Julie Kabat (b.1947) composer and
concert artist, has performed her music throughout the U.S., Canada and
Japan. She has composed vocal, choral and chamber music as well as music
for the theater, including a Samuel Beckett play presented by NOHO Theater
Company in Japan and music for the Circle Repertory Theatre Company in
New York.
In finding her own voice, Kabat has developed an individual style of singing,
often in a language without words that brings us close to the world of
dreams. She often accompanies her voice with an unusual array of homemade
and ethnic musical instruments such as glass harmonium, musical saw and
percussion. Her many one-woman performance art pieces combine music, theater,
poetry and puppetry. For instance, Child and the Moon-Tree is a
one-act opera for voice and computerized synthesizers with costumes and
stylized choreography inspired by her studies of Noh Theater in Japan.
Kabat has composed many site-specific works, including a series of pieces
that celebrate the earth and a sense of place, such as Navajo Mountain
Song created with children on the Navajo Reservation and the Wild
Sound Symphony for the Adirondack Park. Since the late 1970's, Ms.
Kabat has worked as a teaching artist at the cutting edge of arts in education.
As a composer in the classroom, she focuses on the intersection of music
and language, helping students read and write poems and stories that they
set to music, so that everyone gets the chance to improvise and perform.
Ms. Kabat is Executive and Artistic Director of Concerted Effort, a nonprofit
organization devoted to arts in education. With dancer Susan Griss, she
co-directs the Arts and Curriculum Institute at Skidmore College (ACI),
which offers professional development for elementary school teachers on
how to use music, poetry and dance to teach children to read and write.
She began studying music composition at age eleven with a professor at
Brown University and went on to study with Hall Overton and Jacob Druckman,
among others. Ms. Kabat earned a B.A. in philosophy (phi beta kappa) at
Brandeis University. On Edge (voice, African drums, congas
and piano); A Mi Hija (voice and saw); and Kalimba
Alight (voice and kalimba) are on Leonarda cassette
#LE319cs.
Five Poems by H.D. consists of The Moon in
Your Hands (spoken voice, violin, glass harmonium, audio sample mp3);
Evadne (spoken voice, saw, audio sample mp3);.
Oread (spoken voice, violin, glass harmonium, audio sample mp3);
Fragment 113 (spoken voice, saw, audio sample mp3);
and The Helmsman (voice glass harmonium and violin, audio sample
mp3).
Invocation in Centrifugal Form (pitched and spoken voice,
glass harmonium, audio sample
CD #LE350.
Giovanni Girolamo Kapsperger (ca.1580-1651) was called "Giovanni Girolamo tedesco della tiorba" (the German of the theorbo) and also nobile alemanne (German nobleman).Kapsperger was born in Germany but came to pursue his career as a composer, theorist and lutenist in Italy: first in Venice and then, from 1610 on, in Rome, where he was in the service of Antonio Barbarini. In addition to achieving fame as a virtuoso of the theorbo, chitarrone and lute, he published four books of villanelle, two books of arie passeggiate and several books with solo music for lute and chitarrone, of which the toccatas are most remarkable. Figlio dormi comes from Libro secondo di Villanella a 1, 2 et 3 voci con l'Alfabeto per la Chitarra Spagnola, published in Rome in 1619. The alphabet referred to is a shorthand system for chords on the guitar. Due to the energetic nature of the strummed baroque guitar, we have accompanied this simple strophic lullaby with the lute instead. Figlio dormi (soprano, lute, viola da gamba), audio sample
mp3 from Leonarda CD #LE350.
Sigfrid Karg-Elert (1877-1933) When Siegfried
Theodor Karg, the youngest of 12 children, was born in Oberndorf am Neckar
(Germany) in 1877, his father was already in poor health and having difficulty
supporting the family. When his father died in 1889, the family was destitute,
and Siegfried's sister Anna, who was ten years older, took over the family's
financial responsibilities. An old square piano was given to Karg's family
by a wealthy patron, and Professor Bruno Röthig, cantor of the Johanniskirche,
gave Siegfried piano lessons. Siegfried began to compose his first works
without any theoretical training. He wrote sacred works for choir, motets,
and a Christmas cantata, and so impressed Professor Röthig that the
professor programmed a part of Siegfried's choral work.
Although Siegfried visited the Leipzig Conservatory, the church director
decided to send him to Grimma to study to be a school teacher. The boy,
only fourteen at the time, was distraught and restless. He threw himself
into practicing and composing, and learned to play flute, oboe, and clarinet,
but because of his poor work at school, he was not allowed to study piano
(1893). Leaving Grimma, he abruptly broke contact with his benefactors
and set out on his own at the age of sixteen. After two days' walk he
found some meager employment in Markranstädt, where he resided for
three years. He began to read a wider variety of books, including philosophy,
natural science, and music theory.
Becoming disenchanted with his surroundings, he headed on foot to Magdeburg.
