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Concord String Quartet
The Concord String Quartet was an American string quartet established in 1971. The members of the quartet were Mark Sokol and Andrew Jennings, violins; John Kochánowski, viola; Norman Fischer, cello. They gave their last regular concert on May 15, 1987. An anniversary concert was given in December 1996 at the Naumburg Foundation. Farewell Concert Program Notes (partial) May 7, 1987 The Concord String Quartet was born in 1971 when its members, each a self-professed quartet "fanatic," agreed over the telephone to try forming an ensemble. Coming from four different parts of the country Mark from Oberlin and Seattle, Andy from Buffalo, John from South Bend, and Norman from Plymouth, Michigan each Concord had been playing the quartet repertoire with family, friends, and colleagues for many years, but none of them knew all three others. However, each had studied or played with the Juilliard Quartet's founding violinist Robert Mann, who encouraged their aspirations and recommende ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
String Quartet
The term string quartet can refer to either a type of musical composition or a group of four people who play them. Many composers from the mid-18th century onwards wrote string quartets. The associated musical ensemble consists of two violinists, a violist, and a cellist. The string quartet was developed into its present form by composers such as Franz Xaver Richter, and Joseph Haydn, whose works in the 1750s established the ensemble as a group of four more-or-less equal partners. Since Haydn the string quartet has been considered a prestigious form; writing for four instruments with broadly similar characteristics both constrains and tests a composer. String quartet composition flourished in the Classical era, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven and Franz Schubert each wrote a number of them. Many Romantic and early-twentieth-century composers composed string quartets, including Felix Mendelssohn, Robert Schumann, Johannes Brahms, AntonÃn Dvořák, LeoÅ¡ Janà ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Naumburg Foundation
The Walter W. Naumburg Foundation sponsors competitions and provides awards for young European classical music, classical musicians in North America. Founded in 1925, it operates the prestigious Naumburg Competition. Foundation and concerts It was founded in 1925 by Walter Wehle Naumburg, a wealthy amateur cellist and son of noted New York City music patron and philanthropist Elkan Naumburg. Elkan Naumburg, owner of the eminent Wall Street bank E. Naumburg & Co., founded the Naumburg Orchestral Concerts in 1905. The Concerts were originally performed at the Bandstand on the Concert Ground of New York's Central Park, and starting in 1923 were performed in the Naumburg Bandshell at the same location. Naumburg competition The Naumburg Competition is one of the oldest and most prestigious music competitions in the world. The website San Francisco Classical Voice writes that "the Naumburg Competition has one of the best track records of selecting young musicians who, in short order, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stefan Wolpe
Stefan Wolpe (25 August 1902, Berlin – 4 April 1972, New York City) was a German-Jewish-American composer. He was associated with interdisciplinary modernism, with affiliations ranging from the Bauhaus, Berlin agitprop theater and the kibbutz movement to the Eighth Street Artists' Club, Black Mountain College, and the Darmstadt Summer Courses for New Music. He lived and worked in Berlin (1902–1933) until the Nazi seizure of power forced him to move first to Vienna (1933–34) and Jerusalem (1934–38) before settling in New York City (1938–72). In works such as ''Battle Piece'' (1942/1947) and "In a State of Flight" in ''Enactments for Three Pianos'' (1953), he responded self-consciously to the circumstances of his uprooted life, a theme he also explored extensively in voluminous diaries, correspondence, and lectures. His densely eclectic music absorbed ideas and idioms from diverse artistic milieus, including post-tonality, bebop, and Arab classical musics. Life Wolpe was b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Earle Brown
Earle Brown (December 26, 1926 – July 2, 2002) was an American composer who established his own formal and notational systems. Brown was the creator of "open form," a style of musical construction that has influenced many composers since—notably the downtown New York scene of the 1980s (see John Zorn) and generations of younger composers. Among his most famous works are ''December 1952'', an entirely graphic score, and the open form pieces ''Available Forms I & II'', ''Centering'', and ''Cross Sections and Color Fields''. He was awarded a Foundation for Contemporary Arts John Cage Award (1998). Life Brown was born in Lunenburg, Massachusetts, and first devoted himself to playing jazz. He initially considered a career in engineering, and enrolled for engineering and mathematics at Northeastern University (1944–45). He enlisted in the U.S. Air Force in 1945. However, the war ended while he was still in basic training, and he was assigned to the base band at Randolph Fi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Cage
John Milton Cage Jr. (September 5, 1912 – August 12, 1992) was an American composer and music theorist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading figures of the post-war avant-garde. Critics have lauded him as one of the most influential composers of the 20th century. He was also instrumental in the development of modern dance, mostly through his association with choreographer Merce Cunningham, who was also Cage's romantic partner for most of their lives. Cage is perhaps best known for his 1952 composition ''4′33″'', which is performed in the absence of deliberate sound; musicians who present the work do nothing aside from being present for the duration specified by the title. The content of the composition is not "four minutes and 33 seconds of silence," as is often assumed, but rather the sounds of the environment heard by the audience during performance. The work's challenge t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
String Quartet In Four Parts
