Serious Music with Bea Witkin is a site-specific audio walk on New York City’s Upper West Side produced by Megan Hattie Stahl. This immersive, musical documentary explores and extends the life and work of composer Beatrice Witkin (1916-1990). Across four stationary chapters and three walking interludes, participants follow a one-mile route from Riverside Park to Straus Park by way of Witkin’s longtime residence on West End Avenue. Through guided narration, archival music, interviews and recordings of contemporary musicians sight-reading a 1985 string quartet piece by Witkin, Serious Music invites listeners to consider Witkin's experience navigating the 20th century worlds of both “serious” and commercial music while balancing marriage and motherhood.

This walk's route is accessible for wheelchair users and transcripts are available for each segment.

After your walk, please sign the guestbook at bit.ly/seriousguest 

$11.99

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Serious Music with Bea Witkin

GLOBAL

Megan Hattie Stahl

(a slow, unsettling but peaceful brass quintet piece begins, continuing under the voices)

Narrator: The first time I came here, I felt at home. I've often sat by rivers to reflect, dream, plan, process, and write.

This is a composition by Bea Witkin from the late 1960s. It's called "Triads and Things for Brass Quintet."

The first time I learned about Beatrice Witkin was two years ago. On Wikipedia, she was listed among notable alumni of my graduate school Hunter College. Bea lived in this neighborhood for nearly 40 years, from the early 1950s, until her death in 1990.

I don't know if Bea ever came down here. I don't know what year the benches were installed. I do know that Wikipedia articles and obituaries can barely scratch the surface of someone's life and work, especially a composer.

(brass piece continues)

Newspaper Voice: Beatrice Braverman Witkin was an American composer and pianist. She was best known for her electronic music, especially the theme she composed for the TV show "Wild, Wild World of Animals" in 1973.

Narrator: Almost all of the music you're going to hear was either composed or performed by Bea Witkin. You'll hear recordings from her home studio and tape of concerts and rehearsals. You'll hear voice actors reading from Bea's diary and personal archive. You'll hear other voice actors reading newspaper articles and historical documents. You'll hear Bea's son, Steve... 

Steve Witkin: Steve, I used to live here.  

Narrator: ... and her grandson Alex. 

Alex Hurd: So my name's Alex Hurd, Bea Witkin's grandson.

Narrator: I'll use my voice to keep you grounded along the way. When walking between locations, stay aware of your surroundings. If you arrive at a crossroads ahead of my guidance, stop and wait.

(brass piece ends, a horn and soprano piece begins)

To the right, you can see the George Washington Bridge completed in 1931. To the left, there are distant piers. 100 years ago, way downriver and across the New York Harbor, Beatrice Braverman was a young girl on Staten Island.

Voice actor as Bea Witkin: First concerts were heard by the Staten Island Ferry musicians. 

Steve Witkin: She was born in 1916, uh, in  a Jewish immigrant family. 

Narrator: Her father, a plumber, left the family. 

Steve Witkin: I know they were quite poor after he left. 

(horn and soprano continues)

Voice actor as Bea Witkin: Piano lessons started at age six on Staten Island. Before, I had picked out tunes on my toy piano and xylophone, popular toys at that time.

Steve Witkin: My mother told me this, I dunno if it's true, but my grandmother did not think my mother was attractive. My grandmother saw a movie where the heroine was, uh, deemed unattractive, but she played the piano. So my grandmother got the idea that you're not very attractive, so you can get a man only by learning the piano.

(horn and soprano piece ends, dramatic cello and piano piece begins)

Voice actor as Bea Witkin: Studied theory and harmony in newly formed music theory class in high school in Brooklyn where we now lived. Wrote music for a senior high school show, played in jazz band at Bar Mitzvahs and weddings. Piano lessons at Greenwich House Music School, college years. 

Steve Witkin: It was quite extraordinary that she went to college. I mean, it was sort of unheard of in those days, and especially from the family that she came from.

Voice actor as Bea Witkin: Majored in music at Hunter College, taught myself trombone to play in college orchestra. Upon graduation, won award in music composition. NYU graduate work interrupted by marriage.

(piano and cello piece continues)

Steve Witkin: My father was sort of self-taught and very talented in everything, and he was an artist and I have a lot of his paintings in my house. He also loved music and he studied the cello and he, he learned a piano. So somehow he met my mother on a date. He was gonna show off his piano playing abilities. She said, move over, let me play.

(piano part gets louder, a complicated melody line swells, then ducks down as the voices continue)

And then that was the last he ever played the piano.

Steve Witkin: Their goal in life was to get outta Brooklyn, which they thought of as sort of the backwater. They needed to get to Manhattan. That was where the real intellectuals lived. And so they did. They ended up moving to the Upper West Side, I think in about 1939. And then my sister was born in 1940, and I was born 10 years later.

Voice actor as Bea Witkin: From 1943 to 1945. I studied composition privately with Mark Brunswick. I studied composition and analysis with Roger Sessions and Ernst Krenek, chamber music with Rudolph Kolisch and Marcel Dick, Lieder accompaniment with Lotte Leonard, symphony with Eric Leinsdorf, choral singing with Frederick Waldman and piano with Edward Steuermann. 

Alex Hurd: Well, grandma was the composer, also, she was a marvelous cook. She used to make me wild blueberry pancakes. My mother worked at IBM kind of nonstop, so she would leave me with my grandparents. 

Steve Witkin: We would be at our summer house. We had a house on Fire Island, and she kind of resented the fact that she has to take care of the house and cook and always arguing about that. She always felt this need to create and compose and anything that was taking her away from that, she resented.

So she learned how to cook seafood because we were always catching fish. I think the best thing she ever made was spaghetti with white clam sauce.

(piano and cello piece ends, unsettling, searching brass piece from earlier returns)

Voice actor as Bea Witkin: March 26th, 1962. Dear Mr. Schoenberg, may I add a few thoughts about your pertinent and provocative article about performing women musicians... 

Harold C. Schonberg, NYT music critic: Women musicians do not like to be called women musicians. 

Voice actor as Bea Witkin: Would your theory of conflict and domination account for the absence of lady composers from this season's concerts?

Harold C. Schonberg, NYT music critic: Playing any instrument is a conflict in which the instrument must be dominated, and generally speaking, men are better dominators than women. 

Voice actor as Bea Witkin: Would these physiological and psychological differences influence the quality of the work of the female composer? It might be interesting to program a concert of both sexes in which the identity of each composer will revealed after the concert.

Yours sincerely, Beatrice Witkin.

(brass piece discordantly swells and fades away, duetting with Bea's final line)

Empire State Trail \|||// (a slow, unsettling but peaceful brass quintet piece begins, continuing under the voices)

Narrator: The first time I came here, I felt at home. I've often sat by rivers to reflect, dream, plan, process, and write.

This is a composition by Bea Witkin from the late 1960s. It's called "Triads and Things for Brass Quintet."

The first time I learned about Beatrice Witkin was two years ago. On Wikipedia, she was listed among notable alumni of my graduate school Hunter College. Bea lived in this neighborhood for nearly 40 years, from the early 1950s, until her death in 1990.

I don't know if Bea ever came down here. I don't know what year the benches were installed. I do know that Wikipedia articles and obituaries can barely scratch the surface of someone's life and work, especially a composer.

