A conductor's study of George Rochberg's three psalm settings

Transcription

1 Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Maor Papers Graduate Shool 2002 A ondutor's study of George Rohberg's three psalm settings David Lawrene Louisiana State University and Agriultural and Mehanial College Follow this and additional works at: Part of the Musi Commons Reommended Citation Lawrene, David, "A ondutor's study of George Rohberg's three psalm settings" (2002). LSU Maor Papers This Maor Paper is brought to you for free and open aess by the Graduate Shool at LSU Digital Commons. It has been aepted for inlusion in LSU Maor Papers by an authorized graduate shool editor of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please ontat goste1@lsu.edu.

2 A CONDUCTOR S STUDY OF GEORGE ROCHBERG S THREE PSALM SETTINGS A Monograph Submitted to the Graduate Faulty of the Louisiana State University and Agriultural and Mehanial College in partial fulfillment of the Requirements for the degree of Dotor of Musial Arts in Shool of Musi By David Alan Lawrene B.M.E., Abilene Christian University, 1987 M.M., University of Washington, 1994 August 2002

3 Copyright 2002 David Alan Lawrene All rights reserved. ii

4 TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES...v LIST OF FIGURES...vi LIST OF EXAMPLES...vii ABSTRACT...x CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION AND BIOGRAPHY...1 Introdution...1 George Rohberg: A Brief Biography...2 CHAPTER 2. INTRODUCTION TO THE THREE PSALMS...15 General Bakground...15 Bakground of the Struture...16 CHAPTER. PSALM Text...20 Form...2 Pith Content...2 Horizontal and ertial Charateristis...29 CHAPTER 4. PSALM Text...40 Form...4 Pith Content...4 Horizontal and ertial Charateristis...50 CHAPTER 5. PSALM Text...67 Form...69 Pith Content...69 Horizontal and ertial Charateristis...74 CHAPTER 6. REHEARSAL AND PERFORMANCE CONSIDERATIONS Pith Issues Temporal Issues Dition Overall Interpretive Considerations Psalm Psalm Psalm Conlusion...12 iii

5 WORKS CITED APPENDIX A: ROCHBERG S CHORAL MUSIC APPENDIX B: COMPLETE MATRIXES APPENDIX C: INTERNATIONAL PHONETIC ALPHABET TRANSLITERATION...11 APPENDIX D: CROSS OICING IN EACH SETTING...14 APPENDIX E: PERMISSION TO REPRINT IN A DISSERTATION...15 ITA...19 iv

6 LIST OF TABLES 1. Detail Form of Psalm Detail Form of Psalm Detail Form of Psalm v

7 LIST OF FIGURES 1. Row used in Shönberg s Phantasy for iolin and Piano, Op Overall Form of Psalm Row used in Psalm Mirror inversion in Psalm Interval ontent of row used in Psalm Whole-tone sales used in Psalm 2 row Overall Form of Psalm Row used in Psalm Mirror inversion of the row used in Psalm Intervals in the row used in Psalm Overall form of Psalm Row used in Psalm Mirror inversion in the Psalm 150 row Triplet rhythm treatments used in Psalm Suggested rhythm hange for ve-ma-g lay Range for Psalm Range for Psalm Range for Psalm vi

8 LIST OF EXAMPLES 1. Psalm 2, measures Psalm 2, measures Psalm 2, measures Psalm 2, measures Psalm 2, measures Psalm 2, measures Psalm 2, measures Psalm 2, measures Psalm 2, measures Psalm 2 measures Psalm 4, measures Psalm 4, measures Psalm 4, measures Psalm 4, measures Psalm 4, measures Psalm 4, measures Psalm 4, measures Psalm 4, measures Psalm 4, measures 25 26a Psalm 4, measures Psalm 4, measures Psalm 4, measures vii

9 2. Psalm 4, measures Psalm 4, measures Psalm 4, measures Psalm 4, measures Psalm 150, measures Psalm 150, measures Psalm 150, measures Psalm 150, measures Psalm 150, measures Psalm 150, measures Psalm 150, measures Psalm 150, measures Psalm 150, measures Psalm 150, measures Psalm 150, measures Psalm 150, measures Psalm 150, measures Psalm 150, measures Psalm 150, measures Psalm 150, measures Psalm 150, measures Psalm 150, measures Psalm 150, measures viii

10 46. Psalm 150, measures Psalm 150, measures Psalm 150, measures Psalm 150, measures Psalm 150, measures Psalm 2, measure Psalm 4, measures Psalm 4, measures Psalm 150, measures Psalm 2, measures Psalm 2, measure Psalm 4, measures Psalm 150, measures Psalm 2, measures Psalm 2, measures Psalm 2, measures Psalm 150, measures ix

11 ABSTRACT Contemporary horal musi in general and George Rohberg s in partiular present hallenges to the ondutor well beyond the traditional repertoire inluding omplex harmonies and rhythms, tone lusters, sprehstimme, and unonventional notation. In addition, the ondutor must alter usual sore preparation tehniques and aquire a more detailed knowledge about differenes in twentieth entury musi. He/she must learn the tehniques of ontemporary musi through study in theory and analysis. The ondutor an also take advantage of many available books and ournals that offer insight into the study, rehearsal, and performane of this musi. As the ondutor aquires the neessary skill in twentieth entury tehniques and an understanding of the evolution of this repertoire, she/he an devise effetive presentation and rehearsal proedures. An examination of speifi horal works omposed in an atonal style and onsisting of some of the harateristis previously mentioned may provide greater understanding of ontemporary horal musi. The purpose of this doument is to provide a ondutor s analysis of the three Psalm settings omposed by George Rohberg: Psalm 2, Psalm 4, and Psalm 150. The first hapter presents a biography of the omposer and traes some of the influenes on the development of his ompositional style. The seond, third, and fourth hapters present the analyses of Psalm 2, Psalm 4, and Psalm 150, respetively. The first setion of eah hapter disusses areas related to the poetry inluding authorship, liturgial funtion, struture and meaning. The seond setion disusses musial omponents inluding overall form, pith ontent, horizontal and vertial harateristis, and texture. Of partiular interest is the tonal struture of the works, the primary omponent being the hexahord. The last hapter disusses performane onsiderations inluding learning the works, developing rehearsal strategies for x

