Vintage Composer Stefan Wolpe Autographed Record 1957
$
55
Favourite Auctions
To save auctions to your favourites, please login
If you don't have an account, please register
Description
Vintage Composer Stefan Wolpe Autographed Record from 1957
For your consideration is a Vintage Stefan Wolpe autographed Record from 1957.
On the Esoteric Record label ES-530
Stefan Wolpe (August 25, 1902 – April 4, 1972) was a German-born composer
Wolpe was born in Berlin. He attended the Berlin Conservatory from the age of fourteen, and the Berlin Hochschule für Musik in 1920-1921. He studied composition under Franz Schreker and was also a pupil of Ferruccio Busoni. He also studied at the Bauhaus and met some of the dadaists, setting Kurt Schwitters's poem Anna Blume to music. In 1928, Wolpe's first opera, Zeus und Elida, premiered in Berlin. This soon was followed by two more operas in 1929, Schöne Geschichten and Anna Blume.[1] The music Wolpe was writing between 1929 and 1933 was atonal, using Arnold Schoenberg's twelve-tone technique. However, possibly influenced by Paul Hindemith's concept of Gebrauchsmusik (music that serves a social function) and, as an avid socialist, he wrote a number of pieces for worker's unions and communist theatre groups. For these he made his style more accessible, incorporating elements of jazz and popular music. His songs became popular, rivaling those of Hanns Eisler. When the Nazis came to power in Germany, Wolpe, Jew and convinced communist, fled the country, passing through Romania and Russia en route to Austria in 1933-34, where he met and studied with Anton Webern. He later moved to Palestine in 1934-38, where he wrote simple songs for the kibbutzim. The music he was writing for concert performance, however, remained complex and atonal. Partly because of this, his teaching contract with the Palestine Conservatoire was not renewed for the 1938-39 school year. In 1938, Wolpe moved to New York City in the United States of America. There, during the fifties, he associated with the abstract expressionist painters. He was introduced to them by his wife, the poet Hilda Morley. From 1952 to 1956 he was director of music at Black Mountain College. On January 24, 1956, he was appointed to the faculty at the C.W. Post College of Long Island University in Brookville, New York. He also lectured at the summer schools in Darmstadt in Germany. His pupils included Jack Behrens, Morton Feldman, Matthew Greenbaum, M. William Karlins, Robert D. Levin, Boyd McDonald, Ralph Shapey, David Tudor, and Charles Wuorinen. His works from this time sometimes used the twelve-tone technique, were sometimes diatonic, were sometimes based on the Arabic scales (such as maqam saba) he had heard in Palestine and sometimes employed some other method of tonal organisation. His work was radical, but avoided the punctualism of composers such as Pierre Boulez (in his works of 1951–53), instead employing more conventionally expressive gestures. Wolpe developed Parkinson's disease in 1964, and died in New York City in 1972. Elliott Carter commemorated Wolpe with the following comment: "Comet-like radiance, conviction, fervent intensity, penetrating thought on many levels of seriousness and humor, combined with breathtaking adventurousness and originality, marked the inner and outer life of Stefan Wolpe, as they do his compositions."
Records are shipped in Professional Record Shipping Boxes that I buy from Bags Unlimited and I also ship with a Delivery Confirmation which I e-mail to the Winning Bidder when they're mailed so they can track their item.
Condition:
Record: E+
Cover: E+
Measurements: 33 1/3 RPM
price rating