(brass piece continues)

Newspaper Voice: Beatrice Braverman Witkin was an American composer and pianist. She was best known for her electronic music, especially the theme she composed for the TV show "Wild, Wild World of Animals" in 1973.

Narrator: Almost all of the music you're going to hear was either composed or performed by Bea Witkin. You'll hear recordings from her home studio and tape of concerts and rehearsals. You'll hear voice actors reading from Bea's diary and personal archive. You'll hear other voice actors reading newspaper articles and historical documents. You'll hear Bea's son, Steve... 

Steve Witkin: Steve, I used to live here.  

Narrator: ... and her grandson Alex. 

Alex Hurd: So my name's Alex Hurd, Bea Witkin's grandson.

Narrator: I'll use my voice to keep you grounded along the way. When walking between locations, stay aware of your surroundings. If you arrive at a crossroads ahead of my guidance, stop and wait.

(brass piece ends, a horn and soprano piece begins)

To the right, you can see the George Washington Bridge completed in 1931. To the left, there are distant piers. 100 years ago, way downriver and across the New York Harbor, Beatrice Braverman was a young girl on Staten Island.

Voice actor as Bea Witkin: First concerts were heard by the Staten Island Ferry musicians. 

Steve Witkin: She was born in 1916, uh, in  a Jewish immigrant family. 

Narrator: Her father, a plumber, left the family. 

Steve Witkin: I know they were quite poor after he left. 

(horn and soprano continues)

Voice actor as Bea Witkin: Piano lessons started at age six on Staten Island. Before, I had picked out tunes on my toy piano and xylophone, popular toys at that time.

Steve Witkin: My mother told me this, I dunno if it's true, but my grandmother did not think my mother was attractive. My grandmother saw a movie where the heroine was, uh, deemed unattractive, but she played the piano. So my grandmother got the idea that you're not very attractive, so you can get a man only by learning the piano.

(horn and soprano piece ends, dramatic cello and piano piece begins)

Voice actor as Bea Witkin: Studied theory and harmony in newly formed music theory class in high school in Brooklyn where we now lived. Wrote music for a senior high school show, played in jazz band at Bar Mitzvahs and weddings. Piano lessons at Greenwich House Music School, college years. 

Steve Witkin: It was quite extraordinary that she went to college. I mean, it was sort of unheard of in those days, and especially from the family that she came from.

Voice actor as Bea Witkin: Majored in music at Hunter College, taught myself trombone to play in college orchestra. Upon graduation, won award in music composition. NYU graduate work interrupted by marriage.

(piano and cello piece continues)

Steve Witkin: My father was sort of self-taught and very talented in everything, and he was an artist and I have a lot of his paintings in my house. He also loved music and he studied the cello and he, he learned a piano. So somehow he met my mother on a date. He was gonna show off his piano playing abilities. She said, move over, let me play.

(piano part gets louder, a complicated melody line swells, then ducks down as the voices continue)

And then that was the last he ever played the piano.

Steve Witkin: Their goal in life was to get outta Brooklyn, which they thought of as sort of the backwater. They needed to get to Manhattan. That was where the real intellectuals lived. And so they did. They ended up moving to the Upper West Side, I think in about 1939. And then my sister was born in 1940, and I was born 10 years later.

Voice actor as Bea Witkin: From 1943 to 1945. I studied composition privately with Mark Brunswick. I studied composition and analysis with Roger Sessions and Ernst Krenek, chamber music with Rudolph Kolisch and Marcel Dick, Lieder accompaniment with Lotte Leonard, symphony with Eric Leinsdorf, choral singing with Frederick Waldman and piano with Edward Steuermann. 

Alex Hurd: Well, grandma was the composer, also, she was a marvelous cook. She used to make me wild blueberry pancakes. My mother worked at IBM kind of nonstop, so she would leave me with my grandparents. 

Steve Witkin: We would be at our summer house. We had a house on Fire Island, and she kind of resented the fact that she has to take care of the house and cook and always arguing about that. She always felt this need to create and compose and anything that was taking her away from that, she resented.

So she learned how to cook seafood because we were always catching fish. I think the best thing she ever made was spaghetti with white clam sauce.

(piano and cello piece ends, unsettling, searching brass piece from earlier returns)

Voice actor as Bea Witkin: March 26th, 1962. Dear Mr. Schoenberg, may I add a few thoughts about your pertinent and provocative article about performing women musicians... 

Harold C. Schonberg, NYT music critic: Women musicians do not like to be called women musicians. 

Voice actor as Bea Witkin: Would your theory of conflict and domination account for the absence of lady composers from this season's concerts?

Harold C. Schonberg, NYT music critic: Playing any instrument is a conflict in which the instrument must be dominated, and generally speaking, men are better dominators than women. 

Voice actor as Bea Witkin: Would these physiological and psychological differences influence the quality of the work of the female composer? It might be interesting to program a concert of both sexes in which the identity of each composer will revealed after the concert.

Yours sincerely, Beatrice Witkin.

(brass piece discordantly swells and fades away, duetting with Bea's final line)

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Riverside Bench

Tour Item

English

L1.mp3

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 Narrator: Now let's walk away from the river to the northwest toward the Hudson Parkway. Probably the way you came. We'll pass underneath the overpass.

Megan: Alright, this is March 9th, I'm recording piano and starting with Violin 1 part.

(low notes on a piano)

Narrator: While we're in the tunnel, maybe pause the audio, take off your headphones and take a moment to listen to the drone of the traffic above.

Then keep left to follow the path north, up the hill. Keep to the right of the path so bikes can pass you on your left. 

Megan: I'm gonna try that part again, starting at measure eight... starting at measure 14.

(low notes on a piano continue)

And 1, 2, 3 and

1, 2, 1, 2, 3, 4, and one, and two. Okay. Um.

Narrator: When you hit a fork where the sports fields begin, turn right to continue going uphill.

Turn left at the next fork to join a wide promenade heading north.

(flute melody)

Annette: I almost need a metronome though, to count these because she's got a lot of different, um, she's got a lot of different kinds of notes and so the counting becomes a little bit more difficult. 

Megan: Yeah. So, um, where did you start? 

(flute melody continues)

Narrator: Keep going past the soccer fields until you see an overlook that's about even with the basketball hoops.

Megan: Could you play this or is this too low? 

Annette: Um, this is too low. I'd have to take it up an octave. 

Megan: Okay. Um, would you be able to play to here? 

Annette: I think so. Starting, starting there? Yeah. 

Megan: Right here or wherever you left off, I guess.

Narrator: This is called Trager Terrace, and it's where we're going to stop.

Depending on the season, there may be chairs and tables set up here. If not, you can stand or lean against the railing. You can also find a nearby bench to sit on. Just so you know, there is a public restroom right below us in the Field House Building.

Empire State Trail \|||//  Narrator: Now let's walk away from the river to the northwest toward the Hudson Parkway. Probably the way you came. We'll pass underneath the overpass.

Megan: Alright, this is March 9th, I'm recording piano and starting with Violin 1 part.

(low notes on a piano)

Narrator: While we're in the tunnel, maybe pause the audio, take off your headphones and take a moment to listen to the drone of the traffic above.

Then keep left to follow the path north, up the hill. Keep to the right of the path so bikes can pass you on your left. 

Megan: I'm gonna try that part again, starting at measure eight... starting at measure 14.

