REVIEWS
OF B. WARREN'S COMPOSITIONS
A
review of B. Warren's life and work as excerpted from
Harvard Composers: Walter Piston and His Students, from
Elliott Carter to Frederic Rzewski, by Howard Pollack
(Metuchen, N.J.: The Scarecrow Press, Inc., 1992), p.
364-366.
….
Born in Boston in 1921, Warren was raised in Maine….
After two years at the University of Maine, she attended
Radcliffe and Harvard (1940-44), earning both a bachelor's
and master's degree. At Harvard she studied 16th-century
counterpoint with Merritt, and fugue, harmony, and composition
with Piston. She also studied with Boulanger but decided
that "Piston had everything Boulanger had plus
a sense of humor." She especially was moved by
Piston's "complete integrity," by the way
he made his students feel like "humble servants
before the throne of Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms…."
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Excerpted
from Jameson Marvin's Program Notes to a Harvard University
concert entitled Music by Harvard Composers: Present
and Past, presented at Sanders Theatre, May 6, 2000.
Corinna
and Oz are two poems from a set of five by David McCord.
B. Warren set these charming poems in 1980 in "Five
Songs in Five Minutes" for unaccompanied chorus.
Her compositional style and keen ear captures the essence
of each poem. The "call to dinner [to] Corinner"
[Boston accent] mimics humorously the pitch and rhythm
of speech. Brief homophonic exclamations provide points
of arrival for this delightful contrapuntal setting
of McCord's poem. The setting of the four words of the
poem Oz: "Is Oz? Oz was." reveals Warren's
contrapuntal craftsmanship. Harmonically reminiscent
of Gesualdo's chromatic madrigals, the shifting tonal
centers, imitative counterpoint (canons in inversion
and retrograde), dynamic contrasts, and slow tempos
sung "mysteriously" vividly embellish McCord's
delightful, child-like poem.
From
"B. Warren", an article by Betsy Small appearing
in the Lute Society of America Quarterly (Vol. 36, No.
1, Feb. 2001, p. 25).
B.
Warren, a prolific Boston-area composer, has written
a finely-crafted collection of interrelated pieces entitled
The Lutenist's Solo and Duet
Book, edited and intabulated by Douglas
Freundlich. The pieces were commissioned in 1997
by Arthur Ness to honor the 500th anniversary of Francesco
Canova da Milano's death, as well as to stimulate public
interest in new lute music, a cause that has long been
of interest to Mr. Ness. Last summer, after having become
familiar with this collection, I had the pleasure of
interviewing Ms. Warren at her home in Cambridge, Massachusetts...
[read more]
Reviews
of B. Warren's Ride-a-Cock-Horse
"This
title covers a short two-movement work of Grades 5-6
standard. The first is gigue-like and supple hands are
needed to cope with the quick lateral shifts. The second
section is gently melodic. A good Festival Test-Piece."
(P.T.A. Piano Journal, February 1983)
""Slightly
wry humour with unexpected harmonic and melodic twists
in the first [movement]; the second more wistful and
expressive. Metronomic and pedal indications included.
No fingering." (Music Teacher, Sept. 1983)
Reviews
of Wiscasset Music Publishing Company's Bach's 263 Settings
of 73 Chorale Melodies, compiled by Mary Phillips Webster:
"Admirers
of Bach's chorale settings will hasten to acquire '263
Settings'… Each chorale is set out across a wide page
so that different harmonizations can be directly underlaid
for easy comparison… Presents very clearly the marvelous
variety of these settings." (Early Music News)
"…Students
should acquire 263 Settings… and steep themselves in
the form. There is no real substitute and this exhaustive
collection does a major service in providing a critical
source." (Organists' Review)
"Various
editions of his 371 chorales have long been a required
text for students, but this new edition…goes several
steps ahead of any of them… This layout, which is very
neat and pleasing to the eye…greatly facilitates comparison
among the various settings." (Keyboards and Music
Player)
"A
useful reference and teaching tool." (The American
Organist, March 1985)
Review of B. Warren's
The Appletree Madrigals:
"The
music is unusual and fairly modern in style. The chosen
idiom is convincing and it works well. Given its fairly
contemporary train of thought, this music is fairly
difficult to sing, though people who sight-sing reasonably
well, rather than just guessing, should not have too
much trouble! The textures are expressive and the harmonic
thought is good. There is a good sense of direction
and 'structural down-beat' so Warren's composition has
much charm…." (Music Teacher, May 1985)
Review
of B. Warren's Jonah:
"[This
cantata] is specifically for Baritone, with string quartet.
The words are from the book of Jonah, and the piece
would be a good central item for a church recital programme.
