Roberto Gerhard
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Robert Gerhard i Ottenwaelder (; 25 September 1896 – 5 January 1970) was a
Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
Catalan composer and musical scholar and writer, generally known outside
Catalonia Catalonia (; ca, Catalunya ; Aranese Occitan: ''Catalonha'' ; es, Cataluña ) is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a '' nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy. Most of the territory (except the Val d'Aran) lies on the nort ...
as Roberto Gerhard.Malcolm MacDonald. 'Gerhard, Roberto' in ''Grove Music Online'' (2001)


Life

Gerhard was born in
Valls Valls () is a city and municipality in the province of Tarragona in Catalonia, Spain. According to the 2014 census it has a population of 24,570. Valls is known for its calçots – a type of scallion or green onion – and the human towers tradi ...
, near
Tarragona Tarragona (, ; Phoenician: ''Tarqon''; la, Tarraco) is a port city located in northeast Spain on the Costa Daurada by the Mediterranean Sea. Founded before the fifth century BC, it is the capital of the Province of Tarragona, and part of Tarr ...
, Spain, the son of a German-Swiss father and an Alsatian mother. He was predisposed to an international, multilingual outlook. He studied piano with
Enrique Granados Pantaleón Enrique Joaquín Granados y Campiña (27 July 1867 – 24 March 1916), commonly known as Enric Granados in Catalan or Enrique Granados in Spanish, was a composer of classical music, and concert pianist from Catalonia, Spain. ...
and composition with scholar-composer Felip Pedrell, teacher of
Isaac Albéniz Isaac Manuel Francisco Albéniz y Pascual (; 29 May 1860 – 18 May 1909) was a Spanish virtuoso pianist, composer, and conductor. He is one of the foremost composers of the Post-Romantic era who also had a significant influence on his conte ...
, Granados and
Manuel de Falla Manuel de Falla y Matheu (, 23 November 187614 November 1946) was an Andalusian Spanish composer and pianist. Along with Isaac Albéniz, Francisco Tárrega, and Enrique Granados, he was one of Spain's most important musicians of the first ...
. When Pedrell died in 1922, Gerhard tried unsuccessfully to become a pupil of Falla and considered studying with Charles Koechlin in Paris but then approached Arnold Schoenberg, who on the strength of a few early compositions accepted him as his only Spanish pupil. Gerhard spent several years with Schoenberg in
Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...
and Berlin. Returning to Barcelona in 1928, he devoted his energies to new music through concerts and journalism, in conjunction with the flourishing literary and artistic avant-garde of Catalonia. He befriended Joan Miró and Pablo Casals, brought Schoenberg and
Anton Webern Anton Friedrich Wilhelm von Webern (3 December 188315 September 1945), better known as Anton Webern (), was an Austrian composer and conductor whose music was among the most radical of its milieu in its sheer concision, even aphorism, and stead ...
to Barcelona, and was the principal organizer of the 1936 ISCM Festival there. He also collected, edited and performed folksongs and old Spanish music from the
Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe (prior to about 800 BC), classical antiquity (800 BC to AD ...
to the eighteenth century. Identified with the Republican cause throughout the
Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, link ...
(as musical adviser to the Minister of Fine Arts in the Catalan Government and a member of the Republican Government's Social Music Council), Gerhard was forced to flee to France in 1939 and later that year settled in
Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a College town, university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cam ...
, England. Until the death of Francisco Franco, his music was virtually proscribed in Spain, to which he never returned except for holidays. Apart from copious work for the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
and in the theatre, Gerhard's compositions of the 1940s were explicitly related to aspects of Spanish and Catalan culture, beginning in 1940 with a ''Symphony'' in memory of Pedrell and the first version of the ballet ''Don Quixote''. They culminated in a masterpiece as ''The Duenna'' (a Spanish opera on an English play by
Richard Brinsley Sheridan Richard Brinsley Butler Sheridan (30 October 17517 July 1816) was an Irish satirist, a politician, a playwright, poet, and long-term owner of the London Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. He is known for his plays such as '' The Rivals'', '' The ...
, which is set in Spain). The Covent Garden production of ''Don Quixote'' and the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
broadcasts of ''The Duenna'' popularized Gerhard's reputation in the UK though not in Spain. During the 1950s, the legacy of Schoenbergian serialism, a background presence in these overtly national works, engendered an increasingly radical approach to composition which, by the 1960s, placed Gerhard firmly in the ranks of the avant-garde. From the early 1950s Gerhard suffered from a heart condition which eventually ended his life. He died in Cambridge in 1970 and is buried at the Parish of the Ascension Burial Ground in Cambridge, with his wife Leopoldina 'Poldi' Feichtegger Gerhard (1903–1994). His archive is kept at
Cambridge University Library Cambridge University Library is the main research library of the University of Cambridge. It is the largest of the over 100 libraries within the university. The Library is a major scholarly resource for the members of the University of Cambri ...
. Other personal papers of Robert Gerhard are preserved in the
Biblioteca de Catalunya The Library of Catalonia ( ca, Biblioteca de Catalunya, ) is the Catalan national library, located in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. The primary mission of the Library of Catalonia is to collect, preserve, and spread Catalan bibliographic producti ...
.


