Five Lines, Four Spaces: The World of My Music

by George Rochberg, Gene Rochberg (Editor), Richard Griscom (Editor), Gene Rochberg (Introduction)

Overview

Finished just weeks before his death, George Rochberg's eloquent memoir offers a detailed look at his fruitful life as a composer, publisher, and teacher of music. The volume traces a life immersed in music, with early study under George Szell and Gian Carlo Menotti and later long-term collaborations with the Concord Quartet and commissions for major orchestras and opera companies. Rochberg takes care to describe the intellectual and aesthetic changes that led him down certain paths as a composer, often challenging the conventions of the day. Reflecting on music, aesthetics, colleagues, and the life of the creative mind, Rochberg's memoir captures not only the spirit but also the intellectual climate of the second half of the twentieth century.

Rochberg's life as a composer was marked by an ongoing search for his artistic place between tradition and the avant-garde, with an extensive oeuvre comprising over one hundred works including chamber ensembles, string quartets, symphonies, solo pieces, songs, and an opera. In addition to his importance as an American composer, he was also a central figure in academia and publishing. He served as chair of the University of Pennsylvania's music department, and as an editor and director of publications at the Theodore Presser Company, he helped marshal the company into one of the premier American musical publishing houses.

Through the course of the book, Rochberg reveals the thought processes that led him in unexpected directions as he pursued the independent path of his career. This is the story of a creative mind developing, at times struggling, and constantly growing.

Publication for this book was supported in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780252034251
Publisher:	University of Illinois Press
Publication date:	05/01/2009
Edition description:	1st Edition
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.40(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

George Rochberg (1918-2005) composed six symphonies, three concertos, seven string quartets, and dozens of chamber and solo works over the course of a career spanning six decades. After establishing himself as a modernist composer, he grew dissatisfied with the expressive limitations of serial composition. Through explorations in his music and his writings, he arrived at a more inclusive compositional style that embraced both the old and the new, yielding groundbreaking works such as Music for the Magic Theater, the String Quartet no. 3, and the Concord Quartets. The revised edition of his collected writings on music, The Aesthetics of Survival, was the recipient of an ASCAP Deems Taylor Award in 2006.

Gene Rochberg met George in 1938 while both were students at what is now Montclair State University. They married in 1941. After they moved to Philadelphia, Gene studied at the Hedgerow Theatre School and the Barnes Foundation and was actively involved in theater and the other arts. She collaborated with her husband on a number of works, including the monodrama Phaedre and the opera The Confidence Man.

Richard Griscom is the head of the Otto E. Albrecht Music Library at the University of Pennsylvania. He is the coauthor of The Recorder: A Research and Information Guide and former editor of the quarterly journal of the Music Library Association, Notes.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments   ix
Introduction   xi
PART 1
Chapter 1. "Save Something for the End": Second Symphony and George Szell   3
Chapter 2. A Concert of Music: Caprice Variations for Solo Violin   25
Interlude 1. A Distant Music: Serenata d'Estate   42
Chapter 3. The Last Gershwin Prize: Night Music and Dimitri Mitropoulos   46
Chapter 4. After and Before: Twelve Ragatelles and String Quartet No. 1
Chapter 5. "Let the Other George Do It": Symphony No. 1 and Eugene Ormandy   75
Interlude 2. Rilke's Angels: String Quartet No. 2 with Soprano   87
Chapter 6. Breaking with Modernism: Third String Quartet and the Concord String Quartet   96
Chapter 7. "It's Only a Small, Little, Wooden Box": Violin Concerto and Isaac Stern   116
Interlude 3. Stravinsky's Caveat: Circles of Fire and the Hirsch-Pinkas Piano Duo   131
Chapter 8. Unlocking the Past: Contra Mortem et Tempus and Music for the Magic Theater   143

PART II
Chapter 9. A Passion According to the Twentieth Century: Third Symphony and the Juilliard Orchestra and Chorus   167
Interlude 4. "O for a Muse of Fire": Eliot Fisk and Works for Guitar — Solo, Duo, and Ensemble   177
Chapter 10. Pictures of the Floating World: Ukiyo-E, Slow Fires of Autumn, Between Two Worlds, and Imago Mundi   186
Chapter 11. A Trio of Symphonies: Four, Five, and Six   199
Interlude 5. Gods of Wrath: Phaedra, a Monodrama for Mezzo-Soprano and Orchestra   216
Chapter 12. A Triptych of Sonatas: Sonata for Violin and Piano (1988), Sonata for Viola and Piano (1979), Sonata-Aria for Cello and Piano 1992)   223
Chapter 13. Blown on the Wind: Oboe and Clarinet Concertos   232
Chapter 14. A Trio of Trios: Piano Trio No. 1 (1962-63), Piano Trio No. 2 (1985), Piano Trio No. 3 (Summer, 1990)   244
Interlude 6. Constructing with Canons: Sonata-Fantasia for Solo Piano   254
Chapter 15. Some Things Saved for the End   260

Chronology   279
Notes   287
Index   297

Illustrations follow page 142.

Editorial Reviews

"One of the most significant composers of the twentieth century, George Rochberg was not only an important musical voice but also a critic and philosopher whose personal ideas and convictions shook the musical world to its core. This book brings us into the mind of a great composer, and that alone is worth the entire book in its verity and truth."—George Boziwick, composer and chief of the music division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts

"There was not a better chronicler of music in the twentieth century than George Rochberg. His writings on music are among the most illuminating and insightful we have. His observations, like his best music, are alive with immediacy and conviction."—Michael Hersch, composer and composition faculty, The Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University

"George Rochberg was a visionary composer who changed the face of American music. He was a generous and inspiring teacher, and a thoughtful and provocative writer. For anyone interested in contemporary art and music, this book is essential reading."—Uri Caine, jazz pianist and composer

"I first met George Rochberg while I was a young professor; his presence and point of view were a revelation to me. He was an excellent writer, with a breadth of reading and reference rarely found in composers I've known. But it is as a composer that his work has most moved me."—William Bolcom, composer and Ross Lee Finney Distinguished University Professor Emeritus of Composition, University of Michigan

From the Publisher