Page 16
The Battalion Thursday, February 16,1989
Texas
Noted composer believes
trombone deserves solos
NEW YORK (AP) — Pulitzer
Prize-winning composer Ellen
Taaffe Zwilich was commissioned to
create a new music piece for the Chi
cago Symphony because two trom
bone players wanted her to write
music for them.
Sir Georg Solti will conduct “Con
certo for Trombone and Orchestra”
when the Symphony premieres it
this month.
“The orchestra has a very fine
first trombonist, Jay Friedman, and
now has a wonderful bass trombone
player, Charles Vernon,” said Zwi
lich, the only woman ever to be
awarded a Pulitzer for music.
“They both asked for me. I love
the instrument and I think it’s a
wonderful solo instrument — with a
very small repertoire.
“To me it’s an instrument that
should have the stature of the violin
or piano as a soloist. So I was
thrilled. It’s nice to feel you’re mak
ing a contribution.”
When it came to composing, Zwi
lich said, “What I decided to do was
write very different pieces. The one
for tenor trombone is very interac
tive with the orchestra.
“The other, that I’m working on,
is for bass trombone and strings and
very little percussion. It is less inter
active and more brilliantly virtuosic.”
That piece will be premiered next
season.
Zwilich, 49, won the Pulitzer Prize
for music in 1983 for her “First Sym
phony.”
She played violin for seven years
in the American Symphony and
played trumpet in school. She has
had experience with each family of
instruments, but she didn’t play
trombone.
“I think one of the wonderful
things that’s available to a composer
today is the good advice of musicians
you respect,” Zwilich said.
“Both Jay and Charlie have had
very strong impact on the pieces I
was writing for them. I’ve sat down
with them, with and without instru
ments. We talk on the telephone.
Someone who spends his or her life
playing an instrument always has in
sights the outsider can never have.
“I also sat down with Solti. We
talked about other people’s music
for trombone and orchestra and he
told me what he thought the prob
lems were.”
The New York Philharmonic pre
miered Zwilich’s “Symbolon” last
June in the Soviet Union. It is the
first American composition to be
premiered there. This season, the
Philharmonic will perform that work
and the composer’s “Concerto
Grosso 1985” at Lincoln Center.
Based on a theme of Handel, it
was commissioned by the Washing
ton Friends of Handel.
Zwilich went on the Philharmonic
tour. She relates that one Soviet man
said he was surprised to hear a pow
erful piece composed by a woman.
“The translator sort of giggled,” she
said “She, as well as I, thought it was
quaint.” However, Zwilich said,
Americans also “are sometimes sur
prised that women composers would
have what might be considered a
powerful statement to make.”
As the trombone concerto was
composed for a particular player
and orchestra, “Symbolon” was tai
lored for its debut.
“Two things were uppermost in
my mind,” she said. “One was that I
wanted it to be a piece that would ex
ploit the New York Philharmonic’s
virtuosity. I wrote a bass solo because
the principal contrabass player is
from Leningrad.
“The fact it was going to receive
its premiere in the Soviet Union was
very touching to me. I knew the
piece would reflect the powerful and
sometimes conflicting emotions that
I have about the current world polit
ical situation.
“It’s a piece of music. People can
listen many different ways. It’s not a
piece where I think it’s necessary to
know the background. The title is an
old Greek term which, refers to two
parties breaking something in two
and each keeping half.
The implication is that it’s a token
of friendship and good will. There is
a sense of needing the other to com
plete things.”
Two recordings of Zwilich music
will be released soon. The New York
Philharmonic recorded “Symbolon,”
“Concerto Grosso 1985” and “Con
certo for Trumpet and Five Play
ers,” conducted by Zubin Mehta,
and “Double Quartet for Strings,”
conducted by the composer, for New
World Records. The Louisville Sym
phony recorded her “Second Sym
phony” for Louisville Heritage Re
cords.
Zwilich was born in Miami, has
bachelors and masters degrees in
composition from Florida State Uni
versity and was the first woman to
receive a doctorate in composition
from the Juilliard School.