Music


Stylistic evolution

For twenty years – first in Barcelona and then in exile in England – Gerhard cultivated, and enormously enriched, a modern tonal idiom with a pronounced Spanish-folkloric orientation that descended on the one hand from Pedrell and Falla, and on the other from such contemporary masters as Bartók and Stravinsky. This was the idiom whose major achievements included the ballets ''Soirées de Barcelone'' and ''Don Quixote'', the Violin Concerto and the opera ''The Duenna''. Gerhard often said that he stood by the ''sound'' of his music: 'in music the sense is in the sound'. Yet dazzling as their scoring is, his last works are in no sense a mere succession of sonic events. Their forms are meticulously organized and several make use of his special development of serialism where a twelve-tone pitch series, governing intervallic relations, interacts with a twelvefold ''time'' series governing the music's duration and proportions.


Selected list of works

Gerhard's most significant works, apart from those already mentioned, include four symphonies (the Third, ''Collages'', for orchestra and tape), the Concerto for Orchestra, concertos for violin, piano and harpsichord, the cantata ''The Plague'' (after
Albert Camus Albert Camus ( , ; ; 7 November 1913 – 4 January 1960) was a French philosopher, author, dramatist, and journalist. He was awarded the 1957 Nobel Prize in Literature at the age of 44, the second-youngest recipient in history. His work ...
), the ballets ''Pandora'' and ''Ariel'', and pieces for a wide variety of chamber ensembles, including
Sardana The ''sardana'' (; plural ''sardanes'' in Catalan) is a Catalan musical genre typical of Catalan culture and danced in circle following a set of steps. The dance was originally from the Empordà region, but started gaining popularity throughou ...
s for the indigenous Catalan street band, the
cobla The cobla (, plural ''cobles'') is a traditional music ensemble of Catalonia, and in Northern Catalonia in France. It is generally used to accompany the Sardana, a traditional Catalan folk dance, danced in a circle. Structure The modern Cobla no ...
. He was perhaps the first important composer of
electronic music Electronic music is a genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromechanical means ( electroa ...
in Britain; his incidental music for the 1955 Stratford-on-Avon ''King Lear'' – one of many such commissions for the Royal Shakespeare Company – was the first electronic score for the British stage.


Symphonies

* Symphony ''Homenaje a Pedrell'' (1941) * Symphony No. 1 (1952–53) * Symphony No. 2 (1957–59); recomposition as ''Metamorphosis'', unfinished (1967–68) * Symphony No. 3 ''Collages'' (for orchestra and tape) (1960) * Symphony No. 4 ''New York'' (1967) * Symphony No. 5 (fragment only) (1969) * (for Chamber Symphony ''Leo'' see "Chamber music")


Stage works

* ''Ariel'', ballet (1934) * ''Soirées de Barcelone'', ballet in three tableaux (1937–39; edited and orchestration completed by Malcolm MacDonald, 1996) * ''Don Quixote'', ballet (original version 1940–41, rev. 1947–49) * ''Alegrias'', Divertissement flamenco (1942) * ''Pandora'', ballet (1943–44, orch. 1944–45) * ''The Duenna'', English opera after Sheridan (1947–49). Radio performance was in 1949, at BBC; its first scenic performance was in 1992 at
Teatro de la Zarzuela The Teatro de la Zarzuela is a theatre in Madrid, Spain. The theatre is today mainly devoted to zarzuela (the Spanish traditional musical theatre genre), as well as operetta and recitals. History The theatre was designed by architect Jerónimo ...
, Madrid, and
Gran Teatre del Liceu Gran may refer to: People *Grandmother, affectionately known as "gran" * Gran (name) Places * Gran, the historical German name for Esztergom, a city and the primatial metropolitan see of Hungary * Gran, Norway, a municipality in Innlandet cou ...
, Barcelona. The
Bielefeld Opera The Bielefeld Opera is the venue of Städtische Bühnen Bielefeld (Municipal stages Bielefeld) in Bielefeld, Germany. It is a ''Dreisparten Haus'' (three-department house), offering plays, music (opera, musical theatre), and ballet. The main pe ...
and conductor
Geoffrey Moull Geoffrey Moull is a Canadian professional conductor. He was principal conductor of the Bielefeld Philharmonic Orchestra and music director of the Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra. Education Geoffrey Moull was born in London, Ontario, Canada and ...
performed ''The Duenna'' in a new production in 1994. The ''Wiener Zeitung'' at the time remarked that the work is "a rediscovered stroke of genius". * ''El barberillo de Lavapies'', arrangement and orchestration of the zarzuela (1874) by Francisco Barbieri (1954) * ''Lamparilla'', German-language Singspiel loosely based on ''El barberillo de Lavapies'' with additional music and original overture by Gerhard (1955–56)


