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Flute Materials in the Riemenschneider Bach Institute

 

Individual Pieces Featuring the Flute

The Riemenschneider Bach Institute houses numerous scores of pieces written for solo flute, many of which have been signed by the composer. This page lists those items.

The majority of these pieces were donated by Sean Gabriel, current professor of flute at Baldwin Wallace University, but some were donated by former BW flute professor William Hebert or by the composers themselves. 

The works on this page are listed in alphabetical order by author's last name as follows: 

Bond, Victoria. Shenblu. San Antonio, Texas: Southern Music Company, 1988. Signed by Composer. Vault.

Full Title Page
Shenblu / For Solo Flute / By Victoria Bond / ST-656 / $2.75 / Souther Music Company / San Antonio, Texas 78292

Signature Transcript

"To Sean - / I well remember your beautiful playing on Rach #2! Bravo! / Victoria Bond"

Item Contents

Contains score for one unaccompanied flute signed by the composer.

Program Notes

"Shenblu was written for Carol Kniesbusch, principal flutist of the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra. As Carol was going to China to lecture and perform, I decided to write a work for her reflecting an element common to both Chinese music and American jazz - namely, the pentatonic, or five-note scale. Also, I wanted to emphasize qualities not normally associated with the flute - its earthy, animal nature. Carol raises Pekingese show dogs, and the name of her kennel is 'Shenblu'. Assuming this was a Chinese word, because the dogs originally came from Peking, I decided to call the piece 'Shenblu'. When I asked Carol to translate the name from the Chinese, she said, 'Oh that's not a Chinese word at all! It's a name I made up from the combination of Shenandoah and Blue Ridge Mountains, where my kennel is located!' This being a 'bluesy' sort of Chinese piece, the title seemed that much more appropriate! / Victoria Bond"

Transcribed from the inside cover of the item.

Provenance

This signed score was donated directly to the Riemenschneider Bach Institute by Sean Gabriel, a professor of flute at the Baldwin Wallace Conservatory, in 2021. Gabriel had repeatedly worked with Bond – predominately when the latter guest conducted the Erie Philharmonic, in which Gabriel was a flutist. The note in the signature reading "I well remember your beautiful playing on Rach #2! Bravo!" is in reference to one such Erie Philharmonic performance wherein Bond conducted Rachmonioff’s second symphony and Gabriel served as a flutist.

The score itself was purchased by Gabriel for his personal collection at an unknown date. The score was signed at Gabriel’s request during a Cleveland Chamber Symphony rehearsal for one of Bond’s pieces – an ensemble for which Gabriel was a flutist. While the exact year it was signed is unknown, Gabriel himself estimates that it took place sometime in the early 2000’s.

Unique Markings

Embossed stamp on upper-right corner of front cover reads "From the Library of / SFG / Sean F. Gabriel

Pencil markings on first page (measures 1-10) marking beats indicate first part of piece was at least rehearsed

Further Reading

O’Donoghue, Rory. “No Exit: Gabriel & Pongracz at Appletree Books (June 21).” Cleveland Classical, July 1, 2019. https://clevelandclassical.com/no-exit-gabriel-pongracz-at-appletree-books-june-21/.

“Shenblu.” Victoria Bond. https://www.victoriabond.com/artist.php?view=prog&rid=1950.

Bond, Victoria (1945-)

Biography

Born in Los Angles, California on May 6, 1945, Victoria Bond studied composition and voice at the University of Southern California where she received her Bachelor of Music. Following a class with Leonard Slatkin at the Aspen Music Festival, Bond decided to shift her focus from voice to conducting. She continued her studies in composition and conducting at The Juilliard School where she received her M.M. in 1975 and D.M.A in 1977 – making her the first woman to receive a doctorate degree in conducting from Juilliard. Bond also served as the assistant conductor of the Juilliard Contemporary Music Ensemble and the Juilliard Orchestra during her studies. She has since held a variety of other high-profile conducting positions, including positions as the music director and conductor of the New Amsterdam Symphony, director of the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra, artistic director of Opera Roanoke, and assistant conductor of the Pittsburg Symphony. She currently serves as Principal Guest Conductor for Chamber Opera Chicago and as a host and producer for Cutting Edge Concerts New Music Festival in New York City.

Bond’s compositional output includes a wide array of works in a variety of genres including ballets, operas, orchestral works, chamber works, piano concertos, choral works, and songs. 

Additional Compositions Featuring the Flute

  • Duet for Flute and Viola (1969)
  • Samba (2002) (flute and piano)
  • Woven (2005) (2 flutes or 2 violins)
  • Seduction and Sanctification (2007) (concerto for flute, harp, and viola with orchestra)
  • Instruments of Revelation (2011) (flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano)

Further Reading

Anderson, E. Ruth. Contemporary American Composers: A Biographical Dictionary. (Boston: G.K. Hall, 1982), 55. http://archive.org/details/contemporaryamer0000ande.

Bonaventura, Sam Di, Barbara Jepson, and Adrienne Fried Block. “Bond, Victoria (Ellen).” Grove Music Online, 2001. https://doi.org/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.47158.

Canfield, David Deboor, and Colin Clarke. “A Bond with Music: An Interview with Victoria Bond and Myles Lee.” Fanfare: The Magazine for Serious Record Collectors, December 11, 2018.

Jaques Cattell Press, ed. Who’s Who in American Music: Classical. (New York: R.R. Bowker, 1983), 45. http://archive.org/details/whoswhoinamerica0000unse_q2u6.

Julie Anne Sadie and Rhian Samuel, eds. The Norton/Grove Dictionary of Women Composers. (New York: W.W. Norton, 1994), 71-72. http://archive.org/details/nortongrovedicti00sadi.

Boulez, Pierre. Sonatine, Flute & Piano. Paris: Amphion, 1954. M242.B68. Signed by Composer. Vault.

Full Title Page

Pierre Boulez / Sonatine / Flute & Piano / Amphion

Signature Transcript

"Boulez / Avec mon bien cordial souvenir"

Item Contents

Contains two full scores, one marked for flute and one marked for piano. The flute score is signed by the composer, the piano score is not.

Provenance

Donated to the Riemenschneider Bach Institute by former Baldwin Wallace University flute professor William Hebert on an unknown date.

Unique Markings

Flute Score:

  • Marking on cover reads "FP 210"
  • Ex Libris Stamp reads "From the Library of William J. Hebert"
  • Pencil Markings throughout in William Hebert's handwriting

Piano Score:

  • Marking on cover reads "FP 210"
  • Ex Libris Stamp reads "From the Library of William J. Hebert"
  • Pencil Markings throughout may be by Hebert or an unknown accompanist

Further Reading

Baron, Carol K. “An Analysis of the Pitch Organization in Boulez’s ‘Sonatine’ for Flute and Piano.” Current Musicology, no. 20 (1975): 87–95.

Chang, Sangtae. “Boulez’s ‘Sonatine’ and the Genesis of His Twelve-Tone Practice.” Ph.D. diss, University of North Texas, 1998. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc278125/.

“Focus Sur La Sonatine Pour Flûte Et Piano De Pierre Boulez.” Traversieres, no. 133 (deuxieme trimestre 2020): 40–41.

Gärtner, Susanne. “‘L’épuration Stylistique’: Zur Revision von Pierre Boulez’ Sonatina Für Flöte Und Klavier.” Mitteilungen Der Paul Sacher Stiftung, no. 15 (April 2002): 14–19.

Gärtner, Susanne. “Pierre Boulez’ Sonatine Für Flöte Und Klavier Und Ihre Neu Aufgetauchte Frühfassung.” Die Musikforschung 55, no. 1 (January 2002): 51–59.

Gresset, Pascal. “Oeuvres Pour Flûte de Pierre Boulez.” Traversieres, 2006.

Hansen, Dionne Marie. “The Boulez without Fear.” Flute Talk, December 1998.

Henderson, Jonathan James Beresford. “Strategies for Improving Ensemble Cohesion in the Sonatine for Flute and Piano by Pierre Boulez.” Ph.D. diss, Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre, 2018. https://www.ester.ee/record=b5147986*est

Tiffany, Diana M. “An Analysis and Performer’s Guide to the Sonatine for Flute and Piano by Pierre Boulez.” DMA diss, Louisiana State University, 1999. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses/6905/.

