AUREC 1302

21-23.
24-28.
29.

Four Pentagrams
Paeans
Granites
Prophetic Rite

DANE RUDHYAR

1-20.

[55:56]
[5:22]
[8:35]
8:10

Total time: 79:38

 &  2013 Aucourant Records (BMI)
All Rights Reserved.

Aucourant Records
Aucourant Music Publishing
P.O. Box 2231
Roswell, Georgia 30077-2231
USA
www.aucourantrecords.com

Four Pentagrams
Paeans
Granites
Prophetic Rite

Ron Squibbs piano

AUREC 1302

DANE RUDHYAR

Ron Squibbs piano

DANE RUDHYAR
Total time: 79:38
AUREC 1302

Four Pentagrams
Paeans
Granites
Prophetic Rite

 &  2013 Aucourant Records (BMI)

All Rights Reserved.

Ron Squibbs piano

Four Pentagrams
Paeans
Granites
Prophetic Rite
Ron Squibbs piano

Dane Rudhyar

Four Pentagrams (1924-26, rev. 1971-74)

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.

First Pentagram (The Summons)

The Call
Surging
Exultation
Daughters of Men
Breath of Fire
Second Pentagram (Enfoldment)
The Earth Pull
Reaching Out
Tenderness
Aphrodite (Born of the Foam)
Salutation to the Depths
Third Pentagram (Release)
Gates
The Gift of Blood
Pentecost
Stars
Sunburst
Fourth Pentagram (The Human Way)
Pomp
Yearning
Irony
Overcoming
Peace

Dane Rudhyar
1:21
2:48
0:29
5:03
1:21
4:07
2:17
1:15
2:49
2:40
2:40
3:21
1:32
3:33
1:39
2:59
4:19
2:11
3:52
5:40

Paeans (1927)

21. With joyous exaltation

22. Epic and resonant
23. With rhythmic fullness
24.
25.
26.
27.
28.

Granites (1929)
With condensed strength and majesty
With stark rigidity
Sharp and light
With a vibrant serenity
With triumphant exultation

29. Prophetic Rite (ca. 1934)

2:05
1:52
1:52

Dane Rudhyar (1895-1985) was one of the most

important members of a group of American composers
who called themselves the ultramoderns. He was a
founding member of both the New Music Society, which
was headed by the American-born Henry Cowell, and
the International Composers Guild, which was led
by the French-born Edgard Varse. In a number of
ways, Rudhyars music represents a synthesis of the
approaches of Cowell and Varse, both of whom were
seminal figures in American modernism. Like Cowell,
Rudhyar spent much of his life living in California.
He also shared Cowells interest in Asian music and
philosophy. Like Varse, on the other hand, Rudhyar was
a native of France and drew upon European influences
in the formation of his musical style.
Born Daniel Chennevire in 1895 in Paris, Rudhyar received a basic musical education
there but did not pursue advanced conservatory studies. He chose instead to immerse
himself directly in the Parisian musical scene, which was particularly vibrant in the
years leading up to World War I. Along with many other memorable performances, he
attended the legendary Paris premire of Stravinskys Le Sacre du printemps. His fist
concert reviews were published when he still a teenager. He also had privileged access
to the library of musical scores belonging to the Durand publishing house. Durand
published a monograph he wrote on the music of Debussy, in which he commented on
the whole of Debussys output up to that time, ending with the Prludes Book II and
Jeux. Durand also published three of Rudhyars early piano pieces.1

1:37
1:27
1:09
3:14
1:08

With his imagination ignited by the music of Debussy, Stravinsky, and others,
Chennevire (who had by now begun to refer to himself as Rudhyar) took on more
ambitious compositional projects, including some orchestral music for a multimedia
project by dancer and performance artist Valentine de Saint-Point. Saint-Points project,

