septuplet from a D to an E, functions as a metaphor for Moses‘ desire to take control of the situation. 402 Figure 7.19: ―What Did This People Unto Thee?‖ mm. 1-9. 403 In anticipation of Aaron‘s response, a three-measure interlude, beginning in the second half of measure seven (letter A), sounds ―expressionless‖ in the woodwinds. Its music features solos played by the piccolo, clarinet, and bassoon intermittently accompanied by notes played pizzicato by the strings. The harmonic vocabulary of this music is similar to that of the music that preceded it. The subtle dance rhythm established by the interlude‘s three-note pick up and its repeated quarter figures suggests continued disquiet and agitation. The interlude comes to a rest on the downbeat of measure ten on a cluster, D – E – F – G, over the tonal center note E played by the lower woodwinds, horns, and tuba. Over this cluster Aaron answers Moses, albeit evasively, his voice doubled at first in the upper woodwinds as well as the upper strings played pizzicato. He pleads with him, singing a tonally symmetrical phrase, ―Let not the anger of my lord wax hot.‖ Aaron‘s last words descend a major 7 th in a slowing portamento from a C to a D-flat that the cellos and basses (playing arco) double. A 2 nd -inversion split 3 rd /split 5 th chord on G played by the oboes, English horn, clarinets, and 2 nd trombone rooted over a C-sharp played by the 1 st trombone heralds Aaron‘s next entrance at the ―Poco più mosso‖ in m. 13. Underpinned rhythmically by the snare drum, Aaron now sings in a ―biting, martial‖ manner, ―Thou knowest the people.‖ He drops a minor 6 th from a D-flat to recite these words on an F, a note that bears an upper leading tone relation to the tonicized E, and then repeats his words, this time dropping a 5 th from a C to the F. Aaron subsequently concludes, ―how set on mischief they are,‖ singing another symmetrical phrase that begins on a B-flat, rises to an E- flat, drops down a diminished octave through a D to an E, and then rises again through an F- sharp to close on a G. The perspicacious listener receives the impression that Aaron is singing around the tonal center much in the same way he is talking around Moses‘ question. Figure 7.20 illustrates Aaron‘s response to Moses‘ first inquiry. 404 Figure 7.20: ―What Did This People Unto Thee?‖ mm. 10-17. Aaron‘s accompaniment, heard in mm. 13-17 in the woodwinds, a solo trombone, the tuba, and the lower strings, likewise gracefully meanders around the tonicized E, serving to complement Aaron‘s evasion of Moses‘ first question. By tracing the roots of the parallel perfect 5 ths played by the bassoons, one may observe this labyrinth of tonality. Following after the E last heard in the tuba in m. 11, the 2 nd bassoon plays the notes F – E-flat – D-flat – 405 C-flat – D – E-flat – E in mm. 13-17, thus departing from the solo‘s tonal center and returning to it. In mm. 18-19, in a nervous manner, Aaron appends his answer. After being reintroduced by a brief solo that rises a major 9 th in the horns, he twice repeats his earlier phrase, a 4 th higher than before, dropping from an F to a B-flat while reciting the text, ―Thou knowest the people.‖ His accompaniment continues in mm. 18-20 in the lower woodwinds and the strings. Harmonies played pizzicato in the 2 nd violins, the violas, cellos, and basses complement a line rising from a B-flat to an F in the 1 st violins. The roots of the parallel perfect 5 ths heard simultaneously in the bassoons (now doubled in the basses) once again steer the solo away from its tonal center: B-flat – A-flat – G-flat – F-flat (enharmonic E) – D – C. The harmony in the present passage is similar to what has come before it. The 11 th chord that closes Aaron‘s accompaniment on the downbeat of m. 20 is rooted on a C. It contains a split perfect/diminished 5 th as well as a split major/minor 7 th . The brass ―violently‖ repeat the opening fanfare in m. 20 (one measure before letter B), signaling the beginning of the second section of ―What Did This People Unto Thee?‖ This time, however, the fanfare sounds a 4 th higher and the tuba line frames a new root G (the dominant of C). A cymbal crash follows a strike of the bass drum and the horns and brass play the fanfare‘s final chord—now shifted an octave higher on the second beat of m. 21. Singing over this sustained chord, Moses poses a second question to Aaron. Using the same notes with which he sang his first question, and again centered on an E, he recites his text: ―What did this people unto thee, that you let them acquire such great guilt?