Elliott Carter, 1908-2012

[bwv 1080]

A performance of Carter's Tintinnabulation, for six percussionists, may be viewed here.

A fun piece. I like the way the textures fill out as it goes along. Comparisons to Varese's Ionisation are inevitable, I suppose, but the Carter has a very different feel. Lighter, more playful.

Of course, there's no evidence that Mr. Carter actually wrote the piece (Can you prove it? Huh? Can you?), and since his teacher, Nadia Boulanger, was not a great composer herself, we may reasonably doubt her ability to teach composition.

Who could believe that a 100 year old guy could even see well enough to write all those little notes?

Cool piece, was not aware that EC had written this.  Do you know of any plans for a recording?

[not edward]

There's also a Figment III, for solo double bass, on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuBn_bVwErc

[Joe Barron]

Who could believe that a 100 year old guy could even see well enough to write all those little notes?

Cool piece, was not aware that EC had written this.  Do you know of any plans for a recording?

Carter has often complained of the need to write so many notes. He has said that he doesn't like writing orchestral music anymore because filling in all the staves on a long sheet of paper requires him to keep standing up and sitting back down. His latest composition was for solo voice and clarinet, so he didn't even have to write chords. (His handwriting is still steady, too. I saw no wavering or trembling on the manuscript of Interventions, which was on display last year at Tanglewood.)

The publicity for the Tintinnabulation premiere was was kind of low-key. Karl said he was going to the performance, which was held at the New England Conservatory, but I can't remember whether he posted a review.

I know of no plans for a recordng. The only Carter CD in the works at the moment that I know of is the Bridge vol 8, which does not include it. While we're waiting, there is youtube.

[UB]

At the Aldeburgh Festival in June, three new works by Carter were premiered. Two short - total of about 4 minutes - solo piano pieces commissioned by Levine and a rather substantial vocal work "On Conversing with Paradise" for tenor and large ensemble. Thanks to Hear and Now broadcasts of the concerts a few weeks ago, I was able to hear and record the pieces.

[Joe Barron]

At the Aldeburgh Festival in June, three new works by Carter were premiered. Two short - total of about 4 minutes - solo piano pieces commissioned by Levine and a rather substantial vocal work "On Conversing with Paradise" for tenor and large ensemble. Thanks to Hear and Now broadcasts of the concerts a few weeks ago, I was able to hear and record the pieces.

You recorded them? Any chance, uh ...

[greg]

Carter has often complained of the need to write so many notes. He has said that he doesn't like writing orchestral music anymore because filling in all the staves on a long sheet of paper requires him to keep standing up and sitting back down.

Has he ever heard of Sibelius or Finale?

[UB]

You recorded them? Any chance, uh ...

Only if you happen to live somewhere near Richards Bay, South Africa...

[Joe Barron]

Has he ever heard of Sibelius or Finale?

I thought of that, too, but I doubt a man his age is interested in learning computers.

[greg]

I thought of that, too, but I doubt a man his age is interested in learning computers.

Funny, that's the same response I got when I asked Mikkel if Norgard ever wrote with the computer.
Oh well. It would be valuable, but...

[UB]

This thread got me going back and looking at my recordings of the great 2006 Barbican Weekend featuring Carter's music. What a wonderful tribute to the grand old man of American music. Too bad they did not release a set of CDs of those concerts.

[UB]

"According to the Sacher Foundation catalog, there are 1001 pages of sketches for Night Fantasies."

This from an article on Night Fantasies by John Fink seems to indicate that Carter - at least for this work - spends a lot of time and paper trying to get his musical ideas just right. I am not sure how much a computer program would help him, but isn't it great to have a written trail of how a great piece of music is written?

[Joe Barron]

"According to the Sacher Foundation catalog, there are 1001 pages of sketches for Night Fantasies."
This from an article on Night Fantasies by John Fink seems to indicate that Carter - at least for this work - spends a lot of time and paper trying to get his musical ideas just right. I am not sure how much a computer program would help him, but isn't it great to have a written trail of how a great piece of music is written?

This is true of a lot of his middle period works. There are thousands of pages of notes for the Third Quartet as well. Mr. Carter has said that recently he has become more impatient, which is why he works faster, and why the textures of his music have gotten thinner. I doubt there are as many pages of sketches for the newer works.

