Tuesday, October 6, 2020

The New Music Ensemble, Part 4 - Documented Performances and Misc.

The final installment of this series is sort of an info dump. I have compiled all of the known performances by the NME, with and without Larry Austin, from its inception in summer 1963 to its dissolution in 1967. This probably doesn't contain every performance. Concert programs, program notes, personal accounts, etc. would likely reveal more. In the mean time, this is a lot more than we had before, and we can see in greater detail than ever:

  1. who played in the ensemble over the years,
  2. that the group improvised alongside its performances of contemporary repertoire,
  3. that often these contemporary compositions were themselves infused with improvisational ideas, and
  4. what newspaper reviewers thought about the NME's activities.

I use the following format:

Year

Month, Date - Day, time, location. Here I'll usually offer a short synopsis, followed by

Program included

Any compositions performed.

Performers

Any named performers.

"Anything contained in quotation marks is a direct quote from one of the media resources linked to in the entry."

Review (if extant)

1963


• February 12 - Not an NME performance, since the name is not used. Larry Austin's "Improvisations for Orchestra and Jazz Soloists" was performed here. Also on the program were "Improvisations", performed by Austin, Woodbury, Lunetta, and John Mosher, a bassist.

• July 31 - Wednesday, 8:15pm, Freeborn Hall, UC Davis. This was the NME's debut performance.

Austin: "The idea is to perform significant, contemporary, chamber music; whatever is instrumental; to explore new composing and performing techniques; and to develop a concept of group improvisation."

"In frequent rehearsals over the past two months the ensemble has been primarily concerned with developing various approaches to group improvisation, particularly since all the works on this debut concert involve improvisatory and/or chance techniques in varying degrees. To begin with, all the players are fluent improvisers, either as creative performers, as composers, or both. The problem for the group was to perfect a sort of creative rapport which would enable us to improvise freely as a group and create aesthetically successful musical moments."

Program included:

Elegy for solo percussion (Jerome Rosen)
Extrados for solo clarinet (Garrett Bowles)
Collage (Austin) ["which makes use of considerable free improvisation"]
Domains II for solo percussion (Richard Swift)
Refrain for piano, celeste and vibraphone (Stockhausen)
Densities for clarinet, vibraphone, harp and bass (Schuller)
Scherzo (Over The Pavement) (Ives)

Of Collages, Austin said:

"This work is an agglomeration of nine musical fragments. The present order of the fragments is arbitrary. In fact, in the future I will no doubt add more fragments or perhaps discard some, depending on the music situation. In two fragments, the instrumentation is indeterminant [sic], Square being for any combination of from two to four instruments and Uncommon Canon for any combination of any number of instruments. The remaining fragments, including the improvised interludes, are for specific instrumentations.

"I have used improvisation and chance as compositional resources. Varying degrees of compositional control are exerted, from freely improvised fragments with only the time span indicated to through-composed compositions with only a few free [elements].

Austin also describes the other five fragments, which include homages to the Modern Jazz Quartet and Ornette Coleman.

Performers:

Larry Austin, trumpet
Jerome Rosen, 
Richard Swift, piano
Donald Brewer, trombone
Adrienne Castelian, piano
Sylvia Hoffman, harp
Jon Gibson, saxophone
Barbara Johnson, piccolo
Wayne Johnson, reeds, vibraphone
Jerry Lopes, bass
Arthur Woodbury, reeds

From a different article: "Several of the members play more than one instrument during the concert. There is even one new instrument - a pianoform - derived from an old upright piano."

Review by William C. Glackin



• September 27 - 8:15pm, Freeborn Hall. "...a program of contemporary works..."

Program included:

A Broken Consort (Larry Austin, MJQ Music)
Serenade No. 2 (Morton Subotnick)
Domains I (Richard Swift)
Concert for piano and orchestra (John Cage)

"A Broken Consort ... In six movements, it applies the tone row technique of serial composition to certain elements of traditional jazz, including the 12 bar blues. The players are given room to improvise."

Performers:

Larry Austin, trumpet
Richard Swift, piano
Arthur Woodbury, winds
Stanley Lunetta, percussion
Donald Brewer, trombone
Alexander Chambers, tenor
Barbara Johnson, flute
Sally Kell, cello
Mura Kievman, percussion
Paul Marsh, tuba
William Michael, horn
John Mosher, string bass
Noami Sparrow, piano
Marvin Tartak, piano

• October 13 - 3:00pm, E. B. Crocker Art Gallery.

