The Harmony of Morning Music by Elliot Carter: To Music, Tarantella, Harvest Home, Emblems. Let's be gay, Heart not so heavy as mine, The Defense of Corinth, Harmony of morning, Musicians wrestle everywhere.

Four years ago I reviewed a CD of music from Koch (3-7178-2H2) which contained three of these pieces by Carter and works by three other composers. I said then that I thought it was a pity that Koch had not been bold enough to issue a whole CD of Carter's complete choral music with full texts. For Carter's much celebrated 90th birthday this has now actually happened and I couldn't be more delighted with the result. The earlier Carter performances were the starting point and this very capable choir has now added the rest, including some unpublished material.

Carter himself explains that one of the reasons he wrote nothing for the voice from 1947 to 1975 - which is extraordinary - was that most of the music recorded here was performed so badly. So he turned to instrumental music - with astonishing results for the development of his highly personal and increasingly energetic style.

The earliest piece is the Tarantella, adapted for the Harvard Glee Club, of which Carter was a member, from some incidental music for a Latin play. The 18-year old Carter stretches the glee-club idiom to near breaking point in rollicking neo-classical style. The SATB pieces here, including two settings of fine poems by Emily Dickinson, show Carter's interest in the type of counterpoint found in madrigals. This gives the writing a special flavour which, particularly in The Harmony of Morning for women's voices and small orchestra, is uncannily close to the sound of Tippett at the same period.

In many ways the most surprising discoveries are the two numbers taken from unpublished incidental music to The Beggars Opera, especially the scintillating 'Let's be Gay' which must be the closest Carter has ever come to Broadway. The most substantial works are The Defense of Corinth - an elaborate description with speaker of the crazy Diogenes' attempts to contribute to the war effort by careering up and down in his tub - and Emblems to three poems of Allen Tate. These show their glee-club origins but there are fascinating glimpses of Carter's future as in everything on this CD. The whole collection is thoroughly enjoyable in its own right, well recorded and full texts are provided - an essential Carter purchase.

Copyright © Peter Dickinson, March 18th 1999

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