Catalog

Robert Starer was born in Vienna in 1924. He entered the State Academy at age 13. Soon after Hitler's annexation of Austria in 1938, he went to Jerusalem and continued his studies at the Palestine Conservatory. During World War II, he served with the British Royal Air Force. In 1947, he came to New York City for post-graduate study at Juilliard. He also studied with Aaron Copland at Tanglewood in 1948. In 1957, he became an American citizen. He taught at Juilliard from 1949 to 1974 and at Brooklyn College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York from 1963-1991. In 1994, he was elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His book, Continuo: A Life in Music was published by Random House in 1987. His complete works for solo piano have recently been published in one volume. In 1986, Itzhak Perlman recorded his Violin Concerto with the Boston Symphony Orchestra under Seiji Ozawa. This disc offers a selection of Mr. Starer's chamber works for voice and various instruments.

Those of you with great memories will remember that this recording was once available on the Vox-Turnabout series of American Music. The stunning thing about this CD premiere is the quality of the recording itself. This was never obvious from the original LP. George Rochberg needs no introduction, but Roque Cordero, the Panamanian composer born in 1917, is woefully underrepresented in the catalog. He is a composer of stature and this Quintet is a fine composition, as is the Quintet by Robert Palmer who was born in Syracuse, New York in 1915. Palmer studied at Eastman with Ernst Bacon and Howard Hanson and for many years taught at Cornell.

This is the third release in Albany Records' continuing series of recordings devoted to the music of the American composer George Walker. This release presents a further selection of Mr. Walker's chamber music. For this recording, Walker is joined by other members of his family who are also performers. His son Gregory, a violinist, is the concertmaster of the Boulder Philharmonic Orchestra. He is also a Professor of Music and Director of Ensembles at the University of Colorado in Denver. He joins his father in a performance of the Violin Sonata No. 1. Ian Walker has pursued a career as an actor, director and producer of numerous theatrical performances. He is the speaker in the Poem for Soprano and Chamber Ensemble.

This recording has its impetus in a retrospective concert of Chou Wen-Chung's music that took place at Merkin Concert Hall in New York City on April 1, 1993, in honor of his 70th birthday. Chou was born in China in 1923. He developed an early fascination with music and was educated in the 1920s through the 1940s against a backdrop of upheaval in a country recovering from Western colonialism, Eastern feudalism, and World War II. Urged to help rebuild China, he studied civil engineering instead of music, earning his degree in 1945. He came to the United States in 1946 on a four-year architecture scholarship to Yale. He gave this up to pursue his career in music. He studied with Varese, Martinu, Slonimsky, and Luening, attending the New England Conservatory of Music and Columbia. In 1978, he founded the Center for U.S. China Arts Exchange. It has designed and implemented many far-reaching projects in the arts. Writing in "Contemporary Composers" in 1992, Brian Morton noted: "It is difficult to overestimate Chou Wen-Chung's importance His work is of considerable significance in the slow rapprochement of Western and Eastern musics in the second half of he 20th century." In the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Edward Murry wrote, "Chou's music is a remarkably successful fusion of Chinese tradition and sophisticated Western vocabulary and style. Almost all his major works take as points of departure Chinese poetry, painting, calligraphy or philosophical and aesthetic ideas, and he is conscious of his place in the long tradition of Chinese art."

All of the works on this disc of choral music are world premiere recordings. As Dr. Hailstork says in the notes for this album, he has always enjoyed singing, right from the beginning when he was a boy soprano in the choir of the Cathedral of All Saints in Albany, New York. Here he was exposed to a wide range of choral music. When he went to Howard University from 1959-1963, he also sang in the choir. The choir often appeared with the National Symphony Orchestra singing the great works from the choral-orchestral repertoire. Dr. Hailstork studied with H. Owen Reed, David Diamond, Vittorio Giannini, Nadia Boulanger, and Mark Fax at Howard University. He is currently on the faculty of Norfolk State University in Norfolk, Virginia, where he is Professor of Music and Composer-in-Residence. In the past few years his music has been performed more and more often. The McCullough Chorale, founded in 1984 by Donald McCullough is Virginia's only professional chorale.

