ABOUT THE COMPOSERS AND THEIR MUSIC

This album showcases the unique talents and powerful artistry of seven American composers. The postmodern aesthetic reflected in these dynamic compositions blends elements of the past with those of the present. Each piece invites the listener to embark on a captivating journey through creativity and expression. Max Lifchitz introduced all of the featured works to the public in New York City as part of concert events sponsored by North/South Consonance, Inc.

The international press has described Harold Schiffman as “a versatile composer whose talent is apparent in whatever idiom he chooses to express his very musical personality” as well as “a most distinguished composer whose well-crafted and communicative music repays repeated hearings.” The Gyor Philharmonic Orchestra, the Hungarian National Choir, the North Carolina Symphony, and the ARTEA Chamber Orchestra of San Francisco, among others, have premiered his music. Born in North Carolina, Schiffman taught composition at Florida State University from 1959 until 1983 and directed that institution’s New Music Festival. His composition mentors included Roger Sessions and Ernst von Dohnányi. His symphonic, choral, chamber, and solo compositions appear on several compact discs issued by North/South Recordings.

Schiffman’s Six Little Études for Ladye Jane is a collection of contrasting, highly accessible, and expressive pieces. The études skillfully blend captivating melodies with engaging rhythms and listener-friendly harmonies. As appropriate to the genre, each etude addresses a different element of a pianist's technique while also dealing with complex compositional methods. The piece is a heartfelt tribute crafted in honor of the remarkable pianist and scholar Jane Perry-Camp, whose legacy continues to inspire.

Jonathan B. McNair holds the position of Ruth S. Holmberg Professor of American Music at the University of Tennessee, Chattanooga. In 2008, he was recognized as Tennessee Composer of the Year by the Tennessee Music Teachers Association. McNair received a doctorate in composition from the Cleveland Institute of Music, where he studied under Donald Erb. He has been selected twice as the composer-in-residence for the Viva Voce! Choral Camp and has also participated as a composer in the Faith Partners residency program of the American Composers Forum. McNair has received commissions from several organizations, including Brown University for the Marian Anderson String Quartet, the Chattanooga Symphony Orchestra, the Brazos Valley Symphony Orchestra, the Texas Composers Forum, and the Ohio Arts Council.

In the preface to his score, the composer writes: “Rabun Gap was composed during a residency at The Hambidge Center for the Creative Arts and Sciences in Rabun Gap, Georgia. The music of this single-movement piece draws inspiration from the emotions felt while exploring the breathtaking mountains of the Rabun Gap-Wolffork Valley in the Blue Ridge Mountains. A gradually unfolding melody is accompanied by rapid, flowing figures, leading to enigmatic, rhythmic polychords. The initial melody and texture return varied and more fully developed, leading once again to rhythmic chords that, this time, seem ebullient and glowing before ebbing back to the rapidly flowing figure and plaintive melody. A ghost-like recollection of the first set of polychords forms a coda overlaid with flowing fragments”. A grant from the University of Tennessee, Chattanooga partially funded the recording of this work.”

A native New Yorker, Allan Crossman has received commissions from numerous soloists and ensembles, including the Twentieth-Century Ensemble (New York), guitarist Michael Laucke (Montreal), sopranos Elise Bédard (Toronto), Pauline Vaillancourt (Montreal) and the Eusebius Duo (San Francisco). He has also composed, arranged, and directed music for American and Canadian theatre companies. His theatre scores include A Comedy of Errors, Celestina, Metamorphosis, and The Log of the Skipper's Wife. Crossman lived in Montreal for many years while on the Concordia University faculty and currently resides in the San Francisco Bay Area.

The Dances of Wind and Shade were written during summers in a particularly windy region of New England. Crossman states that he “…was fascinated by certain trees blowing in the sunny early-winter breeze - the top leaves, fully exposed to the sun, were swaying gently while the leaves in the shady recesses shimmered agitatedly. The expressive quality of this motion inspired the music, and the five brief pieces have this imagery somewhere behind them."

Robert Fleisher's acoustic music has been called “eloquent” (Ann Arbor News), “lovely and emotional” (MusicWorks), “astoundingly attractive” (Perspectives of New Music), and “ingenious” (The Strad). His electro-acoustic works have been described as “fascinating” (Fanfare), “endearingly low-tech,” and possessing “a rich, tactile texture” (The New York Times). He is the author of Twenty Israeli Composers and a contributor to Theresa Sauer’s Notations 21. His music has been heard throughout the U.S. and in more than a dozen other countries. It has been released on nearly as many record labels. Fleisher attended New York City’s High School of Music and Art before earning his B.Mus. with honors from the University of Colorado and his M.M. and D.M.A. degrees in Composition from the University of Illinois. He is Professor Emeritus at Northern Illinois University.

In the preface to his score, Fleisher writes: “Each of the Minims for Max relates to Max Lifchitz in one way or another: Silhouette is based on the first of Max’s five Piano Silhouettes. What’s in a Name? translates each letter of the name Max Lifchitz into music, combining a variety of methods. Approach and Retreat recalls the chordal parallelism in Max’s Me acerco y me retiro for mezzo-soprano, contralto, and piano while exploring a subtle connection between Max’s work and another by Arnold Schoenberg. Sessions with Roger is based on a brief flute and clarinet duo Max composed in 1968 for a Juilliard class led by Roger Sessions. A is for Anton employs the same 12-tone row (also beginning with A) on which Schoenberg’s pupil, Anton Webern, based his Klavierstück. North/South Consonance, largely a musical encoding of its title, honors Max’s more than four decades of performing, recording, and promoting new music of the Americas and beyond. Maxed Out is derived from the second movement of the Clarinet Quintet by Max Reger and the opening of Kol Nidrei for cello and orchestra by Max Bruch.”

