Since 1921, the American Academy in Rome -- founded in 1894 and chartered by an act of the United States Congress in 1905 -- has offered an annual fellowship and two residencies to American composers to live and study in Rome for one year. By the time Bridge's four-CD compilation Americans in Rome is offered, 124 such positions have been offered and fulfilled, and a surprising number of these composers have become major players in American music, though only a couple --
Samuel Barber and
Elliott Carter -- are routinely recognized for their fellowships or residencies at AAR. Curator
Donald Berman indicates that, apart from the once obligatory round of study with
Nadia Boulanger in Paris, the AAR fellowship/residency is the next best-kept secret in American art music, and to support his thesis
Berman has pulled together this amazingly comprehensive set. Its four discs are subdivided into collections of solo song, music for strings and piano, music for piano solo, and music for winds and piano. Considering that it contains 38 compositions written by nearly as many composers, the personnel is kept fairly compact, although
Donald Berman is the main pianist throughout the set,
Anne-Marie McDermott and
Yehudi Wyner also pitch in on the keys, the latter in his own work. Among other "name" participants in the set are clarinetist
Richard Stoltzman, the Curiously Strong Wind Quintet, Collage New Music Ensemble, violinists
Ida Kavafian and SungHae Anna Kim (of the Laurel Trio), cellist Peter Wiley, and soprano
Susan Narucki, to name just a few. However, there is no showboating here; all of the performances are solely and solemnly given in the service of the music and to serve in illustrating the premise.
In curating this set,
Berman has not limited himself to compositions written by these fellows or residents while they were serving in Rome -- although such works are certainly present -- but pieces drawn from any particular time in the composer's career that seem to amplify the notion of a shared, shaping influence attributable to the environment of the Academy, its surroundings, and to some degree the preferences of Academy's instructors. Indeed, much of this music has an open-air quality to it, a good deal of it stresses melodicity, and, in the chamber pieces, there is a shared concern about novel tone qualities produced by certain combinations of instruments. Most of the composers represented here are living, active, and reasonably to very well-known figures in contemporary music. Yet there are some unique discoveries among older composers represented, such as Hunter Johnson's jazzy Piano Sonata (1936) and Harold Shapero's summery, witty, and ingratiating Six for Wind Quintet (1995).
While Americans in Rome is centered on academic composers in an academic setting, surprisingly little of the music is "cold" in the manner usually associated with Academia -- perhaps least of all
Elliott Carter's contributions, orchestrations of earlier songs made during his last residency in 1979-1980 -- although some of it is at least a little "cool." Some aspects of Americans in Rome are a bit of a barrier; first its huge size, which means the mere act of taking it all in is something of a challenge in itself, and second that the collection -- just by virtue of being what it is -- is more likely to be attractive as a reference source or university library staple as opposed to an item of interest to the general listenership. In listening one should try and take it in a little at a time; the common spirit that drives these pieces -- which stresses cleanliness, intellectual achievement, and textual refinement -- can make a bunch of them taken at one time a little unexciting. Nevertheless, Americans in Rome is still a mightily impressive project just for its range, scope, and the effort that went into it and it will prove an invaluable resource for those wanting to know anything about -- and indeed, perhaps to participate in -- the fellowships and residencies for composers at the Academy of Rome.