Chris Theofanidis was born on December 18, 1967 in Dallas Texas. He studied with Sam Adler, Joseph Schwantner, and Jacob Druckman. His father, Iraklis, was a classically trained pianist and composer from Greece. These are the basic facts. At Albany Records we feel we have an obligation to search out new, young composers and bring their music to you. This recording contains a wide variety of music written in an accessible, tonal idiom.

The Arditti Quartet is a phenomenal string quartet. They play new music as if it were Haydn. You will be awed by the performances they bring to this group of young composers from California. This disc is for you if you really enjoy contemporary music, contemporary chamber music, or contemporary American chamber music.

The Portland Youth Philharmonic honors their conductor of 40 years, Jacob Avshalomov, with this recording. You will be able to judge for yourselves the value of the man as a composer from these three live performances of some of his best music. For his 40 years with the Portland Youth Philharmonic, he has already been judged and indeed, has made a significant contribution tot he world of music in the United States and beyond. Alumni from the Portland Youth Philharmonic, first trained by Jacob Avshalomov, can be found in all major orchestras of the world. What an achievement! Avshalomov was born in China in 1991. His father was the Siberian composer Aaron Avshalomov. He came to the United States in 1937 and studied with the underrated composer Ernst Toch. He graduated from the Eastman School with a B.M. and M.A. In 1954, he was invited to Portland to conduct the Junior Symphony's 30th anniversary concert. He remained there for 40 years. Under his direction, the orchestra toured Europe, Japan and Korea and is acknowledged as one of America's finest youth orchestras.

At Albany Records we believe in the talent of Joseph Fennimore, both as composer and a superb pianist. The piano recital on this disc is wonderful, but as an added bonus, this album has program notes, composed by Mr. Fennimore: "Food, Lies and Audiotape," which are very funny indeed. Here is a taste of his writing. "Most pianists' bios are depressingly similar. Pre-natal study, debut at two, the Shangri-La of conservatories, a list of competition triumphs, galactic appearances, carefully selected blurbs all calculated to imply the subject will become a household name any moment now. Just waiting for that lucky break. An American myth. Things don't work that way anymore, if they ever did. Who wants to be a household name anyway? Not me. I want to be a special thing for a special few - a few more that is." Fennimore then goes on to tell how he was unable to get along with people in the business of music. However, he was able to get along with the people at Albany Records. For us his music is special: to be enjoyed. Other Fennimore titles include TROY102 (Fennimore in Concert I), TROY023 (Selected Vocal Works), TROY065 (Chamber Music) and TROY113 (Selected Piano Music.)

In his notes for this disc, Mark Fisher, the euphonium player, writes: "My intent with regard to the literature selection for this recording was simply to present a recital. Included are two of the most important and original works in the repertoire, the Jan Bach and the Gordon Jacob. Combined with other borrowed favorites, this program was designed to, through great variety, take advantage of the euphonium's split personality: not only that of tenor tuba but also tenor horn, as is evident here in the range of J.S. Bach's E-Flat Major Sonata for Flute. Octave differential aside, the style and shape of the musical line make for a perfect fit on the euphonium. The Lieder (originally for two voices) of Brahms were originally and wonderfully transcribed for two horns by Verne Reynolds. His skilled arrangement and the wonder of overdubbing make for a rich sound indeed. The bassoon literature has never escaped low brass thievery and the great f-minor sonata by Telemann lies perfectly in the heart of the euphonium range. I believe the Concert Variations by Jan Bach to be the finest work ever composed for the euphonium and I was so proud that he was in the studio with me when we made this recording. The recording concludes with one of the great park band solos and most recognizable of all cornet tunes, the Carnival of Venice."

