Concerto Pour Violon Et Orchestre (1938) by Wilhelm Furtwängler; Yehudi Menuhin; Béla Bartók; Philharmonia Orchestra La Voix De Son Maître (2C 053-01322 / 2C 053-01.322 P)

 2 C 053-01322  

Bêla Bartok  

Dix ans plus tôt,. Bartok s'était préparé en écrivant deux  

Rhapsodies pour violon et piano (la première dédiée à Jozsef  
Szigeti, la seconde à Zoltan Szekely) qu'il avait aussitôt trans¬  
crites pour violon et orchestre. Mais ni l'une ni l'autre n'ont  
fait jusqu'alors carrière comparable à celle du 2 e Concerto  
que fit connaître par toute l'Europe Spivakovsky et que  
Menuhin imposa en Amérique et enregistra avec Furt-  
waengler avant de commander à Bartok la Sonate pour violon  
seul.  

CONCERTO N° 2  

pour Violon et Orchestre  

( 1938 )  


Face 1  


Le 2 e Concerto a été souvent comparé au « Concerto à la  
mémoire d'un ange » d'Alban Berg. Serge Moreux y voit le  
même « monde foisonnant » et Pierre Citron la même « ouver¬  
ture et diversité de l'univers sonore » ainsi que la même  
« violence cataclysmique de certains passages ». Cependant,  
Bartok écrit plus ouvertement une pièce de haute virtuosité  
dont ni la forme ni le langage ne sont comparables à ceux de  
la grande méditation poétique de Berg.  

Zoltan Szekely avait demandé à Bartok un vrai concerto de  
soliste. Mais le compositeur avait depuis longtemps dans son  
intentiond'écriredesvariations. C'est pourquoi le 2 e Concerto,  
s'il obéit à la coupe ternaire du concerto classique, n'en pro¬  
cède pas moins selon l'esthétique de la variation, puisque le  
second mouvement n'est autre qu'un thème varié et que le  

finale fait revenir presque tous les thèmes du mouvement  
initial.  

L 'Allegro ma non troppo est ouvert calmement par des ac¬  
cords de Si majeur à la harpe. Le violon entre aussitôt avec un  
thème d'un chaud lyrisme au rubato quasi tzigane qu'il va  
développer en de volubiles guirlandes où l'orchestre trouve  
le sujet de ses répliques. On est frappé de reconnaître au pas¬  
sage sept mesures en Ut majeur, sans le moindre accident,  
sans la moindre dissonance. Bartok se permet là une audace  
à rebours proprement sans exemple dans ses compositions  
précédentes. Mais, en revanche, le second thème, d'une très  
grande beauté plastique, n'est autre qu'une série dodécapho-  
nique. D'aucuns ont vu là un hommage aux Viennois. D'autres  
un pastiche sarcastique. Mais Lendvai fait justement remar¬  
quer que ce thème ne désobéit en rien au système tonal parti¬  
culier à Bartok.  

D'éclatants tutti orchestraux, où brillent les cuivres, brisent  
plusieurs fois le complexe développement avant une rapide  
récapitulation qui, après une somptueuse cadence, conclut  
sur l'unisson de Si naturel.  

L'Andante tranquillo est nettement moins développé que le  
premier mouvement. Il débute, sur l'immobilité attentive de la  
harpe et des cordes, par un grand thème mélodique en Sol  
majeur, dont la simplicité, la déchirante nudité, la tendre  
confiance vont être soigneusement préservées par une  
orchestration légère, scintillante, aérée. Très vite, la confor¬  
table tonalité va dériver vers une suite d'harmonies raffinées,  
subtilement alliées à la différenciation des timbres. Les varia¬  
tions font appel à tout un arsenal de trilles, d'harmoniques,  
de glissandos, d'arpèges, de traits fluides. La dernière, plus  
rythmée, est dans l'esprit acidulé d'un scherzo fauréen. Mais  
c'est l'orchestre (cordes et percussion) qui reste maître du  
sautillement des pizzicati, laissant au soliste le soin de pour¬  
suivre son calme dessin mélodique. Pour finir, on retourne à  
la nostalgie du début et le mouvement s'achève dans un aigu  
lointain et pur, presque sidéral.  

L' Allegro mo/to reprend, dans une structure rythmique nou¬  
velle, le thème principal du premier mouvement, prétexte,  
cette fois, à de solides prouesses de virtuosité violonistique.  
Le mouvement tout entier va être dominé par les acrobaties  
du soliste, entre quelques sections de repos et de détente  
appuyées sur de suaves accords des cordes. De grands cres-  
cendos, aidés par des cuivres « volcaniques », vont pousser le  
discours jusqu'à un paroxysme, une somptueuse apothéose,  
qui débouche sur deux codas, la première légère et douce, la  
seconde durement maintenue dans le halètement d'un mou¬  
vement perpétuel jusqu'à la cassure finale. C'est sans doute  
dans ce mouvement qu'on peut reconnaître le plus facilement  
les influences qui marquaient Bartok à cette époque : in¬  
fluence des grands intervalles expressifs de Berg, du déroule¬  
ment rythmique régulier de Prokofiev, des contrastes stra-  
vinskiens et des élégances néo-classiques de Hindemith.  

Maurice FLEURET  


I. Allegro non troppo  


Face 2  


a) II. And ante tranquillo  


b) III. Allegro mo/to  


(Éditions Boosey and Hawkes)  


YEHUDI MENUHIN, violon  
The Philharmonia Orchestra  

direction :  

WILHELM FURTWAENGLER  


PIAI/IR  

Mü/lCAL  


Bêla Bartok (photo X)  


Le compositeur des Mikrokosmos, des trois Concertos pour  
piano, le pianiste Bartok, s'est toujours beaucoup intéressé  
aux archets. Peut-être parce que, très jeune, il a tout de suite  
reconnu l'inégalable pouvoir expressif des cordes et conservé  
à leur égard le respect ainsi que la curiosité qui prévalent dans  
la musique d'Occident depuis Haydn.  

Avant même d'entreprendre le vaste monument des Six  
Quatuors — le plus considérable et le plus personnel qu'on  
ait dédié au genre depuis Beethoven — Bartok se soumet à  
la discipline si particulière de l'archet en des quatuors, quin¬  
tettes et sonates de jeunesse très influencés par l'écriture  
brahmsienne.  

Symétriquement, à la fin de sa vie, nombreuses seront les  
pages consacrées aux cordes. Après sa dernière composition  
européenne, le Divertimento pour orchestre d'archets (1939),  
il donnera en effet son 6 e Quatuor (1939), la Sonate pour  
violon seul (1944) et enfin — oeuvre ultime — le Concerto  
pour alto (1945).  

Le dialogue du violon et de l'orchestre le sollicite pour la  
première fois en 1907. Il écrit alors, pour le virtuose hongrois  
Stefi Geyer, un Concerto dont on ne connaîtra longtemps que  
le mouvement initial sous l'aspect du premier des Deux Por¬  
traits opus 5 : le Portrait Idéal. On a découvert, il y a quelques  
années, le manuscrit intégral de cette partition qui a pris dé¬  
sormais le nom de « Concerto n° 1 ».  

Car, en août 1937, sur la suggestion de Szigeti, Bartok  
revient une nouvelle fois sur un genre que viennent d'illustrer  
brillamment Stravinsky, Prokofiev, Berg et Schoenberg et un  
2 e Concerto pour violon sera terminé le 31 décembre 1938 et  
créé à Amsterdam le 23 avril 1939 par son dédicataire Zoltan  
Szekely (le premier violon du Quatuor Hongrois), sous la  
direction de Mengelberg.  


En couverture :  
Photos Luc Joubert  
et Sabine Weiss  
LES I. M. E. PATHÉ MARCONI - PARIS  

Eight Songs For A Mad King by Peter Maxwell Davies; Fires Of London Unicorn Records (UNS 261) Publication date 1971

 Che So hos ho Me Fog (b. 1934)  

TEXT BY RANDOLPH STOW & ee a Ill  


swith, Archies Catlaanss deledit need! Shas Taal ofl Pepin  


(Jennifer Ward Clarke, Cello. Duncan Druce, Violin/Viola. Alan Hacker, Clarinets. Judith  
Pearce, Flutes. Stephen Pruslin, Keyboard Instruments. Barry Quinn, Percussion) .  


Conducted by the Composer  


——  


The poems forming the text of this work were suggested by a miniature mechanical organ playing  
eight tunes, once the property of George III. A scrap of paper sold with it explains that ‘This Organ was  
George the third for Birds to sing’’.  

A few years ago, the organ was acquired by the Hon. Sir Steven Runciman who in 1966  
demonstrated it to me. It left a peculiar and disturbing impression. One imagined the King, in his purple  
flannel dressing-gown and ermine night-cap, struggling to teach birds to make the music which he could so  
rarely torture out of his flute and harpsichord. Or trying to sing with them, in that ravaged voice, made  
almost inhuman by day-long soliloquies, which once murdered Handel for Fanny Burney’s entertain-  
ment. There were echoes of the story of the Emperor’s nightingale. But this Emperor was mad; and at  
times he knew it, and wept.  

The songs are to be understood as the King’s monologue while listening to his birds perform, and  
incorporate some sentences actually spoken by George III.  

In performance, the flute, clarinet, violin and ’cello players sit in cages, representing, on one level,  


the bullfinches the King was trying to teach to sing. The King has extended dialogues with these players |  


individually — in No. 3, the flautist becomes, in the King’s mind, the ‘Lady in Waiting’ concerned, as well,  
as a bullfinch — in ‘To Be Sung on the Water’, the ‘cellist incarnates the River Thames; in ‘The Review’,  
the percussion player becomes the King’s brutal keeper, who plays him off stage at the end, beating a bass  
drum with acat-o-nine-tails. The climax of the work is the end of No. 7 where the King snatches the violin  
through the bars of the player’s cage and breaks it. This is not just the killing of a bullfinch — itis a giving-  
in to insanity, and aritual murder by the King of a part of himself, after which, at the beginning of No. 8,  
he can announce his own death.  

As well as their own instruments, the players have mechanical birdsong devices, operated by clock-  
work, and the percussion player has a collection of bird-call instruments.  

The vocal writing calls for extremes of register and a virtuoso acting ability; my intention was, with  
this, and the mixture of styles in the music together with the look of the cages, suggesting prison or hospital  
beds, to leave open the question, is the persecuted protagonist Mad George III, or somebody who thinks  
he is George?  


