Lukas Foss & Improvisation, part 3: Documented Performances and Miscellany

What follows is a chronology of performances, lectures, and other notable moments from my research into Lukas Foss and the Improvisation Chamber Ensemble (ICE). This is in the spirit of a prior post on the New Music Ensemble. It's not everything I've found, but it's a lot of the most interesting bits from the period of 1958 to 1964. (For a more complete list, you can browse my collection of newspaper clippings.)

Foss made improvisation central to his work for at least 5 years, but by 1963 he was ready to move on. He had nowhere near the impact of Black musicians in this era, especially Ornette Coleman, Muhal Richard Abrams, Cecil Taylor, Sun Ra, and John Coltrane. By cataloging Foss's work I am trying to lay out the facts, not to create the misimpression that he had some immense influence that has been unjustly forgotten. 

However, he was one of relatively few academic composers/musicians who took improvisation seriously as an avenue for innovation and expression, and Foss attracted a lot of attention for his activities. For example ... some main takeaways:

- Foss appeared at least once at John Lewis's Lenox School of Jazz (1959 and possibly 1960).

- Using a $10,000 Rockefeller Foundation grant, Foss organized two "training programs" to get other composer/performers involved in improvisation. Fred Myrow is known to have participated. (see Nov 6, 1960 below)

- In Fall 1962, Foss toured Europe with the Improvisation Chamber Ensemble. I am looking for more information on these appearances. If you have any information, please get in touch!

- He wrote a method book on his improvisational process, which remains unpublished (I tried to track this down in the Library of Congress's collection of Foss's papers, but it is not certain whether the manuscript still exists.) If you have any information, please get in touch!

- Foss inspired Dr. Ruth Shaw Wylie to form her own Improvisation Chamber Ensemble at Wayne State University (Detroit, MI), which ran from 1967 until about 1970. (Forthcoming post about her, and an interview with pianist James Hartway who worked with her.)

Foss' approach was unique, but he was not the only Western academic composer who was experimenting with improvisation around this time. To take just three contemporary examples:

• March-August 1957 in New York: Edgar Varese conducted portions of Poeme Electronique with an ensemble of players including Charles Mingus, Teo Macero, and Art Farmer. Sounds like score excerpts are being played as a graphic score.

• 1957 San Francisco: Pauline Oliveros, Loren Rush, and Terry Riley improvised with a number of guests including their mentor Robert Erickson. Specific dates are unclear. Oliveros has confessed to being a bit amused by Foss' schemes, so it seems that she had been improvising already prior to meeting him.

• Unknown dates, 1958: Larry Austin was improvising with Arthur Woodbury around this time as well, though closer to 1958, not 1957. Both of them would go on to found the New Music Ensemble, a pioneering free improvisation ensemble, in 1963. (No recordings of their 1950's experiments are known to exist.)

Here is the catalogue:

[CW: This was the era of the racist terms "serious music" and "serious composing". If you go through the newspaper links, you will see these terms quite a bit.]

1958

• July 25th, 1958, Grand Junction, Colorado. Friday, Wheeler Opera House.

"Chamber Music Improvisation": Foss lectured with Charles Jones as part of the Conference on American Music in Aspen, CO. 

1959

• February 26th 1959 Thursday, Schoenberg Hall, UCLA

This was the ICE's debut performance. There are some prior gigs mentioned. And according to the article, the ICE had already been working at this for a year-and-a-half, placing the start date somewhere in 1957. This corresponds to Foss' own claim. Any information on prior gigs, rehearsals, etc. would be much appreciated.

• Friday March 20, Minneapolis, MN

Foss was a guest with the Minnesota Orchestra. Three additional ICE concerts are mentioned:

"At all three concerts since [February 26th], they have had packed houses."

I'm looking for any info on these three interim concerts.

• April 4th, 1959, Saturday 8:30pm, Nottingham Auditorium, Syracuse.

Foss was a guest with with the "Onondaga Symphony Orchestra Inc., Syracuse Chorale Inc., and Syracuse Friends of Chamber Music Inc."

"Los Angeles Improvisation Ensemble" mentioned but this is likely the same as the ICE.

• April 21-22, 1959 with the UCLA Symphony, "Concerto for Five Improvising Instruments and Orchestra"

Most of the articles I've read so far make clear to distinguish Foss' approach as "different" from jazz. Foss himself did so. In fact, he even confessed a sort of "jealousy" and "envy" toward jazz musicians and their ability to improvise as an ensemble. Why should jazz musicians have the "monopoly" on ensemble improvisation?

It's a fair point to make, but why is he trying to segregate it from jazz? Isn't it enough to simply be "inspired" or "influenced" by it?

This was followed in the next decade by an insistence that jazz was not a part of the vocabulary of the improvisers. This was done for a variety of reasons (think of Larry Austin vs. Gavin Bryars, for instance). Does it really make that much of a difference whether it's "jazz" or not? 

• Regarding the April 21-22 concerts at UCLA, see this April 12th, 1959 article by James Adams, a music student at University of Redlands:

Missing Link

Non-Jazz Improvisation by Foss Group Discussed

[...]

