Charles Wuorinen
Encyclopedia
Charles Peter Wuorinen is a prolific Pulitzer Prize
-winning American composer born and living in New York City. His catalog of more than 250 compositions includes works for orchestra, opera, chamber music, as well as solo instrumental and vocal works. In recent years he has dedicated attention to large scale works for the stage, including collaborations with Salman Rushdie and Annie Proulx.
and was the author of five books on his native Finland. His mother, Alfhild Kalijarvi received her MA in Biology from Smith College. Wuorinen excelled academically graduating from Trinity School (New York City)
as valedictorian 1956 and received his Master’s Degree in Music from Columbia University in 1963. Wuorinen’s parents discouraged his pursuing a career in music. Early supporters included Jacques Barzun
and Edgard Varèse
.
.
, Elliott Carter
and Stefan Wolpe
who wrote several works for the ensemble. Many of Wuorinen’s works were premiered by The Group, including Chamber Concerto for Cello and the Chamber Concerto for Flute. Major Wuorinen compositions of the 60’s include Orchestral and Electronic Exchanges premiered by the New York Philharmonic conducted by Lukas Foss
, the First Piano Concerto, with composer as soloist, the String Trio written for the then newly formed new music ensemble Speculum Musicae and Time’s Encomium, Wuorinen’s only purely electronic piece composed using the RCA Synthesizer at the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center under a commission from Nonesuch Records
and for which Wuorinen was awarded the 1970 Pulitzer Prize for Music
. Wuorinen was 32 when he was awarded the Pulitzer.
and with a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation he conducted sonic experiments at Bell Labs
in New Jersey. From an interview with Richard Burbank Wuorinen is quoted as saying,
, Bamboula Squared for computer generated sound and orchestra (inspired by his work at Bell Labs), and The Golden Dance. Wuorinen was composer in residence with the San Francisco Symphony from 1984-1989. Major chamber works of the 80’s include his Third String Quartet commissioned to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Hopkins Center for the Arts
at Dartmouth College, The Blue Bamboula for pianist Ursula Oppens, the Sonata for Violin and Piano commissioned the Library of Congress and premiered at the Library on an all-Wuorinen concert, String Sextet, New York Notes, Third Piano Sonata for Alan Feinberg
, and trios for various combinations including three works for horn trio.
In the 1980s Wuorinen began an association with the New York City Ballet
which resulted in a series of works designed for dance, Five (Concerto for Amplified Cello and Orchestra) for choreographer Jean-Pierre Bonnefoux
and Wuorinen's longtime colleague and champion Fred Sherry, Delight of the Muses based on works of Mozart and commissioned in honor of the Mozart Bicentennial and three works inspired by scenes from Dante’s la Divina Commedia for Peter Martins (The Mission of Virgil, The Great Procession and The River of Light). In addition to the Dante texts Wuorinen was influenced by the watercolors illustrations of William Blake
. For New York City Ballet Wuorinen also made a two-piano arrangement of the Schoenberg
Orchestra Variations choreographed by Richard Tanner, and Peter Martins created a ballet based on Wuorinen’s A Reliquary for Igor Stravinsky In 1985 Wuorinen was awarded a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship.
’s A Winter's Tale for soprano Phyllis Bryn-Julson and the Fenton Songs I & II on poems of the British poet James Fenton
with whom Wuorinen was collaborating on an opera. Major chamber works in the 1990’s included the Saxophone Quartet for the Raschèr Saxophone Quartet
, Percussion Quartet, Piano Quintet, Sonata for Guitar and Piano. Orchestra works included the Concerto for Saxophone Quartet and Orchestra, Symphony Seven as well as the Dante works for the New York City Ballet.
, music director of the Metropolitan Opera and the then also the Boston Symphony Orchestra
. Levine commissioned Wuorinen's Fourth Piano Concerto for his first season as music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and subsequently the tone poem Theologoumenon (a 60th birthday gift for Levine from his long-time manager Ronald Wilford) premiered by the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and the Eighth Symphony: Theologoumena for the BSO.
Other champions of Wuorinen’s music include Peter Serkin
for whom Wuorinen composed three concerti including Time Regained " based on music of Machaut, Matteo da Perugia
, Guillaume Dufay
and Orlando Gibbons
, the virtuosic solo Scherzo and the Second Piano Quintet with the Brentano Quartet another ensemble that Wuorinen has had a very fruitful relationship with and for whom he wrote his Fourth String Quartet.
In 2004 the New York City Opera premiered his opera Haroun and the Sea of Stories based on the novel of Salman Rushdie with libretto by James Fenton.
Other works from this decade also include Cyclops 2000 for Oliver Knussen and the London Sinfonietta, Ashberyana, settings of John Ashbery
, Spin5 a chamber concerto for violinist Jennifer Koh
, Fourth Piano Sonata for Anne-Marie McDermott
, Synaxis, Metagong and It Happens Like This a dramatic cantata on seven poems of James Tate
premiered at Tanglewood with the composer conducting.
Wuorinen is currently (2011) at work on an opera based on Annie Proulx’s Brokeback Mountain
for which Proulx has written the libretto. Premiere is planned for January 2014 by the Teatro Real in Madrid.
was premiered by the New York City Opera
in Fall 2004."