This disc features a sampling of the chamber music of Arnold Rosner who was born November 8, 1945. He is a prolific composer whose works have been performed in the United States, Europe and Israel. Today, his works exceed 100. As the notes point out, "he has managed to steer clear, generally, of both the post serial avant-garde movement of the sixties and the minimalist movement that followed. His treatment of harmony and counterpoint, along with the occasional recourse to an ethnic, Middle Eastern flavor, places his music in the esthetic milieu of Paul Hindemith, Ernest Bloch, and Alan Hovhaness. Rosner is currently on the faculties of Kingsborough Community College and Staten Island College of the City University of New York, where he teaches both standard and ethnic music. Having composed since the age of nine, he received advanced degrees from the State University of New York at Buffalo while studying with Leo Smit, Allen Sapp, Henri Pousseur and Lejaren Hiller, a group from which in his own words, "I learned practically nothing." Of the works on this disc, "Of Numbers and Bells," was composed for two pianos in 1983, "Sonata for French Horn and Piano," was composed in 1979, "Sonata No. 1 for Violin and Piano," was composed in 1968 and revised in 1977, and "Nightstone" for tenor and piano was composed in 1979.

This new all-Harris disc contains the best of his choral music. In his program notes for this disc, John Proffitt writes: "Roy Harris wrote music especially rich in qualities American regard as reflecting their national life and character - honesty, vigor and expansiveness - a tonal reflection of his western background. This Americanism was not that of the big cities and Tin Pan Alley, but rather was that of the bleak and barren expanses of the western plains, of the brooding prairie night, of stronger, more fundamental emotions than are usually associated with that other musical Americanism, that of Jazz and Broadway." The selections on this CD range from a cappella chorus to chorus with brass and organ. The "Mass," "Alleluia," and "Madrigal" are world premiere recordings. The "Three Songs of Democracy," "Symphony for Voices on Poems of Walt Whitman," and "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" are first stereo recordings.

At the turn of the century, it was difficult enough for American composers like Daniel Gregory Mason, Edgar Stillman Kelley, or George Whitefield Chadwick to obtain a hearing for their music. They were poor relations of their more distinguished European counterparts. As tough as it was for these men, think of how tough it must have been for Dorothy Gaynor Blake, Mary Turner Salter, or Ella May Smith. Herein lies the importance of this release. You have probably never heard these composers' names before. They were all women composing music in the first 20 years of this century. All the music on this disc has been recorded here for the first time and all of it has been composed by women. How to describe the music? Interesting; more interesting than one might think. Remember, at this time in the development of music in America, there was no tradition; there was no composer who stood out from the rest; a woman had as good a shot at success as a man and these songs are well worth your attention. They can stand proudly next to a great deal of the material that was being composed at the same time by their male colleagues. This disc fills a very important gap in the discography of the American art song.

The American composer, Robert Hall Lewis, graduated with distinction in composition from the Eastman School of Music. His principal teacher was Bernard Rogers. He later studied with Nadia Boulanger in Paris and Hans Erich Apostel in Vienna. His music has been performed both here and abroad most notably by the American Composers Orchestra, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Baltimore Symphony, the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, the London Symphony and the Royal Philharmonic. A frequent lecturer at American and European institutions, he has composed more than 80 works of which 59 are published. Included are four symphonies, four string quartets and nine works for solo wind instruments.