"...the ensemble will perform some free group improvisations. These will be of varying lengths and for various groups within the ensemble."
Oct 13th, 1963

Larry Austin
Jon Gibson
Wayne Johnson
Stanley Lunetta
Jerome Rosen
Richard Swift
Arthur Woodbury
Billie Alexander

Program included:

Apparitions (Jon Gibson)
Octet '61 (Cornelius Cardew)
Uncoverings (Stanley Lunetta)
Cuttings (Richard Swift)

• October 17 - 8:15pm, "Improvisation '63" lecture/demonstration by Austin / Swift. Home Economics Auditorium, UC Davis.

"The group will illustrate the discussion with explorations of free improvisation using the common languages of 20th century music."

Performers:

Larry Austin
Richard Swift
Jerome Rosen
Jon Gibson
Wayne Johnson
Stanley Lunetta
Arthur Woodbury

[Billie Alexander apparently sat this one out. -ME]

• December 15 - 2:00pm, Belmonte Gallery. 2975 35th Street, Sacramento, CA

"...an improvisation concert."

Larry Austin
Wayne Johnson
Richard Swift
Stanley Lunetta
Arthur Woodbury
Jon Gibson
Pat Woodbury
Jerome Rosen

In one blurb, Pat Woodbury / Billie Alexander is mistakenly [??] referred to as Dixie Alexander!

1964


• January 20 - 12:30pm, luncheon for Sacramento Symphony Center

"Larry Austin and his seven piece New Music Ensemble will be the featured entertainment."

No program or personnel info listed. 

• April 3 - 8:15pm, Freeborn Hall, 101 Horticulture Building

"In addition to a number of free improvisations, the group will perform..."


Alarm, Square, Parle (Larry Austin)
May, 1962 (Philip Krumm)
Variations I (John Cage)
Hundreds of Butterflies (Stanley Lunetta)
Cuttings (Swift)

Billie Alexander, soprano
Larry Austin, trumpet, flugelhorn
Jon Gibson, flute, soprano saxophone, clarinet
Wayne Johnson, clarinet, bass clarinet
Stanley Lunetta, percussion
Richard Swift, piano
Arthur Woodbury, flute, alto saxophone, bassoon

Review by Glackin.

"Trying to convey in words what happens in one of these [free improvisation pieces] ... would be like trying to convey Finnegan's Wake in sign language, only harder."

• April 23 - Thursday, 8:15pm, Freeborn Hall. "Research Concert". Not an NME performance, but several members were included.


Marvin Tartak, harpsichord
Jean Cunningham, flute
Bruce Haynes, oboe
Helen Stross, cello
Linn Subotnick, viola
Morton Subotnick, clarinet
Stanley Lunetta, percussion
Richard Swift, celesta
Theodore Karp, oboe
Arthur Woodbury, bassoon
Larry Austin, trumpet

"...all on a variety of instruments."

Program included:

Bucolics (Richard Swift)
Sonata (Jerome Rosen)
Continuum (Larry Austin)
Sonata for flute, oboe, cello and harpsichord (Elliott Carter)

"Rosen describes his work as a 'long, rather free and rhapsodic piece; the performer is called upon to improvise on material previously given him and is more than usually responsible for details of phrasing and proportion.'"

Review by Philip C. Freshwater

Freshwater includes this puzzling note: "Although [Continuum] has grown out of his work with the New Music Ensemble, as Austin states in the excellent program notes, the free improvisation of that group has been sharply reduced, leaving only tempo and meter relatively free."

• April 24 - 7:00pm, TV broadcast (Channel 9).

• April 27 - 10:30pm, TV broadcast (Channel 6, KVIE). Re-run of previous concert?

• April 29 - 12:15pm, Hertz Hall "Noon Concert"

The Noon Concerts were a regular series at Hertz Hall for years. The Berkeley Improvisation Ensemble also performed several of these later in the 1960's. I wasn't able to find any more info on this.

• May 10 - 1:00pm, Belmonte Gallery.

"An unusual experiment mixing painting with music, both on an improvisatory basis, will be staged ... next Sunday ... The New Music Ensemble of [UC Davis] will play group improvisations in various combinations of instruments. On the same program four painters from the university will demonstrate the similar experiments which have been going on in the art department, in which several artists, taking turns, work on the same painting."