Wuorinen has lectured at universities throughout the United States and abroad, and has served on the faculties of Columbia, Princeton, and Yale Universities, the University of Iowa, University of California (San Diego), Manhattan School of Music, New England Conservatory, State University of New York at Buffalo, and Rutgers University.
's monodrama, Neither.
In 1962 he co-founded the Group for Contemporary Music, an ensemble dedicated to performance of new chamber music. In addition to cultivating a new generation of performers, commissioning and premiering hundreds of new works, the Group has also been a model for similar organizations which have appeared in the United States since its founding.
cited Wuorinen as a particular influence on his own style of composition. Black also recorded Wuorinen's New York Notes.
Pulitzer Prize for Music
The Pulitzer Prize for Music was first awarded in 1943. Joseph Pulitzer did not call for such a prize in his will, but had arranged for a music scholarship to be awarded each year...
-winning American composer born and living in New York City. His catalog of more than 250 compositions includes works for orchestra, opera, chamber music, as well as solo instrumental and vocal works. In recent years he has dedicated attention to large scale works for the stage, including collaborations with Salman Rushdie and Annie Proulx.
Biography
Wuorinen was born on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. His father, John H. Wuorinen, was chairman of the History department at Columbia University and a noted scholar of Scandinavian affairs who also worked for the Office of Strategic ServicesOffice of Strategic Services
The Office of Strategic Services was a United States intelligence agency formed during World War II. It was the wartime intelligence agency, and it was a predecessor of the Central Intelligence Agency...
and was the author of five books on his native Finland. His mother, Alfhild Kalijarvi received her MA in Biology from Smith College. Wuorinen excelled academically graduating from Trinity School (New York City)
Trinity School (New York City)
Trinity School is a private, preparatory, co-educational day school for grades K-12 located in New York City, USA, and a member of both the New York Interschool and the Ivy Preparatory School League...
as valedictorian 1956 and received his Master’s Degree in Music from Columbia University in 1963. Wuorinen’s parents discouraged his pursuing a career in music. Early supporters included Jacques Barzun
Jacques Barzun
Jacques Martin Barzun is a French-born American historian of ideas and culture. He has written on a wide range of topics, but is perhaps best known as a philosopher of education, his Teacher in America being a strong influence on post-WWII training of schoolteachers in the United...
and Edgard Varèse
Edgard Varèse
Edgard Victor Achille Charles Varèse, , whose name was also spelled Edgar Varèse , was an innovative French-born composer who spent the greater part of his career in the United States....
.
1940s and 1950s
Wuorinen began composing at age 5 and began piano lessons at 6. At sixteen he was awarded the New York Philharmonic's Young Composers' Award and the John Harms Chorus premiered his choral work O Filii et Filiae at Town Hall (2 May 1954). He was active as a performer, singer and pianist, with the choruses at the Church of the Heavenly Rest and the Church of the Transfiguration (Little Church Around The Corner), and was the rehearsal pianist for the world premiere production of Carlos Chavez's opera Panfilio and Lauretta at Columbia University during the Spring of 1957. From 1952-1956 Wuorinen was President of the Trinty School Glee Club. He was pianist, librarian and General Manager of the Columbia University Orchestra (1956-1957). During the summers of 1955 and 1956 has was the organist at Saint Paul's Church in Gardner, Massachusetss where his parents stayed during the summer months. He was awarded the Bearns Prize (3 times), the BMI Student Composers Award (4 times) and the Lili Boulanger Award. He was a fellow at the Bennington Composers Conference for several years. Many early professional performances of Wuorinen’s compositions took place on the Music of Our Time series at the 92nd Street Y run by violinist Max PollikoffMax Pollikoff
Max Pollikoff"" was a classical music violinist who created the Music in Our Time Series at the 92nd Street Y in New York City. The Series commissioned and premiered hundreds of new works. In 1923, when Pollikoff was 19, he made his first appearance in New York, playing at the Aeolian Hall...
.
1960s
In 1962 Wuorinen and fellow composer-performer Harvey Sollberger formed The Group for Contemporary Music. The ensemble raised the standard of new music performance in New York, and championed the music of such composers as Milton BabbittMilton Babbitt
Milton Byron Babbitt was an American composer, music theorist, and teacher. He is particularly noted for his serial and electronic music.-Biography:...
, Elliott Carter
Elliott Carter
Elliott Cook Carter, Jr. is a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer born and living in New York City. He studied with Nadia Boulanger in Paris in the 1930s, and then returned to the United States. After a neoclassical phase, he went on to write atonal, rhythmically complex music...
and Stefan Wolpe
Stefan Wolpe
Stefan Wolpe was a German-born composer.-Life:Wolpe was born in Berlin. He attended the Klindworth-Scharwenka Conservatory from the age of fourteen, and the Berlin Hochschule für Musik in 1920-1921. He studied composition under Franz Schreker and was also a pupil of Ferruccio Busoni...
who wrote several works for the ensemble. Many of Wuorinen’s works were premiered by The Group, including Chamber Concerto for Cello and the Chamber Concerto for Flute. Major Wuorinen compositions of the 60’s include Orchestral and Electronic Exchanges premiered by the New York Philharmonic conducted by Lukas Foss
Lukas Foss
Lukas Foss was a German-born American composer, conductor, and pianist.-Music career:He was born Lukas Fuchs in Berlin, Germany in 1922. His father was the philosopher and scholar Martin Fuchs...