12 teahing the rhythms and pithes, addressing the Hebrew dition and its intriaies, as well as making interpretive and programming deisions. These three psalm settings by Rohberg ontain the same interesting and inventive raftsmanship present in muh ontemporary horal musi and are worthy of study and performane. xi

13 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION AND BIOGRAPHY INTRODUCTION In the introdution to George Rohberg: A Bio-Bibliographi Guide to His Life and Works, Joan Deee Dixon expresses surprise at how little has been written about Rohberg s ompositions onsidering his standing in Amerian musi, save an oasional thesis or review. 1 Dixon goes on to inlude exerpts from some of the letters written to and about Rohberg in honor of his seventieth birthday. 2 All the letters inlude high praise, in some form, of a musiian and omposer who is, as Isaa Stern wrote, a seminal fore in Amerian omposition. This paper fouses on the three psalm settings by ontemporary Amerian omposer George Rohberg. The first hapter presents a brief biography of Rohberg and disusses some of the influenes on his ompositional style. Chapter two onsists of a general bakground to the settings and provides an introdution to the tonal struture used by Rohberg. Chapters three, four and five examine the three psalm settings. These hapters parallel eah other in format and inlude an analysis of the text, form, pith ontent, and the horizontal and vertial harateristis of eah psalm. The last hapter disusses rehearsal and performane onsiderations for all the settings inluding issues related to pith, temporal issues, the Hebrew dition, overall interpretive onsiderations and a onlusion. 1 Joan Deee Dixon, George Rohberg: A Bio-Bibliographi Guide to His Life and Works (Stuyvesant, New York: Pendragon Press, 1992), xiii. Chapter 9 inludes a listing of twenty Master s theses and Dotoral dissertations that deal either diretly or indiretly with Rohberg s musi. However, none of these deal with any of his horal musi. 2 Ibid. Dixon explains that she ompiled muh of the book during Rohberg s seventieth year. For this reason she dediated the volume to him in honor of this grand oasion, and invited many of his friends and olleagues to submit letters that would be inluded in the introdution. 1

14 GEORGE ROCHBERG: A BRIEF BIOGRAPHY Aaron George Rohberg was born in Paterson, New Jersey, on July 5, 1918, to Morris and Anna Rohberg, immigrants from Ukraine. The next year the Rohbergs moved to Passai, New Jersey. George Rohberg s early musial training entered on learning to sing and to play the piano. In 1928 or 1929 the Rohberg family purhased a piano, and George began piano lessons with Kathleen Hall. Over the next two years he ontinued his piano studies with Julius Koehl. During the years 19 and 194, George gave several duo piano performanes with Julius Koehl on WOR (Mutual Broadasting Company) NY. 4 This exposure led to other performing opportunities. From 19 to 1941 Rohberg played in dane bands and ombos on a regular basis. In doing so he gained valuable experiene as a performer as well as knowledge of popular repertoire. This, however, was not the only repertoire to whih he was exposed. His piano study also inluded most of the standard repertoire from Bah to Brahms. In 1982 he said, The most profound influene on my early areer was Johannes Brahms. By the time I was fifteen or sixteen, I had really disovered Brahms. His musi took over my entire onsiousness until I was about nineteen or twenty. 5 From the fall of 195 to the spring of 199, Rohberg attended Montlair [NJ] State Teahers College. While there he sang in the ollege hoir (bass setion) all four years. From his sophomore to his senior year, he worked as the pianist/omposer for the Montlair State Ibid., xviii. 4 Ibid., 1. 5 Ibid. 2

15 College Dane Club. 6 He reeived a Bahelor of Arts degree from Montlair State Teaher s College in Further musial training ame after graduation from Montlair. He attended the Mannes Shool from 199 to 1942 where he studied omposition with Hans Weiss, Leopold Mannes, and George Szell. 8 On August 18, 1941, in Minneapolis, Rohberg married Gene Rosenfeld. They moved to New York City and lived there from September 1941 to November In November of 1942, Rohberg was drafted into the army where he was assigned to the infantry and ommissioned as a seond lieutenant. On September 2, 1944, while in Mons, Frane, during the liberation of Normandy, he was wounded in the leg. Five days later, on September 28, bak in the states, his son Paul was born. 10 Rohberg remained in Europe, and after a satisfatory reovery, partiipated in the Battle of the Bulge. 11 In July of 1945, after obtaining a Purple Heart with Oak Leaf Cluster, Rohberg was disharged from the army. His tenure in the army did not ompletely interrupt his reative efforts. While stationed at Camp Shelby, Missouri, he omposed the 261st Infantry Song, Marh of the Halberds, and Song of the Doughboy. 12 While reovering from his leg wound he omposed Little Suite and Musi for Gene and Paul. 1 6 Ibid., 2. 7 Austin Clarkson and Steve Johnson, George Rohberg, in The New Grove Ditionary of Musi and Musiians Seond Edition, ed. by Stanley Sadie (New York: Groves Ditionaries, 2000), Ibid., Dixon, Bio-Bibliographi Guide,. 10 Ibid., Mihael Roy Linton, George Rohberg s Conord Quartets: An Analysis of Grand Romantiism in the Twentieth Century (Ph.D. diss., New York University, 1988), Dixon, Bio-Bibliographi Guide,, 4. 1 Ibid., 4.

