By Cheryl Gobbetti Hoffman – IAWM Journal (2003)
…a poet’s pen
all scorn I should thus wrong
For such despite they cast on female wits.
If what I do prove well, it won’t advance,
They’ll say it’s stol’n, or else it was by chance.
But sure the antique Greeks were far more mild,
Else of our Sex, why feigned they those nine
And poesy made Calliope’s own child?
So ’mongst the rest they placed the Arts divine…
-Anne Bradstreet (ca. 1612-72) in Prologue
Highly effective artists exhibit similar habits, working straight from the heart in tangible form that somehow speaks singularly, engaging our attentions by striking new yet strangely familiar chords. Something about their work sticks and moves us toward response. They devote their lives to freeing original voice and then nurturing it with unrelenting care and intensity.
Conversations with composer/pianist Persis Parshall Vehar focus on the arts, song budding in mind and heart, and life’s dances. In one of these conversations, Vehar remarked: “I am a composer—this is my calling. Music means everything to me. I am driven by working with those who are doing and always looking toward doing more. Performing keeps me mindful of the musicians as well as my audience; I have always reached for an original voice that could speak to all.”
Vehar has written over 200 vocal and instrumental compositions, many of which receive regular National Public Radio and international performances; they range from music for soloists and chamber groups to works for large ensembles, including two full-scale operas. Reviewers have been praising her works for decades; for example, New York Times music critic Peter G. Davis, in his critique of Millay-sia, a song cycle for soprano and string orchestra, wrote: “Her music has a considerable amount of charm, making its points with honesty, clarity, and compositional skill” (December 11, 1978). More recently, William Zagorski reviewed her Sound-Piece for trumpet, flugelhorn, piccolo trumpet and piano in the September/October 2000 issue of Fanfare magazine: “She is a virtuoso player and obviously a fine musician....Her piece is a tour de force...colorful and very inventive....Both serious and tongue-in-cheek, it integrates a wide and divergent array of melodic material into a cogently worked out essay....I’d like to hear more from her.”
Vehar holds degrees in piano performance, music theory and composition from Ithaca College and the University of Michigan; her compositional mentors were Warren Benson, Ross Lee Finney, Roberto Gerhard and Ned Rorem. She was appointed Composer-in-Residence by Canisius College in Buffalo, New York, in 1997, and her appointment has recently been renewed.
Canisius grants Vehar a performance base for the piano trio she founded with fellow faculty, as well as opportunities for professional advisory input on both campus and city cultural matters. Her residency is funded by the liberal arts college itself and is evolving as the music department continues to grow in size, nature and program. She works individually with selected music students and utilizes the resources at hand, with the college’s blessing, for projects she coordinates as a Western New York liaison for the Student Composers Program of the New York State School Music Association. From this vantage point she hopes to strengthen Western New York’s offerings for young composers, pre-college as well as undergraduate, and encourage composing at the high school level, where she finds far too few young women composing. She described her teaching philosophy:
Work tests us and then leads us to sense of self by focusing our self-actualization and communication. I advocate developing comprehensive musicianship and aural skills first, studying music theory and the basics of compositional technique, and also learning to understand the media and technology available, along with the impact it has in today’s world. Composers need to know the voices and instruments they are writing for and develop conducting skills. We need to learn early on how to make a career, the nuts and bolts of actually how to do it—how to get music out there and published.
A strong and important component of her Canisius appointment is the annual series of lectures she delivers to the college’s general public:
In my lectures, I strive to take people from where they are to where I might hope them to be. We consider questions such as “Why do composers write music?” or share from a project of mine, like the recently completed three-set song cycle inspired by the poetry of Charles Bukowski. I find sharing life experiences facilitates finding common points of departure for relating, and so approach the general liberal arts population, “crossing lines” in as many ways as I can—talking literature, gender, pertinent social issues and other such matters. Since I put myself and my life into the music, I believe talking in terms of self and life experience can help people see the composer as a person and then, through that discovery, continue on to find their way inside the composer’s art.Musically, we have traveled greatly during the 20th century, and there is no going back—we have been exposed to 12-tone technique, learned to utilize minimalism, and allowed jazz to color our voices inherently American. Why not follow Lou Harrison’s model and allow what we utilize to become a means to the end rather than the point? Chromaticism, serial technique—can we find a way to employ these 20th- century resources and sound original, rather than simply rehash what has been written before? This is, in part, the challenge I think composers face in the new millennium.