, the First Piano Concerto, with composer as soloist, the String Trio written for the then newly formed new music ensemble Speculum Musicae and Time’s Encomium, Wuorinen’s only purely electronic piece composed using the RCA Synthesizer at the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center under a commission from Nonesuch Records
Nonesuch Records
Nonesuch Records is an American record label, owned by Warner Music Group and distributed by Warner Bros. Records.-Company history:Nonesuch was founded in 1964 by Jac Holzman to produce "fine records at the same price as a trade paperback", which would be half the price of a normal LP...
and for which Wuorinen was awarded the 1970 Pulitzer Prize for Music
Pulitzer Prize for Music
The Pulitzer Prize for Music was first awarded in 1943. Joseph Pulitzer did not call for such a prize in his will, but had arranged for a music scholarship to be awarded each year...
. Wuorinen was 32 when he was awarded the Pulitzer.
1970s
The 1970s was a particularly fruitful period for Wuorinen. Chamber works during this decade include his first two string quartets, the Six Pieces for Violin and Piano, Fast Fantasy for cello and piano and two large works for the Tashi ensemble, Tashi and Fortune. Works for orchestra include the Grand Bamboula for strings, A Reliquary for Igor Stravinsky which incorporates the elder master’s last sketches, the Second Piano Concerto and the Concerto for Amplified Violin and Orchestra which caused a scandal at its premiere at the Tanglewood Festival with Paul Zukofsky and the BSO conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas. In 1976 Wuorinen completed his Percussion Symphony a five movement work for 24 players including two pianos for the New Jersey Percussion Ensemble and his longtime colleague Raymond DesRoches, as well as his his opera subtitled ‘a baroque burlesque’, The W. of Babylon with an original libretto by Renaud Charles Bruce. In the late 70’s Wuorinen became interested in the work of the mathematician Benoit MandelbrotBenoît Mandelbrot
Benoît B. Mandelbrot was a French American mathematician. Born in Poland, he moved to France with his family when he was a child...
and with a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation he conducted sonic experiments at Bell Labs
Bell Labs
Bell Laboratories is the research and development subsidiary of the French-owned Alcatel-Lucent and previously of the American Telephone & Telegraph Company , half-owned through its Western Electric manufacturing subsidiary.Bell Laboratories operates its...
in New Jersey. From an interview with Richard Burbank Wuorinen is quoted as saying,
What I did at Bell Labs (with Mark Liberman) was to try various experiments in which strings of pseudo-random material, usually pitches but sometimes other things, were generated and then subjected to traditional types of compositional organization, including twelve-tone procedures. What I wanted to do was to see whether or not these things sounded "composed," sounded purposively chosen. They did, at least by my lights. The random sequences were not just any old random sequences but were that of a kind called 1/f randomness.
1980s
The 1980s were framed by two large scale works for chorus and orchestra based on Biblical texts, the 60-minute oratorio The Celestial Sphere for the 100th Anniversary of the Handel Oratorio Society in Rock Island Illinois of 1980 and Genesis of 1989 jointly commissioned by the Minnesota Orchestra and San Francisco Symphony. Other major orchestra works during this period include the Rhapsody for Violin and Orchestra, Third Piano Concerto written for pianist Garrick Ohlsson; Movers and Shakers the first work commissioned by the Cleveland Orchestra for music director Christoph von DohnányiChristoph von Dohnányi
Christoph von Dohnányi is a German conductor of Hungarian ancestry.- Youth and World War II :Dohnányi was born in Berlin, Germany to jurist Hans von Dohnányi and Christine Bonhoeffer. His uncle on his mother's side was Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a Lutheran pastor and theologian/ethicist...
, Bamboula Squared for computer generated sound and orchestra (inspired by his work at Bell Labs), and The Golden Dance. Wuorinen was composer in residence with the San Francisco Symphony from 1984-1989. Major chamber works of the 80’s include his Third String Quartet commissioned to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Hopkins Center for the Arts
Hopkins Center for the Arts
Hopkins Center for the Creative and Performing Arts at Dartmouth College is located at 2 East Wheelock Street in Hanover, New Hampshire. The center, which was designed by Wallace K. Harrison and foreshadows his later design of Manhattan’s Lincoln Center, is the college’s cultural hub. It is home...
at Dartmouth College, The Blue Bamboula for pianist Ursula Oppens, the Sonata for Violin and Piano commissioned the Library of Congress and premiered at the Library on an all-Wuorinen concert, String Sextet, New York Notes, Third Piano Sonata for Alan Feinberg
Alan Feinberg
Alan Feinberg is an American classical pianist. He has considerable experience with contemporary classical music and has premiered over 300 works among them Mel Powell's Pulitzer Prize winning Duplicates, as well as works by such composers as John Adams , Milton Babbitt, John Harbison, Steve...
, and trios for various combinations including three works for horn trio.