The great beauty of this album is the variety of music by fine American composers. From the familiar by Copland and Barber, to the less so by the rest, this is an admirable disc. Robert Muczynski studied with Alexander Tcherepnin at DePaul University. His "Sonata" has been described as an energetic and optimistic work, reflecting the American "can-do" mood of the early 1960s. Leo Kraft's "Fantasy" incorporates some of the "new acquisitions" that were in the air during 1963, including the choice and chance scores of John Cage. About "Hexachords" Joan Tower has written that it is "divided into five sections, which are most easily differentiated by a sense of either going somewhere or staying somewhere." Meyer Kupferman's "Chaconne Sonata" was commissioned by Laurel Ann Maurer and composed especially for her. Only the first movement is cast in the traditional chaconne design. The remaining three movements reflect an ongoing setting of the thematic material drawn from the opening four bar phrase of the chaconne. Laurel Ann Maurer grew up in Seattle where she studied. Later she came to New York where she studied with Samuel Baron, Julius Baker and Jeanne Baxtresser. She has held principal chairs in the National Orchestra of New York, the New York City Symphony, Long Island Chamber Orchestra, Queens Philharmonia and the Chautauqua Festival Orchestra. She is currently principal flute of the Salt Lake Symphony Orchestra and director of American Flute Works.

This release contains reissues of the Nonesuch recordings from the mid-seventies. For those who remember these recordings, the sound is every bit as spectacular as it was on the original and the playing is breathtaking. Donald Martino is one of America's most important composers. Notturno for piccolo-flute-alto flute, clarinet-bass clarinet, violin-viola, cello, percussion and piano won the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1974. The greatness of Martino's music is the manner in which it assaults the ear and the imagination. This makes it such a challenging listen. Andrew Porter described Pianississimo, Martino's exuberant celebration of pianistic possibilities, as "an enchanted journey, through circles where transfigured shades of Bach, Beethoven, Chopin and Ravel sometimes glimmer, in a realm at once welcoming and strange." The Triple Concerto for clarinet, bass clarinet and contrabass clarinet with a chamber ensemble of 16 players was composed on a commission from the Group for Contemporary Music and dedicated to the composer Milton Babbitt on the occasion of his 60th birthday. About this piece Mr. Martino has written: "After some months of unproductive effort and frustration, I realized that I was being hindered by a conception of the work which prescribed, if not a full orchestra, at least a substantial string section. Since it was impractical to enlarge the ensemble (The Group for Contemporary Music), I decided to enlarge the soloist. Only then did the drama of the work reveal itself to me and its execution became clear. My plan was to transform the three separate clarinets into "Superclarinet," a six octave gargantuan who would use the concerto as a world in which to romp and play with the superfriends."

Donald Martino began music lessons at the age of nine; learning to play the clarinet, saxophone, and oboe. He started composing at 15. He attended Syracuse and Princeton Universities. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He has received two Fulbright scholarships, three Guggenheim fellowships and grants from the NEA. He won the Pulitzer Prize in 1974 for Notturno and in 1985 the Kennedy Center Friedheim Competition for his String Quartet. He has taught at the Third Street Music School Settlement in New York, Princeton University, Yale University, the Yale Summer School of Music and Art, Tanglewood, the New England Conservatory of Music, where he was chairman of the composition department from 1969-79, Brandeis University, where he was Irving Fine Professor of Music, and Harvard University, where he is currently Walter Bigelow Rosen Professor of Music Emeritus. Prize-winning pianist David Holzman has performed the 20th century's most challenging masterpieces throughout the United States and abroad. He has premiered works by more than 100 composers from around the world. He studied with Paul Jacobs and Nadia Reisenberg. He began his solo career in the 1980s and has earned consistent praise for his virtuoso performances. Andrew Porter, writing in The New Yorker has described him as a "master pianist." This disc contains exciting performances of fine American piano music.

Do you know the name David Maslanka? Probably not and yet he is writing some of the most wonderful music. He lives on his ranch in Montana and composes music; music for himself and for us: music which is romantic, tonal, imaginative; music which is good and worth hearing by a larger audience. Maslanka was born in New Bedford, Massachusetts. He studied at the New England Conservatory, the Oberlin Conservatory, the Mozarteum in Salzburg and received his Ph.D. in music theory and composition from Michigan State University. His principal teachers were Joseph Wood and H. Owen Reed. A Child's Garden of Dreams s commissioned for the Northwestern University Symphonic Wind Ensemble. It was composed in the summer of 1981 and premiered by Northwestern in 1982. The Symphony No. 2 was commissioned by the Big Ten Band Directors Association in 1983. It was given its premiere at the CBDNA Convention in Evanston, Illinois. The performing group was the combined Symphonic Band and Symphonic Wind Ensemble of Northwestern University.

