THE AMERICAN RECORDER SOCIETY 114 East 85th Street, New York 28, N. Y. Founded in 1939 by Suzanne Bloch

OFFICERS

LaNOUE DAVENPORT, President I A.C. GLASSGOLD, Vice President I DONNA HILL, Secretary/ YRSA DAMMAN GEIST, Asst. Secretary I MARVIN ROSENBERG, Treasurer I RALPH TAYLOR, Asst. Treasurer

NEWSLETTER

MARTHA BIXLER, Editor 359 East 68th Street New York 21, N.Y.

No. 37 July 1959

NATIONAL NEWS

With this issue we announce with regret the resignation of Dr. Erich Katz as Musical Director of the American Recorder Society. Dr. Katz, who is retiring also from his position as head of the composi-tion department at the New York College of Music and from his teaching at the New School and the College of the City of New York, will leave New York City this summer to take up permanent residence in Santa Barbara, California.

The leadership and influence of Dr. Katz, a pioneer in the recorder movement in this country, have extended far beyond his position as Musical Director of the ARS. As editor of the ARS editions, he has contributed immeasurably to the pleasure of recorder groups by providing music composed or arranged especially for them.

Recorder players the world over have diligently worked through his famous method, Recorder Playing, his Duet Books and his many other editions of recorder music, have been inspired by his per-formance in person or on recordings, and have received the benefit of his learning by studying with him or with his pupils. Those of us who have known him personally, as Director, teacher, adviser and friend, will miss him most, but a debt of grati-tude for his years of tireless effort on behalf of the American Recorder Society is shared by the entire membership. Dr. Katz takes with him to California our very best wishes for a complete recovery from his recent illness, for a well-earned rest, and for a happy life in that beautiful part of the world.

On May 16, 1959, the first annual business meeting of the American Recorder Society was held at the New York College of Music, national headquarters of the Society. The meeting marked the beginning of a new era for the ARS. The acceptance, by the meeting, of the new By-Laws of the organization, and the election of a Board of Directors were the final steps in the incorporation of the Society, a project which has been under way for nearly two years.

The Directors, elected by a secret ballot vote of the membership, are as follows: for two years; Martha Bixler, LaNoue Davenport, Bernard Krainis, Shelley Gruskin, Joel Newman; for one year; A. C. Glassgold, Albert Hess, Johanna Kulbach, Elizabeth Watson, Marvin Rosenberg.

Members at the meeting voted unanimously to appoint, with thanks and appreciation for his long and devoted service, Dr. Erich Katz the Honorary President of the American Recorder Society. Leaving active service also is Winifred Jaeger,

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for many years Treasurer of the ARS, and assistant to Dr. Katz in the administration of Society affairs. The meeting voted unanimously to appoint Miss Jaeger Honorary Vice President.

On Sunday morning, May 17th, members of the Society who were assembled in New York for the annual meeting attended David Dushkin's lecture, with slides, on historical and structural aspects of the recorder, a repeat performance of his talk for the Boston chapter March 14th. In the evening the annual concert was presented in Carnegie Recital Hall. This year we were fortunate in having The Antiqua Players of Pittsburgh, Colin Sterne, Director, as guest artists. A reception for the artists followed the concert at the apartment of A. C. Glassgold.

LANOUE DAVENPORT NEW PRESIDENT OF

AMERICAN RECORDER SOCIETY

The first President of the American Recorder Society, chosen by a unanimous vote of the Board of Directors on May 28, 1959, is LaNoue Davenport, well known recorder player, teacher, and for 3 years editor of the ARS Newsletter. Mr.

Davenport assumes his duties as President on July lst. other new officers appointed by the Board of Directors are A. C. Glassgold, Vice President, Donna Hill, Secretary, Yrsa Damman Geist, assistant Secretary, Marvin Rosenberg, Treasurer, and Ralph Taylor, assistant Treasurer. The newly appointed officers, the Directors elected at the annual meeting, and one representative from each chapter will henceforth comprise the Executive Board of the American Recorder Society.

At the May 28th meeting also Joel Newman was appointed editor of the ARS music editions and Martha Bixler editor (for this issue) of the Newsletter.

