Charles Wuorinen
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Charles Wuorinen | |
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Born | Charles Peter Wuorinen June 9, 1938 New York City, U.S. |
Died | March 11, 2020 New York City, U.S. | (aged 81)
Education | Columbia University (BA, MA) |
Alma mater | Trinity School |
Occupations |
|
Works | List of compositions |
Awards | Pulitzer Prize |
Charles Peter Wuorinen ( /ˈwɔːrɪnən/; June 9, 1938 – March 11, 2020) was an American composer of contemporary classical music based in New York City. He also performed as a pianist and conductor. Wuorinen composed more than 270 works: orchestral music, chamber music, solo instrumental and vocal works, and operas, such as Brokeback Mountain. His work was termed serialist but he came to disparage that idea as meaningless. Time's Encomium, his only purely electronic piece, received the Pulitzer Prize. Wuorinen taught at several institutions, including Columbia University, Rutgers University and the Manhattan School of Music.
Life and career
Background
Wuorinen was born on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. His father, John H. Wuorinen, the chair of the history department at Columbia University,[1] was a noted scholar of Scandinavian affairs, who also worked for the Office of Strategic Services, and wrote five books on his native Finland. His mother, Alfhild Kalijarvi, received her M.A. in biology from Smith College. Wuorinen excelled academically, graduating from Trinity School (New York City) as valedictorian in 1956; he later received a B.A. (1961) and an M.A. (1963) in music from Columbia University.[1][2] Early supporters included Jacques Barzun and Edgard Varèse.
1940s and 1950s
Wuorinen began composing at age 5 and began piano lessons at 6. At 16 he was awarded the New York Philharmonic's Young Composers' Award and the John Harms Chorus premiered his choral work O Filii et Filiae at Town Hall on May 2, 1954.
1960s
In 1962 Wuorinen and fellow composer-performer
1970s
The 1970s were a particularly fruitful period for Wuorinen, who taught at the
What I did at Bell Labs (with Mark Liberman) was to try various experiments in which strings of pseudo-random material, usually pitches but sometimes other things, were generated and then subjected to traditional types of compositional organization, including twelve-tone procedures. What I wanted to do was to see whether or not these things sounded "composed," sounded purposively chosen. They did, at least by my lights. The random sequences were not just any old random sequences but were that of a kind called 1/f randomness.[6]
1980s
The 1980s were framed by two large-scale works for chorus and orchestra based on Biblical texts, the 60-minute oratorio The Celestial Sphere[7] for the 100th Anniversary of the Handel Oratorio Society in Rock Island Illinois of 1980 and Genesis[8] (1989), jointly commissioned by the Minnesota Orchestra and San Francisco Symphony. Other major orchestral works during this period include the Rhapsody for Violin and Orchestra; the Third Piano Concerto, written for pianist Garrick Ohlsson; Movers and Shakers,[9][10] the first work commissioned by the Cleveland Orchestra for music director Christoph von Dohnányi; Bamboula Squared for computer-generated sound and orchestra (inspired by Wuorinen's work at Bell Labs); and The Golden Dance. Wuorinen was composer in residence with the San Francisco Symphony from 1984 to 1989. Major chamber works of the 1980s include his Third String Quartet commissioned to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Hopkins Center for the Arts at Dartmouth College, The Blue Bamboula for pianist Ursula Oppens, the Sonata for Violin and Piano commissioned by the Library of Congress and premiered at the Library on an all-Wuorinen concert, String Sextet, New York Notes, Third Piano Sonata for Alan Feinberg, and trios for various combinations including three works for horn trio. In the 1980s Wuorinen began an association with the
1990s
Wuorinen devoted increased attention to writing works for voice, including his setting of Dylan Thomas's A Winter's Tale for soprano Phyllis Bryn-Julson and the Fenton Songs I & II on poems by British poet James Fenton, with whom Wuorinen was collaborating on an opera. Major chamber works included the Saxophone Quartet for the Raschèr Saxophone Quartet, Percussion Quartet, Piano Quintet, and Sonata for Guitar and Piano. Orchestral works included the Concerto for Saxophone Quartet and Orchestra and Symphony Seven as well as the Dante works for the New York City Ballet.
