Composers curriculum.pdf

8/10/2019 Composers curriculum.pdf

1/7

Curriculum for Composers

Author(s): Donald HarrisSource: College Music Symposium, Vol. 21, No. 2 (Fall, 1981), pp. 112-117Published by: College Music SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40374109.

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2/7

Campus

ocus

Curriculumor

Composers

Donald Harris

Hartt

ollege

f Music

UniversityfHartford

January

of

1980

I was

prompted

to

respond to

the

College

Music

Society's

all

for

papers

to

be read

at

the annual

meeting

he

following

November. was

concerned

by

the

way

composition

s

taught

today,

or

more

aptlyby questions

of

style

nd

technique

brought

o me

by my

stu-

dents

that

seemed

to lie outside

the

traditional

imits

f

compositional

curricula.

My

etter o the

programchairperson

uggested

panel

discus-

sion

on the

general

topic

of curriculumfor

composers

whereby

had

hoped to share some of these concerns withother nterested olleagues.

Perhaps

they

would share

their

own in return.

Having

studied

with

teacherswho felt

trongly

hat

omposition

ould

not

be

taught

the

prin-

cipal exponent

of this

position

being

Nadia

Boulanger),

as

well

as

with

those

who felt

hat

they

ould

(and

generally

would)

correct

ach

phrase

(if

not each

note)

I

brought

n,

had further

uggested

n

my

etter

o the

chairperson

hat this

n

itself

might

provide

an

appropriate

point

of

de-

parture

or

discussionwhichwould

nclude

such diverse

but

nterrelated

topics

s

style, heory,

erformance

f student

ompositions,

radition

s

opposed

to nnovation.

Sample questionsmightncludethefollowing:

1

Given

the

multiplicity

f

compositional

tyles

revalent

oday,

uti-

lizing

techniques

from

chance to serialization nd

everything

etween,

should

teachers

expose

studentsto all

and

expect

them

to

write

repre-

sentative

xamples

of

each,

much as students

ormerly

ere

required

to

write xercises

n

sixteenth-or

ighteenth-century

ontrapuntal

orms,

r

in

the traditional onal

forms

f

sonatas,

rondos,

nd the

ike?

2.

Is

a

thorough

familiarity

ith

oday's

vastly

xpanded

body

of

the-

oretical

knowledge important

o the

training

of the

young

composer?

Should he or

she be

expected

to act as

theorist,

riting

ssays

on

works

f

otherperiodsorother omposers, rquestionsofa generaltheoretical a-

ture,

s

complementary

o

traditional tudies of

harmony,

ounterpoint,

and other

subjects

of a

technicalnature?

3. Should

performance

ppor-

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3/7

CURRICULUM

FOR

COMPOSERS

113

tunities or he akeofexperimentationr mprovisation,ssentiallysk-

ing

the

young omposer

o act

n

place

of

the

composer's en

or

pencil,

coexist

with raditional

erformance

ractice

n

whichmusic s written

and conceived efore

eing

rought

o

the

performer?

4. In

short,

hat s

the ole f

radition

n

today's

urriculum?

hat

s

the ole

f

nnovation? here

hould

he

ine

be

drawn,

f t

s

to

be drawn

at

all,

and

who

does the

drawing? uccinctly,

oes the student ecide

questions

f

tyle,

nd

consequently

ecide s well

uestions

f

technique?

What re

the

relationships

etween he wo

n

today's

urricula?

As luckwould

have

t,

my

opic

was

approved,

utthe

panel

discus-

sionwas ost ntheshuffle,etweenmy riginal ropositionnd the re-

sponse

which

wasreceived

ater. still ad

the ame oncerns

onetheless,

and

if could notthrow

hem ut to a

group

of

colleagues,

nxious s

I

was

oelicit heir

esponses,

could

point

hem ut

for

eneral

iscussion,

hoping

hat therswould

eize

upon

my

remises

nd

perhaps

orce

de-

bate.

As luck

wouldfurther ave

t,

he

debatehad been

engaged

rather

decisively

n

a

New

York imes

nterviewf LucianoBerio

by

critic

ohn

Rockwell

n

Sunday,

ctober

9,

1980.

Towards he

midpoint

fthe rti-

cleMr.Rockwell rote:

Becauseofthe

eemingnonymity

f

American

ulture,

nd the

need

to

distinguish

neself oth

n

the market

lace

and

in

public

awareness,

r.Berio

feels hat

omposers

ere re

unduly

oncerned

with

stablishing

personal

tyle.

He

then

oes

on to

quote

Mr.

Berio:

Many

American

musicians

dopt

a

concept

hat s

borrowed

from

hevisual rts.

The

typical

ear

f the

painter

s thathe has

to

continue

odo

the

ame

picture,

r

otherwise

hey

won't

ecognize

im

anymore, ndhe won't ell. . . Styles a commodity.nceyou tart

even

hinking

n

terms f

tyle, ou're

ost.