Concertos

* Concertino for string orchestra (1929) * Violin Concerto (1942–43) * Concerto for Piano and String Orchestra (1951) * Concerto for Harpsichord, String Orchestra and Percussion (1955–56) * Concerto for Orchestra (1965)


Orchestral works

* ''Albada, Interludi i Dansa'' (1936) * Epithalamion (1966) * Various suites from ''Soirées de Barcelone'', ''Don Quixote'', ''Alegrias'', ''Pandora''


Chamber and instrumental music

* ''Sonatine a Carlos'', piano (1914) * Trio in B major for violin, cello and piano (1918) * Trio No. 2 for violin, cello and piano (1918) * ''Dos Apunts'', piano (1921–22) * 3 string quartets composed up to 1928 (all lost; No. 3 (1928) was reworked as the Concertino for strings) * Sonata, clarinet and piano (1928; also version for bass clarinet and piano) * Wind Quintet (1928, his first serial work) * Andantino, clarinet, violin and piano (period 1928–29) * String Quartet No. 1 (1950–55) * Sonata, viola and piano (1948; recomposed 1956 as sonata for cello and piano) * Capriccio, solo flute (1949) * 3 Impromptus, piano (1950) * ''Secret People'' (study for the film score) for clarinet, violin and piano (1951–52) * Nonet (1956–57) * Fantasia, guitar (1957) * String Quartet No. 2 (1961–62) * ''Concert for 8'' (1962) * Chaconne, violin solo (1959) * ''
Hymnody Robert Gerhard's Hymnody is a contemporary classical work from 1963, which was an assignment from BBC. This piece was written during February and March of that year. Composer notes A note from the composer: First citation comes from Psalm ...
'' for large wind ensemble, two pianos and percussion (1963) * ''Gemini'', Duo for violin and piano (1966) * ''Libra'', sextet (1968) * ''Leo'', Chamber Symphony (1969)


Vocal works

* ''L'infantament meravellós de Shahrazada'' Song-cycle for voice and piano, Op. 1 (1916–18) * ''Verger de les galanies'' for voice and piano (1917–18) * ''7 Haiku'' for voice and ensemble (1922 rev. 1958) * ''14 Cançons populars catalanes'' for voice and piano (1928–29; six numbers orchestrated 1931 as ''6 Cançons Populars Catalanes'') * ''L'alta naixenca del Rei en Jaume'', cantata for soprano, baritone, chorus and orchestra (1932) * ''Cancionero de Pedrell'' for voice and piano or chamber orchestra (1941) * ''3 Canciones Toreras'' for voice and orchestra (c. 1943) omposed under pseudonym "Juan Serralonga"* ''6 Chansons populaires françaises'' for voice and piano (1944) * ''The Akond of Swat'' for voice and percussion (1954) * ''Cantares'' for voice and guitar (1962; incorporates Fantasia for guitar) * ''The Plague'', cantata for narrator, chorus and orchestra, after Camus (1963–64)


Electronic music

* ''Audiomobiles I-IV'' (1958–59) * ''Lament for the death of Bullfighter'' for speaker and tape (1959) * ''Caligula'' (1960–61) * ''10 Pieces'' for tape (c. 1961) * ''Sculptures I-V'' (1963) * ''DNA in Reflection'' (1963) * ''Anger of Achilles'' (1964) with Delia Derbyshire

* also tape component in Symphony No.3 and in many film, radio and theatre scores


Fantasias on themes from Zarzuelas

(for light orchestra; composed c. 1943 under the pseudonym "Juan Serralonga") * ''Cadiz'', after Chuca & Valverde (1943) * ''Gigantes y Cabezudos'', after Caballero (c. 1943) * ''La Viejecita'', after Caballero (c. 1943)


Film music

* '' Secret People'' (1952) * ''
This Sporting Life ''This Sporting Life'' is a 1963 British kitchen sink drama film directed by Lindsay Anderson. Based on the 1960 novel of the same name by David Storey, which won the 1960 Macmillan Fiction Award, it recounts the story of a rugby league footb ...
'' (1963)