The incorporation of the American Recorder Society and the reorganization of its administrative body are a part of the expansion of our organization, which now has over 600 members in the United States and foreign countries including Norway, Turkey, Vietnam, England, Canada and Australia. Membership, we hope and expect, will' continue to increase, as interest in the music and instruments of the recorder era continues to grow in this country and abroad. With its Newsletter as an organ of information and the exchange of news and views, its ARS editions of music for recorders, its encouragement of ensemble playing and the formation of recorder centers in the United States, the Recorder Society is becoming more and more a part of the American musical scene. As the recorder movement grows, so do we; our goal is no less than that every recorder player in this country should eventually become a member of the American Recorder Society, and that the Society should serve its members well.

EDITORIAL

Since the end of World War II the American musical scene has undergone, at least in New York, a drastic transforma-tion. The main outlines of this trans-formation have been backward in time, as the number of groups and individuals interested in "early" or pre-Bach music have multiplied with amazing rapidity. Much of this interest has been stimulateQ by recorder players and musicians who have, from various other musical activities, engaged themselves in the

study of.the recorder and the music of the periods when this instrument flourished.

A major figure in stimulating this trans-formation has been the retiring Musical Director of The American Recorder Society, Dr. Erich Katz, composer, teacher, musicologist, and devoted encourager of young seekers after knowledge. As a composer, he has contributed several of the most important contemporary works for recorders, plus vocal works based on old texts, and harkening back to old forms, but thoroughly modern in the best sense of the word; as a teacher, his students must literally number in the thousands, many of whom have gone on to contribute professionally themselves to the growing 11early music movement; 11 as a musicologist, he has generously shared his extensive learning with numerous others in the cause of authentic recreation of these works about which, even today, comparatively little is known. But with all these activities, it is probably in his capacity as Musical Director of the American Recorder Society that he has done most all over the country to disseminate informa-tion and enthusiasm for the music and composers he loves best of all. Shortly over ten years ago, when he attended his first meeting of The American Recorder Society, that group consisted of a bare dozen or so players, the remnants of the organization started in 1939 by Suzanne Bloch, but which had been allowed to languish during the war years. Due mainly to his efforts, the organization has been built up to the present one of 10 chapters in the U.S., the sponsor of nearly forty editions of music and a quarterly Newsletter, and a growing, lively, dynamic force in American musical life.

In retiring as musical director Erich Katz has placed a large burden on the shoulders of those who would replace him. However, he has left us a sturdy, solid organization which we will endeavor to tend with the same care and devotion he has lavished on it over the past ten and more years.

LaNoue Davenport

- 3 -Note: The regular installment of A. Rowland Jones' article on Technique is omitted from this issue of the Newsletter. Publication will be resumed with the October issue.

BOOK REVIEW

The Inter retation of Music. By Thurston Dart. Hutchinson's University Library, Music Series.) London: Hutchinson House, 1954, 1958. Available in U. S. A. from McGinnis & Marx, 408 Second Avenue, New York 10, N. Y. (x, ll-192 p., music, bibl., 12 mo; $2.50)

The major role Of the recorder today is in recreating the music of the past. It has a small though growing contemporary literature, but in the main its function in the current musical scene is restricted to works of the Renaissance and Baroque periods. Thus, recorder players are faced with the problem of learning performance practices of these ages and matters of style, in addition to mastering technical aspects of playing the instru-ment. Music is obviously an auditory rather than visual art, so interpretation is best learned by careful listening to accomplished artists. Phonograph records are an invaluable aid in this respect, We can learn much from reading, however, and Thurston Dart's book on The Inter-pretation of Music is perhaps the best introduction available today.

Mr. Dart, a brilliant harpsichordist and erudite scholar, is a Fellow of Jesus Col-lege, Cambridge, and a University Lecturer in Music. He writes well, has a good grasp of historical perspective, and is able to convey his enthusiasms to the reader.

