JAVS Fall 2012

Even though she had the means and connections to publish her music in New york, Louise Kerr was a very modest woman who did not seek fame. Virtually all of her music remains unedited and unpublished. Unfortunately, very few of her works are dated, and premiere dates and names of compo sitions were lost after her death. Reel-to-reel record ings of most of the premieres of her music have also been lost, so it is difficult to get a full picture of how her music was to be performed. The five piano and viola works, edited by Carolyn Waters Broe and Miriam yutzy, are the first of Kerr’s works to be pub lished, 4 and a new edition of the Etude , for violin and viola, has recently been published by the American Viola Society. Kerr was a connoisseur of chamber music. She per formed a great deal of chamber music and wrote music to share and perform with her friends; evening chamber music readings would go into the early hours of the morning. Kerr’s chamber pieces are remarkable for their creativity and beauty as well as their technically challenging passages. Among the most effective are those for viola and piano, the vio lin and viola duos, and her works for string quartet, piano quartet, and piano quintet. Viola Music

The Two Violin and Viola Duos

The duos for violin and viola are entitled Etude and Orientale (MSS-90 Box 4/folders 3 and 4). Etude is a very difficult duo that incorporated jazz elements in a string piece long before modern jazz string per formers such as the Turtle Island String Quartet. She may have become interested in jazz from Charles Lewis, who studied with Kerr while living at the arts colony. 5 The Orientale is an exceptional work that makes great demands of the two musicians. The scores of both duos have been carefully copied in ink; they may actually be in the hand of Andrew Shaw, an ASU theory student and violist who copied works for Kerr. 6 The Etude , for violin and viola, was composed July 1969 for Diane Sullivan, who is now a member of the Phoenix Symphony (a second copy is dated November 1969), and Frank Spinoza and Bill Magers performed the work at ASU in 1975. This perpetual motion piece begins in D major with rapid sixteenth notes in the violin part and pizzicato eighth notes in the viola (ex. 1). Then the viola performs a playful melody. As both a violist and a violinist, Louise Kerr was able to craft this duo with the maximum brilliance. The work moves to a section in C major, where the rhythms shift constantly in a syncopated jazz style. Kerr’s experience with the numerous pianists at

Example 1. Louise Lincoln Kerr, Etude, mm. 1–5.

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