8:10

Mtachorie (Beyond the Dance) was performed in Paris and also at the Metropolitan
Opera House in New York. For the New York performance, Rudhyar travelled by boat
with Saint-Point and lighting designer Vivan Postel du Mas. The performance, which
took place in April 1917, was conducted by Pierre Monteux and was well reviewed.
It did not, however, lead to the kinds of future performance opportunities for which
Saint-Point had hoped, due in part to American involvement in World War I.
Late in 1917, Rudhyar separated from his Parisian associates, citing personal
and ideological differences.2 While Saint-Point and both of her assistants shared
interests in esoteric philosophies, later developments in the lives of Saint-Point
and du Mas pointed toward a right-wing orientation that was at odds with Rudhyars
convictions, which were humanistic and transpersonal in nature, and therefore
presupposed a good deal of individual freedom. From the beginning of his career,
Rudhyar had been concerned with the social function of music. Soon after his
departure from Paris, he expressed concern over what he saw as a turning away
from the progressive nature of Debussys music in favor of a vapid and politically
irresponsible irony in some of
the late music of Satie and
in the music of Les Six.3
A few years later, he came
to associate neoclassicism
with fascism.4 In contrast
to these tendencies, which
he saw as reactionary and
regressive, Rudhyar sought
to move forward along the
lines indicated by Debussy
and Scriabin, in parallel
with the future-oriented
work of Varse and Ruggles,
among others.
4

The works on this recording constitute some of the most important piano music from
Rudhyars first American period. This period, which lasted from 1918 to 1929, was
musically among his most productive, and firmly established him as one of Americas
most important modernists. Toward the beginning of this period Rudhyar composed a
number of orchestral and vocal works, as well as chamber music and music for solo
piano. Later on, he focused mainly on writing for solo piano. In an essay on his music
written late in his life, Rudhyar stated that he considered the Four Pentagrams, the first
eight Tetragrams, Paeans, and Granites to be his best known piano works.5 Of these
works, the Pentagrams, Paeans, and Granites are presented here, along with a slightly
later work, Prophetic Rite.
The Pentagrams, written between 1924 and 1926, form a cohesive set and provide
perhaps the best introduction to Rudhyars mature style. They feature colorful
harmonies, dramatic contrasts, and expressive melodic lines. The first three Pentagrams
were originally published in 1930 as Moments: 15 Tone-Poems for Piano. During
the same period, Rudhyar composed a five-movement work for two pianos entitled
The Human Way. In the 1970s, the first three Pentagrams were revised, with some
simplification in the rhythmic notation and in the voicing of chords, and The Human
Way was condensed into a work for piano solo and retitled as the Fourth Pentagram.
Although the writing in the Fourth Pentagram is somewhat thicker, and its movements
cross-reference one another more closely than in the previous Pentagrams, overall it
forms a fitting conclusion to the set.
The First Pentagram is subtitled The Summons. Its first piece, The Call, is marked With a
powerful swing like the ringing of bells. It divides into two sections, each of which begins
with a syncopated bell-like figure, outlining a minor third. Each section attempts an ascent
in register, the first of which tumbles precipitously into the low register, while the second
succeeds in achieving a brilliant climax in which the upper and lower registers are unified.
The second piece, Surging, is more reflective. It also achieves an intense climax, but in
this case the climax occurs near the end of the middle section within an essential ternary
formal plan. The third piece, Exultation, is the briefest in the entire set of Pentagrams.
5

