Classic Ross Amico

Tag: American Composer

Celebrating Joan Tower at 80

Get to know Joan Tower.

Tower, one of America’s foremost living composers, is also one of the most successful women in the field. It’s hard to believe, but Tower turns 80 today. I’m not seeing a lot of action on the internet, so I thought I’d help spread the news about this milestone anniversary, and post a few examples of her work.

“Petroushskates” (1980), which combines Tower’s loves of Stravinsky – and figure skating! Either start or end with this one, because it’s a treat.

“Made in America” (2004), a musical appreciation of the United States by a composer who spent many of her formative years in Bolivia (where her father managed the tin mines). Listen to how she weaves “America the Beautiful” into the orchestral fabric.

“Island Prelude” (1988), an atmospheric landscape employing solo oboe.

“Fifth Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman” (1993). The first five in this loose collection of fanfares were composed between 1986 and 1993. A sixth followed two decades later. The works were conceived as tributes to “women who are adventurous and take risks.”

Tower speaks on the importance of new music. She’s been refining some of these observations for at least the past three decades. There has been some improvement in terms of the development of new music groups, powered by some preternaturally talented young musicians. Still, a lot of the points remain pertinent and many of them sadly unaddressed.

An earlier expression of these concerns in an interview conducted by Bruce Duffie in 1987.

http://www.bruceduffie.com/tower.html

Tower has been on the faculty of Bard College since 1972. Bard will celebrate Tower with a concert of her works on September 16. Check out the roster of performers: Anthony McGill (principal clarinet of the New York Philharmonic, formerly of the Met Orchestra), Dawn Upshaw, So Percussion…

The Bard Conservatory Celebrates Joan Tower

Happy birthday, Joan Tower!

September 6, 2018
William Henry Fry Birthday Fry Day?

When is Saturday “Fry Day?” Why, when it’s the birthday of William Henry Fry, of course!

Fry was born in Philadelphia in 1813. A pioneering figure in American music, he was the first native-born composer to write on a large scale. He composed orchestral works and the first opera by an American to be performed publicly in his lifetime (“Leonora,” in 1845). He was an outspoken advocate of American music – that is, music composed by Americans – at a time when German imports ruled the roost. It would be decades before American music would gain a toehold in the concert halls, which makes Fry an even more remarkable figure.

He studied music with a former bandleader in Napoleon Bonaparte’s army, who went on to become the head of Philadelphia’s Musical Fund Society. Fry himself would become the society’s secretary.

Fry was also a journalist, a writer on music, and the first music critic to write for a major American newspaper. He was a foreign correspondent for the Philadelphia Public Ledger and acted as music critic for the New York Herald Tribune.

He composed seven symphonies, all of them of a descriptive nature. His “Santa Claus Symphony,” after Clement Moore, is more of a Straussian tone poem. My personal favorite is the “Niagara Symphony,” written for P.T. Barnum, conceived for enormous forces augmented by a mindblowing eleven timpani.

Fry died of tuberculosis, “accelerated by exhaustion,” in Santa Cruz (Saint Croix) in the Virgin Islands in 1864, at the age of 51.

There is some discrepancy regarding the date of his birth, with some sources giving August 10, and others August 19. So maybe it’s not Fry Day, after all.

Happy birthday (perhaps belatedly), William Henry Fry.

The “Niagara Symphony” (it begins quietly):

August 19, 2017
John Adams at 70 A Composer’s Legacy

There’s something oddly appropriate about a composer named John Adams arriving between the birthdays of Lincoln and Washington.

Adams turns 70 today. Considered by some to be America’s foremost living composer, he emerged from the fog of minimalism to become the most versatile and substantial of those who have embraced the style.

Personally I’ve always been divided on Adams’ music. Some of it I find fun (“Short Ride in a Fast Machine,” “Grand Pianola Music”), some of it I find to be quite good (“Shaker Loops,” “El Niño”), some of it I find to be boring, clumsy or downright embarrassing (“Harmonium,” for as much as I could stand of “Doctor Atomic”).

I concede that my reactions are very subjective. There’s no arguing against Adams’ influence or his standing. Happy birthday, sir, and congratulations on your long-term success.

Adams’ music will be featured today alongside that of fellow birthday celebrants Christopher Rouse, Georges Auric, Robert Fuchs and Michael Praetorius, when I take to the airwaves from 4 to 7 p.m. EST on WWFM – The Classical Network and at wwfm.org.

February 15, 2017
Ulysses Kay American Composer Centennial Celebration

Ulysses Kay was born in Tuscon, AZ, on this date in 1917. A nephew of jazz musician King Oliver, his uncle encouraged him to study music formally. Likewise, he received encouragement from William Grant Still, then recognized as the “Dean of African-American Composers.” Kay attended the University of Arizona, before heading on to the Eastman-School, where he studied with Howard Hanson and Bernard Rogers. Also influential were studies with Paul Hindemith at the Berkshire Music Center, and then Yale.

Kay served in the United States Navy during World War II. He then continued his studies at Columbia with Otto Luening. A recipient of multiple scholarships, grants and awards, he was able to live and study abroad, in Rome, where he attended the American Academy, for several years.

From 1953 to 1968, he worked for BMI. He was then appointed professor at Lehman College of the City University of New York, where he remained until his retirement, two decades later. A longtime resident of Teaneck, NJ, he composed orchestral, chamber, choral and instrumental works, and five operas. He died in 1995 at the age of 88.

We’ll celebrate the 100th anniversary of Kay’s birth with an hour of his music, “Giving Kay His Say,” this Sunday night at 10:00 EST on “The Lost Chord,” on WWFM – The Classical Network and at wwfm.org.

An interview with Kay conducted by Bruce Duffie:

http://www.bruceduffie.com/kay.html

January 7, 2017
Thanksgiving & The Promise of Living

Happy Thanksgiving. We’ve much to be thankful for, including “The Promise of Living.” Thank you, Aaron Copland!

November 24, 2016

Tag Cloud

RECENT POSTS