Performers:

Larry Austin
Richard Swift
Arthur Woodbury
Wayne Johnson
Jon Gibson
Stanley Lunetta
Billie Alexander

• July 7 - 10:00am, SCC Auditorium (Sacramento City College)


Richard Swift, piano
Arthur Woodbury, clarinet, saxophone, bassoon
Billie Alexander, soprano
Jon Gibson, clarinet, flute, soprano saxophone
Stanley Lunetta, percussion
Wayne Johnson, bass clarinet

Austin was not mentioned as a performer, likely because he was overseas in Rome.

• August 12 - Wednesday, 8:15pm, East Hall Studio Theater, UC Davis

Program included:

Recitative and Improvisation (Elliott Carter)
Serenade (Jerome Rosen)
    -written for Billie Alexander and Arthur Woodbury
The Trial of Tender O'Shea (Richard Swift)
    "an opera for the New Music Ensemble". Libretto by Dorothy Swift.

"In addition, the New Music Ensemble will perform a group of free improvisations."

Performers:

Billie Alexander, soprano
Jon Gibson, flute, clarinet, soprano saxophone
Wayne Johnson, clarinet, bass clarinet
Stanley Lunetta, percussion
Richard Swift, piano
Arthur Woodbury, flute, alto saxophone, bassoon

Again, no mention of Austin.

Three UCD students, Carolyn Francis, Mary Offerman, Phillip Symonds, are also named. David Freund directed The Trial of Tender O'Shea.

Review by Glackin

• August 13 - Mime Troupe Theater, San Francisco

"[The] New Music Ensemble ...  gave a program of improvisations, preceded by 'musical' compositions of John Cage, Jerome Rosen and Philip Krumm."

Review by Paul Hertelendy.

• August 14 - Mime Troupe Theater, San Francisco

"The ensemble saved the best for the end, playing Richard Swift's short opera The Trial of Tender O'Shea after several short instrumental improvisations."

Review by Hertelendy.

"With the improvising instrumental group in the background, the soprano sings about O'Shea in various roles, and O'Shea himself sings at some length on tape recording (played by Alexander Chambers)."

• October 18 - Sunday, 3:00pm, Belmonte Gallery. 


Program included:

Lincoln Center (Philip Krumm)
Variations I (Cage)

Performers:

Richard Swift, piano
Stanley Lunetta, percussion
Wayne Johnson, woodwinds
Jon Gibson, woodwinds
Arthur Woodbury, woodwinds
Robert Bloch, violin
Billie Alexander, soprano

"The entire concert will be repeated Monday (10/19) in San Francisco in a live broadcast over KPFA."

• November 22 - 3:00pm, Belmonte Gallery, Sacramento. (Recorded for KPFA? Possibly a separate show)

Program included:
Ad for 11/22/64 concert

Concerto For Anything (Philip Krumm)
Concert With Aria (John Cage)

"The group also will include several of its free improvisations, spontaneous and collective."

• November 23 - 8:30pm, KPFA-FM Studio, 321 Divisadero St., San Francisco

Their press release is quoted in a strange blurb here.

Concerto For Anything (Philip Krumm)
Concert With Aria (John Cage)

• December 11 - 8:30pm, Eaglet Theater, 15th and H Streets, Sacramento, CA.

Program included:

The Trial of Tender O'Shea (Swift)
Concert Piece for solo violin (Seymour Sheffren)
Duo For Two Fluent Improvisers for piano and percussion (unknown composer)

Performers:

Billie Alexander
Robert Bloch
Richard Swift
Jon Gibson
Wayne Johnson
Stanley Lunetta
Arthur Woodbury


1965


At the beginning of 1965, the NME received an invitation from Franco Evangelisti to participate in the 1966 Nuova Consonanza:

Evangelisti: "We are extremely impressed by the creative virtuosity and control displayed by the composer-performers in the NME ... This is particularly significant for European musicians, for such groups of cooperatively creative composer-performers are all but non-existent in Europe. Hence, an appearance by your group would have great - even historic - impact in Europe, we are certain."

• March 21 - Sunday, 8:15pm, Belmonte Gallery

Program included:

[unknown title] (John Cage)
May 1962 (Krumm)

as well as "several of the group improvisations for which the NME is noted..."