But why a book on interpretation at all? We have many composers' original manu-scripts, and more and more urtext editions are becoming available. True, but this is not the problem. The difficulty involves communication and the meanings of signs and symbols. The same word or group of sounds may mean one thing in one language, and have a very different meaning in another - or in the same language at a different time or place. An obvious example for recorder players is the word "flute. n

Time and usage change the meanings of words, and they also bring changes in the

meanings of musical notation, as well as in what is not written but assumed to be common knowledge. Dart states it thus: "Each period of musical history will present certain cardinal problems of style to the student of interpretation; these problems may be notational conventions; which will mislead the performer unless he has been warned of their existence, or conventions of performance, concerned with dynamics, articulation, sonorities, phras-ing, and so on. 11

Thus, today music of the recent past, the 19th century, is the easiest to recreate for the simple reason that we have a living tradition of performance customs. This is not true of some contemporary music, where new traditions must be created, and also not true of early music where we have little or no information as to how it was actually played.

In the case of the 18th century, the problem is not too little information, but too much! This is especially true of ornaments, where there is considerable disagreement among the "authorities." Dart's wise comment on the subject is well worth g_uoting: "Ornaments are delicate, instinctive things; if they are not ornamental they are worse than useless, and anxiety about the right way to play them must never be allowed to cloud a performer's sense of the underlying structure of the music they adorn."

Following a detailed statement of the problem, the author devotes separate chapters to "The Editor's Task, " "Sonorities, 11 ''Extemporization," ''Style in the Eighteenth Century," "Style in the Seventeenth Century," "The Renaissance, 11

"The Middle Ages, " and closes with "Some Conclusions." The appendices include several pages of musical illustrations, a useful glossary, a list of source material, and suggestions for further reading.

The recorder player will find specific mention of the instrument under the discussions of various sonorities and instrumental combinations used in 17th century England and Italy, Renaissance Italy and Germany, and the Middle Ages. More than that, he will gain increased perspective regarding the role of the recorder in music-making throughout the

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history of Western culture. This little book deserves careful reading by everyone interested in the performance of early music. It is highly recommended.

Dale S • Higbee

MUSIC REVIEWS

Suite for Recorder Consort and Percussion by Erich Katz. Carl Van Roy, Inc., Brooklyn, N. Y.

This contemporary work reunites those ancient companions of the era of tabor and pipe: the recorders and the percussion instruments. The titles of the four move-ments - Prelude, March, Divisions on a Ground, Bongo Dance - indicate that the composer looks forward as well as back-ward; indeed, this is one of the most rewarding recorder compositions in truly contemporary idiom. The expression "rewarding" is used advisedly, for this work has not only pleased audiences com-prising musical novices as well as sophisticates, but its effect amply repays whatever rehearsal effort has gone into it. Of intermediate difficulty, the suite presents principally rhythmic complexities, once the idiom is mastered these complex-ities do not represent obstacles. The use of the instruments in polyphonic and harmonic interrelationshiips and the choice of instrumental ranges all indicate that the composer is attuned to recorder sonorities and well acg_uainted with the technical resources of the recorder.

Arthur L. Loeb

ARS Edition No. 36

GUILLAUME DUFAY: Vergine Bella. Arranged for 3 recorders (with voice ad libitum) by Erich Katz.

It is no exaggeration to say this work, set to a text by Petrarca, is one of the most beautiful pieces of the musical literature of all times. Somewhere be-tween chanson and motet, it shows the beginnings of imitative counterpoint as we know it, applied in a way that combines melodic simplicity and sophistication and a harmonic texture full of surprises, with results paralleling the masterworks of Dufay's great contemporaries, the painter brothers Van Eyck.

The ''musica ficta, " the Renaissance set of rules governing the use of accidentals in music, poses a few problems in edit-ing this work. Various existing editions as well as recordings offer different solutions. The one attempted here cer-tainly does not claim to be the only valid one. One slight error in a footnote may be corrected at this occasion: if voice is used in the performance, the soprano recorder may alternate with it, or it may play along all the time. The latter way may even be preferable if the piece is played as published, in the high register (s, A or T, A or T) to avoid awkward invervsions. But if the work is played in its original range, i.e. one octave lower than published (T,B,B), alternating is probably the most satisfying means of performance.

E. K.

Melodies Through the es. Album for Tenor or Soprano Recorder and Piano. Selected and arranged by Dam Gregory Murray. Schott & Co. Ltd.