In the 1980s Wuorinen began an association with the New York City Ballet
New York City Ballet
New York City Ballet is a ballet company founded in 1948 by choreographer George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein. Leon Barzin was the company's first music director. Balanchine and Jerome Robbins are considered the founding choreographers of the company...
which resulted in a series of works designed for dance, Five (Concerto for Amplified Cello and Orchestra) for choreographer Jean-Pierre Bonnefoux
Jean-Pierre Bonnefoux
Jean-Pierre Bonnefoux is a French ballet dancer and instructor. He is currently the artistic director at the North Carolina Dance Theatre and the Chautauqua Institution. At 14, Bonnefoux joined the Paris Opera Ballet, and became a star dancer at age 21. Under the direction of George Balanchine,...
and Wuorinen's longtime colleague and champion Fred Sherry, Delight of the Muses based on works of Mozart and commissioned in honor of the Mozart Bicentennial and three works inspired by scenes from Dante’s la Divina Commedia for Peter Martins (The Mission of Virgil, The Great Procession and The River of Light). In addition to the Dante texts Wuorinen was influenced by the watercolors illustrations of William Blake
William Blake
William Blake was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of both the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age...
. For New York City Ballet Wuorinen also made a two-piano arrangement of the Schoenberg
Schoenberg
Schoenberg is the surname of several persons:* Arnold Schoenberg , Austrian-American composer* Claude-Michel Schoenberg , French record producer, actor, singer, popular songwriter, and musical theatre composer...
Orchestra Variations choreographed by Richard Tanner, and Peter Martins created a ballet based on Wuorinen’s A Reliquary for Igor Stravinsky In 1985 Wuorinen was awarded a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship.
1990s
Wuorinen devoted increased attention to writing works for the voice, these included his setting of Dylan ThomasDylan Thomas
Dylan Marlais Thomas was a Welsh poet and writer, Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 11 January 2008. who wrote exclusively in English. In addition to poetry, he wrote short stories and scripts for film and radio, which he often performed himself...
’s A Winter's Tale for soprano Phyllis Bryn-Julson and the Fenton Songs I & II on poems of the British poet James Fenton
James Fenton
James Martin Fenton is an English poet, journalist and literary critic. He is a former Oxford Professor of Poetry.-Life and career:...
with whom Wuorinen was collaborating on an opera. Major chamber works in the 1990’s included the Saxophone Quartet for the Raschèr Saxophone Quartet
Raschèr Saxophone Quartet
The Raschèr Saxophone Quartet is a professional ensemble of four saxophonists which performs classical and modern music.Like most saxophone quartets, the RSQ features one player on each of the four most common sizes of saxophone: soprano, alto, tenor, and baritone.The quartet was founded in the...
, Percussion Quartet, Piano Quintet, Sonata for Guitar and Piano. Orchestra works included the Concerto for Saxophone Quartet and Orchestra, Symphony Seven as well as the Dante works for the New York City Ballet.
2000 onward
With the turn of the century one of the major champions of Wuorinen’s music became James LevineJames Levine
James Lawrence Levine is an American conductor and pianist. He is currently the music director of the Metropolitan Opera and former music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Levine's first performance conducting the Metropolitan Opera was on June 5, 1971, and as of May 2011 he has...
, music director of the Metropolitan Opera and the then also the Boston Symphony Orchestra
Boston Symphony Orchestra
The Boston Symphony Orchestra is an orchestra based in Boston, Massachusetts. It is one of the five American orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five". Founded in 1881, the BSO plays most of its concerts at Boston's Symphony Hall and in the summer performs at the Tanglewood Music Center...
. Levine commissioned Wuorinen's Fourth Piano Concerto for his first season as music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and subsequently the tone poem Theologoumenon (a 60th birthday gift for Levine from his long-time manager Ronald Wilford) premiered by the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and the Eighth Symphony: Theologoumena for the BSO.
Other champions of Wuorinen’s music include Peter Serkin
Peter Serkin
-Biography:He was born in New York City and is the son of pianist Rudolf Serkin, and grandson of the influential violinist Adolf Busch, whose daughter Irene had married Rudolf Serkin...
for whom Wuorinen composed three concerti including Time Regained " based on music of Machaut, Matteo da Perugia
Matteo da Perugia
Matteo da Perugia was a Medieval Italian composer, presumably from Perugia. From 1402 to 1407 he was the first magister cappellae of the Milan Cathedral; his duties included being cantor and teaching three boys selected by the Cathedral deputies. Little is known about his life apart from this...
, Guillaume Dufay
Guillaume Dufay
Guillaume Dufay was a Franco-Flemish composer of the early Renaissance. As the central figure in the Burgundian School, he was the most famous and influential composer in Europe in the mid-15th century.-Early life:From the evidence of his will, he was probably born in Beersel, in the vicinity of...
and Orlando Gibbons
Orlando Gibbons
Orlando Gibbons was an English composer, virginalist and organist of the late Tudor and early Jacobean periods...
, the virtuosic solo Scherzo and the Second Piano Quintet with the Brentano Quartet another ensemble that Wuorinen has had a very fruitful relationship with and for whom he wrote his Fourth String Quartet.
In 2004 the New York City Opera premiered his opera Haroun and the Sea of Stories based on the novel of Salman Rushdie with libretto by James Fenton.