Basically, the system consists of six "rows" or sets each containing four tones, and six sets of corresponding inversions. These groups serve as the center of tonal gravity, as well as being used for [a] melodic purpose. To aid the players as to the order of participation, each member of the group has in front of him a card containing certain formulae of order.

But this regulation does not hamper the player in the least from being as creative as his imagination will allow. The indeed unique factor is the ensemble result. One player, while he might improvise brilliantly, can only say one thing at a time, and in only one way; while the more players taking part, the more "liberal" the discussion. Since each player is usually schooled in the tradition of one certain composer, the styles of several men like Stravinsky, Bartok, Copland, and, of course, Foss, might be heard concurrently. And when all this seems complicated, the formulae simplify the matter.

[...]

Adams also gives some names:

Robert Drasnin, flute
Richard Dufallo, clarinet
William Malm, bass clarinet
Eugene Wilson, cello
Charles De Lancey, percussion

Mention of improvisation book to be "published very soon".

Also includes quote from Ernst Toch: "I was impressed and fascinated every minute by those fascinating sounds. It was one of the most refreshing and enjoyable performances that I have ever attended, and I should like to know more about it. I enthusiastically say YES to it."

• June 3rd, 1959 - San Francisco, Marines' Memorial Theater

Review by Alexander Fried

• July 6th, 1959 - Claremont, Bridges Hall of Music

Foss, DeLancey, Drasnin, Dufallo, Malm, Wilson.

• August 12 - Lenox School of Jazz, Music Barn Stage "Non-Jazz Improvisation for the Small Ensemble".

A Foss lecture is also mentioned in Jeremy Yudkin's "The Lenox School of Jazz" (p 105), though the year is given as 1960.

1960

• April 10 - Minneapolis, MN 8:30pm Walker Art Center, Center Arts Council Music Series 

Postponed.

• October 7-8, 1960 (Friday - Saturday), Academy of Music, Philadelphia Orchestra. Article: part 1 - part 2.

Some good info about Concerto for Five Improvising Instruments and Orchestra. This was its debut.

"At first blush this new work may seem to represent a hybrid of a new genus - a sort of symphonic jam session. But a closer look at this 'improvisation' and a few words from the composer dispel that illusion."

Conceived in 1957. "In the spring of that year, I considered the possibility of ensemble improvisation, an area that until then had been largely ignored by serious musicians."

The ICE: Organized by Foss, including three graduates of his composition class at UCLA: DeLancey, Drasnin and Dufallo.

Foss: "To the classically trained musician 'improvisation' invariably means solo improvisation. In solo improvisation, however, the artist is in control of his piece; in ensemble improvisation he relies on others and is responsible to others . . . in solo improvisation the artist need not adhere to any preconceived structural principle."

Concerto for Five Improvising Instruments and Orchestra

I. Prelude (Richard Dufallo)

II. Chorale (Variations) (Robert Drasnin)

III. Intermezzo (Foss)

IV. Finale (Fugue) (Charles DeLancey)

Schloss: "One imagines, however, that it will be less a symphonic jamboree than something akin (however faintly) to the ensemble improvisations of those Gypsy bands or orchestras which flourished in the less formal concert halls and places of entertainment in Europe several generations ago."

Review by Schloss.

• October 13, 1960 Thursday, Everson Museum, Syracuse, NY. "Foss Improvisation Ensemble."

• October 14, 1960 Friday 8:15pm, Virginia Museum Theater, Richmond, VA. Chamber Music Society.

Mrs. Bruce V. English, President of the Society.

Foss: "Anyone to whom the word improvisation means something makeshift, random, haphazard, is in for a surprise. So is the classically trained musician to whom improvisations means solo improvisation."

Foss: "the classical counterpoint to jazz improvisation."

"A question and answer period will follow the concert."

• October 24, 1960 "The Free Concerts Foundation" Natural History Museum, Simpson Theater, Chicago, IL

"The group will present improvisations within what Mr. Foss calls a "system of controled [sic] chance and one movement of his concerto for the ensemble in a chamber version made for this concert. Members are

Robert Drasnin, flutist

Richard Dufallo, clarinettist

Howard Colf, cellist

Charles DeLancey, percussionist

and Mr. Foss, pianist and director.

The Festival String Quartet will provide the accompaniment for the concerto excerpt."

L to R: Howard Colf, Lukas Foss, Charles DeLancey,
and Richard Duffallo (standing)

• Regarding the 10/24/60 concert in Chicago, see this article by Thomas Willis. Some very interesting bits:

"On this program they will improvise a Concertino and a Trio and join the Festival String Quartet in the Introduction and Allegro from the aforementioned concerto and in an Antiphon for Five Improvisers and String Quartet, also by Mr. Foss. The concerto excerpt, which has been adapted by the composer for small scale performance, will be played twice to show the different possibilities of realization . . .

"Reports of the group's first concerts in 1959 would seem to indicate the music is neither the embellished melodic variation of the jazz musician nor the extemporized, episodic polyphony of the great organists. According to one reviewer, the improvisations were based on a changeable four note series and a rhythm scheme was agreed on before the playing started. Furthermore the formal outline of the longer sonata movements was written on small cards and consulted by the players during the performance . . . 