Some fifty years after it was originally composed, the opening of this movement would
serve as the germ for the second movement of Rudhyars Crisis and Overcoming for string
quartet (1978).6 The fourth piece, Daughters of Men, like Surging before it, provides one
of the First Pentagrams expressive slow movements. The title appears to reference the
mysterious tale of the intermarriage of the sons of God and daughters of men from Genesis
6. Replete with suggestions of forbidden human access to divine knowledge, this tale has
long been a favorite of occultists, who associate it with other Promethean myths from
various cultures. The atmosphere of longing, passion, and solemnity that pervades this
movement seems perfectly appropriate to its title. The title for the last piece, Breath of Fire,
evidently refers to a yogic breathing technique whose apparent aim is to release the yogis
awareness from its bondage to ordinary consciousness. Appropriately, the head of this
movement is marked With dyonisian intensity. Its final gesture is a chord in the upper
register, for which the performer is instructed to cut sound sharply as chord is struck.
The sharp contrasts of mood and tempo that characterize the First Pentagram are followed
by a series of sustained, generally reflective moods in the Second Pentagram, whose
subtitle is Enfoldment. Within the context of the entire set of Pentagrams, it functions in
the manner of a large slow movement. The outer movements of the Second Pentagram,
The Earth Pull and Salutation to the Depths, feature ascending and descending melodic
thirds, as in The Call from the First Pentagram. Here, however, the context is solemn and
introspective. The Earth Pull is marked With the poignancy of autumns, referencing
a seasonal image favored by Rudhyar for the way in which it combines processes of
decay along with the promise of renewal in the future. Salutation to the Depths is
marked Solemn and broad like the beating of gongs. Its vivid evocations of metallic
percussion look forward to the use of similar effects in the Third and Fourth Pentagrams.
The titles of the inner movementsReaching Out, Tenderness, and Aphrodite (Born of
the Foam) suggest interpersonal relationship rather than solitary introspection. They
contain some of Rudhyars most delicate and fluid writing.
The Third Pentagram, subtitled Release, is the one that is most frequently performed. It
certainly stands strongly on its own, but certain of its characteristics gain in significance
6

when it is heard following the previous two Pentagrams. Like the First Pentagram, the
Third features an alternation of aggressive and reflective pieces. The first piece, Gates,
evidently refers to a poem by the same name from Rudhyars collection Toward Man
(1922-23).7 The poem describes a journey from merely human love, through darkness
and emptiness, toward Divine love:

Night of the soul,

when the first gates of love are left behind . . .
Night of the far-stretched wandering
that no beaconing light comforts . . .

O child !
Do you not see glowing
the second gates of Love ?

A change from the first to the second gates appears to be expressed in a passage
near the end of the piece during which the strident fanfares and gong-like effects of
its beginning are left behind in favor of a slowly ascending succession of fifths. This
passage, which defines a characteristic harmonic palette for the Third Pentagram as a
whole, is shown in Example 1 below.

Example 1: Gates, mm. 16-19

7

The title of the second piece, The Gift of Blood, likewise references a poem from
Toward Man. The poem, A Song of the Woman, which explores the theme of
compassionate self-sacrifice, contains the lines, The Heart of the World is so vast /
that all men and souls live from Its gift of blood. The piece, which is in ternary form,
features reflective music in its outer sections and intense expression in its middle
section. The third piece, Pentecost, is an animated and somewhat violent baptism by
fire. Like Breath of Fire from the First Pentagram, it ends in the extreme high register.
Stars, which is probably Rudhyars most accessible composition, is a lyrical nocturne
in ternary form. As in The Gift of Blood, its more turbulent passages are reserved for
its middle section. Sunburst, which shares some of its harmonic material with Stars,
provides a brief but brilliant conclusion to the Third Pentagram. Example 2 shows the
opening harmony of Stars, the concluding chords from Sunburst, and the concluding
sonority from The Earth Pull from the Second Pentagram. In each case, the harmonies
are derived from a cycle of perfect fifths that begins on C and proceeds as far as F#.
Several examples of harmonies derived from cycles of perfect fifths may be found as
well in the excerpt from Gates in Example 1.

step. These complete cycles each present all twelve chromatic pitch classes, thus
forming instances of a configuration that Milton Babbitt referred to as the aggregate.
A more gradual presentation of the aggregate occurs at the beginning of the first
piece, Pomp, in which a partial cycle of fifths starting on C is accompanied by an
enharmonically respelled F# major triad, an A major triad, and an A-flat major triad
(plus E, which is repeated from the A major triad). This group of pitch classes forms
a symmetrical ten-note collection that would later be named by Olivier Messiaen as
the seventh of his modes of limited transposition. The remaining two pitch classes, B
and F, occur in a gesture at the end of the second measure of this piece, thus forming
the complete aggregate.

