Jan DeGaetani
Encyclopedia
Jan DeGaetani (July 10, 1933 – September 15, 1989) was an American
mezzo-soprano
known for her performances of contemporary classical
vocal compositions.
DeGaetani was born in Massillon, Ohio
. Educated at The Juilliard School with Sergius Kagen
, she was best known for her wide range, precise pitch, clear tone, and command of extended techniques that made her voice perfectly suited to the demanding style of modern and avant-garde
vocal composition. Her recording of Schoenberg
's song cycle
Pierrot lunaire
is one of the classic recordings of the piece. (Due to its use of atonality, wide range, and virtuoso techniques such as sprechstimme, all while requiring a lyrical sensibility, it is exceptionally difficult to sing.) Her collaboration with George Crumb
was also a fruitful one; she premiered his song cycle Ancient Voices of Children
, and many of his other works were written for her. Uncommonly for a singer of her caliber (though her voice was not as powerful as most), DeGaetani rarely appeared in opera
, instead concentrating on solo recital work in the art song literature.
Her talent at foreign languages also made her an accomplished interpreter of lied
er; she sang and recorded works by composers such as Hugo Wolf
, Hector Berlioz
, and Gustav Mahler
and was noted for her intelligence and skillful analytical interpretation. Her interpretive skills also lent themselves to songs in her native tongue of English, such as Aaron Copland
's 12 Poems of Emily Dickinson, and the songs of Charles Ives
. On the other end of the spectrum, DeGaetani was also a noted performer of the medieval
and Renaissance
repertoire.
DeGaetani made her New York performance debut in 1958. Afterward, she performed with the Contemporary Chamber Ensemble regularly, and also appeared with several world-famous orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic
, the Philadelphia Orchestra
, the Berlin Philharmonic
, the BBC Symphony
, and the Chicago Symphony
, and made numerous recordings with them and in chamber ensembles
. She was professor of voice at Eastman School of Music
and Artist in Residence at the Aspen Music Festival from 1973 until her death. Notable students include American sopranos Dawn Upshaw
, Karen Holvik
, Renée Fleming
, mezzo-soprano Milagro Vargas
, and baritone William Sharp.
DeGaetani died in Rochester, New York
, in 1989, aged 56, of leukemia
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
mezzo-soprano
Mezzo-soprano
A mezzo-soprano is a type of classical female singing voice whose range lies between the soprano and the contralto singing voices, usually extending from the A below middle C to the A two octaves above...
known for her performances of contemporary classical
Contemporary classical music
Contemporary classical music can be understood as belonging to the period that started in the mid-1970s with the retreat of modernism. However, the term may also be employed in a broader sense to refer to all post-1945 modern musical forms.-Categorization:...
vocal compositions.
DeGaetani was born in Massillon, Ohio
Massillon, Ohio
Massillon is a city located in Stark County in the U.S. state of Ohio, approximately 8 miles to the west of Canton, Ohio, 20 miles south of Akron, Ohio, and 50 miles south of Cleveland, Ohio. The population was 32,149 at the 2010 census....
. Educated at The Juilliard School with Sergius Kagen
Sergius Kagen
Sergius Kagen was an American pianist and composer and voice teacher.-Life and musical career:...
, she was best known for her wide range, precise pitch, clear tone, and command of extended techniques that made her voice perfectly suited to the demanding style of modern and avant-garde
Avant-garde
Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....
vocal composition. Her recording of Schoenberg
Arnold Schoenberg
Arnold Schoenberg was an Austrian composer, associated with the expressionist movement in German poetry and art, and leader of the Second Viennese School...
's song cycle
Song cycle
A song cycle is a group of songs designed to be performed in a sequence as a single entity. As a rule, all of the songs are by the same composer and often use words from the same poet or lyricist. Unification can be achieved by a narrative or a persona common to the songs, or even, as in Schumann's...
Pierrot lunaire
Pierrot Lunaire
Dreimal sieben Gedichte aus Albert Girauds 'Pierrot lunaire' , commonly known simply as Pierrot Lunaire, Op. 21 , is a melodrama by Arnold Schoenberg...
is one of the classic recordings of the piece. (Due to its use of atonality, wide range, and virtuoso techniques such as sprechstimme, all while requiring a lyrical sensibility, it is exceptionally difficult to sing.) Her collaboration with George Crumb
George Crumb
George Crumb is an American composer of contemporary classical music. He is noted as an explorer of unusual timbres, alternative forms of notation, and extended instrumental and vocal techniques. Examples include seagull effect for the cello , metallic vibrato for the piano George Crumb (born...
was also a fruitful one; she premiered his song cycle Ancient Voices of Children
Ancient Voices of Children
Ancient Voices of Children is a composition by American composer George Crumb. Written in 1970, the work is scored for mezzo-soprano, boy soprano, oboe, mandolin, harp, amplified piano , and percussion , and was commissioned by the Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Foundation...
