Elizabeth Anne Schwerdtfeger (1 February 1930 - 11 September 2008) was an American composer, choral conductor, educator, and Fulbright scholar who spent several years as a Dominican nun and was also known as Sister Mary Ernest O.P. (Ordo Praedicatorum). She was known professionally as E. Anne Schwerdtfeger. Schwerdtfeger was born in

Galveston Galveston ( ) is a coastal resort city and port off the Southeast Texas coast on Galveston Island and Pelican Island in the U.S. state of Texas. The community of , with a population of 47,743 in 2010, is the county seat of surrounding Ga ...

, Texas, to Frances McLaughlin and Ernest Paul Schwerdtfeger. In 1950, she lived in a Dominican convent and studied at the Dominican College in Houston. She earned a Bachelor of Music degree at the

University of Texas The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

in 1953 and a Master of Music degree at the

University of Notre Dame The University of Notre Dame du Lac, known simply as Notre Dame ( ) or ND, is a private Catholic university, Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, outside the city of South Bend, Indiana, South Bend. French priest Edward Sorin fo ...

in 1963. Her teachers included Arthur Hall,

Clifton Williams Clifton Curtis Williams Jr. (September 26, 1932 – October 5, 1967), was an American naval aviator, test pilot, mechanical engineer, major in the United States Marine Corps, and NASA astronaut, who was killed in a plane crash; he never went in ...

, and Carl Hager. She received a Fulbright scholarship to study in France in 1963 and 1964. In 1969, the Dominican Sisters of Houston, Texas, commissioned Schwerdtfeger to compose ''Two Pieces'' for women's voices based on text by

Rabindranath Tagore Rabindranath Tagore (; bn, রবীন্দ্রনাথ ঠাকুর; 7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941) was a Bengali polymath who worked as a poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer and painter. He resh ...

. She chaired the Dominican College music department until 1972. In 1975, Schwerdtfeger earned a B. Oriental Liturgy from the

Pontifical Oriental Institute The Pontifical Oriental Institute, also known as the Orientale, is a Catholic institution of higher education located in Rome and focusing on Eastern Christianity. The plan of creating a school of higher learning for Eastern Christianity had been ...

in Rome, and a Lic. Oriental Liturgy in 1977. She remained in Rome until her death in 2008. Her compositions included:

Chamber

*''Modal Suite'' (harp and tuba) *''Variations on an Irish Air'' (six harps)

Orchestra

*Christus Rex (chamber orchestra) *Exaudi Domine (string orchestra) *Symphony in One Movement

Organ

*''Fugue'' (organ)

Piano

*''Charivari'' *''Modal Suite'' *''Three Pieces'' *''Toccatina''

Vocal

*''Amo Christum'' (women's chorus) *''Ave Maria Stella'' (women's chorus) *''Cantata'' *''Hymn of St. Francis'' (women's chorus) *''Mass of

St. Martin de Porres Martín de Porres Velázquez (9 December 1579 – 3 November 1639) was a Peruvian lay brother of the Dominican Order who was beatified in 1837 by Pope Gregory XVI and canonized in 1962 by Pope John XXIII. He is the patron saint of mixed-r ...

'' (unison voices and organ) *''O Sacrum Convivium'' (women's chorus) *''Two Pieces'' (women's chorus and organ; text by Tagore)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Schwerdtfeger, E. Anne American women composers 20th-century American Roman Catholic nuns Choral conductors 1930 births 2008 deaths Pseudonyms People from Galveston County, Texas Fulbright alumni Pontifical Oriental Institute alumni Dominican nuns