THE FIRES OF LONDON  

The Fires of London have won an International reputation as the world’s leading music-theatre  
group, based on their celebrated staged performances of Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire and of Maxwell  
Davies’s extraordinary theatre-works, Eight Songs for a Mad King, Miss Donnithorne’s Maggot, Vesallii  
Icones, Le Jongleur de Notre Dame, and The Martyrdom of Saint Magnus.  

The group, which has played throughout Britain, Eastern, Western and Northern Europe, North,  
Central and South America, and Australia and New Zealand, is equally renowned for its brilliant and  
committed performances of twentieth-century classics and of the most recent chamber music, as well as  
for its exhilarating excursions into ‘‘early music brought forward’’ which provide a cross-fertilisation  
between past and present.  


Peter Maxwell Davies  





PETER MAXWELL DAVIES  

Davies has achieved, by his early forties, a unique position in the musical world, as a prolific yet  
meticulous composer, as the Director of The Fires of London, and also as the committed exponent of  
creative musical education for children.  

Peter Maxwell Davies’s compositions link musical and cultural history, the medieval, renaissance  
and baroque traditions with contemporary ideas. His operas; Taverner, The Martyrdom of Saint  
Magnus, The Two Fiddlers and his ballet (Salome), as well as his song cycles and works for the music-  
theatre, recreate the role of the musician as bard, story-teller and seer.  

A further strand of Maxwell Davies’s creativity is his feeling for the Islands of Orkney, where he  
lives between tours and concerts, from which he has drawn inspiration for all his recent works. These  
include Stone Litany, Ave Maris Stella, A Mirror of Whitening Light, Solstice of Light and Black  
Pentecost. Orkney is where he founded and still directs the Saint Magnus Festival.  

Parallel to his career as acomposer, he has been involved with the teaching of music; the success of  
his method at Cirencester Grammar School has led to frequent broadcasts, lecture tours in Europe,  
Australia, and New Zealand and North and South America, and participation in the UNESCO conference  
on musical education. This has been further expanded by the children’s opera The Two Fiddlers written  
for performance by children which has been mounted in a number of countries. He is also the director of  
Dartington Summer School of Music.  

Some of his best known works have been written for the Fires of London — Vesalii Icones, Eight  
Songs for a Mad King, Missa Super L’>homme Arme, Miss Donnithorne’s Maggot and he conducts their  
concerts all over the world.  


SIDE 1 (19:08)  

1. The Sentry (Tune: King Prussia’s  
Minuet)  

The King imagines himself approaching the  
sentry before going for a walk in the  
country. He speaks paternally to the  
soldier, and promises him a present from  
his vegetable garden. Then suddenly,  
seeing himself as the prisoner of the sentry,  
he breaks down. (In this mood, he once  
burst into tears and cried: “‘I wish to God I  
may die, for I am going to be mad’’.)  


Good day to Your Honesty: God guard  
who guards the gate.  

Here is the key of the Kingdom.  

You are a pretty fellow: next month I  
shall give you a cabbage. 

The Balinese Gamelan: Music From The Morning Of The World by David Lewiston Nonesuch (H-72015) Publication date 1967

 Nonesuch Records’ EXPLORER SERIES probes a world whose horizons have been

dramatically expanded by today’s technology. Propelled by a spirit of creative ad-
venture, man’s awareness of this earth’s great human resources has grown wider as
long-locked doors swing open to the age of the television camera, the tape machine,
the jet, and the rocket.

The Nonesuch Explorer Series is directed to the voices and rhythms pulsating from
every corner of our globe. Music that has existed for centuries, and music just now
being born out of newer societies, comes to us straight from the heart of peoples
everywhere — telling us about their lives in the most expressive and dynamic way
possible.
The thrilling sound of the Balinese orchestral style known as gamelan gong
kebyar—which begins this record—is justly famous, for in no other music does _
one find such shimmering brilliance and tempestuous rhythms. _ :

But it is less widely known that gamelan gong kebyar is only one of many
beautiful musical styles found in Bali, which in its small area (only 2,147
square miles) contains a cornucopia of artistic wealth which would do honor
to a country ten or twenty times its size. : &
Jawaharlal Nehru called Bali “the morning of the world” with good reason, _
for its some two-and-a-half million inhabitants lead unusually harmonious,
satisfying lives refreshingly free of the tinsel that less wise countries mistake
for civilization. For example, a farmer who works during the day in the lush
rice paddies with which Bali's hillsides are terraced may play an instrument
in the village gamelan at night. His seven- or eight-year-old daughter, now _
playing a noisy game with her friends in the street, may at the very next
moment emerge in the temple forecourt—which serves as a stage—as one of
the gamelan’s star dancers. :
SIDE ONE E Pe
1. Gamelan Gong Kebyar: a) Baris b) Gambang Betjak (7:25)

Baris is a powerfully masculine war dance. Gambang betjak is an instrumental piece.

This kebyar style is audible proof that Balinese music is a dynamic evolving form, for —
it was first heard early in this century and only came to full flower in the last two or
three decades. s

Gamelan gong kebyar instruments include metallophones (somewhat resembling xylo-
phones or marimbas) with bronze keys suspended over hollow bamboo tube resona-
tors; gongs ranging in pitch from deeply sonorous bass to sweetly ringing altos and
tenors; double-headed drums played with the hands; cymbals; flutes; 20-30 musicians in
a typical group. Scale: Pelog, one of the two principal Balinese scales, approximately
2. Sekehe Genggong: a)Pemungkah b)FrogSong c) Flute solo (5:10) <
While gamelan gong kebyar requires elaborate organization and extensive rehearsal,

genggong is much less formal. A few villagers can get together, whittle their genggong

(instruments like the jew’s harp; see photo 2) from wood, and enjoy themselves. A

typical genggong group (photo 3) also includes a flute (suling), small drum (kendang),

cymbals (chengcheng), and slit drum called guntang (photo 4).

3. Sekehe Gambuh: Sekar Leret (2:30)

One of the great classical styles of Balinese music is that used to accompany the tradi-
tional gambuh plays. The music of the sekehe gambuh (sekehe means association) has
a notably vocal quality, thanks to a stringed instrument called the rebab and three long
suling (flutes). Like gamelan gong, the gambuh ensemble also uses the pelog scale. (See
photo 5.) :

4. Gamelan Gong: Barong Dance (excerpt) (5:15)

Another remarkable spectacle is the barong dance, in which a mythological beast called
the barong overcomes the evil witch Rangda (see photo 6). Since two men are required for
the barong, one for the front and the other for the hind legs, great skill is needed to
coordinate the animal's movements.

The hypnotic barong music places main emphasis on gongs, drums, and cymbals. Pelog
scale. (See photo 7.)
SIDE TWO 2
1. Lullaby (1:43)

Bali also has ravishing songs, as the young girl heard singing here makes abundantly
clear.

2. Gamelan Angklung: Margepati (7:55)

Two kinds of gamelan are in special demand for festivals and other celebrations:
gamelan gong, which we heard on Side One of this record, and gamelan angklung. Both
produce a rich, brilliant sound from gongs, drums, cymbals, flutes, and metallophones
akin to xylophone or marimba. Both types are famous for their dancers.

The most noticeable difference to the Western ear is the scale used by each group: the
gamelan angklung heard here uses a four-tone scale  
This is aversion of the sléndro scale, whose complete five-tone form is
The latter is the second of the two principal Balinese scales. (See photos 8 and 9 taken
at a dance rehearsal.),

3. Ketjak Dance (excerpt) (4:17)

As dusk falls, 200 men gather at the village meeting-place, squatting close together in a
circle on the ground. Silence falls, and then suddenly they begin the thrilling chant of the
ketjak, or monkey dance~a re-enactment of the Ramayana episode in which the monkey
king Hanuman and his subjects helped the noble King Rama defeat the evil King Ravana.
{see photo 11.)

4. Gender Wayang: Ansarun (6:35)

Gender Wayang is the musical accompaniment for the wayang kulit-the Balinese ver-
sion of the traditional Southeast Asian shadow play. Intricately pierced and painted
puppets of parchment, manipulated by a dalang (puppeteer), cast shadows on a large cloth
as they re-enact incidents from the Mahabharata and other popular Balinese tales. It's
usual for two pairs of gender to accompany these plays. Gender is one of the Balinese
instruments that remind Westerners of xylophone or marimba. It has sweetly ringing
bronze keys suspended above tuned bamboo tube resonators. For wayang accompaniment,
gender use the five-tone sléndro scale. (See photo 10.) DAVID LEWISTON
NONESUCH RECORDS, 15 Columbus Circle, New York, New York 10023

Journey To Bliss by Emil Richards & The Microtonal Blues Band Impulse! / ABC Records (A-9166) Publication date 1968

 RECORDS  

TEREO A-9166  


During the 1950s, it became habitual for writers  
on jazz to make reference to differences between  
East Coast and West Coast approaches to the  
music. As is usually true with all-inclusive labels  
of this sort, there was an element of gimmickry,  
of public-relations hype, involved (just as there  
has been more recently with such short-lived  
musical non-categories as: folk-rock, raga-rock,  
jazz-rock, acid-rock, and all of that species of  
ballyhoo). But, beneath the press-agentry and  
advertising copy prose, there was also something  
real in the presumed differences between the  
jazz of the two coasts. Broadly speaking, the  
Westerners were more concerned with innova-  
tions involving form, whereas the Easterners were  
satisfied to utilize the existing forms, even sim-  
plifying them on occasion, in an effort to attain  
greater emotional substance (content) in their  
playing.  

