Leo and Pauline Ornstein

with Vivian Perlis

Dec. 8, 1972

Waban, Massachusetts

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Leo Ornstein

with Vivian Perlis

Side a:                                                                                                                  pp. 1-11

Aesthetic and personal involvement in writing music--Three Moods--memory in performance vs. notation of music--the Piano Concerto--family and longevity--childhood recollections of the St. Petersburg Conservatory.

Side b:                                                                                                                 p. 12-22

Reminiscence continued--translation of experience into art--commentary on the meaning of perception and intention as composer and performer--experiences in France at age 14.

Side c:                                                                                                                  p. 22-31

Subjectivity and the breakdown of communication in art--Ornstein ridicules over--analysis of musical effect--style and mannerism--more on family and friends.

Pauline Ornstein

with Vivian Perlis

Side d:                                                                                                                 p. 31-47

Pauline and Leo Ornstein, fellow students of Bertha Feiring Tapper in New York--Leo as prodigy--Conservatory life then and now--St. Petersburg Conservatory--Pauline Ornstein’s family history--Leo Ornstein’s feelings about performing--engagement and marriage--Leo’s compositions, early scores lost--Poems of 1917--Ornstein manuscripts at Yale Music Library--use of tape recorder to collect Leo’s playing of his own works--Hebraic Fantasy, Songs, Tarantelle--Philadelphia School--starting their own school--lectures in New York and Philadelphia--Leo Ornstein’s isolation from society--his opinions of concert reviews--Paul Rosenfeld--pseudo-eccentricities--Contemporary Music Society Concert--Leo Ornstein’s views on electronic music--his views on Stravinsky--Bandbox Theater concerts--Leo Ornstein’s views on Schoenberg--Scriabin--his feelings about Charles Ives.

Leo Ornstein                                                                                                                       

With: Vivian Perlis

Brownsville, Texas

November 19 and 20, 1977

                  TABLE OF CONTENTS

Side g                                                                                                             pp. 1-17

Composition—Quintet—influence of the environment—variety of composer’s languages—music as an abstract art—the audience—visual aspect of music—chance elements—performance—hearing his music in his mind—serial composition—composition students—reason for composing—Varèse—Danse sauvage.

Side h                                                                                                            pp.17-32

Conductors—St. Matthew Passion and other music of Bach—composing—need for performance—Berlioz—performance and personality—marriage to Pauline—concertizing—traveling and teaching—composing habits—Danse sauvage—Impressions of Notre Dame—composing Three Moods.

Side i                                                                                                              pp. 32-42

Writing and playing music—Russian Suite Paris—experimental, futurist works—Wild Man’s Dance—harmonic usage—Vignettes—sketch of Vignettes—Biography in Sonata Form—composing—Notre Dame—Wild Man’s Dance—Three Moods—Suicide in an Airplane of 1913.

Side j                                                                                                              pp. 42-53

Pauline’s role in taking down Ornstein’s music—translating his music from the mental conception of it to his hands—reaction to early works—Three Moods: Grief and Anger—going to school together with his wife—early family life—early piano teacher—Bach—putting music on paper—dictating music to Pauline.

Side k                                                                                                            pp .53-66

Vignette—harmonization—syncopation—polyrhythms—composer’s judgment about what to retain, what to discard—symphony—Six Preludes for Cello and Piano—Beethoven Association—Notre Dame—Three Moods—Vannin pseudonym—visual appearance of performer—audience—Three Pieces of Schoenberg.

Side l                                                                                                              pp. 66-82

Rebirth—traveling in a trailer—conserving energy in order to be able to write music—compostion and improvisation—Bach—reasons for composing—performing his music—The Grave of an Infant—Dan Stepner—Quartets—Quintet—Hebraic Fantasy—events of his life in Russia.