"At the very end of the [musical dictionary article on improvisation] was the curt suggestion. 'See [Penillion].' We did.

'Penillion: an ancient form of Welsh music practice [See Bards] executed by a harpist and the former playing a well known harp air and the latter extemporizing words and a somewhat different melody to fit the harpist's tune and harmonies. The harpist can change his tune as often as he wishes: the singer, after a measure or two, is expected to join with proper words and music.'

Two people extemporizing instead of just one, and with overtones of competition, intellectual stimulation, and downright fun. It seems something like what Mr. Foss has in mind as he seeks to free his performers' imagination and retain the traditional forms."

• Somewhere there is a Carnegie Hall performance with the NY Phil (Bernstein).

• November 6, 1960: $10,000 grant given to UCLA from Rockefeller Foundation "in support of a training program for 'ensemble improvisation'[.]"

The program will "enable small groups of classically trained musicians 'to take out time from their professional life to acquaint themselves with the techniques of ensemble improvisation.'

"Each training class will consist of six musicians who will meet three times a week for a period of 10 to 15 weeks under the direction of Prof. Foss and his Improvisation Chamber Ensemble. The musicians will receive stipends under terms of the grant."

• November 15, 1960 UCLA Faculty Women's Club meeting, Faculty Center, UCLA campus

"Mr. Foss ... will discuss Musical Chance Control, his new method of ensemble improvisation . . . ''Ensemble Improvisation' requires members of the group to play without written or memorized music, creating harmony, melody and counterpoint literally on the spur of the moment within a system of controlled chance. Mrs. William Pucket will preside..."

"Tape recordings will be used to demonstrate the new technique."

1961

• Jan 7 1961, a skeptical Paul Henry Lang piece entitled "Improvisation Gains a Disciple"

"To shape any piece of music demands the gift of anticipation, recapitulation, and summation. This is difficult enough to attain by an individual, but Mr. Foss expected a whole group of musicians to improvise simultaneously. How can several persons' minds so function that the anticipation, recapitulation, and summation just mentioned will be co-ordinated?"

Perhaps Lang doesn't know about Foss' scores. But he ends with a very good point:

"If Mr. Foss' idea is to revive this old artistic practice, he should not find it too difficult to restore group improvisation. After all, it is all around him - jazz is a form of highly conventional and standardized group improvisation."

• 22 Jan 1961, how that Rockefeller grant money is being put to use:

"Master class in ensemble improvisation." Associate directors Dufallo and DeLancey.

Feb 2 to May 20 [later revised to Feb 20 to May 29 - ME], auditions Feb 15, 16 & 17
June 5 to Sept 11, auditions June 1, 2 & 3

Scholarship holders will be awarded a stipend of $50 per week for either of the classes, with the total per person amounting to $750. Applicants will be selected by audition.

• 19 Feb 1961, after auditions closed for the first term of master classes:

Foss: "Listeners will witness an act of musical creation wherein musicians virtually 'make' their music . . . Listener and player alike will become absorbed in a process wherein anything may happen at any time - and never again[.]"

"While the virtue, the stamp of a masterwork is the measure of its durability and hence its repeatablity, improvised ensemble music derives its fascination from its ever-changing contours; it is unrepeatable, intended for the moment of performance only . . . slight though the individual contributions may be, they 'add up' when part of the combined effort."

• 3 April, 1961 Monday Evening Concerts, 8:30pm, Fiesta Hall, Plummer Park 7377 Santa Monica Blvd.

- Durations (Feldman)

Arthur Hoberman, alto flute

Janet DeLancey, violin

Howard Colf, cello

James MacInnes, piano

- Music for piano, violin and percussion (Schuller)

Schuller, guest conductor

(This was apparently deleted from the program, but present in some promo material. This was replaced by:)

- Fantasy for piano (or harp) (Schuller)

Foss, piano

- Five Pieces for Five Horns (Schuller)

James Decker

Herman Lebow

Allen Guse

Ralph Pyle

Wendell Hoss

- Variations on the Theme in Unison (Improvisations by the ensemble)

Foss, Dufallo, DeLancey, Colf

"Three improvisations that ... were quite astonishing in their interplay and ingenious freedom."

- Improvisation sur Mallarme, No. 1 (Boulez)

Marni Nixon, soprano

Dorothy Remsen, harp

Los Angeles Percussion Ensemble

Review by Albert Goldberg.

• May 19-20-21 1961, Ojai Festival, Ojai, CA

Foss, dir. had recently received 1961 New York Critics Circle Award for "Time Cycle"

Ojai Festival Orchestra

Roger Wagner Chorale

Andre Previn, Shelley Manne and Red Mitchell played selections from West Side Story.

Foss featured in four-hand piano with Previn.

• 11 June 1961, "Torch Lighted Anew For Improvisation"

by Albert Goldberg. Well worth reading.

• 17 Aug 1961, "It's Improvisation - Without All That Jazz. An informal visit with Lukas Foss."

by Dorothy Townsend. A few quotes:

Foss: "Well, it is like a jam session, but it has nothing to do with jazz . . . We don't just get on the stage and start to play . . . We follow a kind of master plan based on a system of chance control."

