The Classical Music Book

DIRECTORY 337

Brecht. These included the two satirical

operas Die Dreigroschenoper (The

Threepenny Opera; 1928), adapted

from an 18th-century English ballad

opera, and Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt

Mahagonny (“Rise and fall of the

city of Mahagonny”; 1930). Drawing

inspiration from cabaret and jazz as well

as his classical training, Weill created

bitingly surreal numbers, such as the

famous “Ballad of Mack the Knife” from

Die Dreigroschenoper. In 1933, following

Hitler’s appointment as chancellor, the

Jewish Weill fled Germany, first for

Paris, then the United States, where

he wrote a series of Broadway musicals

before his death in 1950.

JOAQUÍN RODRIGO

1901–1999

Blind from the age of three, Joaquín

Rodrigo nonetheless studied music in

Paris. He returned to his native Spain in

1939 after the end of the civil war there.

His most famous piece, the Concerto

de Aranjuez for guitar and orchestra,

inspired by the gardens of the royal

palace of Aranjuez, premiered the next

year. Other works include 11 concertos;

another guitar piece, Fantasia para

un gentilhombre (“Fantasia for a

gentleman”; 1954), and an opera, El

hijo fingido (“The false son”; 1964).

ELISABETH LUTYENS

1906–1983

For much of her life, Elisabeth Lutyens’s

uncompromising Modernism drew blank

incomprehension from her fellow Britons.

Lutyens studied in Paris and at the

Royal College of Music in London. Her

early works included a Concerto for

Nine Instruments (1939), composed in

a style individual to her but somewhat

akin to the serialism developed by

Arnold Schoenberg. Vocal works

included literary settings, notably a

motet using texts from the philosopher

Ludwig Wittgenstein (1952). Among her

stage works were the chamber opera

Infidelio (1954) and Isis and Osiris (1969–

1970). Her best-known orchestral pieces

include Six Tempi (1957), Quincunx

(1959), and Music for Orchestra II (1962).

She also worked with Hammer Film

Productions, writing scores for horror

movies to earn money.

ELLIOTT CARTER

1908–2012

In the 1930s, New Yorker Elliott Carter

was one of many Americans who studied

under Nadia Boulanger in Paris. Back in

the United States, he developed his own

style, with different instrumental parts

following different lines, interacting

with one another like characters in a

play. Carter’s important orchestral works

included his Cello Sonata (1948), two

String Quartets (1950–1951 and 1959),

a Double Concerto for Harpsichord and

Piano (1961), and a Piano Concerto

(1964–1965), a response to the building

of the Berlin Wall. From the 1970s, he

turned to vocal music, with settings of

contemporary North American poets,

such as Elizabeth Bishop in A Mirror

on Which to Dwell (1975).

SAMUEL BARBER

1910–1981

Samuel Barber was born in Pennsylvania

in 1910 and became one of the most

celebrated American composers of the

century. His most popular work was one

of his earliest—the Adagio for Strings

(1938), an orchestration of the Adagio

movement from a String Quartet he had

written two years earlier. An alumnus of

Philadelphia’s Curtis Institute of Music,

Barber was later known for vocal works,

such as Knoxville: Summer of 1915 for

solo soprano (1948), the Hermit Songs

cycle (1952–1953), and two operas: Vanessa

(1958), and Antony and Cleopatra (1966),

which was written for the inauguration

of the Metropolitan Opera’s new theatre

at New York’s Lincoln Center in 1966.

MILTON BABBIT T

1916–2011

The avant-garde American composer,

teacher, and theorist Milton Babbitt had

a background in both mathematics and

(1928), and David (1954). During the

1940s, he taught composition at Mills

College, California. One of his pupils was

the pioneer of minimalism, Steve Reich.

PAUL HINDEMITH

1895–1963

Paul Hindemith taught composition at

Berlin’s School of Music until he was

forced to resign in 1937, due to his

opposition to the Nazi regime. He went

to the United States, teaching at Yale

from 1940 to 1953 before returning to

Germany. His textbooks, starting with

The Craft of Musical Composition (1941),

are still widely studied. His compositions

include chamber works, symphonies, and

operas, most famously Mathis der Maler

(“Matthias the painter”), which premiered

in Zurich in 1938. Telling the story of

German painter Matthias Grünewald,

who joined a peasants’ uprising in 1525,

it concerns an artist living in troubled

times and trying to follow his conscience

in the face of an oppressive regime.

HENRY COWELL

1897–1965

In the 1920s and 1930s, the Californian

composer, pianist, and teacher Henry

Cowell toured North America and

Europe, shocking audiences with

works such as The Tides of Manaunaun

(1912), The Aeolian Harp (1923), and The

Banshee (1925). These involved creating

“tone clusters” by placing his fist or

forearm on the keyboard while the other

hand played the notes as normal or

placing one hand inside the piano and

strumming the strings like a harp.

Cowell was eclectic, drawing inspiration

from his own Irish roots, hymns, or

Japanese or Indian music. Through his

periodical, New Music, he was an active

promoter of other people’s works.

KURT WEILL

1900–1950

German composer Kurt Weill is best

known for his collaborations with the

left-wing dramatist and poet Bertolt

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