Billie Alexander, soprano
Robert Bloch, violin, mandolin
Jon Gibson, soprano saxophone, clarinet, flute
Wayne Johnson, clarinet, bass clarinet
Stanley Lunetta, percussion
Richard Swift, piano
Arthur Woodbury, alto saxophone, bassoon
John Moore, trumpet (guest on the Cage piece)

• April 7 - 8:15pm, Freeborn Hall, UC Davis

"As a result of these [free group] improvisations, which recently have been recorded, [the NME] has been invited to appear at the Venice Festival, Palermo Festival, and the Nuova Consonanza Festival in Rome during the spring of 1966.

Program included:

Atlas Eclipticalis (John Cage)
Winter Music (Cage)
Concerto for violin and chamber ensemble (Richard Swift)

and eight improvisations.

Performers:

Billie Alexander, soprano
Robert Bloch, violin, mandolin
Jon Gibson, soprano saxophone, clarinet, flute
Wayne Johnson, clarinet, bass clarinet
Stanley Lunetta, percussion
Richard Swift, piano
Arthur Woodbury, alto saxophone, bassoon

Review by Glackin

• June 14-15 - Little Theater, Sacramento State College. Recording for New Music Ensemble II.

• July 7 - Wednesday, 8:15pm, Freeborn Hall

Program included:

Concert for piano and orchestra (John Cage)
Aria (Cage)
Projection 4 (Morton Feldman)
Digressions (Robert Moran)

"...in addition to characteristic freely improvised pieces."

Performers:

Billie Alexander, soprano
Robert Bloch, violin, mandolin
Jon Gibson, soprano saxophone, clarinet, flute
Wayne Johnson, clarinet, bass clarinet
Stanley Lunetta, percussion
Richard Swift, piano
Arthur Woodbury, alto saxophone, bassoon

Review by Freshwater.

November 14 - Monday, 8:15pm, Freeborn Hall

The Applicant (Richard Swift)
Speculum Dianae (Frederic Rzewski)
Inerziali (Roland Kayn)

"The group ... devoted more than half of the evening to what is quite evidently their favorite method of performing, free group improvisation."

Billie Alexander, soprano
Larry Austin, flugelhorn, string bass
Robert Bloch, violin, mandolin
Jon Gibson, soprano saxophone, clarinet, flute
Wayne Johnson, clarinet, bass clarinet
Stanley Lunetta, percussion
Richard Swift, piano
Arthur Woodbury, alto saxophone, bassoon

[Austin returns from Rome. -ME]

Review by Glackin.

December 6 - Monday, 8:15, Freeborn Hall 

Not an NME show, but some of its members were featured.

Program included:

Meditation (Gunther Schuller)
Galaxis (Roland Kayn)
Ordini (Franco Evangelisti)
Fluxion (Enrique Raxach)
Catharsis (Larry Austin)
also works by Mozart and Wagner

Catharsis is "for a four track tape of electric sounds ... plus a big ensemble and a small ensemble (a quintet last night, made up of members of the New Music Ensemble). The tape was heard from four speakers, two on each side of the hall; the players were onstage. The players have freedom to improvise along lines suggested by the score, which does not indicate any pitches or rhythms..."

Review by Glackin.

1966


• January 9
- Sunday, 8:15pm, Wyatt Pavilion Theater, UC Davis. "Music Theater"

Program included:

The program "will include improvisations, the group's favorite field, and three structured events":

Views (John Heineman)
Roma, A Theater Piece in Open Style for Improvisation Ensemble and Tape (Larry Austin)
Quartet, 1965 (Stanley Lunetta)

"Austin calls Roma an abstract theater piece: Within an explicit context the piece asks for interpretive movement as well as interpretive sound. The attitude of the 'movement improvisation' is suggested by the reaction - before, during and after the event - of the player to the lighting, the stage properties, the movements of other players, the audience and the nature of the hall. The reaction to the tape sounds and/or the group's improvisations determines the attitude of the 'sound improvisation.'"

Lighting by Carolyn Tash. Stage director was David Freund, designer was Natalie Dobb.

Performers:

Billie Alexander, soprano
Larry Austin, flugelhorn, string bass
Robert Bloch, violin, mandolin
Jon Gibson, soprano saxophone, clarinet, flute
Wayne Johnson, clarinet, bass clarinet
Stanley Lunetta, percussion
Richard Swift, piano
Arthur Woodbury, alto saxophone, bassoon

Guests:

Roberta Baines
Barbara Johnson
Stephen Wolfe


"A grant from the Music Performance Trust Fund of the Recording Industries supplies performers' fees."

Review by Freshwater.
Review by Philip F. Elwood

• In early 1966, the NME's second record was released.