2000 onward
With the start of the 21st century, James Levine became a major champion of Wuorinen's music.[1] Levine commissioned Wuorinen's Fourth Piano Concerto[14][15] for his first season at the Boston Symphony Orchestra; the tone poem Theologoumenon (a 60th birthday gift for Levine from his longtime manager Ronald Wilford), premiered by the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra; and the Eighth Symphony: Theologoumena, for the BSO.[16] In honor of Wuorinen's 70th birthday Levine conducted two performances of Wuorinen's Ashberyana at the Guggenheim Museum.[17]
Other champions of Wuorinen's music include
Between 2008 and 2012, Wuorinen composed the opera Brokeback Mountain, based on Annie Proulx's short story of the same name and with a libretto adapted by Proulx. It premiered on January 28, 2014, at the Real in Madrid[27] to mixed reviews.[28]
Death
On September 7, 2019, Wuorinen suffered a fall that caused a subdural hematoma. Over the next several months he had three additional falls, ultimately leading to his death on March 11, 2020, at New York Columbia-Presbyterian hospital. A requiem mass was held at St. Ignatius of Antioch Episcopal Church on May 30, 2020. It was broadcast live and uploaded to YouTube.
Music
Wuorinen wrote more than 270 pieces, including the operas Haroun and the Sea of Stories and Brokeback Mountain.[3] He has been described as totally committed to twelve-tone composition,[29] with Schoenberg, late Stravinsky, and Babbitt as primary influences.[2] In later years, he called the term serialism "almost without meaning".[30]
Much of Wuorinen's music is technically complex, requiring extreme virtuosity by the performer, including wide leaps, extreme dynamic contrasts, and rapid exchange of pitches.[2] Fractals and the mathematical theories of Benoit Mandelbrot are also important aspects of his style, as can be seen in works such as Bamboula Squared and the Natural Fantasy for organ.[2]
Writings and lectures
Wuorinen wrote the book Simple Composition.[2] He described it as
written by a composer and ... addressed to other composers — intending or actual, amateur or professional. Thus it is similar in intent to certain older books on the subject like Thomas Morley's A Plain and Easie Introduction to Practical Musicke (1597), for instance.... It outlines present practice, and while it can be used for purely didactic purposes, it can also be employed in composing "real" music.
Wuorinen lectured at universities in the United States and abroad, and served on the faculties of Columbia, Princeton, and Yale Universities, the University of Iowa, the University of California-San Diego, the Manhattan School of Music, the New England Conservatory, the State University of New York at Buffalo, and Rutgers University.[2] He wrote the introduction to Joan Peyser's To Boulez and Beyond.
Influence and legacy
Wuorinen's works have influenced a number of other composers. Robert Black cited him as a particular influence on his style. Black also recorded Wuorinen's New York Notes. Jazz trumpeter Dave Douglas wrote, "Around 1992 I found Charles Wuorinen’s book Simple Composition in the Brooklyn Public Library. I thought, 'At last! My problems are over!' Little did I know, they were just beginning... The book had a profound effect on me and spurred a whole new approach to composing for improvising small groups."[31]
In 2019, Perspectives of New Music published a Festschrift, Charles Wuorinen: A Celebration at 80, comprising analytical articles and compositions written for the occasion by Wuorinen's friends and colleagues. The issue (Volume 56, Number 2, Summer 2018) was followed by an 80th birthday celebration at the Eastman School of Music that featured a master class, a symposium, and concerts of his music as well as works dedicated to him.