"Please don't call me an improvisor."

"For the four musicians in the Improvisation Ensemble . . . the improvising starts in rehearsal. There we decide on each one's role and we draw up the traffic rules[.]"

Foss is looking forward to September 11th, the final concert of the second term of master classes.

Exciting as [Foss] finds improvisation performance, he says his interest "is in building a profession for somebody else, not in doing it myself."

• 11 Sept 1961, 8:30pm, Schoenberg Hall

"Two new improvisation ensembles [which] ... have been trained by Lukas Foss and members of the original Improvisation Chamber Ensemble."

Participating in the two groups are:

Arthur Hoberman, flute

William Kraft, percussion

Salli Terri, soprano

Michael Zearott, piano

Douglas Davis, cello

Richard Levitt, tenor

Fredric Myrow, piano

David Shostac, flute

Unfortunately, no review could be found.

• November 3 1961 Symphony Hall, 2:15pm. Time Cycle w/ Boston Symphony Orchestra

1962

• March 4, 1962 San Francisco State College, 

Review by Alexander Fried.

• March 10, 1962, Composer's Forum, 3pm, Carnegie Music Hall, Pittsburgh

by Donald Steinfirst.

"The composer would probably object to the appellation 'controlled' when applied to improvisation as contrasted with the term 'free.' Nevertheless, this is what he does and this is not in any sense to be meant as derogatory."

 "The Music of Lukas Foss - Adele Addison, soprano, and Lukas Foss and his Improvisation Chamber Ensemble."

• March 17, 1962, Oak Ridge High School, 8:15pm

Oak Ridge Civic Music Association. The Foss / Dufallo / DeLancey / Colf line-up augmented by Richard Levitt, counter-tenor.

• March 22, 1962, Sanders Theater, Boston.

This concert was originally scheduled on March 20th at Jordan Hall, Boston, Mason Music Foundation.

• March 23, 1962, NTSU Music Recital Hall, Denton, TX, 8:15pm

by Nikki Cole.

Performance with the ICE, sponsored by the Fine Arts Committee.

"Foss will be on the campus as guest composer and moderator for the School of Music's second Composers Workshop Friday through next Sunday."

• April 16, 1962, Fiesta Hall, Plummer Park, Los Angeles, CA 8:30pm

"Echoi" was performed.

• May 19, 1962, 16th Ojai Festival Bowl (Libbey Bowl), Ojai, CA

Ojai occurred over 4 days, and Foss was featured among several other contemporary composers. May 19th was the night of experimental music and jazz. Eric Dolphy's trio was featured.

Albert Goldberg article with some long quotations by Foss, showing how he viewed himself in relation to his contemporaries.

Reviewed by Julien Musafia, Don Michel, Rachel Morton.

• August 8, 1962, WRVR-FM, Father O'Connor's Jazz Anthology, 8:30-9:30pm

"The improvisation ensemble of Lukas Foss". Perhaps the record was played / discussed? Not sure of other details.

• August, 1962, Stratford Festival, Canada

Grace-Lynne Martin sang "Time Cycle" with Lukas Foss & the ICE. The ICE was also invited by the CDC to do an episode of "The Lively Arts", which aired 16 Oct 1962 at 10:30pm on Canadian TV.

Foss' performance was broadcast on CBC radio at least once, on Wed 29 August.

• August 18-19 1962, Tanglewood / Berkshire Festival, Pittsfield, MA

Time Cycle was performed with Adele Addison. "Improvisors" mentioned, but not the ICE.

Review by Jay C. Rosenfeld.

This is Foss's second (possibly third?) appearance at Tanglewood / Berkshire events.

Fall 1962 European Tour ... Berlin, Hamburg, Copenhagen, Rome, London

• October 14, 1962, American Embassy Theater, London, UK

Someone phoned in a bomb threat before the concert, but after a search turned up nothing, the concert took place.

According to another article, the ICE gave "at least two public concerts in England one of which was broadcast by the BBC."

• October 16, 1962, "The Lively Arts" CBC channel 6, 10:30pm

Henry Somers is a typo ... he's listed as Harry Somers in another source. More info to come...

If you have access to this video, please get in touch at mattendahl@gmail.com Thanks!

• November 21, 1962, Friday 8:30pm Philharmonic Auditorium, Los Angeles, CA

Time Cycle was conducted by Zubin Mehta. ICE mentioned.

Reviewed by Orrin Howard, Albert Goldberg.

1963

• January 21-22, 1963, University of Cincinnati

Foss opened the year's Corbett Lecture Series on Monday the 21st, and then:

"[Foss] will also work with two College-Conservatory composer-improvisateurs at a special session Tuesday afternoon at the Conservatory."

In the article, Foss shares stories from the Fall 1962 European tour which are worth reading. 

His Corbett Lecture was broadcast at 7:30 on WGUC-FM on the 24th. 

Pictures possibly available here.

• February 25, 1963, Monday, 8:15pm, Chico State College, Chico, CA

The ICE was scheduled to perform, but had to cancel "due to unavoidable circumstances". A group called "Bach to Mozart" performed instead.