Example 3: Aggregate formation in Yearning, Peace, and Pomp

Example 2: Harmonies derived from a cycle of perfect fifths in Stars, Sunburst, and The Earth Pull

Rudhyar continued to develop his harmonic language in the Fourth Pentagram. Here
the cycle of perfect fifths is presented in its entirety, spanning a range of nearly seven
octaves. As shown in Example 3, this occurs in the second piece, Yearning, and in the
fifth, Peace. These cycles are related to one another by transposition by one whole
8

The placement of companion pieces in the Fourth Pentagram is different from that in the
previous Pentagrams, and the cross-references between movements are more precise.
The first piece, Pomp, consists mainly of march-like chordal figures and strident fanfares.
These materials are mostly set, however, in asymmetrical meters such as 7/4 and 5/4
(the latter meter having been prominent also in Salutation to the Depths from the Second
Pentagram, with which this movement shares some of its ambience). Toward the end of
Pomp, the meters even out somewhat (to 9/4 and 6/4) and the harmonies become more
diatonic. With its atmosphere of metallic brilliance, the conclusion of this piece resembles
somewhat the end of Sunburst. Pomps companion piece is the fourth movement,
9

Overcoming. This piece is turbulent until its final section, which presents a varied
repetition of the opening of Pomp before leading to a grandiose conclusion of its own. The
third piece, Irony, is a sarcastic romp that stands alone within the Fourth Pentagram and,
in fact, within the series of Pentagrams as a whole. It is a sparkling scherzo that offsets
the weightiness of the remaining pieces. The expressive slow pieces, Yearning and Peace,
are the second and fifth movements. They share a similar atmosphere and they both make
extensive use of open fifths, as indicated in Example 3 above. They also both make slightly
veiled references to the opening of Wagners Tristan Prelude, indicating that this famous
musical symbol of yearning was still very much alive in Rudhyars imagination. (Probably
unknown to Rudhyar, Alban Berg also made reference to the Tristan Prelude in the last
movement of his Lyric Suite for string quartet, which was written at about the same time
as the Fourth Pentagram.) Just before the references to Tristan in Peace, there is a passage
marked Intense, yet serene that would reappear, transposed and slightly simplified,
in the fourth movement of Rudhyars Third Tetragram, subtitled Rebirth (1927-28). Yet
another connection with one of Rudhyars pieces occurs in Peace: its opening measures
intone a rising and falling melodic third on C#-E-C#, the enharmonic equivalent of the
D-flat-F-flat-D-flat motive at the beginning of The Call from the First Pentagram, in the
same octave. Thus, with Peace, the set of Pentagrams comes full circle. Characteristically
for Rudhyar, however, it does so only in a transformed manner, having undergone an
extensive journey from its point of departure to its point of return.
Paeans (1927) and Granites (1929) are the most easily available of Rudhyars works in
print, but they do not necessarily present the most accessible introduction to his music.
Both works had the good fortune to be published in Henry Cowells New Music periodical,
in 1927 and 1935, respectively, and they were reissued as a single publication by Merion
Music in 1972, with additional annotations by the composer. The Paeans were, in fact,
dedicated to Henry Cowell. Written in Hollywood in early 1927, they feature jagged,
dissonant melodic lines and short, concentrated rhythmic and melodic cells that are
repeated in irregular patterns. While their title invokes ancient Greece, the nervous energy
of these pieces seems rather to invoke the restlessness of a modern urban environment.
This work, more than the Pentagrams, appears to reflect the influence of Rudhyars fellow
10

