Janet Maguire
Encyclopedia
Janet Maguire is an American composer residing in Venice
, Italy
. She is known particularly for her arrangement of the finale of Giacomo Puccini
's Turandot
in which she used exclusively the sketches Puccini left for it at his death. Maguire is also known by her dramatic contemporary opera in three acts, Hérésie, and has worked in a wide variety of musical expressions throughout some fifty orchestral, chamber, solo, vocal, choral and stage works.
and raised in New Rochelle, New York
, Janet Maguire began musical studies at the age of six: on piano, French horn, and cornet. She took a BA degree in piano at Colorado College, then went to Paris to study composition with René Leibowitz
for five years. They co-authored the book Thinking for Orchestra (published by G. Schirmer), and a book about the orchestration of Offenbach selections, Nuits Parisiennes (RCA, Bote & Bock) as well as Carl Maria von Weber’s opera Die Drei Pintos. Several summers spent at the Darmstadt Ferienkurse influenced Maguire's style as did the music of György Ligeti
, Luigi Nono
, and Karlheinz Stockhausen
.
Maguire continues to develop independent paths in musical thought, with the help of several musicians specializing in experimental music.
Maguire was the recipient of the 2008 Guggenheim Fellowship
as well as a residence at Copland House (2006).
Maguire was music critic for the Paris Herald Tribune while she lived in Paris. After moving to Venice, she founded and was elected president of the association Musica in Divenire, organizing new music concerts. Her compositions have been heard throughout Italy and Germany, and in France, Spain, Ireland, the UK, the US, Austria, Canada, Argentina, Australia, Latvia and Bulgaria. New World Records issued a CD with seven of her works, and Albany Records released a CD with ten of her works in 2009.
La Mia Serra (1992) poem by Luisa Milos; mezzosoprano solo, chorus AB - 1,1, eh,1, O - 1,1,-O,O - harp, cello, percussion - strings 4, 4, 3, 2, 1 (8')
Hark (1995) 4,3, EH, 3, BCL,4 - 7,4,4,1, - 2 harps, piano, cello, marimb, percussion - 15,13,11,9,5, (11')
Glass (1997) 3,2,eh, 2, bcl, 3 - 5,2,2,O - cello, harp, 2 percussion - 16,14,12,1O, 8 (8')
Le Jardin de Versailles (1998) 2,2,EH,2,CLB,2 - 2,2,2,O - SAT B, boy soprano, vibra, percussion, strings (18')
Fantasia (199O) piano solo - piccolo, 3,2,EH,2,BCL,3,DBN - 4,3,3,L - strings (10')
Etude Osmotique (2000) 2, 2, eh, 2, clb, 2 - 2,l,2,O - chorus SATB - harp, cello, vibra, timpani
, percussion and strings (9')
Hark, (2000) orchestra 15'
Quest, piano and 2 percussions, with action 9'
L'Intervista, with soprano, flute, oboe, clarinet, horn, trp, violin, viola, vcl, percussion and piano 11'
Tragedy, with string quartet 8'45"
Un Momento, speaker, 2 violin, 2 viola, 2 vcl, 2 percussion (5')
Wisp, soprano, 2 flute, clarinet, bclar, alto sax, horn, piano, violin, viola, vcl, cbs (3')
Five Chinese Poems, bass voice, vcl, clarinet, Zheng, 3 percussion (poems by Joseph A. Precker) (11')
Lace Knots, string quartet and soprano (8)
L'Intervista, soprano
La Mia Serra, poem by Luisa Milos, orchestra, chorus, contralto (8')
Gone, poem by Carl Sandburg; mezzosoprano, flute, vla, harp, (6')
Cummings Lieder, poems by e.e. Cummings; soprano, 13'46"
Three Love Songs, poems by Joseph A. Precker; tenor, 8'
Il Fiume Tchirek, 9 solo voices, soprano, s, mezzosoprano, alto, t,t,br,bs,bs, poem by Altun the Tartar 11'
Lightly, women's chorus, s, s, ms,a, with tamburello, crotalo, guiro, rainstick 6'
Inno A Dio,, SA TB chorus 7'
Per Acqua, poem by Luisa Milos, two choruses SATB, 14'
Cummings Lieder, poems by e.e. cummings; soprano and piano 13'45"
Three Love Songs, poems by Joseph A. Precker; piano and tenor 8'
Quest, piano and 2 percussionists 9'
Five Chinese Poems, 3 percussionists, clarinet, cello, Zheng, bass voice 14'40"
Moondust, Zheng and 4 percussionists 6'
Wisp, two flutes, clarinet, bcl, szx, horn, piano, soprano, violin, viola, vcl, cbs, 2 percussionists
Hier Bin Bin Ich, Wo Bist Du? two flute, oboe, ci, 2 clarinets, bsn, dbsn, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, trombone, 2 violins, viola, cello, double bass, 4 percussionists 9'30"
Un Momento, two percussions, 2 violins, 2 viola, 2 cellos, speaker 5'
