Conservative Composer Mellows a Bit : Music: Charles Wuorinen maintains a distinction between serious music and music for entertainment. His Sonata for Violin and Piano will receive its West Coast premiere at Chapman College.

One of the leading enthusiasts of serial music during the 1960s and ‘70s, composer Charles Wuorinen might resist admitting that he has recently turned over a new leaf. But those familiar with the elaborate, cerebral 12-tone techniques spelled out in his deceptively titled tome “Simple Composition” will at least raise an eyebrow when he describes one of his newest compositions as being “in G.”

“Obviously, there are these catchall descriptive sayings that are unfortunately designed more as triggers for an emotional response,” Wuorinen responds when asked to describe his latest musical activity. “I am obviously changing continuously and don’t know how to apply terms such as conservative or atonal, “ he said in a recent phone interview from Altadena, where he was staying with friends.

Thursday night, at Chapman College’s Salmon Hall in Orange, his Sonata for Violin and Piano--which actually is “in G”--will receive its West Coast premiere by violinist Peter Marsh and pianist Gloria Cheng. The concert by the Southwest Chamber Music Society will also include Bartok’s “Out of Doors” and Brahms’ C minor Piano Quartet.

“There have been a number of different musical fashions in this country that come and go and don’t interest me much,” Wuorinen admits, carefully avoiding naming names or specific movements. “I guess the current trend now, at least that which is called avant-garde, is a music based on popular music--and it’s extremely reactionary.”

The 51-year-old composer, who at one time described himself as being “just to the right of Ramses II,” carries a pronounced reputation for an acerbic wit that has often included rancorous barbs at others in his field. Avant-garde composers such as Karlheinz Stockhausen and John Cage have often become targets of his biting remarks, not to mention more than a few music critics whom he once collectively described as “appendages to society.”

Born in New York City into a highly intellectual environment--his father was a professor of history at Columbia University--Wuorinen has been composing and performing at the piano since the age of 5. A noted scholar and recipient of many prestigious awards, he remains a remarkably prolific composer with about 200 compositions to his name.

In the late 1950s, he became a devotee of the serial techniques of Milton Babbitt, who at that time many considered at the cutting edge of the avant-garde American music world. Well into the past decade, Wuorinen has been almost a crusader for these rigorously intellectual techniques, using them as a platform for a type of conservatism that would serve as an alternative to what he considers a breakdown in discipline and common sense in the world of serious music.

“This preoccupation with self-expression is one of the great bad habits in America today,” he laments. “There are always younger artists that believe they have something to say and therefore feel as if they must say it.

“A good artist should produce his art by whatever standards he has for what is beautiful and not worry about self. It may be a paradox, but the self will always come through, no matter what a composer does.”

But his criticisms of the American music world today don’t end with a breakdown in discipline. Wuorinen sees a deeply rooted problem with America not being able to take the arts seriously enough in both the fields of government funding and education.

“French President Francois Mitterrand always travels with an entourage of artists, writers and painters and (former West-German Chancellor) Helmut Schmidt liked to relax in the evening by sitting down at the organ and playing Bach,” he observes. “Unlike these countries where artists are looked upon as serious people, America is somewhat embarrassed to give money to artists. There must always be some sort of justification for supporting the arts, such as being useful in therapy, or increasing the patronage of hotels, parking lots and gas stations.

“I’d also like to see a universal, basic musical literacy where everyone can read music and have some sort of proficiency on an instrument. In America, one of the most musically illiterate countries in the world, we should get rid of this sense of fun that teachers try to create with music and simply teach students how to read and play it.”

The distinction between serious music and music for entertainment remains an important one for Wuorinen. And the need for musical activity that doesn’t yield to current popular trends or responses is imperative.

“I write music because I have to,” he relates with a genuine sincerity. “A true artist is not driven because of audience acceptance like an entertainer is. Don’t misunderstand me, that doesn’t mean that I don’t want people to like my music, but unlike an entertainer, I don’t have to change a single note if the audience doesn’t like it.”

But oddly enough, Wuorinen doesn’t rule out working in the field of entertainment. When asked if he would ever consider writing a film score for Hollywood, he replies that he “would be delighted to.” And what if a filmmaker asks him to change a note or two?

“There is a big difference between what the patron requests and what the audience requests,” he claims. “If the patron asks me to do whatever I want, I will, but if I am asked to write a 17-minute piece for three bass drums and ocarina, then I’ll do that, too.”