Trenkamp, Wilma Anne. “A Throw of the Dice: An Analysis of Selected Works by Pierre Boulez.” Ph.D. diss, Case Western Reserve University, 1974.

Boulez, Pierre (1925-2016)

Biography

Pierre Boulez was born on March 26, 1925 in Loire, France to Léon, an engineer in the steel industry, and his wife Marcelle. As a child, Boulez showed early promise in music as well as mathematics. His father encouraged him to pursue the latter but, ultimately, Boulez opted to study music and moved to Paris in 1942. In 1946, Boulez became the music director of a Paris theatre company run by Jean-Louis Barrault and Madeleine Renaud. Then, in 1953, with financial assistance from both Barrault and Renaud, Boulez founded the new music society Le Domaine Musical. It was with Le Domaine Musical that Boulez made his concert conducting debut in March of 1956.

In the summers of 1954, 1955, and 1956, Boulez taught at the Darmstädter Ferienkurse (Darmstadt International Summer Courses for New Music). Boulez distanced himself from Paris in the early 1960s, serving as a professor of composition at the Basle Musik-Akademie in Switzerland from 1960-1963. During this time, he also took up teaching at the Darmstädter Ferienkurse again for the summers of 1960-1965 and maintained an active private studio.

Boulez returned to Paris in 1963. He was immensely popular upon his return, immediately conducting sold-out concerts of The Rite of Spring at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées and Wozzeck at the Paris Opera. However, Boulez gradually found himself at odds with Parisian and European musical culture. That same year, Boulez left Paris to become guest conductor with the Cleveland Orchestra at the invitation of George Szell. In 1971, Boulez was appointed principal director of both the BBC Symphonic Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic - positions he maintained until 1975 and 1977, respectively.

Boulez's focus then shifted towards the Institut de Recherche et de Coordination Acoustique/Musique (IRCAM), which he had been nominated the director of in 1972. IRCAM focused on researching music of all kinds, including electronic, and acoustics as a whole. Using IRCAM's resources, Boulez wrote his electroacoustic chamber work Répons, which, while premiered in 1981, was expanded upon up until 1984. Boulez remained the director of IRCAM until 1992 when Laurent Bayle took over the position - at which point Boulez was given the title of honorary director.

Boulez remained active as both a conductor and a composer in the last two decades of his life. He frequently guest conducted for ensembles around the world, including for the Cleveland Orchestra on multiple occasions, and was named conductor emeritus of the Chicago Symphony. Boulez died on January 5, 2016 at the age of 90 in his home in Baden-Baden, Germany.

Additional Compositions Featuring the Flute

  • Le Marteau sans maître (1955) (voice, alto flute, guitar, viola, percussion)
  • Improvisé—pour le Dr. Kalmus (1969) (flute, clarinet, viola, cello, piano)
  • Mémoriale (1985) (flute and 8-part ensemble)

Further Reading

Fox, Christopher. “Pierre Boulez (1925–2016).” Tempo: A Quarterly Review of Modern Music 70, no. 276 (April 2016): 71–72. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0040298215000996.

Griffiths, Paul. “Pierre Boulez, Composer and Conductor Who Pushed Modernism’s Boundaries, Dies at 90.” The New York Times, January 6, 2016. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/07/arts/music/pierre-boulez-french-composer-dies-90.html.

Hopkins, G.W., and Paul Griffiths. “Boulez, Pierre.” Grove Music Online, July 30, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.03708.

Huizenga, Tom. “The Sensuous Radical: Pierre Boulez at 90.” NPR, March 26, 2015. https://www.npr.org/sections/deceptivecadence/2015/03/26/395318157/the-sensuous-radical-pierre-boulez-at-90.

Nichols, Roger. “Pierre Boulez Obituary.” The Guardian, January 6, 2016. https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/jan/06/pierre-boulez.

Tsioulcas, Anastasia. “French Composer Pierre Boulez Dies At 90.” NPR, January 6, 2016. https://www.npr.org/sections/deceptivecadence/2016/01/06/462176284/french-composer-pierre-boulez-dies-at-90.

WKSU. “A Remembrance of Pierre Boulez.” Ideastream Public Media, January 7, 2016. https://www.wksu.org/arts-culture/2016-01-07/a-remembrance-of-pierre-boulez.

Chen, Yi. The Golden Flute. Bryn Mawr, PA: Theodore Presser, 1999. Signed by Composer. Vault.

Full Cover Transcript

Chen Yi / The Golden Flute / Solo Flute / with Piano Reduction / Theodore Presser Company / 1 Presser Place - Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania 19010

Signature Transcript

陳怡 / Chen Yi

Item Contents

Contains flute part and piano reduction score. Flute part is signed by composer

Program Notes

"I was very excited to learn that James Galway was enthusiastic to invite me to write a Chinese flute concerto after he heard my viola concerto Xian Shi, introduced to him by my former colleague, Maestro Zuo-Huang Chen, now the music director of both the Wichita Symphony in Kansas and the China National Symphony Orchestra in Beijing.

I decided to compose a concerto entitled The Golden Flute, using a western flute to speak in the language of Chinese wind instruments such as the bamboo dizi and the clay xun.

Remembering my studies of the Chinese folk music repertoire, I am always amazed by the variation method of traditional Chinese bamboo flute performance. Most folk solo pieces have a single theme, with its sectional developments in different speeds, tonguings, and fingerings, and adding decorations on the important notes from the melody. It inspired me to construct my three-movement concerto starting with the only theme in the initial three-measure phrase; its melodic material is drawn from the Chinese folk tune 'Old Eight Beats.'

The variations in the first movement are full of various grace notes and performing techniques around the melodic notes, learnt from such traditional pieces as 'Joy of Reunion' for the Chinese bamboo dizi. In the intermezzo-like second movement, I try to imitate the sound of an ancient clay xun, a wind instrument with a slow but tense, mysterious, and dreamy voice. The third movement brings us back to the virtuosic playing style with all former pitch materials recapitulated. With an extreme contrast between low sonority in the orchestra and the screaming passages from the solo part mixed with piccolos, the music is brought to its final climax before the coda, which is a solo flute cadenza that brings us back to the lyrical mood of the short slow movement, and the sounds of the grazioso dizi and the remote xun.

The composition is supported, in part, by a Composers Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, and it was completed at the Civitella Ranieri Center in Umbertide, Italy.

-Chen Yi"

Transcribed from inside cover of item.

Provenance

This signed piano reduction score was donated directly to the Riemenschneider Bach Institute by Sean Gabriel in 2021. The score was purchased by Gabriel for his personal collection at an unknown date. It was signed in 2008 during the intermission of a Baldwin Wallace University FOCUS Contemporary Music Festival concert celebrating Chen’s music. The signature is likely Chen’s name written in English and Chinese.

Chen, Yi (1953-)

Biography

Chen Yi was born on April 4, 1953 in Guangzhou, China to a family of musically-inclined medical doctors. Her musical studies in violin and piano began at age three under Zheng Ri-hua and Li Su-xin. During Mao Zedong's Cultural Revolution, Chen and her family continued to secretly practice musical instruments in their home using homemade mutes. Then, in 1968, when Chen and her family were separated and sent to the Chinese countryside for forced labor and reeducation, Chen took her violin with her. There, she would play embellished versions of permitted revolutionary songs to children, farmers, and soldiers in the area.

In 1970, Chen was allowed to return to Guangzhou. There, she served as concertmaster and composer of the Beijing Opera Troupe, an opera company that performed revolution-themed works. During her eight-year tenure with the Troupe, Chen also began more extensive research into traditional Chinese music and both Chinese and Western music theory under the tutelage of Zheng Zhong. When the Central Conservatory in Beijing reopened in 1977, Chen enrolled there, studying composition with Wu Zuqiang and Alexander Goeher. There, she received both her BA and MA in music composition, making her the first woman in China to hold a master's degree in composition. She received her Doctor of Musical Arts from Colombia University in 1993 where she studied under Mario Davidovsky and Chou Wen-chung.

Today, Chen serves as a Distinguished Professor of Composition at the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory. Her compositional output includes orchestral, vocal, chamber, and solo works, including works for traditional Chinese instruments and arrangements of Chinese folk songs. She is especially renowned for her frequent synthesis of Western classical and traditional Chinese musical traditions in her works, which has earned her a Grammy Award, ASCAP Concert Music Award, and a place as a Pulitzer Prize finalist. Chen also engages heavily in advocacy work for Asian, female, and American composers through her service on advisory and educational boards. Her works are regularly featured in festivals celebrating new music. including Baldwin Wallace University's 2008 FOCUS Festival. 

