Corvallis Gazette-Times from Corvallis, Oregon • 11

LIVOPdG -beams bn allfreau Comp oser ences i teach composition. His wife, Lily, a pianist and teacher in Scotland, took the year off to accompany her husband to Corvallis. Their children Craig, 11, and Nicola, 9. are enrolled in local schools, and Erik. 3.1s at borne.

Although he also has written about a dozen film scores plus music for television in Scotland, Geddes says a composer can't make a living at his art. All either perform or teach. His compositions are almost always written on commission these days. "I haven't written a work for 10 years just to write it, put it in a drawer and be happy." he says. "I want it to brplayed." His works will be performed in California in January and sometime before June at OSU.

Just as Geddes has definite opinions on "some of the pulp that's offered as rock music," some members of the audience may not appreciate his creations, he acknowledges. -The composer tells tales of concert-goers who didn't know him coming tip and saying. "Did you hear that Geddes piece? Wasn't it awful?" "Yes, awful." he'll rfcply. "And one lady fell asleep on my shoulder," he recalls. "When they introduced the composer and I had to stand up.

you could see the blood rushing to her face." Geddes doesn't appear to be much concerned with occasional audience rejection. Even musical people, tend to be hostile to music of their own time, he observes. "A lot of people picture composers as all -German and dead." he chuckles. "Putting on a concert of contemporary pieces is one good way to have empty seats." His favorites, Kristoff Penderecki and Witold Lutoslawski. also have missed the top 10.

Nevertheless. Geddes continues to create pulsating, contemporary music that defies translation. "Perhaps the layman is wrong." he suggests. "He expects music to be like a painting, provoking pictures of comfort or excitement. "A lot of traditional music is going from somewhere to somewhere." he observes.

"My music is more like a mobile hanging in a room, rather than music that takes you on a forced march to the coda." By Lerl Varota FerTfce Gazette-Times From the composer'! description, music by John Maxwell Geddes might ressemble the early-morning symphony of a garbage truck. The Scottish professor visiting Oregon State University calls "Lacuna," a composition completed in 1977, "an assemblage of noises." 1 Music reviewers manage to be more complimentary. "Simply the best orchestral work by a Scot for at least a decade," wrote one Scottish journal. "The impeccable scoring contains some highly original sonorities," said the Glasgow Herald. Geddes prefers to let the music handle all descriptive chores, although when forced to discuss his work, he will comply.

"People often ask what music is about," he says. "It's about itself. Music can be just a piece of beautiful logic and structure. What's Bach's B-Minor Mass about, for God's sake?" he asks. The Scottish composer lambasts questioners with the twinkle of humor in his eye.

He prefers not to' limit his compositions -verbally to a specific time or space. A good composer, he says, beams out on all frequencies." Audiences tune in their own meanings, sometimes with help from titles or illustrations. The original music for "Lacuna" is encased in a black portfolio, featuring a magnified picture of a lacuna "a tiny shore creature whose spiral shell is a fascinating geometric construction" one millimeter across, Geddes explains in a rare descriptive treatise. Juxtaposed on the same cover is another version of the same shape a photograph of the Whirlpool galaxy, ISO light years across. Some listeners claim to hear Geddes' fascination with space and time in his music.

"People say 'Lacuna' sounds like star-scapes," he acknowledges. "People equate it with timelessness and I guess that's close to what I'm thinking of." Listeners also hear in the composition the influence of Igor Stravinsky, whom Geddes Scottish composer John Maxwell Geddes says timelessness is what ht strives for in his music. scene," he says. "But I wasn't a paying pupil, so I didn'Uget lessons'. "I didn't know how to read music until I was 13, but I played by ear the tunes the kids were playing." Geddes got serious about music when he began learning to play the oboe in school.

He eventually studied at the Royal Scottish Academy and earned a scholarship to the Danish School of Music. While he composes. Geddes also teaches music education at Notre Dame College in Glasgow. He exchanged places for the year with J. Gilbert Knapp.

OSU associate music professor. In the United States, the composer will promote contemporary Scottish music and His translation has become quite popular in Scotland, he says. Don't picture bagpipes when thinking of Scottish music, however. I think of American music, I think of the banjo," Geddes says as a reprimand for the suggestion? In some churches in the British Isles, he adds, parishioners sing remnants of what must have, been pre-Christian music. Many musical styles combined to form the 38-year-old composer's early music education.