Something of the same dichotomy, it seems to  


* me, has quietly and inconspicuously opened up  


in the New Music of the 1960s—though without  
anything like the hostility, acrimoniousness, and  
feuding of the previous decade, it must quickly  
be added. In the East, to generalize once more,  
the tendency of the major innovators—the late  
John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, Cecil ‘Taylor,  
Archie Shepp, Bill Dixon, Pharaoh Sanders,  
Albert Ayler, Andrew Hill, and a phalanx of  
others—have tended Jess to experiment with novel  
formalistic devices than to search within them-  
selves and their instruments to find new ways of  
communicating feelings and emotions. Of course  
this sweeping generalization, like all such, is im-  
perfect. Nonetheless, when one thinks of the  
contributions of the men named above, one re-  
calls primarily the wealth of new sounds they  
have been able to create from their instruments,  
and hence the way in which they have been  
able to extend the palette of emotions which jazz  
music is able to render. 5  

Here in the West, on the other hand, the  
emphasis in the New Music has leaned more  
toward the formal side—the incorporation of in-  
struments hitherto unknown in a jazz context  
(some invented by the musicians themselves),  
the use of unusual time signatures, the subdivi-  
sion of the Western diatonic (12-tone) scale into  
microtones, and so on. A goodly portion of this  
activity, moreover, has been stimulated by the  
ubiquitous and persistent interest in all things  
Indian that flourishes in the hot-house Southern  
California milieu. (To provide a complete expla-  
nation for this interest would require a small  
essay in itself. Suffice it for the present to say  
that the erosion of the reassuring bonds of re-  
ligion, ethnicity, regional custom, and family  
ties that occurs upon migration to California  
produces an enormous population with no fixed  
institutional roots or values to sustain it. Add to  
that the loneliness and anonymity of urban ex-  
istence, and especially the vast gulf for most  
people between exalted, Hollywood-inspired as-  
pirations and mundane achievements, and you  
begin to comprehend why various shades of Ori-  
ental mysticism have found Southern California  
such a fertile field in which to grow. )  

Certainly percussionist Emil Richards has to  
be ranked among the leading figures in these new  
developments. With Don Ellis and bassist-sitarist  
Bill Plummer (the latter also an Impulse artist),  
Emil was one of the founders of the Hindustani  
Jazz Sextet, from whence sprang many of the  
subsequent efforts to integrate Indian elements  


into jazz. “I had a percussion school going in the  
[San Fernando] Valley,’ Emil recalls of the  
period around 1964, “with a few interesting  
guys — Irv Cottler and Bill Craft, the tympanist  
with the [Los Angeles] Symphony. We figured  
if a guy came out of our school, he had every-  
thing covered—tympani, drums, mallets, He was  
an all-around percussionist. Then we heard that  
Hari Har Rao was in town, teaching Indian  
thythms and tabla and some sitar. He started  
teaching at our school and it got to where all the  
professional musicians were students, ’cause we  
all got interested. Some of the bass players and  
drummers that are now around playing in the  
odd times, were all his students. Don [Ellis] had  


. just come back from New York; he was studying  


privately with Hari Har at the college UCLA.  
He brought him by the school and we started  
blowing some blues and I Got Rhythm in 7, 9,  
11, 13...and we all got frustrated and would  
woodshed every day on our own before we got  
together, to be sure we knew what was happen-  
ing. It was really a weird experience for me,  
man. I can tell you that I wanted to really give  
up!... When you're blowing on tunes where  
changes are going by, you know, and you're not  
used to skipping one beat every bar, man, it’s  
pretty hairy at first. It was pretty hairy for about  
a year.”  

Ultimately, however, the stage of initial frus-  
tration passed; Emil and some of the other musi-  
cians began to feel more at home in what he  
calls the ‘‘odd times.” (Now, in fact, he is com-  
fortable even in such out of the ordinary meters  
as 7%: “The half-beats are something I really  
want to get into, like on the next album. Seven  
and a-half is really where a lot of kids are feeling  
it, but they just don’t know how. I’d like to do  
more in that bag.”.) It was asa result of this  
constant jamming in different signatures that  
the Hindustani Jazz Sextet coalesced. “Just about  
that time, Don started the big band, and we are  
all playing with that as well as the small group,”  
Emil recounts. His tenure with the Ellis organi-  
zation turned out to be relatively brief. “Let’s just  
say that studio commitments wouldn’t allow me  
to continue with either band.”  

After leaving, Emil began putting together  
his own groups and music for a pair of albums  
on the Uni label, with the Moog (pronounced  
mogue: to rhyme with vogue) synthesizer being  
utilized on the latter—probably the first recorded  
instance of jazz usage of the synthesizer.  

Besides his use of uncommon meters, Emil  
also seeks to widen the scope of his music through  
a subdivision of the European dodecaphonic sys-  
tem into micro-tones. In part, this reflects his  
involvement with Indian spiritual values, in par-  
ticular the system of meditation made famous by  
the Maharishi Mahesh Ygoi. Side II of the pres-  
ent recording is an immediate case in point, since  
it contains Emil’s suite on meditation, Journey  
to Bliss. The suite includes a poem which, ac-  
cording to Emil, “in some way says what happens  
while you’re meditating. I figured diatonic in-  
struments couldn’t portray it, and micro-tonal  
instruments are getting close—they can do every-  
thing the human voice can do, just about. What-  
ever you feel, if you can say it with instruments  
or tones, then you're trying to portray it. Words  
aren’t adequate to describe feelings that happen  
during meditation; but this is an attempt.”  

On Side I of the album, says Emil, “I wanted  
to use the micro-tonal instruments with Indian  


Produced by BOB THIELE  


thythms....I feel there’s a lot of merit in the  
time signatures that the Indians use. And to put  
it to jazz blues or ‘Rhythm’ tunes that we play,  
it’s really interesting. And now to incorporate  
the micro-tonal thing, as Chuch [bassist Chuck  
Delmonico, who frequently plays in groups led  
by Emil] says, in one sitting, to get so many  
colors on one album, he thought it was pretty  
fantastic. And that’s what I was trying to do....  
Jazzis a product of what people in America are,  
and what people in America are trying to do  
musically. Right now, spiritually, rhythmically,  
and now harmonically—because I know our tones  
don’t have enough tones—health-wise, in many  
ways, I feel the Indians have quite a bit to offer.  
I’m trying to incorporate that in my American  
way.”  

It is this “American way” that makes Emil’s  
music much less formidable than all the talk of  
odd times and micro-tones might lead one to  
expect. In actuality, find it comfortably familiar;  
in feeling, it puts me rather in mind of the type  
of modal blues that John Coltrane explored so  
persuasively on the series of albums he cut for  
Atlantic (e.g. Equinox). Comments Emil: “Yeah.  
You could say that, in the sense that you play  
on certain scales, in the way “Trane has been  
doing, and Miles. We’re enlarging those scales.  
Instead of blowing on one montuna chord.in a  
twelve-tone scale, we've been messing around ona  
montuna of anywhere from 22 to 33 to 43 tones.”  

Looking beyond this album, Emil hopes that  
his efforts will bring wider public acceptance for  
such things as micro-tones and unusual meters.  
“I’m hoping that not only the jazz audience, .. .  
but the kids are going to pick up on dancing to  
this, because every concert I play and see people  
bob and weave around in these times, man. I  
would just love to see kids in like a teenage fair  
or something dancing to this shit—see where  
that’s at, you know?” And who is to say that just  
may not happen, sooner than any of us think?  


About the Selections  


Maharimba is in 7/4. The “A” section is eight  
bars long, counted 322; the “B” section, or  
bridge, is four bars in length, counted 3344, 3344.  


THE NEW WAVE OF JAZZ IS ON  


AS-9166  


RECORDS  


Following the bridge, there are four more mea-  
sures of “A,” again counted 322. Bliss, in 11/4,  
is pulsed 3332. (Its feeling is that of a three-  
measure blues waltz, with a reiterated two-beat  
tag.) The ensemble portion of Mantra is in 5/4,  
counted (for two measures) as 3223. In the blow-  
ing portion, this is “simplied” to 32. Enjoy, Enjoy  
is in a twelve-based meter, and can be counted  
(take a deep breath) as 32331 or 57 or 444 or  
3333 or 6/8 or 3/4 or 12/8 or 4/4 or, as Emil  
puts it, as “????”!! Indeed.  

Journey to Bliss, Emil’s suite on the medita-  
tion experience, is comprised of six movements.  
The first is in 19/4, played 332221222. The  
second is in 12/4 (32331); the third is “free”  
(1/1); the fourth is in 10/8 (3331 four times,  
32 eight times); the fifth, in 7/4 (322); the last  
in 13/4 (3334). Thank you for listening; over  


and out.  
FRANK KOFSKY  
Associate Editor JAZZ & POP  





SIDE ONE  
1. MAHARIMBA  


(Emil Richards, Jules Chaiken)  


(Music, Music, Music, Inc.—ASCAP) 202  
2. BLISS  

(Emil Richards)  

(Music, Music, Music, Inc.—ASCAP) 4:57  
3. MANTRA  

(Emil Richards)  

(JPB Music—ASCAP) 4:29  
4. ENJOY, ENJOY  

(Emil Richards)  

(JPB Music—ASCAP) 5:51  
SIDE TWO  
1. JOURNEY TO BLISS—PART | 3:08  
2. JOURNEY TO BLISS—PART I! « 4:10  
3. JOURNEY TO BLISS—PART III 2:52  
4. JOURNEY TO BLISS—PART IV 3:10  


5. JOURNEY TO BLISS—PARTS V & VI 5:18  


All Written by: B. Gess, E. Richards  
All Published by: D’Azure Music—ASCAP  


Cover Photo: FRED SELIGO Back Cover Painting: MICHAEL CRADEN _Liner Design: JOE LEBOW  
A Product of ABC Records, Inc., 1330 Avenue of the Americas, N.Y. 10019 * Made in U.S.A.  

JOURNEY TO BLISS  
EMIL RICHARDS AND THE MICROTONAL BLUES BAND  


AS-9166-A at 3314 RPM  
Side 1 STEREO  


1. MAHARIMBA  
(Emil Richards, Jules Chaiken)  
(Music, Music, Music, Inc.—ASCAP) 2:52  


Music, Music, Inc.—ASCAP) 4:5  
a 0)  


= Ble) 4 ite)  
2, (JPB Music—ASCAP)  


O.  
)  
7 *Written by: Emil Richards  
hag \3°  
Cp, go  
ecords,inc.New York\NY  





JOURNEY TO BI.ISS  
EMIL; RICHARDS AND THE MICROTONAL BLUES BAND  


AS:9166-B ( 33% RPM  


Side 2 STEREO  


MEDITATION SUITE.  
. JOURNEY TO BLISS—Part ! 3:08  
. JOURNEY TO BLISS—Part Il 4:10  
. JOURNEY TO BLISS—Part II! 252  
. JOURNEY TO BLISS—Part IV 3:10  
. JOURNEY TO BLISS—Parts V&VI 5:18  


Alt Written by:'B. Gess, E. Richards  
7a, All Published by: D’Azure Music—ASAI  

Organ Works by Johann Sebastian Bach; Heinz Wunderlich Three Centuries Of Musick / ORYX (3C 304) Publication date 1971

Johann Sebastian BACH  
(1685 -1750)  


Toccata & Fugue in d minor  
BWV 565  


Toccata & Fugue in F Major  
BWV 540  


Prelude & Fugue in e minor  
BWV 548  


Passacaglia & Fugue in c minor  
BWV 582  


Heinz Wunderlich  


Arp-Schnitger Organ,  
St. Jacobi, Hamburg.  


