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The Good Spirit of a Right Cause (1942)
David Holzman:
"The Good Spirit of a Right Cause was originally the first of five projected 'Encouragements', works directly connected to the fight against fascism and recalling the proletarian works from the early 1930's. The third of these Encouragements, Battle Piece (1943-1947), grew tremendously in size and inspiration and obviated the need for further encouragement. [...]
"Austin Clarkson has described this work as a March-Fantasy and it is probably more fantasy than march ... there is a directionless quality, especially in the middle, which makes the traditional March-Trio form virtually irrelevant."
Stefan Wolpe (1902-1972) found musical inspiration in many sources: the Bauhaus aesthetic of utopian socialism, twelve-note techniques of the Second Viennese School, traditional music of the Middle East, serialism, and jazz. He held to no one system, drawing freely from diatonic and dodecaphonic techniques as well as expressive idioms of traditional and popular music. As a teacher, Wolpe influenced a wide range of classical and jazz composers and musicians, including Herbert Brün, John Cage, Elliott Carter, Morton Feldman, Ursula Mamlok, George Russell, Ralph Shapey, and David Tudor.
Born in Berlin, Germany to Russian-Jewish parents, Wolpe began composition studies in his teenage years, continuing work with Paul Juon at the Berlin Hochschule für Musik in 1920. His early musical influences included Bauhaus lectures and exhibitions in Weimar, avant garde groups in which he participated, and the music of Arnold Schoenberg and Alban Berg. As the Nazi presence in Germany increased in the early 1930's, Wolpe devoted himself to the anti-fascist movement, composing a number of popular songs and anthems and taking up the post of musical director of the Marxist theater group Die Truppe 1931.
Die Truppe was banned by the Nazis two years later, so Wolpe left for Vienna where he studied twelve-note method with Anton Webern and began to incorporate the technique into his music. Forced to leave Austria that same year, he relocated to Palestine for five years, teaching at the Palestine Conservatory in Jerusalem and learning much about Middle Eastern musical forms and styles. Upon emigration to the United States in 1938, Wolpe based himself in New York City and taught at a series of schools on the East Coast over the next 30 years, including the Settlement Music School in Philadelphia, Brooklyn Free Music Society, Contemporary Music School, Philadelphia Academy of Music, Black Mountain College, and C.W. Post College of Long Island University.
Wolpe's music grew in complexity during his years in the US, synthesizing and moving beyond the variety of musics he had assimilated. He remained socially committed, also writing works for amateur musicians and theater groups. Music ensembles which championed his work in the 1950's and 1960's included Continuum, Group for Contemporary Music, Parnassus, and Speculum Musicae. Wolpe's music has been recorded on major labels as well as Albany, Arte Nova, Auvidis Montaigne, Bridge, Centaur, CRI, Crystal, hat ART, Naxos, and New World.
related websites
http://www.wolpe.org
Pianist and twentieth-century music specialist David Holzman has premiered more than 150 works by composers worldwide, and has recorded for the Albany, Bridge, Capstone, Centaur, CRI, and Naxos labels. He has performed at festivals and universities throughout the US and international festivals including Darmstadt, Vienna Schoenberg, Leningrad Spring, Alternativa Festival in Moscow, and Festival Internacional de Música Nueva Siglo XXI in Veracruz, Mexico. As a chamber musician, he has played with many of New York's major ensembles. Holzman is also an active lecturer and writer; his "On Performing Battle Piece" was published in a collection honoring the centenary of Stefan Wolpe's birth, and other essays have appeared in Contemporary Music Review and Sonus. Holzman's recent release on Bridge Records focuses on the music of Ralph Shapey and Roger Sessions; future recordings will continue his exploration of both Sessions and Wolpe. Holzman studied with Paul Jacobs at the Mannes College of Music in New York and Nadia Reisenberg at Queens College. He currently teaches at the C.W. Post College of Long Island University.
related websites
http://www.battlemuse.com
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