Klarinet Archive - Posting 000340.txt from 1996/08

From: Josias Associates <josassoc@-----.COM>
Subj: Re: Goodman classical commissions
Date: Sun, 11 Aug 1996 23:11:14 -0400

Maureen and Subscribers to Klarinet,

I started composing this message on the afternoon of Saturday,
August 10th, during which the Pacific power-grid failure interrupted my
activities. When the power came on two hours later, I had lost my text
plus your original message. I was dismayed to learn later that, at the
point of the power outage, the system transmitted an unfinished fragment
of my intended message.

The following is the complete message:

Connie

Conrad Josias
La Canada, California

Maureen,

Allen Buffington jogged my memory about your posting when he
mentioned Morton Gould's "Benny's Gig," an excellent composition, which I
have also played. I'm not sure whether Goodman actually commissioned the
eight duos that comprise "Benny's Gig," because at least one of the duos was
written as a birthday present. But Goodman, a close friend of Gould's,
certainly inspired the composer to write them, which is good enough for me.

Gould's magnum opus for solo clarinet, however, was "Derivations
for Clarinet and Jazz Band," written for Goodman in 1955.

David Niethamer quotes Edward Tatnall Canby as attributing the
commissioning of Poulenc's "Sonata for Clarinet and Piano" to Goodman.
In writing program notes a couple of years ago for the clarinet sonata,
I used the same source, and also cited Goodman as the commissioner of the
work. Canby is (was?) one of the most reputable and authoritative
musicologists of the time, and I would tend to accept his report of the
commission as being accurate, along with his mentioning of the premiere
performance of the Sonata by Goodman and Leonard Bernstein.

Composers sometimes use different words for acknowledging different
people in new compositions. Combinations of words such as "Dedicated to...,"
"In memory of...," and "In homage to.." can appear on the same
composition. Poulenc's memorial to his close friend, Arthur Honnegger, is
well known, partly because it appears on the music (my edition is
the 8th [Chester Music] with notes from the 5th). I can only guess that
the acknowledgment of the person commissioning the music was omitted or
beclouded because the music was published posthumously, and the composer
was not present to attend to details.

Maureen, since you are attending Yale University, I suspect that
you may have the ultimate authority for answering some of these questions
at your fingertips. I refer to the Benny Goodman Archives at Yale.
I first learned of them from the February/March 1989 issue of "The
Clarinet," which contained an article preceding one I had written for that
issue. I refer you to the article entitled, "The Benny Goodman Archives In
The Music Library At Yale University" by Elizabeth Gier. The article,
which outlines the contents of the archives, describes Goodman's long
association with Yale, which began in 1940 when he commissioned
Paul Hindemith to write his "Clarinet Concerto" for him.

Connie

Conrad Josias
La Canada, California