Additional Compositions Featuring the Flute

  • Qi (1997) (flute, cello, percussion, piano)
  • Song in Winter (1993) (flute or di, zheng, piano, percussion)
  • As Like a Raging Fire (2001) (flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano)
  • Happy Rain On A Spring Night (2004) (flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano)
  • Night Thoughts (2004) (flute, cello, piano)
  • Memory (2011) (solo flute, violin or cello)
  • Three Bagatelles from China West (2014) (flute and piano)
  • Southern Scenes (2017) (concerto for flute and pipa with orchestra)

Further Reading

Clef Piñeiro, John de. “An Interview with Chen Yi.” The Music Connoisseur 9, no. 4 (2001): 27–31.

Lee, Joanna C. “Chen Yi.” Grove Music Online, 2001. https://doi.org/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.48452.

Long, Zhou. “Chen Yi.” In Contemporary Composers, edited by Brian Morton and Pamela Collins, 175–76. Chicago, IL: St. James Press, 1992. https://archive.org/details/contemporarycomp0000unse_m5n3/

Raines, Robert. Composition in the Digital World: Conversations with 21st Century American Composers. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2015.

Theodore Presser Company. “Chen Yi.” https://web.archive.org/web/20180619113146/https://www.presser.com/composer/chen-yi/.

University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory. “Chen Yi.” https://conservatory.umkc.edu/profiles/faculty-directory/chen-yi.html.

Davidovsky, Mario. Synchronisms No. 1. New York: McGinnis & Marx, 1966. Signed by Composer. Vault.

Full Cover Transcript

Mario Davidovsky / Synchronisms No. 1 / for flute and electronic sounds / McGinnis & Marx 201 West 86th Street New York, New York 10024

Signature Transcript

"Jan 28 / 01 / to Sean with my best wishes / Mario Davidovsky"

Item Contents

Contains score for one unaccompanied flute signed by the composer.

Provenance

This signed score was donated directly to the Riemenschneider Bach Institute by Sean Gabriel in 2021. The score was purchased by Gabriel for his personal collection at an unknown date. It was signed on January 23, 2001 at Cleveland State University by Davidovsky at Gabriel’s request during a rehearsal of for a concert of Davidovsky’s pieces with the New Music Associates, an ensemble in which Gabriel played flute at the time.

Further Reading

Bassingthwaighte, Sarah Louise. “Mario Davidovsky: Synchronisms No. 1,” in “Electroacoustic Music for Flute.” DMA diss., University of Washington, 2002. http://www.subliminal.org/flute/dissertation/ch04.html.

Heritage, Amy Packard. “Synchronisms No. 1 for flute and electronic sounds (1962) by Mario Davidovsky,” in “Compositions for Solo Flute and Electronics: Techniques and Aesthetic Issues.” DMA diss., Indiana University Bloomington, May 1996. 32-38.

Soule, Richard Lawrence. “Synchronisms Nos. 1, 2, 3, 5, and 6 of Mario Davidovsky: A Style Analysis.” DMA diss, Johns Hopkins University, Peabody Institute, 1978.

Davidovsky, Mario (1934-2019)

Biography

Mario Davidovsky was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina on March 4, 1934 to a family of Jewish, Polish, and Russian heritage. He began learning violin at a young age and started composing at age 13. His musical studies began in Buenos Aires where he studied composition with Guillermo Graetzer, Teodore Fuchs, Erwin Leuchter, and Ernesto Epstein. In 1958, Davidovsky came to America with Aaron Copland to study composition at the Berkshire Music Center (known today as the Tanglewood Music Center) in Lenox, Massachusetts. There, he met Milton Babbitt who encouraged Davidovsky to work with him at the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center due to the latter's interest in electronic music. Davidovsky moved to New York City and began working at the Electronic Music Center in 1960 and, in 1964, was appointed the Associate Director. He was also highly involved as a professor and lecturer at numerous colleges and universities including the University of Michigan, Di Tella Institute, City College of the City University New York, the Manhattan School of Music, and Columbia University. He was appointed director of the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center in 1981. 

Davidovsky's compositional output consists largely of orchestral and instrumental works, many of which include electronic elements, and is widely considered one of the pioneers of nuanced electro-acoustic music. He is widely recognized for his achievements in that space, with his Synchronisms No. 6 winning the Pulitzer Prize for music in 1971. Davidvosky has also received numerous other major music awards including a Koussevitzky Fellowship (1958), two Guggenheim Fellowships (1960, 1971), two Rockefeller Fellowships (1963, 1964), and the Brandeis Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters Award (1982). Davidovsky died on August 23, 2019 of heart failure in his New York City apartment.

Additional Compositions Featuring the Flute

  • Synchronisms No. 2 (1964) (flute, clarinet, violin, cello, electronics)
  • Junctures (1966) (flute, clarinet, violin)
  • Romancero (1983) (soprano, flute, clarinet, violin, cello)
  • Quartetto No. 1 (1987) (flute, violin, viola, cello)
  • Biblical Songs (1990) (soprano, flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano)
  • Flashbacks (flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano, percussion)

Further Reading

Butterworth, Neil. A Dictionary of American Composers. (New York: Garland Pub., 1984), 116-117. http://archive.org/details/dictionaryofamer0000butt.

Chasalow, Eric. “Mario Davidovsky: An Introduction.” In Music in the USA: A Documentary Companion, ed. Judith Tick and Paul Beaudoin, 678–81. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2008.

David M. Cummings, ed. International Who’s Who in Music and Musicians’ Directory (In the Classical and Light Classical Fields). 13th ed. (Cambridge, England: International Who’s Who in Music, 1992), 238. http://archive.org/details/internationalwho0013unse.

Ficher, Miguel. Latin American Classical Composers: A Biographical Dictionary. (Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press, 2002), 156-157. http://archive.org/details/latinamericancla0000fich_i3s8.

Fonseca-Wollheim, Corinna da. “Mario Davidovsky, Composer Who Made Electronics Sing, Dies at 85.” The New York Times, August 28, 2019. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/28/arts/music/mario-davidovsky-dead.html.

Rehrig, William H. The Heritage Encyclopedia of Band Music: Composers and Their Music. (Westerville, Ohio: Integrity Press, 1991), 177. http://archive.org/details/heritageencyclop0001rehr_z6l5.

Wertheimer, Melissa. “Remembering Mario Davidovsky.” Library of Congress, August 26, 2019. https://blogs.loc.gov/music/2019/08/remembering-mario-davidovsky/.

Zahler, Noel. “Davidovsky, Mario.” Grove Music Online, 2001. https://doi.org/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.07281.

Erb, Donald. Music for Mother Bear. Bryn Mawr, PA: Merion Music, 1975. Signed by Composer. Vault.

Full Cover Transcript

"music for mother bear / for Solo Alto Flute (or regular Flute) / Donald Erb / $1.95 / Merion Musico, Inc. / Theodore Presser Company, Sole Representative / Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania 190100"

Signature Transcript

"To Sean / with gratitude / Donald Erb / October 14, 1996"

Item Contents

Contains score for one unaccompanied flute signed by the composer.

Provenance

This signed score was donated directly to the Riemenschneider Bach Institute by Sean Gabriel in 2021. Gabriel had known Erb since the mid-1980s when the former was a graduate student and the latter was a visiting professor at Indiana University Bloomington. During that time, Gabriel played flute in the Indiana New Music Ensemble which Erb conducted.

The score was signed by Erb at Gabriel’s request in 1996 following a performance of his piece Solstice by the Cleveland Chamber Orchestra, in which Gabriel played flute. Following Erb’s death in 2008, Gabriel played a memorial concert and, following the concert, spoke with his wife, Lucille Erb, about the meaning behind the piece Music for Mother Bear. According to Gabriel, Lucille said Erb had written the piece for a friend of his nicknamed “Mother Bear” – hence the title.

Unique Markings

Pencil markings throughout music indicating the piece was practiced

Further Reading

Smith, Christine Michelle. “Performing Donald Erb’s ‘Music for Mother Bear.’” Flute Talk 21 (October 2001): 11–12.