‖ The music that continues in the woodwinds, piano, and strings is similar to that which accompaniment Moses‘ first question. As Moses closes his second question, the piano once more plays a descending septuplet that terminates on an open minor 6 th over an E below the bass clef. 406 The lower strings (playing pizzicato) double these notes. The sound of the bass drum similarly punctuates the conclusion of Moses‘ second question. His unsettled anger, depicted in the music that accompanied his first question, here continues unabated. Following another instrumental interlude, one that concludes on a C major triad in 2 nd inversion, Aaron answers Moses a second time. The interlude is similar to the one contained in measures seven through nine of section one, albeit abbreviated to be concise. It sounds, as it did the first time, in the woodwinds and strings, the latter played pizzicato. Aaron prefaces his second answer with the words, ―They [the people] said unto me,‖ completing the outline of a G major triad in the manner of a slow recitative. Subsequently, ―suddenly, fast, [and] excited‖ at the pickup to m. 29 (letter C), Aaron reiterates the words and music which the chorus sang in ―Make Us Gods to Go Before Us.‖ His quote from that number begins at the pickup to its m. 7 and ends on the downbeat of its m. 21, but he discards the instrumental music contained in its mm. 9, 10 and 11. Aaron sings what had been the sopranos‘ part, while first the strings, then the horns and brass, and subsequently the woodwinds play what had been the lower choral parts. The new setting employs subtle text substitution when clarity calls for it (i.e., mm. 31-33), but the music from the earlier number is quoted largely intact with only minor alterations made to its harmonies (e.g., mm. 36-38). The barring of measures in the new setting differ from that of the earlier setting (e.g., mm. 31-32 quote material previously barred in 2/4 time) where the composer has judged the use of different time signatures more appropriate to his musical purposes. The music, appearing in its new setting in mm. 29-38, opens with F as its tonal center and proceeds through tonal areas of A (mm. 31-32) and D (mm. 33-34). At its close F is its tonal center once again. The music highlights the upper leading tone relation between the notes F and E. These two notes occur at the end of vocal phrases in instrumental tags that sound in 407 the timpani with occasional doublings in the tuba, piano, and basses (mm. 29, 30, 35, and 37-38). Aaron‘s answer to Moses‘ second question, and thus the music of section two, concludes in mm. 38-41 with a repetition of the same text and music that he sang in response to Moses‘ first question: ―Thou knowest the people, how set on mischief they are.‖ At the pickup to m. 39 (letter D) Aaron sings, twice repeating the phrase he sang in his first answer, ―Thou knowest the people,‖ with each phrase now dropping from a G to a C. He closes his text, ―how set on mischief they are,‖ singing an exact repetition of the notes he sang in the earlier answer in mm. 15-17. Aaron‘s accompaniment, heard in the clarinets, bassoons, and lower strings, features a short solo passage for the trombone. It additionally features the use of quintal harmony with parallel, descending, perfect 5 th played once-again by the bassoons. The descent of the 2 nd bassoon line also once-again provides insight into the tonal direction of the passage: C – B-flat – G-flat – F – E-flat – D-flat. As did section one, section two concludes on an 11 th chord (alternatively E-flat 7 th /D-flat), this time rooted on D-flat. Section A Section A‘ Section B 1 st Question 1 st Answer 2 nd Question 2 nd Answer 3 rd Question 3 rd Answer Moses & Orchestra Aaron & Orchestra Moses & Orchestra Aaron & Orchestra Moses Chorus & Orchestra m. 1 (6+ mm) m. 7 (13+ mm) m. 20 (5+ mm) m. 25 (17- mm) m. 42 (3 mm) m. 45 (4 mm) ―What did this people unto thee, that thou hast brought so great a sin upon them?‖ ―Thou knowest the people, how set on mischief they are.