Ms. Talma
On Women
And Wilder

By GORDON EMERSON

Although the late Thornton Wilder left one of the 20th Century's most admired oeuvre of novels and plays at his death last year, the 1920 Yale graduate and Hamden resident had long been interested in writing the libretto for an opera. Few know, however, that Mr. Wilder accomplished just that in the late fifties, and that the finished product, "The AlceSTDiad", was produced at the Frankfurt Opera House in German translation on March 2, 1962, and ran for eight consecutive performances there.

Those who are aware of the great writer's sole operatic effort may also be aware that his musical collaborator was pianist-composer Louise Talma, a member of the Hunter College faculty since 1928 and the first woman ever to receive two Guggenheim Grants in musical composition.

Ms. Talma will journey to the Yale campus one week from Friday as this year's second guest of the Yale Music School's Samuel Simon Sanford Fellowship program which has already honored such notables as Eugene Ormandy, William Steinberg and Gary Graffman. This year, however, the focus is quite pointedly on the contributions of women, and after Ms. Talma's visit will include appearances by Scottish composer Thea Musgrave and American conductors Eve Queler and Sarah Caldwell later in the spring.

Though Ms. Talma has agreed to accept the prestigious Yale invitation and commemorative medallion which accompanies it, there is nonetheless a distinct irony involved — an irony which let itself be known when I recently asked the 69-year-old composer if she feels we have reached the point where we can finally stop referring to “women” composers or “black” composers as if they are somehow oddities in need of special designation. “If we have,” she replied emphatically, “it is certainly not reflected as of 1976. Now, in fact, there are more organizations than ever that serve to emphasize such distinctions, and we have a League for Women Composers, a celebration of the International Women’s Year, concerts of music by women composers and so on. I can’t tell you how sick and tired I am of that Women’s Lib label and I feel that it hurts much more than it helps. As an example, I feel that Sarah Caldwell’s recent appearance with the New York Philharmonic in which she conducted only music by other women put the emphasis entirely in the wrong place.”

In the case of Talma's March 26th

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THE NEW HAVEN REGISTER

Ms. Louise Talma

LOUISE TALMA

place Thornton asked them if they would please listen very carefully to the play and tell him if they felt it would be good for opera. When they said, 'but we're not musicians,' Thornton interjected 'Good! good! Precisely what I wanted — a cultivated but non-professional opinion.' As it turned out they did think it would make a wonderful opera, shared their enthusiasm with Thornton, and in a very offhanded way he simply told them, 'Okay, tell Louise to go ahead.'

"During the following three years I met with Thornton every few months at various spots all over the world and played for him what I had composed to his libretto. Textural revisions turned out to be difficult since we finally found that — in our own case, at least — it took about twice as long to sing a text as speak it. But insofar as the music was concerned he never made criticisms or suggestions and I can still hear him saying 'Fine, fine, Louise — that's just the way I like it.'"

Apparently what Wilder "liked" was informed by acute musical sensibilities, and the Frankfurt premiere was greeted with — according to a Time magazine correspondent who stood in the wings with a stopwatch— a 20-minute standing ovation and 50 curtain calls.

"Thornton wanted a grand opera with no holds barred," Talma further noted, "and the work is scored for 11 solo roles — eight of which are principals — a large chorus and orchestra."

Are there any glimmerings of a full

scale American performance in the offing? "Oh there have been several glimmerings," replied a somewhat disillusioned Talma, "but it's still too early to tell if they will really take on form. Such things move much more slowly here than in Europe and then, of course, there's always the problem of money. Naturally, I'm terribly eager to hear it done in English because I'm such a great believer in the importance of the sound of the language in which an opera is conceived."

