Also sprach the composer
I see from the autumn publishing schedules that Paul Griffiths has a new novella being published titled Let Me Tell You. It is written in the Oulipo tradition of constrained writing, and uses only the vocabulary allotted to Ophelia in Hamlet. I know that Paul is not a composer, but he is, among other things, an authority on Stockhausen, scholar of Messiaen and librettist for Tan Dun. So, in the style of my composer as painter thread, it started me thinking about composers as authors of literary works, as opposed to music theory books and memoirs.
Here for starters are two composers as authors. The most obvious one is in the photo above. Paul Bowles studied with Aaron Copland, composed a considerable amount of music most of which was for the theatre, and wrote five very successful novels and a number of short stories. My second composer as author is slightly more arcane. The Minimal Piano Collection which was featured here last year includes on CD 4, among contributions from John Adams, John Cage and Arvo Pärt, a nine minute work titled 'Das Fragment an Sich'. The composer is philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, who is better known for literary works which include Also sprach Zarathrusta. Those are my two starters for composers as authors. Over to you readers.
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I note this from the 2008/9 season of La Jolla Symphony and Chorus.
May 2-3, 2009 PASSION
Beethoven
Beethoven/Paul Griffiths (text)
Edward Elgar
Elegy
The General U.S. PREMIERE
Cello Concerto
Special Guests: Maya Beiser, cellist; Phil Larsen, narrator
Beethoven's moving Elegy for chorus and string orchestra begins a program that features stunning guest artist Maya Beiser performing Elgar's heartbreaking Cello Concerto.
In The General, author/librettist Paul Griffiths draws a composite score from Beethoven (Egmont, King Stephen, Leonore Prohaska and Opferlied) and adds text to create a dramatic work for orchestra, chorus, and actor that tells the story of the Rwandan tragedy through the eyes of the general leading the U.N. peacekeeping mission.
http://www.lajollasymphony.com/concerts/index.php
(I believe that Mr Griffiths also provided his own poetry, and voice, to a collaboration with contemporary classical cellist Frances-Marie Uitti.)
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-Penguin-Companion-to-Classical-Music/Paul-Griffiths/e/9780140515596
None of which gets us any closer to finding any more composers who were also authors of literary works ...
Another category is the author who also happens to compose: E. T. A. Hoffmann and Anthony Burgess come to mind.
I see that Carter Scholz also realised a number of fonts designed by Lou Harrison.
http://www.frogpeak.org/fpartists/fpscholz.html
http://www.mvdaily.com/articles/2004/11/burgess1.htm
Many thanks for noticing the book, and also The General, a recording of which is being released next month on the RCA Red Seal label.
Composers of sacred music is an obvious one. So a black mark against me for omitting Hildegard of Bingen whose three books, Scivias ("Know the Way"), Liber vitae meritorum ("Book of Life's Merits") and De operatione Dei ("Of God's Activities", also known as Liber divinorum operum ("Book of Divine Works") should be there alongside Also sprack Zarathrusta.
Not only is Cohen a great song-writer. He is also a fine poet, librettist for Philip Glass and author of the novel Beautiful Losers which has remained in print for more than forty years.
http://www.amazon.com/Beautiful-Losers-Leonard-Cohen/dp/0679748253/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1223535289&sr=1-2
http://www.overgrownpath.com/2007/10/stranger-music-from-leonard-cohen.html
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I mentioned Peter Zinovieff as composer because of his work composing a few computer music film scores in the early 1970s. I had also just finished reading his diary entries for the summer of 1976 when his computer studio was hosting Harrison Birtwistle (who was "collaborating" with Mr Zinovieff on the computer sound design for the third act of Mask of Orpheus) as well as Hans Werner Henze, and assorted other Bulgarians and rock and roll roadies.
Here is the link to Zinovieff's diary entries.
(Sequenza21's host Jerry Bowles is also a very fine writer in my opinion mainly, I believe, of short forms.)
http://members.tripod.com/werdav/vocpzino.htm
http://www.oxfordgirlschoir.co.uk/hildegard/scivias1synopsis.html