Volume LXII
Number 10
February 29,1980
5ervlnq
sal
em colleqe communitq sincg 1920
Sharing Experiences with David Amram
Wine and Cheese and Music
bout 100 students
i^red at the Salem
lege Fine Arts
ter to make music
1 David Amram last
Dressed casually,
‘Porting about 10
^®cklaces collected
^oin all over the world,
^Piram turned a
?®oophony of spoons,
'*2oos and whistles into
^ hielodic rendition of a
faditional Swahili
•*rewell song.
, It took some work to
*arn the words, but
‘Iter about 20 minutes,
^6 song was ready to be
!(®*iormed in concert
^0 following night.
The N.C. School of the
Arts Jazz Ensemble,
conducted by Ron
Rudkin, joined Ainram
Friday evening in a
melange of interesting
and surprising music.
Amram’s composition
“In Memory of Chano
Pozo” began the con
cert. With Amram at the
piano, the Latin rhythm
instruments kept
syncopated beat while
the brass section added
sparkle.
Amram, never empty-
handed, strolled the
stage, picking up clavas
(a Latin rhythm in
strument), the twin
Shepherds Flutes from
the Khyber Pass, the
Dumbeg, (a
G3stern ceramic drum)
and other foreign in-
struments during the
improvisation.
Eastern sounds
combined with jazz
music provided a unique
listening experience, as
the audience helped
with poly-rhythmic
clapping.
Despite Amram’s
hectic schedule, he
answered every
question and talked with
students afer each
workshop until minutes
before his next ap
pointment. When his
escorts were ready for a
break, Amram was
asking “Where to
next?”
American Indian,
bluegrass, and folklonc
music were also in
cluded in the per
formance.
Amram has worked
with other ac
complished artists
including Dizzy
Gillespie, Steve
Goodman, Leonard
Bernstein and Bob
Dylan.
At the request of the
State Department, he
has shared his music
with people in five Latin
American countries,
Pakistan, the Middle
East and Canada.
Amram was the New
York Philharmonic
Orchestra’s first
composer in residence.
He has conducted the
New Amsterdam
Orchestra, the National
Symphony Orchestra of
Washington, D.C. and
others.
An amazing artist,
Amram is as adept at
writing music as he is at
musical innovation.
He has composed over
100 pieces, including
chamber music, can
tatas, operas and wind
symphonies.
Over 30 of Amram’s
original works have
been performed in the
New York Shakespeare
Theatre.
Scores from
“Splendor in the
Grass,” “The Subject
was Roses,” and “The
Manchurian Candidate”
are among Amram’s
film credits.
He explained that he
dropped out of Oberlin
School of Music after his
first year because jazz
was discouraged there.
He also spent less
than a year at
_ Manhattan School of
Music when he was 17.
Amram holds a
degree in European
History from George
Washington University,
and was awarded an
honorary Ph.D. in
Music from Moravian
College in Allentown,
Pa.
Born in 1930 on a farm
in Feasterville, Pa.,
Amram plays 45 in
struments, all of them
well. “I try to learn one
thing at a time, and
perform what I play
best,” he said.
“I always take my
instruments with me,”
he added. Amram
carries three or four
bags stuffed with
foreign instruments,
and sometimes it takes
a while to get them all
back into the ap
propriate boxes,
perhaps because half
his energy is spent
conversing with curious
audiences as he packs.
Amram also sings
well, with a soft, almost
muted, bluesy voice,
similar in character to
his principle in
strument, the muted
French Horn.
Amram especially
enjoys jazz, because of
the freedom allowed the
musician. “Improvi
sation is like being
thrown into the ocean
and the boat goes
away!” he exclaimed.
Anything you
learn will
do you good.
Amram said he chose
European history as his
major because “the
teacher was so good, I
just kept going back.
Anything you learn will
do you good,” he said.
His book,
“Vibrations,” is an
autobiography detailing
the first 37 years of the
musician extraordin-
are’s life.
Although the scholar
said he does not have
perfect pitch, he does
play well by ear. He said
“there is a science to
music,” and learning
harmony, chord
progressions and other
basics of music and
make it easy for him.
“Brahms and Mozart
should always be with
us. Bach will always be
worth studying. Other
kinds of music, like
African music, can help
sharpen your sense of
rhythm. It redefines
your rhythmic thinking.
The quartertones and
different scales in
Indian music makes you
hear your own music
better,” Amram said.
He added that
“American Indian
music opens up a whole
new door.”
Amram said he enjoys
working with other
musicians because
“they share with you
what they know, and
you can become a part
of their lives, and you
can share your ex
periences with them
too.”
People respond to
music anywhere in the
world.
Amram said the value
of music lies in the fact
that it transcends
political and
geographical bound
aries. “People respond
to music anywhere in
the world,” he said.
to perform in their
place.
(As a result of his
travels, Amram speaks
French and German
fluently, Spanish and
Italian, and “a little
Yiddish and Greek.”
One may well assume
that a man so vastly
talented would have
family members in the
music world.
Amram explained
that interest in music
began when, at the age
of six, he “was so ex
cited to get that first
noise out of my dad’s
bugle.”
He added that his
father and sister also
play piano, and “My
mom’s a real music
fan!”
He told the story of his
trip to Kenya to conduct
a choir for the World
Council of Churches.
Through some mishap,
the choir never arrived,
and so he organized a
group of local musicians
Amram is a cousin of
the famous conductor
Otto Klemperer.
Proudly showing a
photo of his six month-
old daughter Alana,
(which means “root of
the tree’ in Hebrew),
Amram explained “she
has a little rattle she
plays. And she really
flips out when she sees
the piano!”
If Alana does develop
a serious interest in
music, it is doubtful she
could find a more
talented guide to suc
cess.
~ Carolyn McCollum
Wmance with the N.C. School of the Arts Jarz ensemble. Photos by Pam Snyder
Kwa-hare Kwa-hare
Photo by Katherine Craver