Quodlibetudes for Solo Flute (1988); Thirteen Fantasias and a Coda Designed to Introduce the

Player - Young or Old, Student or Professional - To the Expanded Technical and Conceptual
Worlds of the New Flute of the Late Twentieth Century by Harvey Sollberger
Review by: Jane Gottlieb
Notes, Second Series, Vol. 49, No. 3 (Mar., 1993), pp. 1263-1265
Published by: Music Library Association
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Music Reviews
and 4 selecting a different consecutive note
from each of the three voices in canon,
giving an added physical reality to the pat-
terns that naturally emerge from canons at
the unison. Violin II-1 also does this with
violin 11-2, 3, and 4. In addition, the wood-
winds and cellos double the "emerging pat-
tern" voices after each of the sections gets
started with the strings alone. The basses,
synthesizers, and brass (commanded never
to sound brassy) provide an harmonic un-
derpinning after the doublings begin, with
extremely soft sustained chords made up of
notes taken from the scale used in the me-
lodic elements. Each canonic section has its
own harmonic color and its own change-
of-meter pattern. As is the case in all of
Steve Reich's music, the topography is clear
and systematic, and the technical proce-
dures used are in plain sight. Nonetheless,
something miraculous emerges in this
movement despite its accessible processes.
Reich achieves a very beautiful, refined
spiritual presence that is not easily defined,
nor are there any specific places where it
occurs, it simply accumulates. The music
has a quality so rarely found in contem-
porary works that I hope the composer
considers providing us with a version of
this movement which can stand alone (i.e.,
with a slightly different ending).
The second movement is for two vibra-
phones, two pianos, and two bass drums.
Although Reich is best known for his work
with percussion instruments, this move-
ment is the shortest of the piece, lasting
only two-and-one-half minutes. It provides
a sharp contrast with the first and acts as
a perfect bridge into the next.
The structure of the third movement,
featuring the woodwinds (with brass and
strings) is similar to the first. The canons
of each section are stated first in one set
of instruments and then the emerging pat-
INSTRUMENTAL SOLO AND ENSEMBLE MUSIC
Harvey Sollberger. Quodlibetudes for
solo flute (1988); thirteen fantasias
and a coda designed to introduce the
player-young or old, student or pro-
fessional-to the expanded technical
and conceptual worlds of the New
Flute of the late twentieth century.
New York: McGinnis & Marx Music
Publishers, 1991. [Notes, pp. i-v;
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All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
1263
terns are doubled by instruments of a dif-
ferent timbre. The canons here, however,
are simpler in texture, using only three
voices. This provides an opportunity to
thicken the texture with the quickly re-
peated chords, especially in the low winds,
that we first heard from Reich in his Music
for Eighteen Musicians (1977). The four sec-
tions of this movement build to a full or-
chestral texture, leading to the last section
for full orchestra. The repeated chords,
which start in the woodwinds, gradually in-
crease in instrumentation to include brass
and, then in the last section, the strings.
Each of these sections has its own harmonic
base. The first two sections are in 3, but the
last two use multi-metered repetitive pat-
terns. The last section also increases in
tempo, the acceleration accomplished by
metric modulation.
The last movement, also divided into
four harmonically different sections, is full
of dance-like joy, constantly alternating be-
tween 3 and 2. The fast pulse is maintained
by two marimbas in a steady eighth-note
rhythmic pattern. Against this, two vibra-
phones, doubled by the second violins and
violas, develop a two-voice repeated pat-
tern. The first violins and winds build up
a sustained high melody that floats over
everything. The trumpets develop a two-
voice canonic dialogue that now and then
cuts through the rest, adding a buoyant
quality to the whole. Underneath, the two
pianos, bass drums and low strings, and
brass contribute a rhythmic punch that
pulls the music in different directions,
sometimes reminding us of George Ger-
shwin at his best-all in all a triumphant
ending to a great piece of music.
DAVIDBORDEN
Cornell University
score, 7 folded leaves (13 p.); acid-free
paper. Music and tape, $20.00; dura-
tion: ca. 14'.]
