Five Lines, Four Spaces

George Rochberg (1918-2005) composed six symphonies, three concertos, seven string quartets, and dozens of chamber and solo works over the course of a career spanning six decades. After establishing himself as a modernist composer, he grew dissatisfied with the expressive limitations of serial composition. Through explorations in his music and his writings, he arrived at a more inclusive compositional style that embraced both the old and the new, yielding groundbreaking works such as Music for the Magic Theater, the String Quartet no. 3, and the Concord Quartets. The revised edition of his collected writings on music, The Aesthetics of Survival, was the recipient of an ASCAP Deems Taylor Award in 2006.Gene Rochberg met George in 1938 while both were students at what is now Montclair State University. They married in 1941. After they moved to Philadelphia, Gene studied at the Hedgerow Theatre School and the Barnes Foundation and was actively involved in theater and the other arts. She collaborated with her husband on a number of works, including the monodrama Phaedre and the opera The Confidence Man.Richard Griscom is the head of the Otto E. Albrecht Music Library at the University of Pennsylvania. He is the coauthor of The Recorder: A Research and Information Guide and former editor of the quarterly journal of the Music Library Association, Notes.

• Acknowledgments   ixIntroduction   xiPART 1Chapter 1. "Save Something for the End": Second Symphony and George Szell   3Chapter 2. A Concert of Music: Caprice Variations for Solo Violin   25Interlude 1. A Distant Music: Serenata d'Estate   42Chapter 3. The Last Gershwin Prize: Night Music and Dimitri Mitropoulos   46Chapter 4. After and Before: Twelve Ragatelles and String Quartet No. 1Chapter 5. "Let the Other George Do It": Symphony No. 1 and Eugene Ormandy   75Interlude 2. Rilke's Angels: String Quartet No. 2 with Soprano   87Chapter 6. Breaking with Modernism: Third String Quartet and the Concord String Quartet   96Chapter 7. "It's Only a Small, Little, Wooden Box": Violin Concerto and Isaac Stern   116Interlude 3. Stravinsky's Caveat: Circles of Fire and the Hirsch-Pinkas Piano Duo   131Chapter 8. Unlocking the Past: Contra Mortem et Tempus and Music for the Magic Theater   143PART IIChapter 9. A Passion According to the Twentieth Century: Third Symphony and the Juilliard Orchestra and Chorus   167Interlude 4. "O for a Muse of Fire": Eliot Fisk and Works for Guitar -- Solo, Duo, and Ensemble   177Chapter 10. Pictures of the Floating World: Ukiyo-E, Slow Fires of Autumn, Between Two Worlds, and Imago Mundi   186Chapter 11. A Trio of Symphonies: Four, Five, and Six   199Interlude 5. Gods of Wrath: Phaedra, a Monodrama for Mezzo-Soprano and Orchestra   216Chapter 12. A Triptych of Sonatas: Sonata for Violin and Piano (1988), Sonata for Viola and Piano (1979), Sonata-Aria for Cello and Piano 1992)   223Chapter 13. Blown on the Wind: Oboe and Clarinet Concertos   232Chapter 14. A Trio of Trios: Piano Trio No. 1 (1962-63), Piano Trio No. 2 (1985), Piano Trio No. 3 (Summer, 1990)   244Interlude 6. Constructing with Canons: Sonata-Fantasia for Solo Piano   254Chapter 15. Some Things Saved for the End   260Chronology   279Notes   287Index   297Illustrations follow page 142.

"One of the most significant composers of the twentieth century, George Rochberg was not only an important musical voice but also a critic and philosopher whose personal ideas and convictions shook the musical world to its core. This book brings us into the mind of a great composer, and that alone is worth the entire book in its verity and truth."--George Boziwick, composer and chief of the music division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts "There was not a better chronicler of music in the twentieth century than George Rochberg. His writings on music are among the most illuminating and insightful we have. His observations, like his best music, are alive with immediacy and conviction."--Michael Hersch, composer and composition faculty, The Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University "George Rochberg was a visionary composer who changed the face of American music. He was a generous and inspiring teacher, and a thoughtful and provocative writer. For anyone interested in contemporary art and music, this book is essential reading."--Uri Caine, jazz pianist and composer "I first met George Rochberg while I was a young professor; his presence and point of view were a revelation to me. He was an excellent writer, with a breadth of reading and reference rarely found in composers I've known. But it is as a composer that his work has most moved me."--William Bolcom, composer and Ross Lee Finney Distinguished University Professor Emeritus of Composition, University of Michigan