Albert Roussel

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Albert Roussel

Albert Charles Paul Marie Roussel (pronounced: [alb usl]) (5 April 1869 - 23 August 1937) was a French composer. He spent seven years as amidshipman, turned to music as an adult, and became one of the most prominent French composers of the interwar period. His early works were strongly influenced by the impressionism of Debussy and Ravel, while he later turned toward neoclassicism.
Contents
[hide]

1 Biography 2 Compositions 3 Critical reception 4 Works

4.1 Stage 4.2 Orchestral 4.3 Concertante

4.4 Vocal/Choral 4.5 Chamber/Instr umental

5 Recordings 6 Notes 7 References and further reading 8 External links

[edit]Biography

Born in Tourcoing (Nord), Roussel's earliest interest was not in music but mathematics. He spent time in the French Navy, and in 1889 and 1890 he served on the crew of the frigate Iphignie and spent several years in Cochinchina.[1] These travels affected him artistically, as many of his musical works would reflect his interest in far-off, exotic places. After resigning from the Navy in 1894, he began to study harmony in Roubaix first with Julien Koszul (grandfather of composer Henri Dutilleux), who encouraged him to pursue his formation in Paris with Eugne Gigout, then continued his studies until 1908 at the Schola Cantorum de Paris where one of his

teachers wasVincent d'Indy. While studying, he also taught. His students included Erik Satie and Edgard Varse. During World War I, he served as an ambulance driver on the Western Front. Following the war, he bought a summer house in Normandy and devoted most of his time there to composition. Starting in 1923, another of Roussel's students was Bohuslav Martin, who dedicated his Serenade for Chamber Orchestra (1930) to Roussel.[2] His sixtieth birthday was marked by a series of 3 concerts of his works in Paris that included as well the performance of a collection of piano pieces, Homage a Albert Roussel written by several composers, including Ibert, Poulenc, and Honegger.[1][3] Roussel died in the village (commune) of Royan (Charente-Maritime), in western France, in 1937, and was buried in the churchyard of Saint Valery inVarengeville-sur-Mer, Normandy.

[edit]Compositions
Roussel was by temperament a classicist. While his early work was strongly influenced by impressionism, he eventually found a personal style which was more formal in design, with a strong rhythmic drive, and with a more distinct affinity for functional tonality than found in the work of his more famous contemporaries Debussy, Ravel, Satie, and Stravinsky. Roussel's training at the Schola Cantorum, with its emphasis on rigorous academic models such as Palestrina and Bach, left its mark on his mature style, which is characterized by contrapuntal textures. Roussel's orchestration is rather heavy compared to the subtle and nuanced style of other French composers like Gabriel Faur or Claude Debussy. While Roussel did not fully share the stylistic and orchestral aesthetic of so-called "French" music, he was never a mere copyist of Teutonic models. Roussel's manner could hardly be called heavy when compared with the sound of the German romantic orchestral tradition represented by Anton Bruckner and Gustav Mahler. Roussel was also interested in jazz and wrote a piano-vocal composition entitled Jazz dans la nuit, which was similar in its inspiration to other jazz-inspired works such as the second movement of Ravel's Violin Sonata, or Milhaud's La Cration du Monde. Roussel's most important works were the ballets Le festin de l'araigne, Bacchus et Ariane, and Aeneas and the four symphonies, of which the Third in G minor, and the Fourth in A major, are highly regarded and epitomize his mature neoclassical style. His other works include numerous ballets, orchestral suites, a piano concerto, a concertino for cello and orchestra, a psalm setting for chorus and orchestra, incidental music for the theatre, and much chamber music, solo piano music, and songs.

[edit]Critical

reception

In 1929, one critic described Roussel's search for his own voice:[3] Albert Roussel for a long period sought his true self among varied and contradictory influences. He seemed to waver between the tendencies of Cesar Franck and Vincent d'Indy and those of Claude Debussy. The violin sonata, the trio, the Pome de la Fort derived more or less directly from the Franckian school, the Festin de l'Araigne and the Evocations from Debussyan impressionism; and yet the hand of Albert Roussel alone could have written this music, at once so subtle and so firmly fixed in its design....With Padmvat, the new Roussel begins to realize is possibilities and his individual technique....Then came works of perfect homogeneity and notable originality. The composer no longer is seeking his wayhe has found it. ThePrlude pour une Fte de Printemps, the suite in F, the concerto, and finally the Psalm No. 80 are the masterpieces which mark the last stage of this great artist. Arturo Toscanini included the suite from the ballet Le festin de l'araigne in one of his broadcast concerts with the NBC Symphony Orchestra. Rene Leibowitz recorded that suite in 1952 with the Paris Philharmonic, and Georges Prtre recorded it with the Orchestre National de France for EMI in 1984. One brief assessment of his career says:[4] Roussel will never attain the popularity of Debussy or Ravel, as his work lacks sensuous appeal....yet he was an important and compelling French composer. Upon repeated listening, his music becomes more and more intriguing because of its subtle rhythmic vitality. He can be alternately brilliant, astringent, tender, biting, dry, and humorous. His splendid Suite for Piano (Op. 14, 1911) shows his mastery of old dance forms. The ballet scores Le Festin de l'araigne (The Spider's Feast Op. 17, 1913) and Bacchus et Ariane (Op. 43, 1931) are vibrant and pictorial, while the Third and Fourth Symphonies are among the finest contributions to the French symphony. One 21st-century critic, in the course of discussing the Third Symphony, wrote:[5] For the general public, Roussel remains almost famous, his work just beyond the pool of repertory universally drawn from. His music, said another way, walks the line between the memorable and the impossible to forget. The writing sets unrelated keys against one another but eventually seeks strong tonal centers; in other words, it can bark and growl but in the end wags its tail. The Vivace movement is a carnival of exuberant energies. Roussel was more than just an anti-19th-century dissident.

[edit]Works [edit]Stage

Le marchand de sable qui passe (The Sandman), incidental music for a verse play by Jean-Aubry, Le Havre, 16 December 1908, Op. 13

Le festin de l'araigne, ballet in one act. f.p. 3 April 1913, Op. 17

Padmvat, opera in 2 acts (191318, Louis Laloy, after T.-M. Pavie). f.p. Paris Opra, 1 June 1923, Op. 18

La naissance de la lyre, opera in 1 act, Paris Opra, 1 July 1925, Op. 24 Sarabande (1927; for the children's ballet L'ventail de Jeanne, to which ten French composers each contributed a dance)

Bacchus and Ariadne (ballet), ballet in two acts. f.p. Paris Opra, 22 May 1931, Op. 43 Le testament de la tante Caroline, opera in 3 acts, 14 November 1936 Aeneas, ballet for chorus and orchestra, Op. 54 Prelude to Act 2 of Le quatorze juillet by Romain Rolland, Paris, 14 July 1936 Elpnor, radio score, 1947, Op. 59

[edit]Orchestral

Rsurrection, Prelude for orchestra Op. 4 Evocations pour orchestra, Op. 15 Sinfonietta for String Orchestra, Op. 52 Suite for Orchestra in F major, Op. 33 Symphony No. 1 in D minor (The Poem of the Forest), Op. 7 Symphony No. 2 in B-flat major, Op. 23 Symphony No. 3 in G minor, Op. 42 (1929-30), commissioned by the Boston Symphony for its 50th anniversary[5]

Symphony No. 4 in A major, Op. 53

[edit]Concertante
Cello Concertino, Op. 57 Piano Concerto in G major, Op. 36

[edit]Vocal/Choral

Psalm 80 for tenor, choir, and orchestra, Op. 37

[edit]Chamber/Instrumental
Andante and Scherzo, for flute and piano, Op. 51 Elpenor for flute and string quartet, Op. 59 Divertissement for piano and wind quintet, Op. 6

Joueurs de Flte, flute and piano, Op. 27 Piano Trio in E-flat, Op. 2 Serenade for flute, string trio, and harp, Op. 30 Sonatine for Piano, Op. 16 String Quartet, Op. 45 String Trio, Op. 58 Suite for Piano in F-sharp minor, Op. 14 Trio for Flute, Viola, and Cello, Op. 40 Violin Sonata No. 1 in D minor, Op. 11 Violin Sonata No. 2 in A major, Op. 28 Segovia, for guitar, Op. 29 Impromptu for harp

[edit]Recordings

Symphonies 1-4 - Orchestre National de France/Charles Dutoit (apex - erato) Symphony No. 3 and Ariadne et Bacchus - Royal Scottish National Orchestra/Stphane Denve (Naxos Records)

Symphony No. 3 - New York Philharmonic/Leonard Bernstein (Sony Classical) Symphony No. 4 - Philharmonia Orchestra/Herbert von Karajan (EMI) Symphony No. 2/Aeneas/ Bacchus /Spider's Feast - ORTF/Jean Martinon(Erato); Padmavati (opera) - London Symphony Orchestra/Jean Martinon (BBC) Padmavati - Marilyn Horne, Nicolai Gedda/ Michel Plasson conducting (EMI)

Paul Dukas
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Paul Dukas

Paul Abraham Dukas (1 October 1865 17 May 1935) was a French composer, critic, scholar and teacher. A studious man, of retiring personality, he was intensely self-critical, and he abandoned and destroyed many of his compositions. His best known work is the orchestral piece, L'apprenti sorcier (The Sorcerer's Apprentice), the fame of which has eclipsed that of his other surviving works. Among these are an opera Ariane et Barbebleue (Ariadne and Bluebeard), a symphony, two substantial works for solo piano, and a ballet, La Pri. At a time when French musicians were divided into conservative and progressive factions, Dukas adhered to neither but retained the admiration of both. His compositions were influenced by composers including Beethoven, Berlioz, Franck, d'Indy and Debussy. In tandem with his composing career, Dukas worked as a music critic, contributing regular reviews to at least five French journals. Later in his life he was appointed professor of composition at the Conservatoire de Paris and the cole Normale de Musique; his pupils included Maurice Durufl, Olivier Messiaenand Joaqun Rodrigo.
Contents
[hide]

1 Life and career

1.1 Early years 1.2 1890s

1.3 20th century works 1.4 Later years

2 List of works

2.1 Published by the composer

2.2 Early unpublished works

2.3 Destroyed and projected works

3 Notes 4 References 5 External links

[edit]Life

and career
years

[edit]Early

Dukas's teachers, Georges Mathias(top l.), Thodore Dubois (top r.) andErnest Guiraud (bottom l.), and Dukas's fellow student Claude Debussy

Dukas was born in Paris, the second son in a Jewish family of three children.[1][2] His father, Jules Dukas, was a banker, and his mother, Eugnie, was a capable pianist.[2][3] When Dukas was five years old, his mother died giving birth to her third child, Marguerite-Lucie.[2] Dukas took piano lessons, but showed no unusual musical talent until he was 14 when he began to compose while recovering from an illness.[2] He entered the Conservatoire de Paris at the end of 1881, aged 16, and studied piano with Georges Mathias, harmony

with Thodore Dubois and composition with Ernest Guiraud.[4] Among his fellow students wasClaude Debussy, with whom Dukas formed a close friendship.[1] Two early overtures survive from this period, Goetz de Berlichingen (1883) and Le Roi Lear(1883). The manuscript of the latter was rediscovered in the 1990s and the work was performed for the first time in 1995.[2] Dukas won several prizes, including the second place in the Conservatoire's most prestigious award, the Prix de Rome, for his cantata Vellda in 1888.[4]Disappointed at his failure to win the top prize, he left the Conservatoire in 1889.[5] After compulsory military service he began a dual career as a composer and a music critic.[4]

[edit]1890s
Dukas's career as a critic began in 1892 with a review of Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen conducted by Gustav Mahler at Covent Garden in London.[2] His review was published in La Revue Hebdomadaire; he later wrote also for Minerva, La Chronique des Arts, Gazette des Beaux-Arts and Le Courrier Musical.[4] His Parisian debut as composer was a performance of his overture Polyeucte, written in 1891 and premiered by Charles Lamoureux and his Orchestre Lamoureux in January 1892. Based on a tragedy by Corneille, the work, like many French works of the period, shows the influence of Wagner,[1] but is coherent and displays some individuality.[4]

Gazette des Beaux-Arts, for which Dukas wrote music criticism

Although Dukas wrote a fair amount of music, he was a perfectionist and destroyed many of his pieces out of dissatisfaction with them.[3] Only a few of his compositions remain. After Polyeucte, he began writing an opera

in 1892. He wrote his own libretto, Horn et Riemenhild, but he composed only one act, "realising too late that the work's developments were more literary than musical".[6] The Symphony in C major was composed in 189596, when Dukas was in his early 30s. It is dedicated to Paul Vidal, and had its first performance in January 1896, under the direction of the dedicatee.[4] In a study of Dukas published towards the end of the composer's life, Irving Schwerk wrote, "The work is an opulent expression of modernism in classical form. Its ideational luxuriance, nobility of utterance and architectural solidity mark it as one of the most conspicuous achievements of contemporaneous writing, and magnificently refute the generally prevalent notion that no French composer has ever produced a great symphony."[4]Like Franck's only symphony, Dukas's is in three movements rather than the conventional four. Schwerk wrote of it: Expressed in an individual and spontaneous idiom, the Symphony in C gives free play to the author's creative spirit and to his fund of exalted emotion. The high-spirited, impetuous first movement, Allegro non troppo vivace is intensely rhythmic. Its logical structure, strong thematic material, polyphonic richness and virile instrumentation combine to create an exhilarating effect of life and pageant color. The second movement, Andante, in sharp contrast to the first, reveals the perfect finish of the composer's style and the ineffable charm of his melody. The robust last movement, Allegro spiritoso, so verdant in instrumentation, brings the symphony to a vigorous close.[4] The work received a mixed reception at its first performance. Dsir-mile Inghelbrecht, later known as a conductor, was a member of the orchestra at the premiere, and wrote, "the work which nowadays seems to us so lucid aroused not only the protestations of the public, but also those of the musicians of the orchestra."[7] The symphony was better received when the Lamoureux Orchestra revived it in 1902.[7] The symphony was followed by another orchestral work, by far the best known of Dukas's compositions, his scherzo for orchestra, L'apprenti sorcier (The Sorcerer's Apprentice) (1897), a short piece (lasting for between 10 and 12 minutes in performance)[8] based on Goethe's poem "Der Zauberlehrling".[1] During Dukas's lifetimeThe Musical Quarterly commented that the world fame of the work not only overshadowed all other compositions by Dukas, but also eclipsed Goethe's original poem.[4] The popularity of the piece became a matter of irritation to Dukas.[5] In 2011, the Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians observed, "The popularity of L'apprenti sorcier and the exhilarating film version of it in Disney's Fantasia possibly hindered a fuller understanding of Dukas, as that single work is far better known than its composer."[2]