''String Quartet in Four Parts'' is a string quartet by John Cage, composed in 1950. It is one of the last works Cage wrote that is not entirely indeterminate. Like ''Sonatas and Interludes'' for prepared piano (1946–48) and the ballet '' The Seasons'' (1947), this work explores ideas from Indian philosophy. General information Cage began writing the quartet in 1949 in Paris. Prior to beginning to work on the piece, he told his parents that he wanted to compose a work which would praise silence without actually using it; after completing the first movement he was so fascinated with the new way to work that he wrote in a letter: "This piece is like the opening of another door; the possibilities implied are unlimited."Cage quoted in Pritchett, liner notes to "John Cage: Complete String Quartets" (Arditti Quartet". 1989–1992, released on Mode, Mode 27 The piece was completed in 1950 in New York City and dedicated to Lou Harrison. It was premièred on August 12 the same year at the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Leon Kirchner
Leon Kirchner (January 24, 1919 – September 17, 2009) was an American composer of contemporary classical music. He was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and he won a Pulitzer Prize for his String Quartet No. 3.Alexander L. Ringer, "Kirchner, Leon". ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'', second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell (London: Macmillan Publishers, 2001).Robert Riggs, ''Leon Kirchner: Composer, Performer, and Teacher'', Eastman Studies in Music (Rochester, New York: University of Rochester Press, 2010): 160. .Melvin Berger, ''Guide to Chamber Music'', third, corrected edition (Mineola, New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 2001) 243, 245. .David Ewen, ''The World of Twentieth-Century Music'' (Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1968): 421.Anonymous, "Pulitzer Prize Winners", ''The Washington Post'' (May 2, 1967): A3.Henry Raymont, "Moderns Crowd Marlboro Scene: Listeners Show Ent ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Christian Wolff (composer)
Christian G. Wolff (born March 8, 1934) is an American composer of experimental classical music and classicist. Biography Wolff was born in Nice, France, to the German literary publishers Helen and Kurt Wolff, who had published works by Franz Kafka, Robert Musil, and Walter Benjamin. After relocating to the U.S. in 1941, they helped to found Pantheon Books with other European intellectuals who had fled Europe during the rise of fascism. The Wolffs published a series of notable English translations of European literature, mostly, as well as an edition of the ''I Ching'' that came to greatly impress John Cage after Wolff had given him a copy. Wolff became an American citizen in 1946. When he was sixteen (in 1950) his piano teacher Grete Sultan sent him for lessons in composition to the new music composer John Cage. Wolff soon became a close associate of Cage and his artistic circle which was part of the New York School and included the fellow composers Earle Brown and Morton ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Crumb
George Henry Crumb Jr. (24 October 1929 – 6 February 2022) was an American composer of avant-garde contemporary classical music. Early in his life he rejected the widespread modernist usage of serialism, developing a highly personal musical language which "range in mood from peaceful to nightmarish". Crumb's compositions are known for pushing the limits of technical prowess by way of frequent use of extended techniques. The unusual timbres he employs evoke a surrealist atmosphere which portray emotions of considerable intensity with vast and sometimes haunting soundscapes. His few large-scale works include '' Echoes of Time and the River'' (1967), which won the 1968 Pulitzer Prize for Music, and ''Star-Child'' (1977), which won the 2001 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Classical Composition; however, his output consists of mostly music for chamber ensembles or solo instrumentalists. Among his best known compositions are '' Black Angels'' (1970), a striking commentary on the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Black Angels (Crumb)
''Black Angels'' (Edition Peters, New York, no. 66304, copyright 1971), subtitled "Thirteen Images from the Dark Land", is a work for "electric string quartet" by the American avant-garde composer George Crumb. It was composed over the course of a year and is dated "Friday the Thirteenth, March 1970 (in tempore belli)" as written on the score. The Latin phrase ''in tempore belli'', in time of war, written into the score by Crumb is a reference to the Vietnam War taking place at the time when ''Black Angels'' was composed. Crumb numerically structured the piece around 13 and 7, as numbers traditionally related to fate and destiny. The piece is notable for its unconventional instrumentation, which calls for electric string instruments, crystal glasses, and two suspended tam-tam gongs. The work quotes a portion of the second movement, Andante con moto, from Schubert's "Death and the Maiden" String Quartet. Background The work, as a threnody, is written as an ode or lament for the pro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lejaren Hiller
Lejaren Arthur Hiller Jr. (February 23, 1924, New York City – January 26, 1994, Buffalo, New York)Lejaren Hiller (1924-1994) © 1994 by Peter Gena.Kozinn, Allan (February 1, 199 NYTimes.com; accessed July 1, 2017. was an American composer. Career In 1957 he collaborated with Leonard Issacson on his String Quartet No. 4, '' |
Jacob Druckman
Jacob Raphael Druckman (June 26, 1928 – May 24, 1996) was an American composer born in Philadelphia. Life A graduate of the Juilliard School in 1956, Druckman studied with Vincent Persichetti, Peter Mennin, and Bernard Wagenaar. In 1949 and 1950 he studied with Aaron Copland at Tanglewood and later continued his studies at the École Normale de Musique in Paris (1954–55). He worked extensively with electronic music, in addition to a number of works for orchestra or for small ensembles. In 1972 he won the Pulitzer Prize for his first large orchestral work, ''Windows''.Keller, James M"Thomas / Druckman / Harte" Liner note essay. New World Records. He was composer-in-residence of the New York Philharmonic from 1982 until 1985. Druckman taught at Juilliard, The Aspen Music Festival, Tanglewood, Brooklyn College, Bard College, and Yale University, among other appointments. He is Connecticut's State Composer Laureate. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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