We cannot be grateful enough for the fact that, though the church  
itself went up in flames, the Arp Schnitger organ of St. Jacobi in Hamburg survived the in-  
ferno of the Second World War intact. This unique instrument comes from the Golden Age  
of North German organ building. It still contains a stop of the organ which was built bet-  
ween 1512 and 1516 by Harmen Stiiven and Jacob Iversand after a fourth nave had been  
added to the church. Many alterations were made to the organ of St. Jacobi in subsequent  
years. Famous master organ builders especially from the Scherer family, Jacob Scherer,  
Hans Scherer the elder, Hans Scherer the younger and Fritz Scherer, as well as Dirck Hoyer  


~ and Hans Bockelmann all worked on this organ. Already in 1635 four manuals and pedals  


were added to the organ by Gottfried Fritzsche. This is the instrument that Matthias Weck-  
mann found when he took up his post at St. Jacobi in 1654.  


_. Hils successor, Heinrich Frese, persuaded the church authorities to get in touch with the  


famous organ builder Arp Schnitger. Schnitger had built a large number of important organs  


: an.excellent job of the organ of the neighbouring church of St. Peter’s (which is no longer in  
~ existence). Schnitger submitted three proposals for the rebuild of the organ and although  


originally the medium plan was favoured, it was the largest that was in fact executed.  
While the work was in progress Schnitger and his assistants lived in Frese’s house near the  
church. He began the work in 1689 and on the Friday after Easter 1690, the 25th. April, the  
new organ was so far completed that it could be played on the manuals.  

But it took a long time to finish the work and it was not until February 14, 1693 that the  
whole work was tested and approved by the organists Andreas Knoller of St. Peter’s and  
Christian Flohr from Liineburg and Vincent Liibeck from Stade. The total cost came to  
about 30000 Taler, a considerable sum for those days, though it has to be remembered that  
wealthy members of the congregation probably made substantial contributions.  

In his rebuild Arp Schnitger incorporated a large number of very valuable and beautiful  
old ranks of pipes out of regard for the masters of the earlier organs, working them into  
an organic whole.  

The uniqueness of this organ derives from the fact that the tonal development can be  
traced back to 1512 and has been preserved continuously and systematically since that time.  
It may be presumed that it was played on by, among others, Georg Bohm, who lived for a  
time in the parish of St. Jacobi and Georg Friedrich Handel who was shown the Hamburg  
organs by Mattheson. When Heinrich Frese died in September 1720 and the organistship of  
St. Jacobi became vacant, Johann Sebastian Bach applied for the post. Bach had played on  
the organ of St. Catherine’s church before a select audience which included the nearly  
hundred years old Reinken and he was therefore excused an audition at St. Jacobi. But  
neither his outstanding ability nor the fact that his librettist Erdmann Neumeister was  
chief pastor of St. Jacobi and keenly urged that he should be elected, were able to give  
Bach precedence over his rival candidates. Joachim Heitmann was in a position to pay 4000  
marks into the church coffers (the evil custom of »selling« vacant posts had been adopted  
in Hamburg for some time) and so he was given the post coveted by Bach. From Mattheson  
(Musikalische Patrioten) we know that the disappointed chief pastor Neumeister made the  
following remark in his sermon on the following Christmas Day: »I definitely believe that  
if even one of the angels of Bethlehem came down from heaven, played divinely and  
wanted to become organist of St. Jacobi but had no money, he might as well fly back home  
again.«  

Needless to say, in subsequent years the organ inevitably underwent minor repairs. During  
the French occupation slight damage was caused by the military. The fact that in spite of  
changes in taste the organ has remained tonally almost intact may be regarded as the achie-  


vement of Heinrich Schmahl who was organist and organ adviser at St. Jacobi from 1864-92.  


In the year 1917 the church was compelled to give up the large pewter pipes of the screen  
for war purposes. Even though the lowest notes of the organ have no important influence  
on its tonal structure, it is deeply to be regretted from the antiquarian point of view that it  
was not possible to prevent this loss.  

In 1928-30 the Arp Schnitger organ of St. Jacobi in Hamburg was comprehensively  

restored by the organ builder Karl Kemper. The pipes surrendered in the First World War  
were copied and reinstalled. In addition, the missing notes of the short octaves were added.  
Hitherto their absence had greatly hindered the performance of many organ works, includ-  
ing those of J.S. Bach. Only a brief ten years life were granted to the restored and now  
world famous instrument to which, as Albert Schweitzer had predicted, pilgrimages were  
made by German and foreign organists, organ builders and music lovers. The Second World  
War made' it necessary for the organ to be put in safe keeping. When the church of St.  
Jacobi was destroyed by fire in 1944 the case and console were burnt but all the pipes and  
the wind chest survived in an air-raid shelter.  
The restoration of the church was completed in 1959. It was then possible for work to begin  
on restoring the organ to its original position in the church. It had been set up provisionally  
in an aisle used for services. The rebuild was carried out by E. Kemper & Son of Liibeck.  
The restoration of the screen was carried out by the architects Hopp & Jager in colla-  
boration with the experts on the care of ancient monuments, Professor Grundmann and Dr.  
Gerhardt. In order that the Schnitger organ may reproduce its original authentic sound as  
far as possible it has not been tuned to equal temperament but in mean tone.  


Hauptkirche St. Jacobi  
Oberwerk  


Arp-Schnitger Organ Hamburg  


Riickpositiv Hauptwerk Brustwerk  




Dutch Imitator of Mantegna (1431-1506 ): Angel with Portative. This section of the painting ““Madonna on the  
Throne’”’ is particularly distinguished by its formal perfection. Notice the carefully painted pleats of the garment,  
the angel’s wings, the colourful ceiling and the plants. (Vienna, Akademie der Bildenden Kunste).  


A Barenreiter|Oryx production. Cover printed by Senol Printing Ltd.  
Made in Britain 

Impressions Of Duke Ellington by Billy Byers Mercury (PPS 6028 / PPS-6028) Publication date 1961

 MERCURY. e IMPRESSIONS OF DUKE ELLINGTON ° BILLY BYERS e PPS 6028  

GMowcug)) PERFECT PRESENCE SOUND STEREO  


ORIGINALLY RECORDED ON 35 MM MAGNETIC FILM  


This 1s a certified  


t. sb ARRANGED &  


PERFEGT PRESENGE SUUND. CONDUCTED BY...  


f:35° Perfect-Presence Sound marks a new film . q Ly BY FE RS  
breakthrough in sound engineering. Only Mercury’s  


f:35° recording technique can achieve “infinite  
depth” in the widest range of authentic sound  
possible. Original recording made on 35 mm film.  


Engineering Department  
rs Sound Studios  


Mercury  



IMPRESSIONS OF DUKE ELLINGTON  


arranged and conducted by  


BILLY BYERS  


This album—a rare fusion of singularly imaginative content and extraordinary accuracy and  
range of sound reproduction—is, above all, one of the most challenging possible tests for an  
arranger-orchestrator. Duke Ellington is not only the pre-eminent composer in jazz history  
so far, but he has also developed a uniquely subtle orchestral language which has provided him  
with an unparalleled scope f expressivity. For another writer to undertake an album of Elling-  
ton compositions requires thorough technical competence and alert inventiveness.  

Quincy Jones, who supervised this unusual musical experience, selected Billy Byers because,  
as Quincy explains, ‘I knew Billy had so much ability as an orchestrator that he wouldn’t  
have to worry about the technical end of the assignment. He succeeded brilliantly, and thereby  
did honor not only to Duke, but to his own insufficiently recognized abilities.”  

Temperamentally, Billy Byers resembles Ellington in his urbanity, mocking wit, and  
cosmopolitan tastes. A widely experienced trombonist and arranger, Byers had spent part of  
the past six years in Paris. He got to know Ellington well during the filming of Paris Blues,  
for which Byers was technical advisor. ‘‘This album was done with respect and affection. I  
aimed for the most durable elements of Duke’s style, and those include his humor and his  
diversity of moods.”  

Byers had a particular advantage in the musicians available for the sessions. Byers wrote  
these scores with full awareness of the particular strengths of the men on these dates. There  
were three different sessions. On the first, Mood Indigo, Just Squeeze Me, All Too Soon, and  
Solitude were recorded with the following personnel:  

Trumpets—Ernie Royal, Doctor Christian, Clark Terry, Joe Newman. Trombones—  
Jimmy Cleveland, Melba Liston, Wayne Andre, Tony Studd. French horns—Jimmy Buffington,  
Ray Alonge, Don Corrado, Bob Northern. Tuba—Harvey Phillips. Reeds—Jerry Dodgion  
(alto, flute, clarinet), Eric Dixon (tenor, flute, clarinet), Sol Schlinger (baritone and bass  
clarinet).  

The rhythm section was the same on all three sessions—Osie Johnson (drums), Patti Bown  
(piano), Milt Hinton (bass), Eddie Shaughnessy, Eddie Costa (added percussion).  

Recorded at the second session were Caravan, Don’t Get Around Much Any More, and  
Sophisticated Lady. At the final session, Chelsea Bridge, I’m Beginning To See The Light, and  
Take The ‘‘A”’ Train were completed. For the second and third dates, Julius Watkins replaced  
Don Corrado, and Jack Rains replaced Wayne Andre. On the second session, Al De Risi went  
in for Doctor Christian; and on the final date, Spencer Sinatra took the place of Eric Dixon.  





Vendor  


Mercury Record Corporation Printed in U.S.A.  


MERCURY e IMPRESSIONS OF DUKE ELLINGTON © BILLY BYERS e PPS 6028  


Side One  
TAKE THE “A” TRAIN  
(Billy Strayhorn), Tempo Music, Inc., (ASCAP) ... 2:13  
“On Take The “A” Train,” Byers notes, “the train soon jumps the track in 5/4 time, moving  
by Spanish Harlem and narrowly missing Broadway. Ernie Royal puts it back on the track,  
sending it along its express route.”  

The whole journey has, in fact, been invigoratingly kaleidoscopic, and Mr. Byers has not  
only distilled his impressions of Ellington, but has also revealed a great deal about his own  
extensive resources as arranger, orchestrator, and humorist.  