L'Intervista, soprano, flute, oboe, clarinet, horn, trumpet, violin, viola, cello, piano, percussion 11'
L'Altro Quartetto with crotalo and bongo 8'20"
Lace Knots with soprano 6'37"
Fumees d'Ivresse for four cellos 9'
Scontri for violin and double bass 6"
Fingers for harp and percussion
Discussion for harp and oboe 4'
Sketch for solo violin 5'
Vagheggiando for solo cello
A Question for solo viola
Un Momento - 2 violin, 2 vla, 2 vcl, 2 percussion, speaker
Danza - 4 violin, 4 vle, 4 vcl, 1db ob, cl
2 Chinese poems, (joseph A. Precker poems) vcl, clarinet, Zheng, 3 percussion, bass voice
Hier bin Ich, Wo bist Du? (Konrad Lorenz gewidmet) 2 vl, 1 vla, 1 vcl, 1 db, flute, oboe, eh, clarinet, bcl, fg, cfg, trp, cor, trombone, tba, celest, marimba, xylophone, four percussions
A Trois - flute, clarinet, violin
L'Intervista - vl, vla, vcl, soprano, flute, oboe, clarinet, cor, timpani, xylophone, percussion, piano
Moondust - Zheng and 4 percussions
Soloists: soprano, mezzosoprano, tenor, baritone, bass
Orch: Shakuhachi, 2 flutes, oboe, eh, clarinet, bcl, bassoon, 2 horns, trumpet, trombone, harp, celesta, percussion, 4 violin, 4 violin II, 3 viola, 2a vcl, 1 dbs 40'
Taiga, ballet by Paola Bozzini - 40'
Corps de ballet, 5 soloists, full orchestra
Heresie - opera in 3 acts, libretto by Gabrielle Zimmermann in French - Chorus
12 flutes, 2 oboes, English Horn, 2 clarinets, bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, double bassoon, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, accordion, harp, vibraphone, celesta, xylophone, 3 timpani, 12 vll, 0 vlII, 8 viola, 6 vcl, 4 cbl
Invenzione for string quartet 7'33"
Miniotto for 3 b-flat
clarinets 9'
Discussion for oboe and harp 7'
Fumees d'Ivresse for four cellos 6'
Peacock mezzosoprano, violin, viola, cello, flute, clarinet, saxophone 9'
L'Altro Quartetto string quartet with bongo and crotales 7'36"
L'Intervista soprano, flute, oboe, clarinet, horn, trumpet, violin, viola, cello, xylophone, percussion, piano 6'
Danza oboe, clarinet, four violins, four violas, four cellos, double bass, tamtam 15"
A Trois for flute, clarinet, violin 5'10"
Schizzi for film, two clarinets, bass clarinet, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, two trombones, timpani, percussion, harp and strings
Venice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
. She is known particularly for her arrangement of the finale of Giacomo Puccini
Giacomo Puccini
Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini was an Italian composer whose operas, including La bohème, Tosca, Madama Butterfly, and Turandot, are among the most frequently performed in the standard repertoire...
's Turandot
Turandot
Turandot is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini, set to a libretto in Italian by Giuseppe Adami and Renato Simoni.Though Puccini's first interest in the subject was based on his reading of Friedrich Schiller's adaptation of the play, his work is most nearly based on the earlier text Turandot...
in which she used exclusively the sketches Puccini left for it at his death. Maguire is also known by her dramatic contemporary opera in three acts, Hérésie, and has worked in a wide variety of musical expressions throughout some fifty orchestral, chamber, solo, vocal, choral and stage works.
Biography
Born in ChicagoChicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
and raised in New Rochelle, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, Janet Maguire began musical studies at the age of six: on piano, French horn, and cornet. She took a BA degree in piano at Colorado College, then went to Paris to study composition with René Leibowitz
René Leibowitz
René Leibowitz was a French composer, conductor, music theorist and teacher born in Warsaw, Poland.-Career:...
for five years. They co-authored the book Thinking for Orchestra (published by G. Schirmer), and a book about the orchestration of Offenbach selections, Nuits Parisiennes (RCA, Bote & Bock) as well as Carl Maria von Weber’s opera Die Drei Pintos. Several summers spent at the Darmstadt Ferienkurse influenced Maguire's style as did the music of György Ligeti
György Ligeti
György Sándor Ligeti was a composer of contemporary classical music. Born in a Hungarian Jewish family in Transylvania, Romania, he briefly lived in Hungary before becoming an Austrian citizen.-Early life:...