16 World War II had a profound influene on Rohberg. The experiene of living through the bloody fighting at Normandy and the Battle of the Bulge solidified his ommitment to a higher alling. In the ruins of eastern Flanders, Rohberg ommitted his life to reation. His bitterness was not direted against humanity, or even Germany, but against any kind of mehanisti destrution or vapid sentimentality, the fruits of whih he believed that he ould see everywhere around him. He thought that he ould best serve these ends by being an artist, a reator, and not a destroyer. He resolved to live his life as a omposer, the voational goal of his Passai youth rystallized by this experiene at war. 14 This higher alling manifested itself by enouraging Rohberg to seek a new musial language. In an interview with Rihard Duffalo, Rohberg remembers how his partiipation in the war brought him into the atonal world: that s what started to push me into a kind of atonal world. I didn t adopt a severe hromati palette out of any intelletual or musial interest per se. It ame out of a deep emotional need to express what I felt had happened, what I d been involved in and what it meant to me. And so, that all began to emerge in the First Symphony. 15 The First Symphony, written in and revised in 1957, was the first omposition in whih Rohberg used the serial tehnique. 16 The symphony was originally five movements long but Rohberg shortened it by removing a sherzo and one of the adagio movements, making them separate works, titling them Capriio and Night Musi respetively. 17 It was premiered by the Philadelphia Orhestra on Marh 28, Rohberg said of this symphony, In retrospet, I see this work as the ulmination of my first efforts to absorb and make my own the language of the twentieth entury Linton, Conord Quartets, Rihard Dufallo, Trakings: Composers Speak with Rihard Dufallo (London: Oxford University Press, 1989), Effie B. Carlson, A Bio-Bibliographial Ditionary of Twelve-Tone and Serial Composers (Metuhen, New Jersey: The Sarerow Press, In., 1970), p Linton, Conord Quartets, George Rohberg in notes regarding Symphony No. 1 for Orhestra, quoted in Dixon, Bio- Bibliographi Guide,

17 The Rohbergs had moved to Philadelphia in the latter part of It was during this period that Rohberg reeived his most intensive musial training. He attended the Curtis Institute of Musi where he studied ounterpoint with Rosario Salero, , and omposition with Gian Carlo Menotti, or This was also the time that he beame aquainted with the musi of Shönberg. I had begun to study Shönberg with onsiderable intensity (around 1947) and it was from the beginning a love-hate relationship (very ambivalent). But I realized that his was a powerful mind and an enormous musial brain, and it didn t matter to me whether I liked it or not, I had to find out what was there, why it was there, (and) how it was made. 21 In the spring of 1948 he reeived the Bahelor of Musi degree from Curtis. That fall he attended the University of Pennsylvania at Philadelphia while a full-time member of the faulty at the Curtis Institute. He ompleted and was awarded the Master of Arts degree the following year. 22 In 1950, while Rohberg was a Fulbright and Amerian Aademy Fellow, he traveled to Rome where he met and beame friends with Luigi Dallapiola, and was strongly impressed by the power of serial musi. 2 Referring to Dallapiola, Rohberg said, I met him and we beame friends. I admired him; I admired him as a person. He lived through the hell of Fasist Italy, you know his wife was Jewish. He was a wonderfully ultivated and ivilized man. Just the living presene of a man like that, when I had the hane to meet him it orroborated, stimulated the deision I had made while in Rome to go in the diretion of twelve-tone. I had been struggling with the question for three years prior. Starting about 1947 I began to realize that I ouldn t go on the way I 19 Dixon, Bio-Bibliographi Guide, Ibid. 21 Interview with George Rohberg, Profiles, WFMT, New York, November 1, 1982; quoted in Joan Deee Dixon, The Twelve Bagatelles and Sonata-Fantasia of George Rohberg: A Performer s Analysis (DMA diss., Southwestern Baptist Theologial Seminary, 1995), Dixon, Bio-Bibliographi Guide, 7. 2 Clarkson, George Rohberg,

18 was going. So that was a period of real soul searhing, very intense study, hard work, digging in all kinds of diretions, overoming all kinds of doubt. 24 From 1951 to 1954, Rohberg worked full-time for the Theodore Presser Publishing Company as a musi editor and one day a week as a faulty member at the Curtis Institute of Musi. 25 In 1954 Rohberg took on more responsibility beoming Diretor of Publiations at Theodore Presser although the nature of the work he was doing never hanged. At the same time he made the deision to resign his teahing position at the Curtis Institute. 26 In 1952 Rohberg ompleted the first of seven string quartets dediated to his wife Gene and their daughter Franesa. It was premiered in January 195 at Columbia University in New York by the Galimir String Quartet and three years later, in 1956, it won the Soiety for the Publiation of Amerian Musi Award. 27 Rohberg said of this work, In omposing this Quartet I ame loser than ever before to grappling with the rigors of the twelve-tone method without ommitting myself to it ompletely as I did in the works whih followed in the years after. 28 However, it was not until later in 1952, with the ompletion of his Twelve Bagatelles for Piano Solo, that he made full use of the serial tehnique. 29 He had ompleted the first eight bagatelles that spring, having returned to Ameria late the previous summer. Dallapiola was at Tanglewood that summer and Rohberg, eager to show him these new works, went up to see him in June. On an old upright in a barn near the festival shed, Rohberg played the eight ompleted bagatelles for the Italian, their hildren playing on the lawn outside. Dallapiola was delighted. Apparently he paid Rohberg the greatest ompliment possible from one omposer to another by writing a similar set of piano piees in 195 (the Quaderno musiale di Annalibera ) George Rohberg, telephone interview with author, June 9, Dixon, Bio-Bibliographi Guide, Rohberg, telephone interview, June 9, Ibid., Ibid. 29 Martha Lynn Thomas, Analysis of George Rohberg s Twelve Bagatelles and Nah Bah for Solo Piano (D.M.A. diss., University of Texas at Austin, 1987), 7. 0 Linton, Conord Quartets,