[edit]20th

century works

Costume design for Dukas's La Pri

In the decade after L'apprenti sorcier, Dukas completed two complex and technically demanding large-scale works for solo piano: the Piano Sonata (1901), dedicated to Saint-Sans, and Variations, Interlude and Finale on a Theme by Rameau (1902).[2] In Dukas's piano works critics have discerned the influence of Beethoven, or, "Beethoven as he was interpreted to the French mind by Csar Franck".[9] There are also two smaller works for piano solo. The Sonata, described by the critic Edward Lockspeiser as "huge and somewhat recondite",[10] did not enter the mainstream repertoire, but it has been more recently championed by such pianists as Marc-Andr Hamelin and Margaret Fingerhut.[11][12] Lockspeiser describes the Rameau Variations as more developed and assured ... Dukas infuses the conventional form with a new and powerful spirit."[10] In 1899 Dukas turned once again to operatic composition. His second attempt, L'arbre de science, was abandoned, incomplete, but in the same year he began work on his one completed opera, Ariane et Barbebleue (Ariadne and Bluebeard). The work is a setting of a libretto by Maurice Maeterlinck.[13] The author had intended the libretto to be set by Grieg but in 1899 he offered it to Dukas.[14] Dukas worked on it for seven years and it was produced at the Opra-Comique in 1907.[2] The opera has often been compared to Debussy's Pellas et Mlisande which was first performed while Dukas was writing Ariane et Barbe-bleue. Not only are both works settings of Maeterlinck, but there are musical similarities; Dukas even quotes from the Debussy work in his score.[13] Although it won considerable praise, its success was overshadowed by the Paris premiere of Richard Strauss's sensational opera Salome at much the same time.[2] None the less, within a short time of its premiere, Dukas's opera was produced in Vienna, where it aroused much interest in Schoenberg's circle, and in Frankfurt, Milan and New York.[2] It did not maintain a regular place in the repertory, despite the advocacy of Arturo Toscanini, who conducted it in New York three years in succession,[15] and Sir Thomas Beecham, who pronounced it "one of the finest lyrical dramas of our time,"[16] and staged it at Covent Garden in

1937.[17] Interest in it revived in the 1990s, with productions in Paris (Thtre du Chtelet, 1990) and Hamburg (Staatsoper, 1997),[2] and at the Opra Bastille in Paris in 2007.[18] Dukas's last major work was the sumptuous oriental ballet La Pri (1912). Described by the composer as a "pome dans" it depicts a young Persian prince who travels to the ends of the Earth in a quest to find the lotus flower of immortality, coming across its guardian, the Pri (fairy).[19] Because of the very quiet opening pages of the ballet score, the composer added a brief "Fanfare pour prcder La Peri" which gave the typically noisy audiences of the day time to settle in their seats before the work proper began. La Pri was written for the Russian-French dancer Natalia Trouhanova, who starred in the first performance at the Chtelet in 1912. Diaghilev planned a production with his Ballets Russes but the production did not take place; the company's choreographer Fokine stagedL'apprenti sorcier as a ballet in 1916.[2] In 1916, Dukas married Suzanne Pereyra, who was of Portuguese descent. They had one child, a daughter Adrienne-Thrse, born in December 1919.[2]

[edit]Later

years

Paul Dukas and students of his composition class at the Paris Conservatoire, 1929.Olivier Messiaen is on the extreme right; Maurice Durufl stands next to him

In the last years of his life, Dukas became well known as a teacher of composition. When Charles-Marie Widor retired as professor of composition at the Paris Conservatoire in 1927, Dukas was appointed in his place.[4] He also taught at the cole Normale de Musique in Paris. His many students included Jehan Alain, Elsa Barraine, Francis Chagrin,Carlos Chvez, Maurice Durufl, Georges Hugon, Jean Langlais, Olivier Messiaen, Manuel Ponce, Joaqun Rodrigo,David Van Vactor and Xian Xinghai.[1][2][20] As a teacher he was conservative but always encouraging of talent, telling one student, "It's obvious that you really love music. Always remember that it should be written from the heart and not with the head."[19] He said his method of teaching was "to help young musicians to express themselves in accordance with their own natures. Music necessarily has to express something; it is also obliged to express somebody, namely, its composer."[4] Grove observes that his wide knowledge of the history of European music, and his editorial work on Rameau, Scarlatti and Beethoven, gave him "particular authority in teaching historical styles".[2]

After La Pri, Dukas completed no new large-scale compositions, although, as with his contemporary Jean Sibelius, there were frequent reports of major work in hand.[14] After several years of silence, in 1920 he produced a tribute to his friend Debussy in the form of La plainte, au loin, du faune... for piano, which was followed by Amours, a setting of a sonnet by Pierre de Ronsard, for voice and piano, published in 1924 to mark the five hundredth anniversary of the poet's birth.[3] Shortly before his death he had been working on a symphonic poem inspired by Shakespeare's The Tempest,[3] a play of which he had made a French translation in 1918 with an operatic version in mind.[2] In the last year of his life Dukas was elected to membership of the Acadmie des Beaux-Arts.[14] Though adhering to neither the progressive or conservative factions among French musicians of the era, Dukas had the friendship and respect of both.[5] In 1920, Vincent d'Indy published a study of Dukas's music;[2] Debussy remained a life-long friend, though feeling that Dukas's music was not French enough;[14] Saint-Sans worked with Dukas to complete an unfinished opera by Guiraud, and they were both engaged in the rediscovery and editing of the works of Rameau;[4] Faur dedicated his Second Piano Quintet to Dukas in 1921.[21] Dukas died in Paris in 1935, aged 69. He was cremated and his ashes were placed in the columbarium at Pre Lachaise Cemetery in Paris.[22]

[edit]List

of works
by the composer

[edit]Published

Polyeucte, overture for orchestra (1891) Symphony in C (18956) L'apprenti sorcier ("The Sorcerer's Apprentice"), for orchestra (1897) Piano Sonata in E-flat minor (18991900) Variations, Interlude and Finale on a Theme by Rameau, for piano (c.18991902) Ariane et Barbe-bleue, opera (18991907) Villanelle, for horn and piano (1906) Prlude lgiaque sur le nom de Haydn, for piano (1909) Vocalise-tude (alla gitana), for voice and piano (1909) La Pri, ballet (pome dans) (1911; later supplemented with Fanfare pour prcder La Pri (1912)) La plainte, au loin, du faune..., for piano (1920) Amours, sonnet for voice and piano (1924) Allegro, for piano (1925)

Modr, for piano (?) (1933; published posthumously in 1936)

[edit]Early

unpublished works

Air de Clytemnestre, for voice and small orchestra (1882) Goetz de Berlichingen, overture for orchestra (1883) Le roi Lear, for orchestra (1883) Chanson de Barberine, for soprano and orchestra (1884) La fte des Myrthes, for choir and orchestra (1884) L'ondine et le pcheur, for soprano and orchestra (1884) Endymion, cantata for three solo voices and orchestra (1885) Introduction au pome "Les Caresses", for piano (1885) La vision de Sal, cantata for three solo voices and orchestra (1886) La fleur, for choir and orchestra (1887) Fugue (1888) Hymne au soleil, for choir and orchestra (1888) Vllda, cantata for three solo voices and orchestra (1888) Sml, cantata for three solo voices and orchestra (1889)

[edit]Destroyed

and projected works

Horn et Riemenhild, opera (1892) L'arbre de science, opera (1899) Le fil de parque, symphonic poem (c.1908) Le nouveau monde, opera (c.19081910) Le sang de Mduse, ballet (1912) Symphony No. 2 (after 1912) Violin Sonata (after 1912) La tempte, opera (c.1918) Variations chorographiques, ballet (1930) An untitled orchestral work for Boston Symphonic Orchestra (1932)

Gustav Holst
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Gustav Holst, circa 1921 (photograph byHerbert Lambert)

Gustav Theodore Holst (born Gustavus Theodore von Holst, 21 September 1874 25 May 1934) was an English composer. He is most famous for his orchestral suite The Planets.[1] His early works show the influence of Grieg, Wagner,[2] Richard Strauss and fellow student Ralph Vaughan Williams,[3] and later, through Vaughan Williams, the music of Ravel.[4] The combined influence of Ravel, Hindu spiritualism and English folk tunes[4] enabled Holst to free himself of the influence of Wagner and Strauss and to forge his own style. Holst's music is well known for unconventional use of metre and haunting melodies. Holst composed almost 200 works, including operas, ballets, choral hymns and songs. An enthusiastic educator, Holst became music master at St Paul's Girls' School in 1905 and director of music at Morley College in 1907, continuing in both posts until retirement.[4] He also taught singing atWycombe Abbey School from 1912 until 1917. He was the brother of Hollywood actor Ernest Cossart and father of the composer and conductor Imogen Holst, who wrote a biography of him in 1938.[3]
Contents

[hide]

1 Early life 2 Career

2.1 First steps 2.2 Teaching 2.3 World War I and after

2.4 Later life 2.5 Artistic Philosophy

3 Memorial 4 Radio and television biographies 5 Media 6 Notes 7 References 8 Further reading 9 External links

[edit]Early

life

Statue of Gustav Holst at his birthplace,Cheltenham, England.

Holst was born on 21 September 1874, at 4 Pittville Terrace (named today Clarence Road).[5] Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England[1][6]The house has been opened as a museum devoted to Holst's life and times since 1974, devoted partly to him and partly to illustrating local domestic life of the mid-19th century.[7] Holst's great-grandfather, Matthias von Holst, was of Nordic origin, and came to England in 1802 from Riga.
[5]

His son Gustavus moved to England with his parents as a child; he became a composer of salon-style harp

music and a notable harp teacher.[6] Holst's father, Adolph von Holst, was organist andchoirmaster at All Saints' Church in Pittville.[1] He also gave both piano lessons and recitals, most regularly at the Assembly Rooms.
[8]

Holst's mother, Clara von Holst, who died in 1882, was a singer who bore two sons, Gustav and Emil

Gottfried (who later became Ernest Cossart, a film actor in Hollywood),[9]Following his wife's death, Adolph von Holst moved with his sons to 1 Vittoria Walk, Cheltenham, and eventually married Mary Thorley Stone in 1885: she gave birth to two further sons, Matthias Ralph and Evelyn Thorley.[10] Holst was christened Gustavus Theodore von Holst, after his grandfather and his great-uncle Theodor, a painter.[11] He was a frail child with neuritis in his arm which plagued him for the rest of his life. His early recollections were musical; he was taught to play the piano and violin, and began composing when he was about twelve.[6] He also started to play the trombone when his father thought this might improve his son's asthma.[12] He was educated at Cheltenham Grammar School for Boys. He began composition at school, writing piano pieces, organ voluntaries, songs, anthems and a Symphony in C minor (from 1892). He was also organist and choir master at Wyck Rissington in the Cotswolds.[13] He attended the Royal College of Music[1] on a scholarship, where he studied composition with Charles Villiers Stanford and where in 1895[6] he met fellow student Ralph Vaughan Williams,[1] who became a lifelong friend. Vaughan Williams's own music was in general quite different from Holsts,[6] but he praised Holst's work abundantly and the two men developed a shared interest in exploring and maintaining the English vocal and choral tradition as found primarily in folk song, madrigals and church music.[4] Holst and Vaughan Williams were able to criticise each other's compositions as they were being written. They never lost this degree of mutual trust. While at the Royal College of Music, Holst fell in love with the music of Wagner, which he was able to hear at Covent Garden. He also came under the influence of William Morris, joining the Hammersmith Socialist Society and attending lectures by Morris and George Bernard Shaw (with whom he temporarily shared a passion for vegetarianism ). Holst remained a socialist all his life. He was also invited to conduct the Hammersmith Socialist Choir, teaching them Madrigals by Thomas Morley, choruses by Purcell, extracts from Wagner as well as works by Mozart and himself.[14]

[edit]Career
See also: List of compositions by Gustav Holst

[edit]First

steps

Holst had hoped to build his career partly as a pianist, but stricken from adolescence with a nerve condition that increasingly affected the movement of his right hand, he eventually gave up the piano for the trombone.[4] He was good enough to earn employment with the Carl Rosa Opera Company and the Scottish Orchestra (forerunner of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra) although his salary was only just enough to live on.[15]

Royal College of Music (1894 site), where Holst and Ralph Vaughan Williamsstudied in 1895.

He also played in a popular orchestra called the "White Viennese Band", conducted by Stanislas Wurm. The music was cheap and repetitive and not to Holst's liking, and he referred to this kind of work as "worming" (a pun on Wurm's name, which means "worm" in German) and regarded it as "criminal". His need to "worm" came to an end as his compositions became more successful, and his income was given stability by his teaching posts.[1] With his finances secure, Holst married Emily Isobel Harrison, a fair-headed soprano, at Fulham Register Office on 22 June 1901, their union enduring until his death in 1934. Emily Isobel bore him a daughter, Imogen, on 12 April 1907; to be their only child.[16] The poetry of Walt Whitman also had a profound effect on Holst, as it did with many of his contemporaries, and he set Whitman's words in "Dirge for Two Veterans" and The Mystic Trumpeter (1904). He also set poetry by Thomas Hardy[6] and Robert Bridges. Holst also wrote an orchestral Walt Whitman Overture in 1899[17],

which was given a world premiere recording by the Munich Symphony Orchestra, as well as a recording by the London Philharmonic Orchestra.[18] During these years Holst also became interested in Hindu mysticism and spirituality,[4] and this interest led to the composition of several works set to translations of Sanskrit texts, including: Sita (18991906), a three-act opera based on an episode in the Ramayana; Svitri (1908),[4] a chamber opera based on a tale from the Mahabharata; 4 groups of Hymns from the Rig Veda (190814); and two texts originally by Kalidasa: Two Eastern Pictures (190910) andThe Cloud Messenger (1913). The texts of these last three works were translated by Holst himself.[19] To make these translations from Sanskrit to English, Holst enrolled at University College London (UCL) to study the language as a 'non-matriculated' student. On 14 January 1909 he paid 5 guineas for Sanskrit classes during the spring and summer terms of that year. The UCL records also show that during this time he moved from 23 Grena Road in Richmond, to 10 The Terrace in Barnes. On 19 October 1909 he re-enrolled at UCL for the autumn term and paid 3 guineas "special fee" for his Sanskrit classes of "2 hours a week". The records end at this point, and so it seems he only spent one year as a student at UCL.[20]

[edit]Teaching
In 1904 Holst took his first teaching job as music master at James Allen's Girls' School in West Dulwich, South London.[21] In 1905, Holst was appointed Director of Music at St Paul's Girls' School[4] in Hammersmith, London. In 1907, Holst also became director of music at Morley College.[4] These were the most important of his teaching posts, and he retained both until the end of his life.[4] During the first two decades of the 20th century, musical society as a whole (and Holst's friend Vaughan Williams in particular) became interested in old English folksongs, madrigal singers,[4] andTudor composers. Holst shared in his friends admiration for the simplicity and economy of these melodies, and their use in his compositions is one of his musics most recognisable features. Holst was an avid rambler. He walked extensively in Italy, France and England. He also travelled outside the bounds of Europe, heading to French-controlled Algeria in 1908[22] on doctor's orders as a treatment for asthma and the depression that crippled him after his submission failed to win the Ricordi Prize, a coveted award for composition. His travels in Arab and Berber lands, including an extensive cycling tour of the Algerian Sahara, inspired the suite Beni Mora, written upon his return.