Material for tenor recorder is so rare chat it is with great regret I must report this album of the indefatigable Dam Murray to be a most tasteless turkey of a collection. Byrd, Bull, L. Couperin and Bach keyboard and vocal works -- yes, indeed; but Haydn, Mozart, Schubert, Brahms, Tchaikovsky and Dvorak morceaux --well, no thanks! There are limits even for members of the arrangers' fraternity. As a member of that clan, I should like to have my colleagues subscribe yearly to the following formula: hands off classic, romantic and post-romantic music; it sounds ridiculous on the recorder. And for goodness' sake, present complete pieces, not one-page, bleeding cutlets from concertos and symphonies!

Second Handel Album. Arranged by Walter Bergmann for Soprano and Alto Recorders and Piano, or Soprano, Alto and Tenor Recorders with Piano ad lib. Schott & Co. Ltd. (RMS 918).

Fans of Mr. Bergmann's earlier collection rill welcome this attractive set

for recorder trio (SAT) with or without keyboard. Should the piano be used, which would be in line with the manner of performing music in Handel's time, the

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tenor may be omitted. The contents, most of them "celebrated pieces" are drawn from the oratorios Judas Maccabeus and Saul, the operas Julius Caesar and

and from the Water Music Suite. With one exception, they were all originally instrumental pieces, none of them scored explicitly for recorder. Be that as it may, Mr. Bergmann has arranged them felicitously and they ought to please players in this Handel or any other year.

G. F. Handel. Three Original Compositions for Soprano Recorders and Strings. Edited and Arranged from the Original Scores by Walter Bergmann. Schott & Co. Ltd. Series for Recorders and Strings No. 14.

A pair of Menuets and a pair of Gigues from the Water Music Suite, and a Tamburino from the finale of the opera, Alcina-- and in Handel's own scoring for "flauti piccoli," strings and basso continuo. School performances might try to approximate the Handel orchestra, with at least two soprano recorders, several violins I and II, violas, cellos, bassoon and harpsichord or piano. However, since Handel does a good deal of doubling, a minimum of one recorder, two violins and keyboard can suffice.

All three pieces are charmers. The usual balance problems are missing since the recorder floats high above the strings. Even the frequent "social" problem of the violinist at playing second fiddle to a recorder is obviated since the second Menuet and Gigue are recorder-less and the strings hold full sway. The Tamburino, incidentally, provides the recorder soloist with some fairly easily mastered, showy passage work.

Mr. Bergmann's editorial work has consist-ed in assigning the "flauti pic coli" to soprano recorders, providing a simple key-board realization (though he should have included Handel's figuring for the Water Music pieces), adding dynamic marks and bowing (the latter by Freda Dinn), and suggesting da capo performance for the paired dances.

Joel Newman

Editor's Note: We regret that through an oversight the name of the reviewer,

Bernard Krainis, was omitted from the final group of Music Reviews in the April issue of the Newsletter.

NEW BRITTEN OPERA

Reports come in from every hand on per-formances of Benjamin Britten's Noye's Fludde, a musical setting of the famous Chester miracle play for a small group of professional singers and players and "immense q_uanti ties" of children. This work, which was premiered in England a year ago, received its American premiere

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on March 16th and 17th at the Union Theological Seminary in New York, and its Midwest premiere on April 26th at the Plymouth Congregational Church in Des Moines. Of particular interest to recorder players is the fact that Mr. Britten has provided parts for a dozen or so (one performance included 8 players, another 14) recorders. We understand from what we have heard about it that the combination of a very old (16th century) text with Mr. Britten's modern setting using string orchestra, bells, percussion, trumpets and recorders, adult and children's voices, is enchanting. The opera is a religious work, intended for performance in a church, and the congregation is called upon to participate in the singing of hymns.

At the New York presentation Joel Newman was the featured alto soloist, and Roger W. Tate was soloist in Des Moines.

CHAPTER NEWS

Boston

Boston announces plans for a third Recorder Workshop next season under the direction of Carl Dolmetsch and Joseph Saxby. The workshop, which is under the auspices of the Boston Chapter and the Longy School of Music, will be held December llth, 12th and 13th at the Longy School and the M.I.T. Kresge Auditorium. Chairman of the Dolmetsch weekend is Dr. Angela Owen.

