Norma Beecroft

Norma Marian Beecroft (born April 11, 1934 in Oshawa ) is a Canadian composer .

Life

The daughter of Julian Balfour Beecroft , a pioneer of tape music, and Eleanor Beecroft , an actress trained in music and dance, had her first piano lessons with Aladar Ecsedy , which she continued from 1952 to 1958 at the Royal Conservatory of Music with Gordon Hallett and Weldon Kilburn . At the same time she studied composition with John Weinzweig and from 1957 to 1958 flute lessons with Keith Girard .

She continued her composition lessons with summer courses in 1958 at the Berkshire Music Center in Tanglewood with Aaron Copland and Lukas Foss and from 1959 to 1961 at the Accademia Santa Cecilia in Rome with Goffredo Petrassi . In addition, she took private flute lessons with Severino Gazzelloni in Rome and was a student of Bruno Maderna at the Darmstadt summer courses in 1960 and 1961 . From 1962 to 1963 she attended Myron Schaeffer's electronic music class at the University of Montreal . In 1964 she worked with Mario Davidovsky at the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center in New York.

From 1954 to 1959 Beecroft worked as an assistant for the music program of CBC television. After returning from Europe, she returned to the CBC, where she last worked as a producer of radio series such as Music of Today , Organists in Recital and From the Age of Elegance . After retiring as a producer in 1969, she hosted the Music of Today series . As a freelance producer, she published the documentary The Computer in Music in 1976 , as well as portraits of John Weinzweig, Barbara Pentland , Harry Somers , Jean Coulthard , Bruce Mather , Harry Freedman , Gilles Tremblay , Murray Adaskin and Violet Archer .

1956 to 1957 Beecroft was president of the Canadian Music Associates . In 1961 she was the founder of the New Music Concerts alongside Robert Aitken , of which she was president and manager until 1989. She taught electronic music and composition at York University from 1984 to 1987. She gives guest lectures on new music at the University of Montreal and York University .

Beecroft composed mostly chamber music works, often using tape or electro-acoustic instruments. Her sister, the poet and painter Jane Beecroft , was involved as a text writer or translator in several of her works .

Works

• The Hollow Men , 1956
• Fantasy for Strings , 1958
• Two Movements , 1958
• Improvvisazioni Concertanti No. 1 for flute and orchestra, 1961
• From Dreams of Brass for soprano, narrator, mixed choir, orchestra and tape, (Text: Jane Beecroft), 1963–1964
• Pièce Concertante No. 1 , 1966
• Improvvisazioni Concertanti No. 2 , 1971
• Improvvisazioni Concertanti No. 3 for flute and orchestra, 1973
• Jeu de Bach for oboe, piccolo, trumpet, strings and tape, 1985
• Esprit Eternel for percussion, piano, harde, strings and tape, 1994
• Tre Pezzi Brevi for harde, guitar or piano, 1960–1961
• Contrasts for Six Performers for oboe, viola, xylorimba, vibraphone, percussion and harp, 1962
• Elegy and Two Went to Sleep for soprano, percussion and tape, 1967
• Undersea Fantasy , puppet show, for tape, 1967
• Rasas I for flute, harp, string trio, percussion and piano 1968
• The Living Flame of Love for mixed choir, 1968
• Rasas II and Rasas III for soloist, chamber ensemble and tape, 1973
• Three Impressions , 1973
• 11 and 7 for 5+ for wind quintet and tape, 1975
• Piece for Bob for flute and tape, 1975
• Collage '76 for flute, oboe, horn, cello, double bass, three percussion sets, harp, piano and tape, 1976
• Consequences for Five for piano, synthesizer and live electronics 1977
• Collage '78 for bassoon, two percussion sets and tape, 1978
• Quaprice for horn, percussion and tape, 1980
• Cantorum Vitae for flute, cello, two pianos, percussion and tape 1981
• Troissonts for viola and two percussion, 1981
• Hedda Ballet for orchestra and tape, 1982
• Jeu II for flute, viola and tape, 1985
• Images for wind quintet, 1986
• Jeu III for viola and tape, 1987
• The Dissipation of Purely Sound , radio opera for tape, 1988
• Accordion Play for accordion and two percussion sets, 1989
• Hemispherics for trumpet, trombone, piano or synthesizer, guitar, two drums, viola, cello and double bass, 1990
• Jeu IV (Mozart) for piano, flute, clarinet, trumpet, trombone, horn, string quintet and tape, 1991
• Evocations: Images of Canada for electro-acoustic instruments, 1991
• Amplified String Quartet for string quartet and tape, 1992
• Face à Face for two amplified bass flutes and drums, 1994

Web links

• Works by Norma Beecroft in the catalog of the German National Library
• Biography and selection of works in The Canadian Encyclopedia