Criticism
Wuorinen was criticized as intolerant and hostile in his writings toward people with differing views on music.[30][32] In 1963, he wrote in Perspectives on New Music, "I must unequivocally state that pitch serialization is no longer an issue", and that young composers should be "acting out the implications of the older generation's work".[30] For Richard Taruskin, such statements imply a totalitarian view that only twelve-tone composers are to be regarded as composers.[30] Taruskin has described similar statements as "fantasies of infantile omnipotence".[30]
In 1971, the Columbia University music faculty denied Wuorinen tenure, which he attributed to "hostility to the present, and those who advocate it in music".[30] Others have attributed the decision to Wuorinen's intolerant and arrogant attitude.[30][32][33]
The opening paragraph of Simple Composition has been controversial.[30][34] Taruskin describes it as another example of Wuorinen's contempt for music outside the 12-tone system.[30]
While the tonal system, in an atrophied or vestigial form, is still used today in popular and commercial music, and even occasionally in the works of backward-looking serious composers, it is no longer employed by serious composers of the mainstream. It has been replaced or succeeded by the 12-tone system
— Charles Wuorinen, Simple Composition (1978), opening paragraph[34]
In a 1988 interview, Wuorinen said, "I feel what I do is right[35] [...] pluralism has gone too far",[30] and criticized views on which "the response of the untutored becomes the sole criterion for judgment". Rather, he suggested, "I would try to change the present relationship of the composer to the public from one in which the composer says: 'please, judge me,' to one in which I say: 'I have something to show you and offer my leadership.'"[30]
More recently, Wuorinen called the term serialism "almost without meaning", a claim that has also been criticized.[30] In a 2005 interview, when asked if he was a serialist composer, he restated this opinion:[30][33]
Question: People say that you [Wuorinen] are a serialist, you write atonal, difficult, thorny music. Are those perceptions correct or not, or is there some truth to them?
Wuorinen: An interesting question to ask someone about one or the other of us, "Oh, he's this or that way," is "Which particular piece are you referring to?" You won't get an answer, I guarantee you. These categories have very little meaning. To call me a serial composer, I think, is—first of all, the term has to be defined, and no one ever bothers to do it.
In 2018, Wuorinen denounced the Pulitzer Prize jury for awarding its music award to hiphop artist Kendrick Lamar, telling the New York Times the decision constituted "the final disappearance of any societal interest in high culture."[3]
Performance and conducting
Wuorinen was active as a performer, a pianist and a conductor of his own works as well as other 20th-century repertoire. His orchestral appearances have included the
In 1962 he co-founded The Group for Contemporary Music, an ensemble dedicated to performance of new chamber music.[36] In addition to cultivating a new generation of performers, commissioning and premiering hundreds of new works, the Group has also been a model for similar organizations that have appeared in the United States since its founding.
Personal life
Wuorinen resided in New York City and the Long Valley section of Washington Township, Morris County, New Jersey.[37] He was married to his longtime partner and manager, Howard Stokar.[38][39]
Wuorinen died in New York on March 11, 2020, aged 81, as a result of injuries sustained in a fall the preceding September.[1][3]
Discography
Many of Wuorinen's works were recorded.
Notable students
Wuorinen's students include Arthur Russell, Robert Bonfiglio, Michael Daugherty, Aaron Jay Kernis, Peter Lieberson, Tobias Picker, Kenneth Lampl and James Romig.
Footnotes
- ^ a b c d e f g "Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Charles Wuorinen dies at 81". Toronto City News. Associated Press. March 12, 2020. Retrieved March 13, 2020.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Blostein, Michael. "Charles Wuorinen". AllMusic Guide. AllMusic. Retrieved January 1, 2014.
- ^ a b c d e "Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Charles Wuorinen dies at 81". Washington Post. Associated Press. March 12, 2020. Archived from the original on March 14, 2020. Retrieved March 13, 2020.