• March 3rd - Thursday, 8:15pm, Freeborn Hall. "Research Concert".

Not NME, but its members performed.

Program included:

PanJorGin (Stanley Lunetta)
Green and Red (John Mizelle)
The Maze (Larry Austin)
10 Beginnings (Jerome Rosen)
Carmina Archilochi (Richard Swift)

"Members of the New Music Ensemble and guests" including

Larry Austin
Richard Swift
Jerome Rosen
Stanley Lunetta
(Dary) John Mizelle

• May 5 - SSC Little Theater, Sacramento State College. 

Possible performance by the NME? There was a graduate seminar at SSC on American music, described by Philip Freshwater. The NME is mentioned only in passing. No program or personnel notes are included.

• May 22 - Sunday, 8:15pm, Home Economics Theater (Room 176), UC Davis. 
"Composer's Forum"

"New works by Philip Krumm, Stanley Lunetta, John Mizelle, Julian Woodruff will be performed along with the "First Piano Sonata" by Boulez and improvisations by the New Music Ensemble."

• In August a headline appeared saying "Modern Music Concert Unit is Forming". The article is about the founding of Composer/Performer Edition. Here's another article, mentioning the founding of SOURCE.

• September 7 - 5:00pm, 9:00pm, Freeborn Hall. "Twoconcert".

Program included:

First half, 5pm

Sound Machine (Philip Krumm)
Prelude to Naples (Joel Chadabe)
Obos (Harold Budd)

..."and some group improvisations by the NME."

Second half, 9pm

Music for Prepared Piano (John Cage)
Liaisons (Roman Haubenstock-Ramati)
III (Harold Budd)

..."and more improvisations." Hertelendy mentions five improvisations total.

Performers:

Billie Alexander, soprano
Larry Austin, flugelhorn, string bass
Robert Bloch, violin, mandolin
??Jon Gibson, soprano saxophone, clarinet, flute
Wayne Johnson, clarinet, bass clarinet
Stanley Lunetta, percussion
??Richard Swift, piano
Arthur Woodbury, alto saxophone, bassoon

Guests:

Marvin Tartak, prepared piano
Harold Budd
Thomas Gentry, piano
Barbara Johnson, flute
John Mizelle, trombone
Fred Utter, cello

Review by Glackin
Review by Hertelendy

"It should also be added that if the men in the group really appreciate Miss Alexander's thoughtful vocal contributions they ought to quiet down once in a while so she can be heard."

October 13 - Thursday, First Unitarian Church, Sacramento. Composer/Performer Edition.

"The C.P.E. turns out to be the N.M.E... under another name, but this prgram [sic] had a good deal less improvising and much more written or at least blueprinted music than most N.M.E. concerts have had."

Some improvisations are mentioned. Lunetta and Bloch are mentioned.

Review by Glackin.

• November 10 - Thursday, 12:00pm, Music Building (Room 115) UC Davis

"The second free concert of the NME's 66-67 season"

Program included:

In Memoriam Esteban Gomez (Robert Ashley)
John Smith (Ashley)
Pfft (Stanley Lunetta)
Thursday Afternoon (Alvin Curran)

"Members of the Ensemble then will perform two free-group improvisations."

Performers:

Billie Alexander
Larry Austin
Wayne Johnson
Stanley Lunetta
John Mizelle
Arthur Woodbury

Guests:

Sherman Amerson
Steve Reuben
Robert Bloch

• December 9 - 7:30pm (TV, Channel 6) "The Mod Sound In Music"

An "unusual program of contemporary music".

• December 27 - 7:00pm (TV, KVIE) "Horizons '67"

A shared program. The NME appeared alongside several other groups.

1967


• 
January 6 - 8:15pm, First Unitarian Church 2425 Sierra Blvd. [Postponed]
• February 17 - Friday, 8:15pm, Freeborn Hall

Program included:

Kontakte (Karlheinz Stockhausen)
Kontra-Punkte (Stockhausen)
Klavierstuck XI (Stockhausen)
Zyklus (Stockhausen)
Spazio A5 (Franco Evangelisti)
World One (Michael von Biel)

Performers included:

Stanley Lunetta. The NME is mentioned, but no other specific performer names.

Guest:

David Tudor

Review by Glackin

February 19 - 8:30pm, Hertz Hall, UC Berkeley

Apparently a follow-up performance of the Stockhausen concert from Feb 17.


NME - That New Sound From Davis Is Experimental Music



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