Erb, Donald (1927-2008)

Biography

Donald Erb was born in Youngstown, Ohio on January 17, 1927, though his family relocated to Cleveland shortly thereafter. While his parents had no formal music education, Erb began composing on his own at the age of six and studied cornet at a young age. He graduated from Lakewood High School where he played trumpet in his school's jazz band. 

In 1944, at the age of 17, Erb entered the Navy. When the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki occurred in 1945, Erb, who was 19 at the time, was on a Navy ship located off the coast of Japan. About a week after the bombings Erb and his crewmembers disembarked to occupy Hiroshima and, a few days later, relocated to Nagasaki. In a 1998 interview with Joseph and Patricia Mancini, Erb would cite the destruction he witnessed in Hiroshima and Nagasaki as life-altering and a fundamental influence on his music.

Following his discharge from the Navy, Erb performed professionally as a jazz trumpet player and attended Kent State University, where he received his Bachelor of Science in Liberal Arts in 1950. He studied composition at the Cleveland Institute of Music under Marcel Dick, where he received his Master of Music in 1952. From there, he went to Paris to study under famed music educator Nadia Boulanger for about a year. He returned to Cleveland and joined the composition faculty at the Cleveland Institute of Music in 1953 before receiving his Doctorate of Music from Indiana University Bloomington under Bernard Heiden's tutelage in 1964. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Erb held teaching and residency positions with a variety of institutions including Indiana University, Southern Methodist University, and Bowling Green State University while also maintaining a residency at the Cleveland Institute in Music from 1966-1981. He was then appointed a distinguished professor of composition at CIM in 1987. However, following an episode of cardiac arrest in 1996, Erb retired from composing. He died at the age of 81 at his Cleveland Heights home on August 12, 2008.

Additional Compositions Featuring the Flute

  • VII Miscellaneous (1964) (flute and double bass)
  • Andante (1964) (piccolo, flute, alto flute)
  • The Last Quintent (1982) (flute, oboe, clarinet, horn, bassoon)
  • Three Pieces for the Enterprising Young Flutist (2000) (solo flute)

Further Reading

Clark, Joe. “Donald Erb Music Collection: Donald Erb Biography.” Kent State University Libraries. https://libguides.library.kent.edu/Erb/bio.

Mancini, Joseph, and Patricia Mancini. “A Highly-Seasoned Interview with Donald Erb.” 20th-Century Music 5, no. 10 (October 1998): 5–11.

Morton, Brian, and Pamela Collins, eds. Contemporary Composers. (Chicago: St. James, 1992), 270. http://archive.org/details/contemporarycomp0000unse_m5n3.

Peery, Richard M. “Donald Erb: Avant-Guard Composer, Conductor.” Cleveland.com, August 12, 2008. https://www.cleveland.com/obituaries/2008/08/donald_erb_avantguard_composer.html.

Rehrig, William H. The Heritage Encyclopedia of Band Music: Composers and Their Music. Edited by Paul E. Bierley. (Westerville, Ohio: Integrity Press, 1991), 220-221. http://archive.org/details/heritageencyclop0001rehr_z6l5.

Schweitzer, Vivien. “Donald Erb, Composer of Early Electronic Music, Dies at 81.” The New York Times, August 16, 2008. https://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/16/arts/music/16erb.html.

Suess, John G. “Erb, Donald.” Grove Music Online, 2001. https://doi.org/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.08910.

The Kennedy Center. “Donald Erb.” https://www.kennedy-center.org/artists/e/eo-ez/donald-erb/.

Erb, Donald. Three Pieces for the Enterprising Young Flutist. King of Prussia, PA: Merion Music, 2001. Signed by Composer. Vault.

Full Cover Transcript

"Donald Erb / Three Pieces / For The Enterprising Young Flutist / Merion Music, Inc. / Theodore Presser Company, Sole Representative / 588 No. Gulph Road • King of Prussia, PA 19406 / www.presser.com"

Signature Transcript

"To Sean / all Best wishes / Donald Erb"

Item Contents

Contains score for one unaccompanied flute signed by the composer.

Provenance

This signed score was donated directly to the Riemenschneider Bach Institute by Sean Gabriel in 2021. Gabriel purchased the score shortly before visiting Erb at his home in 2001. While the visit was mainly intended to ask Erb about how to play certain passages in Music for Mother Bear, Gabriel played Three Pieces for the composer during the visit as well, which was the first time Erb had ever heard the piece played.

Erb, Donald (1927-2008)

See Erb, Donald - Music for Mother Bear

Henze, Hans Werner. Sonatine Für Flöte Und Klavier. Mainz: Schott, 1979. M242.H46 S66. Vault.

Full Title Page

Il Flauto Traverso / Hans Werner Henze / Sonatine für Flöte und Klavier / SCHOTT / Edition FTR 90

Signature Transcript

"to William Hebert, cordially, Hans Werner Henze, Cleveland April 1985"

Item Contents

Contains one score for flute and piano and one part for flute. Score is signed by composer.

Provenance

Donated to the Riemenschneider Bach Institute by former Baldwin Wallace University flute professor William Hebert on an unknown date. Was acquired after Hebert retired from teaching at Baldwin Wallace and bequeathed his collection of flute music to the Jones Music Library.

Unique Markings

Score:

  • Marking on cover reads "FP 262"
  • Ex Libris Stamp reads "From the Library of William J. Hebert"

Flute Part:

  • Ex Libris Stamp reads "From the Library of William J. Hebert"
  • Pencil Markings throughout not in Hebert's handwriting

Further Reading

North, James H. “German Flute Music.” Fanfare: The Magazine for Serious Record Collectors 33, no. 4 (April 2010): 378–79.

Henze, Hans Werner (1926-2012)

Biography

Hans Werner Henze was born in Gütersloh, Germany on July 1, 1926 to Franz and Margarete Henze. In 1930, the family moved to Bielefeld where Franz Henze became a schoolteacher at the local collective school. Hans Werner first began studying piano while attending the same elementary school where his father taught. In 1935, the Nazi regime ordered the closure of the school on the grounds that it was teaching socialist and Marxist ideas. Shortly thereafter, the Henze family moved to the small German village of Dünne where Henze's father converted fully from his former progressive ideals to the Nazi party and began to incorporate Nazism into his family's daily life.

Henze first began composing at age 12 while continuing to take lessons in piano and music theory. Henze was also forcibly enrolled in the Hitler Youth program around this time, though he held a general dislike of Nazism and, by extension, his father. In 1942, at age 16, Henze was accepted into the Brunswick State Music School to study piano and percussion. He continued to study there until he was drafted into the Wehrmacht (Nazi armed forces) in 1944. Henze was initially trained as a radio operator before being assigned to help create propaganda films. Franz Henze also enrolled in the Wehrmacht around this time, albeit voluntarily, and was killed in combat. At the end of the war, Hans Werner Henze spent a few months as a prisoner of war in a British camp where he would listen to BBC broadcasts of music banned by the Nazis and worked to improve his English.

In 1945 Henze returned home to Bielefeld and worked in transportation to support his mother and siblings. He also volunteered with the Bielefeld Stadttheater and, eventually, decided to leave Bielefeld to try and pursue a career in composition. Henze ended up in Heidelberg where he met Wolfgang Fortner, a widely respected composition teacher, and was taken in by Fortner as a composition student at the Heidelberg Evangelisches Kirchenmusikalisches Institut (Heidelberg Institute of Evangelical Church Music). In 1946, Henze attended the Darmstadt International Summer Courses for New Music. There, Henze's Kammerkonzert was written and performed, ultimately earning him a publishing contract with Willy Strecker, which would eventually become Schott Music. Schott and Henze would ultimately have a lifelong relationship as publisher and composer.

Henze left Germany in the early 1950's, frustrated by the country's political history and homophobic attitudes. He eventually settled in Italy in 1953. There, he ended up making his home in Marino, where he lived with his partner, Fausto Moroni for the remainder of his life. The two traveled frequently, including to the United States, to attend premieres and for Henze to guest conduct. In April of 1985, while serving as guest conductor for The Cleveland Orchestra, Henze visited Baldwin Wallace College. During his visit, students and faculty from the BW conservatory put on a concert of a number of Henze's works and Henze hosted a post-concert talk on his music.