19 Alexander Ringer in his artile on the musi of George Rohberg stated the Bagatelles were oneived as a series of inisive harater studies as if to prove that the tehnique of omposing with twelve tones ould serve traditional expressive purposes and did not have to lead neessarily to highly involved novel musial strutures. 1 Ringer suggested that they were perhaps Rohberg s most popular work thus far. 2 The next year (195) Rohberg omposed the Chamber Symphony for Nine instruments, whih was premiered two years later by the Baltimore Chamber Soiety onduted by Hugo Weisgall. It was the first large-sale instrumental work in whih Rohberg used a twelve-tone row as a means of organization. Furthermore it is the first time he quotes another omposer in his own work, in this ase quoting the Fratello motif from Luigi Dallapiola s Il Prigionero. 4 The following year he omposed two voal works, David the Psalmist, for tenor and orhestra, and Three Psalms for A Cappella Mixed Chorus, the latter representing a further extension of the delamatory type of horal writing developed by Shoenberg in his last ompleted work, De Profundis. 5 Both use the original Hebrew text and draw muh of their rhythmi inspiration from its linguisti peuliarities. 6 When asked about the motivation for using the psalms in these works Rohberg stated, I was ust full of the whole idea of psalms and I wanted to try different ways of expressing them. 7 David the Psalmist is in seven movements: 1) Shema Yisroel (Prelude); 2) Psalm 6; ) Interlude; 4) Psalm 29; 5) 1 Alexander L. Ringer, The Musi of George Rohberg, The Musial Quarterly 52, no. 4 (Otober, 1966), Ibid. Linton, Conord Quartets, 1. 4 Dixon, Bio-Bibliographi Guide, Ringer, The Musi of George Rohberg, Ibid. 7 Rohberg phone interview, June 9,

20 Interlude; 6) Psalm 57; and 7) Shema Yisroel (Postlude). It was premiered by the University of Pennsylvania Orhestra, Melvin Stauss onduting, on Deember 8, In 1956 Rohberg ompleted his seond symphony. In his notes for the work Rohberg explains that it is based on a single twelve-tone row divided into two hexahords, the seond of whih is a rearrangement of the mirror inversion of the first. Also, beause of the row s organization, there are three self-generating mirror inversions of the row, eah mirror starting on a different pith. 9 The relationship between the row and its mirror inversions gives Rohberg ample opportunity for melodi and harmoni reativity. 40 After its premiere by the Cleveland Orhestra on February 15, 1960, Ross Parmenter in his review stated, It made a deep impression. In his program notes, the 41 year old Philadelphia omposer wrote: the problem was to find a way to employ a total hromati palette, melodi and harmoni, on a large sale true to what the term symphony has ome to mean after Beethoven, without losing a sense of proportion, ontinuity and growth. One quotes him beause his words provide the terms to define his ahievement. In the twenty-seven-minute work he solved his basi problem. He has written what is truly a large-sale symphony, and the work has the qualities he aimed at, proportion, ontinuity, and growth.... By the time he is done one has the impression of having heard a work of onsiderable lyriism. Yet it is also dark and intense, and its inherent gravity is what gave it its strength and its power to move the audiene. 41 The work won the Naumburg Reording Award and was reorded by the New York Philharmoni at a Naumburg Foundation onert in Otober of Rohberg s musial language was onstantly hanging; he had only one guideline,... musi must never be about sounds only, or for that matter styles and strutures, but invariably about man. Hene the omposer s [Rohberg s] essentially negative 8 Dixon, Bio-Bibliographi Guide, Ibid. 40 For a omplete analysis of this work, see Elmer Takeo Kudo, An Investigation of Twelve-Tone Usage in George Rohberg s Symphony No. 2 (Master s thesis, Indiana University, 1974). Mirror inversion and its use in the Psalm settings is disussed in hapter two of this paper. 41 Ross Parmenter, Musi: Large Sale Symphony with a 12-tone Row; Rohberg s 2 nd makes a deep impression, The New York Times, February 16, George Rohberg, in Current Biography Yearbook, Charles Morite, ed., 1985,

21 reation to all extremist manifestations in today s musi, whether total serialism on the right or hane musi on the left. 4 In Tradition and Twelve-Tone Musi, an essay first published in 1955 in Mandala Magazine [Philadelphia], Rohberg said,... Twelve-tone omposition, if it is to win final aeptane not only by musiians but by the world at large, must be a way of produing signifiant art works whih will be listened to and performed not as uriosities or strange novelties but as musi. 44 Rohberg left Theodore Presser in 1960 to beome the ating Chair of the Musi Department at the University of Pennsylvania at Philadelphia (a year later beoming the Chair of the department). 45 Although his aademi and ompositional areers were quite promising, tragedy struk his home life. On Otober 17, 1961, Rohberg s talented son, Paul, had his first operation for aner (a malignant brain tumor). 46 This and the three years of exruiating pain and suffering Paul endured leading to his death on November 22, 1964 devastated Rohberg. He began to look upon every single moment as a preious gift to be lived and relived. 47 By 196 Rohberg had all but turned his bak on serialism. I began to find the method absolutely narrow, terribly onfining, emotionally and expressively onstriting. 48 His last stritly serial work was written in this year, a trio for violin, ello, and piano. 49 It was during this period of soul searhing he realized the true nature of his artisti personality: 4 Ringer, The Musi of George Rohberg, George Rohberg, The Aesthetis of Survival: A Composer s iew of Twentieth-Century Musi. Edited by William Bolom (Ann Arbor: University of Mihigan Press, 1984), Dixon, Bio-Bibliographi Guide, Ibid. Chapter 6 is an introdution to the poems and stories of Paul Rohberg written by George Rohberg. Dixon also states that the omplete works of Paul Rohberg have been published by Muse of Fire (Newtown Square, PA, 1990). 47 Ringer, The Musi of George Rohberg, Guy Freedman, Metamorphosis of a 20 th Century Composer, Musi Journal vol. 4, no. (Marh 1976), Thomas, Twelve Bagatelles and Nah Bah, 9. 9

