Composers Bureau

Harold Blumenfeld

Biography
Harold Blumenfeld is a composer given to language and the human voice. Born in Seattle, he studied at Harold Blumenfeld is a composer given to language and the human voice. Born in Seattle, he studied at Yale with Hindesmith and at University of Zurich, and trained with Leonard Bernstein and Boris Goldovsky in orchestral conducting, opera stage direction at Tanglewood. From the Seventies, with awards from the American Academy and National Endowment for the Arts, his work has focused on musical composition. He has also been active in areas of musicology and criticism. He is Professor Emeritus of Washington University.

His most recent major work is the two-act Borgia Infami (2002) libretto Charles Kondek. The New York City Opera will perform core of opening Borgia act 8 May 2003 on its VOX 2003 showcase of new works in New York.

  • Borgia libretto after Klabund and Victor Hugo. Opening on 1492 coronation of notorious Borgia pope Alexander VI, action moves to excommunication and fiery martyrdom of pope's nemesis, Savonarola; then turns focus upon pope's daughter Lucrezia, fabled poisoner of clan's enemies. Work initiated 1998 at Bogliasco Foundation, Genova, completed, published 2002.

Two new works completed early 2003. For Sion - Oh Thee! - choral-orchestral cycle after Byron's Hebrew poems, written for Washington University sesquicentennial celebration, premiere with recording, 25 April 2004, St. Louis; and Sterne und Stein, song cycle after Rudolf Gelpke, orientalist and former fellow student at University of Zürich.

Albany Records issued Blumenfeld's Mythologies CD in 2001. Disk contains title work after poetry of Derek Walcott (Voices of Change, Dallas), together with complete setting of Hart Crane's Voyages (NY Contemporary Chamber Ensemble) and War Lament after Siegfried Sassoon's World War Poetry, chorus with guitar (Gregg Smith Singers). Recorded Albany Records TROY 443.

Plan under way for new Albany Records CD comprising Vers Sataniques, orchestral cycle after Baudelaire (with baritone, soprano); the mentioned Byron For Sion choral work' and two song cycles - Silentium - after Osip Mandelstam, in Russian and the new Sterne u Stein.

The Eighties were given over to sequence of works inspired by surreal writing of Arthur Rimbaud. There are La Face cendrée (mezzo, cello, piano), Ange de flame et de glace (baritone, seven players, tape), Carnet de damné (Adieu from Une Saison en enfer verbatim, for soprano, 8 players), and two ten-minute symphonic fragments - Meadows and Diluvial - gleaned from Rimbaud's Illuminations. All recorded Centaur CRC 2277.

The composer's Rimbaud oeuvre culminated in 1996 Cincinnati CCM premiere of two-act opera Seasons in Hell - A Life of Rimbaud, production playing to five full houses. Recorded Albany Records TROY 262/63.

  • Dual lives of eruptive prodigy who reinvented literature as teen-ager, his renunciation of poetry at 19 and subsequent ill-fated career as coffee trader and gun-runner in Ethiopia are cinematically intertwined. Libretto, Kondek. Work initiated 1992, Carmago Foundation, Cassis.

As counterpoise to Rimbaldian rigors, Blumenfeld and Kondek created Fourscore, an Opera of Opposites (1986), thickly ensembled large-cast farce involving interaction of four families, each cast in a classic temperament. Sanguine pitted against melancholy, choleric versus phlegmatic. Spun out in intricate intrigue modeled after Johann Nestroy's Haus der Temperamente.

En route also short bagatelle-opera - Breakfast Waltzes, in manner of Molnar. It has played in St. Louis, Des Moines Metro Opera, and (in earlier form) at Chicago Opera Theater.

Blumenfeld and Kondek are planning a new opera based upon George Eliot's Daniel Deronda.

Blumenfeld's musical works published by MMB Music, Inc. St. Louis. Early on, during the Sixties, he was active as critic, having penned over a hundred feature articles on music and theater for Sunday arts pages of St. Louis Post-Dispatch and Los Angeles Times. This together with reviews of new works for Opera News and Opera (Great Britain). He is translator of Praetorius' Syntagma Musicum (Da Capo Press) and a study on Adorno published 1984 and again 1991 by the Musical Quarterly.

Recent Commissions

  • Monarch Minstrel, men's chorus, cello, piano. Commission 2002 Council on Jewish Music, St. Louis.
  • Voci Luminose, for two violins, orchestra. Commission 1995 Umea Symfoni Orkester, Umea, Sweden. Premiere Nov. 8, 1996, telecasts following Dec. 18-21.

Compositions
from the catalogs of MMB Music, Inc., 3526 Washington Ave., St. Louis, MO 63103. Fax: 314/531-8384.