SOPHISTICATED LADY  
(Duke Ellington, Mitchell Parish & Irving Mills), Gotham Music Service, Inc., (ASCAP) ... 2:27  


On Sophisticated Lady, Sol Schlinger is followed by Eric Dixon on tenor, Jack Rains on trombone  
with cup mute, and Eric Dixon again.  


JUST SQUEEZE ME (But Don’t Tease Me)  
(Duke Ellington & Lee Gaines), Robbins Music Corporation, (ASCAP) ... 3:12  


Just Squeeze Me underlines the high-spirited parody of which Ellington is very much capable.  
The opening, recurring motif is sounded by Joe Newman and Clark Terry. Eric Dixon again  
solos on tenor, and as Billy Byers puts it, “the guy can amaze you. He just stands up there and  
paints the most surprising pictures, but it’s all beautifully organized.” Once more, behind  
Dixon is the leaping, incisive brass section.  


CHELSEA BRIDGE  
(Billy Strayhorn), Tempo Music, Inc., (ASCAP) ... 3:05  


Chelsea Bridge is an essay in impressionism, or, as Byers phrases it, ‘‘a wall of fog obscures the  
early morning view.” The soloists are Clark Terry and Spencer Sinatra.  


CARAVAN  
(Juan Tizol, Duke Ellington & Irving Mills), American Academy of Music, Inc., (ASCAP) ... 5:15  


Caravan, Byers observes, ‘‘takes in the whole Near East. I wanted the effect of a caravan  
approaching from the distance, and I also asked for a windstorm at the very end.” The musicians  
obliged by literally blowing—through pursed lips, and without horns.” The soloists, after the  
atmosphere has been set, are Jimmy Cleveland, Jerry Dodgion,. Eddie Costa (marimba),  
and Osie Johnson. Soaring over the concluding windstorm is Clark Terry, playing what Byers  
describes as ‘‘sandy trumpet.”  


Side Two  

MOOD INDIGO  

(Duke Ellington, Irving Mills & Albany Bigard), Gotham Music Service, Inc., (ASCAP) ... 4:40  

Mood Indigo begins with a brass chorale in the context of what Byers calls “in and out  
atonalism.”’ The melody, sketched in a four-octave range, moves throughout the orchestra.  
As the rhythm section falls gently into regular jazz pulsation, Byers approximates the feeling  
of a typical Ellington small combo, except that the flute replaces the clarinet over the brass.  
The tenor solo is by Eric Dixon with characteristic Ellington brass commentary behind him.  
Dixon builds to a bursting climax as the brass also open up. At the close of the number, the  
small combo approach reappears, and the final pungent trumpet is by Joe Newman with a  
Harmon mute.  


I’M BEGINNING TO SEE THE LIGHT  
(Harry James, Duke Ellington, John Hodges & Don George), Alamo Music, Inc., (ASCAP) ... 3:02  


The rollicking I’m Beginning To See The Light has, according to Byers, “that feeling of  
recklessness that is also not outside the Ellington tradition.” The soloists are Joe Newman  
and Jerry Dodgion.  


SOLITUDE  
(Duke Ellington, Eddie De Lange & Irving Mills), American Academy of Music, Inc., (ASCAP) .. . 3:35  


Sol Schlinger is the principal soloist in Solitude, and Byers uses the baritone with various  
combinations of horns and tuba. The muted trumpet is Doctor Christian, and there are ex-  
changes between Newman and Terry. The only times in the album, incidentally, in which the  
three reeds operate as a regular sax section is when they play Ellington-style unison passages.  
The rest of the time, they’re heard in solos and they double with the rest of the orchestra.  
Byers preferred to work with the French horns and tuba as a kind of sax section because “I  
didn’t want to set up in competition with the sonority Ellington’s own reed section gets.”  


DON’T GET AROUND MUCH ANYMORE  
(Duke Ellington & Bob Russell), Robbins Music Corporation, (ASCAP) ... 3:10  


Don’t Get Around Much Anymore highlights expert soft-shoer Osie Johnson. Johnson borrowed  
Patti Bown’s shoes, and by putting his hands in them, puppeteer-style, he ‘“‘danced” on a box  
covered with sand. Mr. Johnson emulates Baby Lawrence with deft aplomb. The arrangement  
as a whole reflects the surging euphoria that is also a part of the Ellington style.  


ALL TOO SOON  
(Carl Sigman & Duke Ellington), Robbins Music Corporation, (ASCAP) ... 2:58  


All Too Soon contains the only Billy Byers trombone solo in the album, “After that one,”  
he says, “I had all I could handle with the conducting.”’ Without directly imitating Lawrence  
Brown’s original statement on the Ellington recording of the tune, Byers communicates the  
same kind of poignancy. After Patti Bown’s piano, Clark Terry is heard on fluegelhorn. Just  
before Clark enters, a 12/8 section starts which Byers incorporated to underline “the kind of  
loose rhythmic feeling Duke can get.”  

Prepare to enter a new adventure in the world of sound. Sound you’ve never experienced in record listening before. Sound with a new  
dimension that defies comparison with any other recording technique. MERCURY’S new f:35¢ Perfect Presence Sound involves so many  
revolutionary elements that a whole new chapter has been created in the history of sound recording.  

These are some of the fantastic elements that rocket f:35¢ PPS recordings to new plateaus of listening pleasure.  


CONVENTIONAL  
RECORDING TECHNIQUE  


Film fidelity. Not high fidelity... not  
increased fidelity... but ultimate fidelity.  


The greatest signal to noise ratio ever.  


#:35°°RPS  
RECORDING TECHNIQUE  


This original recording is made from 35 mm magnetic film.  


TRACK NO.1 TRACK NO.2 TRACK NO.3 J  


Film means better, broader sound with a greater distor-  
tion-free dynamic range. It means that instruments and  
singers’ voices are more accurately reproduced in terms  
of timbre, clarity and naturalness, thanks to the ab-  
sence on film of flutter and background hiss. It means  
that the entire recording gains in perspective and  
spaciousness.  


I-n-f-i-n-i-t-e D-e-p-t-h  


f:35¢ Perfect Presence Sound offers far more than the ordinary separation found on other stereo recordings. The early attempts at  
separating sound into two channels, (still used in other recording techniques), permitted the hearer to recognize music from the  
right and left, with increased definition of the various instruments of the orchestra. “Infinite depth” permits you to hear music  
not only left and right, but front and rear as well. Advancing! Receding!  


This realistic depth was one of the achievements of MERCURY’s Perfect Presence Sound series. The “infinite depth” phenomenon  
can even be perceived in PPS monaural recordings.  


The oscillograph pattern on film used on the cover is MERCURY’s graphic  
illustration of £:354 film recording and is not, of course, literal.  

Perfect Presence Sound is perfect proof of MERCURY’s distinguished leadership in sound engi-  
neering. PPS recording studios have maximum space and “‘live”’ sound. Microphones are used in  
specific and carefully organized relationships to each section of the orchestra. The microphone  
set-up is, of course, different for each group of instruments. Multiple microphone placement is  
generally necessary for the string section and rhythm section. (See rear of album). The addition  
of vibraphone, bells, novachord and celeste all require their own unique arrangement to insure  
a balance that will be absolutely realistic.  


Perfect balance is achieved, even though  
the trombones may be playing open while  
the trumpets are muted. Music stands are  
kept low to avoid blocking sound. In addi-  
tion, two overall microphones are placed  
at twice the distance from the accent micro-  
phone as the accent microphone is placed  
from the musician. These two microphones  
are fed only to the two ‘‘outside’’ channels  
of the f:35% 3-track film. The addition of  
these ultra-sensitive microphones contrib-  
utes to Perfect Presence Sound’s ‘infinite  
depth.”  


Some interesting attempts have been made by other recording firms to achieve this astonishing  
presence with three, four or five instruments. MERCURY alone multiplies ‘‘presence,” multiplies  
depth, multiplies listening pleasure, by bringing you recordings with the sound of full orchestration  
...Yich, vibrant music played by renowned recording artists. MERCURY alone has the vast  
library, the great names, and the superb music that make Perfect Presence Sound more than an  
achievement in the reproduction of pure sound. You get first rate performances by internationally  
acclaimed artists like Cugat, Carroll, Fennell and other MERCURY stars.  

Below is a block diagram of the f:354 automatic phasing, mixing console. Each channel has its  
own preamplifier with built-in equalization, electronic reverberation, and gain reduction amplifiers.  
Any part of the frequency spectrum can be varied by as sensitive a measurement as + 14 db.  


indicating the new techniques  
necessary for scoring a selection  
for f:35% Perfect Presence  
Sound.  


Because all background noise is eliminated, distortion of a  
ppp passage in an orchestration is non-existent, while the ff  
passage takes on crispness and clarity you’d never expect 

Seldon Powell Sextet Featuring Jimmy Cleveland by Seldon Powell Sextet; Jimmy Cleveland Roost (RLP 2220) Publication date 1956

 WHEN I first heard Seldon Powell, I enthused,

because the boy from Brooklyn was such a happy
throwback to the great days of the tenor saxophone.
Tone and taste and a consummate ease on his
horn, these were his virtues — and they stili are.
The ability to make everything swing, that too.
And no particular school ties, but just a fine blow-
ing tenorman with a simple, smooth, and compelling
modern style of his own.

The Powell Style? A new school, maybe? A
new sound that everybody will have to pick up on
to stay au courant in jazz? No, schools are not made
this way, only individuals. For the components of
the Seldon Powell style are gifts, not gimmicks.
They cannot be bought or sold, picked up or put
down, and though perhaps they can be imitated,
it will only be by a similarly well endowed musician.

Most notable of the Powell talents, it seems to me,
is the ceaseless flow of melodic inspiration. Simple
enough stuff, I suppose, but so felicitously put to-
gether that one’s attention stays riveted to his lines,
bar after bar. Sometimes it’s a countermelody. Some-
times it’s the tune itself, superlatively re-accented
or de-accented to give it a sinuous new shape. Some-
times it’s a fill-in, a cadenza. Sometimes it’s a brief
introduction to a solo, sometimes the wispiest of
codas. But in every case, there is no doubt about
the defining element: it’s the melodic line. Seldon
thinks and plays that way, consecutively, note after
note, in forward melodic motion, and that’s the way
one hears him. The impulse to move ahead with
him, in his performances, is always clear, often de-
lightful, and upon occasion, nothing less than breath-
taking. There are such occasions in this set, several
of them.