Activities in the Boston area this spring include, besides the monthly meetings, a performance April 3rd by the Boston Recorder Consort at Rindge Tech Auditorium

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and an informal concert by the intermediate and advanced groups of the Boston Chapter at the Appalachian Mountain Club Lodge in Ponkapoag, Mass. Sounds like fun; the rank and file get a chance to perform, for a change.

President of the Boston Chapter for the year 1959-60 is Ellen Powers; the corre-sponding secretary is Morna Crawford.

Informal meetings of the Boston Chapter. will continue throughout the summer at the homes of individual members.

Washington

At their April 4th meeting members of the Washington Chapter were entertained by the Northern Virginia Recorder Consort and the Cleveland Park Consort. On May 23rd the Washington Recorder Society sponsored a concert of baroq_ue music held at the John Wesley Powell Auditorium.

Chicago

The April 21st meeting of the Chicago Chapter was conducted by K. Bowers, one of the musical directors. In the nature of a different type of performance after the group playing, the Monteverdi Singers of Chicago sang a group of Monteverdi madrigals conducted by George Schuman.

The first annual concert of the Chicago Chapter was held on May 16th in Curtis Hall of the Fine Arts Building. A wide variety of music, including a premiere performance of a suite for 3 recorders bv Robert Gordon, was presented.

New York

Final meetings of the New York Chapter were those under the direction of Bernard Krainis on April 17th and Suzanne Bloch on June 5th. The April 17th meeting marked the debut performance of the Krainis Consort (Paul Jordan, Bernard Krainis, Joel Newman, Morris Newman, Daniel Waitzman) which was enthusiasti-cally received. Miss Bloch's meeting was rather different from the usual run, as there was no performance during inter-mission, but rather a running anecdotal commentary from Miss Bloch, founder of the American Recorder Society, on the early days of the Society, its present state,

and the general musical scene. Miss Bloch had composed some music especially for this meeting, and those members present l.abored mightily to play it back to her. nis lively meeting was our last of the

season. Autumn should bring some changes, both in the form of our meetings and the locale.

CONCERTS

April 5: The Hyde Park Recorder Consort, under the direction of Gretel Dunsing, in the auditorium of George Williams College, Chicago.

April 30: Amor Musicae at the New School, New York City.

May ll: James Shirley's masque, Cupid and Death, presented by Antient Concerts in Pittsburgh.

July 24: Manhattan Consort at the Hotchkiss School, Lakeville, Conn.

'tober 18 and December 10: Amor Musicae presents Carl Dolmetsch and Joseph Saxby in two programs, the first in Town Hall, the second at Carnegie Recital Hall, New York City.

October 24: Antient Concerts presents Carl Dolmetsch and Joseph Saxby, Carnegie Lecture Hall, Pittsburgh.

FOR SALE

Dolmetsch ottavina spinet. 4 octaves, carrying bag. Good condition. Call J. Newman, AC 2-9544, New York City.

Barenreiter alo recorder and case. Very good instrument. $15.00 Mrs. J. Gaillard, 135 Old Palisade Road, Fort Lee, N. J. Telephone WI 7-3430.

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REPORT ON THE ACTIVITIES OF THE CHICAGO CHAPTER, 1958-1959

The following report from the Chicago chapter on activities during its first year has just been received. We are pleased to be able to print it in its entirety.

I. Organization

Interested persons met in August, 1958, to form the steering committee for the first

The steering committee met in September, 1958, and assumed the following offices:

President., ••......... Edward J. Kahn First Vice President .• Ray M. Johnson Second Vice President.Milton Yusem Secretary ....••...••.. Rose Rosser Treasurer ....•.•..•.•• Bob Williams Public Relations Dir •. Ada Kahn

A set of by-laws were drawn up, duplicated, and ready for distribution at the first general meeting.

II. Directors

Four musical directors were named by the steering committee and participated in meet-ings during the year. They are Katherine Bowers, Gretel Dunsing, Sam Lesner, and James Mack.