1964

• January 15, 1964, Southern Illinois University, Davis Auditorium, Wham Education Building

Foss was visiting the SIU campus for the week of Jan 9-16. He lectured on Jan. 15 "on improvisation and his latest composition Echoi."

As you can see, after Foss accepted the position in Buffalo, the activities of the Improvisation Chamber Ensemble effectively cease. There are several mentions in the paper archives, but these are either mentions of past activities, or radio playlists. Foss even cancelled an appearance in California by the ICE in February 1963.

Bonus: Time Cycle Liner Notes

The anonymous author of the Time Cycle liner notes writes (presumably on behalf of Foss)

The improvised interludes are not, properly speaking, part of the composition. The song cycle can be performed without them. They form, however, an added attraction, a spontaneous commentary on time, clocks, bells. The four improvising instruments remain silent during the performance of a composed movement; then conductor, orchestra and singer stand by and the improvising chamber group takes over; then the composition continues with the next song. At no time are composition and improvisation combined. [...]

Foss discarded the obvious possibility of improvisations developing from thematic material of the songs. Instead he conceived of a variety of basic 'textures' and basic 'pulses' -- a kind of pre-compositional raw material; then proceeded to put these 'in order,' assigning 'roles' to the four improvising instruments according to a technique developed by him and his ensemble, a technique based on the study of the predetermined coordination of non-predetermined musical ideas . . . Foss structured the improvisations in their relationship to the composed parts in such a manner as to convey a feeling of 'two performance levels': each succeeding interlude appears to ignore the song which immediately precedes it by retracting its steps, as it were, to the place where the previous interlude left off. Thus the interludes weave like a thread through the song cycle, connecting not with the songs but with each other.

In summing up the difference between composition and improvisation, Foss says: "In composition all becomes 'fate'. Improvisation remains 'chance', 'hazard', corrected by the will." 

- Liner notes, Time Cycle (Columbia Masterworks MS 6280)

𝄇

Herbie Nichols' "The Jazz Life" - Part 3

A few weeks ago, I was searching for name variations on Herbie Nichols, and came across a "Jazz Life" column that I missed. While the other columns were credited to "Herbert H. Nichols", the author's name was mistakenly printed "Herbert L. Nichols". (Nichols' middle name was Horatio.)

The article, Nichols' second for the New York Age, centers mainly on Mary Bruce, the great Harlem dance teacher.

Quick links to

Part One
Part Two

THE JAZZ LIFE

by Herbert H. Nichols

The New York Age

July 12, 1941 (p. 10)

After having seen the following acts perform on the stage you are likely to question yourself at times like this, "Who taught Katherine Dunham, Jeni Legon, Anise and Alan, Bill Robinson, Bill Bailey, Stump and Stumpy and other great performers their routines? Does such dancing, comedy and singing acts learn their parts easily, or is it a matter of long drawn-out schooling?" Many of us would like to know the formula they use for success.

We have quite a few dancing schools that are successfully filling the needs of aspiring stage folk. One of these schools is headed by dancing instructor Mary Bruce, who left Chicago about three years ago, and who has taken Gotham by storm with her dancing troupe ever since arriving here.

Many people, as we all know, have a natural flair for entertaining as dancers, comedians, singers etc. - apparently without the need of coaching from anyone. Few of us are in this class, thus, leaving plenty of room for the many vocal and dancing schools to continue showing a profit. In fact, we find there is a shortage of such schools at the present time.

In the jazz life, as in other fields of endeavor, you will find successful people and others that are not so successful. The former will have an easier time of everything than the latter. The little comforts are magnified a thousand fold. For instance, when one is undergoing the rigors of continuous travel, which is practically synonymous with show life. However, once a person decides to gather in the shekels, that person will want to get a good start by seeking instruction from some qualified source.

Teaching people how to perform for the stage is a pretty big business. It is so profitable that the services of different types of lawyers are often required in order to cope with the heavy bookkeeping involved in keeping far-flung physical properties in line. Experience has shown that whenever a dancing school attains a moderate degree of success the owner usually finds he is able to cash in on the publicity in various other ways.

Among aspiring chorines in Harlem the most widely known name is that of Mary Bruce. Judging from repeated engagements that she has had at the Apollo I would say that she has definitely made a hit with the public. Her troupe has had innumerable playing engagements elsewhere. They appeared at the New York World's Fair in a Michael Todd revue, also at the Howard Theater in Washington, D.C.

Valentino Whitaker, the young star of the Mary Bruce revue, "Bobo, the Aladdin of Harlem," appears on the Jello radio program, seem destined for the big time. Again the credit belongs to Mary Bruce, who is now busying herself lining up a real opening for her current child star.

It would be difficult to find a truer personification of the jazz life than the capable Miss Bruce, danseuse and impressario.

Further Reading

Mary Bruce's obituary:

https://www.nytimes.com/1995/12/15/nyregion/mary-bruce-95-tap-dance-teacher.html

...and some photographs and advertisements

https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/harlem-dance-mary-bruce-vintage-promo-1932-+

Lukas Foss & Improvisation, part 2: Liner Notes

Here are three texts from the 1961 Studies in Improvisation record by Lukas Foss and his Improvisation Chamber Ensemble. We begin with the liner notes on the record jacket, then we'll go into the booklet accompanying the record.