It is declamatory in style, and not too difficult musically
or technically. Range is B flat - G, but the F and G
are only touched briefly." (Singing, Spring, 1985)
Review of B. Warren's
Saxophone Quartet:
"This
is an especially good student piece because each of
the saxophones has nearly equal responsibility for strong
melodic playing, blend, and continuity; melody lines
are often broken up between instruments. The work as
a whole is not difficult, but there are wide interval
leaps. There are no harmonics used. This would be playable
by a good high school quartet, and could easily become
part of a college group's repertoire. One negative aspect
for teacher is the lack of a score." (Review by
David Demsey in Saxophone Journal)
Review
of B. Warren's For 2 Saxophones:
"The
duo maintains much the same harmonic style and vocabulary
as does the [Saxophone Quartet]; however, it is more
difficult with faster tempos, some mixed meter in the
first movement and faster note values, especially in
the final movement, a minute-long stream of sixteenth
notes….The movements interlock nicely, with motives
based on perfect fourths occurring throughout the entire
piece…Both instruments share the melodic responsibility,
with a great deal of imitation. The piece is written
in score format, and the engraving is easily readable."
(Review by David Demsey in Saxophone Journal)
Review
of B. Warren's The Blue Goat (a piece for guitar):
"The
work is in four movements; Largo, Allegro, Andante and
Moderato. None of them offer much in the way of problems
either technically or musically. Fingering is limited
to the odd string or position suggestion. Warren has
a nice flair for melody and this, together with the
fact that the music falls easily under the fingers,
should make this piece accessible to players of moderate
ability. (Review by Phillip M. Thorne, Classical Guitar,
August 1983)
Review of B.
Warren's Violin Sonata No. 2:
"…cleverly
constructed work of great charm" (Reviewed by Peter
Lavender, Music World, October 1984)
Review of B. Warren's Theme
and Variations for Four Brass Instruments:
"…particularly
useful for the school brass group repertoire. Score
and parts are very good value." (Reviewed by Peter
Lavender, Music World, October 1984)
Review
of The Lutenist's Solo and Duet Book:
"What
better way to affirm the position of the lute as a living
instrument than to commission new works for it? This
collection was commissioned by Arthur Ness 'to honor
the 500th anniversary of Francesco Canova da Milano
(1497-1543)', and consists of ten pieces, four solos
and six duets, for six-course lutes of equal pitch.
The composer offers various performance options: the
pieces may be played as two partitas of five movements
(in which the players take one solo each), or selectively,
'in any order'. The musical language ranges from basically
tonal with a restlessly shifting tonic, to the gently
atonal. The texture is predominantly single-line with
a few two- and three-note chords, and no avant-garde
techniques are required. Indeed the textures are reminiscent
of much early sixteenth-century lute music, particularly
in the solo movements. The composer obviously has a
good feel for what works on a renaissance lute; the
result is light and transparent, and doesn't feel anachronistic
on the instrument.
Each
piece is presented in staff notation and Spanish tablature,
all of the solos use the alto clef; the duets use treble
and bass. This somewhat unconventional notation is actually
rather well chosen; the Spanish tablature is familiar
to guitarists, and these pieces can equally be played
on guitars with the third string retuned. The clefs
are the obvious ones for the registers in which the
music lies, and any serious musician should be familiar
with all three. Lutenists who are not familiar with
this notation should not be put off by it; the notes
can be found easily from the tablature. If you can read
the staff notation you should, as all the performance
instructions are arranged around this. The editing and
intabulation are by lutenist Doug Freundlich, who has
fitted the notes to the fingerboard idiomatically, though
if you are mainly a first-position player, you may find
yourself exploring certain bits of the fingerboard for
the first time! A good sense of rhythm is required,
but otherwise the pieces are technically straightforward.
The
layout and appearance of the music is exemplary. Overall
these pieces are attractive and effective, and provide
unusually carefully-written material for an adventurous
duo. Good modern lute music is rare, and a warm welcome
is in order for collections such as this." (Reviewed
by Lynda Sayce in The British Lute Society Journal,
November 1999)
Review
of "Learning by Listening: The Wiscasset Music
Listening Course, Vol. 1 (1998)":
"This
is a book of 20 well-chosen pieces from around the world,
accompanied by musical scores, a glossary, and a CD.
Nine of its twenty musical examples were composed during
Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque times, which should
make it an excellent resource for eductors interested
in integrating early music in the curriculum. Also of
interest is the collection's attractive final composition,
a lively saxophone duet by Ms. Warren herself."
(from "B. Warren", an article by Betsy Small
appearing in the Lute Society of America Quarterly,
Vol. 36, No. 1, Feb. 2001, p. 25)
"I
had the pleasure of using Learning By Listening: The
Wiscasset Music Listening Course in my classroom during
the past year. The program introduces students to classical
music by mentioning a composer's name and time of life,
along with the title of a short piece of his or her
work. Students then listen to a minute or two of music
by that composer. Within a few days, I began to notice
some of them tapping their feet, some directing with
a finger, some just listening. Students began requesting
repeats of some pieces that they liked and smiled warmly
when they were given. I would rate the program as a
success, its objective being to introduce students to
classical composers and pieces. In fact, I would rate
it highly. It is just that added touch that fills small
pieces of time that inevitably arise in any classroom."
(Richard Delano, Teacher, Grade 6, Topsham, Maine)
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