Paris X is a very cleverly named CD from Furious Artisans. Very little music of Dane Rudhyar (1895-1985) has henceforth made its way to CD, and certain knowledgeable listeners might be discouraged due to Rudhyar's advocacy of Theosophy and his work as an astrologer. Rudhyar's music, however, represents a crucial step in the early evolution of American modernism and, despite his "cosmic" reputation, is in desperate need of increased recordings and dissemination. Pianist
Richard Cameron-Wolfe delivers the goods here, intelligently pairing a decent, if small, sampling of Rudhyar's works of the 1910s and 1920s with Satie's seldom-recorded "Christian ballet" Uspud (1892).
When it came to music Rudhyar had no interest in systemization; he referred to the Schoenberg school as "neo-scholastic." The earliest Rudhyar works on Paris X are roughly contemporary with equally early modern music by
Henry Cowell and
Charles Ives, and yet they are in a French idiom, reminiscent of
Debussy and Sorabji, although realized in a much simpler pianistic vein. Tetragram # 6 "Primavera" (1928) is more serious and extended, yet harmonically it is reminiscent of jazz -- not the jazz of Rudhyar's time, but of what piano jazz sounded like 30 or 40 years later. Tetragram # 3 "Rebirth" (1927) is made of tougher stuff and is in a dissonant style that recalls Carl Ruggles' Evocations, again, a work not begun until a decade or more had passed.
As anyone who has heard any of the solo piano versions of Uspud can tell you, almost nothing seems to happen in it, consisting as it does of mostly static, Cagean chords and silences. That's partly because there is a narration that goes with it, performed here by Kathryn Philip in what is likely the first instance. One will wonder why the narration has never been pressed into service before -- it is a crazy story, read with tact and restraint by Philip, who could stand to be a little louder in this recording. Even so, Paris X is a revelation; even those with a middling interest in American modernism will find this fascinating; others deeply interested already will devour it with glee.