(Here is part one of this blog series.)

Studies in Improvisation - Anonymous (1961)

The back cover of Studies in Improvisation,
RCA LM/LSC 2558 (1961)

". . . musical history in the making . . . a stimulating and live experience in musical spontaneity . . . the beginning of an inspired concept in instrumental music!"
-- Maurice Faulkner, Saturday Review

". . . one of the most notable feats of contemporary music."
-- Ernst Bacon

". . . extremely refreshing, truly fascinating and stimulating . . ."
-- Ernst Toch

". . . incredible delicacy, suggestive at times of the firefly imagery of Webern. And what virtuosity! Each of these men is a creative artist . . ."
-- Louis Biancclli, N. Y. World Telegram & Sun

Ideally speaking, an improvisation should not be recorded. It is music which, when heard live, varies with each playing. It is chance transformed into a moment of significance. The pinning down of the moment, the perpetuation through recording is in conflict with the very idea of improvisation. However, if one thinks of a record not as a perpetuator but as a means of making the new known and available, then the recording of these improvisations becomes imperative and all opposing arguments fade into the background.

Ensemble improvisation as attempted here is new. It is based on new premises. It is an informal, spontaneous type of chamber music, proposed not in lieu of traditional chamber music practice, but in addition to it.

The Improvisation Chamber Ensemble is a pioneering group of four, who believe in improvised chamber music: (1) as an essential new outlet for the many excellent performing musicians in the world; (2) as a new hunting ground for the composer; and (3) as a challenge to the musical curiosity of the listener.

Says Lukas Foss, composer, originator of the technique and pianist of the group:

"The music on this record is the result of extensive research and practice, of constant critical listening to one another, of developing from childish beginnings to the rather complex structures attempted on this record. I should welcome other musicians to follow suit, to form improvisation ensembles, to beuild on what we have accomplished, and to learn from our limitations and errors. It will take more than one approach to establish the art of ensemble improvisation as a way of making music. May this record make new friends for the art."

Lukas Foss has been a professor of composition and conductor of the university orchestra at the University of California at Los Angeles since 1953. He studied in Berlin and Paris before coming to the United States in 1937. He continued his studies at Curtis Institute, the Berkshire Music Center and Yale University. He has appeared as piano soloist and conductor with American symphony orchestras and in Europe. His diverse interests and talents are reflected in his compositions, which include three operatic works, two piano concertos, a symphony and other works for orchestra, chamber music in various combinations and several works for voices.

Mr. Foss' interest in the possibility of ensemble improvisation dates back to the spring of 1957 when , together with Richard Dufallo and Charles Delancey, he formed the Improvisation Chamber Ensemble. Howard Colf joined the group in 1959. A year later the ensemble went on its first national tour which included appearances with the New York Philharmonic and the Philadelphia Orchestra. The music of the Improvisation Chamber Ensemble is documented for the first time on this recording. 

Inside the jacket, you'll find a large booklet with more information. Here is an essay entitled 

Notes on Ensemble Improvisation - Lukas Foss (1961)

To the classically trained musician, improvisation means something makeshift, random, haphazard. Also, it invariably means solo improvisation to him, and he is likely to regard it as a form of self-indulgence. Let us make no mistake about it: solo and ensemble improvisation are two different procedures not to be confused with each other. In solo improvisation the artist is in full control, in ensemble improvisation he is part of the whole. In solo improvisation the artist is responsible to himself only, in ensemble improvisation he listens to his fellow players and plays accordingly. In solo improvisation, the artist need not adhere to any preconceived structural principle, in ensemble improvisation he must abide by melodic, harmonic and structural rules lest anarchy and chaos take over. Without order, direction and discipline, there can be no ensemble improvisation. In fact, ensemble improvisation is not possible unless specific ordering principles have been determined beforehand. This involves a study of musical freedom within a controlled field: a study of the predetermined coordination of non-predetermined musical ideas.

Our approach to the idea of ensemble improvisation is the result of research I conducted at the University of California at Los Angeles since 1957. It was in the spring of that year that I founded the first IMPROVISATION CHAMBER ENSEMBLE. This "founding" was at the time no more than a declaration of intent, an expression of faith in a possibility; the possibility of a procedure, of a skill which would enable musicians to literally "make (invent) their music as they make (play) music."

That musician and listener alike would benefit from this additional dimension to musical performance no one would deny. The question is: can one provide a technique which makes ensemble improvisation workable, without constant recourse to set tunes, set chord-patterns, set rhythm patterns, to given "entities" which already are music, thereby relegating improvisation to the sphere of variation and ornamentation? The question is: can one set up an order which will give the performer sufficient free rein for the flight of his imagination, and at the same time set up controls for keeping the musicians together? (An order of abundant horizontal leeway and some vertical control.)

Walter: "Wie fang ich nach der Regel an?" 

Sachs: "Ihr stellt sie selbst und folgt ihr dann."