Henze's works varied drastically over the course of his life. His Sonatine Für Flöte Und Klavier was written extremely early in his career in 1947. He was initially best known for his theatre and dance works including Boulevard Solitude (1951), König Hirsch (1956), and Ondine (1958). In the 1960s, Henze made an ideological shift that more strongly embraced socialism and antifascism. Overall, Henze's compositional output continued to address his complicated relationship with Nazism and German culture in constantly evolving ways while also emulating his love of the Romantic and neoclassical styles.

Henze remained highly prolific until his death in Dresden, Germany on October 27, 2012, where he had traveled to attend a ballet premiere. His partner, Fausto Moroni, had died of cancer a few years earlier in 2007 and Henze wrote the work Elogium Musicum (2008) in his memory.

Additional Compositions Featuring the Flute

  • Kammerkonzert (1946) (flute, strings, piano)
  • Quintet (1952) (flute, oboe, clarinet, horn, bassoon)
  • L’autunno (1977) (flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, horn)
  • Sonata (1984) (flute, clarinet, violin, cello, percussion, piano)
  • Ein kleines Potpourri (2000) (flute, vibraphone, harp, piano)

Further Reading

Duffie, Bruce. “Hans Werner Henze: A Conversation with Bruce Duffie.” Bruce Duffie, November 1981. http://www.bruceduffie.com/henze.html.

Griffiths, Paul. “Hans Werner Henze, Composer, Dies at 86.” The New York Times, October 28, 2012. https://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/29/arts/music/hans-werner-henze-romantic-composer-dies-at-86.html.

Hans Werner Henze Foundation. “Biography.” https://www.hans-werner-henze-stiftung.de/en/hans-werner-henze/.

Henze, Hans Werner. Bohemian Fifths: An Autobiography. Translated by Stewart Spencer. Faber and Faber: London, 1998. http://archive.org/details/bohemianfifthsauhenz.

Hines, Robert Stephen, ed. The Orchestral Composer’s Point of View: Essays on Twentieth-Century Music by Those Who Wrote It. Translated by Willis J Wager. (Oklahoma: Norman: University of Oklahoma Press): 89-104, 1970. http://archive.org/details/orchestralcompos0000unse.

Kennedy, Michael, and Joyce Bourne, eds. The Oxford Dictionary of Music. Revised Edition. (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2006): 399-400. http://archive.org/details/oxforddictionary0000kenn_w6e0.

Lucci, Angela. “Composer to Appear at B-W.” The Exponent. (Berea, OH: April 11 1985), 5. https://digital.opal-libraries.org/digital/collection/p16708coll1/id/1846/rec/2.

Palmer-Füchsel, Virginia. “Henze, Hans Werner.” Grove Music Online, 2001. https://doi.org/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.12820.

Phillips, Sarah, and Daniel Foley. New Music Concerts Presents Hans Werner Henze: El Cimarrón. Toronto, Canada: New Music Concerts, 1997. http://archive.org/details/OTUFM19-C-2-26-8.

Rickards, Guy. “Hans Werner Henze Obituary.” The Guardian, October 27, 2012. https://www.theguardian.com/music/2012/oct/27/hans-werner-henze.

Smith, Steve. “Con Notes.” The Exponent. (Berea, OH: April 18 1985), 5-6. https://digital.opal-libraries.org/digital/collection/p16708coll1/id/1847/rec/3.

Stuckenschmidt, Hans Heinz. Germany and Central Europe. Edited by Anna Kallin and Nicolas Nabokov. (New York, NY: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1971): 183-191. http://archive.org/details/germanycentraleu0000stuc.

The Kennedy Center. “Hans Henze.” https://www.kennedy-center.org/artists/h/ha-hn/hans-henze/.

Tsioulcas, Anastasia. “Composer Hans Werner Henze Remembered.” NPR, October 29, 2012. https://www.npr.org/sections/deceptivecadence/2012/10/29/163863569/composer-hans-werner-henze-remembered.

Hrisanide, Alexandru. Sonata Nr. 2 Pentru Pian Și Flaut. A Uniunii Compozitorilor din Republica Socialista România: Editura Muzicală, 1969. M242.H873. Signed by Composer. Vault.

Full Title Page

Alexandru Hrisanide / Sonata Nr. 2 / Pentru / Pian / Și Flaut / Second Sonata / for / Piano and Flute / Editura Muzicală / A Uniunii Compozitorilor din Republica Socialista România / București - 1969

Signature Transcript

"Alexander Hrisanide, 1973 - May 6th"

Item Contents

Contains one score for flute and piano and one part for flute. Flute part is signed by composer.

Provenance

Donated to the Riemenschneider Bach Institute by composer Alexandre Hrisanide on an unknown date. Was most likely donated during his visit to Baldwin Wallace University in May of 1973.

Unique Markings

Two Loose Paper Sheets in front cover of score read "Autographed" and "1571219"

Riemenschneider Bach Institute Ex Libris Plates in both score and part read "Ex Libris Gift of Alexandru Hrisanide"

Hrisanide, Alexandru (1936-2018)

Biography

Alexandru Hrisanide was born in Petrila, Romania on June 15, 1936. He studied composition with Mihail Jora and piano with Florica Musicesco at the Bucharest Conservatory from 1953-1964. In 1965, Hrisanide studied with Nadia Boulanger, first at the American Conservatory in Fontainebleau and then privately in Paris. That same year, Hrisanide received the Lili Boulanger Foundation prize for his Sonata for Clarinet and Piano and his Inventionen-Volumen. From there, he went on to attend the annual Internationales Ferienkurse in Darmstadt, Hesse, Germany during the summers of 1966 and 1967. During this time, Hrisanide also taught at the Academy of Music in Bucharest from 1959-1962 and the Bucharest Conservatory from 1962-1972.

Hrisanide briefly lived in the United States from 1972-1974, during which time he taught as a visiting professor at the University of Oregon. During this time he frequently toured the country giving piano recitals. Hrisanide visited Baldwin Wallace University in May of 1973, during which time he performed a concert that consisted solely of 20th-century Romanian music and held a composition workshop (on May 4th and May 5th of 1973, respectively).

In 1974, Hrisanide moved to the Netherlands, where he remained until his death. During his time there, he served as a professor at the Amsterdam, Tilburg, and Rotterdam Conservatories of Music. Hrisanide retired from teaching in 2001 and died on November 19, 2018 at the age of 82.

Additional Compositions Featuring the Flute

  • Flute Sonata No. 1 (c.1957-1962) (flute, piano)
  • Flute Sonata No. 3 (c.1957-1962) (flute, piano)

Further Reading

Beswick, Delbert M. “Beswick Invites Symposium Contributions.” The Exponent. (Berea OH: April 27 1973), 4. https://digital.opal-libraries.org/digital/collection/p16708coll1/id/1344/rec/2.

Derks, Thea. “Composer Hawar Tawfiq: ‘Alexander Hrisanide Opened My Eyes to the Beauty of Life.’” Contemporary Classical - Thea Derks, November 3, 2021. https://theaderks.wordpress.com/2021/11/03/composer-hawar-tawfiq-alexander-hrisanide-opened-my-eyes-to-the-beauty-of-life/.

Cosma, Viorel, and Florinela Popa. “Hrisanide [Hrisanidis], Alexandru.” Grove Music Online, 2001. https://doi.org/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.13448.

Șerbescu, Liana. “Tinerețe fără Bătrânețe: Compozitorul Alexandru Hrisanide.” Muzica, no. 5 (2019): 18. http://www.ucmr.org.ro/Texte/RV-5-2019-3-LSerbescu-Tinerete-fara-batranete.pdf

Slonimsky, Nicolas. Baker’s Biographical Dictionary of Twentieth-Century Classical Musicians. Edited by Laura Kuhn and Dennis McIntire. (New York: Schirmer Books, 1997), 595. http://archive.org/details/bakersbiographic0000slon.

The Exponent. “Romanian Composer-Pianist Presents Music.” (Berea, OH: April 17 1973), 2. https://digital.opal-libraries.org/digital/collection/p16708coll1/id/1342/rec/1.

Vinton, John, ed. Dictionary of Contemporary Music. (New York: E.P. Dutton, 1974), 328. http://archive.org/details/dictionaryofcont0000vint.

Ptaszyńska, Marta. Variations. Edward B. Marks Music Company: New York, 1983. Signed by Composer. Vault.

