Alan Shulman

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Alan Shulman (4 June 1915 – 10 July 2002) was an American

Dmitri Mitropoulos. Many of Shulman's works have been recorded, and the violinist Jascha Heifetz and jazz clarinetist Artie Shaw have been particular exponents of his work both in performance and on recordings.[2]

Biography

Early life and education

Shulman was born in

Peabody Conservatory where they studied under Louis Cheslock and Alan, who started his training there at age 10, studied the cello under Bart Wirtz.[1] Shulman wrote his first music composition during his first year studying at the Peabody Conservatory.[3]

At the age of 14, Shulman and his family relocated to

National Orchestral Association under conductor Léon Barzin from 1929 to 1932.[1]

Shulman joined Chapter 802 of the American Federation of Musicians in 1931. He entered the Juilliard School in 1932 where he studied for five years, principally under cellist Felix Salmond and composers Albert Stoessel and Bernard Wagenaar. While a student he began performing with a string quartet that played popular music for the NBC network in 1933. He also worked as the group's arranger. He joined the Kreiner String Quartet in 1935, playing with them through 1938. He also started writing his first serious compositions during this time, notably writing music for the American Children's Theatre production of Hans Christian Andersen's The Chinese Nightingale in 1934. Upon graduating in 1937, he pursued further studies with cellist Emanuel Feuermann in 1939 and composer Paul Hindemith in 1942.[1][2]

Early career

During the 1930s and 1940s Shulman worked actively as an arranger for such people as

Wilfred Pelletier. In 1942 he became a member of the American Society of Music Arrangers and Composers. During the mid-1940s, he taught orchestration to Nelson Riddle who later garnered fame as an arranger for singers Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald and Nat King Cole.[4]

In 1937 the Shulman brothers joined the brand new

Laura Newell, jazz clarinetists Buster Bailey and Hank D'Amico, and singer Maxine Sullivan among others.[3] Also in 1938, the two brothers established the Stuyvesant String Quartet, which remained active through 1954. The string quartet excelled in performing and recording contemporary works by such composers as Ernest Bloch, Sergei Prokofiev, Gian Francesco Malipiero, Hindemith and Fritz Kreisler.[4] They notably played the American premiere of Dmitri Shostakovich's Piano Quintet at Carnegie Hall in 1941.[2] Musicologist Tully Potter
, a string-specialist, said the following:

The Shulman brothers were among a small group of fabulously gifted New York-based string players whose careers showed a constant tug between earning a living – which often led them into orchestral and session work – and doing something more artistic. It was a nightmare trying to run a string quartet in the United States, where distances were so great and there was not the infrastructure of music societies that existed in Europe. Had the Stuyvesant Quartet been privately sponsored, as some American groups were, or given a residency, it would be remembered today as one of the best of its time. As it was, it left a small but valuable corpus of recordings – and a recent reissue proved that the best of these performances have lost nothing of their power.[1]

In 1941, Shulman's Theme and Variations for Viola and Orchestra was premiered by the NBC Symphony Orchestra with violist

Rise Stevens during the mid-1940s, arranging five cross-over albums for her between 1945 and 1947 in addition to other projects.[4]

Middle life and career

After the war, Shulman married the pianist Sophie Pratt Bostelmann on 17 September 1946. They had met previously while they were both students at Juilliard. Their first child, Jay, a cellist, was born in 1949, followed by his daughter Laurie, a musicologist, in 1951, his son Marc, a guitarist, in 1953, and his daughter Lisa in 1956.[4] Shulman returned to his position at the NBC Symphony Orchestra in 1948. That same year he became a member of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers. The following year the NBC Symphony Orchestra premiered his Waltzes for Orchestra under conductor Milton Katims at Carnegie Hall.[1] In 1950 his string quartet Threnody, written in honor of Israel's fallen soldiers, was premiered by the NBC String Quartet during Jewish Music Week. In 1954 the NBC Symphony Orchestra disbanded when Toscanini retired, and Shulman, along with several other members of the Symphony Orchestra, formed a new ensemble for NBC called the "Symphony of the Air". He remained with the Symphony of the Air for three years.[2]

During the 1950s Shulman wrote numerous popular songs with entertainer Steve Allen and he did several arrangements for Skitch Henderson, Raoul Poliakin and Felix Slatkin. In 1956 he wrote his Suite Miniature for Octet of Celli which was commissioned by the Fine Arts Cello Ensemble of Los Angeles. That same year he was one of several musicians to found the Violoncello Society, later serving as the organization's president from 1967 to 1972. In 1959, during the midst of the Cold War, he was asked to join a Soviet-American composers' symposium organised by Nicolas Slonimsky for NBC. In addition to Shulman, the symposium included Americans Roy Harris and Howard Hanson and Russians Dmitri Shostakovich and Dmitry Kabalevsky.[1]

Later life and career

Shulman played actively in chamber music with the Philharmonia Trio from 1962 to 1969 and the Haydn Quartet from 1972 until his wife's death in 1982. During his career he has also served on the faculties at Sarah Lawrence College, the Juilliard School, the State University of New York at Purchase, Johnson State College, and the University of Maine. Shulman retired in 1987 due to declining health. He died of complications from a stroke in a nursing home in Hudson, New York in 2002.[2]