-- RICHARD WAGNER [Die Meistersinger]

Our earliest attempts were built on the idea of skeleton compositions (some notes written down, others to be added at the moment of performance). This proved to be a failure. In fact, many of our earlier premises had to be discarded because they restricted invention, or did not guide invention properly, or would give us a freedom which we did not know how to use. Our present procedure is something we arrived at through trial and error. It does not claim to provide the complete answer to all questions and expectations. Rather, it lays a foundation, at this writing, the only one of its kind known to us, the only systematic attempt at organizing the materials of music for ensemble improvisation.

The new mode of music-making,-- which I do not propose in lieu of traditional chamber music practice but in addition to it,-- may best be understood as a classical counterpart to jazz improvisation, or to various oriental improvisational forms of ensemble playing. It can also be viewed as akin to the pre-classic practice of continuo playing (improvised harmony over a given base). Improvised ensemble music, music which is the result of diverse minds creating simultaneously, is of course vastly different from music carefully plotted by one individual, the composer, whose supreme effort goes into the producing of enduring work, or a masterwork. In our masterpiece-conscious time, one welcomes a musical expression which need not claim immortality in order to claim validity. While the virtue, the watermark of a masterwork is the measure of its durability and hence its repeatability, improvised ensemble music, on the other hand, derives its fascination from its ever-changing contours. It is unrepeatable. Listener and player alike become absorbed in a process wherein anything may happen any time -- and never again. Sounds may emerge unlike any that any one member of the group would have envisioned. Time and again we experienced that, meager though the individual contributions may be, they "add up" when part of a combined effort. (The total is more than the sum of its constituents.) Furthermore, gifted musicians will discover that any random note-group can be turned into a melodic phrase which makes musical sense. Mere chance formations can become the source for new musical ideas; new possibilities can open up, vistas of new musical simultaneities, answering the need, conscious or dormant in every artist, to experiment, to find a new approach, to make something new, surprising and enjoyable to ourselves and to others.

Seen in this light, ensemble improvisation is likely to stimulate composition. In fact, my own interest in ensemble improvisation is that of the composer first, the educator second and the performer third.

The basic conception, the planning of the structure, the "lucky accidents" which occur in abundance when we play, give the composer valuable hints and ideas for his own work and point toward areas worthy of his investigating powers, worthy of that curiosity which is at the bottom of the composer's need to compose . . . "The next work [in this period of exploration] . . . will mix composed with improvised elements."

 -- IGOR STRAVINSKY

 As to music education, it will have to take into account and foster the instrumentalist's capacity for inventing imaginative passages on his instrument. This capacity is hampered at present by the gaps in even the best performing musician's training. Many musicians who have attempted our ensemble improvisation have felt a shock upon realizing how unprepared they were to hear what need be heard, to find notes on their instrument, to assume the new responsibilities which come with ensemble improvisation. Solfege, ear training and general musicianship courses seem, in the light of our need, unimaginzative and inadequate.

A word about the audience. In our recitals we have had occasion to notice that the audience, after a while, adopts a new listening attitude which is in sharp contrast to the devotional listening rightfully customary at concerts when the music of the masters is played. I dare say that the listener will be in a better position to follow complex compositions if he has had the experience of the kind of "active" listening required from him at improvisation concerts. This active listening is a combination of curiosity and excitement similar to that which we feel when we watch a game or contest. (Peculiar to ensemble improvisation is the element of danger, of "hit-or-miss," which an audience is quick in grasping and enjoying.)

Finally, a word about ensemble improvisation and its function within contemporary music. To the historian, it will be significant that the recent renaissance of interest in improvisation has followed close on the heels of the discovery of electronic music. Both improvisation and electronic music have a vital stake in chance. Apart from this they stand at opposite poles: electronic music is produced directly on tape. Whenever the piece is played it will be identical in every detail. Improvised music, as we have seen, is ever-changing, unpredictable, unrepeatable, and should be heard "live." Electronic music eliminates the performer. Improvised music, on the other hand, allots the performer new responsibilities.

To the long conflict between composer and performer -- partners who, ideally speaking, should complement one another in a relationship built on mutual need (and who are separated today by the widest gulf) electronic music offers one solution: divorce. Ensemble improvisation offers another: it brings composition, or more accurately, musical invention, together with performance. In fact, the two become an undistinguishable process. Good therapy for a distinct marital problem.

At the risk of being proven wrong, I should like to predict that in due time, ensemble improvisation, in one form or another, will be studied in conservatories and universities.* String and wind groups, etc. that will try their hands at it, will play masterworks the better for it. Chamber groups of three to six players will spring up and bring informal, improvised concerts to the devotees of the new way of making music. Because: as a natural outlet, as a joyful exercise of one's musical gifts, as an education of musical spontaneity, alertness, sensitivity, restraint, and as a listening discipline few things can take the place of ensemble improvisation.

*Since these lines were written, a program charging the Improvisation Chamber Ensemble with the recruiting of other improvisation ensembles has been inaugurated at the University of California, Los Angeles under a grant by the Rockefeller Foundation. Also, in preparation: a text book on ensemble improvisation as practiced by the Improvisation Chamber Ensemble.