(low notes on a piano continue)

And 1, 2, 3 and

1, 2, 1, 2, 3, 4, and one, and two. Okay. Um.

Narrator: When you hit a fork where the sports fields begin, turn right to continue going uphill.

Turn left at the next fork to join a wide promenade heading north.

(flute melody)

Annette: I almost need a metronome though, to count these because she's got a lot of different, um, she's got a lot of different kinds of notes and so the counting becomes a little bit more difficult. 

Megan: Yeah. So, um, where did you start? 

(flute melody continues)

Narrator: Keep going past the soccer fields until you see an overlook that's about even with the basketball hoops.

Megan: Could you play this or is this too low? 

Annette: Um, this is too low. I'd have to take it up an octave. 

Megan: Okay. Um, would you be able to play to here? 

Annette: I think so. Starting, starting there? Yeah. 

Megan: Right here or wherever you left off, I guess.

Narrator: This is called Trager Terrace, and it's where we're going to stop.

Depending on the season, there may be chairs and tables set up here. If not, you can stand or lean against the railing. You can also find a nearby bench to sit on. Just so you know, there is a public restroom right below us in the Field House Building.

GessoW1.jpeg

Walking Interlude 1

W1.mp3

IMG_0015.jpg

Narrator: The first time I came here, it felt like a perfect midpoint between nature and city. The Hudson is still visible and the wall behind us contains the city. 

Steve Witkin: Okay, I spent a lot of time down here. I was a baseball player.

 (Scott Joplin's "The Entertainer" starts to play, by Bea, on synthesizer) 

Steve Witkin: So these were ball fields, I think they were... there's still one there, you see? And when I was a little kid, I tried to hit it hard enough to hit it off the wall. I spent countless hours down here. I would disappear in the morning and come back when the sun went down.

Narrator: I asked Steve if his mom ever came down here to watch his games. 

Steve Witkin: No, never. Nor my dad..

 ("The Entertainer" ends and Scott Joplin's "Bethena" begins, played by Bea on synthesizer) 

Steve Witkin: I was very close with my mother, starting at about maybe age 12 till I left New York when I was about 20. Uh, I would tag along with her everywhere: to concerts of modern music, Pierre Boulez, Stockhausen was another one. Sometimes she would have her music played, but I got to go to all of these concerts of atonal music, sort of, the... important music.

 ("Bethena" on synthesizer continues) 

Steve Witkin: She, uh, tried to get grant money. People at that time were always looking for a sponsor or a patron. She ended up getting money from the Rockefeller Foundation. I remember going with her to these really rich old ladies on Fifth Avenue, these ladies with veils, you know, fur coats. And uh, I think one I remember was  the Annenberg Family, which is a big publishing family. So she took me, I was maybe 14 or so, and I go into this unbelievable apartment with Picassos on the wall and muraus.

Press Release Voice: August Hecksher, Commissioner of Parks, will read the official proclamation by Mayor Lindsay declaring the week of May 26 to June 1st, 1968 Composer's Recognition Week. Mayor Lindsay decided to give recognition to New York City composers when Mrs. Beatrice Witkin, herself a New York composer, brought to his attention that the general public has a great misconception about the appearance and behavior of composers.

All composers and interested individuals are invited to attend the event on Friday, May 24th at 5:30 PM in the Central Park 72nd Street Bandshell.

Narrator: To accompany the mayor's proclamation, Bea composed a special piece: Fanfare in E-flat and B flat for three trumpets, three whereases, and one therefore.

 ("Fanfare in E Flat and B Flat for Three Trumpets, Three Whereases and One Therefore” (1968) begins to play) 

Mayor John Lindsay: Whereas New York City may be considered the composer's capital of the world. Several hundred composers live and work here and in the pursuit of their art are making an important contribution to the cultural and educational life of the city.

Now, therefore, I, John V. Lindsay, mayor of the City of New York, do hereby proclaim the week of May 26th through June 1st, 1968 as Composers Recognition Week in New York City. And do urge all New Yorkers to recognize and take pride in our composers and to participate, attend, and support the many activities and concerts of these composers.

 (brass instruments in Fanfare swell, piece ends. applause from the crowd.) 

Steve Witkin: I was cellist at the High School of Music and Art, but I fell in love with rock and roll.

 (An electric bass line is heard behind the voices) 

And I gravitated to the bass guitar. It didn't last that long, but, but then the Beatles came around.

 (bass line continues) 

Voice actor as Bea Witkin: Even though Beatle music is rock music and is crucially different from so-called classical music, quarter tones, the pentatonic scale, the repetitive beat, the repetitive second, melodic embellishments, the Alberti bass, the long sustained dissonant sound, and aleatoric effects, all parallel trends in contemporary, serious music.

Steve Witkin: I remember my father couldn't stand them, you know, long hair and all that kind of stuff. My mother loved them immediately. She ended up writing a piece based on the Beatles.

 (bass line continues) 

Voice actor as Bea Witkin: Since I was commissioned to write a piece to be played by and for young people, I thought it would be interesting and fun to reverse the procedure and write a non rock classical contemporary piece with motivic fragments and stylistic references to Beatle music. 

The 12 tone row of the piece is derived from consecutive tones from Beatles songs.

 (bass music ends) 

Steve Witkin: So what I'd like is a score of the, um, Beatles. 

Megan: Mm-hmm. Box five...

So these are very well organized. 

Steve Witkin: Cool. Yeah. Yeah. Lemme take a look at that.

Megan: Yeah, I was trying to play this, the first one, the row, on Garage Band, like I put in all the different...

Steve Witkin: Mm-hmm, Garage Band.

Megan: Yeah. And it sounded cool. 

Steve Witkin: So how did you do it? 

Megan: So I found a piccolo sound, for example, and I... played this melody line on a keyboard, a MIDI keyboard. Yeah. And I just put it all together.

 (an electronically-generated piccolo melody line starts) 

Megan: I think the first page. And it was...

Steve Witkin: Did you all the parts?

Megan: It took a long time.

(the piccolo line repeats, but this time with electronically-generated brass instruments and a xylophone, playing a 12-tone row) 

Steve Witkin: Are you kidding?

Megan: I was trying to listen for resemblance to a Beatles song or... but I don't really understand... i mean, I know what 12 tone row is, but...

Steve Witkin: I heard it when it was performed. I remember not thinking much of it or understanding it much. 

Narrator: What is serious music? Is music unserious until deemed serious?

West 101st Street \|||// Narrator: The first time I came here, it felt like a perfect midpoint between nature and city. The Hudson is still visible and the wall behind us contains the city. 

Steve Witkin: Okay, I spent a lot of time down here. I was a baseball player.

 (Scott Joplin's "The Entertainer" starts to play, by Bea, on synthesizer) 

Steve Witkin: So these were ball fields, I think they were... there's still one there, you see? And when I was a little kid, I tried to hit it hard enough to hit it off the wall. I spent countless hours down here. I would disappear in the morning and come back when the sun went down.

Narrator: I asked Steve if his mom ever came down here to watch his games. 

Steve Witkin: No, never. Nor my dad..

 ("The Entertainer" ends and Scott Joplin's "Bethena" begins, played by Bea on synthesizer) 

Steve Witkin: I was very close with my mother, starting at about maybe age 12 till I left New York when I was about 20. Uh, I would tag along with her everywhere: to concerts of modern music, Pierre Boulez, Stockhausen was another one. Sometimes she would have her music played, but I got to go to all of these concerts of atonal music, sort of, the... important music.

