Klarinet Archive - Posting 000032.txt from 2001/12

From: Bear Woodson <bearwoodson@-----.com>
Subj: [kl] Mr. Ronald Lo Presti & CFM
Date: Sun, 2 Dec 2001 17:08:46 -0500

Hello, Klarinet List and Mr. Levin.

> Sorry I'm just reading a two week old post. I don't
> want to get into this argument; but I do want to
> mention that I studied clarinet for a time with Ron
> Lo Presti when I was in high school. (circa 1963)
> He was an early stimulator of my compositional
> efforts - even though I had not then heard much of
> his music. What became of him?

I studied Music Composition with Mr. Ronald Lo
Presti in my young college years, from 1971 to 1976,
at Arizona State University near Phoenix.

Yes, Mr. Ronald Lo Presti played clarinet, but he
was better known later as a composer, and for his de-
tailed yet lyrical counterpoint, plus the rare CFM, Chro-
matic Functional Modality System. I have heard of a
lot of 20th Century Theory Systems in the last 30
years, but none as Detailed, yet Clear to understand
as how Mr. Lo Presti explained the Chromatic Func-
tional Modality System. There are similar systems by
jazzers, and some parallels to Set Theory, but this
system is still unique.

In the last year, a young musician has written an
entire Dissertation about 4 of my works, including a
72-minute CD that they recorded, of which all the
rehearsals and recording sessions were personally
supervised by an internationally respected musician,
as one of the main professors on that Doctoral
Committee. The Defense of that Dissertation will be
complete by the end of this week. Until then, I'm
keeping some of the details private, at the insistence
of the young student and that professor on the Doc-
toral Committee.

The Dissertation includes pages of complex Har-
monic and Motivic Analysis, which *I* have had to
write, since there are NO other printed, nor living
experts on the Chromatic Functional Modality System.
The professors of the Doctoral Committee have done
searches on the Internet, at other universities, and
have even hunted down, and talked to, other former
students of Howard Hanson and Mr. Lo Presti. They
have been doing these searches for nearly a year, and
NO ONE can be found, except myself, who still knows
and uses this system.

The 12-Toners were adamant to commit Intellectual
Genocide by exterminating all knowledge of Chromatic
Functional Modality, because it always disavowed any
validity to 12-Tone Matrix Music, which, by definition
is an Anti-Functional Harmonic System.

Yes, Alban Berg, and other used 12-Tone with delib-
erate Tonal and/or Modal Implications, but that is con-
trary to the goals of most 12-Toners to produce some-
thing different. Frankly I applaud their efforts to find
harmonic originality, but I don't enjoy most of their re-
sults, which sound like gibberish to me, and so many
people, that even most 12-Toners have abandoned it
by the Mid-1990's, when it was officially declared as
dead. Pure 12-Tone Music avoid all triads (both Quar-
tal and Tertian), and all former recognizable harmonic
patterns. With nothing familiar to hang on to, we can't
easily relate, so whereas the attempt is noble, the result
is too foreign for most of us.

Paul Hindemith taught Principles of Chord Roots.
Howard Hanson added that to Modes and devised most
of the Chromatic Functional Modality System, and taught
it to his students, which included Mr. Ronald Lo Presti.
Mr. Lo Presti made further modifications to it, and I am
merely trying to quote him as best as I can. Now that
the Dissertation on me is nearly approved, there is that
much more pressure for me to write the first text about
the Chromatic Functional Modality System.

Whereas Tonality is limited to Harmonic Functions that
are mostly based on just the Major Scale (Ionian Mode),
the Chromatic Functional Modality System uses neat-
sounding Chord Progressions from ALL modes, Ethnic
Modes, Altered Modes, etc. Followers of Hindemith and
Modern Jazz have been doing this every day for 50 years.
We hear these harmonies in the backgounds of most TV
and Film Scores for the last 50 years, even if we are not
consciously aware of them.

Tonality was around for about 300 years, before
Rameau succeeded in explaining it better than all pre-
vious attempts by other theorists, and there have been
many subtle improvements to it since then. So it is with
Chromatic Functional Modality. I find the explanations
to be clear, but the Harmonic Analysis Symbols to be
far more cumbersome than the Rameau Roman Nu-
meral System. Practice precedes the Theory Explan-
ation, so it may be many years before a system as
simple as Rameau's is invented.

Mr. Ronald Lo Presti was an amazingly inspiring
teacher! He rarely spoke louder than a mezzo-piano, be-
cause he wanted to get people to listen to him, and he
usually succeeded. He had the most wonderful gift for
taking huge, complex concepts, and explaining them in
short sentences of simple words, that everyone could
understand and enjoy. People always liked him. He'd
inspire his students to work themselves to death for
him, sometimes to only get a B or C, but to have
learned a lot from the process, and feel good about
yourself.

His one vice was that he smoked like a chimney.
He had a series of small heart attacks from smoking,
and died a few days before his 53rd Birthday. His wife
told me, that they were sitting in the patio of their
backyard one day, talking to a neighbor lady, when he
said, "I don't feel too well", and fell over. He was dead
in minutes. It was a huge loss to the music world and
humanity.

It is my sincere wish to do what I can to get the Lo
Presti symphonies, and all of his unpublished works,
into Computer Print, distributed and recorded for the
sake of history. (I also wish to do what I can to further
the music of Dr. Peter Jona Korn, with whom I also
studied, and who has also passed away, but with some
CD's already out, and who had more fame during his
lifetime.)

Mr. Ronald Lo Presti, teacher, composer and clari-
netist, (1933 - 1986). He was my first professor of
Music Composition, and still, by far, holds the strongest
influence on my style of writing lyrical, complex coun-
terpoint.

As some of you know, I am on a mission to write a
series of sonatas and concertos for each orchestral in-
stument. I already have sonatas for most of the strings,
brasses, flute and bassoon. With all of this talk of clari-
net lately, I've already begun sketching idea for a so-
nata for Bb clarinet with piano, and a quintet for Bb
clarinet with violin, viola, cello and string bass, (as
opposed to the usual string quartet). I'm even thinking
of making viola transcriptions of the solo clarinet part.
We'll see.

Bear Woodson
Composer, Tucson, Arizona, USA
"Bear Woodson" <BearWoodson@-----.Com>
"Bear Woodson" <BearWoodson@-----.Com>

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