, Luigi Nono
Luigi Nono
Luigi Nono was an Italian avant-garde composer of classical music and remains one of the most prominent composers of the 20th century.- Early years :Born in Venice, he was a member of a wealthy artistic family, and his grandfather was a notable painter...
, and Karlheinz Stockhausen
Karlheinz Stockhausen
Karlheinz Stockhausen was a German composer, widely acknowledged by critics as one of the most important but also controversial composers of the 20th and early 21st centuries. Another critic calls him "one of the great visionaries of 20th-century music"...
.
Maguire continues to develop independent paths in musical thought, with the help of several musicians specializing in experimental music.
Maguire was the recipient of the 2008 Guggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowships are American grants that have been awarded annually since 1925 by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts." Each year, the foundation makes...
as well as a residence at Copland House (2006).
Maguire was music critic for the Paris Herald Tribune while she lived in Paris. After moving to Venice, she founded and was elected president of the association Musica in Divenire, organizing new music concerts. Her compositions have been heard throughout Italy and Germany, and in France, Spain, Ireland, the UK, the US, Austria, Canada, Argentina, Australia, Latvia and Bulgaria. New World Records issued a CD with seven of her works, and Albany Records released a CD with ten of her works in 2009.
Orchestral
Shuffle (1991) piccolo, 3, 2, eh, 2, bcl, 2, dbsn, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, harp, percussion, stringsLa Mia Serra (1992) poem by Luisa Milos; mezzosoprano solo, chorus AB - 1,1, eh,1, O - 1,1,-O,O - harp, cello, percussion - strings 4, 4, 3, 2, 1 (8')
Hark (1995) 4,3, EH, 3, BCL,4 - 7,4,4,1, - 2 harps, piano, cello, marimb, percussion - 15,13,11,9,5, (11')
Glass (1997) 3,2,eh, 2, bcl, 3 - 5,2,2,O - cello, harp, 2 percussion - 16,14,12,1O, 8 (8')
Le Jardin de Versailles (1998) 2,2,EH,2,CLB,2 - 2,2,2,O - SAT B, boy soprano, vibra, percussion, strings (18')
Fantasia (199O) piano solo - piccolo, 3,2,EH,2,BCL,3,DBN - 4,3,3,L - strings (10')
Etude Osmotique (2000) 2, 2, eh, 2, clb, 2 - 2,l,2,O - chorus SATB - harp, cello, vibra, timpani
Timpani
Timpani, or kettledrums, are musical instruments in the percussion family. A type of drum, they consist of a skin called a head stretched over a large bowl traditionally made of copper. They are played by striking the head with a specialized drum stick called a timpani stick or timpani mallet...
, percussion and strings (9')
Piano with orchestra
Fantasia, (1990) concerto 20'Hark, (2000) orchestra 15'
Piano with chamber ensemble
Treize A Table, piano and 12 percussionists 13'Quest, piano and 2 percussions, with action 9'
L'Intervista, with soprano, flute, oboe, clarinet, horn, trp, violin, viola, vcl, percussion and piano 11'
Tragedy, with string quartet 8'45"
Vocal with ensemble
Canzone D'Amore, with tenor and 20 strings (11')Un Momento, speaker, 2 violin, 2 viola, 2 vcl, 2 percussion (5')
Wisp, soprano, 2 flute, clarinet, bclar, alto sax, horn, piano, violin, viola, vcl, cbs (3')
Five Chinese Poems, bass voice, vcl, clarinet, Zheng, 3 percussion (poems by Joseph A. Precker) (11')
Lace Knots, string quartet and soprano (8)
L'Intervista, soprano
La Mia Serra, poem by Luisa Milos, orchestra, chorus, contralto (8')
Gone, poem by Carl Sandburg; mezzosoprano, flute, vla, harp, (6')
Vocal with piano
Cosi, poem by Paola Bozzini; soprano, 5'57"Cummings Lieder, poems by e.e. Cummings; soprano, 13'46"
Three Love Songs, poems by Joseph A. Precker; tenor, 8'
Chorus
Southern Trees, 4 solo women's voices: soprano, s, mezzosoprano, alto, with chime poem by Lewis Allan 8'Il Fiume Tchirek, 9 solo voices, soprano, s, mezzosoprano, alto, t,t,br,bs,bs, poem by Altun the Tartar 11'