 ("Bethena" on synthesizer continues) 

Steve Witkin: She, uh, tried to get grant money. People at that time were always looking for a sponsor or a patron. She ended up getting money from the Rockefeller Foundation. I remember going with her to these really rich old ladies on Fifth Avenue, these ladies with veils, you know, fur coats. And uh, I think one I remember was  the Annenberg Family, which is a big publishing family. So she took me, I was maybe 14 or so, and I go into this unbelievable apartment with Picassos on the wall and muraus.

Press Release Voice: August Hecksher, Commissioner of Parks, will read the official proclamation by Mayor Lindsay declaring the week of May 26 to June 1st, 1968 Composer's Recognition Week. Mayor Lindsay decided to give recognition to New York City composers when Mrs. Beatrice Witkin, herself a New York composer, brought to his attention that the general public has a great misconception about the appearance and behavior of composers.

All composers and interested individuals are invited to attend the event on Friday, May 24th at 5:30 PM in the Central Park 72nd Street Bandshell.

Narrator: To accompany the mayor's proclamation, Bea composed a special piece: Fanfare in E-flat and B flat for three trumpets, three whereases, and one therefore.

 ("Fanfare in E Flat and B Flat for Three Trumpets, Three Whereases and One Therefore” (1968) begins to play) 

Mayor John Lindsay: Whereas New York City may be considered the composer's capital of the world. Several hundred composers live and work here and in the pursuit of their art are making an important contribution to the cultural and educational life of the city.

Now, therefore, I, John V. Lindsay, mayor of the City of New York, do hereby proclaim the week of May 26th through June 1st, 1968 as Composers Recognition Week in New York City. And do urge all New Yorkers to recognize and take pride in our composers and to participate, attend, and support the many activities and concerts of these composers.

 (brass instruments in Fanfare swell, piece ends. applause from the crowd.) 

Steve Witkin: I was cellist at the High School of Music and Art, but I fell in love with rock and roll.

 (An electric bass line is heard behind the voices) 

And I gravitated to the bass guitar. It didn't last that long, but, but then the Beatles came around.

 (bass line continues) 

Voice actor as Bea Witkin: Even though Beatle music is rock music and is crucially different from so-called classical music, quarter tones, the pentatonic scale, the repetitive beat, the repetitive second, melodic embellishments, the Alberti bass, the long sustained dissonant sound, and aleatoric effects, all parallel trends in contemporary, serious music.

Steve Witkin: I remember my father couldn't stand them, you know, long hair and all that kind of stuff. My mother loved them immediately. She ended up writing a piece based on the Beatles.

 (bass line continues) 

Voice actor as Bea Witkin: Since I was commissioned to write a piece to be played by and for young people, I thought it would be interesting and fun to reverse the procedure and write a non rock classical contemporary piece with motivic fragments and stylistic references to Beatle music. 

The 12 tone row of the piece is derived from consecutive tones from Beatles songs.

 (bass music ends) 

Steve Witkin: So what I'd like is a score of the, um, Beatles. 

Megan: Mm-hmm. Box five...

So these are very well organized. 

Steve Witkin: Cool. Yeah. Yeah. Lemme take a look at that.

Megan: Yeah, I was trying to play this, the first one, the row, on Garage Band, like I put in all the different...

Steve Witkin: Mm-hmm, Garage Band.

Megan: Yeah. And it sounded cool. 

Steve Witkin: So how did you do it? 

Megan: So I found a piccolo sound, for example, and I... played this melody line on a keyboard, a MIDI keyboard. Yeah. And I just put it all together.

 (an electronically-generated piccolo melody line starts) 

Megan: I think the first page. And it was...

Steve Witkin: Did you all the parts?

Megan: It took a long time.

(the piccolo line repeats, but this time with electronically-generated brass instruments and a xylophone, playing a 12-tone row) 

Steve Witkin: Are you kidding?

Megan: I was trying to listen for resemblance to a Beatles song or... but I don't really understand... i mean, I know what 12 tone row is, but...

Steve Witkin: I heard it when it was performed. I remember not thinking much of it or understanding it much. 

Narrator: What is serious music? Is music unserious until deemed serious?

ParkOverlooksmaller.jpeg

Trager Terrace

L2.mp3

IMG_0001 (2).jpg

 Narrator: Now let's cross the main promenade and follow the paved path, climbing the hill to the left. Toward the wall. Toward the city.

 (a melody line played around the center of the piano) 

Megan: Oops. 34.

Narrator: You should see a staircase on your right going up. Walk toward it.

 (piano continues, more softly) 

Either climb the stairs or take the paved path to the right of them.

Either way you'll get to Riverside Drive.

(a trumpet line starts soft and slowly gets louder, continuing behind the voices) 

Aaron: Yeah, it's got a lot of angular sort of texture to it and um, it's just interesting... The ethos of like trumpet playing and trumpet music can be like, brash and kind of like, at the forefront. So it's interesting playing music that's like meant to be a part of a quartet and for different instruments.

 (trumpet line continues) 

Narrator: Once at the top of the stairs, or the ramp, go to the crosswalk at 103rd and Riverside.

You'll see an M5 bus stop on your left. The M5 bus has been serving Riverside Drive since 1936. Before that, there was a streetcar here.

If you press the crosswalk button, you'll feel a vibration and hear a click.

When I crossed this street with Steve, he said, only tourists press the button.

 (a Moog Mother 32 synthesizer line starts softer and gets louder) 

Continue straight ahead across the mini crosswalk and keep heading east on 103rd, also known as Cynthia Doty Way. 

Jared: I have the cello going to, uh, this, uh, Moog Mother 32.

Narrator: Walk on the left hand side of the street.

 (synth line continues) 

Jared: As someone who, uh, grew up in Orthodox synagogue, I'm very familiar with these melodies.

 (synth line continues) 

Narrator: Notice the beautiful brownstones on the left and the towering apartment buildings on the right.

 (synth line continues) 

Jared: The intervals and some of the runs,  they're reminiscent of things I heard in Shul, um, either on Yom Kippur or on Shabbos. 

Narrator: At the end of the block, you'll reach West End Avenue, the building on the northwest corner, number 8, 8 5. Our next destination.

 (synth line continues) 

Narrator: 885 West End was built in 1915 by the Paterno Brothers.

In the early 20th century. The Paterno family constructed over a hundred buildings across Manhattan.

 (synth line continues, more quietly) 

Find a place to stand across the street from this corner. You can either cross 103rd to the South side or cross West End to the East side.

Once you find a spot, direct your attention to the corner apartment on the second floor. This was Bea's apartment for nearly 40 years. She looked out of those windows every day.

 (synth line fades out) 

304 Riverside Drive \|||//  Narrator: Now let's cross the main promenade and follow the paved path, climbing the hill to the left. Toward the wall. Toward the city.

 (a melody line played around the center of the piano) 

Megan: Oops. 34.

Narrator: You should see a staircase on your right going up. Walk toward it.

 (piano continues, more softly) 

Either climb the stairs or take the paved path to the right of them.

Either way you'll get to Riverside Drive.

