Radie Britain

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Radie Britain (born March 17, 1899 in Silverton , Texas , † May 23, 1994 in Los Angeles ) was an American composer.

Britain attended the American Conservatory in Chicago from 1919 to 1921 and then worked as a piano teacher. In the summer of 1922 she received organ lessons from Pietro Yon in Dallas . In 1923 she went to Paris, where she was an organ student of Marcel Dupré . After piano lessons with Adele von der Ohe , she studied composition and music theory with Albert Noelte in Munich (1924 to 1926) and Chicago (1927 to 1928). Further piano teachers were Leopold Godowsky , Heniot Levy , R. Deane Shure , Joseph Pembaur and Alice Ripper .

From 1930 to 1934 Britain taught at the Girvin Institute of Music in Chicago, then at the Chicago Conservatory . From 1940 to 1960 she gave private piano and composition lessons in Hollywood.

Britain composed numerous works for piano and for chamber music formations, as well as an opera, children's operettas, ballets, two symphonies and other orchestral works. Her compositions are mostly tonal and lyrical, in her late works she also experimented with atonal music and the twelve-tone technique. The musical works on the program are mostly inspired by landscapes and themes from the southwestern United States.

Britain also wrote numerous articles for magazines and journals and was a member of the National League of American Pen Women for decades . She was married in her second marriage (since 1940) to the sculptor Edgardo Simone and in her third marriage (since 1959) to the aviation pioneer Theodore Morton .

Works

  • Western Suite , 1925
  • Prelude to a Drama for symphony orchestra, 1928
  • Symphonic Intermezzo , 1928
  • The Shepherd in the Distance , ballet, 1929
  • Heroic Poem for symphony orchestra, 1929 ( Juilliard National Publication Prize 1930)
  • Southern Symphony , 1935
  • Suite for Strings , 1940
  • Happyland , operetta for children, 1946
  • Red Clay: A Western Ballet , 1950
  • Carillon , Opera, 1952
  • The Spider and the Butterfly , operetta for children, 1953
  • Cowboy Rhapsody for symphony orchestra, 1956
  • Kuthara (The Scythe) , chamber opera, 1960
  • Cosmic Mist Symphony , 1962
  • Sam Houston for symphony orchestra, 1987
  • Texas for symphony orchestra, 1988

Fonts

  • How to Play the Piano: Duets and Rhythms. 1950
  • Major and Minor Moods. 1961
  • Lakalani. 1971
  • Composer's Corner. 1978
  • Ridin 'Herd to Writing Symphonies: an Autobiography. 1996

literature

  • Walter B. Bailey, Nancy Gisbrecht Bailey: Radie Britain: A Bio-Bibliography . Greenwood Press, New York 1990, ISBN 0-313-26277-2 .
  • Antje Olivier, Karin Weingartz-Peschel: Britain, Radie . In: composers from A to Z . Tokkata, Düsseldorf 1988, ISBN 3-9801603-0-0 , p. 72 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Walter B. Bailey:  Britain, Radie. In: Grove Music Online (English; subscription required).
personal data
SURNAME Britain, Radie
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American composer
DATE OF BIRTH March 17, 1899
PLACE OF BIRTH Silverton , Texas
DATE OF DEATH May 23, 1994
Place of death los Angeles