Micrologus; In memoriam: Jason Paras

83-07 IN MEMORIAM: JASON PARAS

Even if you follow the early music world closely, chances are you've never heard the name Jason Paras. This testament to his life and work then will be in some ways a delight and a revelation, in some ways a shock and a cause for grief. That the world at large should learn of such a treasure only after its loss, is a great sadness.

Jason Paris was born on January 28th, 1953. He grew up in California and attended Stanford University as both an undergraduate and graduate student studying the viola de gamba under Martha Blackman. After completing a doctorate in early music performance practice, he went to Europe in 1979 and began a career as a performer and teacher, notably at the Schola Cantorum in Basel. On July 14th, 1982, he was drowned while swimming in the Rhine near Basel. At the time of his death, Jason was preparing to return to the United States to teach at the Early Music Institute at Indiana University, and without doubt, to begin a concert and recording career here, which would have made him one of the best known and most admired musicians in the field of early music. It was not to be. But we do have some record of his considerable musical accomplishments. Recently, two discs have been issued independently, both bearing the subtitle In Memoriam: Jason Paras.

One is on the Focus label from the Early Music Institute. The other from the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis on German Harmonia Mundi. Neither was intended originally as a recording. Both, in fact, are live performances given by Jason in the months before his death. But because so much of Jason's interest was in the area of improvisation, these concert recordings capture, perhaps better than a studio recording could have done, the special spirit of spontaneity, wit and passing beauty, which only the interaction of improvising performer and audience can provide.

So a small portion of his artistry has been documented, at least. But for those of us who knew him, there are personal memories, too. George Houle, former director of the New York Pro Musica, and Jason's doctoral advisor at Stanford, has this remembrance:

HOULE: Jason Paras was a student at Stanford for his undergraduate as well as for his graduate years, and I knew him over a considerable period of time, as well as during the years after he had finished his work here and had gone on to his European career. Jason was a really brilliant musician, and his work at Stanford will be remembered by all of us who worked with him. He was preparing for what I think would have been a notable career as a performer, and it would have brought considerable fame to him. He leaves us with the memories of his integrity, and his strength, and his gentleness. It was a joy to make music with him. He had such ability to mold the phrase to his will. He taught, after he finished his degree, here, and his students here were treated to the most perceptive instruction and inspiring examples of performance. He was at the point, when he died, of knowing just exactly what to do with his great gifts. Jason was deeply committed to learning and he was never content, except when he had used his mind to the fullest, as well as his time, to the fullest. After having moved to Europe, he came back to play for us on several occasions in the past years, and it was immensely satisfying to hear how he'd grown in his art. He'd gone beyond scholarly accuracy, and really had entered into making living the recreation of music, which was vital and rich in emotion and sound. He touched our lives very deeply, and is very keenly missed.

DUFFIN: Much of Jason's scholarly work at Stanford was centered around the technique and repertoire of the viola bastarda. From a concert of January 10th, 1982. We will now hear Jason Paras perform a Ricercata for viola bastarda by Aurelio Virgiliano.

[MUSIC: Ricercata for viola bastarda solo, by Aurelio Virgiliano, performed by Jason Paras]

DUFFIN: Thomas Binkley, former director of the well-known Early Music Quartet, picks up the thread of Jason's life in the winter of 1978.

BINKLEY: I came to Stanford to teach and had never taught there before. I was going to coach some classes in the performance of medieval music, and several of the students presented themselves. Jason was one of them. He came to see me, and we talked for a long time. It was my first meeting with him. He impressed me very much. He was a large fellow with a curious way of expressing himself— very quiet and very modest— but with a clear possession of skills. In the course of that term's work, we got about a dozen people who were performing medieval music. And the interesting thing about Jason's performance was that he was not one of those students that says, “Am I doing this right? Is this what you want?” In other words, the minimum. He was one of the students who was able immediately to understand what you want, and then to try something on his own. In other words, to go beyond what you'd expect. He was very serious and extremely competent. All of this went on, and within one semester we played a concert together, several musicians, myself, and developed a good relationship. I returned to Stanford the following year and Jason was still there. And at this time he had cultivated his interest in medieval music quite extensively. At that time, his major area was the 17th century, and he was a viola da gambist. He wanted to play the vielle, because that would be the appropriate instrument to the Middle Ages, in a parallel to the viola da gamba in the Renaissance and Baroque, and didn't want to make it sound the way a baroque instrument would sound. He wanted to find out what the instruments sounded like and tried to think about it. And then it was, you know, I'm thinking about, “What can I do with my hands? What can I do with my bow? With my left hand? How can I make this instrument work this way? How can I find out how a fiedel sounded, how a vielle sounded?” He was able to do these things. He was not, in other words, at the mercy of an inadequate technique. But he was able to put his mind on top of this technical problem and solve it as very few musicians really can. And in the course of my association with him there as a student-teacher relationship, we became friends very quickly, and he was a musician that I highly respected right from the start. And we worked a lot on improvisation together— that began at Stanford. And when he went to Basel— he didn't go directly to Basel, but he ended up in Basel where I had been a teacher and performer— the position that I had filled had not been replaced, and had been left vacant, and Jason went there and occupied part of that position. The main part that he occupied was that of teaching improvisation, and experimenting with improvisation. This was his main area, I would say, of interest in the period shortly before he died.

DUFFIN: For those who have never tried it, it's difficult to relate the courage, commitment and imagination necessary to publicly reconstitute a performance tradition that has been lost for centuries. For performances such as the two which follow, Jason Paras will be remembered for having been a pioneer in the art. The first is a section of an Alleluia verse in which Jason improvises in Notre Dame style organum with Kenneth Zuckerman, lute, and Randall Cook, vielle. The second is a witty Salterello, improvised by several members of Jason's medieval ensemble at the Schola Cantorum.

[MUSIC: A polyphonic improvisation on the Alleluia verse “Veni, Sancti, Spiritus” and a Saltarello improvised by Jason Paras and members of the Medieval Ensemble at the Schola Cantorum in Basel]

DUFFIN: Here again is Tom Binkley.

BINKLEY: He was a musician who could center in on a medieval problem in improvisation, and he could say, “Well, now the treatises say this, and this is the way I would realize that.” On the other hand, he could jump into the 17th century and be a 17th century musician like no one had ever heard before. He was for me, as the director of the Early Music Institute at Indiana University, a very important potential faculty member. I have a reasonable familiarity with the world's viol players, and I had determined that this is the best that there is.

DUFFIN: Again, we hear the splendid, viol playing of Jason Paras, this time in improvisations over Passamezzo Antico and Conde Claros.

[MUSIC]

DUFFIN: A triumph of taste, skill, wit, and imagination—live in concert—improvisations on Passamezzo Antico and Conde Claros by the late Jason Paras.

Thomas Binkley has this final remembrance.

BINKLEY: What he did in the way of improvisation, and stylistic accuracy, taste, and the whole gamut of of poetry and music was, was just remarkable. And it's hard to withhold tears when I think of that man and his potential. What he did artistically, and the very, very unfortunate circumstances that surrounded his death. A really remarkable musician. I really can't say that I've ever known a musician have this modesty and this accomplishment and this youth. Really remarkable. Remarkable affair.