MUSIC REVIEWS : A BIRTHDAY CONCERT FOR ELLIS KOHS

Composer Ellis Kohs, who will be 70 in May and spent half his life teaching at USC, was honored by the university Wednesday with a birthday concert in Hancock Auditorium.

Professor emeritus Kohs gave a modest in-house celebration real significance with the premiere of his “Fantasies, Intermezzi, and Canonic Etudes on the Name Eudice Shapiro.” His most characteristic compositional voice is somber and often elegiac, and the new work for unaccompanied violin is no exception.

From the name of violinist and USC teacher Eudice Shapiro, Kohs extracted those letters that correspond to pitches (EuDiCE, etc.), and used them to unify the 12 movements. The three Fantasies that vary themes by Brahms, Purcell, and Bach, a moto quasi-perpetuo Scherzo stressing the tri-tone, and the Bartokian canons proved particularly distinguished.

Muted movements, harmonics and pizzicato provided great timbral variety. The pseudo-polyphony is technically apt and employed to affecting ends.

Shapiro aided the cause with solid, persuasive playing. Joined by pianist Brooks Smith, she also ended the program with an equally pointed performance of Kohs’ Sonatina, a piece reminiscent of “Petrushka” and Gershwin in its outer movements, but characteristically Kohs in the central brooding blues.

Two excerpts from Kohs’ opera “Amerika” showed more response to changes in character and emotional context in the accompaniment than in the declamatory voice parts. Tenor Michael Sells projected his texts clearly and handled the angular lines cleanly. Pianist Jean Barr provided neat accompaniment.

Kohs wrote “The Automatic Pistol” for the Army Music School Chorus while in the service in 1943. He took the instructions for disassembling a pistol and set them with wit and panache. Tenors Patrick Jolly and Michael Palmer, baritone Hector Vasquez and bass Paul Linnes gave it a firm, plangent reading, alert to irony and musical opportunity.