The American composer Christopher Rouse has died. Rouse was the recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1993 for his Trombone Concerto. His final work, his Symphony No. 6, will be given its world premiere by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra on October 18-19. A life-long Baltimore resident, Rouse was 70 years-old.
Jasmine Choi plays Rouse’s Flute Concerto:
It was announced by the American Academy of Arts and Letters earlier today that the composer Mario Davidovsky has died. Davidovsky, who was born in Argentina, studied with Aaron Copland and Milton Babbitt. He was a former member of the composition faculty at Columbia University and a past director of the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center.
Davidovsky emigrated to the United States in 1960. His work, “Synchronisms No. 6,” for piano and electroacoustic sounds played from tape, was honored with the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1971. At the time of his death, on Friday, Davidovsky was 85 years-old.
Synchronisms No. 6:
PHOTO (left to right): CPEMC personnel Milton Babbitt, Mario Davidovsky, Pril Smiley, Vladimir Ussachevsky, Otto Luening, and Alice Shields, circa 1970
On this Independence Day, I learn of the passing of American-born composer Michael Colgrass. Colgrass, who began his career as a jazz musician, was the recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1978 for his work, “Déjà vu.”
“Mr. Colgrass is something of a maverick,” wrote Harold Schonberg for the New York Times. “He will use serial textures, but will mix them with jazz, or outright romanticism, or dissonance à la Ives. He also has evolved a distinct sort of miniature style that is extremely personal and poetic.”
Colgrass made Toronto his home since 1974. He died on Tuesday at the age of 87.
Speaking of déjà vu, here’s a selection from a new release I received in the mail only a couple of weeks ago from the always reliable Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP).
Colgrass’ juxtaposition of old and new puts me in the mind of Schnittke – but without perhaps the lingering sense of queasiness!
An absorbing interview with Colgrass by Bruce Duffie:
http://www.bruceduffie.com/colgrass.html
Colgrass at his most accessible, “Bali:”
The American composer Dominick Argento has died.
Argento, who won the Pulitzer Prize for his song cycle “From the Diary of Virginia Woolf” in 1975, is remembered principally for his 14 operas, including “Postcard from Morocco,” “The Voyage of Edgar Allan Poe,” “Miss Havisham’s Fire,” “Casanova’s Homecoming,” “The Aspern Papers,” and “The Dream of Valentino.”
Another song cycle, “Casa Guidi,” on texts of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, received a Grammy Award in 2004 for Best Contemporary Classical Composition.
Though he was born in York, PA, to Sicilian immigrant parents, he flourished in Minneapolis, where he was a professor of music at the University of Minnesota and one of the founders of what is now Minnesota Opera.
Argento died yesterday at the age of 91.
Join us today in celebrating an octogenarian from Orange.
John Harbison was born in Orange, NJ, on this date in 1938. A former student of Walter Piston and Roger Sessions, he has written music in all genres. His opera, “The Great Gatsby” was commission by the Met and given its premiere there in 1999.
In 1987, Harbison was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Music for “The Flight into Egypt,” a work scored for vocal soloists, chorus and chamber orchestra. The text, from the Book of Matthew, recounts the dark side of the Christmas story: the Holy Family’s flight into Egypt following the birth of Jesus and Herod’s over-the-top Massacre of the Innocents.
Sadly, not much has changed in 2000 years. Christmas may be a time for celebration, but it is also a time for remembering those in need.
Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be a complete audio file of “The Flight into Egypt” posted anywhere online.
By way of consolation, today’s Noontime Concert on The Classical Network will feature Harbison’s “Motteti di Montale.” The song cycle will be presented in its rarely-heard complete version for chamber orchestra. The texts, on the subject of unrequited love, are drawn from the writings of the Nobel Prize winning poet Eugenio Montale. In a sense, the work was 20 years in the making, assembled from several earlier cycles, scored for different vocal and instrumental combinations.
The performance will be by the Boston-based ensemble Collage New Music, which gave the work its premiere in this form back in 2006.
Carl Hemmingsen will be your host for today’s Noontime Concert broadcast of John Harbison’s “Motteti di Montale,” beginning at 12:00 EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.
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