A native of Lagos, Nigeria, Olatunji Akin Euba (1935-2020) trained as a pianist and composer at Trinity College of Music in London before receiving a Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship to study ethnomusicology at the University of California, Los Angeles. From 1993 to 2011, he served as the Andrew W. Mellon Professor at the University of Pittsburgh, organizing symposia on music in Africa and the Diaspora throughout the US, Europe, Africa, and China. Euba’s bicultural style uniquely merges traditional African elements from the Yoruba people with modern Western classical music. His intercultural music features recurring themes, rhythmic elements derived from African traditional sources, and a percussive approach to the piano.

In the preface to his score, Euba explains that the three movements comprising the Scenes from Traditional Life are based on a twelve-tone row, with the notes systematically assigned to a series of predetermined rhythmic phrases. Euba also clarifies that, despite the work's title, he intended no specific visual connection to scenes in Nigeria. The captivating interplay of the dance-inspired ostinati is clearly designed to echo the vibrant rhythms of the Yoruba drum language, creating a dynamic connection between sound and tradition. The resultant melodic patterns are employed linearly with varying metrical and horizontal juxtapositions that result in unequal densities and exciting polyphonic textures. The three movements create a unified structure: the first movement introduces the journey, the second reaches a thrilling climax, and the third provides a satisfying resolution with its incessant rhythmic, dance-like qualities.

An Associate Professor of Music at Austin College in Sherman, TX, John McGinn received his undergraduate music degree from Harvard and his DMA in Composition from Stanford. Among his teachers were noted composers such as Jonathan Harvey, Leon Kirchner, and John Adams. McGinn’s works appear on various recordings, have won honors, and have been presented at colleges and festivals nationwide. Also active as an arranger, McGinn has created piano reductions of several large-scale works, including John Adams’ Nixon in China, for publication by Boosey & Hawkes. As a pianist and keyboardist, he has performed throughout the United States and Europe, appearing on numerous commercial recordings, including several recent albums with The Shakespeare Concerts (MA), for whom he served as music director from 2003-08.

Six Preludes is part of a growing collection of piano pieces based on free improvisations captured with MIDI software. The composer explains: “My general approach is to select segments of special appeal and promise, carefully transcribe them, then respond to them just as I would to any compositional materials – analyzing, developing, connecting them with other passages (perhaps also improvised), honing transitions, and so on. My goal is that distinctions of ‘improvised’ vs. ‘composed’ will fall away, leaving music that feels at once fresh and immediate yet also carefully structured.

The opening prelude, Tendrils, hearkens from two separate 2012 improvs, the first featuring slowly arching chordal and intervallic figures, the second favoring scalar, zigzag, and other ‘wafting’ patterns. Mischievous draws vibrant rhythmic gestures from four different sources, from tight and rapid to light and quirky. All but the conclusion of Gently Swaying is a single unbroken outpouring recorded on a Disklavier at Stanford in the 1990s. Its lilting lyrical climb and arching climax lay transcribed among my sketches for nearly two decades before being made ‘performable’ by others.

Playing upon the strutting syncopations of a 2013 segment, Nimble is the most through composed of all the preludes. Capricious alternates the right-hand ‘flicks’ and bouncing left-hand clusters of a 2014 improv, accelerating them in upward sweeps to high interludes punctuated with bold repeated notes. As with Gently Swaying, much of the final prelude, Beguiling: Lair Dance, is a single unbroken passage from a 2014 extemporization. The eerie title reflects that I find something both seductive and unsettling about the inexorably winding 2-against-3 rhythms woven by my fingers (think ‘Shelob’s Lair’ in Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings) that climb relentlessly to an almost horrific climax, then a kind of soulless ‘spinning’ followed by a sense of the light slowly going out. Quite a dark imagining, to be sure, but who am I to tell my fingers no?”

The American Record Guide referred to Max Lifchitz as “one of America’s finest exponents of contemporary piano music,” and the New York Times praised him for his "clean, measured and sensitive performances.” A graduate of The Juilliard School and Harvard University, Mr. Lifchitz was awarded first prize in the 1976 International Gaudeamus Competition for Performers of 20th Century Music held in Holland. As a composer, Lifchitz has received fellowships from the ASCAP, Ford, and Guggenheim Foundations, the Individual Artists Program of the NYS Council of the Arts, and the National Endowment for the Arts. His performances and compositions have captivated audiences across Europe, Latin America, and the United States, bringing his artistry to life on stages around the world.

The Three Tango-Études for the left hand alone are designed to help pianists enthusiastically tackle and master critical technical skills, making practice both engaging and rewarding.

Bittersweet Tango combines happiness and sadness, blending sweet emotions with melancholy. It involves alternating moments of joy and sorrow, with emotions that are both sweet and tinged with sadness. The rhythmic thumping of the Grumpy Tango evokes the image of a cantankerous older man, grumbling and sauntering about with an air of perpetual annoyance. Much like a Baroque Chaconne, the Wedding Cake Tango is structured upon the same chord progression that serves as the foundation for the renowned Canon in D Major by Johann Pachelbel (1653-1706). The musical progression achieved widespread recognition after its inclusion as background music in the 1980 film Ordinary People, featuring Mary Tyler Moore. Like Pachelbel's work, the composition uses repeating four-bar phrases that paraphrase the initial harmonic progression, creating a constant sense of relentless motion.