The fact that not many scores even exist. The aforementioned difficulty of parsing Eastman’s scores. That said, there are plenty of obstacles standing in the way. Especially in the case of Eastman, whose work seems ripe for the sort of reclamation project that was undertaken with Arthur Russell a number of years ago. “Reverence,” Clayton has said in the lead up to the album, “can be a form of forgetting.”Ĭlayton’s right, of course. It’s funny – a director yelling cut during a Saturday Night Live ad parody after the pitchman has gone off the rails. and is immediately, digitally, swallowed up by Clayton’s computer. “Gay Guerilla”’s swirling, dueling pianos build and build until a reference to “ A Mighty Fortress Is Our God” shines through. He provides a fitting tribute to Eastman’s work by letting its melodic riches shine, yet never letting it go too long without digitally roughing it up.
But you could also imagine them sounding significantly different if performed just a few days/months/years later.ĭJ/Rupture, AKA Jace Clayton, acknowledges this throughout his latest release, The Julius Eastman Memory Depot. In 2005 New World Records put out a three CD compilation of his compositions, but classical composers like Kyle Gann have looked over his scores and say that they often “consist merely of noteheads, timings, the occasional dynamic marking and the even less frequent verbal direction, like, ‘this is one line, one melody,’ and ‘take this as a guide and continue in like manner.’” New World’s release features the material conducted by Eastman himself, so we have a good idea of how this music is supposed to sound. Whether someone ever pulled him aside – or whether that would’ve made a difference anyway. It’s unclear, from the increasing amount of literature on his life, whether Eastman simply couldn’t help himself – or whether he knew what he was doing. Call it what Eastman did, and you need to erase the name of your work from the program when you perform it. Call it something different – something like Drumming or Music with Changing Parts perhaps – and there’s no problem at all. Compositions titled Crazy Nigger, Wild Nigger and Gay Guerilla. Ensemble about a piece by Marcel Duchamp. There was the job at Cornell that mysteriously didn’t come through as promised.
A controversial performance of the legendary composer’s Song Books led to Cage exclaiming, “I’m tired of people who think that they could do whatever they want with my music!” Leaving aside the irony of Cage enforcing his will on performances that he so pointedly left to chance, the story speaks to Eastman’s pattern of shooting himself in the foot at important moments. Eastman had such an origin story with John Cage. But all of the modern composer names that you know also eventually got accepted, whether via university money or label money. All of the modern composer names that you know have their origin story – pissing off some well-known name or organization from the previous generation. And, as any classical composer can tell you, if you don’t have institutional support, it’s mighty hard to get your work performed. He certainly never recorded disco 12-inches or had a deal with Rough Trade – although you will see him hiding among the credits on Dinosaur L’s 24→24 Music.Įastman mostly stayed in the classical world. This may be down to Eastman never venturing too far into the pop world. Unlike Russell, though, the reclamation project hasn’t taken off in the same way. After their respective deaths, both fell off-the-radar, their work out-of-print and largely forgotten. Indeed, Eastman’s Wikipedia page says that he was among the first – if not the first – to mix minimalist “processes” and pop music together, and his work was presented at The Kitchen, the iconic uptown-meets-downtown performance space where Russell was music director from 1974 to 1975.Īnd – much like Russell– Julius Eastman’s legacy after his death was hardly a legacy at all. They both were minimalist composers whose work went down easy yet held up to closer scrutiny, penning compositions that had the same sweetness of Steve Reich or Philip Glass. The similarities between Arthur Russell and Julius Eastman are striking.
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