, and many of his other works were written for her. Uncommonly for a singer of her caliber (though her voice was not as powerful as most), DeGaetani rarely appeared in 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...
, instead concentrating on solo recital work in the art song literature.
Her talent at foreign languages also made her an accomplished interpreter of lied
Lied
is a German word literally meaning "song", usually used to describe romantic songs setting German poems of reasonably high literary aspirations, especially during the nineteenth century, beginning with Carl Loewe, Heinrich Marschner, and Franz Schubert and culminating with Hugo Wolf...
er; she sang and recorded works by composers such as Hugo Wolf
Hugo Wolf
Hugo Wolf was an Austrian composer of Slovene origin, particularly noted for his art songs, or lieder. He brought to this form a concentrated expressive intensity which was unique in late Romantic music, somewhat related to that of the Second Viennese School in concision but utterly unrelated in...
, Hector Berlioz
Hector Berlioz
Hector Berlioz was a French Romantic composer, best known for his compositions Symphonie fantastique and Grande messe des morts . Berlioz made significant contributions to the modern orchestra with his Treatise on Instrumentation. He specified huge orchestral forces for some of his works; as a...
, and Gustav Mahler
Gustav Mahler
Gustav Mahler was a late-Romantic Austrian composer and one of the leading conductors of his generation. He was born in the village of Kalischt, Bohemia, in what was then Austria-Hungary, now Kaliště in the Czech Republic...
and was noted for her intelligence and skillful analytical interpretation. Her interpretive skills also lent themselves to songs in her native tongue of English, such as Aaron Copland
Aaron Copland
Aaron Copland was an American composer, composition teacher, writer, and later in his career a conductor of his own and other American music. He was instrumental in forging a distinctly American style of composition, and is often referred to as "the Dean of American Composers"...
's 12 Poems of Emily Dickinson, and the songs of Charles Ives
Charles Ives
Charles Edward Ives was an American modernist composer. He is one of the first American composers of international renown, though Ives' music was largely ignored during his life, and many of his works went unperformed for many years. Over time, Ives came to be regarded as an "American Original"...
. On the other end of the spectrum, DeGaetani was also a noted performer of the medieval
Medieval music
Medieval music is Western music written during the Middle Ages. This era begins with the fall of the Roman Empire and ends sometime in the early fifteenth century...
and Renaissance
Renaissance music
Renaissance music is European music written during the Renaissance. Defining the beginning of the musical era is difficult, given that its defining characteristics were adopted only gradually; musicologists have placed its beginnings from as early as 1300 to as late as the 1470s.Literally meaning...
repertoire.
DeGaetani made her New York performance debut in 1958. Afterward, she performed with the Contemporary Chamber Ensemble regularly, and also appeared with several world-famous orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic
New York Philharmonic
The New York Philharmonic is a symphony orchestra based in New York City in the United States. It is one of the American orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five"...
, the Philadelphia Orchestra
Philadelphia Orchestra
The Philadelphia Orchestra is a symphony orchestra based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the United States. One of the "Big Five" American orchestras, it was founded in 1900...
, the Berlin Philharmonic
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
The Berlin Philharmonic, German: , formerly Berliner Philharmonisches Orchester , is an orchestra based in Berlin, Germany. In 2006, a group of ten European media outlets voted the Berlin Philharmonic number three on a list of "top ten European Orchestras", after the Vienna Philharmonic and the...
, the BBC Symphony
BBC Symphony Orchestra
The BBC Symphony Orchestra is the principal broadcast orchestra of the British Broadcasting Corporation and one of the leading orchestras in Britain.-History:...
, and the Chicago Symphony
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Chicago, Illinois. It is one of the five American orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five". Founded in 1891, the Symphony makes its home at Orchestra Hall in Chicago and plays a summer season at the Ravinia Festival...
, and made numerous recordings with them and in chamber ensembles
Chamber music
Chamber music is a form of classical music, written for a small group of instruments which traditionally could be accommodated in a palace chamber. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small number of performers with one performer to a part...
