Five pieces for listeners; Sample

Her home was all over the phone. The voice of tenor Nick and I got out singing his auto from Mozart's Don Giovanni. They operate chosen for his debut in 1952 at the Royal Opera House in Stockholm Sweden. You know it will know. The week was over the past two decades. I get as career has been one of continuing artistic development. His secure musicianship is generous vocal gift his superb vocal

technique and his command of 10 languages have made him one of the most sought after artists before the public today. Many honors from all over the world have been bestowed upon him. But the one he cherishes most came from his own country when in 1965 it was untitled court singer to the Royal Court of Sweden and honor which has been conferred upon less than 12 artists in over 200 years. In this program devoted to the tenor and his art we will hear some of Nicolae get his reflections on his career as shared with Robert Bailey. Mr. getta Let us begin by asking probably are rather familiar question to you but when did you decide to commit yourself to becoming a full time professional singer. Well it was rather late. I have been singing all my life I must say I started rowing as a little boy 5 6 years old I sang in the Russian church the church choir my father was a choir master

and he taught me music and I sang in the chorus and some Russian folk songs and later on in Sweden I became a tenor. When with after the voice change but I didn't have any thoughts of any any serious career until way after my military service that is. I was already 23 24 when I thought I would take serious singing lessons and still I didn't I didn't think I would have any operatic career. Not until I came to the Royal Swedish Academy of Music. I could notice some interest of me by my teachers in the role studying and staging. They decided to mount an opera for me and that was the last evolution will either if I don't then I thought well I will probably make some kind of career. I am I am

I am I am me I am I am. Every week I am home. I am soon.

Going and Going my ordinary game going to sea going you know going or something going I was going to see that as a lot of like I'm going to sort of think of as a good looking man going to turn around and going and going oh I was going I was going to go in the studio with oh you know you know going. What do you visualize when you hear this music. Obering to a Western.

A western. Something fast paced during a Western event fi music or like a rush a certain rush a guy galloping on his horse or a wagon train going through a desert or something trying to move away from Indians I don't know. Something like that. That's what I visualized strengthen my palate. Laughter and happiness. And. That I tend. Very slight of melancholy and. I thought of somebody in the. On the hillside or a mountainside somewhere. Or. Maybe just looking out over in the other mountains and valleys or it's oh my god. The last part I heard I thought was Well first thing came to my mind was America in a lie. It reminded me of the score of an old John Wayne or John Ford movie I guess. That's what I visualized. I don't know just relaxation light and liveliness. What do you think this composer's nationality as.

American. American. I see American American Mankin. The. Eh. Eh eh. Eh eh. With understandable consistency this style of music is recognized as distinctively American. And there's good reason its creator is Aaron Copeland the dean of American composers. The music is an outdoor overture composed by Copeland in 1038 for a high

school orchestra. The identifying factor in this and Copeland's other compositions is his cultural affinity with America. Whether Copeland is an accurate commentator or an American romantic is not important here. In either case he is American. Recently he coped one visited Ottawa University in eastern Kansas to take part in an Aaron Copeland festival during his visit. Copeland discussed his music and this is a record of some of his comments critics have written about Copeland's American style. Exactly what that style is remains a popular topic among professionals and laymen of course Copeland has his own ideas. Well the first thing that would occur to me would be the rhythmic life of the music they can have their own sense of rhythm possibly derived from negro music or is it whatever it is. But by now the Europeans all recognize that we have our own rhythm.

There's also I think in my music a certain optimism you might call it for what is it. I wouldn't connect with a European country full of troubles and history and problems shown very For example his music doesn't sound terribly optimistic to me. It's good or bad but I know that in my music people often commented on the feeling that they get from it. I think that is a characteristic of it. I'm rather glad that it is. You think perhaps your chords are sort of a unique contribution. People talked about the spacing of the notes of the chords as if they were widely spaced in the sonorities they produce a more suggestive of wide open spaces I suppose by analogy. It's a little bit difficult for the composer himself you know to be detached from the music that you can think about it as if somebody else had written it. But I can tell from the reactions

that that quality of open air quality and affirmative qualities would be thought of as a characteristic of music. Do you think that the western theme might be the American theme in music. No because I was born in New York City and I think our cities are certainly in the minds of the Europeans just as. American as the West. You know they have their cities too but nothing quite like the skyscraper businesses settings in New York. And I think some of my music probably. Does suggest a city life. Vincent persecutee and Darren Copeland are today the most often performed American