I feel classical music expresses the strongest of innermost feelings and emotions, providing psychological as well as emotional catharsis and comforting as it trolls the depths. Concert halls and opera houses continue to be built; I see new houses as signs of continued life within the genre. We must forge onward with our creating, and foster arts education with influence beyond the parameters of elitist stereotypes.
Persis credits her childhood in a do-it-yourself kind of family with planting the seeds of a constructionist within her. Her family’s culture burgeoned in an inclusive household filled with music, laughter and dance, where everyone played an instrument. She recalls picking up some initial piano savvy by simply watching what her sisters were doing; her first formal piano lessons at the Utica Conservatory came easily thanks to an innate ability to play by ear. She commented:
Mom eventually realized I was not really reading the music, and she changed the nature of my studies to fill in the gaps. I was already improvising by age four and composing original music at around 11. Later, in my adult life, I spent some time completely rethinking piano technique according to the Russian school, and worked painstakingly, finger-by-finger, with Ada Kopetz-Korf of the Juilliard and Manhattan Schools. I always knew that music was for me, and somehow simply knew I could make my way because of the self-confidence my parents instilled in me and my siblings.
The first in her Upstate New York blue collar family to go away to college, Persis credits Warren Benson with seeing her through undergraduate school at Ithaca College. When her early classroom performance anticipated lively discordance to follow, he took her aside, counseled her in matters of classroom citizenship and student compliance, and then kept her closely under his wing. Consequently, she enjoyed four years of private composition sessions as well as his insightful mentorship while studying at Ithaca. She remarked that of particular value was her a round-about introduction to Charles Ives:
Warren put Sidney and Henry Cowell’s book about Ives in my hands, along with a term paper assignment, probably sensing that I might identify with him because of my personality or my so-called “Yankee” background. I was raised a Christian Scientist and, living in the Hudson Valley area, was very influenced by the prevalent philosophies of that area, including Transcendentalism. Ives seemed to fit like a glove, and ultimately proved a mentor of sorts. I was taken, in reading that book, to learn that Ives never compromised his musical integrity for fame or profit. A later finding—that Charles Bukowski embraced a similar ethic—allowed his work to resonate for me, also.Gilbert Chase states in America’s Music that “Ives believes substance is related to character while manner is not” and that “Ives does not limit himself. He employs polytonality, multiple cross-rhythms of great complexity, extreme dissonance, tone clusters...quarter-tones and other fractional intervals, wide melodic skips, asymmetrical rhythmic patterns, off-beat rhythms emphasized by dissonance, jazz effects, and other devices...but it is also necessary to observe that Ives, when it suits his expressive needs, can write with the utmost simplicity.” His object, and mine also, is musical expression. He will use conventional devices and commonplace materials when they suit his expressive purpose. Chase reinforces this in his book by saying “one pictures him, in his self-reliance, his enthusiasm, his belief in the strength of Nature, and his philosophizing on the powers and properties of music....”
Ithaca College was a good place for the impressionable young musical person I was to be. I feel fortunate to have worked with practical people who insisted I focus on the basics and fundamentals of music. There was lots of singing, two years of conducting, and plenty of work as a vocal accompanist to add to my piano performance studies; I remain grateful for all the information I gleaned from those seemingly endless methods classes I attended in my early school years.
Often the “other” in male-dominated compositional circles, Persis recalls an angry, alienated time early in her adult life, when she wallowed in confusion, caught between the diametrically opposing views of her early mentor, Ned Rorem, and the more avant-garde Roberto Gerhard, actually the only one of her four most influential mentors to openly address the problems a woman might encounter striving in a predominantly male-dominated field. “Gerhard knew composer Elisabeth Lutyens,” Vehar said, “so his opinions were probably informed by her experiences. He told me, ‘If you don’t take a chance, you’re dead....To be equal, a woman doesn’t necessarily have to be the same.’ I later looked to reading about Lutyens’ life and works for further illumination and inspiration.”