The ballads are particularly persuasive here. As
is so often the case with a first-rate practitioner of
the jazz art, especially on one of the reeds, this
is where authority, or lack of it, proclaims itself.
In a slow tune, a man’s control of his instrument
is fully exposed. And so too are his melodic and
harmonic and rhythmic resources on clear and open
display. If he falters, there is no vast parade of
notes to cover up the fluff. If his time is off, it’s
spelled out, inflection after inflection. If his ideas
are thin, shabby, banal — in any way common-
place — they shout their emptiness, no matter how
restrained or low in volume the performance.

Seldon’s ballad-blowing, perhaps needless to say
after such a set of distinctions has been made, is
superb,

In Sleepy Time Down South and She's Funny
That Way, you can hear his great ease in the
familiar, the tried and very true, as the tunes are
adhered to but not slavishly. In I'l] Close My Eyes,
you can follow Seldon’s impeccable sense of time,
which puts what is an unforgiveably tortuous tune in
the wrong hands and mouth into precise, slowly
swinging place.

In Billy Strayhorn’s tender A Flower Is A Lone-
some Thing, the equivalent of a Debussy piano pre-
lude is improvised by the tenorman, in one of his
most fluent exhibits of unwavering tone and clearly
constructed melodic line.

Up-tempo and middle-tempo, Seldon Powell is
a distinguished tenorman too. It would be hard for
him not to be a swinging one with the kind of
rhythmic support he is given here. Freddie Greene's
guitar is the reliable thing it has always been. Aaron
Bell’s bass complements Freddie steadily, throughout
the collection. On piano, Roland “Hac” Hanna man-
ages a solo line, a rhythm-section chord — what-
ever is demanded of him — with similar profession-
al polish. And presiding at the drums is one or
another of those redoubtable Johnson boys, Osie or
Gus, either one of whom can always be depended
upon for a contagious beat — infectious to all,
musicians and audience alike — without any egregi-
ous lapses in taste. For the record, it’s Osie on tracks
1, 2, 4, 5, and 6 on the first side, and again on the
second, third, and fifth tracks of the second side.
As much a part of the proceedings as the rhythm
section when the tempos start marching is Jimmy
Cleveland on trombone. He matches the exuberance
of Seldon in Undecided and Button Nose and Missy’s
Melody. He helps keep Biscuit For Duncan and
11th Hour Blues groovy and manages with Seldon
an attractive unison sound in Lolly Gag and a bright
canonic intro to Missy’s measures. In Wood’n You,
he helps recall one of the lovliest moments of the
early years of bop, a Dizzy Gillespie piece that has
lost none of it’s freshness over the years and makes
a splendid vehicle for everybody in the Seldon
Powell group to ride — brightly and with an un-
mistakable beat. Its scalar lines are once more put
to good use, as so much of high jazz quality is in
this impressive second outing as a leader by Seldon

Powell.
— BARRY ULANOV
Jimmy Cleveland performs through the courtesy of Emarcy Records.
ROOST RECORDS, 664 Tenth Avenue, New York, N. Y.
Printed in U.S.A.

The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I (Preludes And Fugues 1-8) by Johann Sebastian Bach; Glenn Gould Columbia Masterworks (MS 6408) Publication date 1963

 Stereo “360 SOUND’ represents the ultimate in  

STEREO listening enjoyment. Every aspect of recording  
a O SO UND’ activity has been carefully supervised by Colum-  

bia’s engineers and craftsmen, using the very  
latest electronic equipment. Stereo “360 SOUND” creates the effect of surround-  
ing the listener with glorious, true-to-life active sound. It is as if one were sitting  
in the first row center at an actual performance.  


Columbia’s studios have been designed with uniform sound characteristics and  
are equipped with sixteen-channel consoles and custom-calibrated multi-track  


tape machines engineered and built to Columbia’s own specifications. The micro-  
phones used are chosen for their individual sound properties depending upon  
the orchestration, the artist and the concept of the producer of the recording.  
Some of the microphones are: the Sony C37A; Telefunken-Neumann’s U67; U47;  
M49B; KM54A; KM56; the AKG’s C60; C12 and Electro Voice 655C. Only high-  
output tape affording maximum signal to noise ratio is used. Such tape, of  
great tensile strength and thickness, additionally aids in the elimination of  
print-through and reduction of distortion and hiss.  

The reduction of the original multi-track tape to the final master tape is  


BACH: The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I (Preludes and Fugues 1-8)  


GLENN GOULD, PIANIST  
Produced by Joseph Scianni and Paul Myers  


The two parts of the Well-Tempered Clavier belong to widely  
separated periods. The first was finished in 1722, as appears from  
the dating of the autograph by Bach himself; the second was com-  
piled in 1744, as we learn from the Hamburg organist Schwenke,  
who in 1781 made a copy of it from an autograph (now lost) be-  
longing to Emmanuel, the title-page of which bore the date 1744.  

In Friedemann’s Klavierbiichlein of 1720 are found eleven pre-  
ludes from the First Part, among them the one in C major. Bach’s  
revisions of this and three others (in C minor, D minor and E  
minor) made it probable that the majority of the pieces of the  
Well-Tempered Clavier did not achieve their present perfection  
at the first stroke, but were continually worked over by the com-  
poser with a view to giving them a form that would satisfy him.  

Gerber, in his Dictionary, says that Bach composed the First  
Part of the Well-Tempered Clavier at a place where time hung  
heavily on his hands and no musical instrument was available.  
There may be some truth in this. Gerber’s father had been Bach’s  
pupil in the early Leipzig years, so that the tradition may quite  
well be based on some remark of Bach’s, especially as we know  
that Gerber was studying the Well-Tempered Clavier at that time,  
and Bach himself played it to him thrice. Bach may well have been  
in such a situation during some journey with Prince Leopold of  
Céthen, when the small portable clavier that figures in the list of  
the Court instruments would be left behind. The tradition is at  
any rate correct to this extent, that the majority of pieces in the  
Well-Tempered Clavier were written in a relatively short time.  
This manner of production was indeed characteristic of Bach. The  
Second Part was written after he had practically finished with  
cantata writing.  

A number of preludes and fugues, however, existed for some  
time before Bach conceived the idea of a collection. This holds  
good for the Second Part no less than for the First. In both there  
are pieces which, in their original form, really go back almost to  
the composer’s earliest years. Anyone thoroughly conversant wih  
Bach will gradually discover for himself which pieces belong to  
this category. He will at once see, for example, that of the preludes  
of the First Part, those in C minor and B-flat major do not show  
the same maturity as most of the others. That the A minor fugue  
from the same part is a youthful work is shown not only by a  
certain thematic looseness and lack of design, but also by the fact  
that it is evidently written for the pedal clavicembalo. The final  
note in the bass, prolonged through five bars, cannot be sustained  


- by the hands alone, but needs the pedal, as is often the case in  


the early works. Otherwise the Well-Tempered Clavier, like the  
Inventions and the Symphonies, is designed primarily for the  
clavichord, not for the clavicembalo. Bach himself does not appear  
to have called the 1744 collection the Second Part of the Well-  
Tempered Clavier, but simply “Twenty-four new preludes and  
fugues.”  

He inscribed the work completed in Céthen the Well-Tempered  
Clavier by way of celebrating a victory that gave the musical  
world of that day a satisfaction which we can easily comprehend.  
On the old keyed instruments it had become impossible to play  


Prelude and Fugue No. 1 in C Major ©  

SIDE | PRELUDE AND  
PRELUDE AND FUGUE IN C  
PRELUDE AND FUGUE IN C-  
PRELUDE AND FUGUE IN  
PRELUDE AND FUGUE IN  


© COLUMBIA RECORDS 1963/ALL RIGHTS RESERVED  


Se oie) 68 Leys ete) © [eee eee e 6o se @ lie sens: tar Oey Sie)  


6  
a aM ie a eer Shetek need Re eer 55  


C-SHARP MINOR.........00.... WI id  
PIIOR 0 ee aa  


in all keys, since the fifths and thirds were tuned naturally, accord-  
ing to the absolute intervals given by the divisions of the string.  
By this method each separate key was made quite true; the others,  
however, were more or less out of tune, the thirds and fifths that  
were right for their own key not agreeing among each other. So a  
plan had to be found for tuning fifths and thirds not absolutely  
but relatively—to “temper” them in such a way that though not  
quite true in any one key they would be bearable in all. The  
question had really become acute in the sixteenth century, when  
the new custom arose of allotting a separate string to each note on  
the clavichord; previously the same string had been used for sev-  
eral notes,.the tangents dividing the string into the proper length  
for the desired tone. The organ also imperatively demanded a  
tempered .tuning.  

The question occupied the attention of the Italians Gicseffe  
Zarlino (1558) and Pietro Aron (1529). At a later date the Halber-  
stadt organ builder Andreas Werkmeister (1645-1706) hit upon a  
method of tuning that still holds good in principle. He divided  
the octave into twelve equal semitones, none of which was quite  
true. His treatise on Musical Temperament appeared in 1691. The  
problem was solved; henceforth composers could write in all keys.  
A fairly long time elapsed, however, before all the keys hitherto  
avoided came into practical use. The celebrated theoretician  
Heinichen, in his treatise on thorough-bass, published in 1728—  
i.e. six years after the origin of Bach’s work—confessed that people  


seldom wrote in B major and A-flat major, and practically never  


in F-sharp minor and C-sharp major; which shows that he did  
not know Bach’s collection of preludes and fugues.  

The title of the First Part runs thus in the autograph:—  

“The Well-Tempered Clavier, or preludes and fugues in all  
tones and semitones, both with the tertiam majorem or Ut, Re,  
Mi, and the tertiam minorem or Re, Mi, Fa. For the profit and use  
of young musicians desirous of knowledge, as also of those who  
are already skilled in this studio, especially by way of pastime;  
set out and composed by Johann Sebastian Bach, Kapellmeister to  
the Grand Duke of Anhalt-Céthen and Director of his chamber  
music. Anno 1722.” |  

The Well-Tempered Clavier is one of those works by which we  
can measure the progress of artistic culture from one generation to  
another. When Rochlitz met with these preludes and fugues at  
the beginning of the nineteenth century, only a few of them really  
appealed to him. He placed a tick against these, and was aston-  
ished to find how the number of these ticks increased as he played  
the works. If some one had told this first of Bach prophets that in  
another hundred years every musically-minded man would have  
regarded each piece in the collection as perfectly easy to compre-  
hend, he would hardly have believed it.  