He soon found work playing oboe, clarinet, and horn, but that did not
last long, since he was arrested in Magdeburg and sent back to Markranstädt
for trying to change his name to Siegfried von Markranstädt. He was
then told to return to Leipzig. In Leipzig, Siegfried earned a living
as an orchestral musician and bar pianist. He dressed up with a fake beard
and wig in order to remain incognito, since he was studying at the Leipzig
Conservatory, and performing dance music was not approved. He studied
organ with Homeyer, the Gewandhaus organist; piano with Wendling; and
music theory with Salomon Jadassohn and Carl Reinecke.
In 1900, Siegfried's piano concerto was premiered under the auspices of
the Leipzig Conservatory. For the next year and a half, Siegfried took
part in the composition classes of Robert Teichmüller. In 1902, at
the recommendation of the Leipzig Conservatory, he took the position of
piano masterclass instructor at the conservatory at Magdeburg, contingent
on the director's stipulation that Karg alter his last name to "Karg-Elert"
(adding his mother's maiden name). At the age of 25, Karg-Elert became
engaged to Maria Oelze, a fine keyboard player. Her father persuaded her
to break off the engagement, however, leaving them both miserable. An
illegitimate son was born in 1904. Out of spiritual confusion and personal
disappointment, Karg-Elert experienced an emotional collapse and lived
as a recluse, composing constantly. He also began an intensive study of
the Kunstharmonium. During this period he decided to return to Leipzig,
leaving his post in Magdeburg.
Karg-Elert made the acquaintance of Edvard Grieg, who encouraged him as
a composer, awakened his affinity for classicism, and suggested publishers
and performance opportunities. Karg-Elert's compositions took on contrapuntal
forms and showed a mastery of polyphonic phrase construction. At Grieg's
recommendation, Karg-Elert again changed his name, this time to "Sigfrid."
In 1910, Karg-Elert married Minna Louise Kretschmar, but the marriage
was not a happy one. In 1912 a son was stillborn, and in 1914 they had
a daughter. Karg-Elert was known as a composer in England, America, and
Australia prior to the outbreak of the first world war. At war's onset,
Karg-Elert enlisted in the 107th infantry regiment. He was placed in the
regimental band, playing oboe, horn, saxophone, and even the lyre. In
the many concerts presented by the regiment, he was a favorite accompanist
and pianist as well. During this time, he wrote many important works for
winds, including most of his solo flute repertoire.
At this point, his works were stylistically akin to the music of Webern
and Schoenberg, but influenced by Brahms, Franck, Scriabin, and Debussy
as well. After what Karg-Elert described as an artistic crisis, his writing
took a new direction. He distanced himself more and more from the radical
left camp of musical composition in favor of the Impressionists, late
Romanticists, and Neo-Classicists, and began putting a "b" after
his later opus numbers to distinguish them from his earlier period. Describing
his new style, he wrote, "I began again in C major and prayed to
the muse of melody." All this time, his life's wish was to become
organist at the church at Vorstadt or Heiland, but his some five attempts
to secure these positions came to nothing. His association with the Avant-Garde,
his improvisatory virtuosity, and his repugnance to authority may have
been contributing factors.
In 1930, Karg-Elert took part in a Karg-Elert Festival in London, and
a year later he was asked to perform in the USA, where he presented more
than twenty organ concerts. He was offered the position of organ teacher
at the Carnegie Institute in Pittsburgh, but due to his failing health,
he declined. Diabetes and neuralgia plagued him more and more. He died
on September 4, 1933, and was buried in the Leipzig Südfriedhof.
Impressions exotiques, Op. 134 (flute, with double on piccolo,
and piano), audio samples mp3
and mp3; Sonata
in B-flat Major, Op. 121 (flute and piano), audio sample mp3;
Jugend, Op. 139a (flute, clarinet, horn, piano),. audio
sample mp3; Suite
pointillistique, Op. 135 (flute and piano), audio sample mp3.
Leonarda CD #LE335.
Lady Killigrew's (17th C.) (England) lovely
setting of this John Donne poem appears in English manuscript from the
early years of the 17th century. Though her first name is not indicated
and thus her exact identity difficult to ascertain, she may be related
to Anne Killigrew, a poet and painter who lived just before the Restoration.
The unclear identity of Lady Killigrew is a good example of the dilemmas
music historians face when researching this material. Sweetest love
I do not goe (soprano, lute, bass viola da gamba), audio sample
mp3 from Leonarda
CD #LE340.
Betty Jackson King (1928-1994) began music
training in Chicago with her mother, Gertrude Jackson Taylor, and sang
in the Jacksonian Trio with her mother and sister. She completed her bachelor's
and master's degrees at Chicago Musical College of Roosevelt University
and also studied at the Peabody Conservatory and Westminster Choir College.
