Herbert Haufrecht

Herbert Haufrecht (born November 3, 1909 in New York City , † June 23, 1998 in Albany (New York) ) was an American composer and folk song researcher.

Haufrecht attended the Institute of Music in Cleveland and studied composition at the Juilliard School of Music from 1930 . In 1937 he went to West Virginia on behalf of the US Department of Agriculture , where he began to collect folk songs and stories. On his return to New York he worked as a composer for the Federal Theater and the Workers Laboratory Theater ; Pieces like We've Come from the City , Boney Quillin and The Story of Ferdinand the Bull were created .

In addition, he worked from 1941 to 1945 as the musical director of Camp Woodland , which was run by Norman Studer and Norman Cazden in the Catskills for children from the New York area, in order to familiarize them with the folklore traditions of the region. The Catskill Folk Festival was held here annually from 1940 to 1953 ; The tradition was resumed at the end of the 1970s. As a result of this work, Haufrecht published the three-volume collection Folk Songs of the Catskills in 1983 .

After the Second World War, Haufrecht worked as an editor and arranger for various publishers such as Mills Music , Associated Music Publishers and Ricordi Publishers . He also worked with folk musicians such as Burl Ives , The Weavers , Pete Seeger and Judy Collins , for whom he wrote the Judy Collins Songbook in 1969 .

In addition to operas and symphonic works, his compositions include numerous songs and chamber music works.

Works

• Suite on Catskill Mountain Tunes
• We've come from the city
• Boney Quillen , folk opera
• Story of Ferdinand the Bull
• Judy Collins Songbook
• Symphony for Brass and Timpani
• Suite for string orchestra
• Blues and Fugue for viola and piano
• Etudes in Blues for piano
• A Pot of Broth , opera
• War Prayer (after Mark Twain )

Publications

• Sing out! (with Pete Seeger and Norman Studer)
• Folk Songs of the Catskills , 1983