(a trumpet line starts soft and slowly gets louder, continuing behind the voices) 

Aaron: Yeah, it's got a lot of angular sort of texture to it and um, it's just interesting... The ethos of like trumpet playing and trumpet music can be like, brash and kind of like, at the forefront. So it's interesting playing music that's like meant to be a part of a quartet and for different instruments.

 (trumpet line continues) 

Narrator: Once at the top of the stairs, or the ramp, go to the crosswalk at 103rd and Riverside.

You'll see an M5 bus stop on your left. The M5 bus has been serving Riverside Drive since 1936. Before that, there was a streetcar here.

If you press the crosswalk button, you'll feel a vibration and hear a click.

When I crossed this street with Steve, he said, only tourists press the button.

 (a Moog Mother 32 synthesizer line starts softer and gets louder) 

Continue straight ahead across the mini crosswalk and keep heading east on 103rd, also known as Cynthia Doty Way. 

Jared: I have the cello going to, uh, this, uh, Moog Mother 32.

Narrator: Walk on the left hand side of the street.

 (synth line continues) 

Jared: As someone who, uh, grew up in Orthodox synagogue, I'm very familiar with these melodies.

 (synth line continues) 

Narrator: Notice the beautiful brownstones on the left and the towering apartment buildings on the right.

 (synth line continues) 

Jared: The intervals and some of the runs,  they're reminiscent of things I heard in Shul, um, either on Yom Kippur or on Shabbos. 

Narrator: At the end of the block, you'll reach West End Avenue, the building on the northwest corner, number 8, 8 5. Our next destination.

 (synth line continues) 

Narrator: 885 West End was built in 1915 by the Paterno Brothers.

In the early 20th century. The Paterno family constructed over a hundred buildings across Manhattan.

 (synth line continues, more quietly) 

Find a place to stand across the street from this corner. You can either cross 103rd to the South side or cross West End to the East side.

Once you find a spot, direct your attention to the corner apartment on the second floor. This was Bea's apartment for nearly 40 years. She looked out of those windows every day.

 (synth line fades out) 

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Walking Interlude 2

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(a slow, whooshy, unnerving synthesizer improvisation begins and continues under the voices) 

 Voice actor as Pauline Oliveros: Why have there been no great women composers? The question is often asked. The answer is no mystery. Women have been taught to despise activity outside of the domestic realm as unfeminine, just as men have been taught to despise domestic duties. 

Narrator: Pauline Oliveros, the New York Times. September 13th, 1970.

Steve Witkin: Steve, I used to live here,

Current Apartment Resident: He used to live here a long time ago.

Steve Witkin: Not that long. Yeah, that's a long time. 

Current Apartment Resident: The year she was born, it had to be...

Steve Witkin: Wow.

 (synthesizer music continues) 

You still have the glass doors? Those are, you still have the fireplaces still there? I think we also had a, a, uh, loudspeaker in there. So that's all... It's been repainted since I've been here, but,  they kept the molding the same. Now this is giving me, um, memories.

Dining table was here, piano was here, my mother's desk was there, there were cabinets there with music. 

Megan: Where was the synthesizer? 

Steve Witkin: The synthesizer was against this wall. It was on a table and there was a keyboard, of course.

(synthesizer music ends) 

Narrator: On my first visit to this neighborhood, I was standing on 103rd Street outside of this building. Through an open window, I heard a piano being played.

 (a short piano melody is heard) 

 (same synthesizer music as before returns) 

Voice actor as Bea Witkin: March 29th, 1953.

June 11th, 1953

Things to do.

Foods not to eat.

Closet drawers, carbohydrates, kitchen decorating, sugar, drapes, fat, Steve's paint and studio cover, eggs, Judy's ruffle, one a day, table, fruit, floor, one piece a day, baked a cake, with the exception of melon, skip, jump, clap, and unsweetened berries, which may be eaten in unlimited quantities.

 (synthesizer music ends) 

Steve Witkin: She started getting interested in electronic music and getting time on the synthesizers was very difficult, I mean, there was a lot of competition. 

Narrator: During the 1960s, one prominent electronic music center was housed at Columbia University, about 20 blocks north of here. 

Steve Witkin: So at one point my mother said, the hell with this, I'm gonna get my own synthesizer.

 ("Glissines," an icy, glitchy Buchla synthesizer piece by Bea, begins, continuing under the voices) 

Uh, my father actually put it, he, as I say, he was very talented. He was able to purchase the equipment and do the wiring, and she was so creative that she just went in that direction.

She figured, well, I can make some money doing this, so I'm gonna try to get, do some advertising. So she wrote an electronic, uh, composition for Pepto Bismol, and, and I remember she was trying out sounds that made you feel nauseous.

 (repetitive synth swells evoking nausea) 

Newspaper voice: Electronic music, which is being heard increasingly in films and commercials today, will be the subject of an extensive seminar at the 13th Annual International Film and TV Festival of New York. The possibilities of electronic music will be described as well as demonstrated by Ms. Beatrice Witkin, a professional composer of electronic music.

Her creations consist of music which is synthesized on the CBS electronic music system and sometimes combined with the instruments and musique concrète. 

 (manipulated looping tape of a nursery rhyme is heard) 

 (a tuba and electronic tape piece begins, continuing underneath the voice) 

Press release voice: To all members of the Tuba Universal Brotherhood Association, I am happy to advise you of the publication of a new work entitled "Breath and Sounds" by Beatrice Witkin. This eight minute work is an ingenious dialogue between the tuba and a synthesized tape with tape manipulation utilizing such techniques as humming, breathing, and singing through the tuba, special tonguing attacks, and an imaginative exploration of the tuba's extreme low range.

Ms. Witkin, a serious composer in all idioms, has received grants and awards from the Rockefeller Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, et cetera.

 (tuba and tape piece ends) 

Steve Witkin: Then she did a soundtrack, you can actually get it on YouTube, for a animal show called "The Wild Wild World of Animals."

She played the piano as long as I can remember, I would hear, uh, piano music. And then later my sister played the violin in that dining room that we were in, a Beethoven violin sonata. And when my mother was studying with Steuermann, I remember her specifically studying a two part invention.

 (steve hums a 2-part invention) 

 (a soprano voice holds a long note which begins softly and gets louder) 

Narrator: Music is leaky.

 (the soprano sings a melody line without words, continuing under the voices) 

Ali (soprano): Mm, sorry.

Narrator: Music in progress, a piece under construction, can be heard through walls, windows and floors... Even if we try not to listen.

 (the soprano voice swells, then fades away) 

Steve Witkin: She was, um, very, very determined. Um, struggled to get her music performed, struggled because my father was not very nice to her various times in  her life and didn't help her, sort of put her down. I think there was kind of a jealousy. I, I think he inhibited a lot of, of her being able to really make a, a bigger career than she had.

 (a rhythmic, spooky synth line with percussive rattling is heard, continuing under the voices) 

She would just sit at the synthesizer and create. She didn't think about it mathematically or from an engineering standpoint, whereas my father was, you have to do this, you have to do that... it drove him crazy.

Voice actor as Bea Witkin: March 2nd, 1986. Lou took coupon papers outta the garbage and threw them on my chair. Wild tantrum about "where is my bread?"

Threatened me, almost beat me, didn't let me explain about bread that's sliced in freezer, can be toasted frozen. Always gets me by surprise. Japanese concert, two tickets. Lou didn't want me to go.

