Music in Diverse Styles
Douglas Anderson’s music may follow a guiding thread of atonality, but since the New York native’s tastes are eclectic, so are his works. MUSIC IN DIVERSE STYLES is a showcase of Anderson’s genre-busting creativity, a deep exploration of musical paradigms.
As the album cycles through different chamber setups from duo to septet, Anderson presents his evolving, idiosyncratic serialism through the prism of heterogeneous genres including bluegrass and rock. Most impressive, perhaps, is the consistency in quality, despite the works spanning four decades. As a composer, Anderson has woven quite the tapestry in this Ravello Records release.
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Compositions Featured on this Album
Reverse Variations on ‘Arkansas Traveler’
For three instruments (with jokes!). Premiered by Eight Strings & a Whistle. (2016)
Rock Riffs
For piccolo, bass clarinet, tambourine. Premiered by New Renaissance Chamber Players. (1990)
Septet
For strings and winds. (1981)
Some thoughts on ‘The Rights of Man
For violas in 4 parts. Premiered by Third Street Music School Viola Ensemble. (2006)
Trio for Brass
For trumpet, french horn, trombone. Premiered by New and Newer Music. (1986)
Trio for Clarinet, Cello and Piano
For clarinet, cello, piano. Premiered by Columbia New Music Performance Ensemble. (1975)
Trio Suite
For flute, clarinet, percussion. Premiered by New Renaissance Chamber Players. (1990)
Vernal Tracings No. 4
For flute, marimba. Premiered by Benson-Thoma Flute and Percussion Duo. (1988)
Vocalise No. 2
For two different instruments. (1984)
Notes from the Composer
The pieces in this collection were written over several decades for differing chamber ensembles. As the album title indicates, they represent a variety of styles that have interested me, ranging from serialism to rock to bluegrass to minimalism and more. In each case, I wrote sometimes with particular performers (and their own styles and capabilities) in mind, and sometimes not.
When a new work is commissioned I typically ask the performers what they would be likely to program on a concert with my piece; these works then represent my response to those performance contexts as well as my own explorations. Unlike some composers, my primary focus in writing music is to give the audience a self-contained experience when they listen to my music, what others have described as a musical journey. It is also true that I get a great deal of pleasure and satisfaction in trying to create that journey.
A common (but not universal) thread of my compositional technique has been the investigation and development of serialism, which in my shorthand moved from serialism 2.0 (1970s), to 2.5 (1980s and early 90s), to 3.0 (2000s), and beyond that in more recent years. With the ultimate objective of developing and using serial techniques to create the musical journey of the piece, and to have the same degree of flexibility, stylistic variety and musical impact as tonality, I’ve moved to the point where listeners don’t even recognize it as serialism, an outcome I welcome.
Rock Riffs (1991) embodies my interest in Rock music and how some of its common musical details can be echoed and amplified in the ideas of serialism I was beginning to develop at the time.
Trio Suite (1991), in three movements, engages combinations of different size flutes and clarinets with various percussion instruments, again using ideas from serialism 2.5 to explore different moods and interactions.
Vocalise No. 2 (1984) began as some pieces do: an experiment in a musical style (Minimalism) that had been for some years very cutting-edge, but was then being overtaken by so-called NeoRomanticism. As you can hear, the minimalism at the beginning eventually took me in a different direction.
Trio for Clarinet, Cello and Piano (1975), the oldest piece of this album, was written soon after I’d finished studying (for three years) with Charles Wuorinen. It exhibits my growing interest in taking serialism in a new and different direction, which eventually became the topic of my doctoral dissertation at Columbia University and the focus of much of my work since then.
Septet (1980) was written very soon after I received my doctorate, and shows my early thoughts about what I now call serialism 2.5. The strong influence of the work of Stefan Wolpe can also be detected.
Brass Trio (1986) is a three-movement piece that does what many others have done with chamber music: let the instruments have interactions that amount to conversations. Each movement makes use of the stylistic variety available in serialism 2.5.
Vernal Tracing No. 4 (1988) is another piece that uses minimalism combined with serialism (by this time fully serialism 2.5), allowing the players to slowly increase the musical tension, and then just as gradually let it subside.
Reverse Variations on Arkansas Traveler (2016) also began as an experiment: what would happen if I took a very tonal, almost modal tune, and applied 20th century variation techniques to it? Rather than just melodic variation, I used techniques from composers like Schoenberg, Carter, even Brahms, and more. The early results of the experiment seemed interesting enough, so I developed it for my friends in Eight Strings & a Whistle. And since Arkansas Traveler is often performed (in bluegrass contexts) with jokes between the variations, I encouraged the performers to do just that (tell jokes!) between the variations in live performances, which they have done to audience surprise and acclaim.
Some Thoughts on The Rights of Man (2007) was written at the request of my friend Ina Litera, who at the time taught a viola ensemble of students of varying levels of skill. It uses a well-known fiddle tune from the 18th century, arranged so that all the players from advanced beginners to professional get to play it and have suitable and challenging parts. It is prefaced by a little fantasy on the tune. Here played by a quartet, it could also be played by any larger size group of violists.
