Gloria Coates: Symphony No. 15; Cantata da Requiem; Transitions (2007)

Gloria Coates On Naxos

I recently heard Gloria Coates's symphonies 1,7, and 14 on a Naxos CD and couldn't resist hearing more of this unique composer. Naxos has just released a new CD of Coates's works, including her Symphony No. 15 and two earlier works, the Cantata da Requiem and Transitions. I enjoyed this CD even more than the earlier disk in that it includes chamber and vocal music in addition to a symphony. The CD offers the opportunity to hear Coates's music by a variety of performers in different settings.

Coates (b. 1938) received her musical training from Alexander Tcherepnin and Otto Luening. She has lived in Germany since 1969, and her music remains little-known in the United States. Coates's music startles at initial hearing. She combines the use of string glissandos, repetitive percussion, and atonal or polytonal harmonies with traditional chorales and forms, including liberal quotations from other composers. Her distinct musical language is combined with a clear musical form, as each movement of her work develops inexorably to a climax through repetition and rhythmic variation of her material. Coates uses a small range of musical gestures and techniques to create a highly original voice. Once the initial shock of hearing Coates's music wears off, it is surprisingly accessible and emotional, even visceral.

Coates's Symphony No. 15, her most recent, is title "Homage to Mozart". It is a short work, as are most of her symphonies, but it is scored for a full orchestra. (Many of her symphonies are scored only for strings and tympani.) The work receives a world-premiere recording from the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Michael Boder. This three movement work is taken almost throughout at a slow tempo and is filled with rhythmic punctuations from the tympani and other percussion. The brass and winds frequently play tonal chorales to accompany the strings in their repeated and varied glissandos. Mozart's late "Ave Verum Corpus" is quoted in the middle movement, which opens with a wind chorale that is soon surrounded by glissandos. Mozart's chorale returns at the end of the movement. The second movement is surrounded by a slow opening movement, featuring slowly changing dissonant harmonies underlying the repeated glissandos with outbursts from the tympani and horns. The finale, titled "What are Stars" opens with a chorale in the brass and winds which is juxtaposed with glissando passages in the strings. The symphony is a dense, emotionally intense work.

The Transitions for Chamber Orchestra dates from 1984 and receives its first CD performance her from the Ars Nova Ensemble Nuremberg conducted by Werner Heider. Coates again combines glissandos, esoteric harmonies, and insistent rhythms with quotation, in this instance from the early English composer Henry Purcell. This symphony features extensive passages for the piano, in particular, as well as for brass and winds, to accompany the string glissandos and the march-like tympani. This work is surprisingly lyrical.

The earliest work on this CD is the Cantata da Requiem, 'WW II Poems for Piece" dating from 1972 and performed by soprano Teri Dunn and the Talisker Chamber Players (viola, cello, piano, percussion) of Toronto, Canada. These performers specialize in contemporary music, and Ms Dunn has recorded works by the American composer George Crumb on Naxos. Coates set poems and texts in German and English that describe the Allied bombing of Germany during WW II. The German selections are based on a lament by a newly-made widow and by a note from a young woman teacher. The selections in English quote a BBC broadcast of the bombing, a poem by Phyllis McGinley, and, a conclusion by Marianne Moore: "Teach us how to live in peace/then all these dyings,/All these sorrows were/ Not in vain."

Dunn sings in a declamatory, intense style with shrieks of anguish at the horror of the war. The accompaniment relies less on glissandos than do Coates's latter works. It is harsh and percussive and complements the text and the singer. The piano is used prominently and effectively. This is a moving, passionate work.

This Naxos release, as well as the earlier Naxos release of Coates's symphonies will appeal to adventurous listeners who want to explore contemporary music that is distinctly off the beaten track.

Robin Friedman