- ^ Steinberg, Michael "Tanglewood: Some Dissonance" The Boston Globe, August 8, 1972
- ^ Wakin, Daniel J. "Sometimes Keeping the Beat Is Easy" The New York Times. April 7, 2007. Retrieved May 5, 2011.
- ISBN 0-313-25399-4. Retrieved September 25, 2016.
- ^ Hiemenz, Jack "Augustana College's Major Premiere: Wuorinen's 'Celestial Sphere' Stirs and Fascinates" Musical America, October 1981
- ^ Steinberg, Michael "Choral Masterworks: A Listener's Guide" Oxford University Press, February 2008
- ^ Donald Rosenberg "Orchestra's greatness radiates again" Akron Beacon Journal, December 14, 1984
- Cleveland Plain Dealer, December 12, 1984
- ^ Kisselgoff, Anna. "A Premiere Having Fun With Mozart." The New York Times. January 31, 1992. Retrieved May 5, 2011.
- ^ "Listing at the NYCB site".
- ^ Kozinn, Allan. "What Balanchine Might Have Created For Stravinsky" The New York Times. January 3, 1996. Retrieved May 5, 2011
- ^ Cooman, Carson. "Three Questions Before the First Night." mvdaily.com Website
- ^ Kirzinger, Robert. "An Introduction to Wuorinen's Fourth Piano Concerto." Archived August 31, 2011, at the Wayback Machine BSO Website
- ^ Smith, Steve. "A Serialist Island Thrives in a Sea of Minimalism." The New York Times. January 28, 2007 . Retrieved May 5, 2011.
- ^ Kozinn, Allan. "The Cerebral Onstage, Not Without Wit ." The New York Times. November 3, 2008 . Retrieved July 7, 2012.
- ^ Tommasini, Anthony. "Renaissance and Medieval Hues in a Modernist Work" The New York Times. January 26, 2009. Retrieved May 5, 2011.
- ^ Tommasini, Anthony. "In Full Flight for Serkin in an Ambitious Pair of Concertos." The New York Times. February 4, 2006 . Retrieved July 8, 2012.
- ^ Tommasini, Anthony. "Bird Song, Modernism and Brahms Take Flight." The New York Times. April 7, 2008 . Retrieved July 8, 2012.
- ^ Kozinn, Allan. "Fluid States of Tension to Celebrate Connections." The New York Times. December 11, 2011 . Retrieved July 8, 2012.
- ^ Smith, Steve. "Some Rigor, Some Sensuousness and a Blend of Old and New." The New York Times. December 14, 2008 . Retrieved July 8, 2012.
- New York Magazine. November 15, 2004. Retrieved May 5, 2011.
- ^ "Wuorinen: Ashberyana / Fenton Songs I and Ii / Josquiniana". www.naxos.com. Retrieved October 10, 2022.
- ^ Kozinn, Allan. "The Least and the Most in a Tanglewood Series" The New York Times. August 4, 2011. Retrieved September 30, 2011.
- ^ Eichler, Jeremy. "At Tanglewood festival, new music takes over the spotlight" The Boston Globe. August 5, 2011. Retrieved September 30, 2011.
- ^ "Opera: Brokeback Mountain, Teatro Real;". Teatro-Real.com. October 2, 2013. Archived from the original on October 4, 2013. Retrieved October 2, 2013.
- ^ William Jeffery, "Brokeback Mountain Opera Receives World Premiere Archived 2017-07-25 at the Wayback Machine", Limelight Magazine (January 30, 2014).
- ^ Peyser 1995, p. 206.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-520-94279-0.
- ^ "Charles Wuorinen Brass Music. – Greenleaf Music – Dave Douglas jazz blog and store". January 13, 2010.
- ^ a b Lang, Paul Henry (August 29, 1971). "Music at Columbia Will Endure, Even Without Wuorinen". The New York Times.
- ^ a b c "A discussion with James Levine, John Harbison and Charles Wuorinen, moderated by Daniel J. Wakin". The New York Times. March 27, 2005. Retrieved January 1, 2014.