March 3rd, 1986. Leftover hostility. I started work on recording: booming cello equalized in amplifier. Tried to figure out how to record from amplifier to revox, couldn't. Lou came home, I asked him. Wild again. "I hate electronics."

Very bad session. Dinnertime I asked about problem. Wild again. 

Threw dishes and table. Threatened to kill me. Called me poison. Asked me to leave him once divorce. Old story. Yelling and screaming. Told me to shut up. "Don't talk." Wild Tantrum. Battered me.

 (synth music continues) 

Music critic 1: Beatrice Witkin's "Echologie," once past its punning title, consisted of a deft juxtaposition of flute and bass flute against taped synthesized sound.

Music critic 2: Ms. Witkin's "Combinations" were a series of short connected episodes for assorted instruments. They were serial in nature with some elements of chance music.

Music critic 1: The interaction was cleverly managed and the electronic effects imaginative, but on a first hearing, Ms Witkin didn't seem to be going anywhere with her materials.

Music critic 2: It was difficult to find their focus or detect any compelling direction, but there were some fine fraught lyrical moments. 

Narrator: What is a serious composer? Is a composer unserious until deemed serious?

Voice actor as Pauline Oliveros: Critics do a great deal of damage by wishing to discover greatness. Many composers of today are not interested in the criteria applied by critics to their work. And it is up to the critic to discern new criteria by going to the composer.

 (synth music fades into an orchestral piece) 

Certainly no great composer, especially a woman, has the chance to emerge in a society which believes that all great music has been written by those long departed.

 (orchestral piece coninues with a voice speaking in the recording) 

Voice on musical recording: The Martian day is 24 hours and 37 minutes long. And the Martian year lasts 25 months.

 (orchestral piece swells and concludes)

875 West End Avenue \|||// (a slow, whooshy, unnerving synthesizer improvisation begins and continues under the voices) 

 Voice actor as Pauline Oliveros: Why have there been no great women composers? The question is often asked. The answer is no mystery. Women have been taught to despise activity outside of the domestic realm as unfeminine, just as men have been taught to despise domestic duties. 

Narrator: Pauline Oliveros, the New York Times. September 13th, 1970.

Steve Witkin: Steve, I used to live here,

Current Apartment Resident: He used to live here a long time ago.

Steve Witkin: Not that long. Yeah, that's a long time. 

Current Apartment Resident: The year she was born, it had to be...

Steve Witkin: Wow.

 (synthesizer music continues) 

You still have the glass doors? Those are, you still have the fireplaces still there? I think we also had a, a, uh, loudspeaker in there. So that's all... It's been repainted since I've been here, but,  they kept the molding the same. Now this is giving me, um, memories.

Dining table was here, piano was here, my mother's desk was there, there were cabinets there with music. 

Megan: Where was the synthesizer? 

Steve Witkin: The synthesizer was against this wall. It was on a table and there was a keyboard, of course.

(synthesizer music ends) 

Narrator: On my first visit to this neighborhood, I was standing on 103rd Street outside of this building. Through an open window, I heard a piano being played.

 (a short piano melody is heard) 

 (same synthesizer music as before returns) 

Voice actor as Bea Witkin: March 29th, 1953.

June 11th, 1953

Things to do.

Foods not to eat.

Closet drawers, carbohydrates, kitchen decorating, sugar, drapes, fat, Steve's paint and studio cover, eggs, Judy's ruffle, one a day, table, fruit, floor, one piece a day, baked a cake, with the exception of melon, skip, jump, clap, and unsweetened berries, which may be eaten in unlimited quantities.

 (synthesizer music ends) 

Steve Witkin: She started getting interested in electronic music and getting time on the synthesizers was very difficult, I mean, there was a lot of competition. 

Narrator: During the 1960s, one prominent electronic music center was housed at Columbia University, about 20 blocks north of here. 

Steve Witkin: So at one point my mother said, the hell with this, I'm gonna get my own synthesizer.

 ("Glissines," an icy, glitchy Buchla synthesizer piece by Bea, begins, continuing under the voices) 

Uh, my father actually put it, he, as I say, he was very talented. He was able to purchase the equipment and do the wiring, and she was so creative that she just went in that direction.

She figured, well, I can make some money doing this, so I'm gonna try to get, do some advertising. So she wrote an electronic, uh, composition for Pepto Bismol, and, and I remember she was trying out sounds that made you feel nauseous.

 (repetitive synth swells evoking nausea) 

Newspaper voice: Electronic music, which is being heard increasingly in films and commercials today, will be the subject of an extensive seminar at the 13th Annual International Film and TV Festival of New York. The possibilities of electronic music will be described as well as demonstrated by Ms. Beatrice Witkin, a professional composer of electronic music.

Her creations consist of music which is synthesized on the CBS electronic music system and sometimes combined with the instruments and musique concrète. 

 (manipulated looping tape of a nursery rhyme is heard) 

 (a tuba and electronic tape piece begins, continuing underneath the voice) 

Press release voice: To all members of the Tuba Universal Brotherhood Association, I am happy to advise you of the publication of a new work entitled "Breath and Sounds" by Beatrice Witkin. This eight minute work is an ingenious dialogue between the tuba and a synthesized tape with tape manipulation utilizing such techniques as humming, breathing, and singing through the tuba, special tonguing attacks, and an imaginative exploration of the tuba's extreme low range.

Ms. Witkin, a serious composer in all idioms, has received grants and awards from the Rockefeller Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, et cetera.

 (tuba and tape piece ends) 

Steve Witkin: Then she did a soundtrack, you can actually get it on YouTube, for a animal show called "The Wild Wild World of Animals."

She played the piano as long as I can remember, I would hear, uh, piano music. And then later my sister played the violin in that dining room that we were in, a Beethoven violin sonata. And when my mother was studying with Steuermann, I remember her specifically studying a two part invention.

 (steve hums a 2-part invention) 

 (a soprano voice holds a long note which begins softly and gets louder) 

Narrator: Music is leaky.

 (the soprano sings a melody line without words, continuing under the voices) 

Ali (soprano): Mm, sorry.

Narrator: Music in progress, a piece under construction, can be heard through walls, windows and floors... Even if we try not to listen.

 (the soprano voice swells, then fades away) 

Steve Witkin: She was, um, very, very determined. Um, struggled to get her music performed, struggled because my father was not very nice to her various times in  her life and didn't help her, sort of put her down. I think there was kind of a jealousy. I, I think he inhibited a lot of, of her being able to really make a, a bigger career than she had.

 (a rhythmic, spooky synth line with percussive rattling is heard, continuing under the voices) 

She would just sit at the synthesizer and create. She didn't think about it mathematically or from an engineering standpoint, whereas my father was, you have to do this, you have to do that... it drove him crazy.

Voice actor as Bea Witkin: March 2nd, 1986. Lou took coupon papers outta the garbage and threw them on my chair. Wild tantrum about "where is my bread?"

Threatened me, almost beat me, didn't let me explain about bread that's sliced in freezer, can be toasted frozen. Always gets me by surprise. Japanese concert, two tickets. Lou didn't want me to go.

March 3rd, 1986. Leftover hostility. I started work on recording: booming cello equalized in amplifier. Tried to figure out how to record from amplifier to revox, couldn't. Lou came home, I asked him. Wild again. "I hate electronics."

