Peabody College and Vanderbilt University – The Contemporary College Wind Ensemble
This was one of the first school band records I ever bought. I’d heard *of* Vanderbilt University, but never realized it was in Nashville. Hmm, Nashville… strange then to find this tantalizing blurb on the back:
“This album is a new departure in wind ensemble programming. Leading Nashville composers and arrangers have bridged many musical styles and periods to produce a kaleidoscopic survey of the possibilities of wind instrumentation. From Carmina Burana to MacArthur Park, from conventional sounds to the complex multi-ensemble (with moog synthesizer) of Irving Kane’s Fourth Stream, this performance demonstrates the expressive possibilities inherent in the wind ensemble. The instrumentation of the group featured on this recording is that of the traditional wind, jazz and rock ensembles together with harpsichord and electronic tape.”
Tucked inside the sleeve there was a program for “CENTURIES of SOUND from BACH to ROCK” dated Tuesday, April 28, 1970, and this record contains excerpts from the night’s performances. I was kinda bummed that some of the titles listed on the program didn’t make it onto the record… namely an electronic work from Gilbert Trythall, and a BLOOD SWEAT AND TEARS cover!
Fortunately the other interesting sounding piece made it onto the record, FOURTH STREAM by Irving Kane. As it turns out, Irving Kane was a local Nashville studio musician and composer. He describes the piece in the program, “Pop music, “serious music, (quotes indicate dissatisfaction with terminology)– the dichotomy preoccupies me; how to love and do both. This piece seems to be an attempt to explicate a dilemma.”
Fourth Stream takes up most of one side of the LP, so I’ve included two 5 minute excerpts of the entire 15 minute performance. Enjoy!
Part 1
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Part 2
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6 Comments
I never heard something like this before, kinda groovy soundtrack stuff mixed with electronic element.
Would it be possible to get an mp3 download of this? I would play it during my timeslot on our little college station, WSCS.
Gil Trythall was on staff at Peabody’s music faculty… any chance of mending those links to mp3s?
i knew irving kane! great trombonist too. wonderful person. met in 1976 or 77 through a mutual friend at Belmont, Anders Otterland, (and we were just up the street from Peabody).
What a blast from the past! I studied composition with Dr. Trythall and knew Irving Kane in Nashville in the ’70s. That’s me on the recording overplaying electric bass. I was also in the percussion section on Carmina Burana.
Seva: I knew Anders Otterland as well—I played for him on a recording session of his work.
Thanks for posting this music!
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Gilbert-Trythall-AVANT-ELECTRONIC-TRACK-PEABODY-COLLEGE-Private-US-LP-WAXIDERMY-/321784504315?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4aebd9dffb
Look up there for the mentioned AVANT ELECTRONIC TRACK by composer Gilbert Trythall.
It is included in a LIMITED EDITION Private USA 1969 LP titled “PEABODY COLLEGE WIND ENSEMBLE [Private label: Peabody College and Vanderbilt University – The Contemporary College Wind Ensemble (based on Nashville Tennessee)]. I am talking about the Outsider electronic/concrete composition “Surfaces op. 19”. The rest of the LP includes avant Igor Stravinsky (Concerto for piano and wind instruments) and 2 serious contemporary jazz suites (Composers: IRVING KANE & DAVID WARD-STEINMAN).
This great LP completes perfectly the ELECTRONIC Peabody College’s SAGA, I suppose.