The house in Barnes where Holst lived between 1908 and 1913. A Blue plaquesignifying historical significance is fixed to the front of the building.

After the lukewarm reception of his choral work The Cloud Messenger in 1912, Holst was again off travelling, financing a trip to Spain with fellow composersBalfour Gardiner and brothers Clifford and Arnold Bax with funds from an anonymous donation. Despite being shy, Holst was fascinated by people and society, and had always believed that the best way to learn about a city was to get lost in it. In Girona, Catalonia, he often disappeared, only to be found hours later by his friends having abstract debates with local musicians. It was in Spain that Clifford Bax introduced Holst to astrology, a hobby that was to inspire the later Planets suite. He read astrological fortunes until his death, and called his interest in the stars his "pet vice". Shortly after his return in 1913, St Paul's Girls School opened a new music wing, and Holst composed the still popular St Paul's Suite for the occasion.[1] In 1913, Stravinsky premiered The Rite of Spring, sparking riots in Paris and caustic criticism in London. A year later, Holst first heard Schoenbergs Five Pieces for Orchestra, an "ultra-modern" set of five movements employing "extreme chromaticism" (the consistent use of all 12 musical notes). Although he had earlier lampooned the stranger aspects of modern music, the new music of Stravinsky[4] and Schoenberg influenced his work on The Planets. Holst's compositions include works for wind band, and have become standards in the repertoire. His most famous are the First Suite in E-flat for Military Bandof 1909 and the Second Suite in F for Military Band of 1911 (see also Hammersmith, below). He also wrote the "Moorside Suite" for brass band in 1928, the first recognised 'classical' composer to treat the medium seriously[23].

Holst and wife Isobel bought a cottage in Thaxted, Essex and, surrounded by medieval buildings and ample rambling opportunities, he started work on the suite that became his best known work, the orchestral suite The Planets. Holst himself adapted the theme from "Jupiter" as a hymn tune under the name of "Thaxted", specifically for the words "I Vow to Thee My Country". (According to the documentary by Tony Palmer In the Bleak Midwinter, Holst hated this association because the text was the opposite of what he believed. This is a little surprising, though, since he had made the adaptation himself in 1921.)[24]His daughter Imogen later recalled of "I Vow to Thee" that "At the time when he was asked to set these words to music, Holst was so over-worked and over-weary that he felt relieved to discover they 'fitted' the tune from Jupiter".[25] While living in Thaxted, Holst became friendly with Rev. Conrad Noel, the famous 'Red Vicar', who supported the Independent Labour Party and espoused many unpopular causes. Holst became an occasional organist and choir master at Thaxted Parish Church and began an annual music festival at Whitsuntide in 1916, at which students from Morley College and St Paul's School performed. His best-known partsong, 'This Have I Done For My True Love' , was dedicated to Noel and often performed with dancing during religious ceremonies at Thaxted. This was controversial, as the Church of England still retained much of the Puritan ethic in its services. (The singing of non-biblical texts had been allowed only as recently as 1820, and religious dancing harked back to pre-Reformation times.) As late as 1951 at the Leith Hill Festival, singers from the Anglican tradition objected to the words of Holst's partsong, which mention dance and religion together. Vaughan Williams, who was conducting, advised the objectors to vocalise and leave the words to those singers who did not share the inhibition[26]. Controversy surrounded Holst's friendship with Noel, whose opinions grew progressively uncompromising, leading to his displaying the Red Flag and that of Sinn Fein in the church. Holst's view was that Noel's philosophy was a "gospel of comic hate"[27], but he ceased to hold the music festival at Thaxted after three seasons, moving it to Dulwich. Other tunes that also became attached to hymns were Cranham which is the usual tune to Christina Rossetti's poem In the Bleak Midwinter and Sheen which is attached to a versification of the recessional From glory to glory advancing from the Orthodox Christian Liturgy of Saint James.

[edit]World

War I and after

Holst drawn by William Rothenstein, 1920

At the onset of World War I, Holst tried to enlist but was rejected because of his bad eyes, bad lungs and bad digestion. He dropped the "von" from his name in 1916 in response to anti-German sentiment, making it official by deed poll in 1918.[1][4][6][28] His new music, however, benefited from the growing demand for new English music. This was partly in response to an embargo on contemporary German music that saw very few performances of Richard Strauss and Max Reger throughout the war (although older generations of German composers remained as popular as ever, culminating in a run of Die Walkre, conducted by Thomas Beecham, in 1918).[29] Towards the end of the war he was offered a post within the YMCAs educational work programme as musical director and he set off for Salonica (present day Thessaloniki, Greece) and Constantinople (now Istanbul) in 1918. While he was teaching music to troops eager to escape the drudgery of army life, The Planets was being performed to audiences back home. Shortly after his return after the wars end, Holst composed Ode to Death, based upon a poem by Walt Whitman. During the years 19201923, Holst's popularity grew through the success of The Planets and The Hymn of Jesus (1917)[1] (based on the Apocryphal gospels), and the publication of a new opera, The Perfect Fool (a satire of a work by Wagner). Holst became something of "an anomaly, a famous English composer", and was busy with conducting, lecturing and teaching obligations. He hated publicity; he often refused to answer questions posed by the press and when asked for his autograph, handed out prepared cards that read, "I do not hand out my autograph". Always frail, after a collapse in 1923 he retired from all teaching (other than at St Paul's School, where he would remain until his death)[30] to devote the remaining eleven years of his life to composition.[1]

[edit]Later

life

Holst's 'retirement' was immediately productive, with the First Choral Symphony to words by Keats (a Second Choral Symphony to words by George Meredith exists only in fragments). A short Shakespearian opera, At the Boar's Head, followed quickly, although neither had the immediate popular appeal of A Moorside Suite for brass band of 1928.[31] Holst took advantage of new technology to publicise his work through sound recordings and the BBCs wireless broadcasts. He began to conduct the London Symphony Orchestra for the Columbiacompany in 1922, using the acoustic process; his recordings of the period include Beni Mora , the Marching Song and (remarkably) the complete Planets. Although, as his daughter Imogen noted, he couldn't quite achieve the gradual fade-out of women's voices and orchestra he had written (owing to the limitations of early recording), it was a landmark recording of the work. Holst conducted it again, with the same orchestra and for the same company, in an electrical recording of 1926. All performances have been issued on LP and CD format. In 1927 he was commissioned by the New York Symphony Orchestra to write a symphony. Instead, he wrote an orchestral piece based on Thomas Hardy's Wessex, a work that became Egdon Heathand which was first performed a month after Hardys death, in his memory. By this time, Holst was going out of fashion, and the piece was poorly reviewed (although this may have as much to do with the austere nature of the work). However, Holst is said to have considered the short, subdued but powerful tone poem his "best work"[32] . The piece has been much better received in recent years, with several recordings available. Holst did complete a scherzo for the symphony before his death; this music has been recorded.

Memorial in Chichester Cathedral

Towards the end of his life, Holst wrote Choral Fantasia (1930),[1] and he was commissioned by the BBC to write a piece for military band; the resultingHammersmith was a tribute to the place where he had spent most of his life, a musical expression of the London borough (of Hammersmith), which begins with an attempt to recreate the haunting sound of the River Thames sleepily flowing its way. He then made an orchestral version

of this work for its first performance, sharing the programme with the London premiere of Walton's Belshazzar's Feast. This unlucky coincidence may account for its subsequent obscurity as an orchestral work. Interested as ever in new mediums, Holst wrote a score for the Associated Sound Film Industries picture 'The Bells' in which Holst believed he appeared as an extra in a crowd scene.[33] However, he was mortified when he heard the quality of the 1931 soundtrack. The film was the victim of poor marketing and no copy can now be traced.[34] He also wrote a 'jazz band piece' that his daughter later arranged for orchestra as Capriccio. A late flowering of academic life came when Harvard University offered him a lectureship for the first six months of 1932. Holst had a lifetime of poor health, which worsened due to a concussion during a backward fall from the conductor's podium in 1923, from which he never fully recovered.[6] In his final four years, Holst grew ill with stomach problems. One of his last compositions, the Brook Green Suite, named after the land on which St Pauls Girls School was built, was performed for the first time a few months before his death. Holst died on 25 May 1934, of complications following stomach surgery, in London.[35] His ashes were interred at Chichester Cathedral in West Sussex, with Bishop George Bell giving the memorial oration at the funeral.

[edit]Artistic

Philosophy

According to his friend Vaughan Williams, Holst once told him two things about art "that ought to be recorded": "1.) About 'Aristocracy in art' - art is not for all but only for the chosen few - but the only way to find those few is to bring art to everyone - then the artists have a sort of masonic signal by which they recognise each other in the crowd - he put it much better than that - but that is the gist. 2.) That the artist is born again & starts afresh with every new work."[36]

[edit]Memorial
On Sunday 27 September 2009, after a weekend of concerts at Chichester Cathedral in memory of Holst, a new memorial was unveiled to the public. On it are inscribed Holst's dates, and an epitaph, taken from the text of The Hymn of Jesus, reading "The heavenly spheres make music for us".

[edit]Radio

and television biographies

In 2007, BBC Radio 4 produced a radio play by Martyn Wade called The Bringer of Peace, which is an intimate biographical portrait of Holst. The play follows his early dismay at his lack of composing success, to the creation of The Planets suite, with the play's seven tiers following the structure of The Planets. Adrian Scarborough played Holst, and the producer was David Hitchinson.[37] Holst: In the Bleak Midwinter, directed by Tony Palmer, was first transmitted on 24 April 2011. The documentary charted his life with special reference to his support for socialism and for working class ventures.
[38]

[edit]Media
Extracts from The Planets can be found in the main article for the suite.

Alan Hovhaness
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Alan Hovhaness with an Indonesian rebab

Alan Hovhaness (Armenian: ) (March 8, 1911 June 21, 2000) was an ArmenianAmerican composer. His music is accessible to the lay listener and often evokes a mood of mystery or contemplation. The Boston Globe music critic Richard Buell wrote: "Although he has been stereotyped as a self-consciously Armenian composer (rather as Ernest Bloch is seen as a Jewish composer), his output assimilates the music of many cultures. What may be most American about all of it is the way it turns its materials into a kind of exoticism. The atmosphere is hushed, reverential, mystical, nostalgic."[1] He was among the most prolific of 20th century composers, his official catalog comprising 67 numbered symphonies (surviving manuscripts indicate over 70) and 434 opus numbers.[2] However, the true tally is well over 500 surviving works since many opus numbers comprise two or more distinct works.
Contents
[hide]

1 Early life

1.1 Destruction of early works

2 Musical career

2.1 "Armenian Period" 2.2 Conservatory years 2.3 Relocation to New York 2.4 Trips to Asia

2.5 World view 2.6 Later life

3 Hovhaness archives 4 Partial list of compositions

5 Films

4.1 Symphonies

5.1 Films about Alan Hovhaness

5.2 Films with scores by Alan Hovhaness

6 Notable students 7 References 8 Further reading 9 External links

[edit]Early

9.1 Listening

life

He was born as Alan Vaness Chakmakjian[3] in Somerville, Massachusetts, to Haroutioun Hovanes Chakmakjian (an Armenian chemistry professor at Tufts College who had been born in Adana,Turkey) and Madeleine Scott (an American woman of Scottish descent who had graduated from Wellesley College). When he was five, his family moved from Somerville to Arlington, Massachusetts. A Hovhaness family neighbour stated that Hovhaness's mother had insisted on moving from Somerville because of discrimination against the Armenians there.[4] Upon his mother's death (October 3, 1930), he began to use the surname "Hovaness" in honor of his paternal grandfather,[citation needed] and changed it to "Hovhaness" around 1944. He stated the name change from the original Chakmakjian reflected the desire to simplify his name because "nobody ever pronounced it right".[5] However, Hovhaness' daughter Jean Nandi has written in her book Unconventional Wisdom,[6] "My father's name at the time of my birth was 'Hovaness', pronounced with accent on the first syllable. His original name was 'Chakmakjian', but in the 1930s he wanted to get rid of the Armenian connection and so changed his name to an Americanized version of his middle name. Some years later, deciding to reestablish his Armenian ties, he changed the spelling to 'Hovhaness', accent on the second syllable; this was the name by which he later became quite famous."[page needed]

Hovhaness was interested in music from a very early age, writing his first composition at the age of four after being inspired by hearing a song of Franz Schubert. His family was concerned after this first attempt at composition, a cantata in the early Italian style, for his late-night hours spent composing and possibly for his financial future as an artist. He decided for a short time to pursue astronomy, another of his early loves.[7] The fascination of astronomy remained with him through his entire life and composing career with many works titled after various planets and stars. It is recounted that his father took great pride in his composing and organised his first piano lessons with a neighbourhood teacher. (Alan also played the violin and made a small income for a short time teaching the violin to a neighbour's child.) His father helped to support him long into his young adulthood through many difficult years, and when recognised by Alan from centre stage of his successful Boston Symphony Orchestra Symphony Hall (Koussevitsky) concert, broke into tears. He continued his piano studies, first with Adelaide Proctor and then with Heinrich Gebhard. Gebhard was a student of Theodor Leschetizky, a student of Carl Czerny, whose teacher was Ludwig van Beethoven. By age 14, Hovhaness decided to devote himself to composition. Among his first and most important influences were the recordings of Gomidas Vartabed, a great Armenian composer who had lived through the Armenian Genocide. He composed two operas during his teenage years, which were performed at Arlington High School, and the composer Roger Sessions took an interest in his music during this time. Following his graduation from high school in 1929, he studied with Leo Rich Lewis at Tufts and then the New England Conservatory of Music, under Frederick Converse. In 1932 he won the Conservatory's Samuel Endicott prize for composition, for a symphonic work entitled Sunset Symphony (elsewhere entitled Sunset Saga). In July 1934, with his first wife, Martha Mott Davis, he traveled to Finland to meet the composer Jean Sibelius, whose music he had greatly admired since childhood. The two remained in correspondence for the next twenty years. In 1936 Hovhaness attended a performance in Boston by the Indian dance troupe of Uday Shankar (with orchestra led by Vishnudas Shirali), which began the composer's lifelong interest in the music of India.[7] During the 1930s (until 1939) he was employed by the WPA's Federal Music Project. Hovhaness married six times; the first marriage was around 1934, the last 1977. The daughter from his first marriage (his only child) was named Jean Christina Hovhaness (born June 13, 1935) and named after Jean Christian Sibelius, her godfather, with whom Hovhaness maintained a friendship.

