Other Minds Special Programs ➔ Other Minds Presents: Rudhyar In Retrospect: Concert One (Sept. 27, 2010), 3 of 6
Digital Audio
Event Type
MusicOrigin
Other MindsIdentifier
OMP.2010.09.27.c1.CProgram Series
Other Minds PresentsProgram Length
115 minPart
3 of 6Dates
| broadcast| 2010-09-27 | created
Description
On September, 27, 2010, at the Swedenborgian Church in San Francisco, CA, Other Minds presented the first of two concerts dedicated to the music of composer, author, astrologer, painter, and philosopher, Dane Rudhyar. A true Renaissance man, Dane Rudhyar was born in Paris, France in 1895, studied briefly at the Paris Conservatoire, and published his first musical compositions, as well as a book on Claude Debussy, by 1913. In 1916, in a move that he compared to going to the moon, Rudhyar came to the United States where he eventually settled down in California. Throughout the 1920s and 30s Rudhyar continued to compose avant-garde music including scores for plays, ritual dances, and radical “multimedia” performances. However with the advent of the Great Depression, Rudhyar found less support for his type of experimental music, so he began to dedicate more time to his poetry, painting and philosophical writings on astrology and psychology. Beginning in the 1970s, as his writings were gaining popularity among the youth, Rudhyar returned to musical composition, producing a series of piano and orchestral works while also continuing to give lectures, making art, and writing books Activities that he continued, right up until his death in 1985 at the age of 90.This retrospective concert begins with a panel discussion with Rudyhar’s widow Leyla Rudhyar Hill, former assistant Joseph Jacobs, and biographer Deniz Ertan, moderated by Other Minds Executive and Artistic Director, Charles Amirkhanian. The four discuss how they each become interested in, or involved with, the composer, as well as Rudhyar’s concept of seeds and the spiraling cycles of history, his psychological interpretation of astrology, and his interest in Indian music.
The musical portion of the program then commences with the first of his three “Poems” for violin and piano, performed by David Abel and Julie Steinberg. This is followed by several works for solo piano, performed by Sarah Cahill, beginning with “Transmutation” a work described by the composer as “meant to evoke some of the main phases of a process or inner, psychic, and emotional transformation.” Next up is “Stars,” the fourth movement of Rudhyar’s “Pentagram No. 3, Release,” in which, according to Ronald Squibb, “an ascending succession of perfect fifths is particularly evident on the musical surface, where they lend a quality of openness and serenity to the sound.” Also heard is “Granites,” during which Rudhyar suggests: “The performer should try to experience the tones, to allow them to resonate into his own inner being. This is a subjective rather than objective type of music...It is a music of ’tones’ rather than one made up of ‘notes.’” The concert concludes with the Ives String Quartet performing “Crisis & Overcoming,” which was originally composed in 1979, and with its salute to European culture, perhaps represents the culminating cycle of Rudhyar’s career.
This concert was presented in association with Leyla Rudhyar Hill and the Estate of Dane Rudhyar, and has been made possible by the National Endowment for the Arts as part of “American Masterpieces: Three Centuries of Artistic Genius”.
Genres
20th century classicalNew music
Musical Selections
Transmutation, tone-sequence in seven movements for piano (1976) (24:25) / Dane RudhyarPerformers
Sarah Cahill, pianoSubjects
20th century classicalNew music
Piano music
Related Event
Rudhyar In RetrospectRelated place
San Francisco (Calif.) (was recorded at)Related Entities
Other Minds (Organization)Rudhyar, Dane, 1895-1985
Cahill, Sarah