aworks :: "new" american classical music

Transcendental Modulations (1993). George Perle /1915-2009/

Via The Rest Is Noise, the composer George Perle has died.

Kyle Gann on the composer: Only gradually has the music world come to realize how individual his music is, what a flexible musical language he has developed, and how different that language is from serialism. Thus the 1986 Pulitzer Prize Perle received for one of the works on this record, the Wind Quintet No. 4, seemed not so much an award for an isolated achievement as an overdue tribute to someone who has upheld the highest musical standards for over a quarter-century. 

His Transcendental Modulations: “...Using a mildly astringent language reminiscent of late Stravinsky, but with heart, Mr. Perle presents a stream of subtle contrasts: assertive solo lines against sumptuous ensemble work; intricate wind figures against lush string scoring; fleeting moments of lightheartedness against a pervasively melancholy introspectiveness. Throughout, Mr. Perle speaks with an almost Neo-classical restraint. — Allan Kozinn, The New York Times, November 26, 1996

Transcendental Modulations - A...

Wind Quintet No. 4 (1984). George Perle /in search of/

Patti Mitchell is looking for American chamber music using oboe and other instruments. A quick check of "oboe" in the title of my iTunes tracks only reveals the following:

• Pastorale For Oboe, Harp And Strings. Howard Hanson
• Changes for Three Oboes. Barney Childs
• Quartet for Flute, Oboe, Cello, and Harpsichord. Henry Cowell
• Concerto for Oboe, Clarinet and Strings. John Harbison

I happen to like all these but I don't think they meet her requirements. A similar search for tracks with "woodwind" in the title turns up:

• Suite for Woodwind Ensemble. Gunther Schuller
• Summer Music for Woodwind Quintet. Samuel Barber

Summer Music is one of Barber's best but no piano, though.

A quick google search turns up a CD that includes the Schuller piece, two works I'm not aware of, by Walter Piston and David Diamond, and finally, Elliott Carter's 8 Etudes and a Fantasy, for woodwind quartet. I have a recording of the latter and I find it interesting how woodwinds soften modernism. I"ll leave it to you to decide if that is good or bad.

Finally, although I haven't ripped it to MP3 yet and I can't find my CD, George Perle's Wind Quintets used to be a favorite. From the liner notes of that recording (PDF here), Kyle Gann writes this about George Perle:

Only gradually has the music world come to realize how individual his music is, what a flexible musical language he has developed, and how different that language is from serialism. Thus the 1986 Pulitzer Prize Perle received for one of the works on this record, the Wind Quintet No. 4, seemed not so much an award for an isolated achievement as an overdue tribute to someone who has upheld the highest musical standards for over a quarter-century.

Note to self: get more American woodwind music; find Perle CD.