Sights and Sounds of Drama, Classical Music Seasons : Concerts to Focus on American Composers’ 20th-Century Works

There was a time when American composers suffered from a tremendous inferiority complex about their music. Until the early part of this century, Americans didn’t really consider themselves serious composers until they had studied abroad, preferably Germany or, later on, France.

This changed on the eve of World War II as war clouds gathered over Europe, sending waves of composers to the United States. They continued writing music, and more importantly, taught American composers, who turned toward popular music, jazz and folk songs for some of their influences.

A look at some of the trends in 20th-Century American music will be featured in special concerts this fall at Cal State Northridge and CalArts. As part of a nationwide “American Music Week,” CSUN will present a lecture on “Audiences for New Art Music” and a concert of works by Vincent Persichetti and faculty composers Beverly Grigsby and Deon Nielsen Price on Nov. 10 in the Recital Hall.

On Dec. 1-3, CalArts will present three concerts as the “Great American Composers Chamber Music Series,” which will feature an appearance by Otto Luening. Born in 1900, Luening helped pioneer electronic music and wrote some of the first music incorporating tape recorders.

The program, featuring the New CalArts Twentieth Century Players, will include works by such well-known composers as Aaron Copland, Samuel Barber, Roy Harris, music theorist Walter Piston and Roger Sessions.

But there will also be compositions by Charles Tomlinson Griffes, who wrote most of his works in a six-year span before dying at the age of 36, and Henry Cowell, who experimented in the use of tone clusters, in which piano keys are played with a fist, elbow or forearm--even a board. Compositions by Ruth Crawford, the mother of folk singer Pete Seeger and a famed musicologist--as was her husband, Charles Seeger--will also be performed.

The series, which includes nightly lectures, will be held at the Santa Monica Museum of Art, 1333 Ocean Ave.

Contemporary music, including some Canadian works, also will be performed at CSUN, 18111 Nordhoff St., on Oct. 19 in a concert by composer Sergio Barroso; a concert Oct. 22 by the New Directions Composers Group, and by the New Music Ensemble on Dec. 3, all in the Recital Hall.

“Sound Shroud,” part of a daylong event at various CalArts locations, will be presented Nov. 4 by SCREAM, the Southern California Resource for Electro-Acoustic Music. The event draws on musicians, dancers and video installations from CSUN, Cal State Dominguez Hills, Harbor College, UCLA and USC.

Rowena Hammill, who is joining CSUN as professor of cello, will be featured in two concerts: on Oct. 15 as the soloist with the CSUN Symphony in Tchaikovsky’s “Rococo Variations,” in the Student Union, and a faculty recital on Oct. 22 of works by Brahms, Bach, Shostakovich and Debussy, in CSUN Campus Theater.

The American Guitar Society Concert Series will feature flamenco guitarist Juan Martin on Oct. 21 and Carlos Barbosa Lima on Nov. 18, both in the CSUN Recital Hall.

Chamber music performances at CSUN will include a faculty recital of Beethoven string quartets on Sept. 29, the Aequalis Trio on Nov. 16-17, and an evening of chamber music on Dec. 4, all in the Recital Hall. A performance of music by the Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos will be given Dec. 12 in the Little Theater; the CSUN Trio will perform Dec. 16 in the Campus Theater.

A pipe organ recital, a rarity in the San Fernando Valley, will be given by Samuel John Swartz on Oct. 27 in the CSUN Recital Hall in a program featuring works by Bach, along with Belgian organist Cesar Franck and Paul Hindemith.

Concerts by major ensembles, who have yet to announce their programs, include the CSUN Wind Symphony on Oct. 19 and the CSUN Wind Ensemble on Oct. 20, both in the Student Union.

One of the more unusual performances this fall will be “Art and Soul,” a concert featuring seven of America’s great cantors at the University of Judaism. The program of Jewish folk and art songs, accompanied by the university’s Kol Echad Chorale under the direction of Hazzan Alan Weiner, will be given Dec. 16-17 at the school, 15600 Mulholland Drive.

The CalArts Orchestra and Chorus, conducted by Paul Vorwerk, will present Stravinsky’s “Symphony of Psalms” in a holiday concert on Dec. 10 in the Main Gallery.

There will be several Christmas performances, including CSUN’s Dickens Feast, held Dec. 16-17, 19-20 and 22-23 in the Student Union. In the dinner program, first presented last year as an alternative to the annual Madrigal Dinner, characters selected from Charles Dickens’ works find shelter in a country inn from a winter storm.

A sing-along performance of Handel’s popular oratorio “Messiah,” with the Valley Master Chorale, will be held Dec. 17 at Burroughs High School, 1920 Clark Ave., Burbank. Scores of the work--a Christmas tradition, although it deals with the entire life of Christ--will be sold at the door for those who may be a little rusty on everything but the “Hallelujah” chorus.

The Valley Master Chorale, conducted by John Alexander, will perform another Handel oratorio, “Judas Maccabeus,” on Nov. 11 at Reseda High School, 18230 Kittridge. The oratorio, as popular as “Messiah” during Handel’s life, was written in about a month, but altered over Handel’s lifetime, with the inclusion of material from other works.

Although the programs have yet to be announced, choral music will also be performed Nov. 18 by the Northridge Singers at the CSUN Student Union and Nov. 19 by the University Chorus at Trinity Lutheran Church, 18425 Kittridge, Reseda. The CSUN Women’s Chorale will perform Dec. 9 at the Recital Hall.

Opera will be presented in two one-act works, Mozart’s “The Impresario,” and Arthur Benjamin’s “The Prima Donna” on Oct. 27-28 and 31, and Nov. 1, 3-4 at the CSUN Little Theater.

And the season will have a good share of world music, from the Tani Sumi Hougaku Kenkyu Koto Ensemble of Tokyo Oct. 28 to Kinnaro Taiko Nov. 9, both at the CSUN Recital Hall, to the second annual “World Music and Dance Marathon” at CalArts. The all-night performance, from 5 p.m. Nov. 11 to 10 a.m. Nov. 12 will feature student and faculty ensembles and guest artists.