[edit]Destruction

of early works

During the 1930s and 1940s, Hovhaness famously destroyed many of his early works. He later claimed that he had burned at least 1000 different pieces, a process that took at least two weeks;[7]elsewhere he claimed that he had destroyed approximately 500 works, up to 1000 pages in total.[8] In an interview with Richard Howard, he stated that the decision was based primarily on Roger Sessions' criticism of his works of that period, and that he wished to have a new start in his composing.[7]

[edit]Musical

career
Period"

[edit]"Armenian

Hovhaness became interested in Armenian culture and music in 1940, as the organist for the St. James Armenian Apostolic Church in Watertown, Massachusetts, remaining in this position for approximately ten years. In 1942 he won a scholarship at Tanglewood to study in Bohuslav Martin's master class. During a composer's seminar, while a recording of Hovhaness's first symphony was being played, Aaron Copland talked loudly in Spanish to the Latin American composers in the room, and when the recording finished, Leonard Bernstein went to the piano, played a melodic minor scale, and remarked, "I can't stand this cheap ghetto music."[citation needed] Hovhaness was apparently angered and distraught by this experience at Tanglewood, and quit early despite being on scholarship. Following this experience, he again destroyed a number of his works. The next year he devoted himself to Armenian subject matter[citation needed], in particular using modes distinctive to Armenian music, and continued for several years, achieving some renown and the support of other musicians, including John Cage and Martha Graham, all while continuing as church organist. Beginning in the mid-1940s, Hovhaness and two artist friends, Hyman Bloom and Hermon di Giovanno, met frequently to discuss spiritual and musical matters. All three had a strong interest in Indian classical music, and brought many well known Indian musicians to Boston to perform. During this period, Hovhaness learned to play the sitar, studying with amateur Indian musicians living in the Boston area. Around 1942, Bloom introduced Hovhaness to Yenovk Der Hagopian, a fine singer of Armenian and Kurdish troubadour songs, whose singing served as an inspiration to Hovhaness. In one of many applications for a Guggenheim fellowship (1941), Hovhaness presented his credo at the time of application: I propose to create a heroic, monumental style of composition simple enough to inspire all people, completely free from fads, artificial mannerisms and false sophistications, direct, forceful, sincere, always original but never unnatural. Music must be freed from decadence and stagnation. There has been too much emphasis on small things while the great truths have been overlooked. The superficial must be dispensed with. Music must become virile to express big things. It is not my purpose to supply a few pseudo intellectual musicians and critics with more food for brilliant argumentation, but rather to inspire all mankind with new heroism and spiritual nobility. This may appear to be sentimental and impossible to some, but it must be remembered that Palestrina, Handel, and Beethoven would not consider it either sentimental or impossible. In fact, the worthiest creative art has been motivated consciously or unconsciously by the desire for the regeneration of mankind.[cite this quote] Lou Harrison reviewed a 1945 concert of Hovhaness' music which included his 1944 concerto for piano and strings, entitled Lousadzak:

There is almost nothing occurring most of the time but unison melodies and very lengthy drone basses, which is all very Armenian. It is also very modern indeed in its elegant simplicity and adamant modal integrity, being, in effect, as tight and strong in its way as a twelve-tone work of the Austrian type. There is no harmony either, and the brilliance and excitement of parts of the piano concerto were due entirely to vigor of idea. It really takes a sound musicality to invent a succession of stimulating ideas within the bounds of an unaltered mode and without shifting the home-tone.[9] However, as before, there were also critics: The serialists were all there. And so were the Americanists, both Aaron Copland's group and Virgil's. And here was something that had come out of Boston that none of us had ever heard of and was completely different from either. There was nearly a riot in the foyer [during intermission] everybody shouting. A real whoop-dee-doo.[10] Lousadzak was Hovhaness's first work to make use of an innovative technique he called "spirit murmur" an early example of aleatoric music that was inspired by a vision of Hermon di Giovanno.[1]The technique involves instruments repeating phrases in uncoordinated fashion, producing a complex "cloud" or "carpet" of sounds.[2]. In the mid-1940s Hovhaness' stature in New York was helped considerably by members of the immigrant Armenian community who sponsored several high-profile concerts of his music. This organization, the Friends of Armenian Music Committee, was led by Hovhaness's friends Dr. Elizabeth A. Gregory, the Armenian American piano/violin duo Maro Ajemian and Anahid Ajemian, and later Anahid's husband, pioneering record producer and subsequent Columbia Records executive George Avakian. Their help led directly to many recordings of Hovhaness' music appearing in the 1950s on MGM and Mercury records, placing him firmly on the American musical landscape. In May and June 1946, while staying with an Armenian family, Hovhaness composed Etchmiadzin, an opera on an Armenian theme, which was commissioned by a local Armenian church.

[edit]Conservatory

years

In 1948 he joined the faculty of the Boston Conservatory, teaching there until 1951. His students there included the jazz musicians Sam Rivers and Gigi Gryce.

[edit]Relocation

to New York

In 1951, Hovhaness moved to New York City, where he took up composing full-time. Also that year (beginning August 1), he worked at the Voice of America, first as a script writer for the Armenian Section, then as Director of Music, composer, and musical consultant for the Near East

and Trans-Caucasian section. He eventually lost this job (along with much of the other staff) when Dwight D. Eisenhower succeeded Harry S. Truman as U.S. president in 1953. Beginning at this time, Hovhaness branched out from Armenian music, adopting styles and material from a wide variety of sources. In 1953 and 1954 he received Guggenheim Fellowships in composition. In 1954 he wrote the score for the Broadway play The Flowering Peach by Clifford Odets, a ballet for Martha Graham (Ardent Song, 1954), and two scores for NBC documentaries on India and Southeast Asia (1955 and 1957). Also during the 1950s, he composed for productions at The Living Theatre. His biggest breakthrough to date came in 1955, when his Symphony No. 2, Mysterious Mountain, was premiered by Leopold Stokowski in his debut with the Houston Symphony. The idea thatMysterious Mountain was commissioned for the Houston Symphony is a common misconception [3]. That same year, MGM Records released recordings of a number of his works. Between 1956 and 1958, at the urging of Howard Hanson (who was an admirer of his music), he taught summers at the Eastman School of Music.

[edit]Trips

to Asia

From 1959 through 1963, Hovhaness conducted a series of research trips to India, Hawaii, Japan, and South Korea, investigating the ancient traditional musics of these nations and eventually integrating elements of these into his own compositions. His study of Carnatic music in Madras, India (195960), during which he collected over 300 ragas, was sponsored by a Fulbright fellowship. While in Madras, he learned to play the veena and composed a work for Carnatic orchestra entitled Nagooran, inspired by a visit to the dargah at Nagore, which was performed by the South Indian Orchestra of All India Radio Madras and broadcast on All India Radio on February 3, 1960. He compiled a large amount of material on Carnatic ragas in preparation for a book on the subject, but never completed it. He studied Japanese gagaku music (learning the wind instruments hichiriki, sh, and ryteki) in the spring of 1962 with Masatoshi Shamoto in Hawaii, and a Rockefeller Foundation grant allowed him to conduct further gagaku studies with Masataro Togi in Japan (196263). Also while in Japan, he studied and played the nagauta (kabuki) shamisen and the jruri (bunraku) shamisen. In recognition of the musical styles he studied in Japan, he wrote his famous Fantasy on Japanese Woodprints, Op. 211 (1965), a concerto for xylophone and orchestra. In 1963 he composed his second ballet score for Martha Graham, entitled Circe. Hovhaness set up a record label devoted to the release of his own works, Poseidon Society. Its first release was in 1963, with around 15 discs following over the next decade.

In 1965, as part of a U.S. government-sponsored delegation, he visited Russia, and Sovietcontrolled Georgia and Armenia, the only time he visited his paternal ancestral homeland. While there, he donated his handwritten manuscripts of harmonized Armenian liturgical music to the Yeghishe Charents State Museum of Arts and Literature in Yerevan. In the mid 1960s he spent several summers touring Europe, living and working much of the time in Switzerland.

[edit]World

view

Hovhaness stated in a 1971 interview in Ararat magazine: "We are in a very dangerous period. We are in danger of destroying ourselves, and I have a great fear about this ... The older generation is ruling ruthlessly. I feel that this is a terrible threat to our civilization. It's the greed of huge companies and huge organizations which control life in a kind of a brutal way ... It's gotten worse and worse, somehow, because physical science has given us more and more terrible deadly weapons, and the human spirit has been destroyed in so many cases, so what's the use of having the most powerful country in the world if we have killed the soul. It's of no use".[3]

[edit]Later

life

Hovhaness was inducted into the National Institute of Arts and Letters (1951), and received honorary D.Mus. degrees from the University of Rochester (1958), Bates College (1959), and the Boston Conservatory (1987). He moved to Seattle in the early 1970s, where he lived for the rest of his life. In 1973 he composed his third and final ballet score for Martha Graham: Myth of a Voyage, and over the next twenty years (between 1973 and 1992) he produced no fewer than 37 new symphonies. Continuing his interest in composing for Asian instruments, in 1981, at the request of Lou Harrison, he composed two works for Indonesian gamelan orchestra, which were premiered by the gamelan ofLewis & Clark College, under the direction of Vincent McDermott. Hovhaness is survived by his wife, the coloratura soprano Hinako Fujihara Hovhaness, who administers the Hovhaness-Fujihara music publishing company [4], as well as a daughter, theharpsichordist Jean Nandi.

[edit]Hovhaness

archives

Significant archives of Hovhaness materials, comprising scores, sound recordings, photographs and correspondence are located at several academic centers, including Harvard University, University of Washington, Library of Congress, and Yerevans State Museum of Arts and Literature.

[edit]Partial

list of compositions

1936 (rev. 1954) - Prelude and Quadruple Fugue (orchestra), Op. 128 1936 - Concerto for Cello and Orchestra, Op. 17 1936 - Exile (Symphony No. 1), Op. 17, No.2 1940 - Psalm and Fugue, Op. 40a 1940 - Alleluia and Fugue, Op. 40b 1944 - Lousadzak (Concerto for piano and strings), Op. 48 1945 - Mihr (for two pianos) 1946 - Prayer of St. Gregory, Op. 62b, for trumpet and strings (interlude from the opera Etchmiadzin)

1947 - Arjuna (Symphony No. 8) for piano, timpani and orch., Op. 179 1949-50 - St. Vartan Symphony (No. 9), Op. 180 1950 - Janabar (Sinfonia Concertante for piano, trumpet, violin and strings), Op. 81 1951 - Khaldis, Op. 91, for piano, four trumpets, and percussion 1953 - Concerto No. 7 (Orchestra), Op. 116 1954 - Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra, Op. 123, No. 3 1955 - Mysterious Mountain (Symphony No. 2), Op. 132 1957 - Symphony No. 4, Op. 165 1958 - Meditation on Orpheus, Op. 155 1958 - Magnificat (SATB soli, SATB choir and orchestra), Op. 157 1959 - Symphony No. 6, Celestial Gate, Op. 173 1959 - Symphony No. 7, Nanga Parvat, for symphonic wind band, Op. 178 1960 - Symphony No. 11, All Men are Brothers, Op. 186 1963 - The Silver Pilgrimage (Symphony No. 15), Op. 199 1965 - Fantasy on Japanese Woodprints for xylophone and orchestra, Op. 211 1966 - Vishnu Symphony (No. 19), Op. 217 1967 - Fra Angelico, Op. 220

1968 - Mountains and Rivers without End, Chamber Symphony for 10 players, Op. 225

1969 - Lady of Light (soli, chorus, and orch), Op. 227 1969 - Shambala, Concerto for violin, sitar, and orchestra, Op. 228 1970 - And God Created Great Whales (taped whale songs and orchestra), Op. 229 1970 - Symphony Etchmiadzin (Symphony No. 21), Op. 234 1970 - Symphony No. 22, City of Light, Op. 236 1971 - Saturn Op. 243 for soprano, clarinet, and piano 1973 - Majnun Symphony (Symphony No. 24), Op. 273 1979 - Guitar Concerto No. 1, Op. 325 1982 - Symphony No. 50, Mount St. Helens, Op. 360 1985 - Guitar Concerto No. 2 for guitar and strings, Op. 394

[edit]Symphonies

Symphony No. 1 - Exile, Op. 17, No. 2 (1936, rev.1970), for orchestra Symphony No. 2 - Mysterious Mountain, Op. 132 (1955), for orchestra Symphony No. 3, Op. 148 (1956), for orchestra Symphony No. 4, Op. 165 (1958), for wind orchestra Symphony No. 5, Short symphony, Op. 170 (1953, rev.1960), for orchestra Symphony No. 6 - Celestial Gate, Op. 173 (1959), for chamber orchestra Symphony No. 7 - Nanga Parvat, Op. 178 (1959), for wind orchestra Symphony No. 8 - Arjuna, Op. 179 (1947), for piano & orchestra Symphony No. 9 - Saint Vartan, Op. 80/180 (1949), for orchestra Symphony No. 10 - Vahaken, Op. 184 (1944, rev. 1965), for orchestra Symphony No. 11 - All Men Are Brothers, Op. 186 (1960, rev.1969), for orchestra Symphony No. 12 - Choral, Op. 188 (1960), for SATB choir, tape & orchestra Symphony No. 13 - Ardent Song, Op. 190 (1954, rev.1960), for orchestra Symphony No. 14 - Ararat, Op. 194 (1960), for wind orchestra Symphony No. 15 - Silver Pilgrimage, Op. 199 (1962), for orchestra