Vehar says she has always been a purposeful listener. “For me, it’s always a question of learning new styles and genres. When I was an undergraduate, a friend who lived in Florida would stop at Sam Goody in New York to pick up all the latest music on recordings on the way to visit me in Ithaca. We sat together and listened for hours to Harry Partch, Lukas Foss, Charles Ives, etc.”
What is on Vehar’s listening list these days? She laughs, then explains, “Just about everything written for clarinet! John Fullam, the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra’s Principal Clarinetist and champion of one of my latest commissions, a clarinet concerto, has kindly loaned me most of his personal listening library, which has proven more than considerable in size. I am also listening to music by Finnish composers whose work is new to me—Einojuhani Rautavaara, Kaija Saariaho and Magnus Lindberg.”
Vehar came to Buffalo in the early 60s with her husband, Robert, and found her first work at the Community Music School and the University of Buffalo as a vocal accompanist. She had looked to the Creative Associates—a sort of cutting-edge concordance for performing and composer fellows at the University—for opportunity, only to be told they were not interested in “locals.” A private person, she continued on to find her own way through touring and playing, writing, teaching and listening. A performing experience at that time proved an important catalyst to writing her way out of the quandary with which her studies had left her.
“I had written my own cadenzas for a piano concerto appearance with a Western New York Orchestra,” she said. “At first hearing, the conductor, Dr. Robert Mols, remarked, ‘If you write us a piece—we’ll play it.’ I took him at his word and Requiem for Heroes was born. He performed it with his orchestra, and I was back on track....you never know where your support will come from.”
Vehar seems to have successfully absorbed the rhythm of place and does her part to enrich the cultural life of her Western New York home. She commented:
I am happy at home and content to write for Buffalo’s musicians and music scene. I find the general culture hereabouts rich and vibrant, and I remain committed to boosting Buffalo through my work and travels. I think of myself as more political in my present age—I find I have things I want to say at this point in time. I am writing bigger works...my first symphony, the clarinet concerto, more operas....I never thought I had a voice large enough to sing operatically so I write for the singers... and I am now writing from my life experience....I think it is time we presented all- inclusive programs...this is what I am doing now.
Many of Vehar’s subsequent commissions have grown out of performing collaborations and her affiliations with ensembles that include the Kuehn/Vehar Duo, Buried Treasures Ensemble, and the Ars Nova Chamber Musicians. “Composers who are members of performing groups can have great impact,” she stressed. “Performing affiliations thrust us into the musical mainstream and allow us to carry on with a special kind of freedom; performing composers also benefit from ‘insider information’—knowing what the performer goes through to make a performance come alive can increase your efficiency and your music’s accessibility if you are truly writing music to be performed.”
One of her most intriguing recent commissions was from Metropolitan Opera basso cantante Valerian Ruminski for three song cycles on texts by the late poet, Charles Bukowski. The first two song cycles—From Buk’s Battered Heart and Bukowski: Out of Absurdity— enjoyed premieres in Los Angeles and New York City, respectively, and the third cycle, Bukowski: Blood, Guts & Tears, premiered at Canisius College in October 2001. In her review of the Los Angeles performance (September 20, 2000), Jane Brockman wrote: “A new work by a living woman emerges triumphant....Persis Parshall Vehar has the cockles of feminine hearts swelling with pride as her music stands in the company of the Dead White European Male Greats....Vehar’s ability to create seamless dramatic continuity from this material borders on mystical....” (IAWM Journal 7.1/2 [2001]: 41-42). Los Angeles Times reviewer Josef Woodard described the songs as “whiskey-breathed,” in which “languid melody rubs up against a terse harmonic setting...to moving effect” (September 12, 2000).
Vehar considers her Peace Requiem for children’s chorus, soprano solo, baritone solo, SATB, and orchestra her biggest and most successful performance work to date, and describes it as “a respectful response to Britten’s War Requiem.” The texts, compiled and written by Michael Ehrenreich, express “mankind’s humanity, as opposed to its inhumanity.” Buffalo News critic Herman Trotter reviewed the March 1999 premiere given by the Buffalo forces: “Musically, Vehar’s plan was to move, as the piece progresses, from dissonant chromatic textures to complete consonance in the ninth section....Whatever her path through the music, Vehar has invariably wrapped each section up with a very satisfying harmonic resolution or a quick, snappy, unexpected coda....The concluding ninth section...has a strikingly heartwarming effect radiating optimism” (March 28, 1999).
