Rudhyar in Restropect

RUDHYAR IN RETROSPECT

Swedenborgian Church, San Francisco and Valley Presbyterian Church, Portola Valley, CA

Monday, September 27, 2010
Swedenborgian Church
2107 Lyon Street, San Francisco 

Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Valley Presbyterian Church
945 Portola Road, Portola Valley 

Music by Dane Rudhyar by the Ives String Quartet; Sarah Cahill, piano; and David Abel and Julie Steinberg, violin and piano. Panel with Leyla Rudhyar and biographer Deniz Ertan. Exhibits of painting, manuscripts, and correspondence.

• • • • • 

Poem for Violin and Piano (1920)
David Abel, violin
Julie Steinberg, piano

Transmutation, tone sequence in seven movements (1976)
Sarah Cahill, piano 

“Stars” from Pentagram No. 3 (1925)
Granites (1929)
Sarah Cahill, piano 

Crisis & Overcoming (String Quartet No. 2) (1979)
Ives Quartet

 

Rudhyar on Music and Performance

Music is a means to communicate the psychic energy generated by authentic inner experiences; great music is born of great experiences. Most such experiences involve dramatic elements, because they imply struggle, inner confrontation, conflict and overcoming. Hence my use of the term “syntonic drama.” But the term, drama, refers to more than the narration of a series of external events or interpersonal conflicts. The musical developments deal with crises of consciousness and are meant to evoke processes of personal transformation and, hopefully, of spiritual growth. It is “syntonic” music because it employs vibrant tones rather than abstract patterns of relationship between musical notes. A sound becomes a tone only when a musician endows it with a meaning, be it individual or collective and cultural. Music is the organization of tones, not mere sounds. Tones are sounds which convey the quality of being inherent in their producer and thus have a function and purpose. My purpose in composing is to attempt to induce in both performers and listeners the capacity to live more intensely and feel more deeply.

photo by Betty Freeman

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