Full Title Page

MS 1903 / PRICE $3.00 in U.S.A / Variations / for / Flute Solo / Marta Ptaszyńska / Edward B. Marks Music Company / Exclusive distributor of all printed products: Belwin Mills Publishing Corp Melville, NY 11747

Signature Transcript

"To Sean Gabriel / with the best wishes of many successes / love, Marta Ptaszńska. / Jan. 29. 96"

Item Contents

Contains score for one unaccompanied flute signed by the composer.

Provenance

This signed score was donated directly to the Riemenschneider Bach Institute by Sean Gabriel in 2021. Gabriel purchased this score for his personal collection in the 1980s. It was signed by Ptaszyńska on January 29, 1996 following a performance of her Holocaust Memorial Cantata at the Cleveland Fairmont Temple Auditorium.

Unique Markings

Embossed stamp on lower-right corner of inner back cover reads "From the Library of / SFG / Sean F. Gabriel

Pencil markings on Variations I, II (Page 2) and VII (Page 4) marking beats and other technical notes indicate those variations were rehearsed

Ptaszyńska, Marta (1943-)

Biography

Marta Ptaszyńska was born on July 29, 1943 in Warsaw, Poland. Her earliest exposure to music came from her father, Juliusz, who was an engineer, violinist, and composer. Ptaszyńska studied at a musical primary school (Podstawowa Szkota Muzyczna) and secondary school (Liceum Muzyczne) from ages seven through eighteen. Her undergraduate music studies consisted of composition studies with Tadeusz Paciorkiewicz and music theory studies with Stefan Sledzinski at the Warsaw Conservatory as well as percussion performance studies with Jerzy Zgodzinski at the Poznań Conservatory. She then received three Master of Arts degrees with distinction in music composition, music theory, and percussion from the Warsaw Conservatory in 1968.

From 1969-1970, Ptaszyńska had the opportunity to study with Nadia Boulanger thanks to a grant from the French Government. She briefly joined the faculty of the Warsaw Conservatory from 1970-1972 before moving to the United States to study at the Cleveland Institute of Music with the help of a Kosciuszko Foundation grant. There, she studied composition with Donald Erb and percussion with Richard Weiner and Cloyd Duff. Ptaszyńska received her Artist Diploma in percussion performance from CIM in 1974. During that time, she frequently gave lectures on Polish music and gave numerous percussion concerts across the country.

Since then, Ptaszyńska has taught at numerous institutions, including Bennington College, the University of California, Indiana University Bloomington, Northwestern University, and the University of Cincinnati Conservatory of Music. She joined the faculty at the University of Chicago as a professor of Music and the Humanities in 1998 and, in 2005, was declared the Helen B. & Frank L. Sulzberger Professor of Music and the Humanities. She has also been active in judging numerous composition and percussion competitions and has worked with numerous organizations to uplift the work of Polish and women composers, including the Polish Music Reference Center and the International Alliance of Women Composers.

Ptaszyńska's compositional output consists primarily of instrumental orchestral, chamber, and solo works alongside some vocal and stage works as well as works for children. Many of her works feature percussion instruments and incorporate titles and themes drawn from her Polish heritage. She has received a wide variety of awards for her work, including two Percussive Arts Society prizes, the Alfred Jurzykowski Foundation Award, and the Polish Cross of Merit.

Additional Compositions Featuring the Flute

  • Cadenza (1972) (flute, percussion)
  • Un Grand Sommeil Noir (1977) (soprano, flute, harp)
  • Music of Five Steps (1979) (two flutes, percussion ensemble)
  • Ajikan - Unfolding Light (1990) (flute, percussion)
  • Concerto for Flute, Harp and Orchestra (2008)
  • Concerto No. 2 for Flute and Orchestra (2020)

Further Reading

Claghorn, Gene. Women Composers and Songwriters: A Concise Biographical Dictionary. (Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 1996), 175-176. http://archive.org/details/womencomposersso0000clag.

LePage, Jane Weiner. Women Composers, Conductors, and Musicians of the Twentieth Century: Selected Biographies. Vol. 2. (Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1980), 221-239. http://archive.org/details/womencomposersco02jane.

Lindstedt, Iwona. “Between Heart and Mind: The Music of Marta Ptaszyńska Revisited.” Musicology Today 16, no. 1 (December 1, 2019): 103–112. https://doi.org/10.2478/muso-2019-0005.

Meckna, Michael, and Barbara Zwolska-Stęszeweska. “Ptaszyńska, Marta.” Grove Music Online, 2001. https://doi.org/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.46160.

Pendle, Karin Anna, and Robert Zierolf. Women and Music: A History. (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2001), 291-294.

Press, Jaques Cattell, ed. Who’s Who in American Music: Classical. 1st ed. (New York: R.R. Bowker, 1983), 349. http://archive.org/details/whoswhoinamerica0000unse_q2u6.

The University of Chicago: Division of the Arts and the Humanities. “Marta Ptaszyńska.” https://music.uchicago.edu/people/marta-ptaszynska.

University of Southern California Polish Music Center. “Marta Ptaszyńska.” https://polishmusic.usc.edu/research/composers/marta-ptaszynska/.

Ran, Shulamit. East Wind. Bryn Mawr, PA: Theodore Presser, 1988. Signed by Composer. Vault.

Full Cover Transcript

East Wind / for Solo Flute / Schulamit Ran / Theodore Presser Company / 1 Presser Place • Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania 19010

Signature Transcript

"To Sean / With thanks for your expressive playing / Shulamit Ran"

Item Contents

Contains score for one unaccompanied flute signed by the composer.

Dedication

"In memoriam: Karen Monson (1945-1988)"

Performance Notes (Excerpt)

"It is suggested that the piece be learned initially by carefully observing all notation - rhythmic and otherwise. Once learned, however, a considerable measure of freedom, temporal and gestural, may be introduced and a prevailing sense of fantasy is to be aimed for."

Retrieved from first page of item

Provenance

This signed score was donated directly to the Riemenschneider Bach Institute by Sean Gabriel in 2021. The score was purchased by Gabriel for his personal collection at an unknown date. It was signed around 2001 at Cleveland State University by Ran at Gabriel’s request during a rehearsal for a concert of Ran’s pieces with the New Music Associates, an ensemble in which Gabriel played flute at the time.

Unique Markings

Pencil markings throughout detailing tempo, articulation, and fingerings indicating piece was worked on

Further Reading

Cook, Amanda. “Ran: East Wind Program Notes.” Between the Ledger Lines, March 5, 2015. https://betweentheledgerlines.wordpress.com/2015/03/05/ran-east-wind-program-notes/.

Stolper, Mary Klingelhoffer. “‘East Wind’ by Shulamit Ran: A Practice and Performance Guide.” Flute Talk 22 (April 2003): 10–12.

Shulamit, Ran (1949-)

Biography

Born in Tel Aviv, Israel to a German father and Russian mother on October 21, 1949, Shulamit Ran's early encounters with music took the form of melodies she would hear when reading poetry and children's books as a child. She began taking piano and composition lessons at the Tel Aviv Academy of Music around age eight. After a few short years of study, Ran made her debut as a concert pianist at age 12 and, two years later at age 14, Ran and her parents moved to the United States so she could study at the Mannes College of Music. There, she studied piano with Nadia Reisenberg and composition with Norman Dello Jojo while also frequently performing her own works in concert. Ran graduated from Mannes College in 1967 and soon began touring as a concert pianist across the United States, Israel, and Europe. In 1973, upon hearing a recording of Ran's piece O The Chimneys, Ralph Shapey was compelled to offer Ran a position at the University of Chicago as an associate professor of composition, which she accepted. She has continued to teach at the University of Chicago since, currently holding the position of Andrew MacLeish Distinguished Service Professor in the Department of Music. 

Ran's works have received numerous awards including a 1991 Pultizer Prize for her three-movement orchestral work Symphony, which was commissioned by the Philadelphia Orchestra. She has also served as the composer-in-residence with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Lyric Opera of Chicago, and American Academy in Rome. Her compositional output is quite broad, consisting of a variety of vocal and instrumental forms, though they generally tend towards being complex and virtuosic. She also frequently draws on Middle Eastern music as an inspiration for her works.

Additional Compositions Featuring the Flute

  • Sonatina (1961) (2 flutes)
  • Hatzvi Israel Eulogy (1969) (soprano, flute, string quartet, harp)
  • Voices (2000) (concerto for flute and orchestra)
  • Moon Songs (2011) (soprano, flute, cello, piano)
  • Birds of Paradise (2014) (flute, piano)

Further Reading

Brown, Jennie. “A Conversation with Composer Shulamit Ran.” Flute Talk 34, no. 5 (January 2015): 12–17, 27.