‖ ―What did this people unto thee, that you let them acquire such great guilt?‖ ―They said unto me, ‗Make us gods to go before us.‘ . . . Thou knowest the people.‖ ―Who is on the Lord‘s side?‖ ―I Lord!‖ d – e/C e – e – C D/G – C (e) G – f – a – d – f – C – e/d-flat d – e C/B – A 9 th Table 7.3: Outline of ―What Did This People Unto Thee?‖ 408 Table 7.3 provides a summary of the tonal areas that are traversed in ―What Did This People Unto Thee.‖ Following an opening fanfare that centers about the tonality of D, Moses poses his first question to Aaron. He sings at first in D and concludes in E. An interlude follows which opens and closes in E. Aaron answers Moses, moving away from E to C. A second fanfare centers about G major. Moses poses his second question to Aaron, singing at first in D and then in C. Moses so tonally asserts his righteous indignation over Aaron‘s inexcusable answer to his first question. He concludes his second question in C. A second interlude begins in E and ends on a 2 nd -inversion C major triad. Aaron prefaces his second answer, singing the outline of a triad on G, and then quotes material that the people sang in ―Make Us Gods to Go Before Us,‖ opening and closing in F. He partially reprises his first answer, opening in C (his ‗subdominant‘ position), and progressively moves afield to close his second answer in E over a D-flat accompaniment. Moses remains unsatisfied with the answers Aaron provides to the questions posed to him. He therefore poses a question to the Levites, now represented by the chorus, in section three of ―What Did This People Unto Thee?‖ Beginning on the note F, Moses rises to a D, upping the prevailing tonal stakes a half step the D-flat tonality that ended Aaron‘s response, and demands of them, ―Who is on the Lord‘s side?‖ Following a short fermata Moses turns directly to the chorus. He then repeats his question, rising a major 7 th from the (upper leading tone) F to an E. The piano and woodwinds play a six-note cluster, arranged as a mixed-interval chord rooted on the note E, and (as the other shoe ‗drops‘) they follow with an avalanche of downward glissando and scale passages that plummets into the downbeat of m. 45. Thereafter, in m. 45, a pedal note B sounds in a roll on the timpani and a tremolo in the piano. In a subtly marvelous application of aleatoric technique, the composer instructs 409 the members of the chorus to respond to Moses‘ inquiry, ―tentatively, one by one at random, speaking at first, but growing in intensity,‖ with the words, ―I Lord!‖ While the voices of the chorus of the Levites swell, a cluster builds in the orchestra. The cluster begins with a B played by the 2 nd bassoon, the tuba, cellos, and basses, and a C played by the bass clarinets, 1 st bassoon, bass trombone, and violas. Over the course of an elongated measure, the conductor cues six events in the orchestra in a gradual, cacophonic crescendo. The events include the playing and sustaining of the notes D and F in the horns, A and C in the trombones, G, B, and D in the trumpets, A and G in the clarinets with G in the oboes, and F and A in the 1 st violins with G in the 2 nd violins (played tremolo). The final event leading into m. 46 is a roll on the suspended cymbal against an upward glissando in the piano. During the number‘s closing measures, the chorus thrice reiterates a chord in a ―majestic‖ proclamation of the words, ―I Lord, I Lord, I!‖ The conglomerate is not an E major chord, as might be expected, but an A major 9 th chord in 2 nd inversion, and it sounds with the chorus in the full orchestra along with the timpani, the crash cymbals, and a suspended cymbal. On beat three of the two penultimate measures a pedal B thunders in the timpani, piano, and lower strings as the woodwinds and piano play upward scale passages and a glissando respectively. The orchestra drops out in the final measure as the chorus sustains its chord fortississimo. Figure 7.21 reproduces the entirety of this passage. Figure 7.21: ―What Did This People Unto Thee?‖ mm. 42-44. 410 Figure 7.21, continued: ―What Did This People Unto Thee?‖ mm. 45-48. 411 ―What Did This People Unto Thee?