Very bad session. Dinnertime I asked about problem. Wild again. 

Threw dishes and table. Threatened to kill me. Called me poison. Asked me to leave him once divorce. Old story. Yelling and screaming. Told me to shut up. "Don't talk." Wild Tantrum. Battered me.

 (synth music continues) 

Music critic 1: Beatrice Witkin's "Echologie," once past its punning title, consisted of a deft juxtaposition of flute and bass flute against taped synthesized sound.

Music critic 2: Ms. Witkin's "Combinations" were a series of short connected episodes for assorted instruments. They were serial in nature with some elements of chance music.

Music critic 1: The interaction was cleverly managed and the electronic effects imaginative, but on a first hearing, Ms Witkin didn't seem to be going anywhere with her materials.

Music critic 2: It was difficult to find their focus or detect any compelling direction, but there were some fine fraught lyrical moments. 

Narrator: What is a serious composer? Is a composer unserious until deemed serious?

Voice actor as Pauline Oliveros: Critics do a great deal of damage by wishing to discover greatness. Many composers of today are not interested in the criteria applied by critics to their work. And it is up to the critic to discern new criteria by going to the composer.

 (synth music fades into an orchestral piece) 

Certainly no great composer, especially a woman, has the chance to emerge in a society which believes that all great music has been written by those long departed.

 (orchestral piece coninues with a voice speaking in the recording) 

Voice on musical recording: The Martian day is 24 hours and 37 minutes long. And the Martian year lasts 25 months.

 (orchestral piece swells and concludes)

MegL3smaller.jpeg

Outside 885 West End Ave

L3.mp3

IMG_0057 (2).jpg

IMG_0100.jpg

Narrator: Now we're going to walk to our final destination, Straus Park. Let's head north on West End Avenue. Make sure you're walking toward 104th Street, not 102nd.

Enjoy the residential buildings. If you look up, you can see decorative flourishes near the top.

At street level, there may be orange traffic cones and workers in neon vests.

At some point we need to cross to the East side of the street. I suggest crossing at 105th.

During a street festival in the 1950s, a young Steve posed for a photo while riding a Shetland pony on one of these corners.

As we move North, Broadway creeps westward until it finally meets West End at 107th.

Our destination, Straus Park, exists in the resulting triangle.

 (the soprano voice from earlier fades in, singing a wordless melody line, continuing under the voices) 

Ali: Admittedly, you know, I was kinda like, oh wow, I'm not a second violin. I have never, you know, encountered this kind of range before.

 (the soprano continues) 

I think there was a lot to kind of like investigate of what is the beat here, you know, and where do I find my center and where can I find the line?

 (the soprano continues) 

Narrator: We'll enter the park from 106th Street, also known as Duke Ellington Boulevard.

 (the soprano continues, using a piano key to correct a note's pitch) 

Ali: I saw two robins fighting outside on this, like right outside this window about an hour ago, 'cause one's building a nest in that other yard. I was like, oh yeah, that's a sound that feels similar to what I'm potentially making with my voice here.

 ( the soprano continues, scooping down from a high note to a low one, slowly fades away) 

Narrator: Sit on a bench with a view of the fountain and statue in the center.

279 West 103rd Street \|||// Narrator: Now we're going to walk to our final destination, Straus Park. Let's head north on West End Avenue. Make sure you're walking toward 104th Street, not 102nd.

Enjoy the residential buildings. If you look up, you can see decorative flourishes near the top.

At street level, there may be orange traffic cones and workers in neon vests.

At some point we need to cross to the East side of the street. I suggest crossing at 105th.

During a street festival in the 1950s, a young Steve posed for a photo while riding a Shetland pony on one of these corners.

As we move North, Broadway creeps westward until it finally meets West End at 107th.

Our destination, Straus Park, exists in the resulting triangle.

 (the soprano voice from earlier fades in, singing a wordless melody line, continuing under the voices) 

Ali: Admittedly, you know, I was kinda like, oh wow, I'm not a second violin. I have never, you know, encountered this kind of range before.

 (the soprano continues) 

I think there was a lot to kind of like investigate of what is the beat here, you know, and where do I find my center and where can I find the line?

 (the soprano continues) 

Narrator: We'll enter the park from 106th Street, also known as Duke Ellington Boulevard.

 (the soprano continues, using a piano key to correct a note's pitch) 

Ali: I saw two robins fighting outside on this, like right outside this window about an hour ago, 'cause one's building a nest in that other yard. I was like, oh yeah, that's a sound that feels similar to what I'm potentially making with my voice here.

 ( the soprano continues, scooping down from a high note to a low one, slowly fades away) 

Narrator: Sit on a bench with a view of the fountain and statue in the center.

For W3 Gesso.jpeg

Walking Interlude 3

W3.mp3

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(a lush and perhaps vaguely familiar string quartet piece, "Cantillations of the Bible," begins) 

Narrator: The first time I visited this park, I saw a woman carrying a violin case.Then, I heard a man singing. I like to imagine that every resident of this neighborhood is a musician.

The statue and memorial here is a tribute to a local couple who died in 1912. Ida Straus chose to stay with her husband, Isidor, on the Titanic, rather than get into a lifeboat.

"Lovely and pleasant were they in their lives, and in their death they were not parted."

Steve Witkin: You know, I played here as a little kid. I think my mother would take me, like in the baby carriage or by my hand and I would play for a little while. This hasn't changed at all.

 (string quartet continues) 

I mean, even the, the tiles or whatever, they're, they're the same.

 (string quartet continues underneath the voices) 

Voice actor as Bea Witkin: You are the God of your composition, and you ordain what is going to happen and you make up the rules for your piece.

You can write the piece based on three tones, you can write a piece based on a hundred tones, but make a decision.

Don't listen to anybody else. You are the composer and you decide. So now when I have this cantillation, I made up my own system.

Note: repeated tones are an important element in the cantillation melody.

Steve Witkin: Her last year she had a sort of a spurt, uh, with writing songs and, um a string quartet. It was called "Cantillations on the Bible."

In synagogue, the cantor would sing the Torah, and there's, there were certain guidelines for inflections in the music-

 (Steve sings: ahh ah ah, ahh ah ah)

And so she took that as a theme.

 (string quartet piece continues, with the instrumental melody lines heard during the walking interludes synched on top of the strings one by one, for a few notes each: synth, flute, trumpet, piano, and finally, soprano, until the piece swells and then fades out) 

When she passed away, she was working on a retrospective of her music and then she, she passed away very suddenly. 

Newspaper voice: Composer Succumbs: Beatrice Witkin, a composer of electronic music, died of complications from the flu on Wednesday at St. Luke's Roosevelt Hospital. She was 73 years old and lived in Manhattan.

Narrator: According to her son, Steve, Bea actually died of septic shock resulting from a case of bacterial pneumonia. 

Steve Witkin: Uh, I, I took it upon myself to make sure that concert took place. It was at the, um, I think the, the Greenwich Music House.

(a recording of Bea's Memorial Concert is heard, with a man speaking on a mic)

Man at concert: So we're here this evening to celebrate Bea Witkin, her life and her music. Thank you.

 (applause, then a cello and piano piece begins) 

Steve Witkin: I think she had already, um, signed many of the musicians, for example, the cello piece. I wanted the person that she wrote it for to perform it. So it was a long concert is a wonderful occasion... sad. At least I was very happy that it, that it did take place.

