TheMillbrookIndependent.com: Ulysses Kay (1917-1995): Scherzi musicali (1968), conducted by Andrés Rivas, offers a twelve-tone composition

Ulysses Kay (1917-1995)

The Millbrook Independent

November 15, 2020

Kevin T. McEneaney

At Bard College’s Fisher Center for Performing Arts, The Orchestra Now performed its last concert of the academic year under the baton of Leon Botstein. The program consisted of rarely performed works.

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While the American composer Ulysses Kay (1917-1995), who learned to play piano, violin, and saxophone from his uncle King Oliver, is one of this country’s most important 20^th century neo-classical composers, his work is not as widely known as it should be. He studied under Hindemith at Yale and wrote 20 works for large orchestra and five operas, the last being Frederick Douglass (1991).  

Scherzi musicali (1968), conducted by Andrés Rivas, offers a twelve-tone composition where all twelve notes circulate through the musical scale. The opening movement displays the influence of Varèse with dissonance competing with a vortex of twisting melodic lines. Similar to the Varèse dialectic, the wind quartet competes with the strings. The third movement features only winds, while the fourth movement fiercely pits the strings against the winds with increasing volume and dissonant shifts, achieving a colossal, resounding resolution—similar in concept to the Varèse conclusion.