Eric W. Sawyer
Encyclopedia
Eric W. Sawyer or Eric Sawyer (born June 2, 1962 in Brookhaven, New York
) is an American composer
, pianist
and associate professor
of music
at Amherst College
. He has studied as an undergraduate at Harvard College
, where he was selected as a Harvard Junior Fellow. He undertook graduate studies at both Columbia University
and the University of California, Davis
(where he completed his doctorate
in 1994). Before taking up the position at Amherst, Sawyer spent four years as Chair of Composition and Theory at the Longy School of Music
.
Sawyer has written a number of pieces that have received multiple public performance
s. His debut was in 1985 with "Three Pieces for Orchestra", performed by the Harvard Chamber Orchestra, was described at the time as an "auspicious beginning". Later pieces have included "String Quartet
No. 2" (premiered at the Longy School of Music's "SeptemberFest" in 1999); "Violin Sonata" (which included Sawyer on piano); "The Humble Heart", a cantata
built around texts by America
n Shakers
, which debuted in 2006; and "Three for Trio
". The 2001 Laurel Trio performance of Three for Trio was well received, being described as "the work of a person who is entirely at ease with traditional tonality stretched to its limits." Sawyer's first CD of his work - Eric Sawyer: String Works - was released under the Albany Records
label in 2005 and featured four of his compositions. Sawyer’s piano trio “Lincoln’s Two Americas” was one of three winners in the Ravinia Festival competition for Lincoln
-themed chamber works to be performed as part of the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial celebration in 2009.
Along with librettist
and University of California, Berkeley
English
lecturer John Shoptaw, Sawyer has composed an opera
based upon a play set in Ford's Theatre
the night United States President Abraham Lincoln
was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth
. The play, Our American Cousin
, by playwright Tom Taylor
, is a farce
, while the opera Our American Cousin
contains the play, imagined intrigue among the actors and actresses, and production staff of the play, and historical information about the assassination
.
The opera had its staged premiere in Northampton, Massachusetts
in June, 2008. At this performance reviewer David Perkins noted “passages when words and music come together exquisitely. One is the series of choruses in Act I, when the Ford's Theatre audience turns and reforms into groups representing the war's human aftermath - amputees, freedmen, nurses, carpetbaggers, etc., singing words culled from real diaries and letters. Here is Sawyer's most beautiful music, drenched in a bittersweet chromaticism reminiscent of Benjamin Britten's War Requiem. These, and a final chorus condemning the cycle of "blood for blood," might well be packaged separately. They speak clearly to our day.”
A concert version of the opera was performed in 2007 and isolated works have been performed prior to this date. "Hawk's Aria" was performed in 1997, and "Laura Keene's aria" was performed in 1993. (At the 1993 performance, reviewer Robert Commanday noted that at this early performance the music was "appealing and finely written", but found the text to be "too wordy"). The Boston Modern Orchestra Project
has recorded the opera, "Our American Cousin" on the BMOP/sound label. Sawyer is currently working on a new opera, "The Garden of Martyrs," which received a workshop performance on January 9, 2011.
Brookhaven, New York
The Town of Brookhaven is one of the ten towns into which Suffolk County, New York, United States, has been divided. Part of the New York metropolitan area, it is located in central Suffolk County and is the only town in the county that stretches from the North Shore to the South Shore of Long...
) is an American composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
, pianist
Pianist
A pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers.-Choice of genres:...
and associate professor
Professor
A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...
of music
Music
Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
at Amherst College
Amherst College
Amherst College is a private liberal arts college located in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States. Amherst is an exclusively undergraduate four-year institution and enrolled 1,744 students in the fall of 2009...
. He has studied as an undergraduate at Harvard College
Harvard College
Harvard College, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is one of two schools within Harvard University granting undergraduate degrees...
, where he was selected as a Harvard Junior Fellow. He undertook graduate studies at both Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
and the University of California, Davis
University of California, Davis
The University of California, Davis is a public teaching and research university established in 1905 and located in Davis, California, USA. Spanning over , the campus is the largest within the University of California system and third largest by enrollment...
(where he completed his doctorate
Doctorate
A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder to teach in a specific field, A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder...
in 1994). Before taking up the position at Amherst, Sawyer spent four years as Chair of Composition and Theory at the Longy School of Music
Longy School of Music
The Longy School of Music of Bard College is a conservatory located near Harvard Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1915, it was one of the four independent degree-granting music schools in the Boston region along with the New England Conservatory, Berklee College of Music, and Boston...
.
Sawyer has written a number of pieces that have received multiple public performance
Performance
A performance, in performing arts, generally comprises an event in which a performer or group of performers behave in a particular way for another group of people, the audience. Choral music and ballet are examples. Usually the performers participate in rehearsals beforehand. Afterwards audience...
s. His debut was in 1985 with "Three Pieces for Orchestra", performed by the Harvard Chamber Orchestra, was described at the time as an "auspicious beginning". Later pieces have included "String Quartet
String quartet
A string quartet is a musical ensemble of four string players – usually two violin players, a violist and a cellist – or a piece written to be performed by such a group...
