American Music’s Best Friend
by Sedgwick Clark
It was in 1969, as a reference librarian at the University music library, that Vivian Perlis began taping interviews with many friends and colleagues of Charles Ives and subsequently fashioned them into a revelatory, award-winning book for the composer’s centennial in 1974, Charles Ives Remembered: An Oral History (Yale University Press). Here she is, speaking about the genesis of her invaluable Oral History of American Music (OHAM) at Yale.
“[T]he university librarian at that time told me when I wanted to broaden the project and work with many composers that he really did not see that he would want anything but written material in his library.”
Holy cow! Talk about short-sightedness.
This quote leapt out at me from an article about Perlis and OHAM by Laura Pelligrinelli on the Internet yesterday, forwarded to me by MA.com’s intrepid editor, Susan Elliott. As we know, Perlis wrote and collaborated on several more books that even her old (in every sense of the word) boss would want in the Yale Library:
- An Ives Celebration (University of Illinois Press, 1977), edited with H. Wiley Hitchcock
Copland, 1900 through 1942 (St. Martin’s/Marek, 1984), with Aaron Copland
Copland, Since 1943 (St. Martin’s Press, 1989), with Aaron Copland
Composers’ Voices from Ives to Ellington (Yale University Press, 2005), with Libby Van Cleve
Paperback versions of all but the last named are available, and in December The Complete Copland will be published, which is certain to contain new material. It’s a tossup as to which composer benefited most from her scholarship: the irascible Uncle Charlie or the man generally considered to have been America’s greatest composer. Ives was revealed in myriad ways by those still alive who knew him best, and Copland received an autobiography at last. He had wanted one for some time, but by his late seventies his memory had begun to fail and he needed a knowledgeable collaborator to help dredge up and organize his thoughts. Perlis was perfect. With infinite patience and wisdom she produced a pair of books in which Copland’s voice was identical to that in his many writings, lectures, and interviews over his long life. To flesh out the composer’s words, she added those of his colleagues recorded for her Oral History program and her own insightful comments.
It was “a musical autobiography,” said Copland to those who questioned the lack of his private life in the book. That’s what he wanted. Of course it was inevitable in our tell-all world that his private life would be revealed—along with those of other homosexual American composers who preferred to remain in the closet. For that, one may refer to Ned Rorem’s diaries, Joan Peyser’s psycho-biography of Bernstein (Beech Tree Books, 1987), which claimed to be the first to “out” American composers and performers, and Howard Pollack’s biography of Copland (Henry Holt, 1999). Paul Moor dealt with this question in his review of the second Copland/Perlis volume in the May 1990 issue of Musical America. He concluded, “[The first] volume made fascinating reading; this one tops it.”
Perlis herself addresses Copland’s private life and his memory failure on pages 294-98 of the Ives to Ellington volume. For the so-called “general” American music reader, this is an ideal bedside table companion. One can open it at random to read the composers and their friends in their own words, interlaced with Perlis’s perceptive comments about all things germane. Two CDs of the composers’ voices are included. And as with all her other books, the photos are fabulous!
On April 8 at Zankel Hall, the Yale School of Music presented “Voices of American Music: a tribute to OHAM on its 40th anniversary.” American composers I saw included Musical America Composers of the Year Ellen Taaffe Zwilich (1999) and Steve Reich (2001), and I’m sure there were dozens more. Several Yale musicians performed music by Ives, Copland, Zwilich, Ellington, Blake, Reich, Druckman, and Cage, concluding with Fanfare for the Common Man. I was over at the Philharmonic for the program’s first half and only arrived in time for Reich’s New York Counterpoint (1985), played by clarinetist Richard Stoltzman, who gave its first performance. All performances were excellent, but I was bowled over by Cage’s exhilarating Third Construction (1941). Mark, you shoulda been there! Several percussionists played cymbals, cowbells, claves, teponaxtle (a Mexican drum), quijadas (jaw bones), tin cans, rattles, conch shell, lion’s roar, and many other instruments. I was particularly thrilled to be so close to the lion’s roar—one of Varèse’s favorite instruments—and see how it was “played.” Believe it or not, the Copland Fanfare at the end was actually anticlimactic! Interspersed between the music were audio and video recordings of the composers.
This was ostensibly a tribute to OHAM, but we all know who is most deserving of our tribute. I first met Vivian in 1974, at the Ives Centennial concerts in New York. Charles Ives Remembered had just been published, and she had given me editorial advice for the cover article on Ives in the long-gone FM Guide, which I edited. She has given me invaluable advice and assistance over the years with articles on American composers in Keynote, another magazine I edited, and with various Musical America composer tributes.
She has been, and remains, simply, the American composer’s best friend.
Perspectives on Andriessen
Unfortunate scheduling has led to my being away when Musical America‘s 2010 Composer of the Year, Louis Andriessen, will be in New York for his Carnegie Hall “Perspectives” concerts. All readers should go and enjoy in my stead and tell me next week what they thought! Hear that, Sarah and Zizi?
The Russian Stravinsky
The music season’s most exciting event starts next Wednesday—seven programs of Stravinsky, with Valery Gergiev leading the New York Philharmonic. Anyone who loves music should hie to Avery Fisher Hall’s box office ASAP.