In their program notes to this album Terry Rhodes and Ellen Williams write: "As a duo team, we have performed throughout the United States and Europe since 1988. In exploring the traditional duet literature, we came to realize the scarcity of twentieth century vocal duet music, and decided to do our own small part to rectify the situation. We commissioned two new works, one form Stephen Jaffe in 1990 for our Carnegie Recital Hall premiere, and one from Timothy Hoekman in 1994. Additionally we wanted to introduce our audiences to other new works by composers who also deserve to be heard. We consider it a vital part of our responsibility as performers to champion the works of living American composers and to create a venue for duet music, an art form that encourages a camaraderie of spirit and the sharing of musical ideas. This new Albany compact disc contains five pieces, none of which has been previously recorded. They range in accompaniment from piano to orchestra, with interesting combinations in-between. We hope that in this eclectic mix, there is something for each of our listeners." An especial highlight of this album are two duets from two different operas by the Pulitzer Prize winning composer Robert Ward. "Lady Kate" was composed in the years immediately following his winning the Pulitzer in 1962.

Any disc that contains the music of the wonderful American composer Douglas Moore, is a welcome addition to the catalog. Mr. Moore (1893-1969) composed "Gallantry" in 1957 and it was first performed in March 1958 at Columbia University on a double bill with Dominick Argento's "The Boor." The libretto by Arnold Sundgaard is a parody of television soap operas, reminiscent perhaps of the once popular "Young Doctor Malone," complete with commercial interruptions for Lochinvar Soap, the soap of silken supremacy, and Billy Boy Wax, the waxy wax that spells relax, which are sung by a female announcer assisted by three dancers called the Billy Boy Girls. The parody came full circle on August 30, 1972, when CBS broadcast a production of "Gallantry" on its television network. Menotti's "The Telephone" was composed in 1946. It was premiered by the Ballet Society of New York at the Heckstar Theater in February 1947, on a double bill with the same composer's "The Medium" It proved so successful that three months later, it began a long and successful run on Broadway at the Ethel Barrymore Theater. Hindemith composed his "There and Back" in 1927. It was first performed in the United States at the inaugural season of Tanglewood in 1940. Hindemith himself was one of the pianists in the pit orchestra.

The American composer, Irwin "Buddy" Bazelon died on August 2, 1995 at the age of 73. Sadly, his death occurred just two months after the completion of the recording of this CD. During his lifetime he completed nine symphonies and more than 60 orchestral pieces, including Fire and Smoke which was a featured work at the 1994 Aspen Music Festival. He was at work on his tenth symphony at the time of his death. Buddy was born in Chicago. He graduated from DePaul University, studied composition briefly with Paul Hindemith at Yale and extensively with Darius Milhaud at Mills College. The Symphony No. 9 is an orchestral version of a piano piece written for Alan Mandel. It is dedicated to Sunday Silence, winner of the 1989 Kentucky Derby and Horse of the Year. About the music Harold Farberman has written: "It is the work of a master composer. The orchestral writing is compact, direct and dazzling. Everything on the page, even the smallest detail in the densest of textures, can and must be heard. The rhythmic elements, derived from jazz, that drive and create the large structures typical of Bazelon and his sound, are crystal clear in this last symphony. He is an unmistakable and unique American voice."