No. 2" (premiered at the Longy School of Music's "SeptemberFest" in 1999); "Violin Sonata" (which included Sawyer on piano); "The Humble Heart", a cantata
Cantata
A cantata is a vocal composition with an instrumental accompaniment, typically in several movements, often involving a choir....
built around texts by America
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
n Shakers
Shakers
The United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing, known as the Shakers, is a religious sect originally thought to be a development of the Religious Society of Friends...
, which debuted in 2006; and "Three for Trio
Trio (music)
Trio is generally used in any of the following ways:* A group of three musicians playing the same or different musical instrument.* The performance of a piece of music by three people.* The contrasting section of a piece in ternary form...
". The 2001 Laurel Trio performance of Three for Trio was well received, being described as "the work of a person who is entirely at ease with traditional tonality stretched to its limits." Sawyer's first CD of his work - Eric Sawyer: String Works - was released under the Albany Records
Albany Records
Albany 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:**...
label in 2005 and featured four of his compositions. Sawyer’s piano trio “Lincoln’s Two Americas” was one of three winners in the Ravinia Festival competition for Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
-themed chamber works to be performed as part of the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial celebration in 2009.
Along with librettist
Libretto
A libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...
and University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
English
English studies
English studies is an academic discipline that includes the study of literatures written in the English language , English linguistics English studies is an academic discipline that includes the study of literatures written in the English language (including literatures from the U.K., U.S.,...
lecturer John Shoptaw, Sawyer has composed an opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
based upon a play set in Ford's Theatre
Ford's Theatre
Ford's Theatre is a historic theater in Washington, D.C., used for various stage performances beginning in the 1860s. It is also the site of the assassination of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln on April 14, 1865...
the night United States President Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth
John Wilkes Booth
John Wilkes Booth was an American stage actor who assassinated President Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre, in Washington, D.C., on April 14, 1865. Booth was a member of the prominent 19th century Booth theatrical family from Maryland and, by the 1860s, was a well-known actor...
. The play, Our American Cousin
Our American Cousin
Our American Cousin is an 1858 play in three acts by English playwright Tom Taylor. The play is a farce whose plot is based on the introduction of an awkward, boorish but honest American, Asa Trenchard, to his aristocratic English relatives when he goes to England to claim the family estate...
, by playwright Tom Taylor
Tom Taylor
Tom Taylor was an English dramatist, critic, biographer, public servant, and editor of Punch magazine...
, is a farce
Farce
In theatre, a farce is a comedy which aims at entertaining the audience by means of unlikely, extravagant, and improbable situations, disguise and mistaken identity, verbal humour of varying degrees of sophistication, which may include word play, and a fast-paced plot whose speed usually increases,...
, while the opera Our American Cousin
Our American Cousin (opera)
Our American Cousin is an opera in three acts by the American composer Eric Sawyer with libretto by John Shoptaw. The main plot depicts the assassination of Abraham Lincoln from the standpoint of the actors presenting the play of the same name at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. on April 14, 1865...
contains the play, imagined intrigue among the actors and actresses, and production staff of the play, and historical information about the assassination
Abraham Lincoln assassination
The assassination of United States President Abraham Lincoln took place on Good Friday, April 14, 1865, as the American Civil War was drawing to a close. The assassination occurred five days after the commanding General of the Army of Northern Virginia, Robert E. Lee, and his battered Army of...
.
The opera had its staged premiere in Northampton, Massachusetts
Northampton, Massachusetts
The city of Northampton is the county seat of Hampshire County, Massachusetts, United States. As of the 2010 census, the population of Northampton's central neighborhoods, was 28,549...
in June, 2008. At this performance reviewer David Perkins noted “passages when words and music come together exquisitely. One is the series of choruses in Act I, when the Ford's Theatre audience turns and reforms into groups representing the war's human aftermath - amputees, freedmen, nurses, carpetbaggers, etc., singing words culled from real diaries and letters. Here is Sawyer's most beautiful music, drenched in a bittersweet chromaticism reminiscent of Benjamin Britten's War Requiem. These, and a final chorus condemning the cycle of "blood for blood," might well be packaged separately. They speak clearly to our day.”
A concert version of the opera was performed in 2007 and isolated works have been performed prior to this date. "Hawk's Aria" was performed in 1997, and "Laura Keene's aria" was performed in 1993. (At the 1993 performance, reviewer Robert Commanday noted that at this early performance the music was "appealing and finely written", but found the text to be "too wordy"). The Boston Modern Orchestra Project
Boston Modern Orchestra Project
The Boston Modern Orchestra Project is a full professional orchestra in Boston, Massachusetts, and is widely recognized as the premiere orchestra in the United States dedicated exclusively to commissioning, performing, and recording new music of the 20th and 21st centuries...
has recorded the opera, "Our American Cousin" on the BMOP/sound label. Sawyer is currently working on a new opera, "The Garden of Martyrs," which received a workshop performance on January 9, 2011.