Stravinsky's Clamorous 'Les Noces' Features May Music Club Concert

When the strains of Stravinsky's "Los Noces" echo through Paine Hall on May 3, the Music Club will be offering the first performance of this revolutionary French opera in this country since 1934 and its initial presentation locally.

Written in 1917, "Les Noces" depicts Russian folk lore with a nationalist and unorthodex flavor. It is "sensational" music according to conductor Irving G. Fine '37, professor of Music, for the dissonant sounds produced by the preponderance of percussion make a "clamoring, gong-like music."

"Some people think it is the most important work Stravinsky ever wrote," Professor Fine went on, The opera, which was originally a ballet, calls for a mixed chorus of 60 voices with outside soloists plus four pianos and a percussion section which includes a tympani, bass drum, xylophone, chimes, gong, wood block cymbals, bell, side and snare drums and tamburines.

"Nothing Like It"

Soloist with the Club will include Olga Averino, Boston soprano, and pupils Calliope Shenas, contralto, and baritone Paul Tibbetts '45. "There is nothing else like it," continued Professor Fine, who has been at the Club helm since 1946 and last year conducted its Bach concert in an unofficial capacity.

Sponsored by the Institute of Modern Art, the Music Club formerly existed independently. Its membership is still composed mainly of music concentrators. The Club has had three major periods of activity. Vergil Thompson and Leonard Bernstein '39 led the Club in its first two periods of strength while Radcliffe lent its support and kept the Club going during the war under the guidance of Sarah Cunningham '46 and Mary Briggs '48.

The work of the Club was so successful in this period that Radcliffe decided to maintain activity for the University. "Now we have the most talented bunch of musicians we've ever had," enthused Fine. The group decided to become more active after that, forming its own chamber orchestra, and now occupies a place distinct from the Glee Club and the Pierian Sodality.

Now the Club concentrates on contemporary music, presenting concerts in the Houses and one big choral concert a year. Last year, the Club offered several Bach pieces never heard in this area before.