This show, first broadcast on December 6, 2015, looks at the twilight of neo-classical composition in the 1940s and 1950s. As an idiom for modernists who resisted atonality, neo-classicism continued to attract interest in these years, with notable scores from England’s Ralph Vaughan Williams and Americans Paul Bowles and Elliott Carter. Igor Stravinsky was then still the style’s chief exponent, although he (along with Carter) would go on to write atonal scores in the 1950s. A postmodern approach to the use of classical forms is also considered in electronic music co-composed by John Cage and Lejaren Hiller. Carter, Cage, and Hiller are quoted from my own interviews with them. Works heard are:
IGOR STRAVINSKY
Ebony Concerto (1945)
The Rake’s Progress, Act III, Scene 2 (1951) [excerpt]
PAUL BOWLES
Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra (1949)
RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS
Concerto Grosso (1950)
ELLIOTT CARTER
Sonata for Flute, Oboe, Cello, and Harpsichord (1952)
JOHN CAGE & LEJAREN HILLER
HPSCHD (1968)
Link to:
Music: SFCR Radio Shows 2012–2018
For more on these composers, see:
Music Book: Historical Dictionary of Modern and Contemporary Classical Music, Second Edition
More Cool Sites To Visit! – Music
For more on Paul Bowles, John Cage, Elliott Carter, and Igor Stravinsky, see:
Music Lecture: “Intense Purity of Feeling”: Béla Bartók and American Music
For more on John Cage, see:
Film Review: Prism’s Colors, The Mechanics of Time
Music Book: Sonic Transports – Glenn Branca essay, part 1
Music Essay: The Beaten Path: A History of American Percussion Music
Music Lecture: King of the Omniverse: Sun Ra and His Arkestra
Music Lecture: The Secret of 20th-Century American Music
Music: KALW Radio Show #3, Ancient China in 20th-Century Music
Music: SFCR Radio Show #4, Postmodernism, part 1: Three Founders
Music: SFCR Radio Show #8, Daoism in Western Music, part 1
Music: SFCR Radio Show #19, The Percussion Ensemble
Music: SFCR Radio Show #25, Schoenberg in America
Music: SFCR Radio Show #29, Electro-Acoustic Music, part 1: New Instruments
For more on John Cage, Elliott Carter, and Lejaren Hiller, see:
Music Book: Soundpieces: Interviews with American Composers
For more on Igor Stravinsky, see:
Music: KALW Radio Show #7, In Tribute
Music: SFCR Radio Show #20, Neo-Classicism, part 1
Music: SFCR Radio Show #21, Neo-Classicism, part 2
Music: SFCR Radio Show #27, 20th-Century Music on the March
For more on Ralph Vaughan Williams, see:
Music: KALW Radio Show #6, Gender Variance in Western Music, part 2: Female-to-Male Representations
Music: SFCR Radio Show #11, Two Symphonies from 1934
NICOLE V. GAGNÉ 