. She was professor of voice at Eastman School of Music
Eastman School of Music
The Eastman School of Music is a music conservatory located in Rochester, New York. The Eastman School is a professional school within the University of Rochester...
and Artist in Residence at the Aspen Music Festival from 1973 until her death. Notable students include American sopranos Dawn Upshaw
Dawn Upshaw
Dawn Upshaw is an American soprano described as "one of the most consequential performers of our time" by the Los Angeles Times. The recipient of several Grammy Awards and Edison Prize-winning discs, Upshaw is at home both in opera and art song, and in repertoire from Baroque to contemporary...
, Karen Holvik
Karen Holvik
Karen Holvik is a classical soprano. She is the daughter of Karl Holvik , clarinetist and conductor, who was Professor of Music at the University of Northern Iowa between 1947 and 1984, and Martha Holvik , violinist, violist, pianist and soprano, who also taught at UNI and founded the UNI Suzuki...
, Renée Fleming
Renée Fleming
Renée Fleming is an American soprano specializing in opera and lieder. Fleming has a full lyric soprano voice.Fleming has performed coloratura, lyric, and lighter spinto soprano repertoires. She has sung roles in Italian, German, French, Czech, and Russian, aside from her native English. She also...
, mezzo-soprano Milagro Vargas
Milagro Vargas
Milagro Vargas is an American mezzo-soprano known for her distinctive voice and stage presence. She has appeared as an international soloist in operatic, orchestral, chamber music and recital settings.-Family Background and Studies:...
, and baritone William Sharp.
DeGaetani died in Rochester, New York
Rochester, New York
Rochester is a city in Monroe County, New York, south of Lake Ontario in the United States. Known as The World's Image Centre, it was also once known as The Flour City, and more recently as The Flower City...
, in 1989, aged 56, of leukemia
Leukemia
Leukemia or leukaemia is a type of cancer of the blood or bone marrow characterized by an abnormal increase of immature white blood cells called "blasts". Leukemia is a broad term covering a spectrum of diseases...
.
Discography
- Songs From a Colonial Tavern as sung by Taylor Vrooman also with Marvin Hayes, Bass (1964)
- Pierrot Lunaire by Schoenberg (1971)
- Songs by Stephen Foster, with Leslie Guinn (1972)
- Las Cantigas de Santa Maria - Songs and Instrumental Music from the Court of Alfonso X, with the Waverly Consort, Michael Jaffee, dir. (1972)
- Songs from the Spanisches Liederbuch by Hugo Wolf (1974)
- Songs by Schubert / The Book of the Hanging Gardens, Op. 15 by Schoenberg (1975)
- Ancient Voices of Children by George Crumb (1975)
- Songs by Charles Ives (1976)
- Songs by Stephen Foster, Volume II with Leslie Guinn (1976)
- Classic Cole songs by Cole Porter, with Leo Smit, piano (1977)
- Chansons Madécasses by Ravel (1978)
- Songs by Sergei Rachmaninoff & Ernest Chausson (1980)
- Duets & Four Songs from Op. 98a by Robert Schumann, with Leslie Guinn (1983)
- Apparition by George Crumb / Songs by Charles Ives (1983)
- Songs by Brahms (1983)
- Moore's Irish Melodies (1984)
- Chansons de Bilitis and Fêtes Galantes by Debussy / Histoires Naturelles by Ravel (1984)
- The Nursery Cycle by Mussorgsky / Songs by Tchaikovsky (1985)
- Lullabies and Night Songs by Alec Wilder (1985)
- Songs of America on Home, Love, Nature, and Death - various composers (1988)
- Les Nuits d'été by Berlioz with Five Wunderhorn Songs & Five Rückert Songs by Mahler (1989)
- Jan DeGaetani in Concert, Volume One: La Chanson d'Eve by Gabriel Fauré / Dark upon the Harp by Jacob Druckman (1991)
- Jan DeGaetani in Concert, Volume Two: Frauenliebe und -leben by Schumann / Zigeunerlieder and other songs by Brahms (1991)
- Aaron Copland 81st Birthday Concert at the Library of Congress with Leo Smit (1993)
- Jan DeGaetani in Concert, Volume Three: Shostakovich, Welcher, Kurtág (1995)
- Jan DeGaetani in Concert, Volume Four: Early Music Recital by various composers (1999)