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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If you have any information, please get in touch!- He wrote a method book on his improvisational process, which remains unpublished (I tried to track this down in the Library of Congress's collection of Foss's papers, but it is not certain whether the manuscript still exists.)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."
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
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
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 OrchestraI. 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 areRobert Drasnin, flutistRichard Dufallo, clarinettistHoward Colf, cellistCharles DeLancey, percussionistand Mr. Foss, pianist and director.The Festival String Quartet will provide the accompaniment for the concerto excerpt."
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| L to R: Howard Colf, Lukas Foss, Charles DeLancey, and Richard Duffallo (standing) |
"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."
"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 fluteJanet DeLancey, violinHoward Colf, celloJames 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)
- Fantasy for piano (or harp) (Schuller)
Foss, piano
- Five Pieces for Five Horns (Schuller)
James DeckerHerman LebowAllen GuseRalph PyleWendell 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, sopranoDorothy Remsen, harpLos 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 OrchestraRoger Wagner ChoraleAndre 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, fluteWilliam Kraft, percussionSalli Terri, sopranoMichael Zearott, pianoDouglas Davis, celloRichard Levitt, tenorFredric Myrow, pianoDavid Shostac, fluteUnfortunately, 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.
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.
This concert was originally scheduled on March 20th at Jordan Hall, Boston, Mason Music Foundation.
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.
"The improvisation ensemble of Lukas Foss". Perhaps the record was played / discussed? Not sure of other details.
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)
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