Both of his grandparents were musi--; cians and Geddes was brought up during World War II in a Glasgow home where botljW parents-taught piano. "Music was always part of the domestic calls "one of the great composers of the century" Geddes dabbled with time for another piece, concocted somewhat tongue-in-cheek with the title. "Find Two Stones." "I just made up a musical rhythm like a jazz drummer would use and attenuated the whole rhythm to last 100 years," the composer explains. The musical recipe has been sealed in OSU's time capsule, in case any 21st century musician wants, to keep the beat going on. "The composer's music also extends in the opposite direction.

An interest in ancient Scottish vocal music led Geddes to harmonize a fragment of melody that originally came from the court of Mary, Queen of Scots. Discussion groups forming Declining U.S. power Great Decisions topic Follow this I I ft i El We use ii Kodak paper for a good look. jectives that are also acceptable to others. The U.S.

government will, in the meantime, find it more difficult to maneuver with con- -fidence, have less margin for diplomatic error, and a need for a cool head and steady hand." Some of the questions posed for discussion by the Great Decisions groups include how America can cope with the change, how supportive Americans will be of strong, yet subtle and flexible foreign policy, and if the nation's foreign policy will continue to present an image of disarray, uncertainty and confusion. The topic for the second Great Decision discussions program will be particularly timely. Burridge pointed out. It is "The Mideast and the Gulf: U.S. Policy in Ferment." Burridge said persons interested in participating in the discussion groups should contact the OSU-Ben ton County Extension Service soon.

The program study book available at the library includes the 1980 Great Decisions opinion ballots for Oregon, which are sent to congressional decision makers. Now. Unger sees the larger question as being whether these nations will be seen as a battleground between the United States and the Soviet Union, or whether they will be treated as independent, national units that may tend to go their own way. The changing status of the emerging nations has led to the appearance of ethnic lobbies working on administration and congressional offices in Washington. As the new decade begins, the United States "still stands as a global power with enormous influence and authority and above all as an example to the rest of the world for the achievements of its social, economic and political system," Unger stressed.

But there is now rough equity with another superpower and new actors and blocks are emerging on the international stage. These factors, coupled with the exposure of the foibles and flows of U.S. foreign policymaking process, "have made the world seem a less congenial place for the exercise of U.S. influence and prerogatives," he said. As Unger sees it, if the U.S.

can no longer decide on its own as to what should be done "it will require time and patience to trace ob Unger's quarterly, as well as background information about the other seven topics, is included in the 1980 Great Decisions book, which is available from the Corvallis Library, 645 N.W. Monroe St- Events of the 1970's "provided ample evidence of how limited is the ability of the United States to control events," Unger noted in his paper. The preliminary debate about the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty II, which is now in a "holding" pattern, pointed "to an unwelcome but fundamental point, one certain to bedevil the United States in the 1980 the nation's relative power is not, and cannot be, what it used to be," Unger wrote. He views the years of U.S. domination after World War II "a freak of history" when the nation, almost alone in the world, emerges intact after the conflict.

He sees eventsfcince then not so much as a lessening of power, but "as a growth of others as parents seem to shrink when their chidren grow up." Leading the emerging nations of the world are the countries of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. By Rich Bergeman Of The Gazette-Times The opening season of the 1980 Great program will take a hard look at how the United States has fared in its foreign policy and where it is headed. According to Judy Burridge, OSU Benton County Extension home economist, the program is getting under way this month in discussion groups around the county. Great Decision discussion groups are still being formed and others are still accepting additional participants, Burridge said, Information about the groups and the eight-week program in general is available at the Extension office. 2720 N.W.

Polk St. or from Mary Abbott, 1605 N.W. 27th state coordinator for the program. "The World in 1980: An Uneasy Time for a Superpower" is the topic of the first week's discussion. Basic information on the topic was prepared by Sanford Unger, managing editor of the Foreign Policy quarterly and a former journalist in Washington, Africa and Europe.

to colorful enlargements, We'll turn your favorite snapshots into almost any-size And to i help make them look as good as they can, we'll put only quality Kodak paper (J behind them. You can tell it's Kodak paper by the words on the back of each print: "This paper manufactured by Kodak." Look for them behind all your pictures. Around tho oroa jThe-Film Machine 4J Sprwc. 757-SOO! Orrt. SKopr" Cmf Ei 4 mm.

Ei LBCC stages 'Barefoot' The Performing Arts Department of Linn-Benton Cbmmunoty College is presenting Neil Simon's commedy "Barefoot in the Park," Friday and Saturday at 8:15 p.m. in the Takena Hall theater. Tickets are available at Coleman's Jewelers, Corvallis; French's Jewelers, Albany; The Lebanon Center; and the office of Campus and Community Services on the LBCC campus, 6500 S.W. Pacific Blvd. Potter to address guild LBCC displays photos An exhibit of photographs by Oregon artist James Cloutier and Mike Catlin will be on display at the Linn-Benton Community College library Feb.

