Philip Hagemann (born 21 December 1932) is an American composer and conductor. Hagemann was born in

Mount Vernon, Indiana Mount Vernon is a city in and the county seat of Posey County, Indiana, United States. Located in the state's far southwestern corner, within of both the southernmost or westernmost points, it is the westernmost city in the state. The southernmo ...

, the son of Harry Philip and Lorene (Knight) Hagemann. He learned to play the piano and the

saxophone The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to pr ...

and took music degrees at

Northwestern University Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world. Charte ...

in Evanston and

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

. From 1954-1956 he served in the US Army. He was a choral conductor in New York, and has published 75 works for choir.Hagemann, Philip (2019)Anon, ''Shaw goes Wilde'' (2019), p. (5)Mount Vernon Democrat (2014) He has composed 10 one-act operas and two full-length operas. His first opera was ''The King Who Saved Himself from Being Saved'' (1976), a work for children based on a story by

John Ciardi John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second E ...

. Five of his operas are based on works by

George Bernard Shaw George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence simply as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from ...

; these include (links lead to the original plays) ''

The Music Cure ''The Music Cure, a Piece of Utter Nonsense'' (1913) is a short comedy sketch by George Bernard Shaw, satirising therapeutic fads of the era and the Marconi scandal of 1912. Characters *Lord Reginald Fitzambey *Dr Dawkins *Strega Thundridge Plo ...

'' (1984), and ''Shaw Sings!'' (1988), which includes ''

The Dark Lady of the Sonnets ''The Dark Lady of the Sonnets'' is a 1910 short comedy by George Bernard Shaw in which William Shakespeare, intending to meet the "The Dark Lady, Dark Lady", accidentally encounters Queen Elizabeth I and attempts to persuade her to create a nat ...

'' and '' Passion, Poison and Petrifaction''. Other operas include works based on

Henry James Henry James ( – ) was an American-British author. He is regarded as a key transitional figure between literary realism and literary modernism, and is considered by many to be among the greatest novelists in the English language. He was the ...

's ''

The Aspern Papers ''The Aspern Papers'' is a novella by American writer Henry James, originally published in ''The Atlantic, The Atlantic Monthly'' in 1888, with its first book publication later in the same year. One of James's best-known and most acclaimed lo ...

'', (which premiered at Northwestern University on the same night, 19 November 1988, that

Dominic Argento Dominick Argento (October 27, 1927 – February 20, 2019) was an American composer known for his lyric operatic and choral music. Among his best known pieces are the operas '' Postcard from Morocco'', '' Miss Havisham's Fire'', ''The Masque of An ...

's opera on the same story premiered in

Dallas Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...

Edith Wharton Edith Wharton (; born Edith Newbold Jones; January 24, 1862 – August 11, 1937) was an American novelist, short story writer, and interior designer. Wharton drew upon her insider's knowledge of the upper-class New York "aristocracy" to portray ...

's ''

Roman Fever "Roman Fever" is a short story by American writer Edith Wharton. It was first published in ''Liberty'' magazine on November 10, 1934. A revised and expanded version of the story was published in Wharton's 1936 short story collection ''The World ...

'' (1989), and

Oscar Wilde Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 185430 November 1900) was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular playwrights in London in the early 1890s. He is ...

's '' The Nightingale and the Rose'' (2003).Tommasini, Anthony
"The Zany Spirit of Shaw, Adapted Into Operas"
''New York Times'', 21 June 2008. Accessed 15 April 2019. Among his other compositions are two choral cycles based on the verses of

Ogden Nash Frederic Ogden Nash (August 19, 1902 – May 19, 1971) was an American poet well known for his light verse, of which he wrote over 500 pieces. With his unconventional rhyming schemes, he was declared by ''The New York Times'' the country's best ...

, ''A Musical Menu'' and ''A Musical Menagerie''. His Christmas choral piece ''Fruitcake'' which includes both spoken and sung passages, is a humorous version of the cake recipe, and has sold over 150,000 copies of sheet music."Fruitcake"
J. W. Pepper website, accessed 15 April 2019 The music critic

Anthony Tommasini Anthony Carl Tommasini (born April 14, 1948) is an American music critic and author who specializes in classical music. Described as "a discerning critic, whose taste, knowledge and judgment have made him a must-read", Tommasini was the chief ...

has written of Hagemann: "His music may lack a strong contemporary profile: his language is essentially tonal and lushly chromatic.

Whole-tone In Western music theory, a major second (sometimes also called whole tone or a whole step) is a second spanning two semitones (). A second is a musical interval encompassing two adjacent staff positions (see Interval number for more det ...

melodic patterns recall

Ravel Joseph Maurice Ravel (7 March 1875 – 28 December 1937) was a French composer, pianist and conductor. He is often associated with Impressionism in music, Impressionism along with his elder contemporary Claude Debussy, although both composer ...

". He added that "he injects grittiness into his music through the piling up of clusters and dissonance. He also writes effectively for the voice".

References

Notes

Sources

* Anon, ''Shaw goes Wilde'' (2019) (opera programme), Pegasus Opera Company, London. * Hagemann, Philip (2019)
"Philip Hagemann’s journey into opera: Shaw Goes Wilde"
in Miro Magazine website, accessed 14 April 2019. * Hovland, Michael (2010)
"Nash, (Frederic) Ogden"
in ''

Grove Music Online ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' is an encyclopedic dictionary of music and musicians. Along with the German-language ''Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart'', it is one of the largest reference works on the history and theo ...

'', accessed 14 April 2019. * Mount Vernon Democrat (2014)
"Composer Philip Hagemann writes Bicentennial music for New Harmony’s birthday celebration"
''Mount Vernon Democrat'', July 30, 2014, accessed 15 April 2019. * Stanford University Libraries (2019)
"Opening Night! Opera & Oratorio Premieres - Philip Hagemann"
accessed 14 April 2019. {{DEFAULTSORT:Hagemann, Philip 1932 births 20th-century American composers 20th-century American conductors (music) 21st-century American composers 21st-century American conductors (music) American male conductors (music) American opera composers Living people Male opera composers People from Mount Vernon, Indiana 20th-century American male musicians 21st-century American male musicians