Samuel Adler (composer)

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Samuel Hans Adler (born March 4, 1928 in Mannheim ) is a German-American composer and conductor. In his professional career spanning more than six decades, he has served on the faculty of both the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester and the Juilliard School . In addition, he founded the Symphony Orchestra of the Seventh Army of the United States, which was involved in the cultural diplomacy ( international understanding ) initiatives of the United States in Germany and throughout Europe after World War II . Adler was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit 1st Class by the Federal Government .

Life

Eastman School of Music - University of Rochester , Rochester, New York

Adler was born the son of the Mannheim cantor Hugo Chaim Adler and his wife Selma Rothschild. After the Reichspogromnacht , his father was imprisoned in the Dachau concentration camp and forced to emigrate. The family fled to the USA at the end of 1938, where Adler sen. worked as a cantor at Temple Emanuel in Worcester, Massachusetts .

Samuel Adler studied music at Boston University with Herbert Fromm from 1943 to 1947 and at Harvard University from 1948 to 1950 , a. a. with Aaron Copland , Paul Hindemith , Paul Pisk , Walter Piston and Randall Thompson . He received an MA from Serge Koussevitzky in 1950 and completed a conducting course in Tanglewood in 1949 .

In 1950 he signed up for military service and was stationed as part of the occupation army in Germany in Baumholder in the Palatinate. In 1952 he founded the Seventh Army Symphony Orchestra for the United States Army , which he conducted in more than 75 concerts in Germany and Austria. In 1953 he gave up the direction of the orchestra and got a position as musical director at Temple Emanu-El in Dallas . There he also oversaw the Dallas Lyric Theater and the choir. Thereafter, Adler was from 1957 to 1966 a professor of composition at the College of Music at the University of North Texas and in the same position until 1995 at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester (New York) . Since 1997 he has been a professor at the Juilliard School , where he held the William Schuman Scholars Chair in the 2009/10 academic year.

Adler held master classes and seminars at many national and international universities and gave summer courses at major music festivals.

Adler is a second married to Emily Freeman-Brown. With his first wife Carol Ellen Adler geb. Stalker he has daughters Deborah Adler and Naomi Leah Adler.

Compositional style

Adler used a wide variety of different compositional techniques in his music, including free atonality , diatonic and serialism . In addition, he integrated dance rhythms, folk themes, ostinati and aleatoric into his scores .

Works

Adler published more than 400 musical works, including five operas , six symphonies , eight string quartets , several instrumental concerts, choral music and songs. His students at Juilliard included Eric Ewazen , Dana Wilson , Jay Greenberg and Jason Robert Brown . He wrote three major books on music: Choral Conducting (1971), Sight Singing (1979), and The Study of Orchestration (1982), as well as a large number of magazine articles and book chapters.

Solo instrumental works

  • Four Composer Portraits (Birthday Cards for Solo Piano) for unaccompanied piano
  • Bassoonery (Study for Bassoon Solo) for unaccompanied bassoon (1965)
  • A Bonnie Tune (A Scherzo for solo flute) for unaccompanied flute (2012)
  • Bravura (A Concert Piece for bass trombone) for unaccompanied bass trombone (2012)
  • Bridges to Span Adversity for harpsichord (1991)
  • Cantilena for solo horn in F (2018)
  • Canto III for solo violin
  • Canto V
  • Canto VIII for piano solo (1976)
  • Clarinon for unaccompanied Bb clarinet
  • Fantasy for piano solo (2014)
  • Festschrift for piano solo
  • Flaunting for unaccompanied flute
  • From Generation to Generation for solo organ
  • In Memory of Milton for solo violin (2012)
  • In Praise of Bach for solo organ (2003)
  • Meadowmountetudes (Four Studies Of 20th-Century Techniques) for solo violin (1996)
  • Oboration for unaccompanied oboe (1965)
  • The Sense of Touch (Eight Short Pieces Introducing the Young Pianist to Techniques Used in Twentieth-Century Music) for piano solo (1983)
  • Solemn Soliloquy for solo violin (2015)
  • Sonata for solo guitar (1990)
  • Sonata for harpsichord (1984)
  • Three Piano Preludes for piano solo
  • Thy Song Expands My Spirit (A Tribute to Aaron Copland on His 80th Birthday) for piano solo (1983)
  • Two Meditations for Organ (1965)

Music for chamber ensemble

  • Acrostics (Four Games for Six Players)
  • Be Not Afraid: The Isle is Full of Noises for brass quintet
  • Brahmsiana
  • Caccia for two flutes
  • Concert piece
  • Contrasting Inventions
  • Diary of a Journey
  • Divertimento
  • Divertissement for viola and marimba
  • Divertissement for violin and marimba
  • Festival Fanfare and Dance for brass ensemble
  • Fidl-Fantazye: A Klezmer Concerto for violin and piano (2017)
  • Five Movements
  • Four Dialogues for Euphonium for Euphonium and Marimba
  • Into the Radiant Boundaries for viola and guitar
  • Introit & Toccatina
  • L'Olam Vaed for violoncello and piano
  • Let the Trumpet Sound for trumpet and organ (2015)
  • Life Is an Ecstasy for Trumpet and Organ (2017)
  • Pasiphae for piano and percussion
  • Pensive Soliloquy for alto saxophone and piano (1998)
  • Ports of Call for violin duet
  • Prelude
  • Primavera Amarilla
  • Quintet for piano and string quartet
  • Recitative and Rondo Capriccioso for flute and piano (2014)
  • Romp for string quartet
  • Scherzo Jungso for trumpet, horn, trombone, tuba and percussion
  • Sonata for horn and piano (1948)
  • Sonata for flute and piano (2006)
  • Sonata for viola and piano (1987)
  • String Quartet No. 6 ("A Whitman Serenade" for medium voice and string quartet)
  • String Quartet No. 9
  • String Quartet No. 10
  • Three Pieces for violoncello and piano (2016)
  • Time in Tempest Everywhere
  • Trio (“5 Snapshots”) for string trio
  • Trumpetry
  • Two Southern Appalachian Folk Songs for violin and piano (2014)

Vocal music / choral music

  • Five Choral Scherzi for mixed choir, viola and guitar
  • In Praise Of Labor for voice and piano
  • Jonah (The Man Without Tolerance) for SATB choir and orchestra
  • Nuptial Scene
  • Of Love and Dreams for voice and piano (2018)
  • Of Saints & Sinners-Mez
  • Passionate Sword-Fl / Cl
  • A Psalm Trilogy for SATB choir a cappella (1997)
  • Recalling The Yesterdays for mezzo-soprano, flute, clarinet, violin, violoncello, piano and percussion
  • serenade
  • Sixth String Quartet
  • Song Of Songs Fragments for mezzo-soprano, clarinet and piano
  • Those Were The Days for voice and piano
  • Two Shelley Songs for SATB choir and piano (1982)
  • To Remember: To Be Remembered
  • Death fugue for tenor voice and piano
  • We Believe A Hymn Of Faith

Orchestral music

  • All Nature Plays
  • American Airs and Dances
  • Art Creates Artists
  • A Bridge to Understanding
  • Centennial
  • Drifting on Wind and Currents
  • Elegy for string orchestra
  • In Just Spring
  • In The Spirit Of Bach for string orchestra (2015)
  • Jonah (The Man Without Tolerance) for SATB choir and orchestra
  • You only live once (that's why we dance) for a large orchestra
  • serenade
  • Seven Variations on “God Save the King” for small orchestra or chamber orchestra
  • Shadow Dances
  • Show An Affirming Flame
  • Symphony No. 1 (1953)
  • Symphony No. 2 (1957)
  • Symphony No. 3 ("Diptych", 1960, revised 1980)
  • Symphony No. 4 ("Geometrics", 1965)
  • Symphony No. 5 ("We Are the Echoes") for mezzo-soprano and orchestra (1975)
  • Symphony No. 6 (1985)
  • Time in Tempest Everywhere for soprano, oboe and chamber orchestra
  • We Believe: A Hymn of Faith

Music for orchestra with solo instruments

  • Arcos Concerto (A Bridge between the Old and the New) for flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon and string orchestra
  • Beyond the Pale (A Portrait of a Klezmer) for clarinet and string orchestra
  • Concerto for violoncello and orchestra (1999)
  • Concerto for viola and orchestra (2002)
  • Concerto for violin and orchestra (2015)
  • Concert “Shir Ha Ma'alot” for woodwind quintet and orchestra
  • Concerto for guitar and orchestra (1998)
  • Concerto for horn and orchestra
  • Concert for organ and orchestra
  • Concerto No. 2 for piano and orchestra (1996)
  • Fidl-Fantazye: A Klezmer Concerto for Violin and Orchestra
  • Lux Perpetua for organ and orchestra
  • Piano Concerto No. 2
  • Piano concerto No. 3 for piano and string orchestra
  • Those were the days

Music for band or wind ensemble

  • American Airs and Dances
  • Concert for guitar and wind ensemble
  • Concert for woodwinds, brass instruments and percussion
  • Dawn to Glory
  • A Little Night and Day Music (1977)
  • Pygmalion
  • The River That Mines the Silences of Stones (2016)
  • Rogues and Lovers
  • Serenata Concertante for flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, alto saxophone and wind ensemble
  • Solemn March
  • Live long and happy! A suite for large wind orchestra for the 400th anniversary of the city of Mannheim (2007)

Staged work

  • The Outcast of Poker Flat, 1959, opera, staged in Dallas, April 1961
  • The Wrestler, 1971, opera staged in Dallas, June 1972
  • The Disappointment, 1974, opera [reconstruction of an early ballad opera]
  • The Lodge of Shadows, musical drama for baritone solo, dancer and orchestra
  • The Waking, 1978, ballet

Liturgical music

  • B'shaaray Tefilah: A Sabbath Service (1963) for cantor, SATB and organ
  • Call to Worship (1995) for cantor, SATB and organ
  • Haskivenu (1981) for cantor, SATB and organ
  • L'cha Dodi (1984) for solo, SATB, organ and flute
  • Ma Tovu (2011) for tenor, SATB and organ
  • Psalm 24 (2003) for SATB and organ
  • Psalm 40 for SATB and organ
  • Psalm 67 for SATB and organ
  • Psalm 96 for SATB and organ
  • Psalm 146 (1985) for SATB and organ
  • Shir Chadash - A Friday Eve Service for organ and 3-part choir (SAB)
  • The Twenty-Third Psalm - Hebrew and English (1981) for tenor, SATB and organ
  • Yamim Naraim I and II - A Two-Volume Anthology for the High Holy Days (1990–1991) for cantor, SATB and organ

Honors

Adler has received numerous awards and honors. The Southern Methodist and Wake Forest Universities, St. Mary's College of Notre Dame and the St. Louis Conservatory of Music awarded him honorary doctorates. In 1984 he received a Guggenheim scholarship and in 1988 he was a “ Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar”. In 2004 he was a Composer in Residence Fellow at the American Academy in Berlin . He became a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters in May 2001 and was inducted into the American Classical Music Hall of Fame in October 2008 . In May 2018, Adler received the Federal Cross of Merit in New York. In June 2018, the large hall of the Jewish community in Mannheim was named Samuel Adler Hall .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ High honor for composers . Mannheim morning. May 29, 2018. Retrieved September 28, 2018.
  2. ↑ Herbert Fromm near Naxos
  3. ↑ Victoria Etnier Villamil: A Singer's Guide to the American Art Song: 1870-1980. Lanham 1993, p. 1.
  4. ↑ Adler, Samuel. In: Jonathan D. Green: A Conductor's Guide to Choral-Orchestral Works, Part 1. Scarecrow Press, Oxford 1994, ISBN 978-0-8108-4720-0 , p. 14 (English, limited preview in the Google book search) .
  5. ↑ Samuel Adler - Works - Musical compositions by Samuel Adler on samuelhadler.com (English)
  6. ↑ Mannheimer Bläserphilharmonie - CD Live long and happily!
  7. ↑ Samuel Adler - Works on samuelhadler.com (English)
  8. ↑ Harald Raab: Samuel Adler remains bridge builder despite expulsion by the Nazis. Mannheim honors the composer on his 90th birthday - celebration and concert in the Jewish community. In: Rhein-Neckar-Zeitung . June 26, 2018 .;
personal data
SURNAME Adler, Samuel
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Adler, Samuel Hans (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-American composer and conductor
DATE OF BIRTH March 4, 1928
PLACE OF BIRTH Mannheim