Articles and broadcasts by Gerhard

* 'Roberto Gerhard's Symphony': ''Radio Times'', Oct 23, 1959, p. 9 (An introduction to the Second Symphony, which was commissioned by the BBC and first performed and broadcast on Oct 28, 1959. Gerhard also contributed an item on the work to 'Music Magazine' on the BBC Home Service, Oct 25, 1959.) * Gerhard worked with Lionel Salter on a radio series, ''The Heritage of Spain'', broadcast on the BBC
Third Programme The BBC Third Programme was a national radio station produced and broadcast from 1946 until 1967, when it was replaced by Radio 3. It first went on the air on 29 September 1946 and quickly became one of the leading cultural and intellectual f ...
in 26 parts from January 1954.'The Heritage of Spain', ''Radio Times''
Issue 1573, 3rd Jan 1954, p. 21


Sources

* Monty Adkins, Michael Russ.
The Roberto Gerhard Companion
', Ashgate (2013) * Gerhard, Roberto, and Meirion Bowen. 2000. ''Gerhard on Music: Selected Writings'', edited by Meirion Bowen. Aldershot ants, UKand Burlington
ermont Ermont () is a commune in the Val-d'Oise department, in the northern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the center of Paris. It has around 28,000 inhabitants, which makes Ermont one of the most important cities in Val d'Oise. Ermont ha ...
Ashgate. *
Joaquim Homs Joaquim Homs i Oller (; 21 or 22 August 1906 – 9 September 2003) was a Spanish composer. Homs was born in Barcelona, and studied cello until 1922. Afterwards, he self-educated himself in composition before studying on-and-off from 1931 t ...
. ''Robert Gerhard y su obra''. (Ethos-Musica; 16). Universidad de Oviedo, 1987. * Homs, Joaquim. 1991. ''Robert Gerhard i la seva obra''. Barcelona: Biblioteca de Catalunya. * ''Proceedings of the 1st International Roberto Gerhard Conference : May 27–28th 2010''. England: Centre for Research in New Music, University of Huddersfield, 2010. * London Sinfonietta. 1974. Programme book for The complete Instrumental and Chamber Music of Arnold Schoenberg and Roberto Gerhard. London: London Sinfonietta. * ''The Score'', September 1956. On the occasion of Gerhard's birthday, with articles by Donald Mitchell, Norman Del Mar, John Gardner,
Roman Vlad Roman Vlad (29 December 1919 – 21 September 2013) was a Romanian-born Italian composer, pianist, and musicologist. Biography Born in Cernăuți, Bukovina (now Chernivtsi, Ukraine), he studied with Titus Tarnawski and Liviu Russu in Romania ear ...
, David Drew,
Laurence Picken Laurence Ernest Rowland Picken (16 July 1909 – 16 March 2007) was an ethnomusicologist and scientist. He had a wide research interest, and published works on cytology, biochemistry, musicology, Turkish musical instruments, and ancient Chines ...
and Gerhard himself. * Routh, Francis. ''Contemporary British Music'' (1972), pp. 175-187.


References


Further reading

*Nash, Peter Paul. 1981
"The Wind Quintet"
''
Tempo In musical terminology, tempo ( Italian, 'time'; plural ''tempos'', or ''tempi'' from the Italian plural) is the speed or pace of a given piece. In classical music, tempo is typically indicated with an instruction at the start of a piece (ofte ...
'', new series, no. 139 (December): 5–11. * Diego Alonso. "Un hito de la modernidad musical española: el primer ''Apunt'' para piano de Roberto Gerhard", ''Acta musicologica'', Vol. 89, Nº 2, 2017, págs. 171-194 * Diego Alonso. "“A Heretic in the Schoenberg Circle: Roberto Gerhard’s First Engagement with Twelve-Tone Procedures in Andantino”, Twentieth-Century Music 16 / 3 (2019): 557-588. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1478572219000306 * Diego Alonso. “Homage to Schoenberg and Bartók: Symmetry, Transpositional Combination and Octatonicism in the First Movement of Roberto Gerhard’s Quartetto No. 3.” Music Analysis 39 / 2 (2020), 190–213. https://doi.org/10.1111/musa.12156 * List of émigré composers in Britain


External links

*
Roberto Gerhard at Boosey & HawkesPersonal papers of Robert Gerhard in the Biblioteca de Catalunya
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gerhard, Roberto 1896 births 1970 deaths 20th-century classical composers Twelve-tone and serial composers Second Viennese School Composers from Catalonia Spanish classical composers Spanish male classical composers Spanish opera composers Male opera composers Opera composers from Catalonia Ballet composers Spanish people of German descent Pupils of Arnold Schoenberg 20th-century Spanish musicians People from Valls 20th-century Spanish male musicians