COMPOSER NOT AFRAID OF TRADITION--OR RISKS

By MARC SHULGOLD

Feb. 14, 1985 12 AM PT

In the ultra-serious, ultra-chic world of contemporary music, audiences simply don’t go off dancing in the aisles. The likes of Terry Riley and Philip Glass tend to sedate rather than excite.

But at concerts by Paul Dresher, one of the members of the new minimalist generation (he prefers the term “pre-maximalist”), many listeners have been inspired to shake their booties.

“They just got up and danced, much to my surprise,” the Bay Area musician said during a recent phone conversation. “It’s certainly not designed to be dance music. But it is very physical.”

Dresher will appear in one of four Southern California concerts Saturday at 8 p.m. at the Newport Harbor Art Museum. (The concert is part of the museum’s continuing Contemporary Culture series.) Although he is firmly entrenched in new music, the 34-year-old guitarist-keyboardist traces his roots to rock ‘n’ roll.

“When I was growing up in Pacific Palisades,” Dresher recalled, “the electric guitar was the instrument of the time. So, my music evolved through the guitar.

“I was in a rock band up north. My first contact with contemporary music was in 1973 at Mills College (in Oakland). I had heard Terry Riley was there.”

In fact, Dresher continued, his move away from rock had begun earlier. “Everybody just wanted to boogie,” he remembered, “but I was not playing boogie woogie.” So Dresher began to study with Riley (“hang out is more like it”), eventually receiving music degrees at UC Berkeley and UC San Diego.

Remnants of those early rock days are still noticeable in two of the works to be played by Dresher and percussionist Gene Reffkin (with sound technician Jay Cloidt) at the Newport Harbor Art Museum. “ ‘Industrial Strength Music’ and ‘Destiny’ both have allusions to rock ‘n’ roll--mainly because they both have a drummer,” Dresher points out. “The surface effects are inspired by rock, but the structure of the music is quite different.”

Indeed, structure is a very important element in Dresher’s music. Although the casual listener may prefer to be swept along in the current of Dresher’s tape-loop excursions, a closer listening will reveal traditional forms favored by such past non-minimalists as Bach and Beethoven.

Sound old-fashioned?

“Isn’t it peculiar that we all try to avoid the word traditional ?” Dresher said. “I feel that the forms of the past have never really left (Western) music. Those composers who turn their backs on those forms don’t usually succeed.

“That doesn’t mean I’m limited by tradition--I just make a core use of it. Actually, I prefer to use form in a general sense.

“I want people to be seduced into the moment.”

Lately, Dresher’s musical vision has taken him beyond even the flexibilities of his electronic ensemble:

Dance--Dresher has written scores for several Bay Area companies.

Theater--With the George Coates Performance Works, Dresher’s ensemble has presented the “How” trilogy (“The Way of How,” “are are,”) and “Seehear”) in numerous European and American halls. “Seehear” is due at UCLA this summer.

Orchestra Music--the San Francisco Symphony commissioned a work by Dresher in 1984.

Chamber Music--In 1982, the Kronos Quartet commissioned “Casa Vecchia”--a work scheduled for an Explorations concert in Los Angeles in March.

But Dresher readily says that his future is in theater. “There’s more freedom in working with visual elements. You can create interesting counterpoints.”

And riotous reactions?

“In any contemporary music, there’s an element of risk,” Dresher said. “That I adore.”