A slightly different version of this essay (dated 1958) was included in Karen Perone's "Lukas Foss: A Bio-Bibliography", Greenwood Press, 1991, pp. 12-16.

Finally, here is the first page of notes detailing the process behind Foss's ensemble improvisation.

Studies in Improvisation - Lukas Foss and Richard Dufallo (1961)

The music on this record is not composed, not the result of random ad-libbing, not jazz. It falls into the category of what might be named: SYSTEM AND CHANCE MUSIC. A specific formal or textural musical vision is committed to paper. Instead of traditional musical notation, the paper contains instructions set down in symbols, letters, numbers. Example: S1 -----> HL (signifies: supports player 1 until ready to lead the harmony). The musicians, as they play, translate the symbols into sound. They do not stake their hope on the element of chance and its capacity for yielding interesting musical results, - they do not put their trust into the order, the system, which coordinates the chance happenings. System and chance form the basis for ensemble improvisation, but the performer holds the reins. He does not passively translate his symbols into sound, he listens critically and plays accordingly. His task is to find the appropriate note, rhythm, phrasing, dynamic, register on his instrument, and at a moment's notice. He corrects chance rather than surrenders to chance - chance controlled rather than chance in control.

The resulting music sounds at times as contrived as a written-down composition. Advance planning, ordering, is responsible for the "composed" effect. Actually it is the rigid planning which makes spontaneity, improvisation possible.

The Theory

It would be presumptuous as well as impossible to reproduce the technical procedure here in toto. We shall limit ourselves to such theoretical data as are essential for those who wish to follow the score (the charts) while listening.

Guide-Sheets Each musician has a guide-sheet in front of him on which his tasks are listed. The guide-sheets are like individual parts extracted from the score (the charts).

Guide-Tones - predetermined, appear on the guide-sheet. They are used only in pieces (or parts of pieces) where tonality is desired. Guide-tones usually consist of easily memorizable four-tone patterns. (Example: F Eb Bb F) These may be rigidly transposed to the degree of the second or third note. (Example: Eb Db Ab Eb - Bb Ab Eb Bb) Or inverted. (Example: G A D G)

Guide-tones are not themes, not even musical motives. They are points of reference, helping the musicians stay together; sometimes they are "roots," sometimes just a degree of the scale on which to form the "preferred-intervals series."

Preferred-Intervals Series Over a given guide-tone the musician has the choice of a major second, minor and major thirds, the fifth, the minor and major seventh. These intervals are the least likely to undermine the supremacy of the guide-tone. Their use is therefore safer for vertical (harmonic) control than the use of the remaining five intervals. Naturally all existing intervals may be used wherever it is possible to arrive at a choice of note by way of "listening." The restriction to preferred intervals is recommended only when such listening is impossible (for instance, when a chord is struck by all, simultaneously). When the guide-tone shifts, the preferred-interval series is transposed accordingly.

Duration of a guide-tone, or of a particular area, is sometimes indicated on the individual player's guide sheet in terms of bar numbers, but more frequently it is not fixed in advance: an area, or guide-tone duration will be shorter or longer depending on the moment of entrance of the subsequent leading instrument.

The Roles*

Melody or Theme - usually the leader unless otherwise indicated.

Support This is the most characteristic role in ensemble improvisation: the critical listening to another, and playing accordingly.

Harmony, when called for on the guide-sheet, usually stands for chords, struck on cue from either the melody player or harmony leader.

Counterpoint A line, resulting from the interplay between three instruments who keep "out of each other's way." Each of the three usually has a specific part of the bar assigned. If guide-tones are in effect the counterpoint players will adhere to the preferred-intervals series.

*Only the four basic roles are listed here. The chart will reveal many subsidiary roles.

The Practice

No matter how often the musicians play from the same guide-sheet, the music emerges changed: "We try to remember the good notes, forget the bad ones. We work toward a goal, the realization of the basic, initial, musical vision. The piece changes, grows in unity and clarity as we keep playing it. We do not play 'anything that comes to mind,' rather, we play 'anything that comes to mind within a pre-determined, limited sound-conception.' After we have performed a piece a dozen times, it usually emerges a new piece, one in which the first attempt can barely be recognized. In a word, we evolve our pieces through the process of improvisation. Even when we feel that a piece has been achieved, even then we do not memorize. We cannot; since one of us will invariably inject an unexpected element which forces everyone to change his course. Only when a player is on a solo, may he end up by repeating, memorizing his improvisation (example: the pizzicato cello-solo in Air Antique). Short themes, motifs, might be remembered, spontaneously altered, exploited. Then comes the point when the musicians feel the need to improvise new themes, or abandon the piece altogether, discard that particular guide-sheet. Improvised pieces seem to have their own life-span. The basic vision which prompted the piece may yield so much and no more. Other pieces stay, as it were, in the repertoire, yielding ever new ideas for improvisation.

The rest of the booklet consists of the guide-sheets used on the recording, along with some text explaining what is going on. The guide-sheets were copyrighted by Foss and Dufallo and I will not include them here, unless I am given permission to republish them. So, that's it for now.... part 3 will be posted soon.

𝄇