A product of Juilliard, and New York and Columbia Universities, Ms. Talma also spent several summers in Fontainebleau working under Nadia Boulanger and pianist Isidor Philipp. Nonetheless, while musical creation rather than re-creation has consistently remained her driving ambition, she adamantly refuses to teach composition. Why? "Quite simply," she replied, "because composition cannot be taught. Of course you can teach the craft, and I find it very stimulating to teach solfege, harmony and counterpoint — which is what I do at Hunter. But once you've got a student to the point where they're using their own imagination, then they must follow their own sense of direction. At that point all I can offer are personal opinions."

Talma's own compositional style, which has been brought to bear on virtually all combinations of instrument and voice, is generally tonal and strongly contrapuntal. She finds peripheral interest in both jazz and the American musical theater, however with rock her admiration comes to a screeching halt. "One thing that particularly disturbs me about rock," says the woman whose honors include the Sibelius Medal and North American Music Prize, "is the noise level. I can see the results in my students and they don't seem to like a plain old acoustic sound anymore. I'm three times their age but my hearing is much better than most of theirs."

Insofar as her feelings concerning the current "serious" music scene and compositional trends is concerned, Ms. Talma refused comment. "Please let me save that subject for my Yale talk," she answered politely but firmly. "The only thing I will say now is that I have some very definite ideas and strong feelings about both subjects — and I assure you I'll make them known at that time." Which means, that if you're sufficiently intrigued, you're well advised to wend your way to Sprague Hall at 8 p.m. on the 26th.

March 28, 1976

THE NEW HAVEN REGISTER

# Composer Louise Talma

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sojourn to New Haven, however, the emphasis will be directed quite where it belongs — Sprague Hall, that is, at 8 p.m. where, in addition to excerpts from "Alcested" featuring soprano Phyllis Curtin and the composer herself at the key-board, pianist Herbert Rogers will perform her Sonata No. 2 and four of her Six Etudes. Rounding out the free program, the composer will join violinist Daniel Stepner in her Violin Sonata and then indulge in a dialogue with the audience.

Talma's eventual operatic collaboration with Thornton Wilder came about in large part through fate, and, as she recalled during a conversation last weekend, "That was in 1952 at the MacDowell Colony in New Hampshire, and my first day there I was told that Mr. Wilder wanted to meet me. I couldn't understand why, or even how he knew of me, and I was flabbergasted because I had always been in such awe of this man and his work. As it turned out, he had heard a little five-minute piano piece of mine entitled, 'Alleluia' and had decided that I was the one to collaborate with him on an opera. Though I was terribly flattered — and knew that everyone from Copland on down had attempted to persuade Thornton to do an opera with them, I declined. Being that he was such a courteous and courtly man he simply replied 'If you ever change your mind let me know.' A year later I heard from him again in New York, and we set up a date at the Algonquin Hotel to talk about a specific project he had in mind, and there in the lobby over a drink I said 'okay, if you're willing to take a chance on me, let's go ahead.' That plot was nothing like the 'Alcested' however, but I did some work on it and we corresponded about the project for the next year.

"At the same time, Thornton was also writing the play 'The Alcested' for the Edinburgh Festival and when it was completed he invited me to a reading. The minute I heard it I knew that that was the opera I wanted to do and I wrote him a long letter explaining my feelings. But I never received an answer. As fate would further have it, however, two non-musician friends of mine were going to Edinburgh to see the premiere of the play and they asked me for a letter of introduction so they could meet Thornton. I happily complied, and when the meeting took

LOUISE TALMA

A product of Juilliard, and New York and Columbia Universities, Ms. Talma also spent several summers in Fountaine bleau working under Nadia Boulanger and pianist Isidor Philipp. Nonetheless, while musical creation rather than re-creation has consistently remained her driving ambition, she adamantly refuses to teach composition. Why? "Quite simply," she replied, "because composition cannot be taught. Of course you can teach the craft, and I find it very stimulating to teach solfege, harmony and counterpoint — which is what I do at Hunter. But once you've got a student to the point where they're using their own imagination, then they must follow their own sense of direction. At that point all I can offer are personal opinions."

music by other women put the emphasis entirely in the wrong place."

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