Other works from this decade also include Cyclops 2000 for Oliver Knussen and the London Sinfonietta, Ashberyana, settings of John Ashbery
John Ashbery
John Lawrence Ashbery is an American poet. He has published more than twenty volumes of poetry and won nearly every major American award for poetry, including a Pulitzer Prize in 1976 for his collection Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror. But Ashbery's work still proves controversial...
, Spin5 a chamber concerto for violinist Jennifer Koh
Jennifer Koh
Jennifer Koh is an American violinist, born to Korean parents in Glen Ellyn, IL.Jennifer Koh earned a B.A. in English Literature from Oberlin College, as well as a Performance Diploma from the attached Oberlin Conservatory. She is also a graduate of the Curtis Institute and was silver medalist in...
, Fourth Piano Sonata for Anne-Marie McDermott
Anne-Marie McDermott
Anne-Marie McDermott is a classical music pianist, and member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. She is also the artistic director of the Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival, and Artistic Director of the Ocean Reef Chamber Music Festival in Key Largo, FL and the Avila Chamber Music...
, Synaxis, Metagong and It Happens Like This a dramatic cantata on seven poems of James Tate
James Tate
James Tate may refer to:* James Tate , Headmaster of Richmond School 1796–1833)* James "Honest Dick" Tate , State Treasurer of Kentucky...
premiered at Tanglewood with the composer conducting.
Wuorinen is currently (2011) at work on an opera based on Annie Proulx’s Brokeback Mountain
Brokeback Mountain
Brokeback Mountain is a 2005 romantic drama film directed by Ang Lee. It is a film adaptation of the 1997 short story of the same name by Annie Proulx with the screenplay written by Diana Ossana and Larry McMurtry...
for which Proulx has written the libretto. Premiere is planned for January 2014 by the Teatro Real in Madrid.
Compositions
Wuorinen has written more than 250 compositions to date. These include works is every genre, from instrumental solo to large scale opera. His newest works include It Happens Like This - a dramatic cantata on poems of James Tate, Marimba Variations commissioned by 21 players, Oros a solo for Ursula Oppens, Synaxis a sinfonia concertante for four soloists with strings and timpani, Scherzo a solo for Peter Serkin, Fourth Piano Sonata for Anne-Marie McDermott, Second Piano Quintet, and Metagong for two pianos and two percussion. He is presently (2011) at work on an opera on Annie Proulx’s Brokeback Mountain for the Teatro Real in Madrid. previous opera Haroun and the Sea of Stories based on the novel of Salman Rushdie with libretto by poet James FentonJames Fenton
James Martin Fenton is an English poet, journalist and literary critic. He is a former Oxford Professor of Poetry.-Life and career:...
was premiered by the New York City Opera
New York City Opera
The New York City Opera is an American opera company located in New York City.The company, called "the people's opera" by New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, was founded in 1943 with the aim of making opera financially accessible to a wide audience, producing an innovative choice of repertory, and...
in Fall 2004."
Partial discography
- Scherzo / First String Quartet / Viola Variations / Second Piano Quintet. Peter SerkinPeter Serkin-Biography:He was born in New York City and is the son of pianist Rudolf Serkin, and grandson of the influential violinist Adolf Busch, whose daughter Irene had married Rudolf Serkin...
, piano, Brentano String Quartet, Curtis Macomber, violin, Jesse Mills, violin, Lois Martin, viola, Fred Sherry, cello. Naxos RecordsNaxos RecordsNaxos Records is a record label specializing in classical music. Through a number of imprints, Naxos also releases genres including Chinese music, jazz, world music, and early rock & roll. The company was founded in 1987 by Klaus Heymann, a German-born resident of Hong Kong.Naxos is the largest...
8.559694. - Ashberyana / Fenton Songs / Fenton Songs II / Praegustatum / Ave Christe: Josquin / Josquiniana. Leon Williams, baritone, Lucy Shelton soprano, James Pugh, trombone Brentano String Quartet, Sarah Rothenberg, piano. Naxos 8.559377
- String Sextet / String Quartet No. 2 / Piano Quintet / Divertimento for string quartet. Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Tashi, Ursula Oppens, The Group for Contemporary Music. Naxos 8.559288
- Dante Trilogy: The Mission of Virgil / The Great Procession / The River of Light. (chamber version, live recording), The Group for Contemporary Music, Oliver Knussen, conductor. Naxos 8.559345
- Tashi / Percussion Quartet / Fortune. Tashi, The Group for Contemporary Music, New Jersey Percussion Ensemble. Naxos 8.559321
- Horn Trio / Horn Trio Continued / Trombone Trio / Trio for Bass Instruments / Double Solo for Horn Trio. The Group for Contemporary Music. Naxos 8.559264
- Cyclops 2000 / A Reliquary for Igor Stravinsky. London Sinfonietta, Oliver Knussen, conductor. London Sinfonietta label 859811 (Reliquary previously issued on DGG)
- On Alligators / Fourth String Quartet / Natural Fantasy / Third Piano Concerto. Kevin Bowyer, organ, Brentano String Quartet, Garrick Ohlsson, piano, San Francisco Symphony, Herbert Blomstedt, conductor. Tzadik Records 8010
- Time's Encomium / Lepton / New York Notes / Epithalamium. SurPlus Ensemble, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Wuorinen conducting, Paul Christopher Gekker and Mark Gould, trumpets. Tzadik RecordsTzadik RecordsTzadik Records is a record label based in New York City specialising in avant-garde and experimental music. The label was established by the eclectic composer and saxophonist John Zorn in 1995; Zorn is the executive producer of all Tzadik releases...
