The late Earle Brown (1926-2002) was a key figure in the so-called post-World War II “New York School” of composers (including John Cage and Morton Feldman) who experimented with open form, indeterminacy, and new concepts of notation, as well as revamping principles of serial music to suit their own expressive and philosophical needs. New World’s Earle Brown anthology offers an ideal overview of the composer’s early works in performances conducted, supervised, or endorsed by the composer. Overall, Brown’s sound world consists of pointillist phrases, long tones in extreme registers, and jagged, unsettled rhythms. These elements seem to float freely and leisurely, with a gentle collision here and there. Think of Brown’s handling of space, silence, and stasis as a tone parallel to Alexander Calder’s mobiles.
Also notice how the composer resists certain instrumental conventions. For example, in Novarra the most urgent melodic passages for string instruments are played pizzicato, while winds and brass work hard to control slow sliding gestures that normally would be assigned to bowed strings. Brown’s superb ear for timbre also manifests itself in Times Five’s subtle shifts between live acoustic instruments and pre-recorded four-channel electronic sounds, despite the dry, relatively constricted recording quality. Clearly this piece begs for a more resonant acoustic and surround-sound. Furthermore, Brown’s stylistic integrity is such that I listened without referring to David Ryan’s lovingly informed booklet notes, and I found it impossible to ascertain which pieces were conventionally notated and which were derived from graphic instructions. Collectors who missed this release on CRI should take advantage now.
