Slowly (very slowly) I'm starting up a collection of Paul Bowles music on vinyl. He is one of my favorite prose writers, who could write about alienation better than anyone on this planet. In a sense, he's the ultimate "Existentialist" writer in his work as well as in life. I have numerous books by and on Bowles, and still, one doesn't get a clear portrait of this odd figure. He wasn't exactly the king of chit-chat or giving gossip, but he is one of those people who can be in a room, and you don't know who he is, but there is something powerful in his presence in that chamber. There is a ghost-like skill he had, in that he was in the right place and time.
What is not that well-known about him is his work as a composer. Bowles first got attention for writing incidental music for the original Broadway production of various Tennesse Williams plays, such as "The Glass Menagerie." He studied music under Aaron Copland, but what made him famous was his novel "The Sheltering Sky" published in 1949. Although he wrote a lot of music, there are not that many recordings of his work. It's interesting that "Concerto For Two Pianos, Winds and Percussion came out around the time of his first (and most famous) novel.
Bowles fiction (both novels and short stories, which I feel he is the master) is dark. The music, on the other hand, is light. Still, "Concerto For Two Pianos" convey the Bowles spirit with respect to travel or an appreciation of other (foreign) cultures. There's a restless quality to Bowles, and it shows up in his literature as well as in music. I hear Asian, Pacific, and perhaps North African touches in this piece, as well as Manhattan New York. It's modern in the sense that it's cosmopolitan and open to possibilities that were in the world at the time. In essence, it's very Paul Bowles.
The b-side is devoted to Darius Milhaud's "Carnaval à la Nouvelle-Orléans" (Carnival in New Orleans) and "Les Songs (Dreams)" "Carnival.." is based on French Creole songs from New Orleans, and it's a musical portrait of a festival that took place in that city. The only instrumentation on both pieces by Milhaud are the duo pianos played by Arthur Gold and Robert Fizdale. The work is in an impressionistic and upbeat mood. Like Bowles, Milhaud was interested in music from other cultures, and this piece has a slightly exotic touch as well. Jazz made a huge impression on him, and there are traces of that type of music in his work. It's interesting that Dave Brubeck was a student under Milhaud. He also taught Burt Bacharach and Philip Glass. And Milhaud was a member of Les Six, a group of composers who worked with Jean Cocteau.
Gold and Fizdale it seems collaborated together as pianists who worked on compositions that were written for two pianists. The only other album I have by them is "A Picnic Cantata" written by Bowles with lyrics by the great American poet James Schuyler. And that is superb as well. Buying "A Picnic Cantata" as well as this album, I feel that I'm entering a fantastic rabbit hole, where if you reach the bottom, you're in this incredible sophisticated world of Manhattan citizens and their art. The Bowles / Milhaud album is great because each composer compliments the other. Gold and Fizdale had great taste.