composers. Mr. Percy Kennedy has had a most impressive career as a composer and is presently head of the composition faculty at Julliard. His wife Dorothy is a concert pianist and teacher recorded at the persecutee home where Justin music with Vincent and Dorothy persecutee. I remember. When I was two that I heard music and. Wanted so much that I would be very unhappy if I weren't listening to music and we had a player piano. And I guess the first music I heard was when that player you know and I waited till I was five my parents. Would not allow me to study even if it was proper until I could read and write. Now what they meant by reading right I don't know by learning the alphabet you learn to count to 10 I guess when I was five to get

started. But I was very fortunate. Because in those days I lived on South Broad Street. And three steps down that I say steps because in those days the. Our neighbor sat in the front steps it was customary and the president of the combs conservatory lived three doors down and I was a five year old and I sat with him because I knew he was it was the music. I asked him a lot of questions. In any case. I was a role at the coed conservatory which was the school the United States. Well that wasn't joy or that wasn't hers. But I could never be in tears. The first lesson when I learned that I could study with the president of the school because he was my friend. So I studied with warranty Stanger one of the young teachers there at my basics and my techniques were studying piano and I wanted to

get involved with other instruments. And when my legs became long enough I was allowed to start organ I couldn't play until I could reach the pedals. So I started when I was 11. Meanwhile I was very curious about music I was always writing something down and I wanted to find out more about this and I went to some kind of theory classes. Oh I think when I was seven maybe but by the time I was nine I had made such a nuisance of myself with Reynolds Combs. That he allowed me to sit in. So between ages 9 to. I wrote 13 maybe by the time I was 13 certainly 14 I had had what you get. In a college counterpoint harmony theory of your trade the whole works. And this wasn't because I was precocious I think these days that. Anybody can learn in grade school certainly junior high what they learn in college. As far as the basic theory is concerned my first work Opus

One was written when I was 14. Now this is the oh I don't know maybe 14 15 years ago I made a list of my works for the publisher and some articles and I cut the works that I thought were mine. So my Opus One is a work for 10 and one is to know I have before that some very beautiful Ravel and bronze words I wrote but there were two about in that year that I thought were mine. Opus 2 was a serenade for a piano two hands. Well this was south of you and. Or my friends. We're serious about music. There are people now that are in the floppy orchestra or the first albums the Minneapolis symphony. There was there were three brothers the actual boys that I went to seventh grade with seven eighth grade and we formed a combo and they were a first rate oboe horn or bassoon trio. And I play the piano we got a violinist the clarinet is that we had formed a little

kind of chamber orchestra and we would arrange things and do concerts. We form groups and play on the radio and save our 50 cents every week. For the Stuckey concerts we call the stochastic Koski with a floppy orchestra. That is then I guess where I really learned my way around the orchestra because I would go to the library and. Take out a score. The sickos who is going to do that will particular score that I had never heard. And most of the stuff I hadn't heard and I would just study the work really study and try to envision what it was like. So by the time Saturday came up it was as though I had written that work and I had exactly my mind what would that was going to sound like and I can remember with risky Korsakoff's one of the scores knowing full well that the flutes were too low it was going to sound why this wouldn't work. And that I was nervous about it was the height at the work I went through and I found that the reps because a cop was right and I learned why he was right and

if you do this enough times you begin to get a technique and know how which doesn't meaning they something crack wise. Well I heard my ox to pieces they were both smart risky course. I was a study of the columns at Saratoga time no I was head of the Prophet as a matter of fact and I needed some good piano lessons and some good conducting lessons and I tried out for Curtis and got into Curtis as a conductor major with Fritz Reiner. And at the same time with all those some are. And I applied for the scholarship and I got a scholarship but it was a qualification there. That I had tied with some Dane from Kansas. Sometimes I wasn't a day and I just cut my losses and this happens to be this girl here we're talking about. And I was busy for that year I never looked at it never talked or just kind of ignored I looked around your way or sort of grabber photos is

not true at all. You know he's like a Roman He says I am a Philadelphia ad and that's all there is. But anyway but by the way we didn't get married. My wife let me meet her parents live. If you like going out West why should I. People say well over of in the West pull up in this kind of thing. But I did go out there and I learned that there are other things in this world besides the love of. My husband it's not I think your teacher is you know it's. Kind of somebody dies. The whole part of it. Into law.