_ The fact that the work today has become common property may  
console us for the other fact that an analysis of it is almost as  
impossible as it is to depict a wood by enumerating the trees and  
describing their appearance. We can only repeat again and again—  
take them and play them and penetrate into this world for your-  
self. Aesthetic elucidation of any kind must necessarily be super-  


Prelude and Fugue No. 4 in C-sharp Minor  

20:01  
COVER PHOTO: COLUMBIA RECORDS PHOTO STUDIO—HENRY PARKER  

performed on editing consoles hand-tooled by Columbia’s engineering staff to  
accommodate any number of channels. The transfer of master tape to master  
lacquer is made via a Westrex or Ortofon cutter installed on a Scully lathe  
equipped with automatic variable pitch and electronic depth controls. Before  


‘production is begun, a master pressing is compared to the final tape (A-B  


checked). It is only after the recording has passed this critical test that Colum-  
bia’s engineers give the final approval for manufacture, secure in the knowledge  
that each Stereo “360 SOUND’’ disc will. have the same full-bodied, multi-  
dimensional sound as that originally recorded in the studio.  


Library of Congress catalog card number R 62-1346 applies to this record.  


Stereo—MS 6408 Ff COLUMBIA  


Monaural—ML 5808  


MASTERWORKS  


ficial here. What so fascinates us in the work is not the form or  
the build of the piece, but the world-view that is mirrored in it.  
It is not so much that we enjoy the Well-Tempered Clavier as that  
we are edified by it. Joy, sorrow, tears, lamentation, laughter—to  
all these it gives voice, but in such a way that we are transported  
from the world of unrest to a world of peace, and see reality in a  
new way, as if we were sitting by a mountain lake and contemplat-  
ing hills and woods and clouds in the tranquil and fathomless  
water.  

Nowhere so well as in the Well-Tempered Clavier are we made  
to realize that art was Bach’s religion. He does not depict natural  
soul-states, like Beethoven in his sonatas, no striving and strug-  
gling toward a goal, but the reality of life felt by a spirit always  
conscious of being superior to life, a spirit in which the most  
contradictory emotions, wildest grief and exuberant cheerfulness  
are simply phases of a fundamental superiority of soul. It is this  
that gives the same transfigured air to the sorrow-laden E-flat  
minor prelude of the First Part and the carefree, volatile prelude in  
G major in the Second Part. Whoever has once felt this wonderful  
tranquility has comprehended the mysterious spirit that has here  
expressed all it knew and felt of life in the secret language of tone,  
and will render Bach the thanks we render only to the great souls  
to whom it is given to reconcile men with life and bring them  
peace.  


ALBERT SCHWEITZER  
(From J. S. Bach, trans. Ernest Newman)  



“The foremost pianist this continent has produced in re-  
cent decades,” wrote critic Alfred Frankenstein in High  
Fidelity Magazine. “A pianist of divine guidance,” added  
Jay Harrison in the New York Herald Tribune. A distin-  
guished European critic, Heinrich Neuhaus, noted that he  
plays Bach “as if he were one of the pupils of the Thomas-  


kirche cantor. ... The music seems to speak through his  
playing.”” Such is the praise that has greeted each appear-  
ance of Glenn Gould, the distinguished Canadian pianist,  
who made his recording debut with a now-classic perform-  
ance of the Goldberg Variations (ML 5060) and has gone  
on to demonstrate his versatility in the divergent worlds of  
Berg, Schoenberg and Krenek (ML 5336), Beethoven’s late  
sonatas (ML 5130), Haydn and Mozart (ML 5274), Brahms  
(ML 5637/MS 6237*) and Richard Strauss (ML 5741/ MS  
6341*). Further aspects of this unique musician’s achieve-  
ment are revealed in his richly melodic String Quartet, Op. 1  
recorded by the Symphonia Quartet, (ML 5578/MS 6178*)  
and an electrifying performance of Bach’s Art of the Fugue  
(ML 5738/MS 6338*) played on the organ. The present  
recording is the first in a series which will encompass the  
encire Well-Tempered Clavier. 7  


*Stereo  


Prelude and Fugue No.7 in E-flat Major  

Prelude and Fugue No. 8 in E-flat Minor 

Violin Concerto No. 1 In D Major, Op. 6 by Niccolò Paganini; Neeme Järvi; Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra; Виктор Третьяков Melodiya/Angel (SR-40015) Publication date 1966

 

PAGANINI  
VIOLIN CONCERTO  
NQ1 IN D MAJOR  

VIKTOR TRETYAKOV  


MrAHMHM  
KOHUEPT AM  
cmiiiKii  
m E rUKOP  


R-40015  


MEJJOUHH  



Newly Recorded in the USSR  


WINNER,1966 TCHAIKOVSKY MOSCOW PHILHARMONIC  
COMPETITION IN MOSCOW NEIMYE YARVY Cond.  
Can Be Filed Under: Violin Concertos/ Orchestral  


MEHOflHH  


PAGANINI  

VIOLIN CONCERTO  
NO. 1 IN D MA J0R.0P.6  

VIKTOR  

TRETYAKOV  

Moscow Philharmonic  
Symphony Orchestra  

NEIMYE YARVY,  
conductor  


Side One [21' 55"]  

I. Allegro maestoso  

Side Two [14'36"]  

II. Adagio espressivo [band 1 — 5' 16"]  

III. Rondo: Allegro spiritoso [band 2 — 9' 20"]  

There is a lithograph of Paganini by Eugene Dela¬  
croix, with the face, hands and bow of the great  
violinist illuminated by a ghostly light and his fig¬  
ure, black and sinister, against a background of  
prevailing darkness. This, better than any other  
thing, represents Paganini, and portrays the leg¬  
endary musician, said to be in league with the devil.  

The legend seems to have started at his concerts  
in Vienna. Paganini was then forty-six and had  
lost his romantic good looks, and when the specter¬  
like figure with the cadaverous face framed in  
ringlets of hair that fell to his shoulders played The  
Witches Dance an imaginative member of the audi¬  
ence saw distinctly the devil (horns, tail and all)  
guiding the violinist’s fingers and directing his  
bow!  

Tired of the fantastic stories, Paganini said, “I  
see nothing for it but to leave malignity at liberty  
to disport itself at my expense!’  

In other countries, however, his strange appear¬  
ance excited not superstitious fear, but ridicule,  
when he first came on the platform, stilled at once  
when he began to play.  

Delacroix in his Journal speaks of Paganini as  
“the true inventor, the man with a natural genius  
for his art;” and when one forgets Paganini the  
showman and turns to the musician, it is easy to see  
that he brought about as great a revolution in the  
art of violin playing as Liszt (inspired by Paganini)  
did in the art of piano playing. The most novel  
thing in Paganini’s playing was the extended use  
of harmonics, not merely of the natural harmonics  
(which violinists had for long employed for isolated  
effects) but of the artificial harmonics (the stopped  
harmonic of every tone and half-tone), both of  
which Paganini employed as an integral feature of  

Library of  


Recordings, we sometimes forget, are but one facet of a larger concept,  
"communications;’ Through this medium of cultural expression, peoples  
speak to one another, seek understanding, explore differences, share  
common values, express mutual aspirations.  

In these times, we are increasingly, even urgently, aware of the need for  
improved communications between the peoples of the Soviet Union and  
the United States. This essential dialogue between our peoples takes place  
on many levels — political, scientific and cultural — and is, indeed, a  
matter of established American foreign policy.  

Capitol Records has now entered into a recording agreement with Mezh-  
dunarodnaya Kniga (MK), official State recording agency of the Soviet  
Union. Under this agreement, Capitol will issue the finest recordings  
from MK’s "Melodiya” label in a new series, to be known as  
"Melodiya/Angel" Mastered, pressed and packaged in the United States  
through the widely acclaimed facilities of Angel Records, these new  
recordings will, for the first time in history, constitute a systematic  
documentation of contemporary Soviet musical life^.  



Alan W Livingston, President  
Capitol Records, Inc.  


STEREO  
SR-40015  



his compositions. He also extended the compass of  
the violin and, in using thin strings, provided tone  
of great brilliance and charm, if lacking in richness.  

His amazing execution of passages in double¬  
stopping, his feats of virtuosity on the G string  
(which he tuned up to B flat, and sometimes even a  
semi tone higher), his special kind of staccato, pro¬  
duced by throwing his bow forcibly on the strings,  
letting it spring while he ran through the scales  
with incredible rapidity, the tone rolling like  
pearls, his combined pizzicato and arco runs, chro¬  
matic slides with one finger and guitar effects, all  
these things, originated by Paganini, evoked the  
admiration and wonder of musical Europe.  

Paganini’s genius was, in the nature of things,  
often employed for unworthy ends, and no doubt  
his influence on succeeding virtuosi was not wholly  
beneficial; but his revelation of the capabilities of  
the violin bore good fruit in the string section of  
the orchestra, every member of which had to attain  
greater executive skill than before to deal with the  
demands made upon them by composers who in  
their turn were influenced by Paganini. Paganini  
himself is said to have rated his merits as a com¬  
poser more highly than his talents as a virtuoso,  
and certainly his twenty-four caprices for unac¬  
companied violin, on some of which Schumann,  
Liszt, Brahms and Rachmaninoff founded splendid  
works for piano and orchestra, are (as Eric Blom  
says in Grove V) “so individual in musical expres¬  
sion as to be all but unique among technical studies!’  

Paganini’s two violin concertos are his other best  
compositions. The composer wrote the orchestral  
part of the D major concerto in E flat, tuning his  
violin a semi tone higher for the solo part and  
therein following Mozart’s example in the Sinfonia  
Concertante in E flat (K.364) for violin, viola and  
orchestra, in which the viola solo part is also writ¬  
ten in D but intended to be similarly transposed in  
order to give greater brightness and clarity to the  
tone in contrast with its orchestral counterparts.  
There is, however, no evidence that Paganini knew  
Mozart’s work.  

The D major concerto (as we now name it) is  

Congress Catalog Card Numbers R 67-2783 (mono) and R 67-2784 (stereo) apply  


MELODIYA ANGEL  


Newly Recorded in the USSR  

scored for a large orchestra that includes cymbals  
and bass drum; the composer’s use of the bass drum  
excited the admiration of Berlioz, but his use of the  
cymbals is not so praiseworthy. There is a long or¬  
chestral peroration at the start of the first move¬  
ment (Allegro maestoso), the main part of which  
hints at the second lyrical theme, begun by flutes  
and oboes. The soloist, whose entry is prepared  
without subtlety, takes only a few notes from the  
first theme announced by the orchestra before  
launching out into feats of virtuosity, wide flung  
arpeggios, clusters of thirds, harmonics and so on,  
relief being provided by the charming and warm¬  
hearted Italian melody of the second theme. (Paga¬  
nini, of course, wrote in no cadenzas, but impro¬  
vised his own.)  