Walter Piston's "Divertimento" was commissioned by the International Society for Contemporary Music and given its first performance by an ensemble of New York players at Columbia University in May, 1946. The group was conducted by Dmitri Mitropoulos. "The Three Tone Pictures" of Charles Tomlinson Griffes were originally composed for solo piano in 1915. At the request of Caroline Beebe, the pianist and director of the New York Chamber Music Society, Griffes prepared a chamber ensemble version of the "Tone Pictures." This version was premiered in Greenwich, Connecticut, in June 1920, less than two months after the composer's death. Ned Rorem composed his "Studies" in 1959, at the request of Cameron Baird, the head of the Music Department at Buffalo University. He had hired Rorem to teach a class in composition, give some public lectures and compose a work for chamber ensemble. Unfortunately, Baird died before the premiere of the work, which the composer conducted at the University in May, 1960. Copland's "Sextet" is actually a chamber version of his "Short Symphony." The original work was composed between 1931 and 19933. The chamber version, "Sextet," was composed in 1938 and given its first performance at Town Hall in New York by a group of Juilliard graduate students in February 1939.

Arthur Foote was born in Salem, Massachusetts. He entered Harvard at the age of 17 and studied with John Knowles. Paine. In 1875, he received the first Master's degree in music ever given in this country. He was a professional organist active in the Boston area. He was very fortunate in that he could and did compose orchestral music that was performed by one of the best orchestras in the country at the time; the Boston Symphony. He taught music in the Boston area for more than 50 years. In 1944, taking advantage of two successive fellowships from the Rockefeller and Guggenheim Foundations, Juan A. Orrego-Salas left his native Chile to study in the United States with Randall Thompson and Aaron Copland. He has taught extensively in both Chile and the United States. His Sextet was first performed at Tanglewood in the summer of 1954. Mr. Orrego-Salas has composed four symphonies, concerti, two ballets, an opera, a mass, two cantatas and a great deal of film music. This recording of David Diamond's Quintet is issued in honor of his eightieth birthday.

Bucknell University, rated one of the 30 best liberal arts colleges in America in the 1995 edition of U.S. World and News Report's college guide, offers a professional music program within an outstanding liberal arts environment. The Bucknell Music Department has an internationally recognized faculty whose members have gained recognition as performers, conductors, composers, authors and lecturers. The Rooke Chapel Choir, under the direction of William Payn, has gained international recognition in performances of some of the most significant works in the twentieth century American sacred repertoire. Its select members represent every major field of study at Bucknell, including the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, business administration, education and engineering. The Rooke Chapel Ringers were formed in 1983. They consist of 12 players who are selected by audition. Mezzo-soprano D'Anna Fortunato graduated from Bucknell in 1967. She has charmed critics and audiences alike with her recital, symphony orchestra and opera appearances in the United States and abroad.

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) was fully conscious of his significance as a thinker who would deeply influence the direction of philosophical inquiry of future generations. His reputation as a philosopher is firmly established, but before he engaged himself fully as a philosopher, he had already created a substantial output as poet and composer. Musical composition preceded his involvement with philosophy and is therefore usually considered to be of little importance for an understanding of his thought. Nietzsche himself, however, considered it important that at least some of his music should be known in order to avoid misunderstandings of his basic intentions as a philosopher. In a letter from October 1887, he wrote: "...there has never been a philosopher who has been in essence a musician to such an extent as I am." However, when it came to his music, he did not display his usual assertion of superiority. In the same letter he says: "Even so, it is possible that I might be a thoroughly unsuccessful musician." During his lifetime, his compositions were not accepted as significant, either by his friends or by a wider public. Even after his name had become universally known, his compositions have either remained unknown or have only been accepted as biographical curiosities. Most of his music was written between the ages of 13 and 22. It is the purpose of these recordings to make the sound of these compositions accessible, so that a judgment concerning their style and their value can be made by the listener without having to rely on the judgment of others, even if those others are of the stature of Richard Wagner and Hans von Bulow. This first volume contains music Nietzsche composed before the age of 20. This disc contains a very detailed commentary on his emotional and intellectual development. Since he composed without a teacher, without regular instruction, and with very little external encouragement, this music is also a vivid demonstration of his innate impulse for self-expression, of his independence and of his willingness to accept risk and potential failure.