‖ is similar to ―Make Us Gods to Go Before Us‖ in so far that the prevailing tonal center E in both numbers is in a dominant relation to their closing tonality A. In the case of the present number, the tonality with which it closes is neither E major nor E minor. It is rather A major. The symbolism of the fusion of the pedal B – E and a 2 nd -inversion A major 9 th chord at the end of the number suggests the restoration of the relationship between the Lord, Moses, and his people. The number‘s close reaffirms the authority of the Lord over the children of Israel under the ‗dominant‘ hand of Moses. 17. Would to God We Had Died Exodus 33:1-3 and Numbers 9:23 and 14:2 introduce the events that follow the profane occurrences at Mount Sinai. The Narrator now speaks a paraphrase of these passages. We are told that the Lord instructs Moses to lead the children of Israel to ―a land flowing in milk and honey,‖ as the Lord himself will not ―go in the midst‖ of them ―lest [he] destroy‖ them for he has found them to be ―a stiff-necked people.‖ Moses and the people journey forward toward the Promised Land and they pitch their tents and rest ―at the commandment of the Lord by the hand of Moses.‖ We become aware, however, that ―the whole congregation of the children of Israel began to murmur against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness.‖ The musical setting that follows the narration tells the story of the peoples‘ continual lack of trust in the providence of the Lord, as well as how Moses deals with their intransigent behavior. Outlined in table 7.4 and encompassing some 183 mm, ―Would to God We Had Died‖ is the longest single number in the oratorio. 615 615 The date of completion recorded on the pencil sketch of ―Would to God We Had Died‖ is 3 Sept. 1963. 412 Section A Section B Section C 1 st Demand 1 st Answer 1 st Narration/Commentary Chorus & Orchestra Moses & Orchestra Soprano & Orchestra m. 1 (28 mm.) m. 29 (10 mm.) m. 39 (32 mm.) ―Would to God we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt. O, if we only had bread to eat! We remember the fish, the melons, the leeks; the onions, the garlic, the plentiful bread. Have you brought us forth only to kill us with hunger?‖ ―Behold, the Lord will send bread from heaven. The bread will rain down ev‘ry day with the dew.‖ ―And the bread came down as small as hoar-frost on the ground. Its name was Manna: in shape small and round. And it was like coriander seed . . . . And they gathered it and ground it, and they baked it and caked it. And its taste was like cake baked with oil.‖ D – b-flat – E-flat – f f – d D-flat – G – b – B – E-flat/b – F/G – D-flat – E/d-sharp Section A‘ Section B‘ Section C‘ 2 nd Demand 2 nd Answer 2 nd Narration/Commentary Chorus & Orchestra Moses & Orchestra Soprano & Orchestra m. 71 (24 mm.) m. 95 (11 mm.) m. 106 (21 mm.) ―Would to God we had died . . . O, if we only had meat to eat! We remember . . . the flour. But now we are hungry. There is nothing to eat but this Manna that lies at our feet! Nothing but Manna, Manna, Manna! O, if we only had meat to eat!‖ ―O ye who weep in the ears of the Lord! The Lord will give you meat to eat. Ye shall eat, not one day, nor two days, nor five days, nor ten days, nor twenty, but a month: Until it comes out of your noses!‖ ―And there went forth a wind from the Lord that brought quail from the sea. They fell by the camp a day‘s journey each way and two cubits thick on the ground. All that day, all that night, all the next day and night the men gathered quail for a feast.‖ d – b-flat – e-flat – g – a-sharp/g-sharp dim – e – b- flat b – f-sharp – c – E-flat – f D-flat – g – F/G – e – f/e-flat Section A‘‘ Section C‘‘ Section B‘‘ 3 rd Demand 3 rd Narration/Commentary 3 rd Answer Chorus & Orchestra Soprano & Orchestra Moses & Orchestra m. 127 (23 mm.) m. 150 (12 mm.) m. 162 (22 mm.) ―Would to God we had died . . . O, if we only had water to drink! . . . We remember . . . the plentiful fruit; but now we are thirsty, there‘s nothing to drink! . . . nothing but Manna and quail!‖ ―And Moses gathered the people together and took the Lord‘s staff from the temple. He selected a common rock and pointed thereto, and his eyes blazed with fire as he spoke.‖ ―Hear now, ye rebels! Must we fetch you water out of this rock? I‘ll strike twice with my staff, and get water for you from this rock!‖ d – b-flat – e-flat – g – a-sharp/g-sharp dim – b b – D/G – E-flat/A-flat – f/e – g/e-flat e – E-flat/A – G – A/f-sharp – B – C – f/E-flat – A/B/C – e – B-flat – G – D – Cluster Table 7.4: Outline of ―Would to God We Had Died.