Symphony No. 16 - Kayagum, Op. 202 (1962), for six Korean instruments & chamber orchestra

Symphony No. 17 - Symphony for Metal Orchestra, Op. 203 (1963), for six flutes, three trombones & five percussion

Symphony No. 18 - Circe, Op. 204a (1963), for orchestra Symphony No. 19 - Vishnu, Op. 217 (1966), for orchestra Symphony No. 20 - Three Journeys to a Holy Mountain, Op. 223 (1968), for wind orchestra

Symphony No. 21 - Etchmiadzin, Op. 234 (1968), for orchestra Symphony No. 22 - City of Light, Op. 236 (1970), for orchestra Symphony No. 23 - Ani, Op. 249 (1972), for large concert band & brass ensemble ad libitum

Symphony No. 24 - Majnun, Op. 273 (1973), for tenor solo, SATB choir & chamber orchestra

Symphony No. 25 - Odysseus, Op. 275 (1973), for orchestra Symphony No. 26, Op. 280 (1975), for orchestra Symphony No. 27, Op. 285 (1976), for orchestra Symphony No. 28 - Armenian II., Op. 286 (1976), for orchestra Symphony No. 29, Op. 289 (1976), for baritone horn & orchestra Symphony No. 30, Op. 293 (1976), for chamber orchestra Symphony No. 31, Op. 294 (1977), for string orchestra Symphony No. 32 - The Broken Wings, Op. 296 (1977), for orchestra Symphony No. 33, Op. 307 (1977), for chamber orchestra Symphony No. 34, Op. 310 (1977), for bass trombone & string orchestra Symphony No. 35, Op. 311 (1978), for two orchestras (including Korean instruments) Symphony No. 36, Op. 312 (1978), for flute & orchestra Symphony No. 37, Op. 313 (1978), for orchestra Symphony No. 38, Op. 314 (1978), for coloratura soprano & chamber orchestra Symphony No. 39 - Lament, Op. 321 (1978), for guitar & orchestra

Symphony No. 40, Op. 324 (1979), for orchestra Symphony No. 41, Op. 330 (1979), for chamber orchestra Symphony No. 42, Op. 332 (1979), for orchestra Symphony No. 43, Op. 334 (1979), for oboe, trumpet, timpani & string orchestra Symphony No. 44, Op. 339 (1980), for orchestra Symphony No. 45, Op. 342 (1954), for orchestra Symphony No. 46 - To The Green Mountains, Op. 347 (1980), for orchestra Symphony No. 47 - Walla Walla, land of many waters, Op. 348 (1980), for soprano & orchestra

Symphony No. 48 - Vision of Andromeda, Op. 355 (1981), for orchestra Symphony No. 49 - Christmas Symphony, Op. 356 (1981), for string orchestra Symphony No. 50 - Mount St. Helens, Op. 360 (1982), for orchestra Symphony No. 51, Op. 364 (1982), for trumpet & string orchestra Symphony No. 52 - Journey to Vega, Op. 372 (1983), for orchestra Symphony No. 53 - Star Dawn, Op. 377 (1983), for concert band Symphony No. 54, Op. 378 (1983), for orchestra Symphony No. 55, Op. 379 (1983), for orchestra Symphony No. 56, Op. 380 (1983), for orchestra Symphony No. 57 - Cold Mountain, Op. 381 (1983), for soprano or tenor solo, clarinet & string orchestra

Symphony No. 58 - Symphony Sacra, Op. 389 (1985), for soprano & baritone soli, SATB choir & chamber orchestra

Symphony No. 59, Op. 395 (1985), for orchestra Symphony No. 60 - To The Appalachian Mountains, Op. 396 (1985), for orchestra Symphony No. 61, Op. 397 (1986), for orchestra Symphony No. 62 - Oh Let Man Not Forget These Words Divine, Op. 402 (198788), for baritone solo, trumpet & string orchestra

Symphony No. 63 - Loon Lake, Op. 411 (1988), for orchestra Symphony No. 64 - Agiochook, Op. 422 (198990), for trumpet & string orchestra

Symphony No. 65 - Artstakh, Op. 427 (1991), for orchestra Symphony No. 66 - Hymn to Glacier Peak, Op. 428 (1992), for orchestra Symphony No. 67 - Hymn to the Mountains, Op. 429 (1992), for orchestra

[edit]Films [edit]Films

about Alan Hovhaness

1984 - Alan Hovhaness. Directed by Jean Walkinshaw, KCTS-TV, Seattle. 1986 - Whalesong. Directed by Barbara Willis Sweete, Rhombus Media. 1990 - The Verdehr Trio: The Making of a Medium. Program 1: Lake Samish Trio/Alan Hovhaness. Directed by Lisa Lorraine Whiting, Michigan State University.

2006 - A Tribute to Alan Hovhaness. Produced by Alexan Zakyan, Hovhaness Research Centre, Yerevan, Armenia.

[edit]Films

with scores by Alan Hovhaness

1955 - Assignment: India. NBC-TV documentary. 1956 - Narcissus. Directed by Willard Maas. 1957 - Assignment: Southeast Asia. NBC-TV documentary. 1962 - Pearl Lang and Francisco Moncion dance performance: Black Marigolds. From the CBS television program Camera Three, presented in cooperation with the New York State Education Department. Directed by Nick Havinga.

1966 - Nehru: Man of Two Worlds. From The Twentieth Century series; reporter: Walter Cronkite. A presentation of CBS News.

1973 - Tales From a Book of Kings: The Houghton Shah-Nameh. New York, New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art and Time-Life Multimedia.

1980 - Cosmos. Hosted by Carl Sagan. Directed by Adrian Malone. 1982 - Everest North Wall. Directed by Laszlo Pal. 1984 - Winds of Everest. Directed by Laszlo Pal. 2005 - I Remember Theodore Roethke. Produced and edited by Jean Walkinshaw, KCTS Public Television, Seattle.

[edit]Notable

students

Dominick Argento (b. 1927)

John Davison (19301999) John Diercks (b. 1927) Robert Gauldin (b. 1931) Gigi Gryce (19251983) Sam Rivers (b. 1923) Mary Jeanne van Appledorn (b. 1927) Robert Washburn (b. 1928) W. Francis McBeth (b. 1933) John S. Hilliard (b. 1947)

Ennio Morricone
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ennio Morricone

Morricone at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival

Background information

Also known as Maestro

Born

November 10, 1928 (age 83)

Origin

Rome, Italy

Genres

Film music, Classical music, Pop music, Jazz, Lounge music,Easy listening

Occupations

Composer, orchestrator, music director, conductor, trumpeter

Years active

1946 present

Associated acts

Bruno Nicolai, Alessandro Alessandroni, Mina, Yo-Yo Ma,Mireille Mathieu, Joan Baez,Andrea Bocelli, Roger Waters,Sarah Brightman, Amii Stewart,Paul Anka, Milva, Gianni Morandi, Dalida, Catherine Spaak, Pet Shop Boys, Hayley Westenra, and others

Website

http://www.enniomorricone.it

Ennio Morricone, Grand Officer OMRI, Italian pronunciation: [nnjo moikone], (born November 10, 1928) is an Italian composer and conductor, who wrote music to more than 500 motion pictures and television series, in a career lasting over 50 years.[1] His scores have been included in over 20 award-winning films as well as several symphonic and choral pieces. Morricone is most famous for his work in the Spaghetti Westerns directed by his friend Sergio Leone, including A Fistful of Dollars (1964), For a Few Dollars More (1965), The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966), and Once Upon a Time in the West (1968). He is considered one of the greatest composers of the 20th century. Born in Rome, Italy Morricone took up the trumpet as a child and attended the National Academy of Santa Cecilia to take lessons on the instrument at the age of nine. He formally entered a conservatory at the age of 12, enrolling in a four-year harmony programme. He received his trumpet diploma in 1946 and started working professionally, composing the music to "Il Mattino" ("The Morning"). Morricone soon gained popularity by writing his first background music for radio dramas and quickly moved into film. In the 1950s he received the "Diploma in Instrumentation for Band" (fanfare) where he won a diploma in Composition under the composer Goffredo Petrassi. In 1955, Morricone started to ghost write and arrange music for other, already established film composers. Morricone soon came to the attention of his former school friend Sergio Leone, who hired Morricone,to compose the music to some of his best known films. Together they created a distinctive score to accompany Leone's different version of the Western, A Fistful of Dollars. In the 80s and 90s, Morricone continued to write the music for Leone's later films, including Once Upon a Time in America (1984) He also composed the music to Joff's The Mission (1986), De Palma's The Untouchables (1987) and Tornatore's Cinema Paradiso (1988). His more recent compositions include the scores for Malna (2000), Fateless (2005), and Baaria - La porta del vento (2009). Morricone has received two Grammy Awards, two Golden Globes, five BAFTAs during 19791992, seven David di Donatello, eight Nastro d'Argento, and thePolar Music Prize in 2010. In 2007, he received the Academy Honorary Award "for his magnificent and multifaceted contributions to the art of film music" and

has been nominated for a further five Oscars in the category of Best Original Score during 19792001, but has never won competitively.
Contents
[hide]

1 Biography

1.1 Early career 1.2 Leone film scores 1.3 Notable film scores 1.4 Concerts and live orchestrations

1.5 Recent works 1.6 Public reputation

2 Personal life 3 Influence and modern references 4 Discography

4.1 Top worldwide film grosses

5 Awards

5.1 List of prizes and awards

6 Sources 7 References 8 Further reading 9 External links

[edit]Biography [edit]Early

career

Ennio Morricone was born in Rome, the son of Libera and Mario Morricone, a jazz trumpeter.[2] Morricone wrote his first compositions when he was six years old and was encouraged to develop his natural talents.
[3]

Compelled to take up the trumpet, he attended the National Academy of Santa Cecilia to take lessons on the

instrument at the age of nine. Morricone formally entered the conservatory in 1940 at the age of 12, enrolling in

a four-year harmony program. According to various reports, he completed it in either two years or six months (date approximate).[4] He studied thetrumpet, composition, choral music, and choral direction under Goffredo Petrassi, who deeply influenced him and to whom Morricone has dedicated concert pieces. These were the difficult years of World War II in the heavily bombed "open city"; the composer remarked that what he mostly remembered of those years was the hunger. His wartime experiences influenced many of his scores for films set in that period. After he graduated, he continued to work in classical composition and arrangement. In 1946, Morricone received his trumpet diploma and in the same year he composed "Il Mattino" ("The Morning") for voice and piano on a text by Fukuko, first in a group of 7 "youth" Lieder. Other serious compositions are "Imitazione" (1947) for voice and piano on a text by Giacomo Leopardi and "Intimit" for voice and piano on a text by Olinto Dini. In the early 1950s, Morricone began writing his first background music for radio dramas. Nonetheless he continued composing classical pieces as "Distacco I e Distacco II" for voice and piano on a text by Ranieri Gnoli, "Verr la Morte" for contralto and piano on a text by Cesare Pavese, "Oboe Sommerso" for baritone and five instruments on a text by Salvatore Quasimodo.[5] Although the composer had received the "Diploma in Instrumentation for Band" (fanfare) in 1952, his studies concluded in 1954, obtaining a diploma in Composition under the composer Goffredo Petrassi. In 1955, Morricone started to write or arrange music for films credited to other already well-known composers (ghost writing). He occasionally adopted Anglicized pseudonyms, such as Dan Savio and Leo Nichols. Morricone wrote more works in the climate of the Italian avant-garde. A few of these compositions have been made available on CD, such as "Ut", his trumpet concerto dedicated to the soloist Mauro Maur, one of his favorite musicians; some have yet to be premiered. From the mid-sixties and onwards, he was part of Gruppo di Improvvisazione di Nuova Consonanza, a group of composers who performed and recorded avant garde free improvisations, even scoring a few films during the 1970s.

[edit]Leone

film scores

Well-versed in a variety of musical idioms from his RCA experience, Morricone began composing film scores in the early 1960s.[4] Though his first films were undistinguished, Morricone's arrangement of an American folk song intrigued director and former schoolmate Sergio Leone. Leone hired Morricone, and together they created a distinctive score to accompany Leone's different version of the Western, A Fistful of Dollars (1964).[4] As budget strictures limited Morricone's access to a full orchestra, he used gunshots, cracking whips, whistle, voices, guimbarde (jaw harp), trumpets, and the new Fender electric guitar, instead of orchestral arrangements of Western standards la John Ford. Morricone used his special effects to punctuate and comically tweak the

actioncluing in the audience to the taciturn man's ironic stance.[4] Though sonically bizarre for a movie score, Morricone's music was viscerally true to Leone's vision.
The Good, The Bad and The Ugly main theme

From The Good, the Bad and the Ugly film score

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As memorable as Leone's close-ups, harsh violence, and black comedy, Morricone's work helped to expand the musical possibilities of film scoring.[4] Morricone was initially billed on the film as Dan Savio.[4] Morricone composed music for over 40 Westerns (the last was North Star (1996)), most of them Spaghetti Westerns. He scored Sergio Leone'sSpaghetti Westerns, from A Fistful of Dollars (1964) and including For a Few Dollars More (1965), The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966), andOnce Upon a Time in the West (1968), as well as later films such as A Fistful of Dynamite (1971), My Name Is Nobody (1973), and A Genius, Two Partners and a Dupe (1975). The collaboration with Leone is considered one of the exemplary collaborations between a director and a composer. With the score of A Fistful of Dollars, Morricone began his 10-year collaboration with his childhood friend Alessandro Alessandroni and his Cantori Moderni. Alessandroni provided the whistling and the twanging guitar on the film scores, while his Cantori Moderni were a flexible troupe of modern singers. Morricone specifically exploited the solo soprano of the group, Edda Dell'Orso, at the height of her powers"an extraordinary voice at my disposal". In addition, Morricone composed music for many other, not so popular Spaghetti Westerns, including Duello nel Texas (1963), Le pistole non discutono (1964), A Pistol for Ringo (1965), The Return of Ringo (1965), Navajo Joe (1966), The Big Gundown, (1966), Face to Face (1967), Death Rides a Horse (1967), The Hellbenders (1967), A Bullet for the General (1967), The Mercenary (1968), Tepepa(1968), The Great Silence (1968), Guns for San Sebastian (1968), And for a Roof a Sky Full of Stars (1968), The Five Man Army (1969), Queimada! (1969), Vamos a matar, compaeros (1970), Two Mules for Sister Sara (1970), Sonny and Jed (1972), and Buddy Goes West (1981).