This performance was recorded live on January 22, 1995, at the Cathedral Church of Saint Paul, Tremont Street, Boston, Massachusetts. How does a performance like this happen? Genuinely dedicated people research the literature. They find music they feel worthwhile. They convince others of its worth and then rehearse and prepare it to the best of their resources. This is the only composition they work on. They perform it, make a tape and send it to Albany Records. We are impressed by the dedicated effort that has gone into the project, the musical integrity of the forces involved, and of the commitment of the musicians to the music. All this comes through in the performance. We then make the decision to bring it to you. The Beach Mass has only one other performance in the catalog and this Stow performance presents a very different approach to the music. The Grand Mass comes from Amy Beach's most productive period, the same period that produced the Gaelic Symphony and the wonderful Piano Concerto. Its premiere was in Boston on February 7, 1892. It was given by the Handel and Haydn Society and was the first time it had ever performed anything by a woman. In 1896, the Boston Symphony gave the premiere of her symphony. The Grand Mass is a large, romantic work, sure to appeal to a large audience. The forces on this disc do a great job of conveying the stature and magnitude of the music.

This second volume of compositions by Friedrich Nietzsche begins with works he wrote in 1864, just before his twentieth birthday. During this year, he completed his schooling and commenced studies in philology and theology at the University of Bonn. It was the most productive year in his career as a composer, at least if one considers the quantity of finished works. These include his only completed piece of chamber music, a fantasy for violin and piano, and a song cycle. With the beginning of his university studies, his desire to express himself through music diminished. During his studies in Bonn and later in Leipzig, he wrote only a few occasional compositions: one song, a few small choral works, and some incomplete sketches for larger works. His connection with music took another, more fateful turn through his encounter with Richard Wagner. It was in Leipzig, in November 1868, that Nietzsche met Wagner for the first time. The ensuing friendship with the master and his wife became a matter of pivotal importance for his life, and really provided the impetus for his literary career. On his further development as a composer, however, this relationship seems to have had little influence. After a hiatus of several years during which Nietzsche did not write music at all, there followed a relatively short period, between 1871 and 1874, when he again took up composition. At that time, he had established himself as Professor of Philology at the University of Basel.

Stephen Paulus' Voices was premiered in November, 1988 by the Minnesota Orchestra and the Dale Warland Symphonic Chorus. Commissioned by the Association of Clinical Pastoral Education, Paulus fund the most difficult part was finding words which would impart a spiritual message with power and purpose while not alienating anyone because of his or her own particular religious faith. He turned to the words of Rainer Maria Rilke, which seemed to him to impart both a timeliness and power that was fitting. Songs of Eternity was composed by James Hopkins in memory of David Lee Shanbrom whose life was tragically cut short in an automobile accident. The text is a poem by Indian author Rabindranath Tagore. Although the poems relate to some aspect of death, the prevailing mood is one of subdued joy in eternal life. Commissioned by the Orange County Philharmonic Society to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Pacific Chorale, the work was given its premiere by these forces. Two major choral-orchestral works by two very significant American composers.

Here is a real feast for lovers of contemporary American orchestral music. All three works contained on this CD are world premieres. The Northwest Symphony Orchestra was founded in 1987. In the last five years, it has performed 27 different works by 19 different northwest American composers. This disc is a great example of their work. About The Raven Speaks Mr. Short writes: "It is a suite for orchestra based on songs of northwest Native American cultures living along the coast of northwest Washington, Canada and southern Alaska." Mr. Short received his doctorate from the University of Oregon. His interest in ethnic music and incorporating ethnic music and culture in his compositions has been documented in more than 300 compositions written in the last 30 years. In 1923, George McKay received the first composition degree ever granted at Eastman. Shortly thereafter he became a professor at the University of Washington where he remained for more than 40 years. IN 1925, a competition was held by the Rochester Philharmonic to perform American music. George McKay was selected as one of the composers, along with Aaron Copland and Bernard Rogers. William Bergsma was educated at Stanford University and the Eastman School. He joined the faculty of Juilliard in 1946. He became associate dean in 1961. In 1963, he became director of the School of Music at the University of Washington in Seattle. The subtitle of his Serenade is "Because, of course, she might not come." The moon referred to in his piece is the moon of lovers, not astronauts. The music therefore is a restless nocturne, full of longing, anticipation and uncertainty.