Tractors, tractors everywhere
but not one can plow thefields
HOPKINSVILLE, Ky. (AP) —
Most everyone in Christian
County knows that Charles Oatts
farms a lot of land.
What many don’t know is that
he has more than 500 tractors,
combines and implements stored
in a building behind his house,
and not one of them is big
enough to do a decent day’s work.
That’s because they’re toys. Ev
ery one is an imitation of farm
machinery made during the past
40 years by companies such as
John Deere, Case, International
Harvester, Oliver, Massey-Fergu-
son, Kubota, Ford, New Holland,
Allis Chalmers, Hesston and New
Idea.
Oatts, 47, sells the farm toys to
collectors. Some drive hundreds
of miles to this out-of-the-way
farm in western Kentucky. Oth
ers call from far reaches looking
for toys they haven’t been able to
track down elsewhere.
“I strive to have the toys people
want and the toys they can’t find
anywhere else,” he says. “If some
body calls here looking for some
thing, I like to be able to say I’ve
got it.”
Oatts began collecting farm
toys seriously in 1980 and opened
his business three years ago.
“People would come to our
house to visit and they would say,
‘1 wish I had one of those,'
Oatts. “I decided if there wen
that many people who wanteii
them, then 1 might as well sell tin
toys myself.”
Oatts estimates that only
(juarter of the toys he sells arefoi
children.
Oatts’ toys for sale range
price from a few dollars to $3
for a Case-International tracft
that was made fora 1987dealers
show in Denver. The most vat
able toy tractor Oatts owns,)
John Deere 430 made duringtk
late ’50s and valued at abow
$650, is not for sale.
AUSTIF
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Harmon claims sexiness just a job
A third
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Mario Ran
LOS ANGELES (AP) — “Oh, he’s
a television actor” is a common Ho
lywood put-down that Michael
Fox, Tom Selleck, Bruce Willis arid
Ted Danson have managed to over
come. Now Mark Harmon faces the
re’s/
i
same sneer.
The former Dr. Bobby Caldwell
of “St. Elsewhere” has broken
through with two major films: “The
Presidio,” co-starring with Sean
Connery; and “Stealing Home,” with
Jodie Foster.
Zw'ilich met her husband, violinist
Joseph Zwilich, in a restaurant after
she had performed with the Ameri
can Symphony and he had played in
the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra.
“The Presidio,” a big-budget pro
duction that bombed at the box of
fice, featured Harmon as a San
Francisco police officer investigating
a murder on an army base. In the
more modest “Stealing Home,” he is
a minor league ballplayer on the
skids, returning to his boyhood
roots.
Last summer, Harmon made his
big-screen starring debut in the rau
cous comedy ‘“Summer School,” di
rected by Carl Reiner. He called it a
turning point.
“Before ‘Summer School,” no
body was knocking on my door.
“It was Carl Reiner who actually
took that by the horn and said, ‘This
is the guy I want to play the role.’ ”
Harmon first achieved promi
nence as star quarterback for the
University of California at Los An
geles football team in 1972 and
1973.
“I don’t think it hurts to be com
petitive in this business,” he said.
“It’s best to work hard at what you
do and try not to let the effort show.
FOLEY T S
012 34 5678
VAUICO CUSTOMER
USE YOUR
FOLEY’S
CHARGE
FOLEY T S
Underneath it all I’m pretty
and that comes from being ant
lete.”
Harmon made his acting detail
an episode of "Ozzie’s Girls t
played 22 other TV roles Mu
breaking into features with the 1!
“Comes a Horseman.” His grea
exposure came as the AlDS-doomt
doctor in “St. Elsewhere’
Coors beer commercials.
The 37-year-old actor is unsw
by such comments or his selection
People magazine as “the sexiests
alive.” Of his profession he said:
“This is what 1 do. It’s ajob,ami
respect it as that. It’s also abouuli
do. I have a family, and 1 usedto!
a carpenter.
“If this all disappears tomorro>
know I can still build houses.
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