Selected works

Orchestra
  • Waltzes (1949)
  • Hatikvah (1949); arrangement for orchestra
  • A Laurentian Overture (1951)
  • Popacatepetl (1952)
  • Prelude (1952)
  • Hup-Two-Three-Four, Jazz March (1953)
  • Ricky Tic Serenade (1954)
  • In Memoriam Sophie (1982)
  • Woodstock Waltzes for chamber orchestra (1985)
  • Quilt (1986)
String orchestra
  • A Nocturne for Strings (1938)
  • Four Moods (1942); also for string quartet
  • Threnody (1950); also for string quartet: Allegro, Intermezzo and Scherzo
  • Portrait of Lisa (1954)
  • Viennese Lace (1954)
  • The Bop Gavotte (1954)
  • Minuet for Moderns (1954)
  • An Elizabethan Legend (1954)
  • Ben Franklin Suite (1963)
  • A New England Tarantella (1978)
  • Ripe for Plucking (1987)
Wind ensemble
  • Top Brass, Six Minutes for Twelve, Suite for brass ensemble (1958)
  • Two Chorales for Brass for brass ensemble (1962)
  • The Three Faces of Glen Cove for concert band (1968)
  • Interstate 90 for symphonic winds (1968)
  • The Corn Shuckers, March-Scherzo for concert band (1969)
Concertante
  • Theme and Variations for viola and orchestra or piano (1940) or for viola, string orchestra and harp (1954)
  • Poem for violin and orchestra or piano (1941)
  • Pastorale and Dance for violin and orchestra (1944)
  • Concerto for Cello and Orchestra (1948)
  • Cadenzas for Mozart's Flute and Harp Concerto, K. 299 (1954)
  • Kol Nidre for cello and orchestra or string quartet (1970)
  • Variations for viola, string orchestra and harp (1984)
Chamber music
  • Homage to Erik Satie for cello or viola and piano (1938)
  • Waltz (Valse) for violin and piano (1939)
  • Piece in Popular Style for viola and piano (1939)
  • Lament for cello and piano (1939)
  • Mood in Question for clarinet, string quartet and harp (1939)
  • High Voltage for clarinet, string quartet, double bass, guitar and harp (1939)
  • Serenade for cello and piano (1941)
  • Four Moods for string quartet (1942); also for string orchestra
  • Cradle Song for harp (1943); also for piano
  • Folk Songs for Winds for wind quintet (1943)
  • Suite Based on American Folk Songs for violin and piano (1944)
    1. Fare Ye Well, My Darlin'
    2. Little Bird
    3. The Mermaid
    4. Cod Liver 'Ile
    5. Johnny Stiles
    6. What Shall I Do with a Drunken Sailor?
  • Rendezvous ("Rendezvous with Benny") for clarinet and string quartet (1946)
  • Platter Chatter for clarinet, string quartet, double bass, guitar and harp (1946)
  • J.S. on the Rocks (Nightcap) for clarinet, string quartet, double bass, guitar and harp (1947)
  • Vodka Float (Sailor's Dance) for clarinet, string quartet, double bass, guitar and harp (1947)
  • Suite for Solo Cello (1950)
  • Allegro, Intermezzo and Scherzo for string quartet (1950); also for string orchestra: Threnody
  • Suite for Solo Viola (1953)
  • Suite Miniature for 8 cellos (1956)
  • 3 – 4 – J ("Three for Jay") for cello and piano (1960)
  • Five Duos for Student and Teacher for 2 cellos (1960)
  • Suite for the Young 'Cellist for cello and piano (1961)
  • Three Sketches for double bass and piano (1963)
  • Pastorale for 4 cellos (1964)
  • Two Pair for 4 cellos (1964)
  • Theme and Variations for 2 violins (1967); New Directions for Strings
  • Duet for violin and viola or cello (1967); New Directions for Strings
  • Study in 5ths for violin, or viola, or cello (1967); New Directions for Strings
  • Passacaglia, Transcription from J.S. Bach for cello ensemble (1968)
  • Aria from J.S. Bach's organ Pastorale in F major for 4 cellos (1969)
  • Sarabande from J.S. Bach's English Suite No.3 for 4 cellos (1974)
  • Berkshire Mist for 4 cellos (1975)
  • Two Episodes for 4 violas (1978)
    1. Night
    2. Ancora
  • Canadian Folksongs for 4 violins or violin ensemble (1978)
  • Lament II for cello and piano (1983)
Piano
  • Cradle Song (1943); also for harp
  • Dripping Faucet, March (1959)
  • Lopsided (1959)
  • March (1960)
  • Hues of Blues (1961)
  • One Man Show, 9 short works (1961)
  • Mexican Mountain Climb (1962)
  • Sonatina for Sophie (1963)
  • Jazz Grab Bag (1975)
Vocal
  • Song of the Moon Festival in the Woods for voice and piano (1934); words by John Milton
  • Tess' Lament for voice and piano (1959)
Film scores
  • Tennessee Valley Authority (1946)
  • Freedom and Famine (1946)
  • Port of New York (1946)
  • Behind Your Radio Dial (1948)
  • The Tattooed Stranger (1950)

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Anderson, Martin (8 August 2002). "Alan Shulman: 'Fabulously gifted' cellist and composer". The Independent. Retrieved March 23, 2009.[dead link]
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Kozzin, Allan (July 13, 2002). "Alan Shulman, Composer And Cellist, Is Dead at 86". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 17 April 2009. Retrieved March 23, 2009.
  3. ^ a b "Alan Shulman 1915–2002". The Musical Times. Autumn 2002. Archived from the original on July 28, 2009. Retrieved March 23, 2009.
  4. ^ a b c d Biography of Alan Shulman at capital.net

A compact disc of eight orchestral works of Alan Schulman's was released by Bridge Records in 2002 (BRIDGE 9119) as The Music of Alan Schulman.

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Alan_Shulman&oldid=1171630232"