Julius Eastman on Four Pianos

This Friday Neue Meister/Edel will release a recording of two of the three works that Julius Eastman composed for four pianos. One of these, “Gay Guerrilla,” has been discussed twice on this site; but neither of the performances involved the full complement of four pianos. The other has to be handled slightly delicately where matters of taste and proper decorum are involved. I shall refer to it simply as “EN.” The first letter stands for “Evil,” while the second reflects a well-known racist slur. Eastman, himself, was black and had every right to choose any title he wished for his music; and those who wish to get beyond any efforts of delicacy on my part are free to see the title on the album cover depicted on the Amazon.com Web page (which, as usual, is processing pre-orders).

This past October Eric Dudley, Artistic Director of the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players (SFCMP), devoted an entire How Music is Made program to “Gay Guerrilla.” The performance involved only two pianos, played by Kate Campbell and Allegra Chapman. It was preceded by introductory remarks provided by both of the performers. Because these were video recordings made under pandemic conditions, they were made separately. Those two sources were then scrupulously edited and interleaved to provide a “unified” account (including images of score pages) that would prepare listeners for the performance that followed. The entire program lasted about 50 minutes, divided, roughly equally, between introduction and execution; and the video of that program is still available for viewing through the archives of the SFCMP YouTube channel.

The performance on the new album was organized by pianist Kai Schumacher for presentation at the Moers Festival 2020. The other pianists he recruited were Patricia Martin, Mirela Zhulali, and Benedikt ter Braak. It is worth acknowledging that two audio channels can barely do justice to four grand pianos all weaving together what I previously called “a lush tapestry of repetitive structures.” “Gay Guerrilla” was composed in 1979; and, in many respects, it can be approached as a “response” to the “call” of Philip Glass’ Einstein on the Beach, which had been premiered in July of 1976. However, while there is often an intimidating intensity to the repetitions in the Einstein score, Eastman “breaks the ice” when his interleaving structures achieve an “upper limit of density.” He does this by introducing fragments from the Lutheran hymn “A Mighty Fortress is Our God” into the mix (which definitely shakes the attentive listener free of worrying that there will be little more than “more of the same”). This gesture has as much impact when delivered through the limitations of recording technology as it does in a performance setting.

“EN,” which was also composed in 1979, is equally an inventive exploration into the domain of repetitive structures. In this case, however, the primary repetition is defined at the very beginning. It is a “ground bass” line that has been used as a basis for repetitive structures that date back over many centuries. For example, it is essentially the “skeleton” for the repeated bass line in “Dido’s Lament” at the conclusion of Henry Purcell’s opera Dido and Aeneas. Even more explicitly, it is the upper voice in the first phrase of the chorale theme in César Franck’s “Prélude, Choral et Fugue.” In terms of Eastman’s own contemporary context, it also makes an appearance in Einstein on the Beach. From this one might conclude that the “Evil” part of the title is not so much a sinister one as a prankish attempt by the composer to thumb his nose at the entire scope of music history.

Once again, I should emphasize that there is no substitute for experiencing either of these compositions in a concert performance; but, at the very least, this new album should be able to orient the inquisitive listener, who is preparing to attend such a performance.