Leon Kirchner

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Leon Kirchner (born January 24, 1919 in Brooklyn , New York , † September 17, 2009 in Manhattan , New York) was an American composer .

Life

The young Kirchner studied piano at Los Angeles City College, where he caught the attention of Ernst Toch , who sent him to Arnold Schoenberg ; he studied from 1938 to 1942 with him and Ernest Bloch at the University of California at Berkeley , where he graduated and won the "George Ladd Prix de Paris" in 1942. However, the war prevented him from going to Paris. Instead, he took private lessons with Roger Sessions in New York. After three years of military service, he returned to Berkeley and began working as a music teacher. In 1954 he went to the Faculty of Music at Mills College in Oakland , California, a position Igor Stravinsky had recommended him for. From 1961 to 1991 he was a professor at Harvard University , where he was, among other things, the teacher of John Adams . His other students included James Buswell, Lynn Chang and Yo-Yo Ma . In addition to his professorship, he conducted and appeared as a pianist .

With his move to New York in 1948, Kirchner soon belonged to the ranks of composers who shaped American music in the second half of the 20th century. B. Arthur Berger , Leonard Bernstein , Elliott Carter , Aaron Copland , David Diamond , Lukas Foss , and Earl Kim .

Above all, Schönberg, Alban Berg and Anton Webern influence Kirchner's music, which always remains individual, "which is sometimes tormented, sometimes driving and energetic". The highly educated Kirchner referred to writers several times in his works: his opera Lily is based on a novel by Saul Bellows , for his oratorio Of Things Exactly As They Are he used texts by Robinson Jeffers , Emily Dickinson , Edna St. Vincent Millay , and Wallace Stevens and Robert Lowell , his choral work Words from Wordsworth uses verses by William Wordsworth .

In 1962 Kirchner was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Letters . In 1967 he received the Pulitzer Prize for his third string quartet .

Works (selection)

  • 1947: Duo for violin and piano
  • 1948: piano sonata
  • 1949: Small suite
  • 1949: String Quartet No. 1
  • 1951: Sinfonia
  • 1952: Sonata Concertante
  • 1953: Piano Concerto No. 1
  • 1954: trio
  • 1955: Toccata
  • 1958: String Quartet No. 2
  • 1960: Concerto for violin, cello, 10 wind instruments and percussion
  • 1962: Piano Concerto No. 2
  • 1965: Fanfare for horn and two trumpets
  • 1966: String Quartet No. 3
  • 1966: Words from Wordsworth
  • 1969: Music for orchestra
  • 1973: Flutings for Paula
  • 1977: Fanfare II
  • 1977: Lily
  • 1978: Music for flute and orchestra
  • 1982: The Twilight Stood
  • 1985: Music for Twelve
  • 1986: For cello solo
  • 1986: For violin solo
  • 1986: Illuminations
  • 1987: Five Pieces
  • 1988: For violin solo II
  • 1988: Triptych
  • 1988: Two Duos
  • 1989: Interlude
  • 1990: kaleidoscope
  • 1992: Music for cello and orchestra
  • 1993: Trio II
  • 1995: For the Left Hand
  • 1997: Of Things Exactly As They Are
  • 2002: Duo No. 2
  • 2003: Interlude II
  • 2003: Piano Sonata No. 2
  • 2006: String Quartet No. 4
  • 2006: Piano Sonata No. 3 (The Forbidden), version for large orchestra 2008

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Lynn Chang, Yo-Yo Ma et al. a .: Leon Kirchner. In: Harvard Gazette. March 22, 2012, accessed October 28, 2019 .
  2. ↑ John Burrows (Ed.): Classical Music . Dorling Kindersley, Starnberg 2006, ISBN 978-3-8310-0870-4 , pp. 434 .
  3. ^ Members: Leon Kirchner. American Academy of Arts and Letters, accessed April 7, 2019 .
  4. ^ 1967 Pulitzer Prize
personal data
SURNAME Kirchner, Leon
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American composer
DATE OF BIRTH January 24, 1919
PLACE OF BIRTH Brooklyn , New York City
DATE OF DEATH 17th September 2009
Place of death Manhattan , New York