Fuller, Sophie. The Pandora Guide to Women Composers: Britain and the United States 1629- Present. (London: Pandora, 1994), 262-264. http://archive.org/details/pandoraguidetowo00full.

Hitchcock, H. Wiley, and Stanley Sadie, eds. The New Grove Dictionary of American Music. Vol. 4. (New York, NY: Grove’s Dictionaries of Music, 1986), 9. http://archive.org/details/newgrovedictiona0000unse.

Kelly, Jennifer. “Shulamit Ran.” In In Her Own Words: Conversations with Composers in the United States, 27–41. University of Illinois Press, 2013. https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5406/j.ctt2tt9pb.7.

Kirzinger, Robert. “A Talk with Composer Shulamit Ran.” Fanfare: The Magazine for Serious Record Collectors 25 (July 2002): 10–12.

LePage, Jane Weiner. Women Composers, Conductors, and Musicians of the Twentieth Century: Selected Biographies. Vol. 3. (Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1980), 215-234. https://archive.org/details/womencomposersco00jane.

Miller, Malcolm, and Shulamit Ran. “Between Two Cultures: A Conversation with Shulamit Ran.” Tempo 58, no. 227 (2004): 15–32.

Peck, Robert William. “Ran, Shulamit.” Grove Music Online, October 29, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1093/omo/9781561592630.013.90000353475.

The University of Chicago: Division of the Humanities and the Humanities. “Shulamit Ran.” https://music.uchicago.edu/people/shulamit-ran.

Rands, Bernard. Memo 4. Valley Forge, PA: Helicon Music Corporation, 1997. Signed by Composer. Vault.

Full Cover Transcript

"Bernard Rands / Memo 4 / For Solo Flute / EA 796 / Helicon Music Corporation"

Signature Transcript

"Bernard Rands"

Item Contents

Contains score for one unaccompanied flute signed by the composer.

Program Notes

"Commissioned by Ekkehart Trenkner for Judith Pearce to whom it is dedicated in admiration and affection. / Première performance by Judith Pearce at the Tusten Theater, Narrowsburg, N.Y., August 2nd 1997"

Provenance

This signed score was donated directly to the Riemenschneider Bach Institute by Sean Gabriel in 2021. The purchase date of the score is unknown. It was signed by Rands at Gabriel’s request during a Cleveland Chamber Symphony rehearsal of The London Serenade.

Further Reading

“Bernard Rands: Memo 4.” Pan: The Flute Magazine 17 (June 1998): 38.

Earplay New Chamber Music. “Memo 4 (1997) by Bernard Rands,” November 9, 2004. http://www.earplay.org/www/notes.php?id=Rands.

Felder, David, and Eric Heubner. “June in Buffalo: June 1-7/2015.” June in Buffalo, June 2015. https://arts-sciences.buffalo.edu/content/dam/arts-sciences/music21c/Documents/jib/JiB2015-program.pdf.

Rands, Bernard (1934-)

Biography

Bernard Rands was born in Sheffield, England on March 2, 1934. He was born to a poor family and his father was a janitor who, despite having no formal education, was passionate about learning. Rands studied at the University of Wales with Smith Brindle where he received his Bachelor of Music in 1956 and his Master of Music in 1958. From there, he spent a couple of years in Italy where he studied with Roman Vlad in Rome and Luigi Dallapiccola in Florence. He returned to the University of Wales as a lecturer in 1960 and studied with Pierre Boulez, Bruno Maderna, and Luciano Berio in the early 1960s.

In 1966, Rands received a Harkness Fellowship, allowing him to serve as a visiting composer-in-residence at Princeton University and the University of Illinois for one year each. He then returned to Yorkshire to take up a position as a lecturer at the University of York, a position he held from 1969-1975 before coming back to the United States to take up a position as a professor of music at the University of California, San Diego. He held that position from 1975-1985 and, during that time, received the 1984 Pultizer Prize in Music for his piece Canti del Sole. Following his time at the University of California, Rands taught at Boston University, Juilliard, and Harvard while also serving as composer-in-residence with the Philadelphia Orchestra. Today, he holds the title of Walter Bigelow Rosen Professor of Music Emeritus from Harvard and lives in Chicago with his wife, Augusta Read Thomas, who is also a composer. 

Additional Compositions Featuring the Flute

  • Actions for Six (1962) (flute, percussion, harp, viola, cello)
  • "...in the receding mist..." (1988) (flute, harp, violin, viola, cello)
  • Prelude...sans voix parmi les voix (2004) (flute, harp, viola)

Further Reading

Bernard Rands. “Biography.” http://www.bernardrands.com/bio.html.

Foreman, Lewis. British Music Now: A Guide to the Work of Younger Composers. (London: Paul Elek, 1975), 194. http://archive.org/details/britishmusicnowg0000unse.

Marsh, Roger. “Rands, Bernard.” Grove Music Online, 2001. https://doi.org/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.22877.

Morton, Brian, and Pamela Collins, eds. Contemporary Composers. (Chicago: St. James Press, 1992), 757-758. http://archive.org/details/contemporarycomp0000unse_m5n3.

Oteri, Frank J. “Bernard Rands: Complex Beauty.” NewMusicBox: The Web Magazine, February 1, 2012. https://nmbx.newmusicusa.org/bernard-rands-complex-beauty.

Press, Jaques Cattell, ed. Who’s Who in American Music: Classical. 1st ed. (New York: R.R. Bowker, 1983), 353. http://archive.org/details/whoswhoinamerica0000unse_q2u6.

Vinton, John, ed. Dictionary of Contemporary Music. (New York: E.P. Dutton, 1974), 604. http://archive.org/details/dictionaryofcont0000vint.

Thomas, Augusta Read. Karumi. Bryn Mawr, PA: Theodore Presser, 1992. Signed by Composer. Vault.

Full Title Page

"Augusta Read Thomas / Karumi / for Solo Flute / Theodore Presser Company / Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania 19010"

Signature Transcript

"Dear Sean, / With admiration and gratitude! / Augusta Read Thomas" / [Handwritten staff with a treble clef followed by the notes G4, D5, and C#4 written as whole notes with ties]

Item Contents

Contains score for one unaccompanied flute signed by the composer.

Program Notes

"KARUMI for Solo Flute (1990) is a short work metaphorically based on Japanese haiku. The ideas of karumi - lightness of touch - inspired me to compose this work in which my attempt is to reduce the music's 'raw material' to its most pure and direct form."

Retrieved from lower first page of item.

Provenance

This signed score was donated directly to the Riemenschneider Bach Institute by Sean Gabriel in 2021. The purchase date of the score is unknown. It was signed by Thomas at Gabriel’s request during a rehearsal of one of her pieces at Cleveland State University. The meaning of the treble clef motif written by Thomas is unknown to Gabriel.

Unique Markings

Embossed stamp on upper-right corner of cover reads "From the Library of / SFG / Sean F. Gabriel

Pencil markings on all three pages indicate piece was rehearsed

Further Reading

O’Donoghue, Rory. “No Exit: Gabriel & Pongracz at Appletree Books (June 21).” Cleveland Classical, July 1, 2019. https://clevelandclassical.com/no-exit-gabriel-pongracz-at-appletree-books-june-21/.

Thomas, Augusta Read (1964-)

Biography

Augusta Read Thomas was born on April 24, 1964 in Glen Cove, New York. The youngest of ten children, Thomas enjoyed listening to her mother, a kindergarten teacher, play the piano growing up. Around age 4 or 5, Thomas began taking piano lessons and, with the encouragement of her piano teacher, began writing simple pieces. She later began playing trumpet in third grade and continued playing both instruments and composing throughout her high school studies at St. Paul's School - writing what she considers to have been her first serious composition in ninth grade. She entered Northwestern University as a trumpet performance major before switching to studying composition and graduating with her Bachelor's degree in 1987. She began postgraduate work at Yale University but ultimately didn't complete her Master's degree there - instead opting for a postgraduate diploma from the Royal Academy of Music in 1989. That same year Thomas received a Guggenheim Fellowship which, at age 23, made her the youngest woman to receive a Guggenheim for composition. From there, Thomas rapidly rose to prominence following a series of wildly successful premieres with the Tanglewood Music Festival and New York Philharmonic.