Vehar comments that she loves color and clarity and aims “for a certain simplicity within ultimate complexity.” The most important European influences for her in this regard were Messiaen, Stravinsky, Ravel and Poulenc. She says, “I tend to write slowly, and erase more than I keep in pursuit of this aim. I find I need large chunks of free and unscheduled time to work effectively....People around me do not often realize I may be writing in their midst because I am always writing in my head. I must know the ideas from hearing them first....As a performer I have learned to sense the shape they will take.”
Projects presently underway include the opera George Sand: Heart, Mind & Body. Dr. Sharon Mabry will premiere the work at Austin Peay State University in Tennessee for the 2003-2004 “Dimensions New Music Series.” Vehar explained:
I am adapting the libretto from a one-woman play written and performed in Buffalo and Cleveland by my daughter, Gabrielle. Mezzo-soprano Sharon Mabry commissioned a 20-minute one-woman opera, and Gabrielle’s work inspired me to take a musical look at George Sand, who focused almost single-mindedly on what it was she believed she was meant to do, undeterred by the social mores, dictates or expectations of her times.
Life Dances premieres at the Sigma Alpha Iota Convention in August 2003, played by the Effiny Saxophone Duo (Susan Fancher and Mark Engebretson) with the composer at the piano. Set in three movements entitled “Passionate Encounter” (a tango), “Trail of Tears,” and “Urban Jump,” the trio was commissioned to acknowledge SAI’s 100th anniversary. Mostly, it represents the decidedly American “feel” Persis Vehar celebrates. Nightlights—Paris, written for the Canisius Trio, is her tribute to the relationship she observed firsthand between the people of France and the United States.
I believe Americans have all been changed by the catastrophic happenings of September 11th. My husband Bob and I were out of the country, and found ourselves in France on 9/11. Our French hosts were just wonderful people…helpful and sympathetic. Once safely back at home, I had to focus on what had happened and search for strong points to begin a personal response—this is the real challenge!My life has only proven richer thanks to getting to know myself in terms of my national and familial aspects. Because of the technology available to us today, we find ourselves living in a global community—we are not on our own any longer. We have to learn how to get together and take care of each other.
Aspiring young women of today seem preoccupied with the order in which they should focus on developing themselves personally and professionally. I suggest, choose life first and then have faith—you will know what to do as you go along. After all, we women are the primary players in birthing and living and dying. Our complex life roles should prove distinctly advantageous in the overall scheme of things. I believe it is the quality of what you choose to do that proves most important in the final analysis.
How did Charles Bukowski (1920-94) put it in “rolling the dice” from What Matters Most Is How Well You Walk Through the Fire? “If you’re going to try, go all the way. Otherwise, don’t even start....”
Flutist Cheryl Gobbetti Hoffman is an adjunct Assistant Professor of Music at the University of Buffalo, where she administrates the whooosh flute resource fund and performs with the Slee Sinfonietta—a chamber orchestra dedicated to music of the Baroque, the 20th century, and beyond. She is flutist for the Beaufluvian Players and Artistic Director of Cheryl Gobbetti Hoffman & Friends; both performing ensembles are dedicated to sonorous exploration and commissioning new works. Gobbetti Hoffman was formerly a tenured musician with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and program host for WNED-FM/Buffalo; she is a cultural writer for Buffalo Spree magazine.
(title, medium, duration, publication, recording)
Choral
For God Is Love (SAB) 3' (Mark Recording)
Spring Things (SSA, pno) 3½' (Shawnee Press) (Mark Rec.)
Mourning Bird (SATB, pno) 3' (Plymouth Music Co./Colla Voce) (Mark Rec.)
Ho-La-Li-Days (3-pt voices, opt 2 fls/recorders, vc) 3'
Beach at Sundown (2-pt voices, pno) 2½'
Faith, Hope, Love (SSA, str orch, 2 hns) 11'
What the Lark Said (3-pt voices, 2 fls, pno) 4'
Lullaby (SATB) 4' (Plymouth Music Co./Colla Voce) (Mark Rec.)