The eight early works of Haydn featured on this recording, though variously titled partita and divertimento, are sonatas in all but name. They are committed to the new sonata style of the mid-eighteenth century, most often comprising three movements, the dance elements of the suite and partita having receded to a secondary role. At the time of their composition, probably between 17545 and 1765, Haydn was Kapellmeister to Count Morzin. He entered the service of the Esterhazy family as Vice-Kapellmeister in 1761. Beyond this, and the speculation that they may have been performed by the composer at court or used as teaching pieces, it is impossible to reconstruct their biographical and social context. Unpublished in the composer's lifetime, the works survive in manuscript copies bearing attribution only to Haydn. Only a single work, Hob.XVI-6 survives in an autograph manuscript and this is undated.

Leo Sowerby's choral music has never been out of the repertory and several of his works for Christmas, particularly this collection's title anthem, Love Came Down at Christmas, and the Epiphany anthem, Now There Lightens Upon Us, are prominent among the reasons why. This collection, which includes nearly all of Sowerby's Christmas music, presents a comprehensive overview; from his very first, A Carol for New Year's Day, dating from his eighteenth year, to A Prayer for Christmas, composed in his 72nd year for the choir of his last parish church, Christ Church, Georgetown. From the immediately engaging arrangements of traditional folk tunes, to the soaring vocal heights and harmonic moodiness of the a cappella A Great and Mighty Wonder to the virtuosic choral-Organ collaborations, the composer displays a sure and ever-changing harmonic spectrum woven brilliantly into the choral fabric. All of these carols are a true testament to Leo Sowerby's craft and faith and his convictions of the joy and splendor of this magnificent season. This disc contains some magnificent music, appealing no matter what the season.

"Requiem Songs was begun about two years after I returned from a four month stay in the former Yugoslavia. It was originally planned to be an upbeat piece, using some of the musical ideas I had collected during my time in the Balkans, but the advent of the war in Croatia and Bosnia left me unable to complete the commission as I had originally planned it. It seemed like the culture I had known briefly was dying, and the appropriate musical response was to write a requiem for it. I briefly toyed with the idea of combining parts of the various liturgies used in the Balkans as source material for the work. However, as I focused more on the nationalistic conflicts which seemed to be springing up throughout eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union in the wake of the collapse of communism, I found myself thinking more and more that this was not about Bosnians and Serbs, but really about all people who see their own national identity as requiring the annihilation of people with another national or ethnic identity. The problem is not limited to victims of Serb or Croat aggression, but rather to the victims of nationalism throughout the world. Screen Scenes is not about anything political, but simply about how we perform music. One of my continuing musical interests over the years has been to find new ways to work with improvisation. I love the kinds of spontaneity and imagination that seem to appear when good improvisers play, and the depth with which ensembles must listen to each other in improvisational situations. On the other hand, as a composer, I also tend to have very specific ideas about how I want a piece of music to sound, how it should develop, how it should be structured, etc. So the problem is: how do I create a work in which I keep the kind of control which is important to me, while giving the musicians the kind of freedom they require for improvisational interaction. Screen Scenes is one answer." Neil Rolnick has been active internationally as a composer and performer of computer music since the late 1970s. He has appeared in concerts throughout North America, Europe and Japan. Currently he is Chair of the Arts Department and Director of iEAR Studios at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York. This is a disc of appealing, profound and topical music.