countryman, Edgard Varse, who famously portrayed the

sonic environment of the modern urban landscape in his
large orchestral work Amriques (1918-21, revised 1927).
Chords in fifths appear near the end of the first piece,
presented in contrary and parallel motion in staccato
rhythms. This passage is followed by a coda that pulls
downward linearly in the bass from G-flat, through E to
a conclusion on a low octave D. The second piece, in
addition to jagged melodic lines, contains a concluding
passage marked Mighty. Gong-like that is centered in
part around a B diminished triad. At the end of this piece
the B diminished triad is underpinned by a low octave
B-flat, as if to supply a functional dominant harmony for
the E-flats that appear like a pedal point in various registers
throughout the following, passacaglia-like third piece. The
final Paean ends with gestures that suggest the crashing of gigantic waves, or the clashing
of titanic opposing forces, somewhat similarly to the end of Varses Amriques.
The image of crashing waves is appropriate to the opening and closing pieces of
Granites as well, but the atmosphere of this work is different from Paeans. Composed
in Carmel, California, Granites seems to reflect the local landscape, with its dramatic
counterpoint of towering cliffs and rocky shorelines. This is a locality that also attracted
the photographers Edward Weston and Morley Baer and the poet Robinson Jeffers,
each of whom inscribed a sense of its mystery into his work. Written in two weeks in
August of 1929, this is one of Rudhyars most concentrated compositions. Its textures
are clearer than those in Paeans, featuring massive chords that are offset by spare twopart counterpoint, a texture that is somewhat unusual for Rudhyar. Granites consists
of five brief movements, which are more concise and more strongly interrelated than
those found in the Pentagrams (although interrelations among the movements in the
Fourth Pentagram are significant, as mentioned above). The end of the fifth movement
references the melodic and harmonic profile of the first, while the opening theme of
11

the slow, lyrical second movement is referenced in

the middle of the third, which functions somewhat in
the manner of a scherzo. The fourth movement is the
most expansive and expressive, and contains some of
Rudhyars most compelling music. Perhaps it is to read
too much into Granites to see it as a musical prophecy of
the fiscal cliff that would soon lead to the crash of the
stock market and the beginning of the Great Depression.
Yet there is something solemn and valedictory about
Granites, lending it a somewhat more tragic dimension
than is evident in the preceding works (with the possible
exception of Paeans). In any event, the Great Depression
brought with it a drying up of the patronage that had
allowed Rudhyar to compose as prolifically as he had in
the 1920s. As a result, he turned his attention mainly
toward writing and would not resume steady compositional activity until 1967, with only
a few exceptions in the intervening years.
One of these exceptions is Prophetic Rite, which closes this disc. The chronology of this
work is difficult to determine precisely. In its original version (which is recorded here), it
was published as an autonomous work.8 It subsequently reappeared in a revised version,
entitled Oracle, as one of the four movements of Syntony (1967).9 The style of Prophetic Rite
anticipates that of Rudhyars late works, in which the power found in Paeans and Granites is
generally rather restrained. It thus signals a return to the kind of color, drama, and lyricism
found in works such as the Four Pentagrams. Nonetheless the combination of powerful
chords and delicate contrapuntal writing found in Granites makes itself felt in this work, too.
Prophetic Rite opens with a series of syncopated chords that are interspersed with dramatic
fanfares. Harmonically it explores both chromatic and diatonic territories. Its overall formal
design is ternary, but the organizational complexity of the ternary designs component
sectionstwo distinct themes in the outer sections and a turbulent, developmental inner
sectionhints at the possibility of an underlying sonata-form conception.
12

In a public lecture entitled Dissonant Harmony, Rudhyar gave vivid expression to his
intentions regarding performers of and listeners to his music. The following remarks are
excerpted from this lecture, which he gave in Palo Alto, California in 1983:
If you want to use the instrument [the piano] to induce resonances and
to release a power of transformation through awakening within the total
psyche of another human being a similar resonance, which will also expand their
consciousness in a cosmic sense, as it were, you have to be able to maintain
a psychic tension. The process must be maintained, and thats the difficult thing
in playing my music. It is a sustained process. Living is a sustained process.
You are not duplicating or making concrete an art object which is there in a
pattern. You are managing the unfoldment of a process, and that process
will prove its value only in what it does to the listeners psyche. Art does
something to the person who is in front of it, or who is affected by it, or who
is subjected to it, and its value is in what it does to that person. Of itself, it is
merely a stimulant in some way. If the performer needs psychic tension, the
listener needs a real attention. The mind should be open to the process of basic
renewal through the magic of sound. Let the sounds do their magic in your
open souls.10
Rudhyars piano music is challenging, but also deeply rewarding. It should certainly
occupy a more prominent place in the concert repertoire than it does at present, and
the same can be said for his chamber and orchestral works. Although the available
commercial recordings of Rudhyars music are relatively few in number, several notable
pianists have contributed to its dissemination, including William Masselos, Maro Ajemian,
Marcia Mikulak, Richard Cameron-Wolfe, Steffen Schleiermacher, and Sarah Cahill. As
these performers have inspired me to bring Rudhyars music to a wider public, it is hoped
that this recording will inspire others to do likewise, thereby helping to establish a strong
tradition of performance practice for this important component of the legacy of American
modernist music.
Ron Squibbs
13

