Item #28206 Collection of 12 autograph letters dating from January 2008 to June 2009 discussing a number of the composer's own works including the Friday Evening Service, the Torah Service, O To Be a Dragon, 2 Psalms, etc., all to the award-winning American choral conductor Harold Rosenbaum. Yehudi b. 1929 WYNER.

Collection of 12 autograph letters dating from January 2008 to June 2009 discussing a number of the composer's own works including the Friday Evening Service, the Torah Service, O To Be a Dragon, 2 Psalms, etc., all to the award-winning American choral conductor Harold Rosenbaum

The letters include discussion of revisions to various works, translations, rehearsals, suggestions for performance, financial matters, etc.

With especially detailed commentary on the Torah Service: "A short prayer ... is intended before the Sh'ma begins. Therefore it is not really attacca. This is a service intended for worship use, not as a normal Concert pierce ... The Aliahs were written to provide a quiet procession for each person(s) ascending the Bimah ... You can do as many as you wish, but the refrain should separate each one ..." (letter of 5 March 2009) and corrections to the bar count in the score as "AMP was careless in not sending you updated scores..." (Letter of 23 March 2009).

The letters also include high praise for Rosenbaum's interpretation of the composer's works: "Thank you for your enthusiastic embrace of my music, for the mobilization of splendid singers, for your meticulous, comprehensive preparation of the music, for your scrupulous attention to even the smallest detail and for your unflagging concentration in projecting the overall work in performance." (Letter of 8 June 2009).

A Canadian-born American composer, pianist and conductor, Wyner studied at Juilliard, at Yale with Hindemith, and at Harvard with Piston, among others. "After a period at the American Academy in Rome (1953–6), he was active as a performer and composer in New York. His teaching appointments have included positions at the Yale School of Music (from 1963), the Tanglewood Music Centre (1975–97), SUNY, Purchase (1978–89), where he also served as dean of music (1978–82), and Brandeis University (from 1989) as well as visiting professorships at Harvard (1991–7). Among his honours are two Guggenheim fellowships (1958–9, 1977–8), the Brandeis Creative Arts Award, the Elise Stoeger Prize of the Lincoln Centre Chamber Music Society, and commissions from the Ford Foundation and the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1999."

"Wyner’s early works, such as the Partita for piano, show a neo-classical influence; later, he moved towards freer forms, employing jazz rhythms and a more varied chromatic language. The Concert Duo for violin and piano reflects this widening stylistic range. Many compositions are influenced by his Jewish heritage and experience; one of the most important of these is the Friday Evening Service. Major compositions from the late 1970s onwards, such as Fragments from Antiquity and On this most Voluptuous Night, are highly expressive works for solo voice and instruments." Vivian Perlis in Grove Music Online.

Many of the Wyner's works have been performed by Rosenbaum's distinguished professional choir, The New York Virtuoso Singers.

Item #28206

Price: $450.00  other currencies

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