King taught at the University of Chicago Laboratory School, Dillard University
(New Orleans) and in the public schools in Wildwood, New Jersey. She was
active as a choir director in Chicago and at Riverside Church in New York
City. From 1979 to 1984, King was President of the National Association
of Negro Musicians. Her oratorio, Saul of Tarsus, was widely performed
after its premiere in 1952 by Chicago's Imperial Opera Company. She wrote
many choral works, art songs, and arrangements of spirituals. King's style
is marked by an extended harmonic language, thick massive chord clusters,
and simultaneous layers of sound. King's style is marked by an extended
harmonic language, thick massive chord clusters, and simultaneous layers
of sound. Her more delicate Spring Intermezzo, from "
Four Seasonal Sketches" (solo
piano). Audio sample mp3
from Leonarda CD #LE339.
Moravian-born Gideon Klein (1919-1945)
went to Prague at the age of eleven to take liberal arts courses at the
Jirásek Gymnasium along with intensive private studies in piano.
In the fall of 1938, he registered at the Charles University to study
philosophy and musicology and simultaneously entered the Master School
of the Prague Conservatory, graduating in Piano after only one year. His
university studies came to an abrupt end on Nov. 17, when the Nazis closed
all institutions of higher learning in the occupied Czech territories.
During the following year, Klein pursued the study of composition as a
private student of Alois Hába and, at the same time, concertized
as much as the circumstances permitted, establishing himself as a pianist
of distinction and appearing under the pseudonym Karel Vránek after
the imposition of the race laws in Czechoslovakia in 1939. Since Jews
were not allowed to perform in public, they held clandestine concerts
among themselves, entering buildings not as couples, but one by one so
not to arouse suspicion, often staying overnight, since curfews were in
place. Klein often performed at these concerts.
Sent to Terezín in December, 1941, Klein quickly became involved
in musical life there. At first, he arranged Czech, Slovak, Hebrew, and
even Russian folk songs for Schächter's ever expanding choral group.
After the original all-male ensemble, Schächter formed a women's
chorus, then a mixed choir. In the beginning, the only available "musical
instrument" was a pitch pipe. The situation improved when Schächter
obtained a broken-down reed organ and a half-broken accordion.
In the beginning, Klein turned his attention to composition. Later on,
however, as one, even two broken-down pianos became available, he and
most of the other pianists became involved in chamber music, recital accompaniments,
operas, oratorios, or other genres. There were no fewer than half a dozen
concert pianists who performed frequently in solo recitals and numerous
other presentations. Klein was in constant demand as a pianist, arranger
and rehearsal accompanist. His exceptional talents, intellect, and charismatic
personality affected many of those who knew him.
A number of his pre-war compositions was found some 50 years after the
war, and several of his Terezín works were saved by his older sister,
Elisa Kleinová, who was a professor of musicology in Prague. Klein
died in the camp at Fürstengrube around January 27, 1945. Wiegenlied is one of Klein's numerous arrangements of well-known songs, probably
made in response to requests from individual singers. His accompaniment
juxtaposes considerable melodic movement itself, underscoring the more
gentle motion of the warm and expressive melody. Wiegenlied (voice
and piano), audio sample mp3
from Leonarda CD #LE 342.
Barbara Kolb (b.1939) (USA) Homage to
Keith Jarrett and Gary Burton (flute and vibraphone) audio sample
mp3. This piece is on Leonarda
cassette #LPI 221cs as well as double
CD #LE353, the latter which can be used in conjunction with the book
Women Composers: The Lost Tradition Found.
Jonathan Kramer (1942-2004) is Professor of
Music at Columbia University. Born in Hartford, Connecticut, Kramer received
his B.A. magna cum laude from Harvard and his M. A. and Ph. D. from the
University of California at Berkeley. His composition teachers included
Karlheinz Stockhausen, Roger Sessions, Leon Kirchner, Seymour Shifrin,
Andrew Imbrie, Richard Felciano, Jean-Claude Eloy, Billy Jim Layton, and
Arnold Franchetti. Before joining Columbia, Kramer was Assistant Professor
at Oberlin, Director of Undergraduate Composition at Yale, and then Director
of Electronic Music at the University of Cincinnati, where he also served
as Composer-in-Residence with the Cincinnati Symphony. Jonathan Kramer's
music has been performed in 23 countries. Orchestral performances have
included the Cincinnati, Seattle, and Sacramento Symphonies, the Cleveland
Chamber Symphony, and the National Orchestra of El Salvadore. Two works
on this disc were played at ISCM's World Music Days: Renascence (1980,
Israel) and Music for Piano, Number 5 (1985, Netherlands). The latter
work also represented the United States at the International Rostrum of
Composers, where it was selected for worldwide broadcasts. Musica
Pro Musica (orchestra), audio sample mp3;
Atlanta Licks (flute, clarinet, violin, viola, cello, piano),
audio sample mp3; Music
for Piano, No. 5, audio sample mp3;
Renascence (clarinet and tape), audio sample mp3;
Music for Piano, No. 3. Leonarda CD
#LE332:
Fritz Kreisler (1875-1962) Rondo
(Kreisler wrote this in the style of Mozart). Ttranscribed.for
flute and piano by Harold Jones. Leonarda CD #LE355.
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