4 through 29. Goutiers' photographs portray the characters and pastimes of Alpine, a Benton County logging and farming community. Catlin's photographs record the old mining city of Butte, Mont The Library's exhibit of photographs Is provided by Visual Arts Resources of the University of Oregon Museum oTAsMas part of its Oregon Artist If you have dribbles on your carpet, give us Dan Hagstrom of Pottery West will be the guest Series. Mowtoy meetihg- exhibit is open 7:30 a m. to p.m.' Monday of the Willamette Ceramics Guild a call today and take advantage of BEAVER FEVER Hagstrom will discuss single-fire glazing.

He is a graduate of the ceramics program at the University of Oregon, and has been a production potter for 13 years. He has used single-fire glazing for the past eight years. The meeting will takep'ace in the basement of the Corvallis Arts Center, 700 S.W. Madison Ave. Hagstrom's work is on display the Guild Gallery at the Arts Center during February.

William Faulkner helped write the script for Howard Hawks' detective story of blackmail, intrigue and violence. The movie is part of the International Film Festival series sponsored by the Oregon State University English Department and Humanities Development Program. Admission is $1.25 at the door. 'Human Figure' exhibit A reception for the eight artists represented in the Corvallis Arts Center's "The Human Figure" exhibit win be held from 2 p.m. to I p.m.

Sunday at the center. The group drawing show includes works by Dan Barker, Kathryn Brocksforce, Clint Brown, Frederick Bunsen III, Elouise Arm Clark, Ron Johnson, Samiza Matsuki and James MatUng'y. Saturday, the center will sponsor the first session in a two-day rug-bra iding workshop, conducted by Eleanor vera ft and Fran Ruber. The second session will be held Feb. 16.

Tuition ts 111 for non-members and $12 for members. Additional information is available from the center, 700 S.W. Madison St Corale rehearses 'Elijah' Members of the Community Chorale and others singers throughout the mid-valley are Invited to Linn-Benton Community College at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday to rehearse for the chorale's next production, Mendelsohn's "Elijah." The meetirg will be held in room 213 of the Hu-nanifies Building on the LBCC Albany campus, 6500 S.W. Pacific Blvd.

LBCC chorale Instructor Hal Eastburn said new members are welcome, especially tenors and basses. Members of the community chorale may sign up to receive one course credit. Addition! information is available from East-bum at LBCC. il WXil BEAVER FEVER through Thursday and on til p.m. on naays.

'My Fair Ladf at CVHS Reserved seat tickets are now on sale for the Crescent Valley High School production of "My Fair Lady," scheduled for Feb. 19 23. The musical is directed by Gary Christiansoo, with Gordon Tjernlund acting as musical director. Higeins is played by John Chaimcv, Eliza DoolitOe WiU be played by Lorri HerxJon on Feb. 19, 21 and 23, and by Shelly Kime on Feb.

20 and 22. Tickets are 12 genera admission, fcderty persons and students with student cards from Crescent Valley and Corvallis high schools will be admitted free, Ticket reservations are avaPiable by calling the Crescent Valley High School box of nee. Bogie in the 'Big Sleep' Humphrey Bogart and Laareea BacaU are together in "The Sleep" siwwn tonight at 7 p.m. and 9 30 m. in Wilkinson Auditorium on the Oregon Slate University campus.

FOR ONE WEEK ONLY! ANY UVINO ROOM ANY UV1NO ROOM CAIPET 9603 CHN1NO ROOM HAU CARPET COUPON EXPIRES FEB. 16, 1980 C3 36 Genealogists to meet The Mid-Valley Genealogical Society will meet Saturday at the CorvaUis Public Library, 645 N.W. Monroe St. for a meeting and workshop on Georgia, Hawaii, North South Carolina, North It South Dakota, Kansas, Nebraska and Tennessee. The workshop begins at 11 a.m., followmg a' program for beginners at 10 a m.

A business meetirg and book auction will be held at 1 p.m. followed by the main program at 2 p.m. featuring BJie Snead Webb discussing the "Committee Approach, or The Working Cousins." The meetiTS are open to the pubiic artd will be -held in the Elizabeth Ritchie Room. Call: 752-8359 BEAVER CARPET CLEANING Hydro-Extracfwn Method All WORK GUARANTEED 'A vl.