Word: foss
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...Lukas Foss is a musical radical, whose basic concept of what a piece of music is differs totally from the classical idea. It is hard, almost impossible, for me to comment on a man whose fundamental understanding of music is completely unlike what has always been called music, but it may be possible to reach some conclusions about Foss...
...performance which Foss gave Monday night was one of great virtuosity; it was a well-rehearsed, tightly-run concert. The first work, Webern's Five Pieces for Cello and Piano. performed by Foss and cellist Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi, went well, for all of its three minute duration. It was played with a kind of tense crispness which made every note transparent, and was the most understandable piece on the program...
After the Webern, Foss performed his Echoi for four instruments, assisted by Tsutsumi, percussionist Jan Williams, and clarinetist Edward Yadzinski. The title of the work tells its story. Echoi is Greek for "echoes," and, as Foss explains in his notes to the recorded version of the work, is also a name for some ancient Arabian modes. The piece is in four parts, somewhat loosely-structured, and is partly aleatory-at a random signal from the percussionist, the performers jump back to an earlier section of the work and replay it, in order to destroy whatever structure may have been created...
...final work on the program was Terry Riley's In C. It consists of fifty-three musical figures played by any number of instruments in random configuration while a pianist repeatedly and rapidly plays eight notes on high C and C'". By Foss's definition, it is not a piece of music, but "Like a sky with clouds. You look up, and think you see everything, but then you look up a few minutes later and everything is changed." The piece has a kind of hypnotic fascination; still I would tend to agree with Foss that...
...York Times recently, Aaron Copland observed that too many contemporary composers use the university as their base, and consequently, the music they produce is refined and scholarly, yet almost unfit for human consumption, except for those who believe that music should be seen and not heard. Coplan cites Foss, with his long connection with UCLA, and now Harvard, as one of these composers...