  • Amphytyron 4 (1962) - Opera In three acts, Libretto by the composer after Moliere
  • Ange de flamme et de glace (1990) - text after Arthur Rimbaud, Medium Voice/Chamber ensemble
  • Breakfast Waltzes(1992) - Bagatelle Opera in one act, Libretto by Charles Kondek
  • Carnet de Damné (1987) - text after Arthur Rimbaud, Mezzo-Soprano/Chamber ensemble
  • Charioteer (1985) - text after James Merrill, Baritone/Viola, Guitar
  • Eroscapes (1971) - text after Isabella Gardner, Mezzo-Soprano/Chamber ensemble
  • Expansions (1964) - Woodwind Quintet
  • La Face cendrée (1981) - text after Arthur Rimbaud, Soprano/Cello, Piano
  • Four Tranqil Poems - texts after D.H. Lawrence, Men's Chorus
  • Fourscore: An Opera of Opposites (1986) - Opera in two acts, Libretto by Charles Kondeke
  • Illuminations: Symphonic fragments after Rimbaud (1991) - Part 1: Meadows of Emerald & Iron, Part 2: Diluvial, Orchestra
  • Mythologies (1990) - text after Derek Walcott, Baritone/Chamber ensemble
  • Rilke (1975) - Soprano/Guitar
  • Seasons in Hell: A Life of Rimbaud (1994) - Opera in two acts, Libretto by Charles Kondek
  • Silentium (1979) - text after Ossip Mandelstam, Medium Voice/Piano
  • Songs of Cassis(1995) - after Rick Lyon, Baritone/Piano
  • Songs of Innocence(1973) - text after William Blake, Mezzo, Tenor, Chorus/Orchestra
  • Starfires (1975) - text after Pauline Hanson, Mezzo-Soprano, Tenor/Orchestra
  • Three Scottish Poems- texts after L.A.G. Strong, SATB Chorus
  • Transformations (1963) - Piano solo
  • Vers Sataniques- Satanic Verse (1997) - texts after Charles Baudelaire. Baritone, Soprano/Orchestra
  • Voci Luminose(1996) - 2 Violins/Orchestra
  • La Voix Reconnue(1980) - text after Verlaine, Soprano, Tenor/Chamber ensemble
  • Voyages(1977) - text after Hart Crane, Barilone/Chamber ensemble
  • War Lament (1970) - text by Siegfried Sassoon, Mixed Chorus/Guitar

Performances

  • Borgia Infami (1998-2002), opera in two acts to libretto by Charles Kondek after Hugo and Klabund: Core of Act One performed musically by New York City Opera, May 7, 2003, in New York on its VOX 2003 showcase of new works. Six singers and orchestra, George Manahan, conductor. Pub.: MMB Music, Inc.

  • Songs of Cassis (1995), after Rick Lyon, medium voice & piano. Feb. 29, 2003, Washington University Sesquicentennial Concert, St. Louis MO. Pub.: MMB Music, Inc. Scott Levine, baritone, Seth Carlin, piano.

Premieres
  • Sterne und Stein, song cycle after Rudlof Gelpke, medium voince & piano (comp. June 2003), Feb. 29 2004: Washington University Sesquicenntennial Concert, St. Louis MO. Pub.: MMB Music, Inc. Performers: Scott Levine, baritone, Seth Carlin, piano.
  • For Sion! - Oh Thee, in five parts, for chorus, soli and small orchestra with clarinet and cello concertanti, after Byron (comp. May 2003). April 25, 2004: Chancellor's Concert, Graham Chapel, Washington University, St. Louis, MO. Pub: MMB Music, Inc.

New Publications

  • Stern und Stein, song cycle for medium voice & piano after Rudolf Gelpke. MMB Music, Inc., 2003.
  • For Sion! - Oh Thee for chorus, soli and small orchestra with clarinet and cello concertanti after Byron. MMB Music, Inc., 2003.
  • For Sion! - Oh Thee chamber version for chorus with clarinet, cello and piano. MMB Music, Inc., 2003.

My News
In addition to the new works entered above, I have fully revised two previous works, re-publishing them with MMB Music, Inc. in Spring 2003. They are the Baudelaire Vers Sataniques orchestral cycle with baritone, coloratura soprano (1975-2003) and the Russian cycle Silentium (1979-2003) after nine poems of Osip Mandelstam, medium voice & piano.

Plans are under way for compact disk to be issued 2005 by Albany Records, containing Vers Sataniques, For Sion! - Oh Thee, Sterne und Stein, and Silentium. Joel Suben, conductor, Katowice Radio Orchestra and Prague choral organization; Susan Narucki, soprano; baritone, pianist TBA.

Further Information

Contact Information
410 N. Newstead, 15W
St. Louis, MO 63108
Telephone: 314-652-9009
E-mail: blumenf@artsci.wustl.edu

Last updated 6/23/04
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