Steven Gerber

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This article is about the composer. For the comic book writer, see Steve Gerber.

Steven Roy Gerber (September 28, 1948, in

Washington, D. C. – May 28, 2015, in New York City)[1]
was an American composer of classical music. He attended Haverford College, graduating in 1969 at the age of twenty. He then attended Princeton University with a fellowship to study musical composition.

Biography and career

Steven Gerber's works include the contrapuntal Fantasy for Solo Violin,[2] which has been recorded [3] on both the CRI and Naxos labels, and Piano Trio, commissioned by the Hans Kindler Foundation.[4]

His composition teachers included Robert Parris, James K. Randall, Earl Kim, and Milton Babbitt.

His early works are in a free

diatonic
.

His music has been reviewed in The New York Times[5] and The Washington Post.[6] His music has been played in the former Soviet Union perhaps more widely than that of any other American composer.[7]

In 2005, the conductor

San Francisco Symphony Orchestra on March 25–28, 2009.[8] He died in New York City on May 28, 2015, aged 66.[9]

List of compositions

Orchestral

  • 1981 Harmonium: Six Poems of Wallace Stevens, for solo soprano and orchestra
  • 1989 Symphony No. 1
  • 1990 Ode (1st movement of Serenade) for string orchestra
  • 1990 Serenade for string orchestra
  • 1992 Piano Concerto
  • 1992 Dirge and Awakening
  • 1993 Violin Concerto
  • 1994 Cello Concerto
  • 1996 Viola Concerto
  • 1998 Serenade Concertante
  • 1998 Triple Overture for solo violin, cello and piano and orchestra
  • 2000 Spirituals, for string orchestra
  • 2002 Fanfare for the Voice of A-M-E-R-I-C-A
  • 2002 Clarinet Concerto
  • 2004 Symphony No. 2, "Elegies and Fanfares"
  • 2005 Two Lyric Pieces, for solo violin and string orchestra
  • 2005-08 Music in Dark Times

Chamber

  • 1967 Sonata for violin and piano
  • 1967 Woodwind Quartet
  • 1968 Trio for violin, cello and piano
  • 1969 Duo for cello and piano
  • 1969 Duo for violin and cello
  • 1971 String Trio
  • 1972 Nexus, for violin and percussion
  • 1973 String Quartet No. 1
  • 1977 Duo for flute and piano
  • 1978 Dreamwork, for flute, viola, cello, and piano
  • 1979 Duo for viola and piano
  • 1981 String Quartet No. 2
  • 1984 Duo in Three Movements for violin and piano
  • 1984 Concertino for string quartet and piano
  • 1986 Woodwind Quintet
  • 1987 Fantasy Quartet for percussion
  • 1988 String Quartet No. 3
  • 1991 Piano Quintet for string quartet and piano
  • 1995 String Quartet No. 4
  • 1996 Notturno, for violin, cello and piano
  • 1996 (rev. 2006) Five Canonic Duos, for oboe and bassoon
  • 1996 Sonatina for oboe and guitar
  • 1997 Three Pieces for Two Violins
  • 1999 Prelude and Fugue, for oboe, bassoon, and piano
  • 1999 Gershwiniana, for 3 violins (or 2 violins and viola)
  • 2000 String Quartet No. 5
  • 2001 Three Folksong Transformations, for violin, cello, and piano
  • 2002 Spirituals, for clarinet and string quartet
  • 2003-1997 Fantasy, Fugue, and Chaconne, for 2 cellos or viola and cello
  • 2003 Five Greek Folksongs (after Ravel), for violin and piano
  • 2007 Dialogues, for clarinet and piano
  • 2009 Two Antiphonal Pieces, for cello and piano
  • 2010 Norma's Variations, for violin and piano
  • 2011 String Quartet No. 6
  • 2011 Spirituals (Book II), for flute and cello

Vocal

  • 1966 Three French Songs (Baudelaire and Verlaine), for high voice and piano
  • 1967 After the Funeral (Thomas), for baritone and string trio
  • 1974 Doria: Three Poems of Ezra Pound, for soprano and piano
  • 1974 "My Papa's Waltz" and Other Songs (Williams, Moore, Plath, Roethke), for soprano and piano
  • 1975 Black Hours: Five Sonnets of Gerard Manley Hopkins, for soprano and piano
  • 1976 Two Lyrics of Gerard Manley Hopkins, for soprano and string trio
  • 1978 Sestina: Altaforte (Pound), for baritone and piano
  • 1978 Songs from "The Wild Swans at Coole" (Yeats), for high voice and piano
  • 1982 Desert Places: Five Poems of Robert Frost, for high voice and piano
  • 1984 Drum-Taps: Three Patriotic Poems (Frost, Whitman, Emerson), for soprano and piano
  • 1985 Words for Music Perhaps (Yeats), for soprano and two violins
  • 1986 Four Elegiac Songs (Hopkins, Yeats, Shakespeare, Dryden), for high voice and piano
  • 1988 Six Songs of William Shakespeare, for medium voice and piano
  • 2012 Five Shakespeare Songs, for voice and piano