[edit]Notable

film scores
The Mission main theme Gabriel's Oboe

From The Mission film score

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Most of Morricone's film scores of the 1960s were composed outside the Spaghetti Western genre, while still using Alessandroni's team. Their music included the themes for Il Malamondo (1964), Slalom (1965), The Battle of Algiers (1965), and Listen, Let's Make Love (1967). In 1968, Morricone reduced his work outside the movie business and wrote scores for 20 films in the same year. The scores included psychedelic accompaniment for Mario Bava's superhero romp Danger: Diabolik (1968). The next year marked the start of a series of evocative scores for Dario Argento's stylized thrillers, including The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1969), The Cat o' Nine Tails (1971), and Four Flies on Grey Velvet(1974).[4] In 1970, Morricone wrote the score for Violent City. That same year, he received his first Nastro d'Argento for the music in Metti una sera a cena (Giuseppe Patroni Griffi, 1969) and his second only a year later for Sacco e Vanzetti (Giuliano Montaldo, 1971), in which he had made a memorable collaboration with the legendary American folk singer and activist Joan Baez. In 1973, he scored a theme for the crime film Revolver (1973). Morricone composed the score for John Carpenter's science-fiction/horror movie The Thing(1982)[6] as well as Brian De Palma's war drama Casualties of War (1989).[7] Morricone has worked for television, from a single title piece to variety shows and documentaries to TV series, including the US TV Western The Men From Shiloh (1970), Moses (1974) and Marco Polo(1982). One notable composition, "Chi Mai" was used in the films, Maddalena (1971) and Le Professionnel (1981) as well as the TV series The Life and Times of David Lloyd George (1981). It was a surprise hit in the UK, almost topping the charts. He wrote the score for the Mafia television series La piovra seasons 2 to 10 from 1985 to 2001, including the themes "Droga e sangue" ("Drugs and Blood"), "La morale", and "L'immorale".[8] Morricone worked as the conductor of seasons 3 to 5 of the series. He also worked as the music supervisor for the television project La bibbia ("The Bible"). In the late 1990s, he collaborated with his son, Andrea, on the Ultimo crime dramas. Their collaboration yielded the BAFTA-winning Nuovo cinema Paradiso. In 2003, Ennio Morricone scored another epic, for Japanese television, called Musashi and was the Taiga drama about Miyamoto Musashi, Japan's legendary warrior. A part of his "applied music" is now applied to Italian television films.

[edit]Concerts

and live orchestrations

Since 2001, Morricone has been on a world tour, the latter part sponsored by Giorgio Armani, with the Orchestra Roma Sinfonietta, touring London (Barbican 2001; 75th birthday Concerto, Royal Albert Hall 2003),

Paris, Verona, and Tokyo. Morricone performed his classic film scores at the Munich Philharmonie in 2005 and Hammersmith Apollo Theatre in London, UK, on 2006-12-01 and 2006-12-02.

Ennio Morricone at the United Nations Headquarters

He made his North American concert debut on January 29, 2007 Auditorio Nacional in Mexico City and four days later at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. The previous evening, Morricone had already presented at the United Nations a concert comprising some of his film themes, as well as the cantata Voci dal silenzio to welcome the new Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon. A Los Angeles Times review bemoaned the poor acoustics and opined of Morricone: "His stick technique is adequate, but his charisma as a conductor is zero." Morricone, though, has said: "Conducting has never been important to me. If the audience comes for my gestures, they had better stay outside." On December 12, 2007, Morricone conducted the Roma Sinfonietta at the Wiener Stadthalle in Vienna, presenting a selection of his own works. Together with the Roma Sinfonietta and the Belfast Philharmonic Choir, Morricone performed at the Opening Concerts of the Belfast Festival at Queen's, in the Waterfront Hallon October 17 and 18, 2008. Morricone and Roma Sinfonietta also held a concert at the Belgrade Arena (Belgrade, Serbia) on February 14, 2009. On April 10, 2010, Morricone conducted a concert at the Royal Albert Hall in London with the Roma Sinfonietta and (as in all of his previous London concerts) theCrouch End Festival Chorus. On August 27, 2010, he conducted a concert in Hungary. Two other concerts took place in Verona and Sofia (Bulgaria) on 11 and 17 September 2010.[9]

[edit]Recent

works

Morricone provided the string arrangements on Morrissey's "Dear God Please Help Me" from the album Ringleader of the Tormentors in 2006.[10] Quentin Tarantino originally wanted Morricone to compose the soundtrack for his most recent film, Inglourious Basterds. However, Morricone refused because of the sped-up production schedule of the film.[11][12]
[13]

Tarantino did use several Morricone tracks from previous films in the soundtrack.

Morricone instead wrote the music for Baaria - La porta del vento, the most recent movie by Giuseppe Tornatore. The composer is also writing music for Tornatore's upcoming movie Leningrad. In spring and summer 2010, Morricone worked with Hayley Westenra for a collaboration on her album Paradiso.[14] The album features new songs written by Morricone, as well as some of his best known film compositions of the last 50 years.[15][16] Hayley recorded the album with Morricone's orchestra in Rome during the summer of 2010.[17][18][19]

[edit]Public

reputation
"Se telefonando"

Sample from "Se telefonando".

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In 1956, Morricone started to support his family by playing in a jazz band and arranging pop songs for the Italian broadcasting service RAI.[4] He was hired by RAI in 1958, but quit his job on his first day at work when he was told that broadcasting of music composed by employees was forbidden by a company rule. Subsequently, Morricone became a top studio arranger at RCA, working with Renato Rascel, Rita Pavone, andMario Lanza.
[4]

A particular success was one of his own songs, "Se telefonando".[20][21]

Performed by Mina, it was a standout track of Studio Uno 66, the fifth-biggest-selling album of the year 1966 in Italy.[22] Morricone's sophisticated arrangement of "Se telefonando" was a combination of melodic trumpet lines, Hal Blainestyle drumming, a string set, a '60s Europop femalechoir, and intensive subsonic-sounding trombones. The Italian Hitparade #7 song had eight transitions of tonality building tension throughout the chorus.[20][21] During the following decades, the song was covered by several performers in Italy and abroadmost notably by Franoise Hardy and Iva Zanicchi (1966), Delta V (2005), Vanessa and the O's (2007), and Neil Hannon (2008).[23] In the reader's poll conducted by the la Repubblica newspaper to celebrate Mina's 70th anniversary in 2010, 30,000 voters picked the track as the best song ever recorded by Mina.[24] Throughout the '60s Morricone composed songs for other artists including Milva, Gianni Morandi, Paul Anka, Amii Stewart, and Mireille Mathieu.

[edit]Personal

life

On 13 October 1956, he married Maria Travia and had his first son, Marco, in 1957. Travia has written lyrics to complement her husband's pieces. Her works include the Latin texts for The Mission. They have three sons

and a daughter, in order of birth: Marco, Alessandra, the conductor and film composer Andrea (Andrew), and Giovanni (a filmmaker[25] who lives in New York City).

[edit]Influence

and modern references

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (March 2011)

Morricone at the 2009 Venice film festival.

Morricone's influence also extends into the realm of pop music. Hugo Montenegro had a hit with a version of the main theme from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly in both the United Kingdom and the United States. This was followed by his album of Morricone's music in 1968. Aside from his music having been sampled by everyone from rappers (Jay-Z) to electronic outfits (the Orb), Morricone wrote "Se Telefonando", which became Italy's fifth biggest-selling record of 1966 and has since been re-recorded by Franoise Hardy, among many others, and scored the strings for "Dear God, Please Help Me" on Morrissey's 2006 "Ringleader of the Tormentors" album. Morricone's film music was also recorded by many artists. John Zorn recorded an album of Morricone's music, The Big Gundown, with Keith Rosenberg in the mid-1980s. Lyricists and poets have helped convert some of his melodies into a songbook.

Morricone collaborated with world music artists, like Portuguese fado singer Dulce Pontes (in 2003 with Focus, an album praised by Paulo Coelho and where his songbook can be sampled) and virtuoso cellist Yo-Yo Ma (in 2004), who both recorded albums of Morricone classics with the Roma Sinfonietta Orchestra and Morricone himself conducting. In 1990 the American singer Amii Stewart, best known for the 1979 disco hit "Knock On Wood", recorded a tribute album entitled Pearls - Amii Stewart Sings Ennio Morricone for the RCA label, including a selection of the composer's best known songs. Since the mid 1980s Stewart resides in Italy, the Pearls album features Rome's Philharmonic Orchestra and was co-produced by Morricone himself. The 2003 Quentin Tarantino film Kill Bill Volumes 1 & 2 makes extensive use of several Morricone pieces from several 1960s film scores. The 2009 filmInglourious Basterds also uses many Morricone pieces, as well as sharing "Il Mercenario (Ripresa)" with Kill Bill. Metallica uses Morricone's The Ecstasy of Gold as an intro at their concerts (shock jocks Opie and Anthony also use the song at the start of their XM Satellite Radio and CBS Radio shows.) The San Francisco Symphony Orchestra also played it on Metallica's Symphonic rock album S&M. Ramones used the theme from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly as a concert intro. The theme from A Fistful Of Dollars is also used as a concert intro by The Mars Volta. His influence extends from Michael Nyman to Anna Calvi to Muse [26]. He even has his own tribute band, a large group which started in Australia, touring asThe Ennio Morricone Experience. Morricone is mentioned by Myles, a musician/scorer (played by Jack Black in "The Holiday" [2006 film]), as creator of magical sounds that formed a character as much as lines of music in his films. This played out in a scene at a video rental store between Black and actress Kate Winslett. In 2007, the tribute album We All Love Ennio Morricone was released. It features performances by various artists, including Sarah Brightman, Andrea Bocelli, Celine Dion, Bruce Springsteen andMetallica. On their 2008 album "Red of Tooth and Claw" the independent rock band, Murder by Death, composed and included a song as a theme/tribute to Morricone entitled "Theme (for Ennio Morricone)." British band Muse cites Morricone as an influence for the songs "City of Delusion", "Hoodoo", and "Knights of Cydonia" on their album Black Holes and Revelations.[citation needed]. The band has recently started playing the song "Man With A Harmonica" live played by Chris Wolstenholme, as an intro to "Knights of Cydonia".[27] In January 2010, tenor Donald Braswell II released his album "We Fall and We Rise Again" on which he presented his tribute to Ennio Morricone with his original composition entitled "Ennio". The score for The Thing 2011 prequel film composed by Marco Beltrami was inspired and uses several elements from Morricone's original soundtrack from the 1982 film of the same name.

[edit]Discography
Main article: Ennio Morricone discography Ennio Morricone has sold over 50 million records worldwide,[28][29] including 6.5 million copies in France[30] and more than two million albums in Korea.[31]

[edit]Top

worldwide film grosses

Ennio Morricone has been involved with eight movies grossing over $25 million at the box office:[32]

Yea r

Title

Director

Gross

1966

The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

Sergio Leone

$25,100,000

1977

Exorcist II: The Heretic

John Boorman

$30,749,142

1987

The Untouchables

Brian De Palma

$76,270,454

1991

Bugsy

Barry Levinson

$49,114,016

1993

In the Line of Fire

Wolfgang Petersen

$176,997,16 8

1994

Wolf

Mike Nichols

$131,002,59 7

1994

Disclosure

Barry Levinson

$214,015,08 9

2000

Mission to Mars

Brian De Palma

$110,983,40 7

Other successful movies with Morricone's work are Kill Bill Vol. 1 & 2 (2003, 2004) and Inglourious Basterds (2009), though the tracks used are sampled from older pictures.

[edit]Awards

He received his first Academy Award nomination in 1979, for the score to Days of Heaven (Terrence Malick, 1978).[33] He was later nominated for a further two awards; in 1986 for The Mission[33] and in 1987 for The Untouchables.[33] He later nominated for the score to Bugsy (Barry Levinson) (1991). His last nomination was for Malna (2000). Morricone and Alex North are the only composers to receive the Honorary Oscar since the award's introduction in 1928.[34] North was nominated for fifteen Oscars, but like Morricone, he never won competitively. Morricone received an honorary Academy Award on February 25, 2007, presented by Clint Eastwood, "for his magnificent and multifaceted contributions to the art of film music." With the statuette came a standing ovation. Though nominated five times, he had not previously received an Oscar. In conjunction with the honor, Morricone released a tribute album, We All Love Ennio Morricone, that featured as its centerpiece Celine Dion's rendition of "I Knew I Loved You" (based on "Deborah's Theme" from Once Upon a Time in America), which she performed at the ceremony. Behind-the-scenes studio production and recording footage of "I Knew I Loved You" can be viewed in the debut episode of the QuincyJones.com Podcast.[35] The lyric, as with Morricone's Love Affair, had been penned by Oscar-winning husband-and-wife duo Marilyn and Alan Bergman. Morricone's acceptance speech was in his native Italian tongue and was interpreted by Clint Eastwood, who stood to his left. Eastwood and Morricone had in fact met two days earlierfor the first time in 40 yearsat a reception.