22 It has taken me all these years to reognize and embrae the fat that at the root I am a omplete romanti and espeially now that the question arises on all sides: After abstration, what next The answer rings out learly: The New Romantiism. 50 Refleting on his son s death he said, After Paul died, that absolutely made it neessary for me to wash my hands of the whole thing [serialism]. 51 I have always lung fast to these fundamentals: that musi was given man so he ould express the best he was apable of; that the best he was apable of had to do with his deepest feelings; that his deepest feelings are rooted in what I believe to be a moral order in the universe whih underlies all real existene. 52 I used to think it was pure nostalgia, a longing for a past Golden Age whih always brought me bak to the supremely wrought larities and identities of the old musi. Now I realize it was not nostalgia at all but a deep, abiding, personal need for lear ideas, for vitality and power expressed without impediments, for grae and beauty of line, for onvining harmoni motion, for transendent feeling. 5 The death of his son Paul also aused Rohberg to stop omposing and re-examine the diretion in whih he was going. It was not until the fall of 1965 that he was able to write, Right now omposing is also a way of ahieving integration and the means with whih I an fae existene. Without omposing it would be well-nigh impossible. 54 In the works that followed he moved away from serialism bak to the tonal realm and experimented with ways of integrating hromatiism and traditional pratie. It was at this time he began quoting musi by other omposers along with his own. For example, in Musi for the Magi Theater for small orhestra (1965), Rohberg quoted from Mozart s Divertimento, K. 287, Mahler s 9 th Symphony, a reorded trumpet improvisation by Miles Davis, Stokhausen s Zeitmasse and his own Sonata-Fantasia. 55 It was ommissioned by the Fromm Foundation for the 75 th anniversary of the University of Chiago Dixon, Bio-Bibliographi Guide, xxiv. 51 Ibid., xxiii. 52 Ibid., xxvi. 5 Ibid., xxv. 54 Ringer, The Musi of George Rohberg, Linton, Conord Quartets, Dixon, Bio-Bibliographi Guide,

23 Two other maor works during this period demonstrate Rohberg s use of quotation. Contra Mortem et Tempus for Flute, Clarinet, iolin, and Piano (1965), was ommissioned by the Bowdoin Contemporary Musi Festival for the Aeolian Chamber Players and premiered at Bowdoin College that same year. 57 The unusual instrumentation prompted Rohberg to quote from other works that highlight the flute inluding Pierre Boulez s Sonatina, Luiano Berio s Sequenza, and Edgard arèse s Density, and others featuring larinet inluding Alban Berg s Clarinet and Piano Piee, Charles Ives Trio for Clarinet, iola and Piano, and Rohberg s own Dialogues for Clarinet and Piano. The motifs fell into plae miraulously as if they had originally been oneived as omponents of a single piee.... Exept for the Ives material, whih appears nearly always unmodified, the motives are in most instanes stripped of their rhythmi profiles and used as pure pith phenomena.... Combinations of onrete materials suh as these are further enrihed by simultaneous ourrenes of measured and unmeasured ideas and ountless other proedures by means of whih the omposer has ompressed into a work of ten minutes duration the tragi experienes of a lifetime. 58 The seond work demonstrating Rohberg s use of quotation is his Third Symphony, omposed over a period of three years ( ). It is a work requiring enormous performing fores inluding voal soloists, hamber horus, double horus, and a large orhestra. Commissioned by the Juilliard Shool of Musi, New York City, it was premiered three years later (1970), by the Juilliard Orhestra and Collegiate Chorale, onduted by Abraham Kaplan. 59 In his notes for the work Rohberg lists the musi he quotes as well as the reason for omposing this work: The Shütz Cantata Saul, Saul, Saul, Was verfolgst du mih is inorporated in its entirety although its appearane is onsiderably altered from its first form. I have also employed elements from J.S. Bah s two Chorale Preludes for organ based on Durh Adam s Fall ist ganz verderbt. The Agnus Dei musi from Beethoven s Missa 57 Ibid. 58 Ringer, The Musi of George Rohberg, Dixon, Bio-Bibliographi Guide,

24 Solemnis is also inorporated into the body of my work. Besides these textually derived and assoiated musis, I have set to words quite literally the fugue from Beethoven s Eroia, Marh Funebre. In this ase I have made a double fugue by adding to Beethoven s musi the fugue subet from the earlier fugue set to: Was verfolgst du mih There are other referenes of a speifially instrumental kind: 1) to Beethoven s Fifth and Ninth Symphonies (also treated voally), 2) Fanfares from Mahler s First and Seond Symphonies, and ) to the question and one of the answers of Ives Unanswered Question.... To put it plainly, I have tried to write a piee of musi whose raison d etre lies preisely in the impulse to speak to my fellow-man in the language I know best of the things losest to my heart. It is my onfession of need and hope that our kind will indeed prevail, and in prevailing, redisover that lost Garden of Eden in whih life is preious and has its own divinity. 60 In his review of the symphony, Allen Hughes stated: Some who heard the premiere of George Rohberg s Symphony No. at the Juilliard Theater on Tuesday night may feel that the omposer was trying to get away with wholesale lareny by filling up so muh of the half-hour of the piee with other people s musi, but to dismiss the work on this aount would, I think, be a mistake. It is true that Mr. Rohberg borrowed heavily from ompositions by Shütz, Bah, Mahler and Ives, but, of ourse, he admitted it in his program note. And he is ertainly not the first omposer to use other people s musi to make his own.... He has put these, and other materials (some borrowed, some new) together with what might be desribed as a musial equivalent of a Joyean prose tehnique. Rohberg s sore an then be heard as a kind of ourney through a musial dream. One s response to a sore of this kind is going to depend a great deal upon one s interest in the omposer s memories, assoiations and transformations, and this listener found those of Mr. Rohberg sympatheti for the most part and, at times, moving. 61 Not all reviews of the work were as omplimentary as Mr. Hughes. Ainske Cox wrote, But esthetially it doesn t work. The musi he quotes goes on so long that its own life takes over; it no longer works on Rohberg s terms.... And however ingenious, even sinere, his expansion of others musis, neither the expansions nor the musi whih is obviously his own math the genius of the borrowees. All the musi is fored to arry 60 George Rohberg in Dixon, Bio-Bibliographi Guide, Allen Hughes, Juilliard Offers Rohberg s No., The New York Times, 26 November,

