Seymour Shifrin (28 February 1926 – 26 September 1979) was an American
composer
A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music.
Etymology and Defi ...
. He was described by ''Time Magazine'' as "one of the most significant composers of his generation."
Shifrin's ''Satires of Circumstance'' (1964, text by
Thomas Hardy
Thomas Hardy (2 June 1840 – 11 January 1928) was an English novelist and poet. A Victorian realist in the tradition of George Eliot, he was influenced both in his novels and in his poetry by Romanticism, including the poetry of William Word ...
) received the Koussevitzky International Recording Award for 1970. He received the
Naumburg Award, Columbia University's
Bearns Prize
The Joseph H. Bearns Prize in Music was established on February 3, 1921, by Lillia M. Bearns, in memory of her father. It was her desire to encourage talented young composers in the United States. The Prize, administered by Columbia University, i ...
(1949), the Copley Award, the Horblit Prize (1963), and two
Guggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...
s, in 1956 and 1959.
A graduate of
Columbia University (M.A., 1947), he was a member of the faculty at the
University of California at Berkeley (1952–66) and at
Brandeis University from 1966 until his death in 1979.
Shifrin studied with
William Schuman,
Otto Luening, and
Darius Milhaud.
Orchestral Music:
[''Who Was Who in America'']
*''Music for Orchestra'' (1948)
*''Chamber Symphony'' (1953)
*''Three Pieces for Orchestra'' (1958)
*''Chronicles'' for chorus, orchestra and soloists (1970)
Vocal and Choral Music
*''Two Poems of Rainer Maria Rilke'' for voice and piano (1947)
*''No Second Troy'' for voice and piano (Yeats) (1953
*''A Medieval Latin Lyric'' for chorus SATB (1954)
*''Odes of Shang'' for chorus, piano and percussion (1962)
*''Satires of Circumstance'' for soprano, flute, clarinet, violin, cello and double bass (Thomas Hardy) 1964
*''A Renaissance Garland'' for soprano, tenor, recorders, lute, viola da gambas, tuned percussion (1978)
*''Five Last Songs'' for soprano and piano (1979)
Chamber Music:
[Butterworth, Neil (2013). ''Dictionary of American Classical Composers'', p.1976. Routledge. .]
*String quartets I-V (1949, 1962, 1965–66, 1966–67, 1971–72)
*Violin Sonata (1948)
*''Sonata for Cello and Piano'' (1948)
*''Serenade for Five Instruments'' (1954), commissioned by the
Juilliard School of Music
*''The Modern Temper'' for piano duet (1959)
*''In Eius Memoriam'' for mixed quintet (1967–68)
*''Duo'' for violin and piano (1968–69)
*''Duettino'' for violin and piano (1972)
*''Piano Trio'' (1974)
*''The Nick of Time'' seven instruments (1977)
Solo Music:
*''Four Cantos for Piano'' (1949)
*''Composition for Piano'' (1950)
*''Trauermusik'' for piano (1956)
*''Concert Piece for Solo Violin'' (1959)
*''Responses for Piano Solo'' (1973)
References
External links
Seymour Shifrin, ''NewWorldRecords.org''.
20th-century classical composers
American male classical composers
American classical composers
Jewish American classical composers
Pupils of Darius Milhaud
Pupils of Otto Luening
Columbia University alumni
University of California, Berkeley faculty
Brandeis University faculty
1926 births
1979 deaths
20th-century American composers
20th-century American male musicians
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