Benjamin Lees

with Eva Soltes

Palm Springs, California

July 28, 2000

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Side g:                                                                                                                        pp. 1-18

Writing for the orchestra--Tempo articles 1959-1994 about Lees--stylistic directions in the twentieth century--finding his own stylistic direction--earliest musical influences--growing up in San Francisco--parents’ background--going to the U.S.--composing for the orchestra--deciding on composition as a direction--moving to Los Angeles--Henry Cowell--working at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in the reading department--studying at USC with Halsey Stevens, Ernest Kanitz and Ingolf Dahl--Ernst Toch--meeting and studying with George Antheil.

Side h:                                                                                                                       pp. 18-35

George Antheil as a teacher continued--Antheil as a pianist--New York School of composers--moving to New York--Fromm Foundation Award--Sonata for Two Pianos--First String Quartet--critics’ reaction to his music--Nicholas Slonimsky--work with United Productions of America in Burbank--reception by New York composers--Aaron Copland--seven years of composing in Europe--commission from Louisville orchestra: Symphony No. 2--performances by George Szell--Concerto for Orchestra--Boosey and Hawkes as his publisher--awards received--String Quartet No. 2--Sonata Breve--Henry Cowell’s comments on the String Quartet No. 2--critical review of his music--importance of regional orchestras--importance for him of hearing his music--conductors and performances of his music--his reaction to minimalism.

Side i:                                                                                                                         pp. 35-51

Composing--acquaintances with surrealists in Europe: Man Ray, Marcel Duchamp, Max Ernst, René Magritte--influence of surrealist ideas on his music--younger composers--Gershwin--Britten--being a composer--teaching at Peabody Conservatory--Queens College--returning to Peabody--teaching composition--going to the USSR--Khachaturian--Krenikoff--Symphony No. 3--commission from Kansas City Philharmonic: Quartet Concerto--Third Symphony--his composing style--Concerto for Woodwind Quintet and Orchestra--First Piano Trio--Fifth Symphony--Concerto for Percussion and Orchestra--learning from listening to Mahler.

Side j:                                                                                                                         pp. 51-67

Fourth Symphony--more on Mahler and Bruckner--time-space idea--Third Symphony--its premiere with Sixten Ehrling--Sixth Symphony--Fourth Symphony--Nelly Sachs--Concerto for Brass Choir and Orchestra for the Dallas Symphony--more on Fourth Symphony--Isaac Stern--going to Jerusalem, visiting Holocaust museums--deciding on the poetry and getting permission from Sachs’ estate--performances of the Fourth Symphony--use of poetry--instrumentation--Piano trios--composing chamber music vs. orchestral music--importance of form--more on the Fourth Symphony--reaction of critic Paul Hume to Lees’ music.

Side k                                                                                                                                    pp. 67-86

John Cage--Visions of Poets--Walt Whitman’s The Published and Rejected Verses--“accessibility” of Lees’ music--holding on to tonality--Ned Rorem--Samuel Barber--pitch organization--Medea in Corinth--Odyssey--Trumpet of the Swan--compositions in the seventies--Concerto for Brass Choir and Orchestra--String Quartet No. 3--Portrait of Rodin--Fifth Symphony--Third Violin Sonata--Echoes of Normandy--Constellations--Concerto for Percussion and Orchestra--electronically produced music--the orchestra as an institution--plans for future composing--homosexuality and music--

Side l                                                                                                                          pp. 86-93

Meeting Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears--future of music--universities and music--conductors and how they established themselves--American music and the need for American conductors.