Harvey Sollberger (born 1938) is some-
thing of a grass roots missionary for the
modern flute movement. A virtuoso flutist,
pedagogue, conductor and promoter of
contemporary repertory (he cofounded the
Group for Contemporary Music with
 1264
Charles Wuorinen in 1962), and composer
of instrumental, vocal, and dramatic works,
Sollberger has worked throughout his ca-
reer to redefine the flute as a solo instru-
ment.
In doing so he has looked both back-
ward-to flute composers of past centuries
(his Grand Quartet for four flutes [1962] is
dedicated to Friedrich Kuhlau, in honor of
his 1829 quartet of the same name) and
past decades of the present century-and
forward-in his integration and expansion
of contemporary techniques. Presently Pro-
fessor of Music at Indiana University, Soll-
berger studied flute with Samuel Baron
and Betty Bang Mather. At Columbia in
the 1960s he studied composition with Otto
Luening and Jack Beeson. Although he has
received numerous awards and commis-
sions and recorded widely both as flutist
and conductor, much of Sollberger's no-
toriety seems to reside in the world of ed-
ucated flutists and followers of "uptown"
composers. His works are primarily pub-
lished by the American Composers Alliance
and McGinnis & Marx Music Publishers,
both of which have had relatively limited
distribution networks in the past. McGinnis
& Marx, founded by oboist Josef Marx in
1945, has recently expanded its operation
and promotional efforts, so one hopes that
we can look forward to the wider avail-
ability of Sollberger's published scores.
Quodlibetudes, commissioned for flutist
Judith Bentley by her students, is designed
as a true "concert etude." As Sollberger
explains in the introduction to the score:
"My aim in composing Quodlibetudeshas
been to create both and at once a concert
solo piece and a set of etudes designed to
introduce flutists to contemporary playing
techniques and notation. As the former, it
will, I hope, stimulate and reward even ad-
vanced players and their audiences. As the
latter, it can serve as a text for self-study
or work with a teacher. (Teachers may find,
in fact, that the piece's thirteen fantasias
lend themselves well to a semester's work.)"
The approximately fourteen-minute piece
succeeds on both counts. The thirteen fan-
tasias and coda evolve seamlessly, and the
listener is granted a full musical experience
of technical virtuosity without awareness of
the didactic nature of each section. And as
a teaching piece, it certainly challenges the
student to master a myriad of contempo-
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NOTES, March 1993
rary flute techniques: whistle tones, mul-
tiphonics (with two or more notes in in-
tervals of sevenths, ninths, and even some
larger intervals), key clicks, tongue clicks,
humming, hissing, singing, and reading
like a keyboard player from two staves at
once. A semester's work, at least.
The quodlibet of Quodlibetudesis in its use
of one or more musical quotes in each fan-
tasia. Most of these quotes are from other
flute works of recent decades and will only
be recognizable to those well versed in this
repertory. They include quotes from flute
works by Sollberger's contemporaries Ka-
zuo Fukushima, Harley Gaber, Donald
Martino, Charles Wuorinen, and Roger
Reynolds, and quotes from the three "mon-
uments" of twentieth-century flute reper-
tory: Luciano Berio's Sequenza (1958), the
first solo flute piece to include multiphon-
ics; Edgard Varese's Density21.5 (1936), the
first to make use of percussive key clicks
and extensive intervallic leaps; and, of
course, Claude Debussy's Syrinx (1913).
(The quote from the latter work is par-
ticularly obvious.) Quodlibetudes also in-
cludes some other distinctive (and acknowl-
edged) quotes from music of earlier
periods, and thus serves as a good listening
test as well as a practice etude. Sollberger
states in the preface that he mostly ignores
the "humorous" aspect of a traditional
quodlibet, but a careful listener can find
some amusement in his judicious sprin-
kling of musical references.
Each of the thirteen fantasias is given a
descriptive title: Jumping; Undulating;
Drumming; Intuiting; Ticking; Humming;
Balancing; Echoing; Negating; Tuning;
Lingering; Extending; and, Yes/Sing. (Yes,
the first letters of the titles do spell Judith
Bentley.) These titles also serve to char-
acterize each fantasia according to its most
obvious musical materials. For example,
"Jumping" contains large leaps; "Undulat-
ing" uses different vibrato speeds; "Drum-
ming" is comprised primarily of key clicks
(mostly dotted rhythms in a jazzy style);
"Intuiting" is comprised of whistle tones.