There s

nothing

ew n

this ine of

thought.

first

eard of it

25

years

go

fromNadia

Boulanger,

who

maintained hat t was useless o

give

oo much

hought

o

style.

he

insisted hat

ll

one

had

to do was to

direct ne's attention

xclusively

o the

tudy

f

craft,

armony,

ounter-

point,

rchestrationnd

the ike.

remember

ery istinctly

conversa-

tion

n which he

said,

I

cannot

each

you

what

r

how

o

compose,

ut

canteach

you

what

ou

needto

become

composer.

he

would

definitely

have greedwith erio. suspect hat hechastisedmore han neof her

Americantudents or

hinking

oo

much bout

tyle,

much n the ame

manner s Berio's

dmonition.

remember nother

onversation,

his



4/7

1

14 COLLEGE

MUSIC

SYMPOSIUM

time boutJeanFran^aix,her most uccessful rench tudent fcomposi-

tion.

She would

cite

him

as

the

perfect xample

of a

composer

completely

master

f

his craft.

Whatever ne could

say

of the

quality

f

his

music,

she would

maintain,

there

could be no

question

that

t was

well

written

and

put

together.

very

note

was

at its

place.

There

is

explicit

n

this

ine

of

thinking

he

presumption

hat

style

can

be

considered

ndependently

f craft

or

technique)

nd

consequently

unrelated

o how

a

piece

of

music s

composed. Perhaps

n

one

way

Made-

moiselle

Boulanger

was

responding

omewhat

defensively

o

many

of

my

own

generation

who

feltthe music of

Jean

Frangaix

to be of

less

conse-

quence than thatofmanyothercomposersof whomone would not con-

template

eparating

craftfrom

style.

doubt,

for

nstance,

hat

f

hard

pressed

she would

have

maintained

such an inflexible

view

towards

Stravinsky's

music.

I

remember nother

occasion,

on

bringing

o

my

es-

son a

score of

Stravinsky's

hen

recently

omposed

Septet

nd

pointing

out its

mbryonic

se of

serial

technique.

was

literally

tunned

by

her

re-

ply,

It is

merely

n old man

playing

with

his

ewels.

She

could

not

bring

herself o admitthat

tylistic

onsiderations

ad

brought

travinsky

o the

verge

of

accepting compositional

echnique

which

up

to that

point

both

Boulanger

and

Stravinsky

ad

totally ejected.But thiswas a

quarter

of

a

century

go,

whenneitherof themwas

confronted

by

the

multiplicity

f

stylistic

onsiderations

with

which

we

must

ontend

today,

long

withMr. Berio and

Mr. Rockwell.

To

continue,

Mr.

Berio himself

will

never be accused of

sticking

tubbornly

o

one

technique.

ndeed,

his career has

been

marked

by

the

omnivorous

m-

brace of

styles

nd ideas.

Traditionally

rained

by

his

musician

family

and at the Milan

Conservatory,

e turnedto serialism

n

the

50's,

then

to

electronic

music,

hento

ndeterminacy

nd

performer

hoice,

then

to

historical

clecticism. t is hard to thinkof a

contemporary

ech-

niquehe has not nvestigatedndepth,and very ften upposedlycon-

tradictory

echniques

flourish

ide

by

ide

in the same

work.

And

once

again

to Mr.

Berio:

I

am

trying

o

discover

unity

etween

points

that re

very

far

apart.

I

think t

s a

duty

for

musician

oday

and

not

only

for

musician

to

be aware

of

the

multiplicity

f

things.

Maybe

that comes

from

being

Italian

-

the

tendency

to

bring

things

together,

to

harmonize

conflicting

hings.

I

suspect

that

Mademoiselle

Boulanger

and Mr. Berio

would have

parted companybythis ime.Surely heshoppingbasket pproach to the

compositional

upermarket

was as

foreign

to the

distinguished

French

teacher as

would

have been

the

systematic

pproach

to traditional

har-



5/7


6/7


7/7

CURRICULUM FOR

COMPOSERS

117

I guess, herefore,hat amamong hosewhobelieve hat omposi-

tion

an

be

taught,

hat

echniques

an

be

earned,

nd that ssues

f

style

must

e

raised

nd discussed.

n

fact,

would onsider

his o

be

my

redo

as a

teacher. am not o

sureof

t,however,

hat wouldnotwish

o dis-

cuss

t

with ther

eachers

nd

composers.

uestions

bout the teach-

ing

of

composition

re

serious

ones,

and

even

after considerable

thought

hey

an remain

onfused,

s the

examples

have raised

bove

may

have

demonstrated.

or this

eason lone

they

merit

ur continued

attention,

nd deserve o be reexamined

rom ime o

time. do not

be-

lieve hat

we want

o run

the

risk f

misleading

ur students.

or

do

we

wish o feel hat hey avebeenshortchangedecausewe havefailed o

place

new

developments

uch as

indeterminacy

n

perspective,

r

neglected

o redefine ld

ones such as historicalclecticism

hich

eap-

pear

n unaccustomed

ays.

believe hatwe must

how hem

he

ways

o

technical

astery,

nd

show

hem

ow o

distinguish

etween

uestions

f

technique

nd

style

with

which,

n

all

ikelihood,

hey

will e confronted

throughout

heir ives.

t seems o me

that fwe havedone

this,

we

have

done

our

best.There

will

lways

e

new

directions

n

both

tyle

nd tech-

nique.

t

is our task s

teachers and as

composers

to

know

which

s

which,nd togoon from here.

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