The Yellow Monster (3-pt voices, opt perc 1-4) 4'
The Lord Is My Keeper (SSAA, perc 1, timp) 6'
Reflections on Childhood (SATB) 3'
Swan of Avon (3-part voices, SATB, 2 trpts, pno) 9' (Mark Rec.)
Missa Brevis Pro Pace (sop, SSAB or SATB, str qrt or str orch) 10' (Northfield Press) (Mark Rec. & mp3)
A Canadian Boat Song (2-pt voices, pno) 2½' (in Doreen Rao’s Choral Music Experience, Boosey & Hawkes)
Hodie Christus Natus Est (3-pt voices, 2 trpts, trom or kbd) 3½' (Mark Rec.)
Song of Life (SATB) 3', from the opera Hill of Bones (Mark & Starfield)
A Whitman Salute (sop, SATB, str orch, pno) 11'
Cantate Domino (SATB, piano, opt perc qrt) 5'
Zoo-Day (3-pt voices, pno) 4' (Mark Rec.)
Dona Nobis Pacem (SATB) 4' (Rodney Eichenberger Series by Colla Voce) (Mark & University of North Texas Recordings)
Sacrum Convivium! (SATB with opt kbd) 3½'
Peace Requiem (SATB, children’s chorus, sop & bass soloists, full orch) 35' (texts in Japanese, English, French & Latin by Michael Erhenriech)
Dormi Jesu (SATB) 3½' (Mark Rec.)
Ubi Caritas (SATB with echo chorus) 4'
The Music of the Spheres (children’s chorus, SATB, chamber orch) 12' (Starfield)
Edges (SSA, pno) 6'
The Cathedral of the Universe (SATB, org) 5'
Songs
Verbum Caro Factum est (medium voice, kbd) 3½'
My Love Is Come to Me (high voice, pno) 3'
The Laughing Song (sop, str qrt) 2'
In Praise of Mercy (sop, str orch) 8'
Hearing Music (sop, fl/cl, ob/va, pno) 2½'
She Never Told Her Love (sop, fl/cl, pno/harpsichord) 3'
Moods of the Pacific (sop, pno) 6'
Shout Out for Joy! 1'
Song Cycles
(All song cycles are being recorded in NYC, Andre Gautier, producer)
Walden Thoughts (baritone, ww trio) 9½'
Sonnets (mezzo-sop, pno) 13½'
Millay-sia ( sop, str orch) 15'
Emily D. (sop, fl, ob/cl, pno) 11'
Women, Women (sop, pno) 6' (Leyerle Pub. CD; Sharon Mabry on Aeolian)
Three From Emily (high voice, vc, pno) 9' (Leyerle Pub. CD; King on Aeolian)
In A Shine Tangent to the Planet at Evening (sop, ob, Eng hn, bssn, pno) 15' (Buried Treasures Pub.)
Three Renaissance Tableaux (high voice, ob/fl/cla/vln, bssn, vc, pno) 7' (Buried Treasures Pub.)
Ghosts of Lindsay (bass, pno) 13'
The Smith Songs (sop, tenor, str orch, synthesizer/org) 20'
The Butterfly Songs (mezzo sop, pno) 15'
Three Walking Songs (sop, vc, pno) 13'
From Buk’s Battered Heart, 14¾'; Bukowski: Out of Absurdity, 15'; Bukowski: Blood, Guts & Tears, 13¾'; Bukowski: Love iz a Big Fat Turkey and Every Day is Thanksgiving (bass voice, pno) 7½'
Opera
A Hill of Bones (sop, mezzo-sop, tenor, bar, non-singing child, chamber orch/2 kbds) a one-act family opera (46' video is available)
French Friends (sop, bar, pno) 30' (French language Assoc. video is available)
Bukowski: Larger Than Life (30' monodrama, bass Valerian Ruminski, pianist Vehar)
George Sand: Heart, Mind and Body (monodrama) in progress
Solo Keyboard
Lullaby for Gabrielle, 2'
Albright-Knox (Gallery Walk 1) 8'
Nine Silences for Song (pno/narrator) 8½'
Waltz for a French Ancestor, 1½'
Parker Treescapes (Gallery Walk 2) 12½'
Two Sides of Michael Tunney (Gallery Walk 3) 5½'
Sound Piece for Organ, 12'
Hudson River Diary, 7'
Solo Instrumental