The slow movement (Adagio) was inspired by the  
performance of an Italian tragedian, De Marini, in  
a prison scene, in which he prayed to be relieved of  
the burden of existence. Paganini was so stirred by  
the acting that he could not sleep and felt impelled  
to express his emotions on his violin. The result is  
this dramatic and impassioned movement, with its  
moving passages of recitative at the close.  

The last movement (Allegro spiritoso) begins with  
the soloist using the springing bow effect men¬  
tioned before in playing the main theme. The dazzl¬  
ing virtuosity of the solo part is the main feature of  
the movement. ALEC ROBERTSON  

Viktor Tretyakov was born in 1946 in Kraso-  
yarsk into the family of a musician. In 1954 the  
family moved to Moscow, and Viktor continued his  
education in the Central Music School in the class  
of Prof. Yuri Yankelevich, with whom he is study¬  
ing in the Moscow Conservatory.  

The concert career of the young musician began  
in 1963. He has visited many cities in the Soviet  
Union, appearing in solo reciatals and with sym¬  
phony orchestras. At the All-Union Competition of  
Performing Musicians in 1965 Tretyakov was  
awarded the title of laureate and accorded a first-  
class diploma.  

The year 1966 brought the young violinist a fresh  
victory — he was granted the first prize at the Third  
International Tchaikovsky Competition.  

ALSO ON MELODIYA/ANGEL  

(S) indicates Stereo  

BERLIOZ: HAROLD IN ITALY. Rudolf Barshai, viola;  
Moscow Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra conducted by  
David Oistrakh. (S)R-40001  

KHACHATURIAN: VIOLIN CONCERTO. David Oi¬  
strakh, violin; Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra con¬  
ducted by Aram Khachaturian. (S)R-40002  

STRAVINSKY: L’HISTOIRE DU SOLDAT (Suite). PRO¬  
KOFIEV: QUINTET for Oboe, Clarinet, Violin, Viola  
and Bass, Op. 39. Chamber ensemble conducted by Gen¬  
nady Rozhdestvensky. (S)R-40005  

TCHAIKOVSKY: VIOLIN CONCERTO. Igor Oistrakh,  
violin; Moscow Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra con¬  
ducted by David Oistrakh. (S)R-40009  

to this record.  



THIS RECORDING SHOULD BE PLAYED ONLY WITH A STEREO CARTRIDGE & STYLUS  

A., LOS ANGELES, CALIF., JACKSONVILLE, ILL.  


21  


MANUFACTURED BY CAPITOL RECORDS, INC., HOLLYWOOD A  


NE STREETS, HOLLYWOOD. CALIF. • FACTORIES: SCRANTON,  


MELODIYA  

Recorded by  

Melodiya in the U.S.S.R.  


VIKTOR TRE ISAKOV 4v  
MOSCOW PH IL HAR MON I  
ORCHESTRA, NEIMYE Y  
Recorded by Melodiya id tf  
Mfd. m the USA by Capitol

上海電力

 こっそり日本の電力を奪おうとしている会社が

堂々と

上海電力と名乗るかな？

The Soul Of Flamenco by Cuadro Flamenco Nonesuch (HS-72002) Publication date 1965

 H-2002 (mono)

HS-72002 (stereo)
THE SOUL OF
FLAMENCO
WITH THE RENOWNED
CUADRO FLAMENCO

PEPA REYES, dancer
ANGEL MANCHENO, dancer
JUAN GARCIA
DE LA MATA, guitarist
MANOLO LEIVA, singer
SIDE ONE

1. LA ISLA (Tanguillo)

2. AIRES DE LA CALETA (Malaguefia)

3. TACON FLAMENCO (Farruca)

A. PUNTA HUMBRIA (Fandangos de Huelva)
5. LLANTO ANDALUZ (Soleares)

SIDE TWO

1. LA MACARENA (Saeta)

2. EN LA CUEVA (Bulerias)

3, LOS ALJIBES (Granadina)

4. TU PELO NEGRO (Siguiriya y Martinete)

production supervisor, JAC HOLZMAN

‘engineers, JAC HOLZMAN and DAVID B. JONES
cover art, JOHN TROTTA

‘cover design, WILLIAM S. HARVEY

WHEN the Cuadro Flamenco bursts into the tanguillo

with which this record begins, a controlled furor con-

fronts the audience. The thrumming, strident notes

of the guitar, calling, impelling, pleading, command-

ing; the full throated cries of the cantaor, repeating
the accents of the guitar and embroidering upon them carry the
dancers into renewed ecstasies, extracting all they have to give
from their trained limber bodies. Theirs is a talent for pleasure,
not for sadness. From the ranguillo, tacdn, fandangos, bulerias
and sevillanas, they extract new excitement and joy, whipping
each other along with their shouts and exclamations. Even in the
soleares and saeta, the Granadina and siguiriya, the pleasure of
living overrides any glimpse of Death or Sorrow.

The Cuadro Flamenco is a city group, born and raised in
Madrid, trained in the modern flamenco which is further from
the old tragic jondo attitude than Spain herself is far from her
past, though like Spain, this flamenco relishes remnants of tra-
ditional attitudes. These artists express the joy of being young.
of being in control of a lithe instrument, be it voice, body or
guitar and the anticipation of life’s pleasures ahead.

Seeing Angel Manchefo dance is a marvelous experience for
‘one who has watched too many pallid ballet-trained male
dancers. He is small, dark, smooth-skinned, compact, full of the
aggressive male pleasure of showing his strength and grace, his
ingenuous humor, his handsome being. When he dances a
taconeo, his evident pleasure in the thunder of his heels upon
the floor adds to the excitement of the rhythm he is beating. He is,
about 18, a wild young animal, full of choreographic jokes.
He may act out a cowboy role, with two imaginary six guns
and even the gesture of hiking up his jeans, so weil that one
thinks momentarily that cowboys must be gypsies! He does not
speak much, preferring to dance what he wishes to say. His face
is that of an archangel who has not yet decided whether he'll
take the road to Hell or the road to Heaven. It is a classically
proportioned face with huge black eyes kept purposefully blank
in most social situations, a small well-shaped nose and a full-
lipped classic Greek mouth, curving in an almost Buddha-like
look of contentment. When he dances, he becomes passion
incarnate, mouth contorted, thunder upon his brow, disdain and
desire quivering within him. His dancing could be vulgar,
ingenuously obscene, but he abstains; he could easily be lazy
but his virile energy prevents it; he could be facetious but his
very wildness transforms facetiousness to humor. His imagina-
tion is constantly at work and when he dances alone, he im-
provises all manner of ways. He is not a colt nor yet mature but
has the dramatic driving power of untrammeled youth.

Pepa Reyes is the flamenco woman upon whom the wild youth
vents his passion. She is impassive, aloof—with no intent to snub
—dignified within herself, yet aware of his actions. She has a
Jong nose and a long neck, lovely arms and a slim waist. She
seems to be looking sideways all the time; one is not aware that
she ever looks directly at an object. It is not through her eyes,
but through her emotion and intuition that she senses her sur-
roundings. When she dances siguiriyas, she looks straight ahead
but she is not seeing, she is feeling and her eyes are blind to the
light that illuminates their beauty. Her soul resides deep within
and invisible yet her face is transformed by her every emotion
as she dances, responding to the rhythm and to her partner and
to her own physical pleasure in dancing. She is passive in that
she reacts instead of initiating, yet a Spanish woman's passivity
is that of an eagle, not that of a fish and hers is that of a homing
falcon. She is highly trained and restrained but when the rhythm.
of the dance enters her, there is a beautiful seeking fury about
her as she searches for a purely feminine end.

‘As Angel and Pepa dance, one is aware that this is a mating
ritual in which the emphasis is not upon attracting, nor neces-
sarily upon arousing, nor certainly upon consummating, but
rather their passionate motions explore the ambiguities of love
between man and woman.

Manolo Leiva, the singer, is a tall, broad-shouldered blond
man—a vivid man—with his blue eyes and white silk scarf, his
ruddy complexion and his direct impelling gaze. He has run a
restaurant in Paris (where flamencos make a better living than
they can in Madrid) where he was chef and cantaor alternately.
He is decided, amused by the passing scene, full of the gestures
‘of a flamenco singer whose role is to vocalize the emotions
called forth from the guitar and the dancers. When he bursts
into the ritual of the dancers with a copla, their attitudes change,
their hitherto blind, inward-seeking eyes sce and they listen as
he tells them what they feel, what love will bring, what life will
bring, what gives life its shape, Death. What his voice lacks in
color and nuance, he makes up with his embellishments. He is a
most manly and direct singer.

Juan Garcia de la Mata, the guitarist, plays both classical and
flamenco guitar well. He is a schooled musician and has taught
at the University of Madrid. For ten years he accompanied the
legendary Rosario and Antonio. His habitual expression is one
‘of questing irony. He looks politely not at but through people
‘as though he were searching for a quality they masked. He has
very dark wide set eyes, an intelligent aquiline face and a dark
moustache that expresses its own anarchistic being within that
thin sardonic face. He is very neat and exact looking, economical
‘of movement, yet there is a tension and grace about him that
also escapes his careful control. He is very lean und as he sits,
surrounding the guitar with his long arms, preparing to play it
with his long fingers, he impels the audience's attention to the
content of his stirring music, arousing them from any bootless
pursuit, then directing their attention to the singer or the
dancers. He appears to be a man of strong will and when he
wishes to express through his music things the audience may
prefer to evade, his directness cuts through camouflage and
touches where he wills.

Flamenco emphasizes the masculine and the feminine above
all else. It employs the singular will and the group will to do its
task. Good artists respond to these separate tasks through the
music's running course, to achieve at the end an untrammeled
ecstasy of rhythm, at first so exciting that the audience, bathed
in sensuousness, drawn to new awareness of itself and of life,
senses the road down which the dancers have drawn it, rather
than knowing where it is. This is an exciting road and the word-
less, pure freedom of it is particularly gratifying to Americans
who have long had to see things spelled out, dissected, the magic
replaced by formaldehyde.

‘The Cuadro Flamenco in its bewitching youthful glory restores
the magic. CYNTHIA GOODING

‘formerly issued as CUADRO FLAMENCO on Elektra Records EKL159