[edit]List

of prizes and awards

1965 Nastro d'Argento for A Fistful of Dollars 1967 Diapason d'Or 1969 Premio Spoleto Cinema 1970 Nastro d'argento for Metti una sera a cena 1971 Nastro d'argento for Sacco e Vanzetti 1972 Cork Film International for La califfa 1979 Academy Awards nomination for Days of Heaven 1979 Premio Vittorio de Sica 1981 Premio della critica discografica for Il prato 1984 Premio Zurlini 1985 Nastro d'argento and BAFTA for Once Upon A Time In America 1986 Academy Awards Nomination, BAFTA and Golden Globe Awards for The Mission 1986 Premio Vittorio de Sica

1988 Academy Awards nomination, Nastro d'argento, BAFTA and Grammy Awards for The Untouchables

1988 David di Donatello for Gli occhiali d'oro 1989 David di Donatello for Nuovo Cinema Paradiso 1989 Ninth Annual Ace Winner for Il Giorno prima 1989 Pardo d'Oro alla carriera Locarno Film Festival 1990 BAFTA, Prix Fondation Sacem del XLIII Cannes Film Festival and David di Donatello for Nuovo Cinema Paradiso

1991 David di Donatello for Stanno tutti bene 1992 Academy Award nomination for Bugsy 1992 Pentagramma d'oro 1992 Premio Michelangelo 1992 Grolla d'oro alla carriera (Saint Vincent) 1993 David di Donatello and Efebo d'Argento for Jonas che visse nella balena 1993 Globo d'oro Stampa estera in Italia 1993 Gran Premio SACEM audiovisivi 1994 ASCAP Golden Soundtrack Award (Los Angeles) 1995 Premio Rota 1995 Golden Lion Honorary Award by the Venice Film Festival 1996 Premio citta' di Roma 1996 Premio Cappelli 1996 Premio Accademia di Santa Cecilia 1997 Premio Flaiano 1998 Columbus Prize 1999 Erich Wolfgang Korngold Internationaler Preis fr Film 1999 Exsquibbidles Film Academy lifetime achievement award 2000 Golden Globe for The Legend of 1900 (1998) 2000 David di Donatello and Nastro d'argento for Canone Inverso

2000 Academy Awards nomination for Malna 2000 Nastro d'argento for Malna 2001 Mikeldi de Honor at "Zinebi - International Festival of Documentary and Short Films" of Bilbao 2002 Honorary Degree by the "Seconda Universit" of Rome 2003 Golden Eagle Award by the Russian National Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences of Russia for 72 Meters (film)

2003 Honorary Senator of the Filmscoring Class of the Hochschule fr Musik und Theater Mnchen 2006 Grand Officer OMRI, nominated by Carlo Azeglio Ciampi 2007 Honorary Academy Award for career achievement 2007 The Film & TV Music Award for Lifetime Achievement 2007 David di Donatello and Nastro d'argento for La sconosciuta 2008 Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental, performed by Bruce Springsteen 2008 Knight of the Legion of Honour 2009 Medal of Merits for Macedonia[36] 2009 America Award of the Italy-USA Foundation 2010 Polar Music Prize of the Royal Swedish Academy of the Arts

21st century composers

Cacilda Borges Barbosa

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Cacilda Campos Borges Barbosa (18 May 1914 6 August 2010)[1] was a Brazilian pianist, conductor and composer. She was one of the pioneers of electronic music in Brazil.[2][3]
Contents
[hide]

1 Life 2 Works 3 Reference s 4 External links

[edit]Life
Barbosa was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and graduated from the National School of Music of Brazil. She studied with Antnio Francisco Braga, piano with P. Chaves, harmony with Oscar Lorenzo Fernandez and theory with Lima Coutinho.[4] After completing her education, Barbosa worked as a dance pianist playing waltzes and chorinhos, and in the 1950s was conductor of the Radio Center Drive orchestra. Barbosa worked with Heitor Villa-Lobos from 1930,[3] and served as director of the Instituto Villa-Lobos. She became a professor[5] for chamber ensemble of the National School of Music at theUniversity of Brazil and professor of counterpoint and fugue at the Popular School of Music Education. She also directed a number of orchestras and choir ensembles.

[edit]Works
Barbosa composed a number of works, many with a strong Brazilian theme. She also composed a number of pieces of orchestral music and chamber music together with pieces for teaching piano students.[6] Selected works include:

Procisso da Chuva - Poem: Wilson Rodrigues Estudos Brasileiros Trio for Reeds

Rio de Janeiro Suite for strings (1st mov) Rio de Janeiro Suite for strings (2nd mov) Little Entrance Music

Christophe Bertrand
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Christophe Bertrand (24 April 1981 - 17 September 2010)[1] was a French composer of contemporary classical music.
Contents
[hide]

1 Biograph y 2 Awards 3 Works 4 Reference s 5 External links

[edit]Biography
Christophe Bertrand was a French pianist and composer of mainly chamber works born in 1981. After earning gold medals for piano and chamber music at the Strasbourg Conservatoire, he performed and recorded with the Ensemble Accroche-Note and the Ensemble In Extremis of which he was a co-founder. He collaborated with composers such as Ivan Fedele and Pascal Dusapin. He studied composition since 1996, under the supervision of Ivan Fedele at the Strasbourg Conservatoire, obtaining with distinction his diploma in 2000. His compositions, conducted among others by Pierre Boulez, Jonathan Nott, Hannu Lintu, Marc Albrecht have been performed by several ensembles and soloists such as the Ensemble Intercontemporain, Arditti Quartet and the Orchestre philharmonique de Strasbourg. His compositions have been played internationally, amongst others in:

France: Festival Musica, IRCAM, Festival d'Aix-en-Provence, Festival Agora, Centre Georges Pompidou, Salle Olivier Messiaen de la Maison de Radio France, etc.

Germany: Beethovenfest Bonn, Ultraschall-Festival Berlin, Internationale Ferienkurse in Darmstadt, Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk

Switzerland: Lucerne Festival Belgium: Ars Musica in Brussels Italy: Festival Traiettorie in Parma, Rondo-Milano, Spoleto Festival The Netherlands: Gaudeamus Festival in Amsterdam The USA (San Francisco), in the United Kingdom (Manchester), in Slovenia (Ljubljana)

French radio channel France Musique provided his compositions airtime.

[edit]Awards
Christophe Bertrand was awarded several awards for Prix de la Musique de l'Acadmie des Marches de l'Est (2001) Earplay Prize (2002) SACEM Herv Dugardin prize (2007) Andr Caplet prize (2007)

He was selected by the Acadmie franaise in Rome to be in residence at the Villa Mdicis in Rome for 18 months.

[edit]Works
Vertigo (20062007) 2 pianos and orchestra (20') Co-commissioned by French Ministry of Culture and Musica Festival World premiere : Musica Festival 2008 Arashi (2007) solo clarinet (6') To Thomas Monod World premiere : 29/02/2008 - Strasbourg, Mamcs - Thomas Monod Sanh (2006) bass clarinet, cello and piano (11')

Commissioned by French Ministry of Culture To Armand Angster World premiere : 11/10/2007 - Strasbourg, Musica Festival / Accroche-Note Quatuor I (20052006) string quartet (20') Co-commissioned by Beethovenfest de Bonn and Peter McBurney To the Arditti Quartet World premiere : 19/03/2006 - Brusells, Ars Musica Festival - Arditti Quartet French premiere : 20/07/2006 Festival d'Aix-en-Provence - Arditti Quartet World premiere of first version : 24/09/2005 - Kunstmuseum Bonn Mandelring Quartett Mana (20042005) large orchestra (10') Commissioned by Lucerne Festival To Pierre Boulez World premiere : 09/09/2005 - Lucerne KKL - Lucerne Festival Academy Orchestra, dir. Pierre Boulez French premiere : 02/062006 - Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio-France, dir. Hannu Lintu Madrigal (20042005) female voice and ensemble (11') Commissioned by the Andr Boucourechliev Foundation To Franoise Kubler and Armand Angster World premiere : 30 September 2005 - Strasbourg, Festival Musica - Accroche-Note Virya (2004) flte, clarinet (+ bass clarinet), percussions and piano (7') Commissioned by Francis Rueff To Frdric Kahn World premiere : 19/03/2004 - Espace 110 Illzach - Ensemble In Extremis Aus (2004) viola, soprano saxophone, clarinet (+ bass clarinet) and piano (8') Commissioned b Radio Berlin-Brandeburg To Philippe Hurel World premiere : 24/01/2004 - Berlin, Ultraschall-Festival - Ensemble Intgrales Recording : CD "European Young generation" by Ensemble Intgrales Zeitklang Editions (ez-21019) Haos (2003) solo piano (10') Commissioned by Festival Rendez-vous Musique Nouvelle, Forbach To Laurent Cabasso

World premiere : 09/11/2003 - Forbach, Festival RVMN - Raoul Jehl, piano Ia (2003) 8-part female choir (3') To Catherine Bolzinger World premiere : 23/05/2003 - Strasbourg, Palais du Rhin - Ensemble Vocal Fminin du Conservatoire de Strasbourg, dir. Catherine Bolzinger Yet (2002) 20 musicians (10') Commissioned by Ensemble Intercontemporain To Pascal DUSAPIN World premiere : 29/09/2002 - Strasbourg, Musica Festival - Ensemble Intercontemporain ; dir : Jonathan Nott Full (2001) four vibraphones, piano and eight amplified voices (15') Commissioned by Les Percussions de Strasbourg To Odile Charvet and the Ecole des Percussions de Strasbourg World premiere : 20/01/2002 - Strasbourg, La Laiterie for the 40th birthday of Les Percussions de Strasbourg Matthieu Chardon, Marcel Verrept, Christophe Landoz, Christophe Dietrich (vb) ; Anne-Ccile Litolf (pno), Choeur de chambre de Strasbourg ; dir : Catherine Bolzinger Ektra (2001) solo flute (5') To Olivier Class World premiere : 16/06/2001 - Strasbourg, Cercle europen, Acadmie des Marches de l'Est - Olivier Class, flute Dikha (20002001) clarinet/bass clarinet and electronics (9'30) Composed during the "Cursus de composition et d'informatique musicale" at the IRCAM To Pierre Dutrieu World premiere : 15/06/2002 - Paris, Agora Festival, Espace de Projection de l'IRCAM - Pierre Dutrieu, clarinet Treis (2000) violin, cello and piano (10') Honorable mention at the Gaudeamus Festival 2001/First Prize Earplay 2002 To Rosalie Adolf, Anne-Ccile Litolf et Godefroy Vujicic

World premiere : 07/10/2000 - Strasbourg, Musica Festival - Rosalie Adolf (vn), Godefroy Vujicic (vc), AnneCcile Litolf (pno) La Chute Du Rouge (2000) clarinet, cello, vibraphone and piano (11') To Ivan Fedele World premiere : 11/05/2000 - Strasbourg, Oratoire du Temple-Neuf - Ensemble du Conservatoire de Strasbourg Skia (19981999) five instruments (8') To Pierre-Yves Meug World premiere : 11/05/1999 - Strasbourg, Muse de l'Oeuvre Notre-Dame - Ensemble du Conservatoire de Strasbourg Strofa II (1998) female voice, violin and piano (5'30) World premiere : 11/05/2000 - Strasbourg, Oratoire du Temple-Neuf - Ensemble du Conservatoire de Strasbourg Strofa IIb (19982000) female voice, alto flute (+ flute in C) and piano (5'30) World premiere : 02/07/00 - Wangen (67), Vieux Freihof - Aline Metzinger (voice), Olivier Class (fl), Christophe Bertrand (pno)

Edwin Carr (composer)

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For the athlete of the same name, see Edwin Carr (athlete).

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Edwin Carr

Edwin Carr (10 August 1926 27 March 2003) was a composer of classical music from New Zealand.
Contents
[hide]

1 Biography 2 Works

2.1 M usic works

2.2 B ooks

3 External links

[edit]Biography

Edwin Carr was born in Auckland and was educated at Otago Boys' High School from 1940 to 1943. He studied music at Otago University from 1944-5 andAuckland University College from 1946, then left with his degree unfinished. In 1946 he attended the first Cambridge Summer Music School with Douglas Lilburn as his composition tutor. In 1948 he travelled to England on a New Zealand Government Bursary, to study composition at the Guildhall with Benjamin Frankel. During this time he did much freelance work, traveled widely and met Geoffrey Grey. In 1954 a British Council scholarship enabled him to study under Petrassi in Rome. He also worked in Italy as the musical director of an independent ballet company. In 1957 a further British Council scholarship enabled him to study with Carl Orff in Munich. In 1958 he returned to New Zealand, staying there until 1960 teaching and composing. During the 1960s he spent time in both Australia and England, composing, teaching and studying as well as several trips to New Zealand. In 1973-74 he was awarded the Mozart Fellowship at the University of Otago. From 1975-76 he taught composition at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music before returning to London in 1976. He returned to Australia in 1977 and taught part-time at the Sydney Conservatorium. In 1984 he returned to Taupo, New Zealand where he composed and conducted freelance. From 1991 Carr lived on Waiheke Island where he was still active as a composer. In 1999 he was made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the Queen's Birthday Honours. Edwin Carr died at his home on Waiheke Island on 27 March 2003.

[edit]Works [edit]Music

works

1950 Mardi Gras Overture 1951 A Blake Cantata 1953 Suite No. 1 for two pianos (Cacciati dal Paradiso) 1954 String Quartet No. 1 1955 Piano Sonata No. 1 1955 Electra - Ballet 1958 Organ Sonata 1958 Night Music - Scherzo 1962 Piano Concerto No. 1 1963 The Snowmaiden

1963 Two Dances for viola and piano 1965 Four pieces for Oboe d'amore and piano (dedicated to Jennifer Paull) 1966 Edith Sitwell Song cycle for oboe, soprano and piano 1966 Piano Quintet 1966 Five Pieces for piano 1967 Five Pieces for Orchestra (transcription of Five pieces for piano) 1967 Three Shakespeare Songs 1967 Four Pieces for oboe d'amore, strings and harp (orch. ver. of 1965) 1968 Three Pieces for cello and piano 1969 Three Songs from Childhood for mezzo and violin 1969 Violin Sonata (unaccompanied) 1970 Suite No. 2 - Four dances from Electra for 2 pf and perc. 1970 Aubade for clarinet and pf or orchestra 1971 Suite No. 3 for two pianos 1971 Six Studies for string orchestra 1971 Auckland '71 - Ode for male speaker, chorus and orch. 1969 1972 - Nastasya - 3 act opera, based on Dostoievsky's The Idiot 1973 Six Songs - Out of Dark for mezzo and piano or orchestra 1973 Four Short Concert Studies for piano 1974 Three Love Songs for soprano & piano - poems by Fairburn 1974 Seven Medieval Lyrics for SATB, orchestra, or piano duet 1974 The Twelve Signs for wind, brass piano, harp and perc. 1975 Piano Sonata #2 in one movement 1975 Five Bagatelles for piano 1977 Sonatina for piano 1977 Five Songs to Poems by Wolkskehl - baritone & piano or orchestra 1977 Sonata for violin and piano 1978 Sinfonietta for small orchestra (Used for Primavera ballet)

1978 String Quartet No. 2 1978 Seven Elizabethan Lyrics for chorus and piano duet or orchestra 1979 Te Tau (The Seasons) - Winter & Spring for solo piano; Summer and Autumn for piano duet 1979 An Easter Cantata for soprano, chorus and organ or string orch. 1981 Symphony No. 1 1983 Symphony No. 2 1983 Trio for horn, violin and piano 1985 Pacific Festival Overture 1985 Promenade ballet suite for orch. or piano duet 1985 The Mayors New Coat - ballet for orchestra 1985 Piano Sonata No. 3 1985 Piano Concerto No. 2 1985 Film Music for Nicholas Nickleby 1986 Song of Solomon symphonic cantata 1987 Symphony No. 3 1988 Poems for piano and orchestra 1989 The Four Elements for four mandolins 1989 The Four Elements for orch. or two pianos (transcriptions) 1989 Suite No. 4 for two pianos (Four Elements transcription) 1989 Quartet for oboe and clarinet, bassoon and piano 1989 Octet for wind 1990 Gaudeamus Overture 1990 Taupo - The Eye of the World for soprano, choir & orch. 1990 Prelude and Aria for Oboe d'Amore (dedicated to Jennifer Paull) 1991 Foxtrot from Coup De Folie - piano duet or piano solo 1991 Symphony No. 4 1991 Four pieces for oboe damore and piano 1991 Two Mansfield poems for Oboe dAmore (dedicated to Jennifer Paull)