Four Pieces for Alto Saxophone and Piano, 8½' (Tenuto Publications)
Aria (cl, pno) 4½'
Lord Amherst March (trpt, pno) 2½'
Foursquare (trpt) 6½' (Kendor Music)
Sounds of the Outdoors (alto sax) 8' (Kendor Music)
Circles in Space (fl) 5' (Almitra Music)
Trilogy for Friends Remembered (trom) 6'
Four Developments (bssn, pno) 8'
Sound-Piece (Trpt[s], pno) 15½' (Fleur de Son Classics, Ltd. CD)
Pierrot Discovers Spring (vln, pno) 4½'
Yesteryear Suite (Eng hn, harpsichord/pno) 8'
Sound-Piece (cl, pno) 13'
Time Studies (guitar) 11'
Sweet, Silent Thought (fl, pno) 4'
Instrumental Chamber Music
Sonata for Brass Quintet, 8'
Prelude and Dance (cl, ob, pno) 6½'
Promenade and Cakewalk (sax qrt) 5½'
A Frame of Reference for All Time (fl, ob, pno) 6'
A Day Off (vln, alto sax, pno) 11'
Sonata for Saxophone Quartet, 16½' (Dorn Pub.)
Three Brevities (perc qrt) 6'
String Quartet, 17'
Lux Aeterna-Roman Amphitheatre in Pula (trpt[s], vc, pno) 5½'
Whimsies (perc trio) 15'
Tous Deux (2 alto saxes) 6'
North Country Suite (guitar qrt) 12'
Sea Pieces (ww qnt) 9¾'
The Four Directions (brass, perc) 17'
Night Lights-Paris (trio) 8½'
View From the Mountain-Top (2 trpts, org) 7¾'
Life Dances (sop & alto sax, pno) 11' (C. F. Peters)
Wind Ensemble
Winter Mountain (wind ensemble) 9' 40"
View from the Catskills (wind ensemble) 3'
Pan-American Overture (symphonic band) 4'
Solo Concerti
Quintus-Concertino for Alto Saxophone and Wind Ensemble, 7½'
In Celebration (str orch, pno) 14'
Night Concerto for Piano & Chamber Orchestra, 11'
Clarinet Concerto, 15-20'
Orchestral
Requiem for Heroes (full orch) 6½'
Four Attitudes (str orch) 12'
Light/Lux/Svietlo (full orch) 6'
The Inevitable Dawn (full orch) 5'
With Roses (str orch) 4' (Northfield Press)
Strolling Dinosaurs (elem str orch) 3' (Northfield Press)
Above the Brightness of the Sun (H. S. str orch) 2' 05" (Northfield Press)
The Aliens Come to Visit! (elem str orch) 2' (Northfield Press)
Symphony I: Resurrection of the Spirit (full orch) (in progress)
Dance
Steps #12 (fl/picc, alto sax, 2 perc) 13' (with choreographer Gus Solomons, Jr., Floorplay Dance Co., video available)
Works Available on CD
“Musical Landscapes for Trumpet,” David Kuehn, trumpet; Persis Parshall Vehar, piano Sound-Piece for trpt, flgl, piccolo trpt & pno) Fleur de Son Classics
“MMC Orchestral Miniatures, Vol. V,” Czech Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, Vladimir Valek, conductor (Light, Lux, Svietlo) MMC
“Dimensions,” Austin Peay State Univ. Dept. of Music & Center for the Creative Arts, (Women, Women & Three From Emily) Aeolian
“Valerian Ruminski Live at the Consistory,” Valerian Ruminski, bass; William Hicks, piano (4 Bukowski songs) Gauthier & Loft
“The AVA Opera Theatre presents Opera Meets Skid Row,” Valerian Ruminski, bass; William Hicks & Persis Anne Vehar, piano (9 Bukowski Songs) Loft
“A Cappella Choir,” University of North Texas A Cappella Choir, Mel Ivey, conductor (Dona Nobis Pacem) University Recording
For Information:
Persis Parshall Vehar
65 Hyledge Drive
Buffalo, NY 14226
v-mail: 716-833-7618; e-mail: PPVehar@aol.com
Works not listed by publisher are self-published and are available from the composer.