25 more weight than it an, its own and Rohberg s. The symphony is a failure, beause its whole is smaller than most any one of its parts, Rohberg s subsequent works displayed a more integrated approah to tonal omposition. His Conord Quartets (1977), were omposed, as Rohberg stated, to ensure the maximum variety of gesture and texture and the broadest spetrum I ould ommand, from the purest diatoniism to the most omplex hromatiism. 6 They were ommissioned by the Conord String Quartet who premiered them in January 1979 as part of a belated elebration for Rohberg s sixtieth birthday. 64 In 1968 Rohberg stepped down as the hair of the Musi Department at the University of Pennsylvania but remained on the faulty teahing omposition and advaned theory. During the fall of 1982 and the spring of 198, Rohberg was on leave from the University of Pennsylvania and at the end of the spring term he retired from teahing. In his areer thus far, he has held numerous fellowships and reeived many honors. He held two Guggenheim fellowships, ; ; in 1985 was eleted to membership in the Amerian Aademy and Institute of Arts and Letters and in 1986 beame a fellow of the Amerian Aademy of Arts and Sienes. He was awarded honorary dotorates from the University of Pennsylvania, 1985, and the Curtis Institute of Musi, On Marh 16, 1980, Rohberg said of his musi, I would like to be able to look bak on these things [my ompositions] later and say, Yes, I made my ontribution. I still believe in these works; I think that they re valid. I think that they re good as musi. They have nothing to do with all the politis and aesthetis battles; they have outlasted that whole business. I think that s the way it 62 Ainske Cox, The Juilliard Theater, Musi Journal vol. 29, no. 2 (February 1971), George Rohberg in Dixon, Bio-Bibliographi Guide, George Rohberg, in Current Biography, Theodore Baker, Rohberg, George. in Baker s Biographial Ditionary of Musiians. 8th ed. revised by Niolas Slonimsky (New York: Shirmer Books, 1991),

26 has to be. That s the way all real works turn out: They rise above the time from whih they emerged. 66 Rohberg urrently lives with his wife, Gene, in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania and ontinues to ompose. 66 Dixon, Bio-Bibliographi Guide, xxviii. 14

27 CHAPTER 2 INTRODUCTION TO THE THREE PSALMS GENERAL BACKGROUND Rohberg omposed these settings in 1954 while he was Diretor of Publiations at Theodore Presser. It was during this period that he was deep into the methodology of the twelve-tone, and partiularly fasinated by what ould be done by various hexahords. 1 Aording to Rohberg, the immediate impulse for omposing these piees had been his study of Shönberg s Op. 50, B and C. Rohberg s ompositional struggles are revealed in these settings. Aording to Rohberg, they were not ommissioned for any partiular oasion, they were simply something I needed to do. 2 Likewise, the dediation to his parents and his brother of the settings of Psalm 2 and Psalm 150 respetively, were for personal reasons. The dediation of the setting of Psalm 4 was to Hugo Weisgall for his friendship. Rohberg hose these partiular Psalms for their very emotional, spiritual ontent. 4 Although Rohberg omposed relatively few horal works (see Appendix A), he was familiar with the voie and the voal ensemble. When I was in ollege way bak in the 0 s I sang in the ollege hoir for four years, and I enoyed that hugely, and so I ve always had a feeling for voie, for singing, and for horal musi, and as a matter of fat, when my wife and I moved to Philadelphia with our son right after the war I beame the ondutor of a small women s horus, so I had a little experiene there. 5 1 George Rohberg, telephone interview with the author, June 9, Ibid. Ibid. Rohberg stated that Weisgall was very muh involved in liturgial Jewish synagogue musi and so he dediated the setting to him. 4 Ibid. 5 Ibid. Rohberg goes on to say that at one point he onduted all three of the settings at one of the synagogues in New York. Although he did not prepare the horus (they were prepared by their regular ondutor), he said it was great fun. 15

28 BACKGROUND OF THE STRUCTURE In his monograph, The Hexahord and its Relation to the Twelve-tone Row, Rohberg disusses a uniquely organized type of 12-tone row in whih, the notes of the first hexahord of [the original] form the seond hexahord of [the inversion] and the notes of the seond hexahord of [the original] being idential with the first hexahord of [the inversion]. 6 He alls this relationship mirror inversion. In the introdution to his monograph he states, ertain devies in the organization of musial strutures are analogous to phenomena existing outside of musi. Suh a devie is mirror inversion. In its relation to the struture of the 12-tone row, it assumes an espeially high form of integration, sine, as we shall find, in the speial type of row whih is entral to my disussion, the mirror is always symmetrial. 7 Rohberg goes to great lengths to solve what he alls the duel problem of interhangeability of hexahordal groups and invertibility of hexahords resulting in the prodution of six new notes. 8 One example he used to demonstrate this is the row and its mirror inversion from Shönberg s Phantasy for iolin and Piano, Op. 47 (Figure 1). O (a) b # n b (b) b b I (a) b n # (b) # b b n Figure 1. Row used in Shönberg s Phantasy for iolin and Piano, Op. 47. He makes three observations: 6 George Rohberg, The Hexahord and its Relation to the Twelve-tone Row (Bryn Mawr, PA: Theodore Presser Co., 1955), vii,. 7 Ibid, vii. 8 Rohberg, The Hexahord and its Relation, 4. 16