 (piano and cello piece swells and fades out) 

Alex Hurd: I remember that I was playing some very uh, early Chopin,

 (Chopin's Polonaise in A Flat Major on piano begins and continues underneath the voice) 

some kind of bad Chopin, and my grandmother sat down on the piano bench to my right and um, improvised something... because that's how she thought, and I'm sure it made the terrible piece better.

Steve Witkin: That was her last piece that she was working on for piano for Roy Eaton. 

Narrator: On her piano, Bea left behind some variations of Chopin's Polonaise in A Flat major. 

Alex Hurd: And I said, oh yeah, that must have come from that time I showed her that terrible Chopin piece. 

Narrator: The pianist and composer Roy Eaton finished them and performed them at her memorial concert.

 (a varation of the same Chopin piano piece begins, performed by Roy Eaton, then ends) 

Megan: What did her voice sound like? I've been trying to find recordings of her voice to no avail. Do you remember? 

Alex Hurd: Unfortunately, I don't have a good sense of her voice. 

Narrator: That's so sad. 

Alex Hurd: But you have that whole host of recordings the way she wanted to be heard.

(a jaunty electronic synthesizer piece begins, continuing under the voices) 

A composer wants to present something to the world which they are proud of.

It wouldn't occur to her or to another composer to use their voice because that's not how they communicate.

Narrator/Megan: After this conversation took place, I was able to find one recording.

 (synth piece continues) 

The Real Bea Witkin: During this past season, which is drawing to a close, there were more concerts of contemporary music than ever before. Because I'm a composer and I'm involved in a contemporary music project, I attended most of them.

Many of the concerts I attend use artificial devices to hold the attention of the audience. These include bombarding the ear with deafening noise, verbal insults by actor musicians planted in the audience for this purpose, shocking film defects, nudity, balloon popping, toy pistol shooting, lectures about the music that isn't there and other theatrical effects.

None of these devices were needed at the Philharmonic concert. The audience was completely absorbed in the music.

 (synth piece continues) 

One had the illusion of being surrounded and embraced by the performer and the music.

 (synth piece continues) 

They allowed the music to take over. They went with it.

 (synth piece continues, changing tones to a more shrill, bell-like melody, continues for a while until it fades into the sound of the Straus Park fountain)

2761-2779 Broadway \|||// (a lush and perhaps vaguely familiar string quartet piece, "Cantillations of the Bible," begins) 

Narrator: The first time I visited this park, I saw a woman carrying a violin case.Then, I heard a man singing. I like to imagine that every resident of this neighborhood is a musician.

The statue and memorial here is a tribute to a local couple who died in 1912. Ida Straus chose to stay with her husband, Isidor, on the Titanic, rather than get into a lifeboat.

"Lovely and pleasant were they in their lives, and in their death they were not parted."

Steve Witkin: You know, I played here as a little kid. I think my mother would take me, like in the baby carriage or by my hand and I would play for a little while. This hasn't changed at all.

 (string quartet continues) 

I mean, even the, the tiles or whatever, they're, they're the same.

 (string quartet continues underneath the voices) 

Voice actor as Bea Witkin: You are the God of your composition, and you ordain what is going to happen and you make up the rules for your piece.

You can write the piece based on three tones, you can write a piece based on a hundred tones, but make a decision.

Don't listen to anybody else. You are the composer and you decide. So now when I have this cantillation, I made up my own system.

Note: repeated tones are an important element in the cantillation melody.

Steve Witkin: Her last year she had a sort of a spurt, uh, with writing songs and, um a string quartet. It was called "Cantillations on the Bible."

In synagogue, the cantor would sing the Torah, and there's, there were certain guidelines for inflections in the music-

 (Steve sings: ahh ah ah, ahh ah ah)

And so she took that as a theme.

 (string quartet piece continues, with the instrumental melody lines heard during the walking interludes synched on top of the strings one by one, for a few notes each: synth, flute, trumpet, piano, and finally, soprano, until the piece swells and then fades out) 

When she passed away, she was working on a retrospective of her music and then she, she passed away very suddenly. 

Newspaper voice: Composer Succumbs: Beatrice Witkin, a composer of electronic music, died of complications from the flu on Wednesday at St. Luke's Roosevelt Hospital. She was 73 years old and lived in Manhattan.

Narrator: According to her son, Steve, Bea actually died of septic shock resulting from a case of bacterial pneumonia. 

Steve Witkin: Uh, I, I took it upon myself to make sure that concert took place. It was at the, um, I think the, the Greenwich Music House.

(a recording of Bea's Memorial Concert is heard, with a man speaking on a mic)

Man at concert: So we're here this evening to celebrate Bea Witkin, her life and her music. Thank you.

 (applause, then a cello and piano piece begins) 

Steve Witkin: I think she had already, um, signed many of the musicians, for example, the cello piece. I wanted the person that she wrote it for to perform it. So it was a long concert is a wonderful occasion... sad. At least I was very happy that it, that it did take place.

 (piano and cello piece swells and fades out) 

Alex Hurd: I remember that I was playing some very uh, early Chopin,

 (Chopin's Polonaise in A Flat Major on piano begins and continues underneath the voice) 

some kind of bad Chopin, and my grandmother sat down on the piano bench to my right and um, improvised something... because that's how she thought, and I'm sure it made the terrible piece better.

Steve Witkin: That was her last piece that she was working on for piano for Roy Eaton. 

Narrator: On her piano, Bea left behind some variations of Chopin's Polonaise in A Flat major. 

Alex Hurd: And I said, oh yeah, that must have come from that time I showed her that terrible Chopin piece. 

Narrator: The pianist and composer Roy Eaton finished them and performed them at her memorial concert.

 (a varation of the same Chopin piano piece begins, performed by Roy Eaton, then ends) 

Megan: What did her voice sound like? I've been trying to find recordings of her voice to no avail. Do you remember? 

Alex Hurd: Unfortunately, I don't have a good sense of her voice. 

Narrator: That's so sad. 

Alex Hurd: But you have that whole host of recordings the way she wanted to be heard.

(a jaunty electronic synthesizer piece begins, continuing under the voices) 

A composer wants to present something to the world which they are proud of.

It wouldn't occur to her or to another composer to use their voice because that's not how they communicate.

Narrator/Megan: After this conversation took place, I was able to find one recording.

 (synth piece continues) 

The Real Bea Witkin: During this past season, which is drawing to a close, there were more concerts of contemporary music than ever before. Because I'm a composer and I'm involved in a contemporary music project, I attended most of them.

Many of the concerts I attend use artificial devices to hold the attention of the audience. These include bombarding the ear with deafening noise, verbal insults by actor musicians planted in the audience for this purpose, shocking film defects, nudity, balloon popping, toy pistol shooting, lectures about the music that isn't there and other theatrical effects.

None of these devices were needed at the Philharmonic concert. The audience was completely absorbed in the music.

 (synth piece continues) 

One had the illusion of being surrounded and embraced by the performer and the music.

 (synth piece continues) 

They allowed the music to take over. They went with it.

 (synth piece continues, changing tones to a more shrill, bell-like melody, continues for a while until it fades into the sound of the Straus Park fountain)

Hear an Audio Sample

MEGAN HATTIE STAHL

Serious Music with Bea Witkin

$11.99

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