Lightly, women's chorus, s, s, ms,a, with tamburello, crotalo, guiro, rainstick 6'
Inno A Dio,, SA TB chorus 7'
Per Acqua, poem by Luisa Milos, two choruses SATB, 14'
Piano and voice
Cosi, (poem by Paola Bozzini; soprano and piano 5'52"Cummings Lieder, poems by e.e. cummings; soprano and piano 13'45"
Three Love Songs, poems by Joseph A. Precker; piano and tenor 8'
Percussion
Treize A Table, 13 percussionists with piano, with action 13'Quest, piano and 2 percussionists 9'
Five Chinese Poems, 3 percussionists, clarinet, cello, Zheng, bass voice 14'40"
Moondust, Zheng and 4 percussionists 6'
Wisp, two flutes, clarinet, bcl, szx, horn, piano, soprano, violin, viola, vcl, cbs, 2 percussionists
Hier Bin Bin Ich, Wo Bist Du? two flute, oboe, ci, 2 clarinets, bsn, dbsn, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, trombone, 2 violins, viola, cello, double bass, 4 percussionists 9'30"
Un Momento, two percussions, 2 violins, 2 viola, 2 cellos, speaker 5'
L'Intervista, soprano, flute, oboe, clarinet, horn, trumpet, violin, viola, cello, piano, percussion 11'
Quartets
Invenzione 7'52"L'Altro Quartetto with crotalo and bongo 8'20"
Lace Knots with soprano 6'37"
Fumees d'Ivresse for four cellos 9'
Duos
Variations for violin and viola 15"Scontri for violin and double bass 6"
Fingers for harp and percussion
Discussion for harp and oboe 4'
Solos
Tango for solo violin 6'Sketch for solo violin 5'
Vagheggiando for solo cello
A Question for solo viola
In ensemble
Canzone d'Amore : 20 strings with tenor voiceUn Momento - 2 violin, 2 vla, 2 vcl, 2 percussion, speaker
Danza - 4 violin, 4 vle, 4 vcl, 1db ob, cl
2 Chinese poems, (joseph A. Precker poems) vcl, clarinet, Zheng, 3 percussion, bass voice
Hier bin Ich, Wo bist Du? (Konrad Lorenz gewidmet) 2 vl, 1 vla, 1 vcl, 1 db, flute, oboe, eh, clarinet, bcl, fg, cfg, trp, cor, trombone, tba, celest, marimba, xylophone, four percussions
A Trois - flute, clarinet, violin
L'Intervista - vl, vla, vcl, soprano, flute, oboe, clarinet, cor, timpani, xylophone, percussion, piano
Moondust - Zheng and 4 percussions
Theatrical
Envoys, an opera-ballet based on a haiku-play by Richard FranceSoloists: soprano, mezzosoprano, tenor, baritone, bass
Orch: Shakuhachi, 2 flutes, oboe, eh, clarinet, bcl, bassoon, 2 horns, trumpet, trombone, harp, celesta, percussion, 4 violin, 4 violin II, 3 viola, 2a vcl, 1 dbs 40'
Taiga, ballet by Paola Bozzini - 40'
Corps de ballet, 5 soloists, full orchestra
Heresie - opera in 3 acts, libretto by Gabrielle Zimmermann in French - Chorus
12 flutes, 2 oboes, English Horn, 2 clarinets, bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, double bassoon, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, accordion, harp, vibraphone, celesta, xylophone, 3 timpani, 12 vll, 0 vlII, 8 viola, 6 vcl, 4 cbl
Chamber Music
Scontri for violin and double bass 11'Invenzione for string quartet 7'33"
Miniotto for 3 b-flat
B-flat
B-flat or B may refer to:* B-flat major* B-flat minor* The musical pitch B* B-flat Jazzclub in Berlin, Germany...
clarinets 9'
Discussion for oboe and harp 7'
Fumees d'Ivresse for four cellos 6'
Peacock mezzosoprano, violin, viola, cello, flute, clarinet, saxophone 9'
L'Altro Quartetto string quartet with bongo and crotales 7'36"
L'Intervista soprano, flute, oboe, clarinet, horn, trumpet, violin, viola, cello, xylophone, percussion, piano 6'
Danza oboe, clarinet, four violins, four violas, four cellos, double bass, tamtam 15"
A Trois for flute, clarinet, violin 5'10"
Schizzi for film, two clarinets, bass clarinet, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, two trombones, timpani, percussion, harp and strings
Sources
- New World Records, Liner Notes: Recorded Anthology of American Music