New Music at the 1970 Cheltenham Festival Part 4 of 4 (Concluded)

The final tranche of 1970 Cheltenham Festival ‘novelties’ begins with John Tavener’s Coplas was originally an anthem written for voices and tape in 1969. However, this piece was later incorporated into the composer’s massive Ultimos Ritos (Last Rites) which was premiered in 1974.

Tavener explained that Coplas is based on the theology of the Spanish mystic, St John of the Cross. The idea that inspired the composer was ‘the more I live the more I must die.’ This explains, says Tavener, ‘the deliberately static nature of Coplas.’ He insists that ‘in once sense Coplas is a prolonged decoration of the 'et sepultus est' cadence from the ‘Crucifixus’ in Bach's Mass in B minor…’ The present piece seems to present a gradual merger of John Tavener’s music with that of Bach heard on tape. It is beautiful, timeless work that seems to defy classification.

In 1971 The Beatles record label, Apple, released an album (SAPCOR-20) of Tavener’s music, including A Celtic Requiem, Nomine Jesu and Coplas. The London Sinfonietta Chorus and Orchestra were conducted by David Atherton. It has been subsequently released on CD. Coplas has been uploaded to YouTube.  Unbelievably, I was unable to locate a recording of Ultimos Ritos.

I am always surprised that Michael Tippett’s The Shires Suite has not gained traction with the composer’s fanbase. To my knowledge there is no complete recording of the piece in the current CD catalogues. A learned discussion about the genesis, performance and reception of work is given by John Whitmore on MusicWeb International . I will extract only the reference to the Cheltenham performance from his essay.

The premiere of the complete Shires Suite written for the Leicestershire Schools Orchestra, took place at the Town Hall on 8 July. Works featured that day included the vibrant Piano Concerto conducted by a ‘still athletic octogenarian’, Arthur Bliss with the soloist Frank Wibaut. Michael Tippett naturally conducted the premiere of his work, as well as Charles Ives’ ‘riotous’ choral and orchestral version of the Circus Band and ‘a rather scrappy’ Rhapsody in Blue by Gershwin. (Birmingham Daily Post 10 July 1970).  The Shires Suite was well received by the audience. Despite the considerable difficulties, the work was beautifully performed by choir and orchestra with the music reflecting ‘a further consolidation of Tippett’s post-Priam clarity of texture with a rediscovered lyricism which, allied to his special feeling for the setting of words, transforms what might have been an occasional piece into a significant new work.’ A recording of The Shires Suite 1970 Cheltenham premiere has been uploaded to YouTube

A studio album of Michael Tippett’s The Shires Suite was released on Unicorn Records (UNS 267) in 1981. The Leicestershire Schools Symphony Orchestra and the Leicestershire Chorale were conducted by Peter Fletcher. Included on this LP was Douglas Young’s Virages-Region 1 with the cello solo played by Rohan de Saram and conducted by the composer. This album has not been released on CD. However, both the Tippett and the Young have been uploaded to YouTube.

Henry Weinberg hails from Philadelphia in the United States. Born in 1931, he studied at the University of Pennsylvania and Princetown. His teachers included Roger Sessions and Milton Babbitt. Several other composers influenced his music, including Luigi Dallapiccola, Elliott Carter, George Perle, Ralph Shapey and Edgard Varèse. The composer died in 2018.

Weinberg’s String Quartet No. 2 was written between 1960 and 1964 whilst the he was working in New York and Florence. It was premiered in New York in 1964.

The structure of the Quartet depends on abandoning the usual three or four movements and replacing it with 12 short sections. These ‘sections’ are interconnected to each other both ‘backwards and forwards’ in time. It would be a perceptive listener who could relate these elements without (and perhaps even with) the score. The music is characterised by ‘constant changes of tempo [and] elastic rhythmic movements while allowing the sense of continuity to operate subliminally.’   The musical material of this piece is derived from complicated serial procedures that relate rhythm and ‘melody.’ 

Peter J Pirie, (The Musical Times, November 1971) whilst reviewing the score, recognised Weinberg’s Quartet’s ‘contemporary idiom’.  He noted that the work is dedicated to the memory of 'Paul Weinberg, musician and mathematician' and that the score’s facsimile was written ‘in the composer’s spidery handwriting [which] looks a bit like untidy mathematics.’ Pirie felt that ‘for a lot of the time all four instruments scoop for very high notes, of brief duration, and it gives the appearance of being spiky and shrill, but one would have to hear it played. I liked the very imaginative end, though.’ I understand that the conclusion provides a ‘homage’ to J.S. Bach through a novel take on the B-A-C-H motive and the final cadence reveals a C major triad!

To my knowledge there has only been a single recording of Henry Weinberg’s String Quartet No.2. This was released by Columbia Records in 1969 (MS 7284). It was played by the Composers Quartet. Also included on this LP was Leon Kirchner’s remarkable Quartet No.3 for strings and electronic tape. This was performed by the Beaux-Arts Quartet. Both the Kirchner and the Weinberg have been uploaded to YouTube.

Concluded.