- ^ a b Tommassini, Anthony (July 2000). "Midcentury Serialists: The Bullies or the Besieged?". The New York Times.
- ^ Peyser 1995, p. 203.
- ISBN 0-19-861459-4
- ^ June 9th People, LGBT Daily Spotlight. Accessed September 3, 2019. "Wuorinen resides in New York City and Long Valley, New Jersey."
- ISBN 978-0-415-97884-2.
- ISBN 978-0-8153-1880-4.
References and interviews
- Bloomberg TV segment at the Wuorinen website, 2008
- Brokeback Mountain, The Opera Charles Wuorinen interviewed by Peter Dobrin, ArtsWatch: PhillyNews.com, June 9, 2008
- Burbank, Richard D. Charles Wuorinen: A Bio-Bibliography. Greenwood Press, 1994. ISBN 0-313-25399-4
- Duffie, Bruce. "Interview with Charles Wuorinen", February 26, 1987
- Karchin, Louis. "Wuorinen, Charles". The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. London: Macmillan Publishers, 2001.
- Kennedy, Michael. The Oxford Dictionary of Music. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2006. ISBN 0-19-861459-4.
- Kerner, Leighton (January 2005). "In Review: New York City". Opera News. pp. 54–56.
- Charles Wuorinen (June 5, 2007). "Art and Entertainment". NewMusicBox (Interview). Interviewed by Frank J. Oteri (published July 1, 2007). (includes video)
- Peyser, Joan (1995). The Music of my Time, Vol.1. Pro/AM Music Resources Incorporated. pp. 199 ff. ISBN 0-912483-99-7.
- Romig, James. "Charles Wuorinen: Adapting To The Times". Liner notes for Albany Records (Troy 871).
- Smith, Steve. "A Serialist Island Thrives in a Sea of Minimalism". The New York Times (January 28, 2007).
- Tommasini, Anthony. "Renaissance and Medieval Hues in a Modernist Work". The New York Times (January 26, 2009). (review of Wuorinen's Time Regained)
- Wakin, Daniel. "Sometimes Keeping the Beat is Easy". The New York Times (April 7, 2007) (article on performance of Wuorinen's Percussion Symphony)
Further reading
- Wuorinen, Charles. 1979. Simple Composition, New York, NY: C.F. Peters Corporation. ISBN 0-938856-06-5
- Morris, Robert, Review of Charles Wuorinen's Simple Composition. Theory & Practice 1980, 5/1:66-72.
- Hibbard, William, Charles Wuorinen, The Politics of Harmony. Perspectives of New Music Vol. 7, No. 2 (Spring–Summer, 1969), pp. 155–166 (article consists of 16 pages)
- Seelye, Todd, Charles Wuorinen Guitar Variations, Soundboard Magazine, the Journal of the Guitar Foundation of America, Spring 1997, Vol. 23, No. 4
- Karchin, Louis, Pitch Centricity as an Organizing Principle in Speculum Speculi of Charles Wuorinen, Theory and Practice, Volume 14/15, 1989/90.
- Kresky, Jeffrey, The Recent Music of Charles Wuorinen Perspectives of New Music, Vol. 25 Nos. 1&2, Winter 1987/Summer 1987
- Karchin, Louis, Charles Wuorinen's Reliquary for Stravinsky Contemporary Music Review, 2001, Vol 20, Part 4, pp. 9–27
- Steinberg, Michael, Choral Masterworks: A Listener's Guide Oxford University Press, February 2008, pp. 317–336
External links
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How to use archival material |
- Official website
- Charles Wuorinen at AllMusic.com
- Charles Wuorinen discography at Discogs
- Charles Wuorinen at C.F. Peters, publisher
- Art of the States: Charles Wuorinen three works by the composer
- Charles Wuorinen at IMDb
- Requiem service for Charles Wuorinen