‖ 413 The setting opens with a fugato passage in 6/8 time that portrays the murmuring of the children of Israel in a paraphrase of Numbers 14:2. As figure 7.22 shows, the chorus builds in dynamic from a whisper to half-voice on indefinite pitch while reciting the text, ―Would to God we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt.‖ Following a strike on the bass drum at m. 13 (letter D), they repeat their text on pitch in a full-voice fortissimo. They do so over a tremolo on a pedal D that the strings begin in a sforzatissimo- piano. A roll on a suspended cymbal sounds as the passage crescendos to a fortississimo. 616 Figure 7.22: ―Would to God We Had Died,‖ mm. 1-8. 616 Of the fugal passage contained in mm. 1-12, in David Ward-Steinman, telephone conversation with the present writer, 8 May 2007, the composer noted that the ―fugue‖ connotes the ―flight‖ of the people from Moses. 414 Figure 7.22, continued: ―Would to God We Had Died,‖ mm. 9-18. 415 Subsequent to the singing of this introductory text, the accompaniment continues over four measures in a gradual crescendo in the winds and strings. The harmony heard over the course of this restless transition, illustrated in figures 7.22-7.23, includes quartal chords that contain both perfect 4 ths and tritones, as well as chords constructed in conventional tertian intervals. Measure 16 introduces a passage that features minor 9 ths descending chromatically in the bassoons. The root of the first dyad sounds a major 3 rd above the passage‘s tonal center and the root of the last dyad returns to it: G-flat – F – E – D-sharp – D. In mm. 17 and 18 the woodwinds and strings play a D 7 th chord with a split 3 rd and a split 5 th . The bass clarinet and cellos sustain the root D in m. 17. A solo horn plays the major 3 rd F-sharp in m. 17 and rises a major 7 th to sustain the minor 3 rd F into m. 18 with the piccolo and a flute that sustain the diminished 5 th and major 7 th . The English horn and 1 st violins then play a six-note figure that descends a tritone from an F to a B. The cellos imitate this figure tonally later in the measure in counterpoint with the bassoons and violas. Throughout the passage, the strings alternate between pizzicato and arco playing. Descending counterpoint in the bassoons, violas, and cellos that features harmonic intervals of diminished 5 ths leads into m. 19. There the trombones and tuba enter with insistently hammering eighth-note quartal chords played fortississimo over a root note C with doubling in the bass clarinet and bassoons. The tonally significant note in this passage is not the root C but the B-flat that sounds at the top of the chord in the 1 st trombone. Descending 5 ths and 4 ths , doubled in the piccolo, flutes, oboes, violins, and violas, conclude this passage coincident with a cadence into m. 20 (letter B). Following the four-measure transition, the chorus continues their portrayal of the mumbling of the children of Israel at m. 20 (letter B). Beginning in unison on an A and descending a major 7 th through an F-sharp into a new tonal center on B-flat they recite, ―O, if 416 we only had bread to eat!‖ In the accompaniment, the lower woodwinds, brass, and strings play a sforzatissimo repetition of the quartal chord built on C, which highlights the word ―only,‖ on the third beat of m. 20. A strike on the bass drum serves to accent this chord. In m. 21 a solo horn doubles the chorus‘s B-flat and a solo bassoon plays a five-note chromatic descent from G-flat to D-sharp that displaces itself down an octave by way of consecutive descending minor 9 ths . A rising contrapuntal figure played by a solo oboe and a solo bassoon (doubled by the 1 st violins and the cellos respectively) follows the bassoon‘s descent. The figure terminates in m. 22 in a new tonal area centered on the (subdominant) note E-flat. The E-flat repeats on beats two and three of the measure in the xylophone, violins, and violas coincident with a descending figure in the cellos: E-flat – D – D-flat. The cellos‘ chromatic descent frames the prior opening tonality and serves as a precursor to the music that follows in the chorus. Figure 7.23 illustrates this passage in its entirety. Figure 7.23: ―Would to God We Had Died,‖ mm. 19-20. 417 Figure 7.23, continued: ―Would to God W