Choral

  • 1972 Dylan Thomas Settings
  • 1972 Illumination (Rimbaud)
  • 1973 Ceremony After a Fire Raid (Thomas)
  • 1985 Four Choruses from Une Saison en Enfer (Rimbaud)
  • 1985 Une Saison en Enfer (Rimbaud), for solo high baritone or tenor, chorus, and piano
  • 2004 Sessions of Sweet Silent Thought (5 Sonnets of William Shakespeare)

Piano

  • 1966 Two Toccatas
  • 1970 Variations
  • 1976 Voices
  • 1982 Piano Fantasy: Homage to Copland (first movement of Piano Sonata)
  • 1982 Piano Sonata
  • 1985 Two Intermezzi
  • 1989 Cocktail Music (Song Without Words)

Other solo

  • 1967 Fantasy for violin
  • 1971 Epithalamium for flute
  • 1977 Fantasy
  • 1978 High Wood for oboe
  • 1987 Three Songs Without Words (arranged from Words for Music Perhaps) for violin
  • 1991 Elegy on the Name "Dmitri Shostakovich" for viola (or cello) - dedicated to Elena Ozol
  • 2005 Duet for Solo Clarinet
  • 2013 Soliloquy for Solo Bassoon - composed for bassoonist Bryan Young[10][11]

Articles

  • Interview with 21st Century Music: Food for Thought with Steven Gerber[7]
  • Interview with Sequenza21[12]
  • Essay on Orchestration, by Steven Gerber for New Music Box [13]
  • Keeping America Real: Essay on Steven Gerber by Robert Reilly[14]

Recordings

Spirituals for String Orchestra; Clarinet Concerto; Serenade Concertante
St. Petersburg State Academic Symphony/Vladimir Lande, conductor
Jon Manasse, clarinet; Jose Miguel Cueto, violin; Natalia Malkova, violin
Arabesque CD Z6803

Symphony No. 1; Dirge and Awakening; Viola Concerto; Triple Overture
Russian Philharmonic Orchestra/Thomas Sanderling, conductor
Lars Anders Tomter, viola
The Bekova Sisters:
Elvira Bekova, violin
Alfia Bekova, cello
Eleonora Bekova, piano
Chandos CD 9831

Violin Concerto; Cello Concerto; Serenade for String Orchestra
National Chamber Orchestra/Piotr Gajewski, conductor
Kurt Nikkanen, violin; Carter Brey, cello
KOCH International Classics KIC-CD-7501

Fantasy; Three Songs Without Words
Curtis Macomber, violin
Composers Recordings, Inc. CD 706

Une Saison en Enfer
The New Calliope Singers/Peter Schubert, conductor
William Parker, baritone; Steven R. Gerber, piano
Composers Recordings, Inc. CD 638

Elegy on the Name "Dmitri Shostakovich"; Françoise Renard, viola
Suoni e Colori SC 53006

Gershwiniana for three violins; 3 Folksong Transformations; 3 Pieces for two violins; Notturno for piano trio; Elegy on the Name Dmitri Shostakovich for viola; 3 Songs Without Words; Fantasy for violin; Duo for violin and cello; Piano Trio
Kurt Nikkanen, violin and viola; Cho-Liang Lin, violin; Cyrus Beroukhim, violin; Brinton Averil Smith, cello; Sara Davis Buechner, piano
Naxos 8.559618

References

  1. ^ Musicsack
  2. ^ Kozinn, Allan (June 17, 2004). "MUSIC REVIEW; In Summertime Enrichment, The New and the Familiar Mix - The New York Times". The New York Times. Retrieved July 25, 2009.
  3. ^ "( Fantasy > Overview )". allmusic. Retrieved July 25, 2009.
  4. ^ "Hans Kindler: Information from". Answers.com. August 30, 1949. Retrieved July 25, 2009.
  5. ^ Kozinn, Allan (October 8, 1998). "MUSIC REVIEW; An Evening Russian in Spirit and Sound - The New York Times". The New York Times. Retrieved July 25, 2009.
  6. ^ The Washington Post, [October 18, 1999, Page C 5]
  7. ^ a b http://www.21st-centurymusic.com/ML210203.pdf [bare URL PDF]
  8. ^ "Program Notes". Sfsymphony.org. Retrieved July 25, 2009.
  9. ^ Death announcement on Steven Gerber's official website (stevengerber.com). Retrieved May 30, 2015.
  10. ^ "The Music of the Spanish Mackerel".
  11. ^ "Soliloquy for Solo Bassoon".
  12. ^ Jerry Bowles. "Sequenza21/The Contemporary Classical Music Weekly". Sequenza21.com. Retrieved July 25, 2009.
  13. ^ "NewMusicBox". NewMusicBox. June 1, 2003. Retrieved July 25, 2009.
  14. ^ "Music". Archived from the original on October 11, 2007. Retrieved July 19, 2009.

External links

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