29 1. The inversion ours at the enharmoni fourth above the Original and produes six new notes. 2. Original (hexahord a) and Inversion (hexahord b) ontain idential tones but express them in different order.. Inversion (hexahord a) and Original (hexahord b) ontain idential tones also expressing them in different order. 9 This interhange of notes between opposite halves is a maor harateristi of the struture of this series. Eah group of six notes in Example 2 produes its own omplement resulting in a omplete 12-tone series. 10 Four years after he published this monograph Rohberg wrote The Harmoni Tendeny of the Hexahord, in whih he examines Joseph Hauer s tropes and Milton Babbitt s soure sets. 11 He ompares the theories of both men in the following terms. Milton Babbitt s term, soure-set,... implies a general type [of set or row] existing prior to any ompositional situation from whih may be derived partiular pith orders of the 12 semitones preparatory to omposition. Joseph Hauer s tropes, on the other hand, are not to be onsidered basi sets, series, rows or soure-sets... beause they omprise a pre-determined system whih is self-enlosed and ready-made for omposition. Hauer apparently plaed no restritions on the number of different tropes whih an be used in a given work, an idea diretly opposite to the 12-tone omposition pratied by Shönberg and Webern. 12 Eah of Hauer s tropes ontains all twelve hromati notes divided into two six-note groups or hexahords. All notes in a group are in asending order, no pithes are repeated and there are no ommon notes. By beginning the first group with pith 1 and ending the seond group with pith 12 for eah trope, 44 different note arrangements are available. Rohberg 9 Ibid., Ibid. 11 George Rohberg, The Harmoni Tendeny of the Hexahord, Journal of Musi Theory,, no. 2, (November 1959): Josef Hauer ( ), Austrian omposer and theorist, held that a omposition ould be based on a speifi arrangement of the 12 pith lasses but, unlike Shönberg s system, was not stritly ordered but speified aording to pith-lass ontent. Milton Babbitt (b. 1916), Amerian omposer and theorist, systematially investigated Shönberg s and Webern s use of 12 tones as a ompositional tehnique in three essays: Some Aspets of Twelve-Tone Composition (1955), Twelve-Tone Invariants as Compositional Determinants (1960), and Set Struture as a Compositional Determinant (1961). 12 Ibid.,

30 observes that there are five lasses of tropes: those that invert mirror fashion at one point of inversion, two points, three points, six points, and those that do not invert mirror fashion. Rohberg then points out the similarities to Milton Babbitt s soure sets. They are divided into four orders: the first produes mirror inversion at a single point of inversion, the seond at two points of inversion, the third at three points of inversion and the fourth at six points of inversion. 1 After examining Hauer s tropes and Babbitt s soure-sets, Rohberg poses his hypothesis: Any 12-tone row, whether based on the priniple of symmetrial hexahordal onstrution or not, an be redued to one of the 44 tropes of Hauer; and, if based solely on this priniple, by analogy, to one of the soure-sets of Babbitt. 14 He ontinues in the rest of the artile to demonstrate, using examples drawn from Shönberg s opus, how the series are forms diretly traeable to tropes while the tropes find their theoretial analogue in Babbitt s formulation, and that both deal with the hexahord and possible permutations of its mirror inversion. 15 Based on this artile and the fat that he published his monograph ust after he omposed the three Psalm settings (the monograph was published in 1955 and the Psalm settings omposed in 1954), this writer suspeted an examination of the rows used in the settings would dislose harateristis of mirror inversion. Indeed, Rohberg onstruted the row used in eah of the Psalm settings suh that eah demonstrates harateristis of mirror inversion Rohberg, Harmoni Tendeny, Ibid., Ibid. 16 Rohberg s use of mirror inversion in eah psalm setting is disussed further in subsequent hapters. 18

31 Reginald Smith Brindle, in Serial Composition, points out an important harateristi of Hauer s tropes in that the partitioning of the twelve notes into two halves is the only restriting fator. The notes in eah hexahord are not set out in any rigid order and the omposer has therefore free hoie in the ordering of eah group of six notes. 17 This diretly relates to Rohberg s Psalm settings, namely that a reordering of the pithes of eah hexahord of the row is the most salient unifying feature rather than using a new row developed from mirror inversion. 17 Reginald Smith Brindle, Serial Composition (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1966),

32 CHAPTER PSALM 2 TEXT Psalm 2 is perhaps the most well known and beloved of all the psalms. In it, the poet expresses the peae and serenity that omes from omplete trust in God. Artur Weiser in his exposition of this psalm observes, The sentiments of an almost hildlike trust whih the poet is able to express in this psalm are, however, by no means the produt of a arefree unonern harateristi of young people; on the ontrary, they are the mature fruit of a heart whih, having passed through many bitter experienes and having fought many battles (vv. 4, 5), had been allowed to find at the deline of life in its intimate ommunion with God (vv. 2, 6), the serenity of a ontented spirit peae of mind (v. 6) and, in all dangers, strength. 1 The imagery used by the poet is that of a shepherd tending his flok. The first four verses fous on what J.R.P. Slater refers to as the Day s Journey. 2 The first verse presents the thesis: The Lord is my shepherd; [therefore] I shall not want. erses 2 and portray a day in the life of the God-led or the piture of a whole life story. In verse 4, the poet reminds himself that even though the shepherd in his wisdom leads to the threatening valley, he, the shepherd, is both protetor (rod) and guide (staff), and will stay lose to his sheep until they arrive home safe. 4 erses 5 and 6 are the Journey s End, where the imagery beomes that of a great banquet of whih the shepherd now beomes the host (verse 5). In verse 6, the images of shepherd and host are ombined; Surely goodness and mery shall follow me all the days of my life, suggests the ontinued ourney under the shepherd s 1 Artur Weiser, The Psalms: A Commentary, in The Old Testament Library (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1962), J. R. P. Slater, Exposition of the Psalms, in The Interpreter s Bible, vol. 4, The Book of Psalms and The Book of Proverbs (New York, New York: Abingdon Press, 1955), Ibid., Ibid.,