III. Meetings

October 20, 1958: Of 72 people present, 25 new members joined. Gretel Dunsing, musical director, led group playing from Simpson Elizabethan and Jacobean books.

A group, composed of Gretel and Paul Dunsing, soprano and bass recorders, Jacqueline Falk, alto, Elizabeth Wilkins, alto, and Helene Alter, soprano voice, played the following selections: Tanzleid #land Abenleid #5 by Heinrich and the Bach Chorale, "Shall I Not Sing To My God."

10, 1958: Katherine Bowers (Mrs. Wm. B.) led the group in selections from the Elizabethan and Jacobean books, and also some carols from the Simpson book. Under her direction, a grqup composed of Louise Lusker, soprano voice, gave a Cantaga, "Coridon" by Pepusch and a Suite of Jewish Folk tunes for three recorders by Erich Katz, with Mrs. Bowers playing recorder.

February 12, 1959: Sam Lesner led the group playing in an "Easter Theme" by Ervin Henning, and two pieces from the Recorder Consort Book II by Erich Katz. Robert Gordon was introduced, who, with Katherine Bowers and Edward Paul played "A Little Suite for Three Recorders" - his first composition for recorder. Ralph Wriston and Sam Lesner then performed the Sonata #2 by van Brughe for alto and tenor.

Mr. Richard Weiss, American representative of the Weiss Recorder factory in Germany was introduced, and spoke briefly on the manufacturing of recorders.

March l, 1959: James Mack led group play-ing of the 8 part Tulerunt Dominum Meum by Josquin des Pres.

Katherine Bowers, James Mack and Louise Lusker played several 16th Century Italian Villanellas.

Gretel Dunsing's Hyde Park Recorder Consort gave a short performance, including: Fuge II for S.A.T. from J.S. Bach, Two Fugues -Hargail Classical Anthology Setting by M. Kolinski and two five part German Madrigals for which Helene Alter sang soprano voice: Innsbruck, ich muss dich lassen - H. Isaac (15th century) and Tanzen und Sprungen-Hans Lee Hassler (16th century).

April 21, 1959: Katherine Bowers led group playing of Schein, Suite #10. The Monte-verdi Singers of Chicago, under the direc-tion of George Schumann, sang five 16th century madrigals. Others in the group were: Marilyn Fillis, Beatrice Posthoff, Joan Hannauer, Robert O'Mara, and James McClure.

IV. Membership of Chicago Chapter

Since the first meeting in September, 1958, the group has grown to a total of over 80 members.

V. Publicity

News releases concerning each of the city-wide meetings were sent to all metropolitan and major neighborhood newspapers. Re-leases on the various officers of the Chapter were sent to papers "in the areas where officers reside.

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A special feature on the Chicago Chapter was published in the February 8, 1959, edi-tion of the SUNDAY STAR, a newspaper de-livered to all homes in the north side of the city. The picture showed four members, and the quarter page article covered in-formation on the recorder, on the Chicago group and the American Recorder Society.

A color picture showing a family playing recorders was featured on the February 28, 1959, cover of WEEK-END magazine, week-end supplement to the Chicago Daily News. The photo showed four sizes of recorders being played in a home setting. An inside full page discussed the Chicago Chapter and its growth.

Several times throughout the year, spot announcements were made on FM station WFMT concerning meetings and the concert.

VI. Concert

The Chicago Chapter's first concert was held in Curtis Hall, 410 South Michigan Avenue, on May 16.

The program drew an audience of over 350, and it was felt to be a success by every-one.

VII. Other Activities

Members had the opportunity to purchase tickets to the concert given by the New York Pro Musica.

After the concert, a reception was held for the musicians and members of the Chicago Chapter.

Many groups of members performed at various times throughout the year. Neighborhood meetings were held; players in these are too numerous to mention.

VIII. New Officers

At the meeting of June 17, officers were elected for the 1959-1960 season. They are:

(Mrs.)Esther Olson ..•..• President Ray Anthony .....•.••.••• lst Vice President Milton Yusem •••••••...•• 2nd Vice Presidf Harriet White ..•..•.•..• Treasurer Rachel •.••••••.•.• Publicity Chairman

Ray Anthony will be Chicago's member on the national Executive Board.