American Ultramodernists
An ecstatic exploration of American modernism from the 1920s and ’30s
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Dane Rudhyar, Carl (Sprague) Ruggles, Henry (Dixon) Cowell, Ruth Crawford (Seeger)
Genre:
Instrumental
Label: Dabringhaus und Grimm
Magazine Review Date: 8/2005
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 79
Mastering:
Stereo
DDD
Catalogue Number: MDG613 1265-2
Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
(9) Tetragrams |
Dane Rudhyar, Composer
Dane Rudhyar, Composer Steffen Schleiermacher, Piano |
(5) Preludes |
Ruth Crawford (Seeger), Composer
Ruth Crawford (Seeger), Composer Steffen Schleiermacher, Piano |
(4) Preludes |
Ruth Crawford (Seeger), Composer
Ruth Crawford (Seeger), Composer Steffen Schleiermacher, Piano |
Angels |
Carl (Sprague) Ruggles, Composer
Carl (Sprague) Ruggles, Composer Steffen Schleiermacher, Piano |
Evocations |
Carl (Sprague) Ruggles, Composer
Carl (Sprague) Ruggles, Composer Steffen Schleiermacher, Piano |
Organum |
Carl (Sprague) Ruggles, Composer
Carl (Sprague) Ruggles, Composer Steffen Schleiermacher, Piano |
Piece for Piano with Strings |
Henry (Dixon) Cowell, Composer
Henry (Dixon) Cowell, Composer Steffen Schleiermacher, Piano |
Snows of Fujiyama |
Henry (Dixon) Cowell, Composer
Henry (Dixon) Cowell, Composer Steffen Schleiermacher, Piano |
A Rudhyar |
Henry (Dixon) Cowell, Composer
Henry (Dixon) Cowell, Composer Steffen Schleiermacher, Piano |
(The) Harp of Life |
Henry (Dixon) Cowell, Composer
Henry (Dixon) Cowell, Composer Steffen Schleiermacher, Piano |
Author: Peter Dickinson
Dane Rudhyar, the least known of the four composers here and making a rare entry into the CD catalogue, is a good starting-point. He promoted philosophical ideas involving mysticism, Asian religions and the spiritual power of dissonance, and influenced Ruggles, Henry Cowell and Ruth Crawford. On the evidence of this Tetragram, early Rudhyar is worth further investigation.
Apart from Ruggles, these composers gave up dissonance in the 1930s. But, fortunately, before that Crawford wrote her two sets of Preludes. These are astonishing achievements for that time for a woman in her twenties – right at the forefront of the avant-garde. Every detail is precisely calculated, atmospheric, perfectly gauged for the piano, and Schleiermacher matches this precision by reflecting every tonal gradation.
Ruggles suffers by comparison, especially since Angels – written for six trumpets – and the orchestral Organum are arrangements, made by John Kirkpatrick. However, Organum comes off well and the whole group exemplifies the cussed contradictions of Ruggles’s gritty harmonic idiom.
Cowell himself recorded many of his own piano pieces (but not the dionysiac Piece for Piano with Strings) and shocked audiences in the 1920s with his pugilistic pianism involving fists and elbows on the keyboard and sounds from the inside. No shocks now, all under Schleiermacher’s imperturbable control; the black-note clusters in The Snows of Fuji-Yama are simply ecstatic; and those in The Harp of Life are awe-inspiring by comparison with Cowell himself.
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