Word: speculum
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...repertoire is too narrow, overly devoted to a group of academic composers-Carter, 72, Charles Wuorinen, 42, Donald Martino, 49-based in the Northeast. "It was the natural thing for us to do," insists Clarinetist Virgil Blackwell. "We live in the East, we come into contact with these composers." Speculum has begun exploring other styles-it has commissioned a work from Minimalist Steve Reich for next season-but still avoids music that requires extensive improvisation. It generally steers clear of "theater" pieces, which call on the musicians to act as well as play...
...Speculum's predilection for one school has, however, had a beneficial effect. Composers complain that the second performance of a new work is harder to get than the first; pieces are often commissioned, played once and then forgotten. Although Speculum presents many premieres, it has also tried to give good music a chance to catch on. Certain pieces -Carter's A Mirror on Which to Dwell, Wuorinen's Speculum Speculi and Martino's Pulitzer-prizewinning Notturno-are played fairly frequently...
...influence of Speculum and ensembles like it-the Contemporary Chamber Ensemble and Da Capo Chamber Players-has been obvious. A decade ago, many professors were dismissing new music as a waste of time. Unorthodox techniques like multiphonics (the simultaneous production of more than one note on such normally single-toned instruments as the flute) or reaching into the piano to pluck its strings were considered irrelevant to Bach, Mozart and Brahms. Yet some of the teachers' most talented students were busy reading books like Bruno Bartolozzi's seminal New Sounds for Woodwind, published...
...Wuorinen, a kind of spiritual godfather to Speculum, observed: "New music is in fact not so difficult to perform as people think. The problems experienced by performers in dealing with it are the result of their having been trained in a tradition of no relevance to its performance requirements...
Today, contemporary music ensembles have proliferated in cities and on college campuses. A generation of young players has grown up for whom modern music and its demands hold few terrors. Not that they are getting rich performing it. Annual pay for Speculum members averages $2,500, despite the fact that they have spent up to 100 hours preparing a new piece. Rehearsals sometimes begin at 11 p.m., after the nine players in the group finish other freelance jobs. "The demands," Oppens admits, "are absolutely grueling." Carter observes that "it is hard to keep such an organization going. Each year...