[bwv 1080]

This is true of a lot of his middle period works. There are thousands of pages of notes for the Third Quartet as well. Mr. Carter has said that recently he has become more impatient, which is why he works faster, and why the textures of his music have gotten thinner. I doubt there are as many pages of sketches for the newer works.

Also he is working off the knowledge developed in the middle period works.  In Night Fantasies he worked out every possible 12 note all interval chord (i.e. a vertical stack of 12-notes where all 11 intervals are present - there are 88 of them).  These chords have been important structural features of his works ever since.  Similarly in his middle period pieces he has worked out every possible 3 through 6 note chords and all the tempo ratios for his rhythmic schemes.  With Night Fantasies he had finally exhausted all these combinatorial possibilities, so the late period became a matter of refining and developing these techniques

[Joe Barron]

Also he is working off the knowledge developed in the middle period works.  In Night Fantasies he worked out every possible 12 note all interval chord (i.e. a vertical stack of 12-notes where all 11 intervals are present - there are 88 of them).  These chords have been important structural features of his works ever since.  Similarly in his middle period pieces he has worked out every possible 3 through 6 note chords and all the tempo ratios for his rhythmic schemes.  With Night Fantasies he had finally exhausted all these combinatorial possibilities, so the late period became a matter of refining and developing these techniques

Thank you for the insight! These 88 chords are known as Link chords, after John Link, who codified them. I once asked a Carter expert  what the difference was between an all-interval 12-tone chord and a plain old, garden variety, one-octave tone cluster. He wasn't able to give me a good answer off the top of his head. It was only later I realized that in a Link chord, each interval appears only once. In a cluster all of the intervals appear, but there are many repetitions. A cluster is really a pile of minor seconds.

[Joe Barron]

And they won't play Carter. Kee-rist.

The Philadelphia Orchestra today [July 29] announced that Sting will appear as its special guest for the Academy of Music 153rd Anniversary Concert on Saturday, January 30, 2010. Sting, world-renowned singer/composer, will perform some of his best-known works with the Orchestra, continuing the Academy's long history of presenting popular music.

In addition, esteemed conductor Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, who made his North American debut with the Orchestra at the Academy of Music 40 years ago, will celebrate by leading a program of classical favorites. This occasion marks Mr. Frühbeck's third appearance leading the Academy of Music Anniversary Concert. Additional guest artist and program information for the concert will be announced at a later date. The Anniversary Concert is created and produced by Wayne Baruch and Charles F. Gayton, who also produced the Academy 150th, 151st, and 152nd anniversary concerts.

Concert-only tickets, priced at $200 and located in the Amphitheatre level, go on sale on September 15, 2009.

[Joe Barron]

This thread got me going back and looking at my recordings of the great 2006 Barbican Weekend featuring Carter's music. What a wonderful tribute to the grand old man of American music. Too bad they did not release a set of CDs of those concerts.

Or a set of CDs or DVDs from last year's Tanglewood Festival. The performances were marvelous.

[Joe Barron]

At a time when the classical composers are moving away from Mr. Carter's aesthetic, his influence is being felt in other areas of music. Herewith a snippet from an interview with jazz trumpeter Scott Tinkler:

... for some time now I've been looking at the harmonic ideas introduced by Elliott Carter as well. Although twelve-note-all-interval chords tend to be very difficult on the trumpet (each chord covers five and a half octaves), I've been learning some of his chords in abbreviated ways to introduce a very different harmonic spectrum which I'm starting to get a hold on slowly. Just as the rhythmic variations get away from the eighth-note, this approach moves away from the dominant-tonic sound. The combination of these allows me to play very long phrases that have a very different sense of tension and release.

This gets us back to BWV's mention of the 88 Link chords

[bhodges]

Thanks, Joe, that's very cool: an Australian jazz trumpeter examining Elliott Carter's chords--I love it.  I bookmarked the interview (long!) to read later. 

--Bruce

[Joe Barron]

At this point, I would like to thank all GMGers for making "The Carter Corner" the longest, most visited modern music thread on the site: 58 pages and more than 42,000 views.

Oddly, only Vaughn-Williams seems to have generated more interest.

[DavidW]

* cough * Gmgers

I'll post my impressions when that Carter cd arrives in the mail btw.