1991 Six choral Pieces from text by Katherine Mansfield 1992 Eleven Pleasant Pieces for piano 1992 Lord Arthur Savile's Crime - Opera in One Act 1992 Six Variations on a Theme by Beethoven for piano 1994 Sonata for two pianos 1995 Arikinui - cantata for soprano and orchestra 1995 Violin concerto 1996 The Maze of the Muses - Chamber Opera 1996 The End of the Golden Weather for orchestra 1996 Ten Concert Studies for piano - Book I 1996 Doves of Peace for piano 1996 Waiheke Island, A Suite for Oboe Consort (dedicated to Jennifer Paull) 1997 Outcast from Paradise 1997 Ngataringa Nocturne and Scherzo for oboe, oboe d'amore, and piano (dedicated to Jennifer Paull) 1997 Sonatina di Maggio for musette (oboe) (dedicated to Jennifer Paull) 1998 In the Rangitaki Valley for two pianos, eight hands 1998 Coup De Folie for two pianos, eight hands 1998 Eve des Eaux - Eight French songs for solo tenor 1998 Revelations for piano 1999 Akaraua - Four symphonic sketches for orchestra 1999 Three pieces for solo bassoon 1999 El Tango for orchestra 1999 Ten Concert studies for piano, Book 2 1999 Trio for violin, cello and piano 1999 Wind trio for flute, oboe and bassoon 1999 Mardi Gras 2000, new version 2000 Three pieces for oboe and organ 2000 Elegie for oboe and piano

2000 Petit Concert, pour trio a vent: flute, hautbois et basson 2001 Seven Waiheke Lyrics, SATB and piano duet 2001 Three Pieces for the oboe and organ 2001 Fanfare for Otago University 2001 Concerto Balabile 2002 Oboe Concerto (dedicated to Dominique Enon)

Henning Christiansen
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2010)

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Henning Christiansen (May 28, 1932, Copenhagen December 10, 2008) was a Danish composer and an active member of the Fluxus-movement. He worked with artists such as Joseph Beuys andNam June Paik, as well as with his wife Ursula Reuter Christiansen. Other collaborators include Bjrn Nrgaard, Carlo Quartucci, Carla Tato, Ernst Kretzer, Ben Patterson, David Moss, Ute Wassermann, Andreas Oldrp, Christophe Charles, Bernd Jasper, Henrik Kiel, Vilem Wagner, Vladimir Tarasov, Niko Tenten, and many others. His overall goal was to work collaboratively and to trespass conventional boundaries. He resented the idea of an isolated artistic genius and his entire production can be seen as a subsequent and vibrant example of praxis in a constant flux. He believed in the need to trespass conventional boundaries between artistic disciplines. This is visible from his engagement in Fluxus, over numerous collaborative performances to his position as a professor at the Art Academy in Hamburg (Hochschule fr Bildende Knste - HfBK). Christiansen lived almost 40 years on the Danish Island Mn. He presented a retrospective exhibition in Copenhagen and participated in the music festival Wundergrund shortly before his death.

[edit]Works

(selected)

Perspective Constructions (1965) Den arkadiske op.32 (1966) fluxorum organum Op.39 (1967) Symphony Natura Op.170 (1985) Abschiedssymphonie Op.177 (1988) Kreuzmusik (1989) Verena Vogelzymphon (1991) Dust Out of Brain (1995)

Geoffrey Burgon
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Geoffrey Alan Burgon (15 July 1941 21 September 2010) was a British composer notable for his television and film themes.[1]
Contents
[hide]

1 Life and career 2 Career highlights 3 Selected works

3.1 Stage 3.2 Orchest ral

3.3 Brass band

3.4 Concert ante

3.5 Chamb er music

3.6 Piano 3.7 Vocal 3.8 Choral 3.9 Film scores

3.10 Televi sion scores

4 Selected recordings 5 References 6 External links

[edit]Life

and career

Burgon was born in Hampshire in 1941, and taught himself the trumpet in order to join a jazz band at school (Pewley Grammar School, Guildford). He entered the Guildhall School of Music and Dramawith the intention of becoming a professional trumpet player. However, under the direction of his mentor, composer Peter Wishart, he found that he was more interested in composition. Burgon initially supported himself and his family as a freelance jazz trumpeter. At the age of 30 he sold his instruments, except one, and devoted himself to composition. He lived through a lengthy period of poverty before critical success eventually brought financial reward. The critical success of his Requiem at the Three Choirs Festival in 1976 sealed his reputation as a composer and led to many commissions from major organisations. Continuing the tradition established by Benjamin Britten, Burgons fluent and effortless language was particularly well suited to the voice and he had a longstanding collaboration with counter-tenor James Bowman. Burgon also had considerable success writing for film and television and twice received both BAFTA and Ivor Novello Awards. His style was essentially conservative, influenced by Benjamin Britten and medieval music rather than modern styles. His music was therefore not favoured by music critics and was sometimes labelled as commercial, but nevertheless it was widely appreciated.[2]. He married Janice Elizabeth Garwood in 1963 and had a son and a daughter. The marriage was later dissolved. In 1992 he married Jacqueline Krofchak (professional name Kroft), a Canadian pianist and singer; they had a son, Daniel. He was a keen cricketer and had written detective novels in his spare time. Burgon died on 21 September 2010 after a short illness.[3][4]

[edit]Career

highlights

1974 - ballet The Calm for London Contemporary Dance Theatre, first of many dance scores. 1976 - first breakthrough, with Requiem at the Three Choirs Festival. 1979 - Ivor Novello Award for score of BBC television series Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. 1981 - Ivor Novello Award for score of Granada television series Brideshead Revisited. 1997 - premiere of City Adventures, percussion concerto for Evelyn Glennie at BBC Proms. 2001 - wrote Heavenly Things, commissioned by the BBC for baritone Christopher Maltman.

[edit]Selected [edit]Stage

works

The Golden Fish, ballet (1964) Joan of Arc, music drama for 2 sopranos, tenor, baritone, narrator, flute, cello, harp and percussion (1970) The Calm, ballet (1974)

The Fall of Lucifer, music drama in 2 acts for soloists, chorus and five instruments (1974) Goldberg's Dream (Running Figures), ballet (1975) Step at a Time, ballet (1976) Songs, Lamentations and Praises, ballet (1979) Orpheus, music drama (1982) Mass, ballet for chorus, 4 trombones and percussionist (playing piano) (1984) Macbeth, incidental music (1986) Murder in the Cathedral, incidental music (1987) Blood Wedding, incidental music (1988) The Trial of Prometheus, ballet (1988) Hard Times, opera (1991); after the novel by Charles Dickens Nicholas Nickleby, incidental music for the play by Charles Dickens (2001)

[edit]Orchestral
Concerto for string orchestra (1963) Gending for brass, woodwind, celesta and percussion (1968) Alleluia Nativitas (1970) Cantus Alleluia (1973) Brideshead Variations (1982) Suite from The Chronicles of Narnia (1991) Suite from Bleak House (1991) Suite from Martin Chuzzlewit (1994) Suite from Testament of Youth (1991) A Different Dawn for celesta, percussion and string orchestra (1999) Industrial Dreams (2006)

[edit]Brass

band

Narnia Suite (1998) Paradise Dances (1994)

[edit]Concertante

Trumpet Concerto: The Turning World for trumpet, string orchestra and percussion (1993) City Adventures, concerto for percussion and orchestra (1996) Piano Concerto (1997) The Calm, concerto for violin, trumpet, harp and string orchestra (1974, 2004); arranged for the ballet The Calm

Concerto for cello and chamber orchestra (2007) Concerto Ghosts of the Dance for viola and orchestra (2008) On the Street for alto saxophone and wind orchestra (2009)

[edit]Chamber

music

Fanfares and Variants for 2 trumpets and 2 trombones (1969) Lullaby and Aubade for trumpet and piano (1972) Gloria for piccolo, oboe, clarient, horn, cello and piano (1973) Three Nocturnes for harp solo (1974) Four Guitars for 4 guitars (1977) Four Horns for 4 horns (1977) Six Studies for cello solo (1980); adapted for viola solo (2000); composed for Julian Lloyd Webber Little Missenden Variation for English horn, clarinet, bassoon and horn (1984) Fanfare for horns, trumpets, trombones and tuba (1985) The Wanderer for clarinet and string quartet (19971998) String Quartet (1999) On The Street for brass quartet (1999) Minterne Dances for flute, clarinet, string quartet and harp (2009)

[edit]Piano

Theme from Brideshead Revisited (1982) Aslan's Theme from The Chronicles of Narnia (1988) Waiting, 9 Easy Pieces (1998)

[edit]Vocal

Cantata on Mediaeval Latin Texts for countertenor, flute, oboe and bassoon (1964) Acquainted with Night for countertenor, harp, timpani and string orchestra (1965)

Hymn to Venus for mezzo-soprano and piano (1966) Five Sonnets or John Donne for soprano, mezzo-soprano, flute, oboe, clarinet (bass clarinet), horn, cello, piano and timpani (1967)

Songs of Mary for mezzo-soprano, viola and piano (1970) At the Round Earth's Imagined Corners for soprano and organ, with optional trumpet (1971); words by John Donne

Worlds Bliss for countertenor and oboe (1971) Threnody for tenor, piano and amplified harpsichord (1971) This Endris Night for tenor, female chorus, brass ensemble and timpani (1972) This Ean Night for 2 countertenors (1972) Dira vi amores terror for countertenor solo (1973) Canciones del Alma for 2 countertenors (or mezzo-sopranos) and 13 solo strings (1975) Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis (1979) Nunc Dimittis (1979) The World Again for soprano and orchestra (1983) Lunar Beauty for medium voice and guitar (or lute) (1986) Title Divine for soprano and orchestra (1986) Nearing the Upper Air for countertenor, 2 recorders, cello and harpsichord (1988) The Fire of Heaven (setting of Traherne's poetry) Title Divine (orchestral song cycle) (1987) First Was the World for countertenor (or mezzo-soprano), mixed chorus and orchestra (1994); words by Andrew Marvell

A Vision, Song Cycle for tenor and string orchestra (1991); poems by John Clare Almost Peace, Three Songs to Poems by Emily Dickinson for soprano and chamber ensemble (1995) Merciless Beauty for countertenor and orchestra (1996); poems by Anonymous, Geoffrey Chaucer, William Blake and Kit Wright

Heavenly Things for medium voice and piano (2000) The Road of Love for soprano and string quartet (2006)

[edit]Choral

Three Elegies for mixed chorus (1964) Short Mass for mixed chorus (1965) Farewell Earth's Bliss for 6 solo voices (1966) Three Carols for mixed chorus (1967) Two Hymns to Mary for mixed chorus (1967, 1969) Think on Dredful Domesday for soprano, mixed chorus and orchestra (1969) And There was War in Heaven for boys (or soprano) chorus and organ (1970) Five Alleluias for 6 solo voices (1970) Golden Eternity for mixed chorus, harp and piano (1970) Mai Hamama for 6 solo voices (1970) A Prayer to the Trinity for mixed chorus (1972) Sleep for 5 solo voices (1973) The Fire of Heaven for triple chorus (1973) Noche Oscura for 6 solo voices (1974) Dos Coros for 12 solo voices (1975) Requiem for soprano, countertenor (or mezzo-soprano), tenor, mixed chorus and orchestra (1976) This World From for mixed chorus and organ (1979) Veni Spiritus for soprano, baritone, mixed chorus and orchestra (1979) Laudate Dominum for mixed chorus and organ (1980) Hymn to St. Thomas of Hereford for mixed chorus and orchestra (1981); alternalte version with organ and optional timpani

But Have Been Found Again for double mixed chorus (1983) A God and Yet a Man for double mixed chorus (1984) The Names of the Hare for mixed chorus (1985) The Song of the Creatures for mixed chorus and organ (1987) Prayer to St. Richard for mixed chorus (1989) Songs of the Creation for mixed chorus and organ (1989) Five Love Songs for mixed chorus (1992)

In a Dark Time for mixed chorus (1992) The First World for mixed chorus (1992) Christ's Love 4 Pieces to Middle English texts for mixed chorus (2000) Magic Words, 6 Pieces to Inuitt texts for mixed chorus, percussion (played by chorus) (2000) Alleluia Psallat for mixed chorus and orchestra (2002) Te Deum for mixed chorus and organ (2002) Three Mysteries for mixed chorus and chamber orchestra (2003) Of Flowers and Emeralds Sheen, Anthem for mixed chorus (2004); poem by St. John of the Cross Becket Mass for mixed chorus and organ (2005) Come Let Us Pity Death for mixed chorus, organ and trumpet (optional) (2005) Death Be Not Proud for mixed chorus, organ and trumpet (optional) (2005) Adam lay Ybounden for mixed chorus (2008)

[edit]Film

scores

Monty Python's Life of Brian (1979) The Dogs of War (1981) Turtle Diary (1985)

[edit]Television

scores

The Letter (1969) Treasure of Abbot Thomas (1974) Doctor Who: Terror of the Zygons (1975) Doctor Who: The Seeds of Doom (1976) As You Like It (1978) Testament of Youth (1979) Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (1979) Brideshead Revisited (1981) How Many Miles to Babylon? (1982) Soft Targets (1982) Bewitched (1985)

Bleak House (1985) The Death of a Heart (1985) The Happy Valley (1987) Chronicles of Narnia The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (1988) The Voyage of the Dawn Treader and Prince Caspian (1989) The Silver Chair (1990)

Robin Hood (1991) A Foreign Field (1993) Martin Chuzzlewit (1994) Silent Witness (1996); opening titles music, prominently featuring contralto vocals, was composed by John Harle

Turning World (1996) Cider with Rosie (1998) When Trumpets Fade (1998) Ghost Stories for Christmas (2000) Longitude (2000) The Forsyte Saga (20022003) Island at War (2004)

[edit]Selected

recordings

Requiem; Nunc Dimittis - Decca 470-380-2 Brideshead Revisited - Silva Screen FILM CD117 The Forsyte Saga - Decca 4722752