These pieces may be heard in a performance by Sarah Cahill at http://radiom.org/detail.php?omid=NMS.2007.02.24.1.A. The second and
third pieces have also been recorded by Richard Cameron-Wolfe on Paris-X: Musica Obscura of Dane Rudhyar and Erik Satie (Furious
Artisans FACD6807).
2
Dane Rudhyar, An Illustrated Biographical Sketch, Part 2. http://khaldea.com/rudhyar/bio2.shtml.
3
Rudhyar D. Chennevire, Erik Satie and the Music of Irony, Musical Quarterly 5/4 (1919): 469-78.
4 Dane Rudhyar, Musical Fascism (1922). http://khaldea.com/rudhyar/musicalfascism.html.
5
Dane Rudhyar, The Magic of Tone and the Art of Music (Boulder: Shambhala, 1982), p. 193.
6
This work was recorded by the Kronos Quartet on the album Dane Rudhyar: Advent, Crisis and Overcoming, Transmutation
(New World NWCR604).
7
Dane Rudhyar, Toward Man: Poems (Carmel, California: The Seven Arts, 1928).
8
Dane Rudhyar, Prophetic Rite for piano (New York: Merrymount Music Press, 1950), currently available in a reprint edition
by Theodore Presser.
9
Dane Rudhyar, Musical, Artistic, and Written Works. http://www.khaldea.com/rudhyar/listofworks.shtml, does not list Prophetic Rite
as an individual work, but states that Syntony contains revisions of works that were written between 1919 and 1934. The contrast between
chordal and linear textures in Prophetic Rite suggests that it may have been written after Granites (1929), and therefore a date between
1929 and 1934 seems plausible.
10
Dane Rudhyar Audio Archives, Rudhyar Institute for Transpersonal Activity Conference 1983, A Musical and Artistic Interlude, Part 3,
http://www.beyondsunsigns.com/rudhyaraudiorita83.html#selfact.
1

Ron Squibbs is Associate Professor of Music at the University of Connecticut at Storrs. His scholarly and performance activities center on
the music of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. His previous release for Aucourant Records is On the Keyboard: Piano Music of Joji
Yuasa (AUREC-0501-1). (www.ronsquibbs.com)
Recorded September 9-11, 2011 on a Steinway D at Florence Kopleff Recital Hall, Georgia State University, Atlanta, Georgia
Engineer: Robert Scott Thompson
Producer: Robert Scott Thompson
Mastering: Nev Walker
Assistant Engineers: Geoff Massey, David Ducharme
Piano Technician: Fengsheng Chen
Cover art: Rudhyar, Meditation on Power (1948), watercolor. Courtesy of Leyla Rudhyar Hill.
Photo credits:
Page 3. Rudhyar in 1925. Photographer unknown.
Page 4. Illustration from article by Rudhyar, Claude Debussy and the Counterpoint of the Future, Pearsons Magazine, March 1925.
Page 7. Rudhyar in 1929. Photograph by Edward Weston.
Page 8. Rudhyar in mid-1920s. Photographer unknown.
Back page. Rudhyar in 1970s. Photograph by Betty Freeman.
All photographic images courtesy Leyla Rudhyar Hill.
Publishers: Columbia University Music Press (Pentagrams), Theodore Presser (Paeans, Granites, Prophetic Rite)
Graphic design: Tim Schwartz (www.OnionProductions.com)

Funded in part through a grant from the Aaron Copland Fund for Music, Inc., with additional
support from the University of Connecticut School of Fine Arts Deans Grant Fund.
14