Although the musical material is intention-
ally based on the particular technique to be
mastered (form following function), the
composition as a whole moves beyond its
acrostic construction to provide a satisfying
musical experience to both the performer
and the listener. It also exhibits more than
Music Reviews
a sprinkling of theatricality: the final fan-
tasia ("Yes/Sing") requires the performer to
intone a short Japanese poem titled "Such
Is Life." Sollberger explains his use of the
poem in the introduction as follows: "[it]
implicitly suggests virtues performers need
to cultivate: patience, tenacity, a positive
attitude toward finally overcoming prob-
lems. Indeed, I see it as a paradigm of a
musician's existence. It is, as well, an ex-
hortation to she or he who would master
this piece-or any other." Such is life. In
spite of its theatricality, the "Yes/Sing" fan-
tasia certainly challenges the performer
to intone these words in an unpitched whis-
per.
The score is published as seven individ-
ual leaves and requires either a versatile
page turner or seven music stands ar-
ranged side by side for performance. Like
many other contemporary scores, it rep-
resents a binding challenge for libraries. It
is neatly printed with performance notes
and fingering charts provided within the
musical text. Sollberger's preface also in-
cludes detailed instructions for each fan-
tasia, and a study tape of his performance
of the work is available from the publisher
to assist the student in the learning process.
Sollberger's Quodlibetudesshould become
a staple of every flutist's etude diet, along
with the standards by Joachim Andersen,
Louis Drouet, Marcel Moyse, and Paul Taf-
fanel and Philippe Gaubert. The technical
demands of twentieth-century flute reper-
tory are quite different from those of the
nineteenth century, and flutists have not
been provided with a new instrument that
will easily produce these new sounds with
the press of a key. Quodlibetudescertainly
fills the bill as a fun and engaging concert
etude to aid in the mastering of these tech-
nical challenges. Libraries will also want to
acquire scores of all of the works quoted
in Quodlibetudesand expand their holdings
of "standard" flute repertory.
JANEGOTTLIEB
The Juilliard School
Toro Takemitsu. Toward the Sea III
for alto flute and harp. Tokyo: Schott
Japan (European American), 1989.
[Score, 18 p. SJ 1049/ISBN 4-11-
899576-X. $12.00; duration: 14'.]
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1265
Dan Welcher. White Mares of the
Moon for flute and harp (1986). Bryn-
Mawr, Penn.: Elkan-Vogel (Presser),
1987. [Set of two performance scores,
15 p. each. 164-00178. $14.00; dura-
tion: ca. 7'.]
A recent renewal of interest in the rep-
ertory and performance collaboration of
the flute and harp has spawned a signif-
icant increase in the number of these mel-
lifluous duos. Historical evidence substan-
tiating the popularity of the harp and flute
ensemble dates from early in the eigh-
teenth century and includes compositions
from the pen of a plethora of lesser-known
European composers, culminating in the
sonatas of Ludwig Spohr and Johann Bap-
tiste Krumpholz. Neither the harp nor the
flute saw substantial progress in the area of
instrumental development until well into
the nineteenth century, and this lack has
been seen as a contributing factor in the
paucity of interest on the part of the more
serious composers to provide repertory for
either instrument. Harpists and flutists
have taken on the challenge of developing
a repertory to sustain this instrumental
combination, by actively seeking commis-
sioned works from contemporary compos-
ers. The two highly evocative works dis-
cussed here are the results of just such
efforts and, as such, have become welcome
additions to the available original repertory
for this most popular of ensembles.
Toro Takemitsu has reworked his own
original Toward the Sea (for alto flute and
guitar) in this new guise for harp and alto
flute, and the effect is quite stunning. To-
ward the Sea III is divided into three sec-
tions, titled "The Night"; "Moby Dick"; and
"Cape Cod." Unifying compositional fea-
tures (the end of each movement is ap-
proached in similar rhythmic, harmonic,
and melodic fashion) link the three frames
of music, and performers are encouraged
to move attacca throughout the work. The
hollow and austere opening to "The Night"
establishes the eerie calm associated with
each section of this work. Long hollow
tones in the alto flute project the aural
equivalent to a cool and empty seascape.
The harp is introduced in its most resonant
register performing arpeggios carefully
marked with crescendo/decrescendo from
pianissimo to piano and back again. This