33 guidane, while I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever suggests permaneny as a member of the household of the divine host a guest adopted into the family. 5 Although the title of Psalm 2, A Psalm of David, attributes authorship to David, modern sholars disagree on the meaning of of David. W. Stewart MCullough points out that this phrase ould mean belonging to David, dediated to David, or with respet to David, 6 while Artur Weiser ontends that there an... be no question of David having been the author of all the psalms whih have been attributed to him. 7 Conversely, William R. Taylor in his exegesis of this psalm writes, It is lear from the referene to the house of the Lord (vs.6) that the psalm is not Davidi. The individualism of the psalm points to a date in the postexili period when the relations of the Lord to the individual laimed speial attention. Suh an opinion is further onfirmed by the fat that the lass to whih this psalm belongs appears to be a late development in the history of Hebrew psalmody. 8 There is little doubt that the book of Psalms inludes psalms omposed by David and that at one time there was a Davidi psalter. Psalms so titled may also inlude those onerning David, or one of the later Davidi kings, or even those written in the same style of David. Modern sholarship has illustrated that the tradition as to whih psalms are Davidi remains somewhat indefinite. 9 The poeti struture of Psalm 2 has an interesting harateristi that bears investigation. In 175, Robert Lowth observed that partial or omplete lines in Hebrew poetry are losely related to eah other. He refers to this relationship as parallelism of verse- 5 Ibid., W. Stewart MCullough, introdution to The Interpreter s Bible, vol. 4, The Book of Psalms and The Book of Proverbs (New York, New York: Abingdon Press, 1955), 8. 7 Weiser, The Psalms, William R. Taylor, Exegesis of the Psalms, in The Interpreter s Bible, vol. 4, The Book of Psalms and The Book of Proverbs (New York, New York: Abingdon Press, 1955), Introdution to Psalms, in The New International ersion Study Bible, Kenneth Barker, ed. (Grand Rapids, Mihigan: Zondervan Bible Publishers, 1985),

34 members, and divides them into three types: 1) Synonymous, in whih the seond line repeats the thought of the first; 2) Antitheti, in whih the seond line presents some antithesis to the first; and ) Syntheti, in whih the seond line supplements or omplements the first. 10 Psalm 2 is unusual in that only the syntheti type of relationship is used throughout. For example, the first line, The Lord is my shepherd, has as its syntheti relative, I shall not want. Lines may be in pairs or in groups of up to four. For example, verse 5 onsists of three lines, the seond two syntheti to the first: Thou set before me a table in the presene of mine enemies: Anointest my head with oil; (Syntheti to first line) My up runneth over. (Syntheti to first line) So numerous in the psalms are referenes to musial instruments (trumpet 47:5; 98:6; harp :2; 57:8; ymbals 150:5; 81:2), singing (7:17; 9:2; 18:49) and to temple ativities (5:18; 50:8; 68:24 27) that it is likely many of the psalms served a liturgial purpose. However, any liturgial funtion that Psalm 2 may have served is unknown and if there was a liturgial purpose, it is unlear as to what it would have been. 11 MCullough refers to this psalm as one of the Psalms of Trust, and onludes that it may originally have had no onnetion with temple proedures. 12 Another possibility is that this psalm may have aompanied a festival of praise. One has postulated that the phrase in the house of the Lord in verse 6 may refer to a gathering elebrating a great deliverane MCullough, Interpreter s Bible, Ibid., Ibid., 6. 1 Note to Psalm 2 in The New International ersion Study Bible, Kenneth Barker, ed. (Grand Rapids, Mihigan: Zondervan Bible Publishers, 1985),

35 In his musial setting, Rohberg divides the text of Psalm 2 into three stanzas. Using Rohberg s English translation, as indiated in the sore, the three-part division is presented here: A B A' The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: He leadeth me beside still waters. My soul restoreth: He guideth me in righteous paths for His name s sake. Yea, though I walk the valley of the shadow, I will fear no evil: For Thou art with me; Thy rod and staff they omfort me. Thou set before me a table in the presene of mine enemies: Anointest my head with oil; My up runneth over. Goodness and mery surely shall follow me all my days: And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. FORM Thus, the overall form of Psalm 2 is ABA', based on the division of the text (Figure 2). A B A' Figure 2. Overall Form of Psalm 2. A fermata delineates eah maor setion. Table 1 illustrates with more detail the omponents of eah phrase. PITCH CONTENT The pith ontent of Psalm 2 is based on the following 12-tone row (figure ). 2

36 Table 1. Detail Form of Psalm 2 A Phrase 1, m. 1-5 Phrase 2, m. 6-9 Phrase, m Phrase 4, m Meter: Tempo: Sereno U U Text: The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: He leadeth me beside still waters. My soul restoreth: He guideth me in righteous paths for His name's sake. Soprano: P 0 a. P 0 a. P 0 a.... P 0 b.. Alto: P 0 a... P 0 b t1. P 0 b t2. P 0 b. Tenor: P 0 a..... P 0 a.....p 0 a..... P 0 b... Bass: P 0 a.... P 0 b t1.. P 0 b t2. P 0 b Legend: P = Prime row b = hexahord b 0 = pith level (0-11) t1 = first tri-hord a = hexahord a t2 = seond tri-hord (table 1 ontinued) 24