Thomas has taught at a variety of institutions, including the Eastman School of Music (1993-2001), Northwestern University (2001-2006), and The University of Chicago (2010-present). In 1997, after deciding to leave her publishing company Theodor Presser Co., Thomas withdrew the vast majority of her catalog, including Karumi, from the public.

Thomas served as the composer-in-residence for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra from 1997 through 2006. Thomas' final work of that residency, Astral Canticle, also made her a 2007 Pulitzer Prize finalist. Thomas has also received numerous additional awards including three NEA grants, prizes from both ASCAP and BMI, the International Orpheus Prize, and a Third Century Prize from the US Office of Copyrights and Patents. She also was awarded the title of Chevalier of the Order of Cultural Merit by the Prince of Monaco in 2015. Today, Thomas lives in Chicago with her husband Bernard Rands, who is also a composer. She currently teaches at The University of Chicago as a University Professor of Composition and serves as the Director of the Chicago Center for Contemporary Composition.

Additional Compositions Featuring the Flute

  • Astral Canticle (2005) (concerto for flute and violin with orchestra)
  • Scat (2007) (flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano)
  • Euterpe's Caprice (2008) (solo flute)
  • Capricci "Hummingbird Romance" (2011) (flute, clarinet)

Further Reading

Augusta Read Thomas - Composer. “About.” https://www.augustareadthomas.com/about/index.html.

Bündler, David. “Some Questions for Augusta Read Thomas.” 21st-Century Music 7, no. 6 (June 2000): 4–8.

Duffie, Bruce. “Augusta Read Thomas: A Conversation with Bruce Duffie.” Bruce Duffie. http://www.bruceduffie.com/arthomas.html.

Ferre, Stephen. “Thomas, Augusta Read.” Grove Music Online, 2001. https://doi.org/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.42559.

Kuhn, Laura, Dennis McIntire, Lewis Porter, and William Ruhlmann, eds. Baker’s Biographical Dictionary of Musicians. 8th ed. Vol. 6. (New York, NY: Schirmer Books, 2001), 3626. http://archive.org/details/bakersbiographic0006unse.

MacDonald, Payton. “Yet Another Interview with Augusta Read Thomas.” 21st-Century Music 7, no. 8 (August 2000): 4–7.

Perkins, Reed. “Interview with Augusta Read Thomas.” Journal of the Conductors Guild 23, no. 1–2 (Winter-Fall 2002): 2–16.

Raymond, David. “Augusta Read Thomas.” American Record Guide 61, no. 6 (December 1998): 34–36.

Sheridan, Molly. “Augusta Read Thomas: Perfect Clarity.” NewMusicBox, July 1, 2010. https://nmbx.newmusicusa.org/augusta-read-thomas-perfect-clarity/.

The University of Chicago: Division of the Humanities and Music. “Augusta Read Thomas.” https://music.uchicago.edu/people/augusta-read-thomas.

“Thomas, Augusta Read.” In Biography Reference Bank. H. W. Wilson Company, 1999. https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=brb&AN=203092145.

Welcher, Dan. All the Words to All the Songs. Bryn Mawr, PA: Elkan-Vogel, 1997. Signed by Composer. Vault.

Full Cover Transcript

Dan Welcher / All the Words to All the Songs / for Flute and Piano / Elkan-Vogel, Inc. / 1 Presser Place - Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania 19010 / A subsidiary of the Theodore Presser Company

Signature Transcript

"for Sean - / Who knows all the notes to all the songs / Dan Welcher / Cleveland 15 • X • 99" [Possibly Cleveland 15 • 11 • 99]

Item Contents

Contains score for one unaccompanied flute signed by the composer.

Provenance

This signed score was donated directly to the Riemenschneider Bach Institute by Sean Gabriel in 2021. The score was purchased by Gabriel for his personal collection at an unknown date. It was signed on October 15, 1999 by Welcher at Gabriel’s request during a Cleveland Chamber Symphony rehearsal of one of Welcher’s pieces at Cleveland State University. The piece was written for Nancy Andrew, a professor at Youngstown State University and a mutual friend of Gabriel and Welcher.

Unique Markings

Pen signature on upper left corner of inside cover reads "Sean Gabriel"

Further Reading

Estes, Valerie. “In Memoriam.” Honors Undergraduate Thesis, Texas Tech University, 2009.

Goodrich, Robbie. “SFA Faculty to Perform Works by American Composers.” Stephen F. Austin State University, September 18, 2012. https://www.sfasu.edu/6427.asp.

Guenther, Christina, and Ron Petti. “Composers of Our Time: Music for Flute and Piano.” Stephen F. Austin State University School of Music, January 20, 2022. https://www.uvu.edu/philhum/docs/durrant-program.pdf.

Welcher, Dan (1948-)

Biography

Dan Edward Welcher was born in Rochester, New York on March 2, 1948. Welcher began his studies in music on piano and bassoon before receiving his Bachelor's of Music from the Eastman School of Music in 1969 following his studies in composition with Warren Benson and Samuel Adler. From there, he went on to the Manhattan School of Music to study with Ludmila Ulehla where he received his Master's of Music in 1972. During this time, Welcher was also the second bassoonist in the Rochester Philharmonic (1968-1969) and, later, the bassoonist and arranger for the United States Military Academy (1969-1972).

The summer after his graduation from the Manhattan School of Music, Welcher attended the Aspen Music School to study electronic music. He then went on to teach composition and music theory at the University of Louisville while also serving as principal bassoonist in the Louisville Orchestra from 1972-1978. In 1978 Welcher joined the music composition faculty at The University of Texas at Austin's Butler School of Music. He created the University's New Music Ensemble soon after joining, served as the assistant conductor of the Austin Symphony Orchestra from 1980-1990, and received a full professorship at The University of Austin in 1989. During this time, Welcher was also serving as a member of the Aspen Music Festival's artist faculty each summer from 1976 to 1993 and held a residency at the Honolulu Symphony orchestra from 1990 to 1993.

Welcher continued to serve on the composition faculty and direct the New Music Ensemble at The University of Texas at Austin until 2019 when an article in VAN Magazine reported on sexual misconduct allegations against Welcher from former students. Four days later, the University announced that Welcher would not be returning to teach at the Butler School of Music.

Additional Compositions Featuring the Flute

  • Concerto for Flute and Orchestra (1974)
  • The Bequest (1978) (soprano, flute)
  • White Mares of the Moon (1986) (flute, harp)
  • Reversible Jackets: Exercises in Conjugal Counterpoint (1987) (flute, Bb clarinet)
  • Zephyrus (1990) (flute, string quartet)
  • Spirit Realms (Three Meditations) (1996) (flute, percussion)
  • Florestan's Falcon (2002) (flute, piano)

Further Reading

Anderson, E. Ruth. Contemporary American Composers: A Biographical Dictionary. (Boston: G.K. Hall, 1976), 467. http://archive.org/details/contemporaryamer00ande.

Jaques Cattell Press, ed. Who’s Who in American Music : Classical. (New York: R.R. Bowker, 1983), 467. http://archive.org/details/whoswhoinamerica0000unse_q2u6.

Karacostas, Chase. “Composition Professor Leaves Music School Following Sexual Misconduct Allegations.” The Daily Texan, September 30, 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20200331155802/https://thedailytexan.com/2019/09/30/composition-professor-leaves-music-school-following-sexual-misconduct-allegations.

Kosman, Joshua. “Welcher, Dan.” Grove Music Online, 2001. https://doi.org/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.42630.

Kuhn, Laura, Dennis McIntire, Lewis Porter, and William Ruhlmann, eds. Baker’s Biographical Dictionary of Musicians. 8th ed. Vol. 6. (New York, NY: Schirmer Books, 2001), 3891. http://archive.org/details/bakersbiographic06slon.

Rehrig, William H. The Heritage Encyclopedia of Band Music : Composers and Their Music. (Westerville, Ohio: Integrity Press, 1991), 811. http://archive.org/details/heritageencyclop0002rehr.

Sussman, Sammy. “Music’s Perpetually Open Secret.” VAN Magazine, September 26, 2019. http://vanmagazine-en-staging.newspackstaging.com/mag/open-secret/.

University of Maryland University Libraries. “Dan Welcher.” University of Maryland Special Collections in Performing Arts. https://exhibitions.lib.umd.edu/ostwald/winners/1991-2000/dan-welcher.

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