7077 / - Duos: Sonata for Guitar and Piano / Never Again The Same / Duo Sonata for Flute and Piano / Divertimento for Alto Saxophone and Piano / Eleven Short Pieces / Psalm 39 / Percusson Duo. William Anderson (guitarist)William Anderson (guitarist)William Anderson is an American guitarist and composer.Anderson studied the guitar with Allen Krantz, Christoph Harlan and David Starobin, and composition with Frank Brickle...
, Joan Forsyth, piano, Wilbur Pauley, bass, Christopher Hall, tuba, Thomas MeglioranzaThomas MeglioranzaThomas Meglioranza is an American operatic baritone.Meglioranza was born to an American father of Italian-Polish descent and a Thai mother. Meglioranza grew up in the northern New Jersey towns of Teaneck and Wayne. He began taking voice lessons at Grinnell College, and earned a MM from the Eastman...
, baritone, Robert Aitken (composer)Robert Aitken (composer)Robert Morris Aitken, is a Canadian composer and flautist. He began his career as a teenager playing in a number of orchestras, notably becoming the youngest principal flautist in the history of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra in 1958 at the age if 19. In 1971 he abandoned ensemble performance...
, flute, James Avery (musician)James Avery (musician)James Avery was an American classical pianist and conductor.He was born in Hutchinson, Kansas and studied at the University of Kansas, and then at Indiana University under Tibor Kozma. From 1967 to 1980 he taught at [University of Iowa ], and from 1980 until 2002 at the Hochschule für Musik...
, piano, John Ferrari, percussion, Margaret Kampmeier, piano, Erik Carlson, violin, Michael Caterisano, percussion, Eliot Gattego, alto saxophone, Eric Wubbels, piano. Albany RecordsAlbany RecordsAlbany Records is an American classical music record label focusing particularly on contemporary classical music. It was established by Peter Kermani in 1987, and is based in Albany, New York.-External links:**...
TROY1077 - Five (Concerto for Amplified Cello and Orchestra / The Golden Dance / Concerto for Amplified Violin and Orchestra. Fred Sherry, cello, Orchestra of St. Luke's, Wuorinen conductor, San Francisco Symphony, Herbert BlomstedtHerbert BlomstedtHerbert Blomstedt is a Swedish conductor.Herbert Blomstedt was born in Springfield, Massachusetts and two years after his birth, his Swedish parents moved the family back to their country of origin...
conducting, Paul ZukofskyPaul ZukofskyPaul Zukofsky is an American violinist and conductor known for his work in the field of contemporary classical music.-Career:...
, violin, Radio-Sinfonie-Orchester Frankfurt, Eliahu Inbal, conductor. Albany Records TROY711 - The Haroun Songbook. Elizabeth Farnum, soprano, Emily Golden, mezzo-soprano, James Schaffner, tenor, Michael Chioldi, bass-baritone, Phillip Bush, piano, Albany Records TROY664
- Fast Fantasy / An Orbicle of Jasp / Andante espressivo / Cello Variations / Cello Variations II / Cello Variations III / Grand Union. Fred SherryFred SherryFred Sherry is an American cello virtuoso who is particularly admired for his work as a chamber musician and concert soloist. He studied with Leonard Rose at the Juilliard School before winning the Young Concert Artists International Auditions in 1968. In 1971 he co-founded the Speculum Musicae...
, cello, Charles Wuorinen, piano, Thomas Kolor, percussion. Albany Records TROY658 - Hyperion / Archaeopteryx / arrangement of SchoenbergSchoenbergSchoenberg is the surname of several persons:* Arnold Schoenberg , Austrian-American composer* Claude-Michel Schoenberg , French record producer, actor, singer, popular songwriter, and musical theatre composer...
's Variations for Orchestra, Op. 31 / Webern's arrangement of Schoenberg's Five Pieces for Orchestra op. 16. St. Luke' Chamber Ensemble, Charles Wuorinen, conductor, David Taylor, bass trombone Richard Moredock, Cameron Grant, James Winn pianos. Albany Records TROY992 - Vocal Works: Two Machine Portraits (Les Murray (poet)Les Murray (poet)Leslie Allan Murray, AO , known as Les Murray, is an Australian poet, anthologist and critic. His career spans over forty years, and he has published nearly 30 volumes of poetry, as well as two verse novels and collections of his prose writings...
), The Long Boat (Stanley KunitzStanley KunitzStanley Jasspon Kunitz was an American poet. He was appointed Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress twice, first in 1974 and then again in 2000.-Biography:...
), Twang (Wallace StevensWallace StevensWallace Stevens was an American Modernist poet. He was born in Reading, Pennsylvania, educated at Harvard and then New York Law School, and spent most of his life working as a lawyer for the Hartford insurance company in Connecticut.His best-known poems include "Anecdote of the Jar",...
), Lightening viii (Seamus HeaneySeamus HeaneySeamus Heaney is an Irish poet, writer and lecturer. He lives in Dublin. Heaney has received the Nobel Prize in Literature , the Golden Wreath of Poetry , T. S. Eliot Prize and two Whitbread prizes...
