Ensemble Plays Works by USC Faculty

The USC Contemporary Music Ensemble took care of its own Tuesday night in Hancock Auditorium, giving the premieres of two extensive vocal works by USC faculty composers.

Stephen Hartke’s “Sons of Noah” and Frederick Lesemann’s “the water in the boat” had little in common, yet both left one wondering about their texts, specifically, what made them suitable, or unsuitable, for musical treatment.

Lesemann chose to use his own words, 12 brief poems on the seasons and the elements (earth, air, fire, water), in clipped free verse of almost stunning dullness.

His 45-minute setting, for chorus, mixed winds and brass, two synthesizers and two DAT players, is underpinned with sounds from nature--birds, streams, thunder, often manipulated electronically. It also explores text painting: The choir sings icy chords in winter, or buzzes--”Zzz. Vvv. Rrr.”--like bugs in summer. But there wasn’t a whole lot else to work with in the texts. The harmonic language, based on tetrachords, rendered much of it thick and woolly.

Hartke’s text, by librettist Philip Littell from a short story by Machado de Assis, was a dramatization of Noah’s sons bickering over land after the flood. The trouble was that the bickering went on and on.

Hartke’s music, a 30-minute setting for soprano and quartets of bassoons, guitars and flutes, effectively captured the jostle of these verbal and physical fights with Stravinskian syncopation and acerbic harmonies. There was just too much of it. The soprano continually ranted with yelps on high, declaimed angrily, exclaimed frantically. The novel instrumentation piqued interest though.

Lisa Stidham proved a spirited soprano. The Choral Society of Southern California was challenged but generally secure. Donald Crockett attentively led a fluent Contemporary Music Ensemble.