), September 11, 2001 (W.H. Auden), Fenton Songs, Christes Crosse, Pentecost (Derek WalcottDerek WalcottDerek Alton Walcott, OBE OCC is a Saint Lucian poet, playwright, writer and visual artist who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1992 and the T. S. Eliot Prize in 2011 for White Egrets. His works include the Homeric epic Omeros...
), A Song to the Lute in Musicke, Stanzas Before Time (John AshberyJohn AshberyJohn Lawrence Ashbery is an American poet. He has published more than twenty volumes of poetry and won nearly every major American award for poetry, including a Pulitzer Prize in 1976 for his collection Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror. But Ashbery's work still proves controversial...
), A Winter's Tale (Dylan ThomasDylan ThomasDylan Marlais Thomas was a Welsh poet and writer, Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 11 January 2008. who wrote exclusively in English. In addition to poetry, he wrote short stories and scripts for film and radio, which he often performed himself...
). Albany Records TROY968 - Hyperion / Archaeopteryx / arr. of Arnold SchoenbergArnold SchoenbergArnold Schoenberg was an Austrian composer, associated with the expressionist movement in German poetry and art, and leader of the Second Viennese School...
's Variations for Orchestra, Op. 31 / Webern's arrangement of Schoenberg's Five Pieces for Orchestra, Op. 16. Albany Records, TROY992 - Genesis / A solis ortu / Mass (for the Restoration of St. Luke in the Fields) / Ave Christie: Josquin. Minneosta Orchestra & Chorale, Edo de Waart, conductor, Charles Wuorinen, piano,
Writings and lectures
Wuorinen is the author of Simple Composition. Wuorinen describes the book as- written by a composer and ... addressed to other composers — intending or actual, amateur or professional. Thus it is similar in intent to certain older books on the subject like Thomas MorleyThomas MorleyThomas Morley was an English composer, theorist, editor and organist of the Renaissance, and the foremost member of the English Madrigal School. He was the most famous composer of secular music in Elizabethan England and an organist at St Paul's Cathedral...
's A Plain and Easie Introduction to Practical Musicke (1597), for instance.... It outlines present practice, and while it can be used for purely didactic purposes, it can also be employed in composing "real" music.
Wuorinen has lectured at universities throughout the United States and abroad, and has served on the faculties of Columbia, Princeton, and Yale Universities, the University of Iowa, University of California (San Diego), Manhattan School of Music, New England Conservatory, State University of New York at Buffalo, and Rutgers University.
Performance and conducting
Wuorinen has also been active as a performer, a pianist and a conductor of his own works as well as other 20th-century repertoire. His orchestral appearances have included the Cleveland Orchestra, Chicago Symphony, New York Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the American Composers Orchestra. He conducted the American, and later the West Coast, premieres of Morton FeldmanMorton Feldman
Morton Feldman was an American composer, born in New York City.A major figure in 20th century music, Feldman was a pioneer of indeterminate music, a development associated with the experimental New York School of composers also including John Cage, Christian Wolff, and Earle Brown...
's monodrama, Neither.
In 1962 he co-founded the Group for Contemporary Music, an ensemble dedicated to performance of new chamber music. In addition to cultivating a new generation of performers, commissioning and premiering hundreds of new works, the Group has also been a model for similar organizations which have appeared in the United States since its founding.
Influence
His works have influenced a number of other composers. Robert BlackRobert Black (conductor)
Note: Not to be confused with the saxophonist or the double-bass player named Robert Black.Robert Carlisle Black was an American conductor, pianist and composer...
cited Wuorinen as a particular influence on his own style of composition. Black also recorded Wuorinen's New York Notes.
Selected works
- It Happens Like This, a dramatic cantata on poems of James TateJames TateJames Tate may refer to:* James Tate , Headmaster of Richmond School 1796–1833)* James "Honest Dick" Tate , State Treasurer of Kentucky...
- 2010 - Time Regained, a fantasy for piano and orchestra - 2008
- Metagong - 2008
- Second Piano Quintet - 2008
- Synaxis - 2007
- Fourth Piano Sonata - 2007
- Spin 5 for Violin and 18 Players - 2006
- Iridule for Oboe and 6 players - 2006
- Eighth Symphony (Theologoumena) - 2006
- Flying to Kahani for piano and chamber orchestra - 2005
- Theologoumenon for orchestra - 2005
- Duo Sonata for flute and piano - 2004
- Ashberyana - texts of John Ashbery - 2004
- Fourth Piano Concerto - 2003
- Fenton Songs II - poems of James FentonJames FentonJames Martin Fenton is an English poet, journalist and literary critic. He is a former Oxford Professor of Poetry.-Life and career:...
- 2002 - Haroun and the Sea of Stories - libretto by James Fenton, based on the novel by Salman Rushdie - 2001
- Fourth String Quartet - 2000
- Cyclops 2000 for 20 Players - 2000
- Symphony Seven - 1997
- Fenton Songs - poems of James FentonJames FentonJames Martin Fenton is an English poet, journalist and literary critic. He is a former Oxford Professor of Poetry.-Life and career:...
- 1987 - The River of Light - inspired by scenes from Dante's Paradiso - 1996
- The Great Procession - inspired by scenes from Dante's Pugatorio - 1995
- Percussion Quartet - 1994
- Piano Quintet - 1994
- The Mission of Virgil -inspired by scenes from Dante's Inferno - 1963
- Saxophone Quartet - 1992
- A Winter's Tale - text by Dylan Thomas - 1991
- String Sextet - 1989
- Genesis for chorus and orchestra - 1989
- Sonata for Violin and Piano - 1988
- Five: Concerto for Amplified Cello and Orchestra - 1987
- Third Piano Sonata - 1986
- The Golden Dance - 1986
- Crossfire - 1984
- Rhapsody for Violin and Orchestra - 1983
- Movers and Shakers - 1984
- Bamboula Squared - 1984
- Third Piano Concerto - 1983
- New York Notes - 1982
- The Celestial Spehere, an oratorio for chorus and orchestra - 1980
- The Blue Bamboula - 1980
- Percussion Duo - 1979
- Second String Quartet - 1979
- Fortune - 1979
- Two-Part Symphony - 1978
- Archaeopteryx for Bass Trombone and 10 Players - 1978
- Fast Fantasy - 1977
- The Winds - 1977
- Six Pieces for Violin and Piano - 1977
- Second Piano Sonata - 1976
- Percussion Symphony - 1976
- Tashi - 1975/6
- Hyperion - 1975
- A Reliquary for Igor Stravinsky - 1975
- The W. of Babylon, a baroque burlesque in two acts - 1975
- Second Piano Concerto - for Amplified Piano and Orchestra - 1974
- Arabia Felix - 1973
- Third Trio for Flute, Cello and Piano - 1973
- Speculum Speculi - 1972
- Concerto for Amplified Violin and Orchestra - 1972
- On Alligators - 1972
- First String Quartet - 1972
- Grand Bamboula - 1971
- Chamber Concerto for Tuba with 12 Winds and 12 Drums - 1970
- Contrafactum - 1969
- Time's Encomium - 1969
- First Piano Sonata - 1969
- The Politics of Harmony - 1967
- Duo for Violin and Piano - 1967
- First Piano Concerto - 1966
- Janissary Music - 1966
- Orchestral and Electronic Exchanges - 1965
- Chamber Concerto for Flute and 10 Players - 1964
- Chamber Concerto for Cello and 10 Players - 1963
- Piano Variations - 1963
Notable students
- Michael DaughertyMichael DaughertyMichael Kevin Daugherty is an American composer, pianist, and teacher. Influenced by popular culture, Romanticism, and Postmodernism, Daugherty is one of the most colorful and widely performed American concert music composers of his generation...
- Peter LiebersonPeter LiebersonPeter Lieberson was an American composer. He was ballerina and choreographer Vera Zorina and Goddard Lieberson, president of Columbia Records....
- Anthony Cornicello
- Aaron Jay KernisAaron Jay KernisAaron Jay Kernis is an American composer and professor at the Yale School of Music.-Biography:Aaron Jay Kernis is Jewish, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and studied at the Manhattan School of Music, the San Francisco Conservatory, and Yale University .,Notable works include the...
- Tobias PickerTobias PickerTobias Picker is an American composer. Picker began composing at the age of eight and studied at the Manhattan School of Music, The Juilliard School and Princeton University, where his principal teachers were Charles Wuorinen, Elliott Carter and Milton Babbitt...
- James RomigJames RomigJames Romig is an American composer who studied at the University of Iowa and Rutgers University, where he earned a Ph.D. studying with both Charles Wuorinen and Milton Babbitt. He has composed solo, chamber, and large ensemble works that have been performed throughout the United States, Europe,...
- Arthur Russell
Further reading
- Morris, Robert, Review of Charles Wuorinen's Simple Composition. Theory & Practice 1980, 5/1:66-72.
- Hibbard, William, Charles Wuorinen, The Politics of Harmony. Perspectives of New Music Vol. 7, No. 2 (Spring - Summer, 1969), pp. 155-166 (article consists of 16 pages)
- Seelye, Todd, Charles Wuorinen Guitar Variations, Soundboard Magazine, the Journal of the Guitar Foundation of America, Spring 1997, Vol. 23, No. 4
- Karchin, Louis, Pitch Centricity as an Organizing Principle in Speculum Speculi of Charles Wuorinen, Theory and Practice, Volume 14/15, 1989/90.
- Kresky, Jeffrey, The Recent Music of Charles Wuorinen Perspectives of New MusicPerspectives of New MusicPerspectives of New Music is a peer-reviewed, academic journal specializing in music theory and analysis. It was founded in 1962 by Arthur Berger and Benjamin Boretz , making it the second-oldest music-theory journal now published in the United States .Perspectives was a Princeton-based journal...
, Vol. 25 Nos. 1&2, Winter 1987/Summer 1987 - Karchin, Louis, Charles Wuorinen's Reliquary for Stravinsky Contemporary Music Review, 2001, Vol 20, Part 4, pp 9-27
External links
- Charles Wuorinen official site
- [ Charles Wuorinen] at